by Iona Rose
“Catch you later,” I say heading out of the break room.
I walk towards my office wondering if Stacy is right. Are Erika and I destined to fail? I really hope not, but what Stacy said is true. It’s hard for people who work to live rather than live to work to understand the long hours, the being on call, the dropping everything for work when I need to. But some people do get it, and what’s to say Erika isn’t one of them?
I know I shouldn’t let Stacy get into my head. She loves a bit of drama and if there’s nothing going on, she tends to create something and I guess today’s a quiet day and she chose my potential relationship with Erika to be her drama.
Or maybe she wants you two to not work out because she has a thing for you, a little voice inside of my head whispers.
I guess that could be true, but I find it unlikely. Yes, Stacy flirts with me. She always has since she started working here, but she probably flirts with everyone like that. It’s just a bit of fun. And I’ve never said or done anything to give her the impression I’m interested in being anything but friends with her, so what would be the point in her trying to split Erika and me up before we even really get going?
I’m being paranoid. She was most likely just making conversation. Nothing more sinister than that. And I’m blowing it up into this big thing. God I must be really into Erika to let her get so far into my head that the thought of us not going the distance throws me into turmoil like this.
The last part of my shift drags like crazy. All I can think about is calling Erika, hearing her voice, her laugh. And hopefully getting to see her tonight.
My shift finally ends and I waste no time in getting out of there before anyone can ask me to take a quick look at something and I end up stuck at work for another couple of hours.
I go down to the parking lot and get into my car and drive away. It’s only once I’m off the hospital grounds that I fully relax. I drive home and go inside. I’m whistling to myself as I kick my shoes off and sit down. I pull my phone out and smile as I scroll through my contacts and find Erika’s name. I hit call and she answers the phone quickly.
“Hi you,” she says.
“Hi,” I reply. “How’s things?”
“Good,” Erika says. “Boring but good. I miss work.”
“Just wait until you’re back. Within a day or two you’ll be wishing you were off again,” I say.
“Yeah you’re probably right,” Erika laughs. “How was your day?”
“Not bad,” I say. “I managed to actually finish on time and that’s always a win.”
Erika laughs softly down the phone and I imagine I can feel her breath on my ear. The feeling makes me ache for her.
“I was wondering if you fancied coming over to my place tonight?” I say. “I thought we could order in and maybe watch a movie or something.”
My heart races while I wait for Erika to indignantly tell me she doesn’t want to come to my place.
“Sounds good,” she says instead. “What time?”
I resist the urge to punch the air with my fist and instead I just grin to myself.
“I’ll pick you up around eight o’clock,” I say.
“Great. Eight o’clock it is,” Erika says.
We chat for a bit longer and then we hang up saying we’ll see each other at eight o’clock and have nothing left for us to talk about. That wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Sometimes there are more interesting things to do than talk. Especially when the person you’re with is as gorgeous and sexy as Erika is.
I scroll through my contacts again and settle on Nadia’s name. My thumb hovers over it, ready to hit call, but at the last second, I change my mind and come out of my contacts and put my phone down.
It’s not Nadia’s job to look after Erika and I don’t want to freak her out by letting her think some nut job might try to force his way into her apartment at any given moment. It’s not like anything can happen tonight anyway; Erika is going to be at my place and if Jeremy tries anything here, I’ll keep Erika safe.
Besides, the more I think about it, the more I think I massively overreacted last night. It was most likely all just a coincidence. It was probably someone dropping off a friend or a girlfriend and making sure they got inside safely. Once they did, the driver had no reason to hang around and so they sped off. The roads were quiet enough to get away with it and the driver might have just wanted to get home quickly and get an early night.
Whoever it was definitely watched me for a moment before speeding off though. But when I think about it, I was staring into the car. If I was parked somewhere and some guy came out of a building and stood staring into my car, I’m sure I would watch them to see if they were up to no good too.
Yes, that’s likely all it was. As if it would be Jeremy. I’m still going to be extra vigilant for the next few days and try to make sure Erika isn’t wandering the streets alone, but I know it’s likely all for nothing.
Maybe Erika was right. Maybe I’m just jealous and I’m concocting this whole theory just to justify why I have bad feelings about Jeremy instead of just admitting I’m worried Erika decides to blow me off and take him back instead.
Whatever is going on, for the moment, I need to stop over thinking everything and concentrate on cleaning up around the place a bit. I don’t want Erika to come over and think I’m some sort of slob. I smile to myself as I think of her telling Nadia she’s a bit of a cleaning freak. My place is clean and reasonably tidy, but I still think I have a bit of work to do if I want to impress Erika. And I really, really do want to impress her.
Erika
I can barely keep the smile off my face as I end the call. Aidan has invited me over to his place for dinner and a movie tonight and I know what that means. At Aidan’s place, there won’t be anyone to disturb us right at the crucial moment.
I’ve thought of nothing but Aidan and how good he made my body feel since last night, and now I know I have it all to look forward to again tonight. Knowing I’ll soon be seeing Aidan leaves me feeling excited and tingly, but it also leaves me free to think about something else. Now I know it’s going to happen for real tonight, I don’t need to spend every second imagining what it will be like to have Aidan inside of me.
I suddenly remember I meant to call Officer Prescott and tell her that nothing seemed to have been stolen from my house. I grab my phone and go to my room and find Officer Prescott’s card. I type the number into my phone, hit call, and listen to the phone ringing.
“Officer Prescott,” Officer Prescott says curtly as she answers my call.
I am thrown for a moment. I was really expecting to get her voicemail for some reason, and I am left momentarily mute when she comes on the line.
“Hello?” she says.
“Umm, hi. It’s Erika Hart,” I say.
“Oh hi Erika, is everything ok?” Officer Prescott says.
She sounds less curt and more like how I remembered her to sound now; calm and efficient but not cold.
“Yes, everything’s fine,” I say quickly.
“Did your memory of the incident come back?” she asks.
“No, unfortunately not,” I say. God I wish it had. “I just wanted to let you know I stopped by the house to collect some things yesterday and I had a look around, and nothing has been taken. You asked me to let you know either way.”
“Yes, I remember,” Officer Prescott says. “And you’re certain nothing has gone?”
“Yeah,” I say. “To be honest, there was very little worth stealing, but what was worth stealing is still there.”
“Ok, well thank you for letting me know,” Officer Prescott says.
“Do you have anything?” I ask, fearing I already know the answer. If the police knew who had done this to me, they would have been in touch with me by now. “Do you have any suspects?”
“Unfortunately not,” Officer Prescott replies. “As you know, we have the DNA sample, but there have been no matches in our system. And none of your neighbors had
anything to tell us that could help. We’re still trying to find more CCTV cameras in the area and get access to the footage, but as of yet, we haven’t got anything close enough to establish that anyone on the footage was even heading to your street, let alone your house.”
It’s not good news, but at least it shows that the police are taking this seriously and are at least trying to get to the bottom of it.
“I appreciate it even though you don’t have much to go on,” I say.
“Thank you,” Officer Prescott says. “We are still doing everything we can to catch your attacker, and as always, if you remember anything, no matter how small, don’t hesitate to call ok?”
“I won’t. Thank you,” I say.
“You’re welcome. Have a good day,” Officer Prescott says.
She ends the call before I can respond. I knew if the police had any leads they would have called me, and I knew that the chances of them finding my attacker without my memories coming back where slim to none. I had accepted that. And yet, somehow, talking to Officer Prescott and having it confirmed that they have no idea who did this to me somehow makes me feel a little bit down.
I decide to call Jennifer. She always knows what to say to cheer me up, and besides I want to tell her about last night with Aidan and tell her about what I hope will happen tonight. I’ve kept her up to date with my huge crush on him and the fact that we kissed on the day I moved into this place and Jennifer was really excited for me. She’s going to freak when she hears the latest development.
“Aidan asked me to go over to his place to have dinner tonight,” I blurt out the second Jennifer answers her phone.
“Hi Erika,” Jennifer laughs.
“Hi,” I say, grinning. “So Aidan asked me to go over to his place to have dinner tonight.”
“It’s about time,” Jennifer says.
“Well actually we had dinner together at Nadia’s place last night as well,” I say. “And not just dinner. We were fooling around, and just before we actually got to have sex, Nadia came home and almost caught us.”
“So? Yeah Aidan is her brother but he’s a grown man. Surely you don’t have to hide this from her?” Jennifer says.
“No you don’t understand,” I say. “She literally almost caught us. We were in the kitchen at the time.”
Jennifer bursts into laughter and I join in. Instantly my worries about the police investigation begin to dissipate. The situation with it is no better and no worse than it was yesterday and I wasn’t upset about it then, so why start upsetting myself about it now?
“What are youthinking?” Jennifer laughs. “I take it the invite for dinner is more code for come and have sex somewhere we won’t be disturbed then.”
“I hope so,” I laugh. “Mind you, I am kind of hungry. I wouldn’t say no to dinner first.”
“Well at least you’ve got your priorities right,” Jennifer says.
“I thought so,” I agree.
“So are you nervous?” Jennifer asks.
“A little bit,” I admit. “I’m not nervous about being around Aidan. I guess I’m more nervous I’ll screw it up between us before it’s even really gotten going.”
“You won’t. Just be your usual charming self,” Jennifer says.
I can’t decide if she’s being sarcastic or not, but it’s not bad advice. The first few times Aidan saw me I was in a hospital gown, my hair not brushed, I probably stunk and I know I looked damned rough. And yet he still liked me enough to want to keep seeing me after I was discharged. So maybe he did like me just being myself. Ok, I can do that.
“Huh?” I say when I realise Jennifer is still talking.
“I said if that doesn’t work, then move on. You don’t need to be with someone who doesn’t like you for who you are,” she says.
“I know that,” I say.
“Do you?” Jennifer asks.
“Umm, yeah,” I say, confused as to where this is going. “Why?”
“Just don’t let Aidan do a Jeremy on you,” Jennifer says.
“What do you mean by that?” I ask.
“You know, try to like keep you away from your friends and stuff,” Jennifer says.
“Jeremy never did that. We both preferred to stay home,” I say. “But speaking of Jeremy, there’s something else I need to tell you. He’s finally taken the hint about us being over.”
“Yeah you said he’d stopped texting and calling you,” Jennifer replies.
“No, better than that,” I say. “I went back to the house yesterday to collect some stuff and I started trying to clean up the mess in the living room. Jeremy dropped by while I was there. I was wary at first, but he said he’d heard what had happened and just wanted to make sure I was ok. He helped me sort out the mess and he admitted he had gone a bit too far with the messages and that, but that he got it now.”
Jennifer doesn’t say anything and I start to think we’ve been cut off.
“Jen?” I say.
“Yeah, I’m here. Sorry, the line went weird for a moment. That’s brilliant news. Now if you want my advice, forget all about Jeremy and go get yourself that hot doctor,” she says.
“Done and done,” I reply with a laugh.
I take one final look in the mirror before I leave my room. I don’t want to get too dressed up to go to Aidan’s place and look over dressed, but I really want to look nice for tonight, and in the end, I settled on a short, flowy black dress that I think strikes the right balance between casual and dressy. I decided to leave my hair down and I added a pair of diamante earrings.
When I walk into the living room, Nadia whistles when she sees me.
“You like the dress?” I ask.
“Yeah it’s gorgeous,” she says. “Where are you off to?”
“I’m going for dinner at Aidan’s place,” I say, feeling myself blushing slightly.
Nadia beams.
“That’s fantastic, you two are great together,” she says. She grimaces suddenly. “Dammit. I did interrupt something yesterday didn’t I? You should have said and I would have gotten out of the way.”
“Honestly, you didn’t,” I say.
Nadia raises an eyebrow and I laugh.
“Ok, you did. But it’s your place Nadia. I wasn’t about to tell you to make yourself scarce.”
“Well next time Aidan’s over here, just let me know and I’ll stay out a bit later,” she laughs.
“Deal,” I smile.
The intercom buzzes and Nadia claps her hands together.
“That’ll be Aidan,” she says. I nod and head towards the door. “Have fun.”
“I will,” I say.
I pull the door open.
“Don’t worry. I won’t wait up,” Nadia calls after me.
I can still hear her laughing as I pull the door shut and head down to the lobby. I can see Aidan on the other side of the glass door. He’s wearing dark blue jeans and a white shirt and he looks effortlessly delicious. A shiver of desire goes through me as I see his eyes going up and down me. Finally, his eyes settle on my face and he smiles at me. I return his smile as I pull the door open and step outside.
“You look amazing,” Aidan says as we walk to his car and he opens the door for me.
“Thanks,” I smile as I get in.
Aidan closes the door behind me and walks around the front of the car. He’s looking around as though he’s looking for someone and I peer out of the windows but I can’t see anyone. Aidan gets in the car.
“Who were you looking for?” I ask.
“Huh?” he says.
“You looked like you were looking for someone,” I say. “When you were walking around the car.”
“Oh. I thought I heard someone shouting at me. I must be going mad,” he smiles as he pulls away from the curb and joins the steady flow of traffic.
Something tells me he’s lying, but I tell myself I’m being ridiculous. Why would he have lied about that? And who could he possibly have been looking for that he wouldn’t have just told me
about?
“So what are we having for dinner then?” I ask.
“I’ve got a pizza delivery booked for eight thirty,” he says. “I hope that’s ok.”
“It’s perfect,” I say. “I love pizza.”
“And then for dessert, I thought maybe we could have the same as we had last night,” he says, giving me a sideways glance and winking at me.
“Sounds good. Should I call Nadia and tell her to drop by at about half past nine just so it’s authentic?” I joke.
Aidan groans and shakes his head.
“Don’t even go there,” he laughs.
“I told her I was coming to your place tonight. I hope that’s ok,” I say.
Aidan nods.
“Sure. I would have told her the truth last night and told her to go back out or something, but I got the impression you were a bit uncomfortable,” he says.
“It just didn’t feel right asking her for privacy so soon after moving in,” I admit.
“Yeah I understand,” Aidan says. He grins again. “But that won’t be a problem tonight. You can have as much dessert as you want tonight. Assuming you want any of course.”
“Oh I was thinking a nice big helping of dessert is exactly what I need,” I say.
I bite the inside of my lip to keep from smiling when Aidan groans and shuffles in his seat. I am pleased to see that I can have such a profound effect on him. I am not unaffected myself though. This conversation is making me crave Aidan’s touch more and more, and its hard work not to touch him right now. I keep my hands to myself though. It’ll be worth the wait. He’ll be worth the wait.
I swallow the last mouthful of my pizza and wipe my mouth on a napkin.
“That was delicious,” I say.
Aidan nods his head, still finishing up his last slice.
“Cooking isn’t my forte, but damn I know how to choose a good take away place,” he says.
“Do you never cook?” I ask.
“Not really,” he says. “Usually by the time I’ve finished work, I can’t be bothered so I either grab a sandwich from the canteen at work or I get something on the way home. I do occasionally stretch to making a bacon sandwich now and again though.”