Sex and the Social Network by Victoria Lexington Read Free Book Online Page B

wasn’t really crying, but all of a sudden I felt sick to my stomach. Shit, he really wants to chat again soon? My hands were still shaking. My long lost love, Nicholas, wants to catch up with me. Life is so funny. I wanted to be friends with him after we broke up, but he was too busy. That’s code for “I have no balls and can’t tell you it’s just too hard to be friends.”
    I was going to play this by ear. It’d taken me a long time to get over Nick. I had a bad feeling it would take a lot less time to get under him. I crack myself up.
    That night I was lying in my bed reading Good Night Moon with Alexa. She smelled delicious, like Johnson’s baby shampoo and sweet baby’s breath. I loved it when she nuzzled up so close to me like that. She wouldn’t tolerate even an inch between us when we were cuddling.
    Sometimes when I looked at her, I couldn’t believe that she was almost not in our lives. Braden and I had agreed to have two kids. After Don and Isabella were born, we felt very lucky they were both healthy and we had one of each gender. We thought life was perfect. Alexa was an unexpected surprise. Sometimes when she looked at me extra lovingly, I got choked up. To think that I was upset when I first found out I was pregnant with her. Now she was my sunshine. Alexa had helped redefine happiness for me.
    ❧
    At work the next day, my friend Gabby pulled me into the bathroom. She and I had become good friends through work; she was one of the funniest people I knew. She was your typ ical Philly girl: loud, obnoxious, and brash. She wore her terra-cotta hair in a sassy bob and always had on lots of makeup. Gabby was short and a little chunky, but she had a confidence about her that seemed to draw men to her, and she flaunted her big booty everywhere we went. Construction workers loved her, and whenever we’d go downstairs to grab lunch, they’d whistle at her, “Ay Mami, move that thing. Can I have some fries with that shake?”
    “Oh my God, Liz, I have to talk to you.” She seemed excited.
    “What is it, Gabby?”
    “Do you remember Todd Roberts from Creative?” Her eyes lit up.
    “Sure, didn’t he recently move over to the Sánchez Group?”
    “Yes, exactly, and I ran into him at the National Advertising Conference over the wee kend.”
    “Oh, cool. How is he?” I was still trying to figure out why this was a big deal.
    “He’s good. He looks great.” Gabby swooned.
    “And?” I tilted my head knowing there was more to this story.
    “And we’ve been flirting on Facebook and he wants me.” She smiled from ear to ear.
    “He wants you to what?” I asked stupidly.
    “He wants to fuck me, you dumbass,” Gabby said in an annoyed tone.
    “Oh, duh! Well, of course he does. So what are you going to do?”
    “I think I’m going to meet him,” Gabby told me with slight hesitation in her voice.
    I wanted to tell her not to do it, that it was wrong, that she was married, that her husband could find out, that she could get hurt. I wanted to tell her a million reasons why she shouldn’t, but I knew from what was going on with Maria and Enrique that nothing I said would have made a difference.
    Gabby wasn’t happy in her marriage, but I didn’t think cheating was the answer. I did manage to eke out, “Oh, Gabby, please be careful. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
    “Yeah, well, I’ve been hurting long enough. It’s time I did something I want to do. I deserve that much.” Gabby looked at herself the mirror and tucked a strand of her brown hair b ehind her ear and half smiled at her reflection.
    She looked desperate in that moment, her eyes heavy with sorrow.
    I grabbed her hand and softly held it in mine for a moment. “Okay, just promise me you’ll be careful.”
    “I promise,” she whispered, but her mind seemed to be somewhere else completely.
    I felt like I was somehow responsible for the Maria/Enrique saga, so I told myself that I wouldn’t get involved in Gabby’s affair; I