Page 7 of Love Unwrapped
She tried to find her keys with a quick reach into the handbag hanging on her shoulder. Of course, nothing was ever that easy. In the end, her purse was on the ground with half the contents dumped to the ground before she located the keychain tucked in a bottom corner. How they had made it there in such a short walk from her car to her apartment spoke volumes about the bad turn her life had taken in less than twenty-four hours. Order and routine were the saviors of her life. How had things gotten so quickly out of control?
Andi shoved everything back inside, not caring about the normal order she used to organize her things and quickly unlocked the deadbolt while still perched close to the ground. She winced. It finally happened. The pain in her feet zinged up her legs, erasing everything else inside her brain. Barely inside the entryway, she kicked off her shoes and stood with her bare feet on the cold tile. The chill helped. Her feet were in a bad way for an ice bath. To think that she had mocked work boots at a bakery when she had worn these silly high-heeled shoes. But they went so perfectly with her snappy little outfit. Andi looked down the length of her body, wondering if the dry cleaners could ever make her clothes look right again. The icing and flour had woven into the material.
Felix, her cat, lay stretch out on her sofa. Their gazes connected, and she swore the cat rolled his eyes at her before looking away. “You know, I had a shit day. Just once you could greet me like other pets greet their owners.” As if he understood English perfectly, Felix turned his whole body, giving her his back.
“Really? I’m volunteering. You could be nicer to me.” Why did it feel like the whole world had just crapped on her? Andi bent and picked up her shoes, heading toward her bedroom, careful not to touch anything as she went. Her car had a fine sheen of flour coating the driver’s side that she didn’t want that to extend to her ultra-clean home. Today had definitely made her question her love of cake in a major way.
As appealing as her bed looked, Andi dropped her purse by her bed and went straight for the bathroom. She undressed while standing beside her walk-in shower, barely catching a glance at herself in the mirror. The small glimpse had her whipping her head that direction, fearful some homeless person was in the room with her. But she was the one downcast, looking more defeated than she may have ever looked before. Her body language spoke volumes for someone trained to read non-verbal cues like she’d been. Her slumped shoulders and concaved upper body told a tale, but the clue that revealed exactly what she felt were the dark circles under her eyes. They showed up when she was stressed, and boy,stressdidn’t even begin to explain the turmoil running through her.
What was she going to do? Helping her grandmother shouldn’t come at the cost of her mental health.
Andi forced her spine straight and reached to turn on the warm spray. She carefully rolled her clothes together and tossed them in the dry cleaner bin before risking the water temperature by stepping inside the shower. Luckily, the water temp was perfect and she let it run straight down her head. The soothing happened immediately. Okay, maybe life wasn’t at an irreversible place. Maybe some soap and water, her fluffiest robe and super-soft house shoes, then a large bowl of ice cream in lieu of dinner, would set everything right again.
She let the pulse option on the shower head do a number on her back muscles, wishing she had time to call her masseuse before tomorrow when she had to face that man again. With her eyes closed, she let her mind go back to the argument they’d had before she’d left. What did that even mean…he wasn’t involved? Same story Nat had tried to use. Only she’d said it was all Blake’s doing. Andi shook her head.Always someone else’s fault. She believed in taking responsibility for your actions. All the blaming and finger-pointing after so long just proved nothing had changed.
Had Blake gotten all those tattoos in the military? She’d caught Bree’s gaze lingering over Blake several times. Bree’s bubbly attitude and constant watchfulness meant her assistant was interested. She needed to warn her, but that crossed every one of her strict rules. She never got personal, not with anyone. Blake was just too alluring. He transitioned from boyish good looks to a rugged, hard-bodied handsome man. When had that lanky boy filled out? For someone like Bree, she’d only see a nice-looking, cocky grinned business owner and bypass his surly attitude and sketchy past. Bree had horrible taste in men.
What had happened to cause such an ugly scar?
Who knew, who cared? Why had she even wondered? Andi reached for the shampoo and washed her hair, thinking about reassessing the facts. Though she had her eyes closed under the soapy wash, she rolled them. The facts weren’t hard. The shop owner Blake and Nat had robbed had testified against them. Nat had come inside the store, grabbed the guy’s money from the cash register when he had turned for a pack of cigarettes. Nat bolted and the shop owner had run after her to see her jump in the car with Blake behind the wheel. Not too hard to understand for her or the judge.
“Stop thinking about him,”she groaned aloud.
Andi finished and wound the towel around her hair then went for her robe, trying to decide if she should invent an emergency at the office tomorrow. She had so many options. The airlines were so busy that surely she had access to information someone wanted or needed.
With her fuzzy slippers on, she went for the kitchen. First, she filled Felix’s food bowl, something that didn’t entice the cat to move an inch. Then she went for the freezer, forgoing any dinner, and took out a tub of mint chip ice cream. She didn’t need a bowl, just a spoon.
On her second bite, right as her butt hovered over the most comfy spot in her sofa, her cell phone rang. It was already past nine. Maybe it was her grandmother calling to say Blake didn’t want her back. More eager than she’d been all day, she popped back up from the couch and placed the ice cream on the coffee table as she launched herself toward her room. She dug the phone out of her purse on the fourth ring, answering the private number. “Hello?”
“Andi? Why do you sound like that?”
She dropped her head back and stared up at the ceiling. Luckily, the bed caught her fall as her sudden movement had toppled her backward and she landed with her butt on the bed.
Yes, this was officially the worst day of the decade.
“What, Nat? What number are you calling from?”
“I don’t need your shit.”
Andi cocked a brow at that then closed her eyes, trying not to get her back up straightaway.
“Zane’s sick and I owe the doctor. I have to pay before they’ll see him in the morning.”
“I’m not giving you my credit card number again,” she said defensively. Zane was Andi’s nephew and tended to be ‘sick’ all the time. That was, until she realized his doctor charges were to the tune of three thousand dollars, which had actually paid Nat’s living expenses.
“You can never let it go, can you?”
“I’m not giving you my credit card,” she stated again firmly.
“You can call the doctor yourself then. The answering service takes payments over the phone. You’re such a shit all the time. I’m worried sick about my son…” Nat raged, and Andi let her, but ignored every word while reaching for the small notepad and pen on her bedside table. She ran a circle on the paper, making sure the pen worked, thinking about how the two people who had tarnished her life had both raised their voices at her today, blaming her for the perceptions they’d created.
She was tired of letting people run over her, but at least when Blake had confronted her, she got to see the bulging vein in his neck thump, letting her know she had truly gotten under his skin.
“Are you still there?”
“I am,” she said, thinking about Blake’s deep tan and how it lent him an outdoorsy vibe. When did he have time for the outdoors while running that bakery? How had he even become a baker? The town loved his shop. There were just so many holes to his life story…
“Then speak!”
