“Are you serious?” he asked.
“Dead serious,” she said. “We can sign the paperwork right now.”
He paused and exhaled. “I could always use a new truck for work.”
“Then stop fighting me and let me help you. I’ll barely miss the money.”
“If that’s the case, let’s do it.”
They turned around and searched for Tony.
Chapter 40
They left the dealership and he agreed to follow her to the studio in his new truck so they could talk about what had happened earlier that afternoon in Dawna’s office. Or at least that was the plan. Lenora was fairly certain it would evolve into more than that. And that was fine with her. She was bursting with eagerness to feel his body next to hers. It had been too long since.
She spent a few minutes giving him a tour of the studio and all the equipment. He was genuinely interested, especially in the extensive lighting system, but once in her office he did what he had done the first time they had sex at his office all those weeks ago. He swept aside everything on the desk except a few photographs sitting on the edge in frames.
She kicked her sandals off, and he watched as she shook her hips and slowly removed her panties. She loved the hungry look on his face as she hiked her skirt farther up and leaned back on the desk. He climbed on top of her and she nibbled on his lips with her tongue, ran her fingers through his hair and down his back, then slipped them up under his white T-shirt. Her fingers roamed down to his tight buttocks and squeezed as he pressed her hard against the desk. Right now, nothing else mattered except the man between her legs.
She closed her eyes tightly and moaned in his ear. “Harder,” she said. “Yes, yes!” She yanked his T-shirt off and her fingers clawed his back. They squirmed across the desk until her head dangled over the edge. She could feel her eyes roll to the back of her head. It felt like she was floating in the clouds. She never wanted to come back down to earth.
But she did.
Her descent started with the unexpected sound of footsteps on the hard floor of the outer room. Lenora told herself that it was her imagination and ignored it. She didn’t want to stop what she was doing with Ray. She couldn’t. He made her feel so good.
Then she heard something she could no longer ignore.
Gerald was calling her name. Ray froze inside her, and Lenora forced her eyes open. At first she thought the vision of her fiancé standing in the doorway to her office was just that: a vision, a horrible illusion, a nightmare. Her head was dangling over the edge of her desk, and Gerald appeared upside down. It had to be her imagination.
Then she felt Ray climb down off her. He turned his back and pulled up his jeans.
“Oh, God”, she muttered and struggled to sit up. Was that really Gerald? She turned and looked as she pulled her skirt down over her hips. The doorway was empty now, but Ray looked like he had seen a spook. She rushed out the office door in her bare feet just in time to see Gerald exiting the large studio through the main entrance.
She brushed aside the nausea welling in her chest and ran in Gerald’s direction. Then she remembered Ray in her office. Which way to turn? Ray or Gerald? Without further thought, she walked back into her office to see Ray pulling his T-shirt over his head.
“Ray, I’m sorry,” she said as she ran up to him. “He never comes without calling first.”
Ray held a hand up and stopped her in her tracks. “I gathered from the photo on your desk that that was your fiancé,” he said coldly as he zipped his fly.
She nodded. She had promised to be honest. “Yes.”
“Is he still here?”
“I don’t know. I saw him walk out the front door.”
Ray looked around anxiously. “Is there another exit besides that one?”
She nodded. “Near the back of the outer room. But you don’t have to leave. We can talk about—”
“Oh, yes, I do,” he said hastily. “It was a mistake to come here. This is exactly why I avoid intimacy with attached women. I don’t need the drama.”
“But, Ray…”
He held a hand up to quiet her. “I’ll call you tomorrow so we can work something out about the truck. Right now, your fiancé needs looking after.”
“He’s probably left by now, and we—”
“There is no we,” he said abruptly and strode quickly out of the office.
She watched him leave in silence. Ray was right, of course. She needed to talk to Gerald. She didn’t want to admit it because she didn’t want to leave Ray, knowing that she might never see him again. And it was likely over with Gerald anyway, after what he just saw. He might not even still be around the studio.
She was startled to find Gerald pacing hotly up and down the walkway in front of the studio. He saw her exit the building and stormed toward her.
“Who was that?” he snapped.
She didn’t say anything. She didn’t really know how to answer the question. The name wouldn’t mean anything to Gerald.
“Who the hell was it?” This time Gerald yelled so loudly it startled Lenora. She had never seen him so angry.
“A former client,” she said.
“The one you were doing the brochure for?”
She nodded silently.
“Oh, man,” Gerald said, slamming his fist into his palm. “You been fucking him behind my back all that time?”
“Gerald, please, we should go inside. Someone might hear us.”
“ ’Scuse me? So you’re worried about strangers hearing us argue out here, but you don’t give a shit about your fiancé walking in on you with another man.”
“I’m not going to stand out here and argue with you,” she said. “I’m going back inside. You’re welcome to come.”
“Is he there?” Gerald asked.
“He left.”
She went back in and Gerald followed, hot on her heels. She headed toward her office, but when they reached the middle of the studio floor Gerald grabbed her by the shoulder and flipped her around.
“Does he know you’re engaged?” he asked. “Never mind, you have a damn ring. He must know something. What an ass.”
“Gerald, I’m sorry you had to walk in and see that. I never meant for things to get so out of hand. I couldn’t help myself. Ray is so…”
Gerald reached up as if to slap her. She gasped and cringed, and he brought his hand back down. “Save it,” he said. “Right now I can’t stand the sound of your voice or the sight of your face.”
She gritted her teeth.
“I came here to surprise you with good news,” he said. “We landed a major client today. All our work finally paid off. But it doesn’t matter now.” He held his palm out. “Give me the ring.”
“Gerald, I know what I did to you was wrong. But can we at least talk before you—”
“There’s nothing to talk about,” he snapped.
“That’s not fair. I forgave you when you did this to me. Yet you won’t even talk to me.”
“Oh, so that’s what this is?” he snarled. “Payback?”
“No. But—”
“And when I did it, we were a few months into a new relationship. We weren’t engaged. Give me the damn ring.”
She quickly removed the diamond from her finger, and sadness welled up inside her chest. She placed the ring in Gerald’s outstretched palm. “I’m so sorry,” she said, fighting back tears.
He ignored her apology and quickly turned and left. That was when it hit her that Gerald, the love of her life for the past three years, had walked away for good. She sank down to the floor. Her shoulders shook violently with her sobs. What had she done? Not long ago she was on top of the world. She had won lots of money in the lottery. She had bought her dream house and opened her own photography studio. She had two men wanting her, one smart and dependable, the other young, sexy, vibrant.
Now she had nothing.
Chapter 41
Lenora focused on the reporter sitting at the table in the kitchen of her
huge yet nearly empty house and took a sip of black coffee. She had long since stopped buying the flavored liquid Coffee-Mate creamers with names like Italian Sweet Crème, Chocolate Raspberry, and Cinnamon Bun. She had even stopped purchasing sugar when she ran out a couple of weeks ago. Sweetness cost money. And she was nearly broke.
“So after your fiancé walked in on you and Ray at the studio, he called off the engagement?” Donna asked as she glanced up from her notes.
Lenora nodded and frowned at the memory of that fateful day. Of Gerald catching her having sex on the desk with Ray. Of Ray walking out and never speaking to her again. And Dawna and her trickery. Lenora’s body flooded with waves of anger whenever she thought about that woman. “I saw Gerald once after that, when he came to the house to get a few things he kept here.”
“How long ago was that?” Donna asked.
“It’s been several months now.”
“So it’s officially over with him?”
Lenora nodded. “He wants nothing to do with me.”
“What about Ray? Have you spoken to him at all since that day?”
Lenora shook her head silently.
“I see,” Donna said. “And the truck? Did he keep it or what?”
“I tried to reach him for weeks after he left the studio. I called. I went by his office. But he never got back to me.”
“So you ended up paying for the truck, yet he kept it?” Donna asked.
Lenora sighed with defeat. “When I lost the studio and then was struggling to keep up the house payments, I owed so much that the money I spent on the truck didn’t seem important in comparison. I was too depressed to think logically.”
“Do you feel he used you?”
Lenora’s lips tightened. “Of course, but I asked for it in a way. I acted like a fool over him. I thought Ray was the hottest man to come along in my lifetime, and I could not believe he was interested in me. I didn’t care why. I saw a chance to have the kind of man who would normally never pay me any attention, so I grabbed it.”
“Do you think Ray was ever really interested in you?”
“I think he liked my company. I think he was somewhat attracted to me, but it was mainly the money that got his attention. I’m not stupid, but I wanted the fantasy so badly. I had all this money and thought that meant I could have or buy whatever I wanted. I got greedy and ended up with nothing.”
Donna nodded with understanding. Or was it more like pity? Lenora couldn’t be sure.
“What do you miss most?” Donna asked. “Or who? Gerald? Ray? The money? The studio?”
“Interesting question.” Lenora paused and thought. “The gut response would be Gerald, but I won’t even say that. It would never have worked out. All that cheating back and forth by both of us. I was so quick to cheat with Ray because my relationship with Gerald wasn’t really right. I need to find a man I wouldn’t risk losing for any other man who comes along.”
Lenora paused for a moment. “You know who I really miss,” Lenora said finally. “Monica. And Alise somewhat, too. I still talk to Monica now and then, but I poisoned that relationship, probably for good. We’re nowhere near as close as we once were. And with Alise, that was all a silly misunderstanding that could probably have been cleared up easily if I had tried. I threw away two good friendships because I became greedy and selfish, and that’s painful to think about.” She chuckled regretfully.
The reporter nodded and scribbled furiously. “So what’s next for Lenora Stone?”
Lenora exhaled deeply. “I honestly have no idea. Taking it one day at a time.”
“Would you move back in with your folks?”
Lenora shook her head. “I haven’t even told my family half of what happened after I won the money. They don’t know I lost the studio and that I’m about to lose the house. I didn’t want to burden them.” She shrugged. “Maybe I’ll take the few thousand dollars I have left and start fresh somewhere else.”
“One last question,” Donna said. “Would you mind if I interviewed Ray or Gerald for this piece?”
Lenora shook her head. “Not at all. If you can reach them.” Lenora gave Donna the last phone numbers she had on record for them, and Donna stood, wished Lenora good luck and thanked her. They made arrangements to meet at Legal Seafood in a couple of hours, and Lenora turned back to her empty house. It felt like a ghost town.
The interview with the reporter had been good for her. She felt better than she had before Donna arrived, when she was foolishly thinking of ending her life. The talk had forced her to think realistically about what had happened over the past several months. The reality was that remembering had not been nearly as tough as what she actually lived through.
She sat at the kitchen table and signaled for Paws to hop into her lap. Lenora ran her hands over the pooch’s fur and made plans in her head. It might be nice to start fresh someplace where no one knew her. She could get a simple job like working in a boutique or bookstore. It might do her good to try something that wouldn’t take much thought or effort, at least until she got her head together.
She was still sitting and thinking an hour later when the phone on the built-in kitchen desk rang and startled her. She lost the service to her cell phone several days earlier, and the landline rarely rang because few people outside her family had the number. She placed Paws on the floor and walked to the desk. She was so surprised to see the name on the caller ID that she gasped aloud. Raymond Shearer. She shook her head. Why was he calling now? After all these weeks? Should she even bother to answer?
Curiosity got the best of her. “Hello, Ray.”
“Lenora? Good to hear your voice. How you been?”
He acted like all was well between them, like nothing had transpired except a little time. “Still breathing,” she said curtly.
“I can tell by your tone that you’re probably a little upset with me.”
“A little?” she said sarcastically.
“I apologize for not getting in touch with you sooner. But I was stunned when your fiancé walked in on us at your studio. That scared the crap out of me.”
“We were both shocked, Ray. How’d you get this number?”
“From a reporter doing a feature on you. Donna Blackburn. We just hung up.”
Lenora nodded with understanding. “I see.”
“So from what she said, you never got married, right? Are you with anyone else now?”
“No to both.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
“Don’t be,” she said. “It’s probably for the best. You still with Dawna?”
“No, Dawna actually left the magazine a few weeks ago. Moved to Atlanta.”
“Sorry to hear that,” Lenora said drily.
Ray chuckled at her obvious sarcasm.
“I tried several times to reach you about the truck,” she said. “You never returned any of my calls.”
“I thought we needed time to cool off. And I honestly didn’t have the money to pay you for the truck. Still don’t, although I might be able to find a few grand to give you toward it.”
“From where? Another woman?”
“What’s it to you as long as I pay you?”
What a user this man is, Lenora thought. Why couldn’t he buy his own truck? “Never mind,” she said. A few thousand wouldn’t help her much at this point.
“I know this call is unexpected, but I think about you a lot,” Ray said.
Lenora rolled her eyes to the ceiling and let him talk.
“I really would like to see you again,” he continued. “I never even got to see your new place, remember?”
That was when Lenora realized that Ray likely still had no idea she had lost just about everything. Apparently Donna didn’t fill him in. “What did Donna tell you?” Lenora asked.
“Said she had just interviewed you at your house for a feature she’s writing about people who won big in the Maryland Lottery. Asked what I’ve been up to since we stopped seeing each other.”
“Th
at’s it?”
“Pretty much,” he said. “It was a short interview. Ten minutes maybe. She also said your house was huge. Beautiful.”
“Uh-huh. Tell me, Ray, is this a booty call? Or a leech call?”
“A what?” he asked, sounding genuinely puzzled. “Booty call I know, but what do you mean, ‘leech call’?”
“You know what a leech is, don’t you? They suck you dry and then move on.”
“Wait a minute now,” he said. “You were into the sex as much as I was if not more. I told you I might be seeing others. And you volunteered to buy the truck.”
“Yes, you’re right on all counts. But you could have told me that one of the others you were screwing was my former boss.”
“What difference does that make?” he asked.
“It makes a lot of difference, Ray,” she said.
“Is that the problem? Or is it that you got emotionally involved?”
Lenora paused. How right he was about that. She made the dangerous mistake of falling for Ray. But his neglecting to tell her that he was sleeping with her former boss was still unethical in Lenora’s eyes. Even cheating, in a way.
“You’re right,” she said, “I got emotionally involved. And if you knew or suspected that and didn’t reciprocate, you should never have let me buy the truck for you. Then you disappeared. But forget it. It doesn’t matter anymore. I’m past that.”
“I’m happy to hear that you’re past it. It’s been a long time since all that went down. Maybe you think I’m crazy for suggesting we meet again, but you have to admit that we had some good times together. Right?”
Lenora suspected that he was not used to being turned down, especially by someone like her—frumpy, insecure, hard up. But that was the old Lenora. The new one decided to have a little fun with him.
“I have other plans, Ray. Tomorrow I’m flying off to the Caribbean for a month. And since I recently lost thirty pounds, tonight I’m shopping for a couple of new bikinis. I’m just too busy to see you. Maybe you can drive down to Atlanta and hook up with Dawna. Nice talking to you.”
She hung up before he could respond. That was a string of lies, but it felt damn good telling them. She might not be headed for the Caribbean, but right after dinner with Donna tonight she was going to head to the library and do some research on small towns in the South where the living was cheap and easy.
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