“You’re taking this the wrong way.”
“How else am I supposed to take it?”
“I just want to make sure you’re okay. I do love you.”
That was it. All the anger, all the frustration that I felt with her came to a head and I blew up. “You don’t love me. You love the home I made for you. I am not some place you can just park your shoes whenever you get over this…this thing you’re going through.”
“I didn’t say you were. I’m the one telling you you shouldn’t wait.”
“I don’t need your permission.”
Brenda went quiet. “I can’t say anything right anymore, can I?”
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SUCH A PRETTY FACE
“Please, just tell me why you’re calling.”
“I don’t know. I just felt like…I should. I was standing on the beach the other night and the moonlight was glinting off the waves and I realized I was wishing you were there to see it too.”
There was a time, hours, even days after she left that I would have jumped on that tone, begged her to come home, maybe even taken some time off so I could go see her. Here was an opening; I could mend my relationship if I wanted to. The realization that I didn’t want to, that it was truly over between us, stunned me.
“You haven’t said how the photo shoot’s going,” I said in an effort to get the conversation on steady ground.
“It’s going well.” There was no enthusiasm in her voice, just weariness and regret. I wished I hadn’t heard it; I didn’t want to start the conversation I knew we had to have.
“Mia, are you still there?”
“Yeah, sorry. I was thinking about something.”
“I should get going. Can I call you when I have a little more time to talk? Maybe in a few days?”
“Yeah, you probably should.” I marveled at how frozen my heart felt as I hung up the phone. Damn it, Brenda. Why is good-bye the only civil thing we can say to each other?
v
It wasn’t like Goody to be so quiet. Well, “quiet” wasn’t the right word. I could hear the sound of his emery board as it rasped slowly across his nails. But he hadn’t said a word since he plunked himself down in the chair opposite my desk.
“All right, spit it out,” I said after two grueling minutes of scraping. “Please. I have a lot to do and you’re obviously pissed off about something, so just spit it out.”
He stopped looking at his perfect crescent-shaped nails long enough to glance at me. “I’m not pissed. I’m just a little hurt,” he said and went back to Þ ling. His voice had a petulant quality that drove me insane on the best of days. I didn’t hear it often, and I suspected, if other people reacted to it as I did, it could factor into his chronic state of singlehood.
“Hurt about what?”
“That was Brenda on the phone?”
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GABRIELLE GOLDSBY
“You know it was, you were the one who told me she was holding.”
“Selena Sanchez called while you were on the phone with her.”
“Okaay?” I dragged the word out in the hopes that he would get to the point.
Goody’s brow rose. “How long have we known each other?”
“Two years, plus the lifetime it’s taking us to have this conversation. What’s your point?”
“My point is, I tell you everything.” He rubbed his nails on the front of his immaculately starched shirt. “I thought our arrangement was mutual.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, all of a sudden you have three women calling within a Þ ve-minute span, looking for you. Something is going on and you aren’t telling me about it.”
“Wait a minute, Goody.” I laughed. “I have no idea why you’re getting all upset because Brenda called, and Selena was probably just checking to see why I haven’t made another appointment.”
“Then why’d she ask me if you were seeing anyone?”
“She what?” My eyes grew large as I caught on. “But she’s—”
“As gay as you are.”
“She doesn’t look gay.”
“And you do?”
“Yes, damn it, I look really gay. What did you tell her?”
“I told her she should ask you,” Goody said with an affronted look on his face.
“So she’s gay? I mean for real?” Envisioning the length of Selena’s Þ ngernails, I shuddered. “You said three women. Who was the third?”
“Ryan called too.” Goody stared at me intently and I’ll be damned if my face didn’t heat up.
“She did?” I tried not to sound too excited. “So what? She’s working on my house.”
“Yeah, but she called to make sure you were feeling okay. Why wouldn’t you be okay?” He stood up. “I mean, it’s not like you had some rough sex that you aren’t telling me about.”
“Goody, you’ve got to be ki—”
“Wait a minute, let me Þ nish. Don’t I tell you about every sexual encounter?”
“In graphic detail, yes. Every time.”
• 130 •
SUCH A PRETTY FACE
“So, do I have to spell it out?”
“Goody, there’s nothing to tell. We worked out. She offered to help me train for the PDX Challenge.”
His mouth twisted. “Then why do you have that guilty look on your face? You didn’t do anything embarrassing like ask her to be your lover, did you?”
“Goody, what do you take me for? I’m not crazy. I just told her she could stay with me while she…”
“Oh, my God. It’s true.”
“What?”
“You already called the moving van. You did it, didn’t you? You had sex and it was so good that she’s moving in so you can…screw on your lunch.”
“Okay, now you’re being ridiculous.” I was nearly shaking because, well, it did sound good, and I would if I could. But I couldn’t and, damn it, I was not too happy about that fact. “Look, I feel responsible for what that asshole Jackson did to her, okay?”
“So you ask her to move in with you? That goes a bit beyond guilt.
What are you going to tell Brenda?”
“I’m not going to tell Brenda anything. It’s not what you think. I feel safer having someone around when I’m not home. There’s been a rash of burglaries in my neighborhood.”
“So you get a burglar alarm, you don’t ask a stranger to move in with you.”
“She’s having money problems. Problems she wouldn’t be having if Jackson hadn’t gotten her Þ red after she stood up for me.”
“So you write her a letter of recommendation. Hell, you’ve already given her a job. Lord knows, I’ve ended up giving money to what I thought was a nice free one-night stand.”
“Neither Ryan nor I are the one-night-stand type, okay? It’ll never happen. We’ve become friends. I need help Þ xing up the house. She needs to save money until she Þ nds a new job. I need a workout buddy.
She can’t afford a gym membership. It beneÞ ts both of us. Let’s not make more of it than that. Anyway, she’s really good.”
“Oh, I’m sure.”
I gave him a look. Something made me want to prove my point, to convince him that I was completely in control of the situation and not kidding myself about anything. “She’s had this great idea about pulling up the carpet in the den to see what condition the ß oors are in.
• 131 •
GABRIELLE GOLDSBY
She thinks they might be in excellent condition, but she’s worried about the asbestos.”
Goody leaned forward and glared at me for a long tense moment.
Finally he leaned back and nodded. “All right, now that I’ve had a good look at you, I believe that you haven’t slept with her. You don’t look like you’ve had sex in a year.”
“Oh, well thank you very much, Goody.”
“Don’t thank me for that.”
His expression turned from sulky to serious. “You may not have slept with her yet, but you rea
lly like her, don’t you? You got this big old smile on your face just now when you were talking about her.”
I wanted to continue the happy Þ ction about my platonic detachment, but I couldn’t hide my feelings that well. “Goody, she doesn’t want anything to do with me, and I can’t say as I blame her. She knows that I have unÞ nished business with Brenda. If she didn’t need the money, I doubt she’d even be working for me right now. But I don’t know…there’s something there that I’ve never experienced before. I like being around her. I wonder about her life before we met…”
“You never felt that way about anyone else? About Brenda?”
“If I did, I don’t remember,” I said to be diplomatic, but I knew that I hadn’t. “Please tell me this is normal, that it’s infatuation.”
“It’s infatuation.”
“Good, so what do I do about it?”
“You ignore it.”
“Goody.”
“Shit, I don’t know. The only thing that ever worked for me was letting them break my heart, and I don’t recommend that one.”
“She won’t even have the decency to break my heart. She just wants to talk paint and carpet and wood ants.”
“Wood ants?”
“Yeah, apparently I have wood ants as big as my pinky Þ nger.” I shuddered just thinking about it. “I was going to bring some in and put them in Jackson’s ofÞ ce, but I changed my mind. All I need is to have him accuse me of purposely giving the ofÞ ce ants.”
Goody laughed. “You know, I haven’t seen him since the day you two had it out.”
“Good. Hopefully they Þ red his ass.”
“Nah, Robin would have said something, and she’s been coming in
• 132 •
SUCH A PRETTY FACE
to work like she normally does. When he goes on vacation she always comes in later and leaves earlier…you know?”
I nodded, even though I really didn’t know. I came to work early and stayed late. At least I had before Ryan started working on my house.
“I guess we’ll see soon enough.”
I logged into my computer and pulled up my date book in the hopes that Goody would get the hint that I was done discussing Ryan Benson.
“May I ask you one more question? Then I’ll leave you alone.”
“Yeah, go ahead.”
“Are you sure you aren’t just lonely? I’m asking because I like Ryan. I would hate for you to get involved with her because you’re missing Brenda. You could end up hurting her a lot.”
“Do you really think I’m the kind of person that would do something like that?”
“I think a lot of people aren’t that kind of person. But then someone nice comes along and likes you so much that they end up inadvertently letting you walk all over them.”
“I would never do that to anyone, least of all Ryan. I don’t have that kind of pull.”
Goody stood up. “Uh-huh. Don’t forget to call Selena and Ryan back,” he said as he walked out of my ofÞ ce.
v
“Thank you for agreeing to have lunch with me.” Selena smiled and I wondered what chemical could possibly make teeth that white. “I wasn’t sure if you would come at all.”
Since I had been very close to calling her back and lying my way out of the invitation, I said, “I have to admit you caught me off guard, but why wouldn’t I come?”
“I saw you leaving one evening with Ryan…oh, I can’t think of her last name—beautiful if she didn’t have that horrible scar. Are you two seeing each other?”
“No, we’re just friends. How do you know Ryan?”
“Let’s just say we had a brief but mutually pleasing time together, and then we went our separate ways.”
It would have been unreasonable for me to believe that a woman
• 133 •
GABRIELLE GOLDSBY
as attractive as Ryan would not have had affairs, but having that affair sitting across the table from me was asking too much. I wanted to reach across and wipe the smirk off Selena’s face. Instead, I kept my smile bland and concentrated on my plate.
“I didn’t ask you here to talk about Ryan, though.”
“Okay, why did you ask me here?” I tried hard not to show how cranky I was getting.
“I wanted to know why you stopped coming to the gym. Come on, tell me the truth. I don’t bite.” Her teeth gleamed as she smiled so wide I thought I heard her jaw crack.
I had expected her to ask, but I still winced. “It had nothing to do with your training, it was because—”
“Because you felt it too.” She covered my hand with hers. We were sitting in the deli in our building, so the public displays of affection made me just a tad uncomfortable.
“I felt it too?”
Apparently Selena missed the question mark at the end of my sentence, because she did a little high school cheerleading move and clapped her hands twice. I looked around the restaurant to make sure no one from the ofÞ ce was around.
“I knew it!” she said too loudly for comfort. “I thought it was just me. I could never date someone I worked with, but now that you’re not coming to the gym, I thought I would ask.” I stared at her, speechless.
“I asked Goody about you, of course…because he’s gay. I wanted to make sure that you were actually gay and somewhat open to the kind of relationship I’m looking for.”
“What kind of…relationship is that?”
“I’m not looking for marriage or anything, just a friend.”
“Just a friend?” I repeated.
“Yeah, a friend with beneÞ ts.” Selena laughed at her own joke and clawed gently at the top of my hand.
“You asked Goody if I would be open to that.”
“He said that he couldn’t answer for you. He sounded unsure, though.”
Oh, Goody, I’m going to break my foot off in your scrawny ass.
“So what do you say about us, you know, hanging out as friends?
Maybe catching a movie, I could cook us some dinner, that kind of thing.”
• 134 •
SUCH A PRETTY FACE
“Sure, but I’ll have to check my schedule and let you know when I’m free.” I picked up my sandwich and she picked up her fork, beaming at me as if we had just agreed to an orgy.
If there was one thing I had learned, growing up in a family like mine, you keep your mouth full and you don’t have to answer awkward questions. My lunch hour couldn’t end soon enough. I watched Selena nibble at her salad. Why had I agreed to lunch? The fact that she had asked Goody if I was available had tipped me off to what was coming.
Why hadn’t I called Ryan back Þ rst?
I knew the answer without really needing to ask the question. I hadn’t called Ryan back because I was afraid she had been calling to turn me down. Lunch with Selena had been a diversion. Goody was right, even someone like me could use people unintentionally.
• 135 •
• 136 •
SUCH A PRETTY FACE
CHAPTER TWELVE
Henry, hi! I haven’t heard from you in ages. I was beginning to think you had forgotten about me.”
“Aw, Mia, you know I could never forget about you, doll. I think about you almost every day.”
“Before or after you tee off?”
“Before and after. You’re like my favorite daughter.”
“You only have one daughter and you two argue all the time.”
“Exactly,” he said and we both laughed.
“Listen, Mia, you know I’m not one to put my nose where it doesn’t belong, but I ran into Stan Wallace over at Lone Oak Golf Club and he mentioned that he had just switched his accounts to another broker.”
“I know, Henry. I’ve been calling him to Þ nd out what happened.
He’s up…” I pulled up Stan Wallace’s accounts. “He’s up something like thirteen percent on the year. I called him last month to make sure that he was happy with our services and he said no complaints. Did he tell you anyt
hing?”
“He told me enough, that’s why I’m calling you. I hate to tell you this, but you have a weasel in the henhouse.”
I tensed. “What do you mean?”
“Someone, speciÞ cally Brad Jackson, is stealing your clients.”
“That’s not possible. He works here. How could he…?”
I stopped speaking because I knew the answer, the same as Henry did. “That arrogant bastard left the company and is trying to take my clients with him? What in the hell?”
“Stan is my friend. He didn’t want to tell me because he knows
• 137 •
GABRIELLE GOLDSBY
how I feel about you, but Jackson is claiming that you’ve been putting him in a bad portfolio mix.”
“What? And he believed him? He’s up thirteen percent, Henry. It’s not even September yet!”
Henry cleared his throat. “Jackson also claimed you were charging too much in fees. Stan said that Jackson was undercutting you by half.”
I inhaled. “So that means Jackson is only charging half a percent?
What company would agree to that unless he got some kind of exception just to steal my clients? I haven’t changed my fee structure. It’s still one percent!”
“Good,” Henry said. “I can call a few more of my old customers, but I’m assuming Jackson got a hold of your customer accounts and is quietly stealing them. You had no inkling that Jackson was going to leave Goldsmith?”
“None,” I said, rubbing hard at my forehead. The On Hold light was ß ashing, signaling that Goody had another call waiting for me.
I ignored it. “I haven’t seen him since last week, but I didn’t think anything of it. Scratch that, I was happy about it. He’s always been an ass to me, but after you left, he just became intolerable.”
Henry grew quiet. “I’m afraid that might be my fault.”
“Your fault? How?”
“I talked to Jackson about coming on board with me when you were still in the training program.”
“You did what? But Henry, he’s sleazy.”
Such a Pretty Face Page 15
