Second Rate Chances

by Stephens, Holly

  Lil shrugged. “I would have just pushed you harder.”

  Abe’s smile was sad. “I know. We don’t hold you responsible. You had to spread your wings.” His arms fluttered out to his sides, which made Lil giggle. “You needed space. Unfortunately, we gave you too much. All of us,” he said, his head leaned in slightly so he could touch her forehead with his own.

  “Ready,” Kane said. He lifted up his bags and smiled. “Successful day. Let’s go eat!”

  “Are you sure I’m not imposing? I know this is your thing.”

  Kane and Abe stood side by side. They shared a knowing glance and looked back at Lil with matching grins.

  “Why, Lil. Were you looking for us?” Kane asked, flanking her on one side while Abe took the other.

  Lil gasped. Her tone held innocence while her eyes were mischievous. “I would never!”

  “Uh-huh,” Abe said. “Just you wait till we sit down. We have some juicy gossip to share with you.”

  And just like that, it was like three years of absence never existed. They walked to Sushi Sioux arm in arm like the times hadn’t changed.

  If only they hadn’t, Lil thought.

  71

  SECOND RATE CHANCES

  CHAPTER 11

  They were sat at a small table in the corner of the restaurant. Women dressed in kimonos flitted about, taking orders and delivering food and drinks. Kane and Abe sat next to each other on one side, while Lil sat alone on the other.

  “I’m starved,” Abe said. “Did you get the blue shirt?” He asked Kane in a sweet manner, batting his eyelashes at him.

  “I shouldn’t have. I should have gotten the seersucker shirt.”

  Abe grimaced. “I told you I hated that shirt.”

  “I know.” With a dramatic sigh that had Lil giggling to herself, Kane said. “But alas, I got the blue one. It’ll look amazing against your complexion.”

  They shared a quick kiss, and then turned their attention to Lil who was grinning ear to ear. She missed them terribly and she didn’t realize how much until this very moment.

  “So, tell us,” Kane said, folding his hands together under his chin. “What has been going on in the life of Lil Harper? We have a lot of lost time to catch up on.”

  “Where to start,” Lil mused. “Nothing other than work, work, and more work.”

  “Don’t tell me you’ve become one of those business owners,” Abe sneered. “The ones who don’t let anyone else do the work. That’s why you own your own business, Lil. So others make money for you.”

  “Abe,” Lil said and laughed. “I’m a photographer. It’s not like I can hire a team of people to take pictures under my name. People want Lily Rose,” she said with a flourish of her hand. “That’s me.”

  “And how goes it? Staying busy?” Kane asked.

  Lil nodded. “The holidays are always busy. And so is the summer. Weddings, engagements, babies.”

  The waitress came over to take their order. Lil was certain Abe ordered one of everything just to spite Kane. When he asked for a carafe of Sake, Kane shook his head and huffed.

  “It’s not even noon.”

  “But it’s happy hour somewhere.”

  Kane rolled his eyes and focused back to Lil. “Are you happy with your work?”

  “I’ve always been happy with it. I make my hours, set my own appointments. I can come and go as I please. What’s not to love?”

  “Is Ellie still working for you?” Kane asked. Abe groaned.

  “Skankalicious Ellie Mae? That girl took in more men from the bar than she did tips.”

  Lil laughed at the love/hate relationship it seemed Abe still harbored for Ellie.

  “She does still work for me. She’s actually been seeing this guy named Zach. He’s great,” Lil gushed. “Perfect for her. They’ve been together for almost two years now.”

  Kane and Abe both raised their manscaped eye brows. “That’s practically old and gray in Ellie years,” Kane replied.

  “She’s changed, guys. Once she met Zach she settled down. He grounds her. You’d get a kick out of seeing her now.”

  “And what about you?” Abe mused. The waitress had brought over his mid-morning cocktail to which he sipped like it was a fine wine. “You have a special man in your life?”

  Lil shook her head. “No time. I’m happy just being me.” Before they could ask any other questions about her nonexistent love life, Lil changed the subject. “What about you guys? Still gaming away at Titan?” Lil knew from Sam they still were but she needed to keep the friendly conversation going before she blind sighted them by bringing up their ex-friend.

  “We are,” Kane said.

  “And we’re working on some stuff on the side.” Abe leaned across the table to whisper. “Super-secret gamer stuff.”

  Lil chuckled. “And do you still love it?” she asked. They both nodded. “Good. That’s all that matters, right? That you’re happy?”

  “In the scheme of things,” Kane said.

  “Oh!” Abe exclaimed. “Speaking of work, you’ll never guess what’s happened.”

  Kane laid his hand on top of Abe’s, halting him from speaking further. “Abe, I think Miss Lil here might already know what happened.” He arched an eye daring her to refute his statement. “That’s why you were out looking for us today, wasn’t it?”

  Lil didn’t want to lie to them. Too many years had passed. Besides, Sam wasn’t the only reason she had decided to find them.

  With a heavy sigh she said, “I know about Sam.”

  “What?” Abe shrieked.

  “I figured as much. Did he send you here?”

  Kane, ever the pessimist.

  “No,” Lil said sternly. “I came of my own free will.”

  “How did you get roped into this mess?” Kane asked. “Did he really lose his mind?”

  “First off,” Lil began, “He didn’t lose his mind. Only the last three years. Second, Chloe called after he woke up.”

  “Why?” They asked in unison.

  “Because when he woke up, I was what he remembered.”

  Kane’s face grew red. “Remembered what exactly? That he walked away from you when you needed him most? That he turned into the biggest jackass this side of the Mississippi River? That he lost everyone who meant anything to him?”

  Thankfully, the waitress chose that moment to walk up with their food. After several minutes of letting the food fill the awkward tension that had grown around them, Lil took a sip of water, ready to face the barrage of questions Kane and Abe had.

  “He doesn’t know what happened to us. The last thing he remembers is buying the house.”

  “Oh, Lil,” Abe said sadly. “How can you face him? Knowing what came in those final weeks? How can you look him in the eye and not want to gouge it?”

  Lil had to laugh at Abe’s dramatics. “What else can I do?” She asked them. “He doesn’t know who he’s become. He doesn’t remember the woman he’s asked to be his wife. He doesn’t know why we broke up. I’m trying to help him.”

  Kane scoffed. “You’re a better woman than I am, Lil. I’d have told him to go straight to hell.”

  “Didn’t you, though? When he saw you at Titan last week didn’t you both brush him off? Guys, he doesn’t know how he lost his two best friends. Hell, I don’t even know what happened.”

  “You want to know what happened, Lil? You really want to know why we’re not friends with him anymore.”

  Lil met Kane’s fierce stare. She leaned slightly forward and nodded. “Yeah, Kane. I do.”

  Kane sat back and crossed his arms over his chest. He studied Lil, his eyes drilling holes into her own. There was one thing Kane Ryker was good at, and that was never wavering from eye contact. He could make a calm person nervous under his glare.

  “Fine,” he finally said. “I’ll tell you what happened but you have to tell me why you’re helping him. Why, after he up and left you, are you the one who is helping him find his lost memories? Because you know wh
at’s going to happen, don’t you? When he remembers, he’s going to run off again. Only this time, there is another woman waiting in the wings. A woman who wears a ring on her finger that he put there. He promised you the moon and the stars, yet he left you at the first sign of trouble. He left when it got too hard, when he couldn’t take it anymore.”

  Lil swallowed past the lump in her throat. She would not cry, she told herself. She would not let Kane’s words cut through her heart. Yet, as a single tear fell down her face, she knew she had lost that battle.

  “Damn it, Kane! You’ve made her cry!” Abe came around to Lil’s side of the table and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into his side. He patted the top of her head like she was a sick child and he was the consoling parent.

  “Say you’re sorry,” Abe demanded.

  Kane closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He opened them again and looked Lil straight into her own watery gaze.

  “I’m not going to say that because you know I’m right. You know what could happen. So why?” His voice had gone soft. He cared. Lil knew that. It was why he was offering her a little bit of tough love.

  Lil sat up and wiped her face with the cloth napkin. She looked across the table at Kane and explained her reasons why. “Because,” she shrugged and fought back another round of tears. “He’s Sam. What else was I going to do?”

  “Walk away like he did? You have every reason to do so.”

  “Maybe, but I’m trying to be the bigger person here. I’m trying to find closure. I’ve gone through years of therapy to help me understand why he left like he did. A part of me is hoping he remembers and can tell me why. It’s selfish, I know, but I need to know. It’s been three years and I don’t have the answers from the one person who can give them to me.”

  Kane looked away from Lil and out of the window at the people walking down the street. He kept his arms drawn across his chest but his face wasn’t nearly as angry as it was moments before when he looked back at her.

  “After he left you, he stayed with us for a little bit. We tried talking to him. I swear. He wouldn’t listen. He devoted all of his time to work. He got there before the sun came up and didn’t leave until it was well after dark. Mr. Miles–”

  “Chloe’s dad?” Lil interrupted.

  Kane nodded. “He’s the CEO of Titan. He noticed Sam was putting in all these hours– working all hours of the day and night – he thought he was trying to prove himself. In reality, Sam was looking for a distraction. He didn’t want to come home to us. Who would besides, well, us?”

  Lil let out a nervous laugh. Abe’s arm was still wrapped around her shoulders and he gave her a light squeeze.

  “Before we knew it, Sam was spending less and less time with the gamers and more time with the big wigs. Gone were the nights of beer and pizza.

  “We came to work one morning to find Sam’s cubicle cleaned out. We thought he had been fired but that wasn’t the case.”

  “It was worse,” Abe added.

  Kane nodded. “Sam showed up at nine that morning, from upstairs, in a suit and tie. Lil, you know we didn’t wear suit and ties to work. We wore Call of Duty shirts and beat up sneakers. Sam left gaming for a big office with a view.”

  “Don’t forget the secretary.” Abe leaned in and whispered in Lil’s ear. “He has a secretary named Florence who wears orthopedic shoes.”

  Lil turned her head and had to laugh at the serious look on Abe’s face.

  “Anyway, we heard through the grapevine that Mr. Miles was looking to retire in the next ten years and he was looking for a replacement. He wanted someone young and experienced with the games to take his company into the future. None of the suits upstairs had ever worked the games. They only knew the numbers. Sam showed promise because of all his late nights.”

  “Don’t forget a certain blonde took a liking to Sam,” Abe added.

  Kane nodded. “Right. Chloe started coming around the office more once Sam had been promoted. He skipped lunch with us for lunch with her. It almost seemed like an arranged relationship. She obviously knows nothing about video games or business, and Sam does. Mr. Miles killed two birds with one stone. Find his daughter a suitable husband and himself a CEO to train.”

  “Wait,” Lil stopped them. “You mean to tell me that Mr. Miles is grooming Sam to take over Titan and Chloe is kind of like an offering?”

  “Yes and no. I don’t know a lot about their relationship. Once they started dating, he ditched us. We’re low-lifers, even though we are the ones who have kept Titan at the top. Chloe Miles wouldn’t be caught dead hanging around the basement.”

  “Well, there was that one time I saw her down there when we were in a meeting. This was before you and Sam broke up.” Abe said to Lil.

  “Let me get this straight then. Sam ditched his best friends for a girl?” Lil couldn’t believe Sam would do that. Kane and Abe had been his friends for years. What ever happened to bros-before-hos?

  Kane shrugged. “And a promotion, I guess. Doesn’t matter. He moved out of our apartment and into a high-rise in the building Miles owns. Since then, we don’t talk. He holds meetings, we do what we’re supposed to do, and we go home. There aren’t any late nights pouring over secret passageways in games. No more drinks at the bar. There’s no more of the Sam we use to know.”

  “He’s been replaced by this suit wearing corporate asshole who has a better selection of Italian leather shoes than Kane.”

  Kane’s lip turned up into a sneer. “I hate him more for that than I do for ditching us.”

  81

  SECOND RATE CHANCES

  CHAPTER 12

  Sam arrived at his therapist’s office at eight o’clock on the dot, for his eight fifteen appointment. It was Monday morning and he was starting what he hoped would be a productive week.

  He had plans with Lil on Wednesday. That gave him something to look forward to. He hoped that after their Christmas tree outing he’d have more dates lined up with her.

  When the receptionist called Sam back, he followed her into a small dark office. He had only met Dr. Langdon once before at the hospital before he was released. The man seemed nice enough. Tall and thin with black rimmed glasses and a voice that let Sam know the man was intelligent.

  “Sam,” Dr. Langdon said, standing from behind his massive oak desk. He offered his hand to Sam. When they released hands, Dr. Langdon indicated for Sam to have a seat in one of the burgundy leather chairs that sat in front of the desk.

  “How have you been since I last saw you?” he asked, making notes on a yellow legal pad.

  Sam wondered what he could be making notes about so early on in the session. All they had done was shake hands and exchange pleasantries.

  “Good,” Sam answered.

  “Good how?”

  Sam wasn’t sure how to answer that. Good that he had spent time with his ex-girlfriend? Good that his current fiancée was out of town for God only knew how long? Sam’s hesitance to answer the question made Dr. Langdon set his pen aside. He looked at him, no smile on his face, through his glasses.

  “There are no wrong answers here. Just be honest with me and I’ll be honest with you.”

  Well, when he put it like that…

  “I’m not sure how I can answer that.” It was the truth as far as Sam was concerned.

  “Okay, let me try a different approach. Have you been sleeping? Did you take any of the pills I prescribed for you?”

  “Nah. I’m not much of a pill-popper.”

  “Those sleeping pills can aid you in recovery. I’m not telling you to abuse them, but if you lay down for the night and you feel like your mind is racing, take one. It’s not going to hurt anything.”

  “All right, but I don’t need them. In fact, I’ve been sleeping pretty well the last few nights.”

  “That’s good. Do you know what triggered this? When you were in the hospital the staff told me they had a sleeping aid running through your IV.”

  “The first
couple of nights after I was released were pretty rough. Maybe a few hours a night. I took your suggestion last Friday and decided to drive around to familiarize myself with the area.”

  “And did it help?”

  Yeah. It helped all right.

  Sam decided not to answer the question directly. “I drove around the city and ended up in the Village. Before I knew it, I was parked in front of my old house.”

  “The one you shared with Lil Harper?” Sam nodded. “Did you go in?”

  “I hadn’t planned on it. You told me drive around to familiar places. Well, that’s the place I remember. I didn’t want to disturb her, especially after the way she left the hospital that day. Besides, she had company and I knew I wouldn’t be a welcome addition.

  “Her best friend's boyfriend, Zach, came out and saw me sitting there. He invited me in and then he and Ellie ditched me there with Lil.”

  “How did that go?”

  Sam was really starting to get annoyed by the short and sweet, to-the-point questions. Not that he expected some in depth analysis on his feelings but it still would have been nice to hear at least a little bit of emotion in Dr. Langdon’s words.

  “Fine, I suppose. We talked some, not about what happened to us, but about her helping me.”

  Dr. Langdon had long ago picked up his pen and began writing again. He looked up from his pad, the pen still moving across the page. “She agreed to help you?”

  “Yeah. Our old friends, Kane and Abe? I’ve done something to ruin that friendship. Lil offered to talk to them on my behalf.”

  “So she still has a relationship with them?”

  “No, that’s the weird thing. She hasn’t spoken to them in years either.”

  “How does that feel knowing you don’t have a relationship anymore with your two best friends?” Dr. Langdon took off his spectacles and cleared them with a tiny towel he kept on the side of his desk. He placed them back over the bridge of his nose, and folded his hands together in front of him.

  “Just as confusing as not having a relationship with Lil. The four of us were inseparable in college and afterward. Lil and I were there when Kane and Abe finally confessed their love for one another. They were there for us when we bought the house. If I was in the dog house with Lil, I went to them for guidance.” Sam sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “The three of us worked together. We were all hired at Titan at the same time. We had these dreams of designing our own game one day.”