He smiled again and strode off down the hall.
I walked back into my office. Sitting down behind the desk, I got back to work on the new marketing campaign. This one needed more oomph, since it would promote not only this complex but also the two new buildings I'd purchased and planned to refurbish in the same vein as this building. I hadn't asked my parents for money. I hadn't needed to. This apartment complex had become successful enough that I could get a loan from the bank, one I knew I could pay off swiftly once I got the new buildings up and running.
Two weeks had elapsed since I left Au Naturel Naturist Resort---and Ollie. He called me every day, twice a day, and we talked for hours sometimes. I'd told him all about the changes I was making to my business. He often told me how proud he was and how I amazing I was, which always made me blush. Ollie could see that, considering that we usually turned our calls in video chats.
Once, we even turned it into video phone sex. Yeah, that had been soooo hot.
He never asked when we would see each other again. Ollie was too sweet to pester me about that.
I wanted to see him in person. Wanted it so badly I dreamed about it every night. But I needed to finish what I'd started here first. How long could it take to get my chain of apartment complexes going full steam? It had taken months to get this one complex rolling along smoothly.
Waiting that long to see him...
Focus, Mara. You'll never get there unless you finish this marketing campaign.
For the rest of the day, I worked my brain to its limits. Then I headed home to my condo---the big, empty one. Sure, I had plenty of furniture and even artwork on the walls, but this place didn't feel like home anymore. The nudist resort did.
After ordering dinner in, I cuddled up on the sofa with my favorite fleece throw and an action movie on TV. Watching a hunky man fight the bad guys, getting sexily covered in sweat in the process, usually cheered me up. Tonight, it just made me think of Ollie.
Halfway through the movie, I heard the doorbell ring.
I paused the movie and padded over to the door, my fuzzy purple slippers dragging on the wood floor, and swung the door inward.
Nico grinned at me. "Mar-Mar, baby, I've missed you."
"Yeah, I know. I made sure you missed me every time you showed up at my work or showed up at my home or showed up anywhere within a ten-block radius of me."
Had I been running away from my ex-husband? Hell yes. I'd had enough of Nico at the resort, and I did not need to see him ever again.
"Come on, Mara," Nico said in a wheedling tone. "We can still work things out."
I laughed too loudly, because really, his statement was the dumbest thing I'd heard in ages. "Which part of me kicking you in the gut made you think I might ever want to see you again, much less get back together?"
"Thought you'd cool down and get back to being yourself. You know, now that you've gotten away from that freak show."
"I'm looking at a freak show right now." I flapped my hand in a go-away gesture. "Skedaddle."
"We belong together." He slid a hand up and down my arm. "You know I'm the only one who'll put up with your neurotic behavior."
I hadn't been neurotic since I left the resort. I'd found a new focus and a new determination to make my life what I wanted it to be instead of what others thought it should be.
"Go away," I told Nico. "Or do I need to get a restraining order?"
He grasped my shoulders and tugged me closer, lowering his lips toward mine.
I slapped both hands on his chest, stomped my foot down on his, and shoved him away.
Nico stumbled but didn't fall down. "Shit, Mara, what's your problem?"
"You, obviously."
The clacking of high heels made us both glance down the hall.
My mother was marching toward us, looking like a general about to kick the ass of her most derelict soldier. A general dressed in designer clothes. And wearing stiletto heels.
She rammed her stiletto down on Nico's foot and kneed him in the groin. "Get away from my daughter."
Doubled over, he gasped for air.
Mom bent to aim her glare straight into his eyes. "If you keep harassing Mara, I will call in every favor I'm owed to have you arrested and charged with stalking."
Nico finally caught his breath and straightened, though he cupped his privates like he thought Mom might nail him in the balls again. "You attacked me."
"Did I?" my mother said in her most frigid tone. "There's only one witness. What did you see, Mara?"
"Looked to me like he tripped."
Nico gaped at me. "And did what, hit my dick on the doorknob?"
I shrugged. "All I know is you fell before my mom got within ten feet of you. Maybe you had a few beers before you showed up at my apartment to harass and assault me."
"Assault you? I'm the one whose balls got burst like a balloon."
My mother dismissed his claim with a hand gesture and a soft snort. "You'll survive and still be fertile. Unfortunately."
"You two are crazy." Nico eyed us like he thought we might both jump on him and start tearing the flesh off his body. "I'm done with you, Mara. Done for good."
"Hallelujah," I said, raising my hands to the heavens.
Nico scurried off down the hall, practically flinging himself into the elevator when the doors opened.
Mom ushered me into my apartment. We both sat down on the sofa.
"Is that a Bruce Willis movie?" she asked, glancing at the TV. Her eyes lit up the way they often did at the prospect of a Die Hard movie. "Let's rewind and watch it together from the beginning. I
