Once we were out of earshot, Fae dropped her ruse, falling silent with a reassuring arm squeeze.
“You gonna make it through the morning meeting? ‘Cause if you need to ditch, I’ll come with you. Or I can stay here and cover for you. Whatever you need, love,” Fae offered quietly when we’d reached the semi-privacy of my cubicle.
“I’ll be fine,” I told her. “But thanks.”
“Want to talk about it?” she asked. I glanced at my watch. The daily staff briefing began in five minutes — not enough time to even scratch the surface of my past with Sebastian.
“Later,” I said. “Over margaritas. With double tequila.”
“That bad, huh?” She grimaced in sympathy.
“You have no idea.”
“Well, if what I saw earlier is any indication, there’s definitely some unresolved tension between you two. I mean, Jesus, your little stare down in front of Jeanine’s office? Talk about intense.”
I nodded.
“Well, time to go face down the devils,” Fae announced, looping her arm through mine once more.
“…in Prada,” I added with a wry smile.
Fae laughed as we made our way to the conference room, the final two to straggle in behind the other twenty people in our department — nineteen catty women and one fabulous gay man named Simon who often tagged along with Fae and me for post-work cocktails or girl’s night out.
After moving to the cityat eighteen from a small, über-conservative town in Ohio, Simon had attended Parsons, where he liked to say he’d majored in fashion design and a minored in celebrity stalking. His talents were put to good use here atLuster, as he managed the “Who Wore It Better,” “Hot or Not,” and “Trendy Today” sections. He and Fae could talk fashion for hours on end, which would’ve been nauseating except they were so genuinely obsessed I couldn’t help but listen in — even though I didn’t have a firm opinion on whether high-waisted shorts were adoor adon’t, or whether color-block maxi dresses were glam or gauche.
For the most part, my best friends were pretty awesome.
The one exception to this was when they turned their chic eyes onmywardrobe and decided to make what they considered “necessary” changes. Three separate times over the last two years I’d returned home from a run in Central Park or a trip to the grocery store, only to find the two of them huddled in my closet adding new items and confiscating things they considered out of vogue. And that was only counting the occasions I’d caught them in the act — god only knew how many times they’d broken in without my knowledge.
I really needed to get my spare key back from Fae.
Simon waved us over from the corner of the conference room, where he’d staked out three seats by the window. As soon as we’d settled in, he turned to me with wide, curious eyes.
“Lux, baby, who was that delicious man you were talking to earlier? I sensed a vibe.” He looked at Fae. “Did you sense a vibe, or was it just me?”
“There was definitely a vibe,” Fae noted.
“Very Tarzan and Jane,” Simon added. “So brooding and tortured.”
“No, to me it’s more a forbidden Victorian romance. Stolen glances and muted conversations,” Fae chimed in, adding her two cents.
“Guys!” I protested. “You don’t even know the real backstory yet.”
“Yes, baby, but that’s what’s so fun about it. We have all day to fill in the blanks with our guesses, and then all night to hear the real story,” Simon explained. Apparently, he was ditching one of the posh parties he typically frequented on Fridays in favor of crashing our girl’s night. “I can only hope that the reality lives up to my mental version,” he said.
“Did you see the way they looked at one another?” Fae asked him. “So tormented. So angsty. It’ll live up, I can tell.”
I huffed. “Well, maybe I won’t even tell you guys the story, since you’re enjoying your own speculation so much. Maybe you don’t deserve the real version.”
Fae and Simon looked at each other and burst into laughter simultaneously.
“I really hate you guys,” I muttered.
“No you don’t, baby,” Simon said, leaning in to kiss my left cheek.
“You love us,” Fae added, with a light arm squeeze.
I heaved a martyred sigh, but didn’t protest.
They were right.