One Last Kiss: A Second Chance Romance

by Lauren Wood

  “I got ahold of Amber. She didn’t want to tell me, but she is easier to talk to than you are. Why couldn’t you be more like your sister?”

  I had heard that my whole life and it never seemed to get any better to hear. “What do you want Jack?”

  The door was still open because I was hoping this would be a short visit. I should have known better and Jack was already making his way into my place, making himself at home like he had a right to be there.

  “I wanted to see you. We were together a long time Claire and I miss you. Is that so hard to believe?”

  “I missed you too for a while, but things are better this way.”

  “You found someone else?”

  His eyes flashed with anger and I forgot how quick his temper was. He really thought that I was with someone. He had thought that when we were together, but it wasn’t true now, any more than it was true then.

  “No, I haven’t found someone else. I am not looking.”

  “Why haven’t you called me? You made it clear that you didn’t want to answer my phone calls when I called, so I thought that you would reach out when you weren’t mad at me anymore.”

  “I am sure I will Jack, but I am not there yet.”

  He shook his head and clicked his teeth together. “You are one hard woman Claire.”

  “No, I just know that it isn’t going to work and there is no sense in torturing ourselves about it. I have accepted it and you should too. We want different things.”

  “I wanted you. That was my crime Claire. I still want you and you will tell me that it is wrong?”

  I took a deep breath and tried to figure out what I was supposed to say. This was an argument that we had more times than I wanted to count. He always wanted more than I was willing to give. It was just that simple and I was sick to death of having this conversation.

  “What was wrong was how mad you got when I told you no. That is why I left and why I changed my number. I was sick of fighting with you.”

  “If you would have given me what I wanted, there wouldn’t have been any fighting.”

  It wasn’t the first time that he had said it and I have to say that it didn’t make me feel any better when he said it now.

  “Well silly me for not wanting to be pushed into something that I have waited years for. You didn’t get it then and you won’t get it now. If this is what you are here for, you might as well leave Jack. I don’t know why you came all the way down here for nothing.”

  His face screwed up in anger just like it had the last time that I saw him. This was why I had left. I didn’t want to have this same conversation again. I asked him to leave and he looked at me like he was going to do no such thing.

  “I am tired, I have had a long day at work and I don’t want to do this again Jack. Just go home and move on, I have.”

  It was supposed to calm him down, let him see that it was over between us, but he didn’t want to see it that way. It just made him more angry and he asked me again if I was with someone else.

  “Why do you keep asking me that Jack? What does it matter?”

  “Because we were together for a long time and you never gave it up. I don’t want to hear about you giving it up to someone else when you turned me down so much.”

  I just shook my head, not really sure what I was supposed to say. He truly wanted to know if I was still a virgin.

  “Nothing has changed Jack. I am still waiting until I am married.”

  “Just not to me.”

  I closed my eyes because I couldn’t even look at him, I didn’t want to.

  “Just go, please.”

  He said something about how wrong I was and how he would be back. I ignored him and his looks as he left. I locked the door after he left and sighed to myself. Why would Amber have told him where I was? She knew what it was between me and him and I just couldn’t see her telling him where I lived. It just didn’t make sense and I called my sister for the third time in an hour.

  Was Jack the bad feeling that I had?

  ***

  “I can’t believe he just popped up like that. What did you do?”

  I gave Amy the rundown of what happened and what was said. She liked Jack, about as much as I liked Justin. They were our exes for a reason and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I needed to stay away from him as much as she needed to stay away from Justin. The differences were that she still loved Justin and I don’t know if I ever loved Jack.

  “Wow.”

  “Yeah.”

  There really was nothing to say about it. It was a mess. That much was clear and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I was lucky he had left. There was no telling what Jack was going to do sometimes. He was highly irregular and the fact that he had just popped up was a good indication of that.

  “Excuse me Miss, do I know you?”

  The man had walked up to the table me and Amy were at and I met his gaze. “I don’t think so.”

  “You work at that place…. I went there with my friends. Oh honey, you were on fire.”

  I immediately knew that it was another case of mistaken identity. It wasn’t hard to grasp that and by the way he was looking at me, I had a feeling that he knew my sister well.

  “I think you have the wrong person Sir. I work for Future Plans, an efficiency consulting company.”

  He shook his head like he didn’t believe me, but after I firmly denied his charges again, he walked away. There was a look back, a wonder if he was seeing things or not. He wasn’t, but I wasn’t going to clarify that to him.

  Amy just shook her head. “Amber is famous.”

  “Yeah, but for all of the wrong reasons. She doesn’t believe me when I say that I get people walking up to me all of the time.”

  “She probably finds it funny that you are you and guys like that walk up to you.”

  She probably did. My sister was strange in that way. She was like Jack, saying that I had to loosen up. It wasn’t the fifties she would tell me.

  “I don’t find it very funny, whether she does or not. Some of those guys are really aggressive and I worry about her.”

  “Amber can take care of herself.”

  I knew Amy was right, but that didn’t help the worry. I told myself that I was going to call her again, make sure that she was okay. We were the same age practically, but those four minutes that I came out sooner, seemed to dictate that I was always going to be my sister’s keeper for life.

  Chapter 7

  Rick

  “You are ignoring me Rick. What is on your mind?”

  Ashlea was smiling at me, a smile that didn’t reach her eyes and I could tell that I had done something to make her unhappy. That wasn’t hard to do and though I should have been worried about what she was mad about, I just wasn’t.

  “Nothing, just a lot going on at work.”

  She rolled her eyes and I stopped. Ashlea never wanted to hear about such mundane things as work. In fact, the more I thought about it, she was only interested in talking about herself. Which was fine most of the time, the short visits that I would make to her bedroom, but I had taken her out to dinner and there was no way to silence her like I could when we were alone. When we were alone, I chose an approach that left her unable to have these conversations. It was easier that way and I wished now for the check.

  “You are always talking about work. Don’t you have enough money yet?”

  Her question threw me off. I didn’t really work for money. I mean, I needed it like others did, but I did not work for that reason. I had enough money for the rest of my life. I liked my work and I didn’t think a woman like her was going to understand it. She modeled for a living and I wasn’t sure how much she got out of it as far as giving her satisfaction.

  “Not yet. I like to help companies. It was what I was meant to do.”

  She didn’t get it and Ashlea didn’t even try to.

  “So I was thinking that you should come with me to the shoot in Barbados. We
could spend some time on the beach and we could take that hot little jet of yours.”

  I just shook my head. It wasn’t in the cards. I had a lot on my plate and running off with her was the last thing on my mind. She wanted me to sit there and smile, look good while she had her shoot, maybe hold stuff for her. That was not a good time to me, at all.

  “I don’t think I will be able to swing it Ashlea, sorry.”

  “Let me guess, work?”

  I nodded my head, unapologetically. I wasn’t going to say I was sorry for what had to be done. I needed to do my job and if she had any inkling of what was on my plate, she wouldn’t have even asked.

  I kept asking myself the same damn question. What was I doing here with her?

  “Let’s get out of here and go to my place.”

  She looked down at her plate and Ashlea made a comment that she wasn’t done. I was already getting the waiter’s attention to bring me the check. It was time for this dinner to be over. I had no more patience for all of this chatting, especially when I was bored to tears with the subject.

  “Well finish up while I pay.” I almost made a comment that she wasn’t going to eat it anyways, I knew her too well, but I didn’t say a thing. Instead, I got my card out and was prepared to get up and seek him out myself. I wanted to get the hell out of here.

  My phone rang and I was almost happy to hear it ring. It was a helpful distraction for Ashlea who was still chatting to me. I didn’t recognize the number, but I recognized the voice when I answered.

  “What’s up?”

  “I needed to talk to you about the McClennen account.”

  “I gave it to you a few hours ago, what do you want to talk about?” I was just happy to hear her voice and I ignored the dirty looks I got when Ashlea realized that I was talking another woman.

  “It’s okay Claire. I am not doing anything important.”

  Ashlea made a scoffing sound and I turned to the side a little, telling Claire that it was fine for her to call me now. I could see Ashlea getting agitated in my peripheral vision, but I wasn’t going to try and stop it.

  “So what is it that has you worried?”

  “It’s the doubtful accounts. Did you notice how high they are? They should be at 3 percent for this industry and it is well over twice that amount at almost seven percent.”

  I had noticed it as well, but as the economy was having troubles, I figured that it was going to see an uptick in customers that got things on credit that they were never going to pay for. It was quite high, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t necessary for the way things were going at the moment. When I mentioned my theory to her, I could tell that Claire was not in agreement with me.

  “What do you think we should do?”

  “I think we need to investigate the process in which they are giving out credit. Maybe there is a flaw in their approval system that is allowing people to be approved that shouldn’t be. If that isn’t the case, then there is going to be a human error. I take it that there are incentives made to the employees who are in the customer care of this?”

  “Yes.” Though I didn’t really know where she was going with this.

  “Well then we might have to look into the employees. If they are getting rewarded by bonuses and commission for each sale, there may be less of a push to find sound borrowers.”

  I had never thought about it like that and before she looked into anything else, I had a feeling that she was right. I was again amazed at how quickly she was able to make out the problem from all of the numbers. This was a huge company and I wasn’t even going to begin to understand how she was so far ahead already.

  “If I remember correctly, the salespeople are paid fully in commission, so there is a big incentive to sign people up. You may be on to something.”

  “Richard?”

  It was the third time I had heard my name in the same amount of minutes. I didn’t want to look over to Ashlea, but she was making it clear that she was going to no longer be ignored. I was realizing quickly that a dinner alone would have been preferable.

  “Hold on Claire.”

  I covered up the phone because I didn’t want Claire to know that I was on a date. I don’t know why that was so important to me, but it was. I had my reasons.

  “What?”

  “I thought we were leaving?”

  I looked at the plate of food that was untouched since she claimed she was still eating. I had known that she wasn’t going to touch her foot and I had been right.

  “I thought you wanted to finish?”

  She looked at me bashfully. “You know that I don’t need all of these carbs. I have a shoot in two days and I don’t want to be bloated for it.”

  I could have argued with her, but I had learned long ago that it was going to do me no good to argue with her or to point out the obvious. Ashlea was a hard woman to deal with and the more I talked to Claire, the more I realized that I didn’t want to deal with Ashlea anymore.

  “I knew you wouldn’t. I will be finished on the phone in just a minute Ashlea.”

  She threatened to throw the phone away if I didn’t get off of it and for some reason I did not find it very funny. Ashlea said it in a joking manner, but I just looked at her. Turning to the side again, I held my hand up to indicate that I needed another minute. I heard her huff, but was used to her dramatics.

  “Sorry about that Claire.”

  “If I am bothering you and you are busy, just let me know Rick. I shouldn’t have called, I just saw that and you know, warning bells went off in my head. I wanted to see if you had seen that too or was I just looking into the percentage change too much? It is not that high, but for the industry it is.”

  She was going on and I found that I didn’t mind hearing her. She was not like Ashlea or rather my feelings weren’t the same towards the two women. I heard some more sounds from across the table, but I didn’t even look up. It would only invite another exchange that wasn’t going to be any help besides making more of a scene. I liked the restaurant and I didn’t want to have an altercation with her here. I just needed another minute.

  It was about that time that I was thinking that, I heard the chair legs screeched on the hardwood floor. Everyone was suddenly looking at us and I wanted to melt into the carpet. She had a knack for doing this.

  “If you are just going to ignore me Rick, I am leaving!”

  She stormed out and since I hadn’t covered the receiver, I was sure that Claire had heard it all. The other side of the phone was quiet and everyone in the restaurant was looking at me. It really was a mess and I just wanted to leave. I waved to the waiter to take my card so I could do just that.

  “Um, sorry Rick. I didn’t know you were with someone.”

  “I’m not now. No need to worry about it.”

  Claire was quiet for a few more seconds before she got back into her rhythm about the new company I had given her to look over. She reminded me of myself. She got so excited about everything that had to do with the job. I looked at each client like a mystery that I had to solve, several mysteries that would weave together and make the big picture. Claire seemed to like the challenge as much as I did and I can’t say that I didn’t like her enthusiasm.

  “Have you had dinner yet?”

  “No Sir, I am still at the office.”

  “Why don’t you come down here?”

  “I thought you already got your check and had dinner?”

  “It is sitting here cold in front of me. I never got to have a bite.” My plate was empty and had been for a time.

  “Now you are making me feel bad.” That was basically the point.

  “But I am not going to. You could have said something and you shouldn’t ignore your date. Work is just work. I will talk to you about it in the morning.”

  She was rushing me off the phone and while I wanted to stop her, tell her that Ashlea didn’t even matter, it wasn’t in the cards. I didn’t have a choice but to tell her that I would see her the next day.
/>
  Hanging up, it was strange to think about how long that night was going to be. I had botched up the night’s plans that I was going to have with Ashlea. Now I needed to figure something else out because the last thing that I was going to do was sit there thinking about my employee in a way that I shouldn’t. It was a rule of mine that I had never even thought of breaking, except in a moment of weakness. But never like this. I contemplated it far more than it was right to do and I had to get Claire off my mind.

  I knew just who to call to take care of that.

  Chapter 8

  Rick

  “It’s been a couple of weeks since I have heard from you Rick. Busy, huh?”

  I nodded to Cliff and waited next to Ron to get to the bouncer that was letting people into the club. I had been busy, but more recently I had been preoccupied, much like I was now.

  “Yeah, work has been hectic. I expanded the clients and then struggled to expand the staff. It is hard to find qualified people anymore.”

  Ron agreed. He ran a construction business and I was always hearing him mention how hard it was to fill up his crew. Now I was feeling the pinch as well and I can’t say that I liked it that much.

  “Have you looked into those temporary staffing places? Sometimes you can get a good employee that you can hire on fulltime, but I would be lying if I said that it wasn’t hit or miss. Half of them don’t know their head from their ass.”

  Cliff scowled at us both. “No work tonight, jeez. I want to get some titties and ass smash in my face and you two are talking about staffing?” He just shook his head and turned his back to us. He was right. Work was the last thing that I should be thinking of.

  “You’re right Cliff. I want to see some titties too.”

  He chuckled and told me that he was sure I seen my fair share. “Who are you dating now?”

  “I don’t date. It is too complicated and women are better in small doses.”

  Ron was the married one out of the three of us and he was happily married, something he reminded us of quite a bit.