by Bella Forro
I paged Will and asked him if he would pick me up in an hour. I figured that would give me time to have a drink — or two — and him the time he needed to get the car and come and get me.
I ordered a whiskey because I didn’t think anything else would do. The burn on my tongue and the back of my throat all the reminder I needed that I was still ticking.
I hadn’t been expected the text message. The first days after Victoria had left I had practically leaped at the phone, more teenage girl than a business mogul, but it hadn’t been her. Each time I thought it might be, and each time I was disappointed.
It wouldn’t ever be her.
I thought it was Will, or maybe one of my would-have-been friends still enjoying their meal down the street.
But, it wasn’t.
It was an unknown number. For a moment, my mind ran through all the scenarios that could make the text be from Victoria.
But it wasn’t, and I knew that just as quickly.
She gave all the money to charity. I know she thinks she’s doing you a favor — protecting you — but it’s killing her.
We’re heading south to Florida, getting ready for a cruise departing from Cancun. If you want this, you better get here fast. I have the feeling that once we cross that border, she won’t ever come back.
It had to be Cassie. Of course, she didn’t say so, but I knew she was the only one Victoria would take on a mission like that.
And I knew she was the only one who knew Victoria well enough to know what would happen next.
I wasn’t going to wait.
I was going to cut them off at the pass.
I left my drink on the bar and dialed Will’s number.
They were headed south and I was heading North.
Knowing where they were headed and what their ultimate destination was, made it easy to call the cruise lines leaving out of Mexico, and I was able to track them down in a matter of minutes.
It seemed absurd that just twelve hours earlier I had been looking out over the city, thinking there was no way I would ever be able to track her down.
But, I had.
And afterward I had packed a small bag, had Will drop me off at the airport and I’d landed in Florida. I’d managed to convince the cruise line to tell me they were flying in from Fort Lauderdale.
I’d texted Cassie I was on my way and to keep me posted, and when I’d walked into Avis I’d asked for a specialty car if they had one.
It was funny what you could find in a rental lot in Florida.
I drove out of there in a 1968 Mustang GT500, complete with dice hanging from the mirror. I snapped a picture because I knew Will would get a kick out of seeing it.
And lately, I was starting to think that Will might be the best friend I actually had. I’d already decided I was going to treat him like that instead of just another employee.
Reevaluating my life was exhausting, but I was beginning to think it was worth it.
Last I’d heard from Cassie they were in the middle of Georgia. It was getting late, and I suspected they would stop soon. Just in case, I shot her a little text telling her to let me know where they were. I was an hour and a half outside the state line.
And then I was on I-75, pressing my foot down on the gas, listening to the roar of the well-maintained machine, the wind in my hair, the sun on my face.
Victoria, the only thing on my mind.
Chapter 30
Victoria
“I’m ready to stop,” Cassie said, twisting toward me.
“Really?” I asked, looking at the clock. “It seems kind of early to stop. I really think we can make it all the way tonight if we keep going.”
She gave me a wink I could barely see through her sunglasses. “I’m sure we could, but, girl, this is our vacation together, and I’m thinking, why are we in a rush just to get somewhere and wait? We have our suits! Let’s pick a place with a pool, grab a beer, do something fun that’s actually relaxing, instead of trying to kill ourselves to get to Florida.”
I suppose she did have a point, so I agreed to the stop. Again, she was doing all the driving, so it was pretty irrelevant whether or not I felt fine to keep going. I was just sitting there.
Not that I hadn’t offered several times to drive. I had. I had just been turned down. I’d never realized how strongly Cassie felt about her Accord. It was just an old beater, but you’d never know it with all the love Cassie had for it.
We pulled into a little hotel that advertised they had a pool and cable T.V., not that it was unusual for hotels out here to have pools. This far south it was almost more of an anomaly when they didn’t.
Check-in was painless. I felt like we’d won the lottery in all of our dealings during the trip — the sweet married couple at lunch and now a woman who’d decided to run a hotel once her kids were grown and gone.
Everyone was so nice. So, damn, nice. It was like we’d landed on an entirely different planet instead of traveled to another state.
I was starting to think maybe New York wasn’t the amazing place I’d made it out to be.
And I was starting to wonder if I ever did need to actually go back, or if I could just consider this the very beginning of my next, great adventure.
Not that I was ready to say any of that to Cassie yet. Lord knew she wouldn’t let me walk away from her, or the city, without a fight.
We’d picked up a pamphlet of local attractions at the front desk and had unloaded our things in our room, flipping on the air conditioner to full blast to cool the room down and get the air moving.
“If we’re going to go out, I’m going to take a shower,” I said, absently, collecting what I would need for the bathroom.
“Sounds good,” Cassie said as she clicked through the channels like she was looking for something in particular, even though I knew she wasn’t an avid T.V. watcher.
The shower was the best thing to happen to me that day, leaving me feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the next thing on our to-do list.
But I couldn’t get the woman at the front desk off my mind.
I was toweling my hair dry and wiping away the streaks of mascara under my eyes when I said as much to Cassie.
“I think it’s a sign,” I said suddenly.
Cassie became very still like I’d caught her in the act doing something she shouldn’t have, but before I could think about that, she was asking, “Oh?”
“Yeah. The lady at the desk. This hotel. Everything. I mean today, of all the places we could have stopped, we randomly chose two small businesses. Successful small businesses. And I sort of think it’s a sign that I should go ahead and open one myself. That restaurant we talked about.”
I held up a hand to stop her from talking. After all, I already knew her position on the idea. “I know what you’re going to say, but, I mean, think about it. What are the odds? Really. The odds? Plus, that both businesses would be managed by women?”
The more I said it, the more fully I was believing it myself. It did seem like a sign, and I was starting to feel a little burning nugget of excitement I couldn’t contain.
“Maybe,” Cassie finally said. “Maybe you’re right. I’m going to shower, too, are you finished in the bathroom?”
Cassie was right. We did need to stop early. It was so good to just be. To not have anything weighing on us. We’d hit up a bar, played songs on the jukebox, had some beer. Even the darts had been fun, and I would be the first to admit that darts were not my game.
And by the time we made it back to the room, I was exhausted, like everything from the week had caught up with me.
I tumbled into bed, not even bothering to undress and get under the covers.
And I was asleep before I knew it.
Chapter 31
Mark
It should have taken me no time at all to get to their hotel.
No damn time at all. I was certain I had this whole thing under control and it was going to be a raging success.
Instead, I’
d spent two hours on the side of the road with a flat tire and no spare while I waited for Avis to send someone with a new tire. Or a new car.
I was watching the hours tick by. It had been late afternoon when we’d landed and I thought for sure I would be with Victoria by the time dinner rolled around.
Instead, I was spending that time on the side of the road on a blistering hot day, covered in a day’s worth of travel grime and Florida dust on my skin.
I’d shed my lightweight plaid flannel when I’d been sitting on the side of the road, but now that the sun had set and it was beginning to cool off, I shrugged it back on. With AAA finally leaving the scene, it was time for me to get back on the road.
And hope that Cassie and Victoria would be there.
I didn’t take my time, the car roaring back to life. I crossed my fingers and said a prayer, unwilling to leave any stone unturned, and hoped for no more unexpected delays.
In the annals of my history, this was going to go down as the single worst car trip of my life, and that was saying quite a bit as there was a reason I no longer spent time going on road trips.
Cassie had directed me to a little town in the middle of nowhere and damned if I hadn’t passed signs for it three or four times.
But somehow I couldn’t seem to actually get there.
Worse, I had zero phone reception and my GPS couldn’t seem to determine whether or not that town even existed, let alone whether or not there was a little hotel there where I find two out-of-towners all the way from New York City.
I finally pulled over at a gas station to ask for directions, and when the young girl behind the counter looked at me blankly, I asked if she had a phone I could use instead.
Feeling like I had somehow stumbled back into the 90s, I reached for the black phone, slipping several dimes into the slot and calling an operator.
Just this once, I hoped she would be a local one who could help me out.
“This is Diane,” a voice said sweetly, “How can I help you today?”
“Diane, I certainly hope you can help me today. I’m trying to get to a hotel, and I just can’t seem to find it. It isn’t showing up on my GPS, I don’t have a signal, there are no signs…”
I let myself trail off, realizing suddenly that I didn’t need to sound any more pathetic than I already was.
I gave her the address and I waited.
“Oh, yes, I see the problem, sir,” she said a few minutes later. “There’s an access road you need to take — it has the same name as the road you’re on now. If you go back to the junction with the highway, it’s directly afterward and will curve sharply to the left. Turn onto that access road and follow it for about four and a half miles and you should be where you need to be.”
I scribbled down the notes she had given me. “Thank you. Thank you so very much. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this or what it means to me.”
She was still telling me I was welcome when I placed the phone back on the hook. Not that I wanted to be rude or I didn’t have time for her, I just wasn’t sure how much longer Victoria and Cassie were going to be at the hotel.
And there was no way I could miss them. This was the only guaranteed chance I was going to get.
Chapter 32
Victoria
I woke with a start, the pounding on the door loud and unmistakable.
I tried to wipe the sleep from my eyes and to focus on the glowing red lights from the bedside clock.
It was the middle of the freaking night. No one in their right mind should be pounding on our door.
And certainly, no one in their right mind should actually be contemplating standing up and answering the door.
But that was exactly what I was planning on doing. I tried to swing my legs over the edge of the bed, but I was unsuccessful the first time. Two more tries and a few minutes to disentangle myself from the comforter I’d managed to wrap myself up in, and I was staggering toward the door.
How in the world Cassie could sleep through the racket was entirely beyond me.
My hand paused on the handle to the door, and I tried to peer through the peephole to get a look at who was on the other side.
It was dark inside. It was dark outside. Whoever was out there was nothing but a vague human shaped shadow.
I cracked the door, just a little, reassured by the fact that the chain lock was still securely in place.
“Who is it?” I asked through the sliver of space, whispering. “What do you want?”
“For crying out loud, Victoria, it’s me and I absolutely cannot believe you would open the door for someone in the middle of the night when you don’t even know who it is. Have you zero sense of self-preservation?”
I was angry immediately. “Seriously, Mark, are you showing up at my hotel, uninvited and unannounced, and banging on my door in the middle of the night and then complaining when I answer it? Nothing about that makes sense.”
I was rewarded with silence, which I took to mean he was conceding to my point. And, frankly, it didn’t matter what he thought at all. That was how I was going to take it.
“Listen,” he said, and I saw him place his fingers inside the jamb, and I had a brief, intense desire to slam the door closed on them. “You asked me what I wanted. What I want to know is, if you were with me only for my money, why did you give away everything I’d given you? That’s not what someone does when they want to be with someone for money. It’s just not.”
I leaned my head against the wall, not wanting to think about it. Definitely not wanting to talk about it. “Does it matter, Mark? I mean, really matter? It won’t change anything. I can’t be with you. We can’t be together. I can’t be the reason you give up your inheritance. I know you think we know each other well. I know you think we should be together. But do you really know me well enough that you can walk away from everything you’ve been given and everything you’ve built your life around? I just don’t think you do.”
His voice sounded rough on the other side of the door. “Victoria, none of that matters anymore. It was all a…misunderstanding. I spoke with my father about it, and it had nothing to do with you and everything to do with Amy.
“Last year, ‘in a moment of weakness’ as my father describes it, he and Amy slept together. And of course, true to form, Amy was using that information against him, leveraging it so she could have what she wanted.
“She wanted me. But not really, because she truly wanted me only for my money.”
He stopped talking, and there was nothing but silence for a long moment. I pushed the door closed, just a little, and slipped the chain out of place. He’d come all this way for me, it seemed like the least I could do was look him in the eyes when I told him we weren’t going to be able to make this work.
I pulled the door wide, and he was standing there, in his favorite pair of jeans and an open flannel, the white cotton of his undershirt peeking out from beneath it.
Even in the dark, he looked amazing. Tired, disheveled, amazing. His hair was too long, his face unshaven, and everything about him had me thinking of the better times we’d spent together. He looked human, a little wrecked — exactly like I had been feeling. Raw and vulnerable.
But it didn’t matter how incredible he looked. What he looked like wasn’t going to impact us. Not by a long shot.
“Mark, we just don’t work together. Not the way we should. You deserve more. I deserve more. I shouldn’t be the outcast in your social group. I shouldn’t feel bad for how your friends view me —”
“Forget them, Victoria. I told them in no uncertain terms they had been horrible to you and I didn’t have time for people like that in my life. I have time for you. I will always have time for you. I wish you could see that.”
He was reaching for me. I saw it coming and knew I should step away. I knew I should stop it from ever happening.
But I couldn’t.
His arms wrapped around me and he was pulling me toward me, enveloping me in his arms, his face
burying into my hair. “God, I missed you,” he said, and I thought maybe I heard his voice catch, but I didn’t want to think about that because I could already feel the hot tears spilling down my face. “And the crazy thing is, my dad actually does like you. Everything he said and did, he only did because he was pushing Amy’s agenda because he didn’t want me to know how he had failed me.”
The little wall I had built up around myself, the one I’d created to try and protect me from him and from the pain of loving him seemed to crumble suddenly, leaving my vulnerable and exposed, crying in his arms. “Oh, Mark,” I cried, trying not to sniffle. “I thought everything we had was gone. I thought I was never going to be happy without you.”
“You don’t ever need to be without me, and I am always going to make sure you’re happy. You know that right? Everything I’ve said about us is true. It’s more than true. I will do whatever it takes to make this work because I think you’re worth it. And I think we’re worth it.”
His mouth was on mine and I was melting into him. It was like we had never stopped. It was like we had never been in any danger of ending at all. It was just the two of us, wrapped up in each other.
Except for the part where it actually wasn’t just the two of us.
“Cassie,” I whispered and vaguely gestured toward the bed where she was still sleeping.
“Not a problem,” he said, tugging me out of the room and pulling the door closed behind me. “I have the room right next door. Tell me you’ll stay the night with me?”
I laughed, relief spilling through every bit of me. “Oh, Mark, I would love to stay the night with you.”
“Would you, now?” he asked, his voice dangerously low, seductive, as he pressed me backwards, his hands on my hips, guiding me toward his room.
“I would.”
We were in the room in a matter of moments, that little chain lock sliding into place, Mark reaching for my tank top and pulling it over my head, sliding my shorts down until I stepped out of them.
At the same time, I was pulling the flannel off of his shoulders, tugging his t-shirt over his head, relishing in the feel of his warm, smooth skin beneath my fingertips.
