Bad Dragon

by Jada Cox

  As soon as I had settled down with my chai latte and my everything bagel, my phone began vibrating on the table. I groaned when I saw the number.

  It was Jeremy. I just wanted a few minutes to myself to try and forget about work, just for a few minutes so I could look my coworkers in the face again when I returned. I sighed before answering.

  “Jeremy,” I said. “How are you?”

  “Better,” he said. “But then again, I’m well looked after. Other than that, it’s very boring here.”

  “Have you heard anything more about how long they want to keep you?” I asked.

  “They’re still waffling between a week or two, so I think at this point, just carry on as if I’ll be gone for two weeks. If it’s longer, I’ll let you know.”

  I could hear the strain in his voice. I didn’t quite believe him that he was alright, but I didn’t doubt that he was well looked after. I had heard that kidney stones could be quite the ordeal, especially for men.

  “How are the accounts?” Jeremy asked.

  “They’re, uh—they’re good,” I stammered.

  “Catch me up,” he said.

  “Well, I became acquainted with that mansion yesterday morning in Alder Grove, and then I went to the house on Main, on Crescent Hill, and the one in Mulberry Court. I didn’t have those files you said you would send me …” I added, sternly.

  “Sorry about that,” Jeremy said. “I didn’t get around to calling Wilma.”

  “Well, I talked to Wilma later, and she said she didn’t have access to them,” I relayed about his secretary.

  “Believe me, I got an ear full form her yesterday evening.”

  “I’m glad she’s so dedicated to her work,” I replied, finding their laxed professional relationship interesting. It wasn’t the first time I had had the suspicion that they might be having an affair. It wasn’t a big deal if they were. They were both single and adults. “Anyway, she had them for me this morning already. I have the digital files and the actual physical folders with color samples, as well.”

  “And what progress have you made with them?”

  “Well, at the Alder Grove house we talked about how to carry out your themes, but now that I’m looking at your ideas, I want to run what we talked about by you. I’ll create the mock-up and send it over to you before I do anything. I’m planning on contacting some of the furniture suppliers about the pieces you have in mind, and I’ve got Minnie and Hans keeping an eye out for some of the other pieces as well.”

  “You don’t need to worry too much about the Alder Grove place,” Jeremy said, and I breathed a sigh of relief. That meant that I definitely wouldn’t need to see them again before my boss came back. “I’ve got most of the pieces lined up, and I’m keeping an eye out for them. Some of the beds are already on their way. Actually, I think they should be arriving today or tomorrow. Anyway, I might not be able to get up and walk around, but I can sure as hell buy furniture online. It gives me something to do.”

  “You should be resting,” I protested. “Not working from bed.”

  “I like you Cora, I really do, but you can’t expect that I’m going to completely hand over the reins to you on this one.”

  That stung a little bit, but I could understand where he was coming from. I was still a rookie.

  “You send me over what you’ve got, and I’ll send you pictures of the pieces I’m looking at and for what part of the house. I need you to go over there tomorrow and run them by—oh god, which one of them was I working with? John?”

  “Julian,” I corrected, blushing and hiding my face in my hand. I was grateful that Jeremy couldn’t see me.

  “That’s the one,” he said. “Talk to him, and let me know what he thinks.”

  “I thought that I didn’t need to worry about that house,” I tried, trying to keep the hope out of my voice. “You said you had it covered.”

  “No, no, you do. You just don’t need to worry about the furnishing. I’m going to have you be my messenger, essentially. You folks discuss things, you relay back to me, and then we’ll discuss things and so forth. That house is a huge account. We don’t want to mess anything up, and we need it to be seamless when I come back to work.”

  More disappointment. However much effort I could spend pretending just for a little while that I was handling a job on my own was now diminished. I was just the messenger, which felt only to be a slight step up from being an intern.

  “Let me know how tomorrow goes when you leave,” Jeremy said. “Now, fill me in on the rest of the accounts.”

  I couldn’t believe that I was going to have to go back over to that house. I was mortified. For some inexplicable reason, that guy liked me—like was really trying to get me to go out with him kind of liked me. When I had left their house last time, I had thought that maybe he was just one of those guys who couldn’t help himself around women, that he just shamelessly flirted. I could understand that, I thought. I mean, if you’re that good looking and clearly loaded on top of it, you don’t have to try very hard to get laid. I just happened to be a woman in his house.

  Even as I left the office that evening, I acknowledged how presumptuous I was being. I wasn’t exactly a catch in my mind’s eye. I was a little rounder than I would have liked and a little shorter as well. If I were three or four inches taller, my weight wouldn’t have mattered. But the combined result made me feel like I was the very definition of the descriptor, “squat,” which was not a very flattering word. Why would a guy like that be flirting with me at all?

  I spent the drive home trying to convince myself that I had imagined it, despite knowing that I hadn’t. I was almost certain that he had winked at me more than once. Unless he had some kind of tic, he certainly had.

  Then, with Julian showing up at the office like that—he wasn’t just hitting on a woman who showed up at the house because he could. He was actually now pursuing me. And in front of my coworkers, too!

  It had to be some strange joke, a prank he had going on with him and his friends who lived in the house. It was the only logical explanation. Guys like that didn’t go for women like me.

  It wasn’t that men weren’t attracted to me at all. I had had a few guys show interest in me over the years, but that interest had rarely been reciprocated. When it had been reciprocated, the guys were usually too shy to move things along, or I was. The end result was that I had never had a boyfriend other than those middle school boyfriends who don’t really count. Could you say you were dating when you were too afraid to even hold hands?

  Sure, I had had a couple of guys show interest in me at parties in college, but I quickly realized that it was the booze and drugs talking, not their actual interest in me. Besides, I wasn’t likely to get involved with a guy that I met at a party. While I didn’t hold my virginity as something of extremely high value, I honored it enough to want to make sure that I didn’t hand it over to some drunk frat boy.

  I liked it that way. I felt as though I had shown some sense throughout college. I needed to focus on my studies if I was going to get anywhere with the outrageous amount of debt I was accruing through student loans. And my focus had paid off. I had gotten an internship at a well-respected design company, and they were working to pay off my student debt for me. It was a very generous position to be in.

  Now, I was no longer an intern. And now, I could let it set in just how lonely I was and that maybe I could start thinking about dating. That idea terrified me, though. How could I shift my attention when I needed to focus on my career?

  Margaret was forever trying to set me up, but I always turned her ideas down. I didn’t know how to flirt with guys, never mind get to the point where one was interested in dating me. Or doing any of the other stuff that couples did.

  This might have been why I had been so mesmerized by Julian’s abdomen when he removed his shirt the day before, and likewise why I was so terrified that he might actually like me.

  “Are you even with me, Cora?” Margaret asked.
>
  I shook my head, only realizing now that I’d gotten home and was standing in the kitchen. “Hm?

  “What are we watching tonight? Romcom, horror, or tearjerker?”

  “Horror,” I said, not really thinking.

  “You hate horror.”

  “You suggested it,” I said.

  “As a joke,” Margaret chuckled.

  I took a slow breath in, thinking about the other two options. I couldn’t stand the idea of a romance, not with everything on my mind. All I could think about was Julian and having to see him in the morning. Worse, that thought just kept circling around to my own loneliness. How had I never seen that it was there before?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Any comedies that aren’t romantic?”

  “Not any good ones,” Margaret said, the remote in her hand as she scrolled through the movie options. “I know. We’ll watch Fried Green Tomatoes.”

  “Never heard of it.”

  “You, my friend, are in for a treat.”

  We sat back and watched the movie about the Whistle Stop Café and Idgie Threadgoode, Ruth Jamison, and Evelyn Couch, though that was all I knew it was about. I couldn’t focus on the movie and found my responses to be somewhat automatic, miming whatever my friend did.

  All I could think about was having to see Julian again in the morning, and allowing myself, ever so slowly to contemplate the idea of possibly, maybe, entertaining the idea of dating.

  Chapter 6 – Julian

  I didn’t know if my grand gesture had worked to dislodge whatever it was that was keeping Cora at arm’s length from me or if it was actual necessity. I only knew that I was elated to see her email come up in my notifications that morning. I read the email twice, explaining that there were a few things she would need to go over with me again, that she had some time that day. The ending question was just what I was hoping for. “Would you be around at about twelve o’clock?”

  I just about jumped in the air, and with everything in me, resisted doing one of those pre-2000’s air pumps. Any exposure to Cora was an opportunity to try and woo her, and I wasn’t going to let any of those occasions go to waste.

  I got myself out of bed and slid down the banister into the living room, only barely sticking my landing.

  “I give that a solid three, bro,” Cory said from his position on the couch, his foot propped up on the back of the couch while his hand dug into the cereal box tucked under his arm.

  “How is it that you’re just under a hundred years old, and you still eat like you’re ten?” I asked. I slapped his foot off the back of the couch as I passed him, making my way into the kitchen. Quin, Dain, and Wyatt were already sitting at the breakfast bar with their coffees.

  I poured my own cup and sat on the counter, looking at them expectantly. None of them looked as though they’d slept the night before, and all of them looked as though they were about to drop back to the land of Nod right there on the counter.

  “What’s up with you guys?” I asked.

  “It’s too early,” Dain said.

  “It’s seven-thirty,” I said. “Most people would be getting ready for work at this time.”

  “We’re not most people,” Wyatt said.

  “What are you all doing up then?”

  “We haven’t been to bed,” Quin replied. “We got in a debate last night when you went to bed about which game console was better. So, to settle the score we went out to Walmart and bought all the ones they had.”

  “And the corresponding games,” Wyatt added, lifting an exhausted finger.

  “And played them all night,” Dain finished.

  I shook my head, chuckling. “What was the verdict?”

  “They all suck!” Cory shouted from the living room.

  “Why’s he so perky?” I asked.

  “He actually went to bed last night a couple of hours into the games,” Dain said. “Interview today.”

  “Interview?” I asked. Then called to Cory, “You have an interview?”

  “Radio DJ, bro,” he said. I didn’t have to see him to know he was giving me the wagging Y with his thumb and pinky fingers out. “Perfect job for me.”

  I couldn’t argue with that. He never shut up and knew way too much about pop culture. And his music tastes weren’t even too bad.

  “What about the rest of you?” I asked. “Don’t you need to be moving on out yourselves?”

  “I’m going to bed,” Wyatt said.

  “Ditto,” added Quin.

  “No, no, no,” I said. “You can’t do that. I’ve got the interior decorator coming.”

  “Tell him to come later or something,” Dain said. “I’m planning on parking my ass in my underwear and watching the news on that giant TV downstairs.”

  I pinched the bridge of my nose. I needed these guys out. I didn’t know how things were going to go today, and if this was actually the last chance I had to try and get Cora’s interest, then I needed to prevent these guys from interfering. I loved them, but they weren’t exactly going to provide a romantic atmosphere.

  “How about I pay for a hotel for you guys,” I suggested.

  “What?” they all asked in unison.

  “Hear me out,” I said. “There’s a spa up the way into the woods. I’ll even drive you. I’ll rent out different rooms for you, or you can get the suite, I don’t care. Dain, you can watch the news there—why the hell are you watching the news anyway?”

  “I want to see how our stocks are going,” he said. “Plus, I always fall asleep to the news.”

  “Whatever,” I continued. “You guys can do whatever you want there. Sleep, get drunk, watch the news, get a massage, hell, get a pedicure. I’ll pay for it all.”

  “Why?” Quin asked. “We have beds upstairs.”

  “No, we have inflatable mattresses upstairs. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a nice plush bed to sleep in? With clean sheets?”

  “My question stands: why?”

  I grunted. “Because I want the house to myself this afternoon.”

  “Uh-oh,” Wyatt said. “What are you doing?”

  “Nothing,” I said. “Just the interior decorator’s coming is all. You can’t all be sleeping in your rooms or taking up the downstairs. That’s the space we’re trying to figure out. That and the dining room.”

  “This smells fishy,” Quin said, narrowing his eyes and rubbing his chin.

  “And like horse shit,” Wyatt added.

  “Fishy horse shit!” Cory called from the other room.

  “Alright, alright,” I said. “Look, the usual guy who I’ve been working with is out sick for some time, and so I’m working with someone else. She’s really cute, and I think I have one shot at this. I don’t need you jerks around spoiling it.”

  “There it is,” Wyatt said, sitting back in his chair and slapping the counter. “We’re being turned out of our own home for a chick.”

  “Actually,” I said. “I am making you a killer offer of a spa, all you can drink, and complete pampering for the day and night and whenever checkout is tomorrow, all on me. I think that’s more than a fair trade.”

  “Am I included in this?” Cory asked, coming around the corner with his empty cereal box.

  “No,” I said.

  “Why?”

  “Because you’ve got an interview.”

  “Shouldn’t I get a prize for that?”

  “Fine,” I said. “Ace the interview and you can be included.”

  “Done,” Cory said.

  “But you can’t come back to the house until I text you, alright?”

  I finally convinced the guys and managed to shower and shave. I got dressed and took the guys out to the spa and handed Wyatt my credit card, worrying that maybe I was putting a little too much trust in my friends’ hands. But then again, we all had plenty of money, so there really wasn’t anything they could do to damage me unless they decided to buy a jet or something.

  As I returned, I was greeted by a large truck and four delivery men
outside the house.

  “Can I help you guys?” I asked.

  A short guy who looked maybe 25, though was completely bald and carrying a clipboard, turned to me.

  “Are you Julian Porter?” he asked, checking the name on his documents.

  “I am.”

  “We’re here on behalf of Jeremy Roberts. We’re delivering eight beds. Is that right?”

  I rolled my eyes. This couldn’t be happening. I needed to get the house clean and calm before Cora got here. I glanced at my watch. I still had two and a half hours before she arrived, so I should be alright.

  “Yep,” I said. “That’s right.”

  I directed them to the right bedrooms, trying to remember who was having what. All the mattresses were the same, but each of us had different styles when it came to bedding. I personally was pretty excited to have a canopy for my bed to keep the light out in the morning during the summer. I liked the more classic look. Dain and Cory on the other hand, were more modern in their tastes. I didn’t care so long as we finally had furniture.

  The delivery guys were pretty good about setting everything up before they left, a service I didn’t know was provided. Jeremy had even ordered bedding for us all, and I went to work putting my sheets on before I deflated my former bed and folded it up in the corner of the room.

  By the time the delivery guys left, there was still an hour until Cora was due to arrive. I had just enough time to go around the house to tidy up after the guys’ all-night gaming session when I heard the doorbell ring.

  A wave of nerves washed over me. It was her. I knew it was. She was right on time, too.

  Why the hell was I so nervous?

  I knew why. She was my mate. A human, one who might not know what it meant to have a mate, who might overlook me. And this, as far as I knew, was my one chance. What would happen if I blew it? What if Jeremy came back from the hospital and I never saw her again?

  I took a long, deep breath in and exhaled before going to the door. I looked back quickly to see if there was anything I had missed before I unlocked the door and opened it.