by Kaylee, Katy
David gestured at himself. “So did I, and I managed to score quite a few ladies myself at parties, squeezed them into my oh so busy schedule - come to think of it I think my schedule was even busier than yours, actually and yet…”
“You think you’re real funny, don’t you?”
“As a matter of fact, yes,” David replied. “But I also think that I’m right. You never got over that girl.”
“I dated senior year, and all through med school!”
“Dating people isn’t the same as being in a relationship. You would hook up with people at parties and you would go out on dates but you never actually spent more than a couple of weeks with the same person. You’d go on, what, three dates?”
“It was more than that, c’mon, give me some credit here!” I felt like David was going to start pulling out the literal receipts of all the dates I’d ever gone on while in school.
“The point is that you were never with anyone long enough to even think about starting a serious relationship with them. And you always thought up some kind of bullshit excuse to break up with them. Her hair was the wrong shade, her laugh was too annoying, she had different taste in movies, she didn’t appreciate Mexican food enough… it was always something. And these were beautiful, intelligent, funny, talented women! Women that men would give their left arm to be dating! And you went through them like a kid with his Halloween candy!”
“Okay, okay, I get it, I’m a perfectionist, I’m too picky, whatever.”
“You’re not listening.” David set down his water and leaned back against the wall. “Look, those women would’ve been great for you, or for any man, if you’d been able to find room in your heart for them. And don’t give me that look, this isn’t me being all sappy on you. It’s the simple truth. You never got over this other woman - her name started with an R…”
“It’s Veronica, actually, but I always called her Roni.”
“Roni, that’s it, that’s what you called her when you told me about her. Look, I don’t know the details of what went down, okay? But I do know that you’ve been carrying a torch for this girl for over a decade, whether you want to admit it or not. And you’ve tried to move on. I’ve seen it. But you’ve still got feelings for her and now she’s back in your life and I’m thinking maybe you were never supposed to get over her. Maybe this is the second chance that you’ve been waiting for without even realizing it.”
“You make it sound like I’ve been in stasis this whole time.”
“You haven’t been, hell no, you’ve grown and you’ve accomplished a lot. I’m not saying that. But when you try different things and keep drifting back to the same thing, I think that there’s a reason for it. You owe it to yourself to see where this could go. You said that the reasons that you two broke up in the first place seem to be gone, right? That she seems to be a different person? Then go for it!”
“I’m… I’m not sure that’s the right thing to do. The break up was ugly. For me, at least. She didn’t seem to care. She didn’t seem to even give a rat’s ass. How could someone who had said that - she said that she loved me, right? And then she turned around and did that. Who just does that? How could I - and sure, she doesn’t seem to care about status and appearance as much but y’know it’s one thing to do that in little ways, but when the chips are down… what if she’s only doing this because I’m a hotshot doctor now? What if she only says yes to me when I ask her because I’m now at an ‘acceptable’ status level?”
“Well first of all, you’re a hotshot doctor now. You’re making money hand over fist. So there’s your status problem right there.”
I flipped him off.
David winked at me before sobering up and growing serious. “That’s a legitimate fear, I’m not going to deny that. But you don’t know until you try, that’s the thing. I think it’s unfair of anyone to judge someone else by how that person was ten years ago. We all change and grow. Now, some of us do have things that stay the same. Some of us change for the better, and some of us change for the worst. But you can’t read her mind, so the only way to learn is by dating her again.”
“And put my heart on the line again, possibly get hurt again.”
“Well, if you don’t do anything, you’re definitely going to be hurt, and you’ll keep pining away like a sad little puppy until the day you die.”
“Charming prediction, Nostradamus.”
“I tell it like it is, man.” David tossed me the ball and walked back over to his spot on the court. “Look, if nothing else, dating her will get her out of your system once and for all. You’ll find out if she’s really changed or not, and you can lay it all to rest. She might be the best thing that ever happened to you, who knows? Not me, and not you, not until you try.”
“I’m going to give you this same lecture someday, I hope you know that.”
“First you have to find me a woman who’s sweeter than my Ma’s sweet tea, and that isn’t ever going to happen, my man.”
“Yeah, it will, just you wait.” David had been raised by his single mother after his father had died of a rare heart condition, which was why he’d wanted to become a doctor. I’d met David’s mother a few times. Mrs. Franklin, or Ma Franklin as she’d always insisted I call her, was a lovely woman, and her sweet tea was indeed sweet enough to give you cavities.
“There’s a whole other problem that you seem to be ignoring,” I told him, twirling my racquet in my hand. “Roni - Veronica isn’t into a relationship right now. She might not ever be. She just got out of a divorce and she’s planning on having a kid.”
“And you’re going to let that stop you?” David replied with a grin. “That doesn’t sound like the Ted Winters that I know. You didn’t let anything stop you, no matter what, not once you set your mind to something. You owe it to yourself to see where this’ll go and I bet you that you can convince her to change her mind about not getting involved with someone.
“You’re a charming man, just be that. Give her a flash of those dimples of yours and do that stupid thing where you make your eyes twinkle and her panties’ll melt right off. Worked like a charm at every single bar we went to, you had the woman spreading her legs right in front of the other patrons.”
“Very funny,” I said, hefting up the ball for a serve.
I might have aimed the ball to whizz right past his head, but David couldn’t prove it. He yelped, and then went to grab it, yelling, “not cool, man, not cool!”
Despite my dismissal of David’s teasing, I couldn’t help but consider his words. He had been there for me all these years and so he knew me better than just about anyone.
And he was right. I hated to admit it, but… the guy was absolutely right about all of it.
I had mooned after Veronica in college, despite also being furious with her for how she’d broken up with me. Every single time a girl had tried to flirt with me I’d just seen how she wasn’t my Roni. And it hadn’t been fair to any woman that I tried to date that I spent the whole time measuring her up to some other woman - or that I would find myself hoping she’d just be Veronica’s clone.
Eventually I had just given up on dating altogether. I had decided that if I was supposed to be with someone, that someone would just waltz into my life and it would fall into place. I felt fulfilled by my work and the rest of my life, so really, what did I need a romantic partner for?
But when I’d told the universe to have someone waltz into my life, I hadn’t meant my ex, and I hadn’t meant for her to literally waltz into my damn office.
Yet here I was.
And maybe… maybe David was right.
Maybe I needed to put this whole thing with Veronica to rest once and for all.
12
Veronica
I sighed as I entered the luxury ballroom at the ground floor of the Belmond Hotel. It was considered the place to host your event, with the walls covered in gorgeously hand-painted Art Nouveau style scenes of animals out in nature, a high ceiling with massive glittering c
rystal chandeliers, and enough room for both dancing and dining. People had weddings here all the time, and being a member of the Charleston upper crust, I was almost as familiar with this ballroom as I was with the back of my own hand.
And I was not pleased to be here.
My whole life had been a series of balls like this, hosted in venues just like this. Maybe to some it was fun, and if this was the life that someone had chosen for themselves, then I said good for them. But it had never been my choice to be in this. This had been what my parents had insisted I do with my life, how they made me live my life, and then Chad had done the same.
God forbid we ever just took a weekend off and go to a little cabin in the woods or something. No, there was always another society event that we had to go to, some place where our faces had to be seen. As a teenager I had been desperate to please my parents and I had believed in a lot of the things they had preached. It was why I had gone along with their insistence that I break up with Ted.
But now that I was older, everything had lost its shine. This society had been empty to me for a while, and nobody had stuck up for me when I’d divorced Chad - nobody besides Layla - no matter how many of their charities I had donated to, how many of their parties and teas I had gone to. None of it had mattered to them, in the end. It all felt like such a sham.
But Layla had been there for me through all of it, and so she was the reason why I was here. This was a charity event to raise funds for extracurricular activities for at-risk children so that they would be at those activities instead of getting into trouble, and those activities would help them to put more things on their applications for college.
Layla hated going to these things alone. God forbid her husband actually attend one of them. I felt awful for her, but Layla bore it all with a smile. We had swapped notes about our husbands, and hers was nearly as bad as Chad had been. At least her husband seemed to be more neglectful than outright manipulative and emotionally abusing, but how you could neglect a sweet and thoughtful girl like Layla, I had no idea.
So of course I was going to come as her date to this thing. I had to support her, what friend wouldn’t?
But that didn’t mean I was going to like entering this ballroom.
Taking a deep breath, I smoothed my hands over my dress and stepped inside.
Everyone was already chatting in groups, since I’d come late. Fashionably late, or so I’d say to anyone who asked, but really it was because I hadn’t wanted to come and so I’d been giving myself a pep talk in the car in the parking garage.
Layla saw me at once. She looked like a vision in her soft pink dress, like a princess. Ugh, if only she would divorce her husband, then I could find her someone who really deserved her, someone who would treat her right.
I waved back and walked over. Layla quickly detached herself from the group she was with and grabbed onto my arm. “Thank goodness you’re here,” she whispered.
I hugged her. “Of course I came, I’ll always be here for you, honey. How’s it been going?”
“Awful,” Layla admitted. “I keep waiting for the day when I’ll miraculously be comfortable talking with people or I’ll somehow know what to say and that day just never comes and I feel like a stuttering schoolgirl no matter what I do. Everyone must be looking down at me, I know they pity Lewis…”
“They do not pity him.” Lewis was Layla’s husband, a congressman. “They all think he’s lucky as all hell to have a beautiful and darling woman like you for his wife. He doesn’t deserve you.”
“You’re really too kind.” Layla linked our arms. “Let’s go find the buffet table, I’m starving and you’re the only one who doesn’t give me judgmental looks if I stuff my face.”
“Hey, a girl’s gotta eat, right?” I replied.
Layla laughed. “I love that’s what you say.”
“Starvation for our figure is out, eating whatever the hell you want and as much of it as you want is in.” I winked at her.
We loaded ourselves up on the various delicious appetizers. Layla just about had a heart attack from joy when she saw the chocolate fondue fountain, and we attacked that with vigor. I was actually having fun at this thing. Sure, it was because I was ignoring just about everyone, and that included the whispers I could hear about me and my relationship with Chad, but I had long grown used to those. Society was split on who got the ‘blame’ for the divorce, and I was just lucky that my father-in-law, the state governor, liked me so much. He blamed Chad for the whole thing and for ‘letting her get away’ and after that was known, people had pretty much decided that Chad was a no-good and I deserved better.
Didn’t stop any gossip about me but at least it was a bit more on the positive side. Silver linings and all that.
Speaking of the devil, though…
“Uh oh,” Layla whispered. “Spawn of Satan heading our way.”
I turned - sure enough, Chad was headed straight for us. Oh, joy. And here I’d thought today might actually be decent.
Chad was the kind of guy who looked like his name. Whenever I’d heard the name ‘Chad’, before I met my now-ex-husband, I had pictured a broad-shouldered, square-jawed football linebacker type with an oddly vacant look in his eyes who loved nothing better than a frat party.
My former husband was worse. He was that preppy type who did one week of fencing at his fancy Cape Cod summer camp and then decided that he knew everything ever about the sport. He wore boring clothes and expensive sweaters that made him look like he was always about to step onto a yacht, and the look in his eyes read hedge fund.
Layla clutched at my hand as if our positions were reversed and she was the one with the abusive ex-husband approaching. “I’m right here,” she whispered.
I shook my head, squeezing her hand. “I appreciate it, sweetheart, but you should go. Go on, I can handle this.”
The last thing I wanted was for Layla to be standing there awkwardly while I dealt with whatever unpleasantness was about to unfold. She deserved better than that. Chad was going to create a scene and I needed space to breathe through that, and I certainly wasn’t going to let my best friend possibly be caught in the crossfire.
Layla bit her lip, glanced at Chad, then at me, and then reluctantly let go of my hand as I nodded at her. “Okay. If you’re sure. I’ll just…”
“Everything will be fine. I’m sure. I’ll catch up with you in just a minute.” I gave her what I hoped was a reassuring smile.
Layla didn’t look all that convinced, but she walked away, leaving me alone.
Chad finished walking up. His gaze flicked dismissively over to where Layla had been, then trailed over me. I almost wished that he was leering at me and trying to make a pass. That would’ve been easier to handle than his open disdain, like I was some sad bug that had crawled out from underneath the table.
I squared my shoulders, staying strong. “Yes?” I asked.
Chad finished his inspection of me, then met my gaze. “I’m surprised to see you out and about,” he told me. “At a fancy event like this no less. Didn’t I buy you that dress?”
Technically he had bought me everything I owned, since I hadn’t been allowed to get a job while I was married to him and now I was living off of his alimony so that I could devote my time to my child. Maybe another person would’ve felt ashamed of that, but honestly, I felt like it was the least of what he owed me. He didn’t want me to get a job? Well then fine, I wouldn’t. I would simply live off the money he gave me while I built my new life for myself, away from him. It was what I was due for the way that he’d treated me. I was fulfilling his wish, in the worst possible way for him.
Because fuck him.
The dress that I was wearing right then was a powder blue number that I’d gotten because it was a bit daring, with a little bit of a leg slit and straps that were designed to expose my shoulders and throat. I’d bought it back when I’d still had the vain hope that I could entice Chad back into sleeping with me and loving me, as a husband should love
a wife. That somehow if I made myself look good enough, the man that had wooed me and charmed me back when we were dating would emerge once more.
It took me far too long to realize that charming man never really existed. He was just a façade for the real monster underneath.
“Did you have a purpose in coming over here?” I asked him. “You should try the chocolate fountain, it’s delicious.”
“You know, I thought you told me that you needed some time to yourself, during the divorce.” Chad raised an eyebrow. “And yet, here you are.”
I was not in the mood for an argument. Especially not in front of others. “I see you’re still wishing I would somehow find a way to not exist,” I told him. “Don’t worry, I won’t interact with you or bother you. I’m not here to cause a scene.”
Not that I had ever caused a scene, oh no. I had always been the one smoothing everything over after Chad had insulted someone yet again.
I went to step around him and find Layla, but Chad grabbed my arm. His grip was like steel and I instinctively suppressed my wince. He had never hit me, he had never gone that far, but that tight, punishing grip of his was unfortunately far too familiar to me.
“You’re being a wanton little bitch,” he growled. “Prancing around here in a dress that I bought you, living high off the hog with the alimony money that you force me to pay—”
“You made my life a living hell,” I whispered. “Frankly, you owe me.”
“I owe you?” Chad’s hand tightened on my arm.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a few people watching us. A woman leaned into her date and began to whisper in his ear.
My face started to heat up. This was exactly what I didn’t want - a scene where everyone could have more fodder for the rumor mill. I just wanted to move on from my sham marriage and live my life in peace, was that too much to ask of my asshole ex-husband? Of society?
All my life I had been taught to not make a fuss, to be seen and not heard, to look pretty first and make polite conversation second. “Chew like you have a secret,” my mother once told me as I had been learning how to eat at a fine dining table in preparation for the deb balls.