Page 17 of Do Me
She shook her head.
“Mrs. Stephens, what would you like to see happen in your marriage?”
“I want my husband to change.” She scooted back in the chair and stood. “I have to go. I don’t want him to leave me.”
Londyn followed suit. “You still have twenty minutes left in your session.”
Mrs. Stephens divided her gaze between the chair and the door. The latter won out when the woman rushed out with a hushed, “I’m sorry.”
I want my husband to change.Mrs. Stephens’ plea for her husband to change wasn’t going to happen unless the man first acknowledged he had a problem. She closed her eyes. She knew that truth better than anyone. Straightening, she typed a short note of the session and prepared for the next one.
Thankfully, the remainder of her sessions had been uneventful. Londyn stretched to relieve the kinks in her neck and back. As soon as she finished one last chart, her workweek would be over. A knock sounded on her partially closed door. “Come in.” She smiled when Shawn walked in. “I thought you were leaving early today.”
Shawn propped a hip against the edge of her desk and folded his arms. “I was, until I heard all the commotion coming from your office earlier. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“Just someone not wanting to be here. You know the drill.”
“Unfortunately, I do.” He glanced down at his loafers, then back up at her. “What are you doing this evening?”
“Grocery shopping, then relaxing.” The conversation with Braxton, followed by the Stephens had opened up old wounds and she needed some down time.
Edging closer, his voice dropped to a lower register. “How about dinner? Just the two of us.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Again, she had no intention of letting him believe there could be anything between them except friendship.
“Your answer wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with Braxton Harper, would it?”
“No, and why would you think that? I’ve told you more than once that we would only be friends.”
“And if we didn’t work together?”
Londyn scanned Shawn’s handsome face and found herself comparing him to Braxton. While her colleague was outspoken and a little arrogant and didn’t elicit anything other than a fondness reserved for a friend, the man she planned to share an afternoon with could make her pulse skip with merely a smile. Braxton exuded a quiet strength that drew her in ways she couldn’t explain. Realizing Shawn was still waiting for an answer, she said, “My answer would be the same.”
“I saw you two holding hands this afternoon coming from the deli.”
She cut him a look. “What? Were you spying on me or something?”
Shawn let out a long breath. “No, Londyn. I just happened to be leaving the office. I have to say I’m a little disappointed because I think that we’d make a perfect couple. He works pretty fast. I’ve been asking you out for months and he waltzes in here once and you go out with him just like that.” He snapped his fingers.
Londyn laughed. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I met Braxton before hewaltzedin here.” She held a hand up when he opened his mouth to speak. “This conversation is over. Get out of my business, Shawn. I don’t ask you about the women you date, and I expect the same courtesy.”
He grinned sheepishly. “Point taken. Be careful, Londyn. I don’t want to see you hurt.”
She didn’t either, which is why she planned to take things slow with Braxton. Their earlier conversation came back to her.Neither do I. At least not yet.Without saying so directly, he let her know that he felt the chemistry between them as strongly as she did. His words teased her and tempted her to not onlytouch, but to also taste, feel…
“Londyn.”
Shawn’s voice snatched her out of her lustful thoughts and heat filled her face. “Sorry. Just thinking about how much more I need to do here before leaving,” she lied.
He straightened. “I won’t hold you. Have a good weekend.”
“You, too.”
Hands in his pockets, he left with a wistful smile, closing the door softly behind him.
Londyn finished charting, locked the files in her desk and headed out. She shopped in record time and made it home by seven. After consuming the grilled chicken Caesar salad she’d picked up at the grocery store, she cued up her favorite playlist and started the prep work for tomorrow’s desserts. She planned to make the dough needed for a peach cobbler tonight, refrigerate it overnight and assemble everything once she got to Braxton’s place. She had a couple of other surprises, too.
She danced and hummed under her breath as Jilly from Philly—the nickname bestowed upon powerhouse singer Jill Scott—belted out “Shame.” Londyn mixed the ingredients in between shaking her hips. She and Jill were jamming so tough it took Londyn a moment to hear the ringing on her iPad indicating a FaceTime call. She paused the music and smiled when she saw her mother’s name.
