Like You Read About
Mela Remington
© Mela Remington 2013
All Rights Reserved
Not for Resale or Reprint.
Please respect this author's hard work and do not share this document.
This book is dedicated to my husband, who is my “Dan”. The story is very loosely based on how we ended up together in our own happily ever after. Many of the romantic gestures and lines in the email correspondence between Cora and Dan are pulled straight from emails my husband and I shared during our first months of dating. He has always encouraged whatever hair-brained scheme I imagine and even bought me the laptop I wrote this book on as a present for my birthday. Right now, he’s sitting next to me watching sports, and although we’ve given up on the weekly paper he still gives me the perfect weekend almost every single time.
I also want to thank my beautiful daughter Rebecca, who always loves Mom no matter what, even when I have got my nose stuck in a book, or as is the latest phase, writing a book.
My SO girls, Chelle, Allie, Marion, Jess, Toby, Sally-Anne, Ren… You ladies rock, I don’t care how far apart we live you are the best, most loving and supportive friends a woman could ever have, we’ll always be sisters in our hearts if not by blood.
My Beta readers, especially Jen, who helped me refine Cora and Dan into a couple you’d actually want to read about. My editor Tanya, you are *THE* Word Maid. And all the other self-published authors who blazed their own trail and still found plenty of people who wanted to read their books, may I be so lucky.
And finally K, it’s been more than 6 years, but I still miss you as much now as I did then, and I still forget I can’t pick up the phone and call you to talk Buffy, although these days we’d probably be talking True Blood. You knew, nearly from the start, that he’d marry me, you were always so much smarter than the rest of us…
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter16
Chapter17
Chapter18
Chapter19
Chapter20
Chapter21
Chapter22
Chapter23
Chapter24
Chapter25
Chapter26
Chapter27
Chapter28
Chapter29
Chapter30
Chapter31
Chapter32
Epilogue
Chapter 1
Wednesday, January 9, 2008, Dedham, MA
The alarm goes off with the sounds of No Doubt's Spiderwebs waking her from her slumber.
Cora reaches over and slaps the snooze button on her alarm, nine more minutes, just nine more minutes. Five-thirty comes awfully early, and another restless night makes it seem that much earlier. She floats back into that realm between awake and asleep, her mind drifting back to dreams of climbing up spider webs chasing something.
Although dawn has barely broken, Howie Day croons his song Collide through her alarm on the nightstand.
She reaches to slap the snooze again when it dawns on her, today is Wednesday, the second Wednesday of the month. And that means today she gets to see him. Snoozing is no longer an option, humming along she stretches under the covers. Mmmm tangled up with him, a far preferable way to start the morning than getting out of bed on a cold January morning and heading to the gym. Hell, with a full size bed you kind of have to tangle to fit, right. Okay, focus Cora, today is the monthly meeting; today she gets to sit across the big boardroom table, across from him, Dan, Daniel Santagata. In her entire work schedule, this is the one bright beacon of the month.
She hops out of bed, throws on a sports bra and her workout gear and grabs her gym bag. Then she stops halfway down the hall, it’s that Wednesday, the gray slacks and black sweater in the bag to change into after a workout and shower on the way to the office just won’t do. How did she not remember this last night when she was packing the bag?
Opening the closet, she stares at the choices. A suit, far too stuffy, a dress, none of those will do, they are all either too casual or WAY to dressy for the office. What says “professional, casual elegance and you know you really want to ask me out, kiss me good night, have some hot sweaty monkey sex and live happily ever after with me”? It is a lot of pressure to put on one outfit, isn’t it? In the end, she settles on a red twinset and a navy wool skirt with a small red pattern, matching red flats and replaces her plain serviceable white cotton bra and panties with a red lace bra and matching underwear and garters with nude stockings. This was it, the outfit, the armor underneath. This was the one that would finally give her the confidence to do something more than smile, nod and say hello at the end of the meeting. Yeah, way too much to ask from clothes.
Buzzing with anticipation she heads for the backdoor, iPod in hand and a sense of purpose. Making it to the company workout facility in record time, she is pleased to find a parking spot right out front. Sliding her access card, she smiles a cheerful good morning at the desk attendant, locks away her bag and heads to the gym. Ninety minutes later, she’s run through the weight machines, spent forty-five minutes on the elliptical rocking out, and is covered in sweat. She grabs a shower, blow-dries her hair and even a puts on a little makeup, it is that Wednesday after all.
After throwing her gym gear in the trunk and popping across the street to the café for a cup of tea, she heads into her office, determined to concentrate on work, and not think about Daniel’s whiskey brown eyes and sweet smile.
Two years, that is the twenty-fourth second Wednesday of the month company meeting where she has sat across the table from him and wondered what his story was. Two years of sneaking peeks, two years of looking away the nanosecond he might have noticed she was looking his way. You simply do not ask people at work about someone else unless you want them to gossip and the last thing Cora wanted was anyone gossiping about how the shy, formerly fat, now just chubby accountant is making mooneyes over the IT guy. It was bad enough she always felt like they were snickering behind her back about her weight. Allegedly, when you grow up and get a job the workplace isn’t supposed to be like to social caste system of middle school but it sure as hell feels like it sometimes.
Boston Pharmaceuticals had about a dozen drug patents for blood pressure, cholesterol, asthma, and diabetes drugs and manufactures generics for some local chain pharmacies in the New England area. They weren’t huge, certainly not Pfizer, but the company did all right and treated their employees well, and their campus in Brookline was an easy commute. They had a Starbucks nearby, places to eat lunch, green-space, an onsite fitness center, daycare center and free parking. For any company those would be great perks, for something just outside of Boston—they were even better.
As much as Mr. J wanted this to be a “family” company it still felt like middle school, some people never grow up.
Two years ago, she was a different woman though, one hundred pounds heavier, quiet and shy. Two years of counting points, weighing in and working out and she is just about at that place where she’s almost comfortable with her body. As the pounds shed her confidence grew, she actually talks at meetings, socializes with the Friday night drinks crew. Okay, she’s gone five times, but that’s five times more than she’d gone in the first five years she’s worked here, and she smiles back at anyone who smiles her way.
Today, the first meeting of the new year, the
y’ve all been back to work for a week now after our Christmas break, and are settling back in to the swing of things. Cora spends her morning pouring over spreadsheets, trying to decide how she’s going to present the decisions made for the budget increases to upgrade the HR system, cover the increase to the company contribution to employee health care, and give IT the money they need to upgrade security and some seriously aging computers. She’s pretty sure that the computer, Jim from HR used is run by a hamster on a wheel.
Three of the five departments who asked for money are getting it; the other two will likely be pissed.
Cora could not justify giving sales more money, she knew that it took money to make money but they already had quite the budget allocation and giving them more money for expense account lunches, which half those girls didn’t even eat was a waste of money better spent. As for graphics, they got the bulk of the surplus funds last year and have had a huge overhaul already, and besides, their budget request and proposal sucked. Cora was not going to waste money on people who simply could not take time to put effort in to something important.
Alas, concentrating isn’t working today, the numbers swim together, perfectly well thought ideas from the end of the day on Tuesday have vanished, like fog after sun-up. Instead, she’s doodling at the corner of the spreadsheet she’s supposed to be making copies of for the one o'clock meeting.
“Crap!” she curses loud enough for Kaelyn on the other side of her cubicle wall to hear.
Instantly a dialogue box pops up on her screen:
Kaelyn- What’s wrong?
Cora- Nothing, just doodled on my freshly printed copy of the budget increase report for today’s meeting
Kaelyn- Daydreaming again? Anything in particular? Or should I say anyone? ;-)
Cora- Blargh, I refuse to answer that question and you know better than to use the company server to ask me shit like that
Kaelyn- Oh please, it’s not like ‘Dreamy’ sits and reads everyone’s chat logs, Cora
Cora- I stand by my initial blargh, stop being a lazy bitch and walk around the cube farm if you want to talk with me
Cora closes the chat window and sends the report to the printer again. Kaelyn follows her in to the printer/copy room and corners her.
“So, are you going to say something today? Do something besides make mooneyes at him while he’s looking the other way? Your outfit is perfect, you are wearing make-up and jewelry and you blow dried and styled your hair after the gym. You must have a plan, right? So spill…” Kaelyn says in an overly dramatic hushed tone.
Rolling her eyes heavenward Cora grumbles, “Yes, I thought after the meeting today I’d say hello and mention that everyone is going for drinks on Friday and since I’d never seen him there I was wondering if anyone had ever invited him. That’s low pressure, right? Inviting him to a group thing?” The final question comes out in a rush of breath and her insides start to twist again.
Kaelyn smiles, wrapping her arm around Cora’s shoulder. “Can’t get any more low pressure than that, unless you got someone else to invite him.”
“No!” she says almost a little too loudly, “I don’t want someone else to do it, what if one of the pharma-girls ask him and he decides to fall madly in love with one of them instead? I’m not sure I could take that.”
“Cora, you need to put on your big girl panties and just do it already. He always says hello to you and steals candy whenever he walks by your cube, you never seem to have to wait to get anything on your computer fixed. He isn’t that nice to everyone.” With an encouraging smile, Kaelyn gives Cora a squeeze and starts to walk away. “Besides, the pharma-girls don’t slum it with people who actually work here, they date doctors, athletes and other demi-gods. I’m not sure any of them even know the names of anyone outside their department or the person who signs their paycheck and reimburses their expense reports.”
“Actually he is that nice to everyone, Kay, that’s one of the reasons I like him, and probably the reason he got promoted. Wait… I haven’t even seen him since we got back from the holiday break, is he even coming to the meeting?” she asks chewing on her thumbnail nervously.
“Nope, haven’t seen him, but he isn’t on the out of office list today, so unless Mr. Jameson’s computer explodes and he won’t let one of the lackeys touch it. Daniel will be there.” With that, she turned on her heel and walks away whistling to herself, leaving Cora to her own internal monologue of insanity.
Kaelyn is the only real friend Cora has here at Boston Pharmaceuticals, and the only one who knows that she dreams about Daniel. They became friends and then partners in crime by accident almost, although friendly enough to most co-workers Cora usually stuck to herself.
Chapter 2
Two years ago…
She’d left a giant cinnamon roll on her desk as she went down to the kitchen to grab a refill on her coffee. She’d made a batch of rolls from scratch this weekend and brought them in to share with everyone so she wouldn’t eat all twenty-four of them. When she came back, there was a post-it next to the tasty pastry. It simply read, “If you keep eating shit like this you’ll kill yourself.”
It was all Cora could do not to cry out loud and run from her cube, back to her car, go home, hide under her covers and watch “Say Anything” while eating a pint of cookie dough ice cream. It’s not like she didn’t know she was fat, if the fact that all her professional clothes came from Lane Bryant and the Women’s section of Macy’s hadn’t clued her in, the W behind every number in every item of clothing she owned screamed it loud and clear. So she sniffled quietly, dried her eyes, thanking the gods she hadn’t worn make-up that day and took a deep breath.
It was as she was taking this breath and pitching her tissue, that Kaelyn walked by. About her age, married with a toddler and another baby on its way Kaelyn was, as Cora liked to refer to her, pocket sized, barely five feet and slight even when six months pregnant she was what Cora always wanted to look like, but never would. Even though she was only 5’2 the extra weight she carried made her feel like she dwarfed her cube-mate.
One of the benefits of being the accounting manager was that she got one of the “better cubes”. If you could call one cube of the ant-colony, they all worked in better than any of the other cubes. It was in the back corner of a six-cube pod. The only way you would walk by Cora is if you were sneaking out the door to the back stairs; or you were part of maintenance or IT who used the stairwell instead of the elevator or main open-air staircase to transport their various tools of the trade.
And that was what Kaelyn was doing, she was sneaking out the back door headed to procure her one allotted cup of caffeine for the day, her OB said it was okay, and anyone who looked at her funny for having a cup of regular coffee while she was pregnant could suck it. However, the soft sniff grabbed her attention.
She waddled into the cube and sat down in the guest chair. “Why so glum chum?”
Cora simply could not speak, if she opened her mouth she was going to lose it, she just peeled the post-it off her desk as if it were coated in anthrax and held it between the tips of two fingers while she handed it over to Kaelyn. While Kaelyn was reading, and then re-reading the cruel missive delivered on cheerful purple paper Cora picked up her pastry and dropped it in the trash.
Kaelyn looked up at Cora blinking, “Who left this?”
Cora shrugged, “Don’t know, don’t recognize the handwriting, and after Tracy’s monumental office supply ordering debacle everyone is using up the pastel purple post-its until we run out. OfficeMart wouldn’t exchange them and Mr. J is too cheap to throw out $300 worth of post-its. Ten years from now when people pull files, they’ll know actions taken in 2008 just by the color of the post-it. ”
Pulling herself out of her chair Kaelyn grabbed her sweater, thrust it at her and said, “You’re coming with me.”
Instead of heading to the café, they walked two blocks and sat on a park bench, where Cora began to cry, which turned into sobbing, which turned into he
r looking like a puffy pink mess. When the noise subsided, Kaelyn gave her a big hug and then sat back rubbing her belly while she thought.
“Not sure who in the office is that much of a douchebag, who would be so cruel. Sure there’s the perma-tanned pharma-girl mafia in sales but they’re on the sixth floor, they rarely deign to come to our neck of the woods and someone would have noticed one of them going to your cube, you’re kinda out of the way. Plus, they send their intern to do their dirty work, you know, like the actual work they are supposed to be doing.”
“I know, and that’s the way I like it. That way people only need to look at me when I’m at meetings, or need to sneak out the back exit, otherwise I can hide out all I want, so I don’t have to see the pity or disgust in people’s eyes when they look at me lumbering past creating a seismic event,” she sighed.
“Ow! What the hell was that for?”
Kaelyn shook out her fist as if she had actually hurt herself more than she’d hurt Cora when she punched her in the arm. “For being an idiot, you aren’t disgusting, you aren’t a walking earthquake, you’re Cora, accounting whiz extraordinaire, nice to stray kittens and a trivia master. I will not allow you to talk shit about yourself.”
“It’s true though, if I keep eating crap like that I’m going to die young. Hell, my dad didn’t live past fifty and as for my mom, I have no idea.” She twisted her fingers in her lap, refusing to look up. “But nothing I’ve ever tried worked. I know it’s why Sam left me, he said I wasn’t the person he fell in love with, and that I loved food more than him. It’s why the only dates I’ve had in the last five years have been with people who have a fetish for fat women, and while I’m equal opportunity when it comes to what a person does behind closed doors, I don’t want you behind my door because you only want dimpled thighs, I want you there because you want me.”
“Ow! What the hell was that for?”
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