by Kylie Walker
Kim went over and sat down on the bed. She looked sad as she said, “Last night after you left I met a woman that’s here as Sadie’s family’s guest for the wedding. Her name is Chelsea Dumont. She asked me if you were seeing Gavin.”
“I don’t even know her, why would she care?”
“She’s really good friends with Gavin’s ex-wife.”
“And?”
Kim sighed. “I’m sorry. I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“Kimberly! Just tell me, what is it?”
“She says that he’s a player. She said his ex-wife was madly in love with him and he cheated on her. She tried to save her marriage even after she caught him, but he got angry because she told Chelsea about his...indiscretion. He was only worried about what it would do to his reputation if people found out. He made up some awful story about her not wanting children although Chelsea said all she’s ever wanted was to be a wife and mother. Gavin divorced her and left her basically with nothing according to her. He’s a billionaire, did he tell you that?”
Heather felt like there was a knife suddenly sticking out of her chest. “He didn’t have any reason to tell me that he was a billionaire,” she said. “How do you know this Chelsea person is even trust worthy? I mean it all sounds like it could just be her word against his. Maybe she’s just making it all up,” she told Kim. She realized as she spoke just how much she was protesting and it scared her. She wanted to believe this man she had just met would never hurt a woman that way and in her recently wounded heart, that sounded like setting herself up for more heart ache.
“Maybe honey. I just thought you should know after what you went through with Phillip. I’m sorry.”
Heather tried to smile at Kim to make her feel better. “Don’t be sorry. I appreciate you looking out for me.” She fought back the tears that pricked at the edges of her eyes. “I’m going to head out as soon as the roads open if you don’t need me for anything.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I’ll be fine.”
“This is my fault. I told you to...”
“Stop it. You didn’t do anything wrong. At least I know and I can leave it as simply a weekend fling. A one night stand. I’m going to be okay. You don’t need me?”
Kimberly got up and went over to her friend. She put her arms around her and gave her a big hug. “I can handle the wedding. Everything is good to go. You be safe going home and please call me if you need anything.”
Heather let go of Kim and nodded. “I will. Thank you.” She swallowed the lump in her throat and went into the bathroom. Once the door was closed and locked behind her she took a long look at herself in the mirror. She wanted to give in to the tears and collapse into the floor like a teenage with a broken heart. But she wasn’t a teenager and no matter how much her chest hurt she didn’t have a broken heart. She wasn’t in love with Gavin. She didn’t even know him well enough to be in like with him. What she felt was lust and desire. She had acted on those feelings alone for the first time in her life and it was fun and a distraction, but not life-altering. She still had all the things she needed in her life and she would leave here and move on as if she had never met Gavin Dunken. Life would go on.
*******
Heather made it home safely by Saturday evening. Once she was home she went through her messages that Rosie left for her and answered a few emails. She was about to sign off her computer when an idea came over her. She typed in Gavin’s name and got thousands of hits. She clicked on one from four years previous. It was a wedding photo of him and a beautiful dark-haired woman.
The caption read, “Brooklyn’s own billionaire Gavin Dunken exchanged vows today in a lovely ceremony in Vancouver B.C. with Annie Singleton. The couple will be honeymooning in France and are expected to spend the next year traveling together.” It went on to mention Gavin’s mother and Annie’s family, but Heather stopped there. She clicked out of that and back to the search results. She clicked on one from one year ago that said, “Gavin Dunken files for divorce, states irreconcilable differences.” That one was linked to another one six months after that. It was an article in what Heather knew to be a tabloid. She skimmed through it. They quoted his ex-wife as saying that he had been cheating on her the entire time they were married and that was the only reason she was suing him for more than she was entitled pre the prenuptial agreement. They interviewed her friend Chelsea as well. Chelsea had plenty to say about how hard her friend had tried to be the ‘trophy wife’ Gavin wanted, even giving up her own career at his request. According to Chelsea he had left his wife penniless and jobless without a second thought. The reporter stated that they tried to reach Gavin but he was ‘unavailable for comment.’
Heather clicked out of that and shut the laptop down. She promised herself that she was going to look at this as a lesson. She was right in the beginning. For now she had to put all of her energy into building up her business. She would not be cheated on again and she would never be like Gavin’s ex-wife and put herself in the place of being dependent on any man. She tucked away her thoughts of Gavin as well as she could and she set about perfecting the business plan she would be presenting to the investors in the morning. She went to bed with the resolve that her career would be her focus for now, and woke up on Sunday morning to a text from Gavin.
It said, “Good morning, beautiful. I miss you already. I have an early meeting in the city on Monday, but maybe we can meet for lunch?” She stared at it for a long time and pictured him smiling as he had texted it. She had her finger poised to text him back. She should at least tell him she didn’t want to see him, shouldn’t she? But then he would want to know why and once she told him that would just pave the way for him to make something up. She wasn’t in the mood to be lied to. She was nobody’s fool and she didn’t want to give any man the power to believe that she was. She finally deleted the message and then she took it a step further...she went into her settings and blocked Gavin’s number. Now all she had to do was make sure Rosie knew she wasn’t interested in talking to him. He might try to reach her for a day or two, but after that he would give up. Heather firmly believed that players don’t waste too much time on any one woman if they don’t believe they will get something out of it in the end. All she had to do was wait it out as she kept moving forward with her life.
CHAPTER 11
Heather changed her outfit three times Monday morning before leaving for her meeting. She finally settled on a dark blue pencil skirt and a light blue silk shirt. Her shoes were dark blue pumps with a sensible heel and she wore very little make-up and put her hair up in a bun. She wanted to present a professional image. She wasn’t just selling a business to these people. The business was her, so in effect, she was selling herself. Before she left the apartment she checked and double-checked that she had all of her financial documents in order and one she was satisfied, she left early enough so that if traffic was heavy or it took her a while to hail a cab, she wouldn’t be late.
She arrived at davenport Investments fifteen minutes before her scheduled meeting time. The receptionist greeted her warmly and asked her to take a seat. She sat there for the next fifteen minutes willing herself not to sweat. She didn’t want to go into that conference room looking even a little bit nervous. She wanted them to see how confident she was in her ability to make this work, with just a little bit of help.
“Miss Blair, they’re ready for you,” the receptionist got up when Heather did and walked over to open the conference room door for her. Heather smile and thanked her and casually strolled inside, only to come to an abrupt halt at the sight of the man on the other side of the room. Shit. Gavin was standing in front of a long, narrow window with his right forearm resting on the side of the wooden trim, slightly above his head, with his torso facing toward her. The door closing behind her sounded at her back, but her attention was focused solely in front of her and not on the other four people at the table. Her heart crashed against her ribcage as she momentarily forgot he
rself and drank in the sight of him. God, he’s beautiful.
“Hello Miss Blair.”
Her attention was finally called away from him. She looked at the other people at the table. Mr. Davenport sat at the head of it. She recognized him from his website. “Mr. Davenport, hello,” she put her hand out and walked over to him. He stood up and shook it. “Thank you so much for seeing me today.”
“We are excited to have you,” he smiled, “Your application was impressive. We can’t wait to see what else you have for us. This is Mr. Lance Gates,” he introduced the man to his right. The middle-age, balding man stood up and shook her hand.
“A pleasure,” she said.
“To my left here is Mr. Bob Charles.” Bob was an older, distinguished looking man with white hair.
“Welcome,” he said, shaking her hand as well.
“Miss Norma Colvin,” he introduced the only other woman in the room. The lady was probably in her forties and very beautiful. She smiled and it made her even lovelier. Heather shook her hand as well and said, “I’m pleased to meet you.”
“And this is Mr. Gavin Dunken,” he said of the elephant in the room. She was force to look up into those blue/green eyes. Gavin came over to the table and she was relieve when he simply took her hand and said, “Welcome, Miss Blair.”
His touch was as electric as it had been at the resort and he held her hand just a little too long and her gaze even longer. She could see a question in his eyes. It was a question she had been hoping she wouldn’t have to answer. And now here she was faced with the prospect of Gavin being her angel investor. Sometimes she felt like life was laughing at her.
“Thank you. I’m happy to be here.”
Heather was trying desperately to re-fortify the steel age that she placed her heart in before she left home. With Gavin staring at her that was going to be easier said than done. His eyes were effectively wrecking her with their intensity and her breaths were coming in quick, ragged gasps. She had to concentrate on them in the hopes that she wouldn’t hyperventilate and pass out. Time seemed to stand still between the time she let go of his hand and Mr. Davenport asking her to have a seat at the big oak table in the center of the room.
She sat own and realize that she was tightly clutching her files to her chest like they were her lifeline. She forced herself to take a long, slow, deep breath before releasing the briefcase and laying it down in front of her on the table. She was a quivering mess, but she would be damned if she would let it show. She opened the case and took out her paperwork, laying it in neat piles on the table in front of her. She tried not to see Gavin in her peripheral vision, but he was still staring at her and it was hard not to look. Once she was ready she glanced at Mr. Davenport and said, “Where would you like me to begin?”
“Let’s start with telling us a little about yourself and your background. I’m sure it’s all in your paperwork but we would like to hear it from you.”
“Absolutely,” she said. “I am twenty-four years old. I grew up here in Vancouver. My mother was a baker and her specialty was wedding cakes. When I was little I got to go with her on her deliveries and I saw lots of different examples of weddings. That’s when the idea to become a wedding planner took shape. I always excelled in art in school, I had a knack for matching colors and creating designs. I majored in both art and business in college so I have a dual degree. I started my business two years ago after spending a year collecting supplies and learning the business from another local planner. I began with a ten thousand dollar loan which I paid back in full by the end of the first year. My second year was my most successful, but I am interested in taking the business to new heights, and in order to do that I will need to invest in more upscale supplies and an aggressive advertising campaign, both of which I’ve outlined in detail for you in my five year business plan.” Heather wanted to suck in a deep breath, but she forced herself to breathe slowly. She was proud of herself for getting all of that out and sounding relatively professional as she did. She could still feel Gavin’s eyes on her so she glanced nervously at him.
He smiled. Bastard.
“I’m impressed with how much you’ve accomplished at such a young age,” Mr. Davenport told her. “Some people don’t reach your level of success by their thirties. I’m sure that you understand that when it comes to placing my investor’s finances in someone else’s hands, we will expect nothing less than complete honesty and a strong work ethic in return.”
“Of course and I agree,” she said. “If I receive funds through your company or one of your private investors that is exactly what I intend to give back.”
“Good. So let’s see that business plan, shall we?”
“Yes, of course.” She stood and passed out the individual copies that she had made for each investor and the she said, “I have it on power point if I may?”
Davenport nodded and said, “That would be great.” She had to walk past Gavin on her way to the podium in the back of the room. She could smell his aftershave and it did things to her stomach and other parts of her body. She glanced at the investors when she reached the front of the room and saw they were all absorbed in the paperwork she gave them. She set up her laptop on the podium and once she got the PowerPoint up on the white screen she said, “I will go over the business plan in detail and answer any questions any of you might have, but first if you’ll indulge me just slightly I’d like to go over some great ideas for growing my company that I’ve been working on, or plan to work on in the near future.”
She got nods of assent all the way around. Gavin still had his eyes trained on her face and her body was so hot that she feared it might burst into flames at any moment. For the next half an hour she went over her ideas and then launched into the dryer things, the numbers and the business plan. She drank an entire bottle of water as she spoke and she tried not to let them see her hands shake as she sipped from it. When she was ready to wrap up her presentation she said, “If you decide to invest in Blair Wedding Occasions, I will give you nothing less than you deserve as a return on your investment. I will always be open to showing you facts and numbers on your schedule and timetable because numbers never lie. I will let you in on every possible scenario before making any major changes to the plan you have in front of you and I am wide open to any suggestions as I’m well aware that those of you in this room have collectively more experience than I do both in business and in life. Thank you so much for meeting with me today and if any of you have any questions I’d be glad to answer them now.”
Another fifteen minutes passed fielding questions. Gavin was the only one that sat silently. That should have made her feel better but instead it increased her anxiety. She did feel like she saw a sliver of admiration in his blue/green eyes as he listened to her field the questions like a pro. Over all in spite of the shock to her system when she saw Gavin, she had to say it went very well.
When no one else had any questions for her Mr. Davenport said, “Okay then Miss Blair, I don’t mind telling you that was one of the best and most thorough presentations we’ve had to date. If anyone here thinks of another question for you may we call you on this number listed?” As she looked up Gavin was looking at her with a cocked eyebrow. She remembered blocking him and she felt her face flush with heat.
“Absolutely,” she said, glancing at Gavin again to make sure he got the point that for business sake, she would unblock him. His lips quirked at the edges as if they were sharing a private joke. She looked away again and began putting her things back into her briefcase. Once she finished and tucked it back underneath her right arm Mr. Davenport said, “You can expect a call before the end of the week Miss Blair.”
The idea of waiting all week made her nauseated...but she knew she could do it. She reminded herself that Davenport had given her the highest compliment that she could have expected. There was real hope that by the end of the week she would finally have the funds to start making her dream a reality.
“Thank you sir, and thank you all
for being here,” she said, glancing at each one of them and forcing the smile to stay in place when she got to Gavin. Once again he gave her a smile that almost looked like she was doing something to amuse him. She looked away quickly, said good-bye to them all one more time and then hurried out of the room. She sucked in a deep breath as soon as she was in the lobby.
“How did it go?” The receptionist asked her.
“Good, I think.” For some reason she was breathless. Whether it was from the adrenaline and excitement, Gavin or both, she didn’t know. She thanked the receptionist and headed for the elevator. She was almost there when she heard Gavin’s voice, “Hold the door please.” Great, just great.
“Thank you,” Gavin said as he stepped onto the elevator next to her. As the doors slid closed and effectively cut them off from civilization in her opinion, her body once again defied her and began to shake. She nodded and smiled. She was proud of herself for the smile. They rode in silence for two floors and just before they reached the lobby he said, “So...are you going to tell me why you ran from me again?”
The doors slid open and she stepped out and took a deep breath of air. He had sucked out all of the oxygen in the elevator. Once she had her lungs filled she turned to look at him and said, “I wasn’t running. I’m just really not interested in pursuing...this, us.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Okay, I can respect that...but, is there a chance we might be able to grab a cup of coffee and talk about it?”
“I don’t really have the time right now,” she said. “I’ll call you.” She started to walk away and he stepped in front of her. “Gavin please don’t do this, not here...”
“I just don’t understand Heather. I thought we had a connection. What happened?”
“I have too much on my plate right now to worry about...to get involved. I’m sorry. I tried to tell you that from the beginning.”
“You did, and it was the same way I was feeling as well. But once we spent that night and day together I was feeling differently. I really like you and I was under the impression that you felt the same about me.”
