Waiting for Us (20 page)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Present Day- Hailey

  It’s time for lunch, so I make my way out to Candy’s desk to get the food that was delivered. She sees me walking towards her and gives me her usual death glare. If looks could kill, I would surely be dead by now, but I can’t figure out what her problem with me is. I’ve been nothing but nice to her since working here. Well, maybe I haven’t gone out of my way to become buddies with her but I’ve definitely conducted myself in a professional manner. Which is more than I can say for her and her trashy clothing choices. Today she is wearing a very tight, low cut, short sleeve blouse and her boobs are practically popping out of it.
What a surprise!
I paste a smile on my face as I approach her desk.

“Hi Candy, did the food delivery arrive yet?” I ask in my most professional voice. She reaches down towards the floor beside her and picks up a nondescript brown paper bag, placing it on the desk in front of me without saying a single word.
Oookay.

“Thank you.” I smile before taking the bag and making my way back to Cory’s office. I bump into Sean as he’s walking out of his office or should I say he bumps into me? He catches me with one arm around my back and a hand on my arm.

“Whoa, sorry about that gorgeous. I wasn’t looking where I was going.” He apologizes.

“No problem Sean. I’m used to tripping over my own feet so it was nice that you caused it for a change.” We share a laugh together before he tells me he has to go upstairs for a meeting with my dad. As I’m about to walk through Cory’s doorway, he turns back to me.

“Let’s grab drinks some night this week. I’ll text you.”

“That sounds great.” I say and blow him a kiss as I walk back in Cory’s office.

“You took so long I thought you went to pick the food up, personally. We need to get going soon.” He barks out at me.
Wtf? Hello, mood swings! Man period anyone?

“Uh, sorry. I didn’t realize I was taking that long,” I say looking at my watch. "It’s only eleven thirty now Cory. Relax we have plenty of time to eat. Are you hangry now? Is that the problem?”

“Hangry?” He questions, one eyebrow raised adorably.

“Yeah hangry.” I nod my head. “It’s when you’re so hungry it makes you angry, hence the name hangry.” He barks out a deep, gravelly laugh at my answer, sending tingles down my spine and making me clench my thighs together. If sex had a voice, it would sound like Cory Marshall.

“No, I’m not hangry. I was annoyed at you making plans with douchebag Sean. We’ve talked about this before. I don’t like you spending time with him, Hailey.” I feel my mouth fall open from the audacity of what he just said to me.

“You act as if you have any fucking right to tell me who I can and cannot spend time with. I’m a grown woman and I don’t need permission to do anything.” Cory rubs his hand down his face and shakes his head.

“I don’t want to fight with you, Hailey. I was just being honest about why I was short with you. I can’t stop you from spending time with him, but I certainly don’t have to like it. I’m just trying to look out for you.”

“Let’s eat. We’re down to twenty-five minutes now.” I huff out.

***

Observing Cory in action during court is really impressive. He is so composed and he’s always well prepared. Not to mention how well he dresses and how gorgeous he is. When you add all that together, everyone else pales in comparison. It doesn’t seem fair that one person should be so blessed. He has it all - looks, brains, charisma, personality, the list could go on and on. He’s actually making the opposing counsel look like a bumbling fool and I almost feel sorry for him. I know what it feels like to be decimated by Cory and it isn’t fun.

The ruling goes in Cory’s client’s favor as I figured it would. He’s all smiles as he says goodbye to them and the effect it has on me is intimidating and confusing. I find myself struggling on a daily basis to keep my distance from him when I really want to stop fighting it and give in. I want to spend more time with him and get to know him better. We used to be good friends and I’d like it if we could get back to that point again. It’s in the spirit of rekindling our friendship that I accept his invitation to grab a drink on the way back to the office.

We stop at a little hole in the wall pub that I’ve never been to before. It’s dimly lit and since it’s only midafternoon, it’s sparsely populated. We sit in a booth that’s nestled off to right the side of the bar and cushioned up against the back wall. The combination of dark paneling and dim lighting makes me feel like we could be in an authentic Irish pub in Dublin. The waitress comes over to take our order and she sidles up to Cory, pad in hand.

“Hi, I’m Sharry what can I get you, honey?” She asks, pushing her large chest forward, towards his face. I snort trying to hold in a laugh and God love him, he hasn’t taken his eyes off of me.

“What do you want Hailey,” He asks with a wink.

“I would love a margarita, on the rocks, with salt.” I smile back at him before looking more closely at our waitress. Her frosted hair is big and very teased and when I move on to checking out her face, I’m shocked at what I see.
Holy shit.
She has shaved her eyebrows completely off and has drawn them in with a pencil about an inch higher than God made them. She is scary skinny with a huge thigh gap and yet her chest is enormously large.
Oh yeah, those are real...

“And what would you like honey?” She directs at Cory, but he’s still focused on me. I bite my lip trying to hold in my giggle but it’s futile and a tiny one slips out. He flashes me a grin before ordering his drink.

“I’ll take a rum and coke please, no lemon.”

“You got it doll,” she says, rubbing his upper arm before walking away. I try to hold it in as long as I can but I erupt into a fit of giggles and it’s only a few seconds before Cory’s laughter joins mine.

“I love your laugh. It’s so genuine and spontaneous, just like you.”

“Thanks. I’ve always been a little self-conscious about it. It’s so loud and kind of crazy sounding.” I admit. He shakes his head in disagreement before replying.

“Your laugh has always made me happy and if I’m the one to make it happen, that’s even better.” Wow, that’s so sweet and unexpected that I don’t know what to say, so I smile goofily at him. The return of our waitress breaks our intense eye contact as I watch her place our drinks down in front of us.

“Are you all set?” She asks Cory, touching his arm. He looks up at her nodding his head in an affirmative manner, before immediately looking at me once again. I stay silent till she walks away.

“How do ya like them eyebrows?” I giggle out.

“That’s some scary shit.” He jokes.

“I don’t know what’s more disturbing, her eyebrows or her enormous thigh gap? I never trust a girl with a thigh gap, they’re all nasty bitches. Let this be a lesson for you.” I say, pointing at him with my index finger.

“For me? Really? I had no idea, but I will take your word for it. Besides I’ve never really been a fan of women with thigh gaps. I tend to like curves and girls with thigh gaps usually don’t have a whole lot of those.”

“Unless you purchase them,” I say gesturing with my head towards the waitress. “I’ve never had and never will have a thigh gap, but I know how to get one. I saw a great meme about it.”

“This I’ve got to hear,” He says leaning forward on his arms in my direction.

“You find a guy you like and you put his head between your legs...instant thigh gap.” I giggle compulsively at the shocked expression on his face. He laughs along with me and I wrap my arms around my stomach.

“No more, it hurts too much.” I breathlessly say and wipe the tears from my eyes. “Your expression was priceless.” I giggle again at the thought.

“I wasn’t expecting that to come out of your mouth. You’re a wonderfully, surprising contradiction.” He tells me as he stirs his drink with the thin straw. I have no idea what he’s talking about and I’m sure my expression is reflecting it.

“You’re beautiful and feminine in appearance and anyone that knows you realizes how intelligent and thoughtful you are. At work, I see the conscientious and methodical sides of you. You come off as cool and uncaring at times, but you're anything but. You’re snarky and full of moxie and things come out of your mouth that no one would expect you to say. But it’s only the select few you allow in close enough to you, that really get to see the best of you. Underneath all the surface layers is your incredible capacity to love and to forgive. You surround the people closest to you in your love. It pours out of you, whether it’s in the form of your laughter or if it’s you actually telling someone you care about them. You make me want to be a better person Hailey and I’ve been a selfish bastard for most of my life.” I feel a tear slide down my cheek before being followed by a matching one, on the other side. I chew on my upper lip, trying not to full out ugly cry. Cory reaches over and takes my hand in both of his.

“I owe you a huge apology and I know you didn’t want to hear it a couple weeks ago when you first started working for the firm. Hell, you probably don’t want to hear it now, but I feel like if I don’t tell you at this moment, I may never get my chance.” He squeezes my hand and looks at me as if he is waiting for my permission to continue. I nod once, letting him know it’s okay.

“I’m not sure where to start so I guess I’ll just begin by saying that I started having feelings for you when you were too young for me to be feeling that way. At first it was confusing and difficult for me to deal with because it felt wrong and inappropriate. I can’t pinpoint an exact date that things changed for me and I stopped thinking of it as wrong and I started to realize it was unavoidable. It was gradual, but you can imagine that when I kissed you on your sixteenth birthday, my intentions were definitely not pure. It was all I could do to keep it as chaste as I did. From that moment on, every time I saw you I felt this magnetic pull between us. You were with Erik so I tried to keep my distance." He shakes his head and takes a sip of his drink before continuing on.

"I hated that you were with him. I was green with jealousy because it was acceptable for you guys to be together and with an eight-year age difference between us, there was no way I could openly pursue a relationship with you. The night that you and Erik broke up and we kissed is burned into my brain for all of eternity. At that moment I knew the attraction between us wasn’t going anywhere and it freaked me out because you were still in high school and barely legal. I was concerned Jake would find out and I’d lose my best friend, not to mention your mom and dad. You know I’m not close with my family and your parents have probably had more hand in how I turned out than my own did. After we kissed on New Year's Eve, I purposely stayed away until your graduation party. I thought if I kept some distance that the connection we share, might lessen or at the very least wouldn't grow stronger.

         I started dating my boss’ daughter Lulu as a favor to him. There was an event that his family had to go to and she needed an escort. I took her and we actually had a decent time. She was different than most of the girls I knew and my family was pressuring me to give a relationship a try. Jake was going out with Cindy so they were always on my case, urging me to date her. Jake seemed so happy and he’s the last guy I expected to be content in a relationship so I said what the hell and asked her out. We were never really serious, at least not in my mind. She was someone to do things with a couple times a week and to scratch an itch. I hate that I sound so callous, but I can’t make more of it than what it was for me. She had much higher hopes for us than I did. After a while, I felt like I was stuck dating her because her dad was my boss and it could get messy if I broke up with her.”

“So why did you have sex with me?” I can’t bite my tongue any longer.

“Hailey, as soon as I saw you that day I knew I was in for a boatload of trouble. You were so beautiful and so grown up, but I told myself to stay away from you because you deserved better than someone like me. You were about to head off to college and start your life and how could I expect you to miss out on all of that? I was about to turn twenty-six and we were at totally different points in our lives. You needed to live in the dorms, make friends and go to frat parties. I wanted you to have the full college experience and not just a small piece which is what would have happened if I pursued you. My biggest mistake was underestimating the power of our attraction and it made it impossible to keep my hands off of you. Every moment of our time together on the beach, is seared into my mind forever and I can’t forget it no matter how hard I try…and I’ve tried." I wipe the tears from my eyes and remind myself to breathe so I won't have a panic attack.

“I’m so sorry I was too weak to stop it from happening. I was the adult in the situation and I needed to act like it. I should have told you about Lulu but how I felt about her paled in comparison to how I felt about you. I should have spoken to you the next morning but Lulu showed up and it threw me for a loop. I didn’t invite her, Cindy did and I didn’t want her there. I didn’t know what to say to you and I was a total coward about how I handled it all. I’m so sorry for that. You’ll never know how truly sorry I am. There hasn’t been one moment I’ve regretted having sex with you, it’s the best experience of my life. I do regret that I didn’t handle it better and you got hurt in the process. Hurting you is the last thing I ever wanted to do, Hailey. Please tell me you can forgive me and we can move on from here because I’ve missed having you in my life. The past five years have been horrible without you and I know it’s my fault. I don’t blame you for not wanting to be around me. I could barely stand myself at times.” He squeezes my hand with his, lifting it to his lips and tenderly kissing my palm.