Insufferable Proximity (56 page)

“That’s why we can only be friends, taking it any further would be absurd.”

“Why are you suddenly so concerned with us being friends?” she snapped at him.

“Because I miss you. I want to leave you alone Heaven I really do, but I can’t. We can never be together again like we were, but I can’t be your rival anymore.”

“Fine.” she whispered, trying desperately not to shed the tears burning her eyes. “How about lunch tomorrow?”

“How about dinner at my place tonight?”

“How about lunch tomorrow afternoon at work.” she elaborated.

“It will have to do, for now.”

***

Julian had stayed at the office after everyone had left for the night, trying to finish up the work he agreed to help his father with before he made his way down to his car. He had no more then walked into his parking spot when he noticed the hood of his car was up. He rushed over to see that his engine had been tampered with, some of the cables had been cut and his battery was missing. He immediately called Alice to come pick him up and drive him home. On the way, he called Fritz who insisted he check the car out himself first thing in the morning. Fritz explained that the police would not do a thorough investigation on a missing battery and wanted to check every inch of the vehicle before sending it to be fixed.

***

Heaven drank a hot cup of chamomile tea before she went to bed. Her mother told her that it used to help her sleep when she was younger, but half way through the night she realized it didn’t seem to do the trick anymore. She was too busy trying to keep Julian out of her thoughts and the strenuous job was to overwhelming to allow her brain to settle down enough for her to fall asleep. So after finally passing out from sheer exhaustion, Heaven woke up a couple of hours later, feeling unnerved and physically unprepared for the day’s events. She also felt giddy but apprehensive all at once, her thoughts spinning a web of “what if’s.

Once again she found herself sitting on the edge of her bed, unable to focus her groggy thoughts but focused enough to understand the high pitched ring of her alarm clock signified how late for work she really was. She had an important meeting that she could not be late for and at this moment she already was.

In record time she showered, dressed and made her way to work without a minute to spare. Things had seemed to be working to her advantage, every traffic light was green, no pedestrians trying to jay-walk, no road blocks and no obstacles of any form until she pulled up to her office building. The parking lot was blocked off by police cars and she was not willing to be another minute late, so she parked on the opposite side of the street before sprinting across to the building. Once she was at the office, she was immediately ready to turn around and go back home rather then spent her entire lunch break with Julian. She had hoped that things would get easier between them with time and space, but it seemed to be getting worse instead. Refusing to show her weakness, she decided to step up to the plate and go straight to the meeting.

She suffered through the meeting with her boss, being careful to avoid eye contact with Julian who was sitting across from her. Instead she tried to focus on the paperwork in front of her and listening to what their boss was saying. She had looked up once to see Lila Strain glaring at her and her catty behavior irritated Heaven who was now staring Lila directly in the eye. Lila, despite her need to be the bitchiest female in the firm, knew she was no match for the equally dominant Heaven and seeing the hostile look in her eyes, Lila backed down from the intense stare-fest.

After the unproductive staff meeting, Heaven returned to her office, doing the dreaded countdown to lunch. By the time her watch chimed for the mid-day break, she was flustered and praying for a sudden illness. But Instead of incessant worrying she got up and quickly left, ready to get it done and over with.

She met Julian at the small restaurant a few blocks down from the office. He was already seated at the table when she arrived and without saying a word, she sat down across from him.

“Are you hungry?” he asked.

“Yes.” she answered, her back stiffening as she eyed him suspiciously.

“How do you think Sampson Gold is handling the Sherman case?” he asked her.

“I think he should re-think the way is going to try this particular case.” she said candidly.

“I agree he needs to use Mrs. Sherman’s sister to shed doubt on her guilt.”

“Absolutely, Mr. Gold doesn’t need to prove the sister guilty, he just needs to show that her motive to kill Mr. Sampson was greater than his own wife’s.” she said then looked up at the waitress.

“Hi, I’m Evelyn your waitress, what can I get for you today?” the auburn haired women with the cheery disposition asked as she pulled out her small pad and pen.

“I would like a bacon cheeseburger with an order of fries and a coffee.” Heaven said then turned to Julian.

“That sounds good.” he said.

“Get him the same, but make it a double cheeseburger with extra bacon and a double order of fries.” Heaven unconsciously ordered for him.

“And two slices of chocolate cake.” Julian added.

“And there’s a huge tip if you can get that coffee here quickly.” Heaven raised her brow and the waitress nodded excitedly, obviously up for the challenge.

“Alright, I will be right back with your coffee.” she said before darting back in the direction she had come in.

“Where were we?” Heaven asked, getting comfortable.

“Gold hasn’t even mentioned the affair between Mr. Sampson and his sister in law yet.” Julian said watching the waitress walk back to their table and pour them both a cup of coffee. “Damn that was quick.”

“Thank you.” Heaven smiled.

“I’ll be right back with your order.” the waitress smiled again then walked away as Heaven turned back to Julian.

“That’s because Mr. Gold is afraid it shows Mrs. Sherman had motive to kill her husband. On one hand he’s right, what woman wouldn’t lose it if she found out her husband was sleeping with her only sister and that alone could potentially condemn her in the eyes of the jury.” Heaven shook her head not understanding where Sherman was going with this one. “Usually Mr. Gold has a method to his madness, but I’m not sure about this one.”

“If he’s smart he will emphasize on the sister’s threats against Mr. Sherman when he allegedly ended their affair. That will place enough uncertainty in the minds of the jury that they will find her not guilty by reasonable doubt.” Julian took a sip of his black coffee.

“I tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t listen to me.” Heaven shook her head

“I think I’ll try talking to him.”

“Good idea, he always listens to you.”

“Your food has arrived.” the chipper waitress held the large tray, and then sat their food down on the table, “if you need anything else, just buzz me.” she pointed to the small buzzer on the side of the table before she walked away.

“He never listens to me.” Heaven admitted as Julian began to devour his food, “even if it’s fantastic advice.”

“That’s because he‘s intimidated by you.” he said between bites.

“Yeah right.” Heaven chuckled dryly.

“He is, Sampson is a natural born momma’s boy, who exudes inferior tendencies when he’s around aggressive women.”

“I don’t believe that for a moment, Sampson is a hard hitting, out spoken attorney.”

“Who is subsequently submissive to the opposite sex.”

“Wow, I would have never guessed.”

“Few do.” he finished the last few bites of food on his plate.

After they finished their main course, Julian grabbed a slice of chocolate cake and took a large bite, moaning with pleasure.

“You have to try this.” He said.

“No way, I gained over ten pounds during the contract. I have a lot of work to do to get it off and that burger I just ate is not helping.” she grinned.

“That ten pounds looks good on you.” he took another bite, “Just one little bite.”

“No!”

“Try it.”

“Fine.” she opened her mouth and he fed her a forkful of the chocolate cake. She immediately moaned in appreciation. “That
is
good.”

“I told you.” he said.

“One more little bite.” she said and he fed her another forkful.

“I have been thinking about those oatmeal cookies with the chunks of dried pineapple in them that Halia made when we were in Hawaii.”

“Why did you have to remind me? I have been trying to forget. They were so delicious, I could eat a dozen of those right now.” she smiled. “I should tell Mya to send us a batch.”

“You keep in touch with her?”

“Of course.” she said and he was happy that the two of them had become friends. “I’m not going to cut her off, she has nothing to do with the contract.”

“I’m glad.” he took another bite before feeding her another, “Let’s go see them next month.” he suggested and her eyes grew wide with excitement.

“I would love to!” her smile quickly faded, as much as she would love to go to Hawaii, she could not. She knew that Hawaii would be her undoing and she would give into Julian before the end of the trip. She was not mentally prepared enough to be that intimate with him, she would fall back under that spell. “I better check my schedule. Well, we better go or we are going to be late.” she said looking at her watch.

***

After such a long, confusing, as well as mind-boggling day, Heaven rushed from her office, heading straight downstairs to her car, more than ready to get as far away from the office as she possibly could. She needed to take the night to think and clear her mind, having lunch with Julian had brought more confusion to her already befuddled brain. She walked over to her car and noticed the side of her tire was flapping down.

“What the hell?” she whispered to herself as she took a step back to examine the situation. She saw that both tires on the side of her car were slashed apart. It wasn’t like a normal tire slashing, it was as if the person had attempted to gut the tires in a fashion destructive enough to relay a message. She looked around the deserted parking lot before turning around and silently running back to the elevator, not willing to take the chance that the person who did this was still around.

She rode the elevator back up to her floor and the moment the door opened she rushed out blindly running into Julian.

“Oh thank god, you’re still here!”

“What’s wrong?” he asked, instantly on alert.

“Someone slashed my tires.” she said stomping her foot. “I parked on the opposite side of the street because the parking lot was blocked off this morning and I was too late to wait for it to clear out.”

“It was blocked because someone stole the battery for my car last night then Fritz found a note in the seat this morning so we called the police.”

“What note?”

“Some random note.” he tried to avoid the subject.

“That said what?” she wanted to know more about this note and the fact that he was trying to avoid it made her even more suspicious.

“Come on, I’ll take you home and I’ll send Alice back to fix It.” he said knowing Alice would appreciate the hefty bonus she would receive for her services. He wrapped his arm around her and led her to the elevator. Once inside she turned to him, needing to know what the note said, the fear of the unknown had always been worse than the truth to her.

“What did the note say Julian? “She demanded and he knew by the look on her face she wouldn’t give up until she knew.

“It said- “you’re not fooling us.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” she asked, but deep inside she knew what it meant.

“I don’t know.” he lied, not wanting to freak her out with what he was beginning to think. He led her out of the elevator and towards his parking spot.

“Do you think there’s a note in my car too?” she asked with worry.

“I’ll have Alice check.” he answered leading her into his car before getting in the opposite side.

“Was it the saboteur?” she asked buckling up her seat belt.

“I don’t know.”

“What did the police say?”

“There was nothing they could do, so Fritz installed a security camera in my parking spot. I want you to start parking in there as well.”

“Your personal parking spot that everyone knows you use to be discreet with your sexual endeavors?”

“Yes.”

“Fine.” she said and he was surprised that she did not argue with him.

“Are you hungry?” he asked

“A little.”

“Let’s go get something to eat until Alice fixes your car.” he said and she nodded.

They went to a small café not far from her house and were halfway through the meal when Alice sent him a text to let him know Heaven’s car was fixed and she had delivered it to her house. Within an hour, Julian drove down Heaven’s street and parked in front of her house.

“Thank you for helping me tonight and tell Alice thank you too.”

“Come and tell her yourself.” he suggested.

“Not tonight.” she shook her head as she reached for the door handle. Julian frowned at her words and used his main lock to lock all of the doors.