Rising (21 page)

Sara finished washing her hot chocolate mug in her new low sink, placed it in the dish drainer
, and pulled the plug. She’d never realized how easy it could be. She could actually see what she was doing and she didn’t have any bulky ramp taking up valuable space in her kitchen.

She wiped down the new stainless steel sink and faucets. They sure
looked better than the old scratched and stained ones she’d had before. And the granite counters were amazing. She didn’t ask how much the upgrades had cost Xanthus, but she could tell they were expensive. Sara felt a twinge of guilt. With the threat of war, she knew being excited about a new kitchen was a pretty frivolous thing.

S
ara could hear Xanthus bumping around his apartment as he once again rearranged his furniture. No matter where he put his things, the apartment wasn’t going to get any bigger. He was just going to have to deal with the lack of space. She knew that she’d been all for his moving in to the apartment building, but that was before she had a chance to think about how big he was and how small the apartments were. She tried to tell him he didn’t need to move in here, that she could take care of herself, but he refused to listen.

Sara wheeled over to her little kitchen table, turned on her laptop
, and clicked on the web-creator program. Bills still had to be paid and work needed to be done. She only had a couple of minor changes on the latest web design. This job had taken up the better part of the last several weeks and Sara was so ready to be done.

She smiled as she pulled up the finished web site
online and looked. The pages were well organized, the graphics were amazing, and she checked off each requirement given her by Steve Rowling, the owner of Rowling’s Bowling and Billiards. She clicked through each page and was more than satisfied with the finished product.

Wow
. She may have hit an all-time high. This was her best web site yet. She’d even gotten a bowling ball to roll across the screen, revealing the name of the bowling alley and then, after the ball rolls off the screen, you heard the sound of pins dropping.

Sara shut down her computer and put it in her computer bag.
She was ready for her meeting. Mr. Rowling will be bowled over by her design. She chuckled at her own joke.

She rolled by the
refrigerator, promising she’d stock it when she got her paycheck. It was just in time, too. Her refrigerator and cupboard were bare. If she’d had to wait one more day, she’d be eating her last can of baked beans for lunch.

Thank
goodness, Xanthus had taken her out to eat or caught her dinner this last week, or she’d have run out of food long before now.

She pushed the speed dial on her new cellphone, “Hello
Mou, did you get it finished?” Xanthus’s warm voice made her smile.

“
Yeah, and it looks great. I’m going to start showing this design as an example of my work. I think this will help me get more jobs. I’m sure Mr. Rowling will be happy. I’ve got an appointment with him in just a few minutes to pick up my check.”

“Al
l right, Mou. I’ll be right over.”

“Xanthus, you don’t need to. I mean
, I appreciate how concerned you are about me, but this time it’s not necessary. Mr. Rowling seems like an okay guy and he owns a successful business. How bad could he be? I’m meeting him at a café just down the street and it’s in the middle of the afternoon.”

“Sara, just because he’s successful doesn’t mean he’s not trouble. And he’s meeting you in a café in
this
neighborhood?” Xanthus didn’t need to say more than that. He’d learned many things about the neighborhood in the last couple of weeks—none of them good. Sara knew this because he took it upon himself to inform her, going into great detail about what horrible nightmares awaited her if she ever became careless or complacent.

“Look,” he said.
“I’ll wait in the car. You can go in and work your business mojo and I’ll be waiting for you when your meeting is done.”

“Al
l right,” Sara sighed. “I won’t argue, but only because I know it won’t do any good.”

“Good girl. I’m standing outside your door anyhow.”

She keyed in the alarm code and let him in. He had her out of her chair and in his arms the moment he stepped inside. “Hey, you’re going to wrinkle my blouse,” Sara squealed as she put her arms around his neck.

Xanthus
must have not been too concerned about her blouse because he lowered his head for a kiss. She was only too happy to oblige. He kissed the breath out of her and then slowly pulled away. “You taste good.” He moaned and gave her one more quick brush of the lips.

“
My lip gloss. It’s strawberries,” she breathed.

“
Really? I like it.” Xanthus smiled. “Are you ready to go?”

“I was. I need to put on more lip gloss now.”

“I’m just going to kiss it off you again.”

“You better not. I need to look professional at this meeting. And each time you kiss me, I seem to get all mussed up.”

“I like you all mussed up.” He
nibbled on her ear.

“
You
might.” Her voice caught as her heart fluttered. “But I doubt my client will.”

“Al
l right.” Xanthus pulled away, smirking. “Put your lip gloss back on. I’ll kiss it off
after
your meeting.”

She smiled, pulled her lip gloss out of her pocket
, and slid it over her lips once again. A stray thought struck her. “Do Dagonian’s ever wear makeup?”

“You can tell I’m
wearing makeup?” Xanthus gaped at her.

“What
? No. You?”

Xanthus laughed and Sara relaxed
, scowling at her own naivety. “What are you laughing at? I think it’s wonderful you’re comfortable enough with your femininity to admit you wear makeup.”

He
chuckled, bringing his lips a hair’s width away from hers. Her heart thumped hard in her chest and she felt that familiar tingle she got when he looked at her the way he did. “You do, huh?”

She swallowed the lump in her throat. “I do what?”

His smile widened just before he moved in and kissed her senseless. When he pulled away, she finally remembered where she was and what she was doing. “You weren’t supposed to kiss me until
after
my meeting.”

“Sorry
Mou, I forgot. Don’t you think we’d better get going?” Xanthus glanced at the clock.

“Oh shoot. It’s getting late
. I absolutely
cannot
be late. It’s hard enough drumming up business. I can’t afford to lose clients for something as stupid as being late.”

“Don’t worry
Mou, you won’t be late.”

Xanthus had her out the door and in his
SUV in less than a minute. Sara was two minutes early when she rolled through the door of the café. A man waved to her from a table in the back. Sara rolled over. He looked taken aback, seeing her in a wheelchair, but soon recovered. He stood and moved a chair aside so she could push her wheelchair under the table.

“Thank you, Mr. Rowling
,” she said. The way he was looking at her made her a bit nervous.

“Please call me Steve.”
Mr. Rowling grinned, looked down at her chest, and raised an eyebrow.

Sara glanced down, horrified. She must have had a couple of buttons come lo
ose somewhere along the way. She was showing a lot of cleavage—not the kind of image she wanted to project. She quickly buttoned up. Her face burned red.

S
he slowly looked up. Mr. Rowling smiled, showing a few too many teeth. She might be young but she was old enough to know when she was being ogled. And for it to be Mr. Rowling, well, that totally creeped her out. He was about fifty years old and had at least fifty extra pounds of fat around the middle. The smell of cigarettes oozed out his pores.

“Well
, I saw the website and I have to say… I’m disappointed.” He took a gulp of his coffee and shook his head.

Her previous button embarrassment was completely forgotten with that one statement. “What didn’t you like about my web design?”

“There are too many things to list. I think it would be easier to say what I
did
like about it. And that would be nothing. I liked nothing about it.”

How could she have been so wrong? She
had thought it was brilliant.

Mr. Rowling tapped his fingers against the laminate table. “First of all, I wanted to have a login for members to access certain pages.”

“I… Wait a minute. You never mentioned that.” Sara pulled out the printout of her notes and turned to the pages listing his instructions. “Mr. Rowling, you never asked for that. Unless you ask for something, you can’t be upset that I don’t create it for you.”

“I remember specifically telling you to do a login page. I can’t help it if you don’t take good notes.”

“My notes are very detailed. You never
asked
for a login.” Sara bit off the next words she wanted to say. She needed to calm down. “I understand there must have been a miscommunication. I can have that fixed for you this evening.” She sat up straight, willing herself to have a better handle on her emotions.

“That’s not the only problem. I wanted a place for people to sign up for bowling leagues
along
with the league schedule.”

“I have the schedule but you never asked for a place to sign up. I can do it, but it’s sure to take more time and I would need to charge you more.”

“Listen, this is very difficult for me. I really wanted to help you out. You’re young and new to this business. I took a gamble doing business with you. But I think I should have gone with someone more experienced.”

“
Listen, Mr. Rowling…”

“Please
, call me Steve.”

I don’t think so.
“Mr. Rowling, I need you to look at my notes. I outlined all that you said you needed. I did absolutely
everything
you asked. Now if there are a few problems, I’ll fix those with no extra charge, but if you’re asking me to redo the entire design, I’ll have to charge you for that.”

“No Sara, that’s where
you’re
wrong. You’re the one who is going to have to pay for this disaster of a web design. I won’t pay you a cent until the whole thing is redone.”

“You can’t do that
. Do you have any idea how many hours I spent on this job?”

“How many hours you spent isn
’t my concern.” He waved her off.

“Mr. Rowling, I did the work you hired me to do. Now I’m going to ask you nicely to pay me the money you owe me and then I’ll ask you not to contact me anymore. You can hire someone else to make the changes you want, but I
’m through doing business with you.” Sara spoke in hard, even tones.

“Hey, not so fast
. There’s no need to get so upset. I’ll pay you the money and no more changes will be necessary.”

“You will?”
Sara asked, suspicious of the abrupt change.

“I will,
if
you do one teeny, tiny favor for me.” He cocked his bushy eyebrow.

“And what would
that be?”

He leaned in toward her. “I want just one night
,” he whispered and licked his lips.

“One night
for what?” She leaned away, her stomach queasy.

“One night with just you and me
, in a hotel room. If you do this for me, I’ll pay you your money. I may even give you a big bonus depending on your performance.”

Sara’s jaw dropped. She couldn’t believe she was hearing this. “What? You… you did not just say what I think you said.”

“Yes, I did. And I think you’ll realize that this is a way we can both get what we want. If you decide against it, you’ll never see your money.” Mr. Rowling leaned back, folded his arms, and smirked. His gaze drifted behind Sara and all color drained from his face.

“Hello, my love. Are you about done with your meeting?”
Xanthus’s voice hummed behind her ear. He put his hand on her shoulder, leaned in, and gently kissed her cheek. Mr. Sleaze looked like he was about to cry.

“Actually
, sweetheart, Mr. Rowling has refused to pay me.” Sara narrowed her eyes at Mr. Rowling.

“Oh? Now I know that can’t be right
. I’m
sure
Sara must have heard you wrong. As I’m sure
I
was hearing you wrong when I thought I heard you asking my girlfriend for sexual favors in exchange for the money you owe her. A successful businessman like you doesn’t get where he is by making those kinds of stupid mistakes. I mean, doing something that idiotic could get a person killed. Am I right, Mr. Rowling?”

Steve Rowling nodded like a bobble
-head doll on crack. “Oh yes, it was a complete misunderstanding. I was just about to write her a check.” He yanked out his checkbook and began scribbling. “In fact, I liked the website so much I’m giving her a bonus.”