Wrong Number

by R. L. Kenderson

  I considered waking him up, but now was my chance to have a peek around without him noticing. Besides, he looked so peaceful.

  I slipped out of his bed and remembered that when I had packed clothes the night before, I had forgotten pajamas. I guessed I’d thought I wouldn’t need them. I had been half right. I hadn’t needed them to sleep, but now, I had nothing to put on.

  I looked around Cal’s room and found a T-shirt lying on a chair in the corner. I did a quick sniff test before I deemed it acceptable to wear. I really liked Cal, but I wasn’t going to put on some stinky, sweat-filled shirt.

  I tiptoed out of his room and gently shut the door behind me. Since I was already upstairs, I stuck my head into all the rooms up there. There was a bathroom that rivaled the master and two additional bedrooms besides Cal’s. One of them had a bed in it. The other was mostly empty, except for a few boxes.

  Downstairs, Cal had a nice, open layout with a spacious kitchen that overlooked his living room. Off the living room, he had an office with a glass door that looked kind of bare but had the essentials. His laptop was actually sitting on his kitchen counter. He also had a half-bath, which was small but efficient.

  My stomach rumbled, and I was debating on whether or not to raid his fridge and pantry for food when the doorbell rang.

  I spun around in a circle, much like a dog did when it chased its tail, not knowing what to do.

  Hide. Or at least run upstairs and wake Cal.

  Regrettably, I should have trusted my first instinct because I was standing in plain view of the tall, skinny window next to the front door.

  A woman’s face appeared while I was acting like a chicken with its head cut off. She smiled when she saw me, but I froze.

  It was the same woman I’d seen with Cal at Buca di Beppo.

  That lying liar. Not dating anyone else? Lies. This woman even knew where he lived.

  The woman knocked on the glass and made a come here motion.

  I felt like crying, but it wasn’t her fault that I was in the situation.

  She smiled again when I started for the door, and I had a fleeting thought that she seemed awfully happy for someone who’d just caught another woman in the house of the guy she was dating.

  I took a deep breath, unlocked the door, and opened it.

  “Thank you,” the woman said right away. “I left my keys in the car, and it’s chilly out here today.”

  The lady had keys to his house. Can this get any worse?

  “Chelsea,” she called out as she walked inside.

  “Coming,” a tiny voice said, and a little girl with dark hair and green eyes came around the corner. She looked just like Cal.

  Oh my God. He has a kid.

  But while my brain was sounding alarms, my body stood frozen as both of them entered the house. I barely even managed to shut the door after them.

  The woman set something down on the table in the entryway and reached out her hand to me. “Hi, I’m Amy.”

  As if on autopilot, I slowly picked up my limb and shook it. “Hi, I’m Indy.” I could be freaking out inside, but the Minnesota-nice thing still shone through.

  Amy smiled. “Hi, Indy.” She put her hand on the girl’s head. “This is Chelsea.”

  The child held up three fingers. “I fwee.”

  I stared at the little girl and wondered how Cal could have a kid who was only three when he’d lived in New York until recently. He’d said he had moved back for family. Was his daughter the family he meant? And why wasn’t Amy mad that she’d found me there? I was so confused.

  “Why don’t you have no pants on?” Chelsea asked. “Mommy, this lady don’t have no pants.”

  My face heated. “Oh my God. I’m so sorry.”

  I spun around and saw my bag on the floor where Cal had tossed it last night. I snatched it up and ran to the bathroom.

  I pulled out a pair of leggings and a bra and hastily put them on. I needed to get the hell out of there before I watched Cal try to explain himself in front of the three of us.

  I walked out of the bathroom just as footsteps sounded on the stairs.

  I was too late.

  Chelsea was standing on the couch, and her eyes lit up when she saw Cal. When he reached the bottom step, Chelsea put her foot on the back of the couch and flung herself in the air just as she shouted, “Catch me, Unca Cal.”

  Cal reached up and caught her with a big, “Oomph.”

  Chelsea giggled.

  “Jeez, kid, you weigh a ton.” Cal looked over at me. “Hey, Indy, I see you’ve met my sister, Amy. And this little munchkin here.”

  I just stared at him, unable to talk. Chelsea was his niece. And Amy was his sister.

  And I was the biggest idiot who had ever lived.

  This was why you shouldn’t fall hard and fast for a guy. You didn’t know enough about him, and then you jumped to ridiculous conclusions without talking to him first.

  I felt like a complete and utter moron.

  Twenty-Eight

  Indy

  Cal set Chelsea on her feet. “Are you okay, Indy?”

  Chelsea grabbed her uncle’s hand. “She looks okay. But when Mommy and I got here, she didn’t have no pants on.”

  “That’s kind of my fault.”

  “Cal.” I guessed I’d found my voice.

  He ignored me. “Indy had a sleepover at my house, and I forgot to buy her pajamas.”

  Chelsea wrinkled her nose. “Don’t she have her own pajamas?”

  “She does, but she left them at her house.”

  Chelsea looked at me. “That’s not vewy smart.”

  “Yeah, Indy, why’d you forget your PJs?” Cal said in a teasing tone.

  “Because I’m a big dummy,” I said dryly.

  Cal threw his head back and laughed. He took my hand. “Let’s go to the kitchen. I think my sister brought doughnuts.”

  “Doughnuts!” Chelsea sprinted toward the kitchen.

  “Hey, are you okay?” Cal asked as he headed in the same direction. “You almost look like you’re sick. You’re pale yet flushed at the same time.”

  “I’m okay.” Just very overwhelmed at the sudden influx of information.

  “Indy, would you like a doughnut?” Amy asked. “Even though I didn’t know my brother had company, I brought plenty.”

  My stomach was still doing flip-flops, but I didn’t want to be rude, so I grabbed one. “Thank you.”

  “To what do I owe the visit?” Cal asked, taking a doughnut for himself.

  “Chelsea and I went to church. On the way home, she said she wanted to see you. So, here I am with doughnuts.”

  “Aw, do you like me, munchkin?” he asked Chelsea.

  She shook her head. “I wove you, Unca Cal.”

  “I love you too, kid.”

  “How long have you two been dating?” Amy asked.

  I had just taken a bite of the doughnut, so Cal answered, “A few weeks.”

  “How did you meet?”

  Cal smiled. “It’s kind of a long story.”

  “And one I probably don’t want to know,” Amy said, “if that look in your eyes is anything to go by.”

  Cal laughed.

  Amy looked at me and tilted her head. “Gosh, for some reason, you look really familiar. We haven’t met before, have we?”

  Oh no.

  She recognized me from the night she had been with Cal. I didn’t want him to know what I had suspected. Especially since I had been so wrong.

  I shook my head. “No, we haven’t met.”

  “Hmm. Man, it’s going to bug me.”

  “Mommy, will you wash my hands?” Chelsea held out both of her hands, which were covered in chocolate.

  “I’ll do it,” Cal said.

  “Thanks, big bro.”

  Cal picked Chelsea up and took her over to a seat.

  “What do you do for work, Indy?”

  I didn’t know what to say, so I went with the truth. I figured he wouldn’t care if his sister
knew I worked with him. “I actually work for the same company as Cal.”

  “Oh, really?”

  “Yes, but we met before we found out we were going to work together.”

  “So, does that mean he’s your boss?”

  I looked at Cal, who was wiping his niece’s fingers with a dishcloth.

  “It’s okay. You can tell her,” Cal said.

  “Yes. But we’re trying to keep it on the down-low at work right now.”

  “You’d better be careful,” Amy said toward Cal.

  “I will. We’re not breaking any rules, Amy. I’m going to make sure of it.” Cal set Chelsea down, and the little girl ran off. He walked over to me and put his arm around me. “Besides, I really like Indy. She’s totally worth it.”

  My face flushed again. I couldn’t believe he’d just blurted out his feelings like that in front of his sister. I had just met the woman.

  Amy laughed. “You should see how red you are right now.”

  “I can imagine.”

  Suddenly, Amy gasped. “Oh my God, I know where I’ve seen you before.”

  Don’t say it, don’t say it, don’t say it. I quickly shook my head back and forth, hoping she’d get the message.

  Amy looked at Cal. “Last weekend, when we went to pick up the tiramisu for Dad’s birthday, remember how I told you there was a woman crouching down in the car next to me and how I thought it was weird?”

  Cal leaned back and looked at me. “And it was Indy?”

  I wanted to punch the grin off his face.

  “It was you, wasn’t it?” Amy asked.

  I didn’t want to lie, so I winced and said, “Yes.”

  “What were you doing? It looked like you were hiding.”

  Cal had been holding back his laughter, but at the word hiding, his laughter sprang out and filled the room.

  “What’s so funny?” Amy asked.

  While it seemed Cal had figured it out, his sister had not. And I wanted to die of humiliation.

  Cal clapped his hands together in apparent hilarity. “Oh my God, that’s the best.”

  “It’s not that funny,” I snapped at him.

  He wiped a tear from his eye. “Yes, it is.”

  “Tell me,” Amy begged.

  “Do you want to tell her?” he asked me.

  “No, I don’t want to tell her,” I answered, horrified.

  Cal shrugged and turned to Amy. “I think Indy thought I was out on a date with you.”

  I looked up at the ceiling. I did not want to make eye contact.

  “You see, she’d been a little distant all week. Then, last night, she said something about dating other people. Now, I know why.”

  “Is that true?” Amy asked.

  I looked down. “I can neither confirm nor deny what happened.”

  Both of them started laughing now, and Cal pulled me into his arms. I immediately hid my face in his shirt.

  “Do you have to be so smart?” I complained.

  “You wouldn’t want me any other way,” he said.

  “Chelsea,” Amy yelled. “Come say bye to Uncle Cal and Indy. We’d better go rescue Daddy from your little brother.”

  Chelsea came running back in, and I stepped back, so she could hug her uncle. She gave me a high five, and Amy said goodbye to us both.

  The door closed behind them, and the room was suddenly silent.

  I looked at Cal. “Don’t say anything, or I’ll run away.”

  He beamed. “You like me.”

  “No, I don’t,” I yelled and ran for the stairs.

  Cal’s laughter sounded right behind me. When we reached his bedroom, he picked me up and threw me on the bed, landing beside me.

  We were both breathing hard and staring at each other.

  “I feel like a fool,” I admitted to him.

  “Don’t. I think it’s cute.” He leaned down and kissed me. “Besides, I like you too.”

  Twenty-Nine

  Cal

  Monday morning, I knew I needed to reevaluate my game plan when it came to Patrick because nothing had come of the Halloween party.

  Unfortunately, since it was the beginning of the week, I had a full list of tasks I had to complete for my job.

  I was just taking a break to run some numbers from all the supervisors when my phone rang.

  “Hello?”

  “Your mother is on the line,” Keith said.

  “My mother? Why didn’t she call my cell?”

  “I don’t know. I’ll put her through, so you can ask her.”

  The line made the clicking noise it always did when Keith transferred a call to me.

  “This is Nicholas Callan.”

  “Cal, you sound so professional.”

  “Hey, Mom. I am at work, you know.”

  “I know.”

  “Why didn’t you call my cell?” I cradled my phone in my ear, so I could work on my computer at the same time.

  “I thought it would be better to call on your office phone.”

  “You don’t have to. My cell is fine.”

  “I’ll remember that for the future then.”

  “What’s up? Why’d you call?”

  She cleared her throat. “Your sister told me you had a guest over yesterday morning when she stopped by.”

  I sighed. “I should have known Amy would tell you right away.”

  “I want to meet her, Cal.”

  “Mom, we just started dating. I’m not sure she’s ready to meet the parents yet.”

  “It’ll just be dinner.”

  “It’s still meeting the parents.”

  My mom sighed. “Will you please at least ask her?”

  I stood up from my desk and looked out at the employees. Indy’s cubicle was way toward the back, so I had a minimal view, but it looked like she was there.

  “Give me a minute,” I told my mom and picked up my cell.

  Me: My mother is on the phone right now and wants to know if you’d like to have dinner. Amy told her about you. I told her it was too soon, but she’s insisting.

  I saw Indy peek at me from her desk, which meant she’d probably received the text.

  Indy: I can do that. When is she thinking?

  “Mom? When are you thinking?”

  “How about this weekend? Can you do Saturday?”

  “I’ll see.”

  Me: Saturday evening?

  Indy: Sure. That should work.

  “Mom, she said yes.”

  Me: You are a saint.

  My mom cheered. “Okay. Can you be at our house by six?”

  “Yes. But, Mom, it’s just going to be the two of us, right?”

  My mom laughed. “Don’t be silly. I’ll invite the whole family.”

  “Mom, you can’t do that.”

  Silence.

  “Mom? Mom?”

  The dial tone started to beep.

  She’d hung up on me.

  Me: Warning: my mom is going to invite my sister, my brother-in-law, my brother, my sister-in-law, and my three nieces and nephews. You can still say no.

  Indy: LOL. It’s fine. I’m going to meet them eventually anyway, right?

  I liked that she thought she would.

  Me: Yes.

  Indy: I might as well get it over with.

  Me: Get it over with?

  Indy: I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sorry.

  Me: I was kidding. I feel the same way. We might as well get it over with; otherwise, my mom will keep bugging me about it.

  Indy: LOL. I’m sure it will be fine. I’ve met parents before.

  Me: I don’t want to think about that.

  The thought of her meeting other guys’ parents made me jealous.

  Indy: We need to work on your jealousy.

  Me: Are you saying you don’t get jealous?

  Indy: I can neither confirm nor deny that.

  Me: Haha-haha. Good to know. I’d better get back to work.

  Indy: Me too. Patrick keeps looking over here. I’m
sure he’ll bitch about me being on my phone soon. I think he’s mad about the contest.

  Me: If he says anything, I want to know.

  Indy: I’ll keep you updated.

  Me: Later.

  Indy: Later.

  I set my phone down and went back to the numbers I had been running. I was going through each supervisors’ staff and who they’d picked to head projects.

  With most of them, they’d assigned each employee to be the lead quite evenly. I could tell a few had favorites, but the numbers weren’t too different.

  But when I got to Patrick’s staff, I couldn’t believe how disproportionate they were. I had only gone back the last fifty projects on each supervisor, but Patrick’s showed that he had given more than eighty percent to the men on his team. He did have more men than women, so when I broke it up individually, the numbers were really sad. Indy had been the lead on three of the last fifty projects. Leslie only had two. Donna—the favorite of the three women, according to Indy—had four.

  That meant the other four guys had an average of ten each.

  Except when I looked again, that wasn’t right either. The one black guy on Patrick’s team had seven, giving the other three guys an average of eleven. This evidence was less compelling, but I still thought it was something to note.

  I expanded the search to the last one hundred. I couldn’t get full numbers on a couple of the supervisors because they hadn’t been in their positions long enough, but I did what I could.

  I came up with similar results.

  I knew this wasn’t enough to get Patrick out of my building, but it was a start. I was going to need more proof that he was biased.

  The next thing I looked at was yearly reviews. The manager—me—was the one who did the reviews and handed out raises, but the supervisors’ input was a big part of the yearly evaluation.

  I got so lost in going through employee files that I didn’t realize five o’clock had come and gone and that most of the staff had cleared out of the building for the day until Keith knocked on my door.

  “Do you mind if I take off, Mr. Callan? It’s five thirty.”

  I looked at my watch. “Oh, wow, I guess it is.” I waved him off. “Yes, you can go.”