The Girlfriend (The Boss) (45 page)

The first person to arrive was Michael. He stepped in and looked around warily, as though Neil would spring out and knife him. “I’m not the first here, am I?”

“You are indeed, you lucky dog.” A Foster the People song started over the room-to-room sound system. “Emma and Neil are picking the music.”

“That will end in bloodshed,” he laughed, just as the bell rang again.

Neil’s friends and family were prompt. Emma and I had invited people to come at seven, and by five after nearly everyone had arrived. Valerie showed up with Bertie, her longtime partner who I’d only heard about, and who had become some kind of mythical beast in my imagination. I was a bit disappointed to see that he was just a man, average height, with a few silver threads in his black hair. He had a square jaw. He looked like a middle-aged Superman.

Valerie was cordial to me, but only
just
on this side of icy. She made a beeline for Neil, hugging him and acting concerned. I heard her ask, “Have you been receiving my messages?” and I thought the party might end in a brawl, but then Rudy’s arrival distracted me.

“Miss Sophie.” It wasn’t a greeting, but a scolding.

“You know, you haven’t seen me in like three months. Could you manage a ‘hello’ before you start getting all snippy?”

“Could you manage not to destroy my best friend’s magazine? Oh no, I didn’t think you could.” He looked down at my feet, raised an eyebrow, and turned his face away. “Those are ugly shoes.”

“Rudy!” Neil called as we entered the sitting room. He was standing beside the fireplace, talking to Bertie. Neil excused himself and came over to embrace his friend in a huge bear hug.

Rudy staggered back, gripping Neil’s forearms to hold him still for a look. “My god. You’ve lost so much weight.”

“And so much hair.” Neil ran his hand self-consciously over his scalp.

“Bald is a classic style,” Rudy observed. “Now, where is that nosy little busy body? I can’t believe you invited her, she drove me absolutely crazy on the flight over.”

“What nosy little busy body?” I asked, wondering if Rudy meant Emma or Valerie, but neither made sense because they’d both been in London this week. Plus, I
 
didn’t think Neil would look so quietly pleased if someone called his daughter that.

He scratched the back of his head and barely met my gaze. “Yes, well. I’d meant that to be a bit of a surprise, Rudy.”

“What’s a surprise?” I asked, and before he could answer me, I heard a very familiar voice squeal, “We’re here!”

I turned, and there were Holli and Deja, standing in the wide-open double doors.

“Oh my god! Oh my god!” I ran to Holli and practically tackled her, tears of happiness streaming down my face. “You fucking bitch, why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because it’s a surprise!” Holli almost cracked my ribs with her boney, surprisingly strong arms.

“What... how?” I wiped my cheeks and looked over to Deja, who beamed.

“I’m just here for a couple days, and then I have to go back to New York and the boss from hell,” she said, rolling her eyes, and I realized that with Neil gone, Deja would be serving as assistant to Rudy.

“Ooh, that’s bad luck,” I said under my breath.

“I can hear you,” Rudy called, before going back to his conversation with Neil.

“But I’m here for as long as you need me,” Holli said proudly. “My best friend is going through some shit, and I am not going to let her go through it alone.”

“Oh my gosh, thank you, but you don’t have to uproot your life.” I pointed across the room, to where Emma stood beside Michael, watching us with a proud grin. She and her father had conspired on this, I just knew it. “I’m not totally alone, I have Emma. If you have, like, important, work-related—”
 

“Shut up!” Holli shrieked, and gave me a push to my shoulder. “You are my best friend, and I’m going to be here for you. Besides,
I’m
your blonde friend. There can be only one.”

I laughed and hugged her again.

The night was a total success. Neil kept me stuck to his side like glue, for the most part, introducing me to all of his friends and colleagues I hadn’t met yet. It felt a little bit like he was showing me off, but he was so damned happy that I could give him a one-time pass. Everyone remarked on how good he looked, for a guy fresh off chemo, and how great his attitude was. Every time such a comment came his way, he would give me a quick, appreciative glance.

I slipped away for a moment to refresh my drink, and Valerie sought me out. I could have sworn I felt a chill in the air before I turned and saw her standing there, waiting to talk to me.

“Sophie,” she began, clinking the underside of her ring against the glass in her hand.

“Do you need something, Valerie? Another drink?” I gestured to her half-f glass. “What are you having?”

“No, I’m fine. And it’s just Diet Coke tonight.” She looked down, then up again, tossing her beautiful auburn hair over one shoulder. “I’m sorry. For the way I acted the last time we spoke. I know that what Neil does with his estate is none of my concern. And that he’s smart enough not to fall in love with someone who’s only after his money.”

Crap. If she was going to be nice to me, I had to be nice back. I wanted to stay mad and jealous. “Apology accepted.”

She went on. “I must admit, after what happened at
Porteras
, I didn’t like you. I’d decided I never would. But Emma has been very... insistent that I have the wrong idea about you. And if you were able to turn around her opinion of you, after how the two of you met...”

“Oh god, does everyone know that story? Did she send out a mass email?”

Valerie tilted her head. “A Facebook status. But I am sorry. I shouldn’t have been so...”

“Weirdly possessive of my boyfriend?” I supplied. It still bothered me, and I was going to call it like it was.

Her shoulders stiffened, but she nodded with a slight smile and took a sip of her pop. “Well, as long as we understand each other.

“I do think you’re good for him,” she admitted after a long swallow from her glass. “And he looks at you—”
 

A huge lump rose in my throat. If she said he looked at me the way he used to look at her, I would vomit. Not out of spite, but because I felt physically ill during the breath she took between that part of her sentence and the next: “as if you are the only thing in this world that matters.”

And the way she said it, the subtle, wistful bending of her words told me volumes more than what she had spoken. It told me that Neil didn’t look at many people that way. And that he hadn’t looked at her that way.

“Well.” She shrugged and said pleasantly, “Enjoy your night.”

I sought out Holli and Deja again. They were talking to Emma and Michael, and the four of them seemed to be getting along pretty well. When I stepped up, Emma turned to me and said, “Everything okay?”

So, she must have known her mother was going to approach me. I gave her a reassuring smile. “Yeah, everything is fine.”

I was probably never going to like Valerie, but at least I felt like there was some kind of closure there. I appreciated that she hadn’t tried to blame me or excuse her behavior. Maybe I could stop clenching my teeth whenever she was around now.

“So, can you sneak off and show us the house?” Holli asked, her eyes darting upward. “This is kind of a swanky place.”

“Go on, Sophie, it’s your house,” Emma said, making a little shooing motion with her hands.

I took them up to the fourth floor in the elevator, because Holli had ridiculously high heels on. The instant the doors closed, Holli blurted, “Okay, show me his kinky sex room!”

“There’s no kinky sex room,” I said with a roll of my eyes.

“Or do you mean
every
room is a kinky sex room?” Holli wiggled her eyebrows.

Deja shook her head and sighed heavily. “Baby. The man is going through chemotherapy.”

“Billionaires have kinky sex rooms,” Holli insisted. “I read about it in a book.”

“We’ve been getting plenty kinky,” I confessed. I’d had a few drinks to loosen my nerves at meeting people and having to be in the same room with Valerie. Holli knew exactly where to hit me for details.

Not that we didn’t routinely spill the details to each other, anyway. We’d had a total kiss-and-tell policy with each other ever since our second week in the dorms at NYU.

“I didn’t want to tell you this over the phone, because I wanted to see your face. We. Had. A three way.”

“Oh my god.” Holli’s eyes went wide.

Deja’s jaw dropped. “I have to work for this man’s company, you know.”

Holli ignored her. “Was it girl-girl-guy? Or guy-guy-girl?”

“He watched me have sex with another man. Or well, that was the second time. The first time was at a private BDSM club in Paris. We met this guy and Neil watched him finger me. Then we hooked up later, here, and Neil watched while we...” My face grew hot as I realized how deeply personal these things were. Then naughty laughter burst from my lungs, and we practically rolled out onto the fourth floor.

“Okay,” I said, wiping my eyes. “From the top down, here we go.”

* * * *

We were having such a good time, I didn’t realize the hour. When the clock in the foyer chimed eleven-thirty, I had to check the clock face to be sure what time it really was.

“Is it that late already?” I asked Emma. Neil was across the room, lounging on the sofa, laughing at something the man next to him was saying. I didn’t want to break up Neil’s good time, but we had to go to the hospital super early in the morning.

He looked up and caught my gaze, and I gave him an apologetic shrug as I pointed to my wrist. I wasn’t wearing a watch, but he got the hint. Almost everyone had cleared out already, as it was a weeknight. He excused himself to the few people who remained, accepted their good wishes, hugs, and firm handshakes, and called it a night.

“I’ll take care of shooing everyone out,” Emma told him, standing on her tip toes to hug him. “Just go get your rest.”

“I’ll see you in the morning, bright and early at the hospital. With donuts, if they have them over here.” Holli promised.

I made a face. “That’s really not necessary. We have to be there early, and there’s not much you can do.”

“This is what I’m here for. To lend you support, even if it does mean just sitting in a waiting room in case you need me.” She gripped me by the shoulders. “This is my sole purpose for being here. Now, tell me what you need, and I will be there.”

“Well, we check into the hospital at seven-thirty,” I said, issuing an unspoken challenge.

“I will be there at ten,” she vowed in the same serious voice.

I laughed and hugged her, and I hugged Deja, too. Even though I didn’t know her as well, I felt like she was... family. Because she was in love with Holli, and she made Holli happy, I love her, too.

As Neil and I rode the elevator up, I thought about Michael and Emma downstairs. I wished Neil could feel toward Michael the way I felt toward Deja; that he could love Michael just for making Emma happy. I wondered if Neil would understand if I explained it that way.

Then he smiled down at me, looking happier than I had seen him since Paris, and I remembered what he’d said about my collar. He’d wanted to give me something no other man could give me. Whether he realized it or not, that was what drove him to dislike Emma’s fiancé. Emma didn’t need her father anymore, or at least, that’s the way he perceived the situation. It was driving him crazy.

This was something Neil definitely needed to face. But not tonight.

Not when it was our last chance to get some before the transplant shut us down for months.

I wasn’t the only one thinking about the long dry spell we were facing again. Neil wrapped his arm around my waist as he stepped off the elevator, and steered me directly for the bedroom.

“I know we have to be up early, and I need my rest,” he said, anticipating a scolding. “But this might be the last time I feel this good for a long while. And I intend to enjoy myself, if you’re amenable.”

“What do you have in mind?” No matter what he said, I would be in. But I loved hearing him talk about what he wanted to do to me.

His hand slipped down, over my butt, and his fingers dug in through my skirt. “I want to paddle your ass until you can’t sit down tomorrow. I want to make you come so hard, you can’t walk.”

“I need to walk and sit down tomorrow,” I pointed out, giggling as I leaned against him. We tumbled through the door, his hands already pushing my skirt up. “And Emma and some of your friends are still down there.”

“You’ll have to practice being very quiet,” he admonished me. “There is absolutely no way I’m going to face a hellish year of transplant, exhaustion, fatigue and recovery without a proper send off. Now go and get your collar.”

My pulse thrummed between my legs as I headed to the dressing room. I had a wicked thought. “You stay right here. Wait for me.”

I’d bought something to celebrate after he was finally cancer free... but I could always find something else for that. Tonight, I wanted to give him a memory that would sustain him through high-dose chemo and his transplant process, so I dug it out from the back of my underwear drawer.

The bra, thong, and garter belt were mostly assembled from wide, stretchy straps of thick black elastic. The bra’s cups were padded, underwire, and tiny, exposing most of my breasts, but another thick band lay across my nipples. Wide swaths of black elastic pressed into my skin over my hips, breasts, and backside, more like a stretchy cage than lingerie.

When I stepped out of the dressing room, collar in my hands— he hadn’t told me to put it on, but to bring it to him— Neil’s eyes widened, and he took an audible breath.

Exactly
the reaction I was looking for.

He sat on the edge of the bed, sweater off, sleeves of his crisp white shirt rolled back.
God, I love his arms.

I walked slowly toward him, executing a little twirl as I did. “What do you think?”

I came to a stop in front of him, while he looked me over with undisguised appreciation. I got my answer when he roughly grabbed my hips, his palms slapping against my skin as his fingers dug into my flesh. I’d gained ten pounds since we’d come to London, but Neil didn’t seem to mind. In fact, I suspected he kind of liked it, judging from the way he leaned forward and sank his teeth into me where his hand had just been.