“Which would explain why he was so irresistible to Phoebe?” Desmond asked.
“Jake doesn’t deserve a woman like Phoebe. He wouldn’t know how to treat a woman like Phoebe. You saw how he was with her.”
“And you would?” Desmond asked doubtfully.
“Of course I would. I have. Jacoby doesn’t know how to make any woman happy.”
“Obviously he’s doing something right. She slept with him twice.”
This information seem to incense Lawrence, as he growled, “And each time he’s had to pay. That’s doing something right?”
“Are you saying if he didn’t have the money, no woman would be attracted to him?”
“I think Jacoby wouldn’t know how to get a woman if he didn’t hide behind his money. Especially a woman like Phoebe.”
“You sound pretty serious about Phoebe, but you’ve been serious about a woman before then you turned around and pretended you had no feelings for her.”
“And I still don’t.” This was a pretty sore subject for Lawrence. “I’m going to go all the way this time.”
“And what was last time? For practice?”
“Shut the fuck up, Desmond,” Lawrence snapped. “If you’re going to sit on the sidelines and watch to see who wins, you need to keep your nose and your opinions to yourself.”
Desmond sighed gravely. “I just don’t see why both of you are making an ass over a woman who cares nothing about either one of you. Yes, she’s very beautiful, intelligent, and seems to have a nice personality, but that’s no reason to make fools out of yourself.”
“That’s what you don’t understand, Desmond,” Lawrence said with relish. “Phoebe’s different from any woman I’ve ever met and even though I haven’t had a taste of her - but I will soon - I still want to just be with her.”
“You’ve said this all before about other women. Plus, if she was so special why hasn’t she been hounded by other men?”
“Desmond, why are you being so negative towards her?” Lawrence asked.
“Because I don’t like what’s she done to the two of you. You’re letting some tramp come between two good friends.”
“Who the fuck says Jacoby’s my friend? He waves his damn money in everyone’s face with a wink and a smile and expects to get the world. Well I’m tired of being in his fucking gratitude all the damn time. I wish I could tell him to take his money and shove it where the sun don’t shine.”
“So all this time when he thought you were his friend, you were really using him just to get the money to open up the business? Are you trying to say you were jealous of him all this time and wished we had nothing to do with him?”
“I sure as hell am saying that. If we didn’t need the money I would definitely stay the fuck away from him.”
“I think it’s the liquor talking now, Lawrence,” Desmond said. “I think you need to get some rest because without the money, the two of you are one and the same which is probably why the girl likes the both of you.”
“Well, fuck you and the rosy ass horse you rode on Des. You wouldn’t understand it all to save your life.” The line clicked meaning Lawrence had hung up.
Desmond only chuckled which was his nature to do. He never took the verbal abuse seriously that Lawrence and Jacoby dealt out to him when they were upset.
“Why the hell did you want me to hear that shit?” Jacoby asked.
“To let you know Lawrence is just talking out his ass. He doesn’t see the whole picture and you are going to have to tell Phoebe to stay away from the two of you.”
“Why? Maybe Phoebe doesn’t know the truth about Lawrence and I should be the one to tell her?”
As confusing as that sounded, Desmond did understand, but asked sarcastically, “Would it really make a difference to her, Jacoby? She’s used the both of you and I don’t think she really cares. Just let it go. Just leave her alone. I don’t like what she does to the two of you.”
“Like he said, Desmond. You really don’t understand it all, but unlike Lawrence, I know Phoebe. I know what she feels and what she wants and what she really wants, is me. ”
“That’s the same shit Lawrence has been saying.”
“Like you said, Lawrence is just talking out his ass.” He hung up the line and now he really couldn’t sleep. He had always known Lawrence had some animosity and jealousy for him personally not just his money. Lawrence wanted the money, but he could never understand how through all of Jacoby’s life’s trials and tribulations the money hadn’t affected him. How people still wanted to be around him whether he had money or not. Lawrence was one of them even if he couldn’t admit it.
Now his thoughts turned to Phoebe. She hadn’t slept with Lawrence in all this time, but had what Jacoby done changed her mind. Was Jacoby responsible now for sending Phoebe into Lawrence’s arms? Now she really wouldn’t have anything to do with him.
Chapter 21
After the doctor’s appointment, she came home and waited for her mother to come home. When Patricia came in the door, Phoebe was just about to start looking into the books. She had realized this morning, unlike all other mornings; Patricia had put the bill ledger up instead of it laying out on the end of the table.
“Don’t you go worrying about the bills today,” Patricia said, taking the ledger gently away from Phoebe and putting it back up on the shelf in the kitchen.
“I just wanted to see where we were?”
“You really don’t need to have more to worry about Phoebe. I’ll take care of these while you clear your mind about other things.”
Phoebe sighed tiredly knowing her mother was determined to get her mind off of Jacoby. “Mother, my mind is clear about everything.”
“If it was so clear, then you wouldn’t look like someone broke your heart.”
“No one broke my heart, Mother,” she protested.
Patricia looked very doubtful. “So why did you avoid Lawrence’s call last night?”
“I just wanted to spend time with the kids, plus I told you what happened yesterday.”
“Are you still going to go back to work after what you know?”
“Until the end of this week. I don’t want anyone to get suspicious about anything yet. Not until I get all the information that I need,” Phoebe answered.
The doorbell rung followed by an impatient knock on the door. At the same time, Stephanie could be heard on the monitor awaking from her nap.
“You go check on Stephanie and I’ll take care of the door,” Phoebe said going towards the door.
When she opened the door, she was leery to see that no one was standing on the porch, but someone had left a dozen roses by the door. Opening the security screen door, she looked around warily and picked up the vase the flowers were in and went back in the house closing the door behind her.
Reading the card, it only read, “Missing you.” No one had signed it, but she knew who the writing was from and dropped the flowers in the nearest garbage. Patricia was just coming down the stairs to see her throw away the flowers.
“Who sent those to you?’
“Daniel. I guess he thought I wouldn’t know, but I know his handwriting.” She handed her mother the card.
“Well it’s a nice vase,” Patricia noted getting the vase out and leaving the flowers in the garbage.
“Which he probably spent my money on,” Phoebe snapped.
“No need to waste money then.” Patricia took the vase in the kitchen.
Phoebe on rolled her eyes in exasperation following her mother. After asking about the children and getting a positive response she told her mother, “I going to the office while no one is expecting me until tomorrow to get some more files I need for me.”
“Are you going to do what you spoke about yesterday?”
“Yes, but I do need some more information before I proceed and before they have time to trash anything.”
Patricia kissed her daughter’s cheek. “Be careful, Phoebe. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
Phoebe chortled. “Madeline wouldn’t dare do something that could send her to jail. She would find that a waste to the half a million dollar plastic surgery she paid for earlier last year for her to look so good.”
****
Arriving at the offices quietly Phoebe checked to see if anyone was there. She didn’t bother to check the two back offices that had just been clean because she figured most likely he wasn’t here. He probably didn’t want to be around unless Madeline was around.
Moving quickly, she put her brief down on the nearby table in the copier room she got the key out and opened up the cabinets leaving her brief wide open to put the rest of the papers in there that she found today. Finding the file marked Phoebe Green, she opened it up and began to look through the papers.
Latrice always kept good files and Phoebe didn’t have a hard time finding the agreements that had been signed by Madeline for a raise in pay for each accomplishment she had already done. Madeline always said the raises would come, but when they didn’t Madeline would tell her the pay system was messed up and she would get back pay. Phoebe most times felt like a dog being led on a bone above her head too high for her to reach.
She hurriedly made copies of the agreements and other information that she would need, then found the past supervisor’s file and made a necessary copies from that file. Just as she was about to close the drawer, her eyes landed on Simon’s file. Picking it up, she briefly flipped through the papers until she came to an agreement form. Simon didn’t have the skills to work in an office, but according to his resume he did have a good college background and had majored in a managerial field, yet why had he chosen to be an assistant if he was geared to do so much more.
Reading the agreement deep in her own thoughts, she didn’t hear the footsteps behind her until it was too late. Screaming in fright, she whirled around to glare at Jacoby who stood directly behind.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Jacoby asked suspicious as the papers in her hand began to fly around.
Hurriedly she knelt down and picked up the papers glaring up at him as if he had just lost his mind. “Do you know how to announce yourself instead of scaring people half to death?”
“What are you doing here?” he asked suspiciously.
“That’s what I should be asking you.” She finished straightening out the papers and quickly put the file back in its place. Facing him, angrily she continued to glare up at him.
“Isn’t it too late for you to be out? Mothers need to be at home with their children.”
“Where I go is none of your business,” she snapped.
He looked over at her brief to the papers sticking out. She picked up the papers she had just copied to avoid him from looking at them, but he snatched them out her hands and stepped away.
“Give them back!” she ordered.
“Why?” He was looking through them quickly.
“What are you? Madeline’s spy and lover?”
Jacoby glanced at her for a moment and then went back to his reading. The frown on his face started getting even grimmer.
“This is none of your business!” she snapped.
“Good thing it isn’t because I’d choke Madeline’s scrawny neck if she did this shit to me. You’re being paid fifteen grand less than what the last manager was getting paid and on top of that in the contract it states all managers are being paid forty five thousand dollars. I wouldn’t choke her - I would shoot her. And I’m not her spy.”
Phoebe snorted. “Just her lover?” She snatched the papers from him and stuffed them back in her brief case. Turning her back to him as she did this, she asked, “So you won’t be telling Madeline what I’m doing?”
“Why should I? I am the one who gave you the advice to do this. And for your information, I’m not her lover anymore since our first night. I’m staying in the hotel. I’m sure you remember what hotel room, don’t you?”
She stiffened as memories of their erotic last night together went racing through her mind. Jacoby had not brought up that memory for her to cause the stimulation it caused upon thinking about it, but instead, she assumed, he had brought it up to deceitfully call her another whore without even saying it.
He was only being vindictive and her animosity for him clearly rose to the surface. When he was nice, he could be so nice, but when he was mean, he definitely did that all too well. Jacoby knew how to hit way below the belt.
Facing him, narrowing her eyes, she asked, “Am I suppose to be grateful to you because you gave me that advice?” She wanted to call him a big fat liar because no man with his sexual insatiability could go too long without being without a woman. She refused to believe he was passing up sex with Madeline and was actually waiting on Phoebe. That would be too impossible to believe because that meant that he wanted only her. She quickly pushed this thought from her head.
“You should be appreciative.” There was a wicked light in his eyes and she decided his proximity was started to effect her senses, so she left out the copier room and went into Madeline’s office and began to replace the key touching as little as possible then using a Kleenex to wipe fingerprints off as she finished up.
He leaned against the doorframe watching her quietly. When she was done, he said, “You do that well.”
“If that’s a compliment, thank you.” Again she had to walk past him, but this time he blocked her way forcing her to look up at him.
“What do you plan on doing with this information?”
“Get money that’s owed to me.”
“What about her business? You sue her enough you could ruin her, take over her clients and get your own business.”
The thought had crossed her mind, but this wasn’t the kind of business she would like to have. “No thanks. I just want what’s mine so my mother doesn’t have to worry about money again.”
He frowned disturbed. “When will it be enough, Phoebe? When do you actually think you’ll have enough money?”
“When I don’t have to worry about what will I be feeding my babies tomorrow. When I don’t have to look into their faces and tell them we can’t afford to buy them the things they see other children have or things on television. When they have to pretend to have the things they want. When I have to pass up the things in the store I need so bad just to make sure my babies live comfortably. That’s when it will be enough. Their happiness means the world to me,” she stated heatedly.
“And your happiness?”
She shrugged. “No one much cares about my happiness and I’ve stopped caring. It’s not important. My children are my happiness.” Phoebe pulled her worn brown coat around her shoulders and closed it up. “Goodnight Mr. Knight. Make sure you lock up when you are done.”
Jacoby watched her until she was gone then cursed under his breath. He was wound tighter than a ball of yarn. Seeing her had made it even more difficult to concentrate on getting her off his mind, which had been his intentions of coming in this late into the office. He had fully thrown himself into his work today to keep him distracted all day, and it was working until now.
He swore if this kept up, he would have to jam ice down his damn pants to avoid an embarrassing bulge that would certainly draw attention.
Chapter 22
Simon came in her office Wednesday morning to let her know Carolyn and Rhonda’s computers - two of the transcriptionists - were on the fritz and were locking up on them. He had tried to figure out what was wrong with them, but had no success. When Phoebe looked at them it was to see that somehow a file from both of the computers was deleted along with a years’ worth of work plus their backup copies. She checked the server and saw that the reports were missing from there also.
“What are we going to do?” Simon asked nervously.
Phoebe frowned confused. It all seemed rather strange but she didn’t feel like going into depth with this. “It looks like the current reports are still there. Reinstall the transcription programs so it will replace the missing files it needs to work,
then do another find on their computers for the reports. If we still can’t find them, we’ll go from there.”
Simon reported back to her right before lunch that the reports were gone. “Luckily though I’ve printed the reports they have already done today so we should be okay because we are all caught up.”
This put Phoebe’s mind somewhat at eased, but she did want to research it all just a little bit more wondering what had Simon done while she was off yesterday. She decided to forget lunch and check into the matter, but Lawrence showed up and asked if she was free for lunch.
“I really should work,” she insisted.
He looked like a lost puppy dog. “You’ll have me eat alone?”
“You aren’t trying to start something again between Jacoby and you again.”
Lawrence smirked. “I could care less about what he thinks. I even made sure he wouldn’t be in the office when Madeline called me just a few minutes ago. So I ask again, can two good friends go out and enjoy a nice hour of lunch and good talk together?”
She agreed and he escorted her out. She needed a lift and Lawrence was a breath of fresh air when they spoke. He was the epitome of being a gentleman and he made her laugh relaxing her and getting her mind off of Jacoby and the office. She could deal with the office weighing heavily on her mind, but she really hated the fact that as much as Lawrence was a distraction mildly, any free second her mind had, her thoughts would turn to Jacoby. Seeing him last night had not deflated any feelings whatsoever in her body and her mind for him.
When Madeline called her up to speak with her after lunch, Phoebe thought for sure this was about what she had been doing the night before. Jacoby had told her he wasn’t Madeline’s spy, but she was positive he still hated her for something she didn’t even do, but he was too stubborn to believe her from his own mind’s machinations.
Her heart raced as she answered the phone. Simon had come into her office quietly so Madeline wouldn’t know he was listening as Phoebe put Madeline on the phone’s speaker.
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