Finally she made her escape only to hit heavy traffic on the expressway. She wanted to scream. After a week of frenzied working hours, trying to forget Josh, she needed to relax with her friends.
By the time Frank escorted her through the back entrance of the hotel and up the private elevator to the private lounge, everyone was already there. The women were chatting and sipping wine that they must’ve brought themselves because Claire had been too busy to arrange anything. Bags of potato chips and tortilla chips were being passed around the circle of women. The normalcy of it all made her tear up. “Hi, sorry I’m late.”
“She’s here!” Hailey exclaimed. “You must be exhausted after working all day. Have a seat.”
Claire dropped into the chair Hailey indicated in the circle of plush chairs and sofa. Charlotte, next to her, handed her the bag of potato chips.
She grabbed a handful of chips and passed it over to Mad on her other side. “Thanks,” she said around a chip. “I’m starving.”
A moment later, Hailey appeared at Claire’s side and gave her a plastic tumbler full of white wine. “Thanks,” Claire said. “It’s so good to see you guys.”
“You too,” Hailey said, taking a seat across the circle from Claire on the sofa, where three women—Lauren, Ally, and Carrie—were already squished. Lauren, a sweet teacher with long light brown hair, got up and took the floor.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” Claire said. “Here, Laur, take my chair.” The woman was too damn accommodating.
“It’s okay,” Lauren said. Claire was about to insist, but then Mad got up, stomped over to the plastic chairs on the other side of the room, and carried one over next to the sofa.
“Sit,” Mad ordered.
Lauren sat.
Mad returned to her seat and peered over at Claire. “I heard you and Josh hit it off. He’s asking about you.”
“He’s great,” Claire said, in what she hoped was a calm voice considering how painful it was to know she’d never see him again. “But I won’t be seeing him anymore. I don’t want to keep pretending.”
Mad nodded her approval. “Good.”
Claire took a long drink of wine. The room fell silent, everyone staring at her like she was supposed to say something more about her Josh date. For some reason, she wanted to keep the details to herself. It was a special memory she’d always cherish. “Are we talking about the next book? Anyone read Gone with the Wind?”
Hailey smiled indulgently at Claire. “First order of business is how was your date with Josh? We want details!”
Mad fidgeted in her seat. “Please, no gory details, he is my brother.”
Claire pasted on a polite smile. “I was just telling Mad we had a nice time, and I very much enjoyed the gentleman treatment.” And the nongentleman treatment too. She flushed hot, remembering.
“So-o-o…” Hailey said, “do you want to see him again?”
Claire shook her head. “I don’t want to pretend anymore. I’ll end up hurting him.”
“But you liked him?” Hailey asked.
“Did you kiss him?” Carrie, a sweet innocent young nurse with glasses, asked.
Kiss, grope, fuck. Mmm-hmm.
“Was there a spark?” Lauren asked hopefully.
“Sparks are so important,” Ally, a bubbly young blonde woman, said with a dreamy sigh. The women all agreed.
Claire’s mind flashed back to his glorious mouth and hands and body. And before that, on their date, the warmth in his eyes and words and touch. She stifled her own sigh of longing. “More than a spark,” she admitted. “More like an entire Fourth of July fireworks display.”
“Damn,” Charlotte muttered. “I never got that feeling from Josh, and I’ve flirted with him a bunch of times at Garner’s.”
The other women agreed that Josh always flirted and fireworks had never erupted for any of them. Except Hailey, who was quiet. And Mad, who rolled her eyes.
“So you had fireworks, had a great date, and that’s it?” Ally asked. “Goodbye forever?”
“That’s so sad,” Lauren said. Her sympathetic eyes depressed the hell out of Claire. She hated wanting what she couldn’t have.
“It is sad,” Claire admitted. “But I’m moving on and—”
“Lame-o,” Ally sang.
Claire bristled. “I’m trying to do the right thing. There’s no sense in continuing a lie.”
The women argued whether it was better to see where things went and then admit the truth or just shut the whole thing down. Claire bit into a potato chip. It didn’t matter what they said, she was done. She had to be.