by Pamela Yaye
He patted her hand. “We are a pair.”
“But not a couple.”
Chapter 10
Snow showed up for the holidays. It came down heavy, coating the ground and everything in its path. It was white and beautiful, but for Teddy it only added to her depression. By December 15, there were several layers on the ground and more coming.
She was in no mood for shopping, but staying home was worse. She opted for the shopping mall. She meandered through the stores, looking but not buying anything. Her mind wasn’t on finding the perfect gift for loved ones. She’d had her gift. Had it and lost it. She looked at her naked hand. The engagement ring had been on her third finger only long enough for her to understand how much she’d miss it. While it had only been there a matter of hours, she now felt as if part of her hand had been removed.
Still, she had her love for Adam and there was nothing that could top that.
Nothing could change things, either. Picking up a purse, she opened it, thinking of her sister Sierra. Purses were Sierra’s thing. A moment later Teddy shook her head and replaced it in the display. She had only ten days to finish her shopping, but she wasn’t going to make any headway today.
Leaving the shopping mall, Teddy walked slowly to her car, unmindful of the falling snow. Her body was covered by the time she opened the door and slipped behind the wheel. As she pushed the ignition button, her phone rang. The radio panel lit up, indicating a call from Adam. Her heart jumped and she let out a small cry of delight when his name appeared on the screen.
What was wrong? she wondered. They had talked about things and parted. They were not a couple. Why was he calling? She pressed the screen, accepting the call.
“Yes,” she said.
“Teddy?”
“Yes.”
“Are you all right?”
Adam’s voice caught her off guard, even though she knew he was calling. “I’m fine.”
“Are you in your car?”
“Yes,” she said.
“You’re driving in this weather?”
She looked around the parking lot. Despite the snow, the lot was full. “Not yet. I just got in the car.”
“Where are you?”
“At the mall. I went Christmas shopping.” She didn’t tell him she bought nothing. She didn’t ask why he was calling. She only wanted to continue hearing his voice. “Where are you?”
“Home.”
Teddy had nothing else to say. Time stretched between them.
“I’m calling about the invitation,” Adam said.
“What invitation?”
“You’ve forgotten,” he stated. “We were invited to Stephen and Erin’s holiday party, the guy from my office. Is that still on?”
“You’re right. I did forget.”
“I know we’re no longer pretending to be engaged, but we did accept the invitation. Do you think we should go or cancel?”
Her heart sang. She could spend another night with him. Maybe he’d look at her differently. She was no longer a means to an end. Maybe they could just go and enjoy themselves. Maybe they could begin again.
“Like a first date?” she teased, not knowing if her words would really sound that way through the wireless technology.
She heard him laugh. “We never did really have a first date, did we?”
“We’ll go then?” she said.
“We’ll go. I’ll pick you up on Saturday at eight.”
“I’ll be ready,” she said. They rang off. Teddy put the car in gear and drove to the offices of Weddings by Diana. She was suddenly grateful for all the December weddings. Grabbing her purse, she got out. Her feet practically flew through the snow.
She needed a new dress, and this was just where she could get it.
* * *
The suits Adam had chosen and discarded numbered six. Ralph Lauren, Hugo Boss, Gucci, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, and Giorgio Armani lay on the bed, one or two having slipped to the floor. He held a Versace in his left hand and a Brioni in his right. Brioni won.
He wore excellent brands for client meetings, but tonight he wanted to look his best. It had been a while, a long while, since he dressed to impress. Yet he wanted to impress Teddy. Adam pulled the suit off the hanger and began dressing. He shrugged into a dress shirt and collected the cuff links Quinn had brought him back from Ireland three years ago.
Once he and Teddy’s secret was out, things between them had fallen off track. He missed seeing her. They had been together for months, seen each other practically daily. He liked the way she laughed, how she seemed to pull life toward her and not complain about it. He liked that she embraced family. He liked that she coaxed him into remembering how happy a Christmas tree could make him. And their lovemaking was beyond describable. She was more than he expected and he wanted to keep seeing her. Maybe tonight they could compromise. Begin again. This time without the interference of parents. They could take it slowly. He was willing to go as slow as she wanted, if she wanted it at all.
The thought stopped him in his tracks.
He remembered their first night together. Neither wanted to go on a blind date, but even then he realized there was something about her that drew him. As time went by, seeing her more and more became the right thing to do. Then the revelation ripped them apart.
A pair, not a couple, she’d said. They were back to their normal lives. Only, for Adam, things were no longer normal. He wanted a new normal. He wanted to spend his days and nights with her. He wanted to go where life led them.
Tonight would be the first step.
* * *
By Saturday night Teddy had completely altered the designer gown. Standing in front of her bedroom mirror, she surveyed herself. The gown was chiffon. Christmas-green in color. The strapless bodice was completely made of green and white bugle beads. The skirt swished about her legs as if it wanted to dance. Her waist was defined by a wide red ribbon that formed a rose at the base of her back, its streamers falling to the floor in two sharp points.
She’d pulled her hair up on the sides and secured it with beaded combs that matched the gown. Curls cascaded down her back. Catching a wayward strand, she secured it and turned toward the door.
Adam was waiting for her downstairs. He looked up when he heard her footsteps. Words must have escaped him for his mouth dropped open and he stared at her as if he’d never seen her before.
“I’m sorry I kept you waiting,” she said.
He came to her, taking her hand and looking her up and down. “It was well worth it.”
Teddy heard a wealth of meaning in those few simple words. He leaned forward and touched her cheek with his.
“Clearly you’ll be the best-looking woman at the party tonight.”
“You think so?” she asked.
“I know so.”
“Then undoubtedly we’ll be the couple of the evening because you look good enough to eat.”
The expression on his face darkened. She could see need flood his eyes. Teddy felt her own body begin to arouse.
“We’d better go,” Adam said. “Although I would like nothing better than to skip the party and stay here.”
Teddy wanted the same thing. “Would Stephen really mind if we didn’t show up?”
Adam stared deeply into her eyes. “He’d consider it a snub. And I’m not sure what message it would send to the staff.”
“Then we’d better go. We wouldn’t want to start any rumors.”
She reached for the coat she’d left lying over the sofa. Adam picked it up and held it for her. Teddy slipped her arms inside and Adam pulled it up onto her shoulders. His hands rested there for a moment. Teddy leaned back into him. Her eyes closed at the feel of his body. She remembered it, knew it, yearned for it. He encircled her upper arms and togethe
r they stood as one for a moment.
Teddy turned in his arms and lifted her head. She was about to tell Adam to let Stephen stew, when he stepped away.
The snow had stopped, but there was a layer still on the ground. The party was in full swing when they arrived. Adam introduced her to the hosts and they got a drink.
“These are the people you work with?” Teddy asked.
“A few are clients, but mainly it’s the office personnel.”
“So who’s minding the store? I thought you ran a twenty-four-hour operation.”
Taking a sip of his drink, he said, “There’s a skeleton crew on duty. Things move slowly this time of year.”
“Stephen has a beautiful home,” she commented, looking around at the colonial. The decorations were beautiful and it appeared he had children. There were photographs on several of the tree ornaments.
“Shall we dance?” Adam interrupted her thoughts. She set her glass on a nearby tray and he took her into the room that had obviously been cleared for dancing. Couples were already on the floor and a DJ was handling the music.
In Adam’s arms she floated away. Closing her eyes, she matched his steps. Just as she predicted, the dress danced. Teddy was only the medium who wore it, and she was the one feeling the security of being held by Adam. She took in the smell of his cologne, allowing the heady mixture to rekindle the sensations he brought out in her. Her mind wasn’t thinking straight, but she had enough mental capacity left to let her know they were on a dance floor and not alone in her house or his condo.
When the music ended, she wished they could leave. She wanted to be alone with him, spend what little time they had left together, not in the midst of other people. Teddy noticed a woman looking at them. She smiled. The feeling that maybe the woman knew Adam suddenly made her jealous.
“Who is that?” she asked.
Adam looked in the direction Teddy indicated.
“She’s a business associate. She works for the Princeton office of a large financial corporation. Why?”
“She’s staring at us as if she knows a secret. Have you two dated?”
He smiled. “Jealous?”
The obvious hope in his voice wasn’t lost on Teddy, however, she suspected it was laced with sarcasm. She reminded herself they were only here because of a previous agreement.
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“The answer is no. I never dated her.”
Teddy looked back. The woman was gone. In her wake, she’d left a question in Teddy’s mind. She put it aside and concentrated on Adam.
“Is this party an annual thing?”
Adam nodded. “Stephen and his wife have hosted it each year since he came to work for me. Even before then.”
“Have you come each year?”
“Most of them. There were times when I was out of the country, but if I was in town, I was here.”
A steady stream of people came over to talk to Adam. He introduced her each time. He was the owner so it was natural that people would seek his attention. Teddy was getting a bad feeling as the night wore on. She thought they were more interested in her than in talking to Adam. Yet she didn’t feel that it was the kind of curiosity about who the boss was seeing. There was an undertone she couldn’t define.
After several conversations, Adam asked her to dance again. She went easily into his arms. That was where she wanted to be. They danced the same as before, only this time Teddy kept her eyes open and checked the other dancers. She noticed several people turning to stare at them and then whispering. She wondered what was wrong.
Excusing herself, she went to the ladies’ room to check her makeup. Before she turned the corner she’d been directed to, she heard two women talking. And then she knew the reason for all the stares.
“Did you see her?” someone whispered.
“I did. She’s stunning. I can see why Adam has her on his arm,” another woman spoke.
“I wish he’d put me on his arm,” the first one replied.
“If you have to compare yourself with her, you’d lose every time. This flavor has all the others beat by a mile.”
All the others, Teddy was appalled. Arm candy! They thought she was arm candy.
Teddy wanted to say something, confront the two women. She wanted to let them know that she had a brain and that she and Adam were not an item. But what could she say? She didn’t really know Adam. They had exchanged things about each other, about their pasts, but they hadn’t talked about common interests. She knew women fawned all over him, obviously staring at him even when she walked with him. She didn’t know his past. Other than Chelsea, Chloe and Veronica—and Veronica was definitely eye candy—Teddy didn’t know that he’d dated enough women that his employees considered them nothing but the current fruit of the season. This included her. And she didn’t like it. She didn’t want to be lumped together with an invisible class of women who were interested in nothing more than being seen with a good-looking man.
When she reentered the party, she ran into Stephen.
“Having a good time?” he asked.
“Wonderful,” she lied, but her smile was in place. Calling on her customer service background, she didn’t want to let him know how she really felt.
“Let me get you a drink.”
They weren’t far from a bar that had been set up for the night. “White wine,” she said, and Stephen raised his finger indicating he’d like one, too.
“Adam says you have this party every year,” she opened with the first thing that came to mind.
“We do. My wife says it reminds her of the parties she went to during this time when she was younger.”
“We used to go to a lot of parties during this season, too,” Teddy told him.
“Now we work all the time,” Stephen said.
“Adam said his hours are erratic.”
The bartender set their glasses on the bar and they took them, moving away so another couple could order drinks.
“His are. For the rest of us, he tries as much as possible to keep us on domestic accounts so we can go home at reasonable hours.”
“Doesn’t leave much time for a social life,” she said under her breath, then realized he heard her.
“He does all right,” Stephen said.
Teddy decided to change the subject. She didn’t want any of her feelings coming through after what she’d heard earlier.
“You like working for Adam?”
He nodded. “It’s the best job I ever had. And even though I have some late nights, it’s worth it.”
Teddy looked past Stephen to where Adam stood. He was in the middle of a crowd where a lively discussion was going on. She noticed the two women she’d heard earlier were part of the group around him. She wondered which one wanted to be the arm candy.
“You’re a wedding consultant,” Stephen stated.
She nodded, taking a sip of her wine.
“From what I can tell, you’re doing very well.”
“What does that mean?” she asked.
“We’ve done some research into the financials. You seem to be on solid ground.”
“Did Adam order that?”
“Not directly. We keep track of many small businesses. ‘Small’ means under twenty million in assets. Weddings by Diana crossed my desk. But since you aren’t a client, we’re limited to only public information.”
Teddy threw another glance at Adam. The crowd had moved away and he was coming toward her. Stephen’s wife reached them at the same time.
“Adam, congratulations. I just heard you two are engaged.” She looked from him to Teddy and back. “I must admit, I didn’t think anyone would get you.”
Teddy looked at the floor, then back up.
“We’re not engaged,” Adam
said.
“You’re not, but I...”
“We’re not,” Teddy confirmed.
“I’m sure there’s a stadium of women who’ll be glad to hear that,” Stephen said.
Teddy felt the color drain from her face. Stephen’s wife poked him in the side.
“I apologize,” he said. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”
“It’s a long story.” Adam protected her from further comments about their engagement. She was obviously embarrassed. “One night after I’ve had too many drinks, I might tell it to you.” He glanced at Teddy. “But right now, I’m going to dance with the most beautiful woman at the party.” He smiled at Teddy. She returned it even though there was no humor behind the gesture.
Adam took her arm and they headed for the dance floor, leaving a surprised host and hostess behind them. As soon as he turned her into his embrace, he said, “You and Stephen were deep in conversation.”
Teddy missed a step and her shoe ended up on his. “Sorry,” she said and resumed. She placed her head next to his so he couldn’t see her face.
“What were you talking about?”
“Working conditions, financial research and you.” She tightened her arms.
Adam probably felt the change in her. She was stiff and she clutched him too close.
“Are you all right?” he asked. His voice was right at her ear.
She shook her head as much as she could move it. “I want to go,” Teddy said.
“Why? What happened?”
“Please, let’s leave.”
“Don’t let what Stephen said upset you.”
“It’s not Stephen,” she said.
Adam sighed. “I’ll say our good-nights and get your coat.”
The woman Adam helped into the car was a direct opposite of the one who’d gotten in three hours ago. Silently they drove back to her house. Teddy didn’t wait for him to come around and help her out. She stepped into the snow, unmindful of her shoes or the care she’d taken for their first date.
“Are you going to tell me what happened?”
Teddy reached her door and opened it. Inside Adam closed it and waited for her to speak.