Enemies To Lovers: A Second Chance Romance Series (Book 3)

by Wood, Lauren

  He was looking me up and down and making me nervous. I moved so that my body was behind the door a little bit.

  “What do you want?”

  “If you keep asking me those kinds of questions, Lisa, I'm going to give you an honest answer.”

  “It doesn't matter what you want, Frank, because if it's what I think it is, you're never going to get it.”

  “You know I always like a challenge.”

  This little back and forth that we had going on between us was not working for me. I didn't want to laugh or drink with him. I didn't want things to become easier between us. I didn't want to forget why I couldn’t be around him and why I couldn't have feelings for him. If I did, then I ran the risk of making the mistake that I had made before. He was not going to make everything better. He was not going to somehow take away the last ten years and all the feelings that he had brought up. Nothing could, and being around him was bad enough.

  “Seriously, what do you want?”

  “I just wanted to see if you wanted some company, Lisa. You have been eating in here alone by yourself and you haven't had any fun at all. We are in Chicago. There is deep dish pizza places everywhere that I hear are the best. Why don't we go and get some real food?”

  “I have real food coming.”

  “What is it?”

  I sighed and shrugged. “Steamed fish and vegetables, I think.”

  “That doesn't sound very appetizing.”

  He was right. They really had a limited menu for the room service and since I had tried almost everything else, I had gone with the salmon tonight. As soon as I ordered it, I knew that I didn't want it, but going out with him was something else altogether. I could feel that it was going to turn out badly, and I knew it would turn out worse for me. Frank never got hurt, because Frank didn't care.

  “Wouldn't you rather have deep dish pizza from an authentic Chicago pizzeria?”

  It did sound good, but I knew that it would be a mistake. Even as I nodded my head in agreement and said that it did sound good, I knew that I was making a mistake. I should just tell him no and be done with it.

  “Well then, let's go.”

  “That means that I have to put on some work attire. I really don't want to do that. Besides, my dinner will be here in a little bit. There's no sense in wasting it.”

  “Always so sensible. How about I go get it and bring it to you? Then you can have the best pizza in the city, from your hotel room, and you don't even have to take off your pajamas. Well, I mean you can, but you certainly don't have to put on a suit. You wouldn’t have to put anything on.”

  He was talking fast and before I could tell him no, he told me that he would be back in a few minutes. I didn't have time to protest. I didn't have time to do anything except watch him leave and wonder how the hell I got myself into this. I should have just said no. How hard was it to say no?

  The answer to that question was clear. It had always been almost impossible to tell Frank no and this time was no different.

  12

  Frank

  I got back as quickly as I could with the pizza and I beat the room service guy by about thirty seconds. I actually passed him in the hallway and for some reason, I felt like if he got there first, I was going to get turned away. I don't know why though. The pizza smelled amazing and it looked even better.

  When I got to the door, I knocked and waited for her to answer. She told me to come in and I did. I also slipped the room service guy a nice tip and grabbed the plate that was going to keep me out. I set it by the door with the lid on and wasn't even going to mention it to her.

  “You know that it's wrong for you to bring up pizza. It's my only weakness.”

  “I seem to remember that you had several weaknesses. Like that spot on the small of your back that used to make you shiver. The fifth star to the north…”

  She gave me a dirty look and I just smiled innocently at her. She had to know that this was going to happen. There was no way that I was going to be able to keep my mouth shut. She used to like that about me, all the compliments and innuendos, but she was not as happy about it this time around. That much was for sure.

  We watched a movie and ate pizza. I had known that she loved it, from when we were together before. When she picked what we had for dinner or where we were going for a date, nine times out of ten, she’d wanted pizza. I was glad to see that not everything had changed.

  The movie was a romantic comedy and there were a couple make-out scenes that she got really nervous through. I caught her looking at me strangely out of the corner of my eye and when I turned to her, she looked away.

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “Of course.”

  “Why did you take this job?”

  “It's a good opportunity, Lisa. I can't play ball anymore because of my knee and I wanted to get into business. That's what my major was in school.”

  “I know that you were studying business back then, although you weren't really studying anything, except women's underwear if we're going to be truthful. But what I mean is, why my dad's business. I'm sure that there were other opportunities that you could have taken, so why did you choose to work here?”

  There wasn't really an easy answer to that and I felt like if I told her the truth, then whatever game was going on between us, would be over. She was just not going to be able to accept it. It would seem like a conspiracy to her. I knew Lisa and she would not be happy with the answer. So I lied. It wasn't the kind of lie that I felt guilty about though. It was a necessary evil because she still wasn't ready to know what was going on between us.

  “It was just a good opportunity, Lisa. I wanted to get into a good company and your father's is one of the best. The opportunity was presented and I took it.”

  I knew that I was not being 100% honest in the way I was wording it. I was leaving a lot out and being just as shady as if I was straight up lying to her. She would not see the technicalities. And I knew that.

  “Didn't you think that it might be a little difficult working with me? I mean, after all of the history that we have together.”

  “I want to work with you, Lisa. That's what you don't seem to understand.”

  She set down her piece of pizza and just kind of looked at me. “Maybe it doesn't matter what you want, Frank. You certainly didn't care what I wanted. This is just ridiculous, you know that, right? I mean, this is my family business and you just show up and take the job that was supposed to be mine. How did you think that was going to go?”

  “I guess I didn't think about it like that. I didn't know that you were going to take the VP position. I didn't realize that that was in the works.”

  It wasn't as in the books as it sounded.

  “I have been waiting for my father to let go of some of the controls for a while now and then he goes and gives it to you. Surely you can see how that might be a little upsetting to me.”

  I told her that I could see how she would feel that way. Hell, I would probably feel the same way. The truth was that the opportunity was brought to me after her father heard that I was in town. I had also made some inquiries and once he heard about it, he decided to give me a call. This was an opportunity that I couldn't pass up, and I had thought it would be a good way to get back into Lisa's good graces.

  I admit to thinking about her a lot over the years and it just felt like fate was stepping in to bring us back together. Maybe that whole idea had been naive.

  “I don't want to upset you, Lisa. If I'm being honest with myself, I still care deeply for you.”

  That made her scoff and she just kind of shook her head. I had a feeling that I went too far.

  “People don't do that to others if they care deeply for them, Frank. I really don’t think you actually know any better.”

  “Why do you say it like that?”

  “Because I think you're incapable of love.”

  “I saw how quickly you moved on after you publicly humiliated me and dumped me in front of the
whole school. You did not seem to deeply care about me at all.”

  There had been a couple of moments, where I thought that everything could be behind us, but once again I hadn't been really thinking straight. I was more believing what I wanted to believe, instead of what the facts were. I knew that it wasn’t going to be an easy road, but I somehow thought that after a couple of weeks, we would be further along than we were. If I asked her now, I could almost guarantee that she was going to say that she still hated me. That bothered me more than I could explain.

  “I will always regret that. Really and truly.”

  She didn't seem as mad, but there was definitely not conversation of how she forgave me. I honestly didn't know if she ever would.

  It was the first time that I honestly thought that maybe all of this was just a horrible idea. Maybe she was right. I hadn't even thought about how it was going to affect her. All I have been worried about was the idea of seeing her again and having her back in my arms.

  It was selfish now that I think about it. I had tried to see it as romantic. After all this time together, how could I have imagined such things would actually happen? I never stopped to think if me showing up out of the blue like this and thrusting myself into her life would cause her pain and strife. I was rather embarrassed about that fact all of a sudden.

  “I wish there was something I could do to make you understand how sincere I am.”

  “Maybe what you could do for me is pretty simple. Maybe you can just back off. Not try to be nice. Stop trying to be my friend. Stop trying to get me to forgive you, Frank. Just leave me be.”

  She was getting a bit emotional and if I was true to myself, I was a little happy to see that. It gave me hope that she still cared, at the same time it hurt me to see her upset.

  Seeing Lisa cry when we were breaking up at the football game was one of the hardest things I'd ever had to do. I can still see her face very clearly and the way her eyes had welled up with tears. It was not my finest moment.

  “If that's what you really want, Lisa, then that's what you get. I really never meant to hurt you.”

  She didn't scoff that time and it was a little bit more comforting. I know that I could not stop what I did, but I really hoped that she would see I regretted it immensely. It really was going to be one of the biggest regrets of my life.

  I left the hotel room and I was losing hope that I could pull this off. I had kept telling myself that all I had to do was show her how I had changed and how things were different, that she would finally see that I was sorry and accept my apology. I had all these grand ideas in my mind how everything was going to work out, but it just hadn’t worked out that way. Instead, I just lost hope that we could ever work things out. Maybe I really had just messed it up to the point there was no going back.

  Why did it hurt so much now, to think that I lost her for good? Too much hope had been given to another chance, that now I didn’t even know if I would actually get it or not.

  13

  Lisa

  I watched him go and I was actually rather surprised that he left. He had been so adamant about spending time together and reliving all of our past, that I found it rather strange that now he was going to listen when I told him that I didn't want to be involved with him. It didn't seem to matter the other ten times I had told him or when I was quite clear and said that I hated him. But now he seemed to get it. It didn't make any sense and at first I figured that it was just something he said and that everything would go back to the way it was the next day.

  That didn't happen though. The next day he was nothing but professional and cordial with me. There was no smile that promised pleasure and there were no more innuendos that I had grown accustomed to again. There was nothing and as strange as it was, I actually kind of missed it. It felt like Frank had changed and I didn't really care for the change. I didn’t know what I wanted, but not this.

  This was what I asked for. I asked him to just leave me be and that was exactly what he did. And once I told him to leave me be, of course I didn't want him to anymore. It was crazy how my mind worked sometimes and now that he was finally giving me peace and quiet like I wanted, I wanted something else.

  I don't really know what I wanted, just that I knew that pretending like nothing happened and there was nothing between us, was not an option either. It was also hard for me to pretend like I felt nothing for him. I had told him that it was hate, but I was afraid that wasn't true. I felt a lot of things for him, but it wasn't hate. As soon as I lost his attention, I wanted it back.

  Convinced that I must be losing my mind, I decided that the only way to combat all these strange feelings, was to avoid him at all costs. That meant staying away from Frank as much as I possibly could. He was my boss, so it wasn't all that easy, but I did my best. I knew that if I got around him, I was only going to think silly thoughts that were going to get me in trouble.

  That worked pretty well for about a month. He was super professional and I just avoided him until I didn't have the option. As much as I liked to think that I was stronger and independent and I could avoid feeling anything for him, I knew that wasn’t true.

  It only worked if I stayed completely away from him and again, my plan was thrown off course with another business trip with just me and him. Frank was supposed to go with my dad, but I had been roped into it somehow.

  I wasn't as nervous about this road trip as I had been the one before. We only had to go to two places and since they were pretty close, we were just going to take a car. It was only one night instead of four, and those were all good odds.

  There was also less anxiety about the situation because I knew that he was respecting my boundaries. It still gave me mixed emotions that I didn't quite understand, but at least it was one less thing that I had to worry about.

  When it was time to leave, I noticed that we had a driver and it reminded me of taking trips with my dad. He had never liked to drive very much.

  Frank opened the door and waited for me to get in, before he closed it behind me. All of a sudden, he was a gentleman and it was still rather confusing to me. I had never seen Frank that way and it was strange to see it now.

  My thoughts stopped when he got into the back of the car. It was quite roomy, but Frank was a very big man. He was well over six and a half feet tall and his shoulders were wide and his biceps were bulging. He looked every bit the football player now, that he did then. Unfortunately, he was just as good looking as he used to be as well. None of those factors were really helping me at the moment.

  I hadn’t been worried about the trip, until now. How was I going to last several hours in the back of this car with him? How was I going to do that and not feel anything in the process? That was the real quandary and it was one that I didn’t have an answer to.

  I woke up on Frank's shoulder and there was a little bit of slobber on his shirt. I hoped that he didn't notice it, but it still did not stop my face from turning red. I was hopeful that I could wipe it off without him knowing it, but he made a comment about it just to make sure that I knew that he knew.

  “I don't think I have ever seen somebody sleep so hard. Did you take something?”

  “No, I guess I was just more tired than I realized.”

  “It's okay. I think that is the first time that we have been together this long and you haven't yelled at me.”

  I stretched a little bit because I was aching from the strange position I had my neck in.

  “Well, just give it time. I am sure that it will change.”

  He chuckled at me and I sat back up, but I was being more serious than he realized. Every time I was around him, he did something to me and all I knew for certain, was staying away from him was becoming harder and harder to do.

  There was a silence that stretched out between us for quite a while and I tried to deal with it. I didn't want to feel the nerves though, so I decided that maybe it was easier on both of us if we talked. There was one thing in particular that I was curious about an
d I knew that I wasn't going to get the answer that I needed from anybody else but him. I certainly wasn't going to get a real answer from my parents.

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “Of course. What do you want to know?”

  “Why did my dad hire you for this job? I mean, out of all the places that you could have worked, why did you pick here?”

  “I told you before, that the opportunity presented itself and it was a good opportunity. I couldn’t pass it up.”

  “Did my father come to you about the job?”

  He looked at me a little strangely for a moment and asked me why my dad would do that.

  “If I remember correctly, Lisa, your dad pretty much hates me.”

  “That's what I thought too, yet here you are. That's what makes me wonder why you're here. If he hates you so much, why did he hire you to be my boss?”

  He told me that he didn't know why my father did the things he did, but I didn't believe him. It was just the way that my dad was acting, that told me there was something else there. The problem was, I didn't know what and I felt like nobody was telling me the truth.

  “So you're telling me that my dad didn't try to get you to work here, that this was all your idea?”

  “I don't know if I'd say it's all his idea. I did apply for the job after I heard about it.”

  He was being purposely obtuse and I wasn't sure why. I know what my mind had come up with and it was some big conspiracy that didn't make any sense. None of it made any sense and it certainly didn't make sense the way he made me feel. Why did I have such a pull to him? It really pushed the bounds of my reality and knowledge.

  “I don't feel like you're being honest with me.”

  “When I heard about it, I jumped at the chance because I wanted to see you again. If you want to know the truth. You’re the main reason I even got this job.”

  I kind of laughed a little bit, because I thought he was joking. I realized quickly that he wasn't.