Read Fraud: A Stepbrother Romance for Free Online

office.
    That bastard…
    Anyway, I tried striking up some
conversations with a few of the guys around the courthouse, the ones not
obviously gay or married.
    I found few of them were interested in an
almost thirty-year old, chubby (voluptuous!), lawyer with a tongue-stud.
    So, I bid adieu to the stud, and consigned
it to my junk jewelry box.
    That’s the one where I put all the
ostentatious crap I’ve bought over the years, in the hope that it might either
lift my spirits or potentially get me laid.
    None of them every worked their supposed
talismanic magic, so I remain chaste and untouched by the hands of man.
    Shit.
    As if anything was ever going to make me
lose this crazy obsession with Derek.
    Yeah, right…
    I grabbed my purse and checked my
cell-phone for any last minute texts or emails.
    The ones that were new could wait until I
got to work.
    I also saw that I had a call from an
unknown number.
    They didn’t leave a message, so I deleted
it.
    Fucking sales calls…
    I put my shades on, took one final glance
at the hall mirror, wiping a bit of lipstick from the corner of my mouth with a
finger as I opened the door.
    Nigel came bouncing over in that funny
little way he has, looking like a pull-toy without a string.
    Such a cute, silly dog!
    I had never intended to get such a breed,
but when I saw him, it was love at first sight.
    He came to me, licking my fingers, and
yapping at me in that voice of his.
    I checked my watch, and quickly glanced to
make sure he had food and water.
    I gave him a kiss, and he panted at me,
and barked again.
    I walked to the front of the apartment,
and he followed me dutifully.
    Then, I affectionately swatted Nigel away
from the door, and locked it.
    I could hear his whining and panting all
the way to the elevator.
    Poor thing.
     
    *****
     
    My Beemer was parked in the garage for the
complex, so I got in and started it up.
    As I drove past the gate, I noticed that
the guard was Wernher.
    His eyes locked onto me and tracked me as
I drove up to the gate.
    I waited while he raised it, and decided
to try a wave today.
    Wernher simply nodded slightly as I drove
through.
    The gate arm swung down, and I felt Wernher’
s eyes follow me all the way down the street until the garage was out of sight.
    We had three guards that rotated shifts
that I knew by name.
    There were a lot of temps, as well.
    Wernher was difficult to miss.
    He was about six feet six, and muscled. He
was probably about seventy-five years old, and looked a lot like those old
geezers you sometimes see in the documentaries about World War Two on the
Discovery or History channel. He had that military air and stance.
    He always watched as the cars came and
went, like he was guarding nuclear missiles or UFOs or something.
    He didn’t smile.
    The uniform they made the guards wear was
nondescript, but the few times I had seen Wernher out of the booth I noticed he
wore it well.
    He stood there, almost at attention,
missing nothing. His sharp eyes took it all in, and he would pivot his head and
follow cars like the turret of a tank.
    I think he actually memorized all the
numbers on the license plates for ALL the cars that came and went into our
garage!
    He was weird, but I oddly felt safe when
he was on station.
    The other two guards were Jonny and Raj.
    Jonny was a meth-addict, or at least bore
a close resemblance to one. His teeth were horrible, and he smiled too much.
    He was thin, almost emaciated, and had a
crew cut of brown hair.
    He was nice enough, and always said
“Hello!” when a car stopped at the gate. 
    Most of the other tenants liked him,
despite his appearance. He always wore a clean uniform.
    He was married to one of the women in the
apartment complex, and rumor had it her father owned the company that supplied
the guards.
    Raj was originally from Guyana, born of
Indian parents.
    He had been a college professor before he
had been fired for running a website that criticized the University where he
had been