by Lynne Silver
The next day, Amy and Cat were back in the store, with Amy successfully managing to avoid any conversation about her date last night. It had been a good date—they’d gone bowling at one of the trendy places with fancy drinks and good food. But it had kind of sucked at the end, when Mitch’s kisses made it clear he was hoping for an invitation to spend the night.
Feeling trapped, she’d been forced to lie and tell him she had her period and wasn’t up for intimate company. She was a terrible, awful, no good, very bad person.
She didn’t have her period, but she couldn’t imagine a world in which she brought Mitch back to her house and slept with him one room away from Danny. Either she needed a new roommate or to ditch Mitch, and she didn’t want a new roommate, because she’d miss Danny way too much if she didn’t get to see him on a frequent basis.
“You’re quiet today,” Cat observed. “Did something happen last night?” They were on the floor together, unloading a box full of thin cotton sweaters that had arrived from one of Amy’s designer friends from college. It had been a risk ordering something from someone in total start-up mode, but her friend had come through, and Amy hoped the cute sweaters would fly off the racks. Miamians loved their air conditioning, and you learned to carry a sweater or wrap with you or freeze.
“Nothing happened,” she said. She held up a sweater for inspection. “This is cute, right?”
“Yes, and stop changing the subject.” Cat looked at her expectantly. “Mitch seems like a great guy, and you said you were looking for a relationship. What’s the problem?”
Amy stared at the stacks of sweaters. What was she going to say? Cat was the last person she could confess to. She was highly protective of her brother as evidenced last year when she’d made extremely poor decisions nearly leading to her kidnapping and breakup with Ian.
“You’re right,” she said. “On paper Mitch is great, but…”
“No zing,” Cat said, knowingly.
“Exactly. But they say passion dies and friendship lasts. I don’t want to throw away something potentially great just because my body doesn’t go aquiver when he walks into the room.”
Cat laughed. “First of all, don’t ever say anything about your body going aquiver. Second, passion can last. Look at me and Ian. I’ve felt that zing for him since I was fourteen and it’s not going away any time soon.”
“But you’re friends too. And maybe you’re the exception.”
“I don’t know…” Cat gave a secret smile. “Ian’s parents are still pretty passionate. Let’s say I won’t be swimming in their pool anytime soon.”
She laughed. “Oh, God. Did you walk in on them?”
Cat nodded. “Yep. We went to drop something off at their house. I thought Ian was going to cry. I couldn’t stop giggling, and now every time I see Joy, I start giggling. It’s going to be awkward walking down the aisle at my wedding, giggling and crying at the same time.”
“Hopefully the trauma will fade by then.”
Cat crossed herself and muttered, “Please Lord.” She looked back at Amy. “Folding these sweaters reminded me of the cotton wrap that you designed. When do you think your clothes will be ready to sell in our stores? I didn’t realize manufacturing took so long.”
It didn’t. Amy was the one who’d halted the process. If she continued letting fear rule her, her designs would never be on the shelves of her store, but she didn’t want to talk about that today. In answer to Cat, she gave a noncommittal hmm and kept folding sweaters. Luckily, Cat had other things on her mind and kept chattering.
“I almost forgot. You should feel free to bring Mitch to our engagement party. I know we said small with friends and family only, but I think a date would be fine.”
Relieved the focus was off her love life, Amy felt a genuine happiness pass through her at the reminder that Cat was getting married to the man she’d loved forever. “I’ll think about it, but yeah, I’ll probably bring him. Remind me of the date again.”
“Soon. Saturday, February third.”
“Right. Sorry. My brain has been in a fog lately. And it’s at your apartment? Wouldn’t doing it at OCXA be easier?”
Cat shook her head, her blonde hair bouncing. “No. We spend so much of our time there, we want something special. We party for a living, and there’s nothing special about hundreds of people we barely know. For our engagement party, we’re keeping it to a few friends at our place for a nice dinner.”
“It’ll be great.”
“I hope so. I hired a new caterer who is giving me a great deal because she wants to build her client list.”
“Really? We’re going to be guinea pigs? Who else is coming?”
“Don’t panic. I’ve done a tasting,” Cat said. “Ian’s parents are coming, Drew and a date, because he always has a plus one, Lisa and her fiancé, you and Danny. Unless you want my brother as your date, everyone else will be coupled off.” She laughed, as if the idea of Danny and Amy as a couple was the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard of.
Cat stopped laughing, then said, “Of course, if you bring Mitch, then we need to find a date for Danny. I don’t want him to feel out of place. He’s been clean for a year. It’s time for him to consider dating, right?” She looked at her as if Amy were an expert in dating and former drug addicts.
“Uh, I don’t know. I guess?” Could this conversation get any more awkward? Why no, Cat, your brother’s not ready to date, but he’s ready for sex. Yeah, awkward.
“Do you know anyone? I feel like most of the women I meet are through Ian, and that would be a terrible fit for Danny. I don’t want him getting pulled back into that world.” Her lips were an unhappy tight line across her face.
“How about Kym?”
When they were done laughing at the idea of setting Danny up with Kym, Amy said, “Sorry, I don’t know anyone.”
“Oh,” Cat said. “Well, if you think of someone. Maybe the perfect woman for my brother will come shop in our store.”
“Maybe,” Amy was about to say when the front door chimed, signaling they had a customer. They both rose and went to greet the potential buyer.
“Amy,” the customer said with a huge grin.
“Olivia.” Amy hurried over to hug the woman. She turned to introduce Cat. “Olivia was my mom’s nurse at hospice. We ended up becoming friends.” Olivia Rodriguez was a year older than Amy, and a Miami native, but had grown up in the neighborhood of West Kendall. They hadn’t known each other growing up.
“Nice to meet you.” Cat and Olivia shook hands.
“What are you doing here?” Amy asked.
“Meeting a potential client at South Florida Hospital,” Olivia said, “which meant I was in the neighborhood. Figured I’d swing by, see your store, and hope you’re free to grab lunch.”
Amy smiled, glad Olivia had come to see her. They’d both been so busy with their respective jobs, they hadn’t had time to catch up in a while.
“She’s free,” Cat said. “I’ll cover the store. Bring me back a salad or something.”
“Sure,” Amy said and went to the back room to grab her purse. Cat followed, grabbing her arm as they walked.
“Do you think she’d be good for Danny?” Cat whispered, sounding way too excited about setting her brother up with a woman she’d met fifteen seconds ago.
“I think she has a boyfriend,” she said. Lies. She had no idea whether Olivia was dating someone or not. She did know that any man who wanted in Olivia’s pants had to pass muster with the woman’s best friend, AKA her ferocious older brother.
“Oh.” Cat pursed her lips. “Well, if she doesn’t have a boyfriend, ask if she’s interested and invite her to my dinner party. She’s totally my brother’s type.”
“Will do,” Amy said, trying not to let Cat’s words hurt her, because Cat was right. Olivia with her dark skin, long glossy hair, and killer body was absolutely Danny’s type. She looked like Cindy Crawford and Eva Mendes had a love child. In fact, she should set Olivia up with
Danny. What better way to commit to Mitch than to foist Danny off on another woman?
Except when she and Olivia were seated at a small table across from each other, she found herself confessing everything about her love life. “We’ve slept together three times.”
Olivia paused, her slice of pizza halfway to her mouth. “And he’s living with you, but you’re not dating?”
She nodded. “That’s right.”
“Because you’re dating Mitch, who is a great guy, but you don’t want to have sex with him.”
She nodded again. “You got it. What am I going to do?”
Olivia bit off and chewed a bite of pizza thoughtfully. “You like both guys?”
“Yeah.” Her pizza sat untouched on her thin paper plate.
“In my line of work, I see the “for worse” and “in sickness” part of the marriage vows. Let me assure you, not everyone handles it well. Some people are amazing and stick by their partner. Some expect me to do the clinical and the spiritual caretaking.” She shook her head. “Not my job description. I administer meds and can do CPR, and I’ll do it with compassion and kindness, but I’m not the person who’s known the person in the hospital bed for years. I’m a stranger. When I get married, I want the guy who’s willing to hold my hand at the end. The one who will wipe my spittle off my chin.”
Amy giggled slightly at Olivia’s macabre description of what most people’s final days looked like.
“Who do you want in the end?” Olivia challenged. “The memory of the orgasms or the physical presence of a man at your bedside?”
“Bedside,” she said. “No question.”
“Then you have your answer.” She took a final bite of her pizza, and Amy finally picked up hers, but the grease had congealed and her stomach turned.
“You’re not going to eat that?” Olivia asked and reached for it before Amy could say no. She sipped her ice water and watched Olivia finish her pizza, feeling inexplicably queasy. It must be that the thought of ending things totally with Danny had her upset. Mitch was the man who was steady and dependable. He was the better choice.
The two women rose to throw away their trash, and Amy caught a hand on the table to steady herself. The restaurant had tilted precariously as she rose. “Whoa,” she said.
Olivia was at her side in an instant. “You look green. You gonna pass out on me?”
She couldn’t reply for a minute and concentrated on breathing through her nose. “Need fresh air,” she muttered and leaned on Olivia as she was guided out into the sunshine where she instantly felt better.
“Have some water,” Olivia instructed and handed her the cup full of ice water. After a few sips, Amy felt even better and ready to return to work.
As they strolled back to her store, Olivia said, “You didn’t eat lunch and now you’re faint. What’s the deal? Are you going anorexic on me? Asking as both a friend and a professional.”
She froze. “No, God no. I ate like half a jar of peanut butter for breakfast.” Straight from the jar, but Olivia didn’t need to know that.
“Good to hear, but take it easy this afternoon. Maybe the heat got to you.”
“Maybe.” That brought them to the entrance of her store. Instead of leaving her there, Olivia entered behind her. Cat was behind the register ringing up a customer while three other women shopped, one with her toddler.
“I have the afternoon off,” Olivia said. “I’m going to do a little shopping. I read in a certain newspaper that this was the it place to shop in South Miami.”
She grinned and hugged her friend. “Go crazy. You get the friends and family discount. I’m glad you stopped by. I’m gonna…” She subtly nodded her head in the direction of the mom and toddler and left Olivia to browse the racks while she went to see if she could assist any other shoppers.
One of the other customers had an armful of clothes, so Amy went to start a fitting room for her. The woman kept her running back and forth for different sizes and by the time she’d made her decisions and was ready to be rung up, Olivia was gone.
She walked the customer over to Cat at the register and was about to go straighten up the wreck of a dressing room, when Cat said, “I invited her to the dinner party.”
“What?”
Cat’s attention was on the customer and ringing up the clothes, but she answered, “Olivia. I invited her to the party. She seems nice and since she’s a nurse, maybe Danny’s past wouldn’t bother her.”
Amy doubted that.
“I didn’t tell her it was a set-up though. Please don’t tell her either.” She finished adding up the clothes and swiped the credit card, smiling the customer on her way, then turning back to Amy. “If it’s meant to be, they’ll hit it off. Danny’s going to be resistant to any blind date, and I don’t want a woman showing up expecting him to be excited to meet her. She’ll get in his face, he’ll be rude and it’ll be a damper on the party. This way…” She shrugged. “If they get along, great; otherwise, no big deal.”
Amy couldn’t fault her logic, but she was uncomfortable letting Olivia walk into a blind date situation, well…blind. She’d email her later and give her a heads up and beg her to go to the dinner anyway as buffer between Mitch and Danny. She refused to give a second worrying about Danny going on a date, because it was too upsetting. Yes, she was a total hypocrite since dating was exactly what she was doing, but she was looking for a relationship. Danny was not.
Danny pushed the mower, hacking at every blade of grass as if it were a limb on Audi Mitch’s body. He blinked blearily at the lawn he was mowing in a ritzy neighborhood, tired from being up late last night. Amy had been on yet another date with her loser boyfriend, and he’d sat on the living room sofa waiting for her to come home. The minute they’d pulled into the driveway, he’d run for his room like a coward. He hadn’t met the guy and didn’t want to.
He especially didn’t want to have to fake smile and shake the asshole’s hand if she brought him into the house and to her bed.
He got to the edge of the huge property and did a one-eighty as if the mower were on rails. If he wasn’t careful, he’d rip off a toe in his hurry to finish the job and get home in the hopes that Amy would be home too and they could share dinner together, something that they hadn’t done since the night he fucked her on the couch.
What was he doing, but more to the point, what was Amy doing? She wasn’t the kind of girl to let a guy fuck her without being in a relationship, if his observations of her the past year were any indication. Then again, what did he know? He was a self-absorbed asshole who’d been too high to notice anything other than his next fix, and then he’d been too focused on getting clean.
But one day he’d opened his eyes and there’d been Amy—buying him Christmas presents, giving him the truths that everyone else was too scared to give, and looking gorgeous and all too fuckable.
Hell, he couldn’t blame Audi Mitch for spotting Amy and going after her. It’s what he wanted too.
So why was he here mowing a lawn while Amy was out, probably sleeping with someone who wasn’t him? Because he was an idiot and hadn’t laid it out for Amy what he wanted. At first he thought he’d wanted sex. What man wouldn’t lock onto his gorgeous roommate after more than a year of celibacy?
Except, once he’d had a taste he’d wanted more, while meanwhile she’d used him to get off, and then went on a date with her loser lawyer. Amy claimed Danny wasn’t relationship material and she wanted stability. She was probably correct; he was a bad bet. Yet it didn’t stop him from wanting to erase Mitch from existence and prove to Amy that he could be her guy.
“I’ll be an earthquake-proof house,” he muttered, pushing the lawn mower back to the back of his boss, Joe’s truck. “I’ll be steadier than a boulder, a table,” he continued, listing everything stable he could think of. How to prove his steadiness to Amy was the test.
This was his penance for his years of decadence and wildness. He’d been broken and now had to repair the world’s view of him.
He loaded up the mower and helped Juan with other equipment, then had Juan drop him off at Winn Dixie where he planned to buy the makings of dinner for Amy, step one in winning her from Mitch.
He didn’t have the kitchen chops to make much more than boxed pasta with sauce from a jar and salad from a bag. His parents had been killed before his mom had time to teach him some of her special Cuban family dishes. He decided intent and effort were worth a hell of a lot more than results.
But looking at the bowl of pasta and red sauce, sprinkled liberally with Parmesan, he felt some pride in the meal. Only one problem. He’d made enough for him and Amy, and he was still home alone. No sign of Amy.
Should he text her? Let her know dinner was waiting? No. The whole point of this was a romantic surprise. He sat in the kitchen staring at the dinner as it went from steaming, to hot, to room temperature, to cold. At that point, he nuked a plate of pasta for himself and wrapped Amy’s portion and shoved it in the fridge.
So much for winning her over with his culinary skills. She’d have to show up and not be on a date in order to appreciate them. He tried to stay pissed, but when he woke up the next morning, there were fresh bagels, cream cheese, and a fresh steaming latte waiting for him along with a thank you and apology note for missing last night’s dinner.
Three weeks later, he was getting ready for another dinner, this time at his sister’s. No cheap pasta and Ragu. She’d invited him a few weeks ago to some fancy dinner party she was throwing to celebrate her engagement. He wasn’t really keen on hanging out with the huge party crowd Cat and Ian called their friends, but she’d assured him it would be a small crowd.
Amy would be there, and maybe he’d actually get to talk with her, since she’d been avoiding him as if it were her job. It’d be harder for her to avoid him in a small group.
