ON AIR (12 page)

We might need to work into that discussion on respecting my space sooner or later, but I was glad it wasn’t sooner this time.

14

Dane,

Hope it’s okay to email you back again. Thank you for the recommendations. I had a great time visiting the spots you suggested. Hopefully you had a chance to listen to my segment from Monday. Let me know what you think. =)

Sinclair

Hmm. That was the email I got while I was at work on Friday. I’d at least remembered to give Darius a heads up on Monday night before I went to sleep, but beyond that, I’d been so buried in work that I hardly had time for anything else.

Even Natalie, but that seemed to be her choice. She didn’t drop by my house again to make me dinner, or show up unexpectedly all week. We texted—she was busy and I was busy—but we’d decided to meet up tonight since it was the weekend. Darius had texted me a few times throughout the week to let me know business had increased tremendously, but he was worried how the weekend would fare. I promised I’d be in no matter what.

In the midst of my random thoughts, Clive entered my office and shut the door behind me. I instantly knew something was up because he rarely ever shut the door to speak with me.

“So you hired someone to work here?” he asked. He didn’t seem mad, just confused. I had no idea what he meant either until he added, “A kid named David?”

“Oh. Yeah. About that…”

I gave Clive a summary of Davey’s situation, and since I knew he would understand, I really didn’t worry about him objecting. I apologized for forgetting to tell him, though. That was a mistake on my part.

“Don’t worry about,” he waved it off. “But get him set up with Penny before anything, okay?”

“I wasn’t expecting
you
to give him a job, Clive. I just thought he could work for me for a bit. I’ll take care of paying him.”

“I understand your intentions, but let’s get him official, okay? Let’s at least give him the opportunity to build his résumé. Open the door for him. What he does with that is up to him.”

I nodded my gratitude. “Thank you so much. I appreciate it.”

“You know I’ve been there,” he smiled at me. “It’s my job to pay it back.”

He opened the door and I followed him out. Clive hung a left for his corner office but I continued on until I hit the reception desk and waiting area. Davey was seated in a chair, elbows on knees, seeming restless. He stood suddenly and turned for the exit, but that’s when he saw me and paused.

“Nah, don’t run off yet,” I said, motioning for him to follow me.

He was reluctant at first but eventually followed me down the hall. I passed my office and entered Penny’s office instead. We sat down and spent almost an hour on getting him set up with part time pay, and when we were done, I took him to my office.

“So I’m like an office boy?” Davey asked after I filled him in on a few things he’d be helping out with.

“Yep, gotta start somewhere.”

He thought that over for a moment. “Hmm. So I don’t get to draw up some buildings and shit just yet? You know, I’ve got some pretty good Lego experience under my belt.”

I couldn’t tell if he was sharing his dry humor or mocking me, but I nodded my head and answered, “Same here, man. Ultimately what got me interested in this kind of thing.”

I honestly didn’t know what I was going to do with Davey. Yes I truly did want him there to work, but I guess in offering, I hadn’t exactly thought it out well enough. But we were a firm of seven architects, two engineers, a couple of secretaries, an accountant, and a few assistants. I introduced him to as many as were there that day and then set him up with Julie, who was a college intern and Clive’s assistant. I kind of felt like I was pawning him off on her, but she seemed to want to help and claimed she knew just where he was needed.

I returned to my office to continue my work, and by that I mean I pulled up Sinclair’s email again. I read it twice before finding the segment online to listen to, but before I could press
play
, my desk phone rang and I spent a half an hour with one of my long-winded clients.

The only thing that kept me awake was a series of texts from Natalie.

Nat: I know you’re probably busy, but just letting you know I’m thinking about you naked

I smiled as I read that while listening to Lowell Roberts explain the tile design in his bathroom.

Nat: If you were here with me we’d be doing…things

I pictured having Natalie pressed up against the shower Lowell was describing, her naked body writhing against mine. He could talk to me all he wanted about his travertine compass inlay while I fucked her senseless.

Nat: Your desk is quite large…

Oh shit, not shower sex. I eyed my desk while Lowell went on about the ash color compared to the oatmeal color his wife liked instead. I had no idea if he was still talking about his shower or not because I pictured Natalie spread on my desk in front of me—

Nat: I’d love to be under it, have my mouth around your cock right now, sucking you so hard people will hear you... And if Clive walks in I’m gonna keep going until I suck you dry. He can fucking watch when you come down my throat

Well, I might have come in my pants with that thought but the phone was distracting me.

“Dane? Dane, you there? Hello? … Must’ve lost the connection,” he said to someone else in the room.

“No, Mr. Roberts, I’m here.”
My dick is hard as a fucking rod, but I’m here. Listening to you rambling on and on about shit I don’t care about.

“Oh, well, okay. So thanks again for the recommendation. I really appreciate it.”

“No problem. I’m glad it all worked out for you.”
Whatever the fuck it is.

When we hung up, I was in serious need of alone time before I could text Natalie back.

15

F
riday night at Baseline was pretty packed. I was happy they were getting a lot of business—and Darius was rolling in the tips like mad—but a part of me was disappointed that one of my favorite bars didn’t seem so exclusive to me anymore.

“Man, maybe we should head over to Jessop’s,” Madden said after an hour.

Eight of us were sharing a four-person table, half of us standing. I couldn’t even move without bumping into someone, and I’d lost count how many times I’d been bumped into or spilled on.

“Have you noticed what the majority of the people are in here?” Chris asked, glancing around. He was keeping Chloe close to him, just like I was doing with Natalie.

“Assholes?” Madden replied with a scowl, right after a couple squeezed between tables and almost took his elbow off.

“Nah, it’s like a college frat party in here,” Natalie answered. “It’s like they migrated north for some reason.”

“Yeah, I see what you mean.” I studied the crowd a bit closer and sure enough, “college” screamed from ninety percent of them. “Totally not what I wanted my bar to turn into.”

“No shit,” Madden growled as he stood. “Let’s get over to Jessop’s.”

The trek to the bar to say goodbye to Darius was nearly impossible, so I just shouted his name and motioned my departure when he looked up. He acknowledged me with a wave as we left.

By the time I made it across town in my truck with Natalie, I really didn’t feel like being out anymore. She easily agreed and we ended up at my place by eleven o’clock. Call me boring, but just the idea of baking a frozen pizza and putting on a movie was exciting to me. I’d spent plenty of nights out over the years so I didn’t feel like I was missing anything. Sometimes I wondered if Natalie did since she was three years younger than me. I didn’t want to take away her social opportunities, and I ended up telling her so.

“Pssh,” she smiled at me. “It’s not like I’m in college. And I deal with people enough when I’m at work. You know me. I could sit in silence for a couple hours and be fine with it. I like getting together with everyone, but the only person I really need to be around is you. That’s a fix I can’t get enough of.”

Two weeks ago, that might have made me panic. Label me an asshole if you’d like, but I really had a difficult time with clingy women. Normally I can tell during the first date, but there have been a few who saved the psycho for a bit later. I’m not saying Natalie was clingy, but any type of allusion to it would have had me putting up a wall.

Sometimes I was waiting for Natalie to slip me those subtle hints. I pictured it like a slow takeover—or maybe quicker like a carbon monoxide leak and you’re dead before you know it. I didn’t consider Nat herself to be poisonous, but that subtle loss of man space is inevitable over time and I wasn’t sure if I was ready for the fight it might produce.

“How’s Chloe’s shop doing?” I asked.

Maybe I was changing the subject, and yes I realized I hadn’t responded to her flattery, but my mind sort of worked that way.

Deflection.

“It’s doing well, actually. I mean the rush has tapered off, obviously, but she still needs me part time. I think she’s got a steady flow of customers right now. I’m really happy for her.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“Crazy how that happened,” she added, giving me a watchful eye.

My eyebrow arched. “What’s that look for?”

She shrugged. “Just seems a bit coincidental. And then Darius’s bar?”

“Hey, I had nothing to do with Chloe’s coffee shop getting more business.”

“But you did for Baseline? I heard Madden say something about you having a hand in that.”

I paused, just to arrange my response correctly. “Okay, so I heard that radio thing, and then Chloe’s shop just blew up with business the next two days. A few days later, I emailed the radio station to thank the lady who was responsible for all of it.”

Natalie’s eyes doubled in size. “Fuck outta here! You emailed Sinclair? You recommended Baseline?”

“Well…sort of. We messaged a couple of times and then she told me she was gonna be doing sports bars, and if I had any suggestions. So…I gave her a few.”

Natalie sat back against the couch and exhaled. “Wow, how cool. She actually emailed with you?”

I was a bit surprised she was stuck on that aspect of it. “Well, yeah. She thanked me for being grateful instead of being a business wanting her to feature them.”

Natalie bobbed her head from side to side in thought. “Hmm. Yeah, I never thought of it that way. I bet she gets that a lot.” Looking at me she asked, “Wanna know a secret? I emailed her too.”

“No shit? When?”

“About a month ago. Not to ask for favors, but to suggest some businesses. I guess maybe she could have taken it the wrong way. I totally didn’t set myself up to benefit from it, but I guess it could seem that way. Hey, and I also thanked her for two recommendations. They’ve become my favorite places. I guess she didn’t message me back because I don’t have a dick,” she added with smug insinuation.

Chuckling, I shrugged. “I don’t know why she chose to reply. Just one of those things.”

“Mmhmm,” she nodded. “She probably took the information from your email and looked you up. Your picture for your firm’s site is fucking hot, Dane. Button-up shirt and tie, that panty-wetting smile… Pussy killer.”

I considered that for a second. I guess my email signature did include my business information in fine print. Maybe Sinclair had dug deeper and maybe she hadn’t, but it was an interesting situation. “Her last email did sort of imply she wanted me to reply again.”

Natalie coughed out a laugh. “Oh really? So you two have a thing through emails?”

I could tell she was joking, but from my experience, most women joke with the truth.

“No, we’ve just talked about her radio show.” I pulled out my phone to scroll through it. “Here, you can see for yourself.”

“I don’t want to read your emails, Dane. Especially ones that are
pre
Dane-and-Natalie.”

“Still… Doesn’t bother me.” I handed her my phone and watched TV for a minute while she read them.

“So? What
did
you think of the segment?” Natalie asked.

I paused. “I haven’t really heard the entire thing,” I admitted. Peter had been pacing my driveway that day.

She actually seemed pleased, which I guess worked in my favor. Maybe it squashed a bit of her insecurity when it came to other women, but really, she had nothing to worry about.

“You know, men go nuts over her voice,” she even said. “I don’t even blame you if Madden’s sick thoughts have rubbed off on you.”

“Madden lives in his own head half the time. He’s got this image of her as some glowing goddess with long flowing red hair and huge tits. He’s a fucking teenager with a boner for Jessica Rabbit.”

She laughed. “Well I think her voice is hot and I wouldn’t mind finding out what she looks like either. Can I talk her into a threesome? Think she’d come out of hiding that way?” she snickered.

“Oh God, Nat. She’s got a unique voice. It doesn’t mean she’s a sex addict.”

“I didn’t say that. Just maybe she’d be interested. She knows what you look like…”

I gave her an impatient frown. “You’ve got to be joking.”

“Ask her out, Dane! I give you permission.”

“Because you want to know what she looks like?”

“Yes! I don’t care if that sounds shallow, but you seriously don’t understand. This woman has my dream job. She holds so much power, yet no one would know it if they even saw her. How cool is that! And then she gets to talk on the radio for five minutes—not long but just long enough to influence a lot of people. I’d be sharing the nail salon I go to, that little glassblowing place where I make my ornaments, and hell, even my gynecologist.”

I made a face. “If people flock to a pussy doctor upon your recommendation, I don’t think I understand anything about this world.”

Giggling, Natalie shoved me in the arm. “I’m just thinking out loud. I don’t know what I’d share, but it would be
so fun
. I’m kind of envious of her.”

“Hmm, if I ask her out and we go on a date, then you’d be
really
envious of her for being with
me
. Oh wait, that’s funny, you already
have
me!”

“I’m not serious!” she laughed out loud. “That would be mean to do, just to see who she is. And you’re totally right, I wouldn’t want anyone to have you alone.” She climbed onto my lap and straddled me. “Because I think I’m all the woman you need.”

I couldn’t disagree. And maybe I’d known that for a while but was afraid of it. I think the thought of investing everything I had in one person was a bit daunting, and that’s why I feared going for the whole 100%-deal. I’m talking living together, sharing things, and paying bills.

And if we started doing all of that, then there were only a couple more steps you could actually take in a relationship and I just wasn’t ready.

***

I spent two hours of my Saturday morning on a design I’d been finishing up, and then I went outside to do some of that domesticated crap like mow my lawn. My place was pretty easy to upkeep, being that it was in a neighborhood of mid-sized homes owned by above-middle-class homeowners. We all had basic yards and shrub beds, nothing too fancy but still nice looking.

Natalie had stayed the night because she’d fallen asleep on my couch, but she left at seven a.m. to work a shift at my sister’s coffee shop. I didn’t know if we were getting together later or not, neither of us mentioned it, but I figured I’d be texting her later anyway.

Around two in the afternoon, I was dumping the trash in the outdoor receptacle when a familiar car pulled up. Automatically my mood brightened when I saw Chris. He was about an hour early but didn’t hesitate to help out by putting the mower and other maintenance tools back in my garage for me.

It was then that I noticed a small moving truck down the street at Peter’s house. He was unloading some boxes by himself while Charlotte seemed to be supervising. I’d only met his fiancée once, but her strawberry blonde hair was unmistakable.

“God, you’re gonna make me help too, aren’t you?” Chris grumbled upon noticing what I’d noticed.

Chuckling, I answered, “Nah, man, you don’t have to. But he looks like he’s on his own.”

I knew Chris would join me anyway, and we made our way down the street. My last few interactions with Peter had been awkward, but it didn’t mean I had it in me to let the guy move furniture by himself.

He saw us as he exited the house empty-handed, and paused with a distrustful frown on his face.

“Dude, what’d you do to him?” Chris mumbled so only I could hear. “Looks like we’re the last people he wants to see.”

I ignored him and said, “Hey Peter, let us give you a hand.”

He tried turning us away, but I had Charlotte on his ass as soon as I mentioned more hands meant safer care for her belongings. It only took us about fifteen minutes—just boxes and then some pieces of furniture like end tables, a glass cabinet, a hope chest, a dining set, and a dresser.

“Could you stay for dinner?” Charlotte asked after the last item had been placed inside. “I have lasagna in the oven. It should be done in ten minutes or so.”

As much as my stomach said yes, my brain was screaming no. And Peter made a big production over how busy we were and that they shouldn’t tie us down with demands. I was torn between politely declining and saying yes just to piss him off.

“That’s very nice of you, Charlotte,” I told her. “But Pete’s right. We’re just a couple of assholes who work too much and need to get our priorities straight.” I roughly patted him on the back. “Right, buddy? I worked almost seventy hours this week, so it’s time to repent before vegetation time at Casa de Thomas.”

I turned for my house before I was tempted to be an even bigger dickhead.

“Dude, what the fuck?” Chris said when we were out of earshot. “I don’t want to spend another minute with the guy either but that was salty, man.”

I filled him in on my last couple of exchanges with Peter. I think looking back on those times made me even more irritated than I’d been when they happened, so I may have cussed a bit more while I recounted the experiences.

Chris gave me a strange look after we entered my house. “Okay, I take it back. He’s weird as fuck. But you made us go over there to help him anyway?”

Yeah, I didn’t understand it either. But good deeds were good deeds. As long as Peter kept to himself and out of my personal business, I didn’t mind giving a hand.

I pulled out some ground beef to grill for burgers. “Meh, hopefully he got the hint.”

“Mmhmm. You’re gonna climb in your bed one night and he’s gonna be in it waiting for you,” Chris snorted.