When he’d asked her directly if she had seen Tibby, she shook her head with tight lips. “We’re not really good friends anymore, Seth.”
That had closed the door on that avenue. Then he’d gotten into flight school and met his wife, and Tibby became one of the things in his past.
So why had he been thinking of her?
Even now, it evoked a wistful, happy feeling. He’d been so sure she was someone special. He still couldn’t figure out what had gone wrong there.
The alarm went off. He closed down his musing into the past, and got up to start his day.
***
Dhameer
Another satisfied customer. Which was saying something, as this was getting a bit tricky. He checked in on Tibby. She was all right, as all right as anyone could be. One of the things he regretted was that by giving her exactly what her late night musings and dreams had suggested she wanted, he knew he’d be causing her pain. There was no way around it. Humans never wanted to hear that. They always felt they were so strong, and so capable. They never were. Tibby was doing well, and thus far, she hadn’t blamed him for anything except his timing.
He smiled. Her anger at being yanked from the wish at a crucial moment was funny. Well, to him. He wasn’t driven by the pleasures of the flesh. He wondered what would have happened if he had been. Some of his brethren had been able to experience physical intimacy. Dhameer couldn’t see where it had improved their existence. If anything, it degraded it. Added an unpredictable aspect to a life that was already hard to manage. He was happier without it.
He glanced in Tibby’s direction again. She’d made nice progress the night before, and she’d be up soon. Time enough for a check on the first wish, Rick, and then it would be time to see Tibby. He could feel her summons coming.
***
Tibby
When I woke up, I had a slight headache. When I got up, I drank several glasses of water, took a shower, and prepared to face the day. When I had primped as much as I could, and made sure that my house was in relative order, I went back to my room and called out for Dhameer.
He appeared almost instantly, perched on the foot of the bed.
“Morning, Toots. My, you’ve been a busy girl, haven’t you?”
“I figured you heard all that.”
“Not all. I do have things to do other than hover over you all day.”
“Perish the thought,” I said with a grin. “Can we talk before I whoosh out of here?”
“If you like. What would you like to talk about?”
“You said that wishes with you came with a catch, right?”
“Everything has a catch, Toots. It’s not an idea unique to me.”
“Well, part of the catch is that I don’t get to stay. And in the end, I don’t make the choice about where I end up, correct?”
“Correct. Where are you headed with this?”
“Does part of how the decision is made include whether or not I pull my head out of my ass and learn something from tripping through time?”
Dhameer didn’t speak immediately. “Why would you ask that?”
“I have had a lot of time to think about things as I take road B instead of the road A I took before. I feel like I’m learning things that I should have learned a long time ago.”
“Such as?”
“Well, when I was with Rick, I learned that I should have trusted my instincts, and him, and taken the chance. I remember that I was scared, and his blunt honesty made me really nervous. I also remember thinking it would have been hard for me to navigate a relationship with him, but if I had, I would have been better off. I also learned that I didn’t have to take shit from people, like I did with Dave when he trashed me. I put up with that crap even after he had graduated and disappeared from my life forever.
When I took a chance to see what happened with Seth, it showed me that once again, I did have good instincts with men. I just didn’t pay attention to them, and acted out of fear. I stuck with Tim when I didn’t need to. And because first Dave, and then Tim, hurt me, I carried that hurt forward into all future relationships. It was like a big scar that I could never get around.
I also let my friendships go to hell. That was something I hadn’t realized until you sent me back there. I didn’t take care of my friendships because I was too busy chasing guys and trying to heal something no one else could.” I took a deep breath. It felt good and bad to get this out. But once out, once said, I couldn’t take this back.
I continued. “I was really pissed when you yanked me just as Seth and I were about to be intimate. I sat here and stewed all night. I couldn’t figure out why that particular moment was a crossroads. Then, admittedly after a couple of glasses of wine, it hit me that I had never given sex the proper due. I didn’t respect it as a stepping stone for a relationship. It was just part of what happened, regardless of whether the relationship had a chance to be something long term or not. But it really is a big step in a relationship. I’d always heard that, but it never made a real impression in me in regard to my life.
So when I thought about where I wanted to go next, I was thinking that my first two do-overs were definitely romantically related, and I’m not sure that where I want to go next will be focused on the romance. I mean, it could be, but there’s no sure thing like there was with Seth and Rick.”
Once I finished, I just waited. I felt loads lighter. As though I had let go of a mountain-sized burden. The realization that I had been carrying around so much baggage was both alarming and freeing. Once I realized it was there, I had the choice to let it go, leave it behind. So that is what I was going to do. I was really interested to see what Dhameer would say, whether or not I was onto something or if my rampant navel gazing had finally driven me over the edge of sanity.
Dhameer looked at me for a few seconds before he spoke. “You have indeed been busy. This is more than I thought you would get out of this so far. Good for you. It will make things easier at the end of this.”
“That makes me glad to hear, Dhameer. Really glad to hear. Okay, is it time for the next one?”
“You know the drill, Toots.”
I closed my eyes and went back to that moment.
I was in the back hallway of the restaurant where the law firm was having the Christmas party. I wasn’t alone. One of the senior partners, one of the bad boys, was with me. He had his hands all over me, and we were in the throes of semi-drunken passion.
He was the partner I had been assigned to work with for this internship. I had worked with him all summer and then again during the winter break from school. We had flirted the entire time I had been interning there, and he had followed me back towards the bathrooms as I woozily made my way to the end of the hallway. He had grabbed me and started kissing me, and I figured, what the hell? He was hot, I was single, and it felt good. It was my last year at school, and I knew that he would offer me a job when I graduated.
Oh the stupidity of youth. What I didn’t know was that the partner’s wife was keeping an eye on him, and having seen him head this way, after observing our less than subtle flirtation, she was on his trail like a bloodhound.
As we were getting more involved, I heard someone come down the hallway. I looked up, although the partner I was with didn’t even take notice. It was Bryant. He had a look of near panic on his face.
“Tib! There you are. Come here, and hurry your ass up!”
At that, the partner did look up. “Mind your own business, buddy”, he slurred, and then turned his attention back to me. Bryant moved closer, so instead of waving him off like I had before, I kept looking at him. As the guy was trying to kiss me again, I had to shove him a bit.
“What the hell…” he muttered.
“What is it, Bryant?” I asked.
“His wife is headed this way. If she catches you, it won’t be him she’s mad at. C’mon, Tib. Don’t be stupid. Come with me, and save your ass.”
“Piss off, you little punk,” said the partner, whose name was
Gerry.
Bryant ignored him. “Tib, you know I’m here for you. Not like this guy,” he said with a look of disgust, glaring at Gerry.
Here it was. This was the moment. Had I told Gerry to piss off, I would not have dealt with the insane fallout of kissing a guy not worth wiping my ass with. His wife had caught us, and instead of rightfully divorcing her loser husband and taking him for all he was worth, she focused on me. While I certainly bore some of the blame, I didn’t bear it all. She had made it out as though I had accosted poor, poor Gerry. And Gerry, ass that he was, stood there and let me take the heat by myself. So it was a very bad call on my part, and I had been stupid to choose making out with some guy over a person who had been a friend for a long time and who actually cared about me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“You’re right, Bryant. So not worth it,” I said, giving Gerry and his many hands another shove. “Lead on. Get me the hell outta here.”
“I don’t think we can. C’mere, and do your best.”
“Wha—” but whatever I had said was cut off as Bryant yanked me to him, pulled me towards the other side of the hall into the alcove leading to the bathroom, and laid a kiss on me. None too soon, either. I could hear someone rapidly approaching from the other end of the hallway. The footsteps were angry. I could tell that the owner of the feet was on a mission. Bryant was right. The wife was headed this way, and he had rescued me just in time. I hadn’t been sure if this would be romantic. Maybe it would. I tried to concentrate on the kiss, but I found I was shaking with each click-clack of the wife’s high-heeled step…
“What in the hell?” Said Gerry.
“Gerald!” Said an angry voice. The click-clacking stopped.
“What? What, honey? I’m right here,” Gerry said, sounding much more alert.
“What are you doing? I’ve been looking for you everywhere!” Oh, yeah. She was pissed. I didn’t remember how angry she was, but I was pretty hazy about most of that night.
“I hadda go to the bathroom!” said Gerry. My lord, he was only one step above a toddler’s whine! I had tossed away so much for that? Now I was pissed. How drunk had I been?
“Well, what are you doing standing in the hallway?” She asked.
“They’re blocking the door!” he said defensively.
“Excuse me!” said the woman, and I could tell she stepped closer to us.
“Hmmm, sorry?” Said Bryant, breaking away from me, sounding dazed. “Whatdidja say?”
“You are blocking the door to the restroom! Please take this…this whatever it is… somewhere else,” she said.
“What? Oh!” said Bryant. “Mrs. Goodman! I’m sorry! We just wanted a little privacy, didn’t realize anyone else was here. Sorry about that. C’mon, Tib, let’s go home.” He looked down at me with an adoring smile.
He was good. Wow. I owed him big. I giggled, so that I looked like a silly girl, and said, “All right, honey. Probably a good idea.” I hugged him close, and then smiled up at Mrs. Pinch-Faced Goodman. I could tell she was sure she was going to catch him with me. She seemed disappointed she hadn’t. Well she was Gerry’s problem, and he was hers.
“Again, sorry about blocking the way.” said Bryant.
“Yeah, really sorry,” I said with a big smile, making like I’d had a little too much Christmas cheer. “We’ll get out of your way now.” And I turned to Bryant, squeezing his waist as he pulled me away. We hadn’t gone far when we heard the missus start hissing at Gerry. Like I said, his problem. Bryant hugged me close all the way to the end of the hallway. Once we came out into the dining area, he broke away from me but took my hand.
“Let’s get our stuff and get the hell outta here,” he said. “Keep the cover going.”
I nodded, keeping a smile plastered on my face. I could see now why things went the way they did. After Mrs. Goodman had caught me with Gerry, she had blacklisted me with the other wives. They, in turn, had bent their husbands’ ears, and I had been let go from the internship. I was a pariah at school, but that didn’t last long. Mrs. Goodman, not happy with merely ending my internship, had gone to the Dean and complained, using the Ethics Code against me, and gotten me tossed out of school. Since I had only half a semester to go, it was really hard to try to transfer. What I found when I did try was that my ethics violation had followed me like a bad smell. After a year, I had given up trying, since it seemed like everyone knew I had kissed the old trout’s husband.
I wondered how many other young women she had done this to. Gerry didn’t seem like a stranger to diddling the staff. What an asshole. As I gathered my purse and my coat, I resolved to find out if any other women had suffered because of the asshole Goodmans. Not excusing fooling around with a married guy, but this had been overboard. What they both deserved was to go broke divorcing one another.
Bryant caught up with me, pulling on his coat. “You got everything? Let’s get while we can.”
As we left, several of our fellow interns called out. Bryant just waved at them, and I made sure to give them a boozy smile. I could feel the gossip welling behind us. There had been rumors all through school about us, and neither of us would ever admit to anything, mostly because there was nothing there. It didn’t stop the gossip, though. Bryant was brilliant. It would look like we had both had a little too much to drink and finally admitted our mad passion for one another, and the whole Goodman fiasco would be a blip on the radar.
We didn’t speak until we were safely in his car.
“You. Idiot.” He said. “Do you realize how close you came to losing everything? That old bitch would have wiped the floor with you!”
“I am an idiot,” I said. “Thank you so much for saving me from myself and my own stupidity.”
“You’re welcome. What in the hell were you thinking?”
“I wasn’t. Well, I was, but not with my head.”
“I swear to hell, you’re worse than any guy I know.”
“Not really. Just a moment of stupid weakness. Which you, being the amazing friend you are, rescued me from.”
“Please try to keep your weakness to yourself. I don’t want to have to keep rescuing you from cheesy old guys and their harpy wives.”
I shuddered. “She was really awful, wasn’t she? I don’t know why I didn’t realize how awful she was. Not that I have much excuse, but damn.” Only I knew how awful she would really be, and Bryant had saved me from more than he knew.
“Well I’m sure you and Ger didn’t chat about the little woman at home.”
I rolled my eyes. “We didn’t really chat about anything at all.”
“’Course you didn’t. He’s a total tool.”
“Thank you, Bryant.” He just looked at me with a disgusted face. “No, seriously, thank you. I think you more than just save me from a tool. I think that old bag would have ruined me.”
“I don’t know about that. She’s gotta be used to Gerry screwing around.”
“No, I think she would have gone for blood with me.”
“I don’t know for sure, but let’s say I do so you stop fucking around with married jackasses.”
“Deal. You know the gossip is just rolling through the party right now. You’re going to have to pretend to have a mad passion for me for a little while.”
“I can’t tell everyone what a crap drunk you are and just be your friend?”
“Well, sure, but you have to wait a couple of weeks to do it. That way, neither of us get any further beady eye from the dragon lady.”
“It’ll be tough. I’ll do it, but you’re gonna owe me.”
Ah. “What do I owe you?” My first thought went to something less than savory, but I knew Bryant. He had never once been shitty with me. I didn’t think he would now, but…you could never tell with people. Oh, god. Please don’t let him be disappointing! Please let me be the loser with crappy expectations.
“You have to take your bar exam with me and then open our own firm together.”
I hadn’t expected this. I had
told Dhameer that I didn’t know if this was romantic or not, but that it felt like a turning point.
“You’re serious?” I asked.
“Absolutely. I’m focused on international, and you are looking at admiralty. We could form a great practice together. All we need to do is get a couple of really solid clients, and we’re in.”
I thought about it. I hadn’t been sure what I wanted to do, family or maritime. Both were interesting to me, although on completely opposite sides of the legal spectrum. Bryant made a good argument. His international focus with my maritime would allow for us to represent any number of clients who worked globally and had shipping concerns. We could create a niche for ourselves. I doubted we would be rich—not filthy rich, anyway. Well-off, probably. It wasn’t necessarily a glamorous field, but both Bryant and I were doing well in our specialties.
It could work. It would keep me away from sleazy partners. I just had to make sure that Mrs. Goodman didn’t spread her nasty gossip, as she’d done previously. Hopefully, Bryant’s ruse would work. If we let it slip that we were going into business together…I tapped my finger against my mouth. This could work. It would afford Bryant and I the opportunity start something big on our own. Before I went any further with this, I needed to clear my own head on a couple of things. This time around, I would not let sex dictate my life. Even with this chance.
“So, what was that kiss back there? We’ve never been like that.”
“It was to throw off the gorgon. No time for her man if you were busy with your own. Plus, you’re my best friend. I can’t let you fuck yourself over.”
How had I missed this? He was like X, and to an extent, like Danni. I wondered if she and I were still friends in this wish world. I hoped so. But I had no idea. What made me sad was the fact that I thought X was my only friend. He didn’t have to be. I’d had more. I just didn’t see it.
“That’s all it is, though? Nothing more than that?” I tried to keep my tone neutral.
Three Wishes: Time Traveler Romance (Heart Of The Djinn Book 1) Page 14
