Nikki sat at her kitchen table working on her laptop. She checked her email, but there was nothing from Spinetti. She hadn’t heard from him since he left her yesterday morning, and while it wasn’t unusual for them to be out of contact for several days, she missed him. Am I getting more possessive after having slept with him only once? For a few seconds she thought about sending him an email or texting him, but figured he was working a case and she didn’t want to bother him. Or scare him away.
She sipped her espresso and tried to make sense of her feelings for him. She certainly enjoyed his company…and he seemed to enjoy hers as well. He was educated, smart, a good listener, Hollywood handsome, and he loved to cook and dance. Just about perfect. And that didn’t include his skills in the bedroom. But then there was his job. Nikki couldn’t explain how she felt about that. Maybe it was because she had never dated someone in that line of work, but she was uneasy about it for some reason. While his worked involved danger, in and of itself it wasn’t dangerous, at least not so far. Until a month ago, he’d worked in the white-collar crime unit. Then, he transferred to homicide. He didn’t talk to Nikki much about his work, but he did say that there was more white-collar crime in Boca than there were homicides.
Nikki checked her to-do list for the day, butthere was nothing major that was due. She reflected on how lucky she was to have what she thought was the ideal job…a self-employed computer security consultant. She could work from home, make her own hours, and, best of all, she had no boss to answer to except herself. She had a constant backlog of challenging work, and the money was excellent. The five years she had spent in corporate cubicles and bullpens was not her cup of tea, and fortunately she was exceptionally talented—a bonafide geek—and she was able to easily make a living on her own.
She thought about Kim, her best friend since college, and how upset she was the night before. She didn’t approve of Kim working as an escort, but she had accepted it. Kim had her own reasons for doing that, and Nikki understood what they were. She also knew that Kim had a history of running from conflict instead of facing it. But…that was how she was. Throughout their long friendship, they accepted each other and didn’t pass judgment. And they always supported one another in times of need.
She checked her email one last time, and thought about texting Spinetti, but decided against it. She sighed, put on another cup of coffee, and called Kim.
