Chapter Ten
Jonathan
Evan sat with me in the limousine, looking out of the window at New York passing us by.
“Remind me why we’re doing this again?” he asked, turning back to me. “I mean, out of all the women she could have chosen for us, Helen’s picked carbon copies of herself?”
I laughed and shook my head.
“We’re just meeting them as friends and that’s all. She thinks it’s somehow going to take my mind off Kate, but right now I’m not interested in anyone else and I’m pretty sure these women aren’t going to turn my head in any way.”
“I think she’s right, though.”
I looked over at Evan. We’d been friends since he’d turned up at business school, setting up our first company together back when neither of us knew the potential grasp we’d command over the female population.
I knew it wasn’t in my nature to be so wound up over one woman. Normally, I would have been on to the next few by now and Kate would have been a distant memory, but there was something about her that I just couldn’t give up on, something that continued to draw me back to her when I knew the best thing for me was to meet someone else and get her out of my mind. I wouldn’t have expected Evan to understand what it felt like to have those kind of feelings for someone.
He rested a hand on my shoulder and squeezed it.
“You never know, one of these ladies might be the one. Maybe a religious woman with values and morals might be exactly what we need?”
“You think?” I looked at him and smirked. “I’m pretty sure they’re the type to have sex just to make a baby and then once quarterly, if that, thereafter!”
Evan threw his head back and laughed heartily.
“I don’t know, sometimes a change of direction just works. Maybe we’re getting too much sex?”
I turned to the window without responding because Kate had been my change of direction and I hadn’t had sex with anyone since the last time we’d been together. The need for it didn’t even cross my mind. She’d been the type of woman that I’d never previously been interested in, wild hair with a fuller figure and barely any makeup. On paper, that was the complete opposite of what I found attractive, but now it was all I wanted. I wanted her in a baggy t-shirt and sweats. I wanted her messy hair tied up in a bun with a bare face, and I wanted to feel her body against mine. Her vulnerability to love and be loved was everything to me, and I suddenly realized that I wasn’t doing enough to get her back. I had everything at my disposal; all I had to do was go and get her.
“Can you turn the car around?” I asked, banging on the screen separating James from us in the back.
It disappeared and I saw him turn slightly.
“Where to? We’re almost there, Sir.”
Evan pulled me back towards him.
“Think about it, Jonathan,” he said, his voice low in my ear. “You’re going to cancel on a couple of ladies right before we pick them up? I know people think we’re lotharios that don’t give a damn, but we’re better than that. Let’s just get through this evening and reevaluate in the morning.”
I relaxed and took a deep breath as the car pulled up outside an apartment block.
“Fine, we’ll stay, but this is nothing more than having a few drinks with friends, okay? We’re not taking anyone back home with us tonight or…”
“I get it,” he interrupted. “They’re not my type either. I’m here because Helen said you wanted backup. I’m sure these women are good fun and intelligent conversation. It makes a change from the usual, right?”
I nodded as James opened the door and we both got out onto the sidewalk, but before we had a chance to get to the entrance, it opened and there standing with two of the biggest smiles on their faces were our dates.
“Hi ladies,” Evan offered, taking a step towards them once he realized that I’d become mute. “I’m sure Helen has told you our names but just for the record, he’s Jonathan and I’m Evan.”
He gave them both a kiss on their cheeks and they giggled nervously.
“I’m Maria,” one said with a little wave.
“And I’m Kira.”
I nodded at them both from where I stood and Maria, her long dark hair skimming her ass, came over to me and touched my arm slightly.
Normally I loved long, smooth, shiny hair on a woman, but now, even with her hands around my forearm, I felt nothing. That was how I knew completely that I wasn’t ever going to stop, settle, or be with anyone apart from Kate, I just had to convince her that I was worth another chance.