Dreams of Reality (17 page)
Authors: Sylvia Hubbard
He could sense her frustration and decided to relax her. “Am I calling too late?”
“Never. You are a client.”
He paused a little. “What if I told you I would like to be more than a client?”
She didn’t get it or just didn’t wan to get it. “Are you offering me a job as an employee?”
“No, I was offering friendship.”
Those butterflies started up again in her stomach. She could not believe this was a social call from Thaddeus Newman. Things like this didn’t happen to ordinary woman. ‘Lord, was this another one of those crazy insane unbelievable dreams?’ She looked to the bedside for the Valium. Should she take some? “I don’t know what to say.”
He didn’t figure he would strike her speechless. “It’s either yes or no.”
“Or why would be a good answer?”
“No, that would be a question to an answer. That’s not good at all.”
She almost laughed, but wasn’t sure if he was kidding with her or not. “Can my question be answered?”
He heard the humor in her voice and relaxed. “I’ve come to realize that you are very nice to speak with. Not just professionally, but on a personal level as well. I’ve been thinking a lot about you even though I’ve only met you fully once. I know from our brief talks that I would enjoy speaking with you more.”
That was a mouthful, but it was enough to knock her speechless yet again.
She took a moment to gather her thoughts. He wanted to get to know her better? No, not him—she was definitely dreaming. “Let me get this straight, you enjoy our talks even though they have only been brief and unemotional and mostly online, and you want to get to know me better, yet you’ve only really met me once and really only know me on a professional level.”
“There are the e-mails as you’ve pointed out. You say this like it’s too good to be true.”
Her tone was sharp. “Mr. Newman, not only is it too good to be true, I don’t believe one ounce of it and I think I need to go find my boots because there’s enough crap floating around to overflow my house.”
“So you think I’m up to something?” He sounded relieved by this theory.
“Are you?”
“No. I’m sincerely offering friendship.”
“Friendship?”
Thaddeus answered. “Yes, just friendship. Nothing more. I thought I could be open and honest with you, and you would maturely take-”
She cut him off. “Maturely? You don’t think I’m being mature about this?”
“I don’t think you take me seriously enough.”
“I don’t think you have thought this through. I think you’re thinking about the moment or many moments. Hell, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but it’s definitely not sane. You can’t possibly want to be my friend.”
He took offense at this. “Why not?” She was classifying him like he was classifying his sister and Nicole. Yes, it was unfair for him to do so, but he couldn’t believe she was stereotyping him. “I enjoy talking to you.”
“Why? When we constantly debate over issues that don’t make a difference to the prices of all the tea in China.”
He was about to say forget the whole thing when he couldn’t help his laughter. She looked at the phone oddly then put it back to her ear. “You’ve really lost your mind.”
“You’ve just explained it. Why wouldn’t you be friends with me when we get along so well?”
Huffing, rolling her eyes heavenwards, she thought the man was one beer short of a six-pack. “I think this could ruin our professional career.”
“No, it won’t. I think we are both mature to separate that from our friendship.”
“We are?” she questioned doubtfully. Not at only her ability, but at his as well. ‘You are not mentally stable at this time to carry on any kind of friendship with Thaddeus Newman. Not when you want to tear his clothes off in your dreams and ravish him like a hot to trot vixen.’
“Indeed.”
She was quite leery about this entire situation. The man she was having fantasies about was the same man on the phone with her at this moment. How was she not to feel suspicious when all her other reality was crumbling around her? Yet, she wanted it. She wanted to tell him everything. She needed a friend like Thaddeus Newman in her life right now.
He would be able to understand her and even believe her. At that moment, she wanted to spill her guts, but just as the moment was building up to doing so, she changed her mind at the pinnacle. “I think this is too much.” She fought the panic attack rising.
He never expected that response. “Too much? I’m too much?”
“Yes... No... This—this thing...”
“Friendship,” he finished.
“Yes. Yes!” The butterflies were getting worse. “How am I supposed to be friends with you without thinking about . . .” She gasped pressing the receiver to her chest and closing her eyes fighting the memories again.
In this one he was holding her, kissing her, and his mouth was so hot, his tongue so moist and strong.
Biting her lip from the pure sensation of knowing she could feel this way if he did this to her was overwhelming, but it felt so wicked. Opening her eyes and calming down she brought the receiver back to her ear.
Quietly, she said, “Hello.”
“Are you alright?” he asked genuinely concerned.
Nodding at the same time, she said, “Yes, I think.”
“You were saying something about how are you supposed to be friends with me without thinking about what?”
“I don’t know.” She paused another moment to gather her thoughts. Having a panic attack about now would certainly be quite disturbing for him. ‘Now just get it together Skye and breathe.
If you just breathe you can do this.’ “I just feel very overwhelmed at this moment. You really are a nice man, Mr. Newman, and offering friendship is a great honor because I believe deep inside you are serious about this, yet I can’t figure out why me?”
“I’ve told you.”
“Yes, you’ve thought about me and all that, but there has got to be something more.”
“Maybe that is what I’m trying to figure out myself and I just haven’t gotten over the wall to see why. Maybe I need to somehow connect to you first, to realize what I really want from you. I don’t want to use you. I truly do want to become closer through friendship, Ms Patterson. Is this possible?”
Closing her eyes again and laying back on the bed to relax herself, she answered, “Yes.” After another pregnant silence she said, “When you find out, will I be the first to know?”
“Oh most definitely. I wouldn’t dare tell the press before I gave you at least a hint.”
This time she did let out a tickled huff. He was yanking her chain.
“Did I make you smile all the way this time?” he asked.
“Yes,” she blushed, biting the corner of her lip.
“Try to let me know when I do, because you hide your emotions so well. I’m not use to experiencing that from women.” He made himself relax feeling the distrust going away from her. This was crazy, but he felt like he could really start to enjoy Skye.
She had accepted his friendship and that was a step in the right direction. “Now that we are friends, I think we need to make rules.”
Skye tensed a little wondering was this the point when she found out his ulterior motive. “What kind of rules?”
“The kind where we know when and where to be friends, what subjects we can and cannot talk about, and so forth.”
“Why don’t we make them up as we go? That way we can go so far and then know when to stop without worrying about not being ourselves and honest with each other, but also not limit us when we get to a peak of understanding in our relationship.”
His mind was blown! She had a deeper sense of people and to become her friend was a big step for her and him. He knew being close to her would be entering Eden for the first time. Looking at the world through her eyes could be the best experience of his life. It would be something he would cherish for the rest of his life. To make light of her statement, he said, “You seem quite the friendship maker.”
Again she laughed that breathless laugh, stirring his senses as it had the first time she had done it. “This is my first real one, I guess. I’ve had associates and such, but not a very real friend who just asked me outright. It’s different. What do friends like us do?”
Though coming from her, the question was filled with innocence, yet he didn’t think innocently. “Talk, do things together, I guess. We can just make it up as we go along with that as well.”
“One rule we should say right now is we need to be honest with each other. I have too much going on in my life for games, Mr. Newman.”
“I couldn’t have said it any better. I’ll insert a rule at this time too. We can call each other by the first names at our convenience.”
“Our convenience?” she questioned. “When is that?”
“When we feel comfortable.”
“I take it you don’t like me calling you Mr. Newman?”
“I think it’s very formal for friends, yet I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable by insisting upon it.”
“I will concede and say I will try.” A yawn escaped her lips.
“I think I have bored you enough.”
“Bored me? Oh yeah,” she teased. “You are hardly boring, Mr . . .” she sighed. “Yes, I do think that it will be hard to call you anything other than Mr. Newman. Getting comfortable with friends will take some getting use to. After a while, I know I won’t be so nervous with you as I feel right now. Are you a patient man?”
“For you of course. I do feel comfortable calling you Skye.”
Small goose bumps came on the back of her neck at the sound of hearing his voice say her name. She wondered if he knew how sensuous he sounded sometimes.
“Can I ask you a personal question?” he asked.
She shrugged seeing no harm in this. “I guess.”
There was an impregnable pause, before he asked, “What are you doing while you’re talking to me?”
“Thinking about what I’m going to say next.”
He chuckled. “No. Where are you? In front of your computer?”
“No, sometimes I do other things than sit in front of my computer, you know.”
He knew she had taken a small offense at this remark. “I know, but every time I imagine what you’re doing or think about what you’re doing, I picture you sitting in front of your computer with your hair drawn up in a tight bun, layers of clothes on from neck to ankle and those god-awful glasses pressed against your nose. I guess because I don’t know what else you like to do. Can I know?”
She was flabbergasted he had thought about her in such detail. “I like my computer. I like my work. I go shopping, but I have phobias you could say. I don’t trust too many people, so I don’t socialize, but recently I did have a small excursion out on the town with a person who knew an associate of mine in Ohio. We went to the Karaoke bar in Greektown. It was nice.”
“Did you sing?”
“Do pigs fly? I don’t think so.”
He laughed enjoying her sarcasm. “You know you still didn’t answer my question.”
“Oh yes. I’m in my room about now, getting ready to sleep. I do that sometimes.” She was purposely being sarcastic from his crack about her always at her computer. “What are you doing?”
“I’ve decided to stay up late and do some work. I have some stocks over in China and I like to watch them at night occasionally, which is when the market is opened. I need to catch up on some reading as well.”
“Do you ever sleep?”
“Sometimes. I have a hard time sleeping when I have so much on my mind unless I tire myself out. I know that might sound strange. I love Thomas like a father. I should feel relaxed here, but sometimes when his guest come, I don’t.” He had mentioned Thomas earlier in his e-mails to her so she knew and understand how close they were if she actually read the e-mails.
“What guest?”
He smiled knowing since she didn’t question about Thomas, she had read his e-mails. “His niece, by marriage, named Nicole has been trying to hoodwink me into getting back in a relationship with her.”
She tried to make her question sound formal. Skye didn’t want to seem like she was being nosey or really cared whom he dated.
“What was the reason for her departure in your life in the first place?”
“She decided to marry me.”
“What was wrong with that?”
“I didn’t ask her or even know about the wedding until a month before the big event and that was because Craig asked me where were my bachelor party festivities going to take place.”
She tried to keep from laughing. “That would be hard to explain, wouldn’t it? I can just imagine the pillow talk. ‘Guess what honey, we’re getting married tomorrow.’”
Thaddeus let out a loud burst of laughter he was sure the bedroom occupants next to him heard. Skye joined his mirth on the other end of the phone.
“I shouldn’t tease you about something that must have been very painful to know. She outright deceived you and that’s certainly no laughing matter.”
“It’s fine. I must admit it’s the first time I’ve laughed about it. Thank you so much for giving me reason to.”
“How long had you two been seeing each other?”