Page 38 of Heartsick & Lipsticks
“But Auntie Ri just got back!” Callie argued.
“I did, which is why I was going to ask if you want to do a spa day on Saturday with your HFG?” Ri asked.
I’d asked Rihanna to be Callie’s godmother before she was born. She liked to refer to herself as her HFG, which stood for Hot Fairy Godmother.
“Yes!” Callie exclaimed before grabbing her laptop, which had cost me three hundred dollars to fix, and going to her room.
As soon as Ri heard the door shut, she smiled at me. “Okay, so Nick Locke, is he as hot in person as he is on YouTube?”
“On YouTube?”
“Yeah, all of his podcasts are on YouTube.”
“I thought podcasts were just audio.” The only YouTube videos I’d seen during my night of research were interviews he’d given.
Ri shook her head at me. “You need to get out more.”
That was the understatement of the century. I slid the cucumbers into the bowl of romaine lettuce and began chopping up the tomatoes.
Ri got her phone out and pulled up a video. When she turned it around, it showed Nick sitting across from a stunning brunette woman, whom I assumed was Selena Grace. He did look handsome, but he was definitely more attractive in person.
“Heishotter in person!” Ri exclaimed.
I wasn’t going to try to deny it. Ri knew me too well.
“I had a feeling he was. You know he was San Francisco’s Most Eligible Bachelor a few years ago.”
“No, I didn’t.” Apparently, my research hadn’t been that in-depth. I might have spent more time on Google Images than I thought.
“So, what’s he like in his natural habitat? I know a few girls he hooked up with at spin, but it wasn’t anything serious.”
“He’s…nice.”
“Nice?” Ri repeated the word as if it was an insult.
“You are spending every night at Nick Locke’s house, and all you can say is he’snice?”
“Not every night. Just four a week, and I’m there towork,” I reminded her.
“If work is all you’re thinking about when Nick Locke is in bed, sleeping a few feet away from you, then it’s worse than I thought.”
“Ri, you do know what my work is, right?” Even as I defended myself, I felt guilty. Because the truth was, work wasn’t all I was thinking about.
“I know, but still. When are you going to take the chastity belt off and get laid?”
“Shh, I don’t want Callie to hear you.”
“She can’t hear me,” Ri dismissed.
“Before you came in, she was signing me up for a dating app.”
Ri’s eyes lit up. “She was?”
“Yes.”
“If I hadn’t seen that girl come out of your va-jay-jay, I would swear she was mine.”
Ri had been in the room when I gave birth. She’d been a huge support for me, even after she lost her parents. I don’t think I could have gotten through that first year without her.
