Page 9 of The Girl with No Name
“You’re deceiving these women into thinking they’ll get a relationship with you for sex. Sometimes you don’t even give ’em your real name. I’ve heard you do that. Doesn’t that feel gross?”
“I need to stay safe, man. Keep a low profile. Some of these women get insane once they realize how much money I come from.”
“Right.” I swig the rest of my beer. “Let’s go home. Gotta call Samantha.”
“Boyfriend duty,” he says.
We get up, and on the way out, he stops at the table of women who were eavesdropping on us.
“Oh hey, ladies. How are you all? I’m Kevin...”
Back in myroom at our place in Old Town, I sit on my bed with my laptop and call Samantha on Zoom.
She answers with her brown hair pulled back in a tight ponytail. She’s wearing her big glasses tonight.
“What’s up, babe? How was your day?” I ask.
“Great! I applied for some more jobs. I think that hedge fund wants to hire me.”
“In San Francisco?”
“Yeah.”
I swallow the ball of nerves that creeps up from my stomach. I took the job here on the premise of us both moving to a major city. We’d agreed on Chicago, mostly because our families both live in the Midwest—hers in Wisconsin and mine in the suburbs of Chicago. So the fact that she’s talking about a job that’s not here stresses me out.
But maybe I’m overthinking it. Maybe it’ll be remote. I don’t want to jump to conclusions.
“That’s really cool,” I tell her. “That’s great.” I don’t want to get in the way of her life, in any case. We’ll work things out. I’m sure of it. “You’re amazing, and I know you’ll get a job exactly where you want.”
I am the ever-supportive boyfriend. She is a girl boss. Together, we’re a power couple, and I love that about us.
“Thanks.” She smiles, looks down a moment, and purses her lips together. Her brown eyes sparkle on the screen.
I’ve known I wanted to marry her since the first time I saw her in that rundown bar on Cherry Street in West Lafayette when we were both seniors, her at Purdue and myself at a smaller Indiana college.
My mind drifts as I watch her on the Zoom. I’m getting turned on, thinking of her and the things we’re going to do when she gets back.
“Babe,” I say, clearing my throat. “Want to do something fun?”
She rolls her eyes, half-playful, half serious. “Like…?”
“Like…take off your shirt for me.”
“You know I’m shy.”
“You weren’t shy that one night last month.”
“That was after wine night.” She laughs, averting her eyes. “I don’t know.”
“Sam, I want to stay connected to you.”
She swallows. “I’m sorry. I’m just not in the mood tonight.”
“Gotcha, no worries.” I take a deep breath and let it go. “I’m sad you can’t make it here this weekend, though.”
I tried to convince her last time we talked, but she said she has too much on her plate.
She nods. “Me too. You and Charlie doing anything together when he comes back to town?”