She’d majored in business management, a subject that I found totally boring. It suited her though—Brooke had always been a logical, no nonsense kind of girl. It was probably why we got along so well. There was no guessing with Brooke, no secret, girl code words that I had to try to navigate. She always told you exactly what she thought and precisely how she felt.
Three months before graduation, just as Brooke was trying to make a decision about what grad school to attend for her MBA, her father fell and broke his hip. Her parents were both getting up there in years—Brooke had been a later-in-life surprise. They managed to cope for a few weeks, her mother doing the bulk of work around the inn. It wasn’t until Brooke went home after graduation that she realized how bad things were.
Her mom was barely able to keep the place afloat. Business was way down. Her dad did what he could, but with hip replacement surgery on the way, he wasn’t much help.
I knew what Brooke would do before she had even decided herself. Sure enough, two days later, she announced that she was moving home. She would run the inn until her dad was back on his feet, and defer her MBA for later.
Three years later, things hadn’t quite turned out that way. Though her dad hovered around constantly and drove her crazy, his role was greatly diminished in the actual running of the place. Brooke was just so good at it—business was way up, and the inn had even been listed in a statewide tourism campaign. Despite her complaints, I think Brooke really loved her job, even if it might not have been exactly how she pictured her life.
“He’s actually okay leaving you alone there?” I asked. “I can hardly believe it.”
“I know,” she said, her voice dry. “It’s a miracle.”
“How’s Robbie?” I asked.
“Eh,” she said. “I just can’t tell if he’s worth my time.”
I laughed. Brooke had neither the time nor the inclination to mess around with unworthy men, of whom there always seemed to be many, vying for her affections. To start, she was gorgeous, a total knock-out. Her dark hair hung in a riot of curls half way down her back. Though she didn’t come close to my 5’11” height, she was tall. And where she didn’t match me in height, she far exceeded me in curves. Add to this a wicked sense of humor and an air of being completely uninterested in most men, and her appeal was complete. As my dad liked to say, she beat off the boys with a stick.
“What about you?” she asked. “Did you get right back out there after He Who Must Not Be Named?”
I squirmed a little bit. For some reason, I didn’t want to tell her about being the subject of Ryan and Ashley’s project. I had a feeling it wouldn’t sit well with her.
“Nope,” I said. “Still footloose and fancy free.”
“That’s the spirit,” she said. “It’s high time you saw men for what they really are—a chance for a little fun. Nothing more.”
I heard Ryan calling me from the living room, and I sighed. “Need to go?” Brooke asked.
“Yeah, Ry and Ash are holding a movie for me,” I said.
“Alright, I should probably go start turn-downs anyhow,” she said. “Call me tomorrow?”
“You got it,” I said. “Bye, Brooke.”
“Talk to you later, Em.”
I walked out to the living room, where Ryan and Ashley were both waiting for me expectantly. I thought about what Brooke had said about guys, and stifled a laugh at the thought of her arguing the point with these two.
“Okay,” I said, reclaiming my seat on the couch. “Let’s get this over with.”
Chapter Six
“You ready?”
I looked up from my notes to see Chris standing at my office door.
“Hey!” I stood up to give him a hug. “How’s it going?”
“I’m good,” he said, hugging me back. “How are you?”
“Same old, same old,” I told him, stacking my files neatly on the desk. “Haven’t seen you in a while. Why haven’t you been by the apartment?”
“Chick flick over load.” Chris straightened his glasses and grinned at me. “Sorry.”
“Sure, leave me alone with the wolves.” I hit him on the shoulder and picked up my bag. “So, you ready to get going?”
“Whenever you are.”
I led him out of the office and out into the therapy room. “Michael,” I called out. “I’m out of here.”
“Have fun!” he called back. “See you tomorrow.”
“So how was work?” I asked as we stepped out into the parking lot. I braced myself for his answer—Chris did some kind of research at the university downtown, and when he got to talking about his work, I had a hard time not zoning out.
“It was fine,” he said, smiling at me. “I won’t bore you with details.”
“Thank God,” I told him, slipping my arm through his. “It’s good to see you. We haven’t had a chance to hang out much lately.”
“Are you about to go all Ryan on me?” he asked, opening the passenger door of his Explorer for me. “All I hear from him lately is how I’m an awful friend for ditching him for a woman.”
“No, I’m not complaining.” I jumped up into the seat, and Chris shut the door for me. When he got in on his side I continued, “just saying that it’s nice to see you. And Ryan doesn’t mean all that, you know. He’s just being dramatic.”
“Imagine that,” Chris said, his tone dry. “So, where to first?”
“I think we should just hit the mall. Gives us the most opportunities.”
“You’re the boss.”
Chris pulled out into traffic, and I settled back into my seat. “Do you have any ideas of what you’d like to get her?”
“I don’t know…jewelry?”
“Jewelry would be nice,” I said, nodding. “A little predictable…”
Chris sighed. “Why does this have to be so complicated?”
“It doesn’t.” I patted his arm. “Just get Ash something you think she’ll like, and she’ll appreciate the effort. Promise.”
“It’s the first birthday she’s had since we got together,” he said, pushing up his glasses again—a sure sign he was starting to get anxious. “I want it to be special. Romantic, you know. So she’ll be happy.”
I turned my head to look at him. “If it comes from you, it will be romantic. Trust me.”
“Speaking of romance,” Chris said, turning from the road to grin at me. “How’s the research project going?”
“It’s actually not that bad.” He coughed loudly, and I laughed. “Seriously, Chris. Some of these movies are fun. And the books are pretty good. I can’t believe I never read Jane Austen at school.”
“Do you think it’s going to help you at all?”
“Probably not.” I said. Chris snorted. “But as Ashley keeps saying, it can’t hurt.”
“You know, I never thought you were that hopeless with men,” Chris said. “I mean, you’ve had plenty of boyfriends over the years.”
“Yeah, but none of them ever went anywhere.”
“Em.” Chris looked sideways at me. “You’re twenty-five. Where should these relationships have gone?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged, feeling uncomfortable. “I just…There’s never been any serious connection, you know?” I wasn’t sure how to explain to him how I felt about my relationships. About how different they had seemed from the things my friends had described. “It’s not that I think I should be married, or anything. But I feel like I’ve never…I don’t know. I don’t know how to describe it.”
“You’ve never been in love.”
I stared at Chris. “That…that’s not what I was going to say.”
“It’s okay, Em,” Chris said. “I’ve known you since you were what, thirteen? We talk about everything. You’ve never once been all giddy or moony about a boy. I’ve never once heard you talk about the way you felt, not even about Jacob.”
I frowned. Pathetic as it was to admit, my relationship with Jacob had been one of the most serious of my life. We had dated for
years. Was it possible that I had never told any of my friends how I felt about him? How had I felt about him?
“I wasn’t giddy about Dylan?” I asked. “’Cause I thought things might have been different with him.”
Chris shook his head. “The only thing you ever told me about Dylan was that he had his life together. You said it made you feel grownup to be with him.”
“God, I said that?” Chris nodded. “That doesn’t sound very romantic at all.” I was quiet for a moment. “I really am hopeless with romance then, aren’t I?”
“I didn’t say that,” Chris said quickly. “All I am saying is that I don’t think you’ve been in love. So maybe that makes you feel like something’s lacking.”
“I guess that’s true.”
“But maybe you just haven’t met the right guy yet.”
I smiled at him. “That actually sounds kind of romantic, you know.”
Chris laughed. “Maybe Ashley is rubbing off on me.”
We pulled into the mall parking lot, a monstrous three-level garage that I could picture myself getting lost in for days. Chris drove up and down the aisles, finally finding a spot up on the third level. As we got out of the car, I heard him chuckle.
“Do you remember what it was like to go to the mall at home?” he asked.
I laughed too. “A little different from this, huh?”
The Somerset Collection, where Chris and I were hoping to find a present for Ashley, was enormous, made up of two separate buildings connected by a glass-enclosed walking bridge. In addition to upscale department stores like Nordstrom and Saks, there were dozens and dozens of high-end little boutiques. There was a Michael Kors shop here, for God’s sake. When Brooke had first visited me down here, I took her to The Collection—she was so awed she could barely talk (a first for Brooke in all the years I had known her). It was as far from the tiny, single-level mall in Alpena as you could get.
I led Chris into the mall, figuring we could start at one of the department stores and go from there. As we passed a marble-fronted shop, Chris stopped suddenly. “What about that?”
“Tiffany and Company?” I asked, surprised. “You want to try Tiffany’s?”
“Isn’t that supposed to be, like, the place for jewelry?”
“Sure, if you have a boatload of cash.”
“Let’s try it.” Chris looked excited. “I bet Ash would flip out if I brought home one of those blue boxes.”
“If you say so,” I said, shrugging. I followed him into the store, where we were immediately met by a gorgeous woman in a taupe suit. Her hair was up in a sleek chignon and her make-up was impeccable. And though shoes were much more Ashley’s area than mine, I was pretty sure she was wearing Jimmy Choos—the pair, in fact, that Ashley had been mooning over for weeks.
“How can I help you today?” the woman asked, her voice smooth with just a touch of condescension. I saw her eyes flick over Chris, probably cataloging his cargo pants, hoodie, and well-worn black pea coat. Apparently, her inspection did not do him any favors—I detected a slight raise of her eyebrows as she looked at him.
“I’m looking for a present for my girlfriend,” Chris said, clearly not noticing her appraisal. “For her birthday. It’s not for a few months, but I really want to get her something special.”
“Then you’ve come to the right place,” the woman said, her voice ever so slightly colder than it had been before. She led Chris to a glass display case. Even from a distance, I could detect the sparkle of diamonds.
“What did you have in mind?” The woman asked. “We have some lovely watches, very appropriate for a gift. Or maybe bracelets? A ring?”
“Not a ring,” Chris said quickly. “I don’t want her to get the wrong idea.” He laughed a little nervously. “Maybe a bracelet? She would probably like that.”
“Here’s a lovely piece,” the woman said. “A classic silver bangle, with three rows of diamonds. It can be worn with just about anything. Very nice for a gift.”
“Wow,” Chris said, pushing his glasses up. “That’s really nice. Ash doesn’t have anything like it, does she?” He turned to me, and I shook my head, silent. I had a feeling Chris was about to get a very nasty surprise. “How much is it?”
The woman’s eyebrows raised another nearly imperceptible notch. Was asking for the price too gauche for her, or something?
“It retails for fifteen.”
“Fifteen?” Chris asked. “I thought those were diamonds?”
I suppressed a laugh, but just barely. The woman’s eyes flicked to my face, a hint of irritation in her expression now. “Fifteen thousand,” she said, her voice low.
“Holy shit!” Chris said, clearly shocked, and I did laugh then. The woman glared at me, then back at Chris again.
“Our pieces are the highest quality.” Her voice was tight now, all pleasantness long gone. “Perhaps you’d like to see something without such high-end gemstones?”
Chris nodded, a dazed expression on his face. The woman led him down the display case to another row of bracelets.
“This cuff is very nice,” she said, pointing to a plain silver band. “It’s stamped with the Tiffany logo. Very classic and sophisticated.” She sniffed. “And much more reasonably priced at two hundred and twenty-five.”
“Two hundred dollars?” Chris still sounded shocked. “But…but…it doesn’t even have any jewels on it! I could buy her an iPod for cheaper than that!”
The woman looked downright pissed now, and I had a hard time not laughing again. “Maybe this store is a bit out of your range,” I said. “Everything is lovely,” I said to the woman, trying to be polite. “But maybe not quite right for this occasion.”
“Yeah,” Chris said, shaking his head. “I think you’re right.”
“Thank you anyhow,” I said to the woman. “For all of your help.”
She nodded curtly and turned to the other side of the store, obviously eager to get away from us. I grabbed Chris’ss arm and ushered him away from the counter and back out into the mall. Only then did I allow myself to laugh.
“Oh my God. You should have seen your face when she told you the price!”
“It’s obscene!” Chris said, still shaking his head. “A bracelet for fifteen thousand dollars? That’s like, a Ford Focus!”
I tried to get my breath. “You thought she meant fifteen dollars!” I cracked up all over again. “God, that was amazing!”
“Shut up,” he said, finally smiling as he shoved me. “How the hell was I supposed to know? I thought she was joking.” Suddenly he froze. “You don’t think Ashley is expecting me to get her something like that, do you?”
“No,” I said firmly. “I guarantee she isn’t.”
“Okay.” Chris looked slightly doubtful, so I took his arm and propelled him down the concourse.
“You know, that wasn’t a total waste,” I told him. “You actually gave me a really good idea. Here, let’s take the escalator. We need to go over to the other side.”
I led Chris up to the second level where we could take the glass walkway to the other building. It had moving sidewalks, just like at the airport, and I didn’t even try to hide my excitement. “It doesn’t matter how many times I go on this thing,” I told Chris. “I’ll always think it’s cool.”
“It’s a little high up for me,” he said, staring straight ahead so he wouldn’t see the traffic moving quickly on the road below us.
Once we were on the other side, I led him back downstairs, stopping in front of a glass-enclosed store bustling with activity.
“The Apple store?”
“You said you could get her an iPod,” I told him. “That’s actually a really good idea. She just has that really old Nano, remember? And the battery always runs down so fast. You could get her a fancy new one, like the Touch. She would love it.”
“Don’t you think that’s kind of impersonal?” He frowned.
“You could download a bunch of music for her,” I told him, taking his hand to pull
him inside. “Everything you know she loves. Then you could arrange it in playlists for her—like, work-out songs and love songs, and songs that make you think of her. She would think it was so sweet.”
“That’s actually a really good idea. Thanks, Emily!”
Twenty minutes later we were up in the food court, a new iPod Touch and an iTunes gift card in a white bag on the table, sharing a small pizza.
“What are your plans for the birthday extravaganza?” I asked, taking a swig of my Coke.
“I figured we’d start the weekend with a friend’s outing that Friday night, all of us together,” Chris grabbed another slice of pizza. “Then on Saturday, I’m going to surprise her with a trip up to Port Huron. I booked a room right on the lake, and there’s a cute downtown area with stores and a bunch of places to get good food.”
“Impressive,” I said, nodding my approval. “She’s a lucky girl.”
“You had your chance,” he said, grinning at me. “I asked you to be my girlfriend in eighth grade, remember?” He waved his hand across his body and face. “All this could have been yours.”
I snorted. “I liked you way too much to ruin it by dating you.”
“And thank God for that,” he said.
“Hey!”
“You know what I mean.” He wiped a drop of sauce off his lip with his napkin. “It would suck if we weren’t friends anymore.”
“True,” I said. “That would be terrible.”
We ate in silence for a moment, my mind wandering to all the good times I had shared with Chris over the years. He had been such a good friend to me, and to Brooke. There was a part of me that had been so scared to go away to school; having Chris there had been like having a piece of home with me all the time.
My phone rang, dragging me from my thoughts. I fumbled around in my purse, pulling it out to see my dad’s number flashing on the screen. “My dad,” I said to Chris. “I should get it.”
“I’m gonna go to the bathroom,” he said, standing up. “Then I’ll get us some refills.”
In Search of a Love Story (Love Story Book One ) Page 5
