Come and Get Me

by Julie Cannon

  Their conversation on the ride home was minimal and Elliott’s plan of attack was so perfected she didn’t even think about it. When Lauren walked her to the door, Elliott asked, “Would you like a nightcap?”

  Lauren knew exactly the kind of nightcap Elliott was referring to, and she also knew where an affirmative answer would take her. “I’ve had a wonderful time, Elliott, and you’re a charming dinner companion, but at the risk of never seeing you again, may I have a rain check?”

  My God, what did I just say? Lauren blinked, wanting to take it back but knowing she couldn’t. Already she could see her response sinking in.

  Elliott was doing a terrible job of hiding her surprise. Did she just say no? After all of that flirting and innuendo, she said no? “Of course.” She tried to sound casual. “Another time, perhaps.”

  “Yes, another time.” Lauren managed an awkward smile. “Thank you.”

  Elliott didn’t push the issue but simply wished her good night.

  As she drove away from Elliott’s home, Lauren puzzled over her reaction to the proposition she’d anticipated all evening. Wasn’t that what I wanted? Don’t I want to feel her hands and lips on my body? I want to have sex with her, right? Goddamn right I do. So why in the hell did I say no?

  Chapter Five

  Lauren was tired. Tired of looking at the clock on her nightstand, tired of tossing and turning, tired of thinking about Elliott, and, considering it was five in the morning and she had not slept a wink, just plain tired. She rolled over onto her back and scanned the ceiling for answers that had not appeared in the past five hours. In the quiet darkness of the night she recalled every minute of her evening with the woman who now dominated her thoughts, specifically rehashing the fact that she had declined a night filled with pleasure. Of that there was no doubt; Lauren realized that was probably the only thing that was not in doubt where Elliott was concerned.

  She’d known that Elliott would make the offer and until she’d opened her mouth and turned it down she’d been planning to accept. So why in the hell didn’t I? That was the question keeping her awake. Lauren rarely second-guessed her decisions, preferring to analyze the situation, weigh the alternatives, settle on her choice, and move on. Her mantra was that you make the best decision you can with the facts that you have in that moment and playing shoulda, coulda, woulda gets you nothing but grief.

  In the past few months she had been acting out of character, and she was starting to worry. She had worked hard over the years and used her natural ability to think logically and remain levelheaded to get to where she was today. She loved being an attorney and was proud of her accomplishments, but she was beginning to feel that her life was borderline empty. With growing clarity, she recognized that she desired the life her parents had. After forty-two years of marriage her father was still married to “the prettiest redhead in America.” Dinner at the table every night was filled with chatter about the day’s events and the inevitable squawking over whose turn it was to wash the dishes. Their house was the gathering place for the neighborhood and, in those days, was always filled with adolescents, teenagers, and even young adults.

  Her parents had always supported her and attended as many extracurricular activities as possible. Lauren loved them equally, but she was closer to her father than her mother primarily due to his unconditional support of her, even when she wanted to participate in so-called boy sports. He had tossed the football with her, thrown thousands of pitches, hit hundreds of ground balls, and cheered her from the sidelines of the neighborhood flag football team. Without him, she doubted she would have become the confident woman she was today.

  So what? So what that I have a great job, a big house, fancy car, gobs of money, and the envy of those around me? Big freakin’ deal. I don’t even have a fish to share it with.

  Lauren had dinner engagements at least four or five times a month, but they were business obligations. She tried to remember the last time she went out socially. A persistent throbbing between her legs was a not-so-subtle reminder that it had been far too long since she’d felt the touch of another human being. She certainly couldn’t remember the last time she’d had sex. With someone other than Duracell. It was probably seven or eight months ago, and apparently it was not particularly memorable, either. Lauren chuckled. Jesus, I’ve got to get laid.

  Forcing herself to shift topics, she began wondering what her boss wanted to talk to her about on Monday. When the meeting notice had arrived in her e-mail after hours yesterday, the subject line was blank. Just a nondescript invitation that she typically declined unless she was aware of the subject. Her legal training prohibited her from going into a meeting unprepared. Unfortunately she couldn’t do that when her boss called her in, so she scanned the events of the past few weeks in her mind, hoping something would pop up. There was one thing that nagged at the back of her brain, and that was her stand on firing the gay guy in accounting. She had reviewed her decision several times since and was confident she had made the right choice. But she had half expected it to boomerang, and she was determined not to let it. Apart from the ethical considerations, it would be risky for her company to fire anyone on those grounds.

  Confident that she could handle any angle her boss wanted to raise about that decision, she closed her eyes and hoped for at least a few hours of sleep.

  *

  Elliott hated being on hold but she had been playing phone tag with Ryan all morning. While she listened to the inane music, her mind drifted to Lauren for at least the twelfth time that day. She had spent most of Sunday trying to determine if she had misread the signals she picked up constantly during their date. Her gaydar and experience with women seldom failed her, and she was shocked when Lauren said no. So shocked, as a matter of fact, that she had not even attempted to talk her around. She was still puzzled by the unexpected rejection.

  Her friends had told her on several occasions that her reputation would one day catch up with her. Elliott’s stomach churned when she remembered what she had said about her past interests. Funny, Elliott. You practically told her you were a slut and you’re surprised that she turned you down. What an idiot! She knew that if hindsight were foresight she would have taken a different approach. She was so accustomed to dinner with a beautiful woman being a prelude to sex, she had hardly considered the possibility of a negative reaction to her openness. And why does it matter to me what she thinks?

  When her musings were interrupted by her lawyer finally coming on the line, she complained, “Ryan you really have got to get some better hold music. If you hadn’t insisted that we talk today, I wouldn’t have put up with it. And so help me, if I have that song playing in my head for the rest of the day I’m going to personally stomp on you.”

  Their relationship of client and attorney was somewhat different than most. They had been friends for over ten years and it was natural that she would want Ryan as her lawyer. He had declined more times than she could count citing conflict of interest, but she knew he was simply afraid he would let her down. He had yet to. Elliott knew the call was serious when he didn’t reply with a jab of his own.

  “Ryan?”

  “El, I received papers from Rebecca’s attorney this morning.”

  Elliott remained quiet, knowing the other shoe was going to drop.

  “She’s suing you.”

  “For what?” Elliott felt surprisingly calm. She knew her best friend was holding his breath.

  “Three hundred thousand dollars.” He still had not exhaled.

  “On what grounds?”

  Ryan hesitated, and Elliott guessed he didn’t want to see her hurt. Their friendship defied the common definition of a bond between a man and a woman. But Elliott seldom thought of Ryan as a man. When she looked at him she didn’t see gender, she saw an honest, loyal friend and she knew he felt the same way about her. They had weathered the usual storms together, from one-night stands to failed relationships. Elliott was the first person Ryan had introduced to his soon-to-be wife
Crystal, and she’d stood up as his best person at their wedding thirteen months later.

  When he put on his attorney hat and plunged forward, she could tell he found the conversation difficult. “Alienation of affection, fraud, and defamation of character. Ludicrous, of course, since you have not circulated your opinions in public. I guess she didn’t take kindly to being told she was a bad lay.”

  Elliott sighed. She was not surprised that the situation had escalated. She’d known that Rebecca was going to be trouble; it only remained to be seen how much trouble. “Go on.”

  She was astute enough to know that there was much more in the legal document that was now casting a shadow over her life. From their last conversation, she knew Ryan had dropped everything when the papers arrived by courier at eight that morning. He had pored over the seventeen pages, making notes in the margin as thoughts came to mind and had given his paralegal the task of scouring the Web, pulling any and all information on Rebecca Alsip. Elliott was itching to see what had been gathered, but Ryan had insisted on going through the file in detail to determine exactly what he would use to get rid of Rebecca once and for all.

  “What do you want first?” he asked. “The good news or the bad news?”

  For the next twenty minutes they talked about the various elements of the suit, Ryan often reiterating that although this was going to get ugly, they would win. Elliott was buoyed by his confidence but her instincts told her it would not be easy.

  Her attention zeroed in on one specific phrase amid the legalese. “Say that again. She’s going to call who as a witness?”

  “Any and all persons with prior or current sexual contact with the defendant and any person currently with a foreseeable sexual contact.”

  “Let me get this straight.” Elliott rubbed her eyes. “She’s going to subpoena everyone I’ve slept with and anyone I might be thinking about sleeping with? Is that about it?” This was beginning to sound insane. She had plenty of normal human flaws, but they did not include the ones outlined in the document.

  “She’s gonna try.” Ryan’s reply indicated his commitment to not let this happen.

  “Can she do that?” Elliott said a silent prayer.

  “No, this is a standard ploy. Besides, if she wants to subpoena anybody you want to have sex with, we’d all die of old age before she got as far as the M’s.”

  The sound of Ryan’s deep laugh lightened Elliott’s mood. “I’m not sure what your intent was, but I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  “I’m not sure that’s how I meant it.” Ryan’s mood quickly sobered. “This issue could be a problem if we don’t come to some type of agreement with her. You know who she will call first, and I don’t have to tell you how Senator Jarvis will feel having his daughter’s name come up. You don’t want to upset this guy. He has a long reach in the financial sector.”

  Elliott finally snapped. “I’ve told you, I am not giving her anything. Not half a million dollars, not one hundred thousand dollars, not one hundred dollars, not one goddamned red cent! I pay you an outrageous amount of money, Ryan, and I expect you to fix this. Now.” She slammed the receiver into the cradle and cursed, “Goddamn son of a bitch!”

  Teresa hesitantly peeked her head around the door. She knew her boss was talking to her attorney and they were not making weekend plans. “You okay in here?” When her head wasn’t immediately bitten off, she entered the spacious office and stopped in front of the cluttered desk.

  Elliott dropped her head in her hands. “Jesus F. Christ. I’m falling apart.” She rarely lost her temper, and when she did she never took it out on an innocent bystander. She felt as small as a flea as a result of her rant. She held her hand up, silencing any further questions from Teresa while she reached for the phone. After a very humbling apology to Ryan, she turned her attention back to her concerned friend.

  Teresa inhaled sharply at the agonized look in her boss’s eyes. She had never seen her so distraught, and what hurt the most was that there was nothing she could do. “Can I get you anything?”

  Lauren. Elliott was shocked that her first thought was of Lauren. I really am cracking up. She took a moment and tried to sort out her thoughts and emotions. When nothing appeared to fall into place she sat back in her chair and sighed. “Nothing, thanks. I’m sorry if my antics worried you. Why don’t you pack it in and go home.” Trying to put Teresa at ease, she insisted, “I’ll be fine, really. I was just venting.”

  But she was far from fine, and it took several hours of intense self-questioning to put everything into perspective. More troubling than the issue with Rebecca was that she still couldn’t budge her mind from its determined focus on Lauren, and she was at wits’ end to know why. Other than their brief conversation at the awards banquet and their dinner last Saturday night, she really didn’t know Lauren at all. Certainly she was warm, witty, and intelligent, and had a great sense of humor. She challenged Elliott on every level. Without question she was the most intriguing woman she had met in a long while, perhaps ever.

  It crossed her mind that she was so disenchanted over Rebecca, any reasonably decent, honest woman would seem remarkable. And Lauren was more than that. She was beautiful and independent, and she didn’t seem to have any hidden agenda; Elliott was an expert in spotting those. She’d learned, growing up, that she could take very few people at face value.

  Elliott wasn’t sure when it had first dawned on her that most of her friendships were conditional upon her wealth and the status of her family. She and her sister Stephanie had attended the Willingham School in Pennsylvania. Willie, as her fellow classmates called their school, was one of the best private girls’ boarding schools in the country, with an admissions waiting list of years. The joke was that when a woman ovulated, she put the family name on the list hoping to obtain one of the coveted slots when the soon-to-be child was old enough to attend.

  Elliott had never had a problem fitting in; she was the typical rich girl with dashing good looks, lots of toys, and money to spend. She was also a hell-raiser with a bad-boy image, and all the girls were after her. But she was always aware that even if they were attracted to walk on the wild side, most still wanted something more from her, and it was seldom simply her friendship.

  Her sister Stephanie, however, had inherited the trust gene, and it was the dominant factor in her life from the day she was born. Their mother had died when Elliott was six, and there was never any one special woman in her father’s life to step into the mothering role. Instead it seemed as if there was a new woman hanging around each time she came home from school.

  As the big sister, Elliott was protective of Stephanie. While they were at Willie, she bailed Stephanie out of many awkward and even dangerous situations. Stephanie’s naïveté and belief in people’s goodness not only broke her heart on a regular basis, but also her weekly allowance. Elliott did what she could to keep her sister safe and prevent others from using her, but she could not be there all the time.

  Stephanie’s poor judgment extended to the men she dated and had culminated in her marriage to Mark Nelson, a conniving manipulator who seemed to make a habit of dating wealthy women. Elliott had done everything she could to make Stephanie see who Mark really was; she’d even had him investigated and discovered a couple of previous fiancées who wised up before they tied the knot. Nothing she found out made any difference. Stephanie was too far down the path of blind love to listen.

  To Elliott’s chagrin, her father invited Mark to join Foster McKenzie shortly after the marriage and he became a bigger asshole than he was when she first met him. When James Foster died, Mark assumed he would be in the corner office since he saw himself as the head of the family. Stephanie had no interest in business and Elliott’s interests were in sun, wine, and women, not necessarily in that order. Her father’s will handed the reins of the company to her uncle, and Mark had been furious; however, he soon seemed to accept that there was simply a new butt to kiss. His strategy hadn’t changed much over the years, an
d Elliott could feel his seething resentment now that hers was the butt in question. The only reason she hadn’t fired his worthless ass was because of her sister.

  Mark had some allies at Foster McKenzie; opportunists always recognized others on the make. Elliott had tried to weed them out when she took over the company. Predictably, some of the people who had sided with her uncle against her suddenly acted as if they were her best friends and closest allies. She had fired them without a second thought. Loyalty mattered to her, although she knew it often came with strings attached. Experience had taught her that everybody wanted something from her and, other than a few close friends and her direct staff, Elliott didn’t trust many people.

  Making a conscious effort to turn her thoughts in a more pleasant direction, Elliott picked up the phone and dialed a local florist Foster McKenzie had an account with. She discussed the arrangement she wanted to send and gave Lauren’s address at Bradley & Taylor. She wished she could be a fly on the wall when the umbrella containing the spring bouquet was delivered to Lauren’s office with the card that said, “I’m looking forward to rain in the forecast.”

  Elliott shook her head. Jeez, and we haven’t even slept together. She wanted to add yet to the end of that thought, but for the first time in many years she felt uncertain of herself. Confidence was one of many traits she’d inherited from her father, and on the rare occasions when it deserted her, she felt unsettled. It seldom happened in her relationships with women. She always knew what steps to take, what to say, and in what order, to get a woman into bed. There were challenges every now and then, but instinct kicked in at those times and she went home happy.

  Elliott turned to her computer and her fingers hesitated over the keyboard. She remembered the first few weeks she’d sat in this chair and how scared she was. So many people were depending on her. But most importantly, she needed to prove herself. She was her father’s daughter.