Chapter 16 – Katie

Ruby and Ron’s wedding is beautiful. And so, different from Madilyn and Asher’s. Both are lovely in their own way and of course I’m a little biased towards Ruby’s since she’s my good friend. But her wedding is unique. Like only a Ruby wedding could be.

It’s on a hillside with an old Spanish castle in the backdrop. A single acoustic guitar plays as Ruby walks down the aisle, her purple-streaked hair wrapped on top of her head with some spirals cascading down.

Instead of inviting the entire firm including the Barbies, Ruby and Ron invited only close family members and friends— so I feel particularly honored to be here. They even flew everyone here in Ron’s private jet. (Or most of us. Those who had their own jets— like Asher and Damien— took their own). Talk about a fringe benefit.

Speaking of Damien, he’s been staring at me this entire time. I know he wants what I want. To be close to him again. To smell him. Feel him. Kiss him. Fuck him.

But we’re playing a game of chicken and both of us are too afraid to admit the truth. It’s been far too long since we’ve been together and I want to change that.

Take me, I want to tell him. Fuck me again. Harder. More intimately. More, more, more.

They’ve told me that I’ll be helping him out at work. That means he’s going to be my boss now. My boss was only supposed to take me on a date. He wasn’t supposed to take my virginity. I wasn’t supposed to let him. And I definitely wasn’t supposed to like it.

It’s like I can’t get enough. All I can think about, all the time, is him. I thought that focusing on getting my own place and finally moving out from under my parents’ roof would give me the ability to re-focus my energy on myself and my own goals.

But if my plan was to forget him, the experiment failed. I’m glad I’m living on my own and I’m also glad I don’t let my parents and their ridiculously high expectations have as much control over me anymore, but I still think of Damien non-stop. I feel incomplete without him, as pathetic as that might sound.

After the wedding, there’s a small reception and a Spanish band.

I walk over to Ruby to congratulate her.

“Thank you, friend,” she says, throwing her arms around me.

She looks absolutely giddy and I’m so happy for her.

“Guess what I’m wearing underneath my dress,” she tells me.

“There are really some things you should keep private between you and your new husband,” I joke.

But I know what she’s referring to. She holds up her dress and flashes me the garter I’d made her, on which I’d embroidered her new initials.

“I’m glad you like it enough to wear it,” I tell her.

“I love it,” she says. “I never would have guessed you knew how to make one of these, until you told me about your strict parents and boring home life.”

“I’m full of exciting mysteries,” I tell her, and we laugh.

And then I look over at one of the tables where appetizers are laid out and see Damien crook his finger at me, beckoning me to come over to him. Finally.

“Looks like I’m being summoned,” I tell Ruby.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” she says.

My heart jumps up into my stomach as I approach Damien. Finally. This is the one thing I’ve been wanting. Thank God for Ruby’s wedding.

“I thought you’d never come say hello,” he says, once I’m standing in front of him. He has obviously been thinking the same thing that I have.

“And I thought the same.”

“Did you have a nice flight?” he asks me.

I nod, realizing that his attempts at small talk leave me with little to say in return. This is the first time I’ve been to Spain. The first time I’ve been out of the country. I feel so inexperienced, but also experienced now in different ways— in the one way that really matters— thanks to Damien.

“Would you like to have another one?”

He raises his eyebrows at me.

“What?”

I let out a little laugh, not sure of what he means.

“I’d like to take you in my private jet, to Ibiza,” he says. “I hear that a lot of women like long walks along the beach at sunset. I thought we could try that. And maybe some other things.”

I full-on laugh now, tilting my head back and looking up at the blue sky. All of the waiting has paid off. He really does want me as much as I’ve been wanting him. And he’s taking me to a Spanish island.

Ruby and Ron come over and Ron elbows Damien.

“Looks like you two are having fun,” he says.

“Katie, did you know that Damien now has an office next to Ron’s? At the law firm?”

I smile.

“I may have heard a little something about that,” I admit.

It may have been the reason I took time off— in addition to needing to move. I was trying to make sure I didn’t do or say anything stupid when Damien first came to the office. But now here we are in Spain and everything seems to be working out, so I don’t know what I was worried about.

“Yeah, I might need Katie’s help around the office,” Damien says.

I look at Ruby and make a face that says “eek.” She nods her head and makes a face back that says, “right on, girlfriend.”

Maybe Damien and I really will have what Ruby and Ron have. And Asher and Madilyn. Perhaps I’ve finally met my match at Sugar Daddy Central.

I try not to laugh out loud at the thought and I make a mental note to tell Damien about my nickname for the firm, later. And a lot of other things as well.