“Maybe.”
“What the fuck, man?”
“I had a few beers with lunch. Nothing major.”
“Whatever. The police officer is asking her to dinner.”
“What did she say?”
“Nothing yet. Wait a minute. She agreed to the date,” I say, ignoring the parade of profanities that flood my brother’s head at the news.
“Whatever,” he spits. “I’ll check on you soon. The next time you’re human let me know.”
“Will do. And no more drinking. You need to be at your peak to defend the pack against the weres.”
I listen to his grumblings as he leaves. The sounds getting low and lighter the farther he gets from me.
Chapter 18
~~~Abby~~~
“If you are calling to ask me if he has called, I’m going to hang up on you,” I snap the second the phone hits my ear. My sister has called nearly every single day for the last month asking me if Richards has called. I knew it had been a mistake to tell her about the date when I did it, but I was kind of excited.
“Fine. I won’t ask.” Silence follows her words, and we sit there for a long time.
“He said he would call in a few weeks. Give him time. And if he doesn’t call, then he doesn’t call,” I finally say. I actually thought about hanging up on her, but then decided that was too bitchy of a reaction. She is excited for me after all. I couldn’t be mad at her for that.
“Call him,” she suggests.
“No, I can’t do that,” I say shocked at the idea.
“Why not?”
“Because I’m not that desperate.”
“Yes, you are.”
“No, I’m not. You and every other female in my life are desperate for me, but I could care less. I’m happy with my life the way it is.” And that is the truth. No one can see it, can understand it, but it is the truth.
“Calling him is not a sign of desperation. He made plans with you and you will just be following up.”
“It’s not like we are business partners. I have seen him maybe a handful of times, all of which surrounded by drama. We don’t know each other. For all I know, he doesn’t even remember who I am. None of that matters because even if I wanted to call him, I can’t. I don’t have his number.”
“You do,” she says in tone that suggests that I’m a moron.
“I don’t. I have the number to the police department. I’m not calling the police department to confirm a possible date. Not only is that insane, but it could get him in trouble if he is still working my case.” As I plead my own case, my phone beeps. “Listen, Carrie, I’m getting a beep, can I call you back?”
“Yeah, okay, love you.”
“Love you, too.”
I hit the button on my phone to answer my incoming call without even looking at the number.
“Miss Sinclair?” a male voice asks.
“Yes,” I answer with a hint of a tremor in my voice unsure of who is on the other line. I pull the phone away from my head and quickly look at the screen. The number is one I don’t have programmed in my phone and don’t recognize.
“Miss Sinclair, this is Mark Richards, I’m the officer working the Sullivan case.” I can hear the smile in his voice. Obviously, I don’t have a clue who he is.
“Oh, sorry, I didn’t recognize your voice. I don’t think you ever gave me your first name. Please call me Abby.”
“Abby. Am I calling at a bad time?”
“Not at all, I was just talking to my sister on the other line.”
“Should I call you back?”
“No. No. I can talk to her any time. As a matter of fact, the chances are high that she will call me back before our conversation is over.”
“You have one of those siblings,” he says, laughing.
“Oh, yeah. She’s very needy, but I love her.”
“I understand. My little sister tries to be that way with all of us, but with my job, she can’t call whenever she wants. The only problem is that with my job being what it is she worries too much.”
“I bet.”
Then an uncomfortable silence falls on the line. I wait for a long moment before asking if he is still on the line.
“I’m here, sorry. I…uh… Well, it’s been so long since I’ve done this. I’m a bit nervous. Are you still willing to go to dinner with me?”
Relief floods me at his words. I was sure he was about to give me more bad news about the search for Dimitri or Mave.
“Yes, of course. I mean if you are still interested.” That sounds a little self-conscious of me, I know, but I want to give him an out if he wants one. Granted, if he had wanted out, he could have not called. I wouldn’t have thought badly of him, considering we hadn’t made specific plans that night.
“I am most definitely. My captain released me from the case two days ago. I’m free to date you without compromising the case.”
Did he say date as in going on multiples dates? Nah. He probably just means this one date. Either way, I can’t help plastering a big smile across my face. Thankfully, he can’t see how cheesy I’m being.
“How about this Saturday, say around seven at Carrabba’s? Unfortunately, I will have to meet you there. My shift runs late on Saturdays. I would make it on Friday but my brother is going to be in town for the day, and I want to visit with him.”
“That’s fine. Saturday at seven it is.”
“Great. I should get back to work. I’ll see you Saturday.”
We hang up awkwardly, of course, mostly because I never say goodbye and that throws people off. True to her personality, not a second after I hang up the phone Carrie calls me back. I laugh and answer the phone.
“What is so funny?” she asks by way of a greeting.
“Nothing. Nothing at all.”
“Who called?”
“No one interesting,” I say and laugh some more.
------------------
“I can’t believe you hid this from me all week,” Carrie whines as I dress for my date. She and my friends aren’t making as big of a deal out of this date as they had the last. I hope that they are taking my two dates as a sign that I’m making an effort to get out and enjoy life. Maybe this means they don’t have to push me so hard.
“I had so much fun. I kept dropping hints that something was up, and I could see the little gears turning in your head. You tried so hard to figure out what I was hiding.”
She only scowls at me.
“What I can’t believe is that you were able to sit on this as long as you have,” Allison comments as she pulls her makeup from her bag, trying to decide which colors will work best on me. “If it were me, I would be busting at the seams. I’ve heard how good looking this officer is. He occasionally patrols the strip mall my sister works at. She had to call him in on a shop-lifter once.”
I love my friends. I do, but sometimes they baffle me. I mean, really, they act as if they’ve just met me. I am not the type of girl to go jumping up and down over a boy. It is totally like me to keep something like this to myself. Mostly because I seem to be the only one I know who fully understands the reality of who I am.
Yes, Mark—wow, it is weird to think of him by his first name—asked me out, but that doesn’t mean anything. He probably feels sorry for me for all the crap Devan has done to me. I will get excited when we’ve been together for a year and he hasn’t cheated on me, put me down in anyway, left me, stolen from me, etc.
“Still, you should have told someone,” Carrie scolded.
“Right, because the last guy I went out with was such a winner,” I say.
“Don’t be so pessimistic. Everything I’ve ever heard about Officer Richards has been positive. He’s a great guy,” Allison says.
“We’ll see,” I return half-heartedly.
“Abby. Stop,” Carrie demands.
“Fine. Let’s get this over with. I have to meet him in an hour.”
“Face me,” Allison says, turning my chair in her direction.
/> ------------
I arrive at the restaurant five minutes early and am a little disappointed that he isn’t already here. I had expected him to be waiting with a table. Standing all alone at the hostess’ booth is embarrassing. I had to remind myself that he was a cop and he might have gotten hung up at work.
“Do you have a reservation?” the hostess asks when I enter the building.
“I’m not sure. If we have one it might be under Richards,” I say nervously.
She checks her book and there is nothing under his last name or mine. The hostess smiles sadly at me as I take a seat and wait for Mark to show. I knew he hadn’t really liked me, but you would have thought that he would have at least called to cancel, not let me show up and look like a fool.
At ten minutes after seven, I’m still waiting.
And waiting.
And waiting.
At nearly half past seven, when he still hasn’t arrived, I get up to leave.
“Can I leave a message?” I ask the hostess.
“Yes. What’s the name?”
“Officer Mark Richards.”
“Oh.” She says this in a way that suggests she knows something about him. Something I should know. Something that is going to upset me.
“Do you know him?” I ask tentatively.
“Sort of. I…uh...”
“What do you know about him?”
“I don’t know if I...”
“Please. I don’t know him well. I would really like to know what I’m getting into. So far tonight he isn’t making a good impression.”
“No. I guess he isn’t. You sure you don’t know him?”
“I’m sure. I’ve only seen him a few times and every time it was because of a crazy woman who wanted to steal my cat or a crazy man who thought I had kidnapped his brother.”
“You’ve been having fun,” she says, searching my face for the truth behind the outlandish things I’ve just said. “I hate to be the one to make your life worse, but he was here last night with another woman. They seemed pretty cozy.”
“Of course he was. You know what. Forget the message. If he shows, I don’t want him to know I waited this long for him.”
She nods, and as I turn to leave, I get another surprise. Devan is walking my way from inside the restaurant seating area with a beautiful blonde-haired woman on his arm. I try to turn away quickly before he sees me. It doesn’t work. “Shit. This is going to be fun,” I mumble to myself.
“Excuse me,” the hostess says.
“Nothing. My last bad date is headed this way. And he saw me.”
“Sorry. You want me to distract them while you leave.”
“No, I might as well talk to him.”
“Abby. How are you?” Devan asks timidly, cutting glances between his date and me.
“I’m fine. You guys have a good dinner?” I ask, smiling at his date.
He looks a little sheepish at my question, but says, “Yes, it was wonderful.”
“Are you meeting someone?” he asks and the interest in his voice is obvious to all present.
I decided not to lie. “I was, but he didn’t show. You’d think after the last guy I went out with I’d learn to screen the men I say ‘yes’ to a little better.”
His date scowls. The hostess smirks. The tone of my voice makes it obvious to everyone I was making a jab at him.
“Who stood you up?” Devan asks with too much jealousy in his voice.
“If you have to know, Richards did.”
“The police officer I…”
“Yep, the officer you sent to my house. The one you convinced that I had kidnapped your brother. By the way, how did you convince him that I was capable of kidnapping a man who is at least a head taller than I am, and who outweighs me. I haven’t been able to figure that one out,” I insert sarcastically before turning to his date. “Watch what you say or do or he will show up at your house with the cops and a search warrant accusing you of kidnapping his brother.”
“Abby,” he snaps. “That’s not fair.”
“What? It’s true. Did you not show up at my door with the cops, not what two, three days after our one and only date?”
“I did, but I had...”
“You had shit. You saw your damned brother’s name on a piece of paper and lost your mind.” I stop there before I lose control. I’m not mad at him, I’m mad at Mark. “Look, it doesn’t matter. You’ve moved on. I’ve moved on. This was simply a chance encounter.” And it really had been. This restaurant was pretty much it for nice restaurants in this town.
“You two stay here. Give me five minutes to get in my car and leave. And hopefully you and I will never have to see each other again.”
“Abby?”
“Don’t. You send Darius to my door from now on when you have a suspicion or a witness, all right?”
“Fine.”
“Thank you. It was nice sort of meeting you...” I say to his date.
“Katie.”
“Katie. I promise I’m not this much of a bitch. I’ve just been through a lot these last few months and your boyfriend here has been at the root of most of it. I’m sure he’s a nice guy and please don’t judge him on my experience. Now if you will excuse me, I’m going to try and salvage what little dignity I have left and go home and watch Acheron.”
“That’s a great movie,” Katie says.
“I know, right? Too bad there aren’t any men in this world like him.”
She laughs. I say goodbye and walk out the door. I’m crying silently before I even get to the car. It is all I can to do to calm myself enough to drive. I can’t believe it. What are the chances that I would run into Devan on the same night that a cop stands me up? The fates are playing a serious game with me. As soon as I figure out a way to, I’m going to get back at them.
Half way home, my phone vibrates in my purse. At a stop sign, I pull it out. It is my sister. “Man, I really can’t talk to you right now,” I say into the phone, slam it shut, and put it back in my purse.
Dimitri is waiting patiently in the living room window when I pull up. Right now, I’m thinking that becoming the crazy old cat lady isn’t sounding too bad. My phone vibrates again.
“Sorry, sis, but I’m not in the mood tonight,” I say to my purse. When the phone stops vibrating, I flip it open and hold down the red button until it shuts down completely.
“Hi, baby,” I say to Sebastian as I enter the living room, bolting the door securely behind me. “Sorry, boy. I’m not in the mood to play right now,” I say as I stroke a hyperactive Sebastian.
A second later, the house phone rings. I go over to it, look down at the caller ID, and flip the ringer off. “Get the freaking picture. I’m not answering the phone. I know you have some sort of sister radar that can sense when I’m having a bad day, but why can’t you sense that I don’t want to talk about it? Ever. What’s done is done, and I’m over it all.”
I continue to rant as I make my way to the bathroom where I sling things around and start the shower. Immediately a wall of steam hits me. Damn, that water is hot. When I step in, Dimitri walks over to the curtain, paws at it, and meows a cat whine at me. I don’t acknowledge him.
I stay under the water until it starts to cool. The water had been too hot. Hotter than I should have been able to handle. My body is red, bright red. I look almost burned. Steam rises from my body as I wrap a towel around my chest when I get out.
My eyes are heavy and swollen, and I have a beaten, resigned look. I leave the bathroom, only absently flipping off the light, and go to my bedroom where I lay on top of my comforter and begin to cry again. Leaping onto the bed, Dimitri crawls up next to me.
Chapter 19
~~~Abby~~~
Slowly my brain wakes. My head hurts. My eyes sting. They burn and feel swollen. My body is sore and achy as if I have been on the treadmill for hours. Despite all the hurt, though, I feel oddly comfortable and warm. The room is still dark. I know this even though I refuse to open my eyes. I
know this because no light filters through my lids, meaning I’ve only slept for a few hours.
Twisting slightly to stretch out my limbs, I notice a number of things almost all at once. One, I have a blanket over me. A blanket that I hadn’t had on my bed or had pulled out of the closet in months. Two, I am naked under the blanket. The towel I had wrapped around me when I lay down is now lying under me. The towel had been damp, and I am sure the moisture has seeped into my comforter and sheets. The third thing I notice is that I’m not alone. Someone is in the bed beside me.
My first thought is that Carrie has come over, seen the distraught look on my face and my sad appearance, and crawled into bed with me after pulling one of my blankets from the hall closet. Then I realize that my sister, as much as she loves me, wouldn’t have wrapped her arm around my naked waist. Even if she had come over, she would have covered me and there would be three other bodies on or near me. Plus, Carrie is a short, skinny thing. The arm around me is heavy. The leg I touch with my bare feet as I stretch out is hairy.
My heart begins to pound fiercely in my chest as realization sets in. There is a man in my bed. I rack my brain for any memory of coming into contact with a male after leaving the restaurant. I know I didn’t because I didn’t go anywhere else. I came straight home. I didn’t call anyone. Didn’t invite anyone to come over. Fear floods me. Had someone broken in? Am I all right? It takes everything I have in me to stop my body from shaking. I have to take inventory of myself. Am I hurt? Have I been raped?
Nothing that I can feel feels bruised. My body doesn’t feel violated. As long as it has been since I have had sex, I am sure my body would be feeling it right now if he had forced himself on and inside of me. I would be achy and probably more than a little sore down there. I feel none of that. This fact calms me a little, but it doesn’t help explain who is in my bed and why. Who would have felt comfortable enough with me to crawl up next to me while I was naked? Come to think of it, considering what I feel pressing against my bottom, who would feel comfortable enough to be naked with me?
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