The Cinderella Project (A Comedy of Love, #1) (5 page)

“With that guy you were just with?”

Ella went rigid and she looked away. “He’s just a classmate. I needed a ride home so I could be here in time to make lunch for you.”

I squinted at her and asked, “Classmate? How many guys actually go to beauty school? That’s a bit… odd, don’t you think?”

“Nicholas Cairn!” she blurted. “Angelo is a perfect gentleman. He’s an artist. Just because he chooses to use hair for his art doesn’t mean he’s some kind of freak. Some of the best stylists in the world are men. It’s like all those gourmet chefs.”

I shrugged. “Hey, I was just curious. I’m not accustomed to guys doing hair is all.” I tried to chalk it up to an overdeveloped sense of paranoia and too little sleep. Ella had been good to me. After all, I didn’t actually
see
them doing anything wrong. Maybe this “Angelo” guy was just really funny and Ella was responding appropriately. My stomach rumbled, so I decided to file the incident away and forget about it. Besides, I had been missing Ella all morning. “Let’s go on in and eat.”

She pursed her lips and nodded. An engine roared and we both glanced over to notice a Porsche 911 bolt from behind the townhomes. The car hesitated at the street, then took a quick right and headed past us. As he drove by, the driver honked twice and blew a kiss at Ella. Okay. High comedy. Right.

Ella blushed again, then grabbed my hand and hauled me quickly inside. “Angelo’s just friendly like that,” she said quickly. “Italian courtesy.”

“Right.
What’s for lunch?” Best to just ignore this. No need to read into things—Ella did enough of that for both of us. I turned to watch the Porsche drive away anyway.

She pulled my face away from the window and gave me a quick kiss. “What’d you want, Nicky?”

I glanced at my watch. “I need to be back at the office by one, so I’ll have to leave here by twenty ’til.”

“You walked?”

“I always walk. Good exercise; saves on gas. You know how much gas costs.”

Ella walked into the kitchen, silent. “I’ll make sandwiches then, since you don’t have time for me.”

“Hey, I have time for you.”

She faked a pout. “I was only joking, Nick.”

Ella never had mastered sarcasm. “You say that, but sometimes it’s hard to tell you’re not serious. I know I’m gone a lot. That’s part of needing to manage several obligations simultaneously, okay? I’ll still be here for dinner, as usual, okay. C’mere for a sec.”

Ella pulled out a loaf of sourdough, set it on the counter and then moped across the kitchen tile to where I stood. I took her in my arms and just held her. She seemed to warm to the embrace, but I could still feel the tension in her back and shoulders. After only a few moments, she pushed away with an excuse about having to make food. I asked if I could help, but was shooed to the living room where I happily sank into her leather sofa.

“Oh, hey, Ella?” Vera said from the stove.

Ella looked up from her sandwich
-making. “Yeah?”

“You missed a few calls while you were out.”

“From who?”

Vera gestured to a marker board on the kitchen wall. “The fitting for your wedding dress. They called about that. It’s at four-o-clock on August eighteenth. You also got calls from the caterers, the flo
rist, Barbara for your hair and,” Vera paused to read the board, “something about a Jake Connor.”

Ella stopped working. “Jake… Connor?”

I sat up at the odd hesitance in her voice.

“Yeah
.” Vera nodded as she moved a boiling pot of something to a backburner. “Some girl from your high school said he was in town and that she had given him your number.”

“Oh. That’s nice.”

“She said she’d told him you were usually here in the evenings and that he told her he might call you tonight, maybe around seven. She didn’t get his number, but she thought you had it. She said you might want to call him if you got home before that.”

Ella was silent.

“Ella?” Vera asked, glancing at her.

Ella continued mutely layering cheese and meat on buttered bread.

“Are you going to call him? Can I erase the reminder?”

Ella jumped as if startled. “Oh, dear. Oh, I’m sorry, Vera. I think I just zoned out for a moment there. Yes, I’ll take care of things.”

Ella and Vera went about their preparations in awkward silence after that. When Vera was done she took her food upstairs “So that you two can be alone,” she told us with a wink. Ella had made pasta salad and chocolate mousse to go with the sandwiches. She made to set the table.

“I got that, Els.” I had two plates on the table before she could respond. I followed the plates with a couple of bottles of her favorite mineral water.

“Oh, thanks, Nick. You really are just too sweet.”

“What’s a fiancé for?” I asked with a smile. “Chivalry isn’t dead.” Ella giggled and pecked my cheek.

We dug in. Ella’s club sandwiches were among the best I’d ever had, so I took time to let the sourdough melt in my mouth as the flavors of the meats danced with it. I complimented her cooking; she blushed appropriately. As I took another bite, I noticed a catalog on the table near me. It was one of the wedding catalogs that Ella had asked me to peruse with her. I had time, so I picked it up and leafed through it for a few minutes. China, crystal, furniture, vacation packages, lingerie. Comprehensive.

“Ella? Weren’t we going to register for some of this stuff?”

She blinked. “Oh, yes. The wedding registry. I guess we should do that soon, shouldn’t we?”

“Did you want to show me a few of your ideas now? I’ve still got a few minutes before I need to run.”

Dabbing her mouth with a napkin, she replied, “Oh, you don’t have to do that. I’d really rather look at it when we have an hour or two to just sit down and
dream
.”

“How about tonight?”

She looked at me oddly. “I thought you were at the lab tonight.”

“Well, sure. But the nice thing about being my own boss is that I set my own hours. I’ll wrap up at seven tonight. I can’t do that every time, of course, but now and again is fine. Why not tonight?”

Ella grew quiet and quickly stuffed a spoonful of mousse in her mouth.

“What?” I asked. She continued to eat.

Then I remembered what Vera had said. “Oh, wait, that’s right. Your friend was going to call then. I can’t believe I forgot that already. What was his name?”

Ella acted as if the mousse was driving her to oblivious ecstasy. Sure, it was good stuff, but not
that
good.

I stole a glance at the whiteboard. “Right. Jake Connor. Mental lapse.”

“Don’t you need to get back to the lab, Nicky?” Her voice was still and distant.

I looked at my watch: 12:36. “I still have four minutes, Els. Anyway, I was just trying to say that I’m cool if you hang out with your old friend tonight. I’ll take a rain check on dinner. I know what it’s like to want to catch up with friends you probably haven’t seen in years.”

“He’s not a friend.” I couldn’t miss her accusatory tone.

“What’s wrong, babe? If it’s personal, just say so. Don’t worry about me. I know girls have guy friends sometimes.”
Including ones that drive Porsches and blow kisses at engaged women
, I thought. “I’m okay if you two just want to spend time together since he’s in town. I promise I won’t take it personally.” I fished a ten spot from my wallet, cringing as I realized it was all the cash I’d have for the next several days, “ In fact, go get some ice cream or a burger or something. My treat.”

“I need to get back to school, Nick.”

“I thought you only had morning classes on Tuesdays.”

“I forgot something.”

I frowned. “Couldn’t Angelo just bring it to you?”

Ella leapt to her feet. “Angelo is
just
a classmate, alright? And that guy Vera mentioned is
not
a friend of mine
at all
. I can’t believe that you’d turn lunch into an episode of courtroom reality TV! What are you trying to say, Nicholas? That I’m some kind of tramp chasing any male with a pulse?”

“What… the heck?”

“So, yes. Angelo gave me a ride home. And now that makes me a two-timer? Some random person calls and says he knows me and now you think I’m stepping out on you?”

I got to my feet slowly and held my hands out in a calming manner. “Okay, Ella. Let’s just talk about this, here. It’s pretty obvious we’re not on the same page and somehow you really,
really
misunderstood something I said.” I put the ten-dollar bill carefully in my wallet.

“See? I’m putting the money away. You don’t have to go anywhere with your friend Jake.”

“
He is not my friend!”

Instant silence.

Ella seemed to realize that she had gone a little too far. She looked away and hugged her chest tightly.

“You should go,” she half-whispered. “I need to take a nap and you need to walk back to the lab. I don’t want to be the one to blame for your work not getting done.”

“Ella, hey.” I took a step toward her, but she shook her head vigorously before stalking upstairs to her bedroom. I buried my face in a hand and took several deep breaths. We’d had tiffs now and then—every couple did—but I couldn’t recall a time when things had been this abrupt or convoluted.

Some part of my brain reminded me that people often accuse themselves of their own crimes without needing any help. But Ella? Cheat on me? I couldn’t bring myself to believe that. We had made some pretty serious promises even though we weren’t officially man and wife. She certainly deserved the benefit of doubt from me if from no one else. I was her future husband. I was the man who was supposed to protect her and stand by her when the rest of the world was against her. As a good scientist, I knew better than to just speculate based on circumstantial evidence. That’s all I had with Ella—circumstantial evidence. I needed her trust and she needed mine; all I could do is give her my trust and do my best to earn it in return.

I looked at my watch, but failed to notice the time. I looked again and noticed that the face of my watch was blurry. I wiped at it, but it didn’t change. That was when I realized that there were some small tears in my eyes. I ignored the pain of the argument and without bothering a third attempt at checking the time, I picked up my sandwich and made my way out of Ella’s place. I doubt she even heard the door close.

CHAPTER FOUR

“So, Dad? I need a really great date idea. Got any?”

“Dinner and a flick.”

“That’s so lame, Dad. Everyone does that. Don’t you have anything special?”

“Like what, Nick?”

“Oh, you know. Something that would really impress a girl.”

“I’d have to think about it.”

“Well you managed to impress Mom once. What did you do for your first date with her?”

“Dinner and a flick”

“Fine. What about your second date?”

“Dinner and a flick”

“Well what did you do the night you finally proposed to her?”

“We grabbed a bite, I proposed and then I took her to see Saturday Night Fever.”

“And she still married you?”

My face was steady again by the time I returned to the lab. Moiré was waiting as promised and she had exceeded my expectations in her efforts. My notes had never looked better. With a few small tweaks, she’d improved my filing efficiency by twenty percent. I thanked her for her time and then excused her while she ran off to grab a bite before dressing up some flowers.

I looked at my schedule. Movie night tonight. More movies. In fact, the entire week had been set up to review another nine films, but I was pleased to see that they were the last on my list. Since Moiré was now my assistant, I would want her input on the films as well. Chances were good, though, that we’d be watching them far past the time everyone else would have left the lab. That was a problem I hadn’t thought about when I’d let myself be suckered into hiring her. Rather than fret over it, I decided to simply solve it.

I spent the next twenty minutes surreptitiously asking whether anyone was planning on sticking around after hours. When it became clear that no one would be around, I got a little worried. Me and some other girl alone in the dark was just asking for trouble. The easy solution? Send Moiré home and do without her input. I’d gone on this way for over a year; wouldn’t hurt to carry on with it. Problem solved, I went back to writing up my research.

“Sorry I’m late, Nick.” Moiré’s panting voice startled me out of my thoughts. I glanced at the clock and was stunned to see that it was 5:12 already. Moiré trotted over and set her purse on the table. I could tell she had jogged here if not ran. She checked a text message and then set the phone down on the table next to her purse.

Turning to me
, she said, “A girlfriend had an emergency come up and I needed to take her into town to get something done before four. I called you a couple of times to let you know, but all I got was your voicemail. I guess you didn’t get the voicemail.”

I checked my phone. Four missed calls, one voicemail. And a ringer set to mute.

“Facepalm,” I said, slapping a hand across my face.

“Did you really just say ‘facepalm’?” she asked.

“Yes. Yes I did. Anyway, no problem about your absence. I’m not sure what I would have had you do between three and now anyway. I’m still behind where I’d like to be with this research and was trying to hit this hard this afternoon. I also need to finish some paperwork to see if I can’t get some extra funding.”

Moiré perked up at that. “Yeah? Who are you asking?”

I rifled through my notes. “Well, let’s see. Some applications for possible federal grant money—more of it. An application for money from an independent psychology entity; some kind of research group. And, last… a friend of mine told me I might try for money from some entity called the Women’s Education and Learning League.”

Moiré got a strange look on her face for a moment. “Well, I hope those come through for you. How’s the research budget looking, if you don’t mind my asking.”

“Not looking too great, really. I have enough for a few of the more expensive field visits, then some incidentals, but I hate to admit that I’m already tapping more credit than I ever wanted to. Why do you ask?”

She shrugged. “I guess I can relate. I know a little about having a tiny piggy bank. I don’t mind not getting paid for this, but I’m hoping to pick up a few scholarships.”

“You should be a shoo-in for scholarships, from what I’ve seen.”

She blushed a little. “Thanks, Nick.”

I smiled. “Well, I’m sure you’ve got other homework and such to attend to. I’m just reviewing a couple films tonight. Why don’t you just call it a day and we’ll meet again tomorrow.”

“Remind me,” she said, “hadn’t you intended to have a second set of eyes on those movies?”

“Yes. Why?”

“Well, I had scheduled research time for this evening. Homework is already done. Why don’t we just watch them together and compare notes per your earlier suggestion?”

I bit my lip. How to explain this? “I’m not sure how appropriate that would be.”

“What? You don’t…,” she cut herself off and glanced around quickly. When it was obvious no one was paying us any attention, she continued in a low voice, “What? You don’t date research assistants?”

I wished she hadn’t completed that sentiment. I’d already seen where it was going.

“No, I don’t, thanks. Let’s not forget that little thing called the Researcher’s Code, okay?”

She nodded, but there was still a twinkle in her eye. “It’s alright, Doctor Cairn. Research and dating are
completely
different things. I’m just here to help you get your data and keep it organized.”

“And don’t you forget it,” I said with half-serious sternness. She nodded and her smile told me she hadn’t taken it personally. “Consider yourself a free woman for the evening. Go enjoy some summer air.”

Moiré yawned and stretched. “Maybe I should catch a cat nap too, then,” she said. I agreed and we parted company.

I watched her go, without making it obvious, only to find that I was dazed for several moments after she disappeared into the hall. I shook my head clear and resumed my work.

Grabbing the box of movies, I turned back to my list and then picked out those last few flicks I hadn’t gotten to yet. All nine movies were in VHS format and I chuckled to think that some of the freshman at this school might not have a clue about what a VHS tape was. Maybe that was overstating the facts, but still, when I looked at the faded cardstock covers of the movies and saw production dates starting with “198,” I was a bit stunned to think of how fast my brief life had gone. I was still a couple of years off thirty, but it felt as though life had kicked into fast-forward once I’d passed sixteen. How does a decade disappear without someone knowing it? I pulled out of my nostalgia and stacked the movies in alphabetical order. I finished a few notes and logged off my computer.

“See ya’s, Nick.”

I glanced up to see the campus runner, “Courier John,” shaking what looked like an awkward blend of a gang sign and a Hawaiian Chaka.

“Oh, hey, C.J. I didn’t see you come in.”

“It’s my ’leet ninja skills, dude. That’s how I get the packages into places that no one else can get them.”

“Right.” I decided not to ask for elaboration. “Well, goodnight, John. Don’t scare any freshman girls on your way home, this time.”

John looked shocked. “Scare? Dude, they
flock
to me and it doesn’t matter the age.”

“You do realize just how creepy that statement sounded, right?”

John started to speak, then stopped and thought about it for a moment. “You knew what I meant. Anyway, peace out, brotha!”

“Yeah, man. Peace.” With that he was gone. One other grad student was left and he looked fully absorbed in whatever he was doing on his computer; I doubted he’d care if I watched a chick flick or two. I picked up the stack of videotapes and went to the VCR. The scuttlebutt was that this VCR was one of the last ones on campus and quite possibly on the planet.

I pulled the top movie from the stack—some little independent film titled “A time for Kris Kissy”—and popped it into the ancient machine. I put the other tapes away and wheeled up my favorite rolling chair. I flipped the TV on and pushed “play” on the VCR. After a few moments of static, the tape quit. I ejected it and found that it hadn’t been rewound. Muttering something about the joys of DVDs, I re-inserted the tape and settled in for the slow journey back to the beginning of the film. Unfortunately, I never made it. The VCR made a sound not unlike a cat gargling fish tank gravel and then turned itself off. I turned it back on. It vetoed me. I pushed the eject button. The VCR gave it some thought and vetoed me again.

“Great.” I wasn’t exactly dying to find out what happened to Kris Kissy, but I did have a quota to meet. If nothing else, I still needed to get through the other movies. I negotiated with the machine for several more minutes, earning only groans, grinding noises and flat refusal for my trouble. Eventually, I went looking for a screwdriver, determined to defeat the VCR. I got the top panel off without a hitch. Not surprisingly, the tape inside had wound its way around all of the innards of the VCR.

“Dang. Mechanical constipation. No wonder it won’t work.”

I carefully unthreaded the tape and began gingerly winding it back into the VHS casing. Four minutes later, I finished. I gave the VCR a quick once over, immediately remembering why I hadn’t gone into electrical engineering. I fiddled with a few things, just to make myself feel better and then tried making it work without a tape in there. It didn’t.

I dropped back into my chair and frowned. I could probably hold off until tomorrow, but the rest of the week was already on a pretty tight schedule, especially with the hoops I still had to get through to see if I could get enough funding to finish what I had started. If I pushed this off even a day, that’d mean nights would be even later and that wasn’t something I looked forward to. Ella would probably feel put out that I was spending the night with stupid romance films instead of talking with her, and given the little scene at lunch, well… that was its own mess to sort out. I filed thoughts about that problem away for later and focused on the “now.”

“Oh, good! There it is.”

I looked up at the sweet voice. Sure enough, it was Moiré.

“Welcome back, Miss De Lanthe,” I said.

She stuck her tongue out. “I told you not to call me that.”

“Welcome back, my minion.”

“Much better. Silly me forgot my phone. I use the alarm for quick snoozes. I must have spaced out. I’m glad it’s still here.” She held it up and waved it a bit. “Anyway, I’ll let you get back to your movies. How’re those going anyway?”

I rolled my eyes. “Well, I figured out the life expectancy of a campus VCR.”

Moiré frowned in sympathy. “It doesn’t work, huh?”

“It passed a few minutes ago. I didn’t have time to call the toaster and the telephone to come say their goodbyes. The viewing is tomorrow. The funeral will be on Thursday when the garbage men drop by.”

I loved the smile she gave in response. She sobered immediately and added, “I’ll be sure to wear black to the lab tomorrow. But anyway, condolences aside, do you have a backup VCR?”

I shook my head.

“Hey, no problem. A friend of mine has a VCR/DVD combo player at her place. Her roommates spend more time watching movies than they do studying, so I’m sure they wouldn’t mind having a tall, blond hunk over to watch love films with them.”

I felt the blood drain from my face. “Er… I’m… not so sure…
.”

Her laugh tinkled in my ears. “You’re good fun, Doctor Cairn.”

“Hey, didn’t you just warn me about name-calling?”

“Oh, right. You’re good fun, Supreme Research Master.”

I didn’t let my smile out. “That’s more like it.”

“But think about it,” she said, raising her eyebrows, “you certainly won’t be alone with a girl in the dark, right? You
know
nothing scary will happen if it’s a whole
harem
of girls. Besides, I’ve seen your schedule. Do you really want to mess that up just because you’ll have to spend a couple of hours with four or five delectable babes who would love to assist you in your research?”

This wasn’t helping. “I don’t think I should impose on your friend like that.”

Before I could react, Moiré snatched the video from my hand and peered at the faded cover. “‘A Time for Kris Kissy,’ huh? Betcha anything Miss Kissy hasn’t told her story in a while. You need more sleep than you’ve been getting, so unless you think you can replace the recently deceased, or unless you’re just going to scratch all these movies off your research list, I think I have you in checkmate.”

I blinked. “Apologies, Moiré, but if you think that’s checkmate, you’re worse at chess than I would have guessed. I think I’ll just have to watch these movies some other time.”

She stopped and her smile faded to a flat line across her face. She looked up at me and her eyes had this strange, tender pleading to them I had never seen from her before. I could tell that, for reasons I couldn’t begin to fathom, she really
wanted
me to do this. There was every reason not to; and yet, it wasn’t actually
wrong.
Moiré, despite her teasing about me “hanging out with cute babes” was sincerely trying to help me meet my research goals. She was providing me a situation that, while not ideal, was still something that I could justify to myself, if not to Ella. But honestly, what were the odds Ella would even know? I shuddered when the thought “Just once won’t hurt” crossed my mind—I’d seen where that kind of thinking could go. In the deep recesses of my mind, though, I really wanted to take her up on the offer. It was still just a little too dangerous.