Month: September 2020

Emma

“You’re engaged?” The familiar tenor that still haunted her daydreams broke through the quiet of the bookstore, startling Emma as she had been pulling out a book. Hand over her heart she fought to slow her pounding heart. She turned to face the man who had been hers once. 

“Kyle.” It came out in a whisper. She backed into the bookcase to steady herself. There he stood, only a few feet away. He was near enough to touch. She’d heard he’d come back to town but didn’t think he would come looking for her. “What are you doing here?”

“You’re really engaged? Did your father never tell you what he did?” Kyle took a slow step back, shoving his hands deep into his pockets.

“Told me what?” Emma fingered the fake engagement ring she had slipped on as she’d driven into town earlier that morning after visiting her parents. She knew it wouldn’t be long before she ran into Kyle and she needed some sort of physical protection for her still-battered heart. She watched, confused as he shook his head. After three years she still it hadn’t stopped thinking about him. Just the sight of him now made her want to pull off the ring and admit the truth. Instead she blatantly stared up into his kind eyes, longing to erase the pain she could see lurking there.

He took one step forward and stopped, an unspoken question written across his face that she couldn’t decipher. After a moment’s hesitation of her own she took a step toward him. She had missed him. A part of her was screaming at her not to open herself up to more rejection from this man whom she once thought was her whole world.

In one earth shattering heartbeat Kyle gathered her up close in his arms. Her body melted into the pulsing powerful calm emanating from his muscular frame, his lips barely an inch from taking hers. He whispered, “You know I’m not one to prevail on someone who is taken. You should know how much I want to kiss you right now.” His breath tickled every nerve ending it brushed; her lips, her cheek, her neck. She flushed and he continued, gazing straight into her eyes. “But I won’t. I respect you too much to kiss you when you’re engaged to someone else.”

Abruptly Emma stepped back into the wall of books behind her. She shook her head fiercely. “You’re the one who left me Kyle.”

Agony wracked his face as he shook his head slowly, sadly. “I didn’t choose to leave you, Emma. I wasn’t given a choice.”

“Kyle, I called you so many times that first year I left for college. I thought we were going to wait for each other. That you would wait for me.” His pained grimace gave her pause; a long enough pause for her to divulge her secret. “I came to see you once, when I couldn’t stand not hearing from you.”

Startled, his piercing gaze snapped up to hers. “When?” He asked desperately.

“I walked in on you kissing Marci. Obviously you were too distracted to even notice my interruption. You looked very occupied.”

“Marci?” He thought for a second. “You were there? How long?”

“Long enough.” She shouted in a furious whisper. “How long should I have watched my supposed boyfriend kiss someone else?”

“You saw the cops come and everything?” He asked slowly, not understanding why she was bringing Marci up. That made her stop.

“Cops? No.” Emma admitted.

He sighed. “Apparently Marci had it in her head that once you left that I would notice her and fall in love with her. When I didn’t, she cornered me and zip tied me to a post at gunpoint before she started kissing me. Luckily someone had seen her with a gun earlier and had reported it. But that’s not the point.”

Emma chuckled, half in shock. “That’s not the point? I went straight back to school and almost failed out of college because of that and I still never heard from you.”

“I’m so sorry Emma.” Kyle held out his arms. “I didn’t cheat on you.”

She shook her head, trying to make sense of it all. “So if you didn’t cheat on me why didn’t you call?”

“Your dad really never told you?”

“What does he have to do with this?” She stomped her foot, hands fisted at her side.

Tyler looked suddenly anxious and pulled her further down the row of books. “I went to see your dad about a week after you left.”

“What?”

“I asked for his permission to date you with marriage in mind once you finished college.” His blush made her blush.

“You did?” Surprise flashed through her and quickly made her freeze up.

Tyler continued, his head tilted towards the floor. “Your father broke my phone, changed your number, and threatened to have me arrested for harassment. He told me that he would never allow me to date you again. That you were going places and I was a money grubber.”

“My dad…” She trailed off, lost in the thoughts of what her father had done to her and her relationship with the love of her life.

Standing there silently, watching her process it all, Tyler waited for her to look at him.

“I remember getting my new number. You were the first person I called.” She mumbled more to herself than to him. “Of course if your phone was broken you wouldn’t have known and never would have gotten my new number. And I never came home after I saw you with Marci and made my parents come see me. My dad…my dad.” Her anger rose. Her eyes flicked up to Kyle’s. Practically throwing herself at him she kissed him, giving in to the temptation to wrap her arms around him. Seconds later she was striding out the bookstore’s door and calling back to a very stunned Kyle. “I’ll be right back. I have a father to kill.”

The front store clerk gave a chuckle as Kyle raced out after her. 

Tori

For the third time that week students had to scatter out of the way as the black-haired, wiry Mr. Athletic raced through the crowd chased by a furious petite blonde missing one of her strappy little sandals.

“Josh, I’m gonna kill you!” She screamed after him to no effect. “Stop.” Her face was red from running.

He laughed as he slowed slightly to glance back at her. “Now that threat doesn’t really reward me for stopping, Tori. Maybe a sweeter promise would have better results. You could threaten to kiss me or something and I might stop. Try again.”

And just like that, he put on a burst of speed and was halfway across the quad. She slowed to a frustrated jog. After another minute of him darting this way and that around the benches and trees she slowed even further.

With a huff Tori stopped completely and struggled to catch her breath, hobbling her way to the nearby grass. As tempting as flopping to the ground was, she knew that if she did she would not get back up. And she needed to get that shoe. She looked around for Josh and yelled, “Danika is going to kill you when she finds out you stole my shoe again.”

Instantly he stopped, squinting back at her. Maybe he was trying to see if she was seriously going to tell on him to his sister. “Good point.” He shrugged and lobbed her shoe back over to her. Finally noticing the attention they’d gathered, Josh tossed his boyish smile their way. “Show’s over my friends. See ya in class.”

Easy as that, everyone cleared out. As relieved as Tori was to not have everyone staring at her, she was now left alone with Josh while she struggled to get her shoe on while also hopping around on one foot. Just as she was losing her balance for the fourth time Josh’s arm wrapped around her waist, holding her steady with ease.

“Need some help?” He smirked. 

“Ugh!” She screeched. “You are infuriating! I wouldn’t need the help at all if you hadn’t snagged my sandal earlier.” She hurried to put her sandal back on. How he managed to steal it so often was not something she had puzzled out yet.

Giving her a not-so-gentle squeeze, he laughed. “When are you going to admit you love me?”

Tori wanted to stomp on his foot or elbow him hard. Unfortunately he was currently the only thing keeping her from falling on her face. Stupid sandal straps.

“Josh, what are you doing to Tori?” Both Josh and Tori looked up at the pixie of a girl barreling toward them with a concerned glare on her face. Josh dropped Tori and put his arms up, all charm.

Tori barely had enough time to put her foot down before she lost her balance completely.

Josh stepped in front of her, as if he could hide the fact that Tori was even there. “Hey sis. What’s got you all riled?” 

“Are you harassing Tori again?” Danika demanded, not distracted in the slightest.

“No. I was helping.” He smiled. Turning to Tori he nodded. “Right? I was helping.”

Tori glared at him. “I have class.” As she strode off she smiled to herself. “Too pretty for his own good.” She muttered under her breath. She didn’t get far before Josh caught up with her, sweeping her up into his arms. 

“Allow me to be of further assistance milady.” Josh kept on walking, not even fazed by the fact that he was carrying her. Or that he was taking her in the opposite direction of her class. Why did her best friend have to have such a good looking and irksome twin brother. 

“Put me down!” Tori wriggled, trying to free herself.

Danika was immediately next to them, pulling on his arm, making Tori’s current position more precarious.

“Put her down Josh. She isn’t a toy.” Danika growled.

In seconds Tori was back on the ground and Danika and Josh were pushing at each other. Tori ignored them both as they squabbled and once again began walking towards her class.

Eventually they gave up pestering each other and Josh tried to put his arm on Tori’s shoulder but Danika pulled him away. Forever caught between the two, Tori had long since buried any crush-like feelings she may have had for Josh long ago. Problem was, more and more lately, Josh was catching her alone and his teasing was beginning to feel more like flirting. He was slowly succeeding in unearthing those feelings she thought she had successfully squelched. Yet Tori also knew that Danika would kill her if she admitted to any feelings for Josh beyond irritation and annoyance.

“Go find someone else to bother, Josh.” Danika insisted.

Without another word he moved off but Tori couldn’t resist looking back over her shoulder at him. Her gaze connected with his and she blinked, startled, before she hurriedly faced forward.

Danika nudged her, oblivious to the silent interaction that had just happened. “We need to move it. We’re going to be late.”

Tori followed along, lost in thought.

“Tori? You haven’t heard a thing I said, have you?” Danika stopped her with a hand on her arm.

“Nothing.” Tori stammered.

When Danika stepped in front of her, hands on her hips, Tori had to stop fast. “Danika! What was that for?” Tori glared.

Danika smiled. “What are you waiting for?”

“Hmm?”

“My dear, wonderful, favoritest of best friend I am not blind. And Josh is going to hurt himself if he tries any harder to get your attention. It’s not like you don’t like him since you’ve been in love with him for years.” Danika’s smile was huge.

Tori’s heart jolted. “What?!”

“Don’t deny it. I can so see it. So I’ll ask again. What are you waiting for?”

“Waiting for?” Tori stuttered, her mind whirling. There had been no waiting in her head, only complete denial. And she thought it had been working. 

Apparently she was wrong…about several things.

Erika

Erika looked up at the darkening sky and picked up her pace. What a morning for her car not to start. She had hoped the rain would not come until after she’d made the six minute walk to the office but that was looking less and less likely. Was it too much to ask that it wait to rain for a measly two minutes? It wasn’t to be. Her luck had completely vanished for the day as big fat droplets dotted the sidewalk. she was almost resigned to show up at work utterly bedraggled With no umbrella and wearing high heels. Almost. 

she pushed through the glass doors of her office building with her drenched head held high. The air conditioned lobby blasted her with far too cold a breeze for such a wet day. Shivers tore up and down her soaked self. With a glance down she took in her once pressed and now wrinkled clothes and hoped that she wasn’t too unsightly. More importantly, she only had two hours till her meeting with the first client she was handling on her own and it wasn’t going to be messed up because of the rain rendering her and her presentation unpresentable.

“Miss Ryan?” One of the security officers called, waving her over to his desk. He looked harried, desperate, and utterly relieved to see her there. “There is a client here for the boss but her secretary isn’t picking up. Can you take him up?”

Feeling like she was still dripping, she put on her best smile, “Of course, Jim. Where is he?”

Jim pointed over to one of the plush chairs by the window. A very well dressed and obviously dry man sat in the one farthest from the security desk. The suit and the man wearing it both looked like they had just come from a fashion photo shoot. It made sense, Ms Mullen was in charge of marketing. It was no surprise that she would have gorgeous clients. Jim moved to greet another client approaching the desk but called back to her,  “Thanks. I owe you one.”

Erika nodded as she once again looked over to where Jim had pointed. She eyed the dark haired client facing away from her. Briskly she crossed the tiled lobby floor, trying to not click her shoes too loud and fighting back shivers whenever she crossed under an air vent.

Once she reached the man she moved to stand where she was sure he could see her and cleared her throat. “Excuse me sir. Are you here to see Ms Mullen?”

“Yes.” He answered, turning to face her, his eyes crinkled in a hidden sparkling smile. “Nice morning for a walk.”

Stunned, Erika blushed; he must have seen her running pell-mell through the rain to get inside.

He stood, still smirking, and motioned for her to lead the way. Silently they walked side by side to the elevator. Erika’s mind raced, looking for something to break the silence without having to explain why a so-called professional was running around in the rain.

Thankfully for her, he broke the silence first. “Your boss alright with you being late?”

“I’m normally early. Car troubles.” Even though it sounded like a wad of excuses, she also knew it was true. However, there was no chance she was going to explain any more than that to a stranger, and a client at that.

The elevator dinged and Erika sighed in relief as he stepped off the elevator. The tiny voice in the back of her head urged her to be the proper escort and walk him down to the correct office but she found herself pointing instead. “Ms Mullen’s office is straight down the hall and to the left.”

He turned around in surprise. “You don’t work on the same floor as Ms Mullen? What if I need to make a follow-up appointment?”

Erika rolled her eyes, even though it was an understandable mistake. “That is what her secretary is for. Forgive me for not introducing myself properly, however I guess I should point out that I am not Ms Mullen’s secretary. I am one of the landscape planners on a different floor. Jim asked me to bring you up since I was there. However, as you so kindly pointed out I am late and I have to get to my desk.” He stuck out his hand and stopped the doors from closing.

His smile was back and in full charming force. “And what might your name be then?”

Shaking her head she shot back a smile of her own, the one she reserved for sweet-talking difficult clients. “And risk having you tell my boss about my unprofessional appearance? No.”

“I insist.” He moved back into the elevator, letting the doors close behind him.

“Insist away Mr….?” Erika goaded.

“Shane Walford. Now will you tell me yours?” He kept backing her up until she was cornered. Surprisingly she didn’t feel too overly concerned.

“Ms Mullen is going to be wondering where you are.” She nodded toward the doors.

His answering nod did nothing for her fluttery nerves. Desperately struggling to keep her breathing even, Erika looked him in the eye without flinching. She thought she was doing well at maintaining a cool façade but when his smirk melted into a full megawatt smile she faltered. He pulled back and leaned over to hit the open door button. “Don’t worry. I’ll figure your name out. One way or another.”

The doors reopened and he strode out and straight over to Ms Mullen’s office. Erika gulped in a huge breath once the doors closed again. It took a second for her to remember to press the button to get to her floor. It was only after stepping off the elevator that she realized that if he was watching, she had just told him what floor she worked on.

Maybe being found would be fun.