If I Say Yes (11 page)

Reid comes to my mind first, and I instantly push the thought away.
Next thing that comes to my mind is Greece. Strange, I don’t know why.
I haven’t been there in years, but Eli had recently mentioned the two
of us going. Oh, how I would love to indulge in a vacation right now.
As if on cue, a light rap dances against my glass door. I glance over and
see Eli opening the door with a large bouquet of flowers in his hand.

“What are these for?” I laugh lightly as he sets them down on my desk.

“Nothing special,” he says and runs a hand through his shaggy golden hair. “I just feel like I haven’t seen or talked to you in ages.”

“I talked to you last night.” Eli sighs and turns his head away for a moment. “The shrink called you, didn’t she?”

Eli’s silence confirms the answer to my question. I sigh and shake
my head. Eli walks around my desk, pulls me up from my chair, and wraps me in a tight hug. I am caught by surprise when tears start to
prick my eyes. I can’t cry here. I can’t think of my father, and I can’t bring
him into this place. My door bangs open against the glass window,
rattling as they collide into one another. Eli and I quickly pull away
from each other, and I see Reid standing there. His eyes are dark, almost
black, and stormy. His nostrils are flaring. I’m sure if it was cold, we could see steam come out of them like a bull. He’s fuming. I quickly
wipe the tears away from my face and take another step away from Eli.
I glance back and forth between the two of them, both of whom are
exchanging unfriendly glances. Eli seems to be assessing him, judging
him from the little bit that I have told him, and whatever thoughts he has made up about him. Reid simply looks like he is out for blood, like a lion in search of his next meal. The air is rich with tension and quickly heating up.

“Uh… um…” I am momentarily at a loss for words. “Eli, meet my
boss, Reid Harder. Reid, meet Eli.”

For the first time, Reid glances towards me, and really looks at me.
I wish he hadn’t. His eyes are still dark, glaring at me, and tearing me
apart. “I thought you said you didn’t have a boyfriend,” he all but
growls at me. His words hitting me like a ton of bricks.

“I-I-I don’t.” I glance at Eli, who is wearing a smile plastered to his
face now, from ear to ear. I can tell he is fighting to contain his laughter. Eli finally loses control and begins to chuckle. Out the corner of my eye,
I see Reid tense and watch his chest rise and fall rapidly underneath his white button-up dress shirt.

“I should have believed you when you told me he was an ass.” Eli directs his statement towards me but stares at Reid. I glance over
at him and shake my head. I want to slap the back of his head and
ask him what the hell is wrong with him. Then I glance at Reid, who is still gazing straight towards me.

His eyes waver for a moment, revealing a hint of hurt. I don’t
understand why for a moment, but then I get it. Because of what Eli
said. What I had said to him in the first place. “I… I… was just coming
by so we could get to work on some query letters.” Reid finally breaks
the silence that began to fill the room. “But I see you’re busy right now, so we can work on that tomorrow.” Before I can protest, before I can tell him that Eli is nothing more than my best friend stopping
by, despite the flowers, he storms out of my office and slams the door
behind him.

“Whew!” Eli laughs softly. “I see what you mean.” I finally do what
I wanted to do moments ago and slap him on the back of his head.
Eli flinches and rubs the spot where I hit him. “Ow! What the hell was
that for?’

“For being an ass.”

“That’s why you love me…” Eli places a kiss on the side of my
forehead. A gesture he always does, and one that’s comforting, not
romantic in any sense.

“Leave.” I point towards my door. “I have work to do.”

Eli gives me a military salute. “Aye, aye, captain.” I shake my head,
and he laughs as he leaves my office without another word. I sigh and
sink down in my chair. As if this day couldn’t get any worse… my email
alerts me with a new message from an unknown sender.

From: Unknown Sender

To: [email protected]

I see trouble brewing on the horizon. Is it a love triangle in the
making? Better choose wisely. Because whoever you choose… is the
one whose life is in danger. Think carefully, my dear Elizabeth.
Which
one are you willing to sacrifice? I’ll be watching you…

IT HAS TO BE
someone on this floor, someone who knows my secret,
and now is threatening me. But who? And how? How do they know the truth? I’ve been so careful to keep my true identity hidden. And
why? What the hell is in it for them? Just for plain fun? I peek out my
glass windows, glad for once that they are there, and I scan the room.
No one stands out. Not one single person in that lobby stands out to
me. Maybe they aren’t on this floor, but they have to be. They just
witnessed whatever showdown was going on here. Maybe some
cameras are in my office that I don’t know about. I shudder at the
thought and look around. I need to find out who it is, and quick. And
what it is, exactly, that they want.

I try to shift my focus back to all the emails that aren’t threatening,
but I can’t concentrate. A loud buzzing noise startles me, and I jump
in my seat. I pull my cell phone out of my top drawer and see that Eli
is calling. “I’m such an ass,” is the first thing he says.

“Haven’t I said a time or two before that all guys are asses?” I smile
as I recall past conversations we’ve had. “I know how you can make it
up to me.”

“Oh really? How is that?”

I pause for a moment. I don’t know why. I know it’s not like he is
going to say no. In fact, he’ll probably start jumping up and down doing
his little victory dance. “Take me out for dinner and a movie.” I know
it isn’t a big deal, but I can’t honestly remember the last time we did something like that.

“I’ve been waiting a really long time to hear those words.” He laughs softly. “I thought you’d never ask.”

“What makes you so sure I would ever even ask you?”

He laughs heartily again, the kind of laugh I know reaches his soft
green eyes. “I’m a guy… we know these things. All the signs were there.”
He’s smiling again, I can feel it, and I laugh loudly into the phone.

“You’re right… you are an ass. Now seriously, I have work to do.”

***

“I have nothing to wear!” I shout to Eli down the hall where he
is sitting in the living room watching ESPN. I stand in my doorway
with one towel wrapped around my body and one in my hair. I hear Eli pause the DVR and his footsteps leading to the hall.

He lets out a loud cat-call whistle, and I just shake my head at him.
“Just wear that,” he says.

“You are such a pig.” I take the fuzzy pink slipper off my right
foot and chuck it at him, narrowly missing him.

“You know what that means?”

“What?” I groan and roll my eyes. I turn back into my room and
flop face down on my mattress. I don’t like the sinister grin he had on
his face. I hear a soft knock on my door, and I glance over at him. Eli
is leaning against the door frame with his arms folded across his chest.
A beam of sunlight breaks through my curtains and hits his face perfectly.
I can see the traces of stubble along his jawline.

“It’s the perfect excuse to go shopping.” With just one look at Eli,
you can see the man has extremely good fashion sense. It doesn’t take
a genius to figure that out. What people don’t know is that Eli is obsessed
with everything fashion, and he really does have an eye for it. Hand
him a garbage bag, and he can make it seem like a thousand dollar
masterpiece. He’s always searching for an excuse to go shopping. “Mimi’s
isn’t too far of a drive.”

“No,” I say harshly. “We are not going shopping, Elias Caraway,
and we are certainly not going to Mimi’s. I’ll make whatever I have in
my closet work.”

I have the money and can afford the lavish clothing at Mimi’s. I
just refuse to use it. I absolutely, positively refuse to use the money in
the bank account that I never touch. Unless it’s a dire emergency, or my
monthly charity donation that I make to the children’s center in town.
Other than that, absolutely not. I get by with what I get from the literary
house, although to be honest, I’m not even sure I’m entitled to any
money. I haven’t signed an agent, but Lawrence insists that I use the
money that is deposited into my bank account every two weeks. I don’t
like to, because I haven’t earned it. But as long as it’s a check from my
job, I have no reservations when using it, most of the time. After all, I do
have to live somehow.

“You deserve to splurge a little and go shopping.” My bed dips,
and I peek over my shoulder to see Eli sitting on my bed. He lies down
next to me, and our noses are inches away. “You have all this money just sitting there in that ba—”

I sit up quickly and glare down at him. “No, Elias. I don’t want to
hear it. I’m not using that blood money, and we are not going shopping.
End of story. Now, if you would, I would like to get dressed.” I nod my
head in the direction of my door, dismissing him from my room. Eli’s
face drops slightly, and he lets out an exaggerated sigh. This isn’t the first time we have had this conversation, and it certainly won’t be the last. Eli pushes himself off of my bed and storms out of my room.

I sit there for a few minutes on my bed, thinking about when my
life all went wrong.
When Daddy Dearest killed your mother,
I say to myself.
I shake my head and move towards my closet. I debate throwing the dress back on I wore to work today but decide against it. So instead,
I go with the classic jeans, t-shirt, and flats. Eli will have to just get over
it. I mean, I’m finally up to going out. That should be more than enough
for him. Baby steps, just one step at a time for me. Although, there are
still things that I will never budge on. Including shopping sprees and men— namely, Reid Harder.

I walk into the living room, where Eli has returned to watching Sports Center. He barely glances my way when I walk towards him,
still obviously upset at my unnecessary harshness a few minutes ago. Eli knows better than anyone why I do the things I do, why I have the list I have, and why I am the way I am. He pushes me all the time,
and
after six years, you would think he’d accept things for the way they are.

“I’m sorry,” I say softly.

“No, I’m sorry.” He stands up and pulls me into a hug. “It’s hard,
I’ll admit. All the changes.”

My laugh is muffled by his board shoulders. “I know. But in all
fairness, it has been six years, Elias.”

“I know. I just hate seeing you lose the person you once were.” He
pulls back but keeps his hands on my shoulders and stares into my eyes. “You used to be so vibrant, so full of life, and didn’t have a care
in the world. Now, you’re always so worried and cautious. Constantly
watching over your shoulder. Sometimes, I wonder if you forgot how
to live life. You’re just… just… so stuffy.”

“Stuffy?” I throw my head back and groan.

“Yes, stuffy.”

“Yeah, well, you would be too if your father murdered your mother,”
I say
coldly
and turn my
head
. Eli’s face drops. He knows this conversation
is over, and I can count on him not to push any further. “Now, are we
going to dinner or not?”

The drive to the restaurant is silent and thick with tension. Maybe
I should have indulged him in a shopping trip, not at Mimi’s, but
somewhere. Maybe we wouldn’t have this awkward silence between
us. I replay Eli’s words over in my head. I almost laugh out loud thinking
about how he called me stuffy. Really? Stuffy? I’m the furthest thing
from stuffy. I’ve made decisions in my life to get me where I am today.
Granted, I’ve been falling off the band wagon as of late, no thanks to a certain delicious creature of a man.

We pull up to the restaurant, one I have been to many times in my
life, my past life. My body tenses, and I turn my attention to Eli. “We’re
eating at Rinaldi’s?” I look back at the restaurant and shake my head.
“A little warning would have been nice.”

“I tried to get you to go shopping,” he says with a bit of an edge
to his voice. If my clothes the night at Gravity made me stand out, I
am going to seem like a fish out of the sea here. “Besides, who cares what they think?”

I do.
Everyone I have spent avoiding these last six years frequent here, and by the looks of it, it’s a full house. Not only that, but Eli is
practically famous around here, hence why I have never gone out with
him until now.
Lovely, just lovely.
I really should have thought this
through. When I asked Eli to dinner, I should have made it clear to take
me to some mom and pop restaurant on my side of town. Coming here
with him, being seen with him, is the biggest mistake of my life. I’m
about to walk into the lion’s den. My nerves wreak havoc on my insides
,
my stomach turns, and I struggle to breathe. Only one thing can make
this disaster of a night worse, and that is— POP! A flashing light bulb
momentarily blinds me as I step out of the car and place my hand into
Eli’s. It’s the paparazzi, and on a Monday of all nights. Now things have
taken a turn for the worse.