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Wes:Something came up. How long are youthere?
Carly:8 or9.
Wes:I’ll stopby.
On the wayinto the lobby, I bump into the last figure I expect to see entering thebuilding.
“Rena.” I’m half convinced the woman will turn around and I’ll realize I’m wrong and she’s the product of my overworkedimagination.
But it’s her. She’s wearing a dress, gray with tiny sleeves that leave most of her arms bare, and a round neck that barely teases hercollarbone.
Lower, it skims her curves, ending high on her thighs. Her black boots reach her ankles and have pointy toes, but that’s not what I’mnoticing.
Her hair is down, and though I’ve seen it that way before it throwsme.
So does the small plastic carrier at herside.
“Wes,” Rena says as recognition sets in. “I didn’t expect to seeyou.”
“This is my lab,” I sayflatly.
“I came toJake’soffice. To return the earrings he lent me for the party.” She pulls a velvet case from her purse with her freehand.
I shake my head, struggling for words. “We had ameeting.”
“I’m sorry,” she says, her voice shaking at theedges.
“Whatever.” I brush past her, then pull up. “You know what? It’s not okay.” I round on her. “It wasyouridea to meet the couple, and the things they said…” I turn it over in my head. I could say they were over-the-top, rom com bullshit. What I settle on is, “we had a hand in that. It matters that they met. That it happened like this. It fuckingmeantsomething tothem.”
“That’s good, Wes.” She tilts her head to look past me into the lobby, and the light catches on two red slashes over hercheekbone.
Alarm has my body tightening. “What the fuckhappened?”
Rena’s gaze drags back to mine, and she holds the carrier between us like a shield. “My dad found out I forged his signature so Beck could go on a school trip Dad didn’t approve of. It didn’t go over well. He lost his shit, started yelling, and kicked Scrunchie, who got scared and scratched me. Skunks are fickle likethat.
“I wouldn’t be here except Jake has a buyer for the earrings, so I needed to return themtoday.”
My justified anger falls away, replaced byprotectiveness.
I reach out to brush the hair back. She tries to duck out of the way, but my murmured “don’t” has herstopping.
I trace below the line with my fingertip as if I can erase it. Her breathhitches.
“Let me take youhome.”
She hesitates, lifting the velvet case. “I have to take theseup.”
I look past her toward the elevator bank. “Waithere.”
I grab the case from her, take the elevator up and leave the earrings with Jake’sassistant.
Two minutes later, I’mback.
“Let’sgo.”
I pile her and the carrier into acab.
The ride is quiet. At the other end, I pay and we getout.
