True Colors

by Yolanda Wallace

  They headed back upstairs, their heavy footfalls thudding on the wooden stairs.

  “Did you find what you were looking for?” Robby asked when they returned to the apartment.

  “Yes.” Taylor held the cup behind her back, giving Robby one last chance to prove her wrong. To prove her right. “Is there anything you want to tell me? Anything you want to get off your chest?”

  “I think we’ve covered everything, don’t you?” Robby picked Orson up and headed to the kitchen. “Come on, my little pussy hound. Let’s get you something to eat.”

  Pussy hound. The sobriquet Robby had just used to refer to her beloved cat was the same one that had been used to register the blogger’s website. Taylor closed her eyes as her heart shattered.

  “Are you okay?” Miles rose from the couch, his face pale. She looked at him. Did he know what Robby was up to? Was he in on the conspiracy, too?

  “I’m fine.” Taylor’s voice sounded frosty. Fitting. Her fury wasn’t white hot but ice cold. She stalked to the kitchen.

  “Hey, babe.” Robby, spooning cat food into Orson’s bowl, looked over her shoulder and smiled.

  “You lied to me.”

  “What?” Orson butted Robby’s arm with his head when she stopped filling his bowl. “Coming, Mr. Impatient.”

  “You looked me in the face and you lied to me.”

  “Taylor, what are you talking about?”

  “You said I could trust you.”

  “You can.” Robby set Orson’s bowl on the floor and took a step toward her. “Baby, what—”

  Taylor hurled the cup at Robby’s feet. Orson’s claws skittered on the tile floor as he sought shelter under the bistro table in the corner of the room. “You are the person behind The pH Factor. You. Not Sheridan. Not anyone else. It’s you, Robby.”

  Robby’s dark eyebrows knitted in confusion. “But you said you knew what I’d been hiding and you didn’t care.”

  “I was talking about the things Steven found during his background check. The overdrawn checking accounts, the massive amounts of credit card debt, the two shoplifting charges, and your job at Virginia’s. I had no idea you were the person responsible for turning my private life into public fodder. Every time someone attacked you, I defended you at every turn. I feel stupid and naïve for making the effort. I never thought you would be capable of such deceit, but you are. Everyone was right about you all along. How could you do this to me, Robby?”

  “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. When we met, I didn’t see you for who you are. I saw you for who I perceived you to be. I never expected to develop feelings for you, Taylor. I never meant to hurt you.”

  Taylor could feel Robby plucking at her heartstrings, but the resulting tune sounded off-key.

  “You could have fooled me. Sheridan tried to warn me, but I defended you. I believed in you. I loved you.”

  Robby reached for her. “Babe, please give me a chance.”

  “I already did.” Taylor shook off Robby’s hand, along with her pleas for forgiveness. “But never again. I thought we had something real. Something we could build on. But whatever we had, it’s over.”

  Robby followed Taylor from the kitchen to the laundry room as she pulled her wet clothes out of the washer and dumped them into a trash bag. “You lied to me, too, you know.”

  “I did what?” Taylor whirled around, fury sparking inside her. “When was I ever anything but honest with you?”

  “Tonight. You said I didn’t have to explain who I am or justify myself to you. You said you’d love me no matter what. Now you’re turning your back on me. Just like everyone else.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong, Robby. I will love you until the end of my days. But, at the moment, I can’t stand to even look at you.”

  “I love you, Taylor. Please believe me.”

  Taylor paused in the open doorway. “I stopped believing in fairy tales when I was nine. And love like yours I can live without.”

  Outside, Steven herded her into the waiting SUV and slid behind the wheel. “I’ll get you home as quick as I can.”

  “Don’t. I don’t want to deal with my parents tonight.” She needed to be with someone who understood what she was going through. And she knew only one person who fit the bill. “Take me to Sheridan’s.”

  * * *

  Robby watched the SUV speed away. She wanted to go after Taylor, but how could she? There was nothing she could say to defend herself or justify her actions. She had done exactly what she had set out to do: use Taylor to get ahead. Now she needed to let Taylor go. It was the best move she could make under the circumstances, but why did it feel like the worst?

  For an all too brief moment, she’d had everything she had ever dreamed of. In an instant, her dreams had shattered. Now her heart was following suit.

  Miles comforted her as the tears she had been trying to hold back began to fall. “What happened?” he asked, sitting next to her on the couch. “Did you tell her about the blog?”

  “No, I didn’t think I had to. When she said she knew everything and would love me no matter what, I thought she had discovered I was the author of the posts and had decided to forgive me instead of holding a grudge.”

  “Then how did she go from pledging her undying love for you one minute to telling you it’s over the next?”

  “I have no idea. I was feeding Orson when she plowed into the kitchen and started going off on me. She just—”

  Robby paused when she realized what had transpired. Taylor must have heard her use her pet name for Orson. The name she had used to register the domain for her website. The only piece of evidence that tied her to The pH Factor.

  Taylor hadn’t known the whole truth before they had made love. She had found out after the fact. After Robby had sworn there would be no more secrets between them, Taylor had figured out the biggest secret of all.

  “How could I have been so stupid?” She dropped her head into her hands. “I really blew it this time.”

  And there was nothing she could do to change her fate.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Taylor carefully stepped off the whirring treadmill. She had just run ten miles in an hour and fifteen minutes, a personal best. Her lungs burned and her legs felt like jelly. Instead of ending, however, her latest torturous workout had barely begun. Steven spotted her as she began a serious of strength training exercises.

  Using increasingly heavier weights, she did three circuits of barbell squats, weighted lunges, bent over dumbbell rows, back pullovers, rear deltoid flyes, chest presses, chest flyes, shoulder presses, lateral raises, triceps dips, and bicep curls. By the time she was done, her body was so numb she couldn’t feel her fingers. But she could still feel the pain. The unbearable ache in the center of her chest that refused to go away, no matter how hard she tried to get rid of it.

  Why did she have to be so stubborn? Why couldn’t she have listened to all the people who had tried to tell her she should avoid Robby Rawlins at all costs? Why couldn’t she have settled for a night or a few weeks at the most of frivolous fun? Why had she been stupid enough to allow herself to fall in love?

  “If I may say so,” Steven began hesitantly after she picked up a pair of ten-pound barbells, “I think you’ve had enough for one day. I know I have. If we do another circuit, I might pull something I need. Not that I’ll be using it any time soon.”

  Taylor dropped the barbells on the floor and sat down heavily on a weight bench. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “This thing with me and Robby doesn’t have anything to do with you and Miles.”

  “Unfortunately, yes, it does. He admitted sending at least one of the posts, and he knew about the rest.”

  “You called him?”

  “I didn’t have to. He called me.”

  Taylor hadn’t talked to Robby since she had walked out of her apartment the week before. More tellingly, Robby hadn’t reached out to her either. Had Robby been lying when she said she loved her? The
words had certainly felt sincere at the time. Now they seemed like mere threads in Robby’s well-woven quilt of fabrications.

  “He claims he played only a minor role in Miss Rawlins’s endeavors,” Steven said.

  Taylor put her own problems aside in order to focus on someone else’s for a change. “You don’t believe him?”

  “I don’t care about the size of the role he played. What matters is he knew what she was doing and didn’t bother to tell me. Or you. I can’t say I’m surprised, knowing how close they are. But I can’t be part of a relationship built on dishonesty.”

  “I’m sorry, Steven. I thought the two of you had a future.”

  “So did I.”

  “When was the last time you had a boyfriend?”

  Steven ran a towel over his sweaty face, then draped the towel over his shoulder. “The year I joined the military,” he said, resting his hands on his hips. “I met a civilian while I was in basic training, and we hit it off right away. We were in constant contact from the day we met, either in person or on the phone, but we couldn’t be open about our relationship because Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was still in effect, and I could have been dishonorably discharged if someone discovered I was gay. We lived in a small military community where everyone knew everything about everyone else. Jason wasn’t military, but he had lived and worked in town all his life so he knew how things were. We’d drive fifty miles away just to spend a few hours together. Even then, I was constantly looking over my shoulder to make sure I didn’t see anyone who might report what they saw. We made plans to be together after my military service ended, but the pressure got to be too much. We imploded before I left for my first tour in Iraq. I hear from him from time to time, but he’s moved on. Not that I blame him. I’m told I’m a tough nut to crack.”

  Taylor offered a wry smile. She had made the comment a few days after meeting Steven when her attempts to get to know him kept coming up empty.

  “Was Miles the first guy you’ve been with since then?” she asked.

  “Not the only guy, but the first one I let get close. There was something about him that spoke to me. I thought he was the one I was meant to spend the rest of my life with.”

  He sat next to her, his expression glum. Taylor knew the look well. She saw it every time she viewed her reflection in the mirror. What he had felt for Miles, she had felt for Robby. She, too, had heard the siren call of another heart beckoning to hers. She, too, had been dashed on the rocks.

  “We make a fine pair.” Her cell phone rang, bringing their pity party to a premature end. Sheridan’s name was printed on the display.

  “Bad news,” Sheridan said after Taylor answered the call. “I can’t make it to the state dinner Friday night. My plus-one canceled on me.”

  That was bad news. Taylor was counting on seeing at least one familiar face in the crowd. She and Sheridan weren’t BFFs, but they definitely had something in common: Robby.

  The night Robby had turned her world upside down, Taylor had turned to Sheridan to make things right. “I don’t know why I’m here,” she’d said when Sheridan answered the door, “but I didn’t know where else to go.”

  Instead of turning her away, Sheridan had taken her in and given her the two things she needed most: a shoulder to cry on and a place she could feel safe.

  “Ana can’t come,” Sheridan said. “She has to accompany her mother on a business trip.”

  “I was looking forward to meeting her.”

  “You’ll have to wait until next month, I’m afraid. While you’re chatting up Prime Minister Ogilvie on Friday, Ana will be flying to Berlin, and I’ll be ordering takeout from the Thai place up the street.”

  “Not necessarily.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t have a plus-one, either. Why don’t we go together?”

  “And have everyone think we’re a couple? I’m sure Ana would love that.”

  “If I promise to keep my hands to myself, would she be okay with the idea then?”

  Sheridan was quiet for a moment. “I’ll handle Ana,” she said as if lost in thought. “Just pick me up at seven and follow my lead.”

  “I’ll see you Friday night.”

  Taylor ended the call. Captivated by the headlines scrolling across the bottom of the TV screen, she drifted to the set mounted in a corner of the room and turned up the sound.

  “To repeat,” the anchor on the cable news network said, “rising political star Dan Lowry, the Democratic Congressman from Missouri, has abruptly resigned his position in the wake of a burgeoning sex scandal. The married father of three has admitted to frequenting Internet dating sites. Photos he took of himself with a camera phone while posing shirtless in front of a bathroom mirror appeared on the Internet late last night. Representative Lowry allegedly emailed the pictures to a woman he met online. The woman has been identified as—”

  Taylor’s cell phone rang again, preventing her from hearing the name of the femme fatale at the center of the scandal. She pressed the phone to her ear as footage of Rep. Lowry’s recent swearing-in ceremony appeared on the screen.

  “Yeah?”

  “Are you watching TV?” Diana asked.

  Taylor grunted in affirmation. “I can’t believe I voted for that asshole.”

  “Don’t beat yourself up too much. His bad judgment could be beneficial for you.”

  “How?”

  “Unless Missouri’s governor decides not to deem Rep. Lowry’s seat vacant, he has thirty days to call a special election.”

  “Lowry quit. Why wouldn’t Governor Berankis deem his seat vacant?”

  “To gain goodwill with taxpayers by saving them the cost of a special election. Which gives you either thirty days or two years to make up your mind about following in your father’s footsteps. Are you in or out?”

  Taylor stared at the images flashing across the TV screen. Images of a promising career derailed. A professional and personal life in tatters. Did she want to subject herself to the same scrutiny, or did she want to remain on the sidelines? Fantasizing about entering the political arena was one thing. Doing it was another. But, thanks to Robby, her life had already become an open book. Why not rip the cover off completely?

  “I’m in,” she said. “When do we get started?”

  “We already have.”

  Taylor could hear the smile in Diana’s voice even before Diana began rattling off items from her mental to-do list.

  “If you haven’t changed your address with the DMV, don’t,” Diana said. “You need to be a resident of Missouri if you want to run for office there. I’ll put you in touch with some people who can handle your campaign and steer you in the right direction. Campaigns are expensive. You need to start raising money as soon as possible. With your last name, that shouldn’t be too hard.”

  “I’m not so sure. My father and I share a surname, but our political beliefs couldn’t be more different. The last time I looked, his party—and yours—was the one in control.”

  “Putting you in Rep. Lowry’s seat won’t change that, but it could set the stage for something unprecedented. If your father serves two terms, Vice President Duvall will naturally become the leading candidate for the Republican nomination in the subsequent election. Assuming she wins, and you earn the Democratic nomination, we’re guaranteed to have two women squaring off when she runs for reelection. It’s past time we had a woman in the White House. I would love to be able to say I had a hand in making it happen one way or another. The first thing we need to do is get you experienced.”

  Taylor couldn’t help wondering if Diana was setting her up to fail. Was Diana trying to find the weakest candidate to place in Holly Duvall’s path, or the strongest?

  “I was student body president in high school,” she said. “Does that count?”

  “It’s a start,” Diana said with a laugh. “Are you still seeing Robby Rawlins?”

  Taylor wasn’t expecting the conversational about-face. If she wanted to succeed
in politics, she would have to learn to be prepared for anything and everything that came her way. “No, I’m not.”

  “Then I doubt she’ll become an issue.”

  “Don’t be too sure.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re familiar with The pH Factor.”

  “Yes,” Diana said cautiously.

  “Robby’s the author.”

  “Please tell me you’re kidding.”

  “I wish I were.”

  “That could prove problematic.”

  “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  Taylor’s bad judgment where Robby was concerned had already cost her in the short term. Would it cost her going forward as well?

  * * *

  Miles stared disconsolately at his cell phone after he left yet another voicemail message that was bound to go unreturned. “You’ve got to fix this, Robby.”

  “I’ve already told her I was sorry. What more do you want me to do?”

  “I don’t know, and I don’t care. Just do it. For both our sakes. Steven and I had a good thing going. So did you and Taylor.”

  “Until I fucked it up. Look, Miles, I would fix this if I knew how, but I don’t. This is one mess I have no idea how to get out of. And here comes another,” she said when Candy bulldozed her way into the shop.

  “Welcome to Osgood’s,” Miles said. “May I help you?”

  “I doubt it.” Candy leveled her gaze on Robby. “Since you seem to have stopped taking my calls, I thought a personal appearance was in order. I read your most recent blog with some interest. Is there a reason you didn’t seek prior approval?”

  “No.”

  Candy wore the stunned expression of a bully who couldn’t believe her victim had finally decided to fight back. “Do you care to explain why?”

  “No, I don’t. I’m done answering to you.”

  Anger sparked in Candy’s eyes. “It might behoove you to remember I’ll be having dinner at the White House this evening. I’m sure I could think of a few choice words to say to Taylor between courses.”