Not Quite Perfect
Page 10

“There is another one upstairs.” Mary no sooner let them into the condominium before she was walking back out the door. “I’m just going to make sure Walt’s parents are settled.”
And then she was gone.
“How is it she has so much energy?” Monica asked once Mary flew out the front door.
“Beats me.”
Monica walked into Mary’s small kitchen and opened the refrigerator. She found a bottle of water and waved it in the air. “You might wanna see if her bathroom works down here before we dominate the one upstairs.”
If there was something Glen was not used to doing, it was exploring a woman’s home without her in it. He glanced around the space and moved to a closed door. One look at the toilet lying on its side told him all he needed to know.
“Bummer,” Monica said over his shoulder.
Glen lifted his overnight case and started toward the stairs. “I won’t be long.”
Monica leaned against the counter and tilted her water bottle back.
The doors upstairs were open. He glanced in to see a perfectly made bed, simple white linen and only a couple of pillows. Nothing overly feminine but not a room a man would claim unless he was married.
He didn’t step inside, instead he found a door to the room he needed in the hall. Here, too, everything was perfectly set. Not the messy feminine space he usually identified with the opposite sex. The bathroom had a Jack and Jill setup with one door leading to the master bedroom and the other to the hall. He took another quick look into Mary’s room before closing both doors.
He wanted to linger . . . open doors and search for something, anything that may give him a few more clues to the most evasive woman he’d ever met.
The most intriguing woman, if he was honest with himself. Maybe it was the fact that she didn’t fall over herself to grab his attention that fascinated him.
If he searched her space, would he find something telling? A box of condoms? A prescription of some sort?
God, he was an asshole.
He shook the desire to invade her privacy away and got to the business at hand.
He worked quickly, mainly to get the hell out of there. Or he’d give in to his internal devilish side and poke around. Because the place was so tidy, he found himself making sure there wasn’t one drop on the counter after he brushed his teeth.
When he turned off the light, he heard voices drifting from the bottom floor.
“He’ll be fine,” Monica said.
“I didn’t realize this sofa bed was so short.”
Glen found the two of them moving furniture around in the living room and staring down at the bed he’d call his for the night.
“Looks good to me.” He caught Mary’s eyes.
“You’ll have to sleep sideways.”
He was about to suggest that Monica take the downstairs accommodations and he’d take the space next to Mary, but didn’t think his comment would be well received. “I’ll be fine,” he said instead.
Monica patted Mary on the back. “You play hostess, I’m going to take a quick shower.”
“Okay.”
“Good night, Glen,” Monica said before leaving them alone.
“I’ll get a blanket and pillow.”
Once again, Mary buzzed out of the room, returning less than a minute later with her hands full. “Sorry about the downstairs bathroom,” she apologized. “I thought he’d have it fixed.”
“It’s not like you expected guests.”
“I almost never have guests,” she told him while spreading a sheet over the tiny mattress.
He leaned down to help her. “We appreciate you offering.”
Together they pulled the blanket onto the bed. Glen tested the sofa bed with his weight. The springs offered a little protest but didn’t feel that bad. “Perfect.”
“Probably not. But it will have to do.”
“I’ll be fine, Mary.”
She turned away, then back again. “Help yourself to the kitchen. I’ll leave the hall door open to the bathroom upstairs.”
“Got it.”
She tilted her head and regarded him. “Good night.”
He smiled, purposely waiting for her to look directly into his eyes. “Good night, Mary.”
Her cheeks flushed and he had to hold back a wicked grin.
Thirty minutes later, when the noise of the two women upstairs stopped and all Glen could hear was the hum of the refrigerator, he stared at the ceiling and wondered what Mary wore to bed.
As soon as he grew comfortable with the ill-placed spring in the pullout bed, he closed his eyes and fell fast asleep.
The sound of a phone ringing had him springing awake.
Chapter Five
Mary jumped out of bed at the first ring. Her hand reached for the handset by her bedside to find the space where the phone usually lay empty.
In a fog, she scrambled for where the thing could be and all but fell out of her bed.
On the second ring, Monica stirred beside her.
The phone sounded distant. Outside her bedroom door, it grew louder.
Her home phone nearly never rang unless there was an emergency, which gave her feet wings as she flew down the stairs toward the ringing phone. In the reaches of her mind, she noticed dawn breaking through the closed curtains of her living room.
On the fourth ring, she saw the phone on the other side of the sofa bed and went for it. She vaguely realized she’d done a tiny hop, skip, sputter over Glen’s legs before landing on the other side with the phone in her hand. “Mary Kildare,” she answered as if she’d been up for hours.