Chapter Five – Best Friends Forever
Carly
“You made it,” Tara exclaims as she stands up and greets Natalia and me. “I told the hostess that we needed a table in the back so that the little lady couldn’t disturb everyone in the restaurant.”
I pull off Nat’s jacket and hand her to her honorary aunt. Tara has an older brother, my boss, Reid, but there’s no way he will ever settle down and make her the real deal. “Good thinking,” I tell my best friend as she places my happy toddler in the wooden highchair at the end of our booth. I quickly make a grab for her favorite set of linking rings and toss them on the table within her reach.
“How has my sunshine been?” Tara asks, rubbing her hand over Natalia’s fuzzy head.
“Not too bad. Just when I think she’s developing a new routine, she throws me off my game and reverts right back to being a night owl,” I say as I glance over the menu.
“Well, at least she’s a beautiful night owl,” Tara coos, speaking baby as if that makes my daughter understand her better.
“You’d think that. Maybe you need to come over at two a.m. when she’s screaming at the top of her lungs and pulling at her hair.”
“I would, but I need my beauty sleep,” Tara says with a grin and a wink. Tara is drop dead gorgeous with her platinum blond hair and her striking blue eyes. Men practically drop to their knees before her, worshipping her everywhere we go. I’ve always been second fiddle when it comes to Tara. Guys check me out, sure, but it always seems like their eyes gravitate to the beautiful tall, tanned blond before they find their way to me. Well, except that one night…
“I won’t hold it against you. What are you going to have?” I ask, perusing the entrée selections one more time. This place is definitely a little pricier than I like to dine at, but Tara invited me to come, so I’ll take the financial hit to my checkbook. I’ll just have to budget a few other expenses later this month.
“Oh, I’m going for the grilled salmon and steamed vegetables,” she says as the waiter approaches our table. He does a quick double take first at Tara, and then glances at me with an appreciative head to toe check. Typical. He practically starts to drool all over the front of his starched white dress shirt and black necktie.
“What do…can I get…what would you ladies like to drink?” he asks, his eyes still focused on Tara’s girls, hidden snuggly beneath her black shift dress.
“I’ll take a strawberry margarita,” Tara says with a flirty smile.
“And I’ll take a Bud Light bottle, please,” I add before pulling Natalia’s juice cup out of the diaper bag.
“What’s with that smile?” I ask as our waiter retreats.
“What? If you flirt a little, then you’ll get better service,” she says with a casual shrug of her shoulder.
“I’ll take your word for it. It’s been so long since I’ve flirted that don’t think I know how anymore,” I say, waving a teething gel ring within Natalia’s grasp. “Which reminds me, thanks for talking to your brother about me.” The look I give her tells her that I’m not happy with her at this moment. Tara has the decency to look sheepish as she offers me an apologetic smile.
“Yeah, sorry. It wasn’t my intention to talk about you behind your back, but I was just making sure that my meathead big brother was being good to you. And yeah, I’m worried about you sometimes. You don’t do anything fun anymore. How are you supposed to meet someone if you don’t go out?”
“I don’t have time to meet someone, Tara. I have a baby to care for,” I add, absently stroking my daughter’s fuzzy head.
“I know you do, but it seems like you haven’t really gone out since that night you spent with her father.” And that’s true. I haven’t dated or been with anyone since Blake.
“I’m just not ready yet, Tara. When I’m ready, I’ll go out. Promise. I’m not going to be that woman who lives alone with her sixteen cats. Don’t write me off yet,” I tell her as the waiter returns to our table with our drinks and to take our dinner orders.
“Baked cod with steamed vegetables and mashed potatoes,” I tell our waiter before giving each of us one more glance and heading off to place our order.
“How is my brother treating you?” she asks as she absently stirs her drink.
“Very well, as you already know. He treats me like a queen. Last week, he yelled at me for misplacing a file right before a meeting. We tore apart the entire office–his desk and mine–and couldn’t find it. I distinctly remember putting it with the figures for the meeting, but he swore it wasn’t there. After about thirty minutes, I finally went over and checked his briefcase, and there it was. Right there with the figures that he swore he hadn’t put in his briefcase yet. Talk about eating crow,” I told her with a smile.
“Ha ha. I love it when my brother is wrong. It hardly ever happens and he never apologizes.”
“That’s the thing. He was so embarrassed when he left for the meeting that he didn’t even talk to me. I came back in the next morning to the biggest bouquet of fresh plum orchids imaginable. The card just said, ‘You know why.’ That was it.”
“Oh, Reid. It’s like he’s afraid of being struck by lightning if he were to actually apologize for an error. I’ve told him so many times that we’re all human and make them. It’s like he’s afraid to actually look mortal or something.”
“Yeah. He was sweet as pie for about two days,” I add with a smile.
That’s how our work relationship is. Before I was transferred from legal grunt work to his office, he went through personal assistants like most people went through underwear. A few months, then they were gone. Reid is very focused and driven. He wants precision and excellence from everyone who works for him, including his assistant, and he won’t accept anything less.
“I’m just glad he finally wised up and stopped hiring those hussies who just wanted in his pants and his bank account,” Tara says as she dives into her salad greens that our waiter just delivered.
“I think when the women realized they actually had to work and not just flirt in hopes of getting a dinner invitation, they ran for the hills. He’s tough, don’t get me wrong. There are days I want to reach over his desk and throttle him good. But, he’s a great boss. He’s actually very caring and we make a great team,” I say as I give Natalia a bite of tomato.
“I won’t tell him you think he’s caring. You know how he is; like he has a hard ass reputation to uphold,” Tara says with a smile.
“Oh, he definitely upholds it. You should see the looks on some of the faces that come out of his office. Like they’ve just been chewed up one side and down another. Your brother is ruthless in business.”
“Oh, you’re not telling me anything I don’t already know,” she adds with a laugh as our waiter takes his sweet ol’ time delivering our meals. He dotes on Tara like she was dropped from the heavens just for him before finally turning, reluctantly, to leave.
After sharing a few bites of mashed potatoes with Natalia, I cut into my cod and my mouth starts to water. I rarely come to this restaurant because of its high priced menu and the fact that reservations are two to three weeks out, but when I do, I’m never disappointed in the food. The cod has a slight crisp to the outside and is white and fluffy on the inside. It practically falls off my fork as I dip it in the warm butter sauce.
Dinner is heavenly as we make small talk. Tara is an accountant for one of the large casino chains in town. She’s constantly bitching about her job, but I think her attraction towards her boss keeps her from finding another one. Practically every night I get a rundown of what he did and how great his rear looked in his suit. Sometimes I even get pictures…
“Oh my God, Carly. Check out the ass in that pair of jeans,” Tara says across from me. I follow her glance and watch as the tall, broad man heads towards the backroom of the restaurant. He’s following behind the rest of his party, which gives me the perfect view of his very nice rear end fitted oh-so-snuggly in a pair of dark denim. His entire being is hypnotizing with his large, muscular frame and cocky swagger. He screams sexy with a touch of bad boy, and for the first time in a lot longer than I want to admit, I feel my blood flowing and my breath quickening.
“Earth to Carly.” I hear her words moments before she waves her manicured hand in front of my face.
“Sorry,” I mumble. I’m sure I’m eight shades of pink right now.
“Don’t be sorry for checking out some guy’s ass. I never am,” she adds with a wink before we both laugh. I glance back over, but the man is gone, disappearing behind the closed door. Something felt oddly familiar about him, and that leaves me slightly unsettled.
As we wait for the check, my attention is drawn back down to my daughter. She’s contently playing with her toys, tossing them onto the floor as she waits for her auntie Tara to pick them up again. She may resemble me with her lighter olive complexion and her dark hair, but when I look into her eyes, I see her father. With every big, toothy grin she awards me with, I’m pulled deeper into the memory of that night. As I softly touch her head, I glance over her shoulder one more time towards that closed door. I don’t know why, but I’m drawn to it; like something new and fresh awaits me on the other side. Like gravity pulling me towards the unknown.
But that can’t be accurate. Mom always told me that you make your own destiny. And my destiny sits right next to me with a teething ring and half a cracker shoved in her mouth.