“You know damned well that is not what I meant! I don’t want to have to do this, but I’m throwing you out of my house. Get out!”
Said with a smile and a knowing look, Isabel didn’t take offense. In truth, she really was ready to go home.
“Fine. But I’m calling Zavia and telling her to check on you later today.” Isabel jumped off the bed in the guest room and began stuffing her clothes in her bag. Em stood in the doorway watching, amused by how little Isabel cared about the clothes that had been strewn around the room. She was the exact opposite of Zavia.
“I love you both. I really do. Since Mom moved away with her new husband, I’ve been so afraid I’d be all alone here. But, somehow, I seem to always have someone bossing me around.”
Isabel paused. “We don’t boss you around, exactly. We just make sure you don’t make a disaster of your life.” Isabel dropped to the floor in search of her other shoe. Em spotted the bright orange sneaker first and walked over and picked the shoe up. She held it out to her friend but stopped just out of Isabel’s reach.
“That is totally the same thing,” Em pointed out with a slight grin.
Isabel lunged forward and snatched the shoe out of Em’s hand. “Not even—bossing you around just makes it sound like we want you to do what we say. Helping you not to make a disaster of your life is just that—helping. See the difference?” Isabel couldn’t stop the giggles from escaping. Em’s frown was as expected as the sunrise.
“No, not really.” Em stood aside as Isabel stalked out the room. She took another look at the room her friend had been staying in for just a weekend. The small space was utter chaos. She exhaled a deep sigh and turned down the stairs to the kitchen where Isabel was preparing coffee in one of Em’s favorite travel mugs.
Em sauntered to the cabinet and grabbed a different travel mug for Isabel to take and then lose. She snatched the carafe of fresh coffee out of Isabel’s hand and poured the liquid in before handing the mug back to Isabel.
“Hey, I like the other cup better.”
“So do I, which is why you’re taking this one. I won’t have to track you down and kill you to get my mug back.” Em gave her a wide smile. “You’re going to be late for work if you don’t get out of here.”
“I’m glad you’re taking the day off. You need to rest your brain. It’s been a shitty few days.”
“Yeah, well, we’ll see how happy you are when you get to the office and all hell has broken loose.”
Isabel snatched up her tote bag and her purse and headed for the door. She stopped with her hand on the knob and spoke to Em over her shoulder.
“I understand you still love him, but I really hope you can see that this situation can’t work. You do see that—don’t you?”
“What if he has changed?” Em asked that more to herself than to Isabel, but she wasn’t fool enough to think Isabel wouldn’t answer.
“Even if he has changed, will that solve everything?” Isabel turned and faced Em full on. “Suppose he’s changed and is everything you ever wanted of him. Would you be able to trust him not to hurt you again? Can you live with constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop? Is that really the life you want?
“Zavia thinks you should stay as far away from him as you can. I can see why she’d say that, but I disagree. I think you need to face him and know that you are making the right choice no matter what. You aren’t the same person you were five years ago. Your dad dying affected you in ways you could never have guessed, and you put everything— your love and your grief—into your relationship with Lukas, rightly or wrongly. He couldn’t be what you needed then, and I don’t think he can be what you need now.” Isabel dropped her bags and rushed over to pull Em into yet another tight embrace.
“I know how much you hate hugs, but I needed this one,” Isabel admitted.
Em sighed and let her body relax into the hug. “It’s okay. I think I needed this one too.”
“Okay, enough of that. I’m off. If you need anything, please, please, please don’t hesitate to call. Zavia isn’t teaching today and she has only a few client meetings, so she can come too.”
“Okay. I will. Now go before I get us both in trouble with Meanie Martin.” At the sound of their private nickname for their boss, Isabel’s eyes went wide, and she ran out of the house and jumped in her car. Em watched from the doorway as Isabel flew down the driveway and down the street.
“That girl is going to kill someone one day.” Em shook her head and went back into the house.
As she headed back to clean the spare room, she began to think about what Isabel had said. Should she face Lukas? Could she? Was she really strong enough for that? She honestly didn’t know. Spying on him in a bar while drunk was one thing. Actually talking to him was another. What Em did know was that she wasn’t ready at that moment for any kind of confrontation. And with that thought in mind, she resolved herself to staying as far away from Lukas Upton as humanly possible.
*
Isabel knew as soon as she walked in the door that Em was right. All hell had broken loose in the office. She tried to get to the small office she and Em shared as quietly as possible, but that plan was quickly derailed as the office manager spied her less than five feet from her door.
“Isabel! Oh, thank heavens you’re here. We’ve got a new client waiting, and Emmalyn waited until this morning to let us know she wasn’t coming in today.” Barbara drew out Emmalyn’s name dramatically, causing Isabel to roll her eyes. She ducked into her office with Barbara hot on her heels. She took a moment to set her coffee down and fall heavily into her desk chair. Taking an extra deep breath before turning to face Barbara, she plastered on a wide but insincere smile.
“Okay. Tell me what’s going. Slowly.” Isabel took a long sip of her coffee, savoring the strong flavor. Emmalyn’s deeply ingrained caffeine addiction was starting to rub off on her, she thought, blocking out the sounds of Barbara’s high-pitched chattering.
Barbara huffed, her ample bosom straining against the clearly-too-small, white oxford blouse she wore. “We have a new client waiting in the conference room. They asked to meet with you and Emmalyn. I let the client know that Emmalyn would not be in the office today, and they said they would wait to meet with you.”
“See, that wasn’t so hard. Now let’s go see what this new client needs.”
Isabel grabbed a notepad and pen and walked out of her office. She got halfway to the door and remembered to grab her coffee off the desk. She walked down the hall to the conference room, pausing at the door to take a sip of her coffee before entering the room. There were three gentlemen sitting around the oval conference table, two of whom she already knew. As her eyes rested on Lukas, she spit out her coffee, getting the scalding-hot liquid all over her fairly new, butter-yellow silk blouse and across the floor. Lukas smiled serenely at Isabel as he stood up to offer her a handkerchief.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Isabel stared at Lukas in pure disbelief. He held on to his smile at her but was smart enough not to respond. Isabel tried to speak again, but her boss walked into the conference room with a disapproving look on his face.
“Isabel. Is there a problem?” he asked, his voice full of false sincerity and condescension.
Isabel tried to pull herself together as she turned to face Meanie Martin.
“No, sir. Can you excuse us for a moment? Please, just one second.” Isabel reached out and grabbed Lukas by the hand. She pulled him out of the chair and dragged him down the narrow hallway to her office. She shoved the much larger man in the room and closed the door behind her.
“Lukas Upton, I swear to God. You have got to be kidding me. What in the name of all things holy are you doing here? Emmalyn can’t find you here.” Isabel began pacing her office, trying to decide whether to call Zavia or just kill Lukas where he stood. The placid look on his face did nothing to soothe her nerves.
“I need to see her, Isabel. You have to understand,” pleaded Lukas quietly.
&nb
sp; “No! What I understand is that you need to stay away from her, unless and until she comes to talk to you.”
“Why are you and Zavia trying so hard to protect her? She’s not as fragile as you guys think.”
“How the fuck would you know? Listen, Lukas. I’m going to level with you. She fell apart after the two of you broke up. It took months for her to get back on her feet and so many months more before she got back to normal. She doesn’t need you messing with her mind again, trying to convince her that you love her when the whole time the only person you care about is yourself.”
“That is not how things went down, and you know it. And in case you forgot, she threw me out!” he whispered furiously.
A knock on the door interrupted the conversation. Isabel opened the door and asked Barbara for just a few more minutes. She closed the door and leaned her head against against the thin wood, taking a moment to get her thoughts together before speaking.
“Did Em ever tell you about her dad? About what he was like?” Isabel was well aware she was treading on very thin ice with this topic, but she needed Lukas to understand.
“No. I would ask her, but she would never say anything. I know he died, and it broke her heart.”
Isabel smiled at the memories swirling in her mind. “Her dad was amazing, one of the best men I ever met—when he was sober. But he was very, very rarely sober. And he spent her whole life making promises to her to get better, to get help, to finally get sober. He would make plans to do things with her and never show because he’d get drunk. He missed every important milestone in her life.” Isabel paused and stood up straight. She turned and moved to stand directly in front of Lukas. She stared directly into his eyes as she spoke.
“The day he died, he should have been with Em and her mom, but he didn’t show, didn’t come home. They were broken because they knew something had happened. The phone call they’d always known was coming finally came the next morning.”
“Isabel, I swear I didn’t know.” Lukas felt like the heel of a shoe that just stepped in dog poop.
Isabel pressed on. “And now, you do. I mean, didn’t it seem odd that she would put such importance on promises? Not honesty or fidelity or any of the other things most women care about? Damn it, Lukas, you could have beaten her every day, and she would have stayed with you forever. She asked one thing of you, and you couldn’t give that one thing to her. I am begging you. Whatever you think you need to say to her, please don’t. Just stay away from her.” Isabel walked out of the office, leaving Lukas to consider her words.
6
A Free Lunch
According to psychology, there are five love languages. The trick to winning at love is to find someone whose language is compatible with yours. If you need someone to tell you he or she loves you, then you need to find someone who can do that. If you need to be shown love, because hearing it isn’t enough, then that’s the kind of person you need to be with.
Lukas learned enough in his sole psychology class to recognize that he and Emmalyn loved and needed love in completely different ways. Lukas was loud and proud with his feelings for Em. Everyone he met knew exactly how he felt about her.
Emmalyn, on the other hand, was quiet and strong. In her experience, she knew that words were often useless. She needed someone who could express their love by being exactly what they promised to be. And though they loved each other intensely, their inability to love the same doomed their relationship.
Lukas had been thinking about this for some time. He knew Em still loved him and he had finally accepted that he was still very much in love with her. Every time he saw her, his resolve to make things right with her strengthened. But he couldn’t get the conversation with Isabel out of his mind. Lukas knew that there had been issues between Em and her dad, but Isabel was right –– he had never asked her what happened.
Unable to fall asleep for the second night in a row, Lukas went down to the kitchen for something to drink and found his father sitting at the table eating cookies.
“Seriously, Pop, it’s two o’clock in the morning. What are you doing up and eating cookies?”
“As I told you last night when you asked that same damn question, I’m old. What are you doing up again tonight?”
Lukas sat down across from his father and watched him. His father cocked an eyebrow at him askance.
“I need to talk to someone, and I need you to try not to be judgmental or intolerant.”
His father threw his head back and laughed. “Then why talk to me?”
“Cuz you’re the only one here.” The two laughed quietly, lost in thought.
“So, what have you done now?” asked Pop, clearly amused.
“I went to Em’s office to talk to her. And before you say anything, she wasn’t there. I talked to Isabel, trying to get her to tell me what’s up with Em. She told me about Em’s dad and why she is so obsessed with promises and keeping my word. I honestly didn’t know it was so important to her. I never tried to hurt her; I just figured she always had her friends with her, and it didn’t matter if I was there or not. That, apparently, was not the case.”
“So, what, exactly, is your plan? You can’t go chasing after one woman while you are engaged to another. That isn’t fair to either of them.”
“I know. I wanted to get things straight with Em so I could marry Sunny.”
Pop thought about that statement for a moment before asking, “Do you want to know if there is some hope of getting back with Emmalyn or to be sure it’s over?”
“I don’t know. I just think — I don’t know what to think anymore.”
Lukas stood up from the table and headed for the stairs. His foot had hit the first stair when he heard his father’s voice. “Can I make a suggestion without sounding judgmental or intolerant?”
“Probably not,” Lukas admitted, “but give it a try.”
“I suggest you stay away from Emmalyn and Sunny until you know the answer to that question.”
Lukas gave the idea some thought. “You may be right with that one. Thanks, Pop.”
*
After ten excruciating minutes of staring at a blank screen, Emmalyn, or more correctly her stomach, realized she was absolutely starving. She looked around her office to find that Isabel was still in her design meeting. She quickly grabbed her purse and headed down to the little Irish pub on the ground floor of her office building to get something to eat in peace and quiet.
For the past week, Isabel and Zavia had been all over her, trying to make sure she was all right. Nothing she said seemed to convince her two best friends that she really did feel better about life and Lukas. She understood that they meant well and that their concern was justified, but so much togetherness was driving Em insane.
Happy to be able to eat in silence for once, Em took a seat at the far end of the bar away from the window — just in case Zavia or Isabel came looking for her. She considered ordering the fish and chips, but, in the end, she opted for a burger and fries. Taking her sweet time to people watch and silently judge, Emmalyn took a big bite of her burger and nearly choked when her most recent ex, Grant, walked in. Clearly unable to crawl under the bar and hide, she smiled at him, then quickly remembered the mouth full of meat that required chewing and swallowing. She covered her mouth, finished chewing, and took a big swallow of soda as Grant took the stool next to her.
“Hi. I’m surprised to see you here.” Grant reached down and grabbed a french fry off Em’s plate, then quickly put it back. “Sorry about that. I remember how much you hate that.”
His smile threw Em off a bit. Grant was very handsome, with golden-brown skin, a full beard, and a freshly shaven bald head. Em often wondered why he wanted to be with her, when it was obvious he could be with any woman he wanted.
“I work upstairs in this building, remember. I don’t eat here often, but I took a few minutes to grab something quick to eat.” She wiped her mouth before swiveling around on the stool the give the man beside her, her full attent
ion.
“Well, don’t let me interrupt your meal. I was passing by and saw you from the street. I just wanted to say hello.” Grant popped a French fry in his mouth and stood up. He turned to walk away then hesitated. Unfortunately, he turned back to Em in time to see her take another big bite of burger. Em inelegantly spit the burger on her plate and wiped her mouth. Grant didn’t have the heart to tell her that she had lettuce in her teeth. Instead, he laughed quietly, then asked her, “Are you free for dinner tonight?”
“Gee, I don’t know,” Em hemmed and hawed, looking for a way to get out of this conversation. Her mind conveniently went blank, making her sound like a broken record.
Grant sat back down on the stool next to Em. “Emmalyn, look, I really like you. I’m just asking for dinner. I’m sure there is a very good reason for why you keep running away from me. Think about it, and give me a call. I’d really like to see you.”
He stood up and walked away before Em could answer. She signaled the bartender with her hand and asked for a box for her burger and fries. She hastily paid for her food and hurried back to her office. Em was so deep in thought as she stepped off the elevator that she walked smack into Isabel.
“Where in the hell have you been? I’ve been looking all over for you,” Isabel exclaimed.
Isabel grabbed Em’s arm and pulled her down the hall into their shared office. She slammed the door shut as Em flopped down into her chair and opened the box containing her now cold lunch.
“Well! What have you got to say for yourself?” demanded Isabel.
“I got hungry,” Em offered to a clearly unamused Isabel a cold french fry. Em sighed, dropped the fry back into the box, and slumped down into her chair. “I noticed that you and Zavia had finally crawled out of my ass, and I went –– all by my lonesome – to get something to eat. Is that a crime?”
Fairytale Lost Page 4
