“Join me?” He asked finally, breaking eye contact and gesturing towards the table.
“Yes, I’d…I’d like that.” I forced myself to move, to sit down across from him. My voice was husky. The atmosphere was charged in a way it hadn’t been when I saw him at the meeting earlier.
He gestured towards the bar and one of the bartenders came over.
“Laphroaig, please. On the rocks.” I didn’t drink scotch often, but this situation called for it.
“We have the ten year, if you like,” said the bartender.
“Please.”
He nodded and left.
“I wouldn’t have pegged you for a scotch drinker,” Seth said slowly.
I couldn’t tell him that I’d had it with him when we went to Harry Browne’s on our first date that lasted all day. That I’d started drinking it as a tribute to him. So I lied. After a fashion. The memories of that night surrounded me, and I took a deep breath before I answered. No one else knows, no one else knows. “I tasted it in college, and I liked it. It seemed appropriate.”
“Why would you say that?”
“Why did you call me, demanding to meet tonight?” My voice actually sounded calm, and more like the professional me. Good one, Tib!
“What would you say if I told you I was dreaming of you recently? And then you walk into that room, and there you are, in the flesh. Almost right from my dream. What can I say? I was struck, just like…” his voice trailed off, and then he continued. “Just like the last time I met you.”
“I’d say maybe your subconscious knew you were going to meet me. I don’t know, Seth. Whatever it is, you need to keep it together when we’re meeting for business. My partner was full of questions, and apparently your grandfather and your attorney were as well.” Oh, hell. I sounded like an angry teacher.
“That’s another thing. I wasn’t aware that you knew my attorney.” His eyes narrowed.
“I wasn’t either. I haven’t seen Rick Montevaldo since high school. My partner handled facilitating this meeting. It was rather last minute, due to...” I stopped, not wanting to sink our client by saying that he basically threw a fit and Gramps tossed us to the wolves. “I also don’t know what that has to do with anything.”
Seth nodded, accepting my explanation. He seemed to be struggling with what he wanted to say. He took a drink of his beer and then spoke. “So. What did you do after…that night we met?”
“I went back, finished out the year, and decided that I wanted to go to law school.”
“Didn’t you still have a couple of years of school left?” He was distracted. Fiddling with the drink napkin, not looking at me directly. Apparently, there was a lot going on upstairs.
It made me feel a little better that I wasn’t the only one. But how odd that he was so bothered by meeting me one night. He didn’t have all the memories that I had playing in my mind. “I did. But choosing a grad school path tends to get the parents off your ass. Made my last year of school a lot less stressful,” I smiled. “What about you? I thought you were headed to flight school?” Oh shit. Had we talked about that in the pizza place? I couldn’t remember. Please let me get through this, I begged, not sure who I was asking.
Seth didn’t look surprised, so maybe he had mentioned it. “I did. I put in my time, and then my grandfather asked me to come and work with him. My mom’s not interested, and he wanted someone in the family to take over for him. She’s his only child, so that pretty much leaves me as the take-over candidate.” There was a glimpse of that megawatt smile.
“He’s got a solid reputation in the business. You’re stepping into some big shoes,” I said. It sounded so lame, but I didn’t know what to say. I was overwhelmed. The fact that I could make small talk was some kind of miracle. I kept seeing him that last night, and the pain and ache roared back. And the lust. It swirled around in me like a tornado. He was just as fit and handsome and charming, even with his obvious distress, as he’d been when I’d met him.
It wasn’t only lust for the physical. Like it had been in the second do-over, it was a lust for the man, the person he was. I didn’t know this person, though. There was no guarantee this man and the Seth I knew were the same. What had his past been like after I turned him down? I knew more than most how even small things could change a person. He looked, sounded, god, even smelled like the Seth I’d known, but that wasn’t a guarantee.
“I’m sorry. This must be awkward for you,” he said. “With you being the attorney for Gramps’ rival. Well, rival right now. They’ll be friends again in two weeks.”
“Ah. I see you know my client well,” I said with a smile.
We made idle chitchat for another twenty minutes or so. My drink was almost finished. There was a feeling of unfinished business. I couldn’t tell if it was mutual, but I definitely felt it from my side. The fact that it might only be coming from my side made me really uncomfortable.
It felt like neither of us were really saying what we wanted to. Every time he spoke, or became animated, I kept seeing the guy I’d spent time with, and the last time we’d been together. When he was naked. Looking at me with love and anticipation. God. I had to stop. Clear him out of my head. It wasn’t working.
“Well, looks like I’m nearly done. I probably shouldn’t have another, so…” I looked down at the table. I didn’t know what to say. “I think I’m going to go now. It was good to see you, Seth.” Damn. Damn, damn, damn! Not a thing had been resolved. Not one thing. He’d been so intent on seeing me—why? Nothing really important had been said. What the hell? While I felt I needed to get out of there, my heart broke a little as I stood. This wasn’t how I saw things going.
“Okay.” He stood up quickly. Too quickly. Obviously he was having second thoughts. I didn’t know if that made me happy or sad. He tossed some bills on the table. “I’ll walk you to your car.”
I nodded, my smile tight. We headed out of the bar in silence. Once I reached my car, I turned to him, hand out. “I’m glad we cleared the air.” Even though we hadn’t cleared a goddamned thing.
He looked at my hand, and then into my eyes. “Fuck it,” he said, and taking my hand, he pulled me to him hard and kissed me.
His kisses hadn’t changed. Not one bit. If anything, they were better. Of course, that could also be due to my sexual drought, but I didn’t think so. This was entirely due to Seth.
My knees nearly gave out, and I reached a hand out behind me to brace myself against the car.
As suddenly as he’d kissed me, he let me go. I fell back, still not able to stand unassisted. He stared at me, his breathing heavy. So was mine. I was sorry he’d ended the kiss.
“I can taste the Laphroaig on your tongue,” he whispered. His voice was so soft, I almost missed his next words. “Like before.”
Then his eyes widened, and without another word, he turned and stalked away. Like before? What in the holy hell did he mean?
I didn’t have a chance to find out, because at that moment, as the weight of his words sank in, as a thought began in my head, the flash I’d been expecting for the last three years blinded me to everything around me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“You have got to be kidding me,” I said loudly as my old room came into focus. “Have three years addled your brains? How in the hell was that anything other than awkward as ass?”
Dhameer appeared, although this time he was perched on my dresser. How cute. Like a parrot. Waiting for a damn cracker.
“You are an attorney now, correct?”
I nodded.
“And your career is based on reading others?”
“In part.”
“Then please tell me what you noticed right before you came back here. Think, Tabitha.”
I wanted to argue with him, fuss and carry on. I was as just as upset about Seth as I was about the entire rest of my life. I’d worked hard for that life. I’d learned my lessons. I’d earned everything I had, fair and square. I’d made a life I was proud of. I’d
had my three wishes converge in way that might have turned out well. I wanted to scream at him over the unfairness of it all.
I took a deep breath and forced myself to go over the entire meeting with Seth. Reliving that kiss was hard. God, I wanted him so badly. All of him. I’d managed until his kiss reminded me of exactly how long it had been since I’d seen him. The possibilities that had overwhelmed me the last time I’d seen him had come roaring back like a freight train. That was out of the question too, since here I was, back at Tibby Loserville Central.
Wait. Wait. His last words, the words he said as he stopped kissing me, before he ran away. I closed my eyes, wanting to see as much of it as possible.
“I can taste the Laphroaig on your tongue. Like before.”
I opened my eyes, and stared at Dhameer. “What did he mean, just like before?” I whispered. The thought was so big, I couldn’t get my head around it. This was what I’d been thinking when he dragged me back. I needed to hear it from someone else.
“When would he have experienced that?”
Oh my lord. “He was there? I mean him him, like the way I was there?”
“So it would seem.”
“So it would seem? What does that mean? This isn’t a hard question, Dhameer! Was Seth in a do-over thing like me? Was he using a wish? Is that why he said that? Because he remembers?” My voice rose. My blood pressure did, too. It even felt as though my hair was on fire. Could you drown in fire? I might be the first.
“An interesting thought to consider, isn’t it?” I swear, the genie looked so smug he was this close to kissing his own ass. “Now, since you have reached a crossroads in all three wishes, your wishes are done.”
“Wait! No! I’m not ready for this! Not for any of this!” My internal anger? Frustration? I wasn’t sure what—rose.
“Well, it’s here, whether you like it or not. So, according to our bargain, I shall take the time to deliberate, and then put you where it is I feel you will do best going forward.”
“Are you sure that was our bargain? After all, it was three years ago, give or take a bit, and you might not remember.”
The look he gave me could have cut steel. “Djinn do not forget. I get to choose your fate. It’s my reward for the work I did to give you three wishes. Bargain’s been made, Toots. You’ll just have to wait and see.”
“We also discussed that I could have a say in it.”
“You have had your say. We’ve talked quite a bit; extensively after the first two do-overs. I’ve had the time to watch you in this last one, it being so long. My suggestion is to get some rest, and we’ll settle this in the morning.”
With a slight puff, he was gone. The bastard. He always poofed out of here when the questions got intense. I was ready to kill him.
I had to do this. It had been three years, but I had to do this. I looked down. I was still in in the clothes from my wine-drinking session. I got up, and went to my laptop. When I checked the date, it was the day after I’d met Dhameer. How does he do that, all the backing and forthing with time? Trying to figure it out made my head hurt. I gave up. The time thing—Dhameer handled that, and I wasn’t going to get into it. Other than I’d just spent the three most amazing years in a wish. Where all my wishes had collided. What the hell?
I took a shower, and then checked my email. Nothing of major import, other than notes from X. I glanced at them, trying to remember what it was I did in this life.
It was weird. In both this and the third wish, I worked for him. He wanted me to, trusted me to, and we kept our friendship. He had someone totally different doing his IT and web based work–some place down in Kentucky. G.A. Pepper & Associates. Funny how I remembered that because I’d had them vetted before I agreed to send a contract to them. I’d been so good at IT, and now, I felt like I’d have to learn it all over again. I wondered if G.A. Pepper might be hiring. Did they even exist in this world? That led me to trying to figure out the time thing, and the only place that led was a massive headache. I stopped trying to figure it all out. For now, at least.
The thought of starting over was so lowering that I closed the laptop and crawled into bed. How could I go back to this life? I remembered making big promises to change my life if this was the one Dhameer chose, but right now, actually looking down the barrel of needing to do that, I was tired. I didn’t want to do anything, and I wanted my old life back. But which old life? I didn’t know anymore. Not when all three were in the same room mere hours ago, all looking at me.
I couldn’t solve this tonight—hell, I couldn’t solve this at all. It was all in the hands of an overly smug genie. I pulled the covers up over my head and hoped for sleep. Maybe something would look different in the morning.
Dhameer
Where to put Tibby? He laughed to himself. There had never been any question. Once he’d removed her from her third wish, he knew where she needed to be. He wanted to hear what she had to say, and more importantly, what she thought. He hovered nearby as she slept, wanting to make sure that he had read the signs and made the right decision. The look on her face when she realized what Seth had said—priceless. That would go down as one of his favorite moments.
He thought about the three men who had helped to shape Tibby’s wishes. She had a habit of allowing men to be part of her life. So be it. Some people were like that with the opposite sex. Tibby drew them in. It was natural that she would have them as a large part of her life.
She’d accepted that, finally. He planned to let her keep all her memories after he put here where she’d be for good. She’d learned a great deal. Moving forward, that knowledge would help her.
He almost felt like rubbing his hands in glee. He glanced up at the dark sky. Would morning never come? He couldn’t wait to put the conclusion in motion.
Tibby
When I woke, I didn’t want to. Didn’t want to open my eyes, look around, get up, nothing. I wasn’t given a choice.
“C’mon Tootsie Pop. It’s time. Aren’t you ready to get to your final destination?”
“That was a bad series of movies. No. Not when you say it like that.”
Dhameer laughed loudly. He was far too fucking cheerful this morning. I glared at him, parrot-perching on my furniture again, and absolutely delighted with himself.
“Let’s get this done so I can start dealing with whatever needs to be dealt with.”
“So optimistic, are you?”
I didn’t want to tell him I was very afraid I’d open my eyes and be right here, in this dinky apartment, still lying in bed. So instead, I crossed my arms and glared at a spot on the wall.
“You’re not really a morning person. That’s all right. Close your eyes, Tabitha. Let’s go home, shall we?”
***
When I felt myself shift and then settle, I didn’t move. I was afraid to open my eyes. Afraid to see where I was. How long I sat there, I couldn’t tell. Finally, slowly, ever so slowly, I opened my eyes.
I was in my car. In my Thing. In the parking lot of O’Hare’s Bar.
I whooped, my heart pounding so madly I thought it was going to jump out of my chest. I started to cry. This was where I wanted to be. This was my life. This was where I was meant to be, and I was so thrilled and thankful Dhameer had seen it.
“Dhameer!” I yelled. I didn’t care that people walking by might think I was insane. “Come and sit with me! I want to talk to you!”
He poofed into my car, and for the first time, I didn’t care about the glitter.
“Why did you choose here?”
“Isn’t this where you are supposed to be?”
I smiled at him, warm and happy. “Yes.”
“You still have things that need to be attended to, Toots. You need to settle things with Rick and Seth. Your partner, no doubt, will have questions and will need to be told something.”
I gripped his arm. I think he glared, but I wasn’t paying attention. “Can I tell Bryant? And X?”
“You may tell whomever you like. I ca
ution you, though, to think of what the recipients of your tale will think.”
“Can I talk to Rick about it?”
“You may indeed.”
“Can I talk to Seth about it?” Somewhere, I knew my questions were tedious, but again, didn’t care. I wanted this to be very specific, with no catches.
“Absolutely.”
I took his hand in both of mine. Turned to him, in the car. “Thank you. Before, I would have been a mess, even more than I am now, about what to do with these two men from my past. I would have thrown away my life with Bryant and my work for one of them, or both. Now, I have a life that I built for me. By myself. Which means, if one of these guys is right for me, I’m ready for it.”
He smiled. It was such a big, warm smile that I was reminded of Seth. “You’ve got it in one, Tabitha. Do you know which one it will be?”
“I think so. But I’m not the only deciding factor here.”
“With that, it’s time for me to go.”
“Wait! Will I see you again?”
“Probably not. After all, what in the world could you wish for now? I’ll look in on you, Toots. It’s always nice to see my success stories.” Then he was gone.
I felt the tears start down my face. I didn’t realize that he would be one of the things I missed once this whole wish thing was over. It had been such a big part of my life for a number of years, I felt Dhameer was a constant.
Except he wasn’t. I wiped my eyes. I would just have to make him proud, and be one of his success stories. I started the car and headed to my boat. I didn’t have the strength to face Bryant right now.
Once I made it back to the boat, I changed and curled up on my settee. I didn’t want to do anything but cocoon tonight. Just as I’d gotten snuggled in, my cell rang.
I was watching TV, and I answered it absently. “Hello?”
“Tibby? It’s Rick.” His voice was deep, and I could tell he was in the middle of some strong emotion. It was so weird—I knew. Because I’d spent a year being as close with him as possible.
Three Wishes: Time Traveler Romance (Heart Of The Djinn Book 1) Page 17