2X The Hear

by Nicole Elliot

  For our honeymoon, we went to the island, naturally. It was fun to relive the memories of our first trip there – spontaneous and magical. We took the boat out, making love on the deck, and not only on the deck. We hiked and surfed, and at some point, Owen even wanted to teach me to fly the plane, but the pilot advised against it. I agreed.

  We had truly started our life together. It was odd to think of the times when we’d not been together. It was as if that had happened to someone else. The more I got to know my husband, the more I loved and admired him, and the feeling was mutual.

  I was lucky.

  We were lucky.

  A month after our honeymoon, we learned that Declan’s cancer had gone away for good. There was no trace of it left. He looked healthy and happy, finally. I even stopped joking about his gaining weight.

  One evening, when we were cooking dinner, I said, “You know, had you asked me a year ago if this is where I saw myself, I would’ve laughed in your face!”

  Owen smirked. “Tell me about it. I’d have told you I saw myself spending weekends at the Chicago Buyer’s Club!”

  We always had a good laugh when someone mentioned the club.

  “Whatever happened to it, by the way?”

  “Oh you know,” Owen said, “it always seems to be there. Waiting to make its next match.”

  Thank you so much for reading Wanted!

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  Don’t go just yet, there’s more to read!

  Doctor’s Fake Proposal

  A Bad Boy Fake Marriage Doctor Romance

  By Nicole Elliot

  One

  Cole

  “I can't believe you did it again,” my uncle said, his hands trembling from all of his pent-up rage. He was pacing again, I fucking hated when he paced. Reminded me of my father, all those years ago.

  “It wasn't that big of a deal.”

  He turned on me, I could see the veins pulsing in his temple. “It wasn't that big of a deal? Are you kidding me? You stole a boat! Not just any boat but the prized yacht of one of our biggest investors! And then you spent a night in jail when you got caught. Have you learned anything? Have I taught you anything? I have failed your parents Cole. I failed them! And there's nothing that I can do to stop you this downward spiral of yours.”

  I rolled my eyes. “This isn’t a downward spiral, don’t you treat me like I'm one of those Hollywood harlots on some drug addiction. I don't need to go to rehab.”

  “Are you sure? Because I'm not anymore. I should've left you in jail this time. See how you liked it.”

  “Fine leave me there. And no, I don't need fucking rehab. I don't do drugs.” Okay so that wasn't completely true, but a few recreational activities here or there didn’t make me an addict. I wasn't about to explain that to him, especially when he was in this state. There was no hope in him. And there was no stopping the amount of complaints running straight at me.

  “What does that girl of yours say about all this? Was she with you last night?”

  Girl? Shit. That's right. At the last family dinner, something my uncle insists that we do every other week, I had lied and told him that I had gotten serious with a girl that I met in college. Totally bought into all the second chance shit. That we dated way back then and now we had rekindled our relationship. I have no idea how he bought that. It was the only way for me to get him to shut up about the fact that I refuse to settle down. And now here it was, biting me in the ass. Why did my lies always catch up with me?

  “No, she wasn't there. She doesn’t know anything about this.” Wasn’t that the truth, because didn’t fucking exist.

  “How doesn’t she know anything about this? Didn't you call her?”

  “No. You are my one phone call, so in prison that's a real thing. It wasn’t like I was playing Candy Crush on my phone while I was sitting there waiting for six hours for you to come pick me up.”

  I watched as a small smile crossed his face. Of course, he had made me wait, that bastard. And there I was sitting in the drunk tank with some guy who was singing 80s ballads like it was his job. Not exactly my idea of a good Friday night. Sure the first half of been fun. I walked down to the dock with a bottle of Petron and I got myself drunk. And then I decided to drive a boat, one where I knew where the keys were. So what if he was an investor? I'm sure that he had done things in his youth that he could see that I needed a release, a moment away from it all.

  Hell, didn't I need a release.

  I hadn’t fucked a girl for at least two weeks, I think that was a new record for me. It was time to move on, Sasha, my real ex-girlfriend had come to me because she didn't think our relationship was “going anywhere”. I don't know what kind of bullshit that was but I was over her real fast. Except I hadn’t gotten a pussy since. So instead I stole a yacht. It wasn't like I even really stole it. I knew the keys were, I only took a few miles out from the dock, and it wasn't like I could get anywhere anyway without a crew.

  Word of advice don't ride around on a 64-foot Catamaran by yourself. Everybody got their panties all up in a bunch about it, and the freaking Maritime police had to go and put me in the slammer for the night. I never did find out why rock ballad dude was in there, I'm guessing because the singing was that horrible.

  “I've had enough of this Cole, your antics, your lawlessness.”

  “What is this the Wild West? I made one mistake!”

  He raised an eyebrow at me and I watched as his arms crossed his chest. He was in the navy suit, like always. Navy suit, red tie. My father always wore navy suits and robin's egg blue tie.

  And then there was me, I hated suits. It was one of the reasons I joined the Army. So I could get away from all of this, from the life that they wanted to build for me. I guess that's what happens when you're sixteen and your parents die in a helicopter crash. Find ways to move on. People to move on with.

  “You act like it is! Listen this is the last chance I'm giving you. While you use some of that military background you invested so much time into. You gave them ten years Cole, why don’t you utilize some of your skills?”

  “What the hell does that mean? Is there somebody that you need shot?”

  Truth was, I was a good shot. But that wasn't what I was trained for.

  “No. I have a better idea. You use your medic skills. Aren’t you a doctor?”

  I sighed heavily. “You know that I am. I finished med school as part of my training. Why?”

  “Because that's what you're going to do. You have one month, one month that you will completely dedicate yourself to the children's hospital downtown. For free, and you have one month to get that girlfriend of yours to agree to marry you. If you don't, I’m cutting you off.”

  My mouth dropped open. Could he even do that? All that money was willed to me in my parents’ estate. Sure I had been spending a little bit since getting out of the service, but it wasn't his to take away. “What are you talking about?”

  “I'm going to put it in a trust. All of the money that was willed to you is shares within this pharmaceutical company. It was one of the reasons that your parents wanted you to become a doctor. At least that part of what they wished for you came true, even if you went about it in different means than they were planning.” He was referring to the fact that I didn't end up at some Ivy League school. Again, they died, I needed a new family. The military provided me that.

  “So you want me to donate my medical knowledge? That doesn't just happen. I'm not just going to get some random free job for a month at the Children's Hosp
ital.”

  “Sure you are. I'm on the board, I can get you any job I want to. Maybe I should have you start as a nurse, clean bedpans for your indiscretions?”

  My blood was boiling underneath my skin. How dare he do this to me? “And my girlfriend? You think I can just make this happen out of thin air?”

  “According to you at our last dinner, it's quite serious. She may actually like it if you propose, show her and me that you’re ready to settle down and start acting like an adult.”

  Fuck. Not only did I just get assigned the job that I would never want, but now I had to find a girlfriend, hell a fiancé. And as I sat in that gray office as the rain slid down the window outside I looked over the city and thought how the hell was I going to make it through the next thirty days?

  Two

  Addison

  I curled my hair around my index finger just as I did every time I was nervous. It wasn't something I noticed in myself, but my sister, Elizabeth, always noticed and pointed it out.

  “What's wrong?”

  “What do you mean? Nothing is wrong.”

  “Well, you're sweating for one. Two you've got the curlyhaired thing going on, and three you are pounding on that keyboard so loud that I'm sure neighbors upstairs can hear you. So again, what's wrong?”

  Stupid big sisters, they always called you out on your shit. “Fine, you know the new security system for the law firm? I want to make sure that our client's files are as secure as possible. I mean without that why would they come to us? You know that discretion is our biggest attribute of the company. But I keep getting denied access to some of my codes. It doesn’t make any sense because I built the system, I have access to everything! I just don't understand why I'm getting locked out.”

  Elizabeth stood from the kitchen table and walked around behind me staring at the screen. Sure indiscretion was big of a law firm, but when you and your sister are both coders, you help each other out.

  “What about this line here?” She pointed at the screen. The line of code that she was referring to I hadn't written. “I've no idea. I didn’t put that in there.”

  She made a face and took the three tiny steps that she needed to take to be into the kitchen of our small apartment.

  “You made a face. Why did you make a face?”

  She shrugged as she poked her head into the refrigerator to grab a bottle of wine. “I mean it's probably nothing.”

  “What is nothing, Elizabeth?”

  “Well the last time I had one of my codes changed, it meant that I was getting the boot. Somebody was double checking my work and they didn't like what they saw. I'm really sorry Addison. But I think you're getting fired.”

  My mouth dropped open. I couldn't get fired. We were barely affording this apartment with the two of our incomes combined. Manhattan was expensive as hell. If I got fired, I don't know what we would do. I don't know how we would make it.

  “Are you sure? Elizabeth focus. Are you sure that's what happened?”

  She brought a glass of red over to me and sat down across us at the table and began seriously typing. She turned the laptop screen around so that I could see it and pointed to the screen. There was a picture of a guy younger than us, with black framed glasses and a big dopey smile. “See this kid? And he is a kid. He's fresh out of college, ten years younger than me. He does a great job. He can code faster than I could. Faster and cheaper is what a company is always looking for. That software is being recoded, it's because they consider you antiquated. So instead of trying to update their security system tonight, you should start looking for jobs.”

  I rolled my eyes at her. As much as I loved Elizabeth and our sisterly bond, sometimes she had a flair for the dramatic. So I shut my computer, but instead of looking for jobs I grabbed my laptop and my wine and headed to my bedroom. Watching a good rom com and drowning my sorrows in a glass of red would be the only thing I accomplished for the evening.

  Three

  Addison

  “Addison! Come in here!”

  I grabbed my tablet and my lukewarm cup of coffee and hustled into my boss's office. He was nearly twice as old as I was, and maybe three times the size of me. He sat in his ancient office chair that someone had gifted to him when he graduated college eons ago and flattened his tie over his exceedingly large stomach. The buttons were bulging underneath it.

  “Yes. Mr. James? You wanted to see me.”

  He smiled at me as he crossed his hands over his protruding belly. “Yes. Sit.”

  I sighed. The grand office Mr. James sat in had a way of making people feel like they were small, the guests’ office chairs were uncomfortable to say the least. I felt the scratchy material against my skin, a tank top was apparently not a good choice for this hot summer day. I set the tablet down in my lap but I clutched onto my coffee like a lifeline. Some peoples would say that I was a caffeine addict, I would say that I was a coder. I guess you would think same difference.

  “I noticed that you are working on the security protocols. How's that going?”

  I took a sip of my coffee before responding. “Quite well. I mean I noticed some discrepancies in the code, but I'm sure that I can iron out the details.”

  He raised an eyebrow at me. “I can tell you exactly why you saw discrepancies within the coding.”

  Here it was, Elizabeth was right. I was being replaced.

  “We’ve been hacked.” I nearly dropped my coffee all over my shiny tablet. Hacked? That was my job. To make sure we weren’t. Shit.

  “I'm sorry?”

  “You should be Addison. Since it's your job to make sure the security protocols are developed enough that no one can break in. You know our clients prefer their discretion. We’ve violated that trust, we’ll lose at least two clients over it. You know how I like to work on retainer.”

  Did he ever. Mr. James hadn't stepped foot into a courtroom in probably fifteen years He lived off of clients’ previous settlements. Most of the time he never screwed up enough to have to actually work. It was rare that he had to do a settlement nowadays. Losing two clients on retainer was like telling Mr. James that doughnuts had gone extinct. I was in so much trouble.

  “I don't understand. I built that all myself, it's ironclad.”

  “Apparently it's not strong enough. So I thank you for your time but your services are no longer required here.”

  “You're firing me?”

  “It appears that way. We can't afford to have issues like this. So while I appreciate your position, and you've been good to this company for the past two years, it's time for you to move on. Maybe somewhere that doesn't need a security system built quite as strongly as we do. Pack your things and leave.”

  I sat there for a moment longer unsure of what to do with myself. I had never been fired before, hell I hadn't even quit anything. I was someone who always saw a project through. I could hardly understand where had I had gone wrong.

  “Addison, leave. Don't make me call security.”

  I nodded just as the tears prickled my eyes. I stood and exited his office as quickly as possible. After walking down the hall and into my shared office I grabbed my things and shoved them in my purse. The only thing I had to carry was my laptop and my coffee. None of the other software techs said anything to me, I doubt they even realized that I'd been fired. We all used to sit there with our headphones in jamming out to music while we wrote code or did research for the lawyers, hacking into companies and finding out things that no one was supposed to know. We weren't really friends, just warm bodies that filled the same room. No one's eyes even met mine as I tearfully walked out the door.

  What the hell was I going to do? Where would I go? As I walked out of the building and into the hot summer sun my heels clicked on the concrete and I began walking home. Sure I had usually taken the Metro but I didn't feel like I should just go home. I didn't feel like that was where I belonged. So instead I just kept walking until finally I rounded a corner and saw a pub in front of me with its doors wide op
en.

  Time to drown my sorrows, time to come up with a new plan.

  Four

  Cole

  I sat down at the bar of my favorite pub and ordered a whiskey.

  “On the rocks, as usual.”

  The bartender, an older man with graying hair nodded to me as he put down the glass that he was cleaning and picked up a short one to fill for me. The place was practically empty, it was the middle of the day. I was actually surprised that they would even serve me this early, I had never been in here at this time before. But after the discussion with my uncle yesterday I had a completely awful afternoon. I spent the entire day going through my phone book to see if there were any girls would even consider going on a date with me. And I had hundreds of girls in my book, and those were just the girls whose names I could remember. The ones I liked enough to get their phone number. Most of the numbers were disconnected, or some of those girls I hadn’t talked to since before I left the military. A couple had been the girls I would sleep with when I was home on leave but surprise surprise a few of them were married already.

  I was totally screwed.

  Just as the bartender set my drink down in front of me I noticed a girl at the end of the bar setting up a laptop. She pushed her glasses up on her nose and began typing furiously, she was pretty but not in a way that I usually was interested in.

  She looked smart, it wasn't that I didn't like smart girls, but that wasn't what I was looking for. No brilliant girl who brought a laptop computer to the bar was going to be my fiancé. That would never happen. She would never agree to it.