Page 101 of Whatever Lola Wants

“No reason,” Anna chirped. “Let’s get this party started!”

“Wait, wait a minute.” Lola stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, dragging Anna to a halt. “What did you mean?”

“Nothing, it’s nothing.” Anna smiled reassuringly, but her gaze was fixed over Lola’s right shoulder. “Let’s go party.”

“Uh-uh, it’s not nothing, and we’re not moving until you tell me.”

Anna looked so miserable Lola almost relented—the last thing she wanted to do was spoil what was supposed to be a fun night. But it wasn’t like Anna to evade, and her spidey senses were tingling.

“Anna. Talk.”

“Fine.” Her eyes met Lola’s, reluctant and worried. “Grant told me Simon had a lunch date today.”

Lola started to laugh—why was Anna so worked up about Simon’s client lunch?—then she paused. “Lunch date as in he had lunch with a client, or lunch date as in he had a date for lunch?”

“A date for lunch. Michael set him up with some new submissive who just moved to town.”

“I see.”

But she didn’t. He’d lied to her. She’d asked him to have lunch, and he’d told her he had a client crisis to handle. He’d sounded disappointed that he hadn’t been able to have an office picnic with her, and flirted with her about their scheduled date at the club on Saturday night.

But he’d lied.

Anna’s eyes filled with tears. “Grant says Simon’s been talking about finding a permanent submissive for a while now.”

Lola nodded numbly. “Right. He mentioned that.” But that had been over a month ago, and aside from the first night they’d spent together, he hadn’t brought it up again.

“I’m going to kill him,” Anna muttered, her tears drying up as her brown eyes narrowed to angry slits, and Lola would’ve laughed if she hadn’t been slowly dying inside.

“It's fine.” She drew in a deep breath and patted her friend’s arm. “Really. We just had a little communication glitch.”

Anna searched Lola’s face for a long moment. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, sure."

“Okay," Anna said, nodding. "I just don’t know what’s wrong with him. What’s he doing looking for a someone else, anyway?”

Lola forced a shrug. “He’s a Dom. He wants a sub. It makes sense.”

“But he’s happy with you. I know he is.”

“Maybe he’s not as happy as you think,” Lola said woodenly, then forced a smile. “Come on, we’ve got better things to do tonight than worry about this.”

“I’m so sorry, Lola.”

Lola allowed herself one sad smile. “I know. So am I. But don’t worry about it, okay? I’ll handle it later. Right now, it’s time to party.”

“I just?—”

Anna’s protest was cut off by a shout from the limo. One of Anna’s former co-workers was hanging out of the moon roof, a bottle of champagne in her hand. “Hey, bitches! Get in here and let’s get this party started!”

“You heard the woman,” Lola said and nudged Anna toward the car. “Let’s get this party started.”

As they climbed into the limo, she did her best to shove thoughts of Simon and new submissives out of her mind and lose herself in the revelry. But one thought kept circling like sewage over a slow drain—he’d lied to her.

The next night, she waited for Simon to arrive.

He’d texted her that he’d pick her up, which suited her fine. She’d had a rough night, pretending to enjoy herself at Anna’s party, and her day hadn’t been much better. She’d taken a long, hard look at her relationship with Simon, and she’d come to a few uncomfortable conclusions.

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