Chapter One
LOLA
Are you wearing underwear?
WN's textthat just came in wants to live rent-free in every cell.
My body buzzes.
My mouth goes dry.
Hell, no. No way. I'm not...I'm not that kind of girl.
Okay...
I pour the hot water over the teabag, and the mellow notes of toasted rice hit my nose.
Okay...but should I?
I glance at the phone.
Nothing else has come through from WN.
I breathe out, slow and uneven, as tendrils of electricity spark in my blood, warming me.
Of course, I shouldn't. It is ten a.m. on a Tuesday. And I'm at work.
My first job I have had that has lasted since?—
I closemy eyes.
What is that phrase? Oh, yeah. Since my life went to hell in that handbasket. On a frayed string.
Could I?
If my life were different? If I were a wild girl, living up to my name and walking on the wild side of things. If I weren't at work and I still had my old life and confidence and everything else that is gone? I would like to think the answer is yes. That, in a fantasy world, I would.
Right here. In the break room.
The fantasy me would slide my skirt up slowly, hook my thumbs on the sides of my panties with the tiny roses on them.
No. Fuck that. Since this is my fantasy, they would be sin red and satin.
Then I would wiggle them down to pool at my feet, around my Louboutin heels, and I would bend at the waist, showing off my wet pussy, step out of them, and sweep the panties up. Then I would turn and fling them in WN's face and say, "Oops."
And he?—
"Hey, Lola." Ben lopes over to me, oversized coffee mug in hand. He is pushing fifty, I think. A fifty that hasn't seen a gym. He is not fat, just... unfit, a diet of numbers, computer screens, and energy drinks. "What has got you all hot and bothered? New boyfriend?"
I almost drop my tea as I fumble for my phone, slapping it face down on the bench.
Slick move, right there. A girl could win awards.
My entire body, from my functional Mary Janes to the roots of my hair, freezes up.
He waggles his brows at me. "Or is it a big, hot secret?"
"My gran." I don't have a gran anymore, and she was ice and stone and the furthest thing from WN and stripping off panties I can think of.
