Page 11 of Hotter in the Hamptons

“Of course you are.” She beamed. She had this odd sense of already being proud of him.

“Where do you live?” he asked.

“The LES,” she said. “But it’s getting pretty loud over there these days. You?”

“Murray Hill, but it’s getting kind of basic.” He flashed that perfect smile. “Where would you want to live? Wait, should we say our dream neighborhood on three?”

She nodded. He counted. “One, two, three…”

“Soho,” they said together, erupting into laughter.

People looked at them then, laughing so close together in a corner, and Lola loved the attention—from him and everyone else. They were having the kind of meet-cute she’d always dreamed of.

“I like living in Manhattan, but it’s not forever,” he said. “I’ve always known I wanted to end up in LA, be close to my family, start a family of my own. But this is fun for now.”

Perhaps it should have given Lola more pause, that he didn’t want to be here forever and she did. She had already fallen in love with the city. But all she could think about was how badly she wanted him.

“So you want kids?” she asked, surprised by the openness.

“I want, like, so many kids.” He grinned. “I think I was put on earth to be someone’s father.”

Lola had never really considered motherhood one way or another, hoping to at some point feel more strongly about it, and it had been attractive that Justin was so resolute.

“What about you, though?” he asked. “Should we just skip to the part where we tell each other all our hopes and dreams?”

This question had given her—as the girls onLove Islandwould say—fanny flutters. No New York guys had ever talked to her like this; but then again, Justin was not from New York.

“I’ve been obsessed with fashion my whole life,” she admitted to him. “Being here, making a living in the industry, it really feels like I’ve accomplished something.”

He seemed impressed with her, which felt like a miracle. If only she could go back in time and tell her teenage self that one dayshe’dbe impressive to Justin Fucking Wilson.

The more they talked, the more the rest of the world melted away.

Their first kiss was in the cab back to his apartment, his tongue in her mouth the exact mix of gentle and firm that made her melt. Lola’s only concern was that she was pretty sure she was ruining her underwear. That was how attracted she was to him, how wet she already was. Like her skin was on fire. It was all Lola could do to keep from ripping his clothes off in the lobby of his building. They had sex all night and again in the morning—and then again almost every day for the next five years.

Lola and Justin. Justin and Lola. Even their names sounded good together. She loved him completely. She was by his side when he graduated medical school and began his first residency. He clinked his glassto hers every time she made a new brand deal, pushed her to explore new opportunities.

He was still the man of her dreams after all these years. A hot doctor who spent his free time doing volunteer work. He wasn’t just good in bed—he was a good person.

Though sometimes, if she let herself, she felt a creeping worry that they were on borrowed time. He meant what he’d said about New York not being forever, hard as she’d tried to put it out of her head. Thinking back on it now, she felt annoyed that Aly had asked her about her future with Justin when she was putting so much energy intonotthinking about it.

Besides, she was turning thirty, not forty-five. For city girls, thirty was the new twenty. In New York, she was still a baby. She had her whole life ahead of her. Why did she need to think aboutforeverat this point? Her life had only just begun.

She and Justin would cross that bridge when they came to it. It wasn’t like there was anyone else she wanted to be with. Nothing had ever come close to the sparks she’d felt with him that first night.

That was, of course, until this morning with Aly. But it was probably just nerves, she told herself. It was easy to confuse being nervous around someone with being attracted to them.

Anxiety felt an awful lot like lust.

***

Instead of going right home after the interview, Lola had her car drop her off at the Bloomingdale’s on Broadway. There, she looked for Molecule 01—just to see what it smelled like in the bottle, she told herself, to find out if it really did smell different on skin.

“Texas Hold ’Em” was playing through the speakers, and she begansinging along with Beyoncé under her breath. She had the odd feeling that at any moment, everyone around her might break out into song and dance, though she also thought flash mobs were very 2014.

Tell me the deal with ARC,she texted Ryan while she scanned the cosmetics counters.

He replied immediately.

---