Page 91 of Start With A Slap

To my favorite not-secretary, for all your hard work in Paris.In French, he added,May you always have the time.

She closed the box, shakily pulled her briefs up her legs, and hurried to the kitchen sink to clean herself off.

The dog gave her a judgy look when she let him back in.

“You don’t have to say it, Huey,” Ivy said. “Mommy’s a whore.”

CHAPTER 27

Time

Ivy didn’t have the time.

Her phone had died overnight, and she was running late to work. How late? The red Cartier box on her dresser held the answer.

Zipping up her skirt, she approached the box carefully, as if it were rigged to explode.

What was she so afraid of? Jason already knew about it. Its tangibility made her unable to lie — about who it came from, that is; not the manner in which it was received. ‘Your father’s butler stopped by with my paycheck,’ was the spin she chose, as opposed to ‘Your dad dropped this off and came inside me.’

Jason’s reaction was typically stoic: he’d made a wisecrack about what Sever might give her if she worked for a week, and then he’d asked her where she wanted to go, Runyon or the beach? He didn’t like to talk about his father, and Ivy was so very fine with that.

The rest of their Sunday had ticked by like any other — outdoor fun, brunch, movie, sex — which, she told herself, was inspired solely by her deep attraction to her husband, FYI — notby guilt, or by Sever’s shocking visit, or the things Sever said, or his casual daywear...

Remembering to breathe, she opened the box.

It glittered and flared in the sun. She ran her fingertips over its face, the rough and smooth surface, and found herself clasping it on. It was amazingly comfy; comfier than any watch she’d worn, so soft on her skin, so... sparkly?—

“Caught.”

Ivy jumped, and quickly unclasped it. “God!” Jason was back with the dog already. “I didn’t hear you come home.”

“How could you, over the Jesus choir?”

“The Jesus huh?”

“The sound when all that bling catches the light.” He demonstrated, arms rising to the heavens, “‘Ahhhhhhhh!’“

“Funny. I wasn’t admiring it, okay?” She put it back into its box. “I was just checking the time.”

“What time is it?”

Well, shit. She forgot to look. “It... is time to go, young man. Are you ready yet?”

“Youcankeep it, you know.”

“What? The watch? That’s crazytalk. It’s a waste of thirty grand. You said it yourself, I could feed a third world nation with that thing.”

“Yeah, but if you like it so much?—”

“I don’t like it!”

He smiled as he turned to leave. “Could’ve fooled me.”

Following him out, she insisted, “I don’t!”

“Do you like it, baby?”

Ivy sighed. Her first incoming call of the workday: Sever, picking up exactly where he left off, as per usual. Did he ever start a conversation with hello?

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