A Beautiful Mess

Chapter 4

Sydney walked into the small conference annex at the back of the hotel property where breakfast was served every day between seven and eight in the morning. She didn't eat in the annex during the week, only on the weekend when most of the students were still in their beds after having a late night the night before. The coffee smelled delicious as she entered and she was starving, so she grabbed a plate and started to fill it without delay.

She was adding a final piece of bacon to her massive pile of food when Dr. Easton entered with Flora behind him. She gave him a quick glance and then turned toward a table by one of the small windows.

"You've decided to eat this morning?" he asked, moving toward the buffet.

"Yes." They were the only two in the room, and there was a heavy and awkward silence between them. All that was heard was the clatter of dishes and Flora's panting. Flora snuck over to Sydney for a quick pat and to ask for a piece of bacon, which Sydney silently slipped to her. Unfortunately, Flora was not very subtle about chewing it. Sydney snuck a look over at Dr. Easton, but his back was to her so she couldn't see his reaction.

He finished loading his plate and took a seat a few tables away, unfolding the newspaper he had been holding under his arm. Poor Flora was torn as she wandered back and forth between them. She didn't know who to beg from; it was a chancy business.

Feeling sorry for the dog, Sydney picked up her plate and moved a table near where Dr. Easton was sitting. She didn't sit at the same table he was seated at, but she did sit at the one next to his, allowing Flora to sit between the two of them easily.

"You're going to make her fat," he said, but his tone didn't sound serious.

"She's got a ways to go yet," Sydney replied, pushing her luck and sliding Flora a piece of pancake, smiling with joy at the look of pleasure on Flora's face. "I think that's her favorite," she laughed, looking up at Dr. Easton while she licked the sticky syrup off her fingers.

He was looking at her with a frown as their eyes met.

"Sorry," she apologized as she picked up her fork.

"For?"

"I forgot, we don't get along."

"What about feeding my dog without permission, are you sorry for that?" He raised an eyebrow in question.

"No, but if you tell me not to then, I won't." She shrugged and waited, watching Flora, and when he didn't say anything she eventually went back to eating. If he had told her not to feed Flora Sydney would have complied, but it would have been hard so she was relieved that he hadn't.

They were both halfway through their breakfast when Theresa came sliding in looking a little green. She looked between the two of them and took in their silence, looking relieved. Then her nose twitched at the smell of the food, and she quickly looked away from it as she poured herself a cup of coffee before joining Dr. Easton at his table.

"Will you need me to watch Flora this weekend?" she asked. Looking over at the dog who was ignoring her. Sydney had learned that Theresa didn't much care for dogs, which was another reason why Flora's care had been given over to Sydney.

"No thanks." Dr. Easton looked up with a smile and Sydney, who had been watching their interaction, looked away quickly. She would give anything to have him smile at her like that.

"What about work, will you need me to help you out at the site today?" Theresa asked hopefully.

"No, I'm just going to work on a few personal things."

Sydney had heard enough, and since she had finished with her breakfast, she rose from the table bussing her plate as she went. She stepped out into the sunshine breathing a sigh of relief and rolling her shoulders in an attempt to ease some of the tension in them.

If Dr. Easton were a smart man, he would realize that she was the one taking care of Flora, not Theresa.

*******

Cole did realize it. He knew that Flora didn't take to most people, and it was evident that she liked Sydney, but was it because she was caring for the dog or was it because she was the one that spent all day in the site trailer with her? He had a suspicion that it was the former because Flora didn't seem to be even slightly interested in Theresa.

Following Sydney's lead, he rose from the table, telling Theresa to have a good day as he bussed his plate. He was planning to spend the day at the trailer, and he was going to head straight there. He could have spent the night there and not taken a room, but the small shower didn't have hot water, and he wasn't keen on taking cold showers if he didn't have to.

It was a short drive, and when he arrived he took a quick look around the empty site before settling in behind his desk. He should have gotten right to work, but his thoughts had strayed to Sydney. He was starting to realize that there was a lot more to her than met the eye. She came across as meek with her family, uncaring and hard with him, and yet there were others, like the boy in the restaurant, the Millers, and even his dog, who had an apparent warm regard for her.

So, which woman was she?

He looked over at Flora who had curled her large form up on the couch across from the desk. "I know what you think so you're no help," he admonished the dog, who closed her eyes with a deep sigh.

Cole looked over to Sydney's neat desk and had to admit that she was doing an excellent job keeping up with cleaning and cataloging the artifacts that were found on site. He barely saw her and had wondered about that fact but hadn't taken any real time to mull it over; now he did take the time.

He was always the first to arrive and the last to leave the site every day, and he never saw Sydney except occasionally in passing, but he knew she had been there because things had moved. Was there some way she was playing the system, only working part-time? Cole felt his anger start to rise at the thought.

He still didn't have a clue as to why she was even on his dig site. To him, it felt like another setup. Another way for her to be thrown in his path in hopes of something developing. It was in keeping with her past behavior. His anger rose a notch as he thought about the way she, and others like her, believed they could buy whatever they wanted. The only difference was that most times, with other women, it didn't bother him that much, but with Sydney it did.

Anger was good. Anger helped him keep his distance and forget the way she had felt when she had pressed herself against him in the pool all those years ago. It had taken him a long while to forget about the sight and feel of her and even now, when he saw her unexpectedly, it was a memory that came flooding back, and he hated himself for it.

Cole turned his mind away from the present, remembering the past. Specifically that night in her parent's pool. It was a night that he wasn't likely to forget anytime soon, although he had tried. He had stopped seeing her as a girl that night. Her curves had been all woman and to his dismay he had been drawn to her.

Part of him thought that it was a little over the top to believe that Sydney had been lying in wait for him that night but the other part of him, the part of him that had been hurt in the past, believed it was a well thought out move. All she would have to do was claim that it had happened and his career would be over, but she never had.

He wasn't dumb or blind, and he knew that his words that night had hurt her, but she had done an excellent job at hiding it. Her lack of embarrassment and concern about the situation the few times that they had met over the past four years only proved to him that she was as lacking in feelings and morals, as were most of the women he knew in his family's social circle.

With a sigh Cole drew a stack of paperwork toward him. He would have to find out from Theresa if she was possibly cheating the system by not working her forty hours and deal with it accordingly, but for now he had to get on with his work. He would also have to keep an eye on her relationship with the Millers because he had little doubt that she was up to something there as well.

Anger and doubt were good, and he would hang onto them. It would keep him from remembering the way her skin had felt pressed against him.