Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,21
although that was before anyone knew his true standing. She didn’t know how she would feel if he started flirting with her friend. She knew she had no business caring or even being jealous but after that seriously hot kiss, God help her, she was feeling blatantly possessive.
“I guess you’re right,” he replied, still laughing a little, “It wouldn’t be good for the upstairs and downstairs lots to ‘mingle’, so to speak. Not company protocol at all.”
Elise sighed inwardly with relief and then immediately chastised herself. This man was nothing to her; she was married and having a hard enough time convincing everyone else that that fact was important without having to convince herself!
Celeste rolled her eyes in resignation. “Company protocol sucks! Bloody shame, that’s all I can say. Oh well, my man is out there somewhere and you, my dear Elise, are going to help me find him!”
“W..w...what??” She hadn’t been following the conversation for the last few seconds, having been sidetracked by the play of light from the window across Vaughn’s beautiful face. Celeste looked across at Elise as if she was seriously mentally challenged; truth be told, she essentially was at this precise moment in time.
“My man.” she repeated “You are going to help me find the man of my dreams. But first we need to go shopping!”
“Shopping?! Why?”
“I need a killer dress. You and me are hitting the clubs tomorrow night and I need something to wear. What say we go to the precinct tomorrow and have a look round? It is Saturday after all and I reckon you need something to take your mind off today’s events.”
“I don’t know ‘Leste,” Elise looked doubtful “I have to go to check on Dale and see what is happening at the hospital. They may want to keep him in and it wouldn’t feel right going out shopping, if that’s the case.” She didn’t add that Dale wouldn’t let her anyway; that would just cause far too many questions that she was not ready to answer.
“Oh, come on Elise - if they do keep him in, you’ll be all on your own. What better way to cope than with a bit of retail therapy?”
Elise paused for a moment and weighed up her options, wondering if she could get away with keeping it from Dale. Perhaps if they went first thing in the morning, she would be OK. If he had stayed in the hospital then she could just pick him up at lunchtime and he would be none the wiser. If not then maybe the concussion would mean that he would sleep late and she could whizz round in an hour and be back before he even knew she’d even gone.
She turned back to Celeste. “OK, you’re on. But it has to be first thing in the morning and I may only be able to leave Dale for an hour or so”. She felt rather than saw Vaughn stiffen at the second mention of Dale’s name but she refused to turn to him to acknowledge it.
“Jeez, girl, you drive a hard bargain. OK, what say I give you a call in the morning and we can arrange where to meet?”
Elise was gripped by panic at the thought of Dale possibly hearing her phone call, and she had to inwardly fight with herself to remain calm. “Erm.. no... that’s OK. You don’t need to call me. Why don’t we just arrange a time and place and then I’ll meet you there?”
Celeste looked as if she was about to argue but to Elise’s relief, just shrugged. “Alright, I’ll meet you by the monument at 9.30am.”
“Great!” said Elise, pleased that the awkward moment had passed and actually starting to look forward to spending some time with Celeste. She didn’t get to have nearly enough girly time so this would make a really pleasant change.
Celeste took that as her cue to leave. “OK then..., see you tomorrow and don’t forget to have your shopping head on!” She exited through the door chuckling to herself and closed it softly behind her.
Vaughn had turned back to the window, concentrating on whatever it was that he was looking at and Elise wondered if he was regretting their passionate interlude. She knew she should be too but with the memory of his lips still firmly planted in her brain, regret was not high on her list of emotions at the moment.
As the silence became heavier, Elise searched for something to say...anything.