This Strange Addiction, Julie Steimle [little readers txt] 📗

time it was a bit annoying. After all, didn’t he trust her? Didn’t he know she loved him?

After that, there was not much left to clean up. The groups trickled out. The big trucks were gone, and Audry left the beach with Hogan, returning to her apartment for a quick freshen-up before she could go out with him for lunch.

At least that was what she had thought they were doing until Hogan confessed when he picked her up in a nice suit with a bow tie that he needed her as a plus-one for his company’s dinner party that afternoon. This meant, she had to go back inside her apartment and change into a dressier outfit. She had merely switched to clean pants and shirt. A normal person did not need to dress up for normal lunch. Now she had to touch up some makeup and put on a pair of heels with a skirt.

“You’re beautiful, you know that?” Hogan said, standing her doorway when she came out from her room, more up to dinner party standards.

Blushing, she skipped up to him and put her arms around his neck, gently kissing him on the lips. Her heart had been fluttering all day since Hogan had nearly admitted his plans to propose to her. Bobo had been satisfied, and he would report it to Rick. It was all good. She could feel it now. It was close. He just needed to say the words.

Wrapping his arm around her waist, Hogan led her out the door where Audry locked it and then tucked her keys in to her handbag which she only took with her when eating out. Normally she had a small backpack. They strolled side by side down the stairs to the parking lot where his car waited.

As a gentleman, Hogan opened her door for her. It was their silent understanding that dating couples practiced chivalry. Audry was not against it, as it was a sign of their mutual affection for one another. But as she slipped in to the seat, her eye caught on something bright pink near her building. It took a second to realizing that pink thing was a skimpy dress, barely wrapped around a leggy blonde who was leaning against the outside apartment wall. Was a prostitute trying to get work in her neighborhood?

Hogan went to the other side of the car and got in. As he strapped on his seatbelt and started the engine, Audry peeked once more in the direction of that lingering woman in Barbie pink. Seeing her distracted, Hogan peeked also. “What is it, Artemis?”

Coloring a little, as that pet name was flattering but also a little uncomfortable for her, Audry said, “That woman over there. She’s not another of your exes, is she? You did say you had a few stalkers.”

Hogan leaned over her, peering hard. But then he shook his head. “No. I don’t even recognize her. Maybe she is a hooker.”

“In this neighborhood?” Audry raised her eyebrows at him.

He chuckled, shaking his head and pulling back to put the car in reverse. “Maybe she is someone going to a party and does not understand that outfit is unfortunate.”

They went in reverse from the parking space and then forward into the road.

But Audry had a weird feeling about that woman. That woman’s eyes had been watching them, and the sensation she gave off was of someone searching, like a hunter.

They went into the downtown area, parking in a near structure close to the hotel where the dinner was being held. Audry noticed as they walked into the hotel foyer the different wealthy patrons passing through. It was one of those live-in hotels, like the Plaza. She recognized one hotel patron, who also recognized her.

“Audry Bruchenhaus!” Rushing up with outstretched hands came Kim McGivens, a friend Audry had met a few years back when she was finishing up her Master’s degree around the same time she had first met Jessica. “It’s been a long time!”

A nanny with a toddler in her arms followed Kim.

Audry embraced Kim in a hug. “Kim McGivens, How are you?”

Hogan halted and turned, taking in Kim with a puzzled smile. Kim was dressed to the nines in the most expensive and fashionable wear of New York City—Prada, Gucci, the works. His expressing politely withheld judgement as Audry was clearly friends with one of the wealthy class whom as a group she was known to disdain and avoid. And yet, this was the second one-percenter whom Audry had smiled at that week. It made him immensely curious. Audry could see it in his eyes.

“Oh, I’m great,” Kim said, grinning widely at her. She then gestured back to her child. “As you can see, I had a successful birth.”

While blushing, Audry mumbled, “I’m sorry I didn’t ask about that earlier.”

But Kim waved it off. “Oh, that’s no matter. We hardly knew each other except through Rick.”

Hearing that, Hogan jealously lifted his head a little bit. Kim noticed.

“I’m sorry….” Audry then tugged Hogan closer, nodding to her old acquaintance. “Kim, this is my boyfriend Hogan Orwell. Hogan, this is Kim McGivens, a friend I met two years back at a Junior League function I had attended with my cousin Vincent.”

Hogan smiled genially.

A flicker of brief disappointment crossed Kim’s face, but it quickly dispelled and was replaced with delight. She extended her slim hand to Hogan. “Pleased to meet you.”

Gently grasping it for a brief polite shake, Hogan said, “The same.”

Glancing around the foyer, Kim asked, “Are you staying here for the evening party?”

Laughing, unaware that there was another of those parties at the hotel, Audry shook her head.

“We’re here for a luncheon with my company,” Hogan cut in, smiling.

“Oh.” Kim looked surprised. She then glanced to the standing poster directing attendees to the ballroom where the dinner would be held, her eyes taking in the name of the company and the keynote speakers. “So you’re with Water Way.”

Hogan nodded, grinning. “Yes. I’m an environmental chemist. I test water quality in various locations around the globe, and we organize methods of purification and improvement. We just returned from Africa where we have been promoting clean water methods for small villages… where I met Audry.”

Kim’s eyes widened on Audry. “You went to Africa?”

Chuckling Audry nodded. “One of many trips. Though this one is connected to my PhD work.”

Kim looked intrigued now. Not that she hadn’t known Audry already had a Master’s degree, but that she seemed impressed by Audry’s ambition. It pleased her. With a more accepting nod to Hogan, Kim said, “That’s amazing. I suppose you two are a good match.”

Blushing, Audry said, “I’d say a great match.”

Winking, Kim whispered but not as a secret but more teasing like, “Does he mind that you are a vegan?”

A laugh escaped from Hogan, truly amused.

“He’s a vegetarian,” Audry said, smirking. Kim knew full well her main objection to Rick had been that he was a staunch meat eater.

“Then perfect,” Kim said, grinning. Though she sighed as her mind clearly was mourning the chances for Rick… as clearly she too had ‘shipped’ Breacon.

After a whine from Kim’s toddler who did not like just lingering there behind his mother, and a mild huff from the nanny that said they really ought to get going to wherever it was they were going, Kim politely excused herself with well wishes for Audry and Hogan. As Hogan and Audry walked further toward the banquet hall and out of Kim’s earshot, he whispered quietly, “Another old friend of Rick Deacon’s, huh?

That made Audry chuckle with embarrassment. She nodded. “Yep.”

 He sighed, glancing to her as he said, “Wow. Coming back to New York with you has opened up a lot of things about you that I didn’t know. I’m amazed.”

Coming back to the US was rather revealing, for the both of them. When they had returned together, holding hands as a couple, the entire world seemed to tremble over it. There was all the vetting, of course, as her family wanted to make entirely sure Hogan was not another Harlin. And then slowly other things came out of the woodwork—like Charlene who had begun to stalk them once she found out he was back from Africa. And the news of that old website. And, of course, the return of Rick Deacon whom Audry only had ever bumped into in the past.

And thinking on that, it honestly made no sense to Audry why anyone ‘shipped’ her with Rick. It was wishful thinking. She and Rick had never really spent much time together for any real length. Their friends pairing them was all based on assumption. He had borrowed her Tiger Balm in Paris while she was on a school trip, and subsequently she had a picture with him along with her two friends who were way more giggly and into him than she had ever been. That was it. And during the three days when she was finishing up her Master’ degree at one of the Deacons’ animal reserves, she had hardly seen him. Fact was, during that time she had avoided him as she didn’t want to argue with him about his attitude toward veganism. So Harlin’s outrageous assumption that she had had an affair with Rick on that trip was entirely absurd. Even’s Rick’s jealous ex Daisy knew nothing had transpired between them, and had gloated about it. Honestly, Audry’s relationship with Howard Richard Deacon III was not what one would call romantic. It was a mess. They were barely friends let alone acquaintances.

Which was why she loved Hogan. Their relationship was not a mess. They had spent a lot of time together. She knew his past. He was an upright, hardworking man with all the right intentions. She had met his parents. He had met hers. And she and he had so much in common. The logical conclusion to all of it was that they were meant to be—with the good and the bad.

Hogan had steered her to their table while she was lost in her thoughts. Pulling out her chair, letting her sit, he scooted it in and sat next to her, smiling. He watched her as she came to the present once more, shaking her head at the ridiculousness of her life.

“We are a pair, aren’t we?” he said, amused.

Looking to him, Audry wondered what that meant.

“You’ve got your past, and I’ve got mine,” he said.

Chuckling, Audry nodded.

“We’re gonna make it work.” He then leaned in and gently kissed her.

 

The luncheon—as it wasn’t really a dinner—had vegan options. Hogan had ordered ahead their meal to make sure. At their table, Audry got to meet a number of Hogan’s coworkers who genially shook her hand and boldly congratulated her on their happy relationship. It was like an almost congratulations on engagement, though all involved knew he had not yet popped the question. Apparently they too, in the company, were anxiously awaiting the announcement.

Then the speaker rose. He talked at length about the company’s mission statement and goals. Much of the speech was flowery and fluffy, pumping up the audience with words like synergistic, actualize, paradigm shift and win-win. This business lingo wearied Audry, as she was not concerned with any of this kind of talk. It was like being tossed marshmallows when she really wanted something with substance.

After the speeches were a few in-company awards followed by music playing as the attendees finished networking, conversing, and eating. Hogan was chatting with the man at his left as Audry was listening to their banter in amusement. But then a shadow stepped in, nearly between them.

Audry looked up.

It was a woman, youngish. In her twenties possibly. From her back view, Audry could only see the side of the woman’s face, but that side seemed to twitch with fury toward Hogan. And a pace away stood two other friends clearly with this woman. All three were in smart, classy outfits, two of them in heels and the one in sensible flats. Hogan did not see this woman at first until