A Ring for Rosie. Maggie Wells

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СКАЧАТЬ blinked rapidly, refusing to let them fall. She’d shed too many tears over James Harper. “I hate when people skirt justice on a technicality.”

      Georgie laughed, then saluted her with the pink-frosted wanker. “Amen.”

      Rosie sucked in oxygen and tamped down on her churning emotions. She’d cried the day she first met him. Not because of anything he did or didn’t do, but, more disturbingly, for no reason at all. She wasn’t a crier. Never had been. Even when she was a girl. She got her backbone from her mother, a woman whose picture should have appeared next to the word ‘stoic’ in the dictionary.

      But she’d cried after meeting James. Not a silent trickle of a single tear, or a delicately ladylike breakdown, but a big, fat, ugly cry. Thankfully, Colm and Mike had taken James out to lunch to celebrate the partnership and the company’s rebranding as Trident Security. She’d been invited, of course, but begged off. She’d time needed to regroup.

      “He’s a fool.” Georgie brushed cookie crumbs from the corner of her mouth.

      “Yes, well, he always has been.” She lifted her chin up to punctuate the statement. She didn’t need to add that she’d been one, too. For him. Since the moment she first laid eyes on him.

      At the time, she’d thought the jitters the tall redheaded man stirred in her was a sign she’d found The One. Now, she wondered if all the fluttering hadn’t been her body’s attempt to batten down the hatches. The moment they left, she’d locked herself into the tiny tiled room and let the tempest inside of her out. The crying scared her. She wasn’t the kind of woman given to great big heaving sobs. She was absolutely certain the stuttering breaths were a precursor to hyperventilation, and lived in fear of fainting. What if they found her there, in the ugly bathroom with the fixtures she’d hosed down with bleach, and grout that hadn’t been white since the Nixon administration? She hated her outfit. Mike’s ex-wife had looked so chic in her beige twin-set, Rosie had bought one almost exactly like it. Except, on her, the subdued color screamed: “trying too hard.” She wasn’t the tall, willowy, law school type. No, she was strictly night school, T.J. Maxx, and practically invisible to the opposite sex.

      “I cannot keep doing this.” Rosie shook her head and took another greedy bite.

      Georgie leaned back against the case and studied her closely. “Keep doing what? Eating cookies? I beg to differ. I have dozens more in the back,” she added with a nonchalant wave of her hand. “Eat all you need.”

      Suddenly, Rosie was acutely aware she’d stormed into this kind woman’s business and disrupted her entire day. “Oh my.” She closed her eyes with a grimace. “I’m so sorry. I will pay for them, of course. I had to get out of the office, and I didn’t know where to go, and I wanted to…”

      “Bite off a certain man’s most prized possession and pulverize his manhood with your powerful molars?” Georgie supplied helpfully. Rosie must have look startled when she met her gaze, because Georgie laughed. “Please. Do you know how many of these I chow down every time I have to wait for Mike to come to his senses on stupid stuff?”

      “I imagine quite a few. He’s stubborn.” Rosie gave a sympathetic wince. “You must be a patient person.”

      “I’ve gained six pounds.”

      Eying the baker’s curvy but slender figure, she snorted softly. “I doubt you have.”

      “I have,” Georgie tossed off a sassy shrug. “I force Mike to kiss every inch of them.”

      “As he should.”

      “Exactly.” Georgie pushed away from the case. “But if you mean you can’t keep sitting there waiting for James to look up one day and realize you’re the one, I’m afraid you’re right. You need to move on.”

      Embarrassed, Rosie shoved the rest of the cookie into her mouth and busied herself with the cap on her water bottle. “Do they all know?”

      Georgie gave her a sympathetic pat and nodded. “Yeah. And before you ask, yes, James knows, too. Which makes him even more of an idiot in my opinion.”

      Rosie waited for the hot flush of humiliation to come. When it did, she didn’t bother to try to hide her cheeks. What was the point? Everyone knew. Even James. And he still didn’t care.

      “I have to stop this.” She spoke more to herself than to Georgie.

      “Do you think you can?”

      The unadulterated curiosity in Georgie’s question reminded Rosie they hardly knew one another. She’d barged in there, fueled by anger and angst, and practically flung herself at the poor woman. “I’m sorry.” The words gushed out of her as she took an involuntary step back. “I shouldn’t be here. But he kisses me then she shows up and I—”

      She stopped herself by slapping a hand over her mouth.

      Unwilling to be put off, Georgie closed the gap in two long strides and grabbed her wrist. “Nope. No way. You don’t get to storm in here, bite the heads off perfectly innocent peens, then cock-block me on getting the goods. I’ve been in on the vibe between you and James since the first time I saw the two of you sharing airspace. Now, spill,” she ordered.

      “There’s no vibe between me and James.”

      “Bullshit. What did he do? Ask you to take some dictation, then forget to press your buttons? He looks the type.”

      “What type?”

      “All takee and no givee,” Georgie said dismissively. “I bet he thinks the pearl candy I put in the pussy puffs isn’t even edible.”

      Rosie shook her head emphatically. “Oh, no. I mean…I wouldn’t know. I mean, no.” She clamped her mouth shut long enough to inhale through her nose, then let the air out slow. Like they always say on those online meditation sessions. “What I’m trying to say is, there’s no vibe. James and I have never… There’s never been any vibe. At least no vibe on his side,” she concluded lamely.

      “But he kissed you.”

      “Not a real kiss. A peck,” Rosie hastened to explain. “I read too much into things. He doesn’t see me that way.”

      Georgie’s cool hand squeezed her wrist. “Then he’s an idiot and needs to get his eyes checked.”

      “He wears glasses most of the time,” Rosie turned her wince into a weak smile, conceding that she was giving herself away. “Contacts sometimes, but mostly glasses.”

      Georgie squeezed again. “Nearsighted or far?”

      Rosie didn’t have to think. She’d memorized every little detail about him. “Near.”

      The other woman sighed. “Fine. He’s a blind bat without enough of a brain to see a good thing right in front of him.”

      “He graduated cum laude.” The heat in her cheeks ratcheted up a notch, and she shrank into her stupid beige cardigan. “I’m the idiot.”

      “No, you’re only a bit misguided.” Georgie lifted her hand and tipped Rosie’s chin up until their eyes met. “You know, in situations like these, there are really only two options.”

      Rosie СКАЧАТЬ