Page 29 of Whispers in the Dark

“She’ll take the astakos, and I’ll have the lemon chicken.”

“Hey,” she said as soon as the man left. “Why is yours in English?”

I laughed at her question, and realized that it was a genuine one, and not the polite kind I gave others during meetings or other interactions. “There’s an entire other page with most of those dishes in English. You picked well, though. It should be a delicious dish.”

She let out a relieved sigh which made me smile. Despite my easy-going nature at the moment, there was something beneath the surface clawing to get out. Some would refer to theirs as a beast, but mine was something much worse. My demons were unlike anyone else’s that I’d met over the years. They also needed to stay hidden, especially when with Brynn.

She began to make small talk, most of it being one sided as she expressed her happiness that the trial was over and Randallwould be out of her life soon. I knew she had no interactions with him, but he did consume some of her thoughts.

A misplaced sense of jealousy struck me as I wanted her to think of no one and nothing beside me. It was then that I realized I basically did that with her. For no one else would I have ever hired them to work at Benedict Technologies, especially as closely with me as she did. I would’ve also never taken her out on a date, despite the reasoning, yet here I was. While I should’ve been running for the hills, I was actually laughing and talking with her instead.

Our food came and we were much quieter as we ate. Brynn really enjoyed her pasta, but I think she ended up liking my lemon chicken more since she had eaten almost half of it. I finished off the remainder of her dish, then declined dessert when offered the menu and settled the check.

“Dinner was delicious,” she told me as we walked out of the restaurant.

Once at the car, I spun her around and pinned her between me and it. My mouth came down on hers, and she melded herself to me. Brynn was a natural submissive even though I had doubts about in the beginning. She’d proven me wrong. I wanted to deepen the kiss, but I pulled away.

“Come home with me,” I more told her than asked.

“Yes,” she murmured against my mouth before giving me a quick peck. “I am actually a bit cold right now, so let’s go.”

“I know many ways to warm you up,” I told her as I stepped back so she could get into the car.

I followed, and we were soon on our way. About halfway to my place, I noticed a tree lot with what looked like a solitary tree out there. What caught my attention more than it’s pitiful shape was the man huddled next to it with a blanket wrapped around him.

As with everything else this evening, I reacted without thinking. Abruptly pulling over to the curb, I stopped in front of the lot. The old man perked up slightly, and I held my finger up in warning to Brynn. “You stay put,” I told her before getting out of the car.

I walked over to the man, then glanced at the tree. It was not nearly as obnoxious as most people had. In fact, it reminded me a lot of the damned thing on my desk, only it was about four feet taller and had a few more branches.

“How much for this?” I asked him.

The man seemed to be in disbelief at first, and not waiting for him to answer, I pulled out my wallet, then handed him a few bills. “Will this do?” He shook his head vehemently, then smiled revealing two broken teeth in the front. I then looked back over at my sportscar. “How do you suppose I get this home?”

“Rope,” the man said as he still revealed his toothy smile. “I’ll help you.”

A few minutes later, it was tied down on top of my car. As Brynn excitedly talked about decorating it, all I could think about were the scratches the damn thing was likely leaving on the paint. I let her go on because she was so damned happy. I realized it made me feel good to make her smile.

“Where do we go for decorations?” I asked her, and cringed as she almost squealed with glee.

20.Brynn

This couldn’t be happening. This simply could not be real. I had to be hallucinating because that was the only explanation for me walking the aisles in a big box department store shopping for fucking Christmas ornaments with Adrian Benedict.

“I don’t even know where to start.”

I glanced over at the man who had insisted for weeks--months even—that he didn’t celebrate holidays. Yet here he was with a full-size version of the Charlie Brown tree on top of his car, pushing a shopping cart, and doing something nice for me. My smile got wider when his gaze indicated confusion and just the tiniest amount of fear. His eyes narrowed at my expression.

“Don’t make me change my mind, Brynn,” he said. I wasn’t the least bit threatened, and he knew it. I made a ‘come here’ motion with my finger, then led him down the aisle with a seemingly endless selection of lights.

“Incandescent or LED?” I asked, holding up a box of each. If he was going to look to me for help, this tree would have colored lights—that blinked.

Adrian shrugged and waved his hand toward the cart, signaling that it didn’t matter. I wanted to be a bit more traditional, so I put a few boxes of incandescents in the cart.

We rounded the aisle and this one was full of everything one would need to decorate a tree. Garland, ribbon, bows, balls, ornaments, even tree skirts took up the next several aisles and they were all organized by color.

“Would you have a color preference?” I ventured.

“I suppose black is out of the question,” he said.

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