9. Nick
9
NICK
J ulia buttoned up her shirt, collecting her panties and her bra, shoving them into her briefcase. She wouldn't look me in the eye. She said a quick goodbye and tried to rush out, but I snagged her arm. “Hey,” I said, cupping her jaw and forcing her eyes to meet mine.
A wisp of hair fell over her face. I tucked it behind her ear and brought my lips to her lobe. “We didn’t do anything wrong,” I whispered. She shivered as my breath hit her skin and a line of goosebumps rippled down her neck. I smiled against her lobe but pulled away just slightly. I wanted to make sure she really wasn’t sorry for what we did. I wasn’t, but I wasn't in the business of having sex with someone who didn’t want me.
Her mahogany eyes met mine, and a blush dashed over her face.
“I…” She bit her lip, seeming to struggle with the words she wanted to say. Her gaze turned the heat up in my chest, and I couldn’t tell if it was the bourbon, the buzz wearing off, or if it was something else growing for her. It was the first time I’d been with a woman since Kendra. But from what Julia showed me so far from her personality, and how great our sex was, I could see myself starting something with her.
I flinched.
That was jumping the gun a bit too quickly.
Wasn’t it?
I didn’t know if I wanted to be a serial monogamist. Plus, Julia was in her twenties. I dropped her bicep and sat back on my desk. “Okay,” I said, rubbing my hand over my beard. “We can chalk it up to a little bit of stress relief on both our ends. I know you just moved here, and that can be a stressful experience. My ex-wife is still in my life when I don’t want her to be. That can also add up. So, what do you say? We’re both grown adults. We both consented. Is there really a reason to regret it?” I leaned closer to her and smiled. “I enjoyed it very much.”
Julia smiled at the last part. She rolled her eyes and placed a hand on my shoulder. I ignored the heat racing down my arm from her touch because she clearly didn't want that type of relationship with me, and I clearly needed to sober up and think straight.
Plus, I needed her to help me with this rebrand. After hearing her ideas for the night, I wouldn’t trust anyone else with it. There would be too much to sort out.
Her shoulders lowered as she said, “I enjoyed it too. But you’re right. It was probably just a stress relief type of thing. I–I am kinda getting over a bad breakup.” She looked to the side and stepped a little closer. “It ended a few months ago, but you’re the first guy I’ve been with since. So, I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it too.”
Her gaze bounced back and forth over my face, and for the first time in I didn’t know how long, I was at a loss for words. A huge sense of wanting to beat up the fucker who hurt her washed through me, and I shook my head, trying to rattle out of the sensation.
I brought my fingers up to my eyes and rubbed the bridge of my nose, breaking eye contact. It helped scrub away any feelings I had, and suddenly, I was much more tired than I originally thought. When I opened my eyes, I looked her over. “I guess it’s the trend." I smiled. I couldn’t help it. I liked looking at her. “I haven’t been with anyone since before I was married, so it’s a new experience for me too.”
“Good.” She slipped her purse strap onto her shoulder. “I’m glad to have helped. And it’s nice we could get each other over the hurdle. You’re right, we are consenting adults. I just don’t want it to affect our working relationship.” She said the last part lower, and my hands instantly flew up to her shoulders.
“No. No way. No one else could do the job as well as you’re already doing it.”
“Good. Then, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.” She turned to walk out the door but stopped just short of the threshold. She turned back to me. “Let me know if you have any place you’d need me to go with you. I won’t back out of that promise, either.”
I nodded and waved. “Thanks for that. See you tomorrow.”
As she turned to leave, I realized I really wanted to take her to bed instead.
“These are the colors Ms. Day wanted us to show you,” Joyce, an old friend and the town’s interior designer, held out a variety of colors. “Since the brick is going to be raw and we don’t know what it looks like yet, I suggest we take part of the wall off before any other of the demo is done. We need to see what condition it’s in and if we need to get it pressure washed or sealed so it’s up to code.” She moved to her bag. As she dug through it, I heard someone else come through the front door.
“Nick.” Ed waved at me.
“Excuse me, Julia—I mean Joyce.” I shook my head, trying to hide my embarrassment at calling Joyce Julia. I guess what we did a few nights ago made a bigger impression on me than I thought.
And it was an understatement. There was very little time in the last few days that Julia hadn’t been circling my thoughts. It had been very hard to concentrate, and I’d even found a few reasons to text her when there were questions that could’ve waited until we were together.
She was kind and responded to anything I threw her way, but I was starting to feel bad for taking up her time. Although she didn’t seem to mind it when I sent her pictures of my food asking her what she thought of the plating.
It was a shitty excuse to text her, but I hadn’t done the dating thing for a long time and I knew it was an excuse for an excuse, and I was learning to live with the idea that maybe I was a sap.
“You’ll probably want to talk to Ed, right?”
He was the contractor, and another old friend. Joyce looked up and waved, not bothering to say anything. I walked over to Ed and shook his hand. “We’re going to measure today, then we’ll meet up with Joyce and discuss her plans.”
“Good, she’s going to need a bit of the sheetrock brought down before we do almost anything else because she needs to see the condition of the walls.”
I started to walk him over to her when John called me from the kitchen. “Nick, there’s someone on the phone for you.” I could tell by the look in his eyes that it was a serious call. Probably from the IRS.
“I’ll take it in my office.” I walked toward him, waving at him to come out of the kitchen, which he hated doing. “Just answer any questions they have about the restaurant. They need help with a few things, and I don’t know how long I’ll be on the call.”
“Fine,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “You’re lucky I like you.”
“You’re lucky I had enough equity to keep this place running,” I joked, not wanting to give in to the anxiety popping in my chest. Instead, I hurried to the office and picked up the phone. “Nicholas Grayson here.”
“Nicholas, hello. This is Mike Lassary, your IRS agent. I’m set to be your agent for the foreseeable future. Thank you for not dodging my calls. It makes the process so much easier.” He laughed at his joke, and I plopped into my chair not feeling quite as jovial as my IRS agent was.
“I’m not really interested in playing any games or jumping on a merry-go-round,” I said, holding back the thought that I’d already been on a merry-go-round with my ex-wife for far too long. But I think he would have at least pretended he’d been there, even if he hadn’t.
I leaned back, rocking in the chair, and rubbed the spot between my eyebrows. “The gist is that my ex-wife didn’t pay the taxes. I don’t know why, but it’s probably to screw me over one last time,” I said and balked at how much aggression came out of my mouth with the words. But I surprised myself. At least it didn’t come out yelling, kicking, screaming, punching like I thought it would.
I rocked forward and placed my hand on the desk. Mike started talking, but I didn't pay attention to any of it, remembering what happened, what I did with Julia only two nights ago.
How good it felt.
How good she smelled.
What her ass felt like as I squeezed it.
What her breasts looked like bouncing over her chest as I thrust into her.
“Mr. Grayson?” Mike’s voice cut through my daydream.
I shifted, realizing that my cock was pushing against my pants, and I tried to come down from the fuzz my brain was caught in while I was thinking about Julia.
I cleared my throat and said, “Yes?”
“Is everything alright? Are you still with me?” Mike asked. I was starting to think he was being an asshole, after all.
“Yes,” I grumbled. “Someone came into my office.” I cleared my throat again as my mind tried to go back into the sex daydream about Julia. “I’m sorry I was distracted for a minute. What were you asking?”
“How do you intend to pay the taxes off, Mr. Grayson? There are several payment plans we can get you on, if you’d like to go over them.”
“Nick,” I said. “Call me Nick. No, no. I’m not going to do a payment plan.”
Those had a shitty interest rate, and it would only bury me in more debt. “I’ll be paying for it in one lump sum.” I grimaced because I had to take out equity on my home for the loan, but because I knew the bank officer, they finagled the lowest-price interest they could. It was the best offer.
“Then, Nick, our relationship will be a short one.” I could hear the disbelief in his voice, but I didn’t care. My eyes snagged on something shiny on the tiled floor. I leaned down and picked it up.
“That’s great.” I smiled when I saw that it was one of Julia’s earrings. I picked it up from the floor and looked at the small teardrop shape. It was the color of a ruby. I wondered if it was real. I wondered if that was her favorite stone. I held it in the light and thought it looked real, but then I didn’t know much about gemstones.
It would give me a great excuse to text her and send her a picture. And maybe remind her of what we did on my desk. And then, I could ask her to the holiday parade with me, even if it was under the guise of a fake date.
There would be a lot of the town there, including my friends, including Kendra and whomever she decided to cling to for the night.
But the idea of spending more time with Julia far outweighed the discomfort of having Kendra unleash her poison on me.
I got the rest of the details from Mike as we talked about how to get the cashier’s check to him or his office. And he said he’d be emailing me some forms I’d have to fill out.
He sent them to me while we were on the phone, and we did a preliminary run-through in case I had any questions. Thankfully, and surprisingly, everything was pretty straightforward and I thought I could do it quickly. That took some of the pressure off the situation.
“Make sure to get in touch with me with any questions you might have, Nick,” Mike said. “You’ve made this a very easy day for me. I don’t know if that means I should enjoy it or if something else is going to wreak havoc elsewhere.” He chuckled.
“Well, I hope that it just means the rest of your day will go well and that you have nothing else chaotic happen for you,” I replied and meant it. I decided that I wanted to hear Julia’s voice instead of sending her a text message with the picture. Although I might do that too.
We shared a few more pleasantries, then I told Mike goodbye and hung up before he had a chance to say anything else. As soon as the phone hit the cradle, I picked my cell up and dialed Julia’s number.
I was disappointed that she didn’t pick up and realized I might have to get to know her a little better before she told me about her ex. I let the idea settle in my chest that I might really like her.
And I might really be okay with that.