Page 3 of Stud

Insert heavy sigh here.

“The dress will look stunning on you,” I said. “Have a fun night, and you shouldn’t have gotten me anything, but thank you.” I saluted her with the envelope, like an awkward army recruit, and hurried toward the door, speed walking so quickly I nearly slipped on a nail. Not a horny covering. I picked up the offending piece of metal and hightailed it to my car as fast as my heels would allow.

Now I had to gift chocolate to the mistress.

Once that joyful deed was done, I sat in my Mini Cooper and opened Sloane’s envelope. Two tickets to the San Francisco Ballet’s Cinderella. Not only was she sweet enough to buy me a gift, she also ran a small bookkeeping business. She could walk a red carpet with enough confidence to draw paparazzi…and her husband was cheating on her.

I slumped into my seat, unsure how much longer I could keep this up. I loved aspects of my job—piecing together clues to discern the perfect gift or outfit, helping someone look his or her finest—the rest of it was a giant pile of suck that paid well.

I picked up the metal nail from my passenger seat and flipped it through my fingers. If I had to write a crossword clue for this sucker, it would be:

Four-letter word for a pointed spike I’d like to jam into my eye.

I couldn’t quit my job just yet, but I could do something to lessen this sticky feeling. Like I’d been sprayed by a rogue perfume sampler. Needing assistance, I picked up my phone and dialed Rachel.

Three rings later, she answered. “I just had an orgasm.”

“Manual or with a certain tattooed hunk?”

“Tongue climax without the hunk. This Chardonnay is sinful.”

Aazam’s chocolate did the same for me. “I could use a drink about now. Probably a box of wine.”

She coughed through the line. “Don’t even joke about that. And why do you need this box of wine you will not be drinking?” I could practically see her give a heebie-jeebie shake. Total wine snob.

I traced distracted circles on my steering wheel. “Is your life perfect?”

She snorted. “No one’s life is perfect.”

I waved an impatient hand, as though she could see me. “I’m talking generalities. The big stuff.”

“I don’t know. I mean, I love living in Napa. Viticulture school is tough but rewarding. I’m an aunt to the cutest girl birthed this millennium, and, well…Jimmy.” She sighed on his name, no explanation needed.

Those two couldn’t look at each other without every person in the room swooning or puking. What they had was intense. It was sweet and heart-melting and slightly sickening to witness. It also wasn’t why I’d called her. “You fulfilled your birthday wish, didn’t you?”

Silence answered me. Then, “I felt weird talking to you guys about it, not knowing if you’d worked on yours, but…I did. Why? What’s up?”

“I just see everything in your life falling into place, and I wondered if that was part of the reason.”

She didn’t answer right away, and my mind tripped back to that night, as it often did. The night of our shared twenty-seventh birthday. Being born on April 12th had been as lucky as happening upon my first Vogue magazine. My two best friends had also come into the world on April 12th. Even luckier was finding the three of us coincidentally wasted and celebrating the start of our twenty-first year in the same bar.

We’d spent every birthday together since, but it was last April 12th that had plagued my mind the past six months: the wish each of us had made that night. No. Not a wish. A life-changing resolution. The type of change that would shake things up and trigger a domino effect of awesome. We’d linked our pinkies that night and had promised to fulfill our resolutions by our next birthday.

But I hadn’t done a thing to realize mine.

Rachel broke her silence. “I believe fulfilling my wish played a part. Being a tad superstitious, I still don’t want to hear yours before it’s done, but mine was to find a rewarding career, which I’m working toward. So it’s like carrying out that one big change affected everything else.”

Exactly what I’d hoped for, yet I’d stalled. To fulfill my resolution, I had to become a better person, which meant making amends for my glorified pimping job. “If you’re right, I need to get my ass in gear. I only have six months left.”

“Miracles happen all the time.”

“True. There was that time my brother got laid.”

She snickered. “No way. That chick took pity on him. It was for sure your housewarming gift.”

“I’m an excellent sister.” Who’d framed a condom with the tagline: In case of emergency break glass.

“You can do this, Ainsley.” Rachel’s soothing tone slid over my tense shoulders. “Regardless what you wished for, I know you’ve been down about work. A friend of Jimmy’s volunteered at Habitat for Humanity. Not sure if he’s still there, but he liked it. Doing something focused on helping others might make you feel better. Whatever you decide, I believe in you.”