Heat

by Jamie K. Schmidt

  “Well, not yet. I still have to sew up the sample collection. I guess the forced time off from doing anything physical will give me some time to get that in order.”

  “You’re supposed to be resting.” She pointed to the bed.

  “I’m not tired,” he insisted, even as he yawned.

  “I’d offer to help, but I sewed my Home Ec project to my pants one year,” she said.

  “You can help me shop for fabric.”

  “As long as it’s online, I’m in. I still haven’t found the guts to step out of Couture on my own,” Mallory said, though she was looking for an excuse to do so. Couture was a great fantasy, but reality kept rapping on her door.

  “I feel I should do twenty knuckle push-ups or something else manly now.” He got up from his drafting table and flexed his arm muscles into a double bicep pose.

  “Like burp the alphabet?”

  “Would that impress you?” Max rubbed his chest and seemed to contemplate forcing air out of his mouth.

  “Not really.”

  “Good, because I’d need a lot more beer.”

  “More beer?” Mallory gave him a fishy look. “You shouldn’t be having any.”

  “Any beer. Although I suppose soda would work too. Birch beer is the best.”

  “For what?”

  “Burping.”

  “This is a charming conversation.”

  “You’re the one that brought it up.”

  “So I did. Are you a Project Runway fan?” Mallory took his hand and led him to the couch, away from the computer and his sketches. She needed to get him to rest and recover so he could heal.

  “Don’t let Colleen know. The next harebrained scheme she’ll have me involved in will have Tim Gunn telling me how much my draping stinks.”

  “The fact that you know what draping is is very hot.”

  “Why do you ask?”

  “I figure we can do a marathon of last season. I missed it because I was working crazy hours. I’ll sit next to you on the couch so you can get some rest. It’s a win/win situation.” She pulled the ottoman over and lifted his feet up on it. Tossing a lap blanket over his legs, she grabbed the remote and cuddled up next to him.

  Max stroked her hair as she fiddled with the channels to get the on-demand menus to come up. “You don’t have to babysit me.”

  “I want to,” she said. “Besides, this is decadent for me.”

  “No, decadent is if you were naked and we had chocolate chip cookies.”

  “And wine.”

  He made a face. “Heathen. Milk. Maybe chocolate milk if you want to walk on the wild side. But if you took off your clothes, I could deal.”

  “Not this week.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Mallory stared at the runway without seeing the elegant women striding or strutting down the stage. She had just come from one of her therapy sessions with Dr. Strauss and was feeling like she was going to shatter apart into a thousand fragments. Dr. Strauss wanted her to call David and talk to him. He said that facing this fear would take its power away from her. It would be the next step in moving on. Right now, all she wanted to do was hide in the crowd. Flashbulbs popped around her and people gossiped catty nonsense.

  The Japanese anime designer was long gone, so she felt safe that she wouldn’t run into Chrissie again. This was the student fashion show and Couture’s fashion side was living large. Bloggers mingled with reporters as each one tried to find the next new thing in fashion.

  “Having a good time, Rocky?” Colleen said. She was dressed in a tailored black leather cat suit with a wide belt made of chain mail. “You haven’t slugged any other VIPs, have you?”

  Pretending she didn’t hear that, Mallory countered, “What are you wearing? You look like Barbarella time-traveled to the Middle Ages.”

  “It’s one of Anya’s designs for our Fierocity line. I could get one made in your size, but we’d have to alter it a bit.” Colleen gestured to her chest. “Take it in a bit.”

  Mallory flipped her off.

  They watched the women swirl and pose. Mallory recognized Nefertiti, who looked stunning in a white halter dress. Anya came out next, in a violet wrap dress.

  She clapped for them, even if her heart wasn’t in it.

  “What’s wrong, kid?”

  “Don’t call me that.” Mallory tried to sound gruff, but her voice cracked.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Colleen said.

  Mallory followed her out and back into her office. “Between this place and Dr. Strauss’s office, I feel like I should be lying on a couch telling you about my mother.”

  “Spare me. I’ve met your mother,” Colleen said. “How are your sessions with him going?”

  “Two steps forward, one step back.”

  “That’s progress.” Colleen offered the whiskey bottle, but Mallory shook her head. “Let me guess: today is a one-step-back day.”

  Mallory’s eyes filled with tears.

  “Oh honey.” Colleen knelt next to her.

  “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” Sobs gusted out of her. “All I want to do is cry.”

  “It’s okay.” Colleen hugged her and rocked her back and forth. “It’s good to let it out.”

  “I don’t even know what I’m crying about.”

  “Do you want me to call Dr. Strauss?”

  “I just left his office an hour ago.” Mallory sniffed. “I could use some tissues.”

  Colleen passed her a box. “What did you two talk about?”

  “About my next step. Getting my job back. Going back to my life.” Mallory waved her hands around. “It’s all so overwhelming.”

  “You can stay here as long as you like,” Colleen assured her. “You don’t have to rush into anything.”

  “I know. I want to be done with this fear. I want to go back to normal. But I’m too scared.”

  “What can I do?”

  Mallory shook her head. “It’s up to me now.”

  Colleen held her hand as she pulled herself together. Couture was a beautiful place, but it wasn’t home. She wasn’t going to be a fashion model or a teacher. Stepping up during the MMA fight made her realize that she missed being a doctor. David had taken that away from her and she was going to get it back.

  “I’m going to go up to my room and lie down,” Mallory said, getting up.

  “You want company?”

  “I’m good.” She hugged Colleen. “Thank you.” Her voice was weepy.

  “You’re my baby sister and I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  Mallory took the box of tissues with her, staring down at them until she got into the elevator. When she got back to her room, she eyeballed her room phone as if it were going to get up and dance a jig. She hadn’t had the courage yet to recharge her cell phone. She was afraid it would start ringing as soon as she plugged it in. Running her fingers through her hair, she sighed. She could deck a pro football player, but she couldn’t call her boss? She should probably go check on Max first. She was halfway out of her room before she stopped herself. She’d hidden for over two months. It was time to get back into the real world. Besides, her boss deserved to hear from her before she saw her on social media or television hitting Chase. Although it had been three days. If she hadn’t seen it by now, she probably wasn’t going to.

  “Do the right thing,” she told herself. Dialing the phone before she could change her mind, Mallory paced the room and hoped to get voice mail.

  “Hello?”

  Mallory closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Hi, Jen.”

  “Mallory! I’m so glad to hear from you. How’s your mother?”

  “My mother?” Mallory looked at the receiver in confusion—as if Jen could read her expression over the telephone line. “She’s fine.”

  “David’s been keeping us updated, but I wanted to hear from you.”

  “David?” Mallory sat down on the edge of the bed. “What did he tell you?”

  “H
e said your mother was in a car accident and it didn’t look good.”

  “When was this?” She put her hand over her heart. If he hurt her mother …

  “Two months ago. We started the FMLA paperwork for you.”

  “Oh.” Relief made her head spin, followed quickly by a pounding rage. How dare he?

  “Mallory, what’s going on?”

  “Jen,” she sighed. It would be so easy to let her go on thinking the lie. The Family and Medical Leave Act would assure that she still had a job when she came back. “Jen, I’m sorry. David has been lying to you.”

  “Why would he do that?” Jen’s voice became hard.

  “He’s a sociopath. Here’s the real story. David …” Mallory searched for those words she’d practiced. “Hurt me.” She settled on being vague. “It’s been going on for a long time. I tried to hide it. I figured I could fix him or he’d just wake up one day and go back to being the man I fell in love with. But instead it got worse. He did something unforgivable and I ran for my life. I’ve been hiding from him ever since. I talked to my mom a few days ago and she was fine. I’m at my sister’s right now.”

  “Jesus, Mallory. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  She shook her head. “I couldn’t tell anyone. I’m just starting to get my head together.”

  “Are you seeing someone?”

  For a crazy moment, Mallory thought she was talking about Max, but then she realized she was asking if she was in therapy. “I’ve been talking to a psychiatrist that my sister has on staff. He’s helping. Being with friends is helping. Being away from David definitely is helping.”

  “Did you call the police?”

  “No.”

  “Mallory, why not?”

  Mallory winced at the censure in her boss’s voice. “I just couldn’t. I froze up inside. And now, too much time has gone by.”

  “So are you going to wait until he does it again? I’ve got news for you. He’s been calling here every week and giving me a bullshit story about how you’re in Nevada with your folks. The impression I got is that he is waiting for his fiancée to come back home to him soon.”

  “Well, he’s got a long wait.”

  “You need to report his ass to the police.”

  Mallory shook her head, but she realized her boss couldn’t see it. “I can’t. He’s got friends in the court. If I file for a restraining order, it’s going to get ugly.”

  “Well, what are you going to do?”

  “I haven’t figured that part out yet,” she admitted. “But I know I still want my job. I just need a few weeks.”

  “I can’t put this through FMLA now. You don’t qualify.”

  “I understand.”

  “I need to put this under job abandonment. You’re going to lose your seniority.”

  Mallory nodded. Her throat tightened, but she got out another “I understand.” Maybe she could ask Jen to give her a good recommendation and she could start over somewhere far away from David.

  “Unless …”

  A glimmer of hope shot through her. “Unless what?”

  “Hold on, I’m typing. How many vacation days have you accrued?”

  “Accrued? I thought if I don’t take them, they disappear at the end of the year.”

  “Only your personal time. Aha! Well, lookie here. You, my dear, have seven weeks of vacation coming to you.”

  “I’ve been gone longer than that.”

  “You’ve got fifteen personal days for this year.”

  Mallory did the math in her head. “So that means …”

  “Get your ass in here tomorrow and not only will you still have a job, but you’ll get back pay for the two months you’ve been gone.”

  A sob escaped her. She wanted to go back to work so badly, but she was afraid. Jen was sticking her neck out for her, though. Mallory couldn’t let her down. “What time do you want me?”

  “Let’s go easy on you for your first week back. You can pull the day shift for the next two weeks.”

  “I can do that,” she said with more confidence than she felt.

  “Good. I’ll see you when you get here.”

  “Thank you,” Mallory said. “You don’t know what this means to me.”

  “You’re a good doctor, Mallory. And you don’t deserve to lose what you worked so damn hard for.”

  “Thanks.”

  Mallory cried for a bit after the phone call. It wasn’t all happy tears, though. She was scared. It was an hour commute to the hospital from Couture. It was doable. But she should let Colleen know. What was she going to tell Max? He was going to worry and he needed to focus on his recovery.

  Colleen was in another meeting, so she went up to Max’s room, but he was asleep. Feeling out of sorts, she wandered around looking for Nefertiti or Anya. She found Chrissie instead.

  “I thought that was you,” Chrissie said. She had just come from a makeup class, by the look of the heavy coloring on her face. It was definitely not for everyday use. She looked like a cross between a hooker and a mime. “David said you were in Nevada.”

  Mallory couldn’t go through the story again. “I’m back,” she said with a shrug.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “My sister owns the place. I’m visiting with her.”

  “Yeah? How’s your mom doing? David said she was hit by a bus.”

  “She made a miraculous recovery,” Mallory said dryly.

  “I’m so glad,” Chrissie gushed.

  Mallory felt like a traitor when Chrissie gave her a hug. “Well, I’m off to the next workshop. I’m taking a design class. You tell that brother of mine to set some time aside. We need to get together soon.”

  “About that …” Mallory began. But Chrissie bustled down the hall.

  The last thing she wanted was to be alone right now, so Mallory went back to Max’s room and turned on the television. Max woke up after a couple of hours and kissed her on the forehead. Instead of telling him her news, she remained curled up in a ball on the couch. Two more episodes of Project Runway later, Mallory was ready to stab a pair of scissors into her own eyes if she had to hear one more whiny designer cry that she was misunderstood and everyone was jealous of her. Luckily, Max wasn’t like that. More often than not, he was diligently working on sewing and matching pieces together.

  “You work too hard,” she told him, coming behind him to rub his back. “How’s your head?”

  “I’ve still got a dull headache, but it helps when you’re here.” He turned around in his seat. “Will you stay with me tonight?”

  He asked that question every night. Each night, she wavered a bit more as she saw him getting stronger. But he pushed the envelope every day. Unfortunately, he was almost as much of a workaholic as she was. Yesterday, he’d donned a black executioner’s mask and posed nude for her drawing class. It pushed the envelope for the fashion side of Couture, but no one complained. She spent the entire two hours staring at his naked body and imagining what she wanted to do with it. Unfortunately, she hadn’t been alone.

  “Maybe,” she said, stroking the hair over his ear as he lifted her shirt to press kisses against her stomach. She had to tell him.

  “We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.” He flicked his tongue across her belly button.

  “That’s the thing. I want to. You’re not healthy enough, though. Not yet.” It was hard to step away from him, but she did. She opened her mouth to tell him about her job, but he didn’t let her get a word out.

  “What’s a few more days? You and Doc Parks are going to clear me for normal duties on Saturday.”

  “It could mean the difference between a full recovery and a relapse.”

  “That sounds like bullshit to me.” He pulled her back into his arms.

  “You think one week of bed rest is hard? Try a month.”

  “I’m going stir crazy. The line is almost done.” He gestured toward the sportswear he had spent most of his recovery time putting together. “Then, I’ve got t
o put on a suit and see if I can get one of the tourist boutiques to order.” He stood up and hugged her to him, his hands roaming across her bottom. “How does my face look?”

  “Even in a suit I would think you’re a pirate rather than a clothes designer.”

  “So it’s more waiting, then. Whatever can we do?” Max dipped his head to nibble on the taut flesh in the crook of her neck. Mallory felt the sweet longing right down to the tips of her toes.

  “What are you going to do if you get an order for fifty pieces?” she gasped out and pushed away from him.

  Max grinned. “I’ll have to hire a team of tailors or seamstresses to finish the work.”

  “Even with the tourist markup, I don’t know how you’re going to break even.”

  “It’s enough that I get my brand name in the stores. Then I can parlay that to the local gyms and hopefully a local athlete will get onboard.”

  “Too bad I decked Chase.”

  “I don’t know. It’s a great video. The look on his ugly mug …”

  Mallory covered her face with her hands. “I don’t want to think about this.”

  “Me either,” Max said. “What do you want?”

  Mallory had a list and most of it was X-rated. But before she could enjoy herself, she had to bring him up to date. “I have to tell you something.”

  “Why do I have a feeling I’m not going to like it?”

  She shrugged. “I called my boss today.”

  “Honey, that’s great.” He kissed her and she tensed. “What?”

  “I have to report back to work tomorrow or I screw up my seniority.”

  “Tomorrow?” Max said. “That’s a little soon.”

  Mallory laughed. “It’s been two and a half months.”

  “Are you ready to go back?”

  “I’m not sure.” She crossed her arms and rubbed them, suddenly cold.

  “You’re worried about David?”

  She nodded. “He’s been telling people that I went home to Nevada because my mother was in the hospital.”

  “Have you called him yet?”

  Mallory shook her head. “I just don’t want to. I don’t want to hear his voice. I don’t want to deal with the emotions. I just want to forget he ever existed.” Her voice rose at the end, and she tried to calm down.