21. Clarissa

21

CLARISSA

" G ood morning," I practically sang the second Kyle walked through the doors.

I had been dancing on clouds all weekend ever since I left him, and his smile first thing Monday morning was going to guarantee I had a good week. Or so I thought. He glanced up and noticed I was there. But he didn't look at me and he didn't say anything. He didn't smile, didn't wink. He didn't stop and say anything that could have been laced with innuendo.

He simply walked past me and into the back.

Everything inside me wanted to run after him at that moment. So of course, with perfect annoying timing, the phone rang. I stayed at my desk and took messages instead of finding out whether I had done something wrong.

As he and James left for lunch together, James did his typical finger tap on my desk followed by a wave, letting me know he was leaving without interrupting his conversation. Kyle didn't even glance up at me. I scowled at his back as they left.

"Yikes, don't tell me that look is for me."

I cut a glare to Nick as he approached the receptionist desk. "What are you talking about?" I snapped.

Nick drew a circle in the air with his finger in front of his face. "That look," he said, meaning my expression.

I tried to regain my composure. "Oh, sorry," I said. "Why would I be scowling at you? Why do you think that was for you?"

"I figured they just told you that you were stuck with me all afternoon."

"That actually could prove to be interesting as long as the afternoon temp remembers to come in," I grumbled.

"Oh, yeah, I heard about that. What happened?"

I shrugged. "The agency called this morning. They're sending somebody new."

Nick did a similar tapping on the desk thing. "Well, I'm off to lunch. Come find me when you're good to go."

"Where will you be?" I asked.

"If I'm not in my office, I'll be upstairs."

My intern duties were relegated to Nick's supervision for the rest of the week. Which was just as well because I was pretty certain Kyle was angry and was avoiding me.

I didn't have a chance to talk to him for a couple of days. "Did I do something to piss you off?" I asked him the second he walked in the door a few mornings later. I wasn't going to give him a chance to continue ignoring me.

He stopped and leveled a glare at me. "Do you have something you need to tell me?"

Confused, I shook my head. "No, I… What? No. What is going on, Kyle?"

He stalked menacingly toward my desk and leaned over it, getting close to my face. He was trying to be intimidating. It was working. "Are you sure you don't want to tell me something?"

"Was I supposed to send you an engraved thank you note after Saturday night?" I snapped back.

He shook his head, letting out a bitter chuckle. "No, but maybe you should have told me you're in a relationship."

Now I was really confused. "I don't know what you're talking about."

He was still leaning over my desk when Alayna stepped in. "This looks like a situation that needs to not be happening right here in the reception area."

Kyle turned his glare at her, which shocked me because I was pretty certain he thought Alayna could do no wrong. It was nice to know that she had the confidence. It must have been nice to have the confidence and authority to put him in check.

He cleared his throat a couple of times and then stood up straight. "You're right." He looked back at me. "This is not a conversation I care to have right now."

I folded my arms over my chest. "Fine, but this is a conversation that needs to happen."

Alayna looked like a stern schoolteacher. She wagged her finger at us as if we were naughty children. "Whatever is going on right here, you two need to figure it out and get it cleared up before anybody starts asking me what's going on."

I didn't know if she knew what was going on between us or that we even had a history. I nodded. She was right. We needed to get this cleared up.

Kyle grunted and stormed off into the back office.

As I watched Alayna walk away, I realized there was no way she didn't not know there was something going on. She seemed to know everything.

For some reason, I hoped Kyle would have approached me to meet outside the office to discuss whatever he was so upset about. By the end of the work week, I was left with more questions than I had answers for.

Leo and I followed our standard Friday evening routine. I picked him up from daycare. I made spaghetti for dinner, and after a bath, we watched a movie. My phone pinged with a text. It was Marci.

What, no date this weekend??? Three question marks.

No , was all I responded.

I expected her to text me back. Less than five minutes later, she was knocking on my door and yelling at me to let her in.

"What's going on?" she asked as soon as I got the door open.

"Nothing's going on," I said with a shrug.

"You should be getting ready for a date. Why didn't you ask me to babysit? I even told Davey we couldn't go out tomorrow night because I was expecting to babysit."

I grimaced. "I guess you can tell Davey he can take you out."

"Well, what happened? I thought you were going to talk to him?"

I had let Marci know that Kyle had a stick up his ass over something. "I tried to, but we got scolded by his personal assistant because we were not being professional."

Marci and I spoke in aggressive whispers so as to not disrupt Leo and his movie. Fortunately, the dinosaurs on the TV were louder than we were. Marci opened my refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of wine. I grabbed the cups from the cupboard as she unscrewed the top off a cheap wine and poured.

She took a sip and waggled her eyebrows at me. That was my cue to tell her what was going on. I needed to talk.

"I asked him if he was pissed off at me, and he is," I told her.

"But why?"

"I don't know. He seems to think I'm dating somebody else. "

"Did he see you with somebody? Anybody?"

I shrugged. "Between Saturday night and Sunday, the only person I've been with is my son. He wasn't acting like he saw me with some kid. He was acting like he saw me with another man."

"Do you have a doppelganger we don't know about? Did you go to the grocery store? Did you say thank you to a delivery man?"

I had no answers.

"Give me your phone."

"What? No," I said as she grabbed it off the kitchen counter.

With deft ninja-like skills, Marci grabbed my wrist and had my thumbprint unlocking my phone before I could snatch my hand away from her.

I watched with a combination of resolve and horror as I knew she was texting Kyle.

"There." She held the phone out to me.

I read the message that I supposedly sent. What's going on? We need to talk on Saturday . She had the name of a bar and a time listed.

"You are going to go and wait for him, and I'm going to babysit," she announced right before she gulped down the rest of her wine, said goodnight to Leo, and left.

She was a force of nature. I was glad she was on my side.

The next evening, I sat on a bar stool. The ice in my drink was melting as I waited for Kyle.

"I'm here," he announced as he slid onto the bar stool next to me.

"I didn't think you were coming," I said. In an attempt to look like a badass, I took a sip of my drink. The effect was completely ruined as I grimaced and shuddered at the bitter vodka in my Moscow Mule.

Kyle gestured for the bartender. "I'll have one of those," he said, pointing at my drink.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked.

"Are you seeing anybody?"

"I thought I was seeing you," I responded.

"That's not what I meant," he said.

"Then you need to ask the questions you want the answers for."

"Are you in a relationship?"

I shook my head as my brows pulled together. What was going on that he would even think that? "I haven't been in a relationship since you left for Hong Kong."

He took a sip of his drink. I couldn't help but notice he didn't make faces or flinch at the alcohol. "Then explain to me why I saw you with a little boy at the playground in Oak Park last weekend."

My stomach dropped. I picked up my drink and threw half of it back. I spluttered and coughed against the strong drink. "What the hell were you doing in Oak Park?"

I never should have taken him to Oak Park. I never should have showed him that house. I picked that house because it was my favorite house in Chicago. I picked it to show him, because on the days I wanted to dream about a better life for me and Leo, I would walk a little bit out of my way so that I could see that house. By showing Kyle my dream house in a moment of pique, I'd somehow managed to let him see his son.