He walked across the room in our direction, extending a hand out towards Baylor, “Take good care of our girl,” he smiled as the two of them shook hands and then he turned to me, opening his arms for a hug, and I didn’t hesitate entering his embrace. We had worked together for ten glorious years, he was like a brother to me and I would miss him dearly. He whispered into my ear while I was still in his clutch, “I would’ve taken you up on that marriage proposal if I had known he was going to be stealing you away. You’re an amazing woman, Eden, enjoy your bit of happiness.”
He released me and I took two steps back, wiping a tear from my face. I couldn’t leave things sad and melancholy between us, so I retorted, “I really am sorry for quitting so suddenly like this, I hope they don’t stick you with Ryan as a cohost now.” That realization hadn’t dawned on him until then and his eyes widened and his nostrils flared; you could just tell that he was picturing the new version of the show without me.
Raising his extended index finger in my direction, “You had better turn around and march out of here real fast before I bring you back and duct tape you to your chair so you can’t leave!”
I knew he was joking of course, but I wasn’t about to take any chances, so I grabbed Baylor’s hand and we darted from the studio room and directly into my boss. Just as I had suspected, he was outside of the doors with his arms crossed in front of his chest and a deathly glare on his face. “Mr. Richmond,” I stammered, feeling Baylor’s stance stiffen behind me. “I suppose you heard what happened, huh?” I wasn’t one to go actively seeking confrontation, in fact, despite what happened at the reunion with Kristina, I actually loathed it. Especially when it was coming from my boss, whom I had known for several years but who still managed to scare the living shit out of me.
“Eden, what kind of game do you think you’re playing? You are under a contract with the radio station for another two years. Don’t you think you should’ve thought about this instead of making a rash decision?” I could feel my anger and annoyance level rising by the minute and the moment I opened my mouth to speak, Baylor beat me to the chase.
“Mr. Richmond, is it? After consulting with my attorney, even though you are a larger radio station within Nashville, you still don’t hold any legal rights over Eden. She didn’t quit to go to another rival station within the city, she quit to move entirely out of state. Now I apologize for this all happening quite abruptly, as that part is my fault, but should you choose to take this matter to court I think it’ll just be a waste of all of our time. Now if you have nothing further, we will go clean out Eden’s desk and be out of your hair in the matter of minutes.”
Not only was my mouth hanging agape, so was Mr. Richmond’s. During my entire time working there, I had never seen someone actually go up against the ape and the fact that it was my Baylor made him even sexier in my eyes. I quickly closed my mouth and looked up to Mr. Richmond to see him lower his hands down to his side and nod in my direction, “Eden, it’s been a pleasure to have you working with us here at 98.9 but as of now, you’ve fulfilled your duties here. Please empty out your desk and proceed with leaving the building in a timely fashion so I don’t have to call Security on you for loitering.” He tried to come across as macho, like normal, but for some reason unbeknownst to me he seemed to be lacking some of his luster.
Chapter 17
Baylor
I placed my hand on the small of Eden’s back as we sidestepped past Mr. All Talk. He didn’t seem too big and bad once I put him in his place. Eden looked up towards me and a bright smile lit up her face. “What?” I asked, knowing exactly what she was going to say.
“I thought Dean made it perfectly clear that he was strictly a Divorce Lawyer, so how did he find out about contractual agreements in the workplace?” Her eyes twinkled up at me, reassuring me that what I had done was more than all right with her.
Shrugging my shoulders, closing the door behind us and shoving my hands into my pockets after we entered Eden’s small, dimly-lit office, I replied, “He is, but he’s Dean, nothing that a little coercion can’t fix. He knows people and I just sort of took advantage of that.” She was facing away from me, shuffling some papers on her desk and then throwing them in the trash. I took the opportunity to walk up behind her until I was flush with her backside. She was wearing her hair up in a ponytail, so I just moved it off to the side to let it flow across her shoulder and placed a single open-mouthed kiss in the middle of her slender neck. I continued on by trailing my nose up the length of her neck until I reached just below her ear where I placed another brief, feather-light kiss. “God, I’ve missed you, baby. Now that I’ve gotten a taste of you and have been spoiled by your touch, I don’t want to ever go without it again.” Dragging my fingertips ever so lightly down the exposed flesh of her arm, I felt her skin stiffen and goose bumps break out on the places my touch just encountered.
It didn’t matter that we were in her office, at a job where she was no longer employed; I wasn’t shying away from what we both wanted and craved at that very moment. I took her by her shoulders and spun her around to face me, her eyes were slightly parted and desire was shining back at me. I moved my hands to cup her face, but we were interrupted by the phone on her desk ringing with an incoming call.
Eden blindly reached behind her and began fumbling with a few of the buttons in what I thought was an attempt to shut it off, but instead she pressed the speaker button.
“You bitch!” A squeaky voice roared on the other end of the line, causing Eden’s entire stance to freeze and turn rigid. “I just heard the entire show and your breakup with Nashville.” Without even taking a breath, the enraged female voice continued, “You couldn’t think of a reason to stay? Well, I can think of two words right off of the top of my head and they are the most important: Julia Caldwell.”
“Oh shit!” Eden gasped, bringing both of her hands to cover her mouth for a brief second before she haphazardly attempted to reach for her chair and finally sat down, scooting closer towards the phone. “Jules, you know I didn’t mean it that way. I was completely in the moment; I mean tell me you wouldn’t be?” Eden’s backpedaling stung a bit but I knew that she was just trying to calm her friend off of the ledge of her tirade.
“Oh, I know, but you know that one of my favorite pastimes involves holding grudges. And well, so is Mrs. Schaefer’s.” Her voice lost its candor, resulting in a bit of trepidation.
“Who the hell is Mrs. Schaefer?” Eden demanded. I was certainly glad that I wasn’t the only one lost by the turning of the conversation.
“Well, you see she was the client in my chair at the time of your little broadcast. She wanted a seven a.m. appointment to get a quick cut before work and got a little more of a snip than what she bargained for. While she loves her now-shortened layers, it wasn’t initially the vision she saw in her head.”
“Oh I see, and your little mishap with your scissors is naturally all my fault.” I could tell that the two of them together would result in an absolute riot, with Eden being the more mellow and down-to-earth woman while Julia was the high-strung and high-maintenance diva.