Just Good Friends (12 page)

“
I don’t see why you won’t
marry Tyler for real,” Danielle said as she leaned back in her
chair and swirled around to face Tiffany. “I mean, you two are best
friends. You know everything about each other. Sure, he comes off
as a bit of a geek, what with those glasses and his love for
science fiction and whatnot, but he’s pretty good
looking.”

“
We’ve never felt anything
but friendship for each other,” Tiffany replied.

“
Kiss him and see what
happens.”

“
I’m not going to do
that.”

“
Why not?” When Tiffany
sighed and turned back to the letter, Danielle leaned toward her.
“Look, the only difference between a friend and a lover is that you
sleep with the lover. The fact that he’s your best friend is a
bonus. I’m telling you, my husband and I are best friends, and the
sex only makes it better.”

“
Yeah, but you didn’t start
out as his best friend,” Amy spoke up as she unlocked the front
door so customers could enter. “You were in love with him first.
The friendship followed.”

“
I see no reason why it
can’t go the other way,” Danielle argued. “All people don’t have to
follow one set of rules.” She turned back to Tiffany. “Amy didn’t
even like her husband when she first married him.”

“
That was because he married
me without my permission.”

“
Technically, he did have
your signature.” When Amy sighed, she added, “All I’m saying is
that love comes in many different ways. There is no right or wrong
to this whole thing. Why not just marry Tyler for real and enjoy
the fact that he’s a man and you’re a woman?” She wiggled her
eyebrows. “It’d make things a lot more fun after you two spend the
day together.”

“
I didn’t take you for a
romantic,” Amy teased.

Danielle smiled. “I have my moments.
Deep down, I believe in love. I also believe in chocolate. Amy, is
there any way you can talk that husband of yours into sending more
of those delicious European chocolates our way?” She glanced at
Tiffany. “They say chocolate is a natural aphrodisiac.”

“
We’re just friends,
Danielle,” Tiffany told her. “And that’s all we’ll ever
be.”

“
Danielle, please leave her
alone,” Amy said.

“
You two are no fun,”
Danielle muttered but didn’t say anything else about
Tyler.

Tiffany lowered her gaze and reread the
letter. It stated everything simple enough, but it still wasn’t
right. She couldn’t put her finger on what was wrong. Was it
because she knew they’d be disappointed?

The door opened, and the first customer
of the day entered. Tiffany quickly put her letter away and
indicated that she’d help him, glad for the much needed
distraction.

***

By the time Tyler opened the door to
his office, it was ten minutes past eight. He was late. He couldn’t
remember a time in his life when he’d ever been late. The whole
Thanksgiving weekend had been a disaster, and apparently, it was
taking him some time to get back to normal.

The wedding had gone smoothly enough,
he supposed, though his ears were still ringing from Zoe singing
her and Brad’s special song. As much as her parents wanted to
believe their daughter could do everything, singing definitely
wasn’t one of her talents. He hoped in the future, she’d confine
all singing to the shower. He put his briefcase on the desk and
plopped in his seat. He had to stop putting Zoe down.

Resting his head against the back of
his chair, he closed his eyes and cleared his mind of it all. He
was back home. Things could get back to normal, though he still
felt bad that Tiffany had to deal with the ramifications of his
lie. He’d have to find a way to make it up to her. He wasn’t sure
how yet, but he would.

A knock at the door made him open his
eyes, and he saw Nathan entering his office, holding a small piece
of paper in his hand. “Don’t tell me I’m paying you to sleep on the
job.”

“
I’m not sleeping,” Tyler
assured him as he straightened up.

“
Carmen was going to give
this to you, but I had to bring it myself.”

“
What is it?”

Nathan handed him the paper. “You got a
message from your mother-in-law.”

“
My what?”

“
That’s what I asked. I
thought for sure Carmen got the ‘in-law’ part wrong since you
aren’t married, but she insists that is how the woman referred to
herself. So,” Nathan sat in the chair in front of him and crossed
his legs, “do you want to adjust your tax withholdings because of
your spouse?”

“
I’m not married,” Tyler
said, already knowing this was going to lead to more questions.
Questions he really didn’t want to answer.

“
And yet Mrs. Clark, your
mother-in-law, asked you to call her back.”

“
She’s not my
mother-in-law.” He winced. “Sort of.”

“
I’ve never heard of a
sort-of-mother-in-law before. Either she is or she isn’t your
mother-in-law.”

“
She isn’t. She just thinks
she is.”

“
What?” Nathan asked, giving
him a look that told him he was going to have to explain
everything, even if Nathan had to bug him needlessly about
it.

“
In a moment of frustration,
I blurted out that Tiffany and I were married in front of the
entire family.” Or most of the family, but Nathan didn’t need to be
bothered with the details.

Nathan sat forward in interest. “Why
did you do that?”

“
The family is crazy.” Tyler
thought of how he could best explain it, but since words eluded
him, he decided to show him. He pulled out his smartphone and
pulled up the picture he’d taken. “Here. The first night we got
there, Tiffany’s mother did this to her bedroom.”

Nathan took it and chuckled. “Her poor
mother just wants to see her happy.”

“
She’s a little too
enthusiastic, though.”

“
Maybe, but Tiffany is
thirty-five. I’m sure her mother wants grandchildren.”

“
Not everything is about
having children, Nathan.” Nathan might have gotten married for that
reason, but other people—like him and Tiffany—didn’t want to get
married to give their parents a grandchild. When they married, they
wanted it to be because they found someone worth spending the rest
of their lives with.

“
I understand that, but it
might be what her mother is hoping for, and I can understand her
reason.”

“
I don’t think so. I think
she just wants to see her daughter married. No one brought up
children or grandchildren. It was all about marriage.”

“
So maybe her mom just wants
her to get married. There’s nothing wrong with that either. And,”
Nathan zoomed in on the book that had been on Tiffany’s bed and
showed it to Tyler, “this is actually a good idea. You will benefit
nicely from it.”

“
Oh for heaven’s sake,
Nathan.” Tyler grabbed the phone and shoved it back in his pocket.
“I didn’t show it to you for that reason. I’m just saying her
entire family went overboard. They didn’t even hint about us
getting married. They pretty much came out and told us to get
married.”

“
At least there won’t be any
miscommunication issues in your in-law relationship.”

“
There’s not going to be any
miscommunication issues because we’re not married. At all. We’re
just friends.”

Nathan shrugged. “I could marry you two
by proxy to solve all that.”

“
No, you won’t. And we’re
not interested in getting married.” Tyler leaned back in his seat
and groaned. “This is all my fault. If I’d just kept my big mouth
shut, her parents would leave me alone.”

“
Suit yourself,” Nathan said
as he rose to his feet.

Tyler ignored him as he left the room
and turned to his work. He threw the message from Tiffany’s mom in
the wastebasket. There was no way he was going to answer it. He had
nothing to say to her, and after she got Tiffany’s letter, she’d
want nothing to do with him anyway. He really wished Tiffany would
let him take the blame for everything, because the whole mess was
his fault. Her lie was a simple one to resolve. His wasn’t. Maybe
he should write the letter. Or, maybe he should call her back and
tell her the truth. Then he could take the blame, and Tiffany would
be free to get their sympathy. That’d be best. She was their child
after all. He didn’t ever have to see these people
again.

Decision made, he got ready to retrieve
the number from the wastebasket when Carmen told him he had a call
on line one. He picked it up. “Tyler Jackson, Vice President of
Rudolph Vacation Enterprises. How may I help you?”

“
Tyler! How are you doing,
son?” Tiffany’s dad greeted from the other end of the
phone.

“
Uh, Mr. Clark,” he said
then cleared his throat. If he wanted to explain what was going on,
now was a good time. “I’m glad you called. There’s something I need
to tell you about Friday night.”

“
Before you tell me your
news, I want to tell you mine.”

Noting the excitement in the man’s
voice, he ventured, “You have news?”

“
Good news! In fact, it’s
the first time my wife and I decided to do anything this
spontaneous.”

“
Oh?” Why did he have the
sinking feeling that he wasn’t going to like this?

“
We’re coming to visit you
and Tiffany!”

“
You’re what?” Tyler nearly
yelled in alarm.

Carmen glanced his way, and Nathan
popped back into the room, his eyebrows raised in interest as he
walked up to Tyler.

“
Now, don’t tell Tiffany. We
want it to be a surprise,” her dad continued. “We know how it must
seem to her. We spend so much time with Zoe and do everything for
her. It’s not fair to her. But you see, up to now, we haven’t been
able to afford to come for a visit. Fortunately, we just came into
a financial windfall and thought we’d take the trip down there. We
thought since you work at a travel agency, you could arrange the
tickets for us. We’ve never done this sort of thing before and
don’t know where to start.”

“
I…um…that is…” Tyler turned
his wide gaze to Carmen then Nathan. Just what should he say?
“I…oh, wow… This is so sudden.”

Nathan grabbed the phone. “This is
Nathan Rudolph, President of Rudolph Vacation Enterprises. May I
ask who I’m speaking to?”

Tyler struggled to remember what it
was, specifically, that he was supposed to say that’d make them
back off from this nonsense about coming down. But his mind went
blank.

“
Sure, I can help you with
that,” Nathan said and motioned for Tyler to scoot over.

Wondering what his friend was doing,
Tyler moved aside and watched as Nathan pulled up the screen for
plane tickets.

“
What days did you want to
come?” Nathan asked.

Tyler frowned. “What are you
doing?”

“
Hmm… Christmas is a very
busy time of year. You’d be better off doing it sooner. You can get
a better deal that way.”

Gasping, Tyler grabbed Nathan’s arm.
“No. Say all the flights are booked.”

Ignoring him, Nathan typed in December
2 to December 16 as the dates for travel.

December 2? That was tomorrow! “You
can’t do this,” Tyler hissed and tried to seize the phone from
him.

Nathan, however, expertly dodged
him.

Tyler turned his gaze to Carmen. “Would
you please help?”

Carmen nodded and clicked the button to
notify Nathan he had another call coming in. “It’s an emergency!”
she called out, waving to get Nathan’s attention.

Nathan glanced at Tyler and held his
hand over the phone. “I know all about that trick.”

“
You’re speaking to
Tiffany’s dad,” Tyler whispered.

“
I know. He introduced
himself.”

“
So, don’t give him
tickets.”

“
Don’t be silly. I’m not
giving him tickets.”

Relieved, Tyler asked, “You’re
not?”

“
Nope. I’m selling them to
him at a discount. You know how expensive first class seats are?
Especially this time of year, and on this short notice?”

Tyler’s jaw dropped as Nathan removed
his hand and said, “I have good news, Mr. Clark. The tickets you
want are available, and since you caught us on a day we’re doing a
special discount, you only have to pay a thousand dollars for you
and your lovely wife.”

“
Nathan,” Tyler hissed and
tried to grab the phone from him again. Tiffany was going to kill
him if this went through. “I have to tell him I’m not really
married to his daughter.”

Nathan turned his back to him. “There’s
no need to thank me,” he told her dad. Then he chuckled at whatever
her dad said on the other end. “Alright, alright. If you insist on
giving me something, then I only ask you enjoy your visit with your
daughter and son-in-law.” Tyler made another move to grab the
phone, but Nathan quickly went around the desk. “I have an idea,
Mr. Clark. Why don’t you come over and take a tour of my business
so you can see what your son-in-law and daughter do
here?”