Page 109 of Hot Mess
“You want him too much,” she concluded.
“As aclient,” I repeated.
“If you didn’t,” she added, completely ignoring me, “you wouldn’t be so bent out of shape about getting the two of us in the same room.”
“I’m not,” I protested.
“Please.”
“AndobviouslyI’m not gonna fuck him when he messed around with you first,” I added, just putting it out there already, as I dug through my jeans and avoided her eyes.
“Oh,come on.”
I glanced at her. She rolled her eyes so hard I was surprised they didn’t get stuck.
“That’s a giant load of bullshit,” she said.
“It is not.”
“It’s got nothing to do with me.”
“Of course it does!”
“Oh no, you don’t.” Dani tossed her magazine aside and got up. “Don’t put this on me. At leastadmit itto yourself if you’re too intimidated to hook up with a man who would get a tattoo of the name of a woman he just met, or walk into your office after meeting you buying roses in the rain. That shit was crazy forward, Danica.”
“Or just crazy,” I muttered.
I was definitely regretting giving her more details about the meeting-him-in-the-rain-while-buying-roses thing, but she’d kinda grilled me about it last night over all the hard cider.
I had a weakness for the cider.
It made me too happy. Too… loose with my words.
“Whatever,” she said. “If you can’t handle him, just own that, at least.”
Damn.It bugged me that she thought she knew me so well.
She did, but still. I wasn’tthatintimidated by Ashley’s crazy forwardness.
Was I?
She paced over to the mirror and idly smoothed her lipgloss with her finger. “You just need to start listening to me more. I know men, Danica. You overthink these things. Just let him play alpha male and wine and dine you and show you a good time. Take it for all it’s worth and be done with it when you’ve had enough. Just don’t take it too seriously—” My phone jingled on the kitchen counter. “Well, isn’t that just perfectly forward,” she said. “He’s here.Early.”
“WHAT??”
She strode to pick up the phone, and turned it toward me. “Someoneis at your buzzer.”
“Shit. What do I do?” I went into full-on panic mode, tearing off my sweats.
“You buzz him in,” my sister said calmly. “And maybe put some clothes back on?”
“Youbuzz him in! I need to get dressed.”
Dani answered my phone. “509,” she told whoever it was, and presumably buzzed Ashley Player into the building. Then she watched me crash around the bedroom in a panic, pulling on clothes and jewelry.
“Stop looking at me,” I hissed as I struggled to get one of my slutty tank tops over my head.
“I can’t help it. It’s fucking amazing. I need popcorn.”
