36 Inches (Size Matters 3)

I walk into the bookstore with my head up in the clouds. I was hoping that Eric would call me back today. I left a message on his phone this morning before I headed out to work. Since our night together, I haven’t heard from him. I’ve moved all my contacts to my new iPhone, and I feel as if I’ve been living in the dark ages as I look at my old phone. I even sent him a text message when he didn’t return my call.

“Hey, Becca. Sorry, did I make you wait?”

I’m sure that I’m at work early. I used the app that I downloaded yesterday using the store’s Wi-Fi to figure out how long it would take me to get from my apartment to work. It calculated that it would take me thirty minutes, but it took twenty-five. Damn! What a difference it makes with a bit of music to walk to work. It’s quite nice, I might do it every day. So, I’m a little early, not much but not enough for her to be looking at me that way.

“Nah, you’re cool. Ryan wants to see you.”

She blows her gum into a bubble and after it pops she points to the office at the back. “Right now. He said the moment you come in.”

I nod and walk past her.

“I’ll hold the fort for now.”

I laugh to myself as she says that, thinking that this week I haven’t had more than two customers at any given day. So there’s not much to hold.

I knock on the door before letting myself in.

“Come in!”

I’m surprised because for the first time ever Ryan’s desk is almost neat. Most of the books and papers are set aside, so there are only two short stacks of books. He’s leaning back in his chair with a cunning smile, and he’s rubbing his rounded belly. I stand by the door because the room’s not that big. At times, I feel claustrophobic when I’m in here, but maybe

it's because Ryan’s not behind his desk, he’s on the other side with me. It has been a while since he came in and I have been uncomfortable every time I thought about his request. And I really don’t think it is just because of the fact that I slept with the possible new owner of the store that Ryan had wanted me to investigate.

“Shut the door,” Ryan says. There’s a smarmy quality to his smile.

I nod and walk inside, closing the door behind me. “What did you need me for?”

I get straight to the point because I want to spend as short-a-time in here as possible. Ryan gives me the creeps, I don’t even know why I’m going out on a limb for him as far as Eric’s concerned, there are other jobs out there.

“So, I hear you’ve talked to Mr. Vanderville?”

“Don’t you remember, right after you gave me the task? I came back and told you everything we talked about.”

Well, I didn’t tell him quite everything, but whatever I felt was important for him to know.

“That’s funny,” he murmurs. “I heard he came to see you after we were closed…”

Holy crap, how did he know that?

“Yes, but then I thought that you wanted to figure out what was going on with the company.…”

I’m struggling to think of something to say. Maybe I’m confused, I’m sure that I called and told him that Eric seems interested because of the plan that he has to buy several independent bookstores, and I tried to recite exactly what Eric said to me that day. There are two issues.

Number one, I’m not the best liar in the world and number two, I didn’t understand a word that Eric said to me that day when he started talking, like, actual business numbers. I sit down, so that I’ll make him less suspicious about what’s going on with Eric and I. What am I thinking? There’s nothing going on with us, especially seeing as he hasn’t called since that night.

“But he did take you out!”

He lifts his eyebrow suspiciously, and I know that there’s no way out of it. But...even if what I did is a little shaky, I feel weird about the way Ryan is bringing it up and there’s an icky taste in my mouth about this whole conversation.

“It was…” My voice trails off, and I’m trying to think of something to say to him. Something that will make him dismiss me and I can get out of here.

He slowly stands up and moves toward me.

“Did you or didn’t you go out with him?”

I can't stop my face from burning a bright red, as my mind immediately jumps to what happened after the date.

His jaw tenses as his eyes run over my face, then suddenly, he’s grinning at me.