Page 33 of Mostly My Girlfriend
My father nodded. Then he looked at my mother and she nodded, too. We’d crossed that hurdle. No more talk of prescriptions, drugs or mycondition.
“So you two are running the company together,” my mom said.
“Well, he’s mostly my boss. Mostly.” Julia smiled.
My mother nodded, but I could see there was another question. “What, Mom?”
“I just…well, it’s been years since you two have known each other. Last year you spent the holidays with her family. This year with us. I guess…well, wouldn’t you call hermostlyyour girlfriend?”
My mother laughed and my dad chuckled, too, until they could see neither of us was laughing.
Jules reached for her wine and I tried to think about how to answer that.
“Jules and I aren’t together like that. You both know this. We’re friends.”
My mother lifted a shoulder, her fingers playing with the pearls at her neck. A Christmas gift from my father.
“I just thought…working together like you are…maybe that changed. Julia’s like family to us now, after all.”
“Really?” I quipped. “Because when I first brought her here, you and Dad called herJuliethe whole night.”
“Ethan,” Jules snapped at me. “That was a long time ago. Rachel, I appreciate your feelings, but it’s really never been like that between Ethan and me. We’re just friends and coworkers. Makes things less complicated and it helps to keep us focused on the work.”
That wasn’t the truth. I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about what the truth was, but it wasn’t that. I also knew I had been the one to strike first with a dig at the past and we were all trying to get over that.
“I’m sorry, Mom. I didn’t mean to be flip.”
She reached out as if she wanted to pat my hand but, of course, the table was far too large for that.
“So are you two seeing any other people?” my father asked as a natural segue.
“Not me,” Jules said, shaking her head. Of course she wasn’t seeing anyone. She was working too hard. It was one of the reasons I needed to force her to hire an assistant.
“I am,” I announced.
“Youare?” Jules asked, clearly stunned. Of course it would be a surprise to her. Why wouldn’t it have been? There would have been no reason for her to know about Kari.
“Her name is Kari Webb. The name might sound familiar because—”
“Kari Webb the Victoria’s Secret model?” Jules asked, her voice rising perhaps an octave too high.
“Yes. She does some modeling work for them. We met at a charity event a few weeks ago.”
“The Westfield Ball,” Jules correctly guessed. She looked to my parents as if offering some context. “Lots of Seattle bigwigs. I couldn’t go. There was an emergency that night I needed to handle. I didn’t realize you had so much…fun. When I asked you about it, you said it was rather dull.”
“It was,” I said, then realized my mistake. “Except for meeting Kari, of course. She’s a sweetheart.”
I had no idea if she was a sweetheart or not. She was, however, hot as fuck and decent in bed and she didn’t make me feel any emotion other than desire, which was perfectly safe. But by telling my parents about her they would see that Jules and I were never going to be a thing.
Not like that.
Jules was too important to me to risk that. She always had been.
The conversation pretty much died at that point. My parents focused on their food and Jules concentrated on making it look like she was eating but she didn’t take another bite all night. Not even when Esmeralda brought out the dessert.
Which bothered me. Jules loved anything chocolate.
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