Under His Skin (11 page)

Chapter 19

Stephen

I barely had two feet in my office when Pete came in and sat on the leather sofa in the corner.  Pete often liked to sit on the couch because I had a hand carved chess board set up on the coffee table in front of it.  We had a game that had been going on for at least six months now.  The one rule was no moves were to be made when the other wasn’t around to see it.  We had played many games like this over the years.

“What did you do this weekend boss man?” He knew I hated being called that, so he did it to egg me on.

“I had a very relaxing weekend.”

“Was this said relaxation at home alone?”

“Part of it was, yes.”

“Ah, I see and the other part?”

“Don’t you have some work to do?  It is first thing Monday morning.”

“I’ve been here an hour already.  I’m on top of my shit.  So spill.”

“There’s nothing to spill man.”

“Stephen, let’s not play this game.  How long have I known you?  I know when you’re lying.  What did you do this weekend?”

“You already know so why are you asking?”

“Because I need to hear it, no actually you need to say it.  Maybe if you hear it out loud you will realize how ridiculous and dangerous this is.”

“Pete, she knows me as Stephen.  It’s cool.”

“No man, it’s not.  That chick and her boyfriend made your last couple of weeks of high school unbearable.  So much so that you completely killed off Nicky,” he air quoted killed.  “You couldn’t bear to be him anymore, so you changed every single thing about yourself.  All because of her!”

“Pete it was twenty years ago and I’m over it.”

“Are you?  Are you really?  If you were, you wouldn’t be dating her as some new suitor.  You would have told her who you were.  What is your game plan here anyway?”

“I don’t have a game plan Pete.  I just needed to see if she was the same person.”

“Another clue of how over it you are, huh?”

“Fuck you Pete.”

“Hey man, I love you and I was there.  I saw what she did to you.  I don’t want that to happen again.”

“I’m a grown man Pete.”

“Yeah, but obviously you are still Nicky inside or she wouldn’t phase you.  Just be careful man.  I’m not going to say another word about it,” he said as he stood up and walked out of the office.

I sat down at my desk and opened up my email.  There were a few important messages from clients wanting updates on projects, and one from Gina regarding the company barbecue for the 4th. We were actually going to shut down early on the 2
nd
and I was having food brought in.  We used to do family barbecues, but I ended that after two of my employees were caught having an affair by one of their spouses.  Why they thought they could sneak off at a company event that their families were at blew my mind.  I almost lost two good employees that day.  I had to make both of them sign contracts that stated they would not fraternize and they had to attend a sexual harassment course.  One thing I did not need was a sexual harassment lawsuit if and when that went sour. 

I spent the morning, continuing my work on the app I was designing for Nonna.  More times than I wanted to admit my mind drifted to Addison.  Finally, I took a break and pulled up her Facebook page again.  I noticed that she posted a new status update.

             
Addison McDaniels

4 hours ago

If today goes anything at all like this past weekend, it’s going to be a very good day.  Happy Monday everyone!

I couldn’t help but smile at her post.  I pulled my phone out of my pocket to send her a text.

(12:14pm)

Stephen: Good afternoon beautiful.  Hope your day is going well.  You crossed my mind, so I thought I’d say hi

I laid the phone on my desk and went back to work.  About fifteen minutes passed when Pete stopped by my office.

“Hey man, are you hungry?  I’m going to run out and grab a bite and bring it back.  You want something?”

“Where are you going?”

“I don’t know. I’m thinking Mighty Taco.”

“Yeah, sounds good, get me a couple of super mightys.”

“Ok.  So have you heard from her today?”

“I thought you weren’t going to talk about it anymore?”

“I said I was done giving you advice, doesn’t mean I don’t still want to hear the dirt.”  I laughed.

“Go grab the mighty and we’ll talk.”

“Ok boss man!”

“Get out Pete!” I chuckled.

I jumped back into my project when my phone vibrated.

(12:32pm)

Addison:  Good afternoon handsome.  My day is well. How is yours? I hope I’m not too forward, but I really hope we are still on for tomorrow.

Stephen:  Day is much better now and I would hate to disappoint a beautiful woman. Dinner at my house?

Addison:  Can you cook? Lol

Stephen:  Oh no, not a lick.  I’m totally picking up something.

Addison:  Haha ok

Stephen: Do you have a preference?

Addison:  Surprise me.  You’ve done exceptionally well so far.

Stephen:  Challenge accepted.

Addison: Can’t wait

Stephen: Enjoy your day.  Oh important question.  Do you want to build a snowman?

Addison:  Ha! Very funny!  Talk to you soon

I sent her my address and went back to work.  I didn’t even realize I was still smiling until Pete walked back into the office.

“What’s so funny?” He asked.

“Nothing.  Nothing at all.  Let’s eat, I’m starving! And you better have gotten my order right this time jackass!”

“Bite me boss man,” he said as we devoured our food and we filled each other in on our weekend events.

Chapter 20

Addison

Yesterday was Chelsea’s day to help me open up the boutique.  After we made a pot of coffee, ran through a check of the store to make sure things were lined up and the register was online, we unlocked the door and busied ourselves until customers arrived.  The entire time she had this silly grin on her face.

“What is wrong with you Chelsea?”

“Nothing,” she giggled.  “You just seem extra chipper this morning.  Are you glowing?”

“Oh, hush Chels, no I’m not!  Nothing happened.”

“Hmmm,” she said like she didn’t believe me.

“Honestly, nothing happened, but I wish it had.  He is so damn sexy Chels.”

“Oh, I know,” she said as someone walked through the door.  “I witnessed that for myself on Friday,” she said as she walked toward the customer.  “Be right back,” she mouthed.

The morning was fairly busy, and I didn’t really get to fill Chelsea in on my weekend.  Monica came at lunch.  There were five of us at the boutique.  Chelsea and Monica usually overlapped, I was there mostly all day, and I had two part-timers, sometimes three during the busy holiday season.  Monica and one of the part-timers were on schedule to close today and tomorrow and Chelsea was set to open with me.

When Monica arrived, I grabbed my purse from under the register and went back to my office to heat up my lunch. I pulled out my phone to call my mom and check on Chandi when I saw that I had a message from Stephen.  I couldn’t help but grin.  Even though he handled the situation well, I worried that the Chad thing may have turned him off.  Apparently it hadn’t because we had set a date for dinner tomorrow at his house.  I wondered what his house looked like.  If I had to guess based on his appearance and car it would be spectacular.

After I finished up lunch, I was half surprised that Chelsea hadn’t made her way back to finish grilling me about my weekend.  I went back up front to see that she was helping a customer in the fitting room and Monica was on the register.

“Where’s Paislee?” I mouthed to Monica.  She shrugged and shook her head.  I walked over to Chelsea at the fitting room area.

“Where’s Paislee? Have you heard from her?”

“She called and said she was running late. You know she’s in summer courses and her exam ran over.  She should be here any minute.”

“Oh ok, that’s good.”

“Everything ok?”

“Yeah, its fine, we’ll talk about it later.”

I walked up the register so that Chelsea could finish helping her customer.  Monica grinned at me.

“So how was your weekend?”

“It was fun,” I said teasing.

“Oh no I need more than that.  You know I’m living vicariously through you.”  I laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Chelsea said as she walked toward the register carrying a couple of pairs of pants and tank tops for her customer while they changed back into their clothing. 

“I’m trying to get her to spill the date deets,” Monica said.

“I know I was trying earlier as well, but we got busy.”

“Calm down ladies.  I had a great weekend, not much happened in the way of what you two naughty girls want to hear.  Saturday we went out to eat and yesterday we went to a winery and grabbed some coffee.”

“Two dates?  You guys had two dates this weekend,” Chelsea said excitedly.  “I can’t say I blame you though. That man is gorgeous.  I’d be trying to get as many dates as possible too.”

“We are supposed…” I started to mention my date when Chelsea’s customer walked up to the counter.  She was a new customer.

“Good afternoon, did you find everything you were looking for?”

“Oh yes, that sweet red head right there was very helpful.”

“I’m glad Chelsea was so helpful.  She will be more than happy to get you all checked out.”

We finally hit a lull around three.  Paislee was in the stock room taking inventory of new arrivals.  I had tasked her with helping to design a new website that we wanted to launch soon.  I was hoping in the next few months to not only expand online, but in a new location.  It was something that I had wanted to do for a while, but didn’t have the capital.  While doing some research online I found out about this locally based software company that had a special fund to help small businesses in the area.  I had applied to them for help and I was currently just waiting for a meeting with a few of the members of the board.

“Ok ladies, I need another outfit.”

“Oh goody that means another date,” Chelsea said.

“Yes, he invited me over for dinner at his place tomorrow night.”

“Make sure you shave and wear some sexy panties,” Monica said.

“Be serious Monica,” Chelsea said.

“I’m being one hundred percent serious.  She will be alone in that sexy ass man’s house.  Do you really think nothing will happen?  Addison, shave and wear some sexy undies.” I laughed, but agreed.

“That’s true better to be safe than sorry,” I said.

“Make sure you wear some sexy perfume too, but nothing too overpowering.”

“I was just going to go with my ‘Hypnotic Poison.’ Is that not a good one?”

“Oh yeah, that’s good,” Chelsea said.  That was my favorite sexy scent next to “J’adore.”  I guess I have a thing for Christian Dior.

“I need to find something to wear.”

“You should look through the new arrivals,” Monica said.

“Good idea.”

While it was still relatively slower I went to the back to see that Paislee was almost through the shipment of five boxes that we had gotten in.  I looked through the racks of new merchandise and found a flowy knit gray tank dress that would look great with a pair of flat black strappy sandals that I had at home.

“Paislee, sorry to mess up your inventory, but you can mark off one of these,” I said showing her the dress.

“Ok Ms. McDaniels.  Got it.  That’s a really cute dress.”

“Thanks, I just hope I can do it justice.”

“Ms. McDaniels you are gorgeous, I can’t imagine anything not looking good on you.”

“Thank you Paislee.  You are too kind.  I’ll let you get back to work. Keep up the good work.”