The Game Changer (26 page)

She wandered slowly through her office, calling goodbyes to a few of her co-workers who were staying late. The moment she stepped outside the building, she was hit with the rush hour noise that came with having an office building right downtown at the busy intersection of Front and Bridge Streets.

It was a comforting noise today. It, at least, hadn’t changed. People were still eager to get home, start dinner, greet their children, get ready for a night out or settle in for a night at home, and all the other normal things people did. Melody watched people walk past, alone and in groups—mothers pushing babies in strollers, couples holding hands, gaggles of teenage girls talking and laughing loudly.

She spotted a pair of teens waiting to cross the street, their heads bent together as if sharing a secret. They reminded Melody so much of herself and Olivia at that age—one with dark hair, the other fair, completely oblivious to their surroundings as they talked about that day’s gossip or their latest crushes.

Melody smiled to herself, feeling wistful. She was about to start the short walk home when her cell phone buzzed inside her purse.

Cameron’s about to pick me up, but say the word and I’ll cancel. We could stay in and have a girls’ night. I think we should talk.

Melody sighed. She knew that if she asked Olivia to cancel, she’d do it without hesitation. They could order food, watch movies, talk about all the things going on in their lives, and they’d have a great time, as they always did, but Melody would feel guilty. She was sure she’d hear that annoying little voice in the back of her mind telling her that she’d made Olivia choose, and she didn’t want to be that friend. She
refused
to be that friend.

No
, she texted back.
You go, have fun. We have the rest of the weekend to talk.

Her phone buzzed with a new message almost immediately.

You sure?

Yes.

We okay, Mel?

Always.

I’ll have my phone on all night if you need me. I can be home in less than ten minutes if you change your mind. Love you.

Melody held her phone in her hand for a moment, smiling slightly. She sent a quick reply, then tucked the phone into the pocket of her suit skirt. She drew in a deep breath, catching a faint whiff of the river mixed with exhaust fumes and food smells from the nearby eateries that lined the street on either side.

Pulling her phone back out of her pocket, she hit Julian’s number on speed dial and waited. “You know what I just realized?” she said by way of greeting when he answered the phone.

“That I’m devastatingly handsome and you can’t live without me?” Julian replied without missing a beat.

Melody laughed. “Well, yeah, of course, but that wasn’t actually it.” From his silence on the other end of the line, Melody guessed she had surprised him. Julian, speechless. She enjoyed the moment because she knew it wouldn’t happen often. “I was thinking that I’ve never been to your place.”

“Huh. You’re right.”

Melody could hear a keyboard clicking on the other end of the line, then a rustling sound like Julian was moving around.

“We can rectify that right now,” he said after a minute. “You home? I can be there in ten.”

Melody started walking quickly toward the crosswalk. “I’m just leaving work. Make it fifteen and I’ll meet you outside my apartment.”

She hurried home, kicking off her low heels the minute she walked in the door. She could smell something wonderful coming from the direction of the kitchen, and she took a minute to check out the casserole on the counter with a note attached from Olivia saying she’d made a peace offering so Melody wouldn’t have to cook. There were instructions underneath for heating it in the oven.

“Thank you, Miss Olivia,” Melody murmured to herself, taking the casserole and setting it on the table near the door before rushing to her room and changing into jeans and a tank top. By the time she slipped her feet into flip flops, grabbed the casserole, and got downstairs, Julian was pulling into the lot.

“So tell me,” Melody said as she slipped into the car and buckled her seatbelt, “why haven’t you invited me to your place before? Do you have some deep, dark secret you don’t want me to know about? An embarrassing roommate perhaps? Or maybe your parents don’t actually live in Ottawa, they live in Bellevue, and you live in the basement of their house with all your computer geekery taking up the entire space?”

“I’m going to ignore the ‘computer geekery’ thing,” Julian told her dryly, although Melody could see that his eyes were shining with amusement. “There’s no nefarious or embarrassing reason I haven’t invited you over. It was just an oversight, I guess. Plus your apartment’s just really cool.”

“It is,” Melody agreed, and Julian chuckled. “I’m actually pretty excited to see your place.”

“Yeah?” He glanced at her as he pulled out onto the street. “I hope it lives up to your expectations, then.”

Ten minutes later, after hitting every single red light on the way across town, Julian pulled into the underground lot of the Bay Terrace apartment building. Melody was impressed; Julian had told her shortly after they met that he lived on Dundas Street, but Melody assumed it was one of the small houses on the street, not one of the most exclusive buildings in all of Bellevue.

Julian parked in his designated spot, and they emerged from the car into the well-lit parking garage. He took the casserole from her and read the note Olivia left, but didn’t comment. Unlocking the side door, Julian held it open for Melody and let her go through first.

They walked down a long corridor and came out into a lobby at the front of the building. It was full of ornate red and gold furniture, and large potted plants in elaborate urns. While they waited for the elevator Melody noticed a security guard sitting at a desk in front of several monitors by the front door. He caught her eye and gave a polite smile and nod, which she returned.

“It’s a secure building,” Julian explained quietly, following her gaze and giving the guard a wave. “Twenty-four hour security. I have thousands of dollars worth of computer equipment in my apartment, so it makes me feel safe leaving for business trips and stuff, and knowing that nobody enters or leaves the building without clearance.”

Melody nodded. “Makes sense.”

They stepped into the elevator and rode to the twelfth floor. When they’d arrived at the building, Melody had imagined Julian living in the penthouse. Now, as they made their way down the hall and her flip flop clad feet sank into the lush carpet, she wondered what his apartment looked like. She’d given it some thought in passing before, and had pictured something modern and sparse, with huge leather couches and an enormous flat screen television. Now that she knew Julian had a ton of computer equipment in his apartment, she added that to her mental image as well.

Julian unlocked the door and ushered Melody inside, his hand warm on the small of her back. They stepped into a spacious entryway with a large closet on the right, and a doorway to the kitchen on the left. Melody peered into the kitchen and admired the striking teal cupboards, stainless steel appliances, and black granite countertops. A small two-seater table with an arrangement of fruit in the centre was pushed against the wall closest to them. On the far side of the kitchen, a doorway led into the rest of the apartment.

Melody felt Julian shift behind her, and realized she’d been standing there staring. She smiled at him and slipped out of her flip flops, noticing the gleaming hardwood floors for the first time. Stepping further into the apartment, Melody found herself in what she assumed most people would use as a dining room, but that Julian appeared to be using as an office. A large desk with a computer and comfortable looking high-backed chair dominated the space, and there were two smaller chairs facing the desk. The room flowed into the living room, and Melody grinned to herself when she noticed the leather couches.

No flatscreen, though,
she thought.
No TV at all, in fact. How odd.

“I don’t actually spend much time in here,” Julian explained, waving a hand to encompass the office area and sitting room. “It’s too…formal, I guess. When I need to meet clients and associates, this is where I do it because it looks more professional. I don’t want a big office in some stuffy corporate building, so I work from home, and I need to have people in sometimes. The sitting room is where I entertain clients—have them over for drinks, talk business, that sort of thing.”

He pointed to a small wet bar in the far corner of the room that Melody hadn’t noticed. If the curtains on the far wall were any indication, Melody imagined the windows spanned the entire wall and were floor-to-ceiling. She was slightly directionally challenged, but if she wasn’t mistaken, they were facing the bay.

“This is a really great place, Julian,” Melody said. “I bet you have an amazing view.”

“I do, and I’ll show it to you, but you haven’t seen everything yet.” He took her hand and pulled her further into the room. She tried to ignore the tingling in her fingers from the contact. It was a casual, friendly gesture, nothing more, but she couldn’t help noticing his hands were warm, dry, and slightly rough.

They passed a long hallway to the right with several open doors, but Melody didn’t have time to take in much of anything before they stopped in front of a set of frosted glass doors.

“Only friends are allowed past these doors,” Julian told her, the skin around his eyes crinkling as he smiled. “This is what I love most about this place. I can keep business and pleasure separate.”

He opened one of the doors and led her into a spacious room that ran the length of the formal sitting room. No leather couches in here; the charcoal-coloured couches and matching chairs were the kind you could sink into and lounge for hours. Shelves full of books lined one wall, and Melody finally saw the big screen TV she’d been expecting. Despite the size of the room, it felt comfortable and homey. Photographs were scattered throughout the bookcase, and there were framed black and white prints of Paris, London, and New York City on the wall behind one of the couches.

Melody was seriously impressed. This place wasn’t what she’d imagined at all.

“Now, the view,” Julian said. He inclined his head toward the far wall, which, like the formal sitting room, consisted of an expanse of dark curtains. “I don’t normally keep the curtains closed, but they had one of those window cleaning crews out this week, and I didn’t want them seeing inside my apartment as they scaled the building.”

He crossed the room, indicating for Melody to follow him, and pulled the curtains back. As Melody suspected, there was a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows with sliding glass doors in the centre that led to a balcony. Julian unlatched the door and slid it open, then stepped back so Melody could go out first.

“Wow,” Melody breathed. The view was incredible; Bellevue stretched out before them, with the bay glistening just across the street and down a little hill. Sailboats and speedboats dotted the water, making the scene appear picture-perfect. Melody could even see the bayfront trail with its walkers and cyclists and rollerbladers looking like busy little ants from this distance.

The balcony itself stretched across the full length of Julian’s apartment, and had two doors—the one they’d just used, and one in the window of walls in the main part of the apartment. A glass-topped table and high-backed wooden chairs sat on the far side of the balcony, and two reclining deck chairs took up space to the side of where Melody and Julian stood.

“This place is huge,” Melody commented. “I’d heard the apartments in here were nice, but I had no idea just
how
nice.”

Julian leaned against the balcony railing, resting his elbows along the top. “They are nice. Sometimes I think I don’t really need a place this big, but I like it. I’m not quite ready for a house yet, so this is the next best thing.”

“I used to feel the same way about my place,” Melody told him. “It was really too big for just me, but I didn’t care because I loved it and it was
home
. It’s in a great location, close to work, on a bus route, and within walking distance of almost everything I need. Plus…well, I guess I always thought Rick would end up moving in with me someday.”

“Bet you’re glad now that it didn’t work out that way, though.”

Melody hadn’t really thought about it. She would admit that she still thought about Rick more than she probably should, but it wasn’t a conscious thing. She tried hard
not
to think about him; it just sort of happened. It was one of the post break-up hazards of being with someone for such a long time—you were used to thinking of them, and it took time to train your brain to stop.