Stripped Bare

by Heidi McLaughlin

  “I’ll have the pancakes.”

  “Anything else? Do you want a side of bacon?”

  “No, but I’ll take a side of Macey.” He winks, causing me to blush.

  “Very funny.”

  I turn away as quickly as I can, drop his order at the kitchen and make my way to the bathroom before I lose all composure in front of everyone. Inside the stall, I try to calm my breathing and get my brain to comprehend the fact that Finn McCormick is here, in town and at the diner. He somehow found out where I worked and showed up. Why? Why is he here?

  After I wash up, I go back out on the floor and tend to my other tables. Each time I glance at Finn, he’s watching me. His eyes are following me around the restaurant. He’s my table so I have to check on him, even though I want to ignore him.

  “Do you need a refill on your coffee?”

  “What time are you off?”

  “Not until three. Coffee?” I ask again, holding the pot up.

  “I want to take you to dinner.”

  I shake my head and move to the next table, refilling their cups and so on until my pot is empty. When I walk by his table again, he reaches out and snags my hand.

  “Macey…”

  “What? Why are you here, Finn?”

  “Why do you think?”

  “How’d you find me?”

  “Lamar did a background check on you when you stayed with me. This place came up for employment. I took a guess.”

  I shake my head, wishing he would go away. I’ve had enough of Finn in my life. His order is ready and as much as I’d love to throw it in his face, I can’t.

  “We need to talk,” he says when I bring him his pancakes.

  “I can’t after work.” There is no way I’m telling him about Morgan.

  “When?”

  “I don’t know, Finn.”

  He cuts into his pancake and takes a bite. “Unacceptable.”

  I remind myself that he doesn’t own me, at least not anymore. I walk away and tend to my other tables, stopping by Finn one last time to see if he needs anything else before I hand him his check.

  And as if my day couldn’t get any worse—you know the saying, when it rains, it pours? That’s my day today. I’m watching as the hostess sits Joel, the guy from the plane, in my section. I have two options: pretend I don’t know him or act like I’m shocked to see him. I think pretending is the best way to go.

  “What can I get you to drink?”

  “Hi. Do you remember me?” he says.

  I fake my surprise and smile. “Yes, of course. Joe, right?”

  “Joel.” We both smile at the same time. I pretend to act embarrassed.

  “Right, Joel. How are you?”

  “I’m doing well and yourself?” He holds the menu in his hand, giving me all this attention. I glance up quickly and see Finn eyeing us. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that Finn is jealous by the redness in his cheeks and the firm set of his jaw. I turn my attention back to Joel and answer his question.

  “I’m doing better than I was that day on the plane.”

  “That’s good.”

  “Yeah, it is. Do you know what you want to order?”

  “Oh yeah,” Joel says as he looks down at the menu. “Um…yeah, so a Coke would be good and I’ll take the turkey club.”

  I write down his order even though it’s an easy one to remember and tell him I’ll be right back. Once I drop it in, I go back to check on Finn.

  “What else can I get you?”

  “Who’s the guy?”

  I shake my head slightly. “No one, a customer.”

  Finn drops his fork onto his plate in a huff. “He knows you. I can tell by the way he looks at you. Are you dating him?”

  “What?” I scoff. “Finn, what makes you think you can come in here and talk to me like this?”

  “You’re mine, Macey,” he says, standing and towering over me. “Mine. I’ll see you when you get off.”

  Finn stops and pays his bill and doesn’t look to see if I’m watching him. The hostess is flirting with him and a pang of jealousy washes over me. I shouldn’t be jealous. I shouldn’t care, but if I’m his, why can’t he be mine? Finn never looks at me when he walks out the door and the only thing that gets my attention is Debbie waving something in my face.

  “Whoa, Macey, what did that man order?” Debbie ask as she fans herself.

  “What?”

  “Your tip and a note.” She hands me a stack of hundred-dollar bills wrapped in a note.

  I want to see you and you know I always get what I want.

  Finn

  As discreetly as I can I count the money, stopping when I get to eight and knowing there are two more bills after that. He left me a thousand-dollar tip on an eight-dollar meal. And his note…he doesn’t leave a number, knowing I already have his tucked tight in that phone he made sure I had, even if he hasn’t used it.

  Joel ended up spending an hour at the diner, taking every chance he could to talk to me, and gave me his number again. Little does he know that I still have the piece of paper he gave me at the airport sitting in my dresser. Maybe this time I’ll use it. Maybe today is the wake-up call I need to get over Finn. Maybe.

  When I get off, Finn is standing outside the restaurant waiting for me. He’s leaning up against his car with his legs crossed at his ankles. I contemplate heading toward my bus stop, but I have a feeling he’ll follow me.

  “Get in, Macey,” he says as he opens the door for me. There are no pleasantries in his words. It’s a demand. It’s business. After he slams my door shut, he rushes around to the driver’s side and slides in easily. He doesn’t ask where I need to go when he enters traffic, but seems to head out of town.

  “I can’t be gone long.”

  “I want to talk.”

  “How long have you been in town?”

  He smiles and looks at me, killing me dead with his blue eyes. “I arrived this morning.”

  I look at him questioningly and he shrugs. “And you came to the diner?”

  “Yeah, I needed to see you.”

  “Okay,” I say, turning my attention back to the road. He turns off and drives up the hill in the direction of Lovers’ Lane. Funnily enough, I always imagined I’d be brought up here so I could make out with someone I’m interested in.

  He pulls into the tree-secluded location and parks, shutting the car off. The view from here is amazing, looking over the city. Everything looks magical and pristine. From this vantage point you wouldn’t guess that when you get to the bottom there’s a festering shit hole of life’s worst hell.

  “I’ve always loved it up here.”

  “I wouldn’t know. This is my first time,” I tell him. He looks at me and pulls my hand toward him, setting it on his leg. His thumb moves back and forth over my skin. My eyes close, remembering everything that happened between us.

  “Well, now it’s something you can knock off your bucket list.”

  I sigh and shake my head. “I don’t have a bucket list.”

  “Why not?”

  I take my hand back and turn toward the door. “What’s the point of having a list when I know I can’t knock anything off?”

  “I can help.”

  Turning sharply to look at him, I say, “Why are you here? Our agreement is over and you made it crystal clear that we would never see each other again. So what gives?”

  Finn rests his hand on the steering wheel. “Our agreement isn’t over.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You owe me one more day and I’m here to collect.”

  I scoff. “I don’t owe you anything.”

  “See, that is where you’re wrong. As far as I’m concerned you left before our agreement was due to end. You owe me another day and I want to collect.”

  I close my eyes and wish I had made a run for the bus. If I knew he was outside, I would’ve called a cab to come and get me. I would’ve done anything to prevent what’s happening now.

  Silen
t tears start to fall as I see what my life is going to become. He’s going to always have something to hold over my head. If it’s not the agreement, it’ll be the tip he gave me at the diner.

  “I can’t do this.”

  “Why not?” he asks.

  “Because I don’t want to be a whore, Finn. You left a thousand-dollar tip for me and now I’m in your car at Lovers’ Lane. This adds up to prostitution and I’m not…”

  Finn pulls me to his chest. “That’s not why I left the tip and that’s not what I think of you. I’ve never thought of you like that.”

  “It’s how you make me feel,” I tell him. “The clothes, the money and the phone? You show up here flashing your cash around, how am I supposed to feel?”

  “I’m sorry, that wasn’t my intention.”

  “What are your intentions?”

  He releases me and rights himself back into his pants. “I don’t know, Macey, but I’m here for a few days and I’d like to see you.”

  I nod, not knowing if I’ll be able to do that. It’s been hard enough getting over him these past few weeks. I don’t want to go down that path again.

  “Not tonight, Finn. I can’t.”

  “Fair enough. Tomorrow then, but don’t make me wait. You know I don’t like waiting.”

  He starts the car and drives back to the diner. He must think I have a car because he never asks where I live. As soon as he drops me off I stand there, waiting for him to leave. Finn is Vegas, not home. I don’t want him here. When he’s out of sight, I head toward the bus that will take me home to Morgan.

  Chapter 20

  Finn

  The concrete structure that houses the city’s largest mall is bigger than I remember. Many hours of my teen years were spent here, chasing tail. Riding up and down the escalator scanning the open space for chicks. Looking mostly for girls who didn’t go to my school because they were easier. Those prep-school chicks had one thing on their minds and that was a relationship and even back then, I didn’t want one. I liked being able to do what I wanted, when I wanted.

  I can’t even remember how many make-out sessions I had in the elevator, pressing the stop button as soon as the lift would start so I could try to get my hands down some chick’s pants before security would call over the loudspeaker. A stuck elevator in a mall was never a huge concern for them so it became the prime spot to get frisky. And if one of my buddies beat me there, the back parking lot or the top deck had great spots. A few of the girls that I fooled around with I’d date for a week or two, maybe even a few months, but I moved on quickly because there was always something in the way, sports, distance or time, and the nagging about when I’d be around always became too much to handle. I suppose I was too enamored with high school life and being sought after to really give a shit about having a girlfriend. Can’t say much has changed except for my mishap with Brandy in college.

  My phone rings, disrupting my newly found profession as a stalker. Since Lamar installed the app that tells me where Macey is, I’ve been attached and I can’t get enough. That’s how I ended up at the mall shortly after she got out of my car. It’s a sickness that is consuming me at the moment. I know she went from my car to the bus stop and rode the bus to her apartment. Then she went from her apartment, back onto the bus and is now at the mall. I don’t need to see her physically to know she’s inside the building. I’m about to enter and find myself stumbling upon her because the phone that I gave her is resting somewhere on her body, alerting me to her every move.

  Brandy’s name flashes on my screen, the static vibration of my phone in my hand irritating me. Even though I hate admitting this, I want Macey to call, not Brandy. To hear Macey’s voice on the phone would be the highlight of my fucking day right now and for the life of me I can’t figure out why I want this. I told her one week and we were done and yet here I am, in the parking lot of the mall, about to go inside and hunt her down like a fucking savage because my body is craving her.

  “Hello,” I say over the speakerphone. Ignoring Brandy is not an option. Not after her threat. The more I think about her ultimatum, the more desperate she becomes in my eyes. If her father pulls his money away, so be it. Brady won’t, and being an up-and-coming developer he knows I’m worth the gamble.

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m home.” I doubt she remembers where I’m from. Only once during college did I fly home and that was when my mother was on her deathbed. I put this place, along with my father and his new wife, long behind me.

  “Let me in. We need to talk.”

  “Wrong home,” I tell her with a hint of laughter in my voice.

  “What?” she screeches. “Did I not make myself clear yesterday?”

  “You did, but there’s something I need to take care of here and it can’t wait. You, on the other hand, can.” My words are meant to simply appease her until I can get my ducks in a row. Pissing her off would be a mistake, dragging her along buys me the precious time I need in order to secure my future. I’m rich, but rolling the debt of a new hotel into my current establishments is not a smart plan. I’d rather have the backing of a local that I can trust.

  “Finn, we need to start making appearances. Having you bring that woman to events last month will make our engagement look…well, it doesn’t make me look good.”

  Sighing, I close my eyes and rest my head against the back of my seat. The words “get the hell out of my life” sit heavily on my tongue, but instead I sit silently in my car, waiting. Waiting for what, I don’t know. A sign maybe, something to tell me that my life is meant to go in a different direction?

  I don’t even know what that direction would be. All I know, right now, is the one person I want to see is inside the mall and the last person I want to speak with is on my phone yammering about how we need to announce our engagement.

  “I gotta go,” I say, not giving her time to respond before I hang up. I’m out of my car and back to watching the screen that tells me where Macey is. I don’t know how much the mall has changed over the years, but I have a fairly decent recollection of the layout.

  The mall is fairly busy as I weave around people, trying to make my way toward Macey. I come to a stopping point and realize she and I are on a path that’s going to meet as soon as we each turn the corner. Quickly pocketing my phone I walk with determination, around the wall and smack-dab into her path.

  I’m met with the most startling blue eyes I have ever seen that stop me dead in my tracks. The shocked face of Macey registers only briefly before I’m back to staring at the little girl next to her, taking in a miniature version of my mother, right down to her smile. In the picture I saw, she looked like Macey, but the real-life version has me second-guessing everything. This version has me remembering the many times I sat on my grandmother’s lap and looked at pictures of my mother until I had her cherub face memorized. I did this again when she died, committing to memory what my children would need to look like to carry on her genes. Something tells me that I’m looking at my creation now.

  My mouth opens and closes as Macey moves the girl behind her slightly. The woman I have deep carnal knowledge of is now in protective-mother mode and I don’t blame her. Clearly, in her eyes, I’m the big bad wolf.

  “What are you doing here?” she asks me again, for the second or is it third time today. I’ve lost track even though I continue to ask myself the same fucking question over and over again. What the fuck am I doing? The answer never seems to come because the meaning of the question changes day by day. First, it’s because I offered Macey the money, then I fucked her and loved every minute of it and now I’m home, chasing her down under the guise that she owes me another day, when I don’t give a fuck about another day. Except the truth of the matter is that I do, although for the purely selfish reasons of being with her again and hoping she has another moment where I need to come rescue her once more because it would be so fucking worth it.

  “It’s a mall,” I point out, spreading my arms wide.
/>   “None of the labels you wear are here.”

  “Are you calling me a label whore?”

  Her face blanches and I realize my mistake. Before I can correct myself though, Mom Macey is in full effect. “Don’t say those words around…around…” She looks down at the child who is clearly her daughter and tries to smile, but it doesn’t even come close to reaching her eyes or turning her cheeks upward.

  “Daughter?”

  She nods, as if she’s embarrassed.

  “Is this Morgan?”

  Macey doesn’t answer, but Morgan does. “Yes,” she says with the smallest, most determined voice I have ever heard. This girl is a fierce protector of her mother, I can tell.

  “Hi, Morgan.” I step forward and shake her hand. It’s small and dainty, and easily dwarfed by my larger hand.

  Macey refuses to make eye contact with me, increasing my level of anxiety. Placing my hand on her bicep, I tug her gently toward me.

  “I need to speak with you.”

  She shakes her head, maintaining her gaze on Morgan.

  “Fine,” I say through gritted teeth. “Is she mine?” I ask her, needing to know if the little girl I’m staring at is a product of our one night together so many years ago. My gut tells me she is. My heart says no. No because I spent a week with Macey, paying her to be whatever I needed and she didn’t say one damn word about us having a child. Not once did she correct me when I asked if Morgan was her fucking boyfriend. Never did Macey find the time to tell me that she needed the money for our kid or pick up the phone in the years that have passed and ask me to support her.

  Macey doesn’t answer. She doesn’t need to. The tear that falls is enough for me. I’m pissed and fucking hurt that she kept this from me. I let go of her arm and stand tall.

  “It was nice to meet you, Morgan,” I tell her, shaking her hand again and trying to get an eyeful before I walk the fuck out of this mall. I need to think, and the noise surrounding us together with the people gawking as they walk by isn’t giving my mind the peace and quiet it needs right now.