By the next morning the plan was back on with renewed force.
I hadn’t meant to go back to it. Not really. The night before had made me question my motives. How important was this scheme anyway? I was going to all this trouble to win Bobby back just to please my parents, and spending time with Logan made me seriously question my logic in wanting Bobby back. I admit, my hormones may have had something to do with how I felt about Logan, but they were tingly with excitement and hard to ignore.
Until my dad called.
I don’t know why I didn’t let the call forward to my voicemail. Guess I was in a good mood and thought nothing could bring me down.
I should have known better.
I picked up the receiver on the second ring. “Marie speaking.”
“Hello, Marie.”
“Hey, Dad. What’s up?” Unusual for him to call me, much less call me at work, but in my upbeat frame of mind I didn’t think twice about it.
“Your mother and I have been trying to reach Jean for a couple of days now but keep getting her answering machine. Have you heard from her?”
My spirits drooped a little. Jean again. “Uh, I spoke to her last night.”
It wasn’t a lie. I did speak to her. I just didn’t tell him it was face to face.
“Hmmm.” I could hear him rolling that tidbit of information over in his brain. “This is unlike her.”
I heard the faint worry in his voice; I felt bad for contributing to it, but I’d promised Jean. As a concession, I said, “Want me to pass her a message when I talk to her next?”
“Yes.” His relief made me feel like I made the right decision. “Tell her to call her mother or me. And tell her I’m going to a children’s fundraiser the Sunday after her party and wanted to know if she wants to come along.”
I waited for him to ask me if I wanted to come along, too. Each second that ticked by made me realize how silly I was for expecting that. He wanted to spend time with Jean, his favorite daughter.
“I better let you get back to work. You should come to dinner soon, Marie.”
“Yeah, Dad. Sure.” I mumbled by goodbyes and hung up, my chest heavy. Would it have been so terrible for him to ask me if I wanted to come along, too?
As if my morning hadn’t been absolute crap--- at least after my dad called and burst my bubble—I looked up to see Warren heading down the hall straight for me.
Shit. I glanced under my desk, knowing it was too late to duck. If I saw him, he saw me. So I sighed and gathered my courage. By the time he got to me, I had a mild smile pasted on my face. “Hey, Warren.”
“There she is. Just the woman I wanted.”
I flushed. At least he could have tempered it with a ‘to see’ at the end. But he did it deliberately if his cocked eyebrow was any indication.
Please, God, don’t let anyone else have heard. I did a quick scan of my work area. Several of the other programmers had popped their heads over their cubicles and were smirking at me. Guess I wasn’t that lucky.
He sat on the edge of my desk and it creaked so ominously that I thought it was going to collapse under the pressure--- it was only made of plywood, after all. Then he leaned toward me in an attempt for a kiss.
“Warren!” I pushed him back and he fell of his perch.
So I pushed him a little too hard. I didn’t feel bad about it in the least, mostly because he was making a spectacle of me in front of my peers. All the other programmers were watching with interest and whispering now.
“Come on, Marie.” Warren got to his knees, rubbing his butt, and crawled toward me. “Just one kiss. I’m dying here.”
I stuck out my booted foot to stop him from advancing. It hit his chest and, thank God, he halted. “You know I’m not that kind of girl,” I hissed through my teeth, conscious of all the interested stares we were getting.
He grabbed my ankle and pulled, which made my chair roll toward him. “Come on. Just one.” His eyes lit with an unholy gleam. “Unless you want to go back to your electronics closet.”
“It’s called a server room.” At least he could get his terminology right. I used my other leg to push away from him. “And I’m not going anywhere with you. Let go of my leg.”
He tugged me closer. “Then promise you’ll go out with me.”
“No.” No way was I going to be intimidated into a date I didn’t want.
“I won’t leave until you agree.” His fingers started to slide up the leather of my boot, slipping under my pant leg.
I yelped when I felt him brush my skin. “Fine! Okay. I’ll go out with you. Call me tonight.”
“No.”
I blinked.
He smiled knowingly. “You never answer your phone. We’re setting a date now.”
Sigh. “When?”
“Friday.”
“I can’t. My sister’s in town.”
His smile grew. “Bring her along.”
That was actually a great idea. I could pass Jean off to him. I beamed. “That’s great. Friday. Meet me at Jubilee’s. Nine o’clock.”
He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Is your sister a dog?”
“Hell, no. She’s beautiful.”
I guess my answer was firm enough that it appeased him. “Jubilee’s on Friday.” He gave me a look that had promise oozing out of it. “I can’t wait.”
As soon as his back was to me, I crossed my eyes. I watched him walk away, mostly to make sure he wouldn’t jump out and attack me when I wasn’t looking.
“Hey, Marie. What are you? Human catnip?”
I looked up to see the guys all grinning at me. The blue glow of their monitors made them all look demented. I did the only thing I could do. I stuck my tongue out at them.
“Oh, yeah, baby. More,” one of them groaned, and they all laughed.
I made a rude gesture with my middle finger and tried to ignore them the rest of the afternoon.
By six, I was so ready to go home. If I had to endure one more joke, I wouldn’t be responsible for what would happen to the engineering team. Two words: ‘semiautomatic rifle’. I grabbed my stuff and took off for the bus stop.
The bus was late. I stood outside in the drizzle for fifty-three minutes before one showed up. By the time I got home I was pissy and looking forward to a soothing, quiet bath. But then I remembered Jean was here.
“Shit,” I muttered under my breath. I was so not into dealing with her tonight. But I had to, because I needed my computer and it was in the room she commandeered. Maybe I’d get lucky and she’d be out.
Heading back down the stairs, I quickly unlocked the door in the off chance she’d notice and then took the stairs two at a time. “Jeannie! You home?”
“Don’t call me Jeannie,” came the faint reply.
When I got to the top of the stairs I looked left and right. Where the hell was she? I strode down the hall to the bathroom. As I reached for the door, it swung open.
We both shrieked. Jean jumped back until she was pressed against the counter, her hand on her heart.
“Oh my God, Marie! Can’t you make a little noise?”
“I did. And you replied.” My sister’s intelligence was overrated at time if you asked me.
“That’s not what I meant.”
Frankly, I didn’t care what she meant. I needed out of my damp clothes. I strode to my room, closed the door, and stripped. Wrapping myself in my terrycloth robe, I thought about how I could get closer to Bobby. Seeing me with Logan seemed to work really well. He’d practically been frothing, he was so disgruntled at the gym. I needed to engineer more of that.
I needed to get him to run into Logan and me.
But to do that, I needed to know his every move. Which meant I needed my computer.
After I bunched my hair into a ponytail and took several calming breaths, I left the bedroom. “Jeannie!”
“Don’t call me Jeannie.”
The placid reply came from the living room, so that’s where I headed. She sat on the couch, the TV on, watching some sort of science program.
I cleared my throat. “I need to use my computer for a while.”
She gave me a sidelong glance. “Are you asking my permission?”
“It’s in my office, which you’ve commandeered.”
“Oh. Yes. Go ahead. I’m thinking of going out for dinner anyway.”
By herself? I almost felt bad enough to suggest going with her. Almost. I came to my senses as soon as I opened my mouth. I couldn’t imagine anything more excruciating than spending an hour with her one-on-one.
Before could get myself into trouble, I hustled into my office and closed the door.
Then I screamed.
Jean burst through the door. “What?”
The door whacked my butt and set me sailing onto the bed.
“What is it?” Jean brandished the remote control. “Is there someone in here with you?”
“Someone’s broken in and robbed me!” I wailed. “My furniture’s all wrong.”
“Oh, is that all?” She dropped her arm. “I rearranged a few things.”
“My furniture?” I scowled at her. “Where’s the crate that had all my old magazines?”
She shrugged. “I recycled them for you when I was cleaning up the room.”
“Cleaning up my room?” I looked around. Shit. She’d messed up my entire office. I rushed to my computer. “What happened to my desk?”
“I cleared the top and wiped it down.”
“But all my papers… My notes… My stuff…” I looked around for them, but all I saw was my keyboard and trackball neatly centered on the desktop. I bet if I pulled out a ruler, they’d be perfectly centered on the monitor.
“I went through all the papers and filed them,” Jean said proudly.
I goggled at her. Was I supposed to be happy about that? “They were already filed and in order.”
She frowned. “They were all over your desk.”
“They were in order all over my desk. How am I going to find anything now?” I put a hand to my forehead and willed myself to calm down. This wasn’t important. I needed to concentrate on Bobby.
Then I saw them. Blank walls.
I gasped. “Where are my posters?”
“Oh, I took those down.”
I clenched my fists so I wouldn’t wrap them around her neck. “They were vintage MacGyver posters. Originals. You can’t find posters like that anymore.” I took a deep breath. “Tell me you didn’t throw them away.”
“They were scruffy,” she said defensively.
“Tell me you didn’t throw them away.”
“Fine.” She huffed. “I rolled them up and put them under the bed.”
I dropped to my knees and looked under the bed. Wilting in relief when I found them, I cradled them to my arms and got to my feet. “I can’t believe you took down MacGyver.”
She waved the remote at my bundle. “I can’t believe you’re still into that. You should have outgrown it by now.”
I narrowed my eyes and shifted so she couldn’t touch my posters. She’d better not disparage MacGyver. Then it registered that she was wielding a remote control. “What were you going to do with that? Turn the burglar off?”
She looked down at it and blushed. “I thought you were in trouble. Obviously I shouldn’t have bothered.” She turned on her heels and marched out.
“Yeah, you shouldn’t have,” I called after her, talking more about cleaning my office than her coming to my rescue. Though that was pretty ludicrous in itself.
I set down the posters on the floor next to my desk and wiggled the trackball until my computer came to life. Before I began doing anything, I took a moment to center myself. Primary objective: I needed to know where Bobby was going to be to bump into him while I was with Logan.
I tapped a finger against my lips. What was the best way to do that? I opened a browser and pulled up his Web site, but there wasn’t any information on what he’d be doing in the next few days. Emails. He and his new girlfriend probably emailed at least some of their plans. It was the only way he ever communicated with me. His cell phone was purely for business.
I shook my head. Reading other people’s emails wasn’t right. Not to mention that willfully trespassing into someone else’s server was a touch illegal. Felony, anyone? But I was only going to look at a couple of Bobby’s emails. Not even look, just glance. I wasn’t going to tamper, and they wouldn’t be able to trace it back to me (yes, I’m that good). It wouldn’t do any harm.
“I shouldn’t do this,” I said finally.
And then I opened a terminal emulator and started the relatively simple process of hacking into the email server. The security on his company’s mail server was a joke, and I got in way too easily. It almost negated my guilt, because if you’re gong to make it that easy, you deserve to have your server messed with.
I made quick work of Bobby’s recent emails, skimming through until I found one dated this morning.
Rubbing the tip of my nose, I squashed another wave of guilt and opened it.
Subject: Hi Honey!
I had a great time last night. Dinner was so great—I LOVE Henry’s. Maybe next time we go I can ask the chef how to make that mousse thing with the cheese.
But do you know the best part about last night? When you kissed me goodnight at my door. It was SOO romantic! I thought I was going to ooze out from my toes.
I’ve got to get back to work. I’ll miss you tonight! I’ll think about you every second we’re part. Will you call me when you get home?
X O X O
Kitty
Blech. Ooze out her toes? I was tempted to email her myself and recommend a doctor for that.
And she was delusional if she thought Bobby was going to call her tonight. He was abysmal on the phone unless it had to do with work, and then he could be on it for hours. Maybe she’d get fed up with him and dump him
“It’d make my life easier,” I murmured. One thing was certain: if he kissed her at the door, they weren’t having sex. Another plus. It meant a) they weren’t that close yet and b) Bobby hadn’t had sex in weeks. That’d make him susceptible.
I pursed my lips thoughtfully as I opened his reply.
Subject: Hi back
Sweet Blossom,
I’m glad you like Henry’s so much. It’s my favorite restaurant. Would you like to have dinner at my place tomorrow night? I can get take-out from Henry’s.
I can’t wait to kiss you again. And your toes. Did I mention how adorable they are? Like little candies. I could just eat them up.
I have meetings all day into the evening. Call you when I get home around ten-thirty tonight.
Love,
Bobby
Sweet blossom? he never called me any endearments. Pout. He obviously liked her a lot. He signed his email ‘love’. I’d been lucky if he took the time to type his name. And the whole thing with the toes was just plain unsanitary.
But at least now I knew that they were having dinner at his place tomorrow. It was a start.
One question: What excuse did I use for going over to his house?
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Author's Chapter Notes:
This one is a little short, but it's neccessary in the developement of the story line. Now that I've got a feel for what I'm doing, I'm trying to move the characters along a bit so that I can get into more of the Logan/Marie goodness that we all enjoy so much.