CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Lori
The next day Cat celebrates my six-month plan by bringing me coffee. That night, my mother bakes me yet another cake. I celebrate by working twice as hard. I have papers to write and cases to manage with Cole. Three weeks fly by in a blink of an eye. I spend most nights with Cole, but stay home on my mother’s off nights, though she insists on pulling so many extra shifts that I barely see her. She even takes on a charity event at the hospital that has her gone most weekends.
Monday, four weeks from the day we left LA, Cole and I are in his living room watching the news, drinking coffee, and working on the murder trial, when the headlines flash: David Curry’s death has officially been ruled a suicide.
As if on cue, Cole’s cell phone rings. “Tara,” he says answering on speaker. “You’re on speaker with myself and Lori.”
“Did you hear?” she asks.
“I just saw it on the news.”
“Aspirin and Benadryl,” she says. “He took a whole bottle of aspirin and Benadryl. You know they knew this before now. That bastard Waller. I hope he gets his.”
“He will,” I promise. “He will.”
“So I hear from Savage. I cannot wait.”
“Wait,” I say. “Are you dating Savage?”
“I’m fucking him. We’ll see where it goes. Ciao.” She hangs up.
“What is happening with Waller?” I ask Cole.
“From what Royce told me, they were letting him hang himself a little tighter before they arrest him.”
The next morning, I walk into work, and Cole calls me into his office. “Waller and the police chief, as well as three additional members of the force, are under official investigation.”
“Finally,” I say, perching on the arm of his visitor’s chair. “I know it’s crazy,” I say, “But this feels like my first big win. Something that in some small way, I helped make happen.”
“It should. You did. It’s a big deal. And more good news,” he says. “Ashley is going to be on her way home soon, though I think her attorney in Paris tried to hire her away from me. Bastard.”
“You’re on temp number three,” I say. “Apparently, you’re nicer to me than them. Or so Maria claims.”
“Maria is full of crap.”
Maria pokes her head in the door. “Maria is not full of crap. Maria knows you can be a bastard. Another temp just quit.”
“What do you do to them?” I demand.
“Not a damn thing,” Maria says. “That’s the problem. He barely speaks to them and intimidates them all. Be nice.”
“How about I just pay you extra until Ashley gets back?”
“How about the temp for you reports to me?” she counters. “And I get a bonus.”
“Fine,” Cole says. “Done.”
I laugh and follow Maria from the office. I’m feeling at home here. And I’m really feeling at home with Cole. Life is good.
Later that day, a trial date is set for our professor client, and a new whirlwind begins. For another full week, I can honestly say that watching Cole prepare for it is magic. He assembles a team, and night after night, we work tirelessly at the office preparing to win. I have never been so challenged or learned so much as I do working with him. We’ve become investigators looking for a real killer, or at least a way to establish reasonable doubt by way of suspicion. I’m addicted to this case and solving it.
My second month of my six-month internship starts at Cole’s place, where I hide the fifth payment on my father’s gambling note in his freezer because he has refused my money. I actually find this game rather amusing for no good reason. Perhaps because he’s taking care of me, but I’m taking care of him, too, and he just doesn’t know it yet. But I know, and it feels right and good. After that I’m off to my apartment to change, and back to trying to solve a crime.
It’s late afternoon when my mother calls as she often does this time of day. More and more she slides in details of her new male friend, and even hints that I might get to meet him.
“Hi, honey,” she greets.
“Hi, mom. Everything okay?”
“You always ask that,” she says. “Every single night. I’m okay. Stop worrying. I’m off work tonight. I’m going to make dinner and I want us to talk.”
“About what?” I ask, my heart thundering in my chest. She either knows about Cole or she wants to move out again. “Am I meeting your new man?”
“Oh no,” she says. “Not yet. Soon maybe. Are you working late?”
“Cole, my boss,” I amend quickly, “he has a partners meeting tonight, so our team is off early. I can bring my work home.”
“I’ll see you at seven, then?”
“Yes,” I say and when we disconnect I feel a warning in my belly. Something is up with her. I’m on my feet with that thought walking toward Cole’s office. His temporary secretary, Mia, is on the line and disconnects.
“Is he alone?” I ask.
“Yes. You want me to buzz him?”
“Please,” I say, when I really want to barge into his office, but I’ve been doing this whole formal thing since she arrived.
She buzzes Cole. “Lori is here to see you.”
“Send her in,” he says.
I walk to the door, open it, and shut it again. “I have to stay at my apartment tonight.”
He sets his pen down. “Why?”
“My mother wants to have dinner and talk. She brought up moving out to make things easier on me a month ago, and now I’m afraid she knows I’ve been gone. Maybe she thinks I’m avoiding her.”
He stands up and rounds the desk, and I lean on the door. “What if she thinks it’s about her?”
He steps in front of me, his hands coming down on my shoulders. “She doesn’t. That isn’t this.”
“I’m never home.”
“Maybe it’s time to let me meet her,” he suggests.
“I don’t even know what this is. I’m not going to present you as my excuse for not going home. That could make it worse.”
“Or better.”
“I just need to be with her tonight and you have a meeting anyway. Okay?”
“Okay. Text me after you talk to her. I’ll call you as soon as I’m out of my meeting.”
“Okay.”
He does then what he never does at work. He pulls me to him and kisses me. “Come home to me tonight if you can.”
Home.
My God, I’m really living with him. My mother is not a fool. She knows. What if people here at the office know?
***
I don’t see Cole before I leave the office. He’s in a meeting that rolls into his partner meeting, but he still manages to send me a text right as I reach my apartment door: I’m crazy for you. I want to meet your mother.
I suck in air and let it out. I’m crazy for him too, but right now I just feel a little crazy in general. I open the door and find my mother in her scrubs, slipping her purse over her shoulder. “There’s a bus that just overturned on the highway. The hospital needs me for a couple of hours. I’m sorry, honey. Mac N Cheese is in the oven.” She rushes toward me and hugs me. “I was so looking forward to a mom and daughter dinner. I should be back by midnight. If you’re up, we can have hot chocolate and talk.”
“Is everything okay, though?” I ask.
“There you go again. Of course it’s okay.”
“How is your architect?” I ask as she rushes toward the door.
“I like him,” she says, smiling. “I’ll tell you more over cocoa.” She disappears, and I text Cole: She got called into the hospital for a few hours. We’re having midnight coffee. Won’t be over.
My cell phone rings and I expect it to be him. “Hello,” I say, without checking caller ID.
“Lori, it’s Ned at the restaurant. I’m desperate for help. If you can work a shift, I’ll double your tips. That’s how desperate I am.”
I open my mouth to refuse but the word “double” gets me. For the first time since I asked to be on call, I can actually take the shift, and I’ll net a grand of cash. “I’m in. I’ll be there in half an hour.”
I rush to the bedroom, and text my mother: I’m taking a shift at the restaurant. Text me when you head home. I’ll try to be there when you arrive.
She calls me. “Why would you take a shift? You have an important job.”
“He offered to double my tips. That’s a grand we need.”
“You are one person.”
“I know, but when this six months ends, we’re going to be running forward, not crawling. I’ll see you later tonight.”
A few minutes later, I’m on the subway on my way to work.
***
Cole
It’s nearly ten when the partners meeting ends, and I finally return to my office and text Lori: Can you talk?
She sends me a message: I’ll call you in a couple of hours.
The reply does not please me. It feels like a wall. She’s shutting me out, panicking. Fuck. I’m going over there. I have to see her, and we need to get this barrier between us torn down once and for all. I grab my briefcase and head for the door, exiting to the lobby to freeze when I find Ashley at the desk outside the doorway. “Hi, boss,” she says.
“How the hell—you’re here.”
“I know,” she says. “Maria arranged to let me in. She seemed to think me coming straight from the airport to let you know I was here assured you’d be in a better mood tomorrow.” She covers her hands with her face and when she looks at me again, she starts to tear up. “I’m really here and he’s still really a bastard. I loved him and I’m kind of a wreck. You hate wrecks.”
“I do,” I say, “But tonight, we’ll be a train wreck together, and you probably just stopped me from creating a bigger one. Come on. I’ll take you to dinner and we’ll get drunk.”
She grabs her purse. “I’m in.”
***
Fifteen minutes later, we walk into a spot that I happen to know Lori worked at during her four-job hell. I chose it for that reason. I wanted to see where she’s been, what she’s done and I damn sure can’t take her here.
It’s a high-end place and I have to tip heftily to get a table. Ashley and I sit down at a table that is far from private in the center of the room. I order an expensive bottle of wine and Ashley starts pouring through everything she’s endured. “Is this too much information?” she asks.
“The part where he fucked you on the train before he fucked your whole life,” I say. “That was too much information.”
“Right. Where is our wine? I need to drink. This is an expensive place. We should be able to get our wine.” She glances around spots someone to target apparently because she stands up and steps in front of a waitress. “What does it take to get our wine?” Ashley demands, clearly not herself. “We’ve been waiting. This is really ridiculous.”
Oh fuck. I love this woman but she’s killing me. “I’m sorry,” a familiar voice says. “I’ll check on it.” I know that voice, and I stand up as Ashley sits down to find myself staring at Lori.
“Cole,” she breathes out, her gaze going to Ashley and then back to me before she turns and takes off.