Mad Love: Madison (2 page)

“Ah, enough shop talk.” Becca promptly set the
cupcake down in front of Madison and sat back with a grin. “Don’t forget to
make a wish.”

Madison gave her friend a look before closing her
eyes, blowing on the candle, and making a wish.

“What did you wish for?” Becca asked with a
twinkle in her eyes.

Madison took the candle out and peeled the
wrapper off the cupcake. “If I told you then it wouldn’t come true.”

“That’s alright,” Becca said with a smug grin. “I
think I already know who you wished for.”

Derek’s green eyes widened. “Who?”

“No one,” said Madison, giving her friend a look
as she took a bite of the cupcake. Only Becca knew how obsessed Madison was
with Ethan and she took great delight in needling Madison about her secret crush
for the handsome detective. Licking the frosting off her lips, she said, “I
wished for everyone to have a safe and merry Christmas.”

“Yeah, right,” Becca said pushing her present
closer to Madison, “and on that note, open my gift.”

Madison set the cupcake to the side and tore open
a corner of the reindeer wrapping with her fingernail. “Thank you but really
you shouldn’t have.”

Becca propped her head in her hand as she eagerly
watched Madison unwrap her gift. “Nonsense. We all felt sorry for you.”

“Sorry for me.” Madison chuckled as she pulled the
wrapping off, revealing a purple box. “Is this another joke about me turning thirty?”

“No,” Becca said. “We all felt bad that your birthday
was so close to a major holiday. You must really have gotten cheated on the
presents growing up.”

 “Well, it was a struggle, but after years of therapy,
I managed to make something of my life.” She turned the box over, which according
to the picture on the box contained a pretty gold frame. “Oh nice,” she said as
she opened the end of the box and pulled out the frame. “I needed a new frame
for my parent’s picture.” She turned it around and stared down at the eight by
ten picture of a man in a Navy uniform. Ethan Parker’s gorgeous dark blue eyes
stared back at her. She felt a blush steal across her face as she quickly
turned it over and shoved it back in the box. She gave her friend an amused
look. “I’ll cherish it always.”

Ever the prankster, Becca laughed in delight.

Derek looked at them in confusion. “What? What happened?
What’s wrong with it?”

Becca waved her hand at him. “Nothing, I just
gave Madison what she wanted for her birthday.”

“You are so cruel,” Madison said with a chuckle.

“You should thank me. It wasn’t easy to get that
picture.”

Horrified that her friend might have asked Ethan
himself for the picture, Madison said, “You didn’t.”

Becca quickly caught on. “Of course not. Bill,”
she said referring to her husband, “was in the Navy too. He contacted an old
buddy who is still in the service and had him get it.”

Madison breathed a sigh of relief.

Becca lowered her voice as she leaned closer. “Don’t
tell anyone where you got this from. I don’t want to get Bill’s friend in
trouble just in case this wasn’t okay.”

“Why wouldn’t it be?”

“I don’t know,” Becca said rolling her eyes, “it’s
the military. They probably have rules about this sort of thing. I just know
Bill said he owed his buddy big so I figure the picture wasn’t easy to get. Then
again, Bill might have only said that so I’d let him go to New Orleans with a
few of his old naval buddies in a couple of weeks.” Widening her eyes
innocently, she raised her voice back to a normal level and asked, “So, how did
that client meeting you had yesterday go?”

“It was just fine, thank you,” Madison said.

“What happened yesterday?” Derek asked running his
hand over his short cropped brown hair.

“Nothing. I met a client near Triangle Park for
lunch.” Madison shrugged nonchalantly. “Everything went smoothly.”

“I heard that Ethan was there,” Becca said.

“Now, how did you know that?” Madison asked in
amazement. She planned to tell Becca all about it earlier, but she had been too
busy with client meetings and a deposition to chat with her.

“I have my ways,” Becca said mysteriously. “You
were awfully late coming back to work.”

“He wasn’t at my meeting, but I ran into him
afterwards by the ice rink.” Madison’s lips turned up in remembrance. “We spent
an hour watching some guy trying to skate. He didn’t seem to be enjoying it but
his girlfriend kept pulling him out onto the ice. I bet his knees were black
and blue by the time he left the rink.”

A look of distaste crossed Becca’s face. “Well,
there goes my theory as to why you were late. I almost wish I hadn’t asked.”

Derek tilted his head to the side. “Why were you
watching some guy skate?”

“Ethan’s after a jewel thief,” she said with a
dismissive wave of her hand. “He was just keeping an eye on one of his prime
suspects.”

“And you decided to lend him a helping hand. How
very considerate of you,” Becca said teasingly.

Madison rolled her eyes as she held out her hand.
“Give me another present.”

Derek leaned over the brown box. Knocking the
three white envelopes off the top, he reached inside and picked up a small red
box, which he proudly presented to her. “This is from me.”

“Oh, Derek, thank you,” Madison said with genuine
warmth. She knew he was struggling financially and was touched that he had
thought of her. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“I wanted to. You’ve been so great to me, Madison.
I think if you hadn’t been here my first week, I would’ve quit.” He turned to Becca.
“You too, Becca. I can’t begin to tell you how much you help me. I owe you both
so much.”

“You would have been just fine,” Becca said. “You’re
a very hard worker.”

“You definitely saved me the other day,” Madison
said. “I’d probably still be working on that brief if you hadn’t helped me with
the research.”

Derek ducked his head, embarrassed by the praise.
He gestured to the gift. “I hope you like it,” he said a bit awkwardly.

“I’m sure I will.” Madison opened the box to find
a twenty-five dollar gift card to a movie theater enclosed inside.

With his face still red, he said, “You’ve been
talking about how much you want to see that new romance movie that just came
out for weeks now, so I thought I’d help you with that.”

Madison and Becca exchanged looks. Derek was
right. She had been talking about seeing that particular movie for weeks now, usually
when Ethan was nearby. She kept hoping he would take the hint and would ask her
out.

Oh well,
she thought as she placed the card in the box,
for
a private detective Ethan could be a bit oblivious at times
. “Thank you,
Derek. It’s just what I wanted. I need it after that deposition I had today.”

“Oh, speaking of which,” Derek said, “you had a
visitor today while you were out.”

“Who was it?” she asked setting aside the gift
card box.

“He wouldn’t leave his name but he definitely
wanted to see you.”

Madison’s eyebrows went up. “Did he say why he
wouldn’t give you his name?”

“No.” Derek scowled as he ran a hand through his
brown hair. His nose wrinkled slightly as a look of distaste crossed his face.
“There was something weird about him. He was acting kind of strange.”

“What did he want?” Becca asked.

“He wouldn’t tell me that either.” Derek’s frown
grew deeper. “To tell you the truth, I kind of got this funny feeling about
him.”

“Why?” Madison asked. “What did he do?”

“He kept looking around like he was trying to
case the place.”

“Case the place?” Becca asked with an amused
grin. “You’ve been hanging around Ethan too much.”

Derek shook his head. “No, it wasn’t my
imagination. I had to stop him from going around my desk toward your office.
It was only after I told him that I was going to call security that he left.”

Madison and Becca exchanged uneasy glances. “What
did this guy look like?” Madison asked.

“I guess he’s in his forties and about five feet
ten or eleven. He’s balding…oh, and he has a cleft chin.”

Recognizing the description, Madison asked, “Did
he have black horn rimmed glasses?”

“Yeah,” Derek said with a nod, “and a chipped
front tooth too.”

Madison pursed her lips together. “Paul Harris. One
of my client’s soon to be ex-husband.”

“Wonderful,” Becca said with a grimace. “He’s
probably just realized she’s not coming back and has decided to take out his
frustration on you.”

“Lucky me.” Madison held out her hand. “Give me
another present.”

Becca stood up and with a grunt, picked up a
large package, professionally wrapped with shiny green wrapping paper and a
large red bow.

Madison raised her eyebrows at the size of the
gift. “Nice, and who is this from?” She plucked the birthday card out from
underneath the ribbon. “Oh, it’s from Keith,” she said answering her own
question. “What in the world did he give me?” She turned to look over her
shoulder. “Is he still here?”

Becca craned her neck. “I think so. I saw him
hitting on one of the waitress a few minutes ago.”

“How was he doing?” Madison asked.

“Horribly,” Becca said. “If you ask me, he’s
still smarting from his fiancée leaving him.”

Madison set the box to the side. “I didn’t know
he was engaged.”

“Neither did we,” Derek said.

“He told us about it over lunch the other day,” Becca
said. “She left him for another guy. She’s convinced he’s in love with someone
here at work.”

Madison’s brow furrowed. Other than occasionally
visiting with either she or Becca, Keith spent most of his time locked in his
office. “Who would he be in love with here?”

Derek held up his hand. “He swore it wasn’t
true.”

Becca’s eyes lit up as she leaned closer to
Madison. Dropping her voice to a whisper, she said. “I’ve got a great idea.”

“No,” Madison said quickly.

“You haven’t even heard it yet,” Becca complained
with a slight whine.

“I’m not interested in Keith. Don’t get me wrong,
he’s very sweet but—”

Becca made a face. “I wasn’t going to set him up
with you.”

Madison’s mouth snapped shut. “Oh, then who?”

“My friend Elaine.” Becca tapped her fingers
together. “I just have to figure out how to get them together.” She glanced at
the package. “Aren’t you going to open it?”

“I’ll wait until he comes by.” Madison dragged
the brown box closer. Reaching inside, she felt along the bottom until her hand
came into contact with three envelopes.

“What do we have here?” she asked as she ripped
each of the envelopes open in succession, revealing three standard happy
birthday cards and three gift cards, one from each of the partners.

“Well, you’re certainly cashing in,” Becca said.
“Anything good?”

Madison thumbed through the cards. “Coffee,
coffee, and more coffee.”

“What every highly stressed attorney needs.
Caffeine.” Becca leaned forward and reached her hand into the box. “One more.”
She handed Madison another present, this one wrapped in black wrapping paper
and a black silk ribbon edged in scarlet.

“Oh goody,” Madison said taking the box. “I was
wondering when the over the hill jokes would start.” She turned it over. “No
note. I’m surprised this one isn’t from you,” she said to Becca. “Seems like
your sense of humor.”

Becca shook her head. “I would never tell someone
younger than me that they were over the hill because that’s simply not funny.”

“I thought they didn’t start doing over the hill type
of things until you’re forty,” Derek said.

Becca glanced inside the box. “Some people like
celebrating another marking of a decade by reminding everyone how much closer
they are to death. I remember getting an over the hill card on my twentieth
birthday.”

Madison plucked at the black ribbon. “I wonder
who it’s from. Everyone else in the office has been accounted for.”

Becca shook her head. “Not everyone,” she said
lightly.

“It’s not from Ethan,” Madison said. “I doubt he even
knows it’s my birthday.”

Derek tipped the cardboard box over. “Here’s the card.
It was stuck in the corner of the box,” he said holding up a black envelope.

“I sense a theme,” Madison said taking the
envelope and ripping it open. She pulled out a card showing a woman lying in her
sick bed with angels hovering over her and demons hiding underneath, reaching up
to grab hold of her hand and pull her down. She chuckled over the macabre scene
before opening the card and reading the message printed inside.

Your time here is almost up, but don’t worry,
it’s not like you won’t know anyone where you’re going. Happy Birthday,
Madison!