by Beth Ehemann
I turned back to organizing my desk. “Tuesday?”
“Not just any Tuesday, silly. It’s Taco Tuesday! What time do you want to go?”
“Oh, uh . . .” I pretended to be busy with my papers to stall, instead giving myself time to think of an excuse. Ellie and I took our lunches together at the same time every day, and that was fantastic, but she loved to go to this same little Mexican restaurant every week for Taco Tuesday. After three Tuesdays and three pieces of paper sent to me, one by fax and two by FedEx deliveries, I’d started to notice a pattern. “I don’t know that my stomach can handle tacos today. Can we rain check that and go for salads instead?” I pleaded with her, throwing in a pouty lip for extra pity.
“Oh, that’s no problem at all.” She waved her hand. “Twelve thirty?”
“Sounds perfect.”
“Are you okay?” she asked, crinkling her brow at me.
“Totally fine,” I lied with a smile before retreating to my office to bury myself in my work for a while and forget the rest of the world existed.
Twelve thirty came around, and I stared at the door, waiting for Ellie to knock on it. Just like clockwork, there she was.
She stuck her head into my office after she knocked softly. “You ready to go?”
I grabbed my purse, and we were off.
It was hot, at least eighty-five out and totally muggy. We walked down the street, looking for a good place to pop in and grab a cool, refreshing salad.
“What’s with you?” Ellie hip-bumped me as we stood on the corner, waiting for the crosswalk light to change.
“Nothing’s with me.” I smiled as normally as I could. “Why?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “You seem . . . different. Quiet. Distant.”
“I’m sorry, I just have a lot on my mind.”
“Anything you wanna talk about?” she asked sweetly as we crossed the street and made our way into the Slice of Life, an amazing little deli one block over from our office building.
“No, just work stuff. It’s really totally boring.” I pulled the door open for Ellie and took a step back, looking around quickly before following her in.
We got our salads and sat down at a table for two in the back corner. After a few minutes of silence, except for our chewing, Ellie got a little smirk on her face.
“What’s that all about?” I pointed to her face.
“What’s what?”
“Don’t play dumb with me, you have a look. A wicked little look. Spill it.”
She didn’t even try to hide her grin anymore; she was openly beaming. “I met a boy.”
My eyes widened. “You did? A cute boy?”
“A very cute boy. I think I like him. I think I like him a lot, actually.”
“Details.”
“Well . . .” She pressed her lips into a smile and looked up toward the ceiling as she thought about him. “Last week when you guys were all off having fun, it was mostly just me and Ethan in the office—”
“Oh, God. Is it Ethan?” I scrunched up my nose and set my fork down. “I’m gonna need to stop eating if it is.”
“Ew. No, it’s not Ethan.” She shook her head, mirroring my disgusted face. “But Thursday he had a bunch of friends come to the office to pick him up for lunch. One of them, named Kevin, kinda caught my eye.”
“That’s exciting, Ellie. So obviously you talked to him over the weekend?” I shoveled a bite of kale, blueberries, and cashews into my mouth.
“Well, he came back Friday, only Ethan wasn’t in. I told him that, and he said he hadn’t come there for Ethan.” She set her fork down and rested her chin on her hand. “Ugh, he’s so cute. Anyway, we exchanged numbers and texted all weekend. Then Sunday we met for lunch, which turned into dinner, which turned into breakfast before work Monday morning.”
“Ellie! You little slut!” I whispered loudly, leaning in close. “Is he good in bed?”
“Oh my God . . . amazing. My poor cat was running around my apartment with her hair on end because she’s never heard me scream like that before.”
I covered my mouth with my hand, trying to stifle my laugh.
“What about you?” She nodded at me. “When was the last time you had sex so good it scared the hell out of your cat?”
“First of all, I have a dog. Her name is Roxy. Second, it’s been . . . a while. Back to you.”
Ellie wasn’t having it. “No way. You’re not getting out of this. Come on, give me something.”
“There’s nothing to tell.” I wadded up my napkin and dropped it on my plate. “I’m not dating anyone and haven’t for a while.”
“Why not?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. The last guy I dated seemed super into me until Christmastime came. He basically gave me a list of all the autographed things he wanted. Came to find out he was selling the shit on eBay and making a ton of money, too. Needless to say, that ended real quick.”
“What a jerk!”
“Big-time. Ever since that ended, about a year ago, I don’t know . . . life’s just been busy and no one has really piqued my interest, ya know?” Ellie raised one eyebrow and stared at me like she wanted to say something but wasn’t sure if she should. “What?” I asked defensively.
“No one has caught your interest? Are you sure?” she challenged.
“Uh . . . yeah, pretty sure.”
“No one?”
“No one.”
“Not even a certain man whose name rhymes with—” Ellie closed one eye and looked up toward the ceiling with the other. “Randy Thaw?”
“Randy Thaw?” I repeated slowly, trying to decode her mystery guy. “Andy?” I exclaimed so loud the few people sitting near us looked over. Once they turned back to their tables, I leaned forward again. “Andy? Are you out of your goddamn mind?”
Ellie lifted her chin in the air. “No, I’m not out of my mind. And I think I’m right.”
“What the hell would ever have given you that idea in the first place?”
“Oh, please.” She sighed, swatting the air. “You guys think that little Ellie just sits at the desk and does what she’s told. No one realizes that she pays attention . . . to everything. I’ve seen the way you two look at each other and steal glances when you think the other one isn’t looking. Not to mention before you came to work there, he hardly ever left his office. Now he’s running past my desk so many times a day he’s probably wearing out the bottoms of his shoes.”
I threw my head back and laughed hard. “Ellie, my poor, sweet Ellie. You’re insane.”
She turned her head to the side, looking at me skeptically. “Am I?”
“Yes. You are.”
“You know you haven’t denied it yet?” The corner of her red lips curled up in a smirk.
“I’m pretty sure the fact that I find it laughable is my way of denying it, El.”
“Really?” She pouted. “Crap. I really wanted to be right. I didn’t know about your asshole ex, but boy, do I know about his. He deserves to be happy again. After Blaire, he deserves to win the girlfriend lottery.”
I tried not to sound too interested, especially since Ellie already suspected that I liked Andy, but I was dying to hear about his ex. “You’ve met her?”
“Met her? Pfft! She came into the office screaming about this or that so many times that for a while I swear I flinched every time the elevator doors opened.” She shook her head in disgust.
“No way!” I looked down at my watch. We were going to be late heading back from lunch, but who cared? No way was I stopping Ellie now.
“Yes way. And she wasn’t quiet about it, either. They were newly separated when I started working there, but she still marched in like she owned the place and let him have it whenever she felt like it.”
“She sounds like a real gem,” I said drily, hoping she’d keep talking.
“And you know, Andy’s a great guy. He never screamed back at her the way she screamed at him.” A small smile broke out across her mouth. “
There were a couple times he escorted her to the elevator sternly and told her to get the hell out, but he never yelled.”
“I kinda wish he would have.”
“You and me both.” She looked down at her phone and gasped. “Holy crap! We’re so late.”
We cleaned up our table and hustled back to the office. As we walked quickly, my gaze swept the street, eerily aware of my surroundings and all the people walking around me. I looked down at the ground, letting my hair fall in front of my face as much as possible as I followed Ellie across the street and into our office building. Once we were in the elevator, my heart rate slowed, and I pulled my hair back into a ponytail.
“I’m glad we had salads instead of tacos.” Ellie giggled as the door opened. “I need to get in shape if I’m going to keep seeing Kevin.”
“Please don’t.” I rested my hand against my stomach and grimaced. “No more wild sex stories. I’m too full.”
“What?” Ethan popped his head out from the hallway. “Tacos and wild sex stories? I’m in.”
Ellie and I groaned at the same time, each heading to our respective desks. About fifteen minutes later, I saw Ellie get up from her desk and head toward the copy room. Within seconds, she yelled out, “Oh my God! Danicka!”
Chills covered my whole body.
Oh no, not again.
CHAPTER 17
Andy
I came back from lunch, whistling happily as I stepped out of the elevator. Ellie was standing in the doorway of Dani’s office, talking quietly. I made the right turn toward my office until I heard my name.
“Andy, can you come over here, please?” Ellie called out.
“Ellie, stop!” Dani snapped at her in a tone more aggressive than I’d ever heard from her. “I told you it was fine. It’s not a big deal.”
“What’s fine and what’s not a big deal?” I asked curiously, walking up behind Ellie.
She turned halfway toward me in the doorway but kept her eyes focused on Dani, who was sitting at her desk. “Do you want to tell him or should I?”
Dani narrowed her eyes and glared at Ellie, clearly wanting whatever was going on to be kept a secret. “How about neither of us tell him and we drop it like I said we should?”
“How about someone tells him before he gets pissed because he really hates speaking in the third person?” I propped one arm up on the door frame above Ellie’s head and leaned farther into the room. “Someone? Anyone?”
Dani lifted her chin in defiance and crossed her arms, still scowling at Ellie.
“Fine. You can be mad at me if you want, but I love you and this is important,” Ellie said to Dani before looking at me. “This was faxed here today,” she said as she handed me a piece of paper. I stared down at the black-and-white photocopied picture of Dani. She was walking down the street, looking to her left as the wind blew her hair just a bit. She clearly had no idea that anyone was taking a picture of her. Next to the photograph was the word BITCH handwritten in thick marker.
My head snapped up, and my eyes focused on Dani. “What the hell is this?”
She licked her lips and shrugged nonchalantly. “I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know? What is this?” My heart started to race. Nothing creepy like that had ever come through my office before, and the fact that it was directed at Dani pissed me off even more.
“I. Don’t. Know,” she repeated sharply, staring right at me.
“We don’t know who sent this?” I studied the sheet of paper and looked back up at Ellie. “Do we know why?”
“I went to the fax machine because I was expecting something, and instead, that was sitting there. I brought it to her immediately, and she asked me to give it to her and not tell you. It scared me so I called you in here.” Ellie looked down at the ground sadly.
I switched my gaze over to Dani. “Why aren’t you as worked up as we are? Has this happened before?”
Dani swallowed but didn’t answer.
“When?” I roared.
“A couple times, I don’t remember exact dates. It’s not a big deal. Calm the hell down and stop screaming at everyone,” she bit back.
“I’m calling the police.” I spun on my heel and started marching toward my office.
I wasn’t ten steps from Dani’s door, and she had sprinted in front of me and whipped around, digging her heels in as she planted her hands on her hips. “You are not calling the police.”
“The hell I’m not.” I sidestepped her, continuing into my office.
Again she ran in front of me, this time slamming her hand on top of my desk phone. “Andy, listen. I think I know who it is, and he’s just irritated. He’ll get over himself and this will blow over, unless we call the police and make it a bigger deal than it really is.”
“Who is it?”
Not taking her eyes off me, she slowly slid her hand off the phone and stood up straight. “I think it’s Cole Woods or one of the members of his ridiculous entourage.”
I frowned at her. “Cole Woods? From the Vikings?”
“Yeah.” She nodded. “Remember the story I told you . . . about why I was leaving Leighton Management? He’s the one that made all the inappropriate comments and scared the crap out of me in my office.”
“That was Cole Woods? I remember you telling me about the incident, but you never said a name.” Feeling numb, I slid down in the chair across from my desk, setting the piece of paper down in front of me.
“It’s not my style to rat people out and name names. Especially in this business, you know how it is.” She pulled out my office chair and sat down.
We were quiet for a moment, both undoubtedly thinking about the same thing . . . that fucking piece of paper.
“There were others?” I finally asked.
She swallowed again but refused to make eye contact with me. “Yeah.”
“Just like that one?”
“Kinda. The pictures of me were different, but it always had the same thing written on it.”
I looked up from the paper to her. “What were the other pictures of?”
“All of me, and so far they were all taken on Tuesdays when Ellie and I went out for lunch,” she said softly, playing with her fingers nervously as she spoke.
I sighed, rubbing my forehead with my hand. “How many others?”
“This is the fourth.”
I dropped my hand into my lap quickly. “Jesus, Dani. You said a couple. A couple is two.”
She glared at me with fear disguised as anger. “Does the number really matter at this point?”
As I set the picture on my desk and crossed my arms, she picked it up. She was right. It didn’t matter if there were two, ten, or fifty. One was too many for me. I didn’t know a whole lot about Cole Woods, but that would end the minute she walked out of my office. We sat again in silence, each of us unsure of what to do. I wanted to call the police and have his ass arrested within the hour, but what if Dani was right? What if it did somehow make things worse? Would this really just blow over eventually?
“Are you okay?” I finally asked.
She startled, looking up from the paper. “I’m fine.” She looked so tiny sitting behind my big desk, and the truth was, I didn’t ever want her to leave. I wanted her to stay in my office forever, where at least I knew she was safe.
“I don’t mean just right now, I mean . . . are you okay? Really okay?”
“I’m really okay.”
Over the last several weeks, I’d learned a lot about Danicka Douglas. She was quick-witted, she was sharp, she was a tiny little terror who drove me crazy most of the time. The one thing she wasn’t was easily rattled, but as I sat in that chair and watched her chew her nails as she stared down at that piece of paper, I could tell she was scared.
“Listen, I’m here. If you need anything—”
“I know,” she interrupted as her eyes snapped up to mine, offering me a tight smile, “and I appreciate it, but I’ll be fine. I’m mainly concerned with
this getting out and looking bad on the company.”
“Danicka, right now I don’t give a shit about the company.” I shook my head, staring straight at her. “At this point, all I care about it you and your safety. That’s my only concern.”
Her expression softened as her gaze fell toward the floor. “I appreciate that, but I’m hoping if we just do nothing, it’ll all go away.” She grabbed the picture and stood up from my desk, walking around the side. When she got next to me, she stopped and put her hand on my shoulder. “Andy.” She stared down at me. “I mean it. No police. Promise?”
I looked up at her dark, pleading eyes and put my hand on top of hers. “Fine. I promise for now. But you have to promise to tell me if anything else happens, the minute it happens. Got it?”
Her eyes softened and she gave me a small, tight-lipped smile. “Deal.”
As she walked out of my office, I sat in my chair and shook my head, knowing that she’d just lied straight to my face.
CHAPTER 18
Danicka
The next week at the office was a little tense, but oddly enough, I felt relieved that Andy knew what was going on. I’d grown so accustomed to looking over my shoulder the last month or so, it was nice to have someone else watching my back, too. Just saying Cole Woods’s name out loud was cathartic and took a ton of weight off my shoulders. Andy did ask that for the time being, Ellie and I keep our lunch dates in-house, and while it was a pain at the beginning, we’d settled into a little routine. She would order lunch in while I set up a makeshift picnic in my office. Andy and Ethan even joined us a couple of times. We’d become this weird, tight-knit little group, and I loved it.
“Good morning, Ellie!” I said cheerfully as I stepped out of the elevator.
Not looking up from her computer, she offered me a small wave. “Morning.”
Confused, I stopped and stared at her, wondering why she wasn’t her typical bubbly self. “You okay?”
“Fine,” she said quickly, then went back to her work.
“Okay.” I shrugged and headed to my office, surprised to find the door shut. I always propped it open when I left work at the end of each night. For a split second, I thought about turning back to ask Ellie if anyone had been in there but decided not to.
