In The Morning
“Oh, that!” I said, trying to sound sincere. I’m a terrible liar, but I was going to give it a shot. “I didn’t have any clean clothes at Jason’s, so I just put this on.”
“I’m shocked,” she said.
“That I didn’t have any clean clothes?” She shook her head.
“That I stayed at Jason’s?”
She shook it again.
“That I’m lying?” I asked, chagrined.
She nodded then with a smile.
“Go change and hurry back, I can’t wait to hear all about it.”
I changed into a pair of cutoff sweats and a t-shirt and washed my face, brushed my teeth, and pulled my hair back into a ponytail at the nape of my neck.
I didn’t feel any better, but I at least looked human. I met Liz back at the table and sat down, taking a sip of coffee.
“That is so good, thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” she said. “Now, tell me where you were all night.”
“I was at the mansion,” I said. I took another sip of coffee. It was good. “How did you know I wasn’t with Jason?”
“He came by on his way to work this morning.”
I almost spilled the coffee, sitting it down too hard on the table.
“What did he want?”
“He just wanted to pick up the jacket he left here a few days ago.
Your bedroom door was closed and I thought you were in there sleeping. I started to go get you but he said to let you sleep, he’d talk to you later. Imagine my surprise when I saw you pull up out the window and then come slinking in here looking all guilty.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. At least Jason didn’t know. Not that it should matter to him since we’re on a “break.”
But still, I wasn’t sure what I thought of myself at the moment. I was unsure of what everyone else would think of me. Liz looked amused so far.
“I was really at the mansion all night,” I said again, praying she would leave it at that.
“I thought that yummy boss of yours had a no-staff after seven p. m. rule.”
“He does.”
“Then pray to tell what were you doing there all night, and don’t leave out any details.”
I stood up and went over to top up my coffee. “You want some?”
She laughed. “You’re bright red. You slept with your boss, didn’t you?”
I looked away and said, “Of course not.”
Still laughing she said, “Look me in the eye.”
I turned slowly and looked at her and she laughed even harder.
“Oh my God! You slept with a billionaire hunk! Go, Vicki!”
“Stop it,” I said, mortified once again. “It wasn’t like that.”
“What was it like?” she said. “Oh please tell me.
I haven’t had a boyfriend in three months and I’ve never had anyone like Alexander Reigns.”
I sat back down and said, “Jason broke up with me yesterday in a text message while I was at work.”
“That snake! I always knew I didn’t like him. Oh, Vicki, I’m sorry.”
I tried to smile and say it didn’t matter, but the words wouldn’t come out.
Instead, I said, “In his defense, he didn’t say break up.
He said, take a break.”
“Same thing,” she said. “Slime ball.”
“Yeah, I guess. I was really upset and I just lost it and I couldn’t stop crying. Alex…”
“Alex, huh? Cozy.”
“Do you want to hear this or not?”
“I do. I’m sorry, I’ll be good.”
“He saw me and he was so sweet. He fixed us a drink and…”
“A drink?”
“Liz!”
“Okay, okay. Go on…”
“We talked. It was nice. He’s just a normal guy. It’s easy to forget they’re human, you know? The elite.
The ones we wait on and clean up after. But he is just normal like any other guy.”
“Alexander Reigns is a God. Ask the cover of any tabloid in the city. And since his wife left him, he’s been seen in the company of more than one model.”
“I know. I’ve seen him in the company of them first-hand. But he wasn’t like that with me.”
“I’m not being facetious now honey but he did talk you into something. Am I right?”
“It wasn’t like that though. We talked and I had two glasses of wine and he was just so sweet.
He kissed me and then he apologized.
He told me he would stop there if I wanted him to. I didn’t want him to…”
“Wow, and you spent the whole night?”Nôvel(D)rama.Org's content.
“Yeah, I fell asleep in his arms. It was sweet and romantic though, Liz. It wasn’t sleazy at all.”
“Oh, honey of course not. I know you. I’m having a hard time imagining you sleeping with him at all… but I know that you wouldn’t have done it unless there was some real emotion there. I just like to tease. You know that.”
“I know. I’m feeling a little sleazy myself actually and projecting that on you I guess.
When I woke up this morning, he was gone. Now I’m scared to death.
What if I screwed up my job?”
“Why would he fire you? He came on to you, right?
You could easily sue him for sexual harassment.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t ever do that. That wasn’t how it happened. It was completely consensual.”
She smiled, “I can tell that by the way you’re defending him. My point is that I think even if he didn’t want to pursue this any further he wouldn’t be willing to take that kind of risk.
The wrong person in that situation could take him for millions.”
“I never thought about it that way. I hope he knows that I’d never even consider anything like that.”
“I don’t know how well your boss knows you, but those of us who do know you well enough know that. I am a little worried about your heart though.”
“Why?”
“You seem sad that he left during the night.”
I shrugged, trying to be nonchalant about it.
The truth was, just talking about it brought a deep ache to my chest.
“I’m sure he had business to attend to or something. I hope.”
Liz smiled and reached over to pat my hand.
It’ll be okay, honey. You want some breakfast?”
“No thank you. The coffee was great. I’m going to shower.”
“Don’t worry yourself sick over this.”
“I won’t. Thanks, Liz.”
“Thank you. Your night at the mansion is the most exciting thing that’s happened to me in months.”
I laughed, hugged her, and headed for the shower. I got really lucky in the roommate department.
When I couldn’t stand living with my mother and her endless string of “dates” any longer, I answered an ad in the Orange County Register for a female roommate.
That was three years ago and Liz has grown to be my best friend.
She’s a little older than me.
She just turned twenty-nine.
She’s a beautiful woman with shoulder-length dark hair and intense green eyes.
She models for some local catalogs and she does character work as a Princess at the major theme park in Anaheim.
She broke up with her boyfriend of two years a few months ago because she found out he’d been cheating on her for almost an entire year.
For the first two months, she swore off men completely. I could tell now that she was coming back around.
After talking with her and taking my shower, I felt slightly better. Then she did leave to go to work and I was left with swirling thoughts in my head.
By the end of the day, I had myself not only fired but tarred, feathered, and strung up in the town square with a giant “A” on my chest.
After all… even if none of the other sins were great enough to punish me for, he was still legally married.
VICTORIA’s POV
I woke up Monday morning with the largest butterflies in my stomach in history.
I was due at work at seven. I had no idea if I still had a job. I had no idea if any of the other staff knew about what Alex and I had done, and I had no idea what he was thinking of me.
How was I going to face him? I’d never had to face anyone after an afternoon tryst that was going nowhere before.
I didn’t have a choice, however. I had to go to work and face the music one way or the other. I was a big girl who had made a stupid decision.
Everyone does it at least once in their lives, right? I needed to suck it up and if necessary, suffer the consequences.
I dragged myself out of bed and into the shower. I stepped in and stood under the showerhead, letting the water beat down over me in steamy rivulets.