by Cherry Kay
So, it wasn’t just a little something that had been slipped into Tiffany’s belated pay envelope. If Thomas was behind all of this, as she knew he had to be, then she’d worried that he’d gone out of his way to put that extra bonus check in her envelope. The act of him trying to buy her forgiveness like that had made her a little sick to her stomach at being treated like a cheap commodity, but if he’d gone through the effort of making sure everyone was paid for their troubles, that said something else about him, indeed.
As far as grand gestures went, that was a hell of a big expensive one.
Tiffany chatted with her co-worker for a few minutes before being interrupted by a notification on her phone that was about the last sound she’d expected to hear coming from it.
Sure enough, she pulled it out and looked down at the screen, confused over why she was getting notifications from Matchr despite having shut down her account.
*
Tiffany excused herself and went back to her desk. Angling herself so that no one would see what she was doing if they walked past, she opened the Matchr app on her phone and logged into her old account. She was surprised to see that it had been reactivated, although a quick glance at her privacy settings showed that it had been left on private, so that no one would see her profile unless they knew the exact URL to find it.
She had only one message waiting for her, and she had a pretty good idea who it was. She clicked on the tiny mailbox icon and was surprised to see that it wasn’t from Thomas’s alias, but rather from a new account under his proper name of Thomas Belmont.
The message itself was short and to the point. He apologized for using his program one last time, and then promised her that he would delete it immediately after sending this message.
He then went on to say that he’d really like a chance to start from scratch with her, and then asked if she would please meet him for dinner later that night. He said that he understood if she didn’t want to see him ever again, but then told her he had something important to say to her and that he hoped she’d give him one last chance.
Intrigued, Tiffany put down her phone and took another look at the two checks in the envelope. She’d already decided that she would stay in the city and continue working here where she belonged, but she hadn’t had time to decide what she’d do about Thomas when he inevitably came calling, as she knew he would.
Meeting him seemed like a crazy idea in light of everything that had happened between the two of them, but when she thought back on the things that had pushed her away from him, much of her trouble had come from this Eleanor McDormand person. Could she really blame Thomas for the fact that she’d suffered as an innocent victim just because she knew him?
Therein lay the answer, she realized. Thomas’s big problem was that he tried to keep his relationships a secret. She could understand his reasons for wanting to pretend to be something lesser than he was in order to learn someone’s true feelings about him, but there was something wrong about a man who lived his public life as one of the world’s most eligible bachelors and who privately dated women whenever he wanted.
If Thomas truly cared for her as much as he said he did, then there was only one way for him to prove it, and that meant him publicly acknowledging her as his girlfriend. She didn’t care if it meant him sending a press release or allowing them to be photographed together at some event, but she decided to give him one last chance to show her that he was ready to take the next step in acting on the words he used so freely.
Tiffany typed out a quick response and set the terms of the date. She picked a casual low key restaurant not far away, and she told him to meet her there for afternoon drinks in a couple of hours.
She then checked in with Carrie and asked her if she could come back in to sign the paperwork and get started back into work the next day before leaving the office.
One of her favorite clothing shops was only three blocks away. With most of her belongings already packed into boxes, Tiffany didn’t see any point in going home to change, and so she stopped at a nearby branch of her bank to deposit the two checks and then withdrew a few hundred in cash.
She then continued on to the shop where she tried on a few summer dresses until she found one that wouldn’t dig too deep into her bonus pay, and that was both cute and a little bit sexy. It was the perfect thing to show Thomas what he would be missing out on if he refused to acknowledge her more openly than just showing her around his office.
Without changing back into her other outfit, Tiffany paid for the dress with two crisp hundred dollar bills, and then asked the shop girl to help her cut away the tag so she could wear it out of the store. She then stuffed her rolled up shorts and tank top into her bag and went to the restaurant to wait for Thomas to show up.
She’d already half finished a mojito before Thomas arrived, and she was glad for the extra bit of courage it gave her. She hadn’t been fully prepared for how she’d feel when she saw him, and it caught her off-guard with how nervous she suddenly felt.
It was a lot like being a teenager again, but in all the best ways of finally getting a chance to be alone with a boy she liked.
She wished she could have remained a little more rational in the face of everything they’d been through, but the alcohol seeping into her bloodstream was quickly revealing that she cared for this man a lot more than she wanted to admit even to herself.
“Thank you for agreeing to this,” he said, taking a seat opposite her.
“I had to at least thank you for getting me my old job back,” she said, lifting her glass in salute.
“I wasn’t sure if you’d be mad about that,” he said, a slight grimace on his face. “It’s important to me that you know I have no stake in that company. I arranged a settlement fee for damages done, and I donated my legal team’s time to help get everything set up again as quickly as we could.”
“No, I’m not mad about that,” she said. “I wanted to be, trust me, I did. But, Thomas, what you did for everyone by getting the company back on its feet was really impressive and unselfish. It would be wrong of me to not recognize that.”
Thomas fidgeted with a napkin and seemed oddly nervous. In all the time she’d known him, Tiffany had hardly ever seen him so rattled. Thomas Belmont had been raised around the kind of power and control like most people couldn’t even imagine, and it had given him a steely cool poker face that could beat the best of them. Now, however, he looked a lot like Tiffany felt inside, and she wondered what could possibly be going on in his mind.
“Tiffany,” he began, licking his lips in a nervous manner, “I know we’ve been through a lot of really crazy things since we met, and that I’m to blame for most of them. I wish I could take my time and start from scratch with you, but I also know that there’s too much history there for me to do that.
I can’t undo what’s been done, and I can’t take back the awful ways I’ve behaved towards you and other women in my life, but I don’t know if I’ll get another opportunity to tell you this and so it’s probably best if I just say it now.”
Tiffany had been playing with her straw, but she set it back into her glass and sat up a little straighter. The man sitting across from her looked like he had horrible news to tell her, and she couldn’t imagine what it might be. “What is it, Thomas? Is everything okay?”
“Oh,” he said, smiling and shaking his head. “It’s nothing bad, it’s just something new for me, and well, I love you, Tiffany. I don’t know if that’s something you’re ready to hear from me, but it’s the truth and I’d never forgive myself if I didn’t tell you before I lost the chance forever. I love you, and I’m begging you to give me another chance to prove it to you.”
A lump rose in Tiffany’s throat. “You what?”
Thomas stood up and dragged his chair closer to hers. He sat back down and took her hand in his, kissing it once before looking her in the eye. “I think I’ve been in love with you for about as long as I’ve known you. Everything has been different with you
, and I’m eternally sorry for the circumstances surrounding our time together.”
“You asshole,” she said, smiling despite the tears rolling down her cheeks. “I came here all prepared to make you show me that you really cared about me, if you wanted another chance, and now you go and say something like that?”
Thomas leaned in and kissed her, and she yielded to the touch of his lips. His kiss was soft and gentle, and she felt her resolve melt away at the contact of his skin against hers.
“Can we try to begin again?” he asked, after breaking away.
Tiffany could see the shimmering moistness of imminent tears in his eyes, and she could only nod eagerly in response. She knew they had a long road of trust to build before things could be perfect between them, but the truth of it was that she loved him too.
She told him as much, and they kissed again.
“Should we get out of here?” she asked, dabbing at the tears on her cheeks with a napkin.
“Actually, I was thinking it would be good if we just sat and chatted a while,” he said. “As amazing as you look in that dress, and as much as I want to take it off you, I’d really like to just talk like we did on that first date back when we were just getting to know one another.”
“Only this time you’ll be Thomas Belmont instead of Thomas Belton?” she asked.
“Nothing but the truth from now on,” he said.
A server hovered nearby, tactfully making himself available without getting too close lest he interrupt some dramatic moment.
Thomas looked up at him and then back to Tiffany. “This is where I’d normally order a bottle of champagne, but maybe we should keep it more low key?”
“No,” said Tiffany, smiling and squeezing his hand. “I think champagne sounds perfect. After all, we need to toast our new beginnings, and I don’t think I want to start this relationship out with a mojito.”
“A bottle of your second best champagne, then,” said Thomas with a wink at Tiffany.
She laughed as the waiter disappeared to fetch their order.
“Do you really think it can work between us?” she asked. “I’m not going to quit my job to become a society wife, you know.”
“I wouldn’t expect it of you,” asked Thomas. “And besides, don’t you think it’s a little early to be talking about marriage?”
“Do I sense reluctance to give up the title of world’s most eligible bachelor?” she teased.
“Not at all,” he said, leaning in for another long kiss before pulling back again. “But I don’t want you to accept that kind of offer until you’re fully willing to accept the terms and conditions of being forever tied to someone like me.”
The server arrived with two glasses and a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket. He told them he’d return in a few minutes to open it once it had chilled, and he left them alone again.
Thomas lifted the bottle out of the ice and grinned at Tiffany. “I’ve never been one to stand on ceremony.”
He peeled away the foil and popped the cork like he’d been doing it since he was a child, keeping the cork in his hand, instead of letting it shoot off into the room. He then poured two glasses and set the bottle back in the ice so it could continue to chill.
“To what should we toast?” he asked.
“To new beginnings,” said Tiffany.
Thomas raised his glass and clinked it against hers.
“To new beginnings.”
THANKS FOR READING!
Authors Personal Message:
Hey beautiful!
I really hope you enjoyed my novel and I would really love if you could give me a rating on the store!
Thanks in advance and check the next page for details of my other releases. :)
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