Page 3 of February (New Orleans #2)

“H ey, honey. Can I talk to you for a minute?” her mom asked.

“Sure. What’s up?”

“Can you come into the office?”

“Well, at least I know I’m not getting fired,” Bridgette muttered under her breath as she rose from her desk and followed her mom into the office. “Everything okay?”

“Your dad wanted to be here, but he’s meeting with an attorney, so I told him I’d talk to you.”

“Mom, what’s going on?” Bridgette asked.

She closed the door behind her and turned around, leaning back against it while her mom took one of the chairs in front of the desk.

“Have a seat.”

“No, I’m okay standing,” she replied.

“Bridge, please.”

Bridgette saw the pleading look in her mother’s eyes and sat down next to her, turning the chair the way her mom had done so that they were now facing one another.

“Mom, what’s wrong?”

“Honey, do you remember me telling you about your grandpa’s business friend, Kevin Arnette?”

“Not specifically, no. Should I?” she asked.

“Well, he’s the head of a company called Arnette Assets, which owns a lot of different companies. They focus mainly on real estate, but they own a chain of grocery stores and some other things now, too.”

“Mom, why are we talking about some company?”

“Because your grandfather went to school with the head of the company. They’ve remained good friends. Your father and he have been talking for a while now.”

“What about, Mom?” Bridgette asked.

“About him buying the company. They own Good Day Greeting already, and he thinks they could use our lines and buy up existing inventory.”

Bridgette leaned forward in the chair and said, “You’re talking about selling the company?”

“Yes, we are.”

“I’m supposed to take over the company when you and Dad retire.”

“I know. Honey, we’re hoping the money we make will be enough to help you later, and we can ask if they can keep you on, if you want. We can include it in the deal.” Her mom looked around the room. “I’m not sure what they’ll do with this office, but we can ask to keep you local, if you want to stay.”

“Stay?”

“Well, their headquarters is in New York.”

“New York?”

“Yes.”

“Mom, you’re selling to some massive organization in New York? Why would they even want us? We’re small and local.”

“It’s a favor. Your father is trying to deal with his pride, but they’d be doing us a favor. We’ve been struggling for a while now, and they’d mainly be interested in the card lines we own.”

“They’d tear us apart?”

“I don’t know, honey. We’ll have to talk to the person they’re sending down to talk about the possibilities.”

“Someone’s coming here?”

“Their head of acquisitions. It’s actually his daughter. Her name is Monica, I think. She should be here tomorrow. It was supposed to be today, but something came up.”

“So, they’re late trying to buy our family’s business?” Bridgette asked.

“I know this is hard to think about, but it might be the best decision for us. Your dad and I can retire, or we can start thinking about something else we want to do, and you can make a little money and decide what you want to do, too.”

“I wanted to do this .”

“Honey, it’s the family business. You were supposed to take it over, and we’ve been telling you that for years, so you’ve never really thought about doing anything else.”

“Yes, I have,” Bridgette replied. “Mom, if I wanted to do something else, I would’ve told you and Dad that years ago. I love my job.”

“You have a funny way of showing it,” her mom joked.

“Because I think we need to make changes. And I don’t hesitate to tell you and Dad my ideas. If it’s going to be my company one day, anyway, why not just listen and let me try them? If they’re bad ideas, I’d have to deal with the consequences.”

“The whole company would.”

“But we’re already struggling anyway. So much so that you’re planning on selling the whole thing. What about the employees?”

“We’d give them a severance,” her mom replied. “We can talk to Monica about them maybe being given an opportunity to interview for jobs at Good Day Greeting.”

“Which is in New York.”

“Yes.”

“I can’t speak for them, but I do work with them all every day, and I can’t see any of them wanting to move to New York.”

“Well, that would be their decision.”

“Assuming this Monica woman would even be interested in keeping them on.”

“I don’t like this any more than you do, Bridgette, but your father and I have made up our minds to at least see what happens with this possibility. Monica might say no or might not give us a deal we want. That’s why your father is talking to the attorney about our best options right now.”

“I don’t like this, Mom. I don’t agree with it. We have other options.”

“Maybe, but this is the best one,” her mother replied.

“And I don’t get a say in this?”

“No, honey.”

“Sell me the company,” Bridgette stated and stood. “I can’t pay what they’d pay you, but I have some savings.”

“Bridge, you’d drain everything you had for nothing. If you did that, you’d have nothing to pay the employees and nothing to pay the printers and–”

“I’ll think of something else, then. Maybe you and Dad can sell it to me for cheap. Like, I pay you something up front, and I pay the rest as we start turning a profit again.”

“You’d have no money left, Bridgette. We aren’t going to put you in a position where you don’t have a job and your savings are gone.”

“So, that’s a no?”

Her mom nodded.

“Fine,” Bridgette replied. “Then, that’s that. I guess we should just all give up.”

“That’s not what we’re doing. We’re trying to save as much as we can.”

“I need to go,” Bridgette told her.

“Honey, let’s keep talking.”

“There’s no point, anyway,” Bridgette replied.

She pulled open the door and left the office. When her mom didn’t follow, Bridgette grabbed her bag and walked out to her car. She climbed inside and pulled out her phone, planning to call Melinda to see if her friend wanted to go for a drink, but she saw a text from her ex-girlfriend instead. Bridgette’s eyebrow lifted. She knew it was a bad idea, but she responded anyway before hitting the road. Thirty minutes later, she knocked on Toya’s door and was met with caramel skin and dark-brown eyes looking back at her.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hey,” Toya said back as she pulled the door open farther.

“So, how does this work?”

“I don’t think there are any rules,” Toya replied as she closed the door behind her.

“I had a shitty day at work, Toya.”

“So did I.”

“So, you texted with this idea because you had a bad day?”

“I texted you to see if you really meant what you said on the phone, that this could just be fun with no strings and no talk of us moving in together.”

“This, meaning sex?” Bridgette asked.

“Well, it’s not sex yet .”

“You want it to be?”

“Yes,” Toya replied. “There were parts of our relationship that stressed me out, but there were other parts that were always really, really good.”

“And you’d like only those parts?”

“I’d like your parts on my parts,” Toya told her as she wrapped her arms around Bridgette’s neck. She shook her head and laughed. “I can’t believe I just said that.”

“Yeah, that was awful.” Bridgette laughed. “But you’re sure?”

“Are you ?” Toya checked.

“I have no idea,” she replied. “My mom just told me that they’re going to sell–”

Next thing she knew, Toya’s lips were on hers, cutting her off. Bridgette hadn’t been expecting the kiss, but once she registered what was happening, it was like old times. Toya’s lips were full and moved against Bridgette’s quickly, asking her for more without demanding, so Bridgette turned them around until she had the woman pressed to the door. She supposed Toya wanted them to stop talking and get on with the real reason Bridgette had shown up at her tiny studio apartment.

Bridgette hadn’t been here since the breakup, and she’d never expected to have Toya’s lips on her own again. She’d spent the past eight months trying to forget how good it felt to kiss this woman. Now, she was doing it again, and it felt good. It felt good, and it also felt wrong; really, really wrong. She knew she should stop, but she couldn’t. Her lips moved to Toya’s neck, and she breathed in her scent, which was familiar and made Bridgette think about the last time she had Toya pressed to this door. Toya moaned when Bridgette shifted her thigh between Toya’s and her hands to Toya’s jeans, which she unbuttoned and unzipped. Toya lifted at Bridgette’s shirt, revealing Bridgette’s pale skin and purple bra. The shirt landed on the floor, and Toya moved to her own shirt then, pulling it off, revealing her perfect breasts.

“No bra,” Bridgette noted. “You were ready for me.”

“You have no idea,” Toya said as she took Bridgette’s hand and slipped it into her panties.

Bridgette practically grunted when she dipped between Toya’s folds and found the woman soaking wet for her. Toya had always been wet for her before, but this was more than Bridgette had ever felt.

“Fuck,” she said mostly to herself.

“Yes, do it,” Toya requested as she pushed at her own jeans and panties until they were around her knees.

She then spread her legs, and Bridgette wasted no time. She slipped inside her and thrust deep, earning a moan. Her lips moved back to Toya’s neck as she continued to thrust inside her, letting her thumb play against Toya’s clit in the way Bridgette knew she liked.

“Did you bring it?” Toya asked.

“No, I came straight here,” Bridgette replied, knowing Toya was referring to her favorite strap-on, which Bridgette still had in her drawer at home.

“Fuck, baby. Yes!” Toya moaned as her hands moved to Bridgette’s ass, cupping it hard. “I have one. Will you get it? You know where.”

“Can I finish this first?” she asked, moving harder and faster now.

“Yes! God!”

Bridgette knew it wouldn’t take long. She also knew that Toya would come once, and they’d move to her bed, where Bridgette would strap on for her, and Toya would want her behind her. She loved that position, letting Bridgette fill her all the way. Bridgette loved it, too, and as Toya came, she couldn’t wait to fuck her on the bed just like that.

“God, I’ve missed that.”

“Bed,” Bridgette said.

“No, sofa.”

“Sofa?”

“I want to straddle you,” Toya replied right before she kicked off her jeans and panties the rest of the way and walked toward the sofa.

Bridgette watched her do that for a second before she headed to the bedside table, where she pulled out the dildo already in its harness. She didn’t think Toya would need any lube, but she spotted the small bottle, so after hastily removing the rest of her clothes, she slipped into the harness and rubbed the toy with the lube just to make sure. When she moved to the sofa, Toya shoved her down into a seated position and climbed on top of her. Bridgette heard the pop as the head of the dildo slipped inside, and she watched her ex-girlfriend lower and raise herself up, slow at first and then faster and faster while she held on to her hips.

She sucked on one dark nipple after the other, biting down on them just a little, which she knew Toya liked. When Toya came this time, it was louder, and her hips practically thrashed as Bridgette held her in place. Bridgette wanted so badly to flip them over and use her own hips to make Toya come again, but the woman was still coming hard and looked so sexy above her. When she finally came down, Bridgette waited as Toya stilled before she finally lifted up and off her, knelt in front of Bridgette on the floor, and pulled off the harness. She spread Bridgette’s leg and stared.

“You need me, baby?” Toya rubbed her hands up and down Bridgette’s thighs.

“Yes,” Bridgette replied.

She didn’t wait before she pressed her hand to the back of Toya’s head, earning a smirk. Then, Toya’s head lowered between her legs, and Bridgette spread them farther for her, letting Toya take her clit between her lips and suck.

Bridgette hadn’t had sex since the last time they’d done this. She had tried, too. She’d gone out. She’d wanted to meet someone and hook up just to let sex with someone else take her mind off how good it had been with Toya and how much she’d once loved the woman. She wasn’t na?ve, though. She knew this wouldn’t solve anything. Toya didn’t want her like that, and Bridgette wasn’t going to be able to change her mind. Instead, she’d let Toya make her come a few times. Then, she’d go home, take a shower, and try not to think about how much it had hurt when they’d broken up.

“Fuck,” she said. “Yes! There!”

“You still taste so good,” Toya said.

“Just suck me. Don’t do that.”

“Do what?” Toya asked as she looked up at her.

“Toya, make me come.”

Toya smirked again, likely assuming Bridgette needed her that badly, but in reality, Bridgette just didn’t want to talk about how good she tasted or how good Toya felt when she’d been inside her. She wanted to come because this was them simply having sex.

Toya’s head lowered back down, and her tongue licked for several strokes until Bridgette tugged a little at her head.

“Tell me to suck you again. That was fucking sexy,” Toya muttered against her clit.

“Toya… Come on,” Bridgette said.

As she enjoyed her clit being sucked, Bridgette thought about all the greeting cards she’d written over the years. Most of them had been about the beauty of love. She’d never made one to capture this moment: a woman kneeling on her own floor, sucking on another woman’s clit, while that woman told her to until she came. Bridgette laughed to herself, picturing the front of that card and thinking about what shops in the Quarter might sell it. Then, she came.

“Oh, fuck!”

Her hips rocked against Toya’s mouth until she had to tap Toya’s shoulder to get her to stop because she couldn’t handle any more touches.

“Bed?” Toya asked as she glanced up at Bridgette and licked her lips, looking satisfied and confident in what she’d just done.

Bridgette considered saying yes. She knew if they went to the bed, she’d likely come again and again after that. But there was something in her that just couldn’t turn off her thoughts about the fact that her family was going to lose their business and she couldn’t talk to Toya about it. She’d made that clear before when she’d kissed Bridgette to shut her up.

“No,” Bridgette said. “I think I’ll go, actually.”

“Bridge, you said you could handle this.”

“I am handling this. That’s why I need to go.” She stood up. “You don’t want to be the person I talk to about things, which is fine. I’m good with that. I just have some things I need to talk about, so I’m going to go.”

Toya stood up and asked, “So, is that it? You stop by for, like, ten minutes, we have sex, and you leave?”

“That’s what you wanted,” she replied as she found her pants and pulled them on with her underwear.”

“I didn’t mean you’d leave after one really quick round, Bridgette. I didn’t mean that we couldn’t talk to each other at all.”

“Well, I think that’s what I need this to be if we do it again. Besides, you cut me off when I was trying to talk to you, Toya.”

“If? You said if we do this again. I thought…”

“If you want to, we can. It just needs to be sex.”

“And you’re sure? You’ve never wanted this before.”

“I still want a relationship.”

“Which is why I’m surprised that you even said what you said on the phone and that you came here today.” Toya wiped her mouth.

“Well, it happened.” Bridgette clasped her bra. “Now, I’m going to go. Text me if you want to do this again, and I’ll decide if that’s what I want to do then, I guess.” She picked up her shirt and threw it on over her head.

“Um… Okay.”

Bridgette pulled open the door and closed it quickly behind her, stopping for a second to let it hit her. She’d just slept with her ex-girlfriend, the woman she’d been trying to get over for the past eight months, and it had actually just been sex to her. That part was a good thing. Having sex with her at all, though, wasn’t.