Engravings of Wraith

by Kiera Dellacroix

  VII

  Time grabs you by the wrist, Directs you where to go.

  —B. Armstrong

  Bailey had again requested a table in the back and at having found Piper’s description of crawfish less than appealing, she had ordered the blackened fish and gumbo. As soon as the waiter left she surprised Piper by starting the conversation.

  “How long have you had a roommate?”

  “Oh, Nanny. We’ve known each other since we were kids, she moved in with me about a year ago.”

  “Is she… uhm…well are you and her…” Bailey stammered not sure of exactly what she was trying to get at.

  “No, Nanny is as straight as they come, we’re just good friends,” Piper said taking pity on her.

  “Oh,” Bailey said relieved and a little confused.

  “It was sweet of you to let me drive over here, I had a blast,” Piper said. “I used to help my brother work on all of his old hotrods, but his cars were usually in a constant state of disrepair. It was a treat to drive one as nice as yours.”

  “Where’s your brother now?”

  “He’s in the Navy but lives in New Orleans, with my parents actually.”

  “Is that where you’re from?”

  “Yep, born and raised,” she stated proudly.

  “Do you miss your family?”

  “Sometimes. I go home about twice a year on the holidays and they call two or three times a month. How about you? Do you have any brothers or sisters?” she asked and instantly knew from Bailey’s expression that it was a sore subject. “I’m sorry, you don’t have to answer,” she added quickly.

  “No, it’s alright,” she said a little surprised that she wanted to share. “My father and older brother were killed by the British fifteen years ago in Belfast,” she said and jumped a little when Piper reached across the table to take one of her hands.

  “I’m sorry,” Piper said sympathetically. “I didn’t know.”

  “It’s alright, you wouldn’t know unless I told you.” She worked up a smile for Piper’s benefit and continued. “My mother and little brother are supposed to be living in Britain, but I haven’t spoken to them since the day father died.”

  “Why not?” Piper asked curiously.

  “It’s… uhm…complicated,” Bailey said quietly.

  “Okay, no pressure. I’m just curious about you,” Piper said sweetly. “I usually like to get know people before I throw myself at them in my own bathroom,” she added with a chuckle as Bailey’s face turned crimson.

  “Have you…uhm…is that…” she stuttered and abruptly lost her temper with herself. “…Jesus, never mind.”

  “It’s alright,” Piper said reaching over to clasp Bailey’s other hand. “Say what you’re thinking.”

  Bailey lifted her eyes and glanced across the table at Piper who was looking at her patiently. She took a few quick breaths in an attempt to reign her temper back in and involuntarily squeezed the hands that held hers from across the table. It was comforting in a way she had never experienced and her eyes fell to the clasped hands in bewilderment.

  Piper saw her eyes fall to their hands. “I’m sorry, does my holding your hands bother you?”

  She took a second to answer. “No, I… I like it,” she said finally and honestly.

  “Me too, I’m glad you’re letting me.” Piper smiled. “Now, you can ask anything you want of me, I won’t laugh or poke fun. I’m interested in you and the fact that there are things you want to know about me is flattering because I hope you’re interested in me too.”

  “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t, Piper. It’s just that this is all very new to me and…” She paused and let go of Piper to run her hands nervously over her hair. “…And well my life is very complicated and I’m more than a little afraid that…well if things don’t work out...”

  “Why don’t we cross that bridge when we get there?” Piper interrupted. “But to put your mind at ease, I haven’t seen anything but things I like and I believe the qualities I see in you now are by far the most prominent. Irregardless, of what I might find out later, I very much like the woman I see in front of me.”

  Bailey absorbed Piper’s words carefully. Was there any truth to that? She knew that most of the time she didn’t like who she was, but if there was anything that she had learned in the last two days it was that she liked herself when she was around Piper. Was it possible that Piper could see something that she didn’t?

  “Thank you,” she said quietly.

  “You’re welcome and I meant it. So, what were you going to ask me?”

  “I was going to ask if you made it a habit?”

  “A habit? I don’t understand,” she said confusedly.

  “A habit of throwing yourself at people in your bathroom,” Bailey said directly and watched as Piper blushed and giggled a little.

  “No…uhm...that was a first for me as well,” she admitted.

  “I see.” She hesitated. “Have there been many in your life?”

  “Between eighty and ninety, but they meant nothing to me,” Piper said seriously and laughed at the sight of Bailey gaping at her with widening eyes.

  “You said you wouldn’t poke fun,” Bailey said scowling at both Piper and herself for how childish her statement had sounded.

  “You’re right, I’m sorry,” Piper giggled. “I just couldn’t resist, the look on your face was priceless.”

  Scowl still in place, Bailey folded her arms across her chest and focused her attention across the room.

  “Oh my God, you look just darling when you pout!” Piper exclaimed and burst into another bout of laughter.

  Bailey tried but just couldn’t find anything about the situation humorous. She had just barely managed to put a damper on the impulse to shoot from her chair and exclaim ‘I do not pout’ but she had already learned her lesson on that twice, and Piper would no doubt have thought it hilarious if she had done so. She sighed as Piper broke into another fit of mirth and risked a sideways glance at her, which produced another round of laughter. Despite herself, she found Piper’s behavior to be contagious and a small grin broke out on her face that soon blossomed into a full-fledged smile as she caved in and started to laugh herself.

  “I’m sorry,” Piper said after the giggles finally fled.

  “Hmmm,” Bailey said noncommittally.

  “Oh, don’t be such a spoilsport,” Piper chided. “I was just teasing.”

  “Are you going to answer my question or pick on me some more?” Bailey said rolling her eyes, an action that got another quick snort of amusement from Piper.

  “No, there haven’t been many,” Piper said after getting herself together. “Two, in fact.”

  “I see,” she said, not sure if she wanted to know more but still curious.

  “My first was a boy I dated most of my senior year in high school, but that fizzled out pretty quickly. I think I was curious more than anything else,” Piper started. “The second was a girl I met in college and we were together about a year.”

  “Did you love them?” Bailey asked curiously.

  “The first no, but the second I think I did for a while,” Piper stated. “Unfortunately, it got pretty ugly.”

  “What got ugly?”

  “Our separation I guess,” Piper said quietly. “I found out that she was seeing other people behind my back and I left her, but she didn’t let go easily and she ended up doing and saying a lot of hateful things when I refused to go back to her.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” Bailey said.

  “It’s fine, it was a long time ago. Anyways, I’ve dated here and there but nothing serious. Or more accurately, I haven’t come across anyone I really wanted to be with, until recently,” she finished with a shy look.

  “Oh,” Bailey said with a scowl but then a clue hit her in the head. “Oh,” she added more enthusiastically then blushed.

  “You really do have a cute blush,” Piper stated with a smile which only made Bailey redder.

 
“I’m glad you like it, I’ve gotten a lot of practice at it lately,” she stated sarcastically.

  “It becomes you.” She smiled and then mercifully decided to take her out of the spotlight. “So you said you traveled a lot, was it for your job?”

  “Yes,” Bailey answered cautiously.

  “What did you do?” Piper asked and noticed from Bailey’s face that she had ventured into another avenue of conversation that wasn’t going to be very informative.

  “Nothing to be proud of,” Bailey said quietly.

  “How long did you have this job?” Piper pushed gently.

  “Way too long,” Bailey said more to herself than to Piper. “A decade and change,” she added.

  “Wow, that’s a long time,” she said cheerily seeing that Bailey was going into a funk.

  “Yes, it was. Can we talk about something else?” Bailey asked a little peevishly.

  “Sure, I didn’t mean to pry,” Piper said contritely.

  Bailey’s eyes shot up at Piper’s tone and she was instantly sorry.

  “No, it’s okay,” she started. “It’s just something I’m not ready to discuss. I hope you understand,” she said with some difficulty.

  “I think I do, there are things about me that I find hard to talk about as well,” Piper said sympathetically.

  Bailey sat in an uncomfortable silence for several minutes until fortunately their food arrived and allowed a distraction. Piper waited until the waiter left before she broke the silence.

  “Would you like to try a crawfish?” she asked brightly.

  “Uhm…I don’t think so,” she said with a sour look.

  “They really taste better than I described them. Besides, these are boiled, they look like little shrimp.” She speared one with her fork and held it up for examination. “See?”

  Bailey eyed it suspiciously.

  “Come on. You can’t even see it,” she said a bit exasperated. “It’s covered in sauce, try it, I’m sure you’ll like it.”

  “Oh, alright,” she said rolling her eyes.

  Piper reached across intending to put it on her plate but it was intercepted as Bailey leaned forward and snagged it off the fork with her teeth, an act that Piper found to be incredibly sensual and she blushed powerfully.

  Bailey noticed her reddening and looked at her with confusion. “What’s wrong?” she asked innocently, chewing on the crawfish that was actually quite tasty.

  “Hmmm?” Piper said distractedly. “Oh, nothing. I just didn’t expect you to do that.”

  “Do what?” Bailey said replaying the last few minutes.

  “Uhm… bite the food off my fork.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, did I embarrass you?” she asked looking around to see if anyone saw.

  “Well, not exactly,” Piper said honestly.

  “I don’t understand,” Bailey said, her brows knitting.

  “It…uh… just struck me as very sexy,” Piper admitted.

  “Oh,” Bailey said not completely understanding, but it dawned on her slowly and she smiled slyly.

  “You really have no idea how attractive you are, do you?” Piper asked amazed.

  “I really never gave it much thought,” she admitted honestly. “But I’m glad you think so,” she added with a shy smile.

  “I do, very much.” Piper smiled.

  Bailey felt another blush coming on and decided to change the subject. “So where did you go to college?” she asked quickly.

  Piper grinned at the obvious tactic. “Louisiana State University,” she replied. “I majored in communications.”

  “Ah, so how did you hook up with Clinton?”

  “I responded to a want ad in the paper for an accounts receivable manager and eventually became the office manager until C-Corp bought the company. He made me his assistant when he was made Director of Operations.”

  “How long were you with TDE before the buyout?”

  “Three years. Can I ask a question?”

  “Sure.”

  “C-Corp is made up of eighteen different companies, usually when businesses are bought and sold they’re usually scrapped aren’t they?”

  “Sometimes. But each one was profitable, some very much so. All provided services that will be profitable well into the future so why not combine them? By doing so and departmentalizing each one you manage to keep the successful infrastructure and personnel in place.”

  “Hmmm.”

  “Most of the owners were happy to go along because it provided them with the opportunity to continue working and share in the profits of a much larger company. And since several of the acquisitions were local, the personnel remained pretty much intact.”

  “You seem to take a very hands off approach to running the company, why is that?”

  “Because I know very little about running a corporation, nor do I especially want to. Bringing the owners and managers over intact assured that every department could be run by the people who made it successful in the first place. All that was needed was personnel that could centralize the company as a whole and coordinate and manage the departments as one entity.”

  “So why did you pick John to be in the Captain’s chair?”

  “Several reasons, but mainly because he had no ego.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “If I had chosen any of the other acquired executives, they would have run things in the way that they were used to. John could differentiate between running his own company and being in charge of several others.”

  “I see. So why me?”

  “Because John bragged about you often and you had the experience under him to run things in a way accustomed to the norm. In addition, if I had tagged one of the others for the job I would be in the situation I was trying to avoid in the first place. I don’t want the company run the way they ran their own companies, C-Corp is bigger than that,” she hesitated. “And because you weren’t intimidated by me.”

  “Was John intimidated by you?”

  “No, like I said John had no ego, he just sort of breezed through life, but he was smart and ruthless when he had to be.”

  “Are those the qualities you see in me?”

  Bailey stopped and considered. “I think you’re the most unique person I’ve ever met,” she answered honestly.

  “Thank you,” Piper said demurely and eyed her own plate.

  “You’re welcome,” Bailey said happily, unreasonably proud to have put Piper on the spot for a change. “Did things go okay today? I only stopped into the office for a few moments and you weren’t there,” she added after a moment.

  “Yeah, I was requested for opinions over a new account. I get the feeling some people aren’t happy about my new status,” she admitted.

  “Did anyone say anything to you?” Bailey asked her eyes narrowing.

  “No, they were polite, it was just sort of an underlying attitude.”

  “Let me know if you have any problems, I’ll straighten them out.”

  “I’d rather handle it on my own.”

  “Why?” Bailey asked curiously.

  “Because they won’t respect me unless I do.”

  “Alright, I can understand that,” she nodded.

  “Besides, it would be embarrassing to have my girlfriend, who also happens to be the big cheese, swoop in and save me. It would be counter-productive I think.”

  Bailey was silent long enough that Piper took notice and reviewed the last thing she had said. She cringed a little bit when she identified the word she had spoken without thinking but really hoped was true. She was at a loss for words so she waited uncomfortably for Bailey to break the silence.

  “Is…” Bailey said not sure how to proceed. “Is… that what I am?”

  “What? The big cheese?” she offered brightly trying to sink into her chair.

  Bailey just sighed and Piper bit the bullet. “You mean my girlfriend?” she asked quietly.

  “Yes.”

  “I guess I sort of jumped the gun,” Piper
admitted embarrassed. “But I would very much like you to be, yes.”

  Bailey was extremely quiet for close to five minutes as Piper sat silently castigating herself and wishing that she would have a stroke or a sudden, fatal aneurysm that would alleviate the supreme awkwardness she felt.

  “Uhm…” Bailey finally started. “…The whole …uh …concept is very new to me as you already know…but I think that I would be…honored …to be your… uhm… girlfriend,” she finished saying the last word slowly to get her mind around it.

  Piper, who was wondering if she could hold her breath long enough to pass out, sat up straight in her chair at Bailey’s words and beamed her best smile across the table.

  “Really?” she asked happily.

  “Yes, I know enough to realize that you’ll have to help me along, but I … well… I like the way I feel when I’m around you and… well… I would really like that, I think.” She reviewed her words and winced. “That didn’t come out right,” she said and closed her eyes.

  “I think I know what you meant,” Piper said with a grin and mischievously added. “So, when do you want to meet my parents?”

  Bailey went extremely pale and Piper experienced a twinge of guilt but their waiter approached before she could let her off the hook.

  “Can I get you anything else?” he asked.

  “A Southern Comfort and soda with a twist, a double please,” Bailey said quickly and Piper laughed.

  “And you, Miss?” he asked looking at the Piper.

  “I’m fine, thank you,” she said between giggles.

  Piper waited for him to leave. “I was just teasing,” she admitted and watched as Bailey slowly regained her color and started to scowl.

  “I don’t think that was very funny,” she said seriously.

  “Well…it was kinda,” Piper offered, the ghost of a smile on her face.

  Bailey had the urge to cross her arms over her chest but refrained from instigating a repeat of Piper’s merriment from earlier. Instead, she tried her best to ignore Piper’s little grin and concentrated on finishing the last of her meal.

  Piper watched in extreme amusement as Bailey pouted while trying her best to look like she wasn’t. It struck her that the woman sitting across from her was very much like a child in some regards and she wondered about the secrets that she so obviously harbored. It must have been hard to lose part of her family to violence at such a young age and why no contact with the remaining members since then? She did the math and realized that Bailey would have been on her own for fifteen years and she obviously had very little experience in dealing with people on a personal level. However, she was no fool and had to have money and smarts aplenty to acquire a business the size of C-Corp. The scuttlebutt around the office was that she was a ruthless negotiator and a razor sharp mind. She had a hard time comparing that image to the one pouting across the table. It dawned on her that this was more than likely the first time in Bailey’s life that she had attempted to open up with someone and she was flattered to have been the one chosen. With that thought in mind, she again felt guilty for teasing her and resolved to try and be more careful in the future.