Page 35 of Games We Play
Sloan suggested they wash up and order in their dinner. Leah was determined to stay as long as she could. It wasn’t too far to walk back home, even at the midnight hour, although she had a feeling Sloan would offer her a ride home again.
She never expected to be invited to stay the night.
They took turns showering. While Leah washed up and put on one of the plush bathrobes, Sloan ordered their dinner and suggested they go over the finer details of their new relationship. By the time they finished dinner, Sloan was ready to go back to bed.
Naturally, they didn’t go there to sleep.
***
The most obnoxious call came at eleven, about thirty minutes after Sloan had drifted off to sleep with Leah curled up next to her.
Nobody called her personal cell this late unless it was an emergency. Somebody had better be dead or, worse, one of her companies hemorrhaging money.
Nope. It was worse thanthat.
“Why the hell are you back in Portland?” Aaron’s half-drunken slur woke Sloan up faster than the fire alarm. “You took the companyplane?Last I checked, you didn’t have another work meeting until Monday morning!”
“What’s wrong?” Sloan yawned into her phone. Her sleep shirt stretched against her torso. Leah rustled beside her, but kept her eyes closed. “Did you need to use the plane for a booty call in New York?”
“The whole point is tonotuse it when we don’t need it for work, Maggie. That’s the whole definition of a company plane! Are you going to dare writing off the fuel and crew fees foryourpersonal booty call?”
“What makes you think I came to Portland for sex?” Wait, she didn’t want to know that. Aaron was a big enough pervert already.
“I know about the girl, Maggie. Your background check request crossed my desk a few days ago. Didn’t think you were desperate enough to go after her so quickly.”
“What the fuck are you doing going through that?” Sloan threw back the covers and got out of bed. She was taking this conversation to the bathroom. “Have you been drinking? Stop calling me when you’re half drunk. What happened? Did your girlfriend of the night stop blowing you because one of her baby teeth fell out?”
“That’s fucking low, Mags. I don’t make fun of you because you chase college tail at the ripe old age of forty.”
“Thirty-nine.You’rethe one in his forties now. You’re the creep, Aaron.” Sloan stopped in front of the bathroom mirror to check the bags beneath her eyes and the crow’s feet her doctor claimed could go away with only a few injections. She hadn’t becomethatdesperate yet. “Why the hell is it any of your business if I’m in Portland meeting up with a girl? You do it all the fucking time! Last time I needed to use the company plane at the last minute, I found out you were in Morocco seeing one of your sugar babies. So don’t come after me about jet fuel and crew wages. At least I stayed in the fucking country.”
“I got this call today,” Aaron continued, ignoring her. “Somebody tipped me off that you met with Maxine Woodward in California.”
“Yes, and? I was conducting legitimate business.” Sloan simply wouldn’t saywhat.
“Everyone knows what Maxine Woodward does!” Aaron’s voice raised to the point Sloan almost hung up on him. “When is she not in the fucking tabloids because that ex-wife of hers wants to talk shit?”
“So she’s a lesbian who is divorced from a crazy sack of shit. What about it?” Not like Maxine crafted her whole image around it. Aaron, however, was the kind of toxic loser to build his whole life around a marriage and throw a fucking fit when it was over.Ask me about his ex-wife. Go on. Ask.“Don’t be a homophobe, Aaron. You know it’s not cute.”
“I’ve been very patient with this whole lesbian thing, Maggie, but I’ll be damned if you’re sneaking around talking to the biggest narks we know. If I see our names in the paper tomorrow, I’ll…”
“You’ll what? Do what you did last time you were mad at me and hire male sex workers to wait for me in my room? For that surprise gangbang you so kindly bought me?” An easy enough situation to diffuse, once Sloan got over her shock at seeing five naked men in her bedroom.Not like they came at me the moment I walked through the door.Yet she had received Aaron’s message loud and fucking clear. Typical man with threatened masculinity. “Please. You’re over here crowing about wasted money, and you want to waste money on men Iwon’tbe attracted to? Come off it.”
“You used to like that sort of thing.”
“I used to like alotof things, Aaron. Things change. Tastes change. Like me.”
“I hope she makes youhappy,Maggie, because God knows you can’t make her happy. You’re such a fucking bitch that…”
She hung up on him and temporarily blocked him. He’d be over this bullshit when he woke up with his hangover in the morning.
Still… I did not need that.Sloan caught her bearings in the bathroom before turning off the light and going back into the bedroom. She was surprised to find Leah sitting up in bed, naked and as beautiful as the first time Sloan saw the real her.
“Everything okay?” Leah asked.
“It is now.” Sloan tossed her phone onto the nightstand and crawled onto the bed. Her nightshirt rose above her ass and reminded her that there were still many tactile pleasures to be had that night. “Just an irate businessperson who wanted to ruin my night, but I won’t let him, so you have nothing to worry about.”
Leah studied her for a few more seconds before releasing the smile waiting to burst from within. “It seems that there are few worries when we’re around each other.”
