Page 21 of Be a Good Girl

“Alice, how are you?”

“Not good,” I reply, pacing my office. “I need to see you.”

There’s a slight pause before she answers. My guess is I’ve put her in a tricky situation, but she’s going to make time for me. “Okay. When can you be here?”

“Twenty-minutes?”

“Great! See you then!”

I hang up and finish my fifth bottle of water of the day, then storm out of the office, brushing by Joan on the way out.

“I’m leaving. Cancel anything I’ve got for the rest of the day. I’ll be unavailable for an hour or so. If another emergency crops up, you know how to reach me.”

“Okay. Is everything all right?” Joan looks so concerned. “Does this have to do with what happened with Charlie yesterday?”

I try not to sigh too deeply in front of her. I’d completely forgotten about the entire incident with Charlie after myincredible night with Damien. The pure bliss we shared together wiped away any lingering discomfort caused by my ex-employee.

“Oh, no.” I smile. “Nothing to do with that.”

“And you swear you’re okay?” Joan asks. “I don’t even want to think about what could have happened if Damien hadn’t shown up–”

“I’m fine, Joan.” I’m actually dying to get out of the office and over to Michelle’s, but I don’t want to be rude. “I just really have to run. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay.” She smiles. “Take care!”

I’m a whirlpool of emotions as I leave the building and go down to my car. So much has changed in the last day.

The major thing being I’m no longer a virgin.

Damien claimed me.

And even as I slide into the backseat and my driver closes the door for me and we begin to maneuver through the city, it’s like I can feel an invisible string connecting me to Damien that wasn’t there before. I have no idea where he actually is, but it’s like I can stillfeelhim.

Crazy, I know.

Somehow, I arrive at Michelle’s a couple of minutes early and head straight up to her office.

I started to see Michelle a couple of years ago when I first started having doubts about the direction my life was going. In fact, it was for all the very same reasons Damien brought up last night while he was inside me: not feeling personally fulfilled, lacking a relationship, a family, children.

I stopped going to see her on a regular basis a few months ago when this Hong Kong deal started taking up most of my time, but after what happened last night with Damien, seeing her is a must.

“Hello, Alice!” Michelle’s assistant, Sydney, greets me as I enter the office. “Michelle is ready for you.”

“Thank you.”

Heart beating rapidly, I head for the door and open it, nearly bumping into Michelle, who was apparently just on her way to step out to greet me.

“Oh!” She laughs, placing a startled hand over her chest. “I was just coming out. Come on in, Alice.”

Michelle is wonderful. A perfect combination of sweet and professional, while also managing to feel like a friend without crossing any boundaries. I go over and sit on the couch as she takes her usual chair in front of me.

“So,” she says. “It sounded on the phone like you really had something on your mind.”

Suddenly, I’m hit with an overload of emotions all at once. It’s the first time today I’ve had a moment to simply sit down without anything to do, no one to boss around, and nothing work-related to think about.

Here, it’s all about me.

“Yes. Yes, I do.” I nod. But that’s all I can do.

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