Falling Into You (Geek to Chic) (31 page)

Bree’s house
was much like her own, small and old.
 
Only two bedrooms and one bath.
 
The
outside was a soft lavender with white trim.
 
The inside was painted with brighter blues, and greens.
 
A small fireplace sat along the living room
wall in front of the couch.
 
In the
corner of the living room, sat a large desk with multiple screens and
computers.
 
Which reminded Roni of
Derek’s office.
 
Which of course made her
burst into tears.
 

“Sit.”
 
Bree said as she shoved Roni onto the couch
taking the seat next to her.
 
“Ok, you
have been telling me all about Mr. Geektastic for over a month now.
 
How wonderful he was and all of that. I have
two questions for you, what is his real name and what the fuck happened?
 
When I talked to you before the gala you were
all hearts and flowers and now you look like someone ran over your puppy.”
 

Even though Roni
was the older sister, Bree was the tougher of the two of them.
 
She never let any guy get to her.
 
She was usually one of the boys.
 
With her brilliance in computers, a male
dominated arena, Bree had to be hard to keep them from looking at her like she
didn’t belong. Maybe that was why she opted to open a gallery instead of making
millions in computers.
 

“If I tell you
who the guy was, promise me you won’t freak out?”
 
Roni knew for a fact that Bree would know
exactly who Derek was. Hence the reason she kept his name from her.

“I promise now
tell me so we can plot his murder.”
 

With a deep
sigh, Roni let out the name. “Derek Callaway.”
 

“As in CEO of
CPST, Derek Callaway?
 
Wow.”
 
With that Bree started pacing.
 
She would stop and start to talk, then close
her mouth and pace some more.
 
Finally,
she spoke.
 
“Ok, well I have to tell you
something.
 
I kind of work for him.
 
Well, not him directly, but I do some
contract work for them.”
 

Roni was
completely confused.
 
“What do you mean
contract work?
 
I thought you had given
up on computers?”
 

Bree took a
seat next to Roni.
 
Her head down.
 
“The gallery isn’t doing well.
 
And to be honest, even though I went on and
on about how much I wanted to be around people, people suck.
 
I missed the puzzle of breaking a code.
 
About six months ago I was talking to one of
my friends from M.I.T.
 
He told me about
a company, CPST, which was hiring hackers to test their code.
 
I applied, passed the security clearance and
a month later I was playing hacker.”

At this point
Roni burst out laughing thinking back to her date with Derek that was
interrupted by a hacker.
 
Her sister was
now looking at her like she had lost her ever loving mind.
 
Which of course made Roni laugh harder.
 
Roni would bet her life that Bree had been
the hacker to break the code putting an end to their naughty activities.
 

Regaining
control of herself she had to know.
 
“You
didn’t happen to break a code for drone security about six weeks ago did you?”

Bree sat up
straight, obviously very proud of herself.
 
“That code was shit.
 
He left it
wide open for a hacker.
 
Well a hacker
with my skill set anyway.
 
Why?”

Roni set forth
to explain to her sister how her genius mind had ended their date and led Roni
to accidently sexting Derek, three times.
 
Now it was her sister’s turn to laugh uncontrollably.
  
Which of course propelled Roni into laughter
telling her sister about all of her mishaps with Derek.
 
Which of course turned the laughter into
tears.
 
She missed him and it had only
been a matter of hours.
 

Roni told her
sister what happened at the gala.
 
It was
so random, so out of the blue for Derek to behave like that.
 
They had been doing so well right up until he
went to the bathroom.
 
“I don’t know what
happened.
 
He came back from lying to me
about going to the bathroom with his phone, which he had promised to leave at
home.
 
Maybe he had a phone call from
someone who shook him up or maybe an old girlfriend called and he wanted to end
the evening in her bed.
  
I have no
idea.”
 
She sunk down on the couch.

“Well, I can
crash his internal computer system for you.
 
That would teach him.”
 
Bree
smiled.
 

Roni laughed
and shook her head.
 
That is when she
heard her phone go off.
 
“I better get
that, I need to text Izzy and let her know I am here.”
 

Her body
protested as she walked the small distance to her purse she had dropped by the
front door.
  
Exhaustion is taking
hold.
 
She pulled the phone from her bag
and punched in her access code.
 
45 text
messages waited for her!
 
She took a deep
breath and opened the texts.
 
It looked
as though Derek had spent the time since her disappearance from the gala
texting her and apparently drinking, heavily. She quickly read the texts, they
became less and less coherent as they went on.
 
Some made no sense at all.
 

The only
information, or rather emotion, she was about to gain from his babbling text
was sorrow and despair.
 
Two emotions she
held in common with the man she thought she loved.
 
Scratch that, she knew she loved him.
 
Loved him in a way she had never loved another
man.
 
He brought out her nurturing
side.
 
He accepted her endless amount of
mishaps with a smile. Through working for him she figured out how good she was
with numbers and was hired by Alex to be more than an assistant.
 

Now all of
that was gone.
 
She collapsed onto the
floor.
 
Now what was she going to do? She
had no boyfriend and no job.
 
Her life
was a complete wreck.
 

She needed a
plan.
 
She couldn't stay with her sister
forever.
 
Eventually she would have to go
back and face what came. First thing tomorrow she would start the task of once
again submitting her resume.
 
This time,
however, she was going for better positions.
 
Positions that would challenge her.
 

Coming out of
her thoughts, she realized she needed to text Izzy still.

Roni: Made it to Bree’s. Not sure when I am
coming home.

Izzy: Take your time honey. How are you
holding up?

Roni: I am a mess, but I will survive.

Izzy: You should know Geek Boy came by
looking for you.
 
He was desperate to apologize,
I have never seen him that much of a mess.
 

Roni: I don’t know what to do with that
information.
 

Izzy:
 
I just wanted to let you know.
 
He
did come after you, I think he knows he fucked up.

Roni: Thanks, I will see you in a few days.

She pulled
herself off the floor.
 
Looking at her
sister.
 
“I’m going to bed for the next
century.” Her sister mumbled good night and Roni dragged herself into the guest
room.
 
Phone still in hand.
 

Once she was
tucked in bed, she decided, against better judgment to read through all of
Derek’s babbling texts again.
 

Derek:
 
Please let me explain?

Derek:
 
I know I fucked up, but you mean everything to me.
 
Let me fix this.

Derek: you me

Derek: Need you

Derek:
 
I suck

Derek: Love

It was that last
text that made her heart squeeze.
 
Maybe
he did love her, or maybe he was drunk and didn't know what he was typing.
 
Either way the one word brought fresh tears
to her eyes.
 
Hugging her phone, she fell
asleep.
 

Derek had sent
a text to Roni every day for four days.
 
He even tried to call her a few times.
 
He hadn’t heard a word from her.
 
Not even a ‘fuck off’ text.
 

He had spent
the last four days either drinking or working.
 
What is that smell? Oh, that’s
right, me
.
  
Drinking and working had
left little time for things like shaving, showering or sleeping.
 
He knew he looked like hell, but he really
didn’t give a shit.
 
He only cared what
one person thought of him and she was most likely never going to talk to him
again.
 

Derek placed
his head on his desk.
 
He needed to do
something to show her he cared.
 
Something to prove to her that he had been listening to her.
 
He banged his head on his desk.
 
He had no idea how to get Roni back.
 

“Wow dude,
what the fuck smells?”
 
He looked up to
see Alex holding his nose.
 
Phin, Collin
and Gavin walk in behind him.
 
He groaned
and put his head back down on his desk.
 
He was not in the mood for these assholes.
 

“I think that
smell is our CEO.
 
Maybe we need to get
him a stripper or something to get over this girl.”
 
Phin laughed out.
 
Derek lifted his hand and gave him the
finger. “Fine we can get me a stripper.”
 

“Go
away!”
 
Derek mumbled.
 
They were going to want to clean him up and
take him bar hoping in an attempt to get him laid.
 
Like getting laid by some random girl was
going to help repair his broken heart.
 
He rubbed the pain in his chest.
 

Since he
hadn’t heard footsteps, he assumed the jerks hadn’t left.
 
He lifted his head to see all three men
standing, hands in pockets, worried looks on their faces.
 
None of them spoke, they simply stared at
him.
 
He must look worse than he thought
if these three didn’t have a smart ass comment.
 

Alex cleared
his throat.
 
“So I spoke with Izzy this
morning.”
 

“Was she
trying to run you over with her car or did you sneak into her house to smother
her with a pillow when you spoke to her?”
 
Derek questioned heavily with sarcasm.
 

“Ha ha douche
bag.
 
I called to see if she had spoken
with Roni.
 
Of course she told me to go
fuck myself in a few very creative ways.”
 
Alex smiled.
 
“Anyway, she
wouldn’t tell me when Roni was coming back or where she was but she did tell me
that she is just as miserable as you are.
 
Though I hope she has managed to shower.
 
I think it is a good sign that she is miserable too.
 
Maybe once she gets back you two can sit down
and talk this out.
 
Or maybe that big
brain of yours can come up with a huge romantic gesture to win her back.”
 

“I hate
hearing she is miserable.
 
I did that to
her.
 
I am such an asshole.”
 
Derek puts his head back on his desk.
 

“Ok then I
guess we will leave.
 
Oh, by the way
Jemma called me.
 
She couldn’t seem to
get hold of you.
 
She is bringing her mom
back to Colorado for care and will be back to work today. In fact, she should
be here any minute.
 
Thought you would
want to know.”
 

Finally, Derek
heard three sets of footsteps retreating from his office.
 
He sat up and scrubbed his hands down his
face. Maybe Alex was right, maybe it meant something that Roni was also
miserable.
 
Though he hated the thought
of her being unhappy.
 
Especially since
he was the one who had been the person to bring on that pain.
 
He banged his head on the desk again.
 

He sighed,
lifted his head and went to work.
 
Derek
worked for some time.
 
Attempting to numb
his emotions with the detached rhythm of code writing.
 
Outside of his office, he heard a woman’s
voice.
 
Maybe it was Roni.
 
He ran to his door, flung it open and found
Jemma speaking quietly to Alex.
 
His face
fell with pure painful disappointment.

 
Jemma turned to him, she already sad face
dropped further when she caught sight of him.
 
“Mr. Callaway… I mean Derek what on Earth happened to you?” She rushed
to his side, placing her hand on his forehead.
 
Checking him for a fever.
 
She had
always tried to care for him.
 
“You don’t
feel warm.
 
I am calling the doctor
anyway.”

 
She tried to step around him to get to the
phone on her desk.
 
Instead of allowing
her to make the call he pulled him into a hug.
 
“Forget about me, how are you?
 
How is your mom?”
 
Even if Roni
was gone forever, he was going to continue to be less like an asshole
cyborg.
 

Jemma pushed
away from him, looking at him like he had gone mad.
 
She looked back at Alex for an
explanation.
 
He simply shrugged.
 
“My mother is resting well at the hospital
here.
 
I wanted her close and she has no
reason to be in Indiana.
 
I have movers,
packing her house and a realtor putting it on the market.
 
If… I mean when she comes home from the
hospital, we will get her a place here.
  
Thank you for asking.
 
Now why
don’t I run to your place and grab you clean clothes to change into?
 
Ok?”
 
The last words were spoken as though she was talking to an overly tired
child.
 

“Jemma, I am
so glad to hear your mom is here.
 
If you
need me to use my influence at the hospital to get her any care please let me
know.
 
In fact, there is a wing of that
hospital with his last name on it.”
 
Derek nodded toward Alex and smiled his first real smile in several
days.
 

“Yep, that’s
true, so don’t hesitate to ask if we need to call in a favor or two.”
 
Alex winked at her.
 
“Well, I am off to go over more numbers with
Phin.
 
I will bring him by later to meet
you, Jemma.
 
Oh, and if you could get
this filthy bastard to shower my nose would owe you one.”
 

Jemma waved to
Alex and turned her focus back to Derek.
 
When she placed her hands on her curvy hips and tilted her head, he knew
he was in trouble.
 
That was the look she
got when he was late to a meeting or blowing off an important phone call so he
could focus on his code.
 

“Now I know I
have been gone for some time.
 
I also
know that several changes have taken place since I left. We will get to all the
new personnel and the apparent new dress code once you explain to me why the
most brilliant CEO I have ever met is a smelly half-drunk mess?”
 
She pushed her wire rimmed glasses up his
nose and continued to pin him with a concerned look.
 

Jemma had
changed in her time away.
 
She had become
more vocal.
 
Less afraid.
 
Maybe that is what happens when one has to make
many difficult decisions for their parent.
 
He shook off his inner rumblings about his assistant’s apparent new
attitude.
 
“I am not half drunk. I
stopped drinking hours ago.”
 
She gave
him a look that told him she wasn’t buying it.

“Well, at
least shower, for the sake of your coworkers. Is your temporary assistant
here?”
 
She asked looking around.
 
“I need to have her brief me on what needs to
be done before we let her go.”
 

His face
dropped when she mentions his temporary assistant.
 
His mind returning to Roni.
 
“Oh, so that’s what this is all about.
 
So how bad did you crash and burn?”
  

“Who said I
crashed and burned?
 
Maybe she crashed
and burned with me.”
 
He had no idea why
he was being so defensive with Jemma’s assumption, after all it was correct.

“I know you
crashed and burned because of the mess you are right now.”
 
She waved her hand up and down gesturing at
his entire body.
 
“You are always the man
with the plan so I assume you have one to get the girl back. Because if she can
do this to you, she must be something special.”
 

He
nodded.
 
Even though he had no idea what
he was going to do to get his girl back.
 
“I guess my plan starts with a shower.
 
I’m heading home.”
 

***

Roni came out
of the guest room in her sister’s house still dressed in her pajamas at two in
the afternoon.
 
If she was being honest
the only reason she came out of the room at all was because she ran out of
chocolate.
 
She rounded the corner towards
the kitchen when she heard her sister on the phone.
 

“No Izzy,
she’s not ok.
 
She has been listening to
Linkin Park none stop.
 
Which, as you
know is not a good sign.
 
What did Alex
say about Derek?”

Roni’s heart
contracted at the mention of his name.
 
She wished she could hear the other side of the conversation to know how
he was doing.
 
Based on the hundreds of
texts she had received from him he wasn't doing well at all.
 

“What does
completely falling apart mean? Why is Alex so worried if he is still able to
work?” There was another pause in the conversation.
 
“Oh, I see.
 
Yeah, I think she mentioned going home tomorrow.
 
I will call you later and let you know what
she plans on doing about Geek Boy. Bye.”

Roni scurried
off so she wouldn't be caught eavesdropping.
 
She wonders based on the conversation just how bad Derek was doing.
 
Part of her wanted to run to him, to ease his
pain. The other part of her wanted to wrack him to cause him more pain.
 

Either way she
needed to get herself together.
 
She
looked down at her pajamas.
 
They had
chocolate and ice creams stains on them.
 
Her hair felt crunchy and frizzy.
 
She didn't even want to look in a mirror.
 
She knew she would see a pitiful tear
streaked woman with dark circles under her eyes staring back at her.
 
Definitely time to pull it together and head
home to face the music.
 
She was a grown
woman and the pity party had to end.
 

Pulling fresh
clothes from her bag she headed to the bathroom to shower, shave and get ready
to head home.
 

45 minutes
later she stood at her sister’s front door small bag in hand.
 
“You know you don’t have to go if you’re not
ready to face reality quite yet?”
 
Bree
whispered in her ear as she gave her a goodbye hug.
 

She squeezed
her sister and broke off the hug.
 
“I
know, but I need to make some decisions and if I stay here I fear I will just
live in my pajamas, eat crap food all day and end up on one of those shows
where people are so big they can’t leave their own homes.”
 
She smiled weakly.

Bree
laughed.
 
“Ok, well I hate to lose the
revenue I would gain from charging people to see my 1,000 pound sister but I
understand.
 
Call me when you get home,
or on the road, or if you need me to come to Denver and help you hide the
body.”
 

She hugged her
sister again, kissed her cheek and headed home to face her messed up life.