by S. E. Lund
I called the facility and spoke with the intake worker on duty at the front desk.
"Hello, this is Joshua Macintyre. Someone called me from your facility, but I missed the call when I was in the washroom."
"Oh, thanks for calling. We wanted to let you know that Penny left the facility before she finished her full treatment program. She had a lapse, and was unwilling to recommit to staying clean, so we asked her to leave."
"Oh, that's too bad," I said, a sinking feeling in my gut at the prospect she was using again.
"Relapses are common, and sometimes it takes several stays in rehab before an addict gets clean for good," the worker said.
"Did she leave a phone number or forwarding address?"
"No, unfortunately. She left her family's home address."
"I have that," I said. "Thanks for your help."
I hung up, a knot in my gut that Penny hadn't been successful in rehab. It was just one more thing to worry about.
I checked my watch. I had about five minutes before I needed to leave to make my appointment at the lab for the paternity test, so I grabbed my jacket and scarf and went down a floor to Dominion and Ella's office.
I knocked on her door and popped my head inside. "Hey, I'm getting ready to leave, but I wanted a snog first."
"Snog away," she said and turned away from the computer when I came around her desk, the door closed behind me. I reached down and pulled her up into my arms for a kiss. She slipped her arms around my neck and we connected for a long moment, and the feel of her body pressed against mine never failed to send a delicious jolt of lust to my dick.
"Mmm," I said and kissed her neck. "Auntie M almost gone for the month?" I asked, using her term for her monthly period.
"Soon," she said with a coy smile. "I'll be ready and willing by Thursday."
"I'll be more than ready and willing." I kissed her once more and released her. I went back to the door. "I'll talk to you later. Do you need me to pick up some more wine tonight?"
"Sure," she said and sat back down behind her desk. "Never hurts, just in case."
"See you."
She blew me a kiss and I mimed catching it and then sent it back with a smile.
* * *
I took the car and drove to the lab, which was located closer to Columbia University. I went inside and spoke with the receptionist, who had me fill out a form and provide my credit card information for billing purposes. Then, I sat in the waiting room and waited for them to call me. I took out my cell and checked my messages, but there was nothing beyond some spam that I deleted. I had to call Penny's family and see how she was doing and made a calendar entry with an alert to call later in the afternoon when I got back to the office.
Finally, a woman in a white lab coat stepped into the waiting room, a file in her hand.
"Mr. Macintyre?"
I stood and put my cell back into my pocket. "That's me," I said and went to where she stood.
"Please come with me. This will only take a couple of minutes."
I followed her down the hallway and into a room, much like a doctor’s office room, with an examining table, some instruments and a chair used to take blood samples.
"Have a seat," she said and so I did, watching while she checked out a couple of vials on the counter. She went over my information to make sure I was the right person, and then she removed a vial and took out a stick which resembled a long cotton swab at the end of a wooden stick. "I'm going to have you open your mouth wide and will swab the inside of your cheek. This will collect some cells from the skin on your mouth."
"Okay," I said and opened wide. She took two samples and each time, slipped the swab inside a vial and closed it off. She wrote something on them and then she smiled at me.
"That's it. You can go now. Results usually take two business days, so you should hear back by Thursday."
"Thanks," I said and got up to leave. I thanked the receptionist and then went out of the building and back to my car.
It was one of the easiest tests I'd ever taken.
I drove back to the building and went to my office, glad to have that over with. Now, all I had to do was get through the next forty-eight hours and get the results. Hopefully, someone else was the father, and I would be free to plan my family instead of having it happen out of my control.
Keith came in for our three o'clock meeting and laid out a series of sheets of paper in front of me. He was my CFO and was updating me on the hack that had been discovered weeks earlier and which the IT department finally understood. I knew it wasn't good news when I saw the expression on Keith's face.
"Give it to me straight," I said and leaned back in my chair. "What's the damage?"
"Extensive," Keith said with a sigh. "We've had to totally clean all our servers and get new passwords for everyone and new protocols in place to protect our privacy. Someone -- a new staff member -- made the mistake of clicking on a link in an email that appeared official and the hacker got access to all our email and our servers. It's a nightmare."
"Do they have information that is mission critical? I mean, is there anything that might put us in jeopardy?"
"Can't be sure," Keith said. "That's why I suggested new servers and starting over. There was no way to be sure whoever hacked our servers didn't put some back door in that we aren't aware of. Don't want to find out after the fact."
"Who would want to hack us? What could they gain?"
Keith shrugged. "Extortion? Blackmail? Who can say? MBS has made a lot of enemies over the years. People whose crimes have been exposed to the public. Political scandals. Sex scandals. The company has dealt with it before, and we have a great legal team who knows how to deal with anything that comes up, but this is the digital age and it has new dangers."
We spent the next hour talking about the hack and everything that had been done to fix it.
"Will this stop someone from hacking us? I'd like to prevent it from happening again."
"Can't make that promise," Keith said. "It'll happen again. The hackers are the smartest people in the business and they're also the most excited to push the boundaries and the least likely to care about the fallout."
"I need a drink after that," I said. "Feel like going to Riley's for happy hour?"
"Twist my rubber arm," Keith said. "I'll meet you downstairs in the lobby at," he said and checked his watch. "Five thirty? I have a call in ten, but I should be done before then."
"Sounds good."
After Keith left, I called Ella, to let her know I was meeting Keith for a drink.
"Come if you want," I said. "Keith won't mind."
"No," Ella replied. "I'll go home and make supper. You come home when you're ready, and we'll watch the game."
"Oh, yeah," I said, remembering the game started at seven thirty. "I'll be home before the game starts. We can eat and watch."
"See you then."
I ended the call and spent the next forty-five minutes finishing up some work before going to meet Keith for a drink.
I needed to relax after that day and a drink with Keith and dinner and a game with my love was just the right medicine.
17
Ella
Josh returned after his happy hour visit with Keith and had dinner with me. I felt like something savory, comfort food, so I made a dish that my mother used to make for me when I was home sick with a cold or flu -- creamy chicken pasta with broccoli and mushrooms. I even bought a small carton of this really expensive chocolate ice cream. My cramps were still pretty bad, so I needed to pamper myself. Wine would help, too, and luckily, Josh brought a bottle with him.
We had dinner in front of the television and watched the Knicks game, and it was only when the game ended, that we really got the chance to talk.
I told him about Steph coming for a long weekend as we were standing side by side at the bathroom sinks, brushing our teeth before bed.
"What's the occasion or is it just an excuse to get together?"
"We plan
to spend the weekend shopping for a wedding dress and stuff for the penthouse."
"That's good," Josh said, nodding. “I'll finally get to meet the famed Bestie. Do you think I'll pass muster?"
"You already have," I said. "She's the one who talked me into going to meet you for the meatballs, so I credit her with our romance."
"I already love her, then," Josh said with a laugh.
"So, what happened of interest today at work?" I asked.
"Oh," he said and hit his head, his eyes closed. "I forgot to tell you. I got a call from the rehab facility in California. I guess Penny left the program with only a week left. She relapsed with another patient and just decided to leave rather than commit to detoxing and starting over. I would have paid for another six weeks, if that's what it took, but maybe she needs to hit rock bottom before she'll really be ready."
"I thought she had hit rock bottom," I said, sad at the thought that she was back on drugs.
"No, not quite. She never had to sell herself for her drugs. That would be really hitting rock bottom. Luckily, she had family and friends and had a job until recently that she managed to keep even when using. I'm afraid she's really going to crash this time -- bad."
"Oh, Josh, I'm so sorry."
He put his arm around me when we were both finished brushing and pulled me against him. "No, I'm sorry. It's me who has the drama in my life. First, it's the potential of being a father to another woman's baby. Now, it's a former sex partner who needs rehab. Oh, and did I tell you some hackers broke into MBS and stole a bunch of emails and other documents? We're just waiting for them to try to blackmail us or extort money from us."
"That's terrible," I said and frowned. "How did they break in?"
"It's called phishing. They mimicked an email from one of the System Admins and asked people to click the link and sign in. One of the new hires in finance was dumb enough to click the link and sign in. The hacker used her password to get into the system. Unfortunately, it was an admin who had access to her boss's email and so the hacker got access to some really important financial information."
"What can you do about it?"
Josh exhaled. "It forced us to get new servers and email clients."
I shook my head, thinking about how easy it was for hackers to get into a business's system. "Why would anyone want to do that? Do they think they'll get access to what you know about a particular story MBS is working on? Are they trying to get dirt on the company to hurt it?"
Josh shrugged and slipped into bed, holding the blanket open for me.
"Your guess is as good as mine. If it was blackmail, I'd think they would have done something by now but so far, nothing. I haven't received any threatening emails or demands for millions of dollars in bitcoin to be deposited into some account."
I crawled in beside him and he covered us both with the heavy down-filled blankets. They'd just been cleaned and smelled of dryer sheets. I reached over and turned off the light on the night table and then snuggled down into his arms. The sheets felt cool against my skin, but Josh's body was so warm.
It was comforting.
"Do you have to tell the police?"
Josh shrugged. "It's not a crime, unfortunately, until they try to extort us. If they do, I'll be on the phone, but until then, I'll just assume it was a kid trying his or her hand at hacking a big company. That's done all the time."
We lay in the darkness for a moment, and I closed my eyes. Then I remembered the tests and decided to broach the subject.
"One day down and one day closer to getting the verdict," I said and leaned my face up for a kiss. Josh complied, kissing me tenderly.
"I'll be so damn glad when this is all over," he said, his voice sounding exhausted.
"Me, too," I said. "What are you going to do about Penny?"
Josh exhaled heavily, clearly upset at this turn of events. "Whatever it takes," he said finally. "I'll make some calls, see if her parents know where she is. I'll offer to pay for another six weeks, when she's ready."
"That's so generous of you," I said and stroked his bare chest. "She's lucky to have you in her life."
"Maybe if I hadn't been so insensitive to her needs and mental health when we were fucking, she'd be better now."
I frowned. "Josh, you can't blame yourself. You told her you weren't interested in anything more than fun now and then and so she went into it with her eyes wide open. You can't help it if she was lying to you and herself about what she wanted."
"I shouldn't have used her," he said softly.
"She used you, too. If she couldn't handle casual sex, she shouldn't become involved."
Josh exhaled. "She didn't realize at the time that she couldn't handle it."
I nodded and could see the expression in his eyes even in the darkness of the room from the moonlight that flowed in from the window. It illuminated his face, making his eyes seem unusually large and haunted.
"It's not your fault. She fell in love with you and wanted more than you could give. It happens all the time, Josh, to men and women."
"I know how it feels to be on the receiving end of that and it doesn't feel good. I guess it was Karma coming back to bite me in the ass."
I squeezed him. "I know," I said and laid my head on his chest. "Me, too. Karma's a bitch. I know all about it."
"What did you ever do to deserve Jerkface?" Josh asked, pulling me closer.
I sighed and thought about my past. "I was stupid, that's what. I was naive. I was so caught up in how perfect our lives seemed that I didn't realize that Derek didn't really care about me. He cared about being the husband of Governor Carlson's only child and only daughter. I cared about being a wife to a very powerful up-and-coming lawyer who had designs on public office one day."
"No, you're wrong. You weren't wrong to be trusting. You have to trust in this life, or you'll never get close to another person. You have to take the risk of loving someone and having your heart broken or you'll never feel love or be loved."
I turned and looked at Josh. "That's so..."
"So, what?" Josh said, a slight touch of humor in his voice. "So romantic?"
"I was going to say, honest and open." I kissed him. "You do have to be open to love and love requires trust. I guess a broken heart is the price we pay for love."
"That it is," Josh replied, exhaling. We lay in silence for a while, both of us probably thinking about our past mistakes and our current good fortune at meeting each other. At least, that's what I was thinking.
"Good night, Josh," I said and kissed him before snuggling down beside him with my back to him. "I love you."
He spooned against me and kissed my shoulder. "Good night, my love," he said softly. "I love you more than anything."
I squeezed his hand against my chest and sighed, my heart swelling with love for him and happiness for how good everything was between us.
* * *
Thursday came, and I'd woken up several times in the night, unable to get back to sleep for a long time, wondering what the test results would be and whether Josh would be a father a lot sooner than either of us hoped. Plus, I was excited for Steph arriving and hoped we would be celebrating instead of commiserating about the results.
Josh must have left early for his bike ride and was careful not to wake me up because he was already gone when I finally dragged myself out of bed and went to the bathroom. After I had a shower, I went to the kitchen for my breakfast and found a sticky note from Josh stuck to the coffee maker.
ELLA: Couldn't sleep.
I've gone for an early ride.
I'll bring fresh bagels.
See you soon.
Love, J.
* * *
I checked my watch -- it was still early, so I made a pot of coffee and had an orange while I waited for Josh to come back to the apartment. Before he left, Josh brought the paper up, and so I had my coffee and read the headlines, eager for Josh to arrive back and for us to indulge in fresh bagels and cream cheese.
Th
e front door finally opened and in Josh came, his helmet off, his hair soaked from his ride. It fell into his eyes in a very sexy way that made me want to run my fingers through it and brush it out of the way of his big blue eyes.
He smiled when he saw me and after parking his bike, he came right over and gave me a warm kiss.
"Good morning, Ms. Carlson. I'd hug you, but I'm in need of a shower. I'll be back in five."
"I'll have the bagels ready," I said and grabbed the bag from his hand, eager to get breakfast going.
While he showered, I prepared the bagels, and poured him a cup of coffee just the way he liked it.
Then, we sat side by side at the kitchen island and ate our bagels and had our coffee, reading the paper together, like we did every morning since we moved in together. We really were like an old married couple in that way, except it all felt new to me.
I loved it.
Once we were both ready, we took the elevator down together and kissed each other when it was time for Josh to get off.
"I'll talk to you later," he said, and I smiled and waved as the elevator doors closed.
I rode the rest of the way down to my floor alone, smiling to myself. Then, I went to my office and sat behind my desk, ready for another day at Dominion. I realized, as I sat at my desk and glanced around my office, that I was truly exceptionally lucky. I'd recovered from a bad broken heart after Jerkface and I broke up, I'd graduated and moved to Manhattan with my dream opportunity as a slush reader in hand, and then I'd met Josh -- one of the most eligible bachelors in Manhattan -- all in the space of five months.
It was like a dream – one I hoped I kept dreaming.
18
Josh
Thursday could not come fast enough.
Although I dreaded the news, I wanted to get it over with so I could deal with it and move on. Waiting was torture and as the hours ticked past, I sat at my desk and tried to focus on the reports from various departments at MBS to distract myself.