Exquisite (7 page)

“You’re so infuriating!” he turned
back to face her and drew his hands up palms facing forward, “I surrender, you
win. You're much better at this than I am.”

“Better at what?” she asked feeling
her chest tighten. She’d been trying to get away from him all night and now
that she knew that mission was accomplished she didn't feel as victorious as
she thought she would.

“This ice you have.” pausing he
shook his head, “This
mean
you spit out without even blinking. This
isn’t me. It’d probably be best if you leave.”

Standing up Lena took her purse and
walked to him. Stopping in front of him she felt her heart squeeze, then
grimaced slightly.

“That's not a bad thing, Langley.”
With that she turned and walked out the door thinking,
the bitch had arrived
and now she could leave
.

Throwing her purse onto the couch
Lena made her way to her wine cabinet. She pulled out a bottle of Merlot and
sat down pouring herself a glass. Kicking her heels off she closed her eyes for
a moment.
Maybe you should tell me your last name.
His voice kept
repeating itself over and over the whole way home. She couldn't begin to
understand why she cared he’d kicked her out, but she did. She took a sip of
the wine and sighed. She was beyond tired, her head was throbbing and all she
wanted was a hot shower. Standing she walked down the hall, wine in hand and
flicked on the bathroom light. Placing the half empty glass on the counter she
started to get undressed. Pulling the clip from her hair she watched as it
tumbled down in waves to the curve of her back. Looking in the mirror she
grimaced at her reflection. She really did look like she was wearing a suit of
armor. Her blouse was a high neck collar that buttoned all the way up.
It
just makes me want to know what’s under there and how I can get to it.
Sighing
Lena reached out and grabbed the glass and downed the rest of the wine. The man
was so annoying! Even when he wasn't here he was in her head being totally
offensive. Oh but he was so totally appealing in every other way. She placed
the glass back down and undressed. Turning the water on in the shower, she
stepped in and let the spray slide over her flesh. Taking the sponge she
lathered it up and started to run it up her arms and found herself thinking
about Mason's long arms when he’d placed them on his desk, she imagined how
good they’d feel wrapped around her from behind and she knew they would be long
enough to let that big hand slide down her tummy to between her.
No!
She
refused to allow Langley to be her fantasy.
Oh he'd just love that smug
bastard
, she thought and finished washing herself with quick efficiency.

Mason got home at around 2am and
walked straight to his room flopping down onto his bed. He watched his fan spin
above him and tried to work out what the hell had happened tonight. He’d known
from the start that the date was not going to be the usual. He’d not however,
expected it to turn into a colossal fuck up. It’d gone from them launching
insults at one another, to her unexpected show of humor, to him losing his
temper and kicking her out. He raised his arm up and rested it across his
forehead and thought back to their conversation. She was such a prickly woman
he didn’t even really understand how he’d managed to piss her off so badly. Oh
well, he thought and closed his eyes, it wasn’t like he went into the evening
thinking it would go well. What was bothering him though, was that moment right
before she left, when her guard came down and she softened for just a moment
and he saw the woman he knew was somewhere inside her. It was a pity it’d taken
him telling her to go away for her to finally show up.

T
he next day Lena made it a point to be early and instead
of going to the cafeteria she went straight up to her office. She sat down and
looked at the post it’s on her desk with messages and numbers on them for call
backs. She hadn’t slept well at all. Once she’d finally managed to doze off
she’d woken up in the midst of the same gut wrenching nightmare she always had.
She knew she needed to talk to someone about it, or at the very least get a
shrink, but the whole idea of sitting down and confessing to someone that she
was an emotional wreck made her want to jab her eyes out with a hot poker. Just
as she was about to get up and grab a coffee her phone rang. She glanced over,
saw Shelly’s extension and picked up the phone.

“So? Are we feeling nice and
relaxed today?”

Leaning back in her chair Lena shut
her eyes and thought back to last night. “No. I didn’t sleep well at all.”

“Oh?”

“No, there is no
oh
, like I
did anything exciting. Just the same old, same old.”

“What do you mean the same old? I
picked him out, gift wrapped him and gave him to you. All you had to do was
unwrap.”

Lena sighed then sat forward
playing with the cord on her phone, “You did not pick him out Shelly. He barged
into my life, tricked me into a date and then kicked me out after ten minutes.”

She could almost here Shelly’s jaw hit
the desk. “Stay right there. Do
not
move. I’m coming to you.”

Before Lena could say a word she’d
been hung up on.

Mason’s morning was not much
different. He woke up to the sound of his phone continuously ringing. Opening
one eye, he looked at the clock and noticed it was 7am. Yawning he sat up and
snatched up the phone. “Hello.”

“Good morning sunshine.”

“Rachel it’s way too early to be as
happy as you are right now.”

He heard her laughing on the other
end and rubbed his eyes, “Why are you bothering me?”

“You know for someone who had a hot
date last night you’re awfully grumpy this morning.”

He grunted at that and without
acknowledging her comment asked again, “Why are you bothering me?”

“You’re really not going to tell me
anything?”

He could almost see her pout at the
end of that sentence. He paused then leaned back against the headboard. “Okay
two questions.”

She fired her first one off so
quickly he knew she’d been thinking about it. “What time did she leave or
did
she?”

He heard her laughing on the other
end thinking she’d asked a good one.
Well get ready to be shocked
, he
thought. “Around 15 minutes after she arrived.”

There was dead silence at the other
end of the phone.

“Are you serious? What did you do
to her?” she paused, “No, no wait! That is
not
my second question.”

Mason had to smile. They’d been
playing this game since they were kids.

“Hmm. Okay let me think of a good
one.” she paused then asked, “What’s her name?”

Mason answered quickly, “Lena.”

“Her
whole
name?” Rachel
emphasized.
Geez, what was it with women?
Had she been standing with
her ear pressed to the door last night?

“Is that your second question?” he
asked avoiding her.

“You
do
know her whole name
right?”

“No.” and with that he hung up.

Lena looked up as Shelly walked
into her office and shut the door. After she was seated she waited silently and
Lena was reminded of her horrible night all over again.

“What’d you do?” she demanded when
it became obvious Lena wasn’t going to volunteer any information.

“What makes you think I did something?”
then she mumbled, “It could’ve been him.”

“Do you forget that I was there the
night he asked you out? I know
he
isn’t the problem here.” she paused
then asked again, “So what’d you do?”

Lena frowned at her. “Nothing! I
may have got a little annoyed that he didn’t know my last name.”

Shelly sat staring at her friend
for a moment. Then asked, “Did you ever tell him? Or introduce yourself in
between all your bitchy remarks?”

Rolling her eyes Lena shook her
head, “No, but,”

“No buts Lena!” Shelly sighed
loudly and sat forward, “What’s the real problem here? Because that man was hot
and nice. Do you know how rare that is? And for some crazy ass reason he asked
you
on a date.”

“Gee thanks Shelly.”

“Oh come on you know I’m right.
Even
you
were shocked he asked after your horrible behavior.”

“Did you know he’s dated thirty
three women this year?” Lena paused, “
This
year! It isn’t even June yet!
He’s a womanizer. That’s who you want me to open my heart to? Really?”

“How do you know he’s dated thirty
three women? Did he tell you that before he kicked you out or as he slammed the
door in your face?”

“He didn’t tell me.” Lena sat
forward and started to flick through her post it’s. “I Googled him and that’s
what came up.” She looked up at Shelly daring her to laugh and saw her friend
biting her lip tight as if trying to hold back, “Oh just say it!”

“Okay. You’re an idiot. For someone
who is so smart, you my friend, are an idiot.” Standing Shelly smoothed her
palms down her skirt, “Now. I’m going to get to work and you and I will
continue you this enlightening discussion later.”

“No we
won't.”

Shelly
turned when she got to the door, “Yes we will Dr. O’Donnell. See? You cant get
mad at me. I know your last name.” she said sticking her tongue out like a ten
year old instead of a respected doctor as she ran out the door.

Lena sat in
her seat fuming at her friend’s back and cursing the fact she was exactly
right. Then when those thoughts started to annoy her she yelled, “Brandy!”

Mason walked
into the restaurant a bagel in his mouth and a tray of coffee’s in his hand. He
made his way through the dinning room, smiled at the cleaning crew, then pushed
his way past the double doors into the kitchen. He put the coffee’s down and
waved at Wendy who once again had her cell glued to her ear. Making his way
down to the back fridge he found Rachel taking inventory of the stock. Before
he even said hi she spoke.

“So come on,
confess. How’d you run off the pants suit in under 30 minutes?”

She put the
pencil behind her ear and turned to face him. Mason grinned and raised an
eyebrow.

“Pants
suit?”

She nodded,
“That’s what I’m calling her until I know otherwise.”

“Ah ha.” he
took a seat on a crate inside the large walk in fridge and leaned against the
wall. “She got mad because I didn’t know her last name.”

“Ha! I knew
it. Come on Mase, you should know better.”

“I know. But
in my own defense she never stopped lobbing insults at me long enough to ask.”

Rachel
stared down at him as she squeezed a tomato gently. “So why on earth did you
ask her out? It isn’t like she’s exactly your type.”

Mason
grimaced, “I have a type?”

“Yeah stupid
and stupider.”

“That’s not
nice.”

“Well it’s
true. I never understood why you date these bimbos. You’re so much more than
that.” she turned back to count the boxes of peaches for her dessert tonight.
“I had hope for this one Mason. You let me down.”

Mason stood
up and brushed his butt with his hands, “I’m so sorry to disappoint you.” he
paused on his way out thinking back to Lena’s comment about unintelligent
women. “Hey? Why would she say there are thirty three dumb women in Chicago?”

Rachel
snorted a very unfeminine laugh and turned to face him, a twirling pencil in
her fingers.

“Now I
know
I like her. She Googled you. That’s the first story that pops up. How many
bimbos you’ve dated this year.”

“Dr
O’Donnell there’s a patient out in the waiting room and his mother is asking to
speak to you.”

Lena looked
over at the Sam, one of the nurses, who’d come to get her from exam room one.
She’d been putting an order in for a patient who’d broken her toe while making
a not so graceful landing from a piggy back ride. The little toe had swollen up
so much she couldn’t put a shoe on it. Finishing up the order she hit send and
made her way down the walkway to the front waiting area. She looked over at
Brandy and she pointed out a young lady with an infant boy on her lap screaming
his head off. Lena’s heart melted knowing the baby didn’t understand what was
wrong with him. It always made her wonder what they would tell her if they
could. Considering screaming loudly was how she felt inside, she couldn’t
really blame him for making such a disturbance. Pushing her hands into her lab
coat pockets she walked over to the young mother.

“Oh Doctor.”
she said rocking the baby and gently cooing as she stood. “Thank you for coming
out to see me.”

“That’s no
problem Miss?”

“Oh. I’m
sorry I’m Mrs Tipton and this hear is Robbie.”

Lena bent
down and smiled at the screaming child. Reaching out she placed her palm on his
forehead and frowned. The little guy was burning up.

“What seems
to be the problem with little Robbie here?”

“He’s been
crying like this for the past 8 hrs. Finally when nothing, tylenol or a cool
bath, would calm him down I decided to bring him in and I’ve been waiting and
waiting and he gets louder and,”

Lena grinned
quickly then it fell away, “Yes I can see he has a loud voice, don’t you little
man. Anyway lets get him into a room right away and see what it is he’s trying
to tell us.”

Mrs Tipton
had tears welling in here eyes and Lena felt her heart clench.  “It’s ok.
We’ll find out what’s wrong with your little guy.”

“Thank you.”
she whispered clutching him tighter.

Lena turned
around and faced Brandy, “Put them in Exam 2. I’ll be in there in just a
second.”

Mason was in
the process of interviewing a new dining room Hostess. Cindy, his main girl up
the front, had told him her boyfriend was moving to London and had asked her to
go and hey presto, he was down a hostess. He was seated in his office, or as he
now referred to it, the scene of the crime and his mind kept wandering back to
Lena.
Had he done the right thing kicking her out?
He’d gone into the
date knowing up front she was prickly and grouchy and more guarded than a
castle under a full blown attack. However, somewhere in the middle of flinging
insults he’d started feel the need to make her smile. He’d recognized from the
beginning she was smart. The fact she was a doctor was the first clue but the
way she hadn’t acted like a besotted groupie around him was the second. She’d
been mean and completely insulting but she fascinated him more than anyone he
could think of and he wanted under that pants suit so bad he could feel it.
What
would it be like to have her melt for him?
There was a small knock on the
door and a petite redhead poked her head around the door.