“I always have time for you guys.” She stepped forward to give me a quick hug. “You know how much I love you guys. You’re my best friends. My ride or dies.”
“I love you, Isabella.” I was so happy to have my best friends in my life living so close. I was about to tell them all how much they meant to me when I heard a car horn. “What the—?” I turned around and saw a stretch limo. The window came down and there was Dylan’s face, staring at me.
“Need a ride, Ms. Waldron?” His face was closed off again as if we hadn’t had a moment in the club dancing just hours ago.
“No thank you, Mr. McAllister.”
“Okay. Well, see you on Monday,” he replied and before I could answer, the window was up and he was gone.
“You should have said yes,” Emma squealed. “He’s so hot. You could have had sex in a limo.”
“I would never have sex in a limo …” I paused and then laughed. “At least not with AB.”
“Down with AB!” Isabella sang out and we all started chanting and singing at the top of our voices. “Down with AB! Down with AB! He might be the boss, but he’s really nasty!”
All of a sudden, I was feeling lighter than I had in a while. Here I was standing on the corner of a random street in Manhattan, singing at the top of my voice with my three best friends, and I knew that these days were sacred. We were leaving our twenties soon and we would no longer have these drunken nights dancing. As Jack hopped out of his Mercedes and came to pull Isabella into his arms, I realized how close our group was to losing this dynamic forever. It was bittersweet. I was happy for Isabella. I loved Jack. He was one of the good guys, but I was sad for our group friendship. Things were never going to be the same again.
Chapter 13
Abby
* * *
“Hello?” I yawned as I answered the phone. My head was pounding and I didn’t want to open my eyes. The sunlight shining through my window was too bright and I was not ready to wake up.
“Rise and shine, Ms. Waldron.”
“Dylan … I mean, Mr. McAllister.”
“This is he.” There was a slight chuckle in his voice.
A warm contented feeling spread through my belly at the sound, but I did my best to ignore it. “Did I miss a call or something?” I stretched and sat up in bed.
“No, but we have to meet, and I was calling to find out what time you’d be free.”
“What?” I blinked, annoyance chasing away the warmth.
“I told you we needed to do some work. You wanted to party all night. And so here I am calling to set up an appointment for today.”
“I have plans for today.” My voice was cold. “Today is my day off.”
“You have no days off when we have to work. Need I remind you that I’m paying you—”
“I know.” I cut him off. “You’re paying me loads of money, for which it seems I’ve sold my soul to you or something.”
“Not quite, Ms. Waldron. I’m not the devil.”
“You could have fooled me,” I said dryly.
“Seems like many people can fool you.”
I pressed my lips together. I was not going to give him a nasty retort. I knew he was trying to rile me up, and I was better than that.
Well, at least I could try to be better than that.
“So are you free to meet up for work now, Ms. Waldron?”
“No, I’m in bed, if you couldn’t tell.”
“Is that an invitation?” His voice was warm and husky, and I shivered slightly. I hadn’t noticed before but he had a sexy voice.
“Is that a professional question, Mr. McAllister?”
“Am I a professional?”
“I can meet you in an hour, for two hours max. I’m going to see my parents today for lunch and I can’t cancel on them at the last minute.”
“We’ll see.” He paused. “Okay, we can meet for breakfast and then see how far we get. Where in the city do you live?”
“I’m in Little Italy.”
“Okay, I can be there in about twenty minutes.”
“I said I need an hour—”
“I suggest you get your ass out of bed, shower, and be ready in twenty minutes.” He said in his bossy no-nonsense voice. “I’ll meet you at Canal and Mulberry. Maybe we can grab some dim sum.”
“Sure,” I mumbled, annoyed. I wasn’t even sure if a dim sum place would be open. But let him waste his time walking around Chinatown looking for dim sum.
“Well, I suggest you get out of bed now, sleepyhead. I know you like to spend time in the bathroom making yourself all pretty.”
“Excuse me?” I pushed away the covers and got out of the bed.
“I’m just saying you need time to doll yourself—”
“Goodbye, Mr. McAllister,” I growled into the phone and hung up. How rude was he? He thought just because he’d seen me out one night looking all made up, he thought I was going to do that for him. Well, he was in for a huge letdown. I walked over to the mirror and stared at my reflection. I had been lazy when we’d gotten home and I hadn’t taken my makeup off. My black eyeliner was smudged under my eyes, my silver eyeshadow was half gone, my bronzer still sparkled on my cheekbones and my hair was a messy bunch of knots piled on top of my head. I looked like something the cat had dragged in, and as I stared at my reflection, a wicked idea came to me. I was going to meet Dylan looking like this.
And to make myself even more unattractive to him, I was going to put on the sweatpants that I’d had since high school and my Don’t Mess with This Bitch sweater that Isabella had gotten me in college for my birthday. I wasn’t even going to shower.
I giggled to myself as I looked in my closet for the sweater. I couldn’t wait to see his face when I showed up. Dirty, unwashed Abby was far worse than frumpy Abby.
I was about to brush my teeth when I stopped myself. I knew I was going a bit over the top, but I didn’t care. I headed out of the bedroom to the kitchen so I could make myself a cup of coffee when I saw Emma standing in the living room, looking out of the window with a pensive look on her face.
“Morning, sunshine.” I walked over to her. There was something about the way that she was standing that made me think she had a problem. Her shoulders were hunched over and she was nibbling on a pen as she looked up at me.
“Hey, Abby.” She offered me a weak smile.
“Everything okay?” I looked at the clock behind her. I was meant to leave in five minutes to meet Dylan, but as far as I was concerned, he could wait.
“Not really.” She sighed and shook her long beautiful hair. Emma was a Latina beauty, with long dark hair and big dark eyes. She’d grown up in Puerto Rico and had been a bit of a beach bum. I’d been surprised when she’d stayed in New York after graduation. I’d assumed she would move back to Puerto Rico or to the West Coast or Hawaii as she loved surfing. And she had the body to prove it. She was the yoga queen of our friend group. If she hadn’t been one of my best friends, I would have been totally jealous of her natural beauty.
“Oh no, what’s wrong, girl?”