The Call: A Psychic Paranormal Romantic Comedy Read online

  ✽✽✽

  Well, now she looks defeated and sad, along with cold and miserable. I really hope she doesn't start crying, Jake thought. I shouldn't have yelled at her. Mom would be appalled. What the fuck am I supposed to do here? Maybe a little humor?

  "You're a pain in the ass so far, but a tiny one. You're like… a miniature, perfect Barbie doll with crazy red hair that someone tossed in a shit puddle. Like, Barbie's tiny ginger sister, from a damsel in distress toy series," he grinned.

  What the fuck? Was he making fun of her? At five foot even, she'd gotten a lot of crap for being short, and even more crap for her ginger hair. But, really?

  “I had a mishap.” She said, chin raised. "You have a hole in your Scooby-Doo t-shirt."

  Oh good! Jake thought. Feisty is so much better than defeated and sad. Thank you, God. She's not crying. Tiny crying, miserable women don't belong in my office.

  "You're so tiny, someone didn't see you and tossed your ass in a nasty sludge shit puddle without even realizing they did it. That was the ‘mishap’, right?"

  Matilda's bright green eyes turned to slits. "You better go back to being nice or I'll tell your mother."

  "Oh, that's low. You've only known me for ten minutes. You can't threaten me with my mother yet." Jake grinned again.

  She flung her arms in front of her, gesturing to the pool table. "Why do you have a pool table in your office?" she asked. In all the little bits of gossip, no one mentioned the pool table.

  “Because I like playing pool,” he said with a smirk. The 'duh' was implied.

  “You need that much practice?”

  "It’s relaxation, not practice. You're shivering. Please go clean up. Please let me help. It’s uncomfortable to even look at you right now.” Jacob almost begged. Almost.

  She snorted out of her little pixie nose. “Look at me. What do you think happens in the lady’s room that will improve my situation and make me look like less of a moron? Go find another damsel to save. And, yeah. ‘Relaxation.’ Because that’s not weirdly OCD at all.”

  She probably can't even reach to line up a shot. But I love the snark. Fiery redheads for the win.

  Jake opened his mouth to say something pithy in reply.

  ✽✽✽

  "Are you two about done doing whatever it is that you're doing?" A tall, silver and brown-haired man said from the doorway. His posture was straight and formal, but he was smiling.

  "Holy fuck, you're late. You missed out on the shit puddle mishap." Jacob said

  "No, I didn't. I've been standing here since the Barbie comment. By the way, she's going to sue and never have to work again."

  "I don't think she even noticed. She’s too busy trying to keep her teeth from rattling.”

  The older gentleman looked at her with laughter in his eyes, and then almost glared at Jacob.

  "This conversation would be much less awkward if you'd introduce me. I'm going to tell your mother that you yelled at a woman in distress and didn't exercise proper manners."

  "Matilda Benton," Jacob said automatically, "this is my father, Henry Trellis. He will not snitch about this because I tried to be polite." He shot Matilda a look that dared her to disagree.

  Matilda took a couple steps forward to shake the offered hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, sir."

  "Likewise, Matilda. My friends call me Hank. Are you well? Did you get injured in your mishap?"

  Oh. Sigh. She glanced between them; both men were staring at her legs. Time to retreat and regroup. "I'm not injured, thanks for your concern. I am going to make use of that bathroom now if that's OK?"

  Both men watched as Matilda exited the office, a noticeable limp slowing her pace.

  Jake looked at his dad, a question on his face. "I have no idea," Hank said.

  ✽✽✽

  There wasn't enough salvageable makeup in her bag to fix things up, so she washed it all away with the bathroom hand soap. Her green eyes looked huge in her face. It wasn’t going to help with the Barbie doll, damsel comments.

  The suit coat was wetter than a dishrag, but her tank underneath was fine. Wet, but fine. It looked OK, not too bad. It showed a little more skin than Matilda was typically comfortable with, but she didn't have a better option. At least her bra straps were covered.

  There was no hand dryer in the bathroom, so she used an excessive amount of paper hand towels to blot some of the water from her hair and used a piece of a broken brush from her bag to somewhat untangle the curls.

  ✽✽✽

  When Matilda returned to the room, her face was scrubbed clean and her crazy hair was reigned into a tight bun. Her suit coat was over her bare arm. She was definitely drier. And at least a bit cleaner.

  A new MacBook Pro was waiting next to her wrecked bag. On top of the computer box, a new iPhone was updating. There was a light gray Trellis Industries fleece and a laptop bag on the chair.

  "This is very kind. Thank you." Matilda nodded to Jacob as she pulled the fleece on. It hung down almost to her knees and smelled like really good men’s cologne.

  Great, Matilda thought. I can put a belt on this and wear it as a dress. Not helping with the miniature Barbie shit. At least it's warm and dry. Holy fuck it smells good. She tried to inconspicuously take a few deep breaths.

  ✽✽✽

  "What actually happened?" Jake asked.

  "A stupid bitch with a wheelie bag whacked me into a giant sludge shit puddle as she came out of a revolving door. My bag went flying into traffic and got ran over by a bus." Matilda flushed with embarrassment as Jacob burst out laughing. "She knew what she did, though. I'm not that small."

  "I rate my guess a 9 out of 10! Bag damage by a bus instead of a cab."

  Matilda winced at the mention of her bag. Maybe she could still salvage this. "Can we do actual work now? I can't present but I have-"

  As if it was planned, both men said "No!' at the same time.

  "It's ten minutes to four. We don't start new work after 4 pm. It's a company-wide rule. The last hour of the workday is for wrapping things up and getting ready for tomorrow. We discourage late working. Sticking to an eight-hour day actually increases productivity." Hank explained.

  Yep, the contract was gone. She lost her timeslot to present her ideas, and now it was done. Both men were looking at their phones. Unofficial dismissal, then. At least her electronics were replaced. That was nice.

  "Um. OK. Well, if you’d consider working with me in the future, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I understand this was not a great start." Matilda said, trying not to look defeated.

  “Huh?” Jacob said. Both men looked up, thoroughly confused.

  “Or, I can reschedule with your assistant now. I’d be happy to come back any other time to talk about the brand launch.” Matilda hoped she didn’t sound too desperate. A little desperate, fine. Too desperate was just pathetic.

  "No," Jacob said, still rather confused.

  “Oh. Um. OK. Thank you for your time and help. Best of luck with the product launch.” She would leave with dignity intact. Mostly.

  “What? No. Stop,” Jacob said.

  “I’m confused, I’m sorry.” Matilda said. “I’m not sure what to do here.”

  "It's 4 PM. Pool!" He said it with such conviction, as if it should make sense.

  "What is it you want me to do?” Matilda asked.

  “Pool! Or not, if you're not up to it. I understand you’ve had a mishap.” The taunt was clear in his voice.

  Hank rolled his eyes. “This is a thing, Matilda. I’m sorry. You don’t have to play with him.”

  “Yes, she does,” Jacob declared. “Not today, if she doesn't want to. She's still wet and miserable looking. But, she’s going to play eventually. She was insinuating that my game sucks!”

  Was he saying we’d reschedule the meeting? “What about the meeting?” Matilda asked.

  “What meeting?” replied Jacob.

  “The meeting I came here to have today. The meeting about the beer
launch.” Matilda’s right eye twitched, just a little bit.

  “Oh, that.” Jacob grinned, thoroughly enjoying the irritated look from Matilda. “We can do that another time. Whatever. I’m not sure why you’re all stuck on that meeting.”

  “I’m stuck on it because I want the damn work.”

  “Great. Sounds good. Pool!” Jacob said.

  Matilda looked at Jacob, then Hank. Was this really happening? Was she going to shoot pool at the most important meeting of her career? Covered in street slime and wearing someone else’s fleece?

  “Is it better if I win or lose?” Matilda asked Hank.

  “Win!” both men exclaimed at the same time.

  “It’s like you two are related, you know?” She smiled then, a real smile.

  She’s adorable, Jacob thought.

  ✽✽✽

  Matilda spent the next hour thoroughly trashing Jacob at 8-ball.

  As she gathered her things to leave, she gave him a cheeky smile and said: “Keep practicing, Shaggy.”

  He grinned at the Scooby reference. “Where’d you learn to shoot pool?”

  “Same place I learned about beer. I grew up in a bar.”

  ✽✽✽

  The next morning, a contract from Trellis Industries arrived in Matilda’s email.

  Matilda, thank you for your time yesterday. We look forward to working with you throughout the product launch. Please review the attached contract and let me know of any amendments. You're expected to expense any losses from yesterday’s mishap. -- Best, Hank

  She quickly tapped the Forward button. After selecting Ellie’s email, she typed “Huzzah! I’ll be at the office in an hour.”

  Chapter 2

  Fifty-three minutes after clicking the send button, Matilda was walking through the door of Hapner and Associates.

  As the door closed behind her, Eleanor yelled from the back office “There’s no stipulated number of hours or hourly rate in that contract! What the hell happened to you yesterday? You didn’t call me back!”

  Matty wandered through the front office and down the hall to her best friend’s office. Eleanor was Matilda’s closest friend and college roommate before getting a paralegal certification and meeting her lawyer-husband, Charlie.

  “Where’s Charlie?” Matilda asked.

  “He’s in a meeting upstairs until the top of the hour, but then free. He’ll review the contract when he’s out. Most of it is boiler-plate, but there were a couple of interesting things there. What happened yesterday?” Ellie asked as she twisted her long chestnut brown hair back into a bun.

  “I had a bad day,” said Matilda.

  “What does that mean? What was the ‘mishap’ comment in the email about?”

  “It started storming as I was walking to the meeting and then I got tossed into a sludge puddle. I showed up to the meeting partially frozen, late, and covered in early spring street funk.”

  “You had this ultra-important meeting with super-rich, powerful people and didn’t grab a Lyft?” Ellie was making the scrunched-up face that meant ‘you’re stupid, sometimes.’

  “I also didn’t wear a coat.”

  Ellie started laughing. “Oh, man. Did you wear the white tank or the black tank with the boss bitch suit? Because the white tank would explain the lack of hours cap.”

  “I don’t think I’m ready to laugh about this yet. I made a fool of myself yesterday.”

  “Pretty sure you did just fine yesterday, babe,” Ellie said. “You woke up this morning to a blank-check type of contract. That’s my girl, boss bitching it up, presenting even when she’s a mess.”

  “I didn’t present anything at all. I showed up, missed my meeting, got into a bitchy conversation with Jacob Trellis, spent ten minutes in the bathroom freaking out, and then shot pool for an hour. I got a new laptop and phone out of it, though. And a boy fleece that smells yummy.”

  Ellie squinted her dark blue eyes as she stared at Matilda.

  “What?” Matilda asked.

  “I’m trying to decide if I want the full story now or if we should wait for Charlie.”

  “Wait for Charlie. I don’t want to tell it twice,” said Matilda.

  “What happened to your laptop?” asked Ellie.

  Matilda sighed and swallowed hard. “When I got knocked into the puddle, my bag went flying into the street and then run over by a bus and a couple of other cars.”

  “Oh, honey. I’m sorry.” Ellie flung herself down next to Matty on the couch and hugged her tightly. “We can find a leather repair place. I bet it can be cleaned and fixed.”

  “I’m choosing not to think about it right now. Yesterday was terrible. I didn’t expect the contract this morning. I’m sorry I didn’t call you back last night. I have this monster iPhone I don’t quite know how to work yet.”

  “I’m so confused, but we’re waiting for Charlie, as requested,” Ellie said in her most impatient, I-hate-this voice.

  “By the time I got home, I just wanted a hot shower, a bottle of wine, and a jar of Nutella. I was wallowing in failure. When I woke up to the contract, I thought it was a joke at first.”

  “I'm back!” Charlie called as he walked through the office. “Hey, there’s our kick-ass Matty! That contract came from Hank Trellis directly. You must have killed it with that product team yesterday.”

  “Get in here and sit,” Ellie directed. “Yesterday did not go according to plan and I’ve been waiting for you to get here because she won’t tell the story twice.”

  Charlie frowned. “Matty, how can you possibly look sad right now? You got the contract!”

  Matilda sighed, looking at Charlie. At five-nine, he was roughly the same height as Ellie. His dark blonde hair was neatly brushed and his tie was done just so. If he had a pocket protector, he'd be the stereotypical image of a nerd.

  Charlie was the calm, logical counterpoint to Ellie's chaotic humor. They fit together perfectly, in a way few couples do.

  Matty recounted the day without interruption from Charlie or Eleanor.

  When she was done, Charlie said, “I’m not sure if I should get champagne or whiskey right now, but some sort of alcohol seems necessary.”

  Ellie started laughing.

  “It’s not funny yet,” Matilda said.

  “Oh, yes, it is," Ellie said between laughs. "Eric’s going to lose his shit.”

  ✽✽✽

  “You did NOT call him ‘Shaggy’.” Eric gasped between laughs.

  “I did,” Matilda admitted. “It was such a surreal, twilight zone kind of encounter. I kinda forgot about the whole scary rich thing.”

  “Did you give him back the fleece?” Eric asked.

  “No. Of course, she did not.” Eleanor declared. “Girls never return boy clothes. You know that.”

  “You should have brought it with you so we could experience what ‘obscenely wealthy’ smells like!” Eric laughed as he opened the door to the Coach store for his two best friends. His face was glowing with delight.

  “I don’t think I can really expense this stuff,” Matilda said with a sigh.

  “I saw the email! You were told to expense losses from your ‘mishap’. The bag isn’t work-ready, babe.” Eleanor picked up a gorgeous burnt orange bag.

  “Why did you keep saying ‘mishap’?” Ellie asked. “I think that’s the best part of this entire thing.”

  “I have no idea. In my head, I kept chanting that my career make or break moment was broken by a stupid mishap. It just kept coming out that way. I’m sure I sounded like an idiot.

  “Charlie said there were no edits to his contract amendments. Congrats on that giant raise we thought they’d negotiate down. Did you sign it yet?” she asked.

  “I did. I feel kinda guilty about that raise. Who doesn’t negotiate? That contractual gift stuff was strange too, but if Charlie said it’s OK, whatever.” Matilda said as she looked at a violet wallet. Her wallet wasn’t ruined. She put it down.

  “You know who doesn’t negotiate?
Rich people who give no fucks. What gift stuff?” Eric asked.

  “She’s contractually obligated to accept any gifts from the corporation, so long as the corp assumes any tax and legal liability. It was a new one for Charlie, too.” Ellie said.

  “I’m intrigued by the tall, dark, filthy rich, Prince Charming type pool addict that you trounced. Shared hobbies make for great sex… Maybe some chemistry there? You could play the part of Damsel Princess in distress,” Eric said, waggling his eyebrows.

  Matilda snorted. “Yeah, right.”

  “Woo, do you think he likes boy bits more than girl bits? Could there be rich boy match-making in my near future?” Eric asked eagerly.

  “No, definitely straight. He was way too interested in my boobs to be gay. Pretty sure thoughts of him will be keeping me warm on cold, lonely nights. But, what would he do with someone like me?" Matilda said. "I can’t bring myself to buy anything here yet.”

  Eleanor shot her a scornful look. “I hate it when you do that. Knock it off. You’re adorable.”

  Matilda rolled her eyes as they left the store.

  “I love Oakbrook Mall,” Eric said to change the subject. “We should come out here more often. It's fun to pretend we're spoiled rich people.”

  “Please stop with the rich people shit. They were surprisingly nice. Kind. I was just too worked up to notice it, so I was a bitch instead. And, we’re not coming here more often. It took us an hour to get here. It’s just nicer for big shopping than Water Tower.” said Matilda.

  “Think we can expense lunch? I bet rich dudes wouldn’t mind buying you a meal,” said Eric.

  Matilda glared at him.

  “OK, I’ll stop,” he said. “It’s fun though. You met billionaires. With a B. You’re going to hang out and drink beer with them. Thinking about it makes me giddy.”

  “I can’t imagine that I’ll see much of them. I’ll be working with the product team,” she said.

  “Back to lunch thoughts. I will spring for a fancy lunch in celebration of my new contract. What do we want for lunch? We had Italian last time we were here.” Matilda said.