“Fine,” I mockingly complained but kept a mental note of the sexiest lingerie for when times were better. “Do you think we’ve done enough?”
“For now. We can always get more.”
“Good. I think I’ve seen enough of this stuff. I prefer the real thing.”
“Do you?” she teased.
I picked her up and tossed her over my shoulder to take her into the bedroom. We were just waiting for our orders to arrive, so I wanted to make the most of our time together.
Later in the week, we finally heard some results. I returned home from work one night to see Ariana waiting for me with a big smile on her face.
“Good news?” I asked.
“It’s a start. My mom called me and asked if I had sent any packages to her apartment. I played dumb and told her I hadn’t. She revealed that a few packages had arrived, but Terry grabbed them and took them to his car, saying that they must have belonged to someone else and that he was going to return them to the owner.”
“Damn,” I cursed. “I wish she would have seen what was in them.”
“Me too. But, your dad knew. That’s why he was so quick to get rid of them and never speak about it. I was disappointed at first, but it’s not all bad. Now there’s some suspicion and mistrust brewing. She also said that they got what looked like a magazine, wrapped in black plastic with Terry’s name on it, but she had no idea what it was.”
“Really?”
“Yep,” she smiled. “She didn’t open it before he came home and swept it away. I went ahead and told her that sometimes pornographic magazines are delivered that way. I merely suggested that your dad was old school and liked his porn in print.”
“Was she horrified?”
“Oh yeah. She completely denied that he would order something like that, but now the idea is in her head. I think we’re well on our way.”
“That’s good news,” I said. “Hopefully this ends soon. There’s a new Italian restaurant downtown that I want to take you to. Maybe that can be our grand celebration.”
Finally, a whole week later, shit hit the fan at Mr. and Mrs. Malone’s apartment. Ariana called me at work to tell me that her mom was growing more and more suspicious by the day. She finally opened a wrapped-up magazine when my dad was at the horse track. She was horrified to see Busty Blondes, truthfully, the tamest of the lot. For her sake, she’s lucky she didn’t watch any of the videos. I felt bad that she had to see something upsetting, but it was nice to see my dad go down.
She confronted Terry about it and he flew off the handle. He denied it all to her face. Later, she heard him screaming at poor customer service employees about stolen credit card information. Apparently, Barb hadn’t seen him angry yet and it frightened her. I had seen him at his worst and I knew exactly what it was like. He could turn on the charm when he wanted, but when he turned it off, it was scary.
The final straw was when her paranoia got the best of her and she searched his computer. The dumbass didn’t have a password on his computer, so his secret stash of personal pornography was too easy to find.
I’m not exactly sure what she found and I hope I never find out. But, whatever it was, it was nasty enough for her to lash out at him. Last Ariana heard, Barb hadn’t kicked him out, but he was sleeping on the couch. We weren’t home free, but at least they were no longer in their honeymoon stage. It was the result we were looking for.
“Maybe now she’ll remember what I told her in the restaurant,” Ariana said. “Now that she knows her husband isn’t squeaky clean, my words might hold a little more weight.”
“You should call her tomorrow and give her a little loving push in the right direction,” I suggested. “How about you mention the fact that I’m nothing like my father while you’re at it.”
“I’ll see what I can do. So, Dr. Malone, what’s next for us?” she flirted.
“I don’t want to celebrate prematurely, but I’ve been itching to take you out. I want everyone to know that you’re mine.”
“They aren’t divorced yet,” she said, wrapping her arms around me. “If anyone knew what was going on, it would be pretty embarrassing.”
“How about this,” I said. “I take you out to a nice meal. We’ll talk and have a great time. We can order drinks and dessert if you want to. You can put on that pretty dress that you got in San Francisco. We can pretend like we’re on a first date. We’ll keep it clean—no PDA of any kind. Then, when we’re all hot for each other, we can come back here and get it on like we were never related.”
She thought about it for a second. “Are you sure no one will say anything? You’re starting to become better known around town. I’d hate for us to slip up and get caught.”
“We won’t get caught. Besides, who gives a crap? Technically, we’re not related and you’re not my patient. I love you and I don’t need to explain my actions to anyone. No one is going to keep me away from you.”
“You’re right,” she said, giving me a kiss. “Hopefully, sometime soon we won’t have to worry about PDA in public. I want nothing more than to walk down the street, holding your hand.”
“Then it’s settled—let’s go on the first of many celebratory dates. Go get ready,” I said, turning her toward the bedroom and giving her a playful slap on the butt.
I followed her, excited to finally be able to go out with her. Being secretive was exciting, and at times, pretty sexy, but I wanted to be with this girl for the long haul. If I wanted to be in a committed relationship, I wanted to be able to act like it.
Chapter Eighteen
Ariana
I woke up late the next morning with Daniel’s arm draped across me. My phone started buzzing so I tried to lean over to answer it, but I was stuck underneath a snoring man.
“Move,” I said, “someone’s calling me.”
“Leave it,” he groaned. “I never get to sleep in.”
I relaxed, in an attempt to go back to sleep, but my phone started ringing again.
“I gotta get this, babe,” I said, sliding out from under him and taking my phone into the other room.
“Mom?” I answered. “What’s up?”
I could hear her sniffling on the other end. Something was wrong.
“Are you in danger?” I asked, my heart racing. “Did Terry hurt you?”
“Not physically, no,” she cried. “I think it’s really over.”
My heart soared. I wanted to scream and dance around, but it wasn’t the time. I didn’t want her to know how extremely excited I was by this news.
“Are you at home? I’ll come over now. We can talk.”
“Do you want me to come get you?” she sniffled.
“No, no, I’ll get a bus. Maybe I’ll stop on the way so I can get you your favorite donuts.”
“Thanks, Ariana. I know I haven’t been easy to deal with lately.”
“No, Mom, don’t worry about it. I’ll see you soon.”
I hung up the phone and skipped back to the bedroom.
“Guess what?”
“Huh?” Daniel moaned.
“That was my mom. It’s over. I’m going to take the bus to her house to comfort her. I’ll fill you in on the dirty details later.”
“That’s great,” he mumbled. “Are you sure you don’t want to take a car? I can drive you.”
“No, go back to sleep. I’ll call you when I leave her place. Go ahead and buy your bottle of champagne. We can celebrate at home tonight. I’m still full from last night’s dinner.”
“Love you,” he croaked.