One thing he regretted about leaving early was that he didn’t get to learn what Kristy was up to with that bet. But he needed to move on and stop thinking about Allison. Unfortunately, the image of her in that big Leafs shirt kept popping into his head. Perhaps he should have closed his eyes while he was getting dressed. But then he’d just be thinking about her in that damn red dress, that one that was now lying by her door.
Well. Next weekend he’d call Jared and ask him to have a few drinks at Faulkner’s. If someone had been trying for a sophisticated atmosphere with that name, they’d failed miserably. It was anything but sophisticated, and in Sidney’s experience, it was the best place in the city for picking up.
The idea held little appeal at the moment, but he hoped it would by then.
It better.
* * * *
“You didn’t have to come over.” Allison deposited Kristy’s pancakes on a plate and sat down at the dining room table. Thank God she was done with this pancake-making business—she wasn’t exactly good at it. “Wasn’t the whole point of brunch to prove Sidney and I were spending the weekend together? And we’re not.”
Unfortunately. It would have been fun, and she would have made a couple hundred bucks.
But he’d said he needed to leave, so she’d let him. It seemed like the kind thing to do, since it wasn’t like they were going to start up a relationship again.
“Shit,” Maya said. “The picnic basket. Did that screw things up? I shouldn’t have brought it over. It was Kristy’s idea.”
“No, we just ate the food at the table like it was a normal meal,” Allison said. “Sidney kept suggesting we sit on the floor, but I refused. He…Wait. Shouldn’t you be happy that we didn’t make it to the end of the weekend?”
Maya and Kristy looked at each other.
“We should tell her now,” Maya said.
“Tell me what?” Allison did not like where this was going.
Kristy nodded. “I guess we should.”
“What the hell is going on?”
“You’re sure grumpy this morning.” Kristy poured a generous amount of syrup on her pancakes, then started cutting them up. “Okay. Here it goes. I made that bet because I wanted to force you two to spend some time together. I thought you’d be able to do it.”
Allison stopped staring at her misshapen pancakes and looked at Kristy instead. “Are you serious?”
“I always liked you two together,” Kristy said. “I thought all you needed was a little forced proximity to figure things out.”
“You’re saying you liked us together back in university?”
“With him you were more…lively? Spirited? Help me out here, Maya.”
“Yeah, well, I think you get the picture.” Maya turned her attention to her plate.
“I don’t think I do,” Allison said. “We fought a lot then. We fight a lot now.”
“Because you have chemistry.” Oh, no. Kristy had that stupid glint in her eye.
“Please.” Allison held up a hand. “Spare me the doctor of chemistry jokes right now. I’m really not in the mood.”
After Sidney had left, she’d stayed in bed for an hour, lacking any motivation to get up. Plus it was Sunday morning. No need to get up early. She could burrow under the blankets—which no one was trying to steal from her now—and relax with happy thoughts of puppies bounding through fields of wildflowers.
And maybe it would have been relaxing if that’s what she’d actually thought about.
“Okay, no jokes.” Kristy paused. “But some of the time, I think fighting is a way of protecting yourself from your feelings.”
Allison’s eyebrows shot up. She looked at Maya. “You agree?”
“I don’t know shit about this stuff. Plus you really don’t want to take advice from me. Kristy’s the one with the psychology degree and happy relationship rather than a drug-dealing ex-fiancé. You’re better off listening to her.” Maya stabbed at her food.
“What happened with Justin was a fluke,” Kristy said. “As I’ve told you hundreds of times.”
“I’m still not convinced,” Maya muttered.
“Anyway.” Kristy turned to Allison. “We told you that you’d fail because we knew that would make you want to prove us wrong.”
“You could have told me all this rather than trying to manipulate my love life.”
“What would be the fun in that?”
Allison sighed. “Well, we couldn’t even manage forty-eight hours. He left this morning because…I don’t know. I was asleep at the time.”
“Sure you were.” Maya rolled her eyes. “I bet you had some big argument.”
Allison had a bite of her pancake. It wasn’t bad, despite looking like it had been stomped on. Or dropped off her balcony. Perhaps she could do this again and use up some more of that enormous container of baking powder.
Maya tapped her fork against her plate. “We’re waiting. What actually happened?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Tell us.” Kristy put her hand on Allison’s wrist. “I didn’t do this to make you upset. I’m sorry.”
Allison opened her mouth to say she wasn’t upset, then promptly shut it. No way would her friends buy that one. She’d have to tell them at some point—might as well do it now.
“Fine.” She took a deep breath. “He was falling in love with me and thought it would hurt too much to spend more time together. I guess when we broke up before, he didn’t take it too well, so he didn’t want to go through that again. He hasn’t had a single relationship in the past ten years. Happy?”
Allison sure wasn’t happy. She’d been looking forward to spending today with him. To having someone to cook pancakes for her. And having lots of hot sex.
Still, she shouldn’t be in such a bad mood. She’d missed a day of fun. No big deal. Maybe she’d opened up a wound in Sidney’s heart, but she was sure he’d survive—he wasn’t twenty-two anymore. And she’d survive—it wasn’t like she’d ever wanted something serious with him. So why did she feel so shitty?
“You don’t think it would be different now?” Kristy asked, withdrawing her hand.
“Why would it be different? And even if I wanted to try again, he clearly doesn’t see that as an option.”
“What if—”
“No. We’ve talked about this enough.” Allison was in no mood to hear more about Sidney. “Kristy, I owe you dinner. And you still haven’t told me why you had five hundred dollars to waste on a bet.”
“Oh, that.” Kristy chuckled. “My grandma gave me a thousand dollars for my birthday. Instead of a hundred like usual. She assured me the extra zero wasn’t a mistake, but I’m not convinced. It seems wrong to use that money to buy things for myself because I don’t feel like I should have it in the first place.”
“Can’t say I’d feel guilty about that,” Maya said.
Kristy leaned toward Allison. “I know you want me to shut up, but are you sure you don’t love him?”
“I didn’t love him then. How could I suddenly love him a decade later?” That was ridiculous. After only thirty-six hours together? Not happening. She might miss him, but that didn’t mean it was love. And why couldn’t they get off this stupid subject? Although…“So what was with the picnic basket?”
“It was Kristy’s idea,” Maya said. “To remind you of the good times. That indoor picnic date you two had. Though I was afraid it would just lead to more bickering.”
“I didn’t believe the picnic-date-with-Les excuse for a minute. But I assumed you were doing that—and babysitting Dex—as sabotage. By the way, Jo sent me a text asking me to thank you.”
“Wow. That’s new.”
Yeah, Allison had been a bit surprised when she got the text earlier that morning. She’d been buried under the blankets, practically comatose, but reached for her phone as soon as she heard it chirp.
And though it was silly, she’d been disappointed the message wasn’t from Sidney.
But it
was good that Jo had bothered with a thank-you text. Hopefully she’d call ahead next time. And if not, Allison was going to refuse. She needed to start doing that.
“So after babysitting Dex,” she said, “you did have a date with Les, right? In the evening? That’s what I remember Kristy saying.”
“A date which I really did cancel.” Maya groaned. “I just wasn’t in the mood to eat dinner with a stranger. If I don’t like the guy, it’s painful. And if I do like him—which is rare—I spend the whole time trying to figure out how he’s going to screw me over.”
“Les is a good guy,” Kristy said.
“Then he’ll hate me.”
Maya had had a lot of bad luck, and it was understandable that she was pessimistic. But she’d been like this for a long time. There seemed to be nothing that would change her mind.
“Since Maya has been equally unenthusiastic about all the men you try to set her up with,” Allison said to Kristy, “why don’t you try to find someone for me instead?”
“Yes, please,” Maya said. “Let’s all meddle in Allison’s love life instead of mine. We’re already off to a good start.”
“But if it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t date at all,” Kristy protested.
“And maybe that’s the way it should be. All my serious relationships have been epic disasters.”
“You have to stop thinking like that. Be positive!”
“Like that’s going to happen.” Maya stood up and started poking around the kitchen. “Is eleven thirty too early to start drinking?”
“Yes,” Kristy said.
“What about champagne breakfasts?”
“Those are for happy occasions.”
Like lazy mornings in bed with your new husband while on your honeymoon. But in Allison’s opinion, alcohol was more appropriate on a morning like this one—not that she would indulge. And not that she should be upset about losing a stupid bet. Which hadn’t been a real bet anyway, since her friends had wanted her to win.
“So you’ll start looking for men for me instead of Maya?” she asked, putting aside fantasies of lazy mornings in bed with champagne and non-misshapen blueberry pancakes—calorie-free ones, of course. “I’ve decided I should start dating more.”
“Okay.” Kristy sighed, then glanced out the window and shook her head. “But right now, I’m having trouble picturing you with anyone other than Sidney.”
Yeah, so did Allison. She—
Wait. What the hell was she thinking? Her mind was probably just mixed-up because she’d spent so much time with him in the past two days.
That’s all it was, right?
Chapter 11
Thursday night, Allison stared at her empty container of instant noodles. It should be no surprise that it hadn’t satisfied her craving for chocolate. She’d hoped she could go a day without chocolate, but apparently not.
She opened the cupboard where she kept her dwindling chocolate stash and sighed.
Tonight she wanted something a little different.
The bakery was open until nine. She slipped on her shoes, grabbed her jacket, and took the elevator downstairs. As she walked out the door, she noticed a new sign: “Please do not hold the door open for strangers. Thank you.”
If no one had held the door open for her friends and they’d buzzed instead, she could have gotten Sidney out the door and none of this would have happened.
If only.
She hurried to Temptations. Just seeing the bakery brought a smile to her face. When she walked inside, the smell of delicious baked goods nearly made her close her eyes and sigh in bliss.
“What’ll it be today?” Eliza asked.
Unlike usual, Allison didn’t have to spend five minutes deciding what to get.
“Triple…” she began, then remembered their new cake. “Better make that quadruple chocolate.”
Eliza laughed. “Tough week?”
“Yeah. I’ll have a coffee too. Small.”
If it affected her sleep, well…She’d already been sleeping like shit for the past few days. It seemed unlikely this would make it any worse.
She took a seat at a table near the door, rested her elbows on the table, and ran her hands through her hair. It really hadn’t been a very good week. She hadn’t been sleeping well, and she didn’t have an appetite for anything that wasn’t chocolate. She was probably consuming the same number of calories as usual, but not healthy ones. Although wasn’t chocolate supposed to be good for you—the dark stuff, anyway? She couldn’t concentrate at work either, which she blamed on the lack of sleep.
It was like she was having the breakup blues she’d never had ten years ago. Because yes, this was definitely related to Sidney. She thought about him all the damn time.
And maybe going to the bakery hadn’t been such a good idea after all. It just reminded her of Sidney, of last Friday. Damn. The thought that he’d ruined Temptations for her pissed her off. He wasn’t even here, and she was pissed off at him. The man was a master at getting under her skin.
Eliza came over and placed a slice of cake and a cup of coffee in front of her.
“Your ex came in the other day,” she said.
Allison jerked up. “What?”
“He just looked around and bought a coffee. Maybe he was looking for you.”
Eliza walked off to serve another customer, and Allison puzzled over Sidney. She missed him a lot. She was more than a little pleased that he’d been looking for her—why else would he come to Temptations? The evidence pointed toward her having strong feelings for him. If this was science, that was what she’d conclude.
She still thought it was ridiculous. One lousy weekend—and they hadn’t even spent all of it together. But she couldn’t deny that it had affected her a lot. That maybe she’d started to fall in love with him. Hell, maybe she already was in love with him.
She ate her cake absently. As far as she could tell, it tasted exactly like the triple chocolate. Maybe her taste buds weren’t refined enough to tell the difference or to appreciate deconstructed Caesar salad.
The thought of that bizarre salad, with the raw egg yolk and garlic clove, brought a sad smile to her face. The dinner had been painful. But when she and Sidney had their heads bent together, discussing the incomprehensible menu, or when he squeezed her hand under table, or when he surprised her with that kiss in the middle of that restaurant, it hadn’t been painful at all.
Being with Sidney was unlike being with anyone else. That’s just the way it was.
When they’d been together all those years ago, she’d cared about him, of course, just not as much as he cared about her. But maybe she could have loved him, if she wasn’t trying to keep her distance because he didn’t fit into her plans. She hadn’t wanted to plan her future around someone else, and she’d freaked out whenever he talked about their future together. It was understandable; she’d only been twenty-one.
But now, she didn’t freak out when she thought of being with him beyond tomorrow. She hadn’t been ready for this ten years ago, but it was different now.
Her phone rang. Her heart leaped…and then she looked at the display and saw it was Kristy.
“Hi,” she said. “What’s up?”
“Guess what?” Kristy said. “I found this guy who—”
“No. I don’t want you to set me up with anyone.” Allison paused. Time to admit this out loud. “I changed my mind about Sidney.”
“Oh my God. Really? So you loooove him?”
“Don’t say it like that. It makes me cringe.” And the word still freaked her out a bit.
“Have you told him?”
“Not yet. It might not go well. I’m not sure he’ll be willing to try again.”
“Still, you’re going to tell him, right?” Kristy said.
“As soon as I get off the phone and finish inhaling my quadruple chocolate cake.”
“This is so exciting. Tell me how it goes! And I’ll tell Maya that I owe her twenty bucks. She bet me you’d change your
mind.”
“Since apparently my friends delight in making bets on my love life.” Allison shook her head. “Why did you bet against her?”
“Because you’re really stubborn.”
Yeah, Sidney had said that too.
Allison ended the call and started wolfing down the rest of her cake. Usually she ate it slowly, savoring ever bite. But not today. Today she was in a rush to get out of here…and hopefully burn off all those calories. Once she and Sidney had talked—that needed to come first.
Shit. She’d managed to drop a bite of chocolate cake on her white shirt. Perhaps she’d better go home first to change.
And then she’d head right over to Sidney’s.
* * * *
Sidney Hughes was not having a good day. Or a good week.
For starters, whoever lived above him was having sex all the damn time.
How did he know this? Because the sex was very, very loud. A woman regularly shrieked things he wished he could unhear. And then there was the thumping.
A new relationship, perhaps. In that phase where you never wanted to leave the bedroom. Or maybe they were being paid to spend the weekend together, and this was the only way they could make it without killing each other…
Okay. His bad week had more to do with Allison—whom he missed more than he should—than the weird sex marathon going on above him. But that really wasn’t helping matters. It reminded him of Allison, and it gave him a headache.
Sidney turned off the stove. He’d been about to cook a pork chop for dinner, but he wanted to give these people a piece of his mind first. Surely there was no reason to shriek at the top of your lungs twenty times an hour. It couldn’t be good for your vocal cords. This had been going on since Sunday, and it was Thursday now.
But before he could get out the door, his phone rang.
“Hi,” Mom said brightly. “Can you buzz me up?”
His family did not do surprise visits. Allison’s did, but his didn’t. And as Saturday’s dinner had shown, there were good reasons he kept his distance from his family.
So if Mom was here…Shit. Had something terrible happened? She sounded cheerful, but that was just the way she was—she could fake it when she wanted to.
Not a Second Chance Page 10