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Dusting his hands off, Tobin piped in, “Cherise, that’s one of the things I was going to mention in our talk tonight. Right now, I’m more concerned that you should just sit for a minute and take a breather. Our session can wait. This has to be taking its toll on you.” It was.
“I think sitting for a minute won’t hurt anything,” I conceded, backtracking to my desk. Tobin closed my office door. Laying my head on the desktop, I drifted into a troubled sleep of being surrounded by pure blackness. A disembodied voice repeating the same words, “Acceptance starts now, Cherise.” Tobin was screaming my name. For the life of me, I couldn’t find him, couldn’t find shelter from the hidden menace.
I knew I was dreaming and wanted out of that nap. Jerking awake, I checked my watch. Three and a half hours had passed… and Tobin hadn’t had his session yet. I jumped up, slinging open the door. Across the foyer in the waiting area, I found him in a chair dragged next to Athena’s desk. They were chatting quietly.
“I’m so sorry, Tobin,” I interrupted them. “We can do your session now.”
He trotted over to me. “Feel better?”
“Honestly, not really.” The dream had left me feeling off.
He took my elbow, guiding me back into the room. Insisting I sit on the edge of the desk, he cradled my face in his hands, looking me over. It took all the strength I had not to turn my face into his palm. Under his touch, I began to feel a bit better. Then, his hands dropped away as if he’d been burnt. I missed his nearness immediately.
“Sorry, Cherise. I know how you are about being professional. If you don’t want to do my session today, we can reschedule. I don’t think one day away from the office will hurt. I’ll make sure you get home. You can rest until our date tonight.” Suddenly, he looked as if he’d seen a ghost. “I meant day at the carnival.”
Athena cackled quietly in the next room, obviously eavesdropping.
“It’s okay to say date, Tobin,” I assured him. After the last few days, coupled with that dream that was definitely trying to tell me something, being professional was the least of my worries.
“It’s okay?” he questioned, completely baffled.
As I raised up off the desktop, Athena’s snickers floated inside my office again. Tobin looked too shocked to be aware of the laughter at his expense coming from the other room.
Hell, I sniggered myself. “Yes, it’s fine. We can go to the carnival at about eight this evening. Do you want to meet me there or pick me up?” These heels and formfitting dress would not be on the outing. Both were starting to pinch in places best left unnamed.
“What?” Having shoved his hands in his pockets, Tobin was staring right through me. His body was here. His mind had went somewhere else far, far away.
Athena laughed a little louder.
I tried not to follow in her footsteps. “Are you picking me up or meeting me at the carnival, at eight?”
He shook his head as if clearing away cobwebs in it. “Ah, picking you up would be better. One vehicle is safer right now. We can’t get separated that way.” He hadn’t understood what I meant by date, but he would. Separated from him was totally not what I wanted. I didn’t speak it for fear Athena would hear me. Begging for my license in front of a review board was still a problem if I wanted to keep my livelihood after Chad was dealt with. The fewer witnesses to the things I said and did to Tobin unprofessionally, the better.
Reaching for my purse on the desk, I slung it over my shoulder. “I’m ready to go home. Malaysia would appreciate me unpacking a few boxes while she works.”
I navigated around Tobin to exit. He was with me every step of the way. The waiting room was vacated. Athena had posted at the far wall by the back door, flinging it wide upon our arrival.
“Athena, wait,” Tobin ordered too late.
She had already gone outside, skidding to a stop on the pavement. “What is it, Tobin?”
He rushed out after her, scanning the vicinity. “Let me go out and come in first when I’m here, please.”
“If that’s how you want it,” she commented lightly. It had to be nice to not have a care in the world sometimes. Once upon a time, I lived like that every day. Carefree had been stolen from me.
“I do want it that way,” he verified for her. I hovered just at the exit, watching him in action. His protective ways were downright sexy. His manners weren’t half bad, either. “Cherise, you can lock the door now. Thank you for waiting. I want you to talk to your landlord about an alarm system that’s connected to the doors and windows as soon as possible. We need to contact a company about giving you an alert button to carry with you.”
While he made a loop around my car, I let the door slam shut, noticing his truck was missing from the space next to mine. “Where is your truck? I can have my pendant button reactivated here with the same company as before. The alarm company is scheduled to do an installation next week. I moved in before the landlord could get it done. This office wasn’t supposed to be ready for another month.” I wasn’t making money sitting at home.
“Good,” he muttered, peering inside my vehicle. “Cherise, it’s okay to drive. My truck’s around the front. I had a little chat with the construction workers while you slept. Athena, how are you getting home?”
“Dr. Johnston volunteers to take me to the bus stop up the street and wait with me for the bus to come every day. You can have shotgun, Tobin.” Athena slipped into the back seat after I deactivated the car’s alarm. Her head popped right back out the car, “Ah, sorry about volunteering your chauffeuring services for Tobin too, Dr. Johnston. I just didn’t think you’d let him walk around to his red truck in the front.”
Of course, Athena would know what he drove. She didn’t have much else to do today besides look out the windows. I haven’t even thought about how he got here, let alone how he’d leave. Subconsciously, I didn’t want him to, I was way too contented in his company. Apparently, it was time to think about all the ramifications of being with him. Oh, how my mind took off with that. Wrestling it back out of thoughts of feasible sex positions in my car took some doing. How in the actual hell did my mind even get there?
Well, I knew how and it had to stop for now, at least. When I checked back into reality, Tobin and Athena were giving me weird looks. How long had I been gone mentally on this balmy, sunny day? Girl, get a grip, I told myself. And I did, on my door handle. Those images of getting it on with Tobin wouldn’t go away, and I was supposed to say something. Like right now.
