Rock my world - By Cindi Myers Page 0,40
If Carl finds out you two are a hot item, he’ll fire you both.”
“There’s nothing for him to find out. There’s nothing going on between us.”
He pushed her aside, and slid into the driver’s seat and slammed the door. She tapped on the glass and he reluctantly rolled down the window.
She leaned down farther, and looked him in the eye. “She’s only using you, you know. She’s ambitious, and she saw you as a way to get what she wanted.”
“Like you did, Bonnie?” He turned the key in the ignition and the engine roared to life. “Only it didn’t work for you, did it?” Without waiting for an answer, he pulled away. She stumbled back from the car. When he looked in the rearview mirror, he could see her still standing there, staring after him, no doubt with hate in her eyes.
Would Erica one day look at him that way, too? As much as he told himself he wanted to put some distance between them, her admiration was a salve to his ego. One he didn’t know if he could bear to give up.
HAVING STRUCK OUT with Adam, Erica talked Tanisha into going out with her to dinner. After Thai food in LoDo, they headed out to Spinnaker, a hot new dance club. “If nothing else, maybe we can meet some hot guys and dance,” Tanisha said as they settled at a table.
Erica looked around at the neon-accented bar and the sunken oval dance floor. “Yeah.”
“You don’t sound that enthusiastic. Let me guess. There’s only one guy you want to dance with right now.”
“What am I going to do? As long as we’re on the air he’ll talk to me, even flirt with me. But as soon as that red light goes out, he can’t get away from me fast enough.”
“Maybe he’s being smart. He doesn’t want to get fired.”
“It’s a stupid rule.”
“Yeah, but it’s still a rule. Is any guy worth losing a great job?” A waitress arrived with their drinks and Tanisha handed her a ten. “I’ll get this round.”
“Thanks.” Erica sipped her margarita. Tart and strong. Enough of these and maybe she’d work up the nerve to do something about Adam. “I’ve thought of trying to make him jealous, but who with? There aren’t that many guys to choose from.”
“There’s Nick.”
Both women made a face. “There’s Jazzman Jerry,” Erica said. “But he’s, what, fifty? And he’s married.”
“I’m pretty sure the new intern, Davie, is dating someone. I’m pretty sure Mason is gay. And Charlie is engaged to that jock from KGSY.”
Erica took another sip of margarita. “I’ve thought about going over to his house and demanding he have sex with me.”
Tanisha shook her head. “Girl, you are pathetic. Have you thought about just playing by his rules?”
“What do you mean?”
“Accept that it’s not going to happen between you two and move on. I mean, no sense mooning after some dude who doesn’t even appreciate you.”
Erica shook her head. “I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
She looked out over the dance floor, above the gyrating mass of bodies, and debated whether or not to say out loud something she’d scarcely admitted to herself. “I just feel really…I don’t know, obsessed with him.”
“Come again?” Tanisha leaned over the table toward her, one hand to her ear. “Obsessed?”
“I know it’s crazy. I don’t even understand it myself. I get that way about things sometimes.” About men, about jobs or even her hair. Erica would be going along with her life just fine, then out of the blue some new urge would hit her. Following those urges had led her to change majors and give up on relationships, not to mention cycle through a dozen different hairstyles, drawn by the lure of something she was sure was better.
True, such impulsive choices had often given her grief, but she knew from experience she wouldn’t be satisfied until she gave into them. It was a quirk of her personality she’d learned to live with.
Besides, Adam was different. Her feelings for him went beyond mere preoccupation. She pushed aside her half-finished drink and put her elbows on the table, chin in hand. “What happened that weekend at the Furniture Gallery was amazing. We were so close.”
“You ought to know by now that when a guy has sex with you it doesn’t always mean anything. You were there, you were naked, you had fun—but that’s not love.”
“This was different.” She shook her head. “I can’t explain, but Adam and I really had a connection. We talked about