by Lauren Wood
I had a weird feeling all week leading up to the opening where I kept fighting the urge to invite Kate to join us. If she couldn’t even stand to hang out with me and watch a movie, she definitely wouldn’t want to accompany me to a work thing. Why would she? We both made our mistakes. I offered my help in getting her out of a jam to make up for it. That was over, and now so were we.
While everyone lined up to get their free samples of food and drink, I hung back and sipped on my champagne. After the initial buzz, Damon made his way over to me with a small plate of food.
“There you are. Where have you been? I haven’t seen you since that night you flew out of my club in a hurry.”
It hurt a little to be reminded of how much excitement I felt that night, rushing back over to Kate’s place. While it was more than worth it, I had felt empty and lonely ever since.
“Sorry, man. I’ve been busy. And hanging out at home a lot more than usual,” I explained.
He nodded with a skeptical look just as Nick and Joey popped up around us.
“This place looks amazing,” I noted. “We really have brought it a long way.”
“This was all your idea,” Nick reminded me. “I have to admit, I thought it was a waste of money and resources at first, but looking at it now … This was definitely the way to go.”
Angel crossed the room from where the girls were gathered, and wrapped her arm around Joey’s side. “How’s the food?” she asked. “Everything good?”
“The best damn thing in here,” Nick smiled, bringing a skewer of glazed meats and veggies to his mouth. We all agreed as we continued enjoying our samples.
“I’m definitely looking forward to having your food for lunch every day,” I admitted sincerely.
She smiled with gratitude. “Oh, Ben. Where’s Kate? I was surprised not to see her here today.”
I wrinkled my brow at her. “Why would she be here? You know we’re just friends. If you could even call it that.”
“I know that’s what you were calling it … but when you two were at the house together that one afternoon, I guess I just assumed it was all flourishing into something more from there.”
I felt a little embarrassed and on the spot, and wasn’t in the best frame of mind to play it off. Joey picked up on my discomfort and looked down to Angel. “Uh, honey? Why don’t you go mingle? Pass out your business cards and remind everyone that they can also pop by your restaurant to get more of your delicious food.”
“Please do,” Nick added. “Del is using this as a chance to promote her boutique too.”
“Sure,” she shrugged. “See you guys later.”
The guys crowded in around me, and I could tell they were either about to give me a pep talk or a lecture. Maybe a little bit of both.
“Why didn’t you just tell her?” Joey asked without hesitation.
“Tell her what?”
Nick stared us down cluelessly. “What did I miss?”
“Our boy here got himself into a fake engagement fiasco with this chick and her job,” Damon explained.
“Not just fake engagement, but they were using my kid as her fake step-child too,” Joey smirked.
“You mean that crazy woman that was storming out of the office not long ago?” Nick asked. “I assumed she was just some disgruntled lover.”
“That’s exactly why that thing’s not still going,” I told him. “So she doesn’t become a disgruntled lover.”
“Or was it so you don’t become the disgruntled one?” Joey accused.
Truthfully, if I was trying to avoid that … It was already too late. But I wasn’t going to admit that to anyone. I knew how these things worked. It was nothing more than a crush and it would pass. The longer I went without seeing or talking to Kate, the easier it would be to forget about her. I had done it a million times before … even if usually that involved my feelings for the woman lessening after we slept together, rather than getting stronger.
“Look, guys. I appreciate you trying to turn every new woman I meet into some kind of happily ever after bullshit like what you’ve all found with your wives. But I’m just not that kind of guy. Kate and I are just friends. Not even that. Acquaintances. And I’m not throwing in the towel on my bachelor life any time soon. Maybe ever,” I defended.
“So then I guess I’ll be seeing you at the club tonight?” Damon asked. “I miss watching you hit on all the women and placing bets on if you strike out or not.”
“That’s an easy bet to place since I rarely strike out,” I boasted, smugly sipping from my glass.
They all laughed and we carried on with the celebration. Things were already starting to feel better. Kate was like a brief dramatic storm that blazed through my life, spicing things up for a bit. But I was more than ready to move on.
After mingling with all of our clients and getting my own tastings from the different small, airport-style restaurants, the guys and I gathered again to go over a few upcoming work deadlines and other business. It felt good to throw myself into work and socializing as a distraction from whatever blip of weirdness I had been feeling.
Nick was in the middle of giving us a rundown of a few key contracts coming up that needed to be finalized when my phone buzzed in my pocket. With my champagne in one hand, I reached in and pulled it out to glance at the screen.
Kate: Sorry to bother you, but call me when you can.
Something told me I should just ignore it, but I was awfully curious about what she had to say. I excused myself from the guys and stepped off into a quieter corner of the room before dialing her number.
“Hey!” she answered almost immediately. “Thanks so much for getting back to me.”
I ignored the wash of happiness I felt from hearing her voice. “Yeah, I am kind of in the middle of something. What’s up?”
“Of course, I won’t keep you long. The thing is … I kind of have another favor to ask of you,” she explained. “I hate to even have to ask, but there are some benefits in it this time. At least there are for Olivia.”
“Kate … ” I replied slowly. “I know how desperate you are to pull this thing off with your job, but … I really can’t keep … ”
“No, I know,” she cut me off. “I know you’ve done more than enough. So have Joey and Angel for going along with this whole thing. But there’s this toy testing group we’re conducting as research for our pitches to Nesters Toy Company. Greg asked us to bring our own kids to participate because he thought we could better gauge reactions with kids we actually know. I would have made up some excuse to get out of it, but the thing is … Olivia would get to spend the afternoon playing with all of these fun toys and then at the end she gets to keep her favorite ones. I just thought … well, I thought it sounded like a lot of fun for her, and I really want to be able to give something back to all of you for helping. Especially her,” she laughed softly. “Even though she’s had no clue what’s been going on this whole time.”
I quietly considered it for a moment, weighing the pros and cons, when she chimed in again. “Please, Ben. Would you bring Olivia? If not, I can say she’s sick or something. But I really want to do this for her. And since I have spent some time around her, it really would be some interesting feedback for the products.”
“Free toys, huh?” I responded finally. “I guess I’d hate to be the grouch that denied free toys to my favorite little girl.”
“So you’ll do it!?”
“I’ll talk to Joey and Angel about it. Text me the details, okay? I gotta run.”
She was letting out a long string of frantic ‘thank you’s’ as I hung up the phone. As I returned to the party, I kept reminding myself … this was entirely about getting some free swag for Olivia, and had absolutely nothing to do with seeing Kate again. I was completely indifferent to all things Kate.
13
Kate
Work had turned into a welcome distraction from any lingering icky feelings about everything that had hap
pened with Ben and I. And I really was prepared to never see him again. But I couldn’t deny the swell of excitement I felt with the excuse to see him again, even if that wasn’t my main motivation in inviting them along.
I was buzzing through the building to get everything ready for the toy testing group when I passed Chuck in the hallway. I tried to bolt right past him, but of course he wasn’t going to let me off that easily.
“Kate! Is everything all set up in the playroom?” he asked.
Even though Chuck and Greg were supposed to be some kind of kid experts since they had families of their own, somehow I still got roped into fixing up the room for the kids and the new line of toys that Nesters had sent over.
“Yep! It’s all ready to go,” I replied, trying to breeze right past him. “I’m just on my way out to meet Ben and Olivia now and show them in. Is Diane already here with your kiddos?”
A strange look washed over his face. “Oh yeah. My wife and kids are here and ready to play. So Ben’s really here?”
I wrinkled my brow. “Yeah, he’s really here. Why wouldn’t he be?”
He flashed an arrogant grin. “Oh I don’t know. Maybe because it’s obvious this whole thing is something you’ve concocted to get the promotion.”
“Excuse me?”
“Come on, Kate. Drop the act,” he scoffed. “You might have Greg and everyone else fooled, but I’m onto you. In all the years you’ve been working at this firm, you’ve hardly even dated. Now you so conveniently pop up with a fiancé and a kid that none of us heard about before.”
“I’m a private person,” I defended. “Just because I don’t sit around the break room rambling on about my personal life doesn’t mean I don’t have one.”
“Riiight,” he said slowly. “You can lie up one way and down the other. But I know there’s something fishy about this whole thing. And you better believe I intend on finding out what it is and exposing you to Greg and the clients. I am not about to let you rip this promotion out from under me.”
“The promotion will go to whoever deserves it the most,” I responded confidently. “So you go right ahead and waste your time worrying about whatever I’m doing instead of focusing on your pitch to the client. You and I both know you have me do half of your work for you anyway. Without my help, which you never give me credit for, your pitch is going to fall flat.”
“May the best man win,” he smirked.
“Or woman,” I fired back as I turned down the hall.
I played it cool in front of him, but the second walked away my eyes grew wide and my face twisted into panic. Those few appearances should have been more than enough to convince him. They did with everyone else, so what was his problem?
My mind was reeling as I walked into the lobby just as Ben was strolling in, hunched over to hold Olivia’s hand as she took her little steps by his side. I was already overwhelmed with Chuck’s threats, and now I had to deal with the painfully gorgeous sight of Ben with his tall body and perfect hair, smile, eyes … perfect everything. Just a week apart and I had already forgotten about how disarming his good looks were.
“Hey,” he said awkwardly as they walked up to meet me.
“Cat! Cat!” Olivia squealed, running into my arms.
I scooped her up into a big hug. “A cat? Where?”
“I think she’s calling you Cat,” Ben explained with his adorable smile.
“Oh,” I laughed. “Okay. Cat it is then. You ready to go play, Olivia? I have lots of fun toys to show you. And guess what? You get to take your favorite ones home!”
“Yay!” she smiled, clapping her little hands.
“Thanks again for coming,” I said to Ben. “I promise this will be the last time I drag you into all of this. We propose our pitches to Greg in just a few days, and then the best one goes before the clients on Friday.”
“I could never deny Olivia free toys,” he replied with a tight smile.
“Right. Okay, then. Let’s go.”
I led them into the makeshift playroom and handed Ben a clipboard with a questionnaire to fill out as he watched Olivia play. After introducing them to all the different stations, I returned to the observatory room with big open panels that allowed me to study her as she went.
I watched Ben kneel down next to her, trying to engage her with the different toys. The way he looked at her and the grin on his face … It was heartwarming and made it hard to breathe. The entire time I felt Chuck’s gaze cutting into me, as if he would find some way to expose us just by the way I watched them.
I swallowed down all of my anxiety and focused on getting the notes I needed for my pitch. Nesters’ new line of toys were colorful and made out of all-natural recycled materials. The man behind Nesters had grown up watching his grandfather whittle wood, which inspired the simple shapes of the toys.
I couldn’t help but notice how Chuck and Greg’s kids had little to no interest in the toys. They were using the pretend fishing rods as swords as our assistants and their moms chased them around the room, warning that they’d poke somebody’s eye out if they weren’t careful.
But Olivia sat in the corner, quietly enraptured with the assortment of blocks and wooden dolls in front of her.
“They’ve got their market for these things all wrong,” Chuck grumbled from his seat. “They should be for infants, not marketed towards older kids. They don’t have the attention span for it.”
“Aren’t older kids supposed to have longer attention spans?” I questioned.
“You tell me. You’re the one who’s suddenly an expert with your step-kid.”
“Yes, I’ve definitely read that. Each year of the child’s age adds another minute to their average attention span, and then it doubles at a certain point, I believe. Having kids of your own, I’d think you’d know that better than me,” I told him in just as snippy of a tone as he had used with me.
“I don’t know where you read that,” Greg chimed in from over our shoulders. “My kids can’t focus on anything for longer than five seconds. Even the teenagers. Our damn nanny lets them watch too much TV, I think. But my wife doesn’t care. Whatever keeps them quiet and out of the way.”
I was barely taking in their words as they started commiserating over their frustrations about life with children. Even though their interaction with their kids consisted of maybe an hour tops every night at the dinner table. They let their wives handle the rest, and they passed most of their duties onto the nannies.
I was much more interested in Olivia’s wide, fascinated eyes as she carefully constructed things out of the wooden blocks. I watched as she tried to figure out how all the wooden levers worked on different toys and move the knobs and sliding shapes in every direction she could. The toys seemed simple to us, but to her they held an endless stream of possibilities to explore and discover.
“Excuse me, gentlemen,” I stated, sliding down from my stool. “I think I’d like to observe my participant more closely.”
I exited the observatory room, leaving both of them to gripe and moan, and made my way back out to Ben and Olivia. I tried a number of different things in how I presented the toys to Olivia and mimicked different ways for her to play with them. I was especially interested in the way she repeatedly chose to cradle a small wooden doll over the more realistic, modern ones in the room.
Ben and I barely spoke as we moved around the room, but the tension between us was undeniable. Sometimes our hands would brush up against each other as we handed Olivia different toys. Or our legs would touch as we leaned down around her. I tried to stay focused, but it was definitely a challenge with him around.
I looked up every so often, noticing the way Chuck glared at us. He was searching for anything he might have to go off of to expose us. I could only hope that the times we had slept together created enough of an energy for our engagement to be believable, and that it would overshadow the obvious tension between us of a different kind. The one that was obviously full of frustration and annoyance.
> “You’re really good with her,” Ben noted after we had been playing for a while. “When you do have kids of your own, you’ll be a great mom. That’ll be some lucky kids … and a lucky guy.”
“Thanks. I could say the same for you. Olivia’s lucky to have you as her fun uncle,” I told him.
“She likes me because I give her all the chocolate!” He faked an evil laugh at her, pulling small pieces of wrapped chocolates from his pockets.
She happily took one into her hand and started eating it, but then she pointed to a box of large wooden beads. They were painted in an assortment of colors, but she plucked out one of the brown ones and held it up, smiling.
“Chocolate!” she said proudly.
“Sure, but we never put that kind of chocolate in our mouths,” Ben warned.
She studied the small brown ball in her hands, then offered it to her doll’s mouth instead.
“That’s right,” he encouraged her. “That chocolate is for your doll.”
My brain started sparking with an idea. I picked up another bead, a pink one, and held it up for her. “Olivia, what do you think this is?”
“Bubbagum,” she grinned.
I tried it several more times with different colors, and loved the way she came up with a different pretend name for each of them. I scribbled down notes and knew I had just landed the perfect angle for my pitch.
14
Ben
Being around Kate again was a reminder of why I enjoyed it so much the first time around. A reminder that I really didn’t want or need. But I made the best of it and soon we were wrapping up for the day. After changing Olivia’s diaper, I met Kate in the front so she could show us out.
“Was today helpful?” I asked.
“Very! It was super insightful. I have some great ideas and I owe it all to Olivia,” she replied, playfully touching her finger to the tip of Olivia’s nose. “And to you. For bringing her,” she smiled.
