Page 58 of Ashes of Us
Danica shrugged, completely nonplussed about Heidi's wants. “Yeah, well, he's made it very clear that he doesn't want to talk to you, so I don't know what to tell you.” Heidi narrowed her eyes at that and took a step closer to her but backed up immediately when Indie let out a low, warning growl and seemed to decide to try another tactic.
“Look, I just need some help getting him to see me.” She made a weird sort of grimace, and it took Danica a second to figure out she was trying to smile. “And since you control his schedule, I was hoping you could arrange a dinner meeting.” She held up her hands when Danica raised her eyebrow, folded her arms and let out a scoff of disbelief. “Like I said, I just want to talk to him. If he decides he still wants nothing to do with me after, I will concede defeat, go back to London and stay out of his life.”
“Right, so let me make sure I've got this straight.” Danica was flabbergasted that this woman thought she would agree to help her do anything after the way she spoke to her every time she called and how rude she'd been on Monday. “You want me to set up a dinner meeting with Alex for you and... What? Don't tell him it's you he's meeting? Just spring you on him?”
“Exactly.” Danica stared at the woman, who looked impressed and pleased that Danica had caught on so quickly to her plan. “I just need an hour or two with him, that's all.”
“And I suppose I should make reservations at Harborlight and tell them to put champagne on ice for you, too?” Danica named the most expensive restaurant in the city, amused by the woman's audacity and decided to see how far she was willing to take this. “Maybe I should steal the key to his condo and fillthe place with roses, more champagne and some fancy French bonbons for you two while I'm at it.”
“There's no reason for you to be in his condo, but yes, a reservation at Harborlight would be perfect.” Heidi nodded happily, and it was all Danica could do not to burst out laughing at her. Did she seriously think Danica would go out of her way to do any of that for her? Or risk her friendship with Alex, not to mention her job, by setting all that up behind his back? She thought her sarcasm was pretty obvious, but apparently not. Tired of dealing with her stupidity and knowing Alex would send someone to find her if she didn't get back to the office soon, she decided to humour her.
“You know what? I'll help you.” Danica smiled at her, fully intending to go right to Alex's office and fill him in when she got back to the hotel. “As long as you swear that if he turns you down, you're on the first flight back to London and out of his life.”
“Hand to god.” Heidi held up her hand like she was swearing on a bible, but her smile was so smug, Danica couldn't help but make another dig at her.
“The earliest I'll be able to get a reservation at Harborlight is on Monday.” She informed her as she walked around her. “I'll text you the details when I get them. In the meantime, you should go get your nails done, those roots touched up and find a nice dress to wear, they won't let you in looking like that.”
Danica smirked as she walked away, Heidi's outraged spluttering music to her ears as she jogged across the crosswalk before the 'Don't Walk' light came on. She entered the lobby and went to the front desk, asking if Heidi had tried to get into the hotel at all since Monday. The desk clerk, a young girl namedSofia, checked the incident reports and shook her head. “Nope, if she did, whoever she spoke to didn't make a report.”
Danica thanked her and made a mental note to ask security to check the cameras, wondering how Heidi figured out that she and Alex weren't seeing each other. If it wasn't someone at the hotel who let it slip, then the only thing she could figure was Heidi had searched for her online and found Jasper's obituary, since she locked down her social media's privacy after Maverick told her most his job was googling people, but even if she had found the obituary, that didn't mean anything. Heidi wouldn't know the state of her marriage going by that; they could have been separated or had an open relationship for all she knew.
Reaching Alex's office, she knocked on the door lightly. They had a meeting to go over the Seattle Hotel records they had access to anyway, so he was expecting her. When she heard him tell her to come in, she opened the door and let Indie off her leash so she could get attention from Alex, who was definitely her second favourite person. “Guess who I just bumped into in the park?” She hung the leash up on the coat rack next to the door and walked over to the table where their laptops were set up next to one another so they could figure out what, if anything, needed to be addressed in Seattle.
“Lucy?” Alex finished petting Indie and brushed her fur off his legs with a lint roller before joining Danica at the table. Indie seemed to realize she wasn't going to get any more love from them for the next few hours, because she went over to the bed Alex had set up in the corner for her and lay down with a slight huff. Danica shook her head, not surprised that he went there first, as far as they knew, Heidi had gone back to London. According to Sergeant Galvin, who had passed his evidence over to the DA and was helping them and the Sexual Assault Unitbuild a case against Lucy, there had been no sign of her at all and they had actually made the warrant for her arrest statewide and sent it to Florida, since that was the only other state she had lived in.
“I'm not covered in blood and mud, so no.” Danica chuckled as she woke up her computer. “Heidi, however, is still in town, knows we aren't actually together and believes if she just had an hour or two with you, she could make you see reason and take her back. She wanted me to arrange a meeting between the two of you and keep it a secret.”
Alex covered his face with his hands and let out a sharp exhale. “Please tell me you told her to fuck off and walked away laughing your ass off.” His voice was muffled, but Danica noted that he sounded completely exasperated.
“No, I agreed to help by making a reservation at Harborlight for Monday evening.” Danica smiled at him sweetly as he dropped his hands and frowned, confusion crossing his face as he tried to make sense of what she said.
“We'll be in Seattle on Monday,” he pointed out slowly, making Danica give him a “Well, duh” look, and his expression cleared as he understood that she was setting Heidi up, then he started to laugh. “You're evil.”
“Only if I can actually get a reservation for Monday,” Danica smirked as she went online. “Because the idea of her sitting there, sipping expensive champagne she can’t afford, while she waits for you to show up would be the ultimate revenge. Otherwise, I'm just going to tell her what time to be there and that the reservation is under your name.”
“Normally, I wouldn't be on board with this type of thing, but since it's Heidi, go ahead.” He paused, and a slow grin crossed his face. “I wonder if we can ask someone to be there andfilm the meltdown, because she will definitely lose her mind if they try telling her there's no reservation under that name.”
“Emilia would probably do it.” Danica had to admit; it was nice that Alex appreciated her sense of humour and pettiness to that level. Alex looked thoughtful as he brought up the reports on his computer but didn't say anything else about Heidi as they got to work.
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At five-thirty, Danica stretched out her back and started shutting things down. Alex had identified a handful of things he wanted to be sure they addressed, and they had a decent idea of where to begin on Monday. She hadn't been able to get a reservation at Harborlight, so she texted Heidi and told her to be there at seven and gave her an old reservation confirmation number she had on her phone from a few months before Alexander died. At the time, he told her he was meeting with a potential business partner, but since she found out about Veronica, she was pretty sure it had been for a date.
Alex didn't look up from his work as she called Indie over and put on her leash. Since Danica moved into his condo building, they had been driving to work together in his jeep unless one of them had a meeting or needed to run errands after work. They had already established the routine of Danica finishing up at five-thirty, bringing Indie down to the park so she could do her business after all afternoon in the office, and Alex picking her up from the park exit at six. They had gotten dinner together twice, and she was pleasantly surprised by how well they were getting along. They worked together easily all day, then put their jobs aside when they left the hotel and talked about other things, sometimes for hours.
They found they actually had a lot in common, both enjoying rock and alternative music, enjoyed travelling, buthadn't been able to do much of it outside of what did for work, they both tended to put work above play, and didn't know what to do with themselves if they didn't have something to keep them busy, and to her surprise, Alex had gotten a purple belt in Brazilian Ju Jitsu in high school, which he told her in delight when she mentioned her blue belt in Krav Maga, and led to a whole other discussion about how much they both loved action movies with well choreographed fight scenes, agreeing that the plot could be shit as long as the fights were good and making plans to spend a weekend when it got cold watching all the John Wick movies in order.
“How would you feel about coming on a four-day weekend motorcycle trip with me, Xavier and Emilia at the end of August?” Alex's voice was almost too casual as he broke the comfortable silence they had been sitting in on the drive home. “We're heading up to Hermit Island Campground in Maine for the Labour Day long weekend, as long as things keep improving with Gracie.”
Danica looked at him, not sure what to make of that. “Camping? Like in tents?” She'd never stayed in a tent before. She actually hadn't spent any time in the wilderness at all until she started going to the family vacation cabin with Jasper and his family, and while some of the family had stayed in tents or campers on the trip, she and Jasper had always made sure they had a room in the cabin.
“Yeah, camping in tents.” Alex gave her a deeply amused look, and she found herself pouting a little, feeling like he was making fun of her. “Emilia said you'd be resistant to that part.”
“I didn't exactly grow up in the Brady Bunch,” Danica grumbled, folding her arms. “Camping in tents, or in general, was not part of my life experience.”
“Do you think it was part of mine?” Alex nudged her with his elbow as he chuckled. “Can you imagine my parents and brother sleeping on air mattresses in a tent? Come on, it'll be a first for both of us.”
Danica wrinkled her nose. She wasn't resistant to the idea; it was something she'd wanted to try, but she wasn't sure if she wanted her first time to be in a situation where she couldn't leave without a hassle if she didn't enjoy it. “Don't you need a lot of equipment to camp? How are we getting everything we need there on a motorcycle?”
