Folding the paper in half, she handed it to Walker. “I will not be responsible for what happens. If Nicole calls cursing me out, I will tell her you stole the information from me.”
Walker tucked the paper in his pocket and turned to leave her office. “Do what you have to do.”
“Walker, wait; I need a minute of your time now,” she called before he left her office.
“If this is about Jeremy, forget it.”
“Why can’t you forgive him? He is suffering and misses you so much.”
“You should have the answer to that, Patty. You both decided to do what you thought was best instead of asking me what I wanted to do.”
“That was years ago. You’ve made the shop into a success on your own.”
“How do I know that is true? How many customers have Mitch forced to use my shop to help his pathetic bastard son?”
“He sent no one that I know about, Walker. I swear we did not go to Mitch and ask him to do anything else for you. Walker, please bury the hatchet with Jeremy. He held up the wedding ceremony hoping you’d come.”
He put his hands on his hips. “The topic is closed. He made a fool of me in front of our friends and people I thought were family. He said shit to me that can’t be laughed off and forgotten.”
“Walker, we’re family. We have to stick together.”
“See, you’re wrong about that. I came into this life with only my mother, and when she departs, she’ll be the only family I had.”
Patty’s eyes became teary. She hated that saying he had. Whenever he took a stance on issues he used that annoying phrase he should copyright. “If you believe that, then why are you going to look for Nicole? Admit you want someone to love, Walker. You want a family.”
“I do want a family. I want a family I can trust not to backstab me. Jeremy stabbed me in the back. He was the one person I thought understood my dilemma. But, then again, he is Mitch Collingsworth’s son.”
“He wanted to help you—not hurt you.”
“He helped me become indebted to a man I loathe. I have to go; take care, Patty.”
Patty dropped her head letting the tears fall from her face onto the desk. Curtis swept her in his arm patting her back. “Girl, it will be okay. He is in pain and too manly to let it show. You can’t fix that part of him.”
Patty pulled away to sit at her desk wiping her eyes with a paper napkin. “I may not be able to fix him but I know how to help him get Nicole.”
Curtis twitched his upper lip. “Who is Nicole? And, does she deserve his poor, but wounded soul?”
She dug in her purse taking out her makeup pouch. Flipping open the gold compact mirror she carefully applied a fresh coating of lipstick. “Nicole’s picture is in the photo album on the table.”
Curtis rolled his chair to the round table holding the various photo albums filled with pictures taken during the elegant wedding ceremony and reception. “I’ve been meaning to look at the pictures since I didn’t make it to the wedding. Which one is Nicole? Is she the petite blonde, with the small waist or the tall red-head, with the big boobs? Walker seems the type to like big boobs.”
“Nicole is the black woman with the pretty smile,” Patty mouthed smearing on peach-colored lipstick.
Curtis widened his eyes. “You’re kidding? He’s got a case of jungle fever? I would have never guessed that in a million years.”
She pointed the base of her lipstick at him. “Never judge a book by its cover, Curtis.”
“I’m not judging. She is pretty and does have a lovely smile. Um, does she cross-over through? What a waste of his time if she isn’t into mixing the flavors,” he said wiggling his thick hips.
“Nicole doesn’t pay that any attention.” She scooted her chair closer to Curtis to gossip. “I heard they got cozy the two days she was in town for my wedding. He even spent the night in her hotel room.”
Curtis put his hand to his mouth. “Tell me more.”
“That’s not the kicker; one my girlfriends and her boyfriend were in the hotel bar after the receptions and saw Walker and Nicole there, sitting cuddly in a booth. However, I don’t think they did anything but talk all night.”
“Honey, if she canoodled with that cowboy, you would’ve known. She would’ve been singing about it like Toni Braxton.”
Patty got out of her seat going over to Curtis. He was proud of being gay and flamboyant. Although he was short, chubby and round, and he chemically processed his hair, he was well-liked by the bank’s employees. His personality was as wild as the color-coordinated clothes he wore, and Patty cherished his friendship. When she needed a laugh, he made it happen. When he needed to vent about his lifestyle, she was there to listen and not pass judgment.
She hugged from behind trapping him in his seat. The scent from the Beyonce Heat perfume he wore mingled with the peanut butter he’d eaten for lunch. “You always have a way of making me smile when I want to cry. Thank you, Curtis.”
“Oh, lawd, people will gossip if they catch us together doing this. I have a reputation to uphold.”
She tightened her hold on him. “Who cares; let them talk.”
Chapter Six
Nicole took off the plastic headset tossing it on the desk. Looking at the clock, it was only 7:00pm; she was slated to work until 8:00pm. Her last official week, gainfully employed, was coming to an end in four days. Taking her iPad from the drawer, she turned it on to check her email. She’d sent a number of résumés to companies praying at least one would respond.
“Not one measly response,” she huffed.
Scrolling the various emails, a red flag message appeared from a local department store. What kind of spam are they sending me? She clicked on the email claiming not to be spam, to send to the trash folder. Cleaning out the clutter from the inbox, she had an email from Patty. That one she opened.
Her heart raced as she read the two paragraphs of text over and over. Laying the iPad on the desk she picked up the phone to dial Patty’s office number.
“Patricia Collingsworth—how may I help you?”
“Patty, its Nicole. I just opened your email. Are you serious Walker is on his way to Columbus to see me?”
“Nicole, you’re just getting my email?”
“I’ve been busy and unable to check my personal email. I’m still at work for another hour.”
“Sweetie, he should be in Columbus already. He left my office around noon. I gave him the address to your apartment and the dress shop. He is probably sitting outside your shop waiting for you to leave.”
“Good grief, Patty, I don’t have the shop anymore. I haven’t had the shop in two years.”
“You said you’re at work. Where are you working?”
“It doesn’t matter; this is my last week before I’m laid-off from this job. Anyhow, getting back to Walker; what does he want?”
“He wants you.”
Her heart stopped beating for one second. She had been thinking about calling Walker but decided against it. Based on her statistics, the odds of her having a successful relationship with Walker, on a scale from 1-to-100, fell into negative numbers. He’d be better off playing the field, rather than settling for an emotionally damaged woman carrying a perfect percentage rate for failure.
She held the phone to her head. She hadn’t talked to him in weeks on purpose, and now Patty was telling her this. Pretending to sound surprised, she raised the level of her voice an octave. “Get out—he doesn’t want me.”
“He stormed my office demanding I give him your information or he was going to camp out on the front steps of your apartment building.”
She rolled her eyes upward visualizing what a disaster that would have been if certain nosey neighbors called the police about a strange man hanging around. “Well, maybe he changed his mind and decided not to come since I haven’t heard from him.”
“I doubt that. He was adamant about finding you.”
“If he went to my apartment, he saw I wasn’t there. He also kn
ows I don’t have the shop anymore. Walker should have called me and arranged a day and place to meet like we discussed over the phone.”
“He knew you wouldn’t agree to him coming to Columbus. Nicole, if you’ve been in contact with him, I have to know before he has his heart broken again. Is there any chance you’ve changed your mind about him?”
Nicole cradled the phone against her ear. “As much as I respect Walker and enjoy talking to him on the phone, my answer is still the same. I’m not interested in dating anyone.”
“Dang it Nicole, why are you so stubborn?”
“You wouldn’t understand, Patty. Walker will thank me for this in the long run.”
“All right, I tried and I can’t make you be with him. But be kind him if he does find you and you do tell him you aren’t interested in dating him.”
The support line blinked indicating she had a call waiting. “Patty, I have to go. My other line is ringing. I will call you if he does show up.” She hung up pressing the button to connect the second line. “This is Nicole. Will your call require user support, IT, or applications?” She never understood why she had to ask that questions since she did it all anyhow.
“How long are you working tonight?”
“I’m here until eight this evening. Anything else I may assist you with tonight?” She asked in a fake but pleasant voice.
“Nothing at the moment, I’ll call back if I run into trouble. Thanks.”
The caller hung up before she could give the emergency after-hours number. “Great, he will call two minutes before I get off, and it will take me hours to fix whatever he trashed on the computer,” she said huffing.
Standing to stretch the numbing kinks from her legs and back; she looked out the window that overlooked downtown Columbus. The cold weather was relinquishing the winter grip on Columbus to make way for green grass, blooming trees and colorful flowers.
The setting sun winked at Nicole through the spaces between the white blinds. Her mind drifted to the night Walker invited himself to crash the night in her hotel room. She remembered falling asleep while he was showering but waking up with his hard body pressed against hers. When he got into her bed, she did not know. If they did anything, she was sure they hadn’t. What she could recall was her brain screaming she was in bed with a man…a strange naked white man.
Though she remained dressed in her red negligee, and grateful it was not turned inside out, Walker was naked; at least the portion of his body that was visible above the bedding. Curious if he were totally naked, she couldn’t resist the urge and peeked under the cover. She was disappointed but thankful he’d been a gentleman and kept on his underwear.
Nicole’s stomach rolled with flutters from her trip down memory lane. She was an introvert, and lived as a hermit by choice, but admiring a gorgeous man from a distance proved she was pure woman regardless of her social flaws. She had urges and that was where her friend with benefits came to play. Lately her urges were occurring more often as she thought of Walker.
His magnificent body came into view as she daydreamed. If she were a shameless woman, she would have touched him. As it was, her fingers ached to trace the muscles on his chest. To tug the waistband of his jockeys and see what laid there. However he was sleeping and she didn’t want to wake him. And if she had awakened him, he’d for sure, have the wrong idea why. If she wasn’t willing to deliver on her desires, she had to let sleeping dogs lie. She did the admirable thing and left him asleep in the hotel room and joined the other bridesmaids for breakfast.
She blew a sensual breath between her lips as she thought about their date after the wedding. She wasn't upset it took place at the hotel bar. The booth they shared provided the intimacy and ambiance any dark room filled with lit candles could.
Nicole closed her eyes tightly. If she concentrated, she could feel Walker’s soft lips pressing against hers, the scent of his cologne faintly entered her nose. Her hand smoothed across her chest to cover her heart. The palpitations increased as she responded to effects of the first kiss they shared.
The feel of Walker's hair touching her forehead, when they kissed set the nerves on the back of her neck into a frenzied fit. She was experiencing those fuzzy feeling she’d read about in romance novels. Never did she believe the statements women gave about knees buckling or the heart racing from a single kiss. However she was wrong. Her knees did buckle and her heart did race when he kissed her.
The breeze seeping through the cracks of the worn window shook her awake. She took a stack of manuals from the shelf behind her and put them in a box. She had to keep busy to stop thinking about Walker. Her body was aroused and with no friend with benefits in the picture, she had to get the thought of sex off her mind.
She sighed taping the box together and looking up at the clock—the hands were moving slower than molasses emptying from a bottle. Although she would not be moving to the new building with state-of-the art computer lab, she had to help pack the tiny space she and six other co-workers shared. Packing and taping two more boxes, she stopped and sat in a chair. I’m not packing another box—let those using the facilities pack their own boxes. What are they gonna do fire me for insubordination?
Nicole opened the bottom desk drawer where she kept her belongings and began placing those items in a box. She didn’t keep many personal items at work other than shoes, books, and sweaters. The pictures hanging in her station were mostly of co-workers at staff parties and the one company picnic she attended. She sat under a shady tree with a cold cup of lemonade watching her co-workers play softball.
Quitting time had arrived as she finished packing her personal stuff and cleaning her desk of excessive office supplies. Taking her coat from behind the door, she turned on the answering machine to direct callers to the emergency line and left.
Getting off the elevator, she waved to the security guard behind the desk. “Good night, Jeffery,” she said, buttoning her coat.
“Have a good night, Nicole,” he answered back.
The sky had turned dark and the wind brisk, as she exited the back door of the office building to go to the garage where she parked. Not many people were downtown at eight o’clock on a Monday evening, which meant she would stick out like a sore thumb to a person wanting to make trouble. Looping the long straps of her purse and laptop case across her neck and shoulder, she took off down the street walking at a fast pace.
*****
Walker drove around the block again. The downtown office building was emptying of workers groups at a time. Nicole was not among the last group of people to exit the building. It’s possible he could have missed her since the police officer, ticketing parking violators, shooed him from his parking spot in front of the building. Circling the backside of the building, he saw a woman standing at the corner waiting to cross the street. She was the same height and built exactly as Nicole, but the hat partially concealing her face made it hard to tell for sure.
His eyes squint to get a clearer view of the woman. “Mom, I’m sure that’s Nicole standing at the corner.”
“Hurry and get there before the light changes,” she said in an urgent voice.
Walker sped to the corner tapping the horn so the woman wouldn’t step from the curb causing him to run her over. He pulled the truck to a stop in front of her path. He lowered the passenger’s side window. “Nicole?”
Shock by the sudden appearance of the truck, Nicole stepped away from the curb, placing a gloved hand on her chest as she leaned down to look inside the vehicle. Walker put the gear in park and jumped from the car. “Nicole, thank God I found you.”
Nicole staggered slightly holding onto Walker’s arm to keep from falling. “Walker, you scared the life out of me! What are you doing in Columbus?”
“I’m here for you. I’ve been circling the block waiting for you to leave the building since 4:00 o’clock this afternoon.”
“You’ve been sitting outside my building for hours? How in heaven’s name did you know where I worked?”
“You told me the day we met. I had to wreck my brain remembering the name of the place. I did a search on the internet and here I am.”
“Hmm, technology abets stalkers in more ways than one. So the mysterious call I got was from you wasn’t it?”
He hunched his shoulders. “I’m pleading the fifth,” he said holding his hand up.
“All this could have been avoided if you’d called me instead of driving all the way from Cleveland.”
“What and miss seeing that priceless look on your face—never.”
“The look of fear on my face is not priceless. You are lucky I was at work. I could have called off and been anyplace. Then what would you have done?”
He shook his head. “That’s not your M.O., Nicole. Baby, don’t let my fineness fool you; I’m smarter than I look under all this brawniness.”
Nicole grinned. “You forgot to add you're narcissistic.”
Walker brushed at his collar. “I don’t like to brag but you only got a sample of what I am capable of doing.”
She rolled her eyes. “This could go on forever and it’s cold out here. Who is your traveling companion?”
“My mother but we’ll get to her later. So, are you free for dinner tonight?”
Nicole looked past Walker to the older woman sitting in the passenger’s seat of the truck and then back at him. “How can I say no after the trouble you went through to find me? Only I’m springing for dinner with no arguments from you.”
Walker closed his mouth stifling the protest sitting on the tip of his tongue. Taking her laptop case from around her neck, he opened the door to the truck. “Hop in.”
“I have to get my car from the parking garage before it closes.”
“Okay, I’ll drive you to the garage and follow you.”
“Sounds good to me,” she said getting inside the truck.
A short drive later, Walker parked his truck in the space next to Nicole’s at the Rodeo Steakhouse. He noticed her applying makeup using the rearview mirror like most women did. He smiled. “Mom, isn’t she beautiful?”
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