Ego Maniac(56)

I smiled as I got back on the line. “Mr. Jagger isn’t available right now. Would you like to leave a message?”

She huffed. “Tell him to call Alexa.” Then she hung up in my ear.

I heard Drew talking as I passed his office, so I wrote the message on my message pad and ripped off the little slip to leave on his desk before my appointment arrived. But when I went back to his office, he was hanging up the phone.

“Good morning.” I smiled as I walked to him. “I just took a message while you were on the other line.”

Drew leaned back in his chair with an impassive look. “I took a message for you, too.”

“Oh?”

He slid my cell phone to the edge of his desk. “I thought it might be you, calling to see if you left your phone at my place, so I answered it.”

There were only two people who would call me early in the morning. Since Drew was acting strangely, I figured it wasn’t my mother.

“Who was it?”

The muscle in Drew’s jaw flexed. “Baldwin. He wanted to know if he should order the Moroccan meatballs for tonight.”

Shit. This feels even weirder than it did this morning. I sensed the need to explain.

“He texted this morning and asked if I wanted to rent a movie and have some dinner. I like to match food to the theme of the movie. I hadn’t responded yet.”

Drew’s face was unreadable. “Well, he’s waiting for your answer.”

We stared at each other, my mind jumping all over the place, trying to figure out what Drew expected me to say or do. Luckily, the front door buzzed. I looked down at my watch, relieved that my morning appointment was a few minutes early.

Drew stood. “Is that for you?”

“I think so. I have a nine o’clock session. I’ll go let them in.”

“I’ll get it. I have a conference call, so my door will be shut, but I don’t like people to think you’re alone in here.”

He handed me my cell phone as he walked past. “You don’t want to keep Professor Peckerhead waiting.”





Ironically, the problem with the couple that had just left my office was they didn’t say what was really on their minds. They weren’t open with each other. Lauren wanted more oral sex and was embarrassed to ask for it. Her fiancé, Tim, wanted her to initiate sex more often. While Drew and I had yet to encounter any problems in the bedroom, I had no idea what he wanted from me. Here I was, counseling people that the key to any type of successful relationship is communication, yet I was hiding from Drew in my office to avoid finishing the conversation I knew wasn’t done.

I sat at my desk for another half hour, feeling frustrated and angry with myself. Not to mention, Drew was the type of man who said exactly what was on his mind, so why wasn’t he telling me how he felt about my having dinner with Baldwin? And why was I so hung up on what Drew thought if we were just fucking?

The longer I sat at my desk, the longer I stewed. I needed some clarification on what was happening between us. If I didn’t get it before he left this afternoon, it was going to fester. So I decided to take the advice I was constantly dishing out. And it was better to get it over with while I was annoyed.

Standing, I took a deep breath and marched into Drew’s office. He was on the phone when I walked in.

Taking one look at my face, he said, “Let me think about it. I’ll give you a call back next week, okay, Frank?”

When he hung up the phone, he leaned back in his chair the same way he had this morning and nodded. “Emerie.”

“Drew.”

We stared at each other.

When he said nothing, I rolled my eyes. “What are we doing?”

“Right now? You’re standing in my office looking a little pissed off.”

I squinted. “You know what I mean.”

“Not sure that I do.”

“Are we…” I waved my hand back and forth between us. “…just sleeping together?”

“We spend most days together, share almost all of our meals together, and when it comes to sleeping—we don’t get much of that when we’re in bed together.”

Drew looked amused. I wasn’t.

“Are we…doing those things together exclusively?”

He stood and came around his desk. The playfulness was suddenly gone from his tone. “Are you asking me if it’s okay for you to fuck someone else?”

“No!” Yes? No? Maybe? There wasn’t anyone else I wanted to be with. Oddly, the thought of sleeping with Baldwin wasn’t even appealing any longer. But I wanted to know if it would be weird if I spent time with another man.

“So what are you asking me?”

“I…I don’t know.”

Silence fell between us. I could see the wheels turning behind his eyes as he stared at me, his thumb rubbing at his bottom lip. After a minute, he pushed off his desk, and that thumb found its way to my chin and lifted.

He spoke into my eyes. “I’m not planning on sleeping with anyone else. And I expect you won’t either. I thought we settled that in the bathtub yesterday.”

My voice came out faint. “Okay.”

“I take it this is about the message I gave you earlier?”

I nodded.

“You want to know what I think about you spending the night alone in your apartment having dinner and watching a movie with the putz?”