Dr Lena O’Donnelclass="underline" Yes.
You’re trying to drive me crazy, right?
Dr Lena O’Donnelclass="underline" Is it working?
He took a deep breath and leaned back on the couch closing his eyes and then typed. I think it is.
Dr Lena O’Donnelclass="underline" Good J
So Lena, other than driving me crazy, is there a reason you’re blowing up my phone?
He was sure she would get angry at him but he was once again proven wrong.
Dr Lena O’Donnelclass="underline" Well I figured you wouldn’t let me blow anything else so this is what I’m going with.
Letting out a laugh he reached up and wiped a tear from his eye. He was sitting on his couch in the middle of the afternoon and he was the happiest he’d been in a long time.
I’m going to be at Exquisite tonight. Come? He waited, wondering what she’d do. Did she mean everything she’d said to him last night? He wanted her to show him. He wanted to believe in her again, in them.
Dr Lena O’Donnelclass="underline" I’ll come to Exquisite but there’ll be no other sort of coming.
Feeling his smile grow he wrote back, Tease :P
Dr Lena O’Donnelclass="underline" Not always J
So 8?
Dr Lena O’Donnelclass="underline" Don’t know. I’ll see you when I get there.
Frowning at that reply he ended the text with a, K and then turned off his phone.
Lena sat in her car at 10pm in the Exquisite parking lot. She’d thought long and hard about what she was about to do and honestly she didn’t think she’d be able to pull it off, but at this stage she was willing to try anything, she just hoped he was there. Getting out she made her way around to the entrance in the back of the building and knocked twice. Wendy opened it and looked down at her standing on the bottom step under the floodlight.
“Is he here?”
Nodding Wendy grinned and pulled her inside. “Yep he came in at 6.30pm just like he use to. I don’t know what you did but he’s different tonight. More like himself.”
Shaking her head Lena moved past and said softly, “I didn’t do anything except annoy him last night and tell him to straighten up.”
“Well whatever you did, it’s working.” She pulled her into the hall and pushed her down to the office where her and Mason had had their first date. “You go on in and I’ll send him back in around ten minutes?”
Nodding Lena smiled tentatively, starting to feel nervous. “Yeah that should be good.”
Stepping inside and closing the door behind her she looked around the small office. Not much had changed, the desk and chair were still the same and there was still paperwork everywhere. She moved around to the chair behind the desk and cleared off the surface. Taking a deep breath she started pulling things one by one out of the bag she had brought with her and started to set up.
Mason felt good. It was the first night he’d come back and worked the restaurant like he use to. He’d arrived at 6.30pm and everyone had been shocked when he walked in dressed for work in the charcoal slacks and black button up shirt with the Exquisite logo. For the last two hours or so he’d been up at the pass verifying, and looking over the orders. He felt like he’d come home. Rachel had hugged him when he’d come in and she cried a little when he apologized to her, then she’d nodded and told him to get to work. So that’s what he’d been doing. He was about to check over the last order to be sent out for the night when Wendy came up beside him.
“Hey Mase?”
Turning he looked at her and winced a little. “Hey Wendy.” he paused and shrugged, “I’m sorry I’ve been such a shit.”
Smiling at him she nodded. “Apology accepted. You really have been a shit, but I guess that’s what family does right? We forgive one another?”
He reached out and hugged her. “Yep we do.” Nodding and hugging him back she smiled up at him as he asked. “What’s up?”
“I left some paperwork down in your office in a manila folder, could you go and grab it for me?”
He stepped back and went to turn, then stopped himself and said softly, “I’m expecting Lena tonight. Can you grab me when she gets here?”
Wendy smiled and nodded. He walked away hoping Lena was going to show and suddenly worried for a moment that she wouldn’t. Moving down the hall he made the turn to the left and stopped at his door unlocking it. Then he pushed it open and walked through. Turning he flicked on the light and what he saw as he turned back to face his desk made his heart kick up and beat so fast he thought it would pump right out of his chest. Lena had come after all.
Chapter Thirty
Lena watched as Mason’s eyes tried to take it all in. She’d removed everything from his work desk and placed an old picnic blanket over it. On one corner of the desk was a red rose and on the opposite corner lay a sunflower and she was she was sitting right in the center of them with her legs hanging over the edge clutching some tulips. She was dressed in the same pants she had worn on their first date. They were black with a pinstripe and on top she wore a cream blouse that buttoned up to just under her neck and tucked into her pants. Purposely, she had pulled all her hair back and tied it into a prim bun at the nape of her neck and beside her sat a small picnic basket. Her eyes were glued to him as he looked over everything without moving a muscle. Finally he faced her and their eyes locked.
“Lena. I thought we’d be meeting out in the dining room.” he paused, “How’d you get back here?”
Taking all of her courage in her hands, knowing this was probably one of the most important moments of her life, she tipped her chin up and answered.
“Wendy let me in. I wanted to talk to you.” she stopped and licked her lips, “I hope you don’t mind.”
Shaking his head she noticed he was about to move so she held a hand up and said softly. “Please stay where you are. I need to tell you some things and I don’t think I can do it if you come any closer.”
He swallowed then nodded silently, keeping his eyes on her. Then he asked, “What is all of this?”
Smiling at him slowly she jumped down off the table and place the tulips where she’d been sitting. She could feel his eyes on her as she turned and reached for the red rose. Taking hold of it she brought it to her nose and took a deep breath inhaling the beautiful scent, then she walked over stopping a few inches from him and as she looked up into his eyes she felt her heart ache with how much she loved him. It was time to set that free, to lay all her cards on the table and let him do what he would with them. He’d either pick them up and hold them close or he’d throw them away. She was hoping he’d hold her close.
“Our lives have been filled with flowers, you and me, from the very beginning. A year or so ago I met a man.” she watched as he started to say something but she held the rose up and placed the petals against his mouth and watched as they lay against his lips. “Shh. Let me get this out, or I never will.”
He took a deep breath and nodded letting her know he was ready for her to go on. Pulling the flower back she lifted her eyes to his again and continued.
“He was sent over to deliver me some roses.” she grinned up at him and held the rose between them twirling it back and forward. “He was the most irritating man I’d ever met and he drove me crazy that day.”