“Yeah, that’s the place. It’s been a while since we’ve been there. How about you and I check out the old joint.”
“I don’t know. I’m not really in the mood for Thai food.” I lied.
“Well, we can go somewhere else. Anywhere you want to go. What do you say?” he asked again. “It’s my way of saying thank you for helping me out in my time of need despite…well, you know…what happened.”
Does he think this makes up for everything?
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, don’t you remember the rules you just agreed to? Taking on your case doesn’t mean that I’m willing to forgive you or want to catch up.” I reminded him. “Besides, your way of thanking me is when you pay the invoice I send to you at the end of all this.”
Graham was the kind of guy who would try to get out of committing to things or people, sometimes even moments, “You already know that I stopped being a great rule follower.” he grinned.
“Yes, Graham. I’m completely aware that you stopped being the kind of guy who listened to reason. You pretty much did whatever you wanted, remember? Besides, between the two of us, I’m still the rule follower. I still do the right thing, always have and always will.”
“So, I take it you aren’t going to have lunch with me or have you come to your senses yet?” he asked.
I took a heavy sigh, “I’m not even sure why I’m even agreeing to this and I’m not sure how you’ve done it but you’ve tricked me into wanting Thai food somewhere in the middle of this conversation we shouldn’t even be having.”
“Well, it’s for old times’ sake and I promise I won’t bring up the past. How about we just go and soak in the environment and talk about what each of us are doing now?” he offered.
“Ugh, alright. Fine. I’ll have lunch with you.” I sighed again.
“Great. I’ll pick you up in a few hours.”
“How about I just meet you there.” I suggested.
“That works too.”
“Alright, goodbye Graham.” I said pushing him out the door.
“Bye. Oh, hey, Lin?”
“Yes, Graham?” I asked.
“I’m looking forward to this afternoon.” he winked as I watched him turn around and descend my porch steps to leave, whistling.
I was in deep trouble.
Chapter Four
Lindsey
I still remember the week Graham and I met for the first time – it still feels like yesterday when realistically it was nearly a decade ago. I was in my last semester at Boston University, graduating with dual Bachelor’s Degrees in Criminal Justice and Forensic Psychology. At the time, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with my new found knowledge because the possibilities were endless, but becoming a police officer seemed too risky and I didn’t want to go into law. The one thing I was sure of was that I wanted to help people who could not help themselves. Maybe it was the wrong course of study but I didn’t care. The only thing I cared about was graduating and getting out into the real world.
I was excited about the idea of being on my own and figuring out what life had in store for me. Up until then, I didn’t know much about the world other than what I was exposed to growing up – obligations, career, and college. Not necessarily in that order and I grew up believing, adventure wasn’t a realistic goal.
Despite being held back from my dreams, helping people was a necessity of mine including traveling and falling in love someday. Those were my biggest goals but also the areas I had the least experience in. I could count the number of boyfriends I’ve had on three fingers and they were all short lived and didn’t earn me bonus points to level up in life experience.
I was so naïve about the world and it wasn’t until I met Graham Reynolds a few years later, did everything change for me. I was very impressionable in my twenties around a man that was almost seven years older than I was. It sounded silly, of course, but at that age, anyone with a career, his own place and paid bills was way too mature and grown up for me to relate to. Graham was all of those things to me but he was so much more.
After graduation, I was lucky enough to get hired as an entry level Field Operative for Westfield and Hathaway, a financial auditing firm with an internal investigation department often dispatched for high profile cases. Those cases could be anything from embezzlement in the millions to misrepresentations of financial standings to stakeholders. In the middle of my first year with them, I was called in to assist with an investigation of a stem cell laboratory that was suspected of medical malpractice and insurance fraud.
I was asked, along with my colleague, Clay Clarkwell, to join one of their Field Supervisors from the New Jersey office to help him investigate the case. At the time, the Field Supervisor was known simply as ‘Reynolds’ instead of Graham Parker Reynolds whom I’ve always known him to be. It took me a long time to figure out that the ‘boys club’ often referred to each other by their last names and unless you were in the ‘boys club’, you wouldn’t know pertinent facts like that.
It was a Monday morning before Graham’s plane touched down in Boston and instead of taking a few hours to relax; Graham arrived at the office after checking into his hotel. I remember when they introduced Clay and I to him, the first thought I had was about his likeness to a Greek God because of his chiseled good looks. The masculinity under the powerful Armani suit already sent me over the edge. He was both intimidating and admirable but instead of getting to know us, he remained indifferent. He wanted to get to work right away and it didn’t help that Clay was his usual annoying self. I remember thinking back then that it was such a waste to be so good looking yet have such a serious personality. My girlfriends and I often texted snarky jokes to each other about Graham being so uptight.
A couple of hours after he arrived into town, Graham already wanted to get on the road towards Scranton, PA. It was a five-hour drive to Scranton and although we could have flown there like normal people, Graham preferred the long drive. He thought it would be better if Clay and I utilized the travel time listening to his theories about the case. It was a long drive indeed and despite my attempts at being witty and ignoring Clay, Graham would not let up on his indifference to our presence, if he wasn’t already being condescending. I was sure he was more than capable of doing everything himself so I wondered why they even bothered asking us to join him if he knew what he was supposedly doing.
Over the course of the week in Scranton, he would often mutter under his breath that we had got under his skin and we didn’t know what we were doing. To make matters worse, he wondered why Westfield and Hathaway hired us in the first place. I wanted to ask him the same thing. I didn’t know what his problem was, if he had a chip on his shoulder or what it was that we were doing wrong but he never gave us any clues. He would just walk away as if the question itself was a stupid thing to ask.
The more frustrated he became with Clay and I, the more frustrated I was with him. He was going to have to realize that this was not the way to pull the best out of people. Both Clay and I were new to all of this and were excited to accompany him because we wanted to learn things about the trade and not be insulted every chance he had.
On the last day of our business trip, the company car sounded like it was on the verge of quitting on us, so Graham made the decision to stop at a hotel for the night while he tried to get a nearby auto repair shop to look at the vehicle. He also told us that we needed to be ready to leave first thing in the morning. It did not bother me, as long as I had my own room to get away from both of them for a few hours then I was happy.
Nearly a decade ago…
“Why are we pulling into a hotel parking lot?” Clay took his earphones off and nudged me in the ribs.
“Didn’t you hear the engine? Never mind, of course you didn’t, you’ve had those damn things on the whole day.” I whispered back.
I wasn’t sure about Clay but the trip to Scranton all week was my version of hell. At first I was looking forward to spending time in the field with
one of the top operatives on the east coast but after spending seven excruciating days with his “highness” (and Clay), I just wanted nothing more than to just go home and spend the remainder of my weekend decompressing. Lord knows I needed it after spending so much time with these two idiots. Instead, I have to spend one more night in their company. The one positive aspect was that I’d get my own room away from the both of them.
“We’re staying here for the night. The engine is starting to make irregular sounds. I’m going to have to call the office and then get someone to take a look at it.” Graham said from the front seat before getting out of the sedan without us.
Were we supposed to come with him?
Graham must have heard my thoughts, “Are you two going to get out of the car or were you planning on sleeping in the back seat together all night?”
Lord help me. This trip needed to be over with and now.
“No, we’re coming out.”
“Sorry.” Clay apologized as we stepped out of the car on the opposite side while Graham walked towards the hotel entrance.
As we followed him into the hotel, I nudged Clay, “You don’t have to apologize to him.”
“I know I don’t, but he’s management. He has the ability to fire us if we screw up. Doesn’t he?”
“I don’t think so.” I said plainly.
“They trust him at least. If he gives us a bad recommendation, they’ll listen to him.”
“Just because he’s management, doesn’t mean you need to be scared of him nor does it mean we should bend over backwards for him or kiss his ass. Respect is earned and as far as I can tell, he hasn’t earned anything except my hatred and maybe a bag of burning dog shit on his porch, that’s if I knew where he lived. Besides, any company that would believe him over us isn’t worth being an employee at.” I muttered as we walked through the sliding glass doors into the air-conditioned lobby. Graham was already at the counter trying to sort everything out.
“Bitter much?” Clay asked.
“No, I’m not bitter, just be quiet. Don’t ruin the very last day for us. You already pissed him off more than your fair number of times this week and he’s taking it out on the both of us.”
“How was I supposed to know that the woman was the CEO of the company we’re investigating?” he shrugged.
“Doesn’t matter if she was the CEO or the cleaning crew, you aren’t supposed to be stirring up trouble while on the job, Clay. Shit, he is coming.”
“Took you guys long enough, here are your key cards. Meet back here at 0800. If either one of you are late, you are finding your own way back to Boston.” Graham said before heading back outside to make a phone call.
“Waitttttt, are we going to have dinner together? It’ll give us the chance to go over summary reports we’ll have to turn in. We could use your help and guidance.” I said.
“Ms. Dunn, I still have to deal with the car situation otherwise we will not be getting to Boston any time soon. I trust that you two can do the summary reports just fine on your own and that includes dinner plans.”
I wasn’t sure what came over me, whether it was the week long frustration buildup, the way he turned down dinner plans or whatever it was but I just couldn’t take it anymore. I was at my wit’s end and at the point where I did not care if I was fired. This job was not worth dealing with people like him.
“No.” I refused.
“What do you mean, no?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Lindsey, shut up.” Clay whispered.
“You heard me. I said, no.”
“Do you know that’s the kind of tantrum my 3-year-old nephew throws on a daily basis, Ms. Dunn.” he replied.
“The answer is still, no. Look, I don’t know what in the hell is wrong with you or what we did to have you hate us so much but Clay and I have done everything possible to please you this week and we have gotten nothing but shit in return.”
“As it should be.” was his only response.
“Who in the hell do you think you are? Just because you are some supervisor in another state I might add, does not give you the right to treat the both of us like we are nothing. Sure, Clay was annoying the entire time but we both deserve better treatment than what we’ve gotten this entire week.”
“Hey!” Clay whined at my sordid comment.
“We were both excited to be going on this business trip with you because we were finally allowed to be involved more than we have been and were going to work alongside with someone who is deemed the best in the east coast but you have done nothing to honor that reputation. I have no fucking idea why everyone thinks so highly of you, you pompous ass!” I yelled, probably a little too loudly.
I stormed out of the hotel lobby leaving that ingrate to himself and toward the elevators so I could head up to my room. Thankfully, Graham nor Clay followed, not that I cared. I didn’t even bother to look back.
I was definitely getting fired. If not today, then definitely by Monday morning. I guess I was going to have to spend the weekend job-hunting instead of going to yoga, having a hot bubble bath, or meditating. Also, my appetite was ruined. I wasn’t looking forward to the car ride tomorrow either, that’s if he didn’t take off without me. Was he a big enough ass to do something like that?
After an hour and a sorely needed warm bath, I sat in my hotel room clicking through the channels unsatisfied with a single show that was on. I was so heated, I couldn’t even enjoy relaxing on the biggest bed I’ve ever seen. I wasn’t normally this picky but my dissatisfaction had more to do with my frustration with Graham.
After thinking about what took place in the lobby, I realized I wasn’t wrong about what I said to him, but I was wrong about how I did it. Ass or not, he was management and if I couldn’t treat him with respect, I was no worse than him. I refused to apologize to him and if he bothered to care enough to not ditch me in the morning, I was going to do him a favor and keep quiet on the entire drive back to Boston.
I was starving though and I was desperate enough to call Clay’s room to see if he wanted to go to dinner, “Hello?”
“Hey Clay, it’s me Lindsey. I just wanted to see if you had dinner yet, I am starving. I was thinking of going downstairs to the restaurant if you wanted to come with me.”
“Graham bought me dinner.”
“What?”
“He came up a few minutes ago to drop off some takeout he picked up. He should be on his way to drop yours off. Hey Lindsey, I feel sorry for the guy, maybe we were too hard on him. Sure, he’s strict and intimidating but that’s part of the job right? When he gets up there you should be nicer to him. He could have let us starve or let us fend for ourselves but he didn’t, so he must care a little bit. It’s probably a peace offering.” Clay suggested.
“I’m not apologizing to that jerk.”
“Suit yourself but being bitter isn’t attractive nor is it healthy. Later.”
“Hey, wait. Ugh, he hung up.” I muttered to myself.
Before I had the chance to mull over and react to what Clay mentioned before he rudely hung up on me, there was a knock on my door. Was it Graham already? I got up slowly as the subsequent set of knocks rapt on my door, “Who is it?” I asked.
“Graham Reynolds,” he answered.
“What do you want? I told you I wasn’t interested in playing your games.” I said defiantly.
“Just open the door.”
“Just open the door? Unless you want to get ignored, I suggest you ask me again but one hundred times better than how you just said it.”
I heard a long heavy sigh before he replied again, “I have dinner if you would like some.”
“That’s not good enough nor was it nice. Try again.” I said
“You know what, it’s fine. It’s just…I have dinner, okay. If you aren’t hungry, then I can just go back to my own room.”
I opened the door quickly, “No, wait.”
There Graham stood out in the hallway with two plastic bags full of takeout. H
e did not look like a takeout kind of guy, “You really did bring dinner.”
“Did you think I was lying this whole time?”
“No…well, maybe.”
“So, are you going to let me in or did you plan on eating out here in the hallway?” he asked.
“Oh, sorry. Come in.” I stepped to the side. “I’m surprised you’re here.”
“Really?” he asked as he set the bags on the table next to the television.
“After what I said down in the lobby. I figured I was in deep for sure. I’m sorry about that by the way but I’m not sorry about what I said. You really need to be nicer to people, I don’t care who you are, no one deserved to be treated like shit every day.”
“Do you really think that ill of me?”
Chapter Five
Lindsey
“Just open the door.”
“Just open the door? Unless you want to get ignored, I suggest you ask me again but one hundred times better than how you just said it. We aren’t on work hours anymore as of one hour ago.” I refused to budge. Not after an entire week of hell alongside him. No thanks.
I heard a long heavy sigh before he replied again, “I brought dinner and it’s only take out. It is okay, though. If you aren’t hungry, I can just go back to my room and eat both.”
I made no move; I am not going to lose this battle even if I was starving.
“Alright, have it your way.” he said as he began to leave; his footsteps were faded down the hallway.
Fuck me.
I opened the door quickly, “No, wait. Graham!”
Graham stopped in his tracks a few yards away and turned around carrying two plastic bags full of takeout. He did not look like a takeout kind of person, “You really did bring dinner.”
“Of course I did, despite your theory on what constitutes as work hours; I am responsible for the both of you. Did you really think I was lying this whole time?”
Strange Love (Choose Yours Book 1) Page 4