One Night in Boston

by Allie Boniface

  “Some of the guests have been asking about you.” Eden sank to a seat on the bench opposite them. “Neve is worried you’d disappeared,” she said to Maggie. “Thought maybe you’d come up with some other crazy way of finding Dillon and—”

  With that, Maggie jumped up. Don’t go, he wanted to say. Wait a minute. Let’s figure out what just happened here. But she only mumbled something he couldn’t make out. A rustle of green, a banging of the door, and the room turned cold again. Empty.

  Eden eyed Jack and hummed a tune he didn’t recognize.

  “What exactly are you up to, Major?” Her voice, low and throaty, carried a note of warning.

  He rubbed the back of his neck and stared at the ground. Near the door, the thick roots of two trees wound so tightly around each other that he couldn’t tell where one ended and the next began. “I don’t know,” he said after a minute. “I sure as hell didn’t plan for this to happen.”

  “Don’t go down that road again.”

  “Hey, we’re both adults,” Jack replied, hackles rising.

  “Maybe you are.” She didn’t let him continue. “But you have a fiancée. A big-time job. You’re living a whole different life than back in college.” She crossed slim legs and pursed her lips, studying him. “A lot has changed since NYU. What the two of you had—it’s gone. Over. Maggie’s not here tonight to see you.”

  Jack’s jaw tightened, and he gripped the stone bench with both hands.

  “So don’t go kissing her in the corner, leading her on and making her think you can just pick up again where you left off. Or make up for lost time. Or have an affair on the side while you go on planning the wedding of the year like nothing’s changed.”

  “I would never—how dare—”

  She softened a degree. “Listen, I was there, Jack. I remember what happened. I know maybe you’re feeling like there’s something still left. Something still unfinished between the two of you.” She paused. “But it was a long time ago. Let it go.”

  Jack shook his head. He didn’t care how long ago it was. He didn’t care that Eden might be right. In kissing Maggie again, in touching her and breathing her in, he’d glimpsed a part of himself long put away. A part of himself pushed to the side after years of forging his way in the corporate world. Six years ago, when he first met Paige, he’d figured that grown-up relationships came with a different set of emotions. He’d figured that love meant steadiness and responsibility. Not tumultuous passion. Not heartache that kept you up at night. It was what I needed back then, he thought, to get off that damn roller coaster Mags always had me on.

  Yet with one kiss tonight, he’d fallen through a loop in time. He’d remembered how he used to feel—like he was flying and grounded all at the same time. Like he could scale any mountain and then slide down the other side into Maggie’s arms. Like he would willingly walk across hot coals just to fold himself inside her embrace and rock together with her until the sun came up. God, I missed that.

  A flash of guilt slapped Jack across the face. What the hell was he going to do now? What was he going to tell Paige?

  Eden rose and glided back to the door, reading his mind. “She’s here, by the way. Arrived about ten minutes ago. And she’s been looking for you.”

  A sour taste rose in Jack’s mouth, a combination of guilt and regret and the beginning of an explanation all at the same time. He straightened his tie. He wiped the edges of his lips, steeled himself for the inevitable, and stood. He’d figure something out. He’d think of what to say to his fiancée. Anyway, whatever happened now, he had it coming.

  The rush of noise caught him off guard as he re-entered the ballroom. For a moment Jack stood apart from the crowd, gaining his bearings and surveying the area. From this vantage point, all he could see was a whirl of black on the dance floor and a few tipsy guests stumbling into one another. A couple of familiar faces smiled over at him and he nodded in return, though his lips felt stiff as he plastered on a smile. Jack flexed his hands in and out of fists and waited as the music died. Spotting a break in the crowd, he worked his way through the tables toward the main entrance. A little fresh air, that’s what he needed, to cool his cheeks and silence the voice inside his head.

  Paige found him before he’d gone ten feet. “Where on earth have you been?”

  She curled into his right arm, hanging on like he was her damn life raft or something. She smelled, he noticed, like the heavy designer perfume she always wore for these events. Her dress was new, some sort of shiny black thing that he didn’t recognize. Guess she hadn’t gotten the red one from the cleaner’s after all. Ropes of pearls looped around her neck, and she’d twisted her hair up on top of her head.

  She looked gorgeous, as always, flawless and current despite the late hour and the long day she’d put in. Jack, on the other hand, felt restless and rough, like all his polish had rubbed off and he stood naked in the middle of the ballroom. He bent to kiss her cheek, but his gaze moved beyond her shoulder, casting about the room and looking for a swath of green satin. Nothing. Nowhere. Something stuck in his throat and he tried in vain to swallow it away.

  Paige nibbled at his earlobe. “Come on,” she said in a tone that left him no choice but to oblige. “There are some people I want you to meet.”

  *

  Jack resisted the urge to check his watch and see how much time had passed. He had no idea where Maggie was. He didn’t dare go and look for her. Instead, he stood in the ballroom without saying a word as the tenth woman bent over Paige’s outstretched hand and shrieked.

  “It’s gorgeous! How many carats?”

  “Two,” Paige answered with a small, smug smile in his direction, as if he’d had anything to do with picking it out. “The wedding band will have just over another full carat.”

  The woman, no one Jack knew, cooed up at them both. He nodded hello and goodbye, a short, tight jerk of the head, and they moved on.

  “Oh, there’s Sarah and Leslie, from the gym.” Paige pointed at two lanky women across the floor. Both were thin and muscular in a way that Jack found entirely unappealing. “I haven’t had a chance to say hello to them yet.”

  Must be the only people here tonight you’ve missed, he thought.

  In less than an hour, Paige had spoken to more people than he had at the last two balls put together. Jack rolled his shoulders and willed away the tightness. He supposed he’d have to put up with the same kind of social posturing at their wedding. And at next year’s ball, as a newly married couple. And at the million other events lined up in his life as a result of putting that ring on her finger. His head ached at the thought.

  Paige trotted over. She caught her gym friends at the edge of the dance floor and together they laughed about something that had happened in spin class. The women pawed at her diamond, ran admiring hands over her dress, and shot Jack knowing looks before ignoring him altogether.

  He murmured an excuse and slipped off to the bar. There, he ordered another double bourbon and then, with Paige still preoccupied, snuck into the men’s room. He set his drink on the counter and stared into the mirror. Looking back at him from the glass was a guilty man with brooding eyes, a man who accused him of infidelity, a man who damned him. A man who dared him to go after Maggie.

  Abruptly, Jack yanked on the faucet and let the hot water run until it burned his hands. Two men he didn’t know came in, used the toilets, and left without saying a word. He stalled for another five minutes, finished the bourbon, and left the empty glass on the counter as he made his way out.

  Just in time.

  “Shit.” Jack swore under his breath as the band moved into a sultry rendition of “At This Moment.” It was one of Paige’s favorite songs. He’d tried to explain to her once that the lyrics, about loss and breaking up, didn’t exactly make for a good love ballad. She said she was putting it on the play list for their wedding reception just the same.

  For a moment, he didn’t see her anywhere, and he thought he might have a chance to slip out
side and get his head straight. He wouldn’t even mind the nasty weather. But then she appeared from nowhere and encircled his wrist with one small, strong hand. “Let’s dance.”

  What else could he do? They moved onto the floor, finding a spot and stepping to the beat. His fingers felt awkward around her waist, and as he lost himself in the music, a lump grew in his throat.

  Maggie. Mags. That fiery hair. That smile. Smooth skin under his touch. Classic rock playing as they made love in his dorm. Vegas. A mistake. A goodbye. Then nothing. Faster and faster the memories tumbled inside his head, until he thought they might explode into the room. For a moment he pictured his soul spreading itself onto the walls in rich color, exposing Jack and Maggie’s entire history to everyone at the ball.

  “Jack?” Paige’s hand tightened on the back of his neck. “What do you think?”

  He looked down at his fiancée. “I’m sorry. What?”

  She dropped his hand and stepped away, though the song had barely begun. Her nostrils flared. “You haven’t heard a word I’ve said all night.”

  Jack stiffened. I’ve heard it all, he wanted to answer. Every last word. I know where you want to honeymoon, what you want engraved on our rings, the kinds of wine we should serve with dinner. The truth is, I don’t care about it. Any of it. Something clicked into place as he watched Paige’s mouth move without hearing the words that came from it.

  His engagement was a sham. His life with Paige was a substitute for the thing that really mattered, that he’d let escape all those years ago. Amazing. He’d been skating along all this time, content in a relationship without complexity or color. He’d convinced himself that he was happy without risk, without passion, without that bottomless depth of devotion that he’d once felt with Maggie.

  That he felt still, with Maggie.

  “What’s going on?” The lines around Paige’s eyes deepened, and her mouth pushed into a pout. “Why are you acting like you’re a thousand miles away? Something happen at work?”

  I’m just tired, Jack started to say, and ready to go. He meant to say that, anyway, as she stood there waiting for a response.

  “I can’t do this anymore,” was what came out instead.

  Paige’s features pinched together in a frown. “You can’t do what? Dance with me? Make conversation with my friends? I’ve been working since six o’clock this morning. I’ve waited all day to enjoy myself tonight. At the very least, you owe me a good time.”

  It’s always about you and what you want, isn’t it? Jack marveled that he’d listened to Paige speak for almost five years and never noticed the lack of music in her voice.

  “I’m not talking about the ball.”

  She inhaled, and squares of light glittered inside her pupils. “You better not be saying what I think you’re saying.”

  There was that tone again: impatient and demanding. It was what made her a stellar attorney, Jack realized, but not the person he wanted to spend his life with.

  “Paige, I’m not sure that—” What did he mean to say? I’m not sure that we should get married? That you’re the woman for me? That I can stand here for another minute and pretend to enjoy this ball? He hadn’t ended a relationship since his days of graduate school and he’d forgotten how awkward and unpleasant it could be. No words sounded right.

  An expression he had never seen before crossed her face, a combination of disbelief and irritation and calculation, as if she were trying to figure out which move came next. “Are you breaking up with me?”

  Just say it, he told himself. Like a Band-Aid. Tear it off in one clean pull.

  He couldn’t. “There are some things I need to take care of. I can’t really explain now. I’ll try to—” I’ll try to make sense of it later

  She stopped him before he could finish. “After midnight on a Friday night, there isn’t anything you have to take care of that can’t wait until Monday morning. I can assure you of that.” Hands on hips, she waited.

  This time, he didn’t say anything.

  Two circles of pink began to glow in Paige’s face. Her eyes widened. “You son of a bitch. Is there someone else?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Then what the hell is going on?”

  Jack took a step back. One foot. Two. He stuffed his hands into his pockets. “I just need some space,” he said. “Some time to figure things out. I’m sorry. I should have told you sooner.”

  “Damn right you should have.” She dropped her voice and glanced at the couples around them. “The Deveau Ball isn’t exactly the place to tell your fiancée you’re not sure you want to marry her.”

  But Jack had never been surer of anything in his life. He edged away.

  Paige stared at him. “We aren’t through talking about this. Don’t you walk away from me. Don’t you dare leave me standing here.”

  Jack dropped his gaze and turned, pushing blindly through the couples still pressed against each other. Guilt ran up the back of his neck and jumbled his brain. What was he doing? Paige would never forgive him for this. Ever.

  He didn’t care. Nor did he care what the city’s rumor mill might churn out by this time tomorrow. Closing his ears to her voice behind him, Jack stumbled through chairs, past tables, in the direction of the bar and the curtains beyond. He wasn’t sure where he intended to go. Just away. Outside. Or back into the arboretum. Or even inside the depths of a janitor’s closet, for God’s sake. Just someplace where I can be alone. He was almost to the rear exit, just a few more steps, when he heard a female voice, close beside him.

  “Jack?” Low, sultry, it came from somewhere in the darkness to his left.

  Shit. He didn’t want to talk to anyone else; he was so incredibly tired of making chit chat with people he saw once a year. Cracking his knuckles, he turned and put on his game face just the same.

  Eden. He should have guessed. That woman managed to turn up in every wrong place. She stood near the exit, holding a lit cigarette. Smoke wound from her fingertips up to her face, creating a hazy portrait smudged gold and navy blue in the half-light. “Had enough?” She tilted her head back and slid a long glance up his torso. “You look like you’ve been through the ringer.”

  She raised the cigarette to her lips and inhaled, a languorous movement that called to his mind the screen sirens of old. On anyone else, Jack couldn’t stand the sight or smell of cigarettes. On Eden, with her long fingers and heart-shaped mouth and razor-sharp cheekbones, it looked almost glamorous.

  “Where’s your fiancée?”

  The word ate into him. “Probably cursing me out.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Did you tell her about Maggie?”

  “I didn’t have to.” He cleared his throat. “Besides, that’s not the reason…I mean, not the only reason…”

  She flicked a bit of ash into a planter near her feet. “Sure it isn’t.” She lifted one shoulder, a slow shimmy of bare skin that made Jack recall Eden and Maggie back in college, sunning themselves on the quad with bare shoulders and legs shining up into the sky.

  He dug one toe into the floor and studied the laces of his shoes. “Is she…is she involved with someone?”

  “Maggie?”

  Of course Maggie.

  Eden inhaled again before answering. “I don’t think that’s any of your damn business. She would have told you herself if she wanted you to know.”

  Irritated, he took a step closer. “I‘m not going to hurt her.”

  She blinked up at him, and a sort of laugh escaped her currant-red lips. “How on earth can you make a promise like that?”

  How could he answer? What could he say?

  He jerked his chin in the direction of the dance floor. “Listen, Paige and me—it’s over.”

  The look on Eden’s face was less surprise and more odd admiration. “Really?”

  Close enough. I’m sure she won’t take me back, and I don’t want to go. “That’s why I need to see Maggie. To tell her—”

  “What? That you’re still in l
ove with her? That you’re going to whisk her away from her life? That everything will be just like it was back in college? Tell me, Jack—what if Maggie doesn’t feel that way about you anymore? What if she just wants to move on? Why can’t you let the past alone?”

  Frustration wormed inside him. Jack took Eden’s arms in both his hands, in a gentle gesture that held the ache of a college boy with his heart half-healed. Looking down into her face, he fell all the way back into memory, all the way down that long slide into the Jack-who-used-to-be.

  “Because she was my wife.”

  *

  “Which casino should we go to first?” Maggie twirled in the middle of the sidewalk, pointing first to Caesar’s Palace, then to the MGM Grand. “Maybe Mandalay Bay? Or the Venetian? Ooh, look, they have a show…”

  Jack wrapped his arms around her and scooped her up. “We’re only here for twenty-four hours. You might have to pick and choose.”

  She buried her head against his chest and nuzzled his neck with kisses. “I want to do everything.”

  He laughed out loud. “I know you do.” Releasing her, not wanting to, he turned and waved at Eden and Stefan. The two friends stood a few feet away, watching an elaborate fountain outside the Bellagio. Jack shook his head. Las Vegas. What a place. He’d never been west of the Mississippi, but Mags had closed her eyes, dropped her finger onto a map, and declared that Vegas would be the perfect place to celebrate his graduation.

  I wouldn’t have cared if she picked southern Utah, Alaska, or the moon, he thought. If Mags is with me, that’s all that matters.