At the table, Ruby was sitting there with a contrite look on her face, but if she thought she was getting off that easy, she was mistaken. What the hell was she thinking, turning off my phone? This was what I got for breaking my own damn rule, I guess.
I snatched my phone off the table, and sure enough, the screen was black. I hit the button to power it back on.
“Orlando, I—”
I cut her off quick. “Look, it’s too late to apologize. Something’s come up, and if I had gotten the call when I was supposed to ...”
“I’m really so—”
“Look, you don’t get paid to touch my fuckin’ phone, got that?” I snapped. She looked ready to cry. “I’ll have Remy send a car to pick you up here.” I threw some money down on the table to pay for dinner, then left without another word.
London
22
The water running down my body had turned icy cold, but I barely felt it as I leaned against the wall, still trembling from the powerful orgasm I’d just given myself. I’d been doing a lot of that lately, pleasuring myself like a horny teenager. Instead of fantasizing about my husband, though, I found myself thinking about Tony, the guy who saved me from that mugger outside the dry cleaners.
Maybe it was kind of cliché, you know, the damsel in distress falling for her knight in shining armor and all that; but once I got past the fact that he’d saved me from an attempted rape, it didn’t take me long to notice that Tony was pretty damn hot. Coincidentally, his look reminded me a lot of my ex-boyfriend Jesse—the same guy I’d been fighting about with Harris. Maybe that was why I took Tony’s number when he started flirting and offered it to me.
Speaking of Harris, he was still barely talking to me. Oh, he showed a fair amount of concern when I told him about the mugging, but that only garnered me sympathy but for so long. We made love that night, but he’d hardly looked in my direction since. I assumed he was still mad about the whole Jesse thing, but he wasn’t the only man in the house who was out of his mind lately. My father and my brothers were all on edge too. I didn’t know all the details, but I knew some serious shit had gone down, and it had every one of them stressed out. When I approached Harris one night and asked why he hadn’t made love to me in a while, he actually told me he had too much on his mind to think about sex. He suggested I take care of myself, and so I’d done just that. I figured, hell, if Harris was too busy and stressed out, fantasies about Tony would do the trick just fine.
When the tremors between my legs subsided, I turned off the now frigid water and stepped out of the shower. I wrapped myself in a huge, fluffy Egyptian cotton towel and headed into the bedroom, where I thought I’d lie down and watch Regis and Kelly for a while. I was so glad my father had taken Mariah to preschool so I could have some time to myself.
The peaceful moment was soon interrupted, though, when I heard a ringing sound coming from my walk-in closet. At first I thought it was my phone, but as I got closer to the door, I heard Harris in there answering his phone.
“Hey, what’s up?” he said warmly. He lowered his voice almost down to a whisper. I was sure he didn’t realize I was on the other side of the door and could still hear everything he said. Whoever he was talking to sure had him upbeat and happy.
“Yeah, I miss you too, but things are a little hectic right now at the office.... I’ll be free this evening. I’m not gonna have much time, so it will have to be quick. But I’ll make it count. You got my word on that.”
I’d heard enough. The least the messy bastard could have done was told the heifer he’d call her back when he left the house he and his wife shared. “Make what count? And who the hell is she that you miss her so much?” I blurted out as I pulled back the partially closed door and stepped into the closet with him.