Page 59 of It's Only Love

“No, I, uh…” Christy stammered, her eyes wide before spotting the leather chairs in the waiting room. Hilda’s face remained perfectly friendly, her smile not flickering at all at Christy’s odd behavior. She’s probably used to it, no wonder Justine loves her.

“I just need to sit.” Christy said, backing away into the waiting room until she bumped into one of the chairs and sank down into it, not breaking eye contact with Hilda. She forced herself to smile at the nice lady, a normal smile, not a serial killer smile, before turning away and rummaging in her bag for her notebook. She crossed her legs, looking out the window and saw Dean on the forecourt of the garage down the street, talking to a gorgeous man and gesturing to the sports car in front of them. Her heart did a weird little flip in her chest and a wave of longing hit her. Get a hold of yourself, you saw him this morning.

She realized he had been telling the truth this morning when he said he was needed at the garage, part of her had assumed he was lying to get away from the awkward morning after chat. She really needed to start trusting people more. Dean hadn’t given her a reason not to trust him so far, and he deserved the benefit of the doubt. She watched as he threw back his head and laughed. She found herself smiling and with great difficulty, she turned back to her notebook.

Two hours later.

“Sweet baby Jesus!” she cried. This was ridiculous, how was it possible that after trying, literally, all day she couldn’t write anything when she was so inspired in the morning? She dropped her head into her hands and sighed, the knot in her chest tightening. She rubbed her palm against the area, trying to ease it. She looked up and caught Hilda’s eye.

“Sorry for the outburst,” she mumbled. Hilda stood up and came out from behind her desk and sat next to Christy.

“Anything I can help with?” she asked kindly.

“I have writer’s block. I had a breakthrough this morning, but now that I’m trying to sit and write I can't do it and I don’t understand why!” she whined, and Hilda laughed gently. “I thought coming here and being around someone familiar and in a more suitable environment would help but it hasn’t.”

Hilda tsked. “Well, where were you this morning when you had your breakthrough?”

“I was at Dea -uh- a friend’s house.”

“Was it the first time you had been to Dean’s?” Christy’s eyes flicked to Hilda, is she a mind reader?

“You’ve been staring at the garage every ten minutes, dear, it’s not hard to figure out.” Hilda laughed. Christy instantly felt stupid, clearly paranoia had joined hysteria to have a little party in her brain.

“Sounds to me like you need to go back there if that’s what triggered your inspiration,” Hilda continued, but before Christy could respond, Justine came out from her office saying goodbye to a client.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, when she spotted Christy, flopping into a chair opposite her. Christy looked at Hilda who smiled and squeezed her hand before moving back to her desk.

“Just thought I would stop by and see if you had dinner plans?”

“I do now,” Justine replied, “shall I meet you at the bar?”

Christy thought for a moment, she wanted to avoid the bar if possible, not wanting to see Taylor or Dean right now.

“How about we go to yours instead, you can either poison me with your cooking or we can grab takeout, just the two of us?”

“How dare you, I’ve a mind to cook for you now!” Justine joked.

“Perfect,” Christy smiled. Justine went back into her office to grab her stuff and came back out.

“Let’s go. Hilda are you heading off now too?” she asked, Hilda was switching off her computer and grabbing her purse.

“I sure am, I’ll lock up, have fun you two.”

“Great, see you in the morning.” Justine replied. Hilda nodded and Justine left first with Christy trailing behind her. As she was leaving, Christy turned back and mouthed a “thank you” to Hilda who waved her off.

Justine didn’t poison her, or if she did it was taking a while to kick in. They chatted while they ate, mainly about Justine’s hunt for Mr. Right, which was not going well, she was getting very frustrated.

“Are we still going to pretend your beard burn and love bites are sun related?” Justine said as she cleared their dishes away. Busted.

Christy felt a smile spread across her face, “I guess not.”

“Dean?” Justine asked. Christy nodded and Justine squealed.

“I noticed you couldn’t take your eyes off each other at the bar the other night. Does that mean you’re going to stay now? Taylor will be so gassed if you’re staying!”

As fast as it appeared, Christy’s smile faded. “No, it was just a one-time thing, nothing more.”

“Chula,” Justine began, fixing her with a hard stare. “You’re more suited than any couple I’ve seen. That man doesn’t do casual, and he hasn’t for a very, very long time.”

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