"Bye, Evan." With a wave, she took off running, the sound of her sandals slapping down the stairs echoing in his miserable heart.
"Yeah. Bye, Halley."
Kicking his nasty, festering, overflowing garbage can, he sent a half-filled fountain drink skittering across the floor. As it leaked three-day-old Coke on the vinyl, he stomped out of the kitchen and down the hall to his bedroom.
The only reason Halley had come to him, her old friend Evan, was to cover up her tits on her website, not to be tortured with his clumsy seduction attempts. He should just fix the site and be done with it.
Or he could stare at the screen all day and fantasize that Halley really was naked in front of him, and he was the cherub.
Evan blinked at the image still on his computer and swore out loud.
Damn, he was hungry.
Comforting her. Evan had been comforting her.
As she ate her lunch, Halley tried to force Evan's kiss out of her mind. She would have had more luck lifting a semitruck with her finger. It was all she could think about.
Evan had been comforting her, and she had leapt on to him like a nympho in a sex video. Admittedly, he had responded after all, she'd felt that thing between her legs and had seen it in all its glory. Impressive glory that it was.
But Evan was a man. And it was hardly surprising that he would get an erection when she was dirty dancing on him. She had long ago determined that men's penises acted independently of the rest of their body, including their brain and heart.
That was why she had gotten the hell out of there. If she had pushed it, pulled out the breasts and a few other tricks, she probably could have convinced Evan to sleep with her.
Which was comparable to throwing ten years of great friendship down the toilet.
Geez, maybe she needed to go home and rent When Harry Met Sally to remind herself that sex between friends was a major no-no.
Of course, Harry and Sally had gotten together in the end.
Halley threw down her sprouts and avocado sandwich on her desk and grimaced. Brushing crumbs off her fingertips, she glanced at the pile of messages Nora had left on her desk. She didn't want to look at them, knowing they were nothing but bad news. In the two hours since she'd been back, the phone had been ringing constantly.
Her sandwich churned in her stomach, and she was left with the horrible feeling that if the absolute worst happened, and she lost her business, she would be left with nothing. No business, no Evan.
That thought had her flinging down her paper napkin and standing up. She had worked damn hard to make this business successful. Maybe she had screwed things up with Evan, but she couldn't just sit still and let Bite of Heaven crumble down around her. This was a minor setback, that's all. With a little damage control, everything would be fine.
"Nora," she called as she stepped out of her office.
The hum of a half-dozen employees talking ground to a halt as she entered the reception area. Eyes avoided hers. Horace, one of her younger drivers, boldly ogled her, running his gaze up and down.
Anger raced through her. She was about to reprimand him when Horace shook his head in confusion.
"That doesn't make any sense."
Caught off guard, she asked, "What doesn't?"
"That's not even you in the picture. I can tell by looking at your"
So much for the thirty-dollar water bra she had bought. Halley cut him off. "Alright, I got it! And of course it's not me."
Like she would ever pose for nude photos in the first place.
The faces staring back at her were a mix of confusion and pity. It made her feel sick. Taking a slow, even breath, she said, "The problem is being dealt with. Let's all just go about our business, shall we?" And stop mulling over her breasts.
There were nods, half smiles, and a reluctant pulling of various bodies off desks where they had been leaning. Talking about her. Probably about how boring she was, and how unlikely it was that her naked picture would ever be splashed on the Internet.
Not that she cared. She didn't want her picture on the Internet. So what if she was boring and flat-chested and so starved for sexual attention that she had to throw herself at her best friend? Big deal. She was successful. She had scratched and clawed her way out of Hazen, West Virginia, and had made something out of herself. Something she could be proud of.
A workaholic who hadn't had sex in two years.
Argh. That wasn't helping.
Nora left the others and approached Halley where she stood clenching her fists and glaring, feeling like a bull just itching to charge. At what, she didn't know. The Three Commandos would be the logical choice.
Nora took her hand and pulled her aside. "Listen, Halley, did you read those messages I put on your desk?"
Since Nora looked ready to pop a pacifier in her mouth and cuddle her in a blankie, Halley guessed they weren't filled with uplifting news.
"No, I haven't gotten to them."
Nora squeezed her hand. "Well, it's just as well that I tell you myself then."
That was promising. "More cancellations?"
Nora tucked her red hair behind her ear and shook her head, giving Halley another maternal look even though she was nearly five years younger than her. "No, actually, things have been quiet on that front, thank goodness. Just more requests for nude catering jobs."
Great. Just great. "I hope you declined."
"Of course!" Nora bit her lip. "But the part you're really not going to like is that your dad called."
"My dad?" Ohmigod, her father never called her. Her dad worked twelve hours a day, but there was still barely enough money to put food on the table. Calling long distance to Halley was out of the question.
"Did someone die?" Her heart dropped to her shoes, and she wondered if something was wrong with her mom or with one of her three younger sisters.
Nora shook her head. "No! But he saw the picture on the web."
"What? How is that possible?" Her parents didn't have a computer. As far as she knew, her dad had never even seen one. There wasn't a real pressing need for a town of coal miners to surf the web.
Nora whispered, looking distinctly uncomfortable, "I guess your cousin Jake was bored, fooling around, and came across it. When he told your dad last night, your dad insisted Jake show him."
Halley shook her head to clear it. All she did was flip hair in her mouth. "You got all that from my dad?" Her dad wasn't known for long, drawn-out conversations.
"No, your mom got on and told me after your dad couldn't string anything together after 'Where the hell is Halley?' "
Halley clutched her head in pain. "Oh, crap, this is awful. My parents think I have a nude catering business."
They were sweet, hardworking, churchgoing folk. She was surprised her father hadn't already had a heart attack.
"Well, I told them it was a mistake."
But did they know that wasn't her body? Yuck, yuck, and triple yuck.
"Thanks." Halley forced her head up and patted Nora on the arm. Hopefully with a phone call, she could assure her parents she wasn't running a prostitution ring or stripping online.
Something Nora had said popped into her head. "Wait a minute? My dad saw this last night?"
"That's what he said."
"I wonder how long it's been up there like that, then?" She couldn't remember the last time she'd checked the site prior to that morning.
"A week."
Halley spun around. Horace was listening to them with no sign of embarrassment.
"A week?" She was back in bull mode, clenching fists and leaning forward. All she needed was the nose ring and the red cloth target. "But we just started getting calls today."
Horace shifted on the balls of his feet, and coughed into his hand. "It started a week ago with just the tray disappearing, then your top, then your skirt. Last night was when the angel showed up."