Page 75 of Meant to be Mine

“You are so fucking hot,” I said.

He pointed at me. “Down girl. You’re going to get me messy.”

“Hurry back. I’m feeling very messy.”

“You’re a terrible influence.”

I stuck out my tongue.

He grabbed me, his teeth gently pulling my tongue. I giggled and pulled back. “Get out of here.”

“Enjoy the spa thing. Don’t feel weird about it.”

I pressed my lips together. He knew me too well.

“Go,” I said.

After he went, I couldn’t resist plucking an apple from the fresh bowl of fruit. I’d pay Drew back. It was probably a twenty-dollar apple. There was a knock on the door soon after.

I opened the door to find two women with a portable table. They introduced themselves and I couldn’t help but lean in a bit. They smelled like eucalyptus and lavender.

“Can you slip into the robe, please?” one asked with a friendly smile.

I didn’t know where the robe was, but I assumed with a hotel like this, there would be fluffy robes in the bathroom. Sure enough, there were two. I stripped, feeling just a little self-conscious, and put on the robe.

When I returned to the living room, they had set up a small diffuser and put on the standard spa music that was all soft bells and chimes.

“Right here, please,” the first woman said.

I lay down on the table, face through the hole, and told myself to relax. The massage started at my shoulders. The woman said nothing. She just worked, slowly and deliberately, finding every place where I’d been holding tension I hadn’t known I was carrying. The other woman was to my left mixing something in a bowl. I didn’t know what it was, but I smelled mint and cucumber.

I closed my eyes. This was what it looked like to be in Drew’s orbit. The private plane with the leather seats. The suite with the view of the bay. It was a different life than anything I was used to.

And not that Drew was like that, but all of this was taken for granted by the people who lived this way. But I got it. It was very easy to get used to. It would be so easy to get used to this and that was dangerous.

It was not my world and it did feel a little excessive. I didn’t need any of it. It was nice as a treat but I couldn’t imagine it on the daily. I had never once in my adult life booked a massage. It had never occurred to me to do it.

And then I thought about my parents. They never had massages. They were older and certainly did more to deserve it and needed it. My mother with her arthritis. My dad who’d spent a lifetime working hard. Those were the people who should be getting massaged.

Not today, I told myself. Not right now. I wasn’t going to feel guilty for getting to enjoy the perks of my time with Drew. The summer wasn’t going to last forever. I knew that. I had made a deliberate choice to be here, in this thing with Drew. I knew exactly how it ended. I was allowed to have this.

The facial started. Cool hands, warm cream, the smell of lavender. I let my jaw go slack and forced myself to stop thinking. Enjoy the moment. That’s what my mom would say. The real world would be waiting for me afterward.

25

DREW

“This is going to be huge, Drew,” Tech Bro 1 said. “Huge. We’re thrilled to be part of the Blackwell brand.”

“We’re excited to have you,” I said.

The other two—Kevin and somebody whose name I’d already forgotten—crowded in for more handshakes and backslapping. They were wearing expensive sneakers and hoodies. It was a look that’s supposed to be casual but I knew the hoodie. I had one. It cost a cool thousand bucks. Tech money. New money. The kind that hadn’t quite figured out how to wear itself yet. The fucking beanbags and kombucha bar in the lobby was so typical.

“We should grab drinks next time you’re in town,” Bro 1 said.

“Absolutely,” I lied smoothly. “I’ll have my assistant reach out.”

More handshakes. More promises to stay in touch that neither of us meant. I finally extracted myself and pushed through the revolving door into the San Francisco afternoon.