by Pamela Yaye
Teddy winced, remembering that conversation. She hadn’t thought anyone could hear them. The gallery was empty. But when he brought the painting out, he was right behind her. It was unimportant now. Their parents knew the truth.
“I am so hurt and angry,” her mother said. There was that hitch in her voice again. “Why did you two think you needed to lie to us?” She looked at Teddy, then at Adam and back again.
“Mom, we didn’t really. You wanted us to like each other...and we do.” Teddy glanced at Adam for confirmation. He took her hand in assurance, but it didn’t seem to affect the two mothers. They sat across from them in individual chairs. Teddy had the feeling this was a court and she and Adam were on dual witness seats. The problem was they were guilty.
“We thought if you believed we were really getting close to each other, that you would stop...” She trailed off, not wanting to make matters worse by telling them to stop meddling.
“Go on,” her mother said, raising her chin slightly. “What would we stop?”
“Sending us blind dates, commenting on our single status,” Adam said.
“And you were so happy when I told you we were going to continue to see each other,” Teddy explained.
“You think I, we—” she used her hand to encompass both Adam’s mother and herself “—want you to be married so badly that you needed to fake a relationship?”
Teddy refused to answer. She held her mother’s gaze but did not reply to the question.
“And what about that proposal on Thanksgiving?” Adam’s mother asked him. “Were you going to go as far as planning a fake wedding?”
“Of course we weren’t,” Adam replied. “We were going to break up just before Christmas. You’d be disappointed, but you’d stop with the marriage tests for a while.”
“Mom,” Teddy hesitated. “I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you.”
“Well, you have. The whole family, in fact. Your sisters were already talking about being bridesmaids. And even though your father never said it, he was glad you’d finally found someone to care for you.”
“And I was thinking of finally being the mother of the groom,” Ann Sullivan addressed them both. “I thought you’d be over Veronica and Chloe by now and ready to start a new life, but I see I was wrong.”
Teddy looked at Adam. “Who’s Chloe?” she asked.
Ann Sullivan froze. Teddy noticed her reaction, but the question went unanswered when Teddy’s mother spoke.
“Can I take it you two are not in love with each other?” Gemma Granville asked. It took all the courage Teddy had to look at Adam. She didn’t know what to say. She wanted him to answer first. She wanted to know why he’d told her about Chelsea and Veronica, even introduced her to the woman, but failed to mention anyone named Chloe.
“We’re not,” he finally said. His answer was for the two mothers, but his gaze never left Teddy’s face.
Teddy felt a dagger plunge into her heart.
* * *
The two mothers looked as if they’d been shocked. Even if they were expecting confirmation, they weren’t prepared for it. Dr. Sullivan stood up and Gemma Granville did the same.
“There’s to be no wedding?” Gemma said.
Teddy shook her head. Her hands were in her lap. She’d pulled the one Adam was holding away when his eyes told her that his mother’s comments were true. She felt the weight of the square-cut diamond on her third finger. She twisted it around so the stone wasn’t visible.
“No wedding,” Teddy said.
“Well,” Dr. Sullivan said on a resigned sigh. “Then I’ll be leaving.” She turned to Gemma. “I’ll see you later.”
She went to the door and pulled it open. Adam stood up. “Mom,” he called, but she continued walking, going out into the December afternoon. Moments later they heard her car start.
“Teddy, I’ll call you later,” he said over his shoulder as he, too, headed for the door.
Teddy got up and called him. She followed him into the foyer. At the door she took his arm to stop him. Immediately, she dropped her hand as if his touch burned. They watched his mother back down the driveway and drive away.
“Don’t forget this.” Teddy looked at the huge ring on her finger for several seconds. Then she pulled it off and handed it to him. “We only got it today. I’m sure they’ll take it back.”
“I need to go now, but this isn’t over. I’ll call you.” Adam quickly kissed her cheek and left. Teddy knew their show for the parents had become so natural that his kiss was still part of the charade. She couldn’t see a need for further conversation. They hadn’t wanted a relationship from the start. Now that everything was out in the open, there was no need to do anything except hope they could mend the open rift with their families.
She watched as the second car in her driveway exited and headed in the same direction as the previous one. Back in the living room, her mother was standing in the same spot.
“Can we talk?” Teddy asked.
“Is there anything more to say?”
“I’m sorry,” Teddy began.
She could see emotions playing across her features, then disappear as a new one replaced the last.
“I know you’re disappointed in me. But I had a good reason. At least, I thought I did. I love you and I only wanted to please you.”
“You thought a fake romance would please me?”
“You were so happy when you thought we were dating. When Adam proposed, I thought your heart would jump out of your chest.”
Her mother looked down at the floor, then back at Teddy. “I was. I thought you’d finally found the man of your dreams and instead of running everyone else’s wedding, you could finally have your day.”
Teddy moved to where her mother stood. Only a foot separated them. “That happened, Mom.” She took a moment to swallow.
The expression on her mother’s face turned from confusion to apprehension and finally to understanding.
“You are in love with him.” She said it like a person struggling with a foreign language, and comprehension finally made all the words make sense.
Teddy nodded, unable to speak over the lump clogging her throat. “He doesn’t know. It wasn’t part of the plan. But it happened and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Mother and daughter gazed at each other for a long moment. Then Gemma Granville pulled her daughter in her arms and held her as if she were a five-year-old who’d scraped her knee.
“Come on, let’s make some tea,” her mother said. “You can tell me all about it, starting at the beginning.”
* * *
Two days later, Adam couldn’t remember the details that followed the conversation with his mother and Teddy’s. What was burned into his visual memory was that Teddy had asked who Chloe was and the question went unanswered.
Adam had told her about Veronica, told her he’d been married to Chelsea, but never had he mentioned that he’d been about to marry a second time. Teddy was honest with him, but he’d held back. The reason didn’t matter. He was no longer hurt by Chloe. Just as Veronica was old news, Chloe had found her place in the far reaches of his mind. Her betrayal no longer stung. He had no feelings for her, yet he’d kept her a secret. Everyone did, except Quinn. Quinn would mention Chloe’s name, but the rest of his family took their cues from Adam and never mentioned her. They all knew how hurt he’d been by her that they’d agreed to his unasked request to never mention her.
Sitting in his family room, he could see Teddy everywhere he looked, even on his phone. The image of her in the wedding gown at the fashion show came up when he selected her number. She smiled from the small screen, innocent of the news that would change her opinion of him forty-eight hours after that photo was snapped.
In his hand was the engagement ring he’d bought her. Despite w
hat people said about diamonds being cold, he could feel the warmth, Teddy’s warmth. He felt like a heel, an idiot, a jerk. Putting the ring on the table, he lifted his coffee mug and took a drink.
He told her he’d call. But he hadn’t. It had been two days since he talked to her. Adam had opened his phone a hundred times and gone to her number, her photo, but he couldn’t bring himself to press the call button. What could he say? Would she understand? Could he make her understand?
Staring at her photo, his heart ached. He never wanted to hurt Teddy, yet somehow he had. He’d broken her trust. It didn’t matter that their relationship wasn’t real. It didn’t matter that they weren’t really engaged or getting married. They had a deal. They’d made a pact and he’d held out on her.
Adam jumped as the phone in his hand rang. He expected Teddy’s photo to disappear and the caller ID photo to show up, but it remained on the screen. It was her. Adam swallowed hard. He wanted to talk to Teddy, but he wasn’t ready. The phone rang a second time and a third. If he didn’t answer now it would go to voice mail.
He pressed the answer button and said hello.
“Hi,” Teddy said. Adam sat forward in the chair, pressing the phone closer to his ear. His heart was beating so fast he could hardly hear her. Yet the sound of her voice lifted his spirits.
“How are you?” he asked.
“I’d like to talk to you.”
“I think that’s a good idea. Should I come over?”
“No,” she said.
“No?”
“I’m outside. Can I come in?”
Adam was at the window of his condo in a second. He looked down on the parking lot. Teddy looked up at him, holding her phone to her ear. He signaled for her to come up and immediately went to open the door.
When she entered the town house, he forced himself not to rush to her and gather her in his arms. She came inside and Adam took her coat, throwing it over the hall banister before leading her into the family room. The sun was setting and the room had become dark.
Teddy looked around. “The fire’s dying,” she said.
Adam didn’t remember making a fire. He went to the hearth and added more of the liquid that burned the crystals. Sparks flew up but died quickly.
“I talked to my mother,” Teddy said when he turned around. She was sitting on the sofa where he’d been only a few moments ago. “We’re back to being friends. I told her everything.” Teddy paused. Time stretched between them as if they were ex-lovers who hadn’t seen each other in years and were at a loss for what to say after “hello.” Teddy lifted his glass and took a sip of his coffee.
“I talked to mine, too. We’re walking on eggshells.”
“Do you think you’ll work it out?”
“I’m going to try.”
She smiled and he knew she approved. Teddy picked up the ring he’d left next to his coffee mug.
“I see you didn’t return it,” she said.
Adam shook his head.
“Why not?”
“No reason. I haven’t been back to the store.”
“But you are taking it back?” Teddy questioned.
Sitting down next to her, he said, “I’ve gotten us into a fine mess.”
She nodded with a smile. “It’s too bad we didn’t just fall in love and make everything real.”
Adam stared at her. He wanted to tell her that he had fallen in love with her, but her statement told him the love was one-sided.
“That would have solved all our problems.” He paused a moment and took a drink. “But that didn’t happen.”
“No, it didn’t.”
He felt they were talking like two people who wanted to say something but were refusing to do so. He knew it was his turn to explain. Setting his mug on the table, he faced Teddy and took one of her hands.
“Chloe,” he said, speaking only the one word.
Teddy waited.
“I should have told you about her.”
“I understand that we didn’t tell each other everything about our past. The point is moot now,” she said. “Since the proverbial jig is up, I don’t need to know.”
Adam kept her hand in his. He ignored her comment. He wanted to tell her about Chloe. Other than Quinn, no one knew the whole story.
“It was a fairy-tale romance. We met at a picnic the year before I got out of college. Remember what that was like?”
Teddy nodded.
“Did you have a boyfriend that year?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said, but didn’t elaborate.
“I didn’t have a girlfriend,” Adam admitted. “I went out with many women, but there was no one special. Then there she was, sitting on the sand, all golden and brown. She was like honey to a bee and there was an entire hive of bees buzzing around her. I didn’t think I had a chance. So I looked but didn’t enter the fight for her attention.”
“Before you knew it she was standing somewhere near you.” Teddy completed the thought for him.
“Something like that,” he said. “How did you know?”
“It’s a woman thing.” She left it at that.
“We didn’t see each other after that. I met and married someone else. When that dissolved, I started my business. Getting it off the ground took all my time. One day Chloe came in with her aunt to talk about estate planning.”
“You started seeing each other,” Teddy stated.
Adam nodded. “I was working night and day, but she was there when I had free time. She was supportive, fun, easy to talk to. She even helped out just to be with me. I thought she was so different from Chelsea. She was interested in the business, interested in me.”
“And so you fell in love,” Teddy suggested.
“We did. And we were planning our wedding. We didn’t have the white lace and orange blossoms. We were just going to go off one afternoon and get married.”
“But that never happened?” Teddy questioned.
“We’d been dating a little over a year,” Adam said.
He stopped and Teddy waited. Adam knew she thought there was more to the story. And there was.
“What happened?” she asked.
Even now, five years later he still found it hard to talk about. “Chloe was having an affair with another man. I found them together. We argued and she walked out on me.”
Teddy gasped. “I am so sorry.”
Adam didn’t want to go on, but knew he had to. “When she left, we were both angry. She jumped in the car and took off. I thought she was alone but found out later she was with a guy. Less than a mile from our apartment, there was an accident. She’d driven too fast and lost control. It hit a telephone pole. Both of them died. The autopsy revealed she was pregnant. The child wasn’t mine.”
“Oh, my God,” Teddy said. She reached for him, hugging him close and holding on, giving him the support he needed. “I can’t imagine how you must have felt.”
“It was hard for a time,” he said. He kept his arms around her, took in the smell of her hair, the softness of her body. Teddy was nothing like Chloe. She was her own woman, with her own goals. She didn’t attach herself to anyone like Chloe had done to him. Chloe had been content to hang on to his coattails, let him do the work and support her. She’d had little ambition and as soon as the ring was on her hand, she’d never come to the office again. Adam wondered if she’d ever loved him or if he just happened to be the one with the most potential.
He didn’t look at Teddy. He knew he was in love with her, but she also scared him. Chloe had done a number on him and it wasn’t Teddy’s fault, but after his experience with his wife and then Chloe, could he trust another woman the way he’d trusted Chloe? When he’d taken his vows before God and their friends, he’d meant them. He fully expected to spend his life making Chelsea both
rich and happy. That had changed. Then Chloe had come along and he felt as if this was real love. But that had collapsed, too. Veronica added to his vase of black roses. Like Chloe she’d betrayed him. But she didn’t have her claws as deeply into him as his ex-fiancée had.
“I know what happened to you is hard to deal with,” Teddy said. “And now I think I understand your mother better.”
“My mother? How’s that?”
“Chloe broke your trust. You were younger, less experienced with the world. You grew up in that moment.”
“I can’t argue that,” he said.
“You also decided to go it alone. Women weren’t trustworthy. Even when you loved them, they would let you down.”
Adam had never heard it put that way before. “That’s not altogether true. I went out with plenty of women. I just never found the right one.” He challenged Teddy’s characterization.
“You didn’t really want to. You used your job as a crutch to end a relationship. You used your past relationships as a reason to not risk your heart on another disappointment.”
“I’ve been out with you more than any other woman,” he said.
Teddy smiled. “Because I’m safe. We had an agreement from the beginning. There was no chance of us getting close to a relationship. No danger of me stepping across your line in the sand. No risk of me challenging your heart.”
How wrong she was, Adam thought. She’d affected his heart more than any woman ever had. And that included Chloe. Adam couldn’t say when it happened, but it had.
“You said something about my mother.”
“Your mother’s quest is to help you find someone to replace Chloe in your heart.”
“I assure you, Chloe is no longer in my heart.”
“Maybe,” she said. “Maybe not.”
“What about you?” Adam asked. “Is that guy still in your heart?”
“Chad? He was, but he’s no longer part of my life. And he has no hold on me anymore.”
