Page 37 of Not Mine To Love

I shrugged. “Just trying out a new look.”

“It’s not working for you,” she said, lighting her cigarette. “I’m supposed to be meeting a client here. Not that you need to know that. Speaking of which, you ready for another assignment?”

I wasn’t the type to say no to money offered, and she hadn’t offered me an assignment for a while now. “Of course, sure.” I would just figure out a way to work it around Julius’ schedule.

“It should be pretty easy. Another girlfriend or wife, whatever, who thinks her significant other is probably cheating. It might mean you have to visit a titty bar.”

Great, I thought sarcastically, so the lighting will be terrible. It was a sad day that my main concern about strip clubs was their terrible lighting and not what actually went on in them.

“I’ll text you the details. Maybe you can use the money to buy a better wig.” She let out a hackle that soon turned into a terrible cough.

“You need to stop smoking.” I couldn’t help myself. She sounded as if she was about to cough up a lung.

“Who are you? My doctor? Just have your phone on, Ms. Surgeon General. I don’t pay you for your medical advice; I pay you to take pictures.”

She took a long drag of her cigarette, and I bid her goodbye. She didn’t bother to reply. Which was fine and expected.

I made my way to my car and scanned the parking lot to make sure Julius’ car was still where it was supposed to be.

It was.

I looked at my watch and sighed. I was bored. I placed my head on the steering wheel and tried not to yawn for the hundredth time.

I brought my head up just in time to watch Julius walk out of the coffee house with a short blonde. She had her arm laced around his, and I was in shock for a moment. This was too easy and completely unexpected, I thought as I picked up my camera and began to snap pictures.

She leaned toward him and seemed to be about to plant a kiss on his lips when he stepped back and straight off the porch of the small cafe. He landed in a flower bed, and I tried not to laugh.

He floundered around, and the woman moved to help him. He batted her hands away, and I couldn’t help but laugh now. Whoever she was, he sure didn’t want her there. He dodged her kiss and clearly didn’t want her help.

Finally, he extracted himself from the bushes, and she began to dust him off. Conspicuously letting her hand go where no hand should be going in public.

Even from the distance, I could see Julius was growing angry. He tossed his hands up and said something to her. He looked pissed. He then turned away and stomped to his car. She followed behind him grabbing at his arm. I couldn’t hear what was being said, but I snapped picture after picture. It was clearly a heated exchange. Finally, he climbed into his car. He looked so angry and drove away without another glance at the woman.

The woman placed her hands on her hips and watched him drive away, then climbed into her car and went in the opposite direction. I snapped a few photos of her license plate. I was hoping the photos would help me figure out who she was. Frankly, I had no idea how I would find out that kind of information, but it couldn’t be that hard, right?

Since Julius was leaving off schedule, I had no idea where he was going. I circled around a few times wondering.

Things were off to a great start, I thought sarcastically when I couldn’t find him. I drove a couple miles in the direction he went. I didn’t see any signs of his car.

I knew where his next stop was going to be, so I went there instead. It was a Cross Fit gym in an old warehouse in the east part of town where empty warehouses were turned into luxury apartments and storefronts. I tried to think of what people called Cross Fit gyms. They didn’t call them gyms, right? I thought they were called a box? I was getting Cross Fit confused with boxing. I couldn’t remember what fancy name Cross Fitters used. I just knew that I had at least solved one mystery. I now knew how Julius stayed so sexy.

I waited patiently for Julius, hoping he would show up to the gym with no shirt on. He arrived about thirty minutes before he was supposed to be there. He climbed out of the car with a duffel bag and disappeared into the warehouse. He was definitely wearing a shirt, and there was no sign of the blonde this time. I sort of had a feeling that Claire might have paid the blonde to put on that little performance. It was too convenient for my taste.

As I waited for something juicy to happen, I flipped through the pictures. In every picture, you could clearly see the confusion on Julius’ face. And then contempt as he pulled himself out of the bushes, and she helped brush him off. I giggled a little. It was pretty funny.

The rest of the day was uneventful. Nothing raunchy happened, and by the time four pm rolled around I was bored out of my mind. All Julius did was work, workout, work some more and then he headed home. If anything, his life was more boring than mine was.

The next day was pretty much the same and the day after next. The blonde never returned, so I was still curious about that. I sent pictures to Claire and took on Leona’s assignment while I waited for Claire to get back to me. I didn’t know what she planned to do with the pictures. They didn’t make Julius look guilty. They made him look like he was being assaulted by a crazy lady.

That weekend, I prepped for the debauchery of the strip club. I knew it would be weird to show up on my own, so I asked Dana and Piper to come with me. To my surprise, they happily agreed.

“I’ve never been in one before,” Piper said excitedly.

“Me neither,” Dana said.

“What do we even wear?” Piper asked.

“And does it smell like cheap perfume and sex?”