Page 12 of Susie's Orc

“Sorry, Gem,” I say, heading down the stairs with the phone pressed to my ear. “I thought you were my boss.”

“Hey, make no mistake, I’m still the boss of you.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“And what the hell would your boss need from you on a Friday night, anyway?”

Reaching the ground floor and stepping out into the lot next to Susie’s building, I let out a long sigh. “I fucked something up earlier today, and I’ve got to go back in and fix it.”

“Jonah Greenwood, math whiz and all around nerd extraordinaire, fucking up something at work? I don’t believe it.”

Unable to come up with a good retort, I just grumble a little as I reach my car and slide in the driver’s side. I turn the ignition, but don’t leave right away, tipping my head back against the headrest and closing my eyes.

“Everything alright with you?”

Gemma’s voice has taken on a different tone now, all traces of teasing older sibling superiority evaporating.

“Yeah, I’m alright.”

She hums, like she’s trying to figure out whether she’s going to take that at face value or keep pushing, but must decide to let me off the hook for now.

“Alright. I just wanted to call and see if you’re still planning to fly out next week?”

“Of course I am. You know I wouldn’t miss it.”

I can almost hear her smile over the phone. “It’s alright if you’re busy. I know you’ve got a whole life out there, and all this stuff is so traditional and outdated and—”

“Gem,” I gently interrupt. “I’ll be there. You and Kasey are too important for me not to be.”

Another long pause, and a pang of homesickness spreads through my chest as I imagine her grin and the sight of rolling green hills behind her. I honestly have no idea whether she’s outside or not, but in my mind she is, enjoying a beautiful night in the quiet little village where we grew up.

We discuss a few more details about my flight and when I’ll be arriving before saying our goodbyes and hanging up. With no more excuses and no reason to loiter, I finally put the car in drive and reluctantly pull out of Susie’s lot.

The work I need to do on the reports ends up being just as tedious and irritating as I thought it would be, and it’s nearly eight by the time I leave the office for the second time tonight. Kingston’s still working, too, and he barely gives me more thana grunt of acknowledgment when I give him a heads-up that the new reports are in his inbox.

By the time I make it outside, it’s already getting dark, and for the thousandth time since I left her apartment, I wonder what Susie’s doing. My hand twitches toward my phone where it’s tucked away in my pocket before I remember.

I never got her number.

It’s one more damning failure, one more way I let myself get in my own way and potentially screwed up my one and only chance with the woman I haven’t been able to get out of my mind for the last two years.

Disappointment is a heavy, bitter weight in the bottom of my stomach, and I silently vow to do everything I can to make sure that’s not the case.

Monday.

I’ll find her Monday.

I’ll talk to her and let her know in no uncertain terms that I don’t want what happened tonight in her apartment to be one-time thing.

Monday. I’ll make it right on Monday.

Chapter 6

Susie

I do not, in fact, perish of shame on Friday night. Or Saturday. Or Sunday.

I’m still alive and kicking and feeling every bit the damn fool as I drive to work on Monday morning and duck into the building, hoping like hell not to see a pair of big broad shoulders or a head of shaggy black hair.

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