Thankfully, the cop had been lenient with Cora, probably because she was cute as fuck and flirted just a little. There’d been no point in trying to deny I was messed up when the guy had me get out of the car. All he had to do was look at my pupils and notice there was no color surrounding them because they were enormous. And taking into account where I’d just pulled out from, the picture was easy to paint. I’d asked him to take me and let Cora call Hannah to come pick her up. He’d agreed yet didn’t wait around for her ride to show. We’d left with me in the back of the cruiser before she got there. Luckily, I’d seen Hannah and Neil pulling up just as we left, so she hadn’t spent any time alone. She also wasn’t now facing criminal charges.
I didn’t have a clue what time it was—they’d taken my phone and watch when they checked me into this luxury resort equipped with three walls, twenty-seven bars, and my very own semi-private bathroom. The crowd in this place was restless, and if I closed my eyes and hummed, I could pretend it was a party, and the temporary tattoos on my fingertips were my stamp to get back in the door.
“Carpenter,” a deep voice bellowed from down the corridor of cells.
I stood and walked to the door, holding the bars like every cliché action flick I’d ever seen. I almost stuck my head in to get a better look, and then thought better of it. Instead, I waited for the guy to find me. “Yeah.”
He flicked his head at me and stood in front of the door. “C74.” The latch clicked, and he pulled the door to the side. “You’re out.”
I didn’t ask any questions, and it wasn’t like I needed to gather my things from my suite. My feet moved as fast as the cop let me go without running the guy over in an unnecessary jailbreak or an attempted assault on an officer.
The guy never introduced himself or spoke to me after informing me I was being set free, so when we got to a desk and he just pointed, I took that as instruction and sat my happy ass down. An hour or so later—I’d counted to sixty, sixty times using the Mississippi method—the latest member of the clan of mutes handed me a plastic bag with my crap in it and let me out the door. They’d released me on my own recognizance; however, I had a court date in thirty days—assuming Hannah didn’t have me in rehab before then.
I’d expected to find Neil’s girlfriend waiting on me outside, but to my relief, Neil was there in slacks and a dress shirt.
With his hands in his pockets and a shit-eating grin on his face, he said, “It’s amazing what you can find out about someone in jail under the Freedom of Information Act, yet you can’t even get so much as a confirmation someone is in a hospital who’s protected by HIPAA.” He shook his head as if this was fascinating information I should look into further.
“I’m not the least bit surprised criminals have no rights while the ill are sheltered. So what’d it cost you?”
“Nothing. They said they were letting you out on your signature and told me you’d be ready in about an hour. That part was a lie—it was more like an hour and a half. And I figured since I busted you out for free, I could spare thirty minutes.”
I clapped him on the shoulder, grateful he was here in place of his girl—I loved her, but no one needed to be lectured about their time in the pokey while hung over. “Thanks. How’s Cora?”
“She was a little rattled last night, so I sent her a message on my way here to tell her you’d be home, and she seemed okay.”
“Thank God she didn’t get caught up in this shit. You taking me home?”
“Nope. I’ve got work to do, and now I’m almost two hours behind. So you’re coming in. Close your door and no one will see just how bad you look…or smell. Jesus. Better yet, take a whore bath in the sink before you step foot in the office. You reek of sex, sweat, and stale alcohol. Please tell me the first was not acquired during your stay at Casa de Custody.”
I just glared at him and got in the car. Neil tried to talk it up on the ride to the office, but I wasn’t interested in mindless chatter. My head hurt, I stunk, filth covered my body, and all I wanted to do was go home to shower.
Instead, I got to serve another sentence at the office until Neil deemed it time to retire for the evening. When I reminded him of my impounded car, he assured me Cora and Hannah had retrieved it sometime today.
After I finally stumbled through the door, I realized my girl had been anticipating just how bad off I’d be. She coaxed me into a warm bath—I now understood Chandler’s love for them in Friends—then offered me my favorite sweats and two aspirin. I expected a lecture, instead, she curled up in bed with me and turned on the television. I was out before she’d found a channel to stick with, and when I woke in the morning, she was right where she always was—by my side with her head on my chest.
God, I loved this woman.
She never failed me. I couldn’t imagine life without her. And I realized at that moment, with her soft breath blowing against my skin, it was time to make it official. We’d talked about engagement, we’d flirted with the issue—although with her going to grad school I hadn’t pushed. But, now it was time.
6
James
As much as I wanted to run out to purchase a ring and secure its place on Cora’s finger, that task didn’t prove to be as seamless as I believed it would be. I’m not sure what I thought it would cost, but I hadn’t anticipated choosing between a diamond and a down payment on a home. She was worth every penny, but it had to be the perfect ring to invest that kind of money. And thus far, it felt like I’d been to every jewelry store in town and left empty handed. At the end of the day, I couldn’t tell anyone what I had in mind—I just knew I hadn’t found it.
Cora hadn’t made an issue out of getting engaged; in fact, neither of us had even mentioned it since we’d left Chapel Hill. We both assumed we’d be together forever…her parents weren’t around, and our only family already shared an apartment with us. So while the notion was always at the forefront of my mind, everyday life took precedent over conquering that goal.
I’d missed the chance at Christmas, and in what seemed to be the blink of an eye, Cora was dealing with exams at the end of her first year of grad school. All she talked about was engineering and class. Every bit of free time we had was spent driving to places around the city or the state to enhance her knowledge. Her excitement fueled my own, even though her desire wasn’t in marriage or starting a family—she was chasing a career. And I respected that.
“Oh my God, where’s James?”
I was in our bedroom when I heard Cora burst into the house like her ass was on fire. Her voice had been filled with excitement and not panic, so I wasn’t surprised when she came racing down the hall and launched herself onto the bed next to me. When she finished bouncing from her weight hitting the mattress, she crawled across me, straddled my hips, and placed her palms against my chest to sit up.
“You’re not going to believe what happened, today!”
Her enthusiasm was as contagious as her grin. My hands naturally gravitated toward her hips. She leaned over to grab the remote and turned off the television before giving me any insight to what had her flushed with anticipation.
“Dr. Parker got me an internship for the summer at Halifax.”
“The engineering firm in Manhattan?” The company was enormous and recognized worldwide for their modern design. They focused on commercial property, and their buildings were like works of art in a city skyline.
“Yes! And even better, it’s for Drake Halifax—one of the managing partners. I’m dying. I still can’t believe it’s real.”
I leaned forward and took her face in my hands. Smiling against her lips, I murmured, “I’m proud of you, sweetheart.”
“There were over two thousand grad students considered from all over the country. I have no idea how I managed to land it over all those other people, but who cares, right?”
“You don’t have to interview for it or anything?” Not that I thought anyone would have beaten her out for the spot if they’d met her in person.
“I kind of already did. Part of our final was the presentation I’ve been working on. They were streamed on the school’s website, and I guess he saw it. I don’t know. Even if it’s a divine twist of fate, I don’t care. It’s freaking Halifax!”
She hopped off me as quickly as she’d found me. “What am I going to wear for my first day? Do you think I should go shopping? I don’t really have the clothes for a professional work environment. This guy could be the key to my future after graduation, James.”
Everything seemed to be falling into place. Cora had been apprehensive about coming to New York to begin with, but if she could firmly believe this was where she was meant to be, there wouldn’t be any remaining questions about our moving forward. Not that there were now, but she’d followed me from Geneva Key to Chapel Hill and then New York. I needed her to find something in those decisions that made them right.
“Why don’t we go shopping this weekend? When do you start?”
“Monday.” She rifled through the closet, the hangers sliding on the bar as she sifted through her wardrobe. “Really?” She peeked her head out. “You’d do that?”
“Absolutely.”
***
It was funny how everyone else’s life was falling into place, and mine suddenly seemed to spiral out of control. I’d all but forgotten about the incident earlier this fall. I’d hired an attorney in hopes of getting out of the DWI charges, and he’d assured me he’d take care of it. For what I paid him, I allowed him to carry the weight of that stress and hadn’t thought about it since.
“James Carpenter,” I announced when I answered the phone in my office.
“James. Scott Brawley.”
“Hey.” I wasn’t interested in the pleasantries of conversation when I paid this guy by the quarter of an hour. He needed to get to the point in the next fourteen minutes.
“Got a couple options for you.” He acted like I was buying a car, not my background check. Being in the financial industry, my record needed to stay squeaky clean—any mark could cause a backlash for the company.
“Lay it on me.”
“No one wants to bother taking this to court, which plays in our favor.”
“I’m listening.” I wondered if lawyers took courses on how to run down the clock without ever saying anything of substance in order to pass the bar.
“One hundred and sixty hours of community service and pretrial intervention. After that, you can pay to have the charge expunged from your record. Or, a ten-thousand-dollar fine and PTI.”
“Are you fucking kidding me? You consider those options? I’ve paid you close to that and could have gotten the exact same results six months ago.”
“I’m sure you’re frustrated, but the state could take your license, and if they chose to be hardasses, jail time could be tacked on. So while the options might not look like much, they provide you with an opportunity to keep the incident off the record.”
There was no way I had time to work off weeks’ worth of community service. “I guess the fine.”
“I’ll send you the paperwork. You’ll need to get the payment to the court by the end of the month.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
After we hung up, I glanced at the clock and groaned in frustration, wondering how that handful of words had taken seventeen minutes of Scott’s time. I was hemorrhaging money as it was—his bill only added to the shitstorm. I’d had to dump a sizeable sum into the business, I’d finally broken down and bought a diamond—even though I didn’t have a setting to put it in—Cora and I were covering more than our half of the expenses at the apartment, and now the state demanded a mint.
For the first time in all the years we’d been together, I didn’t feel like I could talk to Cora about my anxiety. Not because she wouldn’t have listened…I just didn’t think it was fair to burden her with the financial state of the business while she was on the high of a lifetime at Halifax. She was heading to Paris with Drake in a couple days and had been dancing around the apartment since she’d started the internship. I loved her too much to bring her down.
That left me with Neil to confide in, yet he was already aware of the financial constraints and that I was pouring money into a business that he couldn’t match. He was only taking enough of a salary to survive, which was how Cora and I had ended up supplementing the household expenses.
Cora thought it was Hannah who wasn’t coming through on the rent, not Neil. When she mentioned Hannah’s tuition costs, I let her believe that was the issue because Hannah didn’t have a trust fund, and I didn’t want my friend to feel any worse than he already did.
I’d known that by taking over a business, we ran the risk of a downturn before an upslope, yet the value of an established name with existing clients had been more appealing than a startup in an already overpopulated market. I believed in what we were doing, and I had faith in Neil as a partner—we just had to turn things around to remove a layer of gloom looming over us. We talked about it in terms of the business and what to do there, and the rest was left unspoken. I saw the shareholder loans on the books—Neil was keeping track of what I put in versus him, and I would get it all back. I just had to make it ’til then.
“Hey, James. How was work?” Cora met me at the door and kissed my lips.
Either I’d gotten really good at disguising my mood, or she’d totally lost her ability to read me.
“Long. Glad to be home. You?”
And my day continued downhill.
“Great actually.” She held something back.
“But?”
“Drake got a lead on another prospect in Paris, so we’re leaving earlier than planned.” Her meek grimace said more than her words.
I set my stuff down and took off my tie. It had been the week from hell, and the only thing that had gotten me through it was the thought of spending the weekend wrapped up in Cora. If they left any earlier than Monday, it would cut into that time.
Her lips thinned just before she tugged her bottom one into her mouth. “In the morning.”
Part of me wanted to explode, although that wouldn’t change the circumstances or her departure; it would only diminish the few hours I had before she went halfway around the world with a man she admired and the ladies chased.
“Wow. That’s soon.”
“Yeah,” she whined, and then her mouth turned down into a pitifully cute pout. “Please don’t be upset.”
“I’m not upset.” Lie. “It’s a great opportunity.”
As much as I wanted to act like things were okay and yammer on about her trip, I didn’t have it in me. Exhaustion took over just after she set the alarm in the bedroom and told me Drake was picking her up in the morning so I didn’t have to drive her to the airport. Hopefully, when she came back in two weeks, I’d be in a better headspace, and she would have had the trip of a lifetime.
When she returned fourteen days later, she dropped another bomb I wasn’t expecting. Drake Halifax offered her a paid position under him that would start when the fall semester did. She would get course credit for her work with them and still finish her master’s degree on time, so in her mind—and I guess logically—it was the best of both worlds. Except the days of her managing her own schedule had gone completely out the window with her acceptance.
“What did you tell him?” I was a tad put off that he’d made this proposal in the City of Love, but that was just me being a jealous prick.
“I told him I needed to discuss it with you, and I’d give him an answer on Monday.”
“Does that mean it’s actually open for discussion?”
“Sure. Although I can’t think of a single reason you’d object.”
“It’s a huge time commitment. You’ll have a job on top of a demanding curriculum.”
Cora wrapped her arms around my neck and cooed in my direction while smiling and staring into my eyes. “Aww. You’re worried about me?”
I rolled my eyes and pulled her arms from my body. “You need to think it through
and not make a decision about how glorious the job would be based on spending two weeks with the guy in Paris.”
Obviously, her decision had been made long before she’d ever brought up the topic.
***
When relationships shift, the person being left behind starts to notice the nuances of how things have changed. And the subtle differences ate away at me with regard to Cora. I’d always been her number one, we’d done everything together, made every decision as a couple—or so I’d thought. When I looked back on the two major ones, she’d followed me both times. It hadn’t been about what was best for her; I hadn’t considered what she’d needed—just how it would have impacted me not to have her around.
Cora now had a life I wasn’t involved in. Between work and school, she’d become just as busy as I was, and coupled with my schedule, we almost never saw each other. When we did find a few moments alone, all I heard about was how wonderful Drake Halifax was and all the plans he had for her career—none of which were in New York.
“He’s considering me for a new office, James.” She squealed with delight.
“Drake?”
The way she rolled her eyes reminded me of a child who thought I’d said something dumb. “Of course. Who else?”
“That’s awesome. How soon is he talking?”
“I’m not sure. I mean, I haven’t even finished my degree.”
“Yeah, but that’s only a few months away. Is he thinking right after graduation, or does he have a plan to groom you into a position.”
Cora continued folding laundry while she talked, and I put them away as she went. Luckily, it provided me the opportunity to shield my expression.
“Oh, there would be other people in the office. But it would be a huge stepping stone.”
“I’m sure it can’t be as great as having the legendary Drake Halifax mentoring you.” I was sure he was a great asset to her career, though something about him bothered me. It might have been the green-eyed monster that lingered on my shoulder, constantly telling me to watch my back.
Unexpected Arrivals Page 8
