Exquisite (42 page)

Dr Lena O’Donnell:
Yes it did.

Ok, the note wasn’t signed.

Dr Lena O’Donnell:
Well I thought it would be obvious, Casanova :P

Grinning from ear to ear he wrote
back. To
answer your question, from what I remember, yes you are very juicy.

There was a pause. A minute or
maybe two passed and then the phone buzzed in his hand.

Dr Lena O’Donnell:
Do you still like peaches?

Frowning at the phone he typed.
What
are you asking?

Dr Lena O’Donnell:
Did you enjoy the peach this morning? Or didn’t you eat it?

Of course I ate it, my doctor
told me to.

Dr Lena O’Donnell:
Your
doctor huh?

He paused and then wrote quickly,
You
know what I mean.

There was silence for about five
minutes before the little light on his phone lit up.

Dr Lena O’Donnell:
I could be your doctor. If you wanted me to be.

Lena….

Dr Lena O’Donnell:
Yes Mason?

He tapped his leg having completely
forgotten the program on the televising and wrote back.
Were you really in
my bed last night?

Dr Lena O’Donnell:
Yes.

Were you really naked?

Dr Lena O’Donnell:
Yes.

Did I really just fall asleep
with your arms wrapped around me and your breasts all up on my back?

Pause. Long pause.

Dr Lena O’Donnell:
Yes and my hands were right above your naked cock.

Did you just write the word
cock
to me?

Dr Lena O’Donnell:
Yes.

You’re trying to drive me crazy,
right?

Dr Lena O’Donnell:
Is it working?

He took a deep breath and leaned
back on the couch closing his eyes and then typed.
I think it is.

Dr Lena O’Donnell:
Good
J

So Lena, other than driving me
crazy, is there a reason you’re blowing up my phone?

He was sure she would get angry at
him but he was once again proven wrong.

Dr Lena O’Donnell:
Well I figured you wouldn’t let me blow anything else so this is what I’m going
with.

Letting out a laugh he reached up
and wiped a tear from his eye. He was sitting on his couch in the middle of the
afternoon and he was the happiest he’d been in a long time.

I’m going to be at Exquisite
tonight. Come?
He waited, wondering what she’d do. Did she mean everything
she’d said to him last night? He wanted her to show him. He wanted to believe
in her again, in them.

Dr Lena O’Donnell:
I’ll come to Exquisite but there’ll be no other sort of coming.

Feeling his smile grow he wrote
back,
Tease :P

Dr Lena O’Donnell:
Not always
J

So 8?

Dr Lena O’Donnell:
Don’t know. I’ll see you when I get there.

Frowning at that reply he ended the
text with a,
K
and then turned off his phone.

Lena sat in her car at 10pm in the
Exquisite
parking lot. She’d thought long and hard about what she was about to do and honestly
she didn’t think she’d be able to pull it off, but at this stage she was
willing to try anything, she just hoped he was there. Getting out she made her
way around to the entrance in the back of the building and knocked twice. Wendy
opened it and looked down at her standing on the bottom step under the
floodlight.

“Is he here?”

Nodding Wendy grinned and pulled
her inside. “Yep he came in at 6.30pm just like he use to. I don’t know what
you did but he’s different tonight. More like himself.”

Shaking her head Lena moved past
and said softly, “I didn’t do anything except annoy him last night and tell him
to straighten up.”

“Well whatever you did, it’s
working.” She pulled her into the hall and pushed her down to the office where
her and Mason had had their first date. “You go on in and I’ll send him back in
around ten minutes?”

Nodding Lena smiled tentatively,
starting to feel nervous. “Yeah that should be good.”

Stepping inside and closing the
door behind her she looked around the small office. Not much had changed, the
desk and chair were still the same and there was still paperwork everywhere.
She moved around to the chair behind the desk and cleared off the surface.
Taking a deep breath she started pulling things one by one out of the bag she
had brought with her and started to set up.

Mason felt good. It was the first
night he’d come back and worked the restaurant like he use to. He’d arrived at
6.30pm and everyone had been shocked when he walked in dressed for work in the
charcoal slacks and black button up shirt with the
Exquisite
logo. For
the last two hours or so he’d been up at the pass verifying, and looking over
the orders. He felt like he’d come home. Rachel had hugged him when he’d come
in and she cried a little when he apologized to her, then she’d nodded and told
him to get to work. So that’s what he’d been doing. He was about to check over
the last order to be sent out for the night when Wendy came up beside him.

“Hey Mase?”

Turning he looked at her and winced
a little. “Hey Wendy.” he paused and shrugged, “I’m sorry I’ve been such a
shit.”

Smiling at him she nodded. “Apology
accepted. You really have been a shit, but I guess that’s what family does
right? We forgive one another?”

He reached out and hugged her. “Yep
we do.” Nodding and hugging him back she smiled up at him as he asked. “What’s
up?”

“I left some paperwork down in your
office in a manila folder, could you go and grab it for me?”

He stepped back and went to turn,
then stopped himself and said softly, “I’m expecting Lena tonight. Can you grab
me when she gets here?”

Wendy smiled and nodded. He walked
away hoping Lena was going to show and suddenly worried for a moment that she
wouldn’t. Moving down the hall he made the turn to the left and stopped at his
door unlocking it. Then he pushed it open and walked through. Turning he
flicked on the light and what he saw as he turned back to face his desk made
his heart kick up and beat so fast he thought it would pump right out of his
chest. Lena had come after all.

L
ena watched as Mason’s eyes tried to take it all
in. She’d removed everything from his work desk and placed an old picnic
blanket over it. On one corner of the desk was a red rose and on the opposite
corner lay a sunflower and she was she was sitting right in the center of them
with her legs hanging over the edge clutching some tulips. She was dressed in
the same pants she had worn on their first date. They were black with a
pinstripe and on top she wore a cream blouse that buttoned up to just under her
neck and tucked into her pants. Purposely, she had pulled all her hair back and
tied it into a prim bun at the nape of her neck and beside her sat a small
picnic basket. Her eyes were glued to him as he looked over everything without
moving a muscle. Finally he faced her and their eyes locked.

“Lena. I thought we’d be meeting
out in the dining room.” he paused, “How’d you get back here?”

Taking all of her courage in her
hands, knowing this was probably one of the most important moments of her life,
she tipped her chin up and answered.

“Wendy let me in. I wanted to talk
to you.” she stopped and licked her lips, “I hope you don’t mind.”

Shaking his head she noticed he was
about to move so she held a hand up and said softly. “Please stay where you
are. I need to tell you some things and I don’t think I can do it if you come
any closer.”

He swallowed then nodded silently,
keeping his eyes on her. Then he asked, “What is all of this?”

Smiling at him slowly she jumped
down off the table and place the tulips where she’d been sitting. She could
feel his eyes on her as she turned and reached for the red rose. Taking hold of
it she brought it to her nose and took a deep breath inhaling the beautiful
scent, then she walked over stopping a few inches from him and as she looked up
into his eyes she felt her heart ache with how much she loved him. It was time
to set that free, to lay all her cards on the table and let him do what he
would with them. He’d either pick them up and hold them close or he’d throw
them away. She was hoping he’d hold her close.

“Our lives have been filled with
flowers, you and me, from the very beginning. A year or so ago I met a man.”
she watched as he started to say something but she held the rose up and placed
the petals against his mouth and watched as they lay against his lips. “Shh.
Let me get this out, or I never will.”

He took a deep breath and nodded
letting her know he was ready for her to go on. Pulling the flower back she
lifted her eyes to his again and continued.

“He was sent over to deliver me
some roses.” she grinned up at him and held the rose between them twirling it
back and forward. “He was the most
irritating
man I’d ever met and he
drove me crazy that day.”

He blinked down at her but remained
silent as she’d asked.

“I remember thinking about him
after he left and how gorgeous his blue eyes were, even when he was annoying
the hell out of me.”

She dropped the rose down by her
side and tilted her head.

“Then I ran into him by accident, in
this restaurant. It just so happened he owned it and he smiled at me and pulled
out those dimples and blackmailed me into a date.”

His mouth opened and he said
softly, “It wasn’t blackmail.”

Lena felt a grin tug at her mouth,
“Yes it was. You told me you wouldn’t spit in my food if I went on a date with
you. Such a romantic Langley.”

“Me? You Googled me.” he defended
with the start of a smirk.

Shrugging Lena turned and walked
back over to the table where she placed the rose back down. Reaching out she opened
the picnic basket and pulled out a bottle of wine. Looking over her shoulder
she was surprised to notice Mason had stayed by the door. The only difference
now was that he was leaning back against it and his ankles were crossed.
Pouring some of the liquid into a paper cup she moved back to him letting her
eyes take him in. When she stopped just a little out of reach he arched a brow
and she held out the cup.

“Our first date was a disaster. I
was wearing this.” She said motioning to her clothes, “What was I thinking?
Then you kicked me out. The second date though. Hmm” she hummed closing her
eyes thinking about sticky kisses. Then she opened them and focused on his
mouth and when her eyes raised to meet his she was happy to see his lids had
lowered just a little.

“What about the second date?” he
asked with that deep voice that seemed to stroke over her skin.

Grinning at him she replied, “The
second date was
juicy
.”

He nodded slowly, liking that
answer and she noticed a twinkle started in those blue eyes. Looking down at
the cup in his hand he asked, “Are you trying to get me drunk?”

Lifting a shoulder she shrugged and
asked, “Would it work?”

“Judging by lately, probably.
However, my choice of drink is usually scotch not wine these days.”

“Hmm.” she said nodding, “Well I
think maybe you should try that one. It’s good I’m told.”

Bringing the cup up to his mouth he
took a sip and she watched his face morph into an expression of someone who
looked like he’d just sucked a lemon. She gave him props for not spitting it
out but then she started to laugh.

“Just reminding myself of how you
wooed me on our picnic.”

“Augh!” he said as he looked at her
with a look of absolute disgust, “That wine is disgusting.”

She laughed as she turned and
walked back to the table. Looking over her shoulder she said softly, “Well you
picked it.”

“Geez, seriously that is horrible.
I can’t believe you remembered it.”

Reaching up she tugged the elastic
from her hair and let it tumble down her back. Shaking it out she looked at him
once more and replied with a wink, “Well it does leave a lasting impression.”

His eyes roved over her and she
wasn’t sure what he was referring to when he murmured, “That it does.”

Mason’s brain was trying really
hard to stay focused. When he’d stepped into his office he’d been blown away by
the scene in front of him. There sitting on his desk was the Lena he’d first
met. The woman who had crawled in under his skin and somehow burrowed deep into
his heart.

The hair was perfectly severe, the
clothes were so proper and so incredibly buttoned up, he was going crazy
thinking about her in the mini skirt from the other night and comparing the
two. Somewhere along the way during their relationship, Lena had relaxed. She’d
come undone. However, as she stood in front of him reminding him of all the
things that had brought them together and as she shook that long beautiful hair
out and down her back, his mind went blank.

He dropped the now empty paper cup
on the floor and watched her reach out and pick up the sunflower. Turning to
him he saw her green eyes were wide and serious as she moved toward him. He
straightened up against the door, and straddled his legs apart slightly, but
other than that stayed glued to the spot, since it seemed to be working for
them, and waited. When she got to him she reached out like a little girl and
held out the sunflower. He gently reached forward and took it from her and she
smiled up at him and he felt his walls crashing down. Her eyes showed him how
much she trusted him and the words that came out of her mouth confirmed it.