Page 121 of The Virgin Romance Novelist Chronicles
By the time I reached my room, Henry’s abhorrent behavior had caused an onslaught of tears. I still couldn’t believe how he’d spoken to me, looked at me.What the hell did I do?
A knock on my office door shook me out of my thoughts. Thank goodness it was only Jenny.
“Hey, Rosie. I feel like I haven’t talked to you in forever.”
“How was your mini vacation?” I asked, knowing she and Drew had gone on a long weekend vacay to New England.
“It was so beautiful up there, but I’m all fudged out. You wouldn’t believe the amount of specialty sugary shops in the area. Every little town had their own fudge and do you know who just needed to test every single one of them?”
“Drew?” I asked, clearly knowing the answer.
“Yes, it was a little obnoxious after the seventh stop, but the man needed to try every unique flavor he came across.”
“What was your favorite? There must have been one that tickled your taste buds.”
“Neapolitan. It seems simple but believe me, after testing flavors like Oreo, Maple Walnut, and S’mores, Neapolitan was the superior winner. The strawberry flavor just hits you, you know? Very smooth.”
I giggled.
“I can see you’ve become a connoisseur of fudge on your time off. I’m impressed.”
“Don’t be. I now get to spend every spare minute I have at the gym working off every last calorie I ate this weekend. Drew can eat whatever he wants and still have a perfect body but me, if I eat a peanut, I have to work it off in the gym for hours.”
Jenny had the perfect body, but to be fair, she worked her butt off for it and was paranoid that she was going to not fit into the same pants she’d worn since high school. She never wore them in public, given the bedazzled ass that was popular ten years ago, but she kept them around as a tester, to make sure she stayed on track.
“How are the jeans fitting?” I asked, seeing if she’d tried them on.
“I swear they felt a little tight yesterday.”
“You’re insane.”
“I know.”
A loud sneeze escaped Sir Licks-a-Lot, pulling his head away from his crotch. When he sneezed again, he nearly blew himself off the cabinet.Death by sneeze. Wonder if I could orchestrate that . . .
“Got some pussy dust in your nose?” Jenny asked, making me laugh.
Sir Licks-a-Lot stretched on the filing cabinet, then leapt off it, onto my desk, knocking over my water, right onto Jenny’s lap, making her spring up from her chair. Jumping off the desk, Sir Licks-a-Lot walked out the door but not before turning his head to look at both of us and kick his legs behind him, as if he was covering us up with imaginary dirt.
“That little fuck,” Jenny mumbled while she waved her pants around.
“At least it was water and not coffee.”
“Did you see the laughter in his eyes? He knew exactly what he was doing. Fucking demon pussy.”
“It’s like you expect something different from him. You can’t insult him and get away with it unscathed. Come on, Jenny, you know better than that.”
“You’re right,” she said. Clapping her hands together, she leaned forward and said, “Now tell me why you’ve been working late. Marian in editing has been keeping an eye on you for me while I’ve been gone.”
“What? Why? I don’t need a babysitter.”
“You do when you’ve been going on dates with hunky men. So tell me, why have you been staying late? Are you waiting for a midnight rendezvous?”
“I wish,” I mumbled while I focused my attention on my computer and let the words in front of me bleed together.
“Okay, this doesn’t sound good. What happened?”
The excitement in Jenny’s voice now turned to deep concern.
