And there went the punch to my gut at the thought. If this was the real, real love, then it sure wasn’t going to be easy to handle.
“I will give you my full cooperation, Edith, and I look forward to meeting you,” I said with the most pleasant voice I could muster.
I struck her silent again and felt as if I scored a point.
“I very much appreciate that, Ms. Madison.”
“Pepper, please call me Pepper,” I offered. “I’ll send you my calendar as soon as I get off the phone.”
“Again, thank you.” She cleared her throat. “You made this much easier than I anticipated.”
“See you soon, Edith,” I said and hung up, knowing I had scored another point with her.
I went over my schedule. There was a prepper conference I was a speaker at in late spring that couldn’t be changed and there were the three prepper conferences I had to pick and respond to for next year since the conferences booked a year in advance. I decided to send a note along about the spring conference just in case or maybe it was to prove to myself that Ian and I would still be together then. I didn’t mention the possibilities of the other conferences those could wait for now.
Once I got it all together, I sent it off to Edith as promised. I got an email back immediately thanking me for my promptness. I don’t know why but I got a feeling I was going to like this woman.
After that I went straight to work. Most times once I got my butt in the chair at my desk, I worked the whole day through and that’s what I did. I looked over my list of YouTube posts and saw I needed to do at least two this week and have them ready to post. I wrote three new blog posts to have ready, updated another section of my website, then got busy outlining my journal series, which I was happy flowed easily. I’d have them done in no time to send to Sylvia.
My cell rang just as I was stretching myself out of my chair and I saw it was Amy. She spoke before I could.
“Say yes, please say yes. We haven’t double dated in like forever,” Amy begged.
I laughed. “We never double dated.”
“Okay so this is our chance to do it. Beau asked me out and suggested we ask you and Ian to come along. Ian will probably call you any minute so please say yes.”
“I thought you weren’t interested in Beau.”
“We enjoy talking, nothing more. It’s nice for a change, not worrying that the guy I’m with is thinking about sex while I’m thinking not on your life. Though sex with Beau would probably be memorable, I want more than that.” Amy sighed. “Enough about sex, this is just supper out with friends.”
I laughed again. “I’m not the one thinking about sex.”
“Really? You haven’t thought about having sex with Ian?”
She got me. “Okay it has crossed my mind.”
“Crossed your mind?”
She knew me too well. “Lingered. It’s lingered there.”
This time Amy laughed. “I’m glad to hear it, otherwise I’d worry about you. What do you say to a double date?”
“Something I always wanted to cross off my bucket list.”
“Cute and I’d stop thinking and do something about sex with Ian.”
My cell beeped. “Hold on, it’s Ian.”
“Hey, Pep, Beau asked if we’d like to join him and Amy for supper tonight.”
“Sounds like fun, I loved to,” I said.
“Sorry I missed your call earlier. I had a busy day of shoots.”
“Hold on I wanted to talk to you about something, but I need to end my other call first.” I clicked over to her. “About sex with Ian.”
“I can oblige you with that, leanna,” Ian said with a laugh.
I was glad he couldn’t see me turn fifty shades of red and all I could get out was, “Amy.”
He laughed again. “I figured that.” His laughter faded. “But let me remind you of what I once said to you, Pep, sex is one thing, making love is another. When the time comes, we’ll be making love. Sorry, I have to go. I’ll pick you up at seven.”
I stared at the phone like an idiot and thought about how I was going to strangle my best friend when I saw her later.
The Fire Pit had great food and great atmosphere. Fire pits were set up outside where you could have drinks while waiting for a table inside or you could wait at the huge bar where local musicians played nightly.
We chose to sit outside at one of the fire pits and enjoy drinks until a table opened. It was a chilly night, and we had all wisely worn jackets and Amy convinced me to wear knee-high boots with my jeans. She looked gorgeous—when didn’t she—in a burnt orange colored, fleece jacket with fringe along the lapels, a tight, black sweater beneath and tighter black pants and knee-high boots with heels that I couldn’t fathom how she walked in. Her makeup was perfect while I wore none; and while her hair looked like a top stylist did it, mine was in a ponytail. Sometimes I wondered how we ever became friends since we’re such opposites. But we work and that’s all that matters.