Undisclosed Desires(2)

“Are we having fun yet?” Antonio asked, and then stepped inside, closing the door behind him. He took in Grace, the paralegal and the pile of paper littering the table in front of them. “Pretty strange party favors you have there.”

“Don’t make me laugh.” Grace plastered a mock frown on her face. “I don’t have time. We have billable hours to rack up.” She pointed at the paralegal.

Antonio nodded. “Hi, Deb.”

“Antonio,” Deb said, her voice at least an octave huskier than normal. Grace glared at her, and the paralegal hid a smile behind her hand.

“Are you working on the Nelson case?” he asked.

“You know it.” She sighed. “It’s always the Nelson case these days.”

“You didn’t answer my email about tonight,” he said to Grace. “Are you coming?”

“I don’t know.” She examined the piles on her desk. “It’s a workday tomorrow and I should stay late.”

“Come on,” he said with a cajoling smile. “I need cheering up. I broke up with Susie yesterday.”

“Yeah, you look terribly upset about it.”

“I am. I am.” He laughed. “I just hide my feelings well.” He picked up a paperweight from the corner of her desk and tossed it up in the air with one hand before catching it with the other. Then he added a second. Then a third.

“Will you stop juggling my paperweights?” Grace asked, trying to sound stern. “You’re gonna break them.” But he was so good at everything. She doubted he would drop one.

“Only if you’ll come out and play tonight,” he said, continuing to juggle.

“Ummm.” She hesitated. There didn’t seem to be a way out without an embarrassing explanation. “Oh. All right.”

After catching each of the small orbs, he set the weights down carefully on the desk. “Why did the chicken hire a private investigator?” Antonio asked with a sly smile. “Because she suspected the rooster was clucking around on her.” Then he winked.

Grace smirked. “Save your ammunition for tonight,” she teased. “You’ll need it.”

Antonio ducked out of the office, and his laughter could be heard from down the hall.

“Are you feeling like a cannibal today?” Deb asked, tapping her pen against the legal pad in front of her.

“Huh?”

“You were eating that man alive with your eyes.”

“What?” she asked, coming out of her Antonio-induced trance. “Oh, I get it. You’re a real comedian.”

“I don’t blame you. That man is fine. I just think you should tell him how you feel. This buddy act thing the two of you have going is unnatural. You should be fucking his brains out.”

Tried that and it didn’t work out, Grace thought. “You’re crazy. We’re just friends.”

“Hmm…Friends.” Deb sucked the end of her pen. “If you weren’t such a chicken, you would tell him you lust for him.”

“First a cannibal and now a chicken. Make up your mind.”

“It’s true. You’re afraid.”

Afraid to lose the friendship she and Antonio did have by trying for the impossible.

“I don’t exactly look like his typical girlfriend.” Grace glanced down at herself. She would never have made such an admission except that Deb was a friend as well as a colleague. “He dates tall, blonde and slender.” I’m medium, Grace thought. Medium brown hair, medium height, medium brown eyes…medium everything. Antonio’s girls were always spectacular.

“Nonsense,” Deb scoffed. “You have a fantastically curvy figure I’d give my right Manolo Blahnik for.”

“I happen to know you got those shoes for a steal off eBay so that doesn’t mean much,” Grace said with a crooked smile. “Anyway, let’s get back to work. The Nelson case awaits.”



* * * * *



“Why did the chicken cross the road to climb Mount Everest?” Grace asked as she slid onto the barstool next to Antonio later that night. She had to be loud to be heard over the basketball game and the buzz of the crowd. Typical Thursday night at Finnegan’s.

“Uh-oh. I know I’m going to regret asking.” He rolled his eyes. “Why?”

“Because it was there.”

“Ughhhhh. That is so bad,” Antonio groaned. “That’s definitely not a winner.” He smiled and a crinkle appeared at the edges of his eyes.

She adored that crinkle. He ran a hand through his black hair, and the gesture was almost enough to make her salivate. She wanted to run her fingers through more than just his hair. “Well, if you have the winner, let’s hear it.”