Page 28 of Objection to Love
Plus, Garrett would be really proud to see her home an hour earlier than they’d agreed on. Anticipation of seeing his response to her arrival made her quicken her step as she left the office and headed for her car.
Not that it ended up mattering, because, for the first time since they’d made their deal, Garrett wasn’t sitting on his porch waiting for her to get home.
On Wednesday, he had been sitting outside with a large clock that read 6:59 when she pulled in. Where he’d gotten a clock that size, she’d neglected to ask. He had hemmed and hawed about her cutting it close, and she’d entered her house laughing.
Yesterday he was whittling a piece of wood with a knife when she stepped from her car. He had waved whatever he was carving in the air and told her he was brushing up on his wood-working skills and that she’d better not screw up the deal, or she would miss out on something amazing.
But today, he was nowhere to be found.
Em stepped slowly out of her car and tried not to look as if she was peering in his front windows. But she was. She walked slowly to the front door, then slowly unlocked and entered it.
She half expected him to show up at her door within minutes, but he didn’t. Maybe he got home late from work a lot too, and Em just didn’t know that because she was always later than him.
It was perturbing that she felt such a loss at his absence. She’d known the guy for not even two weeks and only had a handful of real conversations with him. Why should she care if he wasn’t on his porch when she got home?
She didn’t. Em was just a creature of habit, and Garrett had become a sort of habit. He was there when she left in the mornings, and he was, usually, there when she got home. He said or did something ridiculous, she tried not to laugh but failed, then they both continued on with their lives. That was all. She would just drop the habit, and then whatever she was feeling would disappear.
With that in mind, she tramped to the kitchen, kicking off her heels as she went. Ignoring all the rules of healthy living, she pulled open her freezer and extracted the mostly full carton of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream she’d picked up on her Wednesday grocery run. Then she went to her bedroom and changed into pajamas, because you can’t eat ice cream in a tailored pantsuit.
Mr. Winkles wandered in at some point and jumped up on Em’s bed. As was the cat’s usual custom, she spun in a circle a few times then lay down on the foot of the bed. But the second Em sat against her pillow, Mr. Winkles shot out of the room.
Even her cat thought she was boring.
She dragged her computer from her side table and pulled it open. But just like at the office, she couldn’t get her mind to settle enough to effectively work. What did people do with free time? Why did she even have free time? Shouldn’t she be working on something? Surely, she could findsomethingto do.
She couldn’t.
For half an hour, she scrolled through her work files, but everything was either tied up or awaiting responses from the defense attorneys assigned to her cases or the officers investigating them.
So, she called April.
“Hey, Em, what’s up?”
“I just thought I’d see how you and Jackson are doing. I haven’t heard from you guys in a few days.”
“Wow, usually I have to cram my life down your throat, but here you are asking for it. This is a nice change.”
Em recognized the teasing note in April’s voice, but she still felt a twinge of guilt. Her sister was right; Em was horrible at checking in, and most of their sisterly bonding came from April reaching out.
Em was really tired of these introspective realizations she was having lately.
“Hey, you guys wanna do that dinner tonight? The one I couldn’t make a couple weeks ago? I’m so sorry I never called to set something up.”
“It’s no problem, Em; we know you’re busy. But we already ate tonight. Maybe tomorrow?”
Em paused. “I think I might be busy tomorrow.”
“You think?”
“Well, I promised Garrett I would give him three hours. I don’t know which three hours he wants. Do you mind if I let you know once he tells me what we’re doing?”
“You… He… You’re going out with Garrett?” The surprise in her sister’s voice was eclipsed by the excitement. “Em, why didn’t you tell me?!”
Em lifted her hand up to stop April’s excitement before remembering she was on the phone. “I amnotgoing out with him… We just made this stupid deal. I’m considering going back on it, actually. He caught me in a moment of weakness, and I don’t know if I can follow through.”
“Wait, wait, wait. You’ve completely lost me, and I don’t think it’s just because of my pregnancy brain. Start from the beginning.”
Em sighed, but did as asked. Though she might have downplayed her total devastation at learning what her coworkers thought of her.
