But it’s precisely because I don’t want to rely on my parents that I’ve crossed the Atlantic. In London, in the circles I’ve grown up in, I’ll always be the daughter of ace striker Manuel Alves. Had I stayed in England, I could have never been certain that my achievements were my own, and not engineered for me by someone who wanted to get close to my father.
There has to be another way, I argue with the sensible voice. I lost the money Saturday night. It’s Monday today. I still have twelve more days to figure this out. Maybe I’ll win the lottery.
Maybe pigs will fly, Gabriella.
* * *
“I know, I know, I’m late,” I say as I enter. “Sorry.”
Piper greets me at the door. “That’s okay,” she says cheerfully. “Wendy just texted us. She’s going to be another ten minutes. Gabby, want a drink? Rum and coke tonight, or is it tea?”
Those are admittedly a strange set of drink choices. My mother’s English and my father’s Brazilian, and as the product of two diametrically different cultures, my drink tastes are, well, a bit messed up. Sometimes, a very British yearning for tea will overwhelm me. Other times, the Brazilian side will rise up and I’ll crave a caipirinha, or a rum and coke.
Today’s the kind of day when tea’s not going to cut it. “Rum and coke, please,” I tell Piper and follow her to the bar. “And make it a double.”
“Rough day?” she asks me sympathetically. “Too much work?”
“Actually, I just finished a major project,” I tell her. “I’m at a loose end for the next two weeks. Nathan suggested that I take time off.”
“Are you going to?”
Wild thoughts of leaving New York have been running through my head for the last two days. But that’s a stupid idea. Nothing good ever comes of fleeing. “Maybe,” I reply. “I haven’t given it a lot of thought.”
I take the drink she offers me and carry it over to the table in the back where my other friends, Katie and Bailey wait. If only Miki were here, not in Houston, that’d be the entire gang.
Bailey’s blushing about something. “What’d I miss?” I ask, not sure if I want to hear the answer. I’ve given up on love and have no use for relationships, but I’m still a little envious of Bailey. In a city with an acute shortage of decent guys, she’s managed to find not one, but two of them. And the only reason she even hooked up with them for the first time was because of my own threesome with Carter and Dominic, the one that has taken center stage in every single one of my dreams.
I try not to remember being sandwiched between Carter and Dominic’s hard bodies. Of being caressed and held, and made to feel cherished and wanted. Until I’d panicked and run away.
I think they call this irony.
“Sebastian and Daniel are taking me to Hawaii on vacation,” she says. “I made the mistake of telling them I’ve never been there.”
She’s a lucky girl, and not just because they shower her with gifts. Bailey was dating a complete asswipe of a guy before she met Daniel and Sebastian, a guy who had ruined her self-image and made her think she was worthless. Sebastian and Daniel treat her the way she deserves to be treated. Like a goddess.
Wendy walks up to the table. She’s helped herself to a beer from Piper’s refrigerator, taking full advantage of the fact that the restaurant’s closed and we are the only ones here. “You know, I couldn’t help overhearing,” she says to Bailey, “and I want to register my protest.” Her tone is teasing. “The entire thing is not fair. It’s hard enough to find one good guy in New York, and you and Gabriella are taking more than your fair share.” She makes a face. “What about Piper and me?”
Everyone chuckles, but my response is instantaneous. “Leave me out of it,” I say flatly, “My threesome was a one-time experience, and I’m not interested in repeating it.”
“Still?” Katie frowns at me. “Gabby, I think you should reconsider this and try to find them. They might be good guys, you know.”
Unlike Piper and Bailey and Katie, who are all calm and reasonable and lovely, my temper is never too far from the surface. “Really?” My voice rises. “You think they are good guys? Let’s just run through the last two men I dated, shall we? There was Stan, who dined me and wooed me, until the moment he had sex with me, when he decided to reconcile with his wife. A wife he’d conveniently forgotten to mention in the two months we were dating.”