Chapter 26

Mac played the conversation over and over in her head as she warmed up the leftovers from Callisto's. She was sure that there had been no hint of knowledge of the secret admirer and no indication at all that he wanted anything to do with her outside of work. He hadn't even suggested that they get together and have coffee some time. No, there wasn't any interest there on his part and she was just going to have to accept that.

AJ hung up the phone wondering if he should have done things differently. As far as he knew, there were no indications that Sarah connected him with her secret admirer. Would it really have hurt if he had asked her out for lunch one day? Or even just coffee for that matter? Still, now that the constraints of regulations no longer stood in his way, he might have been unable to hide his feelings for her.

No, it was better this way! Let her learn how important she was to him, how very special a person he found her. When that had been accomplished then would be time enough to reveal who he was. There were still several more surprises he had planned for her, as well as one additional thing he could do as a result of his conversation with her that evening. First thing on Monday morning he was going to call and add his personal recommendation to her application for the Judge position.

Her day at the spa was all that she could ever have imagined and more. She came out of there feeling like a pampered princess. She had to smile as she thought of her benefactor. There was no way she could have avoided thinking of him as she enjoyed being taken care of and being waited on hand and foot, but even if he had expected that she would spend the day thinking of him, there was one aspect he couldn't have predicted. During the orientation breakfast, she'd been told that she would need to choose a fragrance for all of the products they would be using on her that day. The staff wanted to make sure there wasn't a clash of many different scents from the dozen or more products they would use on her that day.

When she saw the list of choices, she knew there was really only one choice for her. The list had been: unscented, lavender, citrus, musk, rose, or gardenia.

She arrived home that evening with a package of the same products they had used on her at the spa. Body lotion from her massage, the shampoo and conditioner that had been used on her hair, as well as a selection of the makeup products used. Her mind was awhirl from the heady floral fragrance surrounding her and she had never felt more relaxed in her life.

That night she fell into bed and nearly slept the clock around, something unheard of for her. Usually she had trouble sleeping at all let alone for nearly twelve hours at a stretch, but she awoke mid morning on Sunday feeling better than she had in years.

Opening her front door to get the morning newspaper, that she normally would have had completely read by that time of the day, she found more than just her regular paper on her welcome mat.

Sitting directly on top of her Sunday newspaper was a gaily wrapped present. There was no shipping box, and no mail was delivered on Sundays, so the only explanation for its appearance was that it had been hand delivered.

Her apartment wasn't in a security building. There was no doorman on duty to monitor who came and went through the doors, there wasn't even a buzzer system that would require a guest to be 'buzzed' up by a tenant. So people came and went freely in the halls of the building, the residents trusting in the locks on the doors to their individual apartments to keep themselves and their belongings safe.

Mac however, didn't believe that safety was an issue in this latest delivery. She simply expected that it was another gift from her secret admirer. Maybe she should have been concerned that he knew where she lived, but she had known that by the arrival of other gifts. Maybe the concern should have been that he had been at her door that very morning, but again she wasn't worried about those things at all. All there was, was an overwhelming curiosity about this latest gift.

To be continued….