The Thorne at My Side

CHAPTER 31

The green one?

AUSTIN

"What the hell are you doing?" Elle hollers as she walks into the apartment.

"I'm painting my nails but it is fucking impossible!" I yell back even though she’s standing in front of me. I've been sitting at the kitchen counter trying to paint my own nails for over an hour and have more paint on the towel I put down under my hands than on my nails themselves.

"Why on earth are you doing this? And, oh gosh, no!" Elle swoops in with a paper towel to start wiping up. She plucks the brush from my hand and screws it back onto the bottle. It's a shade I picked from the stash in her room. It's a little bit pink, a little purple, a little orange, it reminds me of the sunrises I saw when I was at Maggie's apartment early in the morning.

"Someone told me to try it." I shrug.

"Someone or she did?"

"She who?" I ask sarcastically. It’s obvious I’m doing this because Maggie suggested it.

"Ohmygod, come here." Elle says exasperated as she soaks a cotton ball in the remover. She holds my hand and starts to clean off the polish. "I mean the she who you have been trying to impress."

I look up at her and she just shrugs.

"I heard you and Felix talking about it."

"Well then, the cat is out of the bag. I'm trying to get my SMS Connect girl back. Or, get her for the first time, kind of."

"I still don't understand all the moving parts of this but whatever bro. Now, go wash your hands, dry them with a paper towel and come back, I'll paint them for you."

"No, I'm good actually." I say as I wash my hands. "I was going to take it off tonight anyways, I just wanted to try it, not actually run around with sunrise colored nails."

"Sunrise?"

"It's what the color reminded me of." I shrug.

"I can't wait to meet her.” Elle laughs.

“What’s funny about that?” I ask.

“Well, the girl who has Austin Thorne painting his nails and comparing the color to nature has got to be someone special."

"I have a feeling you two are going to get along splendidly.”

◆◆◆

Today I'm going to trail Maggie. It isn't stalking, I'm not going to do anything, I just want to see how she spends her day.

I've got a meeting tomorrow morning about a new venture. It was inspired by the night the boys brought in the big guns and some compelling data I was able to dig up. Plus, I think Elle would be great at running the whole thing and I could be the CFO and let her make strategic decisions.

But, today, I'm on Maggie watch.

Sam has been helpful, she told me where she is teaching and then it was pretty easy to find the classroom and time online. That day I met her after her class, Greg and I sat in the car and watched her walk off campus towards Adams Morgan so I think she walks to and from Georgetown.

It's like an hour long walk so I was also surprised to see her out for a run the other morning.

I had gone to Sunrise for the gift card and was waiting for Maggie to leave for work when I just happened to look up the street as she came jogging down in my direction.

Jumping out at her probably wasn't the smoothest of moves but I couldn't let her get by without stopping her.

It worked out perfectly. The way she smirked as she walked into her building? Heaven.

And then the back and forth with me on SMS Connect? I could hear her smiling through her words.

Felix keeps reminding me to be patient, to wait until I'm sure she's fallen for me.

Austin me.

She has to be so smitten with Austin Thorne that she wishes DCFox is me.

I have to be careful with what I say as DCFox, I don't want to tip her off but I don't want to throw her too far off the trail.

The goal of following her today is to find the places she visits often so I can pop in and be there. That's my current strategy. Be there.

It's not complicated, it's not sophisticated. It's simple. Straight forward. Show up, be there, and be myself.

◆◆◆

"So what did you find out?" Felix asks as we crack open beers in his kitchen .

"I found out she walks to and from work. She listens to something while she's walking and I don't think it's music because she never sings along. She carries this purple water bottle with her but I never see her take a drink of it. And her purse slides off her shoulder, a lot."

"Interesting, so what are you going to do with that information?"

"I asked Elle to recommend some bags and I'm going to buy her one."

"So your strategy is to buy her affection with gifts?"

"Maybe, I think she likes it. You should have seen how her face lit up when I gave her the bakery gift card. Plus, I want to treat her, surprise her, spoil her. Let her know that I know her and what she needs, maybe even wants. It's not like I'm spending it on anything else."

"True, but before you go buying her a Birkin, I'd make sure she doesn't have an attachment to her current bag or that she's not a minimalist or something."

"Good point," I say as I pull out my SMS Connect phone.

DCFox: Do you think it's possible to form an emotional attachment to an object? I ask because there is one pillow on my sofa that for some reason calls to me in a way no other pillow ever has. I get jealous when someone else cuddles it or stuffs it behind their back. I get especially angry when someone throws it on the floor.

"Are you just lying to her to try to get her answer?" Felix asks as he reads over my shoulder.

"No, I have a pillow I feel this way about."

"Which one? No wait, let me guess, the green one?"

"No," I respond in a way that probably tips him off that he's correct.

Felix laughs as he pulls the meal prepped food from the fridge. He has a chef come in once a week to put everything together for him so he doesn't have to worry about what to eat every day.

The phone pings and he abandons the stir fry on the stove. "What did she say?!"