Forever Starts Tomorrow (3 page)

‘Wow. You must really think I am a total idiot.’ She laughed a short, bitter laugh that hurt her throat. ‘Maybe it’s my fault, too. I allowed you to make me this stupid, naïve… dummy. Do you really think I’d believe that your precious Vanessa could have any input into your business? But you know what? It doesn’t matter, after all. You’re a liar and I’m done. ’

She didn’t wait for his response as she turned away and pushed her way through the crowd. She had to leave before she burst into tears. She’d be damned if she let him see her like that. The adrenaline rush was swiftly receding, only to be replaced by utter misery.

She reached the door, her legs shaking so hard she almost tumbled down the steps. The sun, previously hidden behind a thick fog, broke through, and its rays blinded her temporarily. She blinked, stunned by the golden haze, her own pain at odds with the beauty of the late-June day.

‘Wait!’

She turned and saw Scott following her outside, his face grim. ‘You can’t just walk out on me like that, Mel. I told you what happened. What more do you want from me?’

‘ I don’t believe you’re telling the truth,’ she retaliated, her eyes scouring the street for a cab. She didn’t like them, but wouldn’t trust herself to drive in her current state of mind. She could feel her teeth chatter, the beginnings of a sob rising in her throat and demanding to be unleashed. ‘You’re lying to me, and you know it. Somehow you have forgotten to mention this… business meeting with Vanessa when you told me you couldn’t make it to the party. If you knew it was nothing out of the ordinary, why would you lie about that? This isn’t the first time you’ve met with her, is it? How long, exactly, have the two of you been having your business meetings?’

‘I didn’t talk about it because it has nothing to do with us.’ He was just a foot away, his large frame looming over her with an intensity that should have frightened her, but somehow didn’t. ‘This is my work. I won’t apologize for caring about it, not to you and not to anyone else.’

He actually dared to make it a case about his dedication to his work! ‘Nothing to do with us?’ she screeched, too enraged to care about appearances any longer. ‘You are meeting with a woman you used to sleep with for a long time and who you think is just wonderful and you tell me it has nothing to do with us? What does it make me? Your consolation prize?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ They were starting to gather looks, but neither of them cared. ‘You know that I have been involved with other people. I’ve never lied about it to you, have I?’

‘No, you haven’t.’ She shook her head, her rage burning out almost as fast as it had started. She was tired, horribly tired, and hopeless, her world falling into pieces that refused to recreate the perfect picture that was her life. ‘You don’t really lie. You just omit things you find inconvenient, don’t you? Like the fact you would have married Vanessa if she didn’t tell you she’d never get married to anyone. Isn’t that the truth?’

She hoped to God that he’d deny it. She hoped he’d tell her that she was being crazy and that he never intended to marry that red-haired goddess with the face of a Botticelli angel—that he never regretted their breakup.

‘Probably’ he said. That one word shattered her into a million tiny pieces, irrevocably broken. ‘Yeah, I was crazy about her at some point. But I am with you. Nobody forced me to do that. I am with you because that is what I want.’

‘Do you really?’ She looked at him as if he were a stranger. It was difficult to do, the familiarity of his body and mind making it almost impossible. She needed to step out of his shadow and reclaim her objective view, she thought, as she watched the man who had been her fiancé.

‘I think you are with me because I am convenient. Reliable, predictable, and convenient.’ Tears moistened her eyelashes, and she blinked hard, determined to stay calm. ‘I am not your first choice. Probably not your second, either. You just like the idea of having someone to fill the silence, if you’re in the right mood. I am tired of playing this part. We’ve been living like strangers for weeks now. I’m moving out.’

She’d said it. She’d actually said it. She felt dizzy and miserable, her whole body frozen with a pain that was absolutely physical. She looked up into his face, not quite sure what she hoped to find in his handsome features. Remorse, sadness, desperation? He had to care a little about their engagement, hadn’t he? It had been his idea, anyway. She tried not to walk down memory lane. The blurred image of his tender, smiling face bent over hers as he sealed their agreement with a kiss was too painful to dwell on.

She hoped in vain. Scott stared at her as if he saw her for the first time, his dark eyebrows drawn into one straight line. He looked surprised, but as she searched for any kind of deeper emotion, she was disappointed.

‘Just like that?’ he asked quietly, his beautiful voice cool and measured. ‘No second thoughts?’

‘I had second thoughts before I came here and saw you with Vanessa,’ she whispered, unable to speak louder. ‘I still had them as I watched you making eyes at each other in there.’ She gestured toward the restaurant, her head moving jerkily as she fought for composure. ‘I even had them when we walked out here. But you made it very clear, didn’t you? You are still lying and keeping secrets, expecting me to just play along and accommodate whatever the fancy strikes you to do.’

If he would ask for forgiveness and explain himself, it wouldn’t be too late to fix the situation. If only he would drop his façade of indifference and admit that he’d messed up, lying to her and hiding the fact he was meeting the one woman she could never measure up to. She could never be Vanessa, not in a million years.

Scott had no intention of apologizing or explaining anything. Any hopes she might have harbored up to that point were smashed as she saw him step back, his expression calm and detached. He shrugged, the gesture final in its indifference. ‘I don’t intend to stand here and vivisect our lives in front of the whole world. That's not my style; you should know that.’ He watched her as if she were a stranger, and not a very appealing one, at that. She had to swallow hard to dislodge the tight lump of misery that blocked her throat and made breathing barely possible. Could he really go from being her fiancé to a closed-off, dismissive man who seemed impatient to finish their conversation and return to the restaurant? But wasn’t that how he dealt with his business partners? She’d known that he possessed an uncanny ability to cut loose and move on whenever his brilliant mind told him he needed to shake things up. Only, she never thought he’d cut loose from her.

‘I’m going home.’ She shook her head, too miserable to keep up appearances for much longer. She’d be damned if she let him see her fall apart. ‘I need to pack up. I’ll spend a few days at my apartment downtown. If you want to talk, you know where to find me. See you later. ’

He didn’t stop her as she hailed the cab, his tall frame as motionless as a statue, devoid of all human emotions. She held her breath, hoping that finally, miraculously, he’d change his mind and forbid her to leave—grab her hand and pull her close, silencing her rambling with a kiss. It couldn’t fix everything, but it would be a beginning. She wanted him to do it, she realized, as she opened the cab door with sluggish and reluctant movements. She wanted him to stop her, for God’s sake! Melanie gave the cabbie the address, her voice alien to her own ears. She sounded frightened and sad, she thought miserably, as the truth finally set in and she realized he’d do no such thing. She should have been glad that the apartment she’d rented out, for the few months she’d lived with Scott, had just been vacated. The couple she'd rented it to had moved to the East Coast, and Melanie was planning a small renovation before selling it for good. It might well turn out that she’d have to change her plans and stay there.

As the cab pulled away from the curb, Melanie turned back to look at Scott, and her eyes caught his tall silhouette disappearing through the doorway leading back to the restaurant. Back to Vanessa.

It was the end of her dream. The man who had become the center of her universe had just discarded their love as if it didn’t matter. She wasn’t sure what hurt more: the realization that they were over, or the suspicion that maybe they weren’t ever really together.

TWO

Seven months earlier
.

She met Scott in the fall, their paths crossing in that one perfect moment that was forever etched into her memory. She wasn’t supposed to meet him. If she’d had it her way, she’d have spent the early November evening gardening in the miniscule garden that came with the place she was sharing with a friend. She had moved in with Samantha even though, at the time, she needed a break from people and conversations. Samantha had insisted, and in the end, it was the only way for Melanie to buy herself some peace and quiet. Sharing a place with a woman who wouldn’t take no for an answer could be a drag. Still, she had to be grateful for the offer, since she needed a place to stay while her own place was being renovated.
Two more weeks
, she told herself, as she watched Sam work herself into a frenzy—which wasn’t a pretty sight.

‘Honestly, Mel. I thought you would be all over this party.’ Short and skinny, Sam looked barely fifteen, a deceiving look for a woman who held two degrees and worked in one of the best consulting companies in town. ‘I mean, it has all the things you’re crazy about. Saving the environment, saving the animals, saving us from chemicals… gosh, it’s tailored to lure you in.’

‘When you put it like that, I sound like a hippie.’ Melanie couldn’t help but grin, Sam’s exasperation softening her resistance. ‘I just don’t see the point of going to an event full of people who don’t give a damn about any of the above but have enough money to expect the rest of us to cater to them.’

‘See, told ya.’ Sam poured herself a generous glass of red wine, her cheeks reddened with excitement. ‘I wouldn’t ask you if it wasn’t for Betsy, who decided to get a stomach bug just as we were done with planning the seating arrangements. Brad is frantic. Betsy is the one who handles all the environmental stuff. She has already prepared a short speech for Brad to deliver; thank goodness for that. But we need someone who’s able to chat about those things during dinner. Someone who actually has a clue.’

Brad was aspiring to become a partner in the company Sam worked for—plus, he was her boyfriend. Melanie had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. The super-sporty and super-active man reminded her of a race horse.

‘Can’t you substitute with someone from work?’ she asked now, her blue eyes skeptical. ‘Don’t tell me that you can’t find a woman in your company who would not want to spend an evening sipping champagne with the crème de la crème of the city? I don’t even work for you guys. All I’ve done is help you to build a website. What good will my presence really do?’

‘You’re kidding, right?’ Sam laughed, her brown eyes disbelieving. ‘You’re smart, and funny, and super cute. Exactly what we need to make the dinner a success. Brad needs this evening to establish some new connections, Mel. He’s started working in the new department, and so far it isn’t doing so great.’ She sighed and seemed torn about sharing more. ‘He worked his butt off to advertise the event and invited a bunch of people who could make it happen. Some of them, I still can’t believe he actually got to commit. If he can pull it off, he’ll look really good. His boss basically let him do it from scratch, probably thinking it would never work out.’

‘Wonderful for you guys.’ If Sam thought she’d win her over with that rain of compliments, she was wrong. If anything, it made her feel cheap, as if she were an escort of some kind.

‘You’re my best friend, Mel. And you are working for Animatix, right? Don’t tell me they wouldn’t be happy if you got your foot in the door with people like Jack Truman and Bill McDerrick. Not to mention Scott Masden… I hate the guy but have to admit that he matters. Brad is super excited that he agreed to come. If you ask me, I still hope he’ll break a leg and won’t show.’

Melanie wasn’t even going to ask what caused such animosity toward a man she could only vaguely recall from a few photographs she’d seen online. She was interested in neither his apparent talent for making money nor his personal shortcomings. She’d left behind the world of money and corporate ambitions when she quit her job at the Lawson and Barney law firm, almost two years ago. She’d switched to a website designing company that was still in the early stages of development, but never regretted her choice.

‘You can mingle and chat a bit; that’s all we need from you. Brad will give the commencing speech, and from there it’s all very informal.’ Sam wasn’t ready to give up, apparently. ‘We just need someone at the table with Scott and a few other people. The evening has to go smoothly; too much depends on it.’

She knew that both Brad and Sam were decent people. They worked hard in a company that not only provided business analysis to large companies but also was dedicated to smaller businesses. It used part of its profits to help set up a charity supporting business initiatives around the globe. Brad had prepared the event in question, and if he messed up, he’d look really bad in front of his boss. She recalled how pumped he’d been only weeks before, telling her he’d been put in charge of that department. He claimed he’d change people’s lives, and his exuberance had not annoyed her at all, for once.

She sighed, resigned, making a silent promise to herself to make it a one-time event. As much as Melanie liked Sam, going to parties like that wasn’t her thing. Fake smiles, competitions in who wore what, subtle and not so subtle innuendos. She could do without it, even if it meant being teased as a homebody.

‘Two hours, tops,’ she grumbled and was rewarded with a bear hug, Sam’s enthusiastic promises to make her enjoy the evening not really convincing her she did the right thing.

‘You’ll see. It will be well worth your time,’ her friend insisted, and Melanie nodded, giving up the fight. Maybe Sam was right. After all, what could happen in two hours? She’d be in and out, and everyone would be happy. She’d help her friends and forget the whole hubbub by the next morning.