A Love that Endures

by Forrest, Bella

  She looked back too and saw that none of the girls had followed her yet. By the sounds of it, they were still in the living room, preoccupied.

  She stepped out into the darkened walkway and pulled the door softly closed behind her. As she looked up at him, her heart beat faster at their close proximity. If she was to be perfectly honest, the treacherous little organ was thrilled at David’s request. Which made her feel rather awful, after all her mental talk of giving Cassie a real chance.

  But maybe she just had to be realistic and accept there was only so much she could do to bring Cassie and David together. If they weren’t naturally ‘sticking,’ she couldn’t force him to like her, could she? He was here, on her doorstep, with a gift especially for her. What could she do about that?

  He held out the parcel, and she took it slowly, her fingers feeling out the packaging’s seams. The object felt distinctly book-shaped, and as she pulled off the wrapping, a soft gasp left her throat. Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost. The most beautiful edition she had ever laid eyes on, with a deep forest-green hardcover and whimsical gold lettering down the spine.

  “David.” She gasped, gazing up at him. “How . . . How did you even know?” And where did he find such a beautiful version? She sure hadn’t seen this in the campus bookstore.

  He grinned. “Just a calculated guess. Given what a fan of theater you are, I figured you had to be into Shakespeare. And surely you’d have come across the play that included your own name. If not, I figured you’d like to have it.”

  Katy stared at him. Screw the sexy green trench coat. The man was a Shakespeare buff. Love’s Labour’s Lost wasn’t the most well known among the playwright’s works, so the fact that David not only knew about it but knew it well enough to connect the surname . . . Heigh, my heart. She was in more trouble than she realized.

  David chuckled. “Breathe, Katy. You look like you’ve swallowed a plum.”

  She cracked a smile, though her heart was still pounding. “Thanks, David. It’s one of the nicest gifts I’ve ever received.” Maybe even the nicest, because it was so thoughtful.

  He shrugged. “You’re welcome.”

  There was a pause; David slipped his hands into his pockets and glanced down at the ground. And Katy remembered the second reason he was here. And why they were standing out here all alone, on this dim, yet cozily lit, porch.

  “Um, Katy,” he said, running a hand up the back of his head, the motion adding an extra ruffle to his dark, tousled hair. “I just wanted to talk about something you mentioned the other day, at the game.”

  Her grip around the book tightened. That whole outing had been rather embarrassing, to say the least, from the outfit she’d worn to how it had ended, with David’s pants soaked in hot cocoa. Not to mention how awkward and stiff she’d been around him. She’d honestly been trying to blot the whole thing from her memory.

  “Yes?” she murmured.

  He exhaled. “Well, it’s just that thing you slipped in about not wanting to date anyone right now. I just wanted you to know that I am 110 percent cool with that, and I hope I didn’t somehow give you a different impression. I noticed you being kind of distant since that day, and I worried I might have said or done something . . .” He glanced up and looked directly into her eyes, and the searing honesty Katy saw there almost threw her off balance.

  “I-I . . . sure,” she said, staring back at him. “Of course. I mean, I never thought—but thanks for clarifying,” she bumbled. “No-boyfriend rule?” What had she been thinking?

  He smiled. “Okay. Cool. I’m totally happy to hang out as friends. You’re fun to be around, and I just . . . really enjoy your company.”

  Katy’s heart fluttered. Darn. This guy knew how to tug at her strings.

  They gazed at each other for another moment, and then David stepped back. “I guess I’d better get going. Got work to do, and seems like you’re busy, too.” He aimed a smirk at her yellow pajamas, before turning to leave.

  “Wait,” Katy blurted out.

  He stilled, turning back to face her. “Yes?”

  “I haven’t thanked you properly yet!” Without a second thought, she rushed up to him and wrapped her arms around his waist.

  She felt his chest tense in surprise, then vibrate several moments later as he chuckled. His long arms came around her, pulling her a little closer. She smiled against him, breathing in his fresh, minty scent. He deserved a friendly hug, at least, for such a beautiful gift. Although she’d be quite happy to stay standing here like this for a full five minutes. His chest was so comfy . . .

  “Oi, man! What do you think you’re doing?!”

  Katy sprang back as if David had just jolted her with electricity and whirled in the direction of the harsh, heavily accented voice. The book slipped from her hands. Her jaw dropped and her eyes bulged.

  For there, standing by the gate, was Alexei.

  16

  David

  The next thing David knew, a six-foot-something Russian dude was barreling across the yard toward him. The man grabbed him by the shoulders and shoved him painfully up against the wall of the house, dark eyes glaring into David’s as though he’d just offended his mother.

  What the . . .

  David pushed back against the guy, managing to get him to back up a step.

  “Who’re you?!” David asked.

  “Ale—Al!” Katy yelled. “Leave him alone!”

  “I will, sweetie. Right after he tells me what the hell he was doing touching you.”

  David stared at Katy, utterly bemused. She looked like she was about to spontaneously combust.

  “Are you for real?” she roared. “What are you even doing here?!”

  “Al” reluctantly turned away from David and strode toward her. “I don’t understand why you’re so surprised, babe,” he said, spreading out his arms. “Did you really think I’d miss your birthday? I told you I was coming.”

  Katy gaped at him. “What?” she snapped. “You never told me! Last I heard from you was your stupid letter trying to convince me to spend my winter break with you—which, by the way, I chucked, along with your stupid gift!”

  Al exhaled, shaking his head. “I can’t believe you threw that away. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve told you diamonds suit you like nothing else. And I did send a second one! A real, old-fashioned love letter. I sent it right after the first one.”

  “I never got it!” Katy spat. “You’re just trying to rile me up now!”

  David shifted, feeling increasingly uncomfortable at finding himself in the middle of what was apparently some kind of ex-lovers’ spat. He’d spent barely a few seconds in the company of this guy, and he could already tell he was a complete tool. He wasn’t sure how Katy had ever wound up involved with him in the first place.

  “Calm down, babe,” Al said, moving a step closer to her. She instantly took two steps back.

  The man sighed again, running an exasperated hand through his long, slicked-back blond hair. “Look, I don’t know what more I have to do to convince you that I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’ll say it a million times if that’s what it takes. Everyone makes mistakes in this world, and I promise, promise, I’ll never do anything like it again.”

  “If you gave the damnedest about earning my forgiveness, you’d take your rented Ferrari and ride it back to the airport!” Katy hissed, her chest heaving.

  “But you’re my bae, and I’m completely lost without you.”

  “Ugh! Don’t call me that.” Katy scowled.

  Diamonds, and now Ferraris? The guy was clearly well off. It fit with David’s initial impression of Katy—that she was an uptown girl, or at least someone who moved in those kinds of circles. After all, she’d apparently been a model . . .

  “Seriously, honey. Everyone looks at our pictures and says we’re the perfect couple! Have you completely forgotten all the good times we shared? Three years of happiness erased by one mistake?” He ventured to step clo
ser again, and this time managed to get near enough to grab her by the arm. She tried to smack him off, but he held on, pulling her closer. “Don’t you remember that evening we snuck up to the rooftop of Carluccio’s just to watch the sun go down? That weekend we dog-sledded along the Trans-Siberian Railway? That week we spent rafting the Rapids of Barichara? Or the night we spent in your parents’ hot tub, gazing up at the frozen sky? How could you have forgotten all this? It’s seared into my brain as though it were yesterday, and it’s driving me crazy not having you around. Come home to me, baby.”

  David frowned. Parents’ hot tub? Frozen sky? That definitely didn’t sound like L.A. He also wondered where “home” was to Al.

  The man dropped his voice to a husky murmur and lowered his mouth to Katy’s neck. “Please. I love you so much. At least let me stay for a week.”

  Katy planted her palms firmly against his chest to increase the distance and glared at him.

  “Get. Off. Me,” she said through gritted teeth.

  David’s confusion took a back seat as he felt a surge of protectiveness toward her.

  “Is this guy really bothering you?” he asked, taking a step closer to the pair. It sounded like a dumb question out loud, given Katy’s seething expression, but due to the personal nature of the situation, he figured it was reasonable. Plus, it had kind of just blurted itself out.

  Al whipped around, his broad face morphing into incredulity. “Excuse me? ‘This guy?’ Do you have even the slightest idea who you’re talking to?”

  He dropped Katy and stalked toward David, who stiffened, balling his hands into fists. David didn’t want this to get physical if he could avoid it, but he preferred to be ready, because the guy had evidently overdone it on the testosterone.

  “Don’t you dare touch him,” Katy shouted, rushing forward to grab the blond back. “He’s just a friend, okay?! Besides, you have literally zero say about anything I do! Just go HOME, Al. You’ve totally ruined my birthday!”

  “Who’s ruined my girl’s birthday?” a fourth voice suddenly rang out.

  Al stalled in his tracks two feet away from David, and they all turned to stare at the figure standing just beyond the gate. It was Cassie, holding two bulging shopping bags. The moment her eyes met Al’s, they flickered with anger.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” she growled.

  “What any good boyfriend would do,” Al retorted. “Wishing my girlfriend a happy birthday.”

  Cassie stared at him, her eyes bulging out. “Please tell me you’re not really that dense. I mean, I always thought your looks were too good to be true, but this . . .” She inhaled a deep, exaggerated breath. “News flash, pretty boy. She’s not your girlfriend anymore. She hasn’t been since you banged her housemaid”—she threw an apologetic glance toward Katy, who visibly flinched—“and nobody invited you to this party. So I suggest you get your lying ass off our lawn right now, or I swear, I will chase you off.”

  Banged her . . . housemaid? David was just processing the implications of the statement, when Cassie dropped the bags on the ground and pulled out a large glass bottle from one of them.

  “I’m not kidding,” she said, lowering her voice to a menacing tone. “I’ll count to seven. Don’t test me. One. Two. Three . . .”

  Al stared at the much shorter woman, his expression a mixture of uncertainty and disbelief. And then his time was up, and Cassie was running at him like a madwoman, the bottle hefted high over her shoulder.

  “I said get out!” she yelled.

  Al was immediately forced to back away, dodging her swipe, and Cassie proceeded to chase him across the yard. At the other end, he ducked and attempted to confiscate the bottle, but she was swinging so wildly, he risked getting a black eye in the process. Less than a minute later, she’d backed him into a corner, his only escape route the side gate.

  “Don’t worry, Katy!” she called over her shoulder, as she menaced him back onto the sidewalk. “I’ll chase the jerk all the way to the airport if that’s what it takes! You get on with your horror movie.”

  David stared until she chased the man around the street corner and out of sight, an odd feeling settling in his stomach. He’d seen Cassie act with The Dramatics, and something about what she was doing felt . . . exaggerated to him, almost like a performance.

  Before he could think further of it, though, a round of whoops and cheers erupted from the house behind them. He turned to see three more pajama-clad girls watching out of an open ground-floor window.

  “Whoa! Who the hell needs movies when you share a house with this chick?!” a girl David recognized as Michelle hollered.

  He turned his gaze slowly back to Katy, to find her still fuming. Her face was flushed, her forehead beaded with sweat, and her hands were shaking slightly.

  He figured this was his cue to finally take his leave. He must have stayed longer than he was welcome, as it was. This all had to be terribly embarrassing for her, and one less person present would surely ease the discomfort—she needed time alone.

  Noticing her book on the ground, he stooped down to pick it up and hesitantly approached to hand it to her.

  “I guess I’ll get going now,” he said quietly, holding out the gift.

  As her fingers closed around it, before he could back toward the gate, her other hand firmly gripped David’s arm.

  “Oh no you don’t,” she murmured, pulling him back. There was a glimmer of something almost manic in her eyes. “We’ve got some rage-baking to do.”

  Whirling toward the open window, she yelled, “Girls, get that kitchen cleared!”

  Then she was racing toward the house, dragging David inside.

  17

  Katy

  Katy yanked a thick steel pot down from the shelf, threw in four whole chocolate bars, and put it on the stove to melt. Then she grabbed a mixing bowl and rushed back to her workspace.

  She wasn’t entirely sure what had possessed her to drag David inside like that, but right now, she wasn’t exactly feeling like herself. And she was blaming it all on Alexei.

  “What are we baking?” David asked, watching her frenzied movements with thinly veiled amusement.

  “Double chocolate ice-cream cake,” she answered, a dark smile forming on her lips. She was lucky the kitchen had all the ingredients she needed for it, because it was the precise thing she was craving right now. She had told Cassie earlier not to bother with a birthday cake for her, but a visit from an ex was enough to change a girl’s mind.

  “Aha,” David said, grinning. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”

  “You can prepare the ice cream,” Katy replied, focusing her attention on keeping all the ingredients within the bowl as she whisked vigorously. This was going to be a big one, and she was going to relish every freaking calorie of it. “There’s strawberry and vanilla in the freezer. Bring both.”

  David’s stool creaked as he got up, and Katy could hear the murmuring of the television from the living room next door. Cassie was still out, probably still giving Alexei an earful, and the rest of her pajama party were biding their time with TV until Katy was ready to join them.

  Which, judging by how hard her heart was still pounding, might be a while.

  She hated that David had to witness all that. Alexei had come very close to saying things that weren’t meant for David’s ears, and she hoped he hadn’t picked up on too much. The last thing she needed was him questioning her backstory—she really didn’t want to have to lie to David again. Not to mention it had all been horribly embarrassing.

  “I’m sorry you had to see all that,” she said, when he returned to her side of the room. “As you must have gathered, his arrival was completely unexpected.”

  “Yeah. I gathered,” he replied, slowly lowering the ice cream boxes onto the table. “And I’m . . . um, sorry it ruined your birthday.”

  Katy shot out a hand and brought the boxes down onto the counter with a sharp snap. “Rage-baking,” she reminded hi
m pointedly, then stepped back and let out a deep sigh. “Yeah. It was a crappy surprise. Still . . . shame on me if I let him ruin it completely. I said that mostly for dramatics.”

  She gave him a wry grin, and David chuckled.

  “So, what do you want to do with this ice cream?” he asked, peeling off the boxes’ lids.

  “Cut it up into pieces the size of Al’s fingers, then shove it back in the freezer.”

  David laughed. “Wow. This is serious.”

  She gave him a warped smile. “I don’t mess around.”

  He bent down to the cutlery drawer to pull out a knife. “I’d better watch my back, then.”

  “Well, it does take a special kind of asshole to get me this mad. I guess you caught what Cassie said about him cheating on me.”

  David nodded as he rose back to the counter, and Katy sighed. Given how Alexei had physically accosted David out there, she figured she owed him a bit more background about the two of them—as long as she could provide it while tiptoeing around the truth. Plus, talking about things usually helped her feel better.

  “The worst thing is, Al was telling the truth when he said we were together for three years.” Her eyes went distant as she creamed a slab of butter. “I was in love with him, and I honestly thought we were going to get married. Funny how one can be so wrong about a person.”

  “I’m guessing he’s the reason you’re not seeing anyone right now?” David asked.

  As Katy glanced over at him, he started chopping the ice cream harder.

  “Yes,” she replied after a moment, pursing her lips. “Pretty much. Assholes like him leave a strong aftertaste.” She measured out a half cup of cocoa powder. “Especially because he was the first guy I ever dated. And I discovered his treachery in the worst possible way.” She grimaced, a storm cloud settling back over her shoulders at the memory. “I caught him in the act, and it wasn’t pretty.”