The Promise of Lace Read Online Free Page A

come on, let’s at least go grab some lunch.” Noah set
his hand over my shoulder.
    I sighed and shrugged it off. “I’m just going to go home and
do some work. I’ve got a few mock ups to finish up. Some phone calls I should
make.”
    “Come on, we can sti—” Hailey started.
    “Guys—I have to work today. Come back to me with the next
stage of the plan. I've already blown my whole morning.”
    Hailey let it go. Noah looked like he was going to argue,
but I saw him jump. Hailey had kicked him.
    “Alright. I’ll let you know when I’ve got a stage
two in the works.”
    “Sounds good. Later.”
    I was mad at myself for being disappointed. I had a crush.
So what? I had things to do and it was just stupid to be going full high school
nuts over some muscular hunk. Then I wondered if maybe Hailey was only doing
this to live vicariously through me. She’d been dating the same guy for nearly ten
years. She was engaged. She had just been complaining about being slightly
bored, if utterly content.
    Then I felt bad again for doubting my friend’s intentions. I
dropped down into my car and heaved out a deep breath. This wasn’t getting me
anywhere. Less thinking, more working. That was the ticket.
    When I got home I took all the things out of my old bag,
threw away the random receipts, dumped out all the change and pens, and
carefully tucked all my things into my new bag. I chucked the nightie and the
makeup into my wardrobe, pulled out my computer and got to work.

 
    Chapter Four
     
    It was Friday, two weeks after Hailey and I had taken our
silly trip to the mall and one week after the two of us and Noah had gone out
for a our humiliating one. Hailey, Noah, and I were out at one of our normal
places: a bar that was all blue lighting and cracked glass fixtures. It leaned
a little pretentious, but the music was kept at a volume that actually allowed
you to talk to the people you had come with. And, unlike our with adventure earlier,
all the patrons were dressed like they knew they were out in public and seemed
to have showered recently.
    I was glad that we were all out together. The mortifying
incident at the lingerie store not withstanding, I was having a damn fine week.
I had landed a major project putting together flyers for a music venue
downtown, and I’d had a fun creative couple of days drinking tea in my pajamas
and drawing up concepts and a few mock-ups. I was telling my friends all about
it when Hailey seized my hand like I was falling off a cliff.
    “Ten o’clock!” she hissed.
    “What?”
    “The direction,” Noah clarified. “And she’s wrong; it’s
actually seven o'clock from where you’re sitting.”
    I glanced back over my shoulder.
    “Don’t look!” Carla whispered.
    But it was too late. I had looked over, and he had seen me.
Dieter was standing at the bar, his tee shirt as tight as ever, but a deep
hunter green instead of black. He was wearing regular jeans, just as tight as
the ones I had seen him in before.
    He smiled. The same broad, warm smile that he usually wore.
    He started to come over. My first reaction was panic, but I
reminded myself that I was a grown woman. I smiled back at him and he sped up.
    “Hi, you were in the store last week,” he said, waving
awkwardly at everyone else at the table with a quick “Hi. I’m Dieter.”
    “Yeah. That was me. Roxanne,” I extended my
hand, he gripped it a little too tight and pumped it twice in an oddly robotic
way. There was a slight chill against my palm when he pulled away and I realized
that his palms were a little sweaty.
    “Roxanne. Lovely name. Could I…
Could I pull you away from you friends for a moment? Would that be okay?”
    He seemed nervous. Was a broad, beautiful, charming man
nervous about talking to me?
    That annoying flutter in my stomach cropped up again. I
cleared my throat. “Yeah. Yeah. Sure.”
    He nodded his head back toward the bar and I scooted out of
our booth to follow him. When I glanced back at my