Chapter 13
Rose
This morning i talked to everyone about not telling were i am. They all agreed to it and that it was a good decision. I can't believe I spent all night talking to him on the phone. I feel like I could have talked to him longer if I wasn't so tired. It's weird for me. I don't know how long it has been since I felt so comfortable with someone. My guard doesn't go up with him at all. After my ex 9 years ago. I get nervous and uncomfortable around people. I have to know you very well not to. It took me years to trust Tiffany like I do. Katie has been in my life long before I ever met him. Getting to work was easy. It only took 5 minutes. As I walk in I see a couple of my coworkers walking with the food for the animals. Josh and Steven always carry the feeds to the containers.
"Hey, how are yall this morning?" I say as I walk up.
"We are doing good. The feed store just dropped the food off so we are moving it. It should be ready for yall in about 20." Josh nods to the big stacks of different kinds of animal food. We get weekly deliveries from the feed store every Wednesday.
"Thank yall for always doing that. If yall ever need some help let me know." Josh gives a good laugh.
"No thank you the last time you tried to help. You tripped over air, fell face first on top of it busting the bag all over the place. cant forget braking your nose to." i give me a scowl. That only happened once, granted they have never let me help again. I was to my desk not even looking back at them. This is what I get for being nice, meanies. Sense I can't feed the animals just yet. I'm going to fill out some paperwork. I have a fox on Saturday. We have to let go. Its finally well enough to release. My job is to take care of the animals. Until they're ready to be released back in the woods. The hardest ones are the babies that we have to raise. They have the most trouble with reintroduction. All they know is life with us. The ones that are older and grow up in the woods as soon as we let them go they run off we have trackers on them and they do well. I finish all the work i need to do. Its time now to go feed everyone. Right before I make it to the feed shed someone drives up. I stop and wait to see if they need anything. I realize who it is. Its Missy i call out to her when she gets out of the car. She waves at me and starts walking over. She runs the only delivery service in town so everyone knows her. Someone must have ordered something.
"Hey girly. Just who I was looking for, I have something from you." She walks up holding what looks like a lunch box. I never order anything though. My heart states to race what if it's from the stalker." hey you ok if you don't want it its ok. I can throw it out. It's from a white haired and eyed man" as soon as i hear that my heart starts beating for a totally different reason.
"Blake sent this?"
"O you look different now as soon as i told you who it was from you went from pale to red."
"I don't know what you're talking about, Blake is just a friend but how did he know where I worked I don't remember telling him."
"O he doesn't and i didn't tell him. He called trying to send you lunch but didn't know where you worked. I told him I knew who you were and where you worked and I could send it but i wasn't telling him where you work, and that if you told me you didn't want anything from him. I would black list him." she said it with a little to must enthusiasm.
"No no I do want it especially if its food"
"O he's that good of a cook. He was pretty confident about you wanting it since you seemed to love his cooking."
"I only eat it twice and it's ok." I mumbled under my breath " maybe a little better than ok" I know she heard me because she busted out laughing. When she finally got it under control she looked me bead in the eyes and got very serious.
"He seems like a good man don't let your fear of the past make you miss what was meant for you." When she was done talking she just left, getting back in her car and driving off. I'm so shocked I didn't even have time to come up with something to say. I just stared at where she drove off. I don't know how long I was standing there for. Until I heard someone clearing their throat I looked back and saw Steven there looking at me. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. Well that was weird.
"I will just go put this up and be right back to feed the animals." he just nods at me and turns back around. I run back to my desk and I go to put it in the fridge we have in the room but something tells me not to so i go to the bossed room right a note saying its mine and put it in her fridge. I hurry back out. The day after that went smoothly. When lunch came around i went get my food and came to my desk to eat but something felt off again just like with my house. I looked at everything but nothing was gone. I shrugged it off, maybe someone walked by and knocked something off. Then putting it back but not exactly right but my brain is reading something that has been moved and with everything going on I'm just being paranoid. Pulling out the lunch, it's a stacked ham and cheese sandwich with lettuce, tomatoes, bacon, pickles, mayonnaise, mustard and ketchup. There are two bags of home made chips. with coffee in the thermos just the way I like it. I go heat up the coffee wall eating on the chips. They are way better than store bought ones. I inhaled the food. I still have 20 minutes on my break so I sent Blake a text.
[Rose] "hey are you busy right now?"
He texted right back.
[Blake] "no just went on break why is everything ok?"
[Rose] " yes everything is ok i just wanted to thank you for the food, but if you keep this up your going to spoil me and i wont want to eat fast food anymore"
I instantly regretted sending the message as soon as I sent it. That sounded way too much like I was flirting. I quickly set the phone face down when it dings with his response. I'm too scared to look at it to see what he said. My curiosity gets the better of me. I lift it just a little then slam it back down. I can't believe he sent that.
[Blake]"Don't worry I can cook all your meals every day"
What do I say to that? Why did he write that? Was he just joking or was he serious? I can feel my face getting hot. I type then erase like 50 times trying to come up with something to say but nothing seems right. Then I sent something even stupider.
[Rose] "don't tempt me]
I can't believe I sent him that. I set my phone to do not disturb before he could respond and run to the bathroom to wash my face. How can I say that I have to see him tonight? I just made everything so awkward. Maybe I should cancel tonight. Say I'm too tired, but he has done so much for me that would be rude. Well I'm going to be too busy cooking. We won't have much time to talk so it should be ok. I can make sugar cookies and while they are cooking I can make the icing. When they are cooling I can do the dishes I used. That way i wont have to interact too much with him. Yes, that's the plan. I walk out rolling up my sleeves. There's nothing to be embarrassed about. I finish all my work and head to the store to grab everything I need. I head to the trail leading to mine and his houses. My gut tells me not to go down it so I take the main road to his house. I ride in the grass between the road and the trees. We're not supposed to but no one gets in trouble for it. I pull up to his house and he's outside pacing with his phone to his ear. He looks up at me and relief floods his face at the sight of me. He drops his phone and runs to me.