Ex game chapter 2

tried to relax
and thought about what was going to happen this weekend.
I had only been working for Marathon Corp for about a
month. It was the first job that made me feel like a real
professional, and I felt like I was going to be fired already. I
was in charge of the whole New England area, and I knew
that most, if not all, of the lower managers below me felt
that I wasn’t qualified for the job. I myself had been amazed
when I had been hired as an executive manager. I knew I
had the degrees for the job: marketing BA from Columbia
and a business management master’s degree from NYU.
But I didn’t have that much experience – only the summer
internships I’d done while getting my master’s. But I had
brains and verve and a lot of initiative. And I knew that I was
good at my job. However, I knew that there was no way in
hell Brandon would allow me to stay if he realized who I
was. I mean, there was a chance he wouldn’t recognize me.
It had been seven years, and we had only dated for five
months. It had been the best five months of my life, but for
him, I bet it was nothing. I also knew that I looked more
mature now and definitely dressed like a woman who knew
the world. My usually wavy brown hair was flat ironed
straight and I had on mascara and eye shadow. I looked
nothing like the girl I was when I started college. Then I had
been bright eyed, with minimal makeup and no hair products
taming my normally wild hair. Thinking back, it should have
been obvious to Brandon that I had been lying, but I knew
that it was hardly his fault that I had deceived him. I hadn’t
meant to, it had just been one white lie. I hadn’t expected
him to ask me out. I hadn’t expected to fall in love with him.
I sighed as I remembered the first time I had seen Brandon
Hastings outside the bar. That night had been one of the
best in my life. Meg and some other girls had convinced me
to join them at a bar in the Lower East Side that they knew
didn’t card minors if they wore short enough skirts and red
enough lipstick. I remembered the day clearly, it was a
beautiful warm August day, not too hot, and we were all
excited to be starting college. None of us had lived in New
York before, and we were all pretty naïve and green. I don’t
think that any of us had really had a boyfriend in high school
because we’d all been too busy studying, trying to earn our
way into an Ivy League school. And it had paid off for all us
– we were incoming freshmen at Columbia University, and I
think the giddiness that had taken over our lives came to
fruition that night. It had been a Friday, the weekend before
orientation classes were going to start, so one of the girls
had the bright idea of christening our first week before
classes started. I had never had any alcohol before, and
was as eager as the rest to go out and party. We were in
New York, why shouldn’t we party it up? We’d all dressed up
in the shortest skirts we owned and the tightest tops. I’d
borrowed high heels from Meg and a bunch of makeup, and
we took the 1 train to 42 nd Street and then caught a cab to
Doug’s. Doug’s was everything I had imagined it was going
to be: dark and musty, with bright lights and lots of cool-
looking people. I was amazed that we had been able to walk
right in without even a second glance from the bouncer. Our
plan had worked. None of us had been carded, and we
walked quickly to the bar to get some drinks. Felicity, who
was the one who had told us about the bar, ordered us our
first round of drinks. Scotch on the rocks. It had tasted
awful, and I thought my stomach was on fire as it burned
slightly. “That’s just to get us buzzed faster,” she’d grinned
before ordering a round of Sex on the Beach. “These will
taste better, girls.” And she had been right. I guzzled two
cups down within half an hour, not thinking anything of it,
as they hadn’t tasted alcoholic at all. We were all just
standing around when the DJ started playing some old
Madonna songs, and Meg grabbed my hand and we ran to
the dance floor, giggling. The other girls followed quickly
and we had danced around as if we thought we were on
*Dancing With The Stars*. We danced all night and even
though different guys came up to us, we turned them down.
That wasn’t a night for us to look for guys, but a night for
us to bond with each other. It was the first of many
memories we were going to make together. We stumbled
out of the bar at about 1 a.m. I remember that Meg and
Felicity went to go and look for a cab while the other girls
went to the bathroom. I stood there waiting outside the club
and leaned against the wall, feeling dizzy and sick. The
evening air had been cool, and I shivered in my lack of
clothing. “Are you okay?” The voice was deep and husky,
and I remembered feeling comforted even though I hadn’t
been able to look up. “Do you need me to take you
somewhere?” The voice was closer this time and I felt warm
hands on my shoulders as he forced me to look up at him.
“I’m fine.” I giggled and looked up at him through my fake
eyelashes. “Just waiting on my friends.” “You’re drunk.” He
frowned and looked around. “It looks like your friends have
left you.” “No, they’re in the toilet.” I pointed towards
Doug’s. “I’m just waiting on them to come out. “I see.” He
stared down at me and there was concern in his blue eyes.
“I’ll wait with you.” “Thank you.” I smiled at him and then
started laughing. “What’s so funny?” He frowned as he
looked at me and I pointed at his face. “My face is funny?”
He gave me a wry smile and I shook my head. “You look
like Clark Gable.” “You think so?” “Yes.” I grinned at him.
“You’re handsome.” “Why, thank you.” He looked at his
watch, then back at me. “We will give your friends a few
minutes then see about -----