What Lola Wants (Leave Your Shoes On 1)

Alex.

Chapter Ten

“The ad agency is going to be here at one,” Tiff said. “Why do you look so blue? And your eyes are bloodshot.”

“Bad allergies,” Lola said with a wave of her hand.

“I’ll run out and get you some drops.”

“That’s nice. Thank you.”

Sarah fell into step with her as Lola performed Dead Man Walking toward her cube. “You okay?”

“No.”

She set her bag on the desk and pulled out her laptop.

“Seriously, Lola.” Sarah rested a gentle hand on her arm. Concern laced her voice. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

It was so excruciating to hold it all inside, but equally agonizing to admit, “Flower guy dumped me.”

“No. Way.” Sarah gaped, staring at Lola in utter disbelief. Recovering quickly, she said, “No one sends a bouquet like that when they’re planning to dump someone.”

“You’d think, but… that’s what happened. I mean, maybe not so much, exactly.” She shook her head as she waited impatiently for her computer to boot up. Her pulse didn’t seem to beat at a normal pace, and she felt numb inside, with the exception of the knife continually shredding her heart into thin ribbons.

She said, “Alex was my best friend. He let me stay at his apartment while mine was getting ready and I… sort of—no, I totally—suggested we dabble in the whole friends-with- benefits thing. He went for it. For a week. But then yesterday morning, he called it all off. I don’t get it, especially not after the way we’d made love the night before. I felt the connection between us—stronger than ever.”

“Oh, wow.” Sarah looked taken aback. She grimaced. “Friends with benefits. Never a good idea, Lola.”

“But it was a good idea,” she insisted. “Everything was going along perfectly. We’re awesome together. And I realized I was in love with him, but I didn’t even get the chance to tell him.” She considered this, finding one tiny silver lining. “Thank God I didn’t tell him. What a nightmare that would be.”

Utter humiliation to the nth degree.

Sarah seemed to consider the situation for a few moments, then kindly suggested, “Maybe he met someone else, and since you guys weren’t being serious about a relationship, he went in a different direction.”

“He told me he’d never be with someone else while he was with me. I believed him. Maybe I was wrong…” She shook her head. Recalled how tense Alex had gotten when he’d thought she might have hooked up with someone else the night she’d gone to Maya. “I don’t know. This doesn’t make any sense. He claimed it was work. That I distract him.”

Sarah gave her a consoling smile. “I can see how that might be the case.”

“I want him back,” Lola told her, as their gazes locked. Desperation edged her voice as she said, “I want him for real. I know we’re more than just friends. He has to feel it too. What the hell do I do?”

Her new friend gave her a sympathetic look. “I’m so sorry about all of this, Lola. But first and foremost, you have to prep for our meeting with the ad agency.”

Lola groaned. “The last thing I want to think about is a sexy shoe campaign.”

“You’ve come too far to drop the ball now.” Sarah reached for Lola’s hand and gave it a quick squeeze, as Staci had done on Friday. Maybe it was a family thing. “Get it together, Lola. There’s a hell of a lot at stake here. And trust me, if you don’t kick ass this morning, you’ll be so stressed out over it, consumed by it, that you won’t be able to think clearly enough to figure out what to do about Alex.”

“Right,” she said. “You’re so right. This campaign means the world to me. And we’ve put our hearts and souls into it—really knocked it out of the park in a very short period of time. I can’t fuck this up.” A hollow laugh slipped from her lips. “This is really all I’ve got now. My career.”

“And your friends,” Sarah assured her.

Tears stung Lola’s eyes. “Thank you. Honestly. I mean it.”

Sarah nodded. “Deep breaths. Step into the ladies’, use the eyedrops, pull yourself together. Slay this meeting.”

“Yes. Absolutely.”

Lola sniffled, sucked it up, and collected herself. Then she delivered her campaign idea to the ad agency. They were impressed, somewhat blown away, in fact, eyeing her as though they wondered where the hell she’d come from. A substantial compliment.