Sweet Damnation (Richonne Lemon One-Shots)

II: Shutting Out The Past

A/N: Part II of 1-900-Richonne 

I gazed out of my office window without really seeing anything. My mind thinking about the girl I'd talked to on the phone at 2 AM. Last night, I was so drunk that I was past the point of sleeping.

When I randomly called the sex line because I'd seen the commercial for it on tv. I have never expected to get someone as funny and dirty as Michelle. Damn, she had the sexiest voice I'd heard in a time-if ever. I hadn't lied when I told her the greeting was a huge cliché, but that wasn't truly the reason I paused. When she'd answered, her voice reminded me of someone from my past. But I was sure there was no way it was her and I certainly didn't want to start thinking about my fucked-up past, especially while I'm drunk.

"Rick!" My best friend's voice caused me to wince at the resulting ringing in my ears and pounding in my head.

"Shit, do you have to be so fucking loud?"

"Only when you're not listing to a damn thing I saying. Are you okay man?"

"Yeah, just didn't get much sleep."

Shane and I had been friends for years, and he knows everything about me, but I didn't want to tell him what was on my mind...Michelle belongs to me.

"Yeah, well, you need to get it together, we need to get this proposal finished and faxed over in the next hour."

"I'm on it," I spun my chair so it faced my desk and logged onto my computer. Now I'm fascinated by two things Michelle and the new creation called the World Wide Web- WWW- for short. I pull up our website to see what my computer guys came up with. I smiled appreciatively, the music, color, and the general theme was perfect. It also gave me other ideas that I'd implement later. After I was done collecting some more data, I saved everything on the CD ROM. I also printed out the ROI and future earnings data.

Shane was more than happy with being the voice of the company. He was much better with presenting and the general schmoozing with the 'big wigs'. I guess my aversion to bigwigs is having been raised by one.

It was a little after 2 PM when my stomach growled and I decided to go out for lunch. I didn't bother asking Shane, he was on a major workout regime and only ate salmon and broccoli for dinner, the rest of the day he drank nasty-ass protein shakes.

"I'll be back in about an hour," I said to Carol, as I walked past the front desk and out of the lobby.

I drove through downtown traffic to Abe's Bar, my favorite place to go when I'm working. His cozy bar opens promptly at noon and the man always has some funny limerick to tell you. Best of all, he makes the best sandwiches and his waffle cut fries are amazing. He tells anyone who will listen that he makes weekly trips to Scholz Farms for his potatoes, carrots and of course apples.

"Hi, Rick, what'll ya have buddy..." Abe asked as I slid into an empty barstool.

"Hi Abe, just going to have my usual," I said, nodding a hello to the only other person sitting at the bar.

"Coming right up." Abe poured me an ice water and went back into the kitchen.

"The Seahawks are going to make the playoffs this season." The older man said, taking a bite out of his Reuben sandwich, nodding his head at the TV news anchor.

I nodded and smiled. I wasn't into football, I was more of a baseball guy. I was about to change the subject, ask him how he liked the sandwich, when something, or rather someone caught my eye.

She appeared in the room with the cool air billowing around her skirt. Umber skin never looked so beautiful on a woman. With long black braided hair and her head held high, she waltzed on with an effortless saunter. Her body was a work of art, so petite, yet curvaceous. Her dress hugged every single curve. The dress was appropriate, the neckline didn't show any cleavage. But on this beautiful woman, it merely covered her curves like gift wrapping. I had thoughts of ripping that dress off and see exactly what she's working with. I squinted, trying to get a closer look at her face. She was picking up an order, Sasha was ringing the order and before I could think of a reason to approach her, she had paid for her food and left.