by Livia Grant
Veronica managed to keep her profile regal while whispering excitedly under her breath so only he could hear her. "Oh my God, look at the chandeliers! They are amazing. I think one of them would look good above our dining room table."
"You would like them. I'm sure just one would cost a fortune."
She didn't let the smile slip from her lips, but he saw the ice in her eyes as she responded. "If you'd press harder for that promotion to partner, Nicholas, we could afford a hell of a lot more than just a chandelier."
"Roni, this is not the time or the place for this discussion. I told you there are extenuating circumstances. There is no chance I'll be offered an associate partnership and honestly, even if they offered, I'd turn it down and you know it."
Her polished exterior was cracking as she spat her reply. "For the thousandth time, stop calling me Roni in public. I hate it and you know it."
Nick sighed. Not that ridiculous argument again. They approached the entrance to the prestigious dining room where the sixty employees of the firm and their significant others were about to have their annual holiday party. The room was barely large enough to seat the group. Round-tops were arranged in a too-close pattern. They stopped at a table with tented seating assignment cards arranged in alphabetical order. He moved to the M's for Mikos, expecting to find a high number. After the argument they'd had just yesterday, he was sure George Bennett would want him seated as far away from the head partner's table as possible.
Veronica found the card first. "Oh how exciting! They have us seated at table two. We're almost seated at the head table!"
She was practically dragging him behind her as she weaved them through the packed tables towards the front of the room. They were almost there when Nick recognized who else would be seated at their table. He pulled his wife to a stop.
"Hold on, Veronica. There has to be a mistake. That can't be our table. Let's go back to the door and see if there's another table we can take."
She trained her angry eyes on him. "Are you kidding me? You are finally moving up the ladder and you're gonna screw it up. We always get stuck at the back. It's our turn to sit at the front of the room, Nicholas."
Unwilling to make a scene, he allowed his wife to pull him along behind her. There were two couples already seated at table two. He recognized one as George Bennett's attractive personal assistant, Tamara and her husband. It was the other couple that had Nick wishing he could sit at the back of the room. The farther he could sit away from George Bennett's blow-hard son, Kevin, the better.
From the minute they'd met, there had been no love lost between the men. The youngest Bennett to join the firm was the worst of them all. At least his two older brothers attempted to earn their seat at the family table. Kevin had only been out of law school a year and already treated every person he met at the firm like gum stuck to the bottom of his shoe.
"Mikos. How'd you end up sitting way up here? I'd of thought you'd be more comfortable sitting with the wait staff in the employee cafeteria. Maybe you could help them negotiate for a dime an hour raise."
"Sounds like more fun than spending the next few hours with you, Bennett. Looks like your father has a sense of humor putting us together."
Tamara started to speak, "But Mr. Bennett I thought..."
She didn't get to finish her sentence. Her words froze under the icy stare sent her way by the youngest Bennett. She actually shuddered under his glare. Tamara's husband hugged her to comfort her silently.
Veronica moved in to take the open seat next to Kevin before Nick could move them to the back of the room. She acted as if she was oblivious to the chill in the air between the men. Nick weighed his options. Deciding not to make a scene, he took the last seat at the table.
Once seated, he couldn't help but notice the beautiful woman sitting directly across the small table from him. By process of elimination, she had to be with Kevin, yet he hadn't bothered to introduce her. Typical.
Turning first to Tamara, he reached out to shake hands with her husband. "Nicholas Mikos. This is my wife Veronica."
"Nice to meet you Nicholas. James, Tamara's husband."
"You as well." Nick moved his gaze around the table until he was looking into the most exquisite amber-brown eyes he had ever seen. He momentarily lost the ability to speak as he took in the natural beauty of the olive skinned woman who looked so uncomfortable. It seemed that she would like to be seated at the back of the room as well.
"It would appear Kevin has forgotten his manners. I'm going to assume you are his wife. As you heard, I'm Nicholas Mikos and this is my wife, Veronica. I work with your husband."
"For."
It was the only word Kevin had injected into the introduction process. Nick turned to question him when he got his answer. "You work for me, not with me."
What a pretentious prick. Nick did the only thing he could do under the circumstances. Laugh his ass off. By the time he got his laughter under control, he could feel the grip of Veronica's hand squeezing his thigh under the table and could see the steam rolling out of the ears of the young blow-hard to their left. "Thanks for the laugh, Bennett. You're so green, you don't even know how ridiculous you sound going around making stupid statements like that."
"Green? We'll see how green I am when I get your ass fired. You're already on thin ice with my father."
"You're digging yourself deeper every time you open your mouth. Let me help you out. You're right that your father and I often bump heads on the right course of action for our clients, but I know for a fact your father respects me for my conviction. Even if he didn't, the fact that I've billed high six-figures for the last three years in a row is making him... and unfortunately you... a very rich man."
"I think we should change the subject. It's nice to meet you Nicholas and Veronica. I'm Kevin's wife, Calista, but you can call me Cali."
Nick had almost forgotten the woman he had been addressing until she quietly tried to interject. No doubt, she was trying to save her husband from looking like more of an asshole than he already had.
It didn't work. "How many times have I told you I hate when you shorten your name? You are Calista. Period. Cali sounds like a name for someone's cat."
Veronica globbed on. "Oh thank goodness, someone else who has some sense. Nicholas insists on calling me Roni and I hate it."
An anger he hadn't felt in a long time flared up in Nick. It was bad enough he had to put up with shit from the prick at the table, but not his wife, too.
"Well, it's nice to meet you Cali. I'd love it if you'd call me Nick." She managed to squelch the smile playing at her lips, but she couldn't hide the humor in her eyes at his barb at their spouses.
The next hour was painful. Conversation at the table was often strained, with Kevin and Veronica doing most of the talking. He knew the young Bennett was purposefully flirting with his wife, who was status hungry enough to lap up his attention. He should have been angry, but the most prevalent emotion he felt was relief at not having to carry a conversation with the asshole. Instead, he chatted with Tamara's husband about golf and local sports teams. He tried several times to include Cali in the conversations, but she spent most of the time sitting quietly, looking down at her hands clasped in her lap. Nick couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't quite right in the young woman's marriage. Knowing whom she was married to, it made sense.
Tamara tried to keep the table talk on safe ground. "Who is watching your daughter tonight, Mr. Mikos?"
Nick's mood improved at the mention of the daughter he loved more than anything else in the world. "She's staying overnight at her best friend's house. She's always happy to have an excuse for a sleepover."
He didn't miss his wife's quiet dig under her breath. "She's not the only one."
His anger flared. Nick reached and squeezed her thigh as a warning. These anti-motherhood comments of hers were getting tiresome. He had always known Roni wasn't interested in competing for the mother-of-the-year award, but recently she had be
en downright ambivalent about any activity that included their adorable seven-year-old daughter, Andrea. He used to think Veronica's indifference to Andi was because she was jealous of how close he was with his only child, but it felt deeper these last few months. He'd tried to talk to her about it, of course, and things would improve for a day or two, but just long enough for Nick to know it was an act.
Kevin berating Cali brought Nick's attention back to the table. He picked up on the prick's slurred words, proving he had already overindulged in the freely flowing champagne.
"Wouldn't it be great if we had a little one to be going to sleepovers, Calista? Oh that's right, we won't get to enjoy that, will we, since you can't seem to perform your wifely duty."
Nick saw a shiver pass through Cali before she quietly answered her husband. "Please, Kevin. Not here. Not now."
He backed down. "You're absolutely right. We'll have a nice long talk about it when we get home, won't we?" Those words brought a full tremble to his wife.
The table fell quiet again. Nick wanted to deck the jerk, but settled for sending Kevin a threatening stare until the ass seemed to realize he'd gone too far.
After the dinner plates had been cleared, Veronica rose to excuse herself. "I'll be back in a few minutes. Be a dear, Nicholas, and order me a coffee."
Looking relieved that dinner was over, Tamara and James took the opportunity to get up and mingle, leaving Nick with the unhappy couple. He was about to rise to follow his wife to the restrooms when Kevin stood, abruptly leaving the table without even a word to his wife.
Nick was reluctant to leave Cali alone at the table, even if her own husband didn't seem to care. They sat alone in silence for several uncomfortable minutes before Cali broke the silence.
"You're different from most of the other men who work at Bennett, Bennett and Moore." She spoke quietly, as if she didn't want her father-in-law at the next table to hear her.
Nick wished she would look up so he could see those golden eyes again. "I'll take that as a compliment, Mrs. Bennett."
"Cali." She finally gazed up into his eyes, speaking with sincerity. "And that's good because I meant it as a compliment."
There was a sadness about her that wouldn't go away, even when she smiled. "I have a question for you, Cali, but I'm afraid it's impolite and inappropriate under the circumstances. Still, I'd like to ask."
She hesitated, surprised at his request. Her answer was quiet. "You can ask. I don't know if I'll answer."
Nick smiled kindly. "You are a beautiful woman, Cali and you seem like a very nice person. How the hell did you end up married to a prick like Kevin Bennett?"
He regretted asking immediately. Cali's quiet sadness had turned to panic. She looked around to see if anyone at the nearby tables was listening to their conversation. She relaxed only slightly when it appeared as if they were not being spied on. Still, she didn't answer the question. It hung in the air long enough that he wondered if she'd ever talk to him again.
When her eyes met his again, the sadness was back. "Funny. I've been wanting to ask you the same thing, Nick."
Nick sighed, understanding that everyone had to walk their own path. There were times he wished things had turned out differently too, but then he thought of Andi and his doubts vanished.
It was late by the time the party wrapped up. Nick steered Veronica to mingle with other partygoers when she returned from the restroom, salvaging the rest of the night. When they returned to their table to pick up Roni's clutch purse, Cali was gone. Nick saw her at the head table, listening to her mother-in-law babble non-stop. Sensing his eyes on her, she looked up. A sad smile came to her lips. Nick wished he could ease her sadness, but there was nothing he could do. He nodded in her direction before turning to follow Roni to the exit.
Cali lowered herself slowly into the driver's seat of her sedan. The over-the-counter pain medication she had taken this morning had long since worn off, leaving her body aching. As much as she hurt today, she was still better than yesterday. She had called in sick the day before, for the first time in her two years of teaching third grade at Franklin Elementary school, electing to stay home to give her strained muscles time to recover. She had been achy all day, but her co-workers just thought she was still recovering from the aftermath of the flu. They never needed to know it was the aftermath of an especially long and strenuous Kevin Bennett exercise session that had her in pain.
The drive from the school to their upscale suburban home was gratefully short. In fact, in better weather, Cali liked to walk to and from work.
The house was quiet when she entered the kitchen through the garage. She didn't expect her husband home until much later tonight. He had gratefully been out of town on business the night before, allowing her body a night off to recover. She knew better than to hope he would be detained another night.
Life had been particularly hellish in the two weeks since her last visit to the doctor. She prayed this was the month she would get pregnant. Things would be so much better once they had a baby on the way.
At first, Cali hadn't understood Kevin's big rush to have kids, but she had since found out the details of her grandfather-in-law's will. The man was as egocentric as they came, wanting to leave behind a legacy of decedents. It was so important to him, that his grandchildren would inherit shares of the sizable estate based on the size of their families. Considering they already lived in a house much too big and owned three vehicles for two people, Cali didn't understand her husband's urgency to get a bigger piece of the family pie.
Once upstairs, she swallowed another dose of Tylenol before slipping into a steaming hot bath until the ache of her muscles had eased.
After her bath, Cali fixed a simple grilled cheese sandwich, settling in to grade papers and read a book. The sound of her cell phone startled her. It was his ring.
"Hello Kevin."
"Hey. I'm gonna be stuck here another night. I won't be home until tomorrow night now."
Conflicting emotions invaded. Relief won. "That's too bad. I haven't taken my ovulation test yet, but it's gonna be any day. Do you think you'll be home tomorrow night?"
"Yes, Calista. I'll be home tomorrow night in time to service you properly. I haven't forgotten my duty as sperm donor."
His words sparked her anger. She was always so much braver over the phone than when he was there in person. "Do you even hear yourself? We're married, Kevin. I'm your wife. I think you're supposed to be a little more than just a damn sperm donor in my life."
"Dammit Calista, I'm not going to have this discussion over the phone."
"If not over the phone, then when?"
She heard a shuffle at his end. "Listen Calista, I know things have been kind of rough for us these last few months. I have my reasons for being so stressed. You're right. We should talk when I get home tomorrow." He spoke in the gentlest voice she had heard in months. It reminded her of the Kevin she had been in love with once.
Hot tears prickled. She was tired of being afraid. She wanted to trust her husband. "I'd like that Kevin. We can't go on like this anymore. Things have to change."
He was quiet long enough that she'd begun to think they'd been disconnected. "I can’t do this right now, Cali. I should be home early tomorrow. Why don't we go out to Rivers for dinner?"
Damn him. Just when she had her protective walls built around her heart, he would show her a glimpse of the Kevin she had thought she was marrying. His split personality seemed to be on the same biological clock as her menstrual cycle. Two weeks of hellish rutting followed by two weeks of making love. Her heart was developing a case of whiplash.
"I'd love that, Kevin."
"Go to bed. I'll see you tomorrow." He didn't wait for her reply. The call dropped.
It took her a few minutes to realize what was so different about their exchange. It was the first time he had called her Cali in months... even in private.
She dozed off thinking of how happy she had been when he had proposed at Rivers over two
years ago and how much had changed since that magical night. Could they get back some of that magic tomorrow night?
The sound of a bell ringing followed by a pounding jarred Cali awake. The dark bedroom was quiet. Her husband's half of the bed was still empty. What had she been dreaming about that had woken her so abruptly?
She looked at the alarm clock on the bed stand. It read 4:04am. She took a few calming breaths to settle her nerves. She was just lying down to try to get back to sleep when the doorbell rang.
Panic invaded. They lived in a safe neighborhood, but did someone know she was home alone tonight? Who could be at the door at this hour?
She knew Kevin had a handgun somewhere in the house, but she had never learned how to use it. She jumped up and ran to the window facing the front of the house. She pulled the gauze drape aside enough to peek out.
Panic turned to dread as she saw a police car in the driveway. Her mind raced to think of possible reasons for a visit by the police at this hour. Each scenario seemed worse than the one before. She rushed to her closet to grab her terrycloth robe before she rushed to the stairs, turning on the lights to the entryway to alert the police she was awake. The in-progress knocking stopped immediately.
Cali looked out the peephole. Standing on her porch were two uniformed police officers. They looked official, but she was still afraid. She wished Kevin were home with her to handle this.
She didn't want to open the door. "Hello officers. It's late. What's the problem?"
She watched through the viewer as the taller of the two responded to her question. "We're sorry to disturb you at this hour ma'am, but there has been an accident. We'd like to come in to discuss it with you."
