And then she spent thirty minutes pacing the store. She had made a bracelet out of paper clips, written her name several times on scrap paper to kill time. Just when she thought she was going to lose her mind, the teenager walked back over and she looked at his annoyingly empty hands.
"Finished?" she asked hopefully still.
He shrugged. "The binder is messed up so I had to make a few new copies for the ones that got jammed up."
Another fifteen minutes later, she had paid for everything with the credit card. She sat in the car and realized that she had no idea how to get these documents notarized in the middle of the night. She ran back in and asked the dreaded boy.
He thought for a minute before he spoke. "My boss can do it."
Trina almost leaped over the counter and gave the boy a kiss. Probably his first, but she was willing to make the sacrifice. "Great. Can you give them to her?" she asked.
"No. She won't come back until eleven tonight. Sorry!"
'Stupid Copy Boy. I hope he dies a virgin.' She was sure of it.
She was angry as she walked back to the car. She had no idea what to do. She was banging her head on the steering wheel when her phone rang.
"Are you done?" Kylie's voice came from the other side. Trina could hear the music thumping behind her, signaling that Kylie was already at the bar.
"No. I have everything but the paperwork notarized. I have no idea what to do. It's Friday. I don't know if I can meet up with you. I will probably get fired too since I failed on my first assignment directly given by the boss," she whined.
"Calm down. Let's figure this out," Kylie assured and Trina took a deep breath, trying to focus.
She clutched the phone. "The notary at the copy store won't come back until eleven. The bank is definitely closed and any other official place would be too by now."
There was a long pause on the phone. "Have you asked Lee? She might know."
"Oh my god! Yes… Let me call Lee and find out what she would do." She hung up immediately without greeting. She scrolled through her contacts and found Lee's immediately. She had saved it for emergencies. Trina sighed in relief when she picked up in the third ring. "Lee… It's Trina. I need your help." Even to her own ears, she sounded beyond desperate.
Trina gushed in relief when she got the response. "I have a friend who could do it for you. I use him when I have emergencies. I will forward his number to you. Just tell him I referred him to you. He doesn't live far away from the area either."
It was safe to say, Trina saved that number on priority, knowing she would need it on a regular basis. She quickly called and adjusted everything.
- - - - -
Randall realized that it was almost ten when he gathered his things from the back seat of his car. He had spent most of the day shooting and the rest taking care of family business. Well, that was what his family called it. He called it an intervention. Once again, they were asking him to come down and take care of property and animal issues in his homeland.
He was too busy for that and had enough cousins who could do it in his stead. But he still sent some help their way.
This intervention put me behind his shooting schedule and now he was later than he should. He even made the new PA work way past her time on a weekend night. She must have had plans. He felt bad for her. But there was nothing he could do. It was an urgent embargo.
His fingers stopped on the doorknob. He heard the sound of Dino playing around and scrunched his brow in confusion. He had been keeping Dino in the backyard in his cozy house so that the PA wasn't bothered by him.
She must have let him in. Nice of her.
But then he heard the thump of heartbeats.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
It was a vibration he could feel in his chest.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The PA should have been done by then, so he didn't know what the hell this was all about. He sighed. He pressed the button to the garage, making it close before walking into the kitchen.
As he closed the door he was assaulted by the wave of perfume.
He swelled with irritation. Earlier that week, he had left the PA a note about the perfume, and unbelievably, it had actually gotten worse that day.
'Is she bathing in her perfume to spite me?' he wondered, flabbergasted at the idea.
Thump. Thump.
The smell made his head pound and he was glad that the house was secure and he could change at any point if he couldn't control himself. But that was the least of his concern.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Randall held his breath as he walked through the kitchen towards her desk, planning on grabbing the binders he had asked her to complete before heading to his room to escape the smell.
He was approaching the desk when it happened.
In the otherwise silence of the room, there was a person standing five feet away.
And her heart pounded. She hadn't moved and he had never been so acutely aware of the presence of a human.
Shocked, he reacted defensively and moved away. He had broken his primary principle: to never let his guard down.
Louder and louder her heart thumped and Randall took a deep breath. She was kneeling beside Dino, not speaking but patting his head.
She turned when she heard him approach, her eyes wide in surprise. Her hand left Dino's head and it made its way to cover her mouth. Only then did he realize how small she was.
He cocked his head at the silence. The woman sure knew how to be calm around animals.
Even though she realized who it was, she did look hesitant. He stared at her face and then down at her hand. She held it to her mouth for a moment until she remembered her manners.