Four Girls and a Guy - Suzanne Jenkins Page 0,37

financial support now, too. Like Alison said, he was going to regret getting involved if he thought his interaction would be minimal.

That night she had a can of soup for dinner. Joan came in excited about her date, eagerly answering Alison’s questions.

“Are you okay?” she asked Samantha. “I just noticed you’re looking a little frazzled.”

“Forgive me,” she said to Joan. “Alison will tell you I’m not in the mood to chitchat.”

She retreated to her room, hoping Joan wouldn’t come in with a thousand questions. But she needn’t have worried. Joan was preparing for Marty Rogers’s visit.

And she needn’t have worried about Evan, either, because when he stepped off the elevator in Samantha’s lobby, he literally ran right into Heidi Armstrong.

“Excuse me,” he cried, trying to get out of the building without crying.

“Hey, mister, are you okay?” she asked kindly with enough empathy that he gave up and started to cry.

“No, I’m not okay. I just ended a relationship with someone I loved.”

“Ugh. I hate when that happens.” She looked down at the papers in her hand. “Do you want to have a drink? I need to run these papers up, but I’ll be right back down. We can go across the street and have a beer.”

He nodded, finally looking at her. “Evan,” he said, holding his hand out for hers.

“Heidi,” she replied, smiling. “Don’t go anywhere now.”

“I’ll be right here.”

And just like that, Evan recovered.

Chapter 7

Marty Rogers’s last text to Joan late Friday night set the tone for the weekend.

I cannot wait to see you again. I’ve been like a kid all week, screwing up filings and getting my hands slapped.

Reading it, excitement to see him again grew exponentially. She answered with a smiley face. Can’t wait to see you, too. Since he was the aggressor, she was going to continue taking a passive stance. Her suggestion to stay at the Execu-Suite across the street had been well received, and he reserved the room thru Monday at checkout.

The key was keeping busy while he was in Chicago so they didn’t jump into bed. She remembered Marty and he was so good-looking, smiling, dimpled, curly hair. She’d have to stay on her toes. What exactly could they do, though? She didn’t know him at all outside of watching him horse around with Alex when they were kids.

Saturday morning after he arrived, she planned to take him to breakfast at one of Chicago’s hot breakfast spots. She reserved a table overlooking the river. Nerves mounting, what if they didn’t have anything to say to each other? That was the big bugaboo. But it was in vain. The minute she opened the apartment door to him, memories of childhood hijinks flooded her, and she burst out laughing before he was even over the threshold.

“The first thing I’m thinking of is this is the guy who stole my underpants when I was eleven years old and ran around the neighborhood with them on his head.”

“Oh, I was hoping you’d forget that,” he said, taking a step toward her with his arms outstretched.

They held on to each other. Old friends from the hood, albeit the rich hood, but the neighborhood all the same.

“Wow,” he murmured, hugging her.

He was tall enough that her arms were comfortable encircling his waist. “I don’t remember you being this tall.”

“I remember you being this beautiful.”

A neighbor walked by and caught her eye peeking over his shoulder. Taking a step back, she took Marty’s hand and pulled him into the apartment so she could close the door.

They made small talk about his flight and the weather as she led him back to the apartment.

“This is nice,” he said.

“Where do you live in Philly?”

“Penn’s Landing. When those new apartments opened up, I was lucky enough to get in. Brand new, no bugs, a corner view of the Delaware River and the Ben Franklin Bridge on one side and Center City on the other.”

“I love that whole area,” she said. “I’m getting homesick picturing it.”

“So you’re coming back?”

“Oh, yes. I have my entire life planned out, at least my professional life,” she said, winking at him. She told him about the firm she wanted to join.

“I know the attorneys there well, as you can imagine. You’ll fit right in. When you’re ready, I’ll give you names and numbers.”

“That’s great! Thank you. Only two and a half more years.”

“It’ll go by so fast you won’t believe it.”

“I think you’re right. The first semester is going so fast.”

“You’ve probably heard from your dad that the