She found it hard to believe she’d allowed him to get away with it if he had, but her head was all over the place and unable to mentally process what had happened to her in the last few days, how her life had suddenly been taken over and turned upside-down. She needed to talk to someone she trusted to help her get some kind of perspective and lovely, dependable, secret-keeping Melanie was always there as a shoulder to cry on.
“Hi babe.” Melanie’s voice had a tinkly quality to it that reminded Piper of the candy store doorbell of her childhood, instantly soothing. “Half-shot latte? Or something stronger?”
“Americano,” Piper said grimly.
Melanie’s eyes widened and her pink glossed lips formed an O. “Understood.”
“Thanks, sweetie,” Piper said a few moments later as she threaded her fingers through the handle of the coffee mug. “Thanks for coming at such short notice. It’s damn freezing out there today, isn’t it?”
“Sure is. I’m wishing I could take some time off and hit the beach, like you just did.” Melanie put a cookie down on the table and grinned. “So did you get enough shells and stuff in Sanibel?”
“Yeah.”
“You met someone, didn’t you?”
This was unusually direct for Melanie, but her friend was almost psychic about these things and she had told her on the phone that she needed an emergency advice summit. “Um…”
“You’re kidding me? Ohmygod. Spill!”
“It was nothing. A one-night stand. We were drunk.”
“But you still—”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“And nothing. It was hot, but it’s history. One night, five hours flying time away.”
Melanie wiped crumbs off her mouth and swallowed a bite of cookie quickly. “Tell! Tell me all about him.”
“He just happened. He was therapy. An attempt to get Stanley out of my head for good.” Melanie’s mossy green eyes were wide like saucers and she nodded for Piper to continue. “He was the hottest guy I ever…but that’s it. I left before he woke up.” Which wasn’t strictly true, but nobody needed to know she’d bolted while she thought he was in the bathroom.
“Aw.”
“Yep, I’m a total bitch.”
“You left him a note though, right?”
“No, bitches don’t leave notes, now do they?”
Melanie rolled her eyes to the ceiling and tipped her head from side to side as she weighed the argument. “That was kind of rude of you.”
“Yes, I know.”
Melanie fidgeted with exasperation. “You’re not saying much. More detail!”
“Concentrate on eating that thing or you’ll choke.” Piper waved her coffee spoon at the offending baked good. “I need you conscious and lucid right now.”
“What did he look like?”
Piper sighed and let the spoon fall with a clatter onto the table. She was exhausted and she had dragged her friend away from her wedding planning business at one of her busiest times. “Oh, I don’t know, a cross between Brandon Flowers, Adam Levine, and Robert Downey, Jr. Younger than the real Downey, though.”
“That’s a relief.” Melanie did a duh face. “Sounds pretty good to me.”
“He was or, at least, that’s the way it seemed by the time we’d drank all the rum on Sanibel Island.” The memory of all that alcohol made her stomach gurgle. “Fewer tattoos than Levine, but pretty ones. And he was bigger.”
“Bigger?”
“Muscles! Talk about a filthy mind.” Piper thought Matt had muscles like granite. “And maybe bigger in the other department, who knows? I’ve never had a one-night stand with the other three.”
Melanie bit down on her bottom lip with excitement. “So he was—”
“Enough questions. Eat up, so we can talk seriously. You really might choke when I tell you what happened today.” Piper wasn’t ready to admit she felt guilty about leaving Sanibel the way she did, no note, no thanks for a great time and all that. He’d been in the right place at the right time and she had used him. He was totally right about that.
“Okay, I’m done.” Melanie popped the last piece of food into her mouth and grinned. “I can’t wait to hear this!”
A few minutes later Piper had told Melanie everything about Matt DeLeo from start to finish, and Piper was breathless and light-headed from talking so fast. “So, to summarize, I’m being blackmailed by the one-night-stand who turns out to be my new boss, and I feel totally stressed. Got any ideas how I can make it all go away?”
Melanie slid her fingertips over the screen of her iPhone. “The definition of the verb blackmail is to demand money from someone in return for not revealing compromising information about them or to force someone to do something by using threats or manipulating their feelings.”
“Not helping so far, darling.”
“He’s not demanding money from you, is he?”
“There’d be little point in that now, would there? He’s a millionaire and I’m broke. But he is using threats, the temp agency, and the things I allegedly told him when I was drunk that could affect my business, remember? Not to mention the panties he hasn’t given back, God help me, and anyway, he admitted he was blackmailing me.”
Melanie put her phone slowly down on the table and pursed her lips thoughtfully. “Fair enough, but it’s just a word, really. If you take a step back and look at this with a cold, clear heart, it’s the nicest form of blackmail imaginable.”
“What? Judas!”
Melanie shrugged. “Sometimes the truth hurts, and sometimes we can’t even see it until somebody points it out. That’s why you called me here today, isn’t it? For some perspective? For some candid advice?”
What a shitty day this was turning out to be. “I guess so, but—”
“But nothing. You were attracted enough to this guy to have a one-night stand and it was hot, so he’s not repulsive. And he’s not demanding you become his sex slave for a month. You’re flat broke, and this job will pay over three times what you could possibly earn temping. You get to have a brand new wardrobe and attend a bunch of awesome events instead of counting beans in a back office with a bunch of nasty women and bitter men. And the business opportunities will be amazing! Use this to your advantage. Make it work for you.”