Childish Games (Meet the Shepards #2)

Chapter 1 The Plot

The Plot

It was another dreary day in Seattle. An unending drizzle had persisted from the night before, but it had eased during the early parts of the morning.

The concrete was still wet as Tyler Evans made his way up the stairs and into the building.

No matter what mood he was in, or what the weather was outside, walking into these offices always brightened up his day.

The black porcelain tiles and stone walls gave a sense of warmth, yet still managed to look elegant.

It was his dad’s idea to make it look more like a home than an office and Tyler quite liked the simplicity of it all.

“Good morning, Mister Tyler,” Jerry said from behind the reception desk.

Tyler smiled. Jerry insisted on calling him Mister Evans and he insisted he be addressed by his first name, so the compromise was Mister Tyler. “Morning, Jerry. Rough night again? You look tired.”

“I don’t mind. I waited nine long months for these sleepless nights.”

“I’m glad you can still keep your spirits up,” Tyler responded, pushing the button of the elevator.

He waited as the elevator made its way up from the basement parking. He heard a ding, the doors opened, and he was greeted by his best friend.

“Tyler.”

He gave a quick nod. “Matthew.”

It was not the greeting he had grown accustomed to over the past nineteen years.

Today Matthew wore somewhat of an amused grin accompanied with a mild hint of naughtiness in his brown eyes.

A long-standing friendship had taught Tyler that this particular face meant that it would take approximately five seconds before Matthew exploded with the secret he was trying to conceal.

He also knew that usually those secrets were better left untold.

Tyler cautiously pushed the button to travel up to their offices on the thirty-eighth floor and turned to face his friend. “What’s up, Matt?” he asked, feeling his anxiety build as they ascended.

“You really wanna know?”

No. Not really, Tyler thought. “Of course, I do.”

Matthew handed him a magazine, which was rolled up to conceal the cover.

Tyler stared at it for a long while before he took it from Matthew’s hand and took a fair amount of time before he finally unrolled it.

His throat tightened and his heart did a double back flip as his eyes swept over the words.

“What?” The magazine slipped from his hand as his fingers went numb. “I can’t believe it. She got engaged?”

“Oh. My. God!” Stacey shrieked. “You got engaged? I can’t believe it.” Her high-pitched voice echoed through her loft, reverberating off her kitchen walls. She grabbed her sister’s left hand and stared at the chunky diamond ring on her finger.

“I know,” Trisha replied. “Isn’t it wonderful? Oliver is such an amazing guy. I’ve never been so happy.”

The smile disappeared off Stacey’s face and she studied Trisha questioningly. “What about Tyler?”

“What about me?” Tyler shouted. “She can’t just go off and marry some random guy she met on some random cruise ship. They’ve only been dating for two months. She can’t possibly love him.”

“Well, she’s not marrying him for the money,” Matthew countered, “because if money was all she wanted, she would have stayed with you.”

Tyler shook his head. “This guy…” He picked up the trashy gossip magazine off the floor and read the name again. “This Oliver fellow, she’s just using him as a rebound toy boy.”

Trisha let out a deflated sigh. “I know what you’re thinking, sis. You’re thinking this is a rebound fling, that I’m just using Oliver to get over Tyler, but I’m not. Oliver is open and honest and not afraid to show his feelings. He’s everything Tyler isn’t.”

“But you’ve only known him for two months. Do you really think you’re in love with him?” Stacey asked.

Trisha smiled and brushed her pitch-black hair off her forehead. “I know I am. He shows me what a real relationship is supposed to be like. My relationship with Tyler was great, but I was always yearning for more and Oliver gives me that.”

Stacey nodded, understanding her sister’s plight.

After all, she had been the shoulder to cry on during every spat in Tyler and Trisha’s relationship, but she had also seen all the good times and she could not let her sister simply walk into the arms of another man without considering all the facts.

“But you and Tyler were together for three years. You can’t tell me that you’re ready to give that up. ”

Sadness suddenly hazed Trisha’s green eyes and her shoulders dropped with disappointment.

“I’m more than ready to give that up, Stace.

I am ready to give up a man who has never – in our three years together – told me that he loved me.

I am ready to give one hundred percent of myself to a man who is willing to do the same.

You don’t understand what it’s like being with Tyler.

He’s not affectionate, he never says how he feels.

There’s no spontaneous hugging or kissing.

The man acts as if he’ll catch the Bubonic Plague if he just touches me.

” Trisha sighed. “And the thing that hurts the most is that he doesn’t even realize that that’s the furthest thing from what a relationship should be. ”

“What did I do that was so wrong?” Tyler threw his hands up in frustration. “I didn’t cheat or lie or…or go to strip clubs! I was faithful for three years and I gave her everything. What more could she possibly want?”

The elevator doors opened and Tyler marched through the open-plan finance department straight to his office, neglecting to greet anyone who crossed his path. He waited for Matthew to enter and slammed the door shut. It was then that the anxious pacing began.

“Women need a lot more than gifts and fidelity to maintain a relationship,” Matthew offered helpfully as he took a seat at Tyler’s desk.

Tyler stared at him as if he had grown a second head. “Like what?”

“Like time.”

“We were living together. She saw me all the time.”

“And attention.”

His pacing became more aggressive. “I devoted every free second I had to her!”

“They want to be complimented.”

“I always noticed when she cut her hair.”

Matthew rolled his eyes, clearly fed up that his best friend was simply not getting the point. “Have you ever told her you love her, Ty?”

He froze on the spot. “Well…um…you know…not in so many words.”

“It’s three words!”

He resumed his pacing and did not spare Matthew another look. “She knew how I felt about her,” he said after some time. “Besides, you’re missing the point. She’s not in love with this guy, she’s still in love with me. I just have to make her see it. All she needs is a little persuasion.”

Stacey took Trisha’s hand once again and ogled her ring. “So I guess there’s nothing that can persuade you to not go through with this?” she asked.

“Nope,” Trisha replied adamantly.

“Well, if this is what you really want, you have my support. You’re my sister and whatever makes you happy, makes me happy.” She gave Trisha a tight hug and smiled with bittersweet sadness in her eyes. “So when’s the big day?”

“December, twenty-third.”

Stacey’s eye’s widened. “Then we better start planning. We only have six months to plan the wedding of the century.”

Trisha stared down at her left hand, her gleefulness faltering for only a second. A smile slowly curved on her lips and her excitement made its way through the hurt she felt. “That’s right! Six months ’til my blissful ever after.”

“What kind of persuasion?” Matthew asked.

Tyler’s pacing began to slow, becoming more purposeful as his mind toyed with ideas. “We need a plan,” he said eventually.

“What are you talking about, Ty? She’s getting married in six months.”

“Correct.” He nodded and smiled. “Do you know what that means? That means we have six months to break them up.”

* * * * *

Jordan Shepard sat in front of her computer, trying to drown out the almost haunting sound of Barbara’s laughter.

It wasn’t really a laugh. It was more of a cackle that echoed through the open-plan area.

Barbara was the boisterous, redheaded creditor’s clerk.

She was sweet, endearingly so, but she could only be handled in moderation.

The rumor around the office was that she was partially deaf, seemingly because she had lost any and all ability to use her inside voice.

If she whispered, Tyler could hear it in his office.

The volume on her voice box was set at too fucking loud for humans and possibly painful for dogs.

Her laugh, however, reached decibels that eardrums could not sustain without exploding.

It was screechy, high-pitched hoooohs followed by brain-searing haw-haw-haws, like a donkey in the midst of an orgasm.

It was the type of laugh that once it was heard, it could never be unheard, the type of laugh that could provoke multiple stab wounds if she wasn’t careful, the type of laugh that stopped everyone around her from telling jokes.

Well, everyone except Mervin over there. Asshole!

The sadistic bastard took pleasure in seeing the rest of them suffer.

Either that or he had a seriously sick fetish for donkeys.

He didn’t even work on this floor. He was in the maintenance department two floors down, yet every morning he’d come up to get his costs approved, stay long enough to mess up everyone’s day and then he’d disappear to his office where he was safe from the excited aftermath that usually followed their flirtatious encounter.

Jordan wasn’t sure if he was really interested in Barbara, or if he just did it to piss her the hell off.

“Fuck you, Mervin,” Jordan jeered, her blue eyes narrowing to a death stare as he walked past her desk to the elevator.

“You have a good day too, Jordan,” he replied with a smug smile.