Natalie
“Two more!” Michelle cries out, brandishing her empty gin glass. She’s already slurring her speech, but I guess that’s only normal; it’s hard to get the words right when you’ve been working your way through a bottle of gin.
“I don’t think I can drink anymore, Michelle,” I tell her, steadying myself with one hand on the counter. I don’t know how she does it; I’ve been trying to keep up with her for the last two hours, but it’s an impossible task.
“Oh, shut up. This is your party, and we won’t leave this place until we’re both completely drunk,” she says, still waving her empty glass around.
“This isn’t a party,” I try to tell her, but I doubt she’s even listening. I guess she just wanted an excuse to go out for drinks, and she latched on to the success my article on Logan had. Yup, I’ve already published it, and I’m pretty proud of the way it turned out. Even Fat Ed seemed pleased with it, and that isn’t an easy accomplishment. I’m not sure if my article was the reason behind it, but the fact remains: this week we sold a lot more copies of our newspaper.
“Of course this is a party! Why else would we be this drunk?” She laughs, winking at the bartender as he pushes two glasses of gin across the counter. I sigh as she hands me mine, but I set it aside; I need to pause for a few minutes, or else I’ll be leaving the bar on my hands and knees.
“Tell me, Natalie…” Michelle slurs, throwing one arm over my shoulders and pulling me into her. She lowers her voice, or at least tries to, and adopts a more secretive tone. “That was a really personal article… How did you get to know him so well over dinner?”
I knew this was coming. The moment I stepped into our office this morning, Michelle eyed me suspiciously, and I knew right away that I was wearing an unusual smile on my lips. I’ve never been that good at hiding things from Michelle, and now here’s the proof.
“Journalistic skills,” I chuckle nervously, trying to feign my way out of the conversation. Of course, Michelle’s having none of that.
“Journalistic skills my ass,” she continues, using her free hand to take the gin to her lips. “You got to know him… intimately… didn’t you?”
“Michelle, I --”
“I knew it!” she proclaims, taking her arm out from over her shoulders and clapping her hands together. “My God, I want to know every single detail, Natalie.”
“Nothing happened!” I try one last time, but I can’t help but smile as I say it. The I’ve-just-had-the-best-sex-of-my-life kind of smile.
“Yeah, right…! He must be a complete animal in the sack. He is, isn’t he?” she asks me, grabbing my arm and looking me straight in the eyes.
“Well,” I start, shrugging my shoulders as I grin. “Yeah, he is.”
“Oh my God, you’re the luckiest woman in the world… He’s so freaking hot, and rich, and --”
“C’mon, he’s just a normal person,” I laugh, but in the back of my mind I know that’s not true. The way he handled me… No, a normal person wouldn’t be that good. More than just a regular human being, Logan is a God, and every single inch of his naked body spells the word sex.
“Ed never gives me assignment like yours,” she grumbles then, throwing her head back and downing the rest of her gin in one single gulp. Jesus, when it comes to drinking, she’s a viking.
“And that’s not all. I still have the Hunter profile to write, which means I have one more handsome guy to meet,” I tease her, discretely nodding at the bartender for him to take my still half-filled glass of gin.
“You’re the luckiest person I’ve ever met, did you know that?”
“Not so fast. I still have to set up an appointment with Hunter. I got lucky with Logan, yeah, but I don’t know how things will go with Hunter. He seems… wild.”
“Oh, he’s definitely wild,” she agrees with me, nodding gravely. “If there’s something that guy likes more than punching people, it’s fucking hot women. So, you know… You’re in luck.”
“It’s not like that,” I protest. “What happened with Logan… I don’t know, it just happened, okay? And I’m not planning to sleep with Hunter!”
“Yeah, right…”
“I’m serious! I need to keep my focus, Michelle. I know that there’s a story there. I can feel it,” I tell her, thinking back to the way Logan reacted whenever I said Hunter’s name.
“What kind of story? Are we in for a scandal?”
“I don’t know… But I have a feeling that it might be a game changer. At least for me. If I uncover whatever skeletons these guys have in their closets, Ed will see what I’m worth, and he’ll start giving me better assignments.”
“Ed, pfft. He’s just interested in selling newspapers, you know that, don’t you? He doesn’t really care about journalism… If turning the Gazette into a tabloid helped his bottom line, he’d do it in a blink of an eye.” She shrugs as she says this, completely accepting the way her corporate overlords see the newspaper we work for. I have no illusions about Ed, but having Michelle put it like this… well, it’s a sobering thought.
Still, if I manage to uncover something interesting, I can launch my career into the stratosphere fast. Be it at the Gazette or somewhere else.
“It doesn’t really matter,” I tell her, feeling a surge of renewed confidence. “One step at a time, right?”
“Right,” she grins, “and one cock at a time.”
“C’mon,” I protest, but I can’t help but laugh at what she just said. She really doesn’t have any kind of filter between her mouth and brain.
“Seriously, though… How are you going to approach Hunter? That guy is always up to something crazy, I doubt he’ll even pick up his phone.”
“I have no idea,” I admit, tapping my fingertips against the counter. It sure as hell isn’t going to be easy but—hang on, my cell is vibrating. “It’s Ed,” I say, raising my eyes from the screen and looking up at Michelle. “What the hell does he want this late at night?”
Without waiting for Michelle’s reply, I put the phone up against my ear.
“I don’t know what you’ve been doing, but it’s working,” Ed grumbles in that ruined voice of his. “Hunter’s agent just gave me a call… He wants to set up a meeting with you.”
Oh, Michelle’s right—I gotta be the luckiest woman in the world.