“You know this because...”
She lifted her eyes, so dark brown they were nearly black, with long lashes. “Because Bob is gay.”
Melissa couldn’t move. She wanted to laugh, not because it was funny, but because the solution could be just that simple, and she rather viciously hoped it was. Serve Mary Jo right. Not nice of Melissa, maybe, but she was in the mood to be vicious. “How do you know this?”
“He told me.” She made a face. “Though a few of us had already figured it out. I’m a lesbian and I’m out in the office, but he’s not. He’s too scared of what people might think. So he kind of goes overboard with the I-like-women thing. I guess to compensate. And some women, especially the older ones, I guess they think he’s fair game. And they really come after him. Mary Jo has been the worst. She won’t leave him alone.”
“Okay.” Ha! Gotcha, Mary Jo. Oh, this felt good.
“I heard them arguing once.” Georgina wrinkled her nose. “Well, I could have moved out of earshot, but...”
“Too good to miss, huh?”
“I guess, but also I knew she’d been bugging him and he needed a witness. Anyway, Bob really did ask Mary Jo to leave him alone in a really nice way. He complimented her, said she was great, but that he wasn’t interested, something like that. Then...” Georgina slapped the arm of her chair. “Mary Jo said he’d change his mind if he ever had her, and when he said he didn’t think so, she threatened to fire him and then apparently she started undressing.”
“Good lord.”
Georgina choked a little, put a fist in front of her mouth and swallowed a few times, holding herself rigid. It took a minute for Melissa to realize she was trying not to giggle. “He came running out of there and into my office, looking white as a sheet.”
Having seen Mary Jo, Melissa wasn’t surprised. And if she hadn’t spent such a miserable night, she’d be giggling, too.
A final snort escaped Georgina; she put a hand to her chest. “I’m sorry. I know it’s disrespectful to laugh, and that this is a serious situation. But it was also...well, it was hilarious. The poor guy. I thought he was going to throw up, he was so upset. He kept saying, ‘Why does this keep happening to me?’ So we talked about it for a while, how he was behaving and maybe sending out signals he wasn’t aware of. Maybe he does get it now. I hope he does. The poor guy.”
Yes. Poor Bob. Everything about Georgina’s explanation made instant sense and felt true and right. Melissa’s confusion over whom to believe was magically erased, just like that. If only she had a solution that easy for her mess with Jack. “Georgina, I am so glad you decided to talk to me.”
“I hope it helps him.” She stood, smiling with relief. “He’s a good guy. Sort of a mess, but...”
“Who isn’t?” Melissa offered her hand, bursting with eagerness to tell Barbara. Case closed! Or it would be after the proper channels were gone through. It would have made Melissa very uncomfortable if Barbara had insisted they take Mary Jo’s side.
The second her office door closed behind Georgina, Melissa picked up the phone and called Barbara. “You busy?”
“Always am.” She sounded terse, crabby, as she’d increasingly been over the past couple of weeks. “What’s up?”
“Just had a break in the Bob Stoker case.”
“You mean Bob Whatsisname?”
“Yeah, that one.”
“Oh, good. A castration would brighten my morning. Come on over.”
Melissa hung up the phone, wincing. Ted thought Barbara was bitter, and so did Gretchen. Rather agonizingly, Melissa was starting to wonder, too. Had she been listening to the wrong person all these years? Hearing what she wanted to hear to protect herself from getting hurt?
If she’d listened to Barbara, she wouldn’t have met Jack. She wouldn’t have agreed to be photographed, she wouldn’t have let him touch her. She wouldn’t have fallen at least some of the way in love with him, and she wouldn’t now be horribly miserably hurt and looking at the rest of her life as one big mess of time without him.
But she could say the same thing again and mean something completely different. She wouldn’t have met Jack. She wouldn’t have fallen in love with him. And she wouldn’t now be looking at the rest of her life realizing how much she wanted him in it. If she couldn’t have him, then she would find another man, though she couldn’t even fathom that right now, because her brain and her heart and her soul were so full of Jack and the promise of what she believed they could have. But people got over devastating losses. They moved on. They found new happiness. Sitting in one self-improvement class after another, while useful, important and enriching, hadn’t brought her anything like the beautiful richness she found in him and in herself when they were together.
She found Barbara typing at her computer, tight-lipped, banging on the keys with such force Melissa was surprised they could still pop back up.
“Hi.” She walked in with all the enthusiasm of someone approaching a firing squad. “Another tough day?”
“Are there any other kind?”
Melissa couldn’t bring herself to laugh, which she usually did. Then she’d feel bonded to Barbara, the solidarity of head-in-the-sand cynicism. Given that Melissa had lived through a few moments in the past nearly twenty-four hours when poking herself with darts seemed like a vacation compared to her pain, she wasn’t willing to go back to the Land of Negativity right now. Especially because Barbara had so many chances to move beyond the misery and get on with her new single life, instead of clinging to her husband’s betrayal.
“Sorry to hear that. I just had a talk with Georgina, the secretary in—”
“Oh, yes, I know Georgina.” She smiled tightly, folded her hands on her empty desk. “She’s a great worker, a very smart woman.”
Melissa prepared herself to drop the bomb, trying not to look pleased. “Mary Jo is the problem.”
Barbara’s smile did a rapid vanishing act. “I sincerely doubt that.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s a friend of mine, she’s a good person and—”
“A woman?”
Barbara’s mouth was still open for her next word, which didn’t come. Melissa had never ever spoken to her like that. She wasn’t even sure she should have this time, but whatever was bothering Barbara, it wasn’t fair of her to take it out on Bob.
Still no response. Melissa clenched her fist, waiting for her heart to start pumping, her head to feel as if it wanted to explode off her body and soar into space.
It didn’t.
“Okay.” The smile was back, but it wasn’t a particularly friendly one. “Maybe you need to tell me what you mean by that.”
Maybe she’d better stick to the case. “Georgina only confirmed what I already knew, Barbara. I spoke to Mary Jo and to Bob, as you know. The more I thought about it, the more convinced I was that Bob was telling the truth and Mary Jo was lying.”
“There is no way Mary Jo is lying.” Barbara banged on her desk for emphasis. “That guy has caused one too many problems for this company.”
“I’m sorry if this isn’t what you want to hear, but Bob did not harass Mary Jo, it was the other way around.” Melissa found herself speaking quietly but with an authority and force she didn’t know she could muster. “I have a witness, who also told me that Bob is gay.”
Barbara blinked. Melissa allowed herself to hope her boss would realize her mistake and this whole weird nightmare of having to accept that her most trusted advisor might be full of hot air would end. “How does Georgina know he’s— Oh, right, takes one to know one.”
Takes one to know one? Were they still in grade school?
She summoned her patience and tried another tack. “Barbara, what’s going on? You seem really upset.”
“I am upset.” She opened a drawer and shut it, then did it again with another one. “I haven’t told you, but I’m being unfairly accused by the men who run this company. They’ve been snooping into my business, trying to find a reason to get
rid of me. They can’t stand powerful women. None of them.”
Melissa’s stomach muscles were nearly cramping with tension, but she forced herself to sit quietly. Usually she’d jump to her boss’s defense with an oh-how-could-they rant. But today she was seeing her through radically different eyes. Maybe the higher-ups were investigating because they had a good reason to.
“Barbara, I’m so sorry. That must feel terrible.”
Barbara put her head between her hands. “Oh, it’s way beyond terrible. It’s outrageous.”
“But if you haven’t done anything, how can they get rid of—” She stopped. Bob hadn’t done anything, either, and that hadn’t stopped Barbara from wanting him out.
“Child.” Barbara shook her head, hands still at her temples. “This is men we’re talking about. Have I taught you nothing?”
Melissa got to her feet. Her patience had run out, along with the time she wanted to spend in this office. Bob would stay, she’d see to it. Mary Jo would suffer the consequences of her actions.
At Barbara’s door, Melissa turned. “Pretty much, yeah.”
She left before Barbara could figure out what she’d just said.
* * *
BONNIE KNOCKED ON SETH’S door. Her turn to pester him for a change. She had no idea if he knew what was happening to his song on YouTube. If he didn’t, she was planning to tell him. If he did, she was going to help him celebrate.
And she would ask him about the perfume chick, Matti, and whether she was still interested in renting space at Bonnie Blooms. A few more weddings had come through recently—Melissa’s sister, Gretchen’s, on the twenty-ninth, though it wasn’t a huge job, and a couple of others. One was the friend of a bride whose wedding Bonnie had designed the previous year. That was encouraging. Word of mouth could snowball and friends of friends of friends would start calling. She kept praying like mad it would happen. In the meantime, she was cultivating relationships on Facebook, introducing herself to hotel managers, restaurateurs, ministers, rabbis, funeral home directors, wherever she could imagine flowers being used. Exhausting, but at least she felt as if she were doing something. Much better than sitting home feeling herself failing bit by bit.
Something would happen.
“Hey, come in.” Seth stood at the door, gaze vacant, motioned her in robotically, then strode off in the direction of his studio. Bonnie followed, smiling. Weird dudes, those composers, lost in their alternative worlds of creation, their brains staying there sometimes even when real life intruded.
Notes sounded from the studio—guitar this time. Seth would be working out some passage he nearly had right. If he was in a total impasse he would have ditched the music and hung out with Bonnie until his muse was ready to cooperate.
She went into the studio, surprised to find a fast-food bag on the piano, and papers on the floor that looked as if they’d fallen and been left there. Very unusual. This room never had a dust mote out of place.
While Seth worked, she threw out the garbage, piled the papers neatly and put them back on one of his nearby music stands.
“Thanks, sorry.” Seth made a final notation on his music paper and put the guitar back in its case. He looked tired and a little down. He must not know about YouTube yet. How like him to post a video and then forget about it while he went off in a new direction. “Just had a breakthrough.”
“I figured.” She gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “You look like hell.”
“Hey, thanks again.” He stretched, groaning. “Haven’t been sleeping.”
“No?” She was troubled. Seth could sleep during a bear attack. “What’s going on?
“I dunno.” He got up and sat at the piano, a place he always retreated to when he felt uneasy. “Just not sleeping.”
“Seth.” She was beyond exasperated. “You have the emotional consciousness of a flea. Something must be bothering you.”
“Something is.” He tried out a few dissonant chords. “I don’t want to talk about it, okay?”
“Yes. Okay. I’m sorry.” Bonnie held up both hands in surrender. She was not here to argue with him yet again. Seemed as if the only way they’d been able to interact lately was to get on each other’s nerves. “So...”
She waited until he looked over at her, his gray eyes vibrant and magnetic, even swollen with fatigue. “So...what?”
Bonnie nonchalantly ran her hands over the black varnished wood of his piano. “So have you looked at your YouTube video lately?”
“Why would I look at it? It’s me.”
“I mean to see how many people have watched it.”
“Why would I?”
“Seth!” She wanted to bang the piano lid down on his hands. “You went viral. Big-time.”
His hands froze on the keys. “No way.”
“Total way. Guess how many hits.”
A smile bloomed across his features, turning him sweet and endearingly boyish. He stood up. “I have no idea. Tell me.”
“Nope.” She lifted her chin, taunting him. “Guess.”
“Tell me.” He lunged for her, spun her toward him and pinned her against the piano, holding her hands behind her back. “Now.”
“If I don’t?” She gave him a saucy look, like a little sister or a pal. But it was damn hard to pretend that’s what she was feeling when he was so close. He hadn’t grabbed her playfully like that in a long time, and invariably when he used to...stuff happened. “What’ll you do about it?”
A beat passed. “I’ll kiss you until you can’t breathe anymore.”
Bonnie gasped, then made a sound halfway between a plea for mercy and one for him to do exactly that. Color flooded her cheeks, her body woke fully from its sexual hibernation. Seth’s eyes darkened; his gaze fell to her mouth.
No. “Okay, I’ll tell you. Three hundred twenty-five thousand—”
“Too late.” His mouth came down, hard, possessive and full of erotic promise. She responded full-throttle, her body reacting without her permission.
She and Seth had always been good. In bed, on tables, chairs, floors, sofas, window ledges, beaches, bathrooms, vehicles...anywhere they wouldn’t get caught. Together they’d been wild, uninhibited, extremely flexible and willing to try anything anywhere anytime. All those memories started pouring back as she clutched his broad shoulders, unsure whether she was trying to pull him closer or push him away. She’d never been with a lover like him, never had this instant fiery attraction with anyone else. Not even close.
His tongue entered her mouth, the bulge of his erection pressed insistently between her legs. Her longing for sex became desperate, overwhelming. To have a man inside her, to touch a male body, stroke his skin, feel hard muscle and flesh against and in possession of hers.
She wanted that. And here was Seth...
Just this one time, animal and satisfying and purely physical. He’d expect nothing more afterward and neither would she. She had three dates lined up for the following week. Three promising guys. It was her one chance to do this again with Seth before she belonged to somebody else.
His hands lifted her shirt, yanked it off. She pulled his off, too, devoured his mouth hungrily again, shoving down her skirt and panties, loving his moan of appreciation as her body emerged from its cover. He’d always made her feel so female, so sexy...
Except when he made her feel like dirt on his boot. She wasn’t going to forget that.
His pants hit the floor and it was her turn to moan, her hands reaching for his already erect cock. He was so beautiful, thick and smooth, faintly pink at the tip.
He took her hips, swung her around and turned her away from him. Bonnie understood. He wanted this the same way she did, urgent and with a quick release, no chance of emotional overload.
She bent forward over the arm of the couch and offered herself, heard his quick intake of breath and then felt him thrusting, searching for entrance. She reached back and guided him; they both went still with pleasure as he found what he was looking for, then pushed in and
started pumping, aggressive, the way she loved it from him, hard and no-nonsense, building up heat and friction.
She moved forward onto her elbows, sinking slightly into the cushion, balanced her abdomen on the sofa arm and locked her legs behind her around his waist. He moved her up high enough that he could stroke her clitoris while he thrust. Bonnie gave a cry that was almost a shout, getting so hot, then so much hotter, burning, building to her climax fast and easily, then coming in a huge rush of ecstasy, yelling his name. He drove into her and she heard the familiar burst of air between his teeth that meant he was coming, too.
They came down together, and then it was over...and Bonnie was okay. Intact. Blissful even, triumphant. She disentangled her legs from his waist; Seth lowered her gently. She stood up, smiled at him. “That was awesome, thanks.”
He reached for her, but she kissed his cheek and went to find her clothes, checking in with herself to make sure she wasn’t just being dim or suppressing. That she really had survived sex with Seth exactly the way she thought she could.
Yes. Bonnie Fortuna was okay. She shook her hair back, grinning widely. Really okay. Next week she’d go on her new dates, and think fondly of this last time with Seth, but there would be no more pain.
Wow. Wow.
“Oh, Seth.” She crawled to retrieve her panties from under the piano. “I meant to ask about Matti, the renter. Is that going to—”
“Bonnie.”
She turned to face Seth, her smile fading. She’d never heard him use that tone. “You called?”
“Didn’t we just have incredible sex here?” His hands were on his hips. He was still naked, straight and tall, a thing of godlike beauty, gray eyes somber.
Uh-oh. Keep it light, Bonnie. Don’t let him drag you into this again.
“We did. Incredible sex.” She stepped into her panties, pulled them up. “But when have we ever had any other kind?”
“It didn’t change anything?”
Light Me Up Page 17
