Page 15 of Mostly My Girlfriend
“Accident?” Carol prompted.
“I was in a car accident,” Julia said. “It was barely anything, but Ethan freaked out.”
“You could have been killed,” I said, turning to face her.
She rolled her eyes. “It really wasn’t that big of a deal.”
“It was for me,” I admitted.
* * *
Six years ago
Ethan
“It was freezing! I mean so cold my nipples were hard the entire time. It practically made every shot indecent. But you know howSIis, they’ll push everything to the extreme.”
Yes, and I loved thatSports Illustrateddid that. At least for the swimsuit edition, which was the only one I ever bothered to pick up. I was more of a science guy than a sports guy.
However, my date for the evening, Jessica, was going to be on the cover this year and there was a certain satisfaction in saying I’d dated theSIswimsuit cover model. Of course, it would be past tense by then, as the cover wouldn’t come out for a few months and I planned to end things tonight.
Or more specifically, the next morning. Not that Jessica wasn’t a sweetheart. They were all sweethearts. But there was only so much conversation to be had about cold water and hard nipples, which seemed to make up Jessica’s entire existence.
We were sitting in one of my favorite restaurants and the sad news was I was thinking more about the meal we were about to be served than the sex we were going to have later that night. Maybe I should break it off before it got that far? There was something that didn’t sit right with me, knowing how blatantly I was using her for sex, because I really had no interest in her outside of bed. Which probably meant I was growing up.
Then she stopped the waiter who was walking by our table and ordered a thousand-dollar bottle of Cristal.
“To celebrate!” she exclaimed.
That’s right. No guilt. We were both using the other.
My phone buzzed in the pocket of my suit coat. As a rule, I didn’t take calls while on a date. The hour or two I took for myself once or twice a month, I thought, was a way to incorporate balance in my life.
Only calls from Jules or Daniel, who’d joined the company after completing his law degree and passing the bar, were an exception. But they knew how to play the game. If I didn’t answer, and it wasn’t critical, they knew I would get back to them as soon as possible. If I didn’t answer and it was critical, they would call, hang up, then call again immediately.
So when my phone stopped, then started buzzing again, I excused myself as politely as I could and left the table to stand in the lobby of the restaurant.
The waiter brought Jessica the champagne she’d ordered, and she bounced in her chair like a teenaged girl made happy by a present. Considering she was only twenty-two, I supposed she wasn’t that far removed from here teenage years.
Wait. Shit. Fuck growing up. Was I getting old?
Impossible. In reality, I was only a few years older than Jessica. Then why did I feel twenty years older?
I pulled out my phone and saw that it was Daniel who’d called twice.
I hit the call-back button and didn’t have to wait for a full ring for Daniel to pick up.
“Hey, Ethan. Where are you?”
“On a date, why?”
“At home?”
“No, at Luigi’s. Why? What’s going on?”
“Okay, listen, I need you to be cool right now. Are you going to be able to do that?”
My gut tightened. I didn’t like the tone of Daniel’s voice. “I’m going to becoolif you tell me what’s going on. Now.”
