“Because she's a selfish little brat who doesn't think about the good of the company. She knew Mr. Valenti-Kirby was coming today, and didn't bother dressing up. Trying to prove that she's above us all.” We could hear the sneer in his voice. I rolled my eyes.
“That's what she told you?”
“I didn't ask. No need.”
“Did she try to explain?”
“I don't need to hear excuses.”
“Then you may be interested in knowing that her apartment burned down this morning, and she has no other clothes to wear.”
“That's not true. Where did you hear that?” Eddie and I both winced for Alan. Bad thing to say.
“From her.”
“She's lying, then.”
“Think, Alan, why would she lie about that?”
There was silence. “That's just what she does.”
“No, that's just what you do. Make things up, and not get the full story.” I could hear the controlled anger in Joseph's voice. “As you know, we're in the process of being bought out. Our new investors are looking into us, and it is imperative that everyone here be behind IDI and the company philosophy one hundred percent. We pride ourselves on taking care of our people, and you aren't living up to that. Your services are no longer needed with the company.”
“What? You're not firing me. Not over that bitch.” My husband's face grew hard at the insult.
“You're being fired for poor interpersonal skills. I'd suggest you work on those, and your language, before finding a new job. Good luck. Security will supervise your packing of the office, and will escort you off of the premises within ten minutes. Don't visit this building again.”
I wiped the big grin off of my face before Joseph stuck his head in my door. He didn't say anything, just grinned at the two of us and gave a thumbs up.
Eddie got up to leave, but bent down to whisper in my ear first. “See? Told you there was nothing to worry about.”
Two o'clock couldn't come soon enough, and the elevator down was crowded as it hit the scheduled smoke break time. Eddie was going down in the same car, and moved into the back corner; I went to stand near him to make room for more people to enter.
Two people near the elevator doors started joking loudly with the rest of the people in the car, getting everyone's attention. Eddie took advantage of that to give my bottom a squeeze. There wasn't room to move away, and besides, any movement in the car would draw attention to us. I took the groping, face flaming from being in public.
“I'll pick you up in front of the hotel,” I whispered as everyone left the elevator. Dylan's office looked over the parking lot, and I didn't want Dylan seeing Eddie get in my car. Better to pick him up on the other side of the hotel, where no one in the office could see.
I drove around, and got out of the car at the hotel.
“Shoe store first, please,” I asked, pointing to my bare feet. “Driving with no shoes on is really uncomfortable.”
He laughed, and got behind the wheel. I gave him directions to my favorite shoe store on the other side of town, and we drove there to get me a couple pairs.
“Apartment hunting went well,” I said to break the silence. “There's some newer complexes around the office, and I'm trying to get my current apartment to give me a good recommendation.”
“Are you sure you want another apartment?” Eddie asked, looking over at me while changing lanes.
“I don't have the money for a house,” I answered. He glared at me. “Right. I'm married to Mr. Moneybags.”
“That's not what I mean, actually. We should talk about where we're going to be once the buyout's completed.”
I shifted in my seat to face him, surprised. “What is there to talk about? I was just going to get a month-to-month lease. After the company is sold and everything handed off, I move in with you in New York.”
“What about your job? You don't want to keep working there? I thought we just discussed this?”
I pointed to the exit, and he took it. “He with the bigger paycheck, wins. You make more than me, so we go to New York.”
“That's not very fair to you, though.”
“You don't think I can find a job in New York?” I challenged.
“No, I--” he pulled into the shopping center, found a space, and shut off the car. He turned to look at me. “I just think this is something we can talk about more. I don't have to work in New York. As long as you don't mind me traveling, I can work from here. And technically, I've got enough saved up where neither of us needs to work if we don't want to.”
I played with my purse strap. “I didn't think about that,” I admitted.
“That's what I'm saying. We need to talk about the options and what we want to do.”
I don't really know him much at all, do I? I thought as we walked into the shoe store. I don't know if he likes his job, or if it's a grind. I don't know if he likes New York, or if he dreams about living in the country.
When the salesman went in the back to get the proper sizes in the shoes I picked out, Eddie turned to me and took my shoulders in his hands gently. “We should know all this by now, and we don't. I'm sorry.”
“Yeah, me too.” I put my arms around him and hugged. He kissed the top of my head. “I don't regret it, though,” I whispered so softly I wasn't sure if he would hear.
“Neither do I.” He whispered back.
Three pair of shoes later, we were leaving the store.
“And I thought I knew women,” Eddie shook his head.
I laughed. “I'm just not a shoe girl. Casual sandals for everyday, dressy sandals for more dressed-up days, and black heels for formal occasions. I'm all set.”
“So what do you collect? I thought every woman collected shoes.”
I thought about it. “I guess books. I'm not much for the library – I like to reread books often. I'll buy at least one new book a week, sometimes more. I have a lot of bookcases.” I sobered. “I had a lot of bookcases.”
He leaned over in the car and kissed my cheek. “We'll get you more books.”
“You're going to need a bigger apartment,” I warned him.
My favorite boutique clothing store was a few stores down. Except for my unmentionables, and quirky t-shirts, the rest all came from the same place. I had an extensive wardrobe, but even at that, only bought new clothes a few times a year. I concentrated more on building a good foundation of a wardrobe, with a few stellar pieces. It had worked out well over the years, and I thought it kept my clothing looking fashionable yet still affordable.
I tried not to drool over the black leather jacket hanging at the front of the store. I ran my hands over it – so soft. With a pair of jeans and a white blouse, it would look wonderful, and classic. I pulled out the price tag, and winced. $250? Way too much, especially since I was buying a full new wardrobe.
“Ow!” A stinging swat landed on my bottom and activated prior tenderness. Sweats weren't nearly as much padding as skirts and petticoats.
“No looking at tags,” Eddie chastised.
“I was looking at the size,” I lied. He looked at me with a steady stare.
“Shall we take a little trip down memory lane?” I wasn't sure if he meant another spanking, or using the ring again. Either way, I wanted no part of it.
“No thanks, I'm good. Help me find a large, will you?”
Even though I didn't come often, this was the store I frequented. The sales girls all knew me and remembered me, and were glad to serve on us. Especially when they saw how cute Eddie was.
I quickly found shopping without looking at the price tags to be refreshing. It took some getting used to, but once I got the ingrained muscle reactions retrained it got easy. The sales girl helping me came up to me before I got halfway through the boutique store.
"Um, the dressing room is pretty full, and I've put you in the biggest one we have. I might recommend that you try things on, and see what we can go ahead and move to the register." I laughed delightedly -- this was a nice
problem to have! Jill, the sales girl, showed me back to the room she had set aside, pointing Eddie to a chair outside the dressing room area along the way.
"He is so cute!" Jill confided once we were out of earshot. "Please tell me he's your single brother?"
I looked down at the ring. The people at the store were only casual acquaintances, and word wouldn't go back to my family or coworkers. "Husband. We're newlyweds." I held my hand out for the ring to be admired, and Jill appropriately gushed.
"Wow! That is gorgeous! That must of cost a small fortune." A gleam came into her eyes. "Does he have a brother?"
I laughed at her, and went into the dressing room to start finding a new wardrobe.
"You can show me, you know," Eddie told me after I had rejected an arms full, and accepted another arms full.
I shook my head. "These were the easy ones. That pile simply didn't fit, and the other pile is very similar to styles I've had from here before. Trust me, there'll be stuff I'll want your opinion on."
"I think that's your phone," Eddie said a half-hour later while I was getting another armful of clothes to try on.
"Huh?" Comprehension dawned, and I took my purse back from Eddie, who was kindly carrying the purse as well as the clothes. After pawing through the purse I finally found it, and answered quickly before the caller hung up.
"Hey, peanut!" I heard, and stifled a groan. Damn it, I should have looked before answering.
"Hi, Dad. I was just going to call you." Well, later that night. After a few drinks. I took a deep breath, and explained about the apartment. Three times. Eddie winced at me sympathetically when I repeated I was fine for the fifth time.
Eddie tapped on the ring. "Tell him?" He mouthed. I shuddered and shook my head. Eddie handed the clothing off to the sales girl, and put his arms around me. I insisted that I didn't need to make sure they had sprinklers in the next apartment, especially since no one put sprinklers in apartments, and finally signed off with a roll of the eyes. I leaned into Eddie's hug.
"You sure you want to marry into my family?" I said, half teasing.
"Absolutely." He kissed the top of my head and released me.
Not five minutes later my father called back. "You fly home Friday late afternoon."
"Excuse me?" The shirt I was looking at slid off the hanger and pooled at my feet. "I'm not going to Atlanta, Dad."
Eddie overheard me from where he was looking at some sweaters a few racks away, and hurried over at the stressed tone in my voice.
"Your mom and I think that you need to come home, rest, and recharge. Being in familiar surroundings would be good for you right now."
I rubbed my face with my hand. "Being here so I can move into a new apartment would be good for me right now. Being here so I can buy furniture would be good. I don't have time to go to Atlanta."
"Sure you do, it'll be good for you. Your mother wants to see you to be sure you're all right. And besides, I already bought the ticket with frequent flier miles. It's non-refundable."
I sighed. They always liked to guilt trip me into coming. Eddie waved to get my attention. "Hold on a sec, Dad." I covered the mouthpiece.
"I'll come with you. We need to tell them anyway; might as well do it in person."
"I'm sorry," I told him. "This isn't going to be a fun weekend."
"Any time spent with you is fun." I stuck my tongue out at Eddie, and got back on the phone.
"Fine, I'll see you Friday night. Email me the flight info? Thanks. And tell Mom to set up the guest room; I'll be bringing a friend with me. No, he'll pay his own way. Yes, it's a he. We'll talk when we get there. Love you too." I turned the phone ringer off, and shoved it back in the purse. "Sorry, you'll have to sleep in the guest room. It's not just propriety -- the bed in my room is the twin bed I had as a kid."
He smirked. "When I hit six feet in 8th grade my parents bought me a full sized bed. Why do you think I have a king now? It's the only size I can sleep straight in. I slept diagonally even in the full size."
I moved on to a few more racks, but had lost interest. "I think I'm good for now," I told Eddie, wrapping my arms around myself. "Can we go?"
"I thought you needed--" he broke off when he saw the despair on my face. "Okay. Um, you got jeans, right? And did you grab some of these fitted t-shirts? Let's grab a couple of them; large, so they can be nice and roomy?" I nodded, and headed towards the checkout. Eddie picked out a teal shirt and found one of the pairs of jeans in the pile at the register, and pushed them in my hands. "Here, go change. I'll get things rung up."
The sales woman had me wait a second while she pulled the tags off, and I went back to the dressing room. I slumped on the bench in the room and fought tears. I didn't win.
"Schroeder?" Eddie knocked at the door. "We're good to go, honey." I scrubbed at the tear tracks with my fists, and quickly changed clothes. I opened the door and put the sweats in one of the shopping bags Eddie held open.
I could feel his eyes searching my face, but he didn't mention the obvious signs of crying. "Let's get some dinner, okay? There looked to be a burger joint just down the street." I nodded curtly, and we left.
Dinner was mostly quiet, with the exception of a "pass the ketchup, please" here and there. It wasn't until I drew faces in the ketchup with a french fry that Eddie tested the waters. "Is it going to Atlanta that's bugging you?"
"No."
"Was it something in particular that I did?"
"No."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"No," I plead, looking up at him with exhausted, sad eyes.
"What say we hit the bookstore down the street, then go back to the hotel? That way if there's nothing interesting on TV tonight, you can read until you fall asleep."
He must know he's not getting any tonight, I thought uncharitably. I sighed. "Sorry, I'm not being very nice. That'd be fine." I leaned across the table to give him a quick kiss.
Back at the hotel, I debated, then put on the dark blue negligee. It barely covered my butt, and showed most of my back and cleavage. Just because he wasn't getting any didn't mean he couldn't appreciate the view. New paranormal romance in hand, I stood at the end of the bed.
"Um, which side of the bed is yours?"
"I generally sleep in the center."
"You might meet my elbows in the middle of the night then. Would you rather be elbowed in the right kidney, or left?" He chose the right.
I curled up on my right side, head up on my hand, book beside me on the bedspread. Eddie was watching a hockey game, sprawled out on the bed next to me. He was taking up more than half, but I wasn't fighting on that yet. A commercial came on, and Eddie pushed on my shoulder so I fell over on my book.
"Hey!" I protested as I felt his hands at my waist. "Quit that!" He slid the satin nightie up onto my back. The lacy black panties were rather cheeky, and I was sure he was getting a good view. His fingers lightly danced over the exposed skin, and I reached back to swat at them.
"I just wanted to make sure I didn't bruise you," he said, his voice serious.
"You didn't spank that hard in the least," I assured him and rolled over to face him. "Seriously. I was a little tender for a couple of hours, but that's it. One thing that does concern me, though--" he looked up sharply at my face --"is that I was tender. Our clothes, or lack thereof, come back with us. Injuries do too."
"You said it wasn't--"
"It wasn't bad, but I was a healthy pink, was I not? No bruising, but definitely an impact on my body."
"It was more of a rosy glow," he admitted with a sheepish grin.
"And umm, well," I floundered trying to find the right words, and blushed. "You didn't have to take my virginity twice."
Realization of that came across him. "So if something happens back when, say a sprained ankle, you'd have it when you got back. That might make things hard to explain."
"Yeah. So let's not visit any war zones, okay? Or anywhen there was an outbreak of plague. Let's not push our luck." He s
huddered, causing his fingers to tickle where they rested on my hip. "Okay, seriously, quit that. Otherwise I may not be in control of my reactions." I kissed him to show him the kind of reaction he might expect. His hand pulled my waist closer to him and went exploring, and my book fell off the side of the bed, forgotten.
An hour later I reached across Eddie to turn the tv off via the remote. Sleepily, he tried to grab me as I crossed over. "No, go back to sleep," I told him, and crawled out of bed and went to stand by the open window.
Pyramids, I thought. The building of the pyramids. I took the ring on and off while concentrating, but nothing happened. Undeterred, I moved on to a different time. 1920's Paris. Shakespeare and Company. Beatniks. Still nothing. Okay, I know England works. Victorian times?
"Where are you trying to go?" I jumped as Eddie came up behind me; I didn't hear him get out of bed.
"Somewhere. Anywhere. Anywhen."
"Running away?" He asked lightly, but I could see his hurt in the moonlight.
"Eddie..." I swallowed the lump in my throat. "I can't handle all of this. I've lost my apartment, every single thing I own. My company is being bought out, and who knows what that means about my job. I yelled at my CEO, and who knows what that means about my job. I got my boss fired. My parents are sweeping in and making me come visit, and now we have to tell them we're married, and I have no clue how to do that."
I stepped away from him when he moved to embrace me, and continued, breathing heavily. "Being married all of a sudden. Spending time with my new husband, who I just met last week. Under normal circumstances you'd be lucky to have gotten a second date with me by now. I'm not the kind to accept a proposal from someone I just met. I'm not the kind to get a proposal right away. Right now I know more about what you like in bed than what you like for dinner. Up until last week, I was in control of my life. I could handle Alan when he got in his moods. I could handle dealing with my parents in small increments. I could handle when my car died, and I had to get a new one. But now everything is happening at once, and it seems everyone other than me is controlling my life. What I do at work, where I go on the weekend, what I'm eating for dinner, what I'm buying. It's overwhelming me, and I can't deal with it."
Time to Control Page 7