Claustrophobic

by Bernadette Franklin

  “It does.”

  “If they want to bring you any papers or a check, have them send the payments to my legal firm. I’ll add my firm’s address for all communications in your resignation letter. That should help minimize any risk to you. Until we find out what actually happened with the other receptionist, I’d rather you play it safe rather than sorry.”

  Damn it. I’d have to admit to the bitter truth and hope Julian’s father kept my situation in confidence.

  “Please don’t tell anyone this, but I’m moving at the end of the month.”

  Julian’s father raised a brow. “You are?”

  “It’s a bad time of year to find a new job, and I don’t have any money in my savings account. If they don’t settle right away, I won’t be able to pay my rent, so I’m giving my landlord notice and heading to South Carolina to stay with my mother for a while until I can find a new job.”

  “What’s your deadline to have a new job to stay in New York?”

  “No more than two weeks.”

  He sighed. “You’re right. All right. Obviously, that’s in confidence. This time of year, it’d be hard at best to get you placed and started working within two weeks. My firm can take care of making sure your settlement payment arrives to you if they don’t pay out right away. They might. This can be a pretty big deal and cost them extra if they don’t, especially with all the indicators there’s more to this case than meets the eye. The firm’s already poised to be in a lot of trouble if the receptionist’s story pans out.”

  While I couldn’t see Alice staging a fake injury, I stopped to think about it. “As in you’re not sure the injury to her eye happened at the firm or because of someone there? That she might be faking it?”

  “I’m not sure what happened, and I’ve come to learn that when desperate, people will do things I don’t expect. You said there was a lot of damage to the desk?”

  I showed him the pictures I’d taken on my phone.

  “Well, Julian will figure out what happened one way or another. For now, I would assume the worst and take precautions.”

  “I will,” I promised.

  It took three hours for Julian’s father to go over all my paperwork, question me, and write my resignation letter, which he printed in Julian’s study. The first part of the letter notified my employer of my immediate resignation due to failure to pay wages with appropriate warnings on my part and a hostile workplace, citing New York’s at-will employment rules. He even cited the employee handbook several times in case anyone at the firm opted to ignore their own rules.

  With a single signature, I’d be unemployed and generally doomed to weeks of cutting it close to make it to the end of the month.

  Kristine would love the road trip to South Carolina, but she’d hate she’d have to find someone new to fill the role of best friend and general accomplice. As promised, Julian called his father when he arrived, gave updates every now and then, and apologized that he’d be at the hospital for longer than expected.

  As promised, Julian’s mother came over with clothes I could wear, although the details of her visit eluded me. I’d meant to sit on Julian’s couch for a moment, but the next thing I knew, it was morning and someone was waving a cup of hot chocolate under my nose. My stomach growled its demand for food.

  Right. I’d forgotten dinner, although I’d enjoyed a few too many cookies.

  I cracked open an eye to discover Julian crouched beside me. He set the mug of hot chocolate on the coffee table.

  “Rise and shine, Chloe. You looked too peaceful disturb, so I hope you didn’t mind the couch. Dad’s going to be here in an hour, and he thought you’d appreciate time to take a shower,” he said. “I’m ready to go, so as soon as you’re good, I’ll have Dad pick us up. I have to go into the office and start laying out the groundwork for Alice’s case.”

  “Is she all right?”

  He sighed. “She’ll be fine, but she has a few rough days ahead of her. She appreciated the cookies, by the way. She asked me to thank you. She also was really concerned about you going to work, but she relaxed when I told her you’d have your legal representatives with you.”

  “Representatives is plural.”

  “So it is. If any criminal charges are brought up, I’ll be handling that.”

  Any other day, any other man, and I might’ve been offended by his certainty. Obviously, I needed to join Alice in the hospital for an examination of my brain. Medicine might help restore my common sense to functional form. “What would count as criminal?”

  “Assault is a good example. I’d rather it not come to that.”

  “If I assault them back with my shoes, will you defend me?”

  “Without hesitation.”

  I could work with that. “I think I’ll accept the good advice I’ve been given and do my best to avoid any incidents of assault.” I sat up, groaned, and reached for the hot chocolate. “I’m going to need breakfast. Without breakfast, I won’t make it anywhere. I’ll just go back to sleep.”

  “There’s bacon—”

  I lurched to my feet and bolted for the kitchen in search of bacon. A feast of steaming bacon, scrambled eggs, and waffles waited on the counter. “You made this? All of this?”

  “All of it. My mother refused to raise an incompetent, spoiled brat of a son. She also thinks cooking ability might evict me from the bachelor pool faster. I keep trying to tell her that’s not how it works, but…”

  I snatched one of the plates waiting on the counter and grabbed a little of everything. If it tasted half as good as it smelled, I could think of one appropriate response for the situation: only marriage, an immediate one, would do.

  Hot, single men didn’t come around every day.

  A hot, single man with a sense of ethics and integrity might as well run around on all fours with a horn plastered to his forehead. He’d make for a very strange unicorn, but I’d make do.

  A hot, single man with a sense of ethics and integrity, able to change diapers, and cook?

  His tendency to play Santa would be a problem. I could handle hiding for one month a year, right?

  “I have no idea what you’re thinking, but your expression reminds me of my mother when she’s about to get herself into a lot of trouble and knows it. Do let me know when you’ve made a decision. I wouldn’t want to miss this for the world.”

  Did the board games, ego, and odd but amusing sense of humor go into the ‘marry immediately’ column or the ‘take twenty-four hours and think it through’ column? I didn’t have sufficient columns. I needed a few extra. His Santa Claus tendencies went into the ‘hell no’ column, but breakfast, hot chocolate with peppermint, and his willingness to play Scrabble with me went into the ‘marry immediately’ column.

  While I’d considered holding off on telling Julian I’d need to head to South Carolina for a while, his reaction might factor into circumstances somewhat.

  I bet his board games would make an excellent fort.

  Or I could just invade one of his guest bedrooms. I’d ignore the legalities of home invasion. He was a criminal law attorney. If he didn’t want me invading his home, he knew what to do about it.

  Bonus: people tossed into prison didn’t pay rent, and in a month, I’d have some serious rent problems.

  I’d start with notifying him I would be moving to see what he did. I inhaled a piece of bacon, straightened, and looked him in the eyes. “Since the amount of pay from my last paycheck won’t be enough to pay rent, I’m going to South Carolina for a while. Once the settlement or case is done, whichever happens first, I’ll see what I can do, but I have two weeks to find a new job, and this time of year, I won’t find anything that’ll cover my rent for January. I talked with your father about that last night. He didn’t seem hopeful the firm would pay out. So, that’s where it’s at. I haven’t told Kristine yet, but she’s being recruited to drive me to my mother’s place.”

  “You’re going to South Carolina?”

  “Only place I�
�ve got where I can wrangle free rent until I can find a new job.” Realizing I came close to sticking my foot in my mouth, I blurted, “I’ll give your headhunter a call, I’m just not hopeful I’ll find something.”

  “I have a guest bedroom. You’re welcome to make yourself at home while you job search.”

  Houston, I had a problem: I wasn’t supposed to like Santa Claus, and he was inviting me to move in with him. “But we hardly know each other.”

  “You didn’t run away when you saw my board game collection, you beat my mother at Scrabble, and you bake cookies. I can cook, but I have a problem with baking. I eat the batter, so it never makes it into the oven. I’m really good at making batter. I’m not so good at making cookies. That’s a problem. I like cookies.”

  “You could’ve been collecting dead bodies in your basement. Board games are weird, but they’re not dangerous or anything. Unless I lose.”

  He laughed. “Losing is a problem when there are two people and only one can win.”

  “It really is. So, that’s where I’m at. I’m going to tell Kristine I’m going to have to move tonight.”

  Julian’s expression turned thoughtful. “We could have some fun with her as payback for making us slave away at the Christmas Village.”

  “Don’t even try to act like you don’t love every moment of it, Mr. Julian Carter.”

  “This is going to be a problem, isn’t it? Kristine warned me you hated the holidays with a passion. The way she described it, I honestly expected you to crucify me, as Santa, on the Christmas tree, strangle me with the lights, and torch the whole thing with me on it. I was very relieved to discover you weren’t actually a homicidal pyromaniac. When I thought about it, I thought I’d have a pretty cool obituary if you did snap. Worth the risk.”

  “Should I tell your parents you’re insane?”

  “They already know. They made me this way.”

  I laughed and chomped on a piece of bacon. “How much would my rent be?”

  “There’s no way in hell you’ll accept an invitation to move in without worrying about paying your share of the rent, is there?”

  “I’m a proud New Yorker. You tell me.”

  “Do you want to stay in New York?”

  Did I? Kristine alone made me want to stay, but Julian encroached on my best friend’s territory. I hoped she wouldn’t mind sharing. The longer I thought about staying with my mother long term, the more convinced I became we’d want to kill each other within a month. “I will go psychotic should I have to stay in South Carolina for more than a week. I love my mother, but we don’t get along too well. I’m too much like my dad, and she’s trying to move on.”

  “If you don’t mind me asking, what happened to your father?”

  Some things didn’t need to be a secret, and no matter how much I missed my father, his death had lost its sharp edge. Even last year, I’d noticed I hadn’t cried, not like I had the year before. My dislike of the holidays remained, but I’d survived one day at the Christmas Village. I could survive a few more stints, too.

  Maybe I’d finally reached the acceptance stage of things without realizing it. Fancy that. “He died a few years ago. Cancer. He wanted to see Christmas. He held on until Christmas morning.”

  “And that explains your dislike for the holidays. I wouldn’t be a fan, either, if my father died on Christmas morning.”

  “He loved the holidays.”

  “You must have loved him very much.”

  I had. I nodded.

  “Well, we keep it low key, although I’m a brat and expect my parents to shower me with presents as payment for putting up with them for the rest of the year. You have a few weeks to demand their subservience, too. If you’re game, I think we can have some harmless fun with Kristine.”

  “What sort of harmless fun?”

  “Tell her you’re moving, mention South Carolina, and act like you’re moving—to South Carolina. You were planning to after the holidays? We have a date on Christmas Eve at the Christmas Village from Hell. And on Christmas Eve, that is what it will be: hell. So you’d have to go the day after Christmas to avoid the chaos.”

  “That was the rough plan, yes.”

  “So, move in with me and convince Kristine she’s going to South Carolina to leave you there permanently. Go on a road trip to South Carolina, except you’re going to visit your mother and do family things instead of staying there permanently. After your visit, you come back to New York and live with me while you get back on your feet. Please be aware this is for purely selfish purposes. It’s much easier to play games when someone who’ll play with me lives under the same roof.”

  Immediate marriage, overnight to think about it, a week to think about it, or a kidnapping? Wait, not attempting to marry him was the most realistic option. I didn’t like that option, though. Roommates could work, but how could I get him to charge me a fair rent?

  Without marriage, rent was mandatory. From the day I’d left home, I’d made my way in the world without relying on anyone, and even if I stayed with my mother, I’d pay her back for the time I searched for work.

  After careful deliberation, I doubted I’d ever meet someone quite as interesting as Julian Carter.

  Kristine would laugh at me if she ever found out I even considered Julian as a potential partner. “She’ll cry, Julian.”

  “That’s a problem. I hate watching women cry. I hate it, and most of the time, I can’t fix it or make the crying stop. I make a fool out of myself trying.”

  Julian’s parents needed to receive an award for raising a son worthy of being called a man. “Can I ask you a legal question?”

  “Of course.”

  “What’s the punishment for kidnapping?”

  Julian frowned, canted his head, and watched me, a brow creeping upwards. “It depends.”

  “On?”

  “How offended the kidnapped is about having been kidnapped. Is your victim willing?”

  “Is it a kidnapping if the kidnapped person is willing?”

  “I’m going to go with the same answer: it depends.”

  “On?”

  “Let’s take my mother as an example. On occasion, she will miss me, her most wonderful son, and stage a kidnapping. There I’ll be, minding my own business, and she’ll barge in, haul me to her car, and cart me off. Technically, it’s a kidnapping, but as I’m okay with my mother carting me off most of the time, I’d never press any charges against her. Sometimes, she forgets there are limits.”

  “And since you’re an adult, it’s technically a kidnapping?”

  “Technically.”

  “Okay. So, as long as the kidnapped is okay with being kidnapped, it’s not technically a kidnapping?”

  “I feel a need to tell you this is theoretical and not actual legal advice.”

  “I have limited options.”

  He laughed. “I’m afraid to ask. If I ask, you won’t have time to take a shower before my father barges in and drives us to your work.”

  I gave my armpit a dubious look. “You’re probably right, and the last thing we need is me skunking out my former employer.”

  “Wait. Before you go shower, please tell me who you’d be planning to kidnap, why you’d be planning on kidnapping him or her, and what you intend to do with the kidnapped person?”

  With a well-timed parting comment, I could create some good-natured chaos. I crammed another piece of bacon into my mouth, hurrying to chew and swallow. I hopped to my feet and skipped to the dining room to retrieve the clothes his mother had brought for me. “I was considering you, my destination would be a courthouse, and I was going to coerce you into marriage. Spouses don’t have to pay rent.”

  I almost made it to the bathroom before I burst into helpless laughter.

  Julian was with his father in the kitchen when I emerged from the bathroom. According to Julian’s mother, I intended to seduce the entirety of the legal firm through the use of my legs. The pencil skirt clung to me, the hem higher than I lik
ed while skirting the lines of decency. It amazed me I could look elegant and sexy all at the same time. The stilettos did wonderful things for my legs, and they weighed a lot more than I expected. They would make excellent weapons should anyone try any shit with me.

  The heel would be a potentially lethal weapon, too, as long as I had good aim. I didn’t want to kill anybody, but if it became a choice between me and somebody else, I’d put the shoe to work.

  Julian’s brows rose. “That was not what I was expecting my mother to give you.”

  I looked down at my new blouse and jacket, which did a good job of showcasing my breasts without revealing more than a hint of cleavage. “The elf dress implied I was going to take on the entirety of New York City in an evening. This outfit is implying I’m out for the entire state, I think?”

  “Hey, Dad?”

  “I don’t know what you want, but the answer is probably no. We need to go before we’re late. She has to hand in the resignation before working hours so they don’t fire her for being late.”

  “I was going to ask if my old baseball bat was still at your place.”

  “You don’t need a baseball bat, Julian.”

  Julian scowled. “I think I need my bat.”

  I stood on one foot, lifted my foot, and pointed at my stiletto. “These weigh a lot more than normal stilettos. I think there’s metal hiding in them or something. Maybe rock? These are weapon-grade shoes. Anyone tries anything funny with me, and I’ll be accepting your offer of representation.”

  “I’d be happier if I had my bat.”

  “No, Julian.” Julian’s father picked his briefcase off the floor and pointed at the garage. “We can’t be late, so let’s go. The weather’s still bad, so I’ve given us plenty of extra time. My partner will meet us there. Three attorneys in attendance should make it clear we mean business. Chloe, you are under no obligation to explain yourself. I will record you handing in your resignation. The digital copy of your resignation letter is still in your draft ready to be emailed, correct?”