Love Thief by Teona Bell Page B

article she had found about creating platforms in C sharp, hoping it would give her some new insight. To her right, footsteps sounded in the hall, but she didn’t pay them any mind. One more sentence, and she would stick the key in the door and lock it. Wait, what did that term mean? She tried manipulating the screen to a new window to do a search.
    Charmaine’s tablet tipped too far for her to catch it, and all she could think about was the screen shattering and the cost of getting it fixed or replacing the entire tablet. She screeched and leaped forward, both hands extended. At the same time, a speeding train barreled into her and knocked her sideways. Another yelp escaped her, and strong male hands encircled her waist.
    Charmaine went down to the floor, face up with the tablet somehow under her. She glared into the greenest eyes she had ever seen. He had bent to one knee with his hands still clinging to her hips. Charmaine sat forward, but he didn’t move back fast enough. She had to turn her head to keep from kissing him on the lips.
    Aggravated, she shouldered him back farther. “Get off me, damn it!”
    He scrambled to his feet and held out a hand. “I’m sorry. Are you okay?”
    Charmaine ignored the stirrings in her body to slap his hand away and stand on her own. She was too busy snatching up her tablet and checking it over to look into the man’s face again. Idiot should have looked where he was going before he mowed down unsuspecting women.
    “Of all the rough, clumsy…” she muttered and continued down the hall. Then she recalled she never did lock her apartment door and spun back around. Once again, she smashed into the big man and yelped in pain. Charmaine raised a hand to her forehead and rubbed it long-sufferingly. She shut her eyes. “Are you going to move, or should I?”
    “I’m trying, but when beautiful clumsy women get in the way…”
    “Stuff it,” she growled and spared him another glance.
    Charmaine managed to at last get herself and her tablet out of his path, and she locked her door then headed to the elevator.
    “Good morning,” came his deep voice from somewhere to her left.
    She didn’t raise her head but grunted.
    “Nice weather we’re having.”
    Another grunt from her. The bell dinged for the first level, and when the doors swung open, she made for the street. As Charmaine walked toward the curb, the strap on her heel broke, and she hopped on one foot while she removed the shoe. She examined the shoe—ruined. “Son of a bi—this is not a good day.”
    All the way back to her apartment, Charmaine grumbled, changed her shoes, popped pain pills for her still throbbing head, and then headed out again. She was late for work in the end, and she blamed it on her sister for calling and the idiot big oaf, whoever he was in the hall. If she could just stick to her own plan and have everyone stay out of her way, life would be perfect. Yeah, if only!
     

Chapter Two
     
    Six months later…
     
    Charmaine pulled into the lot and cut the engine. She peered out through the windshield frowning. “This the place you meant?”
    The little girl beside her with the long dirty blonde hair looked up and nodded. Charmaine had looked at that hair when she went to pick up the four-year-old and groaned. She would be responsible for doing it from now on. Amaya being biracial, her hair would be this way, but it didn’t make Charmaine’s life easier.
    “This car is dirty,” Amaya announced in a high-pitched voice. She had spotted the discarded wrapper Charmaine had left on the floor that morning. “You should clean it out.”
    Charmaine sighed and reached for the wadded paper. “I cleaned it out. That one was an accident.”
    Amaya, the pain in her rear, found another one. “What about that?”
    “Are we here for your books or trash hunting?”
    The little girl unbuckled her seat belt and climbed out of the car. Charmaine followed. She watched as Amaya ran to the entrance to the medium