Page 26 of Liar's Heart
By daydreaming about laying you out on the table and making you the main course for dinner tonight.
I don’t care if it’s been an hour or a minute, if I’m not with you, it’s been too long. If I can’t touch you, you’re too far away.
On second thought, maybe it’s a good thing we didn’t start texting each other until now. Before I can decide if and how I want to answer any of that, the office door swings open, startling me so badly that I throw my phone onto the desk like it might bite me. Jules, of course, doesn’t miss this or how red my cheeks have to be based on how hot my face feels right now. She doesn’t look flustered in the least. Though I suppose she’s not the one who got caught reading sexts from her husband. She’s wearing a cream silk blouse, and the color makes her loose, auburn hair look even brighter than usual. I tell her, “You look cute today.”
“Thanks,” she says, her tongue pushed into her cheek as she looks me over. “You look like you don’t want to talk about why Roman Kincaid found me yesterday morning to rearrange your whole fucking schedule at the last minute.”
Should have seen that one coming. “Not particularly, no. I’m sorry for the trouble, but thank you for handling it.”
She sets her things down at her desk, not even trying to hide her smirk. “Don’t worry about it. But if you really wanted to thank me, you’d tell me about it.”
“Jules.”
“In detail.”
“That’s private,” I say, scowling.
Flopping into her chair with an exaggerated flourish, shemakes her final stand. “At least tell me what his dick looks like.”
“JULES!”
“Fine,” she hedges. “Draw a sketch of it.”
The only response I dignify that with is a glare before turning my attention back to my computer screen. Jules snickers to herself before doing the same.
An hour later, I decide I’m too restless to review these contracts anymore. Pushing back from my desk, I stretch my arms and legs. “I’m going to try to break into Ender’s study.”
Jules raises a manicured eyebrow but doesn’t look up from her screen. “Yeah? What’s the plan?”
“Say I’m looking for the blueprints for the house because I want to take them to my contractor while I’m in Reddington. I think he’d keep something like that in there.”
Jules tilts her head to the side, mulling over the idea. “Okay. Are you going now? What do you need me to do?”
“See what you can do about the cameras in his study? And cover for me if anyone comes looking for me. No one should though.”
I grab my phone and pull up the tracker’s app to confirm Ender is still at his office before switching back to our text thread.
Hey, do you have the blueprints for the house here? I wanted to take them to my contractor in Reddington while we’re there.
I don’t have to wait long for his reply.
Ender
I have a digital copy I can send you, and you can forward them along. Why? What’d you have in mind?
Swearing, I look up at Jules and ask, “Quick—what do I need the blueprints for?”
She scoffs. “Fuck if I know. Um… a library!”
“That’s basically what his study is.”
“Ooh!” Jules snaps her fingers as the idea comes to her. “I want my bathroom remodeled. It doesn’t have a bathtub in it. But I want to keep the shower! And there isn’t enough room right now to just plop one in there, so they’d probably have to move a wall and then the pipes and shit.”
I nod along, composing my response.
Jules wants her bathroom remodeled. She’s high maintenance. And my contractor always wants to see the original printed plans to compare to what’s there now. He’d probably like the digital ones, too, though.
Holding my breath, I watch the message move from sent to read, and then those three dots reappear before turning into his response.
