Page 7 of Ask Me Something

Brian fumbled completely. “Uh, right. Yeah, no, both Mark and Josh are in Connecticut. Um, so…” He looked from her to us and couldn’t find any words.

Jamie raised a brow at him and then took matters into her own hands by addressing both of us. “I’m Jamie Morgan, a good friend of Brian’s.” Her eyes focused on me first.

Catherine tapped me with her foot under the table when I didn’t respond right away. I must have been in shock.

“Hello, I’m Sasha Brooks,” I somehow got out, actively working on appearing unaffected even though my heart was beating through my chest. She was beautiful and put together with her shoulder-length blonde hair and blue eyes. It was obvious this woman had too much knowledge of Brian’s friends to be some random hook up.

“And I’m Catherine Davenport, nice to meet you as well.”

Brian recovered slightly, but still looked uncomfortable as hell. “Sorry, I forgot my manners for a moment. Uh, take a seat Jamie, if that’s okay with everyone?”

Catherine mercifully spoke for both of us. “Of course it is.”

Since I was sitting next to Brian, I realized it made sense to give up my stool. It’s what a normal work colleague who wasn’t sick with jealousy would do when her coworker’s girlfriend, or whatever she was, showed up uninvited. “Here, sit next to Brian. I’ll move.” It wasn’t completely unselfish as taking the stool across allowed me a better vantage point to study them together.

“You don’t have to,” he started.

I was already up and moving. “No, I insist.” Jamie had no issue with sliding right in. My leg instantly missed the heat of him when I sat on the cold stool across the table. Meeting his eyes briefly, I had to look away when I realized Jamie’s were trained on me.

“I hope I haven’t crashed anything?” she prodded, glancing at Brian who gave her a smile that didn’t quite touch his eyes. He wasn’t normally at a loss for words so I wasn’t surprised that she appeared to notice something was off.

Catherine took the lead with a response. “Not at all. We were catching up, that’s all. Do you live in the city, Jamie?”

She smiled and I noticed her gaze kept flicking back to me. I willed my face not to go into any type of bitchy place whether it was active, resting or whatever else it would do with the sick feeling I was experiencing. The stab of possessiveness was so sharp that it took a few minutes for me to realize I was biting the inside of my lip to keep from displaying any outward emotions. My nails dug into my thighs trying to get myself out of my own head with the twinge of pain, wishing I hadn’t taken off my black elastic band. If I’d thought the text message was rough, this was so much worse.

“I’ve been living in New York City about ten years now,” Jamie replied. “Moved here after college, which is where I met Brian, Josh and Mark. We’ve stayed really great friends through the years thankfully.”

Again her eyes trained on me. It was as though I was in a fish bowl, and she was waiting to see how I’d react to everything she said. Maybe my paranoia was simply misplaced. “You guys have known each other awhile then?”

“We have, haven’t we, Brian?” she murmured, running her hand down his thigh and causing him, if possible, to look even more awkward.

“Yes. Since college,” he acknowledged with a stressed smile, purposefully avoiding eye contact with me.

It was irrational, but hearing that he and Jamie had been friends for that long sliced through me like a betrayal. I’d always thought my friendship with Brian was special. Now to find out that someone had known him longer was difficult to hear. I was about to escape to the restroom to get myself together when Jamie addressed me directly.

“So, Sasha, I swear I’ve heard your name a lot over the years. You work with Brian, right?” she inquired.

I forced a smile. “Yes, I do. But I’m in the New York office, and he’s down in Charlotte.”

“Yes, well lucky for me, he gets up here whenever he can.” She turned toward him and rubbed his back, making it known that whenever he was here, they got together.

Gulping my wine down like it was my lifeline, I tried not to count the times he’d been up to the city over the last few months. Forget fleeing to the restroom, I needed to get the hell out of here. I was about to motion the waitress for the check when the bomb went off.

“Oh, I know where I’ve heard your name. This is Sasha as in Sasha-B-Fierce, isn’t it?” she questioned, looking toward Brian expectantly.

Taken off guard, I wasn’t sure I’d heard her correctly. “Sorry, what was that?”

“Sasha-B-Fierce. Oh, my gosh, did you not know that was your nickname?” She swiveled toward Brian, swatting him playfully. “You never said it was a secret. You and Josh were discussing her with that term, and I figured it was a compliment…” She stopped and looked at me as if awaiting a reaction.

My eyes shot up to his face, watching as he turned red.

Immediately, I knew her game. I was the threat, and she was challenging me to take her on in front of Brian about the nickname. There was a brief second where I entertained the idea of going thermonuclear, but Catherine snapped me out of it with a nudge under the table. Sliding a glance her way, I caught her warning look.

“Given that you work with all men at your level, Sasha, I think the word fierce is definitely a compliment. Women don’t get to the top without displaying that quality,” Catherine defended.

Not to be out done, Jamie attempted to make this about her. “Oh, believe me I know. I’m a partner at my law firm. Talk about a lot of stress and responsibility.”

Catherine, in uncharacteristic fashion, decided to take her down a notch. “Yes, well, as the fashion editor of Cosmopolitan Life Magazine, believe me, I know, too.”

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