For the rest of the employees, there was one that had anything worth putting in a second pile. The company previously employed a man by the name of Gabe Rareheart for a little over a year but it looked like he did mostly janitorial work during the day and also worked for a brief period in the mailroom. Nonetheless, his prior was extensive with time spent in prison for a non-violent robbery charge as well as an arrest for threatening an ex-wife with violence.
I dropped the file to the side and pushed back from the desk, rubbing my shoulder and neck. I turned around in my chair and looked out the window, wondering what it would be like to turn around and see the entire Boston skyline like Graham did from his office on the 23rd floor. Part of me was jealous, bitter even, but the other part of me didn’t spite his success, he had worked his ass off for it. So much so, it seemed that no one was going to hold him back. It was the only explanation I could think of for him leaving the way he did because I’ve never gotten an explanation or apology from him. Either that or he just didn’t love me as much as he claimed to.
The thought that he didn’t love me enough was not what I wanted to experience. The tingle in my heart and the drop in my stomach was too reminiscent of those days, weeks and months I had spent cursing his name. Lunch was a weird experience. Comfortable but weirdly so. I had no intention of showing up but something egged me to show up and without realizing it, I had a great time.
I had the thought of ending things properly once this case was over but being with him for the brief periods that I have had so far, it felt like it did when we were together. It felt so right that it was probably the worst situation for me to be in. The only good thing that came out of spending time with him was the new business he brought in because I could sniff out a manipulator a mile away unless he was skilled at plucking at my heartstrings…and other areas.
“Ugh,” I groaned, leaning my head back against the chair’s headrest, “Stop it Lindsey. Stop thinking about him and what he’s doing to you. All you need to do is focus on the assignment and nothing more.”
My pep talk was a complete waste of time; my mind seemed to go wherever the hell it wanted to go. My only savior was knowing that I could use my hands, intellect, and my research skills while the rest of me wanted to fantasize about a life that I could have had, but never did. The dress I had bought to marry him in, still sat in the back of my closet. A simple vintage piece I found while out market shopping with Kitt. I had it altered and after he left, Kitt had to pick it up.
She offered to throw it out, sell it, or burn it in a triumphant battle with fate, but I chose just to cover it in plastic and throw it in the recesses of my closet, always remembering to not go too deep on the right side. It was probably why I felt like my wardrobe was cut in half. I did not want to grab the wedding dress by mistake, pull the black velvet box from the zipper pouch and cry over my diamond engagement ring. The thing had seen too many nights of tears, ice cream and vodka.
I had to get back to it though and I was sure at that point, the best course of action was to figure out what this stalker had to hold over Graham’s head. When I had asked him, it was a simple shrug and a shifting of eyes. I knew he was holding something back, I knew the guy. Pressing him wasn’t a smart decision with him and if I knew Graham as well as I still did, the last thing I needed was to scare him off only to disappear from my life again still without an explanation.
Picking up the phone, I flipped through directory and found an old friend, Anna Avery, a local Boston reporter that seemed to know everything about everyone in Boston and Cambridge. Perhaps she had a line on something going on behind the scenes.
“Well, hello there sweet cheeks,” Anna answered, her usual poppy personality shining.
I chuckled, “Hey Anna. Did I catch you at a bad time?”
“Barely,” she scoffed. “Actually, it’s the perfect time. What’s going on? Do you have something profound for me or are you calling to catch up?”
“Actually,” I said apprehensively. “I have this new case and before I go further, I trust that this is all off the record.”
“Of course,” she said, popping her gum. “I never turn on the recorder when I see your name pop up. So, what’s the case about or rather who?”
I bit the inside of my cheek and wrinkled my nose. “Graham Reynolds.”
I could hear her gasp through the phone. She choked on her gum and then her voice went quieter, “What? You were hired by the guy that just disappeared on you? Has he explained anything about his disappearance or given you an apology?”
I smirked, shaking my head, “We haven’t talked about that part of our lives. I’m just trying to keep it professional.”
“Uh huh,” she said condescendingly. “Well, other than his ridiculous penthouse in Cambridge and office in Boston, I’ve got nothing on the guy other than what you could find easily on the internet or with the press. Of course, if I had I would have immediately sent it to you and we would have rung his doorbell and nut punched him.”
“I’m sure you would have,” I laughed. “Can you just keep your eye out for me? If anything pops up on your radar, shoot me a notice, okay?”
“You got it toots,” she replied. “Let’s get together soon and have lunch, hate on men, and flirt with waiters, alright?”
“I would love it,” I replied with a giggle. “Talk to you soon.”
“Mwah,” she replied before hanging up.
I tossed my phone on the desk and smiled, she always had a way of lifting my spirits. Anna and Kitt were like peas from the same pod but never really got along. Kitt had a similar personality only she was much more serious about her career…usually. There was always that two-month period when she started dating a new guy where she kind of disappeared from Earth. She always came down though, and usually quite spectacularly with ideas, motivation, creativity. Then there was a slight downslope during break ups but then up again with a new found need to change her life and make her dreams come true. She was a very emotional bird but this time she seemed to find a wonderful guy named Tyler and ever since they started dating, she’s been a tad bit more consistent.
With that thought, my cellphone dinged. I picked it up and smirked, finding a text from Kitt. She must have sniffed the outrageous Anna and felt the need to make sure my feet were still firmly on the ground. I swiped over to the message. “Just checking in on you to make sure you haven’t stumbled into a world of self-loathing and cologne sniffing. I will be home in two hours so your butt had better be there. That butthole sucked up enough of your free time in life, he doesn’t get you after hours, stalker or not.”
I closed my eyes and let out a deep breath, in love with the fact that my best friend cared so much about me. Nonetheless, it was a job for the firm and that was important. Knowing that she would argue me blue, I decided to give in and give her any updates other than what was pertinent to the case.
“Yep,” I texted her back. “Just putting some files away and will still be here when you get back. Got some wine for us for tonight.”
She texted back within thirty seconds. “I want an explanation as to why you were at lunch with Graham and I had to learn it from our new intern that we have working for us now?”
“Damn it. I knew I should have spelled it out for her,” I texted back. “I wanted to ease you into the idea that I had lunch with Graham and we needed an intern, we’ve got more clients than we can handle. I had a whole plan but it went to shit. I’ll talk to you when you get home.”
“Yep. Don’t answer any calls from him now, business is closed, and so are your legs sister,” she texted back.
I guess she had a right to say that because he was still incredibly handsome and the time didn’t age him in the least bit. In fact, a few crease lines and some speckled premature grey he did not think anyone could see was pretty freaking sexy. Enough so that I had imagined him several times, butt naked, muscles gleaming, hips pumping at lunch. I should have just had water.
Those thoughts needed to sto
p popping into my head. Once I got into the habit of playing erotica scenes with Graham in my head from our wild days and nights…shit, I was doomed. The man had infiltrated my mind more than I realized and I needed to kick him straight back out.
I dropped his file in my desk drawer and locked it, clicking off the screen. Kitt was right, I need to stop working.
Chapter Ten
Lindsey
“Are you burning candles in here because it smells delicious,” Kitt yelled from the front as she came inside. “I know quite well if you’re cooking then something will be burning eventually.”
I stuck my head out of the bathroom door, the towel wrapped around my head, “Not cooking. New candle from the shop down the street that our neighbor owns. She decided to go wild with some new oils and told me about them for twenty minutes so I bought three just to get her to stop talking.”
“Good investment,” she said picking up the other two. “Though, I don’t have really high hopes for something named Grandma’s Attic. I remember Grandma’s attic smelling like the spine of an old book and maybe some moth balls.”
I stuck my head back in and started to dry my hair with the towel, “Lucky. My other grandparents house smelled like roses and dust unless my grandmother was baking, then it smelled like freshly baked cookies.”
Kitt stuck her head around the corner with a grin. “What do you know, that is my favorite smell! I will request a bottle of that on my next trip to the perfumery. You think they need a sample?”
I wrinkled my nose, my shoulders shaking from the laughter, “No, I think that guy you buy perfume from knows exactly what you like to buy. Who do you think he tests the perfume on?”
“Edward?” she asked with a shocked face. “He’s a nice guy.”
I lifted an eyebrow scrunching my hair. “Oh really?”
She shook her head nonchalantly. “Yes he is and I know what you’re thinking! I think I’ll open the wine. We need to discuss how fantastic of a time I had with Tyler and how many single men that are on his team that would love you, spoil you, break hearts, create dreams and make Graham look like the old news that he is.”
I flinched, hating it when she got into setup mode. She loved me, I knew that, but men were not on my radar at that point and up until Graham came breezing through the door, it was simply because I was so focused on making my company grow and work. Still, I hated being set up, it was so weird and awkward and not to hurt my friend but she had terrible taste in men, the exception being Tyler. I did not need her horrible choices to affect my dating life.
Speaking of men in her life, I knew she was chomping at the bit to tell me about her day with her new love interest. Tossing the brush in the drawer, I decided not to torture her and make her wait for me to get out there. When I rounded the corner, I just about knocked her over as she stood there grinning with two glasses of wine ready.
“Either you have something really good or really bad to tell me,” I said, taking the glass. “Either way I’ll take the wine.”
We went into the living room and I sat down on the couch, folding my foot under me and turning toward her. She slunk down in the overstuffed chair and grinned from ear to ear, “He is so dreamy. Seriously, so dreamy but you already knew that from our previous conversation.”
“Even with fake front teeth?” I asked swallowing my wine.
She snorted into her glass, and tilted her head back, wiping the wine from her face, “He does not have fake front teeth that I know of. Not all hockey players lose teeth and if he did, then they are dreamy fake teeth.”
My lip quivered and I crossed my eyes, “Have we really entered a reality where you said he could possibly have dreamy fake teeth? Did I age to seventy over night? What is going on here?”
I looked around the place sarcastically and then pulled out the neck of my shirt and looked down. “My tits aren’t wrinkled and saggy, the house looks the same. Did we time travel? If so, I would like to go back because I just skipped about fifty years that I’d like back.”
Kitt was laughing so hard she started to cry, “Okay, I’ll give it to you. If you had said that to me, I would have thrown you out of a window figuring you were done, there was no helping you. I am just trying to say, he is super amazing. Yes, he is hot, but he is also sweet and romantic and he took me to practice today at the rink and introduced me to his whole team. That’s like the equivalent of meeting a mom.”
“Oh man, I thought two in-laws were bad but a whole hockey team that have sticks, big ones,” I replied with wide eyes.
Kitt snickered. “Yeah they do.”
My mouth dropped open and I threw a pillow at her, “Oh my God! I do not want to hear about your new boyfriend’s hockey stick or if he got it in the goal.”
“Probably the highest scoring hockey game in history,” she boasted, wiggling her eyebrows with a smirk.
I shook my head and covered my ears, “I didn’t want to know that. You better not say you’re in love yet because you just started seeing him.”
Rolling her eyes, she tossed the pillow back to me, “I am really not that bad and no, not love but more like incredible lust and the feeling of fulfillment; a connection beyond all others.”
I stared at her blankly for a moment, blinking my eyes dramatically, “So instead of saying the word love, you are just going to define it to me and think it won’t count?”
She sighed, ignoring my blistering sarcastic attitude and tilted her head back staring up at the ceiling, “You know, one day you will be in this spot, the guy will be amazing and I am going to be so happy for you. It will light up your world with dreams and visions of a happily ever after.”
“Please don’t,” I replied covering my ears again dramatically. “Nobody wants that baggage when it doesn’t work out and they are all alone in their bed, crying into their mug filled with vodka until they fall asleep. That’s the shit that is hard enough.”
Her eyes flickered over to me and I knew she was catching on, “My, aren’t you the ball of sunshine today. I am used to you being hateful toward love but today you’ve turned it up so far north we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
My mouth dropped open. “I am not bitter.”
“Right,” she laughed. “You are more like divorced mom of three in her forties bitter. You are the girl who spotted her ex out with a hotter version of you kind of bitter.”
I furrowed my brow and crossed my arms, almost spilling my wine, “I am not and I resent that.”
“You mean you resemble that?” she replied, wiggling her brow. “Probably because you spent lunch with the man that turned you into a man-hater.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, I did have lunch with him. I had lunch with my client who is going to be paying our business expenses with his case. Totally justifiable.”
“If I could I would, just to save you from yourself,” she replied. “So, are you telling me you spent the whole time talking about the case?”
I shrugged and sipped my wine. She gasped and sat forward, shaking her finger at me. “You hussy. You dumb ass hussy. You totally fell for it. You fell for the hot guy, kismet, back in my life thing, didn’t you? I can’t believe you. You are supposed to be the smart one out of the two of us. Now you’ve taken about three hundred steps backward, I’m going to have to buy stock in Ben and Jerry’s and contact a sponsor for you because God knows after this one you are going to be practically inhaling vodka.”
“You are being ridiculous. We talked about Boston, Thai food, and laughed with the bartender. That’s it.” I pointed out.
She lifted an eyebrow and pursed her lips, “So, you are telling me that you didn’t get butterflies once? You didn’t once think about reaching over and touching his leg? You didn’t once picture him butt ass naked on that bar stool?”
“Um, no,” I replied. “Why would I want someone I supposedly want to bone sitting naked on a potentially unhygienic bar stool? Seriously, where do you get your ideas from because I’m afraid the day I meet Tyler is the day h
e walks in looking like the Water Boy than a hockey player.”
“You know what I mean. Do not try to deflect this, Lindsey. I am just concerned for you, that’s all. You were a wreck before and rightfully so. I just don’t want to see that happen again. I don’t know how many times I prayed to God because I truly hoped that Graham got what he deserved one day. I didn’t want to believe that he just left for no reason or a reason you wouldn’t want to hear because you didn’t deserve any of that. You still don’t.”
“Kind of proud to be honest with you,” I teased, before signing and then giving Kit my best version of ‘I’m okay’ smile. “I’m fine, I promise. I got over him and the situation. We’re on good terms and it wasn’t awkward at all. One day I will meet Mr. Right and granted, I’m not ready to date yet but I’m not ruling all men out forever.”
She stared at me for a moment, trying to decide whether I was lying or not. After a while, I could see the moment where she decided to take me at my word, “Alright, but I’m watching you and if you even so much as take a step toward giving in to his charming ways, I’m going to jump right in and pull you back out.”
“Fine, if I ever so much as get charmed by him, I’ll let you rescue me.”
“I just might, or I might ask Tyler and his teammates to go kick Graham’s ass. He practically owes you an apology. I might just ask Tyler after he’s really hooked. You know, bringing flowers and asking you to be his friend to get on my good side. Just in case we’re the only ones with a ridiculous sense of humor.”
“I would wait a bit before you start to include him in your life drama or drop him any gross jokes, but not too long because that whole period when he feels free to tell you you’re not funny, that would not be the time.”
Strange Love (Choose Yours Book 1) Page 8
