I gasped for a breath.
I looked down and saw my right hand was between my legs.
I had been this close to finishing the night in a good way.
Fucking Cole ruined everything.
“Look at my pussy! Maya! Look. At. My. Pussy.”
I opened my eyes and coughed.
I thought I had been dreaming, but nope.
There was… a shirt with a cat winking… dangling in front of my face.
“What time is it?” I asked.
“It’s like five in the morning,” Bev said.
“What?” I asked.
I scrambled to find my phone.
There were no texts from Cole.
I sighed with relief.
“I might as well get ready and go to work,” I said.
I swatted Bev’s shirt out of my face and got out of bed.
“Look at the shirt,” she said. “I was up all night.”
I sighed. “Bev. Again. That’s an old joke. The whole cat being a pussy thing…”
“So what should I do? Make a vagina and have it say look at my cat?”
Before I could say a thing, Bev’s eyes went wide.
She rushed out of the room.
I sighed and shook my head.
I got dressed and realized I still had some money left over from Cole.
I snuck out of the apartment as Bev worked on her vagina shirt and I treated myself to a coffee and a breakfast sandwich.
I actually sat down in a small cafe and took it all in.
The smell of the coffee.
The murmur of people.
The aura of it all.
It was cozy.
I dreamed of sitting there with my laptop and writing.
I could have done just that… except I had nothing.
My brain felt like mush.
Working for Cole ruined all my mojo.
I told myself it would be okay.
I was getting better each week with things. Dealing with Cole. Figuring out money and life. Slowly putting story ideas together. There was no real rush for anything, which was good.
I got to the office thirty minutes early.
Cole was already there.
“How much do you love me?” he asked.
“Why?” I asked.
“I left you alone last night.”
“Oh. Right. You’re the best, Cole.”
“I left some work on your desk.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“My pleasure,” he said. “Also… my dry-cleaning needs to be picked up and taken to my apartment building. When you get there, ask for Isabel. Tell her you work for me. Make sure you say that. If she thinks you’re my girlfriend she’ll get pissed.”
Me? Your girlfriend? Never.
Heat flooded my cheeks. “Okay…”
“I’m serious about that, Maya.”
“You broke her heart?”
“More like she broke my bed,” he said with a wink.
I rolled my eyes.
Enduring the lame stories of his sexual conquests was just another part of the job.
“There’s a list of things to do,” he said. “Get to work. Oh, and I need coffee. What the fuck? Where’s my coffee?”
“Coming right up, Cole,” I said through gritted teeth.
We went our separate ways.
I made him his coffee and it was very tempting to spit in it.
Knowing Cole, he wouldn’t have cared.
He would have turned it into some sexual thing… like me spitting in his coffee was basically like me kissing him with my tongue or something…
I hated him.
My god, I hated him.
I ran all over the city doing chores for Cole.
Each thing had nothing to do with my actual job.
But I got to ride around on his dime. And I wasn’t physically in the office to hear his voice and deal with him.
Everything was through texts.
Which meant I could wave my middle finger at the screen and say whatever I wanted to say without him knowing.
When I got the dry-cleaning and took it to his building, Isabel… whoa. She was tall, tan, black hair, bright red lips, and she looked at me like she wanted to fight me. When I told her I was Cole’s secretary, she eased up a little.
That woman was psycho. And if Cole was messing around with women like that, sooner or later something bad was going to happen to him.
One thing that made me smile was when Cam texted me. He was looking forward to our date.
I was too.
I just needed to check in with Cole and then get home.
For a date… I had a process.
I needed a shower. Parts needed to be shaved. I had to wear the perfect outfit. And, of course, as I said before, I needed to figure out my panty situation. Sexy or none? That was the choice of the night.
Either way, tonight was the night. If I ruined things with Cam by appearing to be a whore for throwing myself at him on our first date, then oh well.
I had needs.
Cam had the tool I needed…
I got back to