Nickolas-1 (7 page)

~~~

Her first doctor’s appointment was the next morning. Dr. Mercer had been all right with scheduling it for then. She said that she knew what it was like to work full time and try to have a life too.

“How are you sleeping at night? I’ve read your file. I know that you had frequent nightmares while you were inside.” She was a pretty lady, Morgan thought. Her office was done up in summery colors of reds and blues. There wasn’t a couch to lie down on, which she was profoundly glad for. She sat in a regular chair across the desk from her as they got to know each other.

“All right. Nothing much to report.” She’d actually had a nightmare every night since moving into Byron’s apartment, but she wasn’t telling anyone any more than she had to. She’d had a shrink in prison, and had learned the hard way not to say things you didn’t want everyone on the block to know.

“You don’t trust me. That’s okay, you have no reason to. But I am here to help you adjust. Nick said that you were coming here under conditions of your release. That isn’t completely true. You are free. You’ve been completely exonerated of all the charges against you. You won’t be going back.” Morgan just looked at her. She knew that when he’d told her, but she also needed a job.

They sat there for several minutes before Dr. Mercer spoke again. Morgan could, and had, gone for days without speaking to another human; the quiet didn’t bother her.

“Would you tell me about the rape, Morgan? I know that something like that can have a profound effect on someone, and sometimes talking about it can make it seem less intense.”

“No.” She waited for the threats or the soothing tones to get her to talk. She wasn’t going to have share time with a perfect stranger.

“Then can you tell me about working for Dr. Grant? He is a very good-looking man, and I’ve heard his brothers are equally good-looking. Tell me about him.”

“No. If you want a date with him, call me on Monday and I’ll make you an appointment. I want to go. I’ve been here long enough.” She stood now and walked to the door. She fully expected to be stopped, but Dr. Mercer didn’t say anything other than she’d see her next Saturday at the same time.

Nick tried calling her ever thirty minutes all weekend. By Monday morning, he was not a happy man. It was small wonder that when she walked in the office that morning, he lit into her like a mad man.

“Where the fuck have you been? I’ve been trying to contact you all weekend and you didn’t answer your phone.” He was so furious that he didn’t even wait until she put down that ridiculous pink bag. It occurred to him over the weekend that he was jealous and he didn’t understand or like it. Not one bit.

“I don’t have a phone.” She turned her back on him, put her bag down, and went into the little break area. He stood there for all of thirty seconds and stormed after her.

“Yes, you do. Now, I want to know where you were that you were too busy to answer it.” He could hear himself and realized how stupid he was sounding.

He wanted to shake her, and make her pay attention to him.

“I’m really tired, Dr. Grant, and I think I’d remember if I heard a phone ring.

You have three appointments this morning and another two this afternoon there...”

“I don’t give a flying fuck about the appointments. Come with me.” When he reached for her arm, she jerked back so suddenly she fell into her desk and nearly knocked over the computer.

“Don’t touch me. I’ve told you before; I don’t like to be touched. I have work to do. What do you want?” For the first time, he noticed the dark circles under her eyes and the bruise on her jaw.

“What’s wrong with you? What happened to your face? Did someone hit you?” He found himself wanting to protect her and spank her at the same time.

“Yes. Now, what is it you want? I don’t have a phone. I don’t want a phone.

And I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She turned on the computer to begin her day.

“Come with me. I’m going to show you the phones. And you didn’t properly answer my questions. Who hit you?” They were making their way to the private elevators as he spoke. When he pushed the button, he noticed she was gone and the stairwell door was closing. What the hell...?

He started to follow her and just then the doors opened. He stepped inside and decided to wait for her down there. Just as he stepped off the lift, his brother Byron was standing there.

“Hey, I was just coming to see you. Where you going?” He was still moving his things out of the studio and into his own. Nick could see the last of the crates being loaded onto the service elevator.

“That stupid woman says there is no phone in her apartment. I’ve come down to prove it to her. She didn’t pick up all weekend. What if I needed her to go and get something out of the office for some reason? How would she have known to go and get it?” The object of his disdain was just coming through the door as he finished.

“Hello, Mr. Grant. Thank you for the use of your apartment. I don’t believe I’ve had the opportunity to thank you before.” She moved to the door and unlocked it. Then she stood back for both men to enter ahead of her.

Nick pulled out his cell phone and hit redial. He looked at her with a sneer as he waited for the ringing to begin.

“Morgan, would you mind if I had a look around to see what else is here that I can use at the house? I promise not to disturb anything.”
Flirt
, Nick thought.

Always flirting.

“It’s your apartment, Mr. Grant. Look at anything you want. I’m waiting for the phones to start ringing. I don’t know what he’s about. I’ve never heard a phone in here since I started staying here.” She moved to the kitchen and sat down at the table to wait.

Nick could hear the phone ringing in his ear, but nothing in the little apartment. He went to the bedrooms and then all through the living room, having to call a second, then a third time when it cut him off saying there was no answer and to call again.

“I know I had phone service installed the day before you moved in here.

Where are the phones?” He looked at her; he was tapping his foot as he waited.

“I don’t have any phones because I don’t have any service. If you had them install service, they didn’t leave any phones here. Thus, I don’t have phone service. How am I suppose to know there is a ringing phone if there isn’t a phone to hear, you moronic jackass? If you plan to half-ass a job, then you should expect half-assed results. I have work to do. Lock up when you leave, or don’t. I could care less.” She nearly bowled over Byron as he entered the kitchen and with a mumbled apology, she slammed out of the apartment.

“You handled that with grace and aplomb. Congratulations, big brother, you’ve officially become a class A ass.” He watched as Byron left the apartment too.

They were right; he was becoming unhinged. He flopped down in the kitchen chair she had just left and rubbed his chest. He couldn’t for the life of him figure out what was wrong with him. He pulled out his cell and called Damon.

“I think I need to see you. I can’t...my chest is burning and I can’t eat again.” Ten minutes later, he was walking into his brother’s office to get checked out.

Morgan was on the phone when he came back upstairs two hours later. She didn’t even glance at him when he laid the bag from the local phone store on the desk and a small container with an African violet in it. Nick didn’t think that she’d like roses. He didn’t know why. Besides, he thought the planter would look pretty on her desk. He stood there waiting for her, then finally moved to one of the chairs as she finished up the call.

“I’m sorry. There are four phones in there. You can put them wherever you’d like.” She raised an eyebrow at him and he amended his statement. “Anywhere in your apartment you’d like. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the service being hooked up.”

“Wow! That must have hurt. The great Dr. Nickolas Grant says he’s sorry.

The world will surely come to a halt.” She didn’t care what he thought at this point.

“There’s no need to be snarky. I just assumed that you’d figure out if there weren’t any phones in the place, you might need to get some. How the hell was I supposed to know you were that dense?”

“Well, that certainly didn’t last long, did it? I have the phones Dr. Grant; I’ll plug them in as soon as I get downstairs. Is there anything else I can fuck up for you today? No? Then I’ll get back to work.” She picked up the phone on the third ring and dismissed him with a turn of the chair.

“Good morning, Grant Corporations, Morgan Becky speaking. May I help you?”

“Hello, Morgan. It’s Margaret Parker. I was wondering if you’d meet me for dinner tonight? I can meet you anywhere you’d like.” Just friggin’ great. If this day could get any worse, she didn’t have a clue how. She looked up at Nick and sighed.
Yeah,
she thought,
I guess it could.

“Ms. Parker, I…” She saw him tense up when she mentioned his mother’s name. He was waiting for her to say something mean. Little did he know, she didn’t have any meanness left in her today. He’d taken care of that all on his own.

“Please, Morgan. I’ve got some things to say to you, some things I should have said before. Please?”

“All right, Ms. Parker, I’ll meet you. I should get out of here around six, barring any unforeseen problems.”
Like I have to murder your son
.

“Good, I’ll meet you out front of the Grant building at six-thirty. Thank you, dear, I’ll see you then.”

She hung up the phone and dared the man across from her to say a word.

Any would set her off, and she knew it. Apparently, so did he, because he got up and went to his office without uttering a single one. Damned man.

Morgan was standing outside the building when the large limo pulled up.

When the driver came around to the sidewalk side and opened the door, Morgan looked around for the rider. When Ms. Parker called to her from the depths of it, she walked forward.

“Come in, dear. I so hate to drive and this was free for the day.” The driver handed her inside and she sat across from her boss’s mother.

“Ms. Parker. I don’t know what you could say to me here that you couldn’t say over the phone. You didn’t need to have dinner with me.” She was uncomfortable, first, because she was in a limo, and secondly, because of who she was with.

Morgan kept expecting Nick to come out to the desk and to tell her to be nice, or some other such advice, all afternoon. But he’d stayed in his office and didn’t even come out when she’d left for the day. She didn’t really care what he did in there; she was just glad he’d chosen to leave her alone.

“I wanted to tell you how sorry I am. I was out of place the other week and I’ve felt bad about it since. Nicky told me what he’d said to you afterwards and I’ve told him what I think of him interfering, as well. I want us to be friends, Morgan. I really do.”

She didn’t want any friends. Friends wanted things she no longer could give people. Trust and understanding were just a few of the things.

“I don’t... I’m not sure how to be a friend, Ms. Parker. I like just being alone and on my own. I’m not...you’re out of my league, and I...I just want to be left alone.”

“Out of my league? What nonsense. I’m just a normal person, just as you are.

Why would you think I’m out of your league?”

“Well, for one thing, money. Secondly, and I think this is the big one; you’ve never spent time in prison. That in of itself is usually what separates the humans from sub humans.”

“Morgan, do you think of yourself as a sub human? Oh, child, what happened to you wasn’t your fault. You were a victim. You weren’t to...”

“Ms. Parker. I’m here because you asked me to be. I killed that man as surely as you’re sitting here. Does it make it okay because of what he did? Am I justified in taking his life? No. At least, I don’t think so. Yes, he deserved to be punished, but death, that wasn’t my call to make. I wish some days, most days really, that I was still back in prison. I understood it there. There were rules, sects, and people left me alone. In the five years, six months, two weeks, and four days in was in there, I had one visitor, you. In the two months I’ve been out...I wish I could go back.”

Morgan turned to the window and watched the buildings go by. She wasn’t hoping for sympathy, nor was she asking for forgiveness. She truly wanted to be left alone.

“I’m very sorry you feel that way, child. I really am. I wish I could make it better for you, tolerable anyway.”

She heard the sadness in her voice and turned back to the older woman. “It wasn’t my intention to make you sad, Ms. Parker. Let’s have a nice dinner, all right? I’ve never been out before. Where are we going?” After a few minutes of tense silence, Ms. Parker looked at her. “Chinese. I love it. Have you ever eaten it? I’m not sure anything they would have served you in the big house would be considered food, much less an ethnic group.”

“Big house?” Morgan laughed, hard and long. “Okay, the big house only served three types of meals—firm, mushy, and deep fried. Oh, and then there was dessert. Mostly it was fruit, but sometimes, we’d have green pie, black pie, or my favorite, yellow sponge. Some days I’d take mine back to the cell and use it for bathing.”

“Morgan Becky! Did you just make a joke?” The two women laughed uproariously the rest of the way to the restaurant and through most of their dinner.

“Tomorrow is Thanksgiving; are you brining anyone to Mom and Dan’s?

Mom invited Morgan, but she isn’t coming. Mom is fairly disappointed about it.” Byron had come into town to have dinner with Nick and to start trying to get ideas for Christmas presents.

“No, I don’t normally think of Thanksgiving as a ‘bring a date’ kind of holiday. Why, did you have someone in mind?”

Nick hadn’t been on a date in months. Not even to get laid. Damon had him on this low fat, low cholesterol, no taste diet and it was killing his energy level.

Plus, he...fighting with Morgan was wearing him out too.

“Nah, just wondering. I was dating this woman from
Charlie’s
, but that didn’t pan out. She wasn’t into the same relationship needs I was, so we called it quits.” Nick stared at his brother. He didn’t think he’d ever heard the term