The Red String

Chapter 3. First Encounter

"Are you sure you want to drive to Brooklyn in this weather?" Normani asked, watching Lauren gather all her belongings, ready to finally leave the office after a long day of work.

"I can't let those idiots ruin a $20,000 fabric," Lauren said, swinging her purse over her shoulder. "Did you really think I'd send the chauffeur and one of our dressmakers? My money is way too important to throw away like that."

"I could go," Ally proposed, causing Lauren to roll her eyes and Normani to stifle a laugh. "The chauffeur could drive me."

"You?" Lauren scoffed as she looked at Ally in disbelief. "Last time I sent you there, you refused to let them help you load it into the car because 'you had it covered', and guess what? Half of the fabric ended up being dragged along the wet pavement after it had rained like crazy the night before. And look, it's raining right now, in case you haven't noticed."

Normani and Ally burst out laughing, while Lauren, with her usual streak of bad mood, crossed her arms and impatiently tapped her foot, waiting for her friends to quit acting like four-year-old kids.

"You know, if you put down that ridiculous magazine and focused on work, maybe you'd come with me."

"And spend two hours with you in the car?" Normani snorted with laughter. "No, thanks. I'd rather stay out in the pouring rain than hear you cussing at everyone and everything that comes your way."

"Well, be my guest. Just remember that I'll be deducting those $20,000 from your salary by the end of the month," Lauren remarked, a smirk tugging at her lips. "Unfortunately for you, I'm still the one who signs your paychecks. So, if by any chance I'm unable to pick up that fabric because I've had an accident while braving this storm on my own, you'll have that on your conscience."

"I want to kill you eighty percent of the time, Jauregui, so the storm would only do me a favor," Normani said, giving her friend a playful look. "And you owe me big time for making me stand for two hours in four-inch heels while you and Narciso 'carefully observed' a dress earlier today."

"It had an awful waistline." Lauren shrugged, before adding with a mischievous smile, "Or maybe I just like to measure every inch of your body because I secretly want to go to bed with you."

"You wouldn't be able to handle something like this, Jauregui," Normani teased, punctuating her words with a suggestive gesture that earned her a smug grin from Lauren.

"Try me. Just give me ten minutes, and you'll see it for yourself," the green-eyed woman challenged, raising an eyebrow, while Ally's gaze darted between them. Her friends could keep up their playful teasing for hours on end, and she would inevitably be the one stuck watching the whole scene, as usual.

"I didn't know you had sexual urges, Jauregui," Normani quipped with a chuckle. "I always took you for this emotionless machine who is allergic to the concept of love."

Lauren scoffed disdainfully. "Love isn't a requirement for having sex."

"But you never have sex," Normani pointed out. "Or do you?"

Ally clapped, finally chiming in. "All right, girls. Why don't we all go and get the fabric?"

"What makes you think that?" Lauren asked coldly, addressing Normani. Ally sighed. Too late. "Just because I don't go around bar-hopping and taking turns with different women every night like you doesn't mean I don't have sex."

Lauren frowned, trying her best to sound convincing. She wasn't going to let anyone mock her, even though it was a lie. Sure, she had been with a couple of women and had had casual sex a handful of times, but she thought none of it was worth mentioning or worth remembering. Not in the past year, at least. But that was something she obviously wouldn't be disclosing to them.