by K E Osborn
"Hey, guys," he says sounding surprised. He walks toward us, placing something on the counter when he walks past.
"Hey, Benjamin, how've you been?" Aiden asks him, standing to shake his hand. Benjamin shakes it and then pushes his hand away and goes in for a hug.
"I miss you too," Aiden says, tapping his back.
"How's personal assistant life for you?" Benjamin asks me.
"All good, thanks, Ben. Love the work, but the boss is a bit strict though."
"Oh, Alistair's being a jerk as usual?"
"No, Aiden is," I joke, making everyone laugh but Aiden.
He stares at me with a fake frown on his face.
"You know you're cute when you pretend to be angry," I say leaning in and grabbing his cheeks. He can't help but grin at me.
Blair comes out, fully clothed this time, and walks up to Benjamin, kissing him on his cheek.
"Did you get the magazine layouts?" he asks in work mode.
"Yup, they're right over there."
They're cute together. Blair walks over to the counter.
"Hey, Benjamin, you had better watch out," Aiden hollers.
"Why's that?" he questions.
"Jeni's going to turn Blair straight. She wants him bad," Aiden calls out, loud enough for Blair to hear.
"Oh my god, Aiden!" I flush bright red and sink farther into the sofa.
"Jeni, my sweet. You're the only girl I'd let try to turn me straight," he calls out.
"Hey!" Benjamin and Aiden say in unison.
"You asked for that." Brielle laughs at Aiden.
I put my head in my hands, completely embarrassed.
Aiden sits back down next to me, pulling me close to him. "You ready to go?"
"You're mean," I say.
"Yeah, but you love me." He kisses my head, stands and puts out his hand for me to take.
"See ya, guys," Aiden says loudly.
"See ya," they all say in unison as we reach the rusty door. Aiden walks down the stairs first, followed by me.
"What's on the other two levels?" I ask referring to the first and third floor of the warehouse.
"The bottom floor is where Blair does all his photo stuff, processing and framing; it's kind of like a workshop."
"And the top?"
"Nothing much. Mainly storage and stuff like that."
"This place is so cool."
"Yeah, Blair found it one day and bought it. He turned it into his dream home and workshop."
We walk to the car and Mike opens the car door for me. I slide in, and Aiden follows, closing the door behind him. Mike starts the car, and we head back to our apartment.
***
"Can we call in to see Mom first?"
"Of course, you don't even need to ask." I take his arm and we walk to the elevator. Mike presses the button, and we proceed to the second floor. Aiden knocks on the door, and Mike walks to his apartment.
"Have a good night, Mike."
Callie opens her door, and Mike looks across. They smile at each other as he closes his door.
"Hi, honey, how was your day?" Callie asks, hugging Aiden.
"Good, thanks, Mom. How was yours?"
She gestures for us to come in. "Not bad, did some moving around of the bank accounts and set up my apartment a bit better. What do you think?"
"It's lovely, Callie."
"Thank you, sweetheart." She walks us to the sofa to sit down. "How was your father today?"
"He didn't come in."
Callie shakes her head with her brows creased. "What do you mean he didn't come in? He never misses work."
"He ah ... wasn't feeling well."
She sighs, flattens out the creases in her skirt and exhales with a small smile composing herself. "I guess I don't need to worry about him anymore."
"Mom, he'll be fine. He's a bit ... lost at the moment."
"Changing the subject, thank you for the flowers you sent today, Callie," I say.
Callie looks at me with her head slightly tilted as her brows crease again. "What flowers, honey?"
"You didn't send Jeni flowers today?" Aiden asks.
She shakes her head. "No, sorry. Was I supposed to?"
"No, Mom. It's fine. I think I know who sent them." He shakes his head while I rub his back to comfort him.
"Is something wrong, honey?"
"No, nothing's wrong, but a friend at work is ... well—"
"I think she's trying to split us up," I interrupt.
He looks at me and sighs. "It's not going to work." He takes my hand and I snuggle into his shoulder.
"She sounds like a crazy person, trying to split up a happy couple."
"Guess some people would do anything for love," I say.
"You think Josie loves me?" he asks, his eyes widening.
"Not sure, but if it's her, then we need to be careful."
"Agreed." Aiden sighs. "Let's see if anything else happens. Hopefully, it'll be a one-time thing."
"Be careful. If it's a girl who works with you both, and she's jealous of Jeni, she may start rumors or something that may actually hurt the business," Callie says.
"I'll take care of it if anything else happens."
"Have you got dinner organized, or do you want to have something with us?" I ask.
"You're a darling, aren't you? No, thank you. I can look after myself, plus I wouldn't want to intrude on you two."
"Mom, you would never intrude."
"Even so, I'm enjoying my alone time. It's nice to have to look after only myself after all these years."
We stand and walk toward the door.
"If you change your mind, or you need us, we're only a few floors away." He hugs his mom.
She lets him go and hugs me. "Sweetheart, it's always a pleasure."
"Thanks, Callie, have a good night."
She lets me go; we walk from her apartment and then back to the elevator. Once inside, Aiden swipes his card and we're off to our apartment.
The doors open, we kick off our shoes and proceed to the bedroom. I get changed in to my usual negligee and he into his shorts.
"What's for dinner?" I call out making my way to the living room as I slump down onto the sofa.
"Spaghetti okay?"
"Yeah, do you need a hand?"
"If you want."
I stand up and walk to the kitchen. "What would you like me to do?" I ask seductively.
He winks at me. "There's this one thing you could do."
"Oh yeah? What's that?"
"Kiss me," he says.
I lunge at him, jumping, wrapping my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck. He catches me, holding on to my ass. He twirls us around and sits me on the counter leaning in against me. I lean forward and kiss him, my hands running through his hair. Suddenly we hear the elevator chime. He pulls back from me and helps me off the counter. We walk around to the elevator, looking at each other curiously, as we're not expecting anyone. The doors open, and no one is there. Aiden looks into the elevator. There, in the middle, is a smaller version of Mr. Snuggles.
He looks at me, and I shake my head. He walks into the elevator, picks up the teddy bear and walks out toward me. The doors shut, and he stands there with Mr. Snuggles Jr. I look at him, frowning.
"Do you think someone is playing a prank on us?" I say.
He looks at the red ribbon around its neck, and there's a note attached. Aiden shakes his head. "This is getting weird." He opens the typed note.
Just for you, Jeni <3
He hands it to me, and I read the note.
"She must have taken my key card."
Aiden quickly pulls out his phone. "Mike, can we get the security footage up here from the parking garage facing the elevators? Excellent, can you bring it up here as soon as possible please? We've had an unexpected visitor. Yes, we're both fine. See you soon." He hangs up the phone.
"This is a bit scary."
He kisses my forehead. "Mike is coming up. You might want to change." He slowly
looks me up and down staring at my black, lacy, see-through negligee.
I put on my robe, wrapping the string around my stomach tightly and walk back out into the living room where Aiden is scrutinizing the teddy bear.
"Find anything else?"
"Yeah, this eye looks a little strange." He pulls it hard, and the eye comes out. There's a miniature video recorder attached to it.
"Oh, hell no!" He throws it to the floor and stomps on it. "This is fucked up!"
The elevator chimes and Mike comes in with the footage from the camera outside the parking garage elevator. Aiden shows Mike what he found hidden in the teddy bear. Mike looks at me curiously while I stand in the background with my arms wrapped around myself. This is crazy. Now someone is trying to spy on us. What the hell? This Josie girl must be completely nuts.
Mike puts the DVD into the laptop. Aiden fast-forwards. We see various people coming and going.
"Stop, pause it there. Who. Is. That?" Aiden asks.
We move the tape along a little farther, and a dark shadow walks up to the elevator. The person is wearing all black, including a hoodie, and has sunglasses on to cover their face. The figure could be either a man or woman.
"Nothing, we have nothing." Aiden runs his fingers through his hair then he starts to pace. We continue to watch as the figure puts the teddy bear in the elevator and then runs away.
"I don't like this," I say.
Aiden rushes over to me while I still stand in the background.
"Baby, you have nothing to be afraid of. I'm here, and I won't let anything happen to you."
"I know, but why is she doing this?"
He shakes his head. "I don't know, but it has to stop, now. Mike, can you take this to the police station and report it for me? I'm going to the security company to change our scanner over with different key cards. Jeni, now do you see why you can't lose your card?"
He's making me feel like an errant child, being told off by an angry parent. I let it slide; I know he's only worried about me.
"Jeni, get dressed. We're going out."
I put on some jeans and a polo shirt. They're always so comfortable. I walk out into the living room. Mike has gone, and Aiden is looking around.
"I think everything else is fine. I can't see anything out of place."
I walk up to him.
"I need to get dressed. I'll just be a minute." He kisses me on the forehead before walking to the bedroom.
I take a moment while I let it truly sink in that someone is watching us. Not us, me. Someone is watching me. The feeling of anxiety deepens when I start to remember the time in the bath when I felt as though someone was watching me. Maybe I wasn't dreaming it after all.
"I'm ready," Aiden announces as he walks back toward me. "You alright?"
"Yes, the quicker we change the scanner, the better I'll feel."
We head down to the parking garage, get into the Aston Martin, and drive through the city to the security company. We rush, hoping that they're still open. The owner is at the door and about to turn the closed sign.
"Could you please help us? We're desperate," Aiden announces. "I'll make it worth your while."
The man huffs and opens the door. "You'd better; my wife will kill me for closing late again."
He looks me up and down, and instantly I feel like he's a sleaze ball.
"I'm looking for a replacement panel and swipe cards for the elevator in my building. I need to be able to render the cards useless, because one was stolen. I'll need new ones, so that the old cards can't be used. Is this possible?"
"You can re-program the cards you already have, using the old panel. It's like changing the password on your computer. You have to do each card individually, which will make the stolen card ineffective. If the stolen card is used after the reprogramming, they won't be able to access the elevator with that card. I'll give you the cheat sheet on how to do it yourself if you're interested."
"Yes, thanks. I'll need two new swipe cards, one to replace the stolen one and one for my mother."
"Oh, how sweet," the shop owner says. "I'll go out the back to get them."
Aiden looks at me and sighs with relief. The man comes back and hands us the cheat sheet and two new swipe cards.
"This is going to cost you, ya know?"
Urgh. I knew this guy was a sleaze ball.
"How's five thousand dollars sound?" Aiden asks, shocking the sleaze ball and myself.
"I was thinking more like forty bucks, but sure, five thousand sounds good to me."
He writes a check and hands it to him.
"Thank you, I appreciate that you kept the shop open for us."
"Anytime you want to come back and keep me open is fine with me. I just made more money than I made all day."
Aiden picks up the cheat sheet and the two new swipe cards and ushers me out of the building.
"Thank you, please come back again soon," the sleaze ball calls out.
***
We arrive back at the apartment, and he studies the cheat sheet, word for word. He takes out his card and punches some numbers into the control panel. He swipes the card, the elevator chimes, and the door closes to go up to our apartment.
"Guess we won't know if that worked until Mike gets back," Aiden says as the doors open to our apartment. We walk in and go straight to the kitchen to start on dinner again. He turns the tap on and is putting the water into the pot when his phone rings.
"Hey, Mike ... it's not working? Perfect, I'll be right down."
He hands me the pot. Guess I'm cooking tonight. Walking to the elevator, he gets in and goes down to the parking garage while I put the water on the stove to boil. I start to chop an onion, and as I do, tears well in my eyes.
"Stupid onions."
Eventually Mike and Aiden come back to the apartment with the new cards programmed and the system now tested and working properly.
"All done," Aiden calls out to me.
I walk from the kitchen to greet them. They both look at me.
Aiden rushes to my side. "Baby, what's wrong?" He takes me in his arms.
I laugh when I realize they think I'm crying. "No, nothing. It's the onions. I've been cutting onions; that's all. I'm fine."
Aiden and Mike chuckle.
"No more stalkers then?" I ask.
"Nope, we're all safe." Aiden says.
"Mike, do you want to stay for dinner? We have plenty."
"No, thank you, Miss Taylor. It's very kind of you to ask."
"Anytime, Mike."
He walks to the elevator. "Would you like me to give the swipe card to your mother, Mr. O'Connell?"
"Yeah, sure, here it is. Can you please make sure to tell her not to misplace it?" He looks straight at me. I shrug and raise my eyebrows. Mike leaves, and it's the two of us, alone at last.
I walk to the kitchen and put the pasta into the boiling water. Aiden comes into the kitchen and wraps his arms around me from behind, pulling me into a bear hug, resting his head on my shoulder.
"I don't know what I'd do if I lost you," he whispers into my ear. I turn my head to kiss him.
"I don't plan on going anywhere. You don't have to worry."
"No, really, Jeni, you're my life, my oxygen. I can't breathe without you. You never have to worry about feeling safe because you are. I won't let anything happen to you, ever. I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you." He leans in and kisses me passionately. His words make me tingle all over. The electricity surges between us as those pesky butterflies return. I know he'll keep me safe. I know because he's in love with me as much as I'm in love with him, and I'd do anything for him.
I finish preparing dinner and he lets go of me so I can dish up. I take the plates to the table, and Aiden brings over some wine glasses.
"Thought you only drank wine on special occasions?"
"This is a special occasion. We are now in a stalker-free apartment. I think that calls for a celebration," he chirps. I raise my glass, and we clink th
em together.
"We should get away this weekend, unwind a little. It's been a stressful few days, so I think we should use the birthday present you gave me. What do you think?"
"I'd love to."
Chapter 18
We get home from work and start to pack for our romantic weekend getaway to the sea side cottage that I gave him for his birthday. I'm not sure what to pack so I pack everything. Romantic negligees, a bikini, clothing, underwear, my pill packets—very important since we don't need a repeat of an unplanned pregnancy, even though the pills failed me last time. I drag my massively overstuffed luggage to the living room.
"Are you sure you're going to need all that?"
"I don't know what I'll need, so I brought everything."
He gets up, walks over to my luggage, and lifts it up. "This weighs a ton, Jeni."
I shrug.
"If you're ready, we should hit the road." He grabs both bags and heads to the elevator.
We step in, ready for our weekend adventure. We load the bags into the Aston Martin. He turns on the radio, and Bon Jovi's "Thank You for Loving Me" is playing. I turn the volume up and he looks at me with a smirk.
"This should be our song."
He lets out a small laugh. "You want Bon Jovi to be the band for our song?"
"Hell yeah. The lyrics are beautiful."
"You can't put hell yeah and beautiful in the same sentence, baby," he says with a grin while the chorus plays.
"What do you say? Do you like it?"
"I say thank you for loving me."
"So that's a yes?"
"That's a yes."
"Yay, we have a song."
We start the drive; the sun starts to set as we pull into a little takeout shop to get some dinner. We set off again, toward the sea side cottage. We arrive and the sun is set as we exit the car. My hair moves in the gentle breeze blowing in from the sea. It smells fresh, like salt water mixed with seaweed. I love that smell. Aiden takes the luggage, and I take our dinner and we head inside our romantic little seaside cottage. We get the keys from the letter box and then open the door to a quaint little two-story, very modern, nautical-themed cottage. It smells like freshly baked cookies. He puts the bags down next to the sofa and turns on the lights. Wow, everything is white, the ceiling, the walls, the rugs on the floor, the appliances, everything. The floors are a whitewashed wood. There are shells and nets on the wall, but it doesn't look tacky. It's artistic and romantic.