“I guess we’ll find out.” He looked up the closest bus stop for the tour while I threw the trash in the waste bins.
Bryan revived the conversation as we started walking. “You said you just broke up? Was it pretty serious?”
“Serious enough that I thought he might propose.”
“Yeah, I guess that is pretty serious.” He paused for a beat. “I proposed once.”
Once? My mind spun with questions. How long ago? With whom? Is he completely over her? “Was this before or after you became a workaholic?”
We stopped at the corner of a street. “Before—probably the reason I work too much now. It’s easier to stay busy than to admit failure.” Bryan reached out and took my hand. Warmth traveled up my arm and flooded through me. I was sure it was only a cautionary move so he wouldn’t have to save my life again, but I appreciated the consideration. Although, if it was just because he wanted to, that would also be okay. I liked the way it made my insides flutter.
“What happened, if you don’t mind me asking?” When the signal changed, we crossed the street with several other people. He didn’t let go of my hand. I wasn’t complaining, but asked myself if I was being too impetuous. What’s the appropriate period of time to go from being strangers to holding hands?
“I don’t mind.” He shrugged. “I proposed, she said yes, everyone was happy. We went along with the flow of preparations and arrangements. But the closer we got to the wedding, the more distant she seemed. She claimed it was stress from planning the wedding. She was angry and snapping at me and everyone. Three days before the wedding, I finally asked her what was up.”
Our pace had slowed from a brisk walk to a stroll as we arrived at the bus stop. “But it was more than stress I’m guessing?”
“It was, but I didn’t know it at the time. She said she just wasn’t sure about getting married. Then I found out she had been talking to her ex-boyfriend, and that added to her doubt.”
The ex was never a good sign. They say three’s a crowd, which I knew well with Joshua. We didn’t have enough time alone. His time was always divided between me and the other contestants. “Uh-oh.”
“Exactly. If she wasn’t sure she wanted to be with me, it was better we figured that out before we got married instead of after. I want to trust my wife.”
“Sounds like my last break up. He told me all sorts of things about us having a future together.” I chewed on my lip, struggling with unexpected emotions. Betrayal was all too familiar.
Bryan frowned. “It’s like a punch in the gut, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it is. What happened to her?” Did they simply go their separate ways? Did they work things out and get back together for a while?
He sighed. “She married her ex-boyfriend.”
“Ouch.” I could understand how he felt—maybe not to the same degree. But to think you have a future with someone and then have it suddenly gone. Over. You feel lost. “You both just moved on?” I supposed, in a way, this trip was me moving on.
He cleared his throat with a small cough. “Well, she did. Obviously before we even broke up. So I took the cruise we were supposed to go on for our honeymoon.”
“Couldn’t get a refund?”
“Nope. I took my sister with me. It was sad and definitely not romantic for me.” He hung his head and shook it slowly. It made him seem sweet, even vulnerable.
I controlled my impulse to hug him. I didn’t think he was looking for consolation. In fact, I think he was hamming it up as a joke. “I’m sorry.”
From down the street we could see the bus coming. We queued up on the sidewalk and boarded as it idled at the stop. Bryan and I returned to the upper deck. With so few people boarding, we were back on the road in minutes.
“What was worse was my sister met a guy on the trip and had a great time. I tagged along like a third wheel.” He sent me an expression of mock pain.
“That kind of stinks.” It did, but his humor lightened the mood.
He turned toward me and held up his index finger. “Yes, but if that wasn’t bad enough, I had to move when I got home. I had given notice on my apartment—had it all packed up and ready. But then when I came back, I had no place to go. I found a townhouse in an area that was a little bit older and run down. But I didn’t have a choice, you know?”
“Yes.” I nodded fervently.
“So I moved in and ended up with a crazy neighbor.”
“Oh, no. Seriously?” My wide eyes met his.
“Yes. And it was a girl, and she was about my age. I swear, she stalked me.”
“What do you mean?” My ears were burning.
He held up his hands so he could mimic holding a plate. “It started with her coming over with a plate of cookies to introduce herself and welcome me to the neighborhood. But then she started coming over all the time, trying to give me food. She would watch out the window for me. It was like the moment I shut the garage door, she was over ringing my door bell. After a while, I stopped answering the door.”
I leaned into him, finding his story disturbingly fascinating. “Did that discourage her?”
“No. She became sneaky. Like she would ring the bell and then hide. I would look out the peep hole, not see anyone, and figure it was UPS or FedEx. So I’d open the door, and she’d hop out from behind one of the pillars on the porch.”
“No,” I said with disbelief.
“She scared me away from women for a while.”
A lightbulb came on in my head. “Is that why you didn’t want me to have a business card? Just in case I turned out to be psycho?”
His necked turned a little pink. “Yes,” he said slowly, as if he hated to admit it. “But it’s also very true that I am down to my last twenty. If you really want one, I’ll try to make that happen.”
“Since we’re exchanging true confessions, I asked for your card to make sure you were really who you said you were. I couldn’t really be running around with a strange guy in a strange city and not take a few precautions.” I held my hands up helplessly. “Right?”
“Well, true. My crazy neighbor gave me a crash course. I hope I would recognize crazy again if I saw it.” He leaned close. “For the record, I don’t think you’re crazy,” he whispered.
“I don’t think you’re crazy either,” I whispered back.
He kept his voice low. “Good. I’m glad we got that cleared up.”
I continued to indulge my curiosity. “So, crazy neighbor. What did you do about her? Did you make up a girlfriend to try and discourage her?”
“No, but I should have. She didn’t understand why I didn’t have time or interest in dating. She missed my not-so-subtle hints that I didn’t want to date her.”
“What’d you do? Move?” I glanced at him, trying to read his expression.
“I had a year lease and was stuck. She was another reason I started working a lot. It was a scary experience coming home every night. Very. Scary.” His wide eyes confirmed his story.
“Sounds like a great way to deal with the problem,” I joked. Another way was to avoid dealing with it, like I had done with my Joshua problem.
“With her it was. Once my lease was up, I was out of there.”
“And now?” I held my breath.
My phone whistled, and I purposely ignored it by silencing it. Whatever the message was, it could wait. “You were saying?”
“I’m taking my first vacation in over a year, and I’m ready to start dating again.”
Chapter Five
Bryan’s words had started a flurry of thoughts. Was he hinting that I had some influence on his decision? Maybe this trip was going to be more cathartic than I originally thought.
Bryan interrupted my musings. “What’s your story? You’re here all by yourself?”
“Well,” I hesitated, deciding to take a chance. “No, not really. I’m here with you.” I was sort of fishing for his response. I wanted to know how he classified what this was.
“Yes, true, but that was just pure luck,” he said. A smile played at his lips.
I swatted his arm. “Yes, lucky me.”
“Seriously. Are you just adventurous? Do you just like taking vacations alone?”
I pursed my lips, weighing my answer. My gut feeling about Bryan was that he was a decent guy and not a creeper trying to get me alone so he could attack me. But did our “relationship” seem far enough along to tell him about Joshua? “Remember how I broke up with that guy? Well, this is my fresh start.”
“Ah-ha,” he murmured.
I continued. “It was a whirlwind—a wine-and-dine-me type relationship.”
“And then?”
“And then he ended it,” I said. “It wasn’t really the result I was expecting. Besides, how well can you really know a person in two months?” The words of my mother echoed in my ears: you couldn’t have really been in love with him in such a short time.
He shrugged. “Depends on the person, I guess.”
“You’ve had one of those whirlwind romances?” Was he in the same love boat I was?
“I fell in love with my ex-fiancée pretty quickly and proposed to her four months after we met. Even though we didn’t end up getting married, it wasn’t because I didn’t love her enough.” He paused. “It was because she didn’t love me enough.”
I hadn’t thought of it in those terms with Joshua. I thought I had fallen in love with him, but because of all the competition, he didn’t have a chance to fall in love with me. Calling the other women competition should have caused me to rethink the show. But maybe it wasn’t just that. Maybe Joshua didn’t love me enough. Again, I reminded myself that if it was meant to be, it would have happened. Anything else was just water under the bridge.
I took a deep, cleansing breath. “Now that I’ve had some time away from the relationship, I felt like it might be a good idea to take a break from life. Take some time to relax, regroup, and reconvene.”
“How’s it working so far?”
I laughed lightly. “So far so good.” A little part of that had to do with him.
“Well, can I interest you in more sightseeing tomorrow?”
Without taking a moment to think, I blurted out my answer. “I would love that.”
We finished the tour soon after. Once we were off the bus and getting our bearings, Bryan turned to me. “This has been a really great day. Would you take a commemorative, totally touristy photo with me in a red phone booth?” He pointed down the street.
“It’s on my list of things to do in London.”
“Mine too,” he said and grabbed my hand. We ran to the booth and squeezed in together.
That night, I hopped on my computer so I could check out the Just Right Kilts website and research Bryan on social media. To say I was curious about him was an understatement, and I was hoping to find validation that my first impressions of him were correct. Googling him was rewarding: I found pictures of him with his niece and family as well as him playing Frisbee with a dog. There was one picture of him holding up his wrist with his “Bryan” bracelet, which looked like he had taken it at the airport, likely for his niece. There were also many pictures of him helping build some sort of a shed. But there weren’t many selfies. No half-naked photos. No photos from drunken escapades. Finding a picture of him licking whipped cream from a girl’s stomach or anything similar would have changed my opinion of him. But from what I had gathered through my online stalking, he seemed to be a nice, upstanding guy.
I fought the urge to Google myself, which took concerted effort. I was curious what people were saying, but reminded myself what people had said so far only made me cry. I was, however, proud of myself for resisting that urge to check on Desperately Seeking Mrs. Right. The episode airing this week would be Joshua meeting the families of the final three contestants. Next week would be the overnight date option. In two weeks, the two-night finale would air, which would include the live proposal.
But Desperately Seeking Mrs. Right was like watching a train wreck. I wanted to look, but I didn’t. I wanted to know what those girls had that I didn’t. More than anything, I just wondered how something I thought was positive could become something so negative. Maybe a quick peek would be okay.
The Skype icon popped up on my screen with a bubbly ring and Evangeline’s picture beside the user name. I clicked the video chat icon.
“Phoebe, where have you been? I’ve been texting you.” She sounded exasperated.
I realized I had never unsilenced my phone—let alone looked at it since earlier that day. While I had been blissfully taking pictures, anyone trying to text me would not get a response. “Sorry. I forgot I silenced my cell earlier and then got distracted.” I stood up. “Let me fix that now. I have to plug it in anyway.”
“Distracted? By what?” Her head cocked to the side, and her voice took on an obvious note of curiosity. She came in closer to the camera, which made her head seem huge in the window.
It was too soon to tell her about Bryan. “Um, London. Sightseeing.” I plugged my phone in and turned it on. Sure enough, there were three texts waiting for me. I’d check them when I was done talking with Evangeline. They were probably from her anyway.
“I hope you’re not watching that show.” She wagged her index finger at me.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, trying to sound innocent. I sat on the bed and leaned against a stack of pillows, resting the laptop against my knees. Now that she could see me, I reminded myself to keep my expressions neutral. Although, I didn’t have the best poker face.
Evangeline leaned closer to the screen. “You know what I’m talking about. Don’t pretend that you don’t.”
I managed a small laugh. “I’m not into self-inflicted punishment. Really. I’m—uh—making plans right now to visit Kensington Palace tomorrow. I have a date with Prince Harry.”
“Ha. Anything is better than moping in your hotel room watching that stupid show. And Harry is pretty hot.”
“I’ll tell him you think so.”
“You do that, but don’t watch the show.” There was not a hint of humor in her stern, cold voice.
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” I said. “I have so many other things to do, like tell you about today and plan my day tomorrow.”
Her expression relaxed. “So, what did you do?”
“Mostly sightseeing. I took an all-day tour on one of those double-decker busses and even ate fish and chips. Tomorrow, I’m planning to see the changing of the guard and tour Buckingham Palace. Then I’ll hop over to Kensington Palace for my date with Harry, of course. There’s so much to do in so little time. So don’t you worry, there’s no moping going on with this girl.”
“Take lots of pictures. It might be the closest I ever get to seeing London.”
“I will. How’s my Skippy?”
“He’s good but missing you.” She whistled, and then a dog came bounding into the room and jumped onto her lap. Although my dog was a little too big to fit between her and the desk, he didn’t seem to mind. He adjusted his footing before looking at the screen and licking it.
My heart warmed a little at the sight of my little, scruffy Jack Russell Terrier. “Ah,” I crooned. “What’s up, boy?”
“He keeps chewing up my heels. I thought you said he was housetrained.”
“So maybe he’s more like mostly housetrained. But considering he’s a rescue dog, there’s so many other things you could be dealing with. Chewing is the one habit I haven’t been able to break yet. He gets insecure, so he chews. It had to be hard for him living in that shelter.”
Evangeline huffed and shook her he
ad. “You and your need to rescue everything.”
I shrugged. “I firmly believe everything and everyone deserves a second chance, even dogs.”
“And men.”
I made a point of getting close to the camera and rolling my eyes. “No.”
It was her turn to roll her eyes at me.
“And on that note, I promise not to rescue any dogs or men. Talk more tomorrow?” It was a suggestion that didn’t leave much room for discussion.
“Do not watch that show,” Evangeline slipped in as I was about to sign off.
I gritted my teeth. “I won’t.” She knew me too well.
“Okay, but I’m telling you girl, leave it alone.”
“Goodnight, Evangeline.” I ended the call and closed the Skype window. The Desperately Seeking Mrs. Right website was staring at me, reminding me of my lack of self-control. I decided to take her advice and close that window too. Watching the show would just bring up all those feelings again, and they really didn’t matter anymore.
Chapter Six
I had a hard time falling asleep after talking to Evangeline and not just because of the time change.
When I thought about my plans with Bryan, I was excited about the adventure that lay ahead. If tomorrow was anything like today, it was bound to be fun, especially since I didn’t feel any pressure around him. It was just comfortable. Who needs stupid old Joshua anyway?
I contemplated the possibilities of the day the next morning as I took extra care doing my hair and paying attention to my makeup. I wanted to make a better impression on Bryan this time compared to the last two.
After a quick breakfast, I went to the lobby and waited at the circular bench I now thought of as our spot. Bryan was right on time, and we quickly agreed on the day’s sightseeing adventures.
Desperately Seeking Mr. Right (Destined For Love: Europe) Page 4
