She hadn’t thought of it that way, but after hearing and reading it…she agreed with it.
They reviewed everything, and she stuffed it back into the manila folder given to her.
“Go home, and sleep on it, Sinclair. Tomorrow, everything will seem different.”
Sinclair hugged Daniel. “Thank you.”
She left, and rushed down the hallway to her office. She checked one of the clocks on the wall. It was seven-thirty. Chance might have left. She wanted to call him to let him know she was on her way home, and fill him in on what had happened.
Her office door was closed.
Maybe Raquel was on the other side with a bag of rocks or something.
Slowly, she twisted the knob, and opened the door.
Chance had pushed two chairs together, and slept with his head leaning against the wall. Before she reached him, his eyes opened. He pushed at the chair underneath his feet, and placed them on the ground. He patted his thigh with one hand, and she went to him.
Over dinner, she and Chance laughed, and shared their stories about the day. She felt a little sorry for Raquel. Maybe she shouldn’t sign, and turn in the document. She showed it to Chance.
He read through it. “I think you should do it.”
“But, what about you? You’ll still be here.”
“Don’t worry about me.” Chance cleared away the empty plates, and put them in the dishwasher.
“Why not?”
“My contract here ends. I’ll go somewhere else.” He stood with his back to her.
“Really? Could you come to Georgia?”
“Georgia.”
She walked into the kitchen, and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Yeah, it would be so nice. My Grandmother left me a house. We could fix it up. You could help me with my parents’ restaurant.”
He turned, and encircled her in his arms. “Sounds good.” He kissed the top of her head, then placed a thumb underneath her chin, and lifted her eyes to meet his. “Maybe, but not right away.”
Sinclair’s heart sank. She didn’t know what she was going to do without him. Coming home to him every night, and waking up with him every morning made her feel so loved. “Okay.” She tried to pull away, and walk into the other room.
He didn’t let her go.
Chance hated lying to her. He had every intention of doing everything she asked, and more, but he didn’t want her to know. Not quite yet.
“Hey, next week I’ll be gone. I promised Steve I’d do one last assignment before my contract ended.”
She looked up at him with a question. “Now? You have to leave now?”
“I know. It is really poor timing, but I’ll be back, and you know I’m flying down right behind you. I’ll be there for a few weeks. Then I’ve got an engagement.”
Every word he spoke seemed to break her heart more. Sadness covered her face. He couldn’t take it. He wanted to drop to one knee, and propose to her right there in the kitchen next to the rattling dishwasher, but he had a plan, and part of his plan included a gift his father had left him for his future. One he hadn’t thought about much, but now he knew what he wanted that future to be, and who he wanted it to include.
“Baby, why don’t you go and call your mother. I know she’ll make you feel better. Let me work on some of the paperwork I brought home before bed.” He tapped her softly on her bottom. Maybe he shouldn’t have. His body instantly responded to the feel of her supple body. At that moment, he didn’t want her to walk away, especially not unhappy.
Heavy footed, she trekked to the master bedroom.
Once more, he glanced over his shoulder. He sat at the table, and pulled out the pictures of engagement rings and the contractors’ work her mother had sent him. Even though he didn’t want to leave, he needed to fly down buy the ring, and inspect the work. The deadline loomed. He didn’t think the contractors would finish on time, but her Mom, his Mom, thought they would. After hours of review, he had scribbled several notes in the margins of the printed pages. He stashed the pages away in his briefcase, and joined Sinclair in bed.
Sinclair tightly gripped the manila folders in her hand as she labored down the hall toward her meeting. Once or twice, she stopped to catch her breath. The black suit she’d chosen to wear constricted her breathing. With the flick of a few buttons, the suit jacket flew open, and she felt slightly better. Jill or Zulema had called her every day for the past week asking her about the papers. She’d wanted to sit on it for a while. She wasn’t getting cold feet or anything, but she did want Chance to be with her, but he couldn’t.
Whether they agreed, and signed or called her crazy, and cursed her out, she didn’t know. But, she wanted to come home, and curl up on her side of the bed next to him when it finished.
They’d decided to meet in Jill’s office. Zulema sat in one of the two chairs positioned in front of the desk. Cachinnated laughter met her at the door.
“What’s so funny?”
Both women gawped at her.
Clearing her throat, Jill said, “Nothing Sinclair. Come in.”
The air in the room whispered Sinclair’s name. She knew for a fact from the innocent look in their eyes that their conversation definitely had been about her.
“I’m glad you agreed to meet with us today, Sinclair,” said Zulema.
Sinclair joined the two women, and sat in the empty chair next to Zulema. She reached into her manila folder, and withdrew their copies of her college reviews. Their opinions of her work along with Daniels, and her sales reports would all count toward her field study, and her Masters. Then she handed each of them a copy of her revised HR waiver. Without urgency or irritation, she waited for each woman’s reaction. Zulema signed her review and returned it to Sinclair, then Jill.
Jill read over the waiver, first. Heedfully, she turned each page, initialing each one as she read. Zulema flipped through the pages with more ease. Jill stalled. Sinclair could only assume she had finally reached her revised pages. Jill’s heated glare met Sinclair’s calm gaze.
Jill tapped her pen on the page she was reading. “Sinclair, what is this?” She spoke directly to Zulema. “Did you see this?” Her pen tapped at the page.
Zulema’s languid page turn halted. “What page are you on?”
“Page six.”
Zulema flipped backwards until she reached page six. Each word darkened her complexion.
“What do you mean?” asked Sinclair.
“What’s this clause Sinclair?”
“Read it to me.”
Jill heeded her request, and read the clause.
“Oh, that one. What do you think it is?” asked Sinclair.
“Sinclair, answer me.” Jill had anger in her voice.
“Jill I refuse to leave here, and have Raquel and her father after all they’ve done to me sit here at their desk like nothing happened.”
Zulema said, “You didn’t make us aware of your dissatisfaction.”
Sinclair shifted in her seat to face Zulema. “Well, I’m making you aware of it, now.”
“Sinclair, we could fight you on this.”
“Yes, you could, but do you think you’d win? Fight me if you want.”
Sinclair couldn’t believe the words came out of her mouth, but they did.
“Sinclair, I thought we had an understanding,” said Jill.
“No, we didn’t, but now we do.” She stood. “Take your time, and think about it.” If she stayed a moment longer, she didn’t know exactly what she’d say or do. Without another word, she turned, and walked out of the office as easily as she walked in. This time, there was no laughter.
The days that passed were quiet. She didn’t hear anything from Jill, Zulema, Raquel or Michael. She hadn’t even seen Veronica.
Jill walked into her office on her last day, without knocking. With a limp wrist, she flung a copy of the waiver at her without one single red line. Cool judgment told her to flip through each page. “Nothing has been changed. You can sign it.”
She glanced up from the pages. “It’s not like I don’t trust you or anything.” Then she returned her attention to the document. As she read, Jill verbally renounced Michael, Raquel, and Veronica’s actions. She also noted that an assistant in her office resigned. Jill didn’t say much more after that.
Sinclair signed, and Jill left.
Chance met Sinclair at her office promptly at 5:00 p.m. Together, they walked to the cafeteria where everyone Sinclair had worked with surrounded a table loaded with cake and gifts. Janet, Daniel, Craig, Bridget, Sharon and everyone else in the room embraced Sinclair as if she walked a receiving line at a wedding.
She succumbed to the emotion in the room. With Chance by her side, she ate cake, unwrapped gifts, and laughed.
Sinclair’s flight home to Georgia wasn’t scheduled to leave for a few days, but she felt hollow inside. Chance would not be with her every day. She would actually have to wait a week or two before he joined her, and then he’d only be there for a few weeks.
Chance lay naked beside her watching television. He surfed through the channels without any sort of goal: shiny car, loud sports event, half naked woman, interchangeably they caught his attention for a short moment. The only thing she could think about was that in a day or two he would not be beside her, but a thousand miles away. How could he be so calm?
She snuggled next to him. “Will you miss me?”
The remote control fell from his hand. He cupped her bottom, and embraced her. “I already miss you.”
Salty tears mixed with their kisses. As their passion increased everything around her disappeared. Her focus was on him.
Chance’s skin tingled as Sinclair softy dragged her erect nipples the length of his body. When she reached his groin, she used her hands to control and direct the up and down movement of her breasts along the length of his stiffening rod.
Her wet tongue circled his penis focusing on the underside. Each tender touch of her tongue heightened his joy. Her breasts kneaded his organ with the stealth of a trained masseur. For a moment, she halted, but only to crawl up his body, and tend to his hard nipples while her hand continued to stroke his rod.
Her mouth reached his neck, and he couldn’t take it. He flipped her onto the bed, threw her legs over her head, and plunged his body deep into hers. Her inadvertent exclamation scared him. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” She grabbed his butt, and pulled him deeper.
The sensation overwhelmed him. He sped up his thrusts to match his excitement. She moaned; he panted. They both convulsed, and then Chance rested for a moment on top of her until he realized the weight of his body was pressing her into the mattress.
Sinclair cried the entire time they were at the airport. She wouldn’t leave his side to head for her gate until minutes before her flight. She didn’t care if she missed it, but he needed her to get on her flight so he could get on his.
He’d arranged everything with the packers, movers, as well as organizing the transport for his car by train, and Craig would take care of any loose ends. He hurried through the small airport to the other side where United’s flights departed.
After stuffing his bag in the overhead compartment, he belted himself in, and leaned against the headrest behind him. He stared out the window, and imagined Sinclair’s reaction to his plans for them. He fell asleep staring at the clouds over Pennsylvania.
An hour and a half later, Chance awakened from his deep sleep, first by the sound of the landing gear, and then by the bounce and vibration of the wheels on the runway. He was in Atlanta, Georgia. Sinclair’s parents wanted to pick him up from the airport, but he opted for a taxi to avoid questions and suspicion.
Sinclair’s parents had taken care of everything: new windows, hard wood floors, stainless steel appliances in the kitchen. The house smelled brand new. The money from his father’s life insurance policy renovated the house, helped Mr. and Mrs. Mosley with the restaurant, bought the ring in his pocket, and they still had enough in the bank for a rainy day. He took his bags to their new bedroom, closed the door sat on the floor and waited.
He heard the front door open.
It felt like forever waiting for them to enter the room, but when Sinclair entered he forgot he’d been waiting. He wanted the expression on her face to be frozen in his mind forever.
Her smile filled him with joy as she ran into his arms, and sobbed on his chest.
Her parents stood in the doorway behind her. Tears ran down his future mother-in-law’s, his mom’s face. He stared at his mom and dad, then at the woman he wanted to be his wife.
Sinclair gazed into his eyes. “Did you do all of this?”
“We all did it.”
“I can’t believe you’re here.”
“I told you I’d be right behind you.” He dropped to one knee “I’ve never met a woman I couldn’t live without, until I met you. For so long, I’ve been alone. I don’t want that anymore. I want to share my life and my name with you. Will you marry me?”
Teardrops rolled down her cheeks, and dripped into his hair. She tried to wipe them away, but he stopped her. His hands trembled. The ring he held between his fingers shook, but he slid the ring on her finger, and waited.
“Yes.”
A simple word, but it changed his life. He held her, tightly. He would never let her go. For the first time, he’d given love a chance.
The End
www.AngelaKayAustin.com
Author Bio:
Currently, I work as a Director of Marketing and Promotions for a privately owned commercial real estate development company. Formerly, I wrote for Rithm ‘n Blues, a webzine. I am a member of RWA, Washington Romance Writers, Chick Lit Writers of America, and From the Heart Romance Writers.
Red Rose Publishing
Love’s Chance
Love's Chance Page 15
