Chapter 20: Patrick
I called out of work for two days after I figured out Daisy was Natalie. There was no way I would be able to look her in the eye knowing what we had done together. We had fucked through a glory hole, for god’s sake. Along with not being able to look at her, I also had no idea how I truly felt about her. Was she a coworker, or the girl I was crazy about?
I did a lot of thinking in the two days I was out. It took a while, but I finally realized my feelings for her hadn’t changed. It didn’t matter that Natalie was Daisy. When I thought of her, I still felt the same way.
Sunday had rolled around, and I was watching Natalie and Scotty. Natalie was scaling a wall while Scotty took care of her rope slack. It was apparent she was getting better at climbing—not only was she scaling more advanced walls, but small striations of muscles had begun to show. It was extremely apparent when I saw her naked. I wished I could rip off her clothes and see them right now…
Fuck, I couldn’t be doing that right now. One downside of finding out her identity was that I was constantly having fantasies about her, making me rock hard in the worst situations. I slapped my face and ran my hand down the length of it.
“Finally giving up, man?” Noah tore me from my perverted thoughts.
I shot him a glare that could rival Natalie’s. There was no way I would quit the speed climbing competition. I had been working my ass off to beat him, and it showed. Our times for a speed climb run were almost equal. “You wish.”
“I’m just trying to save you the embarrassment.” He smiled at me, and I had the urge to punch him in the face.
I wasn’t sure why people liked him. He pretended to be a friend but was actually a complete asshole. A frenemy. When Scotty and I get back to the apartment I’m going to lecture him about his crush on Noah.
“No need.” I cracked my neck and prepared to bolt up the wall again. It didn’t matter if I had to practice run a hundred times today—I was going to improve my score.
I shoved the stopwatch in Noah’s hands and strapped myself into the harness.
“Three, two, one.” The moment he said one, I was off the ground. I had been searching for the best starting technique. The holds were sparse on the speed climbing wall, so I began with as much momentum possible in my legs. Each limb pushed and pulled on the holds, and lactic acid began to make my muscles burn.
“Eleven and a quarter!” Noah called.
God dammit. Noah still beat me by a half second. The time might not seem like much to an outsider. But rock climbing walls weren’t that high, so a half second was a substantial lead.
I swore under my breath and I scaled down. The competition would be here before I knew it—if Noah won and I had to look at his smug face I’d never forgive myself. Maybe I should start coming in on Wednesday.
“Too bad.”
If only I could slap the arrogant look off his face. “Uh huh. I’ll be right back.”
I didn’t listen to his response as I walked away from him. Interacting with Noah was the last thing I wanted to do, so I walked over to Scotty and Natalie.
“How are you guys doing?” I clapped my arm around Scotty’s back and looked up at Natalie, who was descending from a wall.
“We’re good,” Scotty said. “Natalie’s a better partner then you ever were.”
“Seriously?” I feigned hurt. “I can’t believe my own brother would say that to me.”
“I’m sorry, Patrick.” Natalie was focused on getting her feet on the ground and had missed my sarcasm.
“I’m messing with you.” I stuck my tongue out at her and she frowned.
“If that’s the case, you can never have him back.”
“Quit fighting! There’s enough of me to go around.” Scotty laughed and put his arms around Natalie and me. “I’m going to get water; be right back.” He winked at me as he left.
Scotty was very vocal on how badly he wanted Natalie and me to be together. He brought it up in nearly every conversation we had. At this point, he was getting worse than my mom wanting me to have kids.
I hoped he kept his mouth shut when he was around Natalie. She would probably recoil in horror if he suggested she and I date. If only she knew how much we had actually done together.
“Your brother is ridiculous.” She smiled as she dusted herself off. “I wish I had one.”
My heart ached when she said that. No one should have to experience what she had been through. But, Natalie was unaware that I knew her life story. “Are you an only child?”
Her body tensed and she feigned as smile. “Yes.”
“Well, feel free to borrow Scotty at any time.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
* * *
They say the best place to hide was in plain sight. I thought the saying was absolute bullshit until now. Natalie didn’t suspect me at all, and we were halfway through the week. The two of us had multiple conversations, and she talked to me the same way she always did.
Natalie didn’t ask any identifying questions to see if I was Major. Something like, “What college did you go to?” or “Do you have any pets?” Both would have been appropriate office conversation, and I (well, Major) had told her. She also knew I was left-handed. Christ, it’s a good thing she’s not a detective.
I’d spent my week watching her greet men on our floor who had the same build as I did. It was a bit entertaining, to be honest. The Ice Queen trying to interact with people—hell truly had frozen over.
While it was funny watching her fail, I was also a bit jealous. Natalie hadn’t considered me at all. She must have thought I was incapable of being Major.
It was our weekly meetup, so we’d be talking more than normal today. Perhaps she’d realize it was me at some point in the conversation. I knew she wasn’t that dense.
“Hey,” Natalie knocked on my office door even though it was wide open. “Can I come in?”
“Please.”
Surely, she’d notice. We were about to talk for fifteen minutes; there was going to be something that gave me away. I balled my hands into fists when I thought about her possible reactions. When she found out, it was more likely to be negative than positive.
“So, I just wanted to touch base with you.” Natalie took out her notepad, and I started talking about all the new developments in our project. What was being allocated where, the dollar amount, all of the boring things.
Less than fifteen minutes later, Natalie shut her notepad. “Okay, sounds good.”
God, she was so clueless. She didn’t shoot me an inquisitive look. There were no questions that deviated from the norm.
“So,” I started. “I’ve noticed you’ve been getting pretty good at rock climbing.”
“Thank you.”
“Have you tried the bouldering wall?” Bouldering had no ropes or harnesses. It was relatively low to the ground, so if you fell it was on a padded mat.
“Oh…” She shifted in her seat. I knew she was afraid of falling, but she wouldn’t offer that information to me.
“Afraid of falling?”
She turned the lightest shade of pink. “A bit.”
“Try it this Sunday. I’ll catch you if you fall.”
“It’s fine. I know you’re busy trying to train for the competition. I’ll just do it with Scott.”
Ugh, Scotty. The two had become best friends after Natalie’s blonde friend had fractured her leg. I wasn’t completely selfish; it was good they had become friends. It just left me in a predicament. I was left alone with Noah each Sunday, which made me want to slam my head into a wall. Also, it wasn’t possible to spend time with Natalie when Scotty was attached to her hip.
What mattered was that Natalie was happy. When she was Daisy, she told me she didn’t have many friends. So, it was a good thing she and Scotty were getting close.
“I might want to take a break from training.”
“Well…we’ll see.” She ran her hand over the back of her neck and bit her lip.
The small act was so sexy and it took extreme restraint to stay seated. She was so tempting. The pantsuit she was wearing hugged her ass in the right places, and that alone was enough to set me off. I could just bend her over my office table and—
“Well, I’ll see you later. I have”—she paused—“Things to do.”
And by things, I knew she meant interrogate every man in here who looked relatively like me.
“Okay, Ms. Lane. I’ll see you later.”
She groaned as she got up from her office chair. “Are you ever going to stop calling me that?”
Technically, I already had. I called her Nat now. It accidentally slipped out when we were at Vertigo together, and it just stuck. The shortened form was adorable. Every time I talked to her at work I had to focus on not using that to address her. “Probably not.”
She threw up her hand in a half-assed goodbye wave and walked out.
A devious idea popped into my head as I tapped my pen on the desk. I ripped a sheet of notebook paper from its binder and scribbled on it.
Look harder, Nat.
-M
I cackled to myself as I folded the note in my pocket. She would be in for a surprise when she ate lunch today.