Page 42 of Be With Me
“I think we should go to a party,” Zo announced as she finished off her pinky toe.
I carefully glued on another black rhinestone. “We already agreed we’d stay in.”
We’d cracked open the alcohol as soon as we'd arrived three hours ago, and while I appreciated the buzz, day drinking in the sun wasn’t the kind of thing that made me want to go anywhere afterward. I was looking forward to making dinner with the girls, passing out in bed by ten, and then doing it all over again tomorrow before heading home on Monday.
Zo took a long slurp of her Aperol Spritz before plunking the glass onto the coffee table. “I know. But that was before I got this text.”
She grabbed her phone and held it out to us. Nina and I leaned in to read.
Hey cutie, saw on your Instagram you’re in the Hamptons this weekend. Throwing a big Labor Day bash before we close down the house for the season. You and your girls wanna stop by?
“Who is this?” Nina asked.
“A billionaire whose company hired us for a project a year ago. We’ve kept in touch.”
“You’re telling me this is a fully grown man?” Nina sounded unimpressed. “Because he texts like he’s a frat bro with a trust fund.”
Zo laughed. “He’s a fully grown bro. I know, the worst. But he’s got a nice dick, and this party is gonna be out of this world.”
My brows rose. “You slept with a client?”
“After the project was over,” Zo said. “Bumped into him at a bar in Austin, and it seemed like a good idea. The three shots of tequila might have had something to do with it.”
I sighed. “I can’t even remember the last time I had sex.” It was probably with my ex, Sergio. Which was over two years ago. We dated for about nine months before it became glaringly obvious he was secretly in love with his best friend.
And our sex life? Nothing memorable.
Why did I even date him? I pressed my wineglass to my cheek, trying to recall. I guess he was nice. Maybe that was all I needed at the time.
“Same,” Nina muttered.
Zo shook her head. “What a sad life you two live. You know what your problem is? You overthink it.”
“I’d rather overthink it than underthink it,” Nina said, dabbing some glue on the canvas. “I have high standards. And I’m not about to lower them just for an orgasm. My own fingers do a perfectly fine job.”
Zo smirked. “Your own fingers don’t have a sexy male body attached to them. Don’t you miss big, strong hands? The scent of a man? The little sounds they make when you’re gobbling down their?—”
“Ididn’tuntil you put it like that,” Nina interjected, slicing her a glare.
Zo laughed. “I can keep going. Just picture tracing those thick veins on their arms, squeezing those rounded biceps?—“
I threw a rhinestone at her, somehow landing it straight into her drink. “Okay, enough.”
She fished it out, still grinning. “All I’m saying is, we should go to this party. It’ll be packed. I’m sure you’ll both find someone to end your dry spell.”
I shook my head. “I don’t feel like going to some insane rager.”
“You never feel like going to an insane rager,” Zo said. “But that’s exactly why you need one. You never have fun. You’re always working.”
“There’s nothing wrong with always working,” Nina said.
“Thank you.” I clinked my glass against hers.
“You’re both workaholics.” Zo tugged on her bikini top, fixing it into place. “It’s time for an intervention.”
“We’re not the ones working for a company that sends you on week-long business trips with no weekends off,” Nina pointed out. Zo worked for a white-hat hacking firm that was hired by companies to test their cybersecurity by trying to break through their firewalls. At least, I thought that’s what she did. Whenever she got too technical, I struggled to follow.
Zo looked up at the sky, shielding her eyes with her hand. “Yeah, but then I get to take entire weeks off where I do nothing but play video games, go on dates, and spend all my hard-earned money. It’s a good trade-off.”
