Microsoft Word - T108JustDesserts.doc (16 page)

in her hand. “You are not going to believe it. I just got a box

of chocolates.”

“What kind?” Donna asked.

“The good kind,” Grace answered happily, the kind that

cost far too much and meant someone really cared when he

gave it to you.

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Cat Johnson

“Oooo! Is there a card?”

Grace reached into the envelope and felt around. “No,

nothing.” And then another email arrived. She opened it with

slightly shaking hands. “Oh my god. I just got another email.

It says,
Told you to expect the unexpected. From the surprise

on your face, I see my sweet little gift was indeed

unexpected.
Do you know what that means, Don? He must

be right here in this office!”

“You’re right. How else could he know when you

received it and that you were surprised? Holy cow. This is

crazy. It’s the most excitement we’ve had since the shooting,

and that wasn’t fun like this is.” Donna sounded as excited

as Grace felt. “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know.”

“You need to send him a thank you note…I mean

email.” Donna always had been the queen of the thank you

note.

“What do I say?” Grace hit
reply
and sat, fingers ready

on the keyboard.

“Um, how about
Loved your gift. Please come and

introduce yourself and I will thank you in person
.”

“Oooo. That’s good! A little flirty while still getting the

job done.” Grace typed the message in and hit
send
, heart

pounding all the while.

Barely seconds later the reply came. “Oh my god. He

wrote back!” she told Donna.

“What does it say?”

“He wrote
Oh, no. You can’t expose the identity of your

secret admirer that easily. You will just have to wait
. That’s

it. That’s all it says.” Grace sighed as her heart fluttered in

her chest.

“You have to keep trying to get clues out of him. Ask

him questions that might help you figure out his identity.”

As per usual, Donna was taking this mystery very seriously,

grabbing hold of the situation with both hands and

investigating just like she did when Jade had suspected

Daniel of cheating. No wonder Donna was so into Sam the

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private investigator. The two thought alike.

“I will. Ah, shit. I have to be in court in fifteen minutes.

I have to run. I’ll talk to you later.” Grace grudgingly shut

down her computer and all of her admirer’s messages.

“You better call me later! I’ll come up with some

questions for you to ask him and email them to you for when

you get back.”

Grace smiled. There would be no accounting going on

over at Donna’s place of business, she could see. Not now

that Donna had a mission. She would probably drag Jade

into the mystery, too. Oh, well. Some things were more

important and had to take priority over work. Grace’s love

life was one of them.

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Cat Johnson

Following an afternoon in court, Grace returned to the office

tired, frustrated, and extremely cranky. What else was new?

The last thing she wanted to do was go back to her desk.

Everyone else had already gone home as far as she could see.

Going home herself would be nice, but she had papers to

file before the deadline or her client would be homeless in

the morning, illegally evicted by her bastard landlord. It did

not seem to matter to said bastard landlord that the woman

had three kids and nowhere to go.

Sighing, Grace booted up her computer and waited,

shuffling through paperwork while at the same time

retrieving phone messages. Then she looked up at the screen

and stopped dead. There was an off-line instant message

waiting for her.

In the whirlwind of her court battle, Grace had managed

to completely forget about her secret admirer. She

remembered now all right and smiled at the instant message

window. Grace had also forgotten about the instant

messenger installed on her work computer. Last year, she

and Donna were both at their respective places of work

trying to win tickets for a sold out concert in an online

auction. Grace couldn’t spend all day on the phone with

Donna while at work…well, she could, but she couldn’t let

her boss see her. Emailing back and forth got old fast, so

they had installed Instant Messenger. It worked perfectly. To

anyone walking by, Grace was busy typing away at some

official report or another. In reality, they were scoring front

row tickets to the hottest concert of the year.

They hadn’t needed to use it since. But today there it

was, a message…and it was from her secret admirer. Only

this time he had a name, or at least a user ID.

“Hello, Hot Dude!” she said aloud to the screen as she

silently read the message.

Hot Dude: How was court? I bet you won.

Grace glanced at the icon that said he was online now

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Trilogy No. 108: Just Desserts

and her breathing got a bit erratic. He was right

there…somewhere. If she responded, it would be almost like

speaking with him. Should she take the time to see if Donna

had emailed with her list of questions so she was prepared?

The longer she delayed, the more Grace made herself

nervous. Maybe he wasn’t there. The time on the waiting

message said he had sent it nearly an hour earlier. He could

be away from his desk by now and just left the computer on.

With that hope firmly in place, she responded.

Gracie: Yes, I won, but how do you know I was at court?

Almost immediately the response came back.

Hot Dude: I told you, I know a lot about you

Hmm. That should probably freak her out. This guy was

a bit of a stalker, self-proclaimed hot dude or not. But on the

other hand, having even a stalker on Valentine’s Day was

better than having no one at all. She thought for a moment

and typed a response.

Gracie: Really? But I know nothing about you. Tell me

something about yourself.

Hot Dude: I want nothing more than to make you happy.

That is all you need to know.

That was a good answer. This guy sure was smooth. But

why didn’t he want to meet her? Maybe he was not a hot

dude at all, maybe he was really a troll.

Gracie: Why don’t you want to meet me in person?

Hot Dude: All in good time, I promise. We will meet

when you are ready.

She scowled.

Gracie: I’m ready now!!!

Hot Dude: Hehe. Your impatience makes me smile. We

will meet one day soon, I promise

Grace didn’t need to glance at a calendar to know the

date and that V-day was coming on fast. She began to type

again.

Gracie: Will we meet by Valentines Day?

Hot Dude: (Smile) That is my plan, definitely by

Valentine’s Day. Now do your work so you can go home.

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Cat Johnson

See you in the morning.

Her hopes rose.

Gracie:
See
me?

Would he introduce himself tomorrow? Even if she did

not see him, he could obviously see her while she was at

work. What should she wear? Maybe she should buy

something new.

Hot Dude: That is what I love about you. You never give

up. I will
E
you in the morning. Better?

Grace smiled. She was never much for games, but she

was into this particular one with him.

Gracie: OK. E you in the morning.

She chuckled. He was clever. She was, too. They were

going to make a great couple. Valentine’s Day could not

arrive soon enough!

Grace started on the document she needed to file while

all kinds of non-lawyerly thoughts danced in her head.

Maybe she would download and install the Messenger

program on her computer at home. She could do it the

minute she walked in the door, in case Hot Dude sent her a

message again.

Running outfits in her head, Grace decided she would

knock out this last bit of work, run home and then call

Donna. Picking tomorrow’s outfit would require both of

them. Grace had never dressed for a secret admirer before.

~

Jordan Washington shut the chat window and logged off

instant messenger, his heart pounding in his chest. Grace

needed to finish her work so she could go home for the

night. He realized she would not be able to concentrate on

her case if he remained logged into Messenger distracting

her. He smiled. He knew her schedule, her habits, her likes,

her dislikes. Jordan knew her well, even though she did not

know him at all.

There was one main reason for that…being charming on

email and instant messenger he found easy; it was real life

where he had problems. That was one thing he really loved

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Trilogy No. 108: Just Desserts

and admired about Grace; she was bold, confident, outgoing,

everything Jordan wanted to be but was not.

He and Grace may have worked at the same law office

for two years, but they rarely crossed paths, partially because

of their jobs, mostly because of his shyness. Jordan spent his

days locked in a room with the computer servers making

sure the office had top of the line internet security. Grace

spent her days meeting with clients, going to court, visiting

with the other lawyers… He doubted she knew he even

existed, but he had been very aware of her since the day he

first laid eyes on her beautiful, bountiful curves, gorgeous

face and sexy long, dark curly hair that would feel so good to

bury his face and hands in.

The other men at the office who joked about Grace’s

size could go fuck themselves. Jordan liked a woman with

some body on her. Who wanted a bony female who looked

like a twelve-year-old boy? Not him.

The one time that asshole Guy had glanced at Grace and

made a comment about how ‘big girls’ were always so

grateful and how they had ‘more cushion for the pushing’,

Jordan nearly punched his face in. Instead, he made sure

Guy’s computer terminal developed a nearly terminal illness.

That had kept Guy late at work for about a week, recreating

all the documents that were mysteriously lost. Guy bitched

for days about all the dates he had to cancel with supposedly

really hot babes because he had to work. Jordan had back-

ups for all the documents but somehow neglected to inform

Guy of that fact. He smiled every time he thought about it.

Jordan glanced at the calendar. Less than a week until

Valentine’s Day. A few short days to implement his plan and

woo Grace until she was so in love with him he need not fear

rejection when they finally did meet.

He swallowed hard at the thought of rejection. Should

that happen, it would kill him. Well, maybe not literally but

he would definitely be looking for a new job because no way

could he stand to work with her after that.

How could having a crush on someone feel so good and

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Cat Johnson

so shitty at the same time? He sighed. Too late, he was in too

deep to turn back now.

With that thought in mind, Jordan clicked on to the

website of a local florist and put in an order for flowers to be

delivered to the office the next day. He ordered pink tulips.

She loved pink. He knew because she wore it all the time,

even to court. No roses, Grace hated the smell of roses. He

smiled that he knew that, too.

He would make a really excellent boyfriend, if only she

would give him a chance.

Until that time came, he would have to satisfy himself

with peaking out the tiny window in the server room. If he

leaned far enough to one side in his desk chair, he could see

directly into the open door of Grace’s office. For now, that

was enough, and he couldn’t wait until tomorrow when he

saw her reaction to receiving his flowers.

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Trilogy No. 108: Just Desserts

“Two dozen tulips!” Donna exclaimed through the phone in

Grace’s ear.

“Yup. Hot pink and baby pink mixed together.” Grace

smiled at the arrangement prominently displayed on her

desk. She would be leaving the door to her office open all

day today just to make sure that everyone saw someone had

sent her flowers.

She had always dreamed of this day. Sure, her mother