Page 65 of Making Over Maris

Chapter Eleven

Sara chortled as she sat at her desk and tossed her purse into the bottom drawer. She’d found the perfect thing on her field trip. Jack would never know what hit him.

A smile played on her lips as she picked up her phone and checked her messages. The first one out of the gate made her belly lurch.

Because it was Todd.

“Hey. Sara. Um. Sorry I haven’t called. I was…called out of town unexpectedly and, um, I just got back. I thought we could get together.” Well, hell. “Give me a call.”

The next message was more of the same. “Sara. Todd. Yeah. I see you called me a couple times while I was gone. I’m back now. Call me.”

And then, “Sara. Todd again. Call me.”

She glared at her phone.

Why now?

Why fucking now, when things were getting interesting with Jack?

The phone rang again. Sara knew in her heart it was Todd but she picked it up anyway.

Because suddenly she was in a nasty mood and she needed someone to take it out on.

And frankly Todd deserved a little acrimony.

“Sara Grant.”

“Oh! Sara! Finally. Hey, babe. It’s Todd. Did you get my messages?” His disembodied voice floated over the line.

She could sense the annoyance twining through the words and it pissed her off. How dare he be annoyed at her? “Hmm. Did you call?”

“Several times.”

Aw, fuck you, Todd. I called you plenty. “Huh. So, what’s up?”

Silence crackled. Sara nibbled on her lower lip to keep from smiling. Todd hated it when she turned the tables on him.

“We haven’t talked in a while,” he finally said. That he said it in a patronizing voice fed the fire simmering in her gut.

“Yeah.”

“I thought we could go out tonight.”

Seriously? Just like that? From “What kind of freak are you?” to “Let’s go out again”?

“Really?”

“I’ve been thinking about our…fight and I thought we could have a dinner and talk things over.”

It hadn’t been a fight. It had been a repudiation. A complete and utter rejection of who she was at her core.

“I don’t think so. Goodbye, Todd.”

“Wait. Sara. Don’t hang up. Hear me out. I needed some time, baby. Some time to think about it. Okay?”

Sara nearly snorted. As apologies went, that was about as good as it was ever going to get. How sad was that?

“What do you say, baby? Dinner tonight?”