Exquisite (2 page)

Dark glasses smiled sweetly then
nodded. “Ok give me a minute. I’ll see if she’ll come out here.”

Mason kept the fake smile plastered
on his face. “Thank you so much.”

Then thought
, if she won’t come
out here I’m dumping her flowers all over the waiting room floor.
With that
cheery
image he turned and took a seat on one of the chairs. Impatiently
waiting for the annoying Lena to make an appearance.

Lena had just walked into her
office and taken a seat when Brandy came in. She watched her,
oh so perky
receptionist almost skip to her desk then stop and try to stand patiently for
her to acknowledge she was there. Finally, when Lena couldn’t stand the
fidgeting, she looked up at her.

“So? Did you find out who they were
from?”

Brandy frowned, pushed her glasses
back up her nose then shook her head. She crossed one leg then the other and it
almost looked as though she needed to go pee. When she didn’t answer
immediately Lena probed, “Brandy? Flowers’ focus. Did you find out who they
were from?”

“Oh. Nope. He said the card was
sealed and that he wasn’t allowed to open it.”

Rolling her eyes Lena sighed.
What?
The flower guy suddenly had morals and ethics?
She'd basically given him
permission to check who they were from when she’d asked,
didn’t she
?
Inwardly groaning Lena stood and walked around her desk. Brandy watched her
warily and she thought,
am I really such a horrible boss she needs to look
terrified?
Striding past her out into the hall Lena decided, if she was
being honest, that she probably was.

She walked down the east hallway
and turned onto the main drag that led to the front desk of the Pedi wing,
pushing open the door to the waiting room Lena saw a tall dark haired man
folded into one of the tiny waiting room chairs clutching a vase with a dozen
red roses. The first thing she noticed was he did
not
look happy. In
fact, he looked extremely pissed off. The second thing was his very
very
long legs folded up at an awkward angle to balance the vase on his knees.
Lastly, was his tapping foot which seemed to be getting more impatient before
her eyes. Finally, he turned toward Lena and she watched as his face changed
from a look of disgust to a fake blank smile. Standing where she was she
watched him stretch out his tall frame and walk over to her. Lena stood at 5’7,
so in heels she was often taller than most, but even she had nothing on this
guy.
Gees what did his mom do? Stand him in manure every night as a child?
Smirking at that she looked up at him and asked.

“Can you not read?”

Mason stared down at the annoying,
yeah
he was going to think of her as annoying
, woman in front of him and
wondered how much trouble he’d get in off his mother if he lifted the vase and
tipped the contents all over her. Taking a deep breath he decided he didn’t
need to put up with this crap. He'd already been there forty minutes more then
he wanted to be, so standing there being patronized was not on his high list of
priorities.

“Excuse me? What did you say to
me?"

She didn’t step back from his cool
tone. In fact he watched her spine, if it was possible, get stiffer.

“I asked you if you could read?”
she paused then continued with her patronizing ramble. “Because that’s the only
reason I can think of for why you couldn’t Brandy who the flowers are from.”

Mason felt his eyes narrow and the
hair on the back of his neck rise.
Just who did this snotty thing think she
was? The Queen?
The psycho who was standing in front of him was in sky blue
scrubs and had a stethoscope draped around her neck. She had dark brown curls
that were tied up in a high top notch bun on her head with several of them
escaping around her neck and on her pert stuck up nose were a plain pair of
thin wire rimmed glasses that magnified her big bottle green eyes. He swallowed
and told himself to calm down, he was doing this for his mother. One other
question he wanted answered was,
who the hell would ever by this woman
flowers?

“Yes. Surprisingly I was taught how
to read all through elementary school. I even managed to graduate. The reason I
didn’t answer your little peon over there Princess was because A) I didn’t want
to, B) The card is sealed and C)
I didn’t want to
. My job was to bring
these flowers to your ungrateful self. Not stand here and take your
condescending crap.”

Mason watched her as she listened to him and wasn’t
surprised to see no emotion what so ever cross her features.
What was wrong
with this woman?
He thrust the flowers at her along with the clipboard.

“Just sign for them sweetheart so I
can get the hell out of here."

Her eyes narrowed at the false
endearment and she grabbed the clipboard out of his hands. She scrawled her
name across the bottom then snatched the flowers up into the crook of her arm.
Turning without another word she stormed back through the swinging doors.
Thank
God, what an uptight little shrew
. Mason turned to see Brandy peeking at
him from over her desk then he smiled slightly and waved.

“Good luck with that one.”

By the time Lena reached her office
she was furious. Furious with herself for behaving like an obnoxious jerk. It
wasn’t as though she didn’t know she was doing it, she did. Her excuse, well
the one she used, was that she did it too keep people away. The less people in
her life meant the less likely she had to give a shit and that equaled the less
possibility that she’d get hurt. It was a good theory
, if she didn’t have a
soul
. Lena put the vase on the edge of her desk and walked around flopping
down into her chair. Staring at the flowers she willed them to go away, as if
that would actually work
.
Then when there was no other choice, than to
drive herself bat shit crazy, she leaned forward and snatched up the card.
Tearing it open Lena thought of the mule headed, freakishly tall flower
delivery..
what could she call him? Certainly not a boy
. Ok mule headed,
freakishly tall flower delivery man.
What was his problem anyway?
It
wasn’t like he knew her, so what the hell did he care if she was the biggest
bitch in the universe? Another random thought also came on the heels of that
one and it was far less welcome. Why on earth could she not stop thinking about
how blue his eyes had been? Pushing his irritating presence out of her mind she
looked down at the card in her hand knowing exactly who they were from;

“Lena, Go visit her today. She
would want you too.

Mom and Dad”

See? This is what she does to me
,
Lena thought as she stared at the ceiling. This is why she wanted that moron to
tell Brandy. So she could get rid of the flowers in advance and feel no guilt
for not visiting her sister’s grave. Just like she'd done for the last nine
years.

Mason was pissed off as he stepped
off the elevator.
God what a piece of work!
His jaw hurt from clenching
it as he dialed his mother’s number. He mentally told himself not to take his
anger out on his mother,
or his phone
. It rang twice then his mother’s
voice flowed into the ear piece. “Precious Petals, how may I help you?”

Mason smiled automatically. “You
can take me to dinner to thank me for taking on your customer from hell.”

“Who? Lena?”

Mason clenched his fist as he
walked out to his car parked on the street. That name all on its own upped his
headache to migraine status.“Yes Lena. Or as I refer to her, Queen Bitch.”

“Mason Nathan Langley!” his mother
admonished. “Don’t you dare talk about her like that. That poor girl.”

Opening the car door, to his blue
Nissan GT-R, Mason folded his tall frame in. “That poor girl just made me wait
forty minutes then had the nerve to ask me if I could read!”

“Well, well. It isn’t often that
someone dares to take you on, so good for her.”

Mason pulled the phone away from
him and stared at it.
Good for her?
Is that what his mother had just
said to him?
What the hell was the world coming to and how did his mother
know Queen B anyway?
Grumbling to himself Mason pulled the phone back to
his ear.

“Never again.”

“Oh come on now Mase."

“No mom, never. Bye.” With that he
snapped the phone shut, realizing he hadn’t got an answer about her taking him
to dinner.

M
ason finally pulled into his reserved spot behind
his restaurant,
Exquisite
, in downtown Chicago. He sat in his car with
his hands in his lap just taking a moment to himself. He hated starting his day
on a negative note. It always made for one long ass day. Thinking back to only
an hour ago he kept picturing the tall infuriating thing
, yeah he’d upgraded
her from The Queen to a thing now
, only because his mom had made him.
Still, he couldn't make any excuse for her absolutely obnoxious behavior this
morning. More to the point, he couldn't believe his own reaction to her. He was
never rude to anyone. Especially a woman.

Usually he had no trouble in that
department, women fell all over him and he didn't mind one bit. He loved women,
always had. However,
that
woman, had made his blood boil and it seemed
that was the very reason he couldn't get her out of his head. He shut his eyes
took a deep breath then unfolded himself out of the car. Stretching his back he
sounded the lock and strolled through the back door of the restaurant.

"Oh, hello! Look who decided
to show up today. Did you forget how to get here brother?"

Smiling in the direction of the
voice he turned and walked down one of the kitchen aisle's to the huge
stainless steel prep table where his sister Rachel stood. She was dressed in
worn jeans and a black
Exquisite
T-shirt that had the logo, of a white
chef’s hat and a martini glass, on the pocket. Her black hair was pulled up
into a bright purple cap and peeking out from the hole at the back were red
tips that were gathered into a messy bun, and yet with that bizarre mish mash
of colors she somehow looked put together. Her light blue eyes were laughing at
him and instantly Mason's day improved. He reached out and tugged the bill of
the cap.

"No smart ass. I got held up
doing a favor for mother dearest."

She grinned at him then stopped
cutting the carrots as he grabbed a black apron from the rack and tied it
around his hips.

"What'd she sucker you into
today?"

He walked behind her and washed his
hands at the large sink. "Oh nothing worth repeating trust me. Let's put
it this way, it involved a screaming child, an obnoxious
thing
, a little
woman with thick glasses and about 90% of my patience. So I really hope everything
runs well tonight."

Rachel resumed her cutting then
smirked as she looked over to him.

"So now probably isn't the
time to tell you three of your waiters called in and we have a booking that
called last minute for a table of 15 and we’re at full capacity tonight?"

Mason froze, looked up at her, and
when he saw her smile narrowed his eyes and pointed the knife he was holding at
her.

"You lying little brat."

"Hey what did mom teach you
about playing with knives?"

Grinning he started cutting the
Portobello mushrooms, "Not a damn thing, she didn't cook."

"Well what do you think she'd
have said?"

Mason let out a loud laugh,
"Ah Rachel, thank you."

"For?"

Before he could answer he heard
Wendy, his manager, walk in frantic as usual but smiling as she rushed through
the back door and up toward them. Her blond hair was pulled neatly back into a
sleek ponytail.

"Hi." she said looking at
them with her head cocked to one side, which wedged her cell phone between her
chin and shoulder, as she balanced a box in her hands. "Hi. Yes, no I
don't need Cab Sav I need Merlot. I ordered this a week ago. Why am I looking
at carrots and mushrooms and no Merlot, Stan?"

Mason arched a brow then looked at
Rachel and mouthed,
Poor Stan.

Rachel chuckled and Wendy whipped
her eyes up to him then rolled them like ‘Stan’ was completely incompetent and
in that instant he was reminded of the
thing
. Wendy in her own way
reminded him of her, however Wendy usually had some sweetness, she was just
rattled right now. He wondered if Queen B had any sweetness. Then he decided it
wasn't even worth thinking about and went back to cutting and washing the
mushrooms.

Finally, Lena thought, I have a
moment to breathe. She sat down in her black leather chair and looked at the
files stacked on her desk then groaned. So much paperwork. Orders,
prescriptions, insurance documents. So much protocol. Leaning back she shut her
eyes then opened one and looked at the clock on her desk. The second hand
ticked it's way slowly around to the twelve and the time read 4pm. She’d been
on her feet since 7am, and the day,
or should she say days?
Were
starting to wear on her. She knew she needed to slow down. However, Lena also
knew she wouldn't because when she slowed down that gave her time to think, and
let's face it nothing good ever came from that particular pastime. Standing up
she decided now was probably as good a time as any for her to go and get some
lunch, considering she hadn't eaten anything but half a donut since this
morning. She walked around her desk and stopped as Brandy came to the door.

"Dr McKinney called and wants
you to go to his office."

Lena sighed, there goes lunch.
"Did he perhaps tell you a time Brandy?"