An After-Hours Affair

The desk phone rang, and she scooped it up, turning her back completely on Mitch. “Texas Cattleman’s Club.”

“What happened?” It was Emily’s voice.

A flush prickled Jenny’s scalp. “Can I call you back?”

“Is he there?”

“Yes.”

“Roger. Got it. Call me back as soon as you can, okay?”

“I will.” Just as soon as she went to the bathroom and threw up.

She hung up the phone and stared at her computer, the characters blurring in front of her eyes.

He was still standing behind her.

She could feel his heat and hear his breathing.

She schooled her features and turned. “Is there anything else?”

He looked lost, and a little confused—an unheard of state for Mitch Hayward. “I really am sorry.”

Jenny gathered every bit of dignity she could muster. “So you said.”

“Maybe we could—”

“I don’t think talking about it is going to help.”

He paused for a moment. “Right. I guess not.”

“Like you said.” She turned and punched a couple of random computer keys. “We’ll simply forget it ever happened. Carry on as usual.” And she was absolutely, positively going to date other men. This silly fantasy of hers had gone on far too long. She was nearly thirty. Mitch was nowhere in her future, and she was ready to fully accept that reality.

When Jenny finally left the office at the end of the workday, Emily was there in the parking lot, leaning up against Jenny’s car, looking very impatient. Jenny’s steps faltered, but she knew she couldn’t avoid Emily forever.

“You didn’t call me back,” Emily accused, straightening away from the door panel.

“You sabotaged my car,” Jenny pointed out. The auto club guy had boosted it midmorning, and the battery was back in shape now.

“For a good cause.” Emily peered at Jenny’s expression. “Seriously. What on earth happened last night?”

“My life’s not going to change, that’s for sure.” Jenny focused on unlocking the car door.

“Did he insult you? Ignore you? What?”

Though she’d like nothing better than to take Mitch’s advice and forget last night ever happened, Jenny knew she couldn’t keep a secret like that from her best friend. It was too big, too devastating. It would eat her alive if she didn’t share it. Though it might eat her alive even if she did.

“Get in,” she told Emily, hitting the unlock button for the passenger side.

Emily quickly rounded the car and hopped in, pulling her seat belt into place. “Spill.”

Jenny cranked the engine, putting the car into Reverse, swinging around to head for the parking lot exit. She needed to get clear of the TCC building and the feeling of having Mitch close by before she spoke.

She followed the curve of the road and put her mouth on automatic pilot, struggling to stay detached from the words she was uttering. She tried to pretend she was talking about someone else, some poor, hapless woman who’d let her emotions rule her logic and who got exactly what she’d deserved.

“At first,” she told Emily, “it seemed like he didn’t notice me at all. Nothing was different. Except he didn’t ask me to dance. He always asks me to dance. As if he has to. Like it’s his duty. Since I’m technically his ‘date.’”

“Jen? You’re babbling.”

“Right.” Jenny’s moist hands slipped on the warm steering wheel. “He didn’t ask me to dance.”

“I got that.”

“I got ticked off and left. I mean, the hair, the dress, the makeup, the shoes. Do you blame me for being upset? Don’t you think any normal, red-blooded guy would have asked me to dance?”

“I don’t blame you for getting ticked off. And, for what it’s worth, I thought you looked hot.”

“Thank you. I agree. I felt like a fool. But I looked hot.”

Emily smirked and snorted out a laugh.

“So, I leave the reception. I head for my car.”

“Which I’d incapacitated.”

Jenny nodded her acknowledgment. “Which you’d incapacitated. Thank you very much, by the way.”

“Did it work?”

“Like a charm.”

“I knew it would.”

“He drove me home.”

“I knew he would.”

“And I slept with him.”

“I knew—” Emily twisted in her seat. “Wait a minute. What?”

“I slept with Mitch.” Jenny was really quite proud of how detached she sounded as she went into the sordid details. “I tore off my clothes. Or maybe I tore off his clothes, I can’t quite remember the details. In any event, we were both naked.”

Emily’s voice rose to a squeal. “You slept with Mitch Hayward?”

Jenny glanced at her friend’s incredulous expression. “Am I not saying this right?”

“On the first date?”

“Well, technically, it wasn’t a date. Or I guess you could say it was our twelfth date, if you count dates that aren’t really dates. But, really, at this point, I’m planning to take credit for them all. It makes me seem less slutty, don’t you think?”

“You’re not slutty.”

“I slept with a guy on the first date.”

“Twelfth date. And I thought you said your life wasn’t going to change?”

Jenny missed a stop sign and sucked in a shocked breath when she realized what she’d done. She was a careful, conscientious driver. Fortunately for her, there was no cross traffic.

“Maybe you better pull over,” Emily suggested in a worried tone.

“Yeah,” Jenny agreed. She eased her car into the gravel parking lot of the Royal Diner. She kept a death grip on the steering wheel until she came to a complete stop.

“What happened?” Emily asked gently. When Jenny didn’t answer, she put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Jen?”

“This morning …” Jenny swallowed. She wasn’t going to cry. She was an adult, and she would not cry over a cad like Mitch. “When he got to the office. He told me he was sorry, and he hoped we could forget all about it, carry on as usual, as if nothing had happened.”

“I can’t imagine Mitch—seriously?”

“Yes.”

“Did he say anything else?”

“That I deserved better than him.”

It was Emily’s turn to go silent. They both reflexively watched while a car pulled past them and turned into a spot near the diner’s front door. The car doors opened, and two teenagers hopped out.

Jenny was pretty sure she knew what Emily was thinking. It was what Jenny was thinking. It was what any reasonably intelligent adult would conclude.

“Yeah,” she voiced it out loud, her tone mocking. “He gave me the old, ‘it’s not you, it’s me, babe’ brush-off.”

“Ouch,” Emily whispered.

“I can’t believe I was a one-night stand. I’d have bet money against that ever happening. To me of all people. I’m not stupid, Em.”

“Of course you’re not stupid,” Emily staunchly defended. “I never would have guessed that Mitch of all people—”

“He’s a football star,” Jenny reminded her, feeling defeated. She wished she’d remembered that important fact last night. “He’s a celebrity, and the world is his oyster. I bet he does this kind of thing all the time.”

“But not with you.”

“He has now.”

Emily gestured with a spread palm. “But, you’re not … You know.”

“I am now.”

Emily thwacked her head against the seatback. “This is ridiculous.”

“I’m over it.”

“You are not.”

“I am. I have no choice. What you told me last night was spot-on. And I promised myself if this didn’t work out, I’d date other men. That’s exactly what I’m going to do. Pining away over Mitch Hayward has gotten me exactly nowhere in the past, and it will get me exactly nowhere in the future. I refuse to do something so illogical.”

Emily sat up straighter, eyes narrowing, forehead creasing. “Are you serious?”

“Absolutely.” Jenny had never been more serious in her life.

Emily smacked the dashboard. “Then let’s get going.”

“Where?”

“Take Bainbridge to Payton for Harper’s Boutique. You’re going to need a new wardrobe.”

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