Long Time Coming

by Scarlett Parrish

  I wanted him to leave me alone so I didn’t get used to him. He’d spoiled it by coming in here today, ruined the fantasy. Now whenever I had a bad day I’d keep an eye out for him, hoping he’d show up to raise my spirits. Knew I would in turn be disappointed when he didn’t materialize. And I would hate him for causing such inevitable, deep disappointment. Why he couldn’t have stayed away I didn’t know.

  I entwined my fingers and rested my hands on the table but my thumbs worked around each other.

  His hand shot across the table to still both of my own, coming to rest on top of them and his touch after so long—only a brief period, but to me it felt like an age—was like a glass of cool water on a hot day. "Let’s go outside. Don’t tell me your boss would object."

  "She might."

  "Do you care?" His eyes dared me to say yes.

  "Actually..." I slid one of my hands out from under his, slowly, so he wouldn’t be startled into breaking contact. I massaged my temple. "After the few days I’ve had, no, I don’t think I do."

  "Good girl." He pulled back, adjusted his jacket yet again, and stood. I rose with him, looked around for one of my colleagues.

  "Lori! Lori." I caught her as she passed. "I’m going to take my break now. If anyone asks, I’m just going outside for a couple of minutes."

  "Boss lady won’t be pleased." She looked at me over an invisible pair of half moon spectacles, glaring like a school ma’am. Then grinned. "Ah, go on. Enjoy yourself." She glanced at Leo, back at me, and winked.

  "I’m entitled to a break anyway. If she objects, tell her I’ll be just out front. She can bite me if she likes."

  As I led the way out, Leo laughed just over my shoulder. "Atta girl." He stepped ahead, held open the customer door and followed me outside.

  The wind whipped at my ponytail as I stood off to one side, hugging myself against the sudden cold which wasn’t uncomfortable; in fact it was refreshing and surprisingly the outdoors was quieter than the inside of the diner, or at least less manic. People still rushed past, but they weren’t shouting. There was a gentle hum of traffic somewhere in the background but most of the streets in the city centre itself were either one way or pedestrianised.

  And of course I didn’t have to keep an eye out for people beckoning me over so they could make a request of me.

  "Hey." A gentle hand on the small of my back. "Let’s go somewhere."

  I looked up at him, the height difference emphasized by the fact today I wore flat, functional shoes. "Namely?"

  "God, you’re even tinier than I remembered." He made a show of looking down at my feet and tutting. "Damn those shoes. Still..." A shrug. "Round the corner. Somewhere out of the way. Less... less..." Leo’s hand didn’t move from my back as we strolled, heading for the nearest corner, away from the main streets and shopping centres. There was noise out here, sure, but it was impersonal and we could afford to ignore it.

  "You’ve had a rotten few days, then?" he prompted, stopping near an alleyway which led to the inner courtyard used as a dropping off point for delivery vans, surrounded by shop backs, storage units and staff entrances.

  "Yeah." My lips thinned out as I pressed them together painfully hard in an attempt to stop myself saying too much.

  "Well?" Hands in his trouser pockets, he hunched his shoulders against the light wind, facing me as I backed up against the brick wall and I didn’t feel enclosed. No, I felt protected from the elements.

  Protected from the elements and vulnerable to him.

  When he looked at me like that I wanted to spill my heart.

  "Oh, just... shit happens." I waved dismissively, looked away from him, focused on the middle distance to one side, people walking by, crossing the road, shop doors opening and closing.

  "Such as?"

  "Look." My spine stiffened as I turned back to him. "What is this about? Why do you care?" Immediately fought back the desire to kick myself.

  Leo’s eyes widened briefly, returning to normal once he’d gathered his thoughts. "Just asking."

  Don’t pretend you care. Don’t make me think you give a damn. Don’t make me get used to you being around to look after me. "Look, I just don’t want to bother you with my problems, that’s all. They’re not your concern, you can’t do anything about them, so... what’s the point?"

  "You never know."

  I huffed in amusement.

  "Try me."

  "Leo."

  "Come on." He gave my shoulder a squeeze, slid his hand down my arm, ran his thumb across the inside of my elbow. When I shivered it wasn’t from the cold. "Tell me."

  "Well." I plastered one of my special Hollywood smiles on and dived in. "My ex-boyfriend... the one you spoke to on the phone?"

  "Oh yes. Him." His hand didn’t move from my arm.

  "He decided to have sex with one of my best friends."

  "Ouch."

  "And yep, we’d split up, but even so..." I shrugged. Still, Leo’s hand maintained contact. Don’t make me get used to this, Leo. Take your hand away. Don’t let me crave your touch.

  "And you found out... how?" Concern furrowed Leo’s brow and the tip of his tongue wetting his upper lip distracted me.

  "He decided to tell me."

  "Oh. That was kind of him."

  "I say tell... more like show."

  Leo’s thick eyebrows shot up so fast I nearly laughed. "You caught them at it?"

  "No, no." I crossed my arms as a way of getting Leo to lift his hand away even though I didn’t want him to. It was for the best. "He showed up at my flat the other night with some excuse about picking up his CDs or some other nonsense. He had something for me. A thumb drive, to be exact. Anyway, he left it on the coffee table and once he left, I had a look, and..."

  Leo shook his head slowly. "I know where this is going..."

  "Uh-huh. Photos. He’d taken photos of him in bed with my former friend and taken the time to copy them onto a thumb drive and leave it at my house so I’d be sure to see them."

  "Jesus Christ, Piper. Has the guy got no class at all?"

  "Evidently not." I wiped my eyes with my fingertips, instantly regretting the action just as I’d earlier regretted snapping at Leo.

  "Are you..." He brushed a rogue strand of hair away from my face, leaving a trail of sparks under my skin where he’d touched me. "Are you crying?"

  "Absolutely not."

  "Liar."

  "Stop it, Leo. Or I really will get upset."

  "Well we can’t have that, can we?" His hand cupped the side of my neck, thumb grazing my earlobe. "Piper. I need... I want to ask you something." The hand fell away from my neck, came to rest on my shoulder and in that one movement went from flirtatious and borderline territorial to matter-of-fact and fraternal at best. "Are you still in love with this guy?"

  "Ha!" I couldn’t help but smile. "Good Christ, no." I could have sworn he exhaled at that. "Whatever gave you that... oh, because I’m upset? Leo. Let me tell you something about women."

  "I know it all, babe."

  "Not this, you don’t. There’s an unwritten code. You don’t go near your friend’s exes. You just don’t. Maybe after time. If everyone stays friends, fair enough. But this soon? No. And...fuck, she’d been drinking, so what sort of man takes advantage of a pissed woman?"

  "A sex pest?"

  "Basically, yeah. I could understand if he was anything special, but then she wouldn’t know what he was like in bed if it was the first time she...I just hope she didn’t go back for seconds or that’d make her as much of an idiot as I was. I feel so stupid that I ever went near the guy, but her too? And for him to go to all that trouble for me to actually see the evidence? He must really hate me."

  "Or... or he must really love you."

  "Please, Leo. Really. This is not what you do to a woman you love. You don’t fuck her friend and then show her the bloody evidence!"

  "Okay, not love. Jealousy. Longing. Lust." Concern flashed in his eyes. "Did he try it on with you?"

&nb
sp; "No..." I shifted from one foot to the other, wondering why I felt uncomfortable all of a sudden. "Do you think he...? No, he couldn’t possibly think of..."

  "Piper. Let me tell you something about men. We do. We always do. Whatever he’s thinking, he’s also thinking about his hurt pride and how he wants to get back at you and how he wants to get back into you."

  "Leo!"

  "Sorry, love, but it’s true," he said with a laugh. "Or maybe that’s just me." He crooked a finger under my chin. "Promise me one thing."

  "What?"

  "That you have no feelings for him. No romantic ones anyway."

  His request startled me, made me wonder why he cared what I felt for an ex, despite my previous assurances. "I don’t," I said truthfully. "I honestly don’t even feel hate for him. I just can’t be bothered."

  "Good." Leo nodded. "Well that’s good, then."

  "Why?"

  "Because love and hate are both passionate emotions and I don’t want to be..." He took his hand away from my face. "Whatever I am, I don’t want to be doing it with a woman whose thoughts are elsewhere."

  "Are we doing something?" Please don’t tell me you hear my heart pounding. Allow me the dignity of that, at least. Give my heart some privacy.

  "We were."

  Fuck you and your past tense.

  "And you never know, we might be again," he continued.

  Ah, well that’s okay. Desperate not to make my relief too obvious, I exhaled slowly. "You know what pisses me off the most? The damn drive fucked my laptop."

  Leo gave a sharp bark of laughter.

  "I’m not kidding! A virus or...or something. I don’t know, but—"

  "Piper, Piper, I’m not laughing at you, I’m just...I’m just glad you’re not... Anyway." He shrugged. "I’m glad you’re not upset over him. The computer. Is it really gone?"

  "Think so. Tried a few times to switch it back on, but nada. Completely fucked. I’ll just have to take it into a shop somewhere on my next day off and that’s all I need. Giving up a free day so some computer geek can poke around in my hard drive and—"

  "Piper, Piper, Piper, listen to me. That’s something I might be able to help you with."

  "How? Unless you’re some sort of tech genius as well as—"

  "I know a guy who runs a computer shop. He builds PCs, sells all the peripherals, does repairs. Anyway, it’s not much, it’s not like I’m fixing the thing myself, but I’m a regular, we’re business associates, so if I give him a call he might be able to knock a few quid off, friend of a friend kinda thing... Friend of a customer at least..."

  "Really?"

  "Yeah, honestly, Piper, don’t worry. It’s not that hard to get computers fixed these days. If it’s a virus your oxygen-thief ex cooked up, it shouldn’t be too hard to reverse it. Did you have everything backed up?"

  "Yes. There wasn’t that much on the computer. Games, music. Some photos..." I swallowed back my concern over the nature of some of those photos. I had them backed up; so it wasn’t me losing them which caused concern. It was anyone else finding them.

  Still, if my computer truly was ‘fucked’, to use a technical term, all that could be done was completely reformatting the hard drive surely? I wasn’t quite sure what that meant or involved, but I’d heard the term used before.

  "I don’t know how long it’ll take or how much it’ll cost for sure, but I’ve taken a few things in to be cleaned up and it’s usually about forty notes for a complete overhaul. You’ll get it back in a factory state, so thank God you have back ups."

  "Yeah... I guess it could be worse." Though how, I don’t know. I put my hand to my forehead and Leo lifted it away, holding on to it even when my face was exposed again.

  "Listen. I’ll call that guy; his name’s Richard. See what he says, and I’ll get back to you. Later on, text me the make and model of your laptop, that sort of thing. Then I’ll call him tomorrow. Right? Will that do you?"

  "I guess," I said with a sigh, realized I sounded ungrateful and plastered another smile on my face. "Yes. Thank you."

  "Hey, come on now." He was still holding my hand. I did and I didn’t want him to let it go. "Gimme a real smile."

  "Are you accusing me of faking it, Carson?"

  "Well if you are..." He took a step closer, inclined his head so his next words were but a whisper against my ear. "You’re the best actress I’ve ever come inside. Across. Across. The best actress I’ve ever come across."

  Electricity jolted through me and he turned his head ever so slightly, so his breath warmed the skin of my cheek. Nearly every damn word he said was flirtatious, every move he made was intimate, so wherever we were it was like he was speaking to me and only to me; there were people milling round us but none of them mattered. His attention and focus centred on me as if I was the one round whom the universe revolved and his ability to make me feel important was the sexiest thing about him.

  "I..." Pause. "I better get back to work."

  He inhaled. Held it. Slowly exhaled. As if breathing me in, holding me in his lungs before a need for oxygen forced him to let me go. "Yeah. Perhaps you had. Before... Well, there’s no telling what Leo Carson could do."

  I gulped. "I’ll get going then."

  "Yes." He didn’t move.

  "Back to the staff entrance."

  "Okay then."

  "It’s right behind me."

  "Is it?"

  "Right up this side street. I mean, I’ll be going up the back—no, I mean... behind... ah, fuck it." I took a deep breath. "Hell, Leo—you make everything I say sound dirty."

  "That’s me all over, darling. Leo Carson. One hundred per cent pure filth."

  "So dirty you affect what comes out of my mouth?"

  "So dirty I’m thinking about putting something in your mouth."

  "You..." But I gave up. Couldn’t think of anything to say to that but a rather limp, "I should go."

  "Where’s the staff entrance?"

  "Round back. Here." I thumbed over my shoulder and looked behind me. "You go up that narrow lane, there’s an inner courtyard where all the stock gets delivered. There’s a few shop backs there, staff doors, storage units and the like."

  "Can I see?"

  "There’s nothing interesting there," I said, still strangely excited at the thought of spending even another minute in his company. The thought of my boss wondering where I was flitted through my mind, how dare I take such a long break, and without checking with her, too... but I pushed that thought away. An ephemeral image of a diner manager against the reality of Leo? No contest.

  "It’s something I’ve always wanted to do." He looked past my shoulder to the alleyway he faced.

  "What, see the back of a shop?"

  "No, take you up the back alley." He ran his tongue along his top lip. "Piper, the look on your face. The way your eyes widened momentarily, like I had just—"

  "Stop it. Now, Leo."

  "Stop what?"

  "You know what. Stop being filthy."

  "I can’t, babe." He held his arms out to the side, palms facing me. "It’s in my DNA. I’m genetically programmed to be rampant." He laughed. "Leo the lion. Rampant."

  Shaking my head, I tried not to laugh. Sure, he was an incorrigible flirt, but endearing with it. I couldn’t be annoyed at him for keeping me out of the workplace when he spoke so freely of his own sex appeal. "Are you ever going to let me get back to work?"

  "I’m not stopping you."

  I turned on my heels, wondering from where I got the strength to show my back to him and hadn’t taken two steps before I felt his hand on my backside. My steps faltered and his laughter reached my ears as I skipped ahead a few steps.

  "Leo."

  "What?" Suddenly his voice was at my shoulder, him keeping pace with me as I walked up the cobbled alley, past weather-worn brickwork.

  "If people see you slap my arse then follow me up a side street, you know what they’re going to think?"

  "No, what?"

  G
lancing over my shoulder, I told him, "You do."

  "No, really, I—"

  "They’ll think we’re off for a bit of—"

  "Slap and tickle? How’s your father? A knee trembler up against the back door?"

  "All of the above."

  "As if I’d do that." He grabbed my elbow, pulled me back to him and dropped his voice to a throaty whisper. "I’m not perverted enough to make love to a damsel in distress up against a wall outside her place of work am I?"

  My heart pounded as I tried not to think about his use of the words ‘make love’. Not fuck or rail or pound. It probably meant nothing. It was just a phrase to describe the sex act, that was all. It didn’t make what we’d done any more romantic to describe the activity in such rose-tinted terms.

  "Keep walking," he said and I... obeyed. Like I had any other choice.

  "Why, Mister Carson! Is that a gun in your pocket-"

  "No, I am just pleased to see you." His footsteps slowed as we turned the corner into the inner courtyard. "So... this is it, huh? This is where you come every day... so to speak..."

  "Yes. It is. Now, if you’ll...I mean, I should..."

  "Get back to work?"

  "Exactly what I was about to say." I nodded, more to convince myself I was being decisive, than to persuade him of my determination.

  "Hmm..." He stroked his chin, looked around us, not just at the doors, but up, as if studying the higher floors of the buildings. I waited for him to tell me what he was thinking. He turned back to me, took one step closer then another, still with his hand to his jaw. "I wonder..."

  "Leo." I backed away. Not scared. Merely curious. "You’ve got that look on your face again."

  "What look?"

  "You know what look."

  "I don’t see any CCTV cameras around here."

  "Oh Christ."

  He grinned, ran his forefinger along his lips as he did so, as if trying to stop the grin evolving into a laugh. "I’m really tempted to just..."

  "Just what?" I blurted out, instantly realising my mistake. Leo Carson wasn’t the type to tell me what he intended to do. Any question would be answered with action, not words. The brickwork, rough against my palms as I backed against the nearest wall, hands behind my back, scratched my skin but I didn’t mind. I used the minor irritation as a way of keeping myself grounded. Self-aware.