A Summer To Remember (Seasons of Love & Lust Book 1) (14 page)

Chapter Sixteen

The Friday following the sex marathon, my work day ended at three in the afternoon and I visited my favorite salon and my favorite hairdresser.

Gavin was gorgeous, gay, and a miracle worker when it came to hair. He’d been my colorist for years so when I told him what my latest request was, he almost fainted from the sheer thought.

“Darling, I make you look like a
natural
blonde and you want to go dark? How brown do you want to go?” His tone dripped of Mancunian English wit and sarcasm.

“My natural brown is mousy so obviously I want darker. I want a medium brown with auburn highlights. Is it doable?”

“Of course, but my question is why? Most women are brunettes and it’s boring.”

“I’m tired of dying my hair, Gavin. You have already told me that when I get older, I will have to go light to cover up the gray. If that’s the case I want to enjoy my natural hair color, or at least be somewhere in the vicinity for the rest of the years I dye my hair because I can and not because I have to.”

“It’s not a good beach look. I can do brunette and perhaps streak your hair blonde a la Sarah Jessica Parker?”

“No streaking or frosting, Gavin. Brown with auburn highlights. End of story.”

Gavin sighed dramatically. He mixed the color while we chatted about his love life. I wasn’t ready to discuss Paul with anyone yet so it was quite fun to hear about what was going on with him and his lover Kent, a New Yorker and middle-aged Jewish man who loved him to death.

“Can you believe it? I get home and he’s got us tickets to see Scarlet Fever in Miami. The man is unbelievable!”

He began to apply the color to my hair.

“You’re not talking about the pre-concert gig they’re having in August, are you?”

“Yes, I am. I needed to move you to a week earlier next month because I will be on vacation the week I’m supposed to do your hair.”

“I will be there too. One of my friends knows Seth, the lead singer of Winter’s Regret, and got us tickets. That is actually where I am spending my vacation time in August. Miami Beach. I guess we’ll have to do Las Vegas another time, though I was really looking forward to it.”

“Whose bright idea was it to spend August in Vegas? You do know how hot it is there that particular month, don’t you?”

“Yes, I do research when I plan trips. Or what, do you think it’s going to be frigid in Miami Beach in August?”

We laughed and joked the whole time until he’d finished my hair and then he turned me around to face the vanity mirror.

“Voilà! What do you think?” he asked in true queen fashion.

I stared at myself in the mirror and couldn’t believe how great I looked. I looked like my old self, only more beautiful. The hair color, a lush brown with golden auburn highlights, complimented my sun-kissed skin and brought out my blue-gray eyes.

My features were softened by the color and I was actually more stunning as a brunette than I had ever been as a fake blonde. I couldn’t believe the night and day change, and I just knew Paul would love it when he saw it.

“I love it. I look like another person,” I said to Gavin after admiring myself in the mirror.

He rolled his hazel eyes. “Let me guess: this is all for some terrific guy you have met and fallen in love with because you are positively glowing. I was going to ask but I knew if you wanted to tell me, you would when you were ready.”

I smiled churlishly at Gavin. “I will tell you all about him next time.”

He shook his head. “You are such a tease, girl.”

I left the salon after I paid him, leaving a well-deserved and hefty tip. I had great luck finding a cab and arrived him quickly. I unlocked the door to the loft and was quite shocked when I found Jude and Savannah together on the sofa.

They weren’t exactly cuddled up but they looked intimate, holding glasses of Pinot Grigio and two bottles of wine, one completely empty and the other halfway empty on the magazine table.

“My God, your hair! It’s beautiful!” Savannah set her glass down and walked over to hug me.

I hugged her back, then held her out at arm’s length. “Thanks. Hello to the both of you. What’s going on here?”

Avoiding my gaze, Jude said, “Your hair is beautiful. You were always a better-looking brunette than a blonde. Paul is going to love it.”

“I didn’t change my hair color for Paul, Jude. I needed a change. I’m sorry about interrupting you two.” I walked out before either one of them could say anything further and went straight to my bedroom.

Moments later, there was a knock on the door. Savannah entered and closed the door behind her.

“I hope I’m not out of line being here…with Jude. It was just a friendly conversation that started out at his office and we decided to bring it back here. He’s my financial advisor and after talk moved from stocks and bonds to petty gossip, we thought it would be more appropriate to be here instead of his office.”

I pretended to busy myself by placing the hair products I would have to use on my bureau. I had bought two sets of each: one for my home and another for when I was staying over at Paul’s.

“It’s not my business who Jude does and doesn’t date, Savannah. I just don’t want you to get hurt, that’s all. I’ve never known him to be serious about any woman and if he did anything to make you suffer emotionally, let’s just say it would take me a long time to forgive him,” I said in a business-like tone.

“I’m a grown woman, Jerrica, I can take care of myself.” She sighed and her cerulean eyes sparkled. “I know all of you always thought I was the innocent one of the group because I didn’t date and I was pretty much an ugly duckling at Vassar. I wore really crappy clothes and had that awful hair style but I’ve grown up, just like you, Autumn, and Talia.

“I have needs like any other woman and I am certainly no saint or vestal virgin. There is nothing Jude can do to me that I wouldn’t allow him to do. I hope you understand that. He can’t hurt me because I won’t allow him to, and for you to think anything different is sheer lunacy.”

“I understand, and like I said, it’s not my business what you and Jude—”

I was interrupted when the door to my suite opened and Paul walked through with a huge smile on his face.

“You look absolutely amazing,” he said. “Jude told me I would be in for a surprise but I never thought…” he trailed off as his eyes focused on Savannah. “Sorry, I didn’t realize you had company.”

She held up her hands. “Don’t worry, I’m out of here.”

As soon as she left and closed the door behind her, Paul walked up to me and pulled me into a hug, his lips meeting mine for an all-consuming and passionate kiss. “Do you want to get out of here and stay at my place?”

“Yes, let’s go. In fact, I can’t get out of here fast enough.”

“That’s the exact answer I expected,” he replied and helped me pack an overnight bag.

***

After a very exhaustive session of lovemaking, Paul and I cuddled together and I breathed in his scent. It was so refreshing to be in an honest relationship where I truly did feel happy, healthy, and like my partner completely understood me. I could admit I had never known what real love was until he came along.

He caressed my glossy dark locks lazily. “I have a conference coming up in Stamford. Actually, it’s a retreat, and I would really like you to come. I think it would be great for you to meet all my colleagues and perhaps they will stop teasing me about being in the closet. Not that I mind—it keeps the women off of me and I suppose I am a bit too pretty to be an alpha male.”

“When is it?” I rested my chin on his chest and stared deeply into his eyes.

“Next weekend. I know it’s last minute but I hoped you would be free and wouldn’t mind spending some extra time with me.”

My heart sank. I laid my head down on his chest and murmured, “I can’t. Talia is coming back into town and I haven’t seen her since she left. I promised her we would have a girl’s weekend with just two of us. Are you terribly disappointed?”

Paul kissed my forehead. “No, of course not. She’s your best friend and why would you want to give up an extremely fun weekend for a boring one with a bunch of white guys who are just going to sit around and have too many drinks, play golf, and talk about stock dividends?”

“Are you being facetious?”

“No, I’m not. I understand, and I’m not the least bit upset. Look at it this way: at least we get to have great sex when I get back. I enjoy devouring every inch of you so the wait will make it that much more exquisite when we finally do get together.”

I sat up, the sheet falling away from my body. “You are so perfect, Paul. How did I get so lucky?”

“Charm and a big cock that was meant to satisfy you.” He snickered.

I laughed and kissed him again. “Now that you aren’t wrong about.”

Chapter Seventeen

As much as I loved Paul, the moment I started to spend time with Talia again I realized how much I’d missed her. She looked great and I knew she was happy because for the first time in her life, she was living it the way she wanted to regardless of the personal sacrifices she’d had to make to do it.

We sat on the sofa in the sitting room in my loft and drank an expensive chardonnay that was starting to take effect.

“What did your parents say?” I asked.

“They weren’t happy and basically told me I’d gotten myself disinherited until I could see the error of my ways, apologize, and get back on the straight and narrow.”

My face fell. I wished her parents were more like mine but that would never happen. Her mother was former trash turned social climbing socialite and there was no way she would give up her lifestyle for her daughter. It wasn’t going to happen and it never would.

“You know I am here for you any time you need me, right?”

She leaned over and grabbed my left hand. “Of course. I knew what I was doing when I decided to join Seth and Winter’s Regret. It’s my dream and I’m living it so I have no regrets, seriously. My parents can stuff it as far as I am concerned. Either they eventually come around or…well, I haven’t thought that far into the future.”

We both laughed at this sentiment then she became serious again. “Didn’t you say Paul was at a retreat in Stamford?”

A little confused at the abrupt change in subject, I replied, “Yes. He asked me to go but I told him I couldn’t because I wanted to be here when you came back into town. We have been planning this weekend for the past week and a half, and he only told me about the retreat last Friday.”

Talia finished the rest of her wine in her glass then refilled it. “I didn’t know whether to tell you this or not, but there is a reason why he wanted you to go. The retreat isn’t just for the investment bankers. It’s more of a getaway where they have their fun and the top investors are invited along. Lots of women and men—very expensive and highly skilled sex workers mostly—and the crème de la crème of East Coast society.”

My heart dropped in my chest. “You wouldn’t think he’d cheat on me, do you?”

Talia’s pale green eyes refused to look into mine as she gazed at the floor. “I don’t know, but I also know a certain bitch who will be there and believe me, she will take advantage. Drugs and alcohol are never in short supply at those exclusive weekend parties and who knows what Paul might do with a little coke in his system and Ashley pawing all over him like a bitch in heat?”

I stood and walked over to the floor to ceiling picture window. The sun was high in the sky and from my view, the city looked warm and inviting, though I knew it was hot and muggy outside with dense air filled with car fumes and every carcinogen in the world that was bad for one’s health. We wouldn’t have known it though because the loft was air conditioned and set to a perfect sixty-eight degree temperature.

I closed my eyes and the room began to spin. I opened them just as quickly, I felt like I couldn’t get enough oxygen in my lungs. My heart raced in my chest so hard it hurt, and although I wasn’t asthmatic, a bad anxiety attack could make me feel like one. I collapsed to the floor before I knew it. Talia was at my side.

“How could I have been such a stupid fucking fool? I should have never let him go alone. He had this look on his face like he was putting up a brave front but…I won’t handle cheating. That is the one infraction I wouldn’t be able to forgive.”

“But he could physically abuse you and that would be all right?”

I glared at Talia. “This is no time for your obnoxiously inane jokes. Would you be so blasé if the shoe was on the other foot and we were discussing Seth instead of Paul?”

She smiled wanly. “No, because I have been in that position and I know how much it fucking hurts. Jerrica, you don’t know he’s done anything bad yet. Why don’t you call him and just talk to him? Sometimes hearing a friendly voice will chase those demons away and help him keep his cock in his pants where it belongs.”

I stood and grabbed my phone. I voice dialed Paul and he answered on the second ring.

“Hey, baby, how are you doing?” he said in that sexy masculine voice. “I have missed you like crazy but I promise I am being a 
very
 good boy for you.”

“I should have gone with you and I am sorry I didn’t. Will you forgive me?”

“Oh my God, Jerrica Peterson is drunk! Honey, I’m fine, really. I told you nothing is going to happen to me. I am going to sit through a boring dinner and I will probably retire early tonight and jerk off thinking about you before I drift into a blissful sleep. Seriously, where is all of this coming from? Please don’t tell me you think Ashley is a threat?”

Walking into the kitchen, I said, “So you know she’s there? Why didn’t you tell me? I would have come with you. You shouldn’t be there on your own. It makes me look vain and selfish. I should have thought about what your superiors would think if you came alone. I’m sorry.”

“What the hell for? Everyone knows I have a beautiful and talented girlfriend who couldn’t make it because she had a previous engagement. No one thinks you are a bad significant other, and believe me, you aren’t missing anything. You will meet all these people in less than six months at the Christmas party they hold at the Waldorf Astoria every year.”

He breathed through the phone and just the sound of his voice put me at ease. “I’m all right but can you pass the phone to Talia? I want her to cut off your limit soon.”

I handed the phone to Talia. She listened patiently then she handed the phone back to me. “He wants the last few words to be with you, not me.”

I grabbed the phone and pressed it to my ear.

“Babe, I love you so much. Take care of yourself and don’t you dare drink yourself into a stupor worrying about me.”

I sighed. “I promise I won’t. You be careful too and promise me you won’t drink too much. And no drugs, not even a sniff of cocaine. I want you ready when that bitch tries to pounce on you. I love you and I’ll see you Sunday evening, okay?”

“All right. Love you more.”

I made a kissing sound into the phone. “Love you and have a good evening.”

“I will.”

I ended the call and immediately felt better. Talia walked into the kitchen and placed an arm around my shoulders. “Feel better now?”

I nodded silently. “Yes, much better.”

“Good, then let’s order from our favorite Chinese restaurant and watch cheesy chick flicks already.”

“I am definitely down with that!”

***

Sunday morning and afternoon was spent with Talia at the various open air markets and walking in and out of cool and unique shops in Greenwich Village. By late afternoon, Talia and I were both thinking about dinner and neither one of us wanted to stay in the area so we took a cab uptown to the Upper East Side and found a great Greek restaurant we both loved.

“Wow, what a day it has been. Can you believe I have to leave tomorrow morning? I’m crushed but I have to get back down to Miami. Seth won’t stop blowing up my phone.” She looked at me with a twinkle in her pale green eyes and an overly satisfied smile on her face. “Sometimes I feel like I am his mother instead of his lover. Isn’t that a bit sad?”

I tried to laugh it off because I didn’t like to judge other people’s relationships. It’s what had gotten me into trouble with Jude and Savannah. It turned out my brother had taken her to the retreat and I was okay with it, but I’d never seen it coming.

“No, not really…unless you consider the case of Jude and Savannah,” I responded. I ate another bite of my pomegranate chicken salad, a favorite of mine.

“I do believe she thinks out of the four of us she is the least good looking and that simply isn’t true. It would be nice if she managed to get a grip and understand that men aren’t the enemy. Jude really seems to like her, although with your brother, we both know what that means.” Talia dug into her lamb gyro with relish.

“Actually, I don’t know what that means at all. Is Jude considered some kind of player or something?”

“Or something.” Talia raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. “I think half the women in Manhattan have taken Jude for a test drive. It doesn’t mean anything because he has the attention span of a gnat. Don’t get me wrong—Jude is brilliant, but he is a total man-whore.”

“Jeez, why does this sound like it’s coming from someone who is speaking from experience?”

“Because I am.” She sipped from her Pinot Noir and breathed deeply. “To answer your question, yes, I slept with your brother. It was a beautiful affair that lasted one whole week. Both of us knew what it was about and we were fine with it. I will never regret the time we spent together.”

“Great, so I have to live with it for the rest of my life my brother is sampling every one of my best friends like candy. Has he been with Autumn?” I asked. I don’t even know why I asked the question because I didn’t want to know the answer. Granted, although they were my best friends, they were also grown women who were over twenty-one and could make decisions for themselves.

“Yeah, he got to Autumn our freshman year at Vassar. She was in absolute heaven but you know how she is. She seems so innocent and sweet and fragile but I have never met an emotionally tougher woman than her.”

I laughed at this assessment because it was completely true.

“Mmm, look what the cat dragged in,” a haughty voice announced in a not too conversational tone of voice.

Both Talia and I looked up to see Ashley and her cousin Imogen. If I never saw these two ever again, I could live a long and happy life without a shred of regret.

“Christ on a cracker. What the
fuck
do you want?” Talia said in her rudest voice with a south Boston accent so thick, I’d almost forgotten she’d spent the first decade of her life there.

“Very nice,” Imogen said in that annoying English accent I hated with a vengeance. “Is that how ladies talk? Or just common street trash whose mother happened to land a jackpot of a man?”

“Fuck you, you uptight Limey whore. You think you’re too high and mighty to earn a reputation? Welcome to America, bitch. According to my sources, most of the men you’ve fucked have formed the general consensus you’re a lousy fucking lay and fake orgasms quite terribly.”

I continued to nurse my wine. This was not a discussion I wanted to get into by any stretch of the imagination. It was best if I kept out of it because both Imogen and Ashley could cut deep when they wanted to hurt someone. Talia was more or less bulletproof.

Ashley made direct eye contact with me. “If I were you, I would grill Paul closely about the retreat in Stamford. I’m not one to spread gossip but let’s just say he wasn’t exactly on his best behavior.”

I wanted to do something really ghetto like stand up and knock the shit out of that smug bitch. However, my parents raised a proper young woman who didn’t behave like that, so I smiled rather ingratiatingly, then turned my head toward Talia.

“What looks good for dessert?” I asked her.

“I know because it was the two of us getting busy underneath the sheets,” Ashley declared before she walked off with her cousin, turning back to me at the last minute with a smirk on her face.

The lying bitch. Paul wouldn’t touch her with a ten foot pole. She had to be telling me this just to get a reaction out of me, but I refused to fall for the bait. That would have been too easy. However, I didn’t even have a quick, witty retort prepared therefore the cunt ended up having the last word, and that pissed me off to no end.

“Tell me you don’t believe a word of what she said,” Talia said in a low voice. “She’s lying and only trying to get a rise out of you. Paul isn’t that way and he would never hurt you.”

“I know.”

Still, an icy exterior had already started to form around a heart filled with a love so pure and true for Paul and I had already felt myself beginning to go numb. I wanted to have faith and believe the best of him but I emotionally had already begun to prepare for the worst.