Page 20 of February

“It used to, though.”

“Okay. I’ll cut it out, then,” Toya replied. “It just slips out sometimes.”

“We shouldn’t be doing this.” She sighed.

Toya sat up and replied, “You said you could handle it.”

“I can. That’s the problem.”

“What? I’m confused.”

“I’ve got to go,” Bridgette told her as she looked around for her clothes. “I’ll text you, okay?”

“Bridgette, don’t go. Talk to me.”

“You don’t want to talk.”

“I never said that. You just rushed into the apartment and told me to fuck you. But just because we’re having sex, doesn’t mean we can’t talk to one another like we used to.”

“I’m going to go,” Bridgette repeated. “We can’t be anything like we used to. That’s the point.”

She pulled her shirt and pants on quickly.

“Okay. Fine. Do you just want to text me if you want to do this again? Assuming youcan, that is.”

“Yeah, sure,” Bridgette said.

“You told me you could handle this, Bridgette. I trusted you.”

“Iamhandling it,” Bridgette replied. “I just need to go.”

“Fine. Go,” Toya said.

Bridgette gathered her things and quickly left the apartment. She pressed herself against the back of the old elevator as it went down to the first floor and thought about how she didn’t actuallywantto talk to Toya anymore. She’d let everything at work get the better of her and drive her to make a bad decision. Fucking her ex-girlfriend had been a mistake. Not just because Bridgette wasn’t a sex-only kind of person but because she didn’t want to have sex with Toya anymore.

She’d been missing Toya for months, but what she had really been missing was having someone to come home to, someone to talk to, to watch movies with, to snuggle up to on the sofa, to talk to about her day at work, or even to complain about how Kyle and Melinda were annoying now but that she wanted them to be happy together at the same time. Bridgette wanted sex, yes, but notjustsex, and as she continued to process the mistake she’d just made, she thought back to her relationshipwith Toya and the sex they’d had, suddenly feeling like it hadn’t been as great as her post-breakup brain had made it out to be. It had been primarily about her ex. Bridgette had been willing to give Toya whatever she wanted, and that had been fine with her at some point, but it hadn’t been as good as she’d remembered.

She probably wouldn’t even have gone to her ex’s place had her parents not been driving her crazy with the business by bringing someone in to buy the thing when it was supposed to be hers one day. Her whole life seemed to be a big mess right now, and she still had to figure out the business part, but she knew now that she was ready for something more in her love life, something real, something where the woman she was with wanted those same things and also wanted to take those relationship steps withher. Bridgette didn’t want to go backward. She wanted to move forward.

CHAPTER 6

Day one at Southern Hospitality Greetings hadnotgone as planned. Monica had been late, for starters, and once she had arrived, it had been pretty clear that the daughter of the two owners hadn’t exactly been thrilled at her arrival. The only good thing that had happened to her had been the massage, which had been ninety minutes, relaxing and amazing. She’d slept well after a long, nearly equally relaxing bath in the nice tub with a chamomile tea, which she didn’t have every night but regularly enough, and it usually helped her sleep.

When she’d woken up earlier than planned, she’d taken a lukewarm shower, which usually helped her body wake up. She’d been smart enough to order room service in advance the night before, and it had been brought in just in time for her to have about thirty minutes to enjoy it while she read the news on her phone and checked any emails she might have missed during the night. Her eggs had been prepared perfectly, and the bacon had been the exact crispness she liked. Monica sipped the coffee slowly, enjoying it but knowing she’d order her preferred and trusted chain-brand coffee for delivery in about an hour to get an actual caffeine boost. Then, she finished getting ready.

She hadn’t called for the car again, given how close the office was, and left the hotel right on time to get there five minutes before their first scheduled meeting. When she arrived,Dan, the young man who had greeted her the day before, met her on his way out to the bathroom and let her in. There were a couple of other employees in the office who looked up and nodded at her politely, but neither of them made any attempt to introduce themselves. Had the family decided to tell their employees who Monica was and what she was doing here? Finding no Mr. or Mrs. Musgrave, she decided to go into the conference room to wait for them there and order her coffee for delivery.

“Hi.”

Monica looked up from her phone to see Bridgette, the owners’ daughter, standing there in the open doorway.

“Good morning,” she replied.

“So, there’s coffee in the break room.” The woman held up her cup.

“Oh, no, thank you,” Monica said with a smile.

“I was just telling you that it was there. This one is mine.”

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