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“I’m sorry.” I said, dropping the subject of family before she asked me about mine. Telling people my dad committed suicide, and why, never went over well. “And that’s why you settled in Deadwood?”
“Yes. Nancy offered me a full-time position when I graduated and I’ve been here ever since.”
“So.” I pondered someway to move this conversation along as I pulled more paper to shred. “How did you get to know the girls?”
“I met Michelle and Trish in College. Between Michelle and Trish, I always had a place to live when I interned for Aces and Eights.”
“Ah, an even better reason to move permanently to Deadwood.”
“Yep.”
Nearing the end of our pile and the bottom of the wine bottle, we made room for what Cindy needed to keep. Tomorrow we will start on it once the supplies arrive. The shredded material went directly into huge opaque trash bags with, “Confidential Waste, Shredded Material,” stamped in orange letters on each one. We twist and tie them closed as they are filled.
A Deadwood Data Destruction truck will pick them up on Monday, according to Cindy. Meanwhile we stack them in the supply room at the back of the building where we would soon also stack the archived boxes on metal shelves labeled with Bradshaw— Cindy’s last name— and the year appropriate to the boxes. A door leads to the alley, where, I assume, the data destruction truck would sneak in, take the marked bags, and leave.
Cindy rose. “Want more wine?” She walked toward the little refrigerator next to her office door.
“Sure.” I hold up my glass.
She giggles and returned with a new bottle, pours us both a little more than she should and puts the bottle back in the fridge.
A knock on the glass door draws both of our gazes. The office is locked, since it’s after business hours. Through the lacy curtain covering the glass door, I see a figure with cupped hands around its face, looking in. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear that was Kate. But I hadn’t texted her for a ride. In fact, I was planning on Cindy taking me home when we finished tonight. Maybe it’s not a bad idea to have someone who hasn’t been drinking wine drive both of us home.
“Kate!” I breathe. Someone stood behind her, bobbing and weaving to look around her. It looked a lot like— but that cannot be!
“What the—” I stand, and then set my glass of wine on the floor next to the boxy machine, and strode to the door. “Cindy, I’m gonna open your front door, alright?”
“Sure. Who is that?”
“It’s Kate, and I think…”
The people on the outside of the door stumbled through as the door flew open. Had Kate been pushed? I sigh loudly, anticipating relief when I find out I am wrong.
“I’m not.”
“What the hell are you doing here?” I bark.
Jason Rumbar, my ex-fiancé, stands behind Kate, grinning like a cat who caught a canary and lied about it. His grin drops into a frown. “Aw, Baby Cakes!”
“Don’t you ‘Baby Cakes’ me. What are you doing here?”
Kate looks scared. “I’m sorry, Maribeth. He told me he was your fiancé. I thought it’d be alright to bring him to where you were. Was I wrong? I mean, should I have left him at your house?”
“At my house?” I shriek. “You were at my house!” I swallow fiery anger that burns at the bottom of my stomach like I’ve just ingested red-hot coals “What were you doing at my house?! How dare you, Jason!”
“Come on, Baby Cakes, you know there’s never been a lock that can hold me back.”
“You broke into my house!” I yell even louder. This is just getting worse by the second. “I’m calling the police.” I lift my phone and thumb to Blaze’s personal cell phone. Would he be home at this hour, or was he in the alley behind the Deadwood Tobacco Company, watching for activity that indicated an underground poker game was happening? I did not really wantto call for some cop I didn’t know. I needed someone I could trust to handle Jason. Could I trust Blaze to handle my ex?
Poor Kate’s eyes were big as saucers, she literally pranced back and forth like an anxious cat. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” She repeated over and over.
“No, Kate, you were right to not leave him at my house.” I reassure her. She sucks in a deep breath and sighs. “Oh, good.”
Her body looks like a stretched-out rubber band that had been released to its original, relaxed state. My heart aches for her, I really hate upsetting Kate when she already has so much strumming her nerve cords. “It’s alright.”
“It is?” Jason’s smile returns to his mouth.
I turn blazing eyes on him. “Not you!” I growl. “It is not alright that you broke into my house! How dare you follow me here after everything you put me through.”
