Chapter 16
Robyn
Carla taps on the door and steps inside with a steaming mug in one hand and some fresh printouts I requested in the other. She nudges the door closed with her heel and crosses to my desk.
“Afternoon caffeine, as requested.” She puts the mug down on the coaster nearest to my keyboard. “I made it the way you like it, with cream and two sugars. I added an extra shot of espresso, my treat. You look like you need it. Here are those printouts.” She places them next to my laptop.
“Thanks, Carla.” I push the file I’ve been trying to read aside and reach for the mug. “You’re a lifesaver.”
“That’s what they tell me.” She perches on the corner of the chair across from me and folds one leg over the other. “So, you’ll never guess what I just heard from Felicia in radiology. Apparently, her cousin works in the Council buildings and—”
“Yes.” I nod.
“He says that security had to bring in extra people to deal with those protestors. It got rowdy really quickly. There were even a couple of arrests made. The good news is that it’s totally quiet today. Like someone flipped a switch.”
“Hmm.” I take a sip of the coffee and make a noise of enjoyment. “That’s good news, then.”
“It is, but…do you think it’ll happen again? It sounds like the locals are really pissed about what the Mainland did.”
“It might.” I make a face.
She narrows her eyes.
“It could be the calm before the storm. I don’t understand why they’re angry with us.”
“Because we’re from the Mainland.”
“Yeah, but we had nothing to do with what the Mainland government did.”
“I know that. Hopefully it dies down soon.”
“What happens if it doesn’t?” She looks frightened.
“That’s why security is being tightened. I’m sure it will be okay.”
She nods. “You’re probably right.”
I lift the mug to my mouth, and somewhere between the desk and my lips, my hand catches on the edge of the keyboard tray, and the whole thing tips.
Coffee splashes across the printouts. Across the corner of my keyboard.
Down onto the carpet by my chair. There is a long brown streak running over my fingers and onto my wrist.
“Oh no.” Carla is already on her feet.
“Dammit.” I put the half-empty mug down. I groan in irritation.
“It’s fine. Don’t worry. I’ll grab some paper towels.”
“I can’t believe I did that.” I stare at the mess on my desk. The printouts are ruined. I scrunch the dripping pages up and toss them in the wastepaper basket under my desk.
“It isn’t a biggie.” Carla puts a hand on my shoulder. “It’s coffee. It’s not a national disaster. I’ll bring some paper towels and a fresh mug. I’ll print out those documents again. It’ll take me five minutes, tops. We’re all a little on edge today.”
“You shouldn’t have to clean up after me.”
“It is literally part of my job description.”
“It is not.”
“Fine, it’s not. But I want to do it. You take a few deep breaths. It’s going to be fine.”
I nod, pushing out a heavy breath.
She heads out, and I stand there, dripping coffee onto my carpet and feeling about as competent as a first-year intern.
I really need to pull myself together already.
I drop into my chair. Look at the brown puddle on my desk. Then look at the screen, where the spreadsheet I am supposed to be updating glares back at me.
I cannot do this.
Why did I tell Ridge that I’m still attracted to him? Why? I think I might even have referred to how good he felt inside me. That I bought all those condoms to get a rise out of him because he was so together, indicating that I’m not.
I pretty much told him I wanted him.
I close my eyes.
I am such an idiot.
What I should have done is keep up the boyfriend lie.
Doubled down. Made up a name and a valid excuse as to why he couldn’t come over.
Said he was on a business trip or something…
anything except for what I actually said.
Now Ridge knows that I still want him. He made it clear that he does not feel the same way, and there is nothing in the world quite as humiliating as that.
He isn’t even here right now, and I want the ground to swallow me whole.
How am I going to last the rest of the week?
“Here you go,” Carla says as she walks back into my office, balancing a fresh mug, a wad of paper towels, and a small spray bottle of carpet cleaner. “Service with a smile,” she adds.
“You are too good to me.”
“Never!”
I roll my chair away from the desk so she can get to the spill. She wipes the desk first, mops up the worst of it, then drops to her knees with the towel and the spray bottle and starts working at the carpet.
“You really don’t have to—”
“Drink your coffee, Dr. Keller.” She doesn’t even look up. “And no spilling this one, please. The carpet has had enough.”
I smile. “You got it.”
I sip carefully. The coffee doesn’t taste as good, even though I’m sure it is.
I put the mug down as Carla starts on my desk. I roll back toward my laptop, opening the spreadsheet. I click on a figure, and the whole column shifts.
I push the undo button, but it doesn’t work.
Why not?
I push it again, and something I did earlier deletes.
“What? No.” I lean closer to the screen. “No, no, no. What did I just do?”
I scroll up. I scroll down. The data has cascaded into the wrong places. The formula has dragged everything one row off. I have just lost about an hour’s worth of careful work.
“For the love of—” I drop my forehead into my hand.
Carla looks up from the carpet. “What’s wrong?”
“I just messed up a spreadsheet. It’s going to take me some time to fix it. Time I don’t have. My admin is piling up.”
“Why not ctrl-Z it?”
“I can try.” I hit the keys. The cells obediently roll back one step, then another. I keep going until I am back to where I started. I exhale.
“It worked. Do you want my job?”
She laughs. “No, thank you. I would suck.”
“Doubtful,” I mumble.
She balls up the wet towels and dumps them in my wastebasket. She doesn’t go, though. She comes around to my side of the desk, leans her hip against the edge, and folds her arms.
“Um…Robyn.”
“Mmm?”
“Are you okay?” She cocks her head, scrutinizing me.
“I’m fine.” I put on a happy voice and even smile.
“You are not fine. I know you. You’re rattled.”
“I am fine.” I widen my eyes. “I’m tired. I had a rough night.”
“How so? What happened?” Her voice is laced with concern.
I close my eyes for a second, then look up at her.
“I had a run-in with a guy at the store yesterday. I had to pick up a few things on my way home.”
“What kind of a run-in?”
“He told me to go back home to the Mainland. That I wasn’t welcome on Draig anymore.”
“Nooooo.” Carla puts a hand in front of her mouth. “What did you do?” Her eyes are wide.
“I ignored him, but he got mean and insistent. He wanted a rise out of me.”
“You must have been so scared.”
“Ridge was with me and so—”
Her brows shoot right up. “He was with you. Whyyyyyy?” She frowns.
“He wanted to see where my car was parked. My route home. He wanted to look at my apartment building and inside my apartment.”
“You took him home?” She giggles.
“It wasn’t like that. He looked at all the doors and the windows and the fire escape, and then he left.”
“Damn. And here I was getting all excited for nothing.”
“It was strictly professional.”
At least I wish it were.
Why, oh why did I say those things?
“He stepped in and put the shifter in his place. The guy apologized and left, but it left me a little shaken. Then Ridge found my security seriously lacking and insisted on sleeping on my sofa.”
“He stayed over!” Carla practically yells.
“Stop it!” I tell her in a hard tone. “No. He insisted, so I lied about having a boyfriend.”
“You lied? You? You never lie about anything.”
I shrug. “I didn’t want him in my space. I thought he was exaggerating. I’ve lived in my apartment since arriving on the island. It’s been perfectly fine all of these years.”
“There’s more to this story, I can tell.” She keeps all her attention on me.
“Anyway. Last night, in the early hours, I woke up because there was someone on my balcony.”
“What?”
“Yep, they were trying to get the sliding door open. I heard scratching noises.”
“No way!” Carla’s eyes go wide again. “Maybe you were hearing things.”
“I saw them out there. Just an outline of a dark silhouette, but definitely someone crouching at my sliding door. I crapped myself and shouted at them. Then I locked myself in the bathroom, and I called Ridge.”
“Oh, my god.”
“I didn’t know what else to do. He was there in five minutes. The guy ran off, I think, when I shouted at him through the door. Ridge slept on my sofa. He’s at my apartment now, with his team, upgrading everything.”
“That’s terrible.” She covers her mouth with her hand.
“I know.”
“You are okay, though?”
“I’m okay.”
“Do they know who it was?”
“No. Not yet.” I shake my head.
“So you had Commander Ridge sleep over at your place. There are worse things. You should have invited him to cuddle in your bed with you.”
“Carla, I was hiding in my bathroom with a kitchen knife. Trust me when I tell you that getting down and dirty with Ridge was the very last thing on my mind,” I snap.
Carla’s smile drops. She lifts her hands, palms out.
“Sorry. I’m sorry. That was a stupid thing to say.”
It wasn’t stupid at all. She’s right. I hate that she’s right. I’m terrible for snapping at her.
“No, I’m sorry. That came out wrong. You were just trying to lighten things up.”
“I wasn’t thinking. I was being flippant about something that is terrifying. I cannot even imagine how scared you must have been. To wake up to that.”
“It was awful.” I exhale.
Carla comes around my desk. She leans in and hugs me. “You should have told me earlier.”
“I thought I was fine,” I say into her hair.
She pulls away. “Next time, you tell me as soon as you come in. I’m here for you.”
She starts to walk back.
“I know and I will. I—”