by Ashlee Price
Rose was about to go back down to South America for another magazine shoot, and while she had told me that I could stay there, I didn’t have long to get back home and start packing everything up. I had already dropped the ball at work in so many ways. I just didn’t care, and I was sick of being the only one who seemed to. Since Bishop couldn’t be bothered and Drake was just going demolish most of it, why was I supposed to care?
I tried to run off of that feeling as I made my way back home. I was finally getting some peace because Drake didn’t have a number to call, and I kept telling myself that I had all of the time in the world to chill out. As long as I didn’t see him, I was sure everything was going to be okay.
Chapter 2 – Drake
I had just bought another phone. It was the third one in a week, and as I got the dial tone again telling me that the number was no longer in service, I was debating how long I was going to have the one in my hand. I had listened to the same message five different times. I had put the number in right, I was sure of it, but every time I tried again, on the off chance that I had punched in the wrong number, I would get the same message. I wasn’t dense, but I was sure feeling that way. I couldn’t believe that she had changed her number.
Sitting back in my office chair, I was still unsure how to go forward. I had tried texting, calling, and even going over to the museum after I had gotten her message, but she had just vanished without a trace. I didn’t know where she was, but I knew one thing for sure: she was gone. It was driving me crazy, and I still wasn’t sure how she’d found out. I was starting to think that someone had her ear, but I didn’t know what was going on.
After a week I should have forgotten her, but I couldn’t. I wanted to say that it was because I had worked so hard for her, but I knew it was because of something else. Being with her, inside of her, was too much to forget. Erin had gotten to me. She had wormed her way into my heart and she wasn’t letting go of it.
I passed by the museum that evening on my way home. The lights on the top were still off, and that meant that she wasn’t there. She hadn’t been home the whole week, and she hadn’t called into work. I was starting to worry whether I was ever going to see her again.
When I got home, the whole house still reminded me of her. The bedroom was the worst, and I had gotten to where I was using the guest room on the other side of the house. I swore that when I lay down in the bed where we had made love, I could still smell her. All it did was make everything about her being gone worse, so instead of the slow torture, I just tried my best to make sure that I didn’t have to be reminded of her at all. I had never felt this way before, and I was torn between wanting it to end and wanting it to be never ending. I wasn’t sure about everything I wanted, but I wanted another shot with Erin if nothing else.
The next day I tried to call her again. There was no answer, only the recording telling me that she had in fact changed her number. I knew that it was because of me and I knew that there wasn’t much else I could do. The museum was now a place that I stopped over at in the night and in the morning. I was convinced that if I went at the right time, I would find her and she would be there waiting for me. But once again she wasn’t, and I went to work with a heavy heart. I was starting to think that I had lost her before I ever really had her.
The day went by slowly. All I could think about was what I couldn’t have. I wasn’t used to not getting what I wanted. Ever since I was little, I had been given anything that my heart desired. Why couldn’t Erin be one of those things and come around to everything that was going on? Why couldn’t she just forgive me?
I heard a knock on the door and looked up to see Mary standing there. She was as beautiful as ever, and there was a part of me that had appreciated her from the start. She had always been pretty, sexy and everything else that one would want a woman to be, but there was something holding me back when she gave me that come hither look like she was right then.
“Hey, Mary, haven’t seen you in a week or so. What have you been up to?”
“I’ve been busy with the opening for the new club.”
“That isn’t for months.”
She kind of nodded and moved around to my side of the desk. My eyes instantly went to her long legs. I could still remember them wrapped around my waist. It took a valiant effort on my part to get away from them and back up to her face. The knowing smile was there, and I knew I was in for it. It was hard to say no to her, and the last time I had kicked myself for not getting what I had been offered. It wasn’t what I had wanted, but it was more than I was getting from Erin. A man had needs, after all.
“I know how you like to be prepared, so I wanted to make sure that everything is set.”
I liked her answer, and the way she was moving her legs ever so slightly so that the fabric pulled up on her thighs. She knew exactly what she was doing. She was driving me crazy is what she was doing. I looked up at Mary after a moment and she grinned at me. It had been too long, and my member was rock-hard in my pants. There was no denying what she did to me, but it wasn’t about her.
“I see that you are in need of other assistance as well, Drake.”
I shook my head after a moment when her hands went down to my lap. I felt her hand close in around my stiffness, and it felt huge in her hand. She had always had these tiny hands that made a man feel larger than life. I had always liked that about her. I had always liked a lot of things about Mary. She was in a category all her own, and my body was raring to go. I had spent so much time working on Erin and then getting only a few times with her before I was waiting for her again. It seemed like I was always waiting around for Erin to come around. Mary was right there, and she was as needy as I was.
She moved in front of me, leaning down to kiss me. It was when our lips touched that I really felt like I shouldn’t be there. I shouldn’t be touching her. I pushed her away for the second time in as many weeks. My brain was screaming at me to not be so stupid, but my heart wanted Erin and nothing else would do.
“Are you kidding me, Drake?”
Mary was suddenly not afraid to show her true feelings, and I can’t say that I liked the new openness she was willing to bring to the situation. I had known for a while that she felt more for me than I did for her, but that was normal. I was used to it, but I was not used to it from her. She was my assistant, after all. I needed her on top of her game. If she was arguing with me, it meant that I was going to have to work it out or find another PR assistant.
“Look, Mary, I just can’t right now. Everything that is going on and all, there is not much that I can do.”
“It’s about Erin, isn’t it?”
I didn’t like to even hear her say Erin’s name out loud. I didn’t like the sound of it in her tone and the way it rolled off of her lips. It occurred to me then that I knew who had told Erin about the deal. It wasn’t Bishop when he got the contract, it was Mary all along. She was so angry that I had told her no. The look on her face made her guilt rather clear.
“What it is about is none of your business, Mary. You work for me and that is all.”
***
My day just kept getting worse. I left a couple of messages on Erin’s phone at the museum. She couldn’t change the number on that one, but it looked like she still hadn’t made it in for work yet. I had called too many times to admit to and still she was not giving me the time of day. Brandon called and I hoped that he would settle my mood. Instead he just gave me more information to mull over.
“So how is everything going with the new site?”
“It’s going alright.” I couldn’t keep the disappointment from my own tone, no matter how badly I wanted to.
“What’s going on?”
Brandon was a good friend and a long-time business partner, but he was not the type of friend that I could bare my soul to. I don’t think I had any friends like that, hadn’t in a while.
“Not much, really. Just got a lot going on.”
“So what did Mary think of the new plac
e?”
A mention of her made me frown into the phone. I still wasn’t sure what I was going to do with her. I could do anything that needed to be done, but I wasn’t sure if I was ready to fire her yet. She did a good job when she wasn’t worried about what I was doing.
“I think she just ran over there to drop off a contract. I don’t think she was there long.”
“I have passed by and seen her there twice. I thought she was doing more work over there than that.”
It occurred to me that Mary had been out of the office a lot. I took it as a blessing that she was not worried about me like she was last week. Now I wondered if she was going there to see Erin. How long had she been sabotaging me with Erin?
“She has been acting on her own for a while now.”
Brandon kind of chuckled, and I could see that he already understood what was going on. I don’t know why it took me so long to see it myself. “I told you to keep it out of house. If you have to see them every day, they are going to see you when you get another one.”
He was crude, always had been, and I could tell that he was already hitting the bottle today, but Brandon was right. I had made a mistake with Mary and I was going to pay for it now. If things went the way they were going, she would be the reason I wasn’t with Erin. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to deal with that. It was the first time that I realized that I was actually going to have to get rid of her. I didn’t think that a severance package was going to be enough to cut it with her. I should have taken Brandon’s advice from the start.
“Well, you were right, my friend. I shouldn’t have taken her, but now I’m stuck with her.”
“Get rid of her. I’ll take her off your hands.”
While his offer was tempting, I knew that she wasn’t property that I could just give away. On the other hand, it seemed only right, because they were perfect for each other in so many ways.
“I will see if she is ready for a new opportunity and send her your way. I am firing her today.”
Brandon chuckled again and said that he didn’t mind taking my cast-offs. It was not the way I would have worded it, and I felt guilty about how relieved I was, but that was as far as it was going to go. There was still the fact that while he hadn’t worded it quite the way I would have, Brandon was right.
Chapter 3 – Rose Woods
It was the last meeting of the week before I went back to South America for a little while. Erin was still camped out on my couch and I would be blind to not know and see that it was because of the very man that I was supposed to be waiting for. When I had first seen Drake, I’d seen him as a handsome man. It was impossible not to. But I didn’t know he would go on to break Erin’s heart. I felt protective of her, and in a way I felt guilty for even finishing his job. But with the iron-clad contract that he’d had me sign, I didn’t have much choice.
So I waited for him as composed as I could be. He had wanted me to come into his office, but I had chosen a place that both of us would be unfamiliar with. The coffee shop wasn’t far from my apartment, and I liked the idea of such a wealthy man coming to my side of town. I had liked Drake at first, but after what he had done to Erin, I knew that he was not the type I would do business with in the future. I had learned my lesson, one way or another.
When I heard my name, my thoughts were on everything else but what I was supposed to be doing. He smiled down at me and I invited him to join me. I had gotten him a coffee, but I didn’t know how he liked it, so I kept it black. I had liked Drake, working with him was nice, but after I had heard about what he did to Erin, it was hard not to give him a dirty look. When he started with the compliments on the photo shoot and talking about how he wanted me to take care of another PR event that he had in mind, I just kind of shook my head no. The offer took me off guard, and while I needed the work, I knew that I had to refuse because of Erin and what had happened with her.
“I am sorry, Drake, but I must decline your offer of more work. I don’t think that we are supposed to work together. There is a conflict of interest, and I think it is best that we part ways.”
It was hard for me to say it out loud. Drake paid very well, enough that I could finance another long-term trip if I took it. He pressed me and I just shook my head again, telling him that I just couldn’t.
“I don’t understand, Rose. Is my rate not high enough?”
I kind of smiled at him and disagreed. “No, your offer is quite high, but I just can’t.”
“So why then? I would at least like to know why you won’t work with me again, Rose.”
“I can’t because of Erin.”
“Erin?”
His ears perked up and it seemed like he was listening then. I should have known that Erin was wrong about Drake. It was clear to me that Drake was into her. I started to wonder if everything was just a misunderstanding. I knew that she would be mad about it if I told her, but I had to press for more from his reaction. “Yeah, you and Erin know each other well from what I hear.”
“You have seen her?”
I kind of shrugged and really looked at the devastatingly handsome man in front of me. He was filled with emotions and I couldn’t help the pang of jealousy. No one ever looked at me like that. I wished someone did, but even my boyfriend wasn’t as into me as Drake was into her. That much was clear, and I knew that I had to do something to get them back together. By the look in his eyes, they were meant to be together.
“Yes, we are best friends, and that is why I can’t work for you again. I don’t think that Erin would like it very much.”
“Is she that mad at me?”
Drake looked hopeful and I was surprised once again that he was showing that kind of emotion. I knew that everything was strange between them, but I was starting to think that it really was just a lack of communication.
“Well you promised her that you would keep the museum running and she had to find out from some vile woman that you had lied about everything. That is going to make someone mad, especially if they have already fallen for you.”
“She has fallen for me?”
I knew then that I had said too much. I wished that I had just kept my mouth shut. It wasn’t like I was trying to make it worse, but I was positive that Erin would not appreciate that last slip. She wouldn’t want him to know that she cared, because she wanted to pretend that nothing had happened. She was going to pretend like he didn’t exist. I knew my best friend quite well.
“You didn’t hear that from me, Drake, but you hurt her. I am not going to say that she was in love with you, she didn’t tell me, but what I do know is that you hurt her and I don’t like that. She has been my best friend since college and I don’t think I ever remember her being like this, so whatever you did to her is not okay with me.”
He sat back and kind of grinned for a moment until he saw the way I was looking at him. “Sorry, this is not funny. I just don’t understand what happened. We were having a great time and then she just disappeared.”
“That is what girls do to lick their wounds. They go to their friend’s house and drink, talk about their problems.”
Drake didn’t get it, that much was clear, and I still wasn’t one hundred percent sure that I wanted to help him get it. What he had done to her had hurt her. I had never seen my friend so distraught before, and I hated to think that it was all going to be for nothing. If it was all for nothing, it seemed to make everything worse.
“I didn’t mean to hurt her, Rose. You have to believe me. I just couldn’t stop the deal. Too many people are depending on the profits, and the place is perfect for my new club.”
I just kind of shrugged. I knew that he had a point, men like him always did, but it didn’t seem like he was going to get how that had made her feel. I wondered if he even cared. It looked like he did.
“If that were the case, you should have never struck up a deal with her. If you knew that you were going to buy it and tear it down anyways, why would you make such a deal with Erin?”
I wasn’t going to pull any more punches with him. I had to let him know that I knew more than just a little bit about what had happened between them. I knew what he had said and I knew that he had taken advantage of my friend. Not that Erin didn’t need someone to give her life a little spunk, but it didn’t make sense for it to be a man like him who was going to hurt her in such a way.
“She told you?”
I kind of nodded. “Who do you think she came to? So I know quite a bit about the two of you, and I know what you did. That is why I can’t work for you, Drake.”
He didn’t know what to say, but he tried several times to tell me that he had not meant it. In the end, though, the truth came out. “It was the only way that she would go out with me, that’s why. I would have never agreed to anything if I didn’t have to. Do you know how many women have told me no?”
“Not enough. Erin is different.”
Drake shook his head that he knew and paired it with a sigh. It didn’t seem like he was so happy about the fact that she wasn’t like all of the rest. “I know she is different. That’s why I can’t stop thinking about her and that’s why I need to see her. I need to tell her that it is all wrong and I was wrong. I don’t want to go on anymore without her, because I just can’t.”
It was a moment of weakness, and I felt for him then. I knew it was hard for a man to admit such feelings, and especially to do it with the emotions that he had. It was hard not to melt a little inside for Erin and wish that someone would say the same thing about me.
“She is staying with me, but if I told you where she was, I don’t know if she would be able to forgive me for it. You would have to do a good job of convincing her to forgive me.”