Page 113 of Role Play
Lucy
Iyanked my phone out of my purse as it buzzed for the millionth time. Andrea’s name lit up across my screen. Hip checking my car door closed, I swiped my thumb to the right and balanced the phone between my shoulder and ear. “Girl, patience!” I snapped, not meaning to take my shitty mood out on my best friend. Even so, Andrea’s day had been one of her best and mine had been utter shit.Well, actually, my day had beenfine. Uneventful with little smiles exchanged between Ash and me. But then, it all turned to shit, crashing and burning when Ash had fucking accused me of sleeping my way to the top. I snorted, grumbling incoherent words beneath my breath that sounded a lot likebrother puckerandsmasshole.
“Are you here? Please tell me you’re almost here,” Andreapled.
I sighed, looking up at the neon LnS sign. “I just gothere.”
“Oh my God, you’re a lifesaver, Lucy. My boss would kill me if she knew I forgot myID.”
“Why? Is it really that big adeal?”
“If we get hit with an inspection and I don’t have that ID? It’s a hugefine.”
I locked my car, heading toward the building. “Remember,” Andrea said, “Come in through the back entrance. I gave Chloe your name and I'll meet you in thathallway.”
If I could have narrowed my eyes at the phone, I would have. Andrea was being awfully dramatic. “Seriously? Your boss will freak if she sees me hand you something across the bar?” I did not want to be in this building for half a second longer than I needed tobe.
Andrea was quiet for a moment and cleared her throat. That alone was enough to make me stop in my tracks. Something was weird here. “Okay, fess up. What’s goingon?”
Andrea’s voice dropped to just above a whisper. “Look, I don’t know what happened between you and Ash, but something weird was going on during that meeting. Right? Like… that’s not how a guy acts after spending a night caring for your drunk ass. That’s not the behavior of a man who seemed so enamored, he sent you an adorable care package, then spent the rest of the weekend holed up withyou.”
I sighed. I never was good at hiding things from Andrea. I was trying so hard to hold off on telling her all my drama because Andrea deserved a celebration. She deserved dinner out and a champagne toast to her contract with Silhouette Studios. But I guessthatflew right out the window. “Let’s just say a lot has happened since you saw meSaturday.”
“What happened?” sheasked.
I resumed walking around the back of the building. Looking up a small set of iron stairs, there was a woman in a leather corset and a short black skirt with a clipboard in hand. “A big, stupid misunderstanding.” My throat burned at the accusations he threw at me. I could maybe forgive him for the comments about sleeping my way to the top. But thatDaddy Domcomment? When he knew my history with my father? Anger seized my body and I dug my fingernails into my palm to calm my raging pulse down. That was so uncalled for. So hurtful. He’d said itknowingit would hurtme.
And now I was alone again. Which normally alone was fine. Alone was safe. I was used to alone. But now? Now that I had gotten a taste of Ash… the last thing I wanted to do was go home to my empty, small bedroom and my Netflix, minus the chill. Unless chilling with my vibratorcounted.
I climbed the stairs to where the woman was waiting and placed my hand over the phone’s mouthpiece. “Chloe?” Iasked.
The woman nodded, giving me a quick once over. Those dark eyes scanned up and down my body, seeming curious about me. Story of my effing life. Women judged me when I did myself up with makeup and heels. And now that I was back to wearing flats, zero makeup, and t-shirts every day, I still get scrutinized. Only instead of a threat, they see a puzzle. “I’m Lucy Rodriguez. I believe my name is on thelist.”
She didn’t even look at her iPad. Just held out her hand. “IDplease.”
“Oh, um, sure.” I handed her Andrea’s ID and she quirked a black, perfectly shaped eyebrow atme.
“YourID.”
Oh, hell. I took Andrea’s back, flashing her an apologetic smile as I pinched the phone between my ear and shoulder and dug through my purse, looking for my license. I handed it over, breathing heavily like I had just crossed the finish line of a marathon. These were a lot of freakin’ hoops to jump through for a simple pass off toAndrea.
“Lucy,” Andrea said, still on the phone with me. There was something in her voice. Something shaky and unsure. Andrea was hardly ever unsure. She was confident and strong and overtly sexy without looking like she was trying so hard. She was basically everything I was not. “Maybe you need to talk to Ash about whatever happenedtoday.”
I snorted, waiting as Chloe checked my ID. “Definitely not. It’s safer this way. Maybe after the movie is over we can reconnect. But for now...” My voice faded away. I didn’t even believe myself with all this bullshit.Which was ridiculous. Ash and I knew each other for a week. Yes, I’m allowed to be sad. But I’m not allowed to feel broken up overit.
Andrea gave a sad chuckle. “Safer. Right. You always did like the paved, saferoute.”
“I hate that analogy. Who in their right mind would take the unpaved road where you don’t have a map or GPS signal? That’s stupid. Andirresponsible.”
Andrea giggled. “Sometimes you have to go off the beaten path to find the cool shit. Like that road trip we took to Vegas where we found that llama farmer who had the country’s largest ball ofyarn.”
I snorted switching my cell phone to my other ear. “That was fun…Iguess.”
“See? You never would have known that the largest ball of yarn was in our backyard if we had stuck to the map. That’s what makes us such a good team. I push you when you need the nudge. And you tug me back before I go over theedge.”
Chloe handed me back my ID and held the door open for me. “Here you go,Luciana.”
“Thank you.” I stepped through the door into a nearly pitch black hall. It had sconces on the wall, but instead of light bulbs, the warm glow of candlelight lit the corridor. It was hard to believe I had been here just this morning. That I had spent two nights tucked away in one of these quiet little rooms. “I’m in. I’ll wait right here foryou.”
“Just remember…” Andrea said. “You love my adventurous side. It’s what keeps usbalanced.”
I leaned against the brick wall. The rough, textured concrete scraped against my arm and was cool against my heated skin. “Okay weirdo. Hurry up and get back here before I runinto—”
“Lucy,” a deep, raspy voice said from the dark end of thehall.
“Ash,” I whispered his name into the phone. “Andrea, what did youdo?”
“Love you,” Andrea said. “You needed to take the dark, winding roadtonight.”
The line went dead. And from the shadows of the hallway, Ash Livingston steppedforward.
