“Sounds good,” Devon said. Just as she placed their order, Gabby gasped loudly.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, spinning around and following Gabby’s glare. It led to Lisa, who was standing in front of Ryan’s table with her arms wrapped around him tightly. Her leg was positioned seductively in front of his pelvis, and she blew kisses while a photographer took their picture.
Gabby rolled her eyes and turned to Devon. “Here we go. Your girl is at it again, struggling to one-up you. I should go over there and bust her in the head.”
Devon felt her lungs constrict. She watched Lisa lean in and press her lips against Ryan’s cheek while her thigh practically brushed up against his groin.
“Ladies, your wine,” the bartender said.
Devon’s hand trembled when she reached for her glass and took a long sip.
“That girl is so pathetic,” Gabby continued.
“Yes, she is,” Devon agreed before turning away from the pair. “But I already knew Lisa would act a fool toward Ryan after she texted me earlier asking if he was single. So her ratchetness comes as no surprise.”
“As it shouldn’t. You should be used to her throwing herself at every attractive man she sees. But no worries. Ryan’s not checking for her. He came all this way to participate in the gala for you and you only.”
Devon sighed heavily, resisting the urge to glance back over at Lisa and Ryan. She looked at Gabby, who was staring back at her through curious eyes.
“Wait a minute,” Gabby said, “what’s happening here? Is that jealousy I see etched in your face?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, your forehead is all wrinkled up in frustration, you’re worried about him taking pictures with Lisa…looks to me like you’ve caught feelings for Ryan.”
Devon waved Gabby off. “No, I haven’t. Ryan and I are friends, and I just don’t want him getting caught up in Lisa’s nasty little web.”
Gabby lips twisted in doubt as she side-eyed her. “I don’t know why you can’t be honest about how you feel.”
“Honestly? Ryan is obviously very attractive, and a good guy, and we have a great time together. But…”
“But what?”
Devon stared down at her hand and fiddled with her gold cocktail ring. “Sometimes I still feel like that chubby girl from Berman, Indiana, who’s used to playing second best to Lisa while getting friend-zoned by the guys I liked.”
“Oh, Dev,” Gabby said, giving her arm a sympathetic squeeze.
“Then my confidence really took a hit after what happened between Jason and me. All those experiences have left me feeling somewhat doubtful and fearful, toward myself and love. So the idea of being with a man like Ryan, who’s this fine, successful actor and has the world falling at his feet, just seems unrealistic to me.”
“Wow,” Gabby uttered. “Dev, I had no idea you were harboring all those feelings. When I look at you, I see a smart, beautiful woman who’s going after everything she wants. That alone takes confidence, and your efforts are extremely admirable. I’m sure Ryan feels the same way.”
“Thank you, Gab.”
“It’s the truth. And yes, Ryan may be a successful actor and all, but your career is about to skyrocket. Look at how many wins you’ve gotten at work. Lena sees you, and so do the rest of the writers and producers. You’re well on your way to getting promoted, so don’t think that Ryan’s the only one flourishing in this scenario.”
“How much do I owe you for this therapy session?” Devon joked.
“Pay me by changing your mindset,” Gabby said right before her cell phone buzzed. “That’s Vince texting me. He wants us to come by his table.”
Devon peeked over and saw that Ryan was still in the throes of picture-taking with Lisa. “Ew, they’re still at it. I do not want to go over there.”
“Listen to me, Dev. You look absolutely amazing. Come on. You got this. Let’s just be cool and go over to say hello. We can hang out at Vince’s table until Lisa goes away. Okay?”
“Fine.”
Gabby linked arms with her, and the pair sauntered across the room. Devon quickly transitioned her agitated expression into a pleasant smile, waving at several acquaintances along the way. She discreetly scanned the room for a Jason sighting, but he was nowhere to be found.
Good. Maybe he isn’t coming, she thought.
Right before they reached Vince’s table, Devon heard Lisa scream loudly.
“Devie baby! And Gabby! How are my girls doing?”
Gabby tightened her grip on Devon’s arm and smiled brightly.
“Hello, Lisa. We’re doing well, thank you.” She turned up her nose and directed her attention toward Ryan. “Thank you again for doing this. Devon and I really appreciate it. I see the line of people waiting to meet you is about five miles long! You’d better move on to the next guest, or else you’ll be here all night.”
“I know, right?” Ryan said, grinning from ear-to-ear. “You all really got a great turnout. I’m so glad I could help.”
“Not as glad as I am,” Lisa purred, caressing his back while hanging on to his every word.
Ryan cleared his throat and turned to Devon. “Hey, Dee. Wow. You look beautiful. Thanks again for inviting me.”
“Thank you,” she replied, sweeping a tendril of hair behind her ear. “I really appreciate you coming.”
Lisa held her hand in the air. “Um, excuse me. Dev, you’re not speaking tonight?” she asked sassily, finally unraveling herself from around Ryan.
Devon plastered a synthetically sweetened smile on her face. “Hello. How are you?”
Lisa squinted as she studied Devon from head to toe. “I’m good. And as for you, you look…different. You’ve lost a ton of weight. Exactly how many pounds have you dropped?”
Devon tightened the grip on her clutch. Just as she opened her mouth to respond, Gabby spoke up.
“Doesn’t she look great? Dev’s wearing all that exciting Hollywood success extremely well.”
Gabby tossed her hair and grabbed Devon’s arm. “Why don’t we go check on Vince?” Without waiting for her to respond, Gabby pulled Devon away.
“Oh my God,” Devon breathed. “Lisa is a nightmare.”
“I would be too if I looked like crap and my bomb ex-best friend came back home looking like a movie star. Did you see those dark under-eye circles and that frizzy hair? And how much weight has she lost is the question, with her gaunt-looking self…”
Devon snickered and nodded her head. “She does look pretty bad. That’s probably a result of her chasing after all these men.”
“And worrying about you,” Gabby added.
The two friends walked over to Vince’s table and saw him miming bicep curls with a guest. He looked over at them and waved, mouthing the words almost done.
Devon discreetly glanced over at Ryan, who was still taking photos with Lisa. The people standing in line looked on impatiently, their expressions twisting in frustration. Lisa obliviously continued to pose, holding on to Ryan tightly.
“I paid extra for these additional shots!” she called out to the crowd.
Devon threw her head back and turned to Gabby. “Girl, I cannot watch this foolery anymore. I’m gonna go get another drink. Catch up with you in a bit?”
“Sounds good. And please don’t pay any attention to Lisa. Clearly the girl is out of her mind.”
“Her antics are hard to ignore, but I’ll try…” Devon said before heading over to the bar.
“Another white wine, ma’am?” the bartender asked.
“No, a vodka on the rocks, please. My night is suddenly calling for something a bit stronger.”
“Understood. Coming right up.”
Within seconds, the bartender had Devon’s drink poured and sitting in front of her.
“Here you go. And I hope I’m not being too forward when I say this, but you look absolutely ravishing.”
“Oh. Thank you.”
“She does look absolutely r
avishing, doesn’t she?” a familiar voice boomed behind her.
Devon turned and laid eyes on Jason, who gently took her hand in his and kissed it softly.
“Hello, beautiful. How are you?”
She stood there, taking in the moment that she’d been anxiously anticipating for weeks. Jason looked handsome with his freshly cut hair, tanned skin and perfectly tailored navy blue suit. But the way he was fawning over her immediately made Devon feel as if she had the upper hand in the exchange.
“I’m doing really well, Jason. How are you?”
“Great, now that I’m seeing you.”
The awkwardness Devon had expected to feel was surprisingly nonexistent. “So how’s work?”
“Work is good. I’ve been traveling a lot, marketing a new insulin pen to doctors that their patients are loving. I’ll actually be in your neck of the woods soon to visit a few west coast clinics. I’ve been meaning to reach out and ask if you’d wanna get together, but since we haven’t really been in touch, I didn’t know whether I should.”
Devon leaned back dramatically and looking around the room. “And your fiancée? How’s she doing? Is she here?”
“Um, yeah. About that…”
Jason’s voice trailed off as he stared down at the floor. He unbuttoned his blazer, and after a few moments looked up at Devon, his expression filled with regret.
“First of all, I’m sorry. I know I’ve apologized to you a thousand times since the night of the reunion, and I need you to know how sincere I am. I handled our situation completely wrong. I should’ve been honest with you about my relationship with Amber. But at this point that’s all irrelevant, because she and I broke up. This time it’s for good.”
Devon let out an involuntary gasp. “Wait, what? Why? What’d you do?”
“Hold up, why does it have to be on me?” Jason asked, pressing his hands against his chest.
“Because it’s always on you!”
Jason chuckled. “Now see, you’re wrong for that.”
“Am I now?” Devon asked sarcastically. She glanced over Jason’s shoulder and noticed Ryan laughing and shaking hands with a group of guests. After a couple of seconds he looked over at her, then Jason, then back at her. Just as she raised her hand to wave, Ryan’s smile quickly faded and he turned away.
Devon’s face fell, and she slowly lowered her hand.
*
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Vice Principal Robinson announced from the stage, “I’d like to once again thank you all for participating in Berman High’s charity gala, and for your immense generosity. I truly believe that with this turnout, along with your donations, we will successfully keep our beloved school open!”
A roaring round of applause tore through the ballroom. As Devon clapped her hands, Jason wrapped his arm around her excitedly.
“Yes!” he said. “I hope we made it happen.”
“Me, too!”
Devon could feel Ryan’s eyes on her. Please don’t get the wrong impression, she thought. When she looked toward his table, he was once again watching her, his expression filled with concern.
Jason leaned down and whispered in her ear. “I’m not ready for the night to end. Let’s go to the bar and have one last drink.”
Before she could respond, Gabby waved at her from across the room.
“Could you please excuse me?” Devon asked him before making a beeline toward Vince’s table. On the way there, Ryan called out her name.
“Hey, Dev! I’ve been so busy over here that we’ve barely had a chance to talk all night. You got a sec?”
“Of course. How are things going? It looks like you’re the biggest hit of the night.”
“Things are going great. Crazy busy as you can see, but…” Ryan’s voice trailed off as he began focusing on something behind her with a scowl on his face.
Devon looked over her shoulder and saw Jason watching them intently. She quickly turned her attention back to Ryan and attempted to deflect the situation.
“Well, thank you again for doing this. It really means a lot to me as well as the town of Berman.”
“No problem.” He nodded his head toward the dance floor. “I saw you and Jason talking earlier. How’d that go?”
Devon eyed Ryan curiously, surprised that he’d recognized Jason from the photo she’d shown him. “It was okay, actually. Not as dramatic as I thought it’d be.”
“Hm, interesting…”
Devon felt a weird tension coming off of him. “Hey, is everything okay?”
“Yeah,” he replied, an audible tinge of irritation in his voice. “I’m good.”
The pair stood in an uncomfortable cloud of silence until Vince motioned to Ryan, then pointed over at the long line gathered around his table.
Ryan looked to the crowd and waved. “I’ll be with you guys in a second!”
“I’d better let you get back to it,” Devon said, thankful for the interruption. “See you later?”
“Wait, before you go,” he replied, grabbing her hand, “can I talk to you about something?”
“Sure,” she said, watching as Ryan’s eyes danced around nervously. “What’s going on?”
He once again looked toward the dance floor. Devon didn’t have to turn around to know that he was watching Jason.
“I just wanted to ask you…what’s going on between us?”
Devon’s eyebrows shot up in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“Well, hold on. I’m getting ahead of myself. First I have to ask, is there something going on with you and Jason?”
“No. Of course not. Why would you think that?”
“Well, I saw you two talking over by the bar and things looked really…friendly.”
Devon was taken aback by the strain in Ryan’s voice. The mood between them took a sudden shift in the wrong direction. “We were just catching up. That’s all.”
Ryan shoved his hands inside his pockets. “I guess I was surprised to see you two acting so chummy toward one another after the way he treated you.”
“What exactly are you getting at, Ryan?”
“Dev, I came all this way to help keep your alma mater open for you. And…I’m feeling you. I want to know if that feeling’s mutual.”
Devon’s heart dropped down to her stomach. Her mouth fell open, but nothing came out as a flood of emotions overcame her. Thoughts of the conversation she’d had earlier with Gabby invaded her mind, and Devon felt paralyzed underneath the weight of the insecurities, self-doubts and fears that she had shared.
When she looked up, Devon noticed Ryan slowly backing away from her.
“So I take that as a no?” he asked.
She quickly walked toward him. “No, wait, it’s not that. It’s just that I…I have some things that I need to—”
Before Devon could finish, Jason approached her.
“Hey, Dee,” he said, wrapping his arm around her waist while completely ignoring Ryan, “why don’t we grab a drink and finish catching up?”
“Jason, I’m in the middle of—”
“No, you’re good,” Ryan said, his voice breaking as he continued to walk away. “Go ahead. I need to get back to my table anyway.”
“Hold on, Ryan,” Devon said to his back. She waited for him to turn around, but he didn’t.
She groaned and covered her eyes. “Ugh. What just happened?”
Jason shrugged his shoulders and tugged at her waist. “I don’t know, but can we go ahead and get that drink?”
“Devon!” Gabby called out.
She spun around and saw the look of concern on Gabby’s face.
“Vince and I could use your help over here. The line is getting backed up. You got a minute?”
Jason chuckled. “In other words, Gabby wants you to get away from me.”
Devon felt her head beginning to throb. “I think I need to go sit down. There’s too much going on right now.”
He dropped his arm from her waist. “Well, your girl needs you, so why don’t you g
o have a seat at their table? I’ll come check on you later.”
“Okay,” Devon muttered, barely able to focus on what he was saying. She rushed off and plopped down in a chair next to Gabby.
“Girl, what is going on?” she asked Devon. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t know. Everything is just crazy right now. First of all, I can’t beat Jason off of me.”
“No surprise there. He’s seen you shining all over social media since you moved to L.A., and now here you are back in Berman, looking better than ever with Ryan Roberts in tow. And I saw him trying to interfere while you two were over there talking.”
Devon slowly looked around the room, feeling as if she were in a daze. “I’m not used to all this, Gabby. The attention, the stares, Lisa’s jealousy… It’s a lot to take in. That’s why when Ryan said something about having feelings for me, I was too stunned to even respond.”
Gabby leaned back so far in her chair that she almost fell onto the floor. “Wait, Ryan said what?”
Devon propped her elbows onto the table and massaged her temples. “Well, first Ryan questioned whether there’s something going on between Jason and me. Then he said he has feelings for me and asked whether it’s mutual.”
Gabby clutched Devon’s arm and stared at her through wide eyes. “What did you tell him?” she practically screamed.
“I didn’t get a chance to tell him anything. I was so stunned by his revelation because it just came out of nowhere. Then I was thrown off because he was acting all hostile. And when Jason walked up asking if we could get a drink—”
“Hold on,” Gabby interrupted, squeezing Devon’s arm to the point where her acrylic fingernails dug into her skin. “You mean to tell me that Ryan Roberts, the man that I know you’ve been secretly crushing on for quite some time now, just professed his feelings for you. And you said nothing?”
Devon stared down at her lap while fiddling with her earring. “I tried to say something, but I got all in my head and couldn’t get the words out.”
Gabby patted Devon’s back sympathetically. “Listen, I can understand you being overwhelmed. But you’re finally getting everything you’ve asked and worked for. You should be on cloud nine right now. Don’t let your insecurities block your blessings. That goes for Ryan and everything else.”
She Gets What She Wants Page 13
