Melt With Me: A With Me In Seattle Universe Novel

by Melissa Brown

  “About?”

  “Um, duh, Tokyo. Ekisaito is sending him there for three months.”

  I could feel all the color drain from my cheeks. I opened my mouth to speak, looking at Dev for confirmation. His brow was knitted, and his mouth open, I couldn’t read his expression well enough to know if Cara was speaking the truth.

  Cara’s eyes grew wide as she placed one hand on the counter, the other on her hip. “Wait, did you not know?”

  Pulling myself together, I shook my head and summoned my most convincing poker face. “Of course I knew. I just didn’t realize that you did.”

  “He tells me everything,” she gloated, looking all too proud of herself. I wanted to punch her in her smug face.

  “That’s enough, Cara.” Dev’s expression was pained, guilt-ridden. He knew I was bluffing and that I didn’t really know anything about Japan. My stomach dropped to my knees the moment she said it, and I was having trouble saving face in front of Cara. All I wanted to do was run to the back room and sob, but I couldn’t let her get the best of me. No, I had to stay strong. “Thanks for all your help, Maren.”

  Doing my best to look casual, I passed him his purchase. “You bet.”

  “Have a nice day,” Cara said, tilting her head to the side, a creepy look of satisfaction on her face.

  The bell rang as the door opened and then closed shut.

  “I need a minute,” I called to Lyra, and I ran to the back room, pushing the revolving door and collapsing onto the nearest countertop. Desperately, I tried to calm myself down, but I couldn’t.

  Peter was going to Japan for three months? Cara knew and I didn’t?

  What in the actual fuck?

  “Mare, are you okay?”

  I shook my head back and forth. “No, I’m not.”

  “Did I hear her right? Is Peter going to Japan?”

  “I don’t know.” I threw my hands up in defeat. “I don’t understand. Why would he tell her something so important and not tell me?”

  “You need to call him. Like right now. Get his ass on the phone and make him explain himself.”

  “I can’t,” I replied, shaking my head uncontrollably. “I have no idea what I’d even say.”

  “Ask him straight up if he’s going to Japan.”

  “And then what?”

  “And then you ask him why the fuck he didn’t tell you? And why on Earth you had to find out from her.”

  “Seriously, of all people. Cara Del-fucking-Vecchio. I want to scream!”

  “So do it.”

  “I can’t. Customers could walk in any moment.”

  “So go outside.”

  “Lyra, please—”

  “I mean it, Mare. You need to let this out. You’re pissed, and you have every right to be.”

  “What if he’s going to break up with me?”

  “Why? What makes you say that?”

  “C’mon, let’s really think about this. His friends know, but I don’t know. We’ve only been dating for three months, and he’s going to be gone for just as long. Maybe he wants to cut his losses and go there with no strings attached. Guys have broken up with their girlfriends for much less.”

  “But that doesn’t sound like him. That’s not Peter.”

  I shrugged. “Maybe I don’t know Peter as well as I thought.”

  “He’s not breaking up with you.”

  “I’m not so sure.”

  “Well, if he does, then he’s a fucking moron. And he and Cara deserve each other.”

  Just hearing her name made my blood boil. I reached for the nearest thing—a stainless steel wax melter. I picked it up and chucked it on the floor. The metal clanged against the concrete floor, and a dent formed in the spout.

  “Mare! No! You can’t be throwing these things around; they’ll break.”

  “I don’t care!”

  “Well, you will when you have to drop a grand to replace it.”

  I sank to the floor, hanging my head in my hands. “You’re right. What am I gonna do?”

  Lyra sat down next to me, putting an arm around me. “I’m sure there’s a good reason he didn’t tell you.”

  “I can’t believe she knew and I didn’t,” I said. “She knew and I didn’t!” I said it again and again, over and over until the words almost held no meaning, until my tears formed a tiny puddle on the gray cement below.

  “Oh Mare. We’ll figure this out.”

  The bell from the showroom dinged and Lyra sighed. “Damn. Okay, I’ll get that. Why don’t you go home?”

  “No, I’ll be fine. Just give me a minute.”

  “Take all the time you need, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Lyra kissed the top of my head before racing through the swinging door that led to the show room of the shop. I could hear her greeting customers and answering questions. My mind raced, attempting to think of just one reason why Peter had chosen to keep such important news from me. But I couldn’t think of anything that made any sense at all. Any possible scenario just led to more questions.

  A few minutes later, I was still sitting on the floor, staring off into space when Lyra came back into the workshop. “Your phone is blowing up. I took a look—twelve texts, all from Peter. Dev must have filled him in.”

  I closed my eyes and shook my head. “I don’t want to see them.”

  “Maren, c’mon, you love the guy. Give him a chance to explain himself.”

  I ignored what she said but extended my hand for the phone. Once she handed it to me, I placed it in my back pocket and walked to the cash register to retrieve my coat.

  “I’m going home. Cheryl should be in soon, right? You’ll be okay without me?”

  “Of course.”

  “All right, then.”

  “I’ll check on you in a little while.”

  I nodded, put on my coat, and walked out of the shop. My phone continued to ping my entire walk to my apartment. I ignored it the entire way. Once I was inside, I took off my coat and the rest of my clothes and climbed into the shower. Once the hot water soaked my hair, my face and body, I pressed my hands into the tile and sobbed. I sobbed until I didn’t have any more emotion left inside. Still wearing my bathrobe and my hair wrapped up in a towel, I laid on my bed and drifted into a troubled sleep.

  I woke to the buzzer of my apartment. Again and again and again. I heard my phone pinging over and over in the next room. In a daze, I walked to the intercom and pressed the button, assuming it was Lyra checking on me.

  “Maren, please let me up.”

  “Go away, Peter. I don’t want to see you.”

  “Please, just let me explain. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll stand here all night until someone lets me follow them inside. And then I’ll stand at your door until morning.”

  “I know about Japan, Peter.”

  “I know, and I’m so sorry. Please let me in.”

  Fresh tears stung my eyes, and I felt myself weaken. I pressed the button allowing him through the door, and I heard him sprinting up the steps. I unlocked my deadbolt just as he came bounding into my apartment. He reached for my hand, but I kept my arms crossed in front of me, denying him access to any contact.

  “Cara knew.”

  “I didn’t know she knew.”

  “She knew and I didn’t.”

  “Darby must have told her. I swear, I didn’t tell anyone. My team knows because I’ll have to be replaced during that time. Dev didn’t even know. I can show you the texts; he yelled at me as soon as he left your shop. He’s pissed that Cara knew and he didn’t.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me, Peter? Am I such a scary person?” Shaking my head in disbelief, I waited for an explanation that would make even the smallest amount of sense.

  “I found out right before I saw Jackson in your shop. We had such a huge fight that night that when I finally convinced you to forgive me, I couldn’t imagine bringing this up. It just seemed like a terrible idea. So, I kept it to myself, and I had planned to tell you tonigh
t, now that I’m back at work. I guess I should have assumed that Darby would tell Cara, but I swear to you it never crossed my mind. That’s how infrequently I think about her.”

  “I wish you would have told me yourself,” I said, my heart still aching. “To hear it from her was just…it was fucking horrible, Peter. She humiliated me, and she made me doubt you. Again! You told me you’d never put me in a position like that ever again.”

  “I swear to you I had no idea that she knew or that she and Dev were even together today or that they were planning to stop by your shop. I was just going about my day, planning to come over tonight and break the news. I wanted us to be strong, to face it together, to make a plan. And after New Year’s Eve, I felt like it was time.”

  “When do you go?”

  “March through May.”

  “That’s so soon.”

  “We can make it work, Maren. We’ll video chat; I’ll call you every night. And maybe I can save up some days and come home for a weekend, or I can fly you out there. We can explore Tokyo, go sightseeing, all the stuff we wanted to do in San Francisco.”

  I put both hands on my hips. “Don’t throw that in my face; that’s low.”

  He closed his eyes and shook his head. “I didn’t mean it like that, I swear. I just want to make the best of it. It’s only three months. We can do long distance for three months, right? Please say you can, Maren, because I’m all in. I’ve been all in since the moment we met.”

  “I would never have ended things over a work commitment. Jesus, Peter you could have given me a chance to be happy for you, to celebrate this opportunity.” It was then that I realized I had no idea why he was going to Japan. “Why are you going?”

  “Training—it’s this new program for new employees who show the most promise. I’ll be learning from the best of the best. I couldn’t say no.”

  “And I wouldn’t have asked you to. That’s the kind of thing that Jackson would have done to me. He was always taking my work for granted, so I know how that feels. I would never do that to you, Peter. Working for this company has been your dream since you were a little boy. I just wish you would have had more faith in me, faith in us.”

  “I know, but you were so mad at me about the Jackson thing. Even after I groveled my way back onto your good side, you still left me hanging for two days.”

  “I was upset.” I crossed my arms in front of my chest, feeling defensive.

  “And I get that, I do. But I was scared. That’s all it was. I was terrified to lose you because I knew I couldn’t say no to Japan. If I said no to it for you, I would have eventually lost my job…or resented you…or both. And I couldn’t have that. So I just postponed it a little while, waiting until we were back on good paper. And for that, I’m sorry. And I’m sorry that, once again, Cara has stuck her nose where it doesn’t belong and ruined something for us. I’m going to tell her that I need a break from her. I’ll always be grateful for her help getting me the job, but you’re everything to me, Maren, and I can’t let her jeopardize this anymore.”

  A hesitant smile tugged at my lips as I listened to his perfect words, saw the tears brewing in his eyes, the way his forehead creased with worry.

  “I believe you,” I said. Maybe I was a fool for trusting him, only time would tell. But I was in love—totally and completely in love, and I couldn’t let him slip through my fingers—not because of Cara DelVecchio or Ekisaito or Japan. He loved me, he wanted me, and I wanted him just as badly. So, I chose to believe and I curled myself into his chest.

  He sighed and pulled me in tight, kissing my head again and again.

  “I love you, Maren. Only you. They could send me to the Greenland, South Africa, Brazil—it doesn’t matter. Because no matter where I go, I always want to come home to you.”

  I pulled him close and breathed a sigh of relief, his words repeating again and again in my brain. He wanted to come home to me…and I wanted to greet him with open arms.

  We can do this.

  Chapter 22

  PETER

  Cara had been ignoring my texts for almost twenty-four hours, and it was grating on my nerves. Normally, I wanted to keep my private life separate from work, but before showing up at her place and banging on her door, I wanted to make sure nothing out of the ordinary was happening in her life…the death of a loved one, battling the flu, or something like that. And so, I casually tried to squeeze some information out of Darby.

  “Have you heard from Cara?”

  She looked surprised to be hearing her friend’s name from my mouth. Either Cara hadn’t told her about what happened or she did tell her and Darby deserved an Academy Award, because she had me fooled.

  “Yeah, why?”

  Still attempting to seem nonchalant, but sure I was failing miserably, I shrugged as I poured cream into my coffee in the kitchen area. “We’ve just been getting our wires crossed lately. And it’s flu season, so…”

  My words trailed off as I took a sip of coffee.

  “Nah, she’s fine.” Darby smiled before opening her laptop. “In fact, I’m seeing her tonight—we always watch The Bachelor together. So she’d better not have the flu.”

  “Cool, I’ll have to get in touch with her. Thanks, Darby.”

  “Sure thing,” Darby said, fully engrossed in whatever was happening on her computer screen. I texted Maren.

  -Hey! What time is The Bachelor on?

  -No clue. Sorry! Google it.

  -Damn, I wanted to be lazy.

  -In the time it’s taken you to text with me right now, you could have already looked it up.

  -Is that so, Smarty Pants?

  -Indeed. In fact, I googled it myself. It’s on at 8. You’re welcome ;)

  -See? It pays to be lazy.

  -LOL I guess it does. Call me later, Lazy Bones.

  Cara was the manager at a swanky seafood restaurant near Pike Place, and it was closed on Mondays. As soon as I finished work for the day, I headed right to her apartment. I was hoping to catch her at home before Darby arrived.

  She must have thought I was Darby, because she swung open the door with a carefree expression, music blasting in the background. When our eyes met, she stiffened and she cleared her throat awkwardly as she scratched the back of her head with one hand and held on to the door for dear life with the other.

  That’s right, Cara. You’re busted.

  “Peter, what are you doing here?”

  “We need to talk.”

  She flinched at my tone, backing away from the door so I could enter the apartment. She closed the door and hustled to her laptop, closing it. The music stopped, and she plopped herself on the couch, putting her feet up on the edge of her ottoman and folding her hands in her lap.

  “What’s up?”

  “We’ve been friends for a long time, and I know that my being with Maren is hard for you. But things have gone too far, Cara, and it has to stop.”

  “What has to stop?” she asked, placing one hand over her heart. “What on earth are you talking about?”

  “Dev told me everything.”

  She closed her eyes and leaned her head back into the couch. “That little shit. He promised he wouldn’t tell you.”

  “I think we both know where Dev’s loyalty lies. How did you even know about Japan?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Darby. Duh.”

  “And why did you feel the need to tell my girlfriend?”

  Cara tilted her head to the side, and her eyebrows climbed up her forehead. “I think the real question is, why didn’t you feel the need to tell your girlfriend?”

  “I was going to tell her; you just beat me to the punch.”

  “And what exactly were you waiting for?” she scoffed with a bitter laugh. “Darby told me days ago.”

  I ignored her question. “It wasn’t your place to tell her, Cara.”

  “I thought she knew!” She raised her voice, her cheeks turning a deep shade of red.

  I shook my head. “After your track record w
ith Maren, I’m not so sure. I thought she was going to break up with me because of it, because of you.”

  She shook her head. “Nope, sorry, but no. It’s not my fault you didn’t tell her. That’s on you.”

  “Fine, okay, but you told her that I tell you everything.” I made air quotes with my fingers for emphasis. “You led her to believe I’d confided in you when I didn’t. You misled her on purpose, and that was a shitty thing to do.”

  “I never claimed to be a nice person, Pete,” she said with devious narrowed eyes.

  “Really? That’s your defense? That you’re an asshole so I should’ve expected it?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t exactly use those words, but yes. You know who I am, Peter. You’ve always known, and it’s never been a problem….not until she entered the picture.”

  “Bullshit! You never acted like this before; I’ve dated other women and you’ve never done shit like this.”

  She tipped her chin forward. “Exactly. That’s because it’s her, you moron. She’s the problem, not me! I’m the same as I’ve always been; you just don’t realize who you’re dating.”

  I crossed my arms, glaring at her. “Oh yeah, and how do you know her so well?”

  “Because girls like her are all the same. She’s the perfect girl with the perfect family and a rich father who probably co-signed her lease so she could have a cute store with cute candles and overpriced books. And when her business fails, she’ll find someone to marry and become a pretty little trophy wife. And I’m pretty sure she’s found her guy. Wake up, Pete. You’re nothing but a bank account to her, especially now.”

  “You couldn’t be more wrong,” I scoffed, shaking my head at her arrogance, my blood pressure rising as I did my best to control my temper and not raise my voice. “She’s nothing like that.”

  “Of course you don’t think so. You’re obsessed with her and have lost your grip on reality. Things with us were finally heading somewhere. We were going out regularly, you brought me to your friends’ wedding—”

  “And I forgot you were even there,” I said, exasperated, throwing my hands in the air. Cara recoiled at my venom, and my cheeks grew hot with embarrassment. I had sunk to her level. I was playing dirty, just like her. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that.”