Road to Casablanca (32 page)

Cindy suddenly felt so worldly, so international.
 
It was an amazing feeling to know she’d now visited a place so few had and the fact the experience itself was enough to garner the attention of someone in her office was quite remarkable to her.

“I’m not sure. Let me see how the day looks and I’ll let you know, okay?”

What the hell am I saying?
 

Cindy knew she should have just refused him outright, but something about the mere idea of having a date in
Texas
excited her.
 
She had never been noticed by anyone at work before.
 
She had to admit she was flattered.

“Yeah, sure; I’m at extension 345.” Stan smiled at her, picked up his copies and walked back to his desk.
 

“I know.” Cindy walked confidently through the corridors and into her office, closing the door behind her. She had just taken her seat when
Victoria
walked in.

“You look great today! How are you feeling?”

“Better, thanks.”

“That’s good, and I heard you might be going out to lunch today with Stan, huh?”

“How did you hear that? I hadn’t told him either way, and he just asked me few minutes ago.”

“I know. He told me. He knows we’re friends and asked me to come in here and put in a good word for him.
 
Look, I know you just got back and you’re heart is broken, or whatever, but you need to move on now, get back in the saddle and go out.
 
It’s the best way to get through tough times like this. Believe me, I know.”

Cindy wanted to be offended by her friend’s harsh dismissal of her heartache, but the more she thought of it, she realized
Victoria
was right.
 
She needed to get her mind as far away from Erick as possible.
 
It was already Monday, she’d been home for two days now and had not heard a single word from him, and probably never would.
 
Erick was a pipe dream and she knew that going in to the situation.
 
She needed to take the best of what she learned from him and move on.

“Okay.”

“Are you going?”

“Yes, I am.”

 
“Okay then, good for you.
 
I want to be the first to hear all about it when you get back.”

Ignoring
Victoria
, Cindy walked back to her desk and dialed extension 345.

“Stan Field.”

“Stan? Cindy.
 
I, uh, checked my calendar and I am free today if you still want to do lunch.”

“Yes of course.
 
How about 11:30?”

“Sounds great.”

Two hours later, Stan knocked on Cindy’s door.

“Ready to go?”

They walked down to a local neighborhood deli known for over-the-top fresh food, and picked a quiet table in the back.

 
“You look great, Cindy.
 
I know I said it before, but I mean it; you really do look fantastic.”

“Thanks, I guess a little R & R helps sometimes.”

“It must have. You know, I’d been meaning to ask you out for quite a while now and I’m happy you said yes.
 
It’s busy in the office, you know, and I don’t always have time to even eat when I’m working.”

“Yes, I know what you mean.
 
Our department handles a lot of your files.”

The truth was Cindy normally never even opened the door to her office and spent most of her lunch hours alone behind her desk, not because of workload, but because of the shyness she seemed to have suddenly shed.

“So tell me all about your trip.
 
I want to hear every detail.”

Cindy hardly knew where to begin or what to tell him, or not tell him.
 
Certainly every detail would be out of the question, so she settled for what she would soon call the office version of the story.

“It was really spectacular.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet.
 
So what made you decide on
Morocco
?”

Good question
, Cindy thought, wondering how to answer him, realizing honesty was always the best policy.

 
“I was on a blind date there, actually.
 
A film producer needed someone to join him there for a film festival.
 
It was really something…”

Her voice began to trail off and Cindy could feel the lump forming in her throat.
 
She didn’t want to cry and took a sip of water to compose herself.

Thankfully, Stan didn’t seem to notice her emotional discomfort.

“A blind date….interesting.”

An awkward silence followed which Cindy wanted to fill, but she could only smile at him and sip her water again.

“So… did you ride camels there and all of that kind of stuff?” Stan finally asked.

“Yeah, I did, actually.”

“How was it?”

“Nice.”

My God, could I be any more vague?

Stan took a bite of his food and they smiled at each other some more.
 
Cindy wished she was anywhere but here and looked at her watch. It was only noon.

“Got to get back?” Stan asked.

“Uh…no, not yet.”

“Good.
 
So have you traveled a lot?”

“Who, me?”

He laughed, which didn’t help matters any.

“What I meant to say is no.
 
I’d never been out of the country before, actually.
 
What about you?”

“I’ve traveled a bit, but never to anywhere like
Morocco
.
 
I’ve just mainly been around
Europe
.
 
England
,
France
,
Germany
.”

Cindy listened as attentively as she could, but inside her head, she was far away, her heart still trapped by the only man she’d ever really loved in her entire life: Erick.

Each passing moment, knowing he hadn’t even tried to call her, made her feel more and more like a fool. She couldn’t believe how absolutely stupid she’d been to fall for him.
 

Stan was proving a nice temporary distraction for her. If nothing else, he showed her that her trip to
Morocco
had made changes in her that were clearly noticeable to the people around her. That was a good thing, as far as Cindy was concerned.
 
Time was the only thing now that could mend Cindy’s broken heart, and from the looks of it, she was going to have plenty of that on her hands.

“…and then we went to the
Eiffel
Tower
and back to
London
.
 
It was a neat trip,” Stan said, finishing his travelogue at last.

Cindy hated to think she missed the last several minutes of what Stan was saying, but she couldn’t help it.

“Sounds interesting.
 
I’ll have to check those places out sometime myself.”

Please, let this date be over!

Cindy realized that rogue or gentleman, Erick was the only man for her.
 
She wished she could see him again, to ask him why he betrayed her, but as soon as she thought it, she knew she had to let it go.
 

It’s hopeless.

Chapter Thirty

Erick hardly moved a muscle until he heard his phone ringing the next morning and opened his eyes just enough to see it was 8:45 a.m.

“Where are you?”

His father’s shouting on the other end of the line made Erick’s head pound and he wanted nothing more than to hang up on the old man.

“You were supposed to be in here forty-five minutes ago!”

Erick groaned as he rolled to one side and started to push himself up, realizing there was no getting away from him.
 
Sooner or later, he would have to talk to his father.

“I didn’t get here until the middle of the night, Dad.
 
I was stranded for nearly forty-eight hours in the airport.”

“I don’t care; I need you in here right now.
 
I’m sending a driver over and you’d better be ready when he arrives, do you understand?”

Erick hated the way his father treated him, barking orders as if he was some kind of servant. But the more he listened to Forrest, the more Erick realized he was starting to become just like his father in the way he treated his employees.

Cindy had opened his eyes to a new, better way of being. She had been a calming and loving influence on him, just the kind of influence he needed to break free of his behaviors and turn over a new leaf.
 
He was obsessed with finding her and that’s what he intended to spend the bulk of today doing, not worrying about whatever his father wanted from him.
 

It was too late to tell Forrest any of that now, though, since he’d already slammed the phone in Erick’s ear. He shrugged and began suiting up; ten minutes later, he heard the horn of the corporate BMW honking in his driveway.

Erick went into the office, unsure of what the hell could possibly be so urgent and too tired to really give a damn anyway.
 
He walked slowly down the long hallway to his father’s office, taking his time in spite of the urgent demands.

Forrest Redmund sat squarely behind a huge mahogany desk, his typical scowl on his face as he looked down at what looked like a newspaper.
 
Offering no hello or small talk, he immediately broke in to a tirade.

“What is this?
 
And this?”

His father shouted as he held up the
National Enquirer
and turned it around on his desk for Erick to see.
 
It was a familiar déjà vu, and one Erick had hoped he would never have to face again as Forrest clicked on his office television with the remote and there it was in full color –
Entertainment Tonight
.
 

He and
Petra
were kissing for the entire world to see and their locked lips frozen in time on the front cover of the
Enquirer
with the headline:
Will he ever stop?
 
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