Worst Week Ever (A Long Road to Love) (8 page)

Man, could
they make food disappear!

Two hours later,
three empty plates cluttered the table. Only Carrie’s plate remained barely
touched.

When she
pushed the dish far from the table’s edge, Tiny eyed her plate. “Was your fish
not good?”

His face
puckered with such displeasure, she feared he might storm into the kitchen to
shadow box the cook. She touched his small, delicate hand. “Best fish I’ve ever
eaten. I’m saving room for dessert. I’ll ask the waiter for a doggy bag and
take this home.”

All three of
her companions choked in unison and stared at her with rounded eyes.

“Do people not
ask for doggy bags here?” She looked to Trent for the answer.

“I’ve never
seen anyone request one.” He smiled. “But by all means, give it a try.”

Tiny leaned
forward. “Do you have a dog tied up outside?”

She shook her
head at the misunderstanding. “I don’t have a dog.” Now both Tiny and Tall’s foreheads
crinkled in confusion. “I gather you don’t have doggy bags in England?”

Tall fought
the smile trying to tug at his lips. “We do…but they’re used to pick up the dog
poo.”

Carrie burst
out in laughter. Noticing everyone in the place stared at her, she tried to quiet
her humor by clamping both hands over her mouth.

Tiny pulled
his legs onto his seat, stood, and faced the collection of über rich watching
them. “I apologize if our beautiful companion has disturbed your solemn meals,
but we are master comedians…and magicians,” he added as an afterthought. “The
dear lady is putty in our hands.”

He wiggled his
tiny fingers at them and a single rose appeared in his hand. Polite applause
pattered about the room. He leapt from his chair and gave it to a woman at a
nearby table. Whatever he said to the man and woman had them both laughing.
Moving to another table, he offered a carnation. He hopped about the
restaurant, handing out an amazingly large array of flowers he plucked from the
air.

Tall rolled
his eyes. “God only knows where he got those flowers.”

Carrie thought
it greatly heroic of him. No one paid the least bit of attention to her now.

Tiny continued
charming the customers until he saw their waiter carrying two large trays of
desserts to their table.

Tiny scampered
behind him, having somewhere acquired two empty drink trays and pretended to be
a second waiter. While their waiter looked a bit uneasy with his load, Tiny
proved a disaster, tripping and rolling head over heel, yet still managing to
keep the trays upright.

Tiny had the
whole place laughing by the time the waiter set down his trays and breathed out
softly. The waiter turned and focused on Tiny, who also arrived safely. To
celebrate, the tiny magician threw both trays into the air, where to all
appearances, they disappeared. The diners rewarded him with resounding
applause.

“I thought
they were laughing at me,” the young waiter said as he began passing out
desserts. Noticing Carrie’s barely touched meal, the fellow frowned. “Did you
not like your salmon?”

Tiny stopped his
antics and stage whispered, “She wants a doggy bag.”

The young
waiter set Carrie’s dish on one of the large trays and continued to move the
desserts onto the table. “Compliments of management.”

Glaring at the
waiter, Tiny objected, “But we’re here under an alias. How did you figure out
who we are?”

Trent laughed
then looked at the waiter. “Is Gary here?”

The waiter
nodded.

“Ask him if
he’s not too busy to come over and accept our appreciation personally.” Trent
turned to Tall. “You don’t mind saying hello to my friend who owns the
restaurant do you?”

Tall frowned
at Tiny lying on the floor. “Since he hasn’t had us evicted, I might even sign
an autograph.”

The waiter
reached for the last desert on the tray. He stared at the table and frowned. “I
put ten on the tray…”

“You’re
missing the dark chocolate, caramel thing. You should bring another.” Tiny
climbed onto his chair and smiled. His face had a smear of chocolate on one
side.

Carrie passed
her little friend a napkin and touched the side of her cheek to indicate the
location needing wiped. Tiny sweetly leaned over and wiped her cheek. He then
handed her the napkin back and positioned his cheek so she could return the
favor.

By the time
she had cleaned the chocolate from Tiny’s cheek, the owner of the restaurant
had arrived with their waiter, who carried a tray holding a regal looking
hatbox and another chocolate dessert.

Trent rose and
shook hands with the impeccably dressed man. The man’s one-sided smile looked
more like a sneer to Carrie. Besides his stiff, overly straight posture, he
held his chin tilted up, giving the sense he looked down on them, not just
physically, but mentally. Did Trent consider this guy his friend? The puffy
haired man certainly didn’t act like one.

“Gary, I would
like you to meet…” He paused and looked at Tall. “I’m sorry. I only know your
professional names.”

Tall stood,
making both Trent and Gary appear short. “I’m Hamon Baker and this is Andrew
Collins.”

“Better known
as Tall and Tiny,” Trent added.

Gary shook
both their hands. Tiny stood on his chair and leaned over to shake.

“Please sit.”
The owner then motioned to someone across the room and, a second later, a
busboy brought a chair so he could sit, as well.

Tall refolded
his long body into his seat and smiled at the man. “I appreciate your tolerance
with Tiny tonight.”

Gary chuckled.
“I have to admit when my head waiter said a guest from Trent’s table was
tossing flowers at my other customers, I was surprised.”

He focused on
Trent. “I had no idea you knew anyone of interest.”

The contempt
in his words angered Carrie, but Trent only laughed.

Tiny gripped
her hand. “He brought this pretty lady to our show and sat in the front row center
seats.” His subsequent chuckle hinted only an idiot would do such a thing.

Trent held up
his hand. “I highly recommend the show and if you can get a front row center
seat, take it. You’ll remember the experience for the rest of your life.”

Gary’s focus
turned to Carrie and she felt like a bug under a judgmental microscope. “I
don’t believe we’ve met before.”

“Carrie
Hanson.”

He tilted his
head as if perplexed. “Of the Boston Hansons?”

“Of the New
Jersey Hansons.”

Two furrowed
lines etched across his forehead. “I’m not aware of that family.”

“That’s
because it’s just me.”

He stared at
Trent to make sense of the matter.

“Carrie’s my
EA. She just came back from improving my Taiwan facility, so I treated her to a
welcome home, work’s-been-hell-without-you evening.”

The relief in
Gary’s face almost equaled her embarrassment as she realized he’d feared his
friend had fallen for New Jersey trash. Until this moment, it had never
occurred to her that Trent’s friends would see a relationship between them as
the equivalent of Trent getting the Ebola virus.

Despite all
Trent’s imperfections, in Gary’s eyes, she equated to unwanted crap on Trent’s
shoe. Pain crept its way up her chest as tears pressed to escape. She stood,
and all four men popped up as well. Trent seemed baffled by her sudden move,
Gary radiated contempt, Tall gave her pity, and Tiny looked ready to fight.

“If you’ll
excuse me, I have to go to the lady’s room.”

She sensed
Tiny following her, but didn’t dare stop. Tears would overcome her soon.

The bathroom
had a lounge with a makeup table, a chair, and two velvet-cushioned benches.
Since no one else occupied the room, she lay down and closed her eyes, still
fighting her desire to cry.

“What’s wrong
with you?” she asked herself. “So his friend thinks you’re white trash. Who
cares? Gary’s just a stupid jerk. Besides, nothing’s going on between Trent and
me. Since when can’t an employee have dinner with her boss? No reason to make
me feel like I’m not good enough to wipe his boots. It’s not like I’m hoping to
be his girlfriend. I just want a decent boss.” She sniffed and added, “I only
want to help him turn his business around.”

Her protest
lost its steam due to a lack of sincerity. Somewhere between the ride through a
third world country and the arrival of Gary, she’d trampled the line between business
and personal. She’d discovered, away from all the aggravations of work, Trent
exuded charm and wit. Within his thorny exterior resided a great deal of
tolerance and kindness. Damn it! Why did he have to make her like him? Why hadn’t
he let her know that to his people, she’d always be inferior? His friend didn’t
waste any time sharing his contempt.

Damn it! She’d
never felt so comfortable and right with anyone before. She liked Trent and he
liked her.

“As an
employee! He likes you as an employee. That’s all, idiot!”

“That’s not
true,” a familiar British voice replied.

Carrie bolted
upright and stared at Tiny, sitting on the end of the bench, his arms wrapped
around his legs, commiserative sadness emanating from his body.

“Tiny, you
can’t be in here.”

“If someone
shows up I’ll disappear, but you’re wrong about Trent. He does have feelings,
or at least he did before the jerk showed up.”

She breathed
in deep. “Doesn’t matter. His friend is right. We’re from different worlds. I
can assist him as his EA, but anything else would end in disaster.”

Tiny sighed
heavily. “You deserve better anyway.” He tilted his head in her direction. “Any
chance you’ll be my girlfriend?”

He words
sounded so casual and nonchalant, as if he just tossed the request out without
care as how she might respond, but she feared it meant more to him than he
showed. There’d been enough pain tonight; she certainly didn’t want to be the
cause of more. She placed her hand on his knee. “It would never work. You
travel all over the world while my job is mostly in New Jersey.”

“We’ll be here
for six months.”

“One of us
would have to commute three hours to visit the other and I work from six a.m.
to seven p.m. except on weekends.”

“Weekends are jam-packed
for us.” He sighed. “It’s okay. I resigned myself to being unloved when the
doctors told my parents I wouldn’t grow any taller than four feet. That same
day they put me on a train to London and promised they’d follow in the car.
They never showed.”

His sad but
understated story broke her heart and she scooted next to him and wrapped her
arm around his shoulder. “I can’t believe anyone would give you up. Maybe they
had an accident on their way to London.”

He stared at
her intensely. “Why would you think that?”

She paused,
realizing suggesting his parents died on their way to London might upset him.
Still, death had to be better than abandonment. “First of all, an adorable
child, full of love, doesn’t get thrown out, regardless of height.” When he
snorted, she changed tactics. “But, practically speaking, after you became
famous, they would’ve sought you out, if they lived.”

He smiled
faintly. “That’s true. So maybe I’m not unlovable, just orphaned.”

She kissed his
temple, careful to miss his gelled hair. “You’re far from unloved. Tall loves
you and so do I.”

“But not
romantically,” he grumbled.

She pinched
the bridge of her nose to prevent a flow of tears. “It seems I’ve filled that
slot with an inappropriate selection.”

“Well, since
I’m out of the running and our schedules are incompatible anyway, let me make
an observation. Unless Trent spends a great deal of time hanging with the wonker,
you shouldn’t give up hope. Because the man we tormented through the show acted
like a normal fellow in love, not an über-rich snob slumming for the evening.”

A knock
sounded, then the door to the bathroom opened two inches. “Carrie, you okay?”
Trent asked.

“She’s fine,”
Tiny replied.

Trent pushed
the door open further and frowned at the fellow. “Tiny, you can’t be in here. These
women have no sense of humor. You’ll be in jail before you can blink.”

A second
later, Tiny tugged on Trent’s pants from behind him. “You really shouldn’t be
staring in the women’s bathroom. I’m told these ladies have no sense of humor.”

Carrie laughed.
“I’ll be right out.” She went through the archway to the lavatories where a
beautiful dark grained marble counter held three brass sinks. She splashed
water on her face, forgetting she wore mascara. She groaned as her raccoon eyes
grew and drooled down her cheeks.

Using a plush
towel, she carefully removed the black smears of mascara. She’d just finished
when a platinum blonde entered, wearing a sexy black dress that highlighted her
double-Ds in an understated I-am-here-but-I’m-a-lady way.

The woman smiled
as she came to the counter and retouched her perfect, full red lips. “I’m
guessing Gary the ass behaved badly again.”

Carrie froze,
uncertain how to respond. When the woman discovered she didn’t come with
pedigree papers, Gary would go from ass to astute.

“It’s just
been a long day.”

“Well, at
least you have a crowd of worried men lurking at the bathroom door. I didn’t
have a friend in the world waiting for me when Gary skinned me alive in front
of the man I intended to marry. My date left the restaurant without me and took
two months to realize he loved me more than he cared what Gary thought.” She
smiled. “Yours remains in the hall with the oddest sized men I’ve ever seen.”

A faint smile
came to Carrie’s lips. “That’s Tall and Tiny. They have the most amazing
Broadway show you’ll ever see.”

“Daniel
ordered tickets when the little fellow handed me a white lily, which is my
favorite flower. I gather they’re magicians?”