Chapter One
Two years later…
Kayla sat on the plastic chair in the crowded food court and listened to David and Jessica tease each other. Now this was a perfect marriage.
They knew each other well. They respected each other’s opinions. They had lunch together most days. Yes, this was the sort of marriage Kayla had once dreamed of. Not anymore, though. David and Jessica were the one-in-a-million couple, but Kayla wasn’t silly enough to hope she’d one day find the same. She was content to simply have good friends.
She smiled as David laughed harder, his good humor lightening her heart even as dark memories crowded her head. Why today? Why was she thinking of the asshole? It had been nearly two years since she’d seen him. She’d quit her job soon after—working in the same building had proven even more humiliating than she’d expected—packed her meager possessions, and driven three hours to the next major city.
She was much happier here. She’d taken the first job she’d been offered and had worked there ever since. It wasn’t designing, but it kept her close to these two. Jessica and David were good friends, so even though she should really take her life off hold and get back to the career she’d studied so hard for, she found the idea of not seeing Jessica and David every day too hard to bear. So she worked as a secretary by day and halfheartedly sketched designs at night.
It was a good life. It was. Really.
“Ready to go back to the office?” Jessica asked.
“No,” Kayla said with a smile, but she moved to collect her trash and their empty trays.
“We could take the afternoon off and go shopping,” Jessica said as she wrapped an arm around Kayla’s elbow. “Maybe get facials or manicures or…I don’t know. Anything but go back to the office.”
Kayla laughed. That was one way to force her to get her design career back on track—get fired from the job that currently paid the bills.
“As fabulous as that all sounds, I think I should head back before my boss decides I’m not worth the buck-fifty an hour.” Okay, so she earned more than that, but there were weeks when it sure felt like minimum wage. She certainly didn’t get paid enough to put up with her boss’s fairly regular tantrums. “But you go. The boss is not going to bat an eyelash at her star accountant taking an afternoon off.”
Jessica laughed. Still holding Kayla’s arm, she turned to her husband and kissed him good-bye. David gave her his usual farewell hug, but for a weird moment Kayla imagined that he was going to kiss her as well. Just as her heart leaped into her throat with a mixture of anticipation, anxiety, and guilt, he pulled back. Happily, he grinned at them both and then walked away.
Kayla watched him go, admiring his casual, confident stride in tight-fitting jeans for quite a while before she realized what she was doing. Heaven help her. She was lusting after her best friend’s husband. Guiltily, she glanced at the woman beside her. Jessica’s attention, thankfully, was also on the man walking away from them. Kayla tried really hard to rein in her rampant thoughts. The fact that she seemed as attracted to Jessica as she was to Jessica’s husband was not something she planned to admit, even to herself.
She must’ve made some sound of distress, because Jessica suddenly let go of Kayla’s arm and placed her hands on either side of Kayla’s face. She stared into Kayla’s eyes, her gaze intense, searching. Her smile faltered, and Kayla had the weirdest feeling that Jessica was reading her mind.
But then the spell was broken, and Jessica took a step away. She smiled, and Kayla started to wonder if anything unusual had happened at all. Everything certainly seemed normal. It was not a secret that Kayla had an overactive imagination. She rubbed her forehead tiredly. Maybe she should lay off the sci-fi movies for a while. Mind readers? What the hell was she thinking?
In silence they walked slowly back
Two years later…
Kayla sat on the plastic chair in the crowded food court and listened to David and Jessica tease each other. Now this was a perfect marriage.
They knew each other well. They respected each other’s opinions. They had lunch together most days. Yes, this was the sort of marriage Kayla had once dreamed of. Not anymore, though. David and Jessica were the one-in-a-million couple, but Kayla wasn’t silly enough to hope she’d one day find the same. She was content to simply have good friends.
She smiled as David laughed harder, his good humor lightening her heart even as dark memories crowded her head. Why today? Why was she thinking of the asshole? It had been nearly two years since she’d seen him. She’d quit her job soon after—working in the same building had proven even more humiliating than she’d expected—packed her meager possessions, and driven three hours to the next major city.
She was much happier here. She’d taken the first job she’d been offered and had worked there ever since. It wasn’t designing, but it kept her close to these two. Jessica and David were good friends, so even though she should really take her life off hold and get back to the career she’d studied so hard for, she found the idea of not seeing Jessica and David every day too hard to bear. So she worked as a secretary by day and halfheartedly sketched designs at night.
It was a good life. It was. Really.
“Ready to go back to the office?” Jessica asked.
“No,” Kayla said with a smile, but she moved to collect her trash and their empty trays.
“We could take the afternoon off and go shopping,” Jessica said as she wrapped an arm around Kayla’s elbow. “Maybe get facials or manicures or…I don’t know. Anything but go back to the office.”
Kayla laughed. That was one way to force her to get her design career back on track—get fired from the job that currently paid the bills.
“As fabulous as that all sounds, I think I should head back before my boss decides I’m not worth the buck-fifty an hour.” Okay, so she earned more than that, but there were weeks when it sure felt like minimum wage. She certainly didn’t get paid enough to put up with her boss’s fairly regular tantrums. “But you go. The boss is not going to bat an eyelash at her star accountant taking an afternoon off.”
Jessica laughed. Still holding Kayla’s arm, she turned to her husband and kissed him good-bye. David gave her his usual farewell hug, but for a weird moment Kayla imagined that he was going to kiss her as well. Just as her heart leaped into her throat with a mixture of anticipation, anxiety, and guilt, he pulled back. Happily, he grinned at them both and then walked away.
Kayla watched him go, admiring his casual, confident stride in tight-fitting jeans for quite a while before she realized what she was doing. Heaven help her. She was lusting after her best friend’s husband. Guiltily, she glanced at the woman beside her. Jessica’s attention, thankfully, was also on the man walking away from them. Kayla tried really hard to rein in her rampant thoughts. The fact that she seemed as attracted to Jessica as she was to Jessica’s husband was not something she planned to admit, even to herself.
She must’ve made some sound of distress, because Jessica suddenly let go of Kayla’s arm and placed her hands on either side of Kayla’s face. She stared into Kayla’s eyes, her gaze intense, searching. Her smile faltered, and Kayla had the weirdest feeling that Jessica was reading her mind.
But then the spell was broken, and Jessica took a step away. She smiled, and Kayla started to wonder if anything unusual had happened at all. Everything certainly seemed normal. It was not a secret that Kayla had an overactive imagination. She rubbed her forehead tiredly. Maybe she should lay off the sci-fi movies for a while. Mind readers? What the hell was she thinking?
In silence they walked slowly back
Similar Books
