by J. S. Cooper
“Tonight?” I asked surprised.
“Yeah, do you have plans or something?”
“Uhm…” I paused as I watched Eliza shaking her head and mouthing something to me. “Sorry, hold on one second.” I looked at Eliza as I covered the mouthpiece. “What?” I whispered.
“Do not meet up with him tonight,” she whispered back. “You cannot be so available to him.”
“Why not?” I asked, knowing I sounded even more pathetic. “I want to see him.”
“Lacey, listen to me. Do not see him tonight. Please.” She widened her eyes at me. “I’m your best friend and I know best. Trust me.”
“Fine.” I made a face at her. “Hey sorry about that, Henry.”
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine, but unfortunately I can’t see you tonight. I have plans.”
“You do?” His voice sounded taken aback. “I see.”
“Yeah, sorry about that.”
“May I ask what you’re doing?”
“You may ask, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to tell you,” I joked and all I could hear was silence on the other end of the phone. Had he not appreciated my joke?
“A date?” He sounded slightly jealous and I could feel a smile spreading across my face.
“Do you really want to know?” I asked him softly. “Aren’t these questions contrary to our agreement?”
“Not really contrary to our agreement.” He sounded annoyed. “But sure, if you don’t want to say.”
“I don’t,” I said stubbornly.
“Can I see you tomorrow?”
“Night?”
“No.” He paused. “Come to my office in the day. I want to talk to you about something.”
“What?”
“It’s better for us to talk about it in person.”
“So cryptic.” I sighed. “Fine. What time?”
“Eleven o’clock? Then we can go to lunch.”
“Sure, that’s fine.”
“Well, I’ll let you go and get ready for your date,” he said, his voice still sounding slightly annoyed and I grinned at Eliza.
“Okay, thanks. Bye.” I hung up quickly and jumped off of the bed and danced around slightly. I could see Eliza looking at me like I was crazy, but all of a sudden I was in a really good mood. “Go and get your bag,” I said to Eliza. “I’m taking you out to eat.”
“Oh?” She looked at me with a confused look.
“Oh, yeah baby.” I grinned at her. “Looks like my day just turned around.” I could feel the happiness swelling in my belly and even though it was a good feeling, I knew that it in fact was a bad sign. The fact that Henry could determine my emotions so swiftly and easily was not a good thing. I was way too attached to him already. And with every up would come a down, I knew that; yet, I was unable to stop myself from continuing to go down this path with him. I was already too invested in seeing what was going to happen. Even if, all signs pointed to the ending being one hot mess for me.
***
“Isn’t it funny how easy it is to be dramatic?” I asked Eliza as we walked into the restaurant.
“What do you mean?” She gave me a look as the server walked over to us and I started laughing.
“Don’t worry. I’m not about to start getting all dramatic again or anything.” I grinned at her. “I was just thinking how easy it is for me to feel so up and so down within the space of a few hours and how the downs feel so slow. Sometimes I wonder if I’m bipolar.”
“You don’t have bipolar disorder, Lacey.” Eliza gave me a half-smile and I giggled again.
“I know that.” I made a face at her.
“Not that it’s not a serious disease or anything,” she said quickly. “Mental health is really important and I’m no shrink or anything, but I’m pretty sure you aren’t bipolar.”
“I have Henrypolar.” I cracked a joke and she laughed as we sat down.
“You’re in a good mood.” She looked at me curiously. “Dare I ask why? Or don’t tell me. This isn’t because Henry called you and wanted to see you tonight?”
“You can ask. I don’t know if I should say.” I made a face at her. I knew it was unreasonable to be so happy just because he wanted to see me. Especially as he most probably only wanted to see me for sex. Though I was going to pretend to myself that that wasn’t the case. I was going to pretend it was for something more. Maybe after dealing with Claudia, he had started to realize how much better I was than her. Yeah, right!
“Oh God, I’m not going to want to hear this, am I?” Eliza gave me one of her looks.
“Maybe?” I opened the menu and grinned as I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. “But most probably not.”
“Is it Henry related?”
I bit down on my lower lip and wiggled by eyebrows at her in response. “That’s a bit of a stupid question, Eliza, seeing as I’m pretty sure you know the answer.”
“Ugh.” She groaned as she shook her head. “Why, Lacey? Just tell me why?”
“Because he’s fun. And cute. And sexy. And dynamite in bed.”
“Lacey.” She pretended to throw up.
“What?” I laughed as I reached for my phone. “You asked.”
“I ask many things and you never always answer me. Feel free not to tell me about how great the sex with Henry is when I’ve been with you just this morning after you’ve been crying due to the good sex you had with him.”
“You know why I cried and it’s not because of the sex.”
“Hmmm, I’d say the sex is a main part.” Eliza gave me a look. “Maybe not the sex act itself, but how it ends up making you feel.”
“That’s got nothing to do with Henry.”
“He’s not wanting anything, but sex, Lacey,” she said softly.
“That’s not his fault though.” I found myself defending him, even though I knew she was just looking out for me. It’s funny how human beings will always defend someone they care about, no matter how bad that person is, no matter how many wrongs they’ve done to you. Once you love someone it’s very hard to see them from another light. Well, that’s not quite true. It isn’t hard to see, more like it’s hard to acknowledge and so easy to make excuses for them. I didn’t really have any good excuses for Henry, asides from the fact that it wasn’t his fault that I’d fallen in love with him.
Something in me told me he was my one. Even though I knew he was the last person I should have fallen for. I mean, he’d even told me not to fall for him. But who was I to stop fate?
“No, it’s not his fault. He did tell you what he wanted, but really, Lacey—”
“What? I cut her off. “Really, what?”
“Nothing.” She looked down at her menu. “Let’s order.”
“You think I’m crazy, don’t you?”
“No, I think you’re in love.” She sighed. “I don’t know how you’re in love this quickly, but I suppose there are many of us that fall quickly.” She shrugged. “You’re my best friend. I don’t want you to get hurt, but you have to do what’s best for you.”
“I take it you don’t think he’s what’s best for me?”
“Do you?” She gave me a poignant look and I felt my heart sinking. Life’s funny that way, isn’t it? Even when you fool yourself into thinking you’re being smart or living your life in a way that’s okay, your conscience always pricks you and reminds you that hey, maybe you’re really not being the smartest you that you could be. That stings, it really does. When you even doubt yourself. I don’t know what that says about a person. When they keep going for something that they know is very unlikely to happen. I guess that’s the beauty of it all. The allure. The hard to reach items are always the ones we want more, crave the most, desire; I knew Henry was out of my league in more ways than one, and that everything about my situation with him was complex, but that didn’t stop me from wanting him. In fact, it made me want him even more.
Chapter Twelve
“Hi, my name is Jacob, but you can call me Jak
e.” The man in front of me was cute with an endearing look on his face and I knew immediately that I liked him.
“Nice to meet you, Jake.” I smiled at the boyish look on his face. He had big brown earnest eyes and his dark hair was slightly too long as it flopped in his face.
“You too…” He paused and gave me a grin. “I’m afraid I didn’t catch your name?”
“Oh, it’s Lacey,” I said with a small giggle. Was he flirting with me? I’d been walking around the conference room for about thirty minutes waiting on Henry to finish up whatever he was doing and Jacob was the first person to actually talk to me. It felt nice to finally be acknowledged by someone and it didn’t hurt that he was a handsome young man.
“A beautiful name for a beautiful girl. Nice to meet you, Lacey.” He reached his hand through his hair and cleared his throat before speaking again. “So are you here looking for a job?” he asked and I could see him surveying my nonprofessional outfit that consisted of holey faded blue jeans and my favorite sweater that read I Only Miss You When I’m Bored. I had deliberately dressed down so that Henry didn’t think I wanted to look good for him, but I realized now that maybe I’d dressed down a bit too much.
“No, I’m not here looking for a job.” I laughed and looked down at my clothes. “Good thing, right? Or I definitely wouldn’t be getting many interviews.
“Well, you never know.” He grinned at me again and I wondered if he was flirting with me and if I should say something to let him know that I was here with the boss of the company. Well, kind of. I wasn’t really here with Henry. I was there to see Henry and that was something quite different.
“What about you? Are you here for a job or…” My voice trailed off as I felt someone staring at me. I looked around the room and I saw Henry looking at me from about twenty feet away with narrowed eyes and an annoyed expression.
“Oh no, I work here. I’m in mergers and acquisitions and got sent to represent the department.” He made a face. “Basically I’m bitch for the day. I’ll be taking résumés, doing first interviews. That sort of thing.”
“Sounds fun.”
“Very exciting.” He laughed again and as I looked at him, his eyes gazed into mine deeply. “So what are you doing at this job fair then, if not here for a job?”
“You wouldn’t believe me, even if I told you,” I said, wondering what I was doing here. And what could I really say. I was here with Henry, but not in any official capacity. We weren’t in a relationship. He’d made it very clear to me that he wasn’t looking for a girlfriend and what we had was not official. And I was or had at least pretended to be okay with that. I wasn’t going to tell Jake that I’d slept with the head of the company and stalked him and now thought I might be in love with him.
“Try me,” he said and he leaned toward me flirtatiously. However, his expression changed in seconds as he looked across the room and I saw him looking down at his watch. “Darn, I have to get to my table in a few minutes. I don’t suppose I can convince you to join me there for a few minutes while I set up?”
“Sure, I can help you, if you want.” I looked to see what had gotten his attention and I wasn’t surprised to see Henry still looking over. I turned away quickly as he started to mouth something to me. I wasn’t just going to go running when he called.
“That would be awesome. Thank you, Lacey.” He beamed at me. “And maybe after that, I’ll be brave enough to ask you for your number.”
“You seem plenty brave to me,” I said laughing as well, caught up by how openly interested he was being. I wasn’t used to guys showing so much interest so quickly. A part of me liked it; even though I was totally taken with Henry. Maybe this was what I needed. Maybe Eliza was right. Maybe I needed another guy. Maybe Jake could be the one for me. Maybe he’d help me get over Henry. He didn’t seem like he was the sort of guy to tell me not to fall in love with him.
“So does that mean I can get your number then?” His eyes widened and the look of excitement on his face made me grin.
“I should tell you something…” I started and he made a face.
“Don’t tell me you have a boyfriend?” He groaned.
“Actually no I don’t.” I laughed, though my stomach twisted as I said that.
“No you don’t what?” A deep voice interjected into the conversation and I looked over and saw that Henry had joined us. Which made my stomach jump and twist even more.
“Oh.” I looked up at him and blushed. I didn’t really want to get into this conversation with him. It was weird being so close to him again.
“Oh, hi, Henry.” Jake said with another grin. “This is Lacey.” He nodded toward me. “And she was just giving me the good news that she doesn’t have a boyfriend.”
“Oh really…” Henry looked at me and gave me a look with thin lips before turning back to Jake. “And the fact that she doesn’t have a boyfriend came up because?”
“I was just asking for her number.” Jake laughed. “What can I say? I see a beautiful smart woman and I can’t help myself.”
I could feel my face burning a bright red as I stood there waiting for Henry to say something in response to Jake’s comment. I had no idea what I was supposed to say now. Was I supposed to tell Jake that I was here because of Henry?
“So did you get the number?” Henry’s voice was lower, tighter and as I looked at him, I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. A part of me was upset. Didn’t he care that another guy was asking for my number?
“Well you walked up just as she was about to give it to me.”
“I did, huh?” Henry gave me a look. “Don’t let me stop you from handing out your number to strange men, Lacey.”
“You didn’t stop me,” I said, this time my voice held the tight tone. He was such an asshole.
“Go ahead then. Give it to him now.” Henry’s voice was cold. “I think Jake has to get to his table in a few minutes, so I doubt he can spend the rest of the day here standing with you waiting for you to remember your number.”
“Yeah, I do.” Jake looked guilty and then ruefully smiled at me. “Oh and Lacey, this is Henry James, my boss and well, the boss of the whole company.” He gave me an impish look. “So I kinda have to listen to what he tells me to do.”
“Only kinda?” Henry said and raised an eyebrow.
“Well, not just kinda.” Jake laughed. “I definitely have to listen to what you tell me to do if I want to keep my job.”
“And you want to keep your job, I assume?” Henry asked with a sardonic laugh.
“Of course,” Jake said and then glanced at me. “Do you want to come over with me to my table and help me set up and then you can give me your number?”
“Actually, I wanted to talk to Lacey for a second,” Henry said and Jake gave a surprised look at us both. “Then she can run back to you and give you her number and you can make your plans to do whatever you want to do and go on lots of hot dates.”
“I don’t know that we’ll…” Jake started to look uncomfortable as Henry’s voice became obviously harsher.
“I’ll meet you at your table in a few seconds, Jake,” I said with a sweet smile, annoyed at Henry’s words and attitude, but not wanting to show it. “What is it I can help you with, Henry?”
“What is it you can help me with?” His eyes narrowed and his lips thinned as he stared at me. “What do you think?
“I have no idea.” I shrugged, feeling annoyed and wishing that I hadn’t come and joined him today after all. Why exactly had I fallen for this guy? “You’re the one that said you wanted to discuss something with me.”
“I think I’ll just be over there,” Jake said and gave me a quick pat on the arm before he headed over to his table.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Henry hissed at me as Jake stepped away and he grabbed my arm and pulled me over to the side of the room.
“What the hell is your problem?” I asked him as I stood next to the wall, my arm burning from his touch.
; “What the hell is my problem? You come here with me and expect me to be okay that you’re picking up other men? Men that work for me.”
“Are you kidding me right now? How am I picking up other men?” My eyes widened and I shook my head at him. “I was just talking to Jake. And I didn’t come here with you, I came here to meet up with you. And I’ve just been walking and waiting around for the last hour or so. I’m lucky Jake even came up to me. He seems like a nice guy.”
“And you were about to give him your number,” he hissed and his eyes narrowed at me. “What do you think he was going to do with your number?”
“Who says I was going to give him my number?” I snapped. “Yes, he asked but who says I was going to give it to him?”
“You sure looked like you were eager and were going to give it to him.” His eyes flashed at me. “And he’s an attractive young man. I’m sure you’d be happy to spend a night with him.”
“How dare you?” I gasped, my hand flying to his face, but he grabbed my wrist before I was able to slap him. “You’re such an asshole. How dare you talk to me like that?”
“I’m just speaking the truth.” His lips were thinned as he glanced at me. “You seem to get around town. Me two nights ago, who knows what guy last night, now you’re trying to have Jake tonight.”
“Oh my God, you’re incorrigible,” I said as I pulled away from him, my nostrils flaring. “Are we done here?”
“No, we’re not done until I say we’re done.”
“I want to leave.”
“You’re not leaving until I say you’re leaving. You hear me.”
“You’re so bossy.” I sighed. “You’re not my boss.”
“Yes, I am.” He reached a hand up and stroked the side of my face.
“No, you’re not.” I rolled my eyes at him.
“In the bedroom, I am definitely your boss.”
“Ha, that’s all you care about.” I said and shook my head.
“What?” he growled. “We’ve only been together once. I don’t think that’s all I want. Is that what you think I want?” He tilted his head and stared at my face. “Tell me, Lacey, what is it you think I want.”
“Sex. S-E-X.” I spelled it out slowly. “Ooh, big bad Henry is a wolf in the bedroom, watch out ladies, he’s coming to get you.”