“Hello?” she asked, prepared to cuss Sebastian out if it was him.
“Guess who,” Brit's smiling voice sang through the phone.
“Hey. I just got in.”
“Good. I just wanted to make sure you were alright. Your cell is off. I assumed so you wouldn't have to talk to Seb-asshole.”
“Of course.” Mariss sat on the back edge of the sofa. “So, tell me. What happened after I left?”
Sebastian had tried to stop her from leaving by going as far as to try to pay off the driver again. This time, Mariss got hold of the money which she'd given to the driver once he dropped her at the airport.
“Both of your moms are pissed. Your mom hates Sebutthead more than ever now. Don't be surprised when he shows up at the office trying to bribe you with chocolates and teddy bears.”
Mariss laughed. “Nothing he does surprises me anymore.”
“You should see how happy Brenda is. I swear, I thought she was going to break into song after you'd gone.”
She shook her head. “She can have the jerk. I am so done with that.”
“Yeah, right.” Brit sighed in the background. “So, are we shopping tomorrow? Juliet's in. I have to find dresses for you girls.”
“Yeah, we're shopping. Hey, I was thinking. What if we rent a hall for Thanksgiving and have an Office Family Thanksgiving Dinner? I have no one to celebrate with this year. I don't think I want to be alone. We can rent a bunch of hotel rooms, watch the parade and have someone else cook for us.”
“I love that idea!” Brit exclaimed.
Mariss heard her saying something in the background. She assumed she was talking to Brett.
“Brett's in. Just to clarify, by office family, you mean we invite our families, right?”
“Yes. Of course.” She smiled.
“Are you going to invite your dad?”
Mariss shook her head. “No. I don't even think he's currently in the states, so what's the point?” She loved her father and she knew, deep down, he loved her too.
“Okay, well, I have to go. Brett's getting antsy.”
Mariss laughed. “I'll see you in the morning. Back to work. Business as usual.”
Mariss carried her suitcase up to her room. Holden's cologne was still faint in the air. She closed the door to preserve it for as long as possible.
Mariss stripped out of her clothes and lay down. That was when the tears started.
The next day was another beautiful, sunny day that Mariss meant to take full advantage of. She waited in her car for Herbert to cross the driveway and stepped out as he approached.
“Walk with me?” she asked.
Herbert fell into step beside her. Today, Mariss wore her favorite slacks and a loose cream blouse with a red scarf tied neatly around her neck. Her fire engine red stilettos clacked across the asphalt.
“Do you really think you need an armed escort to visit your husband's grave?” he asked. Herbert's eyes were ever vigilant.
“Herbert, I'm not sure if I should trust you or not after what happened with Hellena, but I have little choice right now. I ran into that woman again in London.”
“Sebastian said you were hallucinating.”
“I don't care what Sebastian said. I saw her.” Mariss turned, spearing Herbert with her most forceful look. “I saw her.”
“Alright. You saw her, but she didn't try to kill you.”
“No, she's stalking me. She's trying to scare me.”
“Is it working?”
She didn't answer, but continued on to Holden's grave. She hadn't brought him any flowers or anything. He would have laughed at her if he'd been here to see her put flowers on his grave. She touched a hand to his headstone.
“I'm pregnant,” she said as if Herbert weren't standing there.
“Shit. Is it…”
“It's Holden's,” she snapped. “She's not going to take this baby away from me.”
“No. I won't let that happen. You have my word.”
Mariss turned to him. “I'd better.”
Without another word, she walked away, back to her car, aware that Herbert was a few steps behind her the whole way.
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
WILD CARD
Getting back to reality wasn't easy or fun. Every morning Mariss walked into her office building she felt it weighing on her. She barely made it to her desk before she needed to regroup.
“You alright, Mare?” Mariss looked up and smiled at Brit.
“Yeah, I'm fine. It's just…” Mariss shook her head. “We'll meet in the studio today, instead of the Illumination Room.”
“Yep. Got it. I'll send out the memo.”
Mariss was lucky to have such a good friend who understood without asking a bunch of painful questions.
“I have my meeting with Elise in a few moments too,” she said.
“Yep. And are we still on for lunch?”
Mariss nodded and rubbed her belly. Her baby bump wasn't very pronounced yet, but it was starting to show just a little. Since coming back from London, things had progressively improved, but there were still mornings, like this one, that required a little extra umph to get going.
Thanksgiving was a month and a half away. Their reservations were set and no one had to cook. The hotel was going to do it all for them.
“I'm glad we're taste testing today because I'm starving.”
Brit smiled as someone knocked on the office door. Mariss looked up at Elise's smiling face.
“Your ten o'clock is here.”
Mariss laughed. Brit held the door for her.
“I can get the door,” she told her.
“Look at you!” Elise said, wrapping Mariss in a hug. “You're starting to show!” She rubbed Mariss' belly. “Sorry. Is that rude?”
“Not yet,” Mariss chuckled. “I'm sure I'll get tired of it eventually.”
She led her into the board room. Mariss sat at the head of the table and instructed Elise to sit next to her.
“Before we start,” Elise said, “I have to make sure Sebastian isn't behind this.”
Mariss shook her head. “As half owner of my company, Sebastian is behind everything we do, but he's not going to be the one funding you. I am. Red Wife is. Are you okay with that?”
Elise nodded. “I still have funding from my ex, and he threatened to take it away if Sebastian gave me money.”
Mariss smirked. “Well, I'm going to give you enough money so it won't matter.”
Elise's face lit up. “Oh, thank God. I'm so tired of taking money from his bitter, manipulating ass.”
Mariss laughed. “Don't worry. I'm going to take care of you. Your products are amazing and I've fallen completely in love. I won't use anything else. I will have to use some of Sebastian's contacts,” Mariss admitted. She didn't like it anymore than she was sure Elise did, but he knew the people who would be using the products and could organize the events where they would be used.
“I'm okay with that,” Elise said with a nod.
For the next hour, they discussed the nuances of their new business arrangement. By the time Elise left, Mariss owned ten percent of her business.
“This is going to be awesome,” Brit said as she looked over a sample bottle of product Elise had left them with. “I think your eleven fifteen is here. Do you want me to send him in?”
Mariss pursed her lips. “It's not Sebastian, is it?”
Brit shook her head. “No. I have him banned from the building. Not that it does much good to tell him no. He always weasles his way in somehow. But no. This guy sounds super sexy on the phone.”
Mariss laughed. “Yeah, send him in. Oh, and make a list of products to put in gift baskets for everyone at Thanksgiving dinner. Oh, and invite Elise.”
“Done.”
Bending over her notes from the meeting, Mariss tried to think of anything she needed to ask Elise. When she submitted her proposal to Sebastian, she wanted to make sure she had to do as little business with him one-on-one as possible.
They hadn't spoken in a month and she wanted to keep it that way.
“Good morning, Mrs. Red,” a deep, familiar voice crooned.
Mariss looked up into a pair of dark brown eyes set into the tan face of someone she never thought she'd see again. Part of her had hoped not to. The other part was elated.
She stood without meaning to. Mariss felt the eyes of her coworkers on her, but all she could register was the man across from her.
“The lady at the desk said you wouldn't go to dinner with me. I bet them you would and that I could get you to come back to my place too.” He smiled and shoved his hands in his pockets.
“It all depends on what you plan to do when we go back to your place,” she said.
“Whatever you want.”
“I want to eat sardines on crackers and play parcheesy.” Mariss grinned, overcome with joy at seeing her best friend. “I missed you, B.”
“I missed you too, kiddo.”
When B tried to hug her, Mariss braced her hand against his chest and pushed him away. He was firm beneath her touch.
“Kiddo? I'm three years older than you.”
B chuckled. “Yeah, well. What do you say to dinner?”
“The last time I accepted a dinner invitation, I ended up naked in a hotel room.” With Sebastian and Holden. She didn't let her mind linger there for too long.
“I heard about your hsuband and wanted to come pay my respects. It took me a long time to get enough time off work, though.”
B brought it in again, and Mariss let him hug her this time.
“Thanks, B.”
“So, you really want to play parcheesy?”
“Yeah, but I'm not really in the mood to go out tonight.”
“That's fine. We can eat in. I'll cook.”
“You mean order chinese.”
B shrugged. “Order out, cook. It's all being prepared by someone other than you.”
“That is very true. Pick me up downstairs at six.”
“Sure thing, Mare.”
B gave her another hug and left. Mariss wasn't oblivious to the stares of her coworkers as she walked back to the office.
“Ready to go?” Brit asked, a sly twinkle in her eye.
Mariss grabbed her purse and her shoes and followed her friend out.
The red velvet cake was Mariss' favorite, but she could tell that Brit liked the chocolate with the cheesecake filling.
“I don't know how to pick!” her friend exclaimed.
“You'd better hurry. You wasted our whole lunch on the cake. We still have to figure out what you want to eat at your reception.”
“Which do you like?” Brit asked.
“This red velvet is making me horny. Or course, that could be the baby hormones. I never made it this far in a pregnancy before so, I have no idea.”
“Well, you have a dinner date tonight, so you can take care of that.”
“With B? He's just an old friend.”
“Yes. The old friend whom your husband threatened with his life if he ever came near you again because he must have known that one of you had feelings for the other.”
Mariss was quiet for a moment. “B is hot. I won't lie. Holden knew I thought he was attractive and, at the time, he thought it meant I wanted more from him. B has always wanted to get me in bed and I don't doubt for one minute that's the reason it took him so long to 'pay his respects'.”
“He was waiting for you to grieve.”
Mariss nodded. B was a nice guy, and her oldest friend. He'd never associated with any of the gangs in Germany, but he'd stuck his neck out for her more times than she could count. And when she moved to the states, he'd moved with her and dropped his accent so she wouldn't feel like she was deserting her heritage. He knew more of her secrets than Holden had.
“What does the B stand for?”
Mariss snorted. “Bartholomew. It was either B or Barty.”
“Yeah, no. So, are you going to sleep with him? You've never had a fuck buddy before.”
Mariss laughed. “Yeah, I probably will.”
Brit grinned. “I'll expect a full report on my desk in the morning.”
Mariss shook her head. “I'm turning into a hoe.”
“No. You're turning into a well-sexed woman. Have fun tonight. Don't think about Holden or Sebastard. Just do you. Or B.” Brit giggled.
Mariss thought that was easier said than done. She shoved another piece of cake into her mouth.
“I really think you need to pick this red velvet.”
B was waiting in the lobby when Mariss left work that evening. It was a little past six, but he didn't seem bothered by it. When he saw her, he smiled and stood. Mariss met him halfway across the lobby and he wrapped her in a tight hug.
“Ready to go?” he asked.
“Yeah, I'm starving.”
They left the building and took a cab to B's apartment across town.
“It's so clean,” Mariss exclaimed as she looked around his living room. “When did you learn how to keep house?”
“Your mom,” he joked, but it was true. Katrina had taught him things his own mother wasn't able to. “Do you want something to drink?”
“Yeah, water's fine.” She shucked her jacket and laid it across the back of the sofa. The sofa was in good shape, though obviously second hand. She sat down and let her body sink into the plushness of it. “Do you remember that time we were hanging out at your place and I stepped on that rotting banana peel?” She could still feel it squishing through her toes.
B laughed. “Of course, I remember. You punched me in the face.”
“How long have you been living here?” Mariss wanted to know.
“Two weeks,” B answered. He rifled through something in the kitchen. “I just got a transfer I've been waiting almost a year for.” He looked up at her smiled. “How have you been? I know you've been dealing with a lot lately. Are you still dating that model? What was his name?”
“Sebastian? No, we aren't speaking.”
“Uh oh. Holden didn't run him off too, did he?”
“No,” Mariss shook her head. “He ran himself off.”
“Oh, yeah?” B came back into the living room with two glasses of wine. “What did he do?”
Mariss took the glass and swirled the liquid around. “He made an ass of himself when I told him I was pregnant.” She looked at him expectantly.
“Oh.” B blinked. “Oh!” He snatched the wine out of her hand and dumped it into his own glass. “You can't have that then.”
Mariss laughed. Compared to Sebastian, B was so uncouth. It was almost refreshing to spend time with a 'normal' man.
“B, I know what you want from me.”
“I don't want anything from you, Mare.”
“Yeah, you do. Don't play coy.” She sighed. “I'll have sex with you, as long as you understand that we're just fuck buddies. I'm not into you like that.”
B grinned. “You're so forward. That's new. I mean, you've always been forward, but… I get it.” He sat next to her. “Do you know what it's going to be?” He nodded to her belly.
“Not yet. I'm hoping for a boy who looks like his dad.”
“I hope that's what you get.” B put his hand over her stomach. “So, how hungry are you?”
“So hungry. When is that Chinese going to be here?”
“It should be here in a few minutes.” B took a big gulp of his wine. “You want me to get out parcheesy? We could play strip parcheesy.”
“How the hell do you play strip parcheesy?”
“I'll tell you when to take your clothes off.”
She laughed as someone knocked on the door. B stood and answered.
“Uh, Mariss, I don't think this is the Chinese delivery boy.”
She turned and caught the tall, lean shadow of a man in the door.
“Herbert told me where you were,” Sebastian's voice called from the doorway. “Apparently, he's following you.”
At the sound of his voice, Mariss' body betrayed every
declaration she'd ever made about Sebastian being the devil. She hummed with his closeness. The way his eyes drank her in made her shudder.
“Who is Herbert?” B asked.
“Why are you here?” Mariss pushed to her feet, ignoring B. “In case you haven't picked up on the clues, I want nothing to do with you. That's why you're not allowed in my building anymore.”
“I wanted to speak with you.” Sebastian eyed B. “If I have to crash your date, then so be it. You're being childish.”
“Childish?” she almost shrieked. “Yes, of course. I'm being childish. Not you. You never do anything wrong. Just leave, Sebastian. Honestly, this stalking shit is getting old.”
“I'm not stalking you. I merely asked Herbert where you were and he told me.”
“Who the hell is Herbert?” B asked again, his voice irritated.
“He's a mutual friend of ours who works for the FBI,” she answered.
“And why is the FBI tailing you?”
Mariss frowned. “Seriously, B. You need to pay better attention,” she bitched, taking out her anger on him. “The Judge's daughter killed Holden and now she's after me.”
His eyes rounded. “Are you fucking serious? Why didn't you tell me?”
“There hasn't been a chance yet.”
“You two can catch up later.” Sebastian held up the bag of Chinese food.
Mariss snatched it from him and slammed the door. It caught on the toe of his shoe and bounced back open.
“You'd better hope you didn't scuff my shoe,” he threatened.
“Or what, Sebastian. What will you do?” She handed the bag of food to B. “The fact of the matter is, you can't hurt me without hurting yourself. You're a selfish son of a bitch.”
“I can't sleep without you,” he blurted.
The room stilled. B's eyes silently asked her what he meant by that. It took her a moment to compose herself enough to think straight. Mariss felt her cheeks flame and her heart race, yet she refused to feel any kind of sympathy for him. “You wouldn't get any sleep with a baby around either. Leave. Now.”
“Actually, we have plenty of food. Let him in.”
She turned to B, a scowl on her face. “What?”
B shrugged, a strange look in his eyes. “Let him in. Why not? He's your boyfriend, isn't he? You're just fighting right now.”
The Red Wife Page 26