I glance at my watch and realize I’ve finally made it to the end of the day. I straighten my workstation and say my goodbyes for the day. As I walk outside, my eyes scan the curb for my car, knowing Cole will be inside waiting for me. I almost have to force myself to walk because my instinct is to run directly into his arms and hide away. I’m stopped in my tracks when the driver exits and opens my door for me.
“Where is Mr. Parker?”
“Sorry, Mrs. Parker, he is still at the office, he asked me to swing by and pick him up after picking you up.”
“Oh, that’s fine, sounds great,” my voice gives away my relief.
Sitting in the car in late afternoon traffic isn’t ideal, but knowing who I’m going to see in the next forty-five minutes is worth it. I sit, reading and responding to some emails, but my thoughts keep drifting back to my misstep today. I open my phone and scroll through, stopping first at Alex. I need her awake and giving me advice on how to handle this situation. God, I really miss her bad advice. Damn her. I keep scrolling and find Jack’s number, hitting the message icon, I start to type:
Hey, well this is awkward. I don’t hate you and I don’t want us to be strangers. Let’s get coffee sometime, I’d love to start over…
NO, hell no! If he even knew me for a minute he would know that isn’t anything I would actually say, so I try a more honest approach:
Hi Jack, sorry for the confusion earlier. Let’s just let this be water under the bridge. I appreciate what you did for me but let’s face it, friendship is not in our future… Cole would bury you.
Maybe not so honest, okay I need to mesh the two together:
Hi Jack, I apologize for the misunderstanding. Thanks again for the recommendation. I hope we can have a professional and friendly working relationship.
I re-read it twice before hitting send, right as we pull up to Cole’s building.
I decide to give him the same preview I had the other day and I get out and lean against the car, jutting my leg out just enough so the split in my pencil skirt opens enough to highlight my leg. Keeping my sunglasses on, I pretend to look at my phone. I know it’s flirty and teasing and exactly what I want him to feel when he walks out. I see out of the corner of my eye the moment he notices me and I casually turn my head in his direction, pretending to be unaffected. Cole slows to a stop as he exits the doors and loosens his tie before he stalks toward me. The determination to rip my clothes from my body is so evident that I almost run out of instinct. Instead, I stand my ground and smile as he walks right into me, arms wrapping around my body and mouths crashing into each other without a care for who is watching.
Pulling away breathless, I smile, “Well, hello to you too.”
“Get in the car,” is all he growls, leveling his eyes at me, never breaking contact.
“I thought we could walk a bit? No?”
“Get in the fucking car before I rip that skirt off of you, right here in front of everyone.” I squeal as he squeezes my ass and climbs into the back of the town car.
He settles in next to me, leaning over, giving me long, slow savoring kiss as he rolls up the privacy window between the front and back of the car.
“In a hurry?” I ask, shaking my head at him.
“Yes! Yes, I am. I’ve been waiting all day to ravage my wife and now I have you alone in that fucking skirt and I just want to rip it off.” He groans as he grabs the hem of my pencil skirt.
I swat his hands away, rolling my eyes, “Well, my lovable sex-fueled god will have to wait. We are heading to see Alex and then we have to grab dinner. I mean the list goes on and on. I don’t think we have time for sex and I certainly need my clothes on my body.”
“Are you turning me down… for sex?” His face is incredulous.
“I guess, I am,” I divert my eyes before he can tell I am joking.
“Huh, I mean… I’ve never actually had this happen, let alone with my wife. I’m not sure how to feel right now.” He laughs and blows out air. “I don’t like it. Your body is mine and I want to feel it underneath me.” He pouts with puppy dog eyes.
“I mean, I guess you can beg. That’s if you’re really desperate,” I purr.
“I see, my girl thinks she’s funny. She thinks she can bring me to my knees, but what she doesn’t know is that it’s her, on her knees, that I would beg for.”
Unable to hold back my smile, I turn my head and see the mischievous gleam in his eyes and before I can help myself I give him exactly what he wants… without the begging.
Pulling up outside of the hospital, I’m feeling a bit powerful and very appreciated by my husband. We exit together and he takes my hand, swinging our arms slightly as we make our way to the elevator bank.
“You’re the very best wife,” he smiles down at me.
“Wow! I must give the best blow jobs ever. I may pass out from all this appreciation.”
“I appreciate everything you do. I just really appreciate your blow jobs.”
I laugh and elbow his side, but I know he doesn’t even feel it. As the elevator doors open, Foster nearly plows us down, causing Cole to jerk me out of the way of a frantic Foster holding his phone to his ear and yelling obscenities into it.
“Whoa, Foster, what the fuck are you doing?” Cole booms. “What is going on?”
“Oh shit, sorry, sorry… I don’t, I can’t… it’s Alex, come with me,” he stammers out.
It’s at that moment I see the tear-stained cheeks and my heart sinks. Everything is running in slow motion, all I hear is a faint buzzing of noise. I feel like I’m having an out of body experience. I am pushed into the elevator and see Foster and Cole speaking animatedly, but all I hear is silence. I know I must be consciously shutting out the world, because I cannot hear the words. Alex is dead. Alex is dead, and I don’t ever want to know that reality. Closing my eyes, I feel Cole tugging at my arm, but I dig my heels into the ground, locking me into the elevator. I look between their faces and see Foster looking confused and Cole looking concerned. Cole steps back into the elevator and gently pries my hand from the railing, forcing me forward.
Leaning down to my ear, I can feel his breath and then I hear, “She’s awake, baby, you haven’t lost her.”
I suck in air as if I’ve been underwater and take off in a full sprint with Foster and Cole right behind me, busting through the doors, I see Alex. Alex. My beautiful, lovely, crazy best friend, alive and well, eating Jell-O. Freaking Jell-O! A hysterical burst of laughter pops out of my mouth followed by another and another until the tears start falling.
“Why does everyone keep having that reaction?” Alex looks to the nurse, who just smiles and continues to check her over.
“Hi,”
“Hi back.” She smiles tenderly. “Does someone want to clue me in on what the hell happened to me? I can’t get anything but tears from these two dummies,” she points at Foster and me. “But maybe you can help me, Parker!”
“Of course, beautiful,” he winks at her and squeezing my hand and moving over to her bedside. “It’s nice to have you back, Alex.”
“It’s nice to be back, Parker.” She smiles, setting her Jell-O aside and smoothing down her blanket “Now, where exactly am I back from?”
“What’s the last thing you remember, darling?” Foster interjects and walks toward her as Cole stands again to rejoin me at the foot of her bed.
Alex lets out a tiny giggle and looks around, clearly reacting to the endearment Foster has used.
“Focus, Alex, we can talk about this, later,” motioning between them to accentuate the point. She side-eyes me and I cannot hide my smile. I want to know what she remembers, but I am bubbling over with happiness that she is alive and well.
“Alex,” I grin. “Seriously, do you remember what happened to you?”
“I remember being in your house and I remember looking through the yearbooks and then it gets hazy. I feel like maybe someone called or I don’t know, I just remember needing my phone. After that it’s fuzzy and now
I’m here with a shit headache,” she groans as Foster rests his arm around Alex’s back, causing her to jump a little. She looks over at me and mouths “what the fuck?”
I shake my head trying to keep a serious face. God, I missed her. She is always irreverent, even in the face of her own crisis.
Speaking directly to Foster, Cole interjects, “I think we need to grab hold of Alex’s phone records and see about who called—”
“There was nothing unusual, nobody called other than Mia and me,” Foster counters.
“We have your phone at the penthouse! Maybe you were writing a text or something. I didn’t even think about it earlier!” I add.
“Wait, hold up… how are you looking at my phone records? What the hell, Fos—” Is all Alex gets out before she is stopped in her tracks by a very intimate and sweet kiss from Foster.
Cole and I turn and look at each other, smiling. I hide my face into his shoulder feeling a little embarrassed to be witnessing such a moment between them. Clearing his throat, Cole tries to remind them of our presence, but they don’t stop. Cole tugs at my shoulders leading me out the door before we witness something we shouldn’t, and telling by the kiss, we may be outside the doors awhile.
“Don’t be so dramatic, you two! Let’s get back to it,” Alex calls out just as we make to walk out the doors.
Cole and I rejoin the two lovebirds and I cannot hide how much my heart warms knowing that Foster loves my friend so much.
“So, here’s the deal, Alex,” Foster begins. “You were at Cole and Mia’s when someone broke in and attacked you. You were beaten and the headache is because your head was split open from some serious blunt force. If I hadn’t found you when I did, you wouldn’t be here, baby.”
Alex’s eyes grow big and she squeezes Foster’s hand at the same time I wipe a tear from my face. I still cannot believe we almost lost her.
“Wow, okay. So, I made it through the second robbery of my life. I need to buy a lotto ticket, I am the luckiest bitch on the planet.” She laughs out, wiping her tear-filled eyes. I feel Cole smile against the top of my head, where I’ve been tucked while listening.
“Be serious for a minute, is there anything during your day that happened that could help us figure out who would want to hurt you?” Foster questions while adjusting her pillows.
“No, not unless Leslie is pissed that I ate her yogurt. I mean, if it’s not labeled, it is first come first serve.” Alex laughs. “The only creeper moment I had was with Jack. Seeing him was super strange and he was definitely a ten on the serial killer scale.”
“Hold up! You saw Jack the morning of the attack?” I question, pulling away from Cole to give him a pointed look. Then pointing my finger at Foster, I add, “And you kept that information from us… or just me? Did both of you know about this?” My voice is raised by the end of my monologue and I’m sure they both know I am super angry.
Cole and Foster just stare at each other, doing that thing I hate.
“Quit! Speak right now. Foster, if you want me to keep you around for longer than three seconds, you better know I am not the kind of girl that will be kept in the dark. It’s all or nothing, baby!” Alex huffs out.
Cole raises his eyebrows to Foster and Foster gives back a look that can only be described as the silent equivalent of “bullshit.”
“Parker!” I yell.
“Yes, my love?”
“Seriously?”
“I thought it was in your best interest to be kept in the dark. I didn’t want you to interfere, because I believed you may not want me to look into the idea of Jack having a connection to all of this. I realize you may think it is out of jealousy, but it was a gut instinct.”
I stand staring at him and a horrible sense of guilt washes over me. He’s right, that is exactly what I would have thought. What if Jack is crazy and trying to hurt me. I would play right into his hands with my constant second-guessing and worry.
“Okay, you aren’t wrong, but I still don’t like it and Alex doesn’t either. This is happening to all of us, we need to keep each other in the loop.”
“I second that,” Alex nods at Foster.
“Deal,” he agrees, taking her hand and kissing the back of it.
“Well, now that all of that is out of the way, let’s get down to business,” Cole interjects and gives me a reassuring smile.
We stay with Alex for another hour discussing different possibilities for her attack when she starts to get tired. Before leaving, tears spring to my eyes again, giving her more reason to make fun of me. I have to be acutely aware of how hard I am squeezing as to not hurt her, but I can’t help giving her the longest hug in history.
“I love you, too.”
Leaving the hospital, I am so relieved and happy that I want to shout from the rooftops, but I doubt people would appreciate my celebration since it’s late at night. My stomach growls, reminding me that Cole and I haven’t eaten. He must hear it too, because he says, “Looks like my girl needs a burger” with a smile.
“That sounds perfect, just like you and this day!” I throw my arms around his neck and let him lift me into a kiss.
I crawl into the back of the car and toss my purse next to me. Cole scoots into the adjacent seat and tells the driver to take us to the closest burger joint. Reaching down, he picks up my purse to remove the space it is creating between us when it dings again.
“This thing is becoming quite the nuisance, it’s been going off all evening,” Cole complains as he reaches in to hand my phone to me.
“Sorry, I know. It must be my new work friend, Jules. I’m sure she wants to talk to me about some more treats at work,” I laugh, rolling my eyes at the thought. “I can’t imagine why anyone else from work would be messaging me.”
Then it hits me that the only person I messaged was Jack. I don’t even know where to begin if Cole finds out, he will be livid and I can only imagine what his reaction will be now that I know the backstory. I dive my hand into my purse hoping to grab my phone before Cole gets to it, but he pulls it out before I do, his eyes frozen to the phone.
“Something you’d like to share with me,” he asks coolly, leaning back into the seat, his jaw tensed, and his eyes narrowed in on the screen of my phone.
Breaking his eyes away he looks directly at me, placing the phone into my hand. I look down and see five missed calls and at least a dozen messages from Jack. Oh fuck.
“Listen to me before you freak out and turn into an unreasonable beast,” I ask, putting my phone down on the seat.
“I’m all ears,” his tone is challenging and it’s clear to me that he is set out for a fight. Lord help me.
“Okay, Jack works for Sam Johnson… he was the reason I was hired for this position. When we were ‘friends,’ I mentioned how much I wanted to work for this particular company and he remembered. Trust me, I went off today and really gave him the ‘what for’ but honestly Cole, this was his olive branch. We don’t really even work together and he is seeing his boss… like ‘seeing’ her. You can’t freak out. You can’t, because this has been a great day. I know you are suspicious of him, but that’s totally based on your gut, not fact. I don’t want to base my entire work life around a ‘might be.’ We are about to eat burgers and go sleep in our new place. Don’t ruin my wonderful amazing day with your bad attitude, Cole Parker!” I end with a huff that makes me sound like a child, but I don’t care as long as he doesn’t freak out.
Cole sits for a moment, and I can tell he is taking in everything I just said. Reaching his arm across the back of the seat, he lazily draws circles on my shoulder with his finger.
“Mia, I had hoped that my wife would have been more forthcoming with her day. I don’t like being kept in the dark much like you complained about earlier. That being said, I already know about Sam Johnson, the weird part is Jack never showed on any of the files. Your security detail told me you had an argument with a male co-worker, but I was hoping you were going to tell me about it sooner. I know you d
on’t see it, but that guy is bad news, Amelia, and I’m done talking to you about this when you refuse to listen.”
Opening his door, he exits the car leaving me feeling lectured and childish and really pissed off. Forget him, I don’t need to call him about anything. I’m a grown woman and if I handled it, well then, it’s handled. How about that?
My internal monologue is interrupted when he hops back in with two brown paper bags. Handing one to me, he cocks his head as if to ask me to speak. I stare into those gorgeous blues and open my mouth to put his silly ass in his place, but something unexpected pops out, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel like I was keeping a secret. I honestly was trying to wrap my brain around it and had every intention of spilling everything to you when we were having dinner. The whole Alex thing kind of put a wrench in my plans. Knowing what I know now, about Jack, I agree he is a creeper, but how could he attack Alex, especially since the doormen know he isn’t allowed in? You made that happen the day you kicked his butt and drug him to the elevators!”
“I get that my suspicions have holes but, Mia, I really wish you had talked to me before starting a line of communication between the two of you. I don’t trust that guy. I don’t think it was coincidental that Alex ran into Jack the same day she was attacked. I don’t know how he attacked her, but I will find proof. I want you to quit your job. Don’t give me that look. I know exactly what I am asking from you. I know it’s high handed and unfair and a bit patronizing, but that’s not the place I am coming from. I need you safe and I need you to be far away from that psycho.”
“Hold up, wait. The day she was attacked, what does the security video show?”
“Baby, trust me, Foster and I have been all over the footage. It’s clean, but on that day the service camera was broken. That’s how I think he got in. I can’t even consider you going back, Mia! I won’t even be able to focus, you are the most precious person to me and I literally almost lost you to one monster. This time, I can stop it. Please, let me protect you.”
The Forever Series Page 24