Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 70180 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70180 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Which was why Ash was here with him. Something had gone down with him and Lila. Bad enough that Derek had gotten him out of Georgia as soon as possible, and he was about to be in my apartment for four days. I didn’t know the details, just that they’d broken up after almost two years together and he was a wreck.
Maybe I shouldn’t have been excited … but I was.
I came out of the subway at Washington Square Park and just closed the door behind me at my Cornelia Street apartment when the buzzer rang.
I pressed the button. “Come on up.”
After a cursory look at my apartment, I grabbed a stray bra off the back of a chair, which I had somehow missed in my sweep last night, and decided it was good enough. If it had just been Derek, I wouldn’t have even cleaned up. He didn’t give a shit. He was my brother. But Ash …
Well, I cared too much about Ash.
A knock at the door drew me away from my frantic cleaning. I yanked it open and found Ash leaning against the doorframe while Derek carried both suitcases up the stairs.
“Hey,” he said with a smirk. He was in a white button-up, rolled up to his elbows, and black dress pants. His suit coat was slung over his shoulder.
“Hi,” I said.
“He’s already drunk,” Derek grumbled. “Asshole couldn’t even carry his own bag.”
“I’m not drunk,” Ash said, running a hand back through his dark hair.
“It was a good thing we flew first class,” Derek said. He shoved past Ash into my apartment. “Or else you would have paid your weight in alcohol on that flight.”
I arched an eyebrow at Ash. “That bad?”
Ash shrugged as he shuffled inside. “I’m fine.”
Derek snorted. He dropped the bags inside the small apartment. “Fine. Sure.”
I doubted very much that he was fine. He didn’t look fine. And if he was drunk already, that wasn’t a good sign either. What the hell had happened with Lila?
“Let’s go get a drink,” Ash said.
“I have some beer in the fridge. Help yourself,” I told him. “I have to change out of work clothes.”
Ash’s eyes swept down my chic outfit. He arched an eyebrow. “You look better in color.”
I froze at those words. They perfectly mirrored what I had been thinking about New York fashion. And he had summed it up in one sentence. He’d seen straight through the New Yorker in me to who I really was.
And somehow, it irritated me. If I wanted to succeed, this was what I needed to do and who I needed to be. The reminder didn’t help anything.
“I don’t take fashion advice from drunk businessmen as a rule.”
Derek laughed. “Hey, asshole, leave my sister alone.”
Ash just shrugged. “Beer in the fridge?”
I took a fortifying breath and headed into the one bedroom. The guys would have to share the living space. I had a couch that probably wasn’t long enough for their limbs and an air mattress. I closed the door to my room and took another deep breath.
Ash Talmadge was in my apartment in the city. He was drunk and an asshole and getting over his now ex-girlfriend … but he was here. I’d seen him a few times when I went home in the year and a half since I’d graduated from Parsons, but he’d never visited me here. While the circumstances were far from ideal, I couldn’t help but be glad.
I changed out of my all-black work attire and ransacked my closet for something to wear. I finally gave in on a black minidress that I’d been working on off the clock. I really thought it would look better in a pale baby blue or a really soft pink, but I’d never sell anything in those colors here. So, I’d gone for the safety choice.
I grabbed a pair of black Louboutins that I’d snagged from a shoot and carried them out to my living room. Both guys had a beer in hand. They’d turned on SportsCenter—I wasn’t even aware I had ESPN—and were watching some commentary on Florida State taking on Notre Dame tomorrow night.
“Fly all this way to watch sports on my tiny TV?”
Derek waved me away, but Ash turned to say something and stopped midway, his eyes going wide. He glanced back at Derek hastily before doing a double take. His eyes traveling up my long legs to the very short dress and then up to my face.
My cheeks heated at the appraising look. “Like it?” I turned in a slow circle. “I made it myself.”
“It, uh, it looks great,” Ash said, clearing his throat.
Derek gave him a sharp look before glancing up at me. “Yeah, it’s nice, Mia. Where are we going tonight?”
“Whatever y’all are in the mood for.”
“Alcohol,” Ash said.
“Sure. Like a dive bar or a nightclub or art scene or …”