The Girlfriend (Companions for Hire) by Noelle Adams

Author:Noelle Adams [Adams, Noelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-09-13T00:00:00+00:00

6

I’m not sure how long we snooze. Not very long. Maybe twenty or thirty minutes. The next thing I’m aware of is a buzzing.

It takes me a minute to figure out it’s the sound of Steve’s phone vibrating on the nightstand. “Steve,” I mumble, reaching up to push on his shoulder. He’s still lying halfway on top of me. “Steve.”

“I’m awake.” His groggy tone belies the claim.

“Your phone.”

It takes him a few seconds to pull himself together, but he finally rolls over and grabs his phone, glancing at the screen before he connects the call. “Hey there,” he says, sounding just slightly husky. Whoever is on the other end of the call probably won’t know he was asleep a minute ago.

I can hear the faint sound of a male voice, but it’s not loud enough for me to pick out exact words.

Steve is rubbing his face and combing his fingers through his messy hair. “Yeah, yeah, okay.” After a response from the other person, he adds, “Hold on. Let me check.”

He presses a button on the screen, which I figure must mute the call, because he says in his regular voice, “They’re all at the Mexican place down the street. They want us to come.”

I almost groan since getting up, dressed, and socializing is the last thing I want to do right now. But I give him an easy smile. “That’s fine with me if you want to.”

“I don’t much want to, but I’ve been dodging their invitations all week.”

I blink. “You have? I wondered why we hadn’t seen them more than once last week.”

“They kept asking, and I kept saying no. I didn’t much feel like it. But I don’t want them to think I’m avoiding them, so maybe we should. If you feel up to it this evening.”

I don’t feel up to it, but this is a job, so I’ll obviously make myself. “Sure. That’s no problem at all. Tell them we’ll be there. If we hurry, we can probably make it in twenty minutes.”

He returns to his call and says we’ll get there as soon as we can. Then he disconnects and pushes himself to a sitting position. His hair is a wreck, and he needs to shave. His eyelids are heavy. He looks as worn out as I feel. “Can I even move?”

I giggle as I climb out of bed, reaching for my towel that Steve tossed to the floor earlier. “I feel the same way. But we can do it. No sense to mess things up with your colleagues by being antisocial.”

“Yeah.” He takes a deep breath and hefts himself to his feet. “I’m up.”

I giggle again since he’s hamming it up in such a dry, matter-of-fact way. Then I work on getting dressed, pulling on a clean sleeveless top and a casual skirt with some cute sandals. Since my hair got slightly damp in the shower, it’s dried in messy waves. I spritz on some product and finger-comb it so it will hopefully look intentionally tousled.

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