Page 1 of Some Like It Hott

1

Natalie

It’s a beautiful June day, I finally got a job, and between the sunshine and the victory, I feel like skipping up the street. Except I’mreallynot wearing the right bra.

Instead, I do an internal happy dance while walking like a calm, dignified adult toward Bon Chance Coffee to tell my boyfriend, Lloyd, my good news.

Lloyd works out of Bon Chance most days, with his coworker, Susie. We jokingly refer to it as his office and Susie as his work wife because he spends so much time with her.

Every once in a while, I feel a stab of jealousy, even if I’m the one making the joke, because Susie sees Lloyd more than I do, but he always reassures me that I get the best of him.And the rest of me,he says, generally right before he demonstrates how there’s a part of himonlyI get. He showers me with reminders of how sexy he thinks I am and how much fun we have together, and at that point, I usually push the remaining self-doubt out of my head and let myself fall straight into the sexy fun-times.

I know we’ll have sex tonight to celebrate my win. Because after a few painful months of being unemployed, today I took the first step on my Plan to Get Serious About a Career.

I tug open the front door of Bon Chance and enter the fray. It’s still the coffee rush, with store owners from all around Bend’s bustling downtown coming in for their fix—and a pastry or two.

I scan the coffee shop for Lloyd, but I don’t see him.

There’s a table of teenagers who seem thrilled to be done with school for the summer.

There’s a happy couple holding hands. I can’t see their faces, but they’re curled in toward each other with that kind of new-love intimacy that gives me a hefty dose of warm fuzzies.

There’s a table of gray-haired grandma types, laughing and chatting like they’ve known each other for decades.

There are two men in button-downs having a Very Earnest Business Meeting.

But no Lloyd.

I pull out my phone to text him.Not at Bon Chance today???I’m here and you’re not!

The man in the happy couple lifts his head from the new-love tilt and reaches for his phone, which is face down on the table.

Two things happen at once.

Alarm clouds his expression.

And I recognize his very, very familiar face.

Lloyd.

His eyes meet mine.

I’m frozen in place, all the joy and excitement I’d felt a few minutes ago washed out of me.

Lloyd lets go of Susie’s hand. He says something to her, and her hand snaps to her side like a retracted tape measure. She turns around, and the look on her face?—

It’s raw, unfiltered guilt.

I take a step back.

Lloyd leaps up from the table and hurries toward me. “Natalie?—”

“Don’t,” I say. “Don’t.”

I’m still backing up. I nearly run over two moms with their preschool-aged kids, who give me a dirty look and shepherd their precious ones out of my path. I trip over my own feet trying to push through the coffee shop door and stumble as I break free onto the Bend sidewalk.

“Natalie!” Lloyd says. “Natalie, stop. Please. Stop. Listen.”

“I don’t want to listen,” I say. “I don’t want to listen to you tell me that it didn’t mean anything that you were holding hands with her. God, I’ve been so dumb. I can’t believe I?—”

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