On hold

Update

So! It has been a crazy year, so I thought I would treat you all with a snippet from my new book 'Unrestrained desires' to keep you warm over winter. Very exciting stuff! It is available on my profile to read for free

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A couple of hours into a solid case I was taking a look at and I was not coping well, the headache I had diminished this morning had made a vicious comeback, and I needed a break. Standing up I pushed my swivel chair away and left my office to walk down the kitchen. Time for some tea. I chose the biggest mug and took my time choosing a herbal tea for a change, settling on jasmine I poured boiling water on it, and started to make my way back to my office excited to indulge myself in the exotic sounding drink. I stared into the cup while walking, poking at the murky coloured teabag with my spoon, suddenly my shoulder came into sharp contact with a hard object, reeling, my tea fell to the floor and the boiling water coated the tips of my shoes narrowly missing the exposed section of my feet. I gasped and took a couple of steps back, my head whipping up to meet the smirking face of none other than Sean. I stood there with my mouth open for another couple of seconds panting while the tea soaked into my shoes warming my toes, “Oh! Sorry El! You know how clumsy I can be, let me get you some tissue for that” he strolled off leisurely down the hall to the kitchen and I slumped against the wall and stared at my ruined shoes, my eyes smarting.
I bent down, picked up my wet mug, and walked quickly back to my office- I would not stand dithering in the hallway crying like some sop. I would dither and cry within the privacy of my own office. I went back and shut the door leaning on it with a sigh, allowing a couple of fat tears to drip down my chin. God I’m such a wuss, I feebly thought, cursing myself for not at least shouting at Sean. I had had enough, I could finish the report at home. I folded up the files and grabbed my handbag and my coat, signing out early for the first ever time. I strutted down the hall, my damp shoes rubbing my feet, and stepped neatly over the sad-looking wet puddle of jasmine tea. Sniffing again I held my head high as I walked past the kitchen where Sean was flirting with the secretary and just about made it to the elevator before the tears started flowing again. To distract myself I focused on finding some ibuprofen from my handbag to dull the ache that had taken over my entire frontal lobe, and got my phone out of the side pocket to send Cindy a ‘please come round to my house with wine later’ text.
I left the building, the cold air outside making my damp cheeks tingle, and my damp feet unbearably cold. Walking to the station I decided that I couldn’t face walking past the shoe shops with my ruined heels digging into my ankles, so I followed the signs straight to the platform, something I’d never done before. Looking around as I walked, I tried to compose myself, it was just a bad day, it wouldn’t be like this all the time. I was nodding to myself as I mentally repeated my self-affirmation and made my way underground to the platform, barely taking in my surroundings. One foot in front of the other I started to get my stride back and I stood up tall, looking straight ahead with a dry face. Suddenly one of my feet was stuck to the floor, I yanked my foot upwards but to no avail, I looked down at the grate I was walking on in distain, my heel was wedged between the metal slatts. The shoe was at such an angle that I couldn’t slide my foot out, “come on” I muttered, my voice breaking at the end, my face hot with embarrassment. Leaning over to get a better look at the grate my files slipped out of my hand and papers fluttered to the floor around me. A man actually stepped on one on his way past me. Bastard. That’s it, I thought, this day could not get any worse. I sat on the floor in a huff and bent over looking at my shoe utterly helpless, and totally depressed.
I was fumbling with the strap, when a large warm hand pressed against my own. I jerked my head up and was met with chocolate brown eyes staring out of a warm masculine face. “Do you need some help? You look a little flustered…” he trailed off gesturing to the mess I was in. “uuuuh” I fumbled, my face turning a nice crimson colour while assessing his symmetrical one. He was tanned and had long wavy dark hair and deep brown eyes, his skin was a rich tan and his teeth were white and straight, and smiling at me in a way that made my skin tingle. I blinked. This was so embarrassing. “I think I’ll be fine thanks” I said in an apologetic tone, and I dragged my gaze back to my foot which was turning a nice red colour from the strain of my shoe. He smirked in an entirely different way to Sean and began to collect my papers while I struggled indignantly with the grate.
He crouched by me with my papers neatly collected in one hand, watching me patiently as I became more and more irritated with my stubborn heel. He put his hand once again over mine and gently pried my fingers off my heel, replacing them with his own. He tilted the shoe further into the grate allowing my foot to slide out, and once it was free he gave the shoe a quick tug,  the bottom off the heel tinkling down the grate, and the rest coming free in his large hands.
I smiled at him gratefully and sat up straight, I leaned forward intending on grabbing my papers and he tried to stand up at the same time pushing our chests together and knocking me off balance. He put his hands on my shoulders to steady me and chuckled, looking into my eyes to see if I was alright. I giggled nervously, a high pitched irritatingly girly noise, and he cleared his throat. We stood up together and he took a step back from me, “milady?” he said, bowing a little and holding the shoe out to me.  I smiled taking it off him and gave him a onceover. He was scruffy looking, and not in a fashionable way, his jeans were covered in some kind of oil and his shirt was crumpled and untucked. The only saving grace was his leather looking shoes which looked high end and well looked after; I stared dismally at my own. He followed my gaze and smiled, “I can fix that for you, if you’ll let me”, I brought my eyes up to his again and glanced back at the grate where the bottom of my heel was no doubt submerged in sewer water by now. I frowned at him confused. He smiled, “I’m a shoemaker” he said gesturing to his shirt “apparently one that doesn’t wear coveralls”, he chuckled, a deep masculine sound. I offered him a toothy grin, relived that I wasn’t attracted to the homeless person his attire suggested, but still a little disappointed that he wasn’t secretly a doctor or something.
“Well you could I suppose, but they are kind of ruined already” I said, and I pointed to the stain on the toe, he took them and inspected the damage, “They’re too far gone for a full restoration but I think we could jazz them up a little, how did you damage them anyway?”. I stared at him apprehensively, wondering exactly how he was going to jazz up my favorite and most expensive pair of shoes. I held out my hands and he put the shoe in my palm smiling at my uncertainty, I clutched it to my chest. “Someone knocked into me at work and I spilt tea all over them” I replied, grimacing, “ahhh see I don’t have the problem of falling out with co-workers, I have my own shop”, I looked up interested- pioneering a company was beyond me, I worked in a firm where I was handed my specific workload and that was all I had to focus on. “It’s about a five minute walk outside the station, you should pop by sometime and we can sort out that shoe”, I smiled, and my eyes lingered on his face a little too long, I jerked my head down to my shoes to break eye contact and smiled sheepishly back at him. “Yeah, maybe I’ll take you up on that offer” I said, glancing over his clothes once more. He tilted his head back and looked at me disbelievingly, folding his arms across his chest, my eyes flicked to his biceps before moving quickly to his face again. “Seeing as that was a blatant lie, how about you and me go for coffee now, and you give me your shoe and think of a new design for it, that way you’ll have to come to the shop to collect it when it’s done?” I raised my eyebrows at his forwardness, and felt warmth bloom in my chest at the realization that he must find me attractive.
My response lingered on my lips, and a thought occurred to me. It was around lunch time now, which meant that the people from my firm would be steadily working their way from their office chair to the coffee shop in the station, something I myself would’ve been doing if I hadn’t left early. I glanced at a particularly large oil stain on his shirt and took in his unkempt appearance; I couldn’t be seen with him, especially having clocked out early, gossip travels fast. “I’m afraid I have a train to catch” I lied, “but maybe I’ll see you around sometime” I added to soften the blow. A flicker of a frown creased his forehead but he swiftly recovered, “I sure do hope so” he said, his eyes drifting over my face, he held out his hand, “Nicolás”, I placed my hand in his, “Elfine”, I replied, trying not to stare at our connected hands like a moron.
He stepped back and gave me a little salute backing away, “Thanks for helping me out” I said, smiling gratefully. He tilted his head to the side and beamed at me, “No problem at all” he quipped, and we both turned away and walked, or in my case limped, our separate ways. Boy was Cindy going to love this.