Elly in Love (The Elly Series)

by Oakes, Colleen

  “Elly, I’ll be honest, I am totally bewildered by this. You and Keith are made for each other. You’re perfect, absolutely perfect together.”

  Elly shook her head, a tear dripping off the end of her nose. “Apparently not.”

  “What happened? I mean, you told me what happened at the convention—which I can’t believe you went to, by the way—but how did this happen?”

  Elly bit her lip in an attempt to stifle a sob. “He was hiding something from me. He is. I know it. I’m not imagining it. I know it in the deepest part of my being. I ignored it for so long because I was so, so …,” she let out a cry, “so ridiculously happy with him and I couldn’t bear the thought of rocking the boat.”

  “But you did, anyway?”

  Elly nodded. “It wasn’t until I caught him lying about little things that I let myself go down that road, but I had to know, I had to.”

  “And you still don’t know what it is.”

  “No. He still wouldn’t tell me, even if it meant losing me. I asked him straight to his face, Kim. He kept asking me to let it go, but why should I? I don’t need to be told by another man that he needs more than I can give, that I’m not good enough.”

  Kim looked skeptical. “I’m almost positive that is not it. Keith is a good guy. He adores you. He does. The only other time I’ve ever seen a man be so in love is….”

  “Sean?” Kim gave a happy nod. “He is a sap, I’ll agree. But Keith loves you, Elly.”

  “He’s never said so before today, not until he was afraid of losing me. He used it as a Hail Mary pass, and that infuriates me. It’s ruined that moment forever.”

  Kim shook her head. “Oh, that would be terrible. Whatever he is hiding Elly, it is not another woman, I’m sure of it.” She paused. “Okay, I’m about 99 percent sure of it.”

  Elly bit her lip. “Well, I’m not. This feels the same, Kim. This feels like when I was married, and I had this nagging feeling that something was going on behind my back. I ignored it then, too, and then I found a redhead straddling my husband.”

  “That was then, Elly. And you are over that.”

  “I am, but I’m not over Keith. This is him keeping secrets, now. I know you are on Team Keith over here….”

  “I am not on Team Keith.”

  “Yes, you are.”

  “I’m on Team What’s Best For Elly.”

  “And you think Keith, who has some secret keeping me away from his house, is what’s best for me? Let me tell you something, a man keeping a secret from me is not what is best for me. That, I know. I’ve been down that road once, and I won’t do it again. I’m not that person anymore.”

  Kim nodded, curling one of Elly’s blond tendrils through her hand. “I know you aren’t. What do you think it could possibly be? I mean, let’s look at this in a logical way.”

  “I have been.”

  “I’m not sure that bringing it up in the middle of a sci-fi convention says ‘logical.’”

  “Whatever. It came up naturally.”

  “And you wouldn’t go outside with him to talk?”

  “No. Whatever it was, he could have told me there. I didn’t want him to tell me outside. Maybe I was afraid to hear it alone. What secret is so horrible that you have to take someone outside to tell them? It was just proof of his guilt.”

  “His guilt about what?”

  Elly gave a heartbroken sigh. “I don’t know.”

  Kim looked up at the thick cloudy sky, its green hue hinting at a dangerous storm. “Maybe he is homeless.”

  “Kim. He’s not homeless. And he acted insulted when I suggested it. Homeless people don’t run delis. He has a wife or girlfriend or something.”

  “Have there been any other signs of that? Secret phone calls? Canceled dates?”

  Elly nodded. “Just last week, he was supposed to run home, grab something, and come back and he never did. He just called and said that ‘something came up’ and wouldn’t say any more about it.”

  Kim nodded as she sipped from a large wine glass. “I can see how that would be troubling.”

  “It’s more than troubling,” deadpanned Elly. “It’s cheating.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “I feel like in my heart I do.”

  “Really? And what does your heart feel now?”

  Broken beyond belief, thought Elly. Like there is a deep gorge in my chest that can only be fixed by laying Keith against it. Like all my hopes have been plunged into cold water. She let a tear roll down her cheek onto her shirt. “It feels like crap, pretty much.”

  “Oh, El.” Kim wrapped her tiny arms around Elly’s shoulders. “I think you should call him and just talk to him.”

  “No. We’re done. He walked away from me.” Elly didn’t share the look in his eyes as she turned her back on him, the pleading desperation in his face. He hadn’t wanted to go, but what choice did she have? He kept secrets, he had been lying. She would not come home to find Keith with another woman. As much as her heart was broken now, it was nothing compared to what it would be then. Each moment with him was risking that brutal surprise.

  The wind picked up suddenly and hurled a plastic pot across the patio. The bulbous, dark sky swirled quickly above them and lightning lit up the horizon, the warm, wet air dangling dangerously. “I think we should go in,” said Kim. “I’ll turn on the TV, see what is going on.”

  Elly gave a nod. “I’ll be in in a minute.”

  Kim squeezed her hand and headed inside. Wrapping her arms around herself, Elly stepped out from under the trellised patio and looked up at the sky. It churned in on itself, an angry green whirlpool. Tiny droplets of rain pelted Elly’s face, as sharp as needles. Warm wind rushed past her, pushing her almost off her feet. The clouds above erupted in a giant crack, and the rain began coming down in buckets. Elly let it wash the tears off her face. Oh God, what have I done? Leaves swirled around her, a cylinder of dirt and plants. A smattering of hail began to batter the yard. Elly was soaked to the bone, her legs shaking underneath her, feeling the hail pelt her skin. Everything was warm and chaotic, trees and earth and sky and rain. She felt a strong hand on her shoulder. Keith? She turned. Dennis looked down on her, rain dripping off his bangs as the sky roared around him. “Dennis,” she said, “you look like a hero.”

  He shook his head. “What are you doing out here? There was a tornado sighting a few miles from here. Come on! We have to go downstairs.” He yanked her elbow.

  She looked at him, miserable, screaming over the storm. “I lost him, Dennis. I lost him! What do I do now?”

  Dennis’s eyes reflected that he thought she was absolutely nuts. A crazy older sister. “It will be okay!” he yelled back.

  “What do I do?”

  Dennis looked up at the sky, alarmed. He was silent for a minute. “You come inside. And then you do the BlissBride wedding, and you open Store B. But first, you come inside so that we don’t end up in Oz!”

  Elly smiled at Dennis’s terrible attempt at humor. She took one last look at the yard. The patio swing thrashed about wildly, and Kim’s beautiful landscaping was being torn to shreds by the wind. “It was all so perfect,” she said. Dennis awkwardly put his arm around her. Elly allowed him to lead her inside, out of the rain.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Two weeks had passed, although when you factored in depression, that was like a year, Elly mused as she pulled her hair into a messy ponytail. Her eyes were raw and red, and she looked terrible in her ill-fitting navy shorts and yellow shirt. Elly applied some mascara to her thick lashes as she stared at herself in the mirror. Today is my day, she told herself. I will not think about Keith today. I will rejoice in this celebration of a new store, I will be the life of the party, I will be a confident, sexy, smart woman. The face in the mirror looked back skeptically. “This is going to be awful,” she said out loud.

  Tucking the heels that Kim insisted she wear into a little backpack, along with a cute vintage gray dress, she absentmindedly wiped a
stray tear that made its way down her cheek. Get it together, Jordan. Elly headed down her hallway, stopping to knock on Dennis’s door. “I’m leaving. Will you be there later for the open house?”

  Elly heard a confirmation grunt. Dennis had been really supportive the first couple of days— bringing her Kleenex, trying to clean up his dishes, and even watching Titanic with her—and then fell back into old habits—playing MageCraft from dawn until dusk, and much, much later. Elly couldn’t muster the energy to care. It was hard enough to get out of bed these days, work downstairs at Posies, and then come back to bed. The smells from Keith’s deli were constantly drifting around her apartment and shop, as if she needed reminding of what she was missing. That warm bread and herb smell, something she once treasured, was now a constant torment, and Elly found herself shutting the windows tightly, even though it made the apartment stifling. She had seen Keith, too—once through the window of his deli when she walked to Ada’s. Once while he was taking out his trash in the back. And one time, though she couldn’t be sure, she thought she saw him staring up at her apartment window. With all her heart, she had hoped that he would rush up the stairs and take her in his strong arms, and all would be forgotten as they lost themselves in each other. It didn’t happen. Life dragged on, one asinine flower arrangement at a time.

  Elly steered her Tercel into the parking garage at Store B. Parking was a nightmare—it was either heart attack-inducing parallel parking, a paid meter, or braving the corporate parking garage. Taking one last glance in the rearview mirror—okay, maybe it wasn’t so bad—Elly gave a sigh. Tonight was the opening of Store B, a private party for friends, family, and loyal clients of Posies and their new neighbors in the office building. Though they weren’t opening until after the BlissBride wedding, they wanted to give people just a small taste of Store B to get everyone excited about its future. This was a big deal—and all Elly wanted to do was crawl under her comforter and never come out.

  To get to her new store, Elly had to take two separate elevators up to the lobby level. She rode quietly with three men wearing new suits, all talking about stock market fluctuations. If Snarky Teenager were here, she thought, she would be chatting with all three of them, and talking up their new venture. Instead, Elly stared miserably at her distorted reflection in the gold metal. With her head down, she walked through the busy lobby, past the gurgling fountain, and through the wide open doors.

  Snarky Teenager was there already, wiping the cooler doors down with Windex. “Hey,” she said, “you look like hell.”

  Elly gave her a dirty look. “Well, I feel like hell. Excuse me if I don’t look like a supermodel.”

  “Or any model, really.” Snarky Teenager patted her shoulder with a sarcastic smile. Her words were harsh, but there was a sympathy in her eyes that was unexpected and welcome.

  Elly dropped her bag behind the thick, dark mahogany desk. “It looks nice in here. I think we are ready, once we get all the arrangements done.” The store did look incredible. Huge, warm cream lanterns circled overhead, rotating in the air conditioning. The bright-lime walls shimmered in the moving light. The modern steel around the room and the pipes on the ceiling added to the chic feeling of the room. Snarky Teenager’s stupid gold Buddha sat in the corner. She had covered it with pink dahlias. A large slate fountain bubbled in the corner, where fresh lotus (so expensive!) mingled with floating candles. And in the middle of the room sat the large mahogany desk, the desk that Elly loved, the desk that Keith had moved in. Elly felt tears well up in her eyes and she turned away from Snarky Teenager. “Did you double-check this morning with the caterer?”

  “Yes. They are bringing everything at five. Sushi, edamame, dim sum, and petite lemon cakes with crisp rice topping.”

  “Sounds fabulous. And all the arrangements are ready?”

  Snarky Teenager gave her an annoyed face. “Yes. Have you looked in the cooler?”

  Elly walked over. The cooler was bursting with color—bright, contemporary arrangements of protea, ti leaves, orchids, and anthurium, in a variety of wooden boxes, twisty glass vases, and hollow rocks. “Looks great.”

  “That’s it, that’s all you are going to say?”

  “What? It looks great. Good job.”

  Snarky Teenager clicked her tongue as she walked over to the stereo. “Don’t ruin this whole night because of your dumb decision.”

  Elly wheeled on her heel. “What did you say?”

  “I said, don’t ruin this because of your horrible mood.”

  “You didn’t say that. You have no right to talk to me that way,” snapped Elly. “I am your boss.”

  “Yes. But you are in a horrible mood and yes, I think you made a dumb decision. Keith is a solid guy, and you just let him get away.” She tossed her long blond ponytail away from her face.

  Elly had the sudden urge to yank it. Hard. “I’m not going to talk about this with you. You don’t know any of the details to make that call. Please. I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “That’s fine, because I just want you to pretend tonight. Can you just pretend that you are happy tonight? I have worked my butt off trying to get this place ready. I’m really, really proud of what I’ve done, what you’ve done, and even if you aren’t, you could maybe just pretend. For me.”

  Elly walked over and rested her hands on the desk and closed her eyes. “I’m sorry if I haven’t told you. I am very proud of what you have done, despite my terrible attitude.”

  Snarky Teenager gave an eye roll. “If you are so proud, make me the manager.”

  Elly rubbed her eyelids. “Let’s not talk about that. Let’s talk about how this opening is going to go down. You can greet. I’ll mingle and give people the lay of the land, and Anthony can give them their arrangement on their way out.”

  Snarky Teenager popped out her hip and reapplied some lipstick. It looked perfect. Of course. “I was kind of hoping … that I could give the tour and mingle, and you could greet?”

  Elly made a face. “These will be lots of older people, business people.”

  “Yes, and I’m the one who had knocked on every door in this giant building inviting people to our open house and handing out cards. I can handle this, Elly. Trust me. Plus, do you really want to talk to a bunch of people who will ask you about Keith, or if you are single?”

  I would rather be quartered and hung, thought Elly. She surrendered with an uneasy sigh. “Okay.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  Snarky Teenager bounced happily across the room. “What are you wearing?”

  Elly smiled. “This.” She gestured to her Crocs and shorts. Snarky Teenager looked like she might vomit. “I’m kidding, kidding. I have a pretty dress. I even have heels. They are in my backpack.”

  “Thank God. Can I at least do your makeup and hair?”

  Elly nodded. “Won’t we have to go to your house?”

  “Nope. I have everything in my car.”

  “You bring curling irons and makeup in your car?”

  Snarky Teenager looked horrified. “You don’t?”

  The rest of the afternoon flew by as Elly finished up some arrangements with Anthony and made sure everything was absolutely perfect. When it was time, Snarky Teenager stepped out of the bathroom with a dramatic flourish. She was wearing a short silk yellow dress with a green dragon dancing across it. With her light-blond hair pulled sleekly across her forehead and bright-red chandelier earrings, she looked absolutely the part of their new store: chic, young, and modern. Elly, on the other hand, didn’t look bad, she thought as she looked in the mirror. The gray dress with a thin cranberry belt hugged her curves in all the right places, and the strappy black kitten heels suited the outfit well. Snarky Teenager had created a sophisticated up-do for Elly, sweeping her hair back from her face with a thin black headband. She also accented Elly’s wide eyes with copious amounts of gray powder and painted her large lips a pretty nude.

  They lit the candles and turned on the music�
��an eclectic selection of Chinese flute and violin with a beat-box background. It sounded like something you would spin a glow stick too. Elly lifted her lip. “What is this?”

  “It’s cool,” said Snarky Teenager, lighting a wall sconce. “You wouldn’t understand.”

  Elly rubbed her temples. Her bed sounded so attractive right now. For half an hour, there was a deafening silence as they waited for the first guest to arrive. Luckily, it was Kim and Sean, who were always able to put a smile on Snarky Teenager’s face, and occasionally, when she wasn’t moping about, Elly’s. The guests poured in a half hour later, and soon the entire store was filled with an excited buzz as people mooned over the arrangements, the beautiful lines of architecture, and, yes, even the golden Buddha. Elly greeted about twenty of her regular clients with a big smile, but everyone else was a stranger. Snarky Teenager, on the other hand, knew almost every person who stepped through the door. Greeting them with a kiss on both cheeks, she led them through the store, pointing out the design and the arrangements and making sly jokes. The men stared at her with lust, the women desiring her friendship. She was totally in her element with the business elite, exactly the kind of clients Elly had imagined patronizing the store. What kind of world was it, where Snarky Teenager was the person people came to for flowers? Nothing made sense anymore.

  Elly felt a soft hand on her elbow. “She is rocking this thing,” whispered Kim. Her toffee hair glowed in the track lights, her teal and pink wrap dress oozing elegance.

  “I know. I hate to say it,” whispered Elly, “But I’m impressed.”

  Kim gave a nod. “This place is her, you know? El, I think it’s going to be a huge success. I just feel it.”

  Elly could, too. As much as she loved Posies—and so did many other people—Posies never had this kind of primal energy. She had lovely, sweet, and rich clients, but none of them were the kind of men or women who employed thousands, who controlled a significant little corner of the stock exchange. Posies catered to rich housewives, Store B catered to the women who ran this city and their husbands. They meandered through the store in their expensive vintage suits straight out of the fifties, with their cell phones and frameless eyeglasses. It was kind of, well, awesome. A flicker of satisfaction surged in Elly’s chest, the first blossom of hope in a week. Maybe things would be okay. “I’m sneaking to the bathroom,” she whispered. “When I get back, let’s eat some dim sum in the corner.”