Revelation: A Contemporary Erotic Romance (Iris Series) (33 page)

“Of course not.  Your work ethic is incredible.  I’m not talking about that.  I’m talking about you.”  His eyes looked concerned.  “You look sad, Em.  I don’t know what the cause of it is and I’m not asking you to confide in me, but I want you to just take Monday to do something fun.  Go to a movie, shop, call some friends…or one friend in particular.”  He let his voice hang.

What the hell?  Don’t cry, Em.

“There’s no need for me to take off, Joe.  Everything is fine.  I’ll see you Monday.”  She got up to go.

“Sit.”

She looked at him and did as he asked, swallowing convulsively to stop the emotion from choking her.

“I don’t want to see you on Monday.  Work from home if that makes you feel better, but take the day and rest.”

She could feel the unshed tears burning behind her eyelids and blinked furiously.

“I’d rather keep busy, Joe,” she whispered then looked down.  She couldn’t make eye contact with him.

She heard him sigh.  “Text me Sunday night to let me know what you’re gonna do, but know you can stay home if you need to, okay?”

She nodded and got up to leave.

“And Em?”

She looked at his face lit up with concern.

“We care about you here.  If you ever need anything,” he began.

“Thanks, Joe.  For being a great boss and a great guy.”

He smiled and waved her off.  “Yeah, yeah.  Go find me a boyfriend,” he said with sarcasm.

That made her laugh.

“That’s what we like to hear.  Now get lost,” he said dryly.

“Have a good weekend,” she said, then left.

As she was walking back to her office to grab her things and call it a night, Ollie was standing by Terrence’s desk talking to him.  When he saw her approach, he said goodbye to Terrence and walked over to her.

“Hey, Emily.”

“Hey, Ollie.  I haven’t talked to you in a while,” she said with a tired smile.  “How ya doin’?”

“Good.  I was wondering, um, are you headed home?” he stammered.

He was going to ask her out.  She just knew it.

“Yeah.  I’m feeling a little tired and was gonna crash.”

“You still datin’ that cop?”

His question nearly caused her to double over in pain.  “What?  No, no.  We weren’t really, uh.”  She shook her head.  “What’s this about Ollie?”

Terrence was trying to appear like he wasn’t listening, but Emily knew he was listening to every single word.

“Come into my office,” Emily said with exasperation.

Ollie followed her in and when she was at her desk shutting things down, he said, “I was just wondering if you wanted to get a cup of coffee or something?  Grab a bite to eat.” 

She looked up at him.  He was red in the face but didn’t look away.  She remembered when he asked her to the art showing, he was a determined young man and it wasn’t always easy to say no to him.

She sighed.  Maybe she should just go out for something to eat with him.  She’d been laying low and staying in her apartment every evening.  She needed to get out and live again, right?

She didn’t want to lead him on though. 

“Well,” she began.  “I suppose we both need to eat.”

He smiled.  “Yeah, we do.”

“Listen, Ollie.  You know how much I like you.  We had fun at the art showing -”

“But you’re not interested in me that way,” he finished for her.

She gave him a sympathetic look and said, “No.  I’m not interested in you in that way.  But if you would be okay with going out as friends, I think that would be nice.”

He nodded, processing what she said.  Then after a moment of self-reflection, he shrugged and smirked.  “I’ll take what I can get.  What kinda food are ya in the mood for?”

……

Emily and Ollie sat in a booth eating Thai food at the place Ayanna always recommended.  Perhaps it was selfish of her, but Emily was really missing Mike and this place made her feel closer to him.

“This place has great food,” Ollie said in between bites, his tall lanky form slouched slightly on the bench seat.

“Yeah, my cousin’s girlfriend loves this place.  You met her at the art showing, remember?  Her name’s Ayanna and she was wearing a really pretty sari.  She was the one you helped me with.”

He nodded.  “I remember.  She’s hot,” he smiled.

“Yup,” Emily smiled back.  “That’s our Yan.  Definitely a hottie.”

“She was the reason I got that date with you,” he chuckled.

Emily laughed.  “Yeah, I guess you can say that.”

He looked like he was thinking back to that night and narrowed his eyes.  “She was a chef, right?  Writes the food blog.  That’s where that harassing message went to.”

“Yeah,” Emily said before taking another bit of food.  After swallowing, she said, “She and another girlfriend of mine run a catering business,
The Local Yokel.
”  Emily tried not to think too long about Janie, which inevitably led her to thinking of Mike.

“That’s cool.”

The bells attached to the restaurant door jingled as a laugh sounded and someone walked in.  Emily looked up and swallowed hard. 

Shit.
  It was Ayanna and Jonathan.  They all saw each other at the same time.

Both Yan and Jonathan couldn’t ho
ld back their look in Ollie’s direction, both of them looking at Emily with interest and raised eyebrows.

Double Shit.

Of course they walked over.

“Well hello over here,” Ayanna said, giving Emily a big squeeze, followed by her cousin.

“Hey,” Emily said amidst the hugs.  When they were done, she said, “You both remember Ollie?  Yan, Ollie was the guy who -”

“Of course I remember Ollie.  It’s good to see you again,” Ayanna said with sincerity.

They all shook hands and there was a beat of awkward silence before Ayanna continued speaking, “So glad you took my recommendation to heart.  This place is great, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Emily answered.  “Ollie popped by my office as I was leaving and we decided to grab a bite to eat,” Emily explained.  Her cousin gave her a look.  It spoke volumes.

The first volume said,
Is this the kinda guy you’re looking at for a serious relationship?

Emily ignored his look and spoke to Ayanna.  “So I’ll see you guys for brunch tomorrow, right?”

“That’s the plan,” she smiled.  “It’ll be nice for the girls to get together.”  Ayanna gave her a pointed look.  “We have so much to talk about.”

Emily’s eyes skittered away.  “Yeah,” she said with an overly bright smile.  “It’ll be fun.”  She looked at Jon, willing them to move along.  “So you two are obviously here to pick up dinner?”

“Yeah.  Actually let me go grab that,” Jon said and walked up to the counter.

“So, Ollie,” Ayanna beamed.  “Have you saved any more women from cyber stalkers lately?” 

“Nope.  Just you,” he smiled awkwardly.

“Well, I’m eternally grateful to you.”

“He’s our go-to IT guy,” Emily said.

“How’s your cooking business?” Ollie asked.

“Things are wonderful, thanks for asking.”

“Ollie’s thinking about being one of the guy mentors for the program,” Emily said.

“Yeah?  You should talk to Jon!” 

Jonathan was on his way back to them when he heard Ayanna’s words.

“Talk to me about what?”

“Ollie is thinking about joining the mentoring group.”

“Maybe for next semester,” Ollie said quickly.  “I wanna see how it looks first.”

“Cool,” Jon said.  “You should come check it out this fall sometime.  We’re meeting with students starting in the beginning of October.”

“I’ll do that.”

“Alright, babe.  Let’s leave these two to their dinner,” Jon said, putting his arm around Ayanna’s waist and pulling her close.  “Have a good night tonight, guys.” He leaned down to kiss Em on the cheek then whispered in her ear dryly, “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

Emily cleared her throat to cover her desire to growl at him.  “See you tomorrow, Yan.”

“Can’t wait,” she said with exuberance.

As they left, Emily mentally groaned.  She knew when they got her alone, they were gonna be all over this.

……

Saturday morning came quickly.  After she got home from dinner with Ollie, Emily had worked out a bit in her apartment, then spent time spinning ideas about a mentoring program for girls.  Rene had left her a message saying that she’d called Kevin’s mom, but unfortunately had to leave a voicemail since there’d been no answer.

The irony wasn’t lost on her that if she’d had something like a girls’ mentoring program growing up like the one she was thinking about, she might not have let her own insecurities get in the way of this relationship with Mike.  Every time his face slipped into her psyche, which was about every other minute, her stomach twisted.  It didn’t make for a very comfortable existence. 

She was depressed and it was digging its ugly claws into her, but she was determined to fight it off.  A little extra cover up under the eyes would do the trick.

At 10:30am, she headed over to the restaurant that the girls had chosen and found them already sipping mimosas at a back table.  A genuine smile appeared on her lips for the first time in nearly two weeks.  It was good to see them.  They were a g
reat group of women and she knew she could talk to them if she needed to. 

Maybe I should just ask them for some feedback.

“Wow, hon,” Ayanna said, giving her a critical once over.  “It’s not even 11 in the morning and you already look like you could use a drink.  What time did Ollie keep you out ’til last night?”

Emily sat down in the empty chair between Ayanna and Ryann.

“Alright,” she scolded.  “It wasn’t like that and you know it.  And I thought I looked pretty good this morning,” she said dryly and accepted the flute filled with champagne and orange juice that was being handed to her.

“We wanna hear more about Ollie,” Ryann said with a gleam in her eye.

“Trust me, girls, there is absolutely nothing to tell.  He knows I don’t think of him that way.  We just went to grab some dinner.  That’s it.”  Her stomach twisted.  Just thinking of her with a man other than Mike made her feel sick.

They all looked at her and looked vaguely disgruntled they weren’t getting any more dirt.  Once they were all seated, Ryann raised her glass indicating a toast. 

“To love,” she said.

Janie, Tiffany and Emily groaned while Yan barked out a laugh.

Ryann grumbled good-naturedly.  “Oh alright,” she said with a roll of the eyes.  “But we’re determined to snag you guys into the fold one of these days.  Okay.  How about to friendship?  To a bunch of incredible women who love each other dearly.”

“Hear, hear,” Tiffany said and they all took gulps of their drinks.

They talked about fashion, politics, exercise, food cravings. 

Ayanna announced she would be starting another 40 day fast, this time ‘fasting’ from saying the F word.  Everyone laughed and wished her luck.

Emily and Tiffany discussed the potential girls’ mentoring program.   

And once they were finally digging into their food, the conversation inevitably turned toward men.  Emily inwardly sighed.  It was bound to happen when a bunch of straight women were together.

Janie declared that she and Detective Fernandez had decided to give it a rest.  When pushed on the subject, she just said there hadn’t been a love connection.

All eyes then pointed in Tiffany’s direction. 

“Don’t look at me,” she said.  “There’s nothing goin’ on here.”

“There could be if you wanted,” Emily interjected.

Tiffany sighed.  “I’m thinking about it.”

When all of the girls asked for the dirt, Tiffany told them what had happened at the barbeque with Drew and her cancellation of the date. 

“Call him!” Ayanna practically screeched.

Tiffany laughed.  “Like I said, I’m thinking about it.”

“So, I’d like to know what happened after the barbeque on Labor Day from another woman sitting at this table,” Janie said turning her eyes on Emily.  “I believe my brother was to take you home, Miss Emily.”  Janie looked innocently at her.

“Yeah.  Spill it, Em,” Ayanna said.  “If you’re not giving us any dirty details on Ollie, then there’s gotta be something about Mike you can share.”

“Nothing to see here, girls.  Move along,” she joked trying to hide her nerves by twisting her napkin to shreds in her lap.

“You know, I talked to him a couple of days ago,” Janie said in a serious tone.  “He nearly took my head off when I told him how miserably depressed he sounded.”  Janie gave Emily a pointed look.  “It worried me, actually.  I’ve never heard him so down.  You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

“He was working on a case.  I’m sure he was just worried about it.  You know, he has a really tough job.  We shouldn’t expect that he’s always gonna be happy when he’s gotta look at the underbelly of the world all of the time.  He has a huge responsibility as a detective.”  She knew she sounded defensive, but everyone should cut him some slack.