Page 39 of I Love My Mistake
Chapter Twenty-Two
Saturday Night In The Middle of Fashion Week
Amber and I are in the East Village, hoping Jessica will be able to join us after work. Her emotional state has gone from too low to too high, in Amber’s opinion, and we want to have a talk with her. I’m backing up Amber, because well, she’s Amber. If Amber thinks it’s pow wow time, who am I to argue?
We’ve texted Jess, but there’s no answer.
“She’s probably on the subway since it went straight to voicemail.”
“What if she’s working still? She probably has parties to go to tonight.”
Amber sighs. “Well, maybe she has to go home to change?”
Amber’s really got her lockjaw on this plan. “Okay. What are we going to tell her? ‘We want you to take a deep breath and stop banging your co-workers?’”
Amber says, “Yes. That is what we’re going to tell her,” as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world and not ludicrous at all.
I turn to the bar. “Can I have a chardonnay, please? Do you have a good one?”
The bartender – a Jamaican looking dude who keeps giving me the eye – nods like he’s got dirty things on his mind. “What about you?”
“Same thing is fine, thanks,” Amber answers, thinking he was talking to her. He wasn’t. But it does the trick of sending him on his way.
“That was hilarious.”
Amber, not hearing me, turns and announces, “Did you know she banged some guy off the Internet she’d never even met?”
My eyes go huge. “She what?!”
Amber nods slowly several times. “Can you believe it?”
I shake my head, but secretly I’m impressed. “Who was he?”
Amber waves it off as unimportant. “Some guy visiting from the west coast… San Francisco? Who knows? That’s not the point. The point is that she is freaking me out and I think between the both of us talking, she’ll listen.”
The bartender returns and sets our wine down. He gives me a slimy smile but Amber chucks her card on the counter so hard and fast that it looks like she’s cock-blocking him. He takes it and leaves, dejected. Having no idea she saved me, she pulls her hair up into a ponytail, talking as she does it. “You think I’m being too controlling, don’t you?”
Nail… meet Head.
“No, you’re just looking out for your girlfriend,” I lie.
Amber holds her glass to mine and says, “To girlfriends.”
“To girlfriends.” We both take a sip and set the glasses down. “Amber, I hate to tell you this, but I have a lot of sex, myself. Are you going to give me an intervention soon, too?”
She rolls her eyes. “Stop bragging. Jeez.”
“Wait. How is it bragging when I do it, but bad when Jessica does? You’re not making any sense.”
Her phone buzzes on the counter. We both look at it. It’s Jess. Amber picks it up and texts back. While typing on her phone, she tells me, “She’s coming. Get ready.”
I steel myself. “Great. This is going to be a blast.”
She shoots a look at me and sets the phone down. “You don’t like relationships, so having sex the way you have it – you know, with guys who respect you and like you and where there’s an understanding… well, that’s different than what she’s doing.”
I cross my legs and adjust the fabric of my dress so it doesn’t wrinkle under the weight of my butt. “Amber, I just think maybe you’re jealous because Josh isn’t giving you the sausage.”
“The what??!!” She crinkles her nose and laughs.