Page 108 of Hot Mess
I knew very well that Daniella expected meto adhere to the Cardinal Rule of Sisterhood. I always did. And I knew she’d believed me, at first, that he was just a client. But the way I was acting right now—totally nervous—was definitely gonna tip her off.
She was reading it all over me, and I was gonna crack.
“So what did you two talk about at this ‘meeting’?” she asked me as I set her tea on the coffee table in front of her. I continued into the bedroom and set down my mug, so I could choose a top from my wardrobe.
Then I looked her steady in the eyes and said, “Interior decorating.”
“Bullshit. You went to dinner. Obviously you guys talked about something else.”
As I sifted through my tops, I told her, casually, “We talked about his music and stuff.”
“And stuff?”
I shrugged. “He asked about my jewelry. Stuff like that.”
Her eyes narrowed again. “You so want him.”
“As aclient.” I plucked a couple of tops from my closet to choose between. Just two. Any more than that, Dani was gonna accuse me of sweating what I was wearing—further proof that I wanted to screw Ashley Player.
“As a potentialfuck,” she said. “I can read it all over you. Who do you think you’re trying to fool? You just pulled the two sluttiest tops you own out of there.”
“Crap.” I tossed the tops on my bed. I was totally cracking.
“The peach one,” she said. “It’s your color. And if he’s gonna fuck my sister, damn right I want to scope him out.”
“Great.” I gave in, a bit. “Because he’ll be here in like twenty minutes.”
“He’s coming here?”
“Just to meet us and head to brunch.”
“Great. I can vet him.”
I rolled my eyes. My sister thought she needed to vet every man who ever came near me.
“If you’d let me vetCarterin the first place,” she informed me, looking repulsed as she uttered his name, “you wouldn’t be having issues with him now, because you never would’ve hooked up with him in the first place. I would’ve quashed that so fucking fast—”
“How, exactly?”
“You know I have my ways.”
She did.
The thought of her having a meal with Ashley actually made my stomach churn.
One problem: she didn’t like him enough and drove him away.
She’d done it before.
Worse problem: shedidlike him and I got uneasy with the way he looked at us both and playedspot the differencesin his head—and very possibly liked the differences he saw, inher.
I’d had way too many moments like that in my life. Waiting to see which one of us the guy liked more.Ugh.Hated it, avoided it at all costs.
“Just be nice, okay?” I said. “He’s my client.”
“Uh-huh. Clearly you can’t see straight on this. You need the voice of reason in your corner.”
“And that would be you?”
