Page 188 of The Virgin Romance Novelist Chronicles
“It’s a locker room, Rosie. They don’t need to wear clothes.”
I pointed my finger at the ground. “This is America; we wear clothes in public.”
Delaney rolled her eyes at me and shut her locker. “I don’t know why I drag you to the gym . . . all you do is complain.”
“It’s really not my kind of place. I found that out rather quickly when the man next to me on the first day of spin class was spewing sweat all over me. How does salty water drip off someone at that rate, and then fling about the room? It was like he was trying to give the entire class a shower with his bodily fluids.”
“I can’t handle you right now. Are you taking a shower?”
“I have to. I have that meeting with Jenny.”
Delaney perked up. “Where are you going?”
I stuck my chin in the air and headed toward the showers, not forgetting a towel this time. First go around, I had to dry off with my sweaty clothes; it wasn’t a productive showering time. “That is none of your business.”
“Does it have to do with male strippers and their dicks hitting me in the face?”
I paused, and so did everyone else around us. I whispered to Delaney, “And you thought I was too loud about the bike. Jeeze, Delaney, everyone probably thinks we’re a couple of pervs.”
“Let them; maybe they’ll keep their dangling boobies away from us.”
“One can only hope.” I laughed.
I took a quick shower and got dressed in the stall. l was a prude, and I was okay with that. I worked quickly because, just like Delaney, I had a date to make.
* * *
“Thank you so much for coming with me, Jenny. I didn’t want to pick out strippers by myself, and there was no way Henry would go with me. Plus he’s working late . . . again.”
Third night in a row he’d stayed late at the office, and every time he’d gotten home, he’d been too tired to fulfill my sexual needs. If I thought my vagina felt heavy back then; she now felt like fifty pounds slung around in my underwear. I was surprised my underwear hadn’t snapped in half from the weight. I needed to get laid . . . badly.
I told myself every night not to overreact, not to lash out irrationally at him. He was working hard, and I should honor that. But there was a nagging voice in the back of my head that kept saying he was hiding something.
My insane imagination tried to tell me that instead of working, he was banging Tasha on the conference room table, but I knew that couldn’t be the truth. I continued to tell myself that over and over again. He’d told me,to my face, I was all he ever needed. But maybe he’d changed his mind since I couldn’t fit in my jeans anymore.
“I’m glad we’re able to get together. I hate that we don’t get to see each other at work right now.”
“Me too, but I’m not going to lie, I enjoy working from home, except that I have to take care of Sir Licks-a-Lot. I can’t sleep naked anymore because I wake up in the middle of the night to him hovering over me, batting at my nipple as if it were his own personal boxing bag.”
“Such a sick cat. I don’t know why Gladys loves him so much. I’ve never seen the appeal.”
I leaned closer to Jenny as I spoke. “And to make things worse, one time I woke up horny from it. I was so confused that night, not quite sure how to react.”
“What did you do?” Jenny giggled.
“I sat up in bed for a second, wondering if I should wake up Henry to take care of it, but I couldn’t fathom the idea of the foreplay being with Sir Licks-a-Lot, so I went back to sleep all wound up.”
“Completely understandable. I think that was a smart move on your part. You don’t want to give that stupid cat any satisfaction over his nipple play.”
“That’s how I saw it as well.” I took a sip of my water bottle. I was trying to flush out all the toxins in my body, as I’d read that helped you lose weight. “Have you heard anything about moving back into the building?”
“Nothing. Gladys only emails me back after she’s read an article. I think she’s lost her mind, kind of gone postal since they took away all the cats. I think she’s trying to look for a building that will allow us to run a cat commune.”
“She will never find that in New York City, but maybe upstate in the country somewhere.”
“Don’t even joke about that,” Jenny warned. “I’m not all that excited about writing about painting your cat’s nails, but I don’t want to lose my job because she decided to move the company location upstate.”
“Might be fun to live out of the city,” I replied, thinking of one day living in the suburbs.
