The Hookup Plan, page 21
“Two words: couples massage.”
She rolled her eyes, a bemused smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth. “You are just determined to make me admit that we’re friends, aren’t you?”
“Friends? When was the last time you had a couples massage with a friend?”
“Oh, so we’ve moved past just being friends?”
Drew leaned back in his chair and folded his hands over his stomach. He projected an air of nonchalance, but inside sat a knotted ball of anxiety. He may have pushed too far. She could decide right here, right now that she wasn’t interested in going beyond what they already had. She could decide that the sex was good while it lasted, but a weekend getaway implied more than she was willing to commit to, and she’d rather just cut things off completely than continue moving in the direction he obviously wanted to take them.
He could laugh it off. He’d made a career of finessing himself out of prickly situations, of salvaging the unsalvageable. He could go through the motions of pretending it was only a bluff, a way to ruffle her feathers. He could.
But he wouldn’t.
“Yes,” Drew finally answered. “Does that scare you to think of us in those terms?”
She stared at him for a heartbeat before asking softly, “What terms, Drew? What exactly are we doing here?”
He rubbed his fingers over his lips, contemplating her question and a subsequent answer that wouldn’t send this suddenly consequential discussion careening into a guardrail.
The truth was, he wasn’t sure how to define them. In his opinion, they’d moved past the random hookup stage after that Sunday afternoon when she’d come back to his hotel room to retrieve her bag. He’d had a couple of friends-with-benefits relationships over the past fifteen years, but this felt different. Deeper. In the span of just a few weeks, he’d formed a more intense connection with London than with any former girlfriend.
Did that say something about her, or about how resistant he’d been over the years to put himself out there? Maybe it was both.
“I don’t know,” Drew answered honestly. “Maybe this weekend away will make exactly what this is a bit clearer.”
“Or maybe it will become clear when you finish this job at County and go back to New York,” she said.
“That won’t have the effect you think it will,” Drew said. “Trident owns a private jet. And if it’s in use, I can charter a flight to Austin every single week if I have to. Or you can fly to New York on your days off. It’s only a few hours.”
“It’s even closer from Chicago,” she murmured.
Drew frowned. “Chicago?”
She shook her head. “Forget I said that.”
“No, what did you mean?”
She looked past his shoulder, toward the door. “I’ll tell you about it later. On the drive to the winery.”
He couldn’t hold back his triumphant grin, even though he knew she’d probably give him shit about being cocky. Drew pushed himself up from the chair and flattened his palms on her desk.
Leaning forward, he whispered against her lips, “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“The morning?” She jerked her head back before his lips could connect with her mouth. “Not tonight?”
Drew grimaced. “Yeah, sorry. I forgot to mention this earlier, but I have what promises to be a long conference call with my two partners tonight.”
“So, no sexy shenanigans for the second night in a row? You’re killing me, Sullivan.”
“I will make it up to you this weekend,” Drew promised. He leaned closer, seeking permission.
She met him halfway, gracing his lips with a sweet, quick kiss. “You’d better.”
24
London studied the smorgasbord before her on Samiah’s glass-topped coffee table, unsure where to even begin. There were three types of Thai fried noodles, coconut curry chicken, some kind of spicy shrimp that was so fragrant London was certain the people down the hallway could smell it, and an array of vegetable side dishes. Not to mention the chicken satay and spring rolls, because appetizers were always necessary.
“Do you think you ordered enough, or should we just call and empty out what’s left of the restaurant?” London asked.
Samiah lifted a heaping forkful of pad see ew onto her plate. “Everything looked so good, I just ordered it all.” She shrugged. “I figured I can eat the leftovers all weekend while I tweak my Just Friends app.” She pointed her fork at Taylor. “Thanks for the feedback. I incorporated a drop-down menu on the suggestions page, along with a place for users to provide open-ended responses.”
“Do I get credit in the app for this?” Taylor asked as she added edamame to her plate. “Like the credits at the end of a movie?”
“No,” Samiah answered.
“I should have negotiated that before I gave you my feedback.” She returned to her favorite crossed-legged position on the floor next to the coffee table. “It kinda sucks that you have to spend the weekend working instead of in Philly, but knowing you, you would have probably carved out time to fiddle with that app no matter what.”
“When will Daniel be back?” London asked.
“He said on Monday, but I know that can change,” Samiah answered.
It turned out that everyone’s plans had changed in the span of a few hours. Just as London had wrapped up her meeting with Doug Renault, where they’d reassigned or rescheduled her surgeries for next week, she’d gotten a group text from Samiah, letting them know that her and Daniel’s trip to Philly was postponed due to a work emergency.
Daniel, as a federal agent who could be pulled into an assignment at a moment’s notice, had a job that forced Samiah to be flexible. Of course, Samiah’s promotion at Trendsetters, the software firm where she’d climbed the ranks in record time, could be just as demanding. Those two made for a good pair.
Taylor had responded to Samiah’s text with news that she and Jamar were going to wait until tomorrow morning to make the three-hour drive to Houston.
And, just like that, their Friday girls’ night out was back on. Although they’d opted to order in instead of dealing with a crowded restaurant or bar. The music festival taking place this weekend had brought a slew of people into the city.
“Have you and Nina had ‘the talk’ yet?” Taylor directed at London.
She shook her head. “That’s what our trip to the mall was supposed to be about, but Koko and Miles tagging along kinda changed the plans. I didn’t want to discuss it in front of them, you know?”
“Maybe you should have,” Taylor said. “It’s never too young to teach kids to not do stupid shit over the Internet.”
“You’re probably right,” London said. “I was going to bring Nina to this craft village tomorrow, but my stepmom sent her on a band trip instead. With the boy.”
Taylor and Samiah both responded exactly as London knew they would. She listened to them screech for a solid five minutes about April’s misguided parenting decisions.
“It’s as if they just forget what it was like to be that age,” Taylor said. “I refuse to be so clueless when I have my own kids.” She held up a hand. “That was just me making a declaration. I’m not pregnant, so don’t jump down my throat. I’d never get pregnant for a guy I’ve only been dating a few months.”
Samiah’s eyes flew to London’s. London responded with an imperceptible head shake. She hadn’t said anything about Samiah’s brush with babydom.
“There’s a birthday party for Miles next weekend,” London said. “I’m going to steal Nina away for a bit. Maybe we’ll go for a drive and talk.” She ladled curry over a scoop of white rice and, as casually as possible, said, “But now that I won’t be hanging with Nina, I’m going away with Drew this weekend.”
The room went completely silent. Even the air conditioner cut off. She glanced up to find Taylor and Samiah both looking at her with intense, confused stares.
“What?” London asked. “Don’t try to make this into a thing, okay? We’re still just hooking up.”
More silence.
“It’s not a big deal,” London stressed. “We’re just going to a winery, and a spa, and to his late mother’s house so he can decide what to do with her belongings.”
“Um, do you know how fuck buddies work?” Taylor asked. “They don’t go to wineries together or help each other go through a dead parent’s belongings.”
“Unless—” Samiah started, then she shook her head. “No, I can’t think up a scenario where fuck buddies would visit a winery. And going to his mother’s house? That’s pretty damn personal, if you ask me. You probably need to redefine whatever it is that’s going on between you two, because it’s more than just hooking up, chick.”
“I know.” London groaned. “How did things get out of hand so quickly? This was supposed to be simple!” She set down her plate and cradled her head in her hands. “I am not falling for him. That much I’m sure of.” She blew out a breath. “Okay, maybe just a little.”
Taylor and Samiah wore matching expressions—brows arched and bullshit meters on full blast.
“I will not own up to more than that, and neither of you can make me,” London said. “Look, the sex is amazing—like beyond amazing—and I’ll admit that Drew is funnier than I would have ever given him credit for. I swear he wasn’t like this in high school.”
“It’s called becoming an adult,” Samiah said.
“Which I usually am, except when I’m around him, he makes me feel like the kind of giddy teenager I hated even back when I was a teenager. And, for some strange reason, I find myself sharing stuff with him that I would never share with previous boyfriends.”
London slapped her hands over her mouth.
Samiah gasped and pointed at her. “You called him your boyfriend!”
“That was a mistake!”
“Nope. Too late to take it back,” she said in a singsong voice.
“You, London Kelley, are blushing, and it’s the most adorable thing I’ve seen in my life!” Taylor clapped like a trained seal. “Look how cute you are!”
“I hate both of you right now,” London said.
“But you really like Drew,” Samiah said, her voice still dialed to annoying.
“I do.” London sighed. She dropped her head against the back of the couch. “Fuck. What is wrong with me?”
“I’ve been trying to figure that out since you told us you weren’t looking for anything serious with him, even though he’s funny, rich, and gives good dick,” Taylor said. “Why do you insist on keeping this casual again?”
If she got into the complicated emotions surrounding her feelings for Drew and how they were weirdly tied to her dad, both Samiah and Taylor would really think she’d lost it. But she couldn’t just write those feelings off either. They were too close to the center of this absurd push-and-pull thing she had going when it came to Drew.
London sat up straight and cleared her throat. “This is a no-judgment zone, right? Well, slight judgment is allowed because Lord knows if either of you were to share what I’m about to, I would judge the hell out of you.”
“This sounds juicy.” Taylor planted her elbows on the coffee table and set her chin on her fists. “Go on.”
London rolled her eyes. She could not believe she was about to admit to this, but if she couldn’t share her twisted teenage thought processes with her two best friends, who could she share them with?
“I will start by saying that I know how warped this is,” she began. “As someone who prides herself on being sensible and pragmatic, it baffles me that this has remained an issue all this time, but it has.” She clenched her fists, then flattened her palms on her thighs. “It’s hard for me to let go of my animosity toward Drew because I blame him for the strained relationship I have with my dad.”
Samiah frowned. “Is this about to go in a direction that will have me tweeting to Iyanla to come and fix your life?”
“Definitely.” London nodded.
“I am so confused,” Taylor said. “What? How?”
“You know what?” London said. “Why don’t we just forget I said anything?”
“Hell no,” Taylor said. “You both know about my daddy issues. Share, honey.” She made a come to Mama gesture with her hands. “Just let it out.”
London would give anything to put this toothpaste back in the tube. She now recalled exactly why she wasn’t a sharer, because she didn’t like having people all up in her damn business.
Fine time to remember that.
She reached over for the lemongrass and Thai basil cocktail Samiah had made for tonight’s meal and took a sip. She directed her attention to Taylor.
“So, you know how all this time you thought your dad wasn’t proud of your accomplishments, when, in fact, he was?” London asked her. “For me, it’s the opposite. No matter how hard I work and how much I achieve, I can never seem to make my dad proud.”
“Sorry, but you will not convince me that Austin’s hotshot, superstar pediatric surgeon isn’t the apple of her father’s eye.”
“You would think, wouldn’t you?” She shook her head. “But, no, I’m definitely not the apple of my dad’s eye. Or, if I am, he sure as hell hasn’t said anything to me.”
“What does this have to do with Drew?” Samiah asked.
London gulped more of her cocktail. She needed all the courage she could muster to get through this, and would gladly take it in liquor form.
“I busted my ass throughout high school to get good grades,” she said. “The only time my dad paid any attention to me was when he could brag on my accomplishments to his colleagues at his law firm. He wouldn’t even mention it to me. I had to hear about it from his secretary, Manda, who would tell me how Dad told everyone in the office about some award I received, or my straight-As report card, or whatever. I was so starved for his attention that I would email her with the most transparent excuses my little teenage brain could come up with, just to see if my dad had talked about me at work that day.”
London could feel the disgust building in her throat but managed to swallow it down.
“That’s…heartbreaking,” Samiah said.
“It’s pathetic is what it is,” London said. “And I will totally own up to being pathetic back then. That was life as Kenneth Kelley’s daughter. I clamored for any morsel of attention I could get from him, and if that meant being the best of the class, then I was willing to do whatever it took to maintain that 4.0 GPA.
“All was going great. I was sitting comfortably at the very top of my class, and then along came Drew Sullivan. Suddenly, life wasn’t so simple.” She huffed out a humorless laugh as she took another sip of her drink. “What really gnawed at me was how easy things seemed to come for him. He had everything. He was the cutest boy in school by a mile. He got stellar grades. He immediately joined the basketball team and became the star player. I hated him,” London said. “And then when graduation came around and I found out that I would have to share the valedictorian spot with him?”
“Uh-oh,” Taylor said.
“It was supposed to be my crowning achievement. The one thing that would make it so that I would never have to wonder if my dad was proud of me. But who wants to brag about their child being ‘co’ anything? Not Kenneth Kelley.”
“Drew stole your thunder,” Samiah said.
“Yep.” London lowered her voice, even though they were alone in Samiah’s condo. “I will admit this only to the two of you, but for a millisecond I contemplated poisoning that son of a bitch.”
“You did not!” Taylor laughed.
“I swear I did.” London held her hand to the sky. “Picture me standing in the chemistry lab with the key to the cabinet that contained all the deadliest chemicals. Ya girl almost ended up as the star of an episode of Dateline.”
Taylor and Samiah burst out laughing.
“That’s really not fair to Drew,” Samiah said. “You do realize that, don’t you?”
“Of course I do,” London said. “But it’s stunning just how difficult it was for me to shake those feelings from all those years ago.”
“Don’t hate me for saying this,” Taylor said. “But your dad sounds like a bit of an asshole.”
“He’s a major asshole,” London said. “Believe me, I’ve only scratched the surface. He’s arrogant, a chauvinist, and a philanderer, and the bastard is the reason why I’ve been placed on leave from the hospital for the next week.”
“Hold up. Record scratch,” Samiah said. “On leave?”
Shit.
This was rapidly turning into an unwelcome therapy session. London hadn’t shared this much about herself since that time she was forced to go to confession prior to making her First Communion in the second grade.
“I didn’t want to say anything because I know how you two can blow stuff out of proportion, but I’m borderline hypertensive.”
She gave them an abbreviated version of the incident at the hospital that day, and explained how Dr. Renault had ordered her to take some time off.
Samiah reached over and grabbed the drink from her hand.
“Hey!” London said.
“Take the food too,” Taylor said. “It’s salty. That’s not good for people with high blood pressure.”
“Don’t touch my spring rolls,” London warned. “Look, I’m fine. I said that I am borderline. I haven’t been diagnosed with anything, and I won’t be.” She released a deep breath. “I’m going to learn how to relax. I’m going to schedule time off. I’m going to do what I need to do to take care of myself.”
“You should journal,” Samiah said. “It’s relaxing. And it’ll give you an outlet to work through your daddy issues.”
“I no longer have daddy issues,” London pointed out. “I am well and truly over trying to please Kenneth Kelley.”
“Are you sure?” Taylor looked unconvinced.
“Yes,” London assured her. “My mom forgave him for treating her like shit years ago, but I’ve decided it’s just better for me to maintain my distance.”
Although she was sure to see him at Miles’s birthday party, because when it came to his son, her dad never missed a thing. It was yet another reason to steal some time away with Nina while down in Bluff Springs next Saturday.
