by Nicole Casey
“I am so sorry you thought I didn’t care about you all this time.”
As if a mask fell over her face, Yve lost the sweetness and regained her stoic expression.
She rolled away from underneath him and began to collect herself.
“That was a different time, Drave,” she said. “That was before we knew what we know about life and love.”
I was slightly stunned by the words and I stared at her, but she didn’t meet my eyes.
“You don’t feel the same way about me?” I demanded. “What was this all about?”
She laughed shortly.
“This was sex, Drave. There’s no reason to get emotional about it.”
I grabbed her arm to stop her from dressing and she looked at me tiredly.
“Why are you saying that? Because you mean it or because you’re afraid of being hurt again?”
Yvette’s mouth turned downward in the corners and she shifted her eyes away.
“I took a page from your book, Draven,” she told me.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means I care about my career now,” she said shortly. “I don’t have time or patience for relationships.”
The words stung me, but I did not let that show.
“I see,” I said slowly.
I need to go slowly with her, I thought. She is far too skeptical to jump into this again.
“I’m glad we talked though,” she offered as she slipped on her pumps. “I feel a lot better.”
She gave me a kiss on the cheek and walked toward the door.
“When the Sterlings are all settled, we’ll go grab dinner,” I called out to her.
She paused and slowly turned.
“I don’t think you’ll feel that way after this goes through,” she told me quietly.
“Why not? Yve, I don’t want this to be some one-night stand!”
She chewed on her lower lip.
“Because after the Sterlings are settled, Drave, I’m being made senior partner.”
10
Yvette
There was that smell in the air, the one which floods you with nostalgia and yearning for no reason other than you long for another place or time.
Of course where and when that might be is lost in the recesses of your mind and I shoved the threat of melancholy from my mind as I stared into the bonfire, clenching and unclenching my fists.
I shouldn’t have agreed to the trip, but I was there, and I couldn’t very well sneak away.
They do this on purpose, I thought with bitter wryness, brushing a stray strand of dark hair out of my bright blue eyes. They bring us to the middle of nowhere and trap us like a bunch of rats in a science experiment to see how we’ll react.
I knew I was just being dramatic.
No reason for me to become a basket case but I couldn’t shake the sense of sadness and anger which had followed me to the Butterfield Ranch.
I knew exactly why I was in such a mood but that did little to alleviate it, what, with the sweet burning of firewood teasing my nostrils and the distant hoot of owls like some cliché movie on the Hallmark channel.
At least I was in relative solitude.
Most of my counterparts had moved to the hall for drinks and dancing, although some of my fellow attorneys had started imbibing from noon and had already fallen asleep in their respective cabins.
It was the last night after all.
I should have been enjoying it too.
As if the universe mocked my inane thought, I saw a shadow approaching from just beyond the tree line and I knew who it was even before he appeared.
“Oh,” he said, freezing as he recognized me sitting alone by the flames. “I didn’t realize anyone was here.”
“Well now you do,” I replied shortly but I wished I didn’t sound so cold. I wasn’t mad at him. I wanted to make things right, but I had no words to do it, not anymore.
It seemed that any attempt to iron things out between us was only making it worse.
Draven scoffed slightly as I expected he would.
“Contrary to popular belief, Yve, you don’t own the airspace, especially not out here in the middle of nowhere.”
I glared at him, my lips pursing in annoyance.
“Fine,” I retorted. “If it makes you feel like you’ve won, by all means, take it.”
I rose to my feet, shaking my head at his childishness.
Draven laughed aloud.
“You really think you’ve got the upper hand in all this, don’t you? You get the bigger commission, the better job, the admiration of everyone – “
“Drave, I’m really not about to get into this with you here,” I snapped. “I am supposed to be on vacation and you are not a victim.”
I didn’t add that if I had known how things were going to manifest between us, I would never have signed up for the weekend.
But the trip was non-refundable, and I had reasoned that I wouldn’t be forced to spend much time with him.
No more than at the office anyway.
Still, I could have used the reprieve, especially that weekend.
Or so I told myself.
Deep down, I knew that I had wanted to catch him alone but to what end, I couldn’t say.
I could feel his animosity almost like a slap in the face and I knew that we were not going to overcome whatever anger we had between us.
I spun around, unwilling to engage in what I knew would result in a fight.
It made my heart hurt to do it because what I really wanted was to throw myself into his arms and beg him to start over again.
What would it take to walk away from all of this and start somewhere brand new?
I knew I was being silly and romantic, but it didn’t make the thought go away.
“Never mind! I’m leaving!” he yelled out at me and I paused slightly but I did not turn around.
“God forbid you accuse me of taking something which is rightfully yours,” he jeered. “And report me to the ethics board.”
A slow smirk formed on my lips as I recognized Angeline’s petulant tone in his words.
“How big of you,” I answered evenly, spinning back around to face him. “Maybe you can bring some of that magnanimous spirit into court on Monday morning and save us both a lot of hassle.”
A cold smile formed on Drave’s lips and our eyes locked, his a steely blue-grey which seemed to pierce into my soul.
“Hassle is what I live for,” he replied caustically. “I was with you, wasn’t I? That’s why you left, isn’t it?”
The words stung me for some inexplicable reason.
It was not as if I was renowned for my sensitive side but there was something in his gleaming eyes which made me feel hurt.
He really does despise me! I realized, and the understanding made me feel woozy.
“Why are you staring at me like that?” he demanded, and I quickly averted my eyes, my mind a mess of conflicting emotions suddenly.
“I’m just wondering why you’re still standing here when you said you were leaving,” I replied evenly, not a note of my uncertainty creeping into my words.
After all, I was a lawyer. I knew how to keep my sentiments in check.
Draven scoffed again but to my relief, he did turn to leave me in peace.
“Go ahead,” he chirped. “Sit out here alone in the dark. It’s kind of fitting, isn’t it? Chilly, dark and solitary, just like you, Yvette.”
He slipped back into the shadows as my mouth gaped open in shock at the cruelness of his words.
I could not remember a time when he had sounded so disgusted with me in all the years we had known one another.
Slowly, I reclaimed my spot on the log overlooking the bonfire and shook my head, wrapping my shirt around my waist as I gnawed on my lower lip.
I had never wanted it to come this far and yet there we were, teetering on the edge.
We couldn’t even be civil to one another anymore.
The divorce on Mo
nday was going to be a pivotal point for both of us.
I had no idea what to make of that.
You’re going to be senior partner, I thought but the idea did not fill me with the kind of anticipation and excitement it should have.
Instead, I was bombarded with a flood of thoughts which kept me wondering why my career had always been so important at the cost of everything else.
I had sacrificed family time with my parents and sisters, social time with friends. I had not had a serious relationship with anyone since Draven and I had walked away from him under the guise of following my dream career.
But it had all been a lie.
The truth was, I had been so afraid of losing Draven, I had fooled myself into believing I didn’t need his love.
I had seen how focused he was on his studies and his drive had terrified me.
I didn’t leave because I didn’t think he cared, I left because I was afraid he was going to leave me first and the thought made me sick to my stomach.
A sob choked me as the realization seemed to punch me in the gut.
Slowly, fat tears rolled down my cheeks and I lifted my head to stare in the direction where he had disappeared.
I have no interest in being senior partner, I discovered, another gasp escaping my mouth. I don’t even want to be a divorce attorney. I chose this avenue because I knew it would harden me against falling in love again.
“No.”
I jumped and looked back.
Draven had reappeared, and I quickly wiped the tears from my face.
My thoughts may have been jumbled but I still did not want him to see me crying, especially not when I suddenly felt so weak.
“No what?” I mumbled. “You changed your mind and you want to stay here now?”
He slipped out of the shadows and closed the distance between us, his slate eyes glittering against the firelight.
“No, I am not walking away from you,” he said quietly.
He lowered his body to sit next to me, his irises searching my face as he recognized the pain in my face.
“You never walked away from me,” I whispered. “I was the one who took off running because I was scared.”
He nodded.
“Yes, because you were afraid you were losing me,” he replied. “But I only made matters worse by letting you believe that.”
I was taken aback by the confession and more confusion filled me.
How do I even respond to that? I wondered but I didn’t dare believe that he was there to console me. How could he be when I had been so terrible to him, both then and now?
He reached toward me, wiping away a stray tear.
“Don’t cry,” he sighed. “This is not the way I wanted things to be between us, not then and not now.”
I gaped at him, again filled with the idea that he could read my thoughts.
Had there ever been anyone more in tune with me? Would there be ever again?
I tried to push the melancholy from my mind.
It could never work between us. We had tried and failed before.
“I was so consumed with becoming a lawyer, with getting my name on the door of a prestigious law firm,” Draven sighed. “I took you for granted and I’m sorry.”
Gaping at him, I wrestled for the words to say.
I shook my dark hair it tickled the bottom of my chin.
“We were so young,” I said, and I felt a bit like a broken record saying the same thing over and over.
“We were old enough to know we loved one another,” he told me gruffly. “And I know we still love each other, no matter what happens.”
“Nothing has changed,” I said but I didn’t mean it. “We are both too career driven to make this work.”
A lot had changed; at least for me but I didn’t want to be the one to admit that. It was hard to come to terms with the fact that I wanted more than just a career.
I desperately desired what my sisters had. I yearned for someone to wake up within the morning and sleep with at night.
Not someone, I corrected myself. Draven. He has been what’s missing in my life.
“If I could go back to our college days knowing what I know now, I would never have become a lawyer, knowing I would lose you in the process.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat and stared at him, emotions flooding me to the point of weakness.
I still knew him well enough to know he was being sincere.
He was saying everything I had longed to hear for six years and I was overcome by the reality.
“Say something,” Draven begged, his fingertips trailing over my mouth. “Good or bad, just say something.”
“I don’t want to be senior partner,” I confessed, and he chuckled, a look of relief washing over his face.
“I don’t want to practice divorce law anymore,” he replied, and I exhaled a breath I did not know I had been holding.
I began to laugh, and I dropped my head against his chest, relishing the warmth of his strong arms against me as he held me tightly to him.
Could this be real? After all this time, could we make it work again?
I refused to second guess the elation in my heart.
It had been so long since I had felt happy, a realization which was stunning and freeing simultaneously.
My work had clouded my deepest desires as if I learned to accept that it would only get as good as my career.
I would not make that mistake again, not when I finally had the man I had always wanted in my arms.
Although he shouldn’t be in my arms here…
“We probably shouldn’t be doing this here,” I said, pulling myself back to study his face. “I don’t want to think what the senior partners will do if they catch wind of this.”
“Appearance of impropriety, right,” Draven agreed, laughing but he didn’t let me go and I was glad he didn’t. “I don’t care.”
My pulse quickened as I realized that I didn’t either.
His embrace tightened, and I was merciless to fight him, even if I had desired to do so.
I never wanted to let him go.
And I won’t, I vowed silently. Never again.
“It’s not so terrible allowing someone in, is it?” he asked softly, brushing my bangs away from my forehead.
I smiled.
“That depends on who that someone is,” I teased, and he gently kissed the top of my head.
“I hope it’s me,” he whispered. “Because if you let me in, I won’t ever leave.”
I nodded, a fresh batch of tears wetting my eyes but this time I was crying with relief, with the sense that I had made something right which had been off kilter for a long while.
“I won’t let you,” I promised.
“You better not,” he threatened jokingly. “Because next time I will not only follow you, I will move onto your street.”
“You followed me here!” I gasped, pulling back, heat rising to my face. “I had always suspected…”
Draven’s grey eyes glimmered.
“Of all the law firms in all of America, you think I just happened to fall into yours?” he asked quietly.
“But you were engaged!” I cried, unsure of how to feel about what I was learning.
Draven chuckled.
“I don’t know if you happened to notice that relationship ended two weeks after we got here,” he commented. “But let’s just say I didn’t want to arrive in North Carolina empty-handed in case you had moved on.”
I didn’t know what to say, my mind trying to process what I had learned.
“But…what about your fiancée?” I finally choked.
He laughed aloud.
“She needed a green card,” he replied lightly. “And I didn’t make nearly enough money for her anyway. She moved on to an oil tycoon in Texas. No hard feelings there.”
I shook my head in disbelief.
“Are you mad?” he asked quickly.
“No…” I replied slowly, and I knew I was not. “I am twist
edly flattered. You really never gave up on us, did you?”
Draven shook his head vehemently.
“No,” he said softly. “And I never will.”
11
Draven
“Mr. Archer, we have been waiting here for twenty minutes and I am losing my patience. Where is your client?”
I glanced at my watch nervously and then across the courtroom at the empty respondent seat.
“I’m sorry, judge but she is not answering her phone.”
Judge Bateman scowled.
“And I don’t suppose you know what happened to opposing counsel and her client either?”
“No, your honor. I spoke with Ms. Viera this morning in fact and she was on schedule to be here.”
Worry was beginning to tickle my stomach.
I had never known Yve to be late for anything in her life, let alone a court appearance.
“Try to call again,” the irate arbiter ordered. “If they have not shown in ten minutes, I am holding Ms. Viera in contempt and charging your clients a fine for wasting the court’s time.”
“I assure, judge, this is highly unusual. Ms. Viera and Mrs. Sterling are both very punctual. I imagine there must be traffic or – “
“I don’t need excuses, Mr. Archer, just find them.”
I bit back the desire to snap at him that something was obviously very wrong.
It wouldn’t serve anyone a bit of good if I got held in contempt too.
I jumped from the petitioner’s chair and pulled out my cell phone to text Yvette again as I headed into the hallway.
No sooner had I opened the door when she appeared hurrying down the hall.
“Where the hell were you?” I demanded, relief coloring my face. “Judge Bateman is about to birth kittens he’s so mad.”
“Never mind, come on,” she replied, grabbing my arm and steering me back into the courtroom.
“Where is Sterling?” I asked but she threw open the doors and rushed up the aisle toward the head of the courtroom.
“Apologies, your honor,” she started.
“Oh, Ms. Viera, how nice of you to join us,” he replied caustically. “Don’t you own a cell phone?”