An oblique ray of sunlight fell across the bed, caressing the crumpled sheets and stubbly cheek of the man asleep between them.
It was too early to get up and go to work, but Zoe was already up, fully dressed and gripping her phone tightly in her hand. But she couldn’t take her eyes off the sleeping figure.
One of his arms lay outstretched on the mattress where not long ago she herself had been, his face was partially hidden by the pillow, and his bare, uncovered limbs contrasted with the whiteness of the sheets. The expression on that face which she so adored was so relaxed and satisfied that it gave her a shiver of pleasure to see it.
In her mind’s eye, she saw the image of the hypothetical awakening they might have had if she had only stayed in that bed: a sleepy look while he focused on her face, a tender smile spreading over his soft lips and a hoarse voice wishing her good morning as he bent over to kiss her…
Her stomach tightened and, consequently, so did the hand she was holding the phone in. The powerful desire she felt to see that scene come true was the reason why she had slipped out of the warm bed and hurriedly gotten herself dressed.
The images of the night before came flooding back into her mind, making her blush.
She would never again doubt Eric’s talent for lovemaking.
He had made her tremble with desire. Had been careful, slow, curious, untiring. He had taken everything he wanted and given all of himself in return. She couldn’t remember when she had ever had so much pleasure in a man’s arms in her life, and all without resorting to any kind of erotic trickery. The sweetness of the guy had won her over after the first few kisses, and the rest had been a wonderful, exciting discovery.
But what did it all mean?
The question troubled her deeply. Feeling this euphoric after a night spent with someone she’d just met would have been a lot simpler. Feeling like she was walking on air thanks to a guy she had always known and with whom she had shared the joys and sorrows of daily life – that was scary.
If things didn’t work out, everything would be over between them.
She was terrified.
Her tender bosom buddy, her fussy co-worker, the sarcastic critic of her lifestyle, was right there, fast asleep, oblivious to what was going through her head. What would he think when he eventually woke up? Would he be puzzled? Would he too feel confused and frightened? The night before he’d been drunk and angry, maybe it had been that which had set the train of events in motion…
Still, Eric had said things that left her breathless, and confirmed that the kiss she thought she had dreamed on New Year’s Eve had really happened.
How could he have dissembled like that? And why had he done it? To protect their friendship? Or because he wasn’t interested in going any further?
The memory of the passion they had shared that night leapt into her mind: well it was a bit too late now for not wanting to go any further.
She shivered inside her still damp coat.
They would have to talk and clear things up. The sex had been great, but it mustn’t in any way destroy their relationship. She could not lose Eric.
“So why don’t you climb back into that bed and wait for him to wake up so you can see how things actually are?” suggested her conscience.
Because what she feared most was precisely Eric’s reaction when he did wake up. If he had behaved as though he felt guilty or shocked for having allowed his passion to overwhelm him, Zoe wouldn’t have been able to stand it. She would no longer have been able to pretend that it was all just a dream, the way she had been doing.
She needed to get some fresh air and be on her own for a while before seeing him again in the shop in a couple of hours time. That would be long enough for her to prepare for any eventuality and, at the same time, to clear her head.
But she couldn’t just disappear without a word.
She walked over to Eric’s desk, feeling a deep intimacy as she rummaged through his things. The fact that she knew exactly which drawer to open to find a notebook and a pen underlined just how much time she had spent with him in that same room over the years, mostly for work. She had never imagined that she would find herself one day ecstatically rolling around in that bed with him. Let alone after having been carried away by passion on his couch…
Feeling her clothes almost evaporate on her body, she bent down to write a note on a piece of paper which she then laid on the empty pillow. A pillow that still bore the imprint of her head.
As she rose again, she found herself staring at Eric through an imaginary viewfinder, studying his features and amazed once again by how handsome he was.
She had felt such intense pleasure in undressing him the night before, revealing the agile body that had been giving her sleepless nights lately. Making contact with his warm skin had been a shock, but it had been the soft, extremely sensual and yet respectful way that he had touched her the whole time which had been the coup de grace. After the first moments of overwhelming passion, Eric had treated her like a precious jewel yet somehow had still managed to make her burn like a firebrand.
Making love to him had been like putting on some particularly comfortable, warm clothes only to find that as well as giving you a sense of security and well-being, they also gave you immense pleasure.
How had she managed not to fall for him all these years?
She was afraid to answer her own question. Whatever the reason they had not arrived at that point before was, now it would involve a drastic change in their relationship. And given that Eric was the pivot on which so much of her life turned, she wasn’t sure that the change would be for the better.
She rushed out of the beloved apartment before she broke down in tears.
*
While shivering in the bitter cold of the morning, she stood waiting in the street for her taxi to arrive and felt a powerful anxiety growing in her chest. A crazed terror took possession of her, threatening to crush her.
She had told herself that she was ready to fall in love again, but was it actually true? Eric wasn’t like the stupid pretty boys she’d been dating the last few years, he was a real man – serious, intelligent, caring and honest.
She couldn’t disappoint him. Just the thought of it was intolerable.
But she didn’t want to go through what she had gone through with Stuart again either, denying herself and putting up with everything simply to be loved. She knew deep down that Eric would never take advantage of her weaknesses the way her ex had done, but who could guarantee that?
Did these reflections mean that she was really in love with Eric? Or had it just been some kind of chemical reaction? Might her desperate need not to be alone on Valentine’s Day meant that her feelings had gotten blown out of all proportion?
No!
Her mind recoiled at the thought. She had made love to Eric because he – him, Eric himself – had made her want to – not just because he was the only man who’d been available at that particular moment. She had run to him the previous night instead of giving Stuart a second chance or getting to know her mysterious suitor. That had to count for something.
Eric was essential for her. What mattered now was understanding exactly in what way.
A few minutes later, the taxi dropped her off at her apartment, where she had a hot shower and put on dry clothes. Before going to the store she looked at herself in the mirror, and saw that there was something different about her. The confident, sexy woman had vanished, giving way to the confused and fearful girl she had always tried to hide from the world. Eric was the only one who had ever looked behind the mask and found the real Zoe.
He had an advantage over her… Especially after last night.
When she finally got to Giftland, she was so agitated at the idea of seeing him again that her hands were shaking. She wished that Clover, the only one she could really talk about the subject with calmly, had been there, but her friend was in Paris and wouldn’t be coming back for a couple of days.
Liberty, who had arrived early as usual, was there to welcome her inside, and looked fresh and rested as after a long sleep. Her boss had spent a romantic evening which had probably ended with sex too, so why didn’t she look as devastated as Zoe did?
She went straight behind the counter, took off her jacket and decided to try and pull herself together, breathe slowly and stay calm.
Hey, she thought – it’s Eric that I’m going to have to face when he eventually turns up, not some heartless monster. Shy as he was, he would probably be even more uncomfortable with the whole thing than she was. She convinced herself that the whole thing would end in a good laugh while Eric’s ears went bright pink, so there was no need to panic.
“A night of sex, what’s the big deal?” she thought. It probably wouldn’t have any consequences at all. So why did she feel her heart jump in her chest at the thought of it?
“Are you okay?” asked Liberty, while she fumbled with the coffee machine.
“I had sex with Eric.”
Zoe dropped her bombshell, expecting to see Liberty’s eyes go wide and her cup fall to the floor.
Her friend, however, just shrugged. “About time. It took you longer than I’d predicted, but the timing was perfect. I bet that you don’t hate Valentine’s Day from now on. It’ll always fall on the same day as your anniversary. Isn’t that sweet!”
Zoe was the one whose eyes grew wide. Fortunately, she had no cup of coffee to drop.
“Lib, what the hell are you talking about?! Can’t you see what a state I’m in?”
“Come to think of it, I can… Was it that terrible?” asked Liberty with a worried frown as she walked toward her office. “I hope it’s not going to make things uncomfortable here in the shop.”
“It wasn’t terrible at all, it was wonderful!” said Zoe as she followed her upstairs, dropping into an office chair with an expression of complete desperation on her face. “And that’s the problem.”
Liberty sighed. “The longer I know you two, the less I understand you.”
“It’s all so weird… I mean, until yesterday I just thought of him as my teddy bear – and then today it’s like my body is still electric with passion!”
“Hey, listen, I’m not Clover: spare me the juicy details, please!”
“I’m not going to tell you the ‘juicy details’ – that’s personal,” Zoe muttered, running her hands through her hair.
“Well how about that, that’s a new one! Once upon a time you used to give fairly detailed reports.”
She was right. But that was because with the other men, Zoe had never actually cared much about what had happened. With Eric, though, things were completely different.
Liberty noticed her distraught air and sat down beside her. “I don’t understand what the problem is.”
“The problem is that I got it all wrong! I shouldn’t have gone over to his place last night, and I shouldn’t have taken advantage of his mood. He was angry, maybe even drunk. He was acting weirdly, and I let myself get carried away and we ended up in bed together. But it shouldn’t have happened!”
“You let yourself get carried away? You mean that you jumped on him?”
“I means that I let him do it! I was miserable, and soaking wet from the rain, he was wet and pissed off about something, probably that idiot girlfriend of his… and so I tried to comfort him. And then he kissed me, and I…. Well, I just couldn’t resist! There was that really bad storm, and the power went off, and we were in the dark, alone, on Valentine’s Day… It was a time bomb waiting to go off!”
“So are you saying that it was just physical chemistry?”
Zoe, more and more confused, shook her head. She didn’t know herself what she meant.
“I don’t know… I mean, who’s to say that it didn’t all just happen by chance? I’m so fond of him, and I felt alone and I went to him, but I certainly never imagined… I’ve never thought about getting together with him, not seriously… I mean, we’re talking about Eric! The know-it-all with the glasses, the guy who’s more interested in books than in women! Maybe I got him confused. Isn’t that what he’s always said about me? That I make men stupid when I get too close to them?”
“Yeah, but he’s always thought he was different from those kinds of men.”
“And in fact he’d never thought about me like that either, but last night he was angry and drunk and I was on my own and feeling sorry for myself… Just like always, for that matter! Oh, Lib, I’ve totally screwed up! He didn’t deserve it! He wasn’t himself, and I should have acted like an adult and stopped him… And now we can’t be friends any more!” Zoe babbled, covering her face with her hands.
“Are you sure that Eric didn’t want to? Drunk or not, I can’t really see him being at the mercy of his instincts,” said Liberty, after a moment’s thought.
Zoe spun around to face her. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that Eric’s overprotectiveness is really sweet, but it’s something he only does with you. And he does it so much that it seems like more than just being fond of you as a friend.”
“Are you saying he might have a secret crush on me?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised. And the fact that you two ended up in bed together seems to me to be confirmation of the fact. I don’t think he’s so inexperienced or naive that he’d have sex with you just to fill up an evening or to let off some steam. Do you really think he’d be capable of that?”
“No…” said Zoe, looking at her and taking a deep breath. “But what about me? Why did I go to bed with him, in your opinion?”
“I think that since that ridiculous calendar for Sydney Andrews you’ve started to look at him with different eyes. In that moment you suddenly saw him as an attractive man, whereas before he’d always just been ‘Eric, your best friend’. The combination of all the affection, complicity and profound understanding that already exists between you two with a healthy new physical attraction just completely KO’d you.”
“He deserves a woman who wants him without having seen him naked.”
“And haven’t you always thought he was great, even before seeing his attributes?” Liberty rolled her eyes, then touched her friend’s hand gently. “Unfortunately, there’s no predetermined order for falling in love with someone, and love at first sight isn’t always the best choice, believe me. Sometimes a relationship that starts slowly and gets stronger over time is better.”
“So are you saying… Are you saying you think we should be together?” asked Zoe in a whisper. The thought made her dizzy, but she couldn’t tell if it was because of the joy or the confusion.
“It’s not up to me to tell you who you should be with, you have to figure that out yourself. What happened is definitely going to change things between you, but if there are no major feelings at stake between you, you should go back to being friends, sooner or later. And if there are… well, you two would be better off getting everything out in the open once and for all.”
Zoe took a deep breath and stood up.
“You’re right. The affection between us will let us face this thing like a couple of adults,” she said, trying to convince herself. “I’m going to wait for him downstairs.”
He would be arriving at any moment, so she forced herself to calm down.
Liberty was right, there were no rules about the way you fell in love with someone. It just happened. Some relationships began with love at first sight, others with the people involved not even liking each other, and others still with a great friendship. And the same thing could happen to her and Eric. They were young, healthy, always together. Perhaps it was inevitable that, sooner or later, something would happen. She just had to ask herself a few questions and answer them honestly.
Was she attracted to Eric?
Yes, without a doubt. She had always thought he was cute, even though he worked hard at not letting anybody realize that he was. And after discovering how attractive he could be if he spent a little more effort on his appearance, her opinion of him in that regard had improved markedly.
Did she trust him? More than any other person in the world.
Could she imagine being in a relationship with him? They’d always got on great before they’d been to bed together, so why shouldn’t they after?
What did she feel for him? She adored him, always had. Right from day one, she had liked that guy, always bent over his books yet always with something smart and witty to say for himself. Despite that nerdy appearance, behind those glasses there was a hot temper, tempered by a reassuring sweetness and immense patience.
She realized, in retrospect, that she had never taken an important step without him.
In anticipation of her move to New York, she had persuaded Eric to want to live there rather than in Boston. When she had found a job at Giftland, she had got them to give him a job too so he’d be with her. He was the one she ran to when she had good news to share, as well as when she felt lonely and uncertain about life.
She’d always thought she wasn’t good enough for him, and therefore not even his type. She, who hadn’t even graduated from college and who knew only how to enchant men and take photographs, could never have held the attention of a guy like Eric for long. But she’d never actually thought about that, simply because their friendship had given her everything she needed – more than any other loving relationship.
Romance always complicated everything, that’s why she had clung so tightly to that dear, sweet friend. Eric would never disappoint her, he was there for her and he always would be there for her – he would never stab her in the back, he would never abandon her.
And finally she realized why no other man had been able to conquer her.
No one could hold a candle to a guy like Eric. She had mistakenly thought that Stuart Harris could, but the only thing they had in common was the fact that they were both graduates. If back then she could have even imagined that Eric might like her, Stuart would probably never have entered her life.
That realization made her heart start pounding.
The truth was that, without knowing it, she had always been in love with Eric – a pure love, without ulterior motives, something that went beyond physical attraction and sex. It was the kind of feeling that kept two people close even when their bodies started to age and orgasms were just memories, a bond that dug deep into the soul like a rivulet of water destined to grow as it went along instead of a powerful and invigorating wave that left only sand and debris in its wake.
That must be why she had felt vaguely threatened every time she had seen him going out with other girls, and why she was so jealous of Stephanie…
The girl that he had loved in his youth and who that night had betrayed, because of her.
Biting her thumbnail so hard she chipped the polish, she stared out of the window without really seeing anything.
Eric must feel like a monster. Whatever he had felt, or still felt, for her, it was not in his nature to get involved with a girl without being really interested, and last night must be weighing heavily on his conscience.
Was that why he was so late?
Lost as she was in her thoughts, she hadn’t noticed the time passing. It was now ten o’clock and there was still no sign of Eric.
Maybe he needed to recover from the shock of last night, she thought, with a sigh. She couldn’t really blame him.
Work kept her busy until lunch time, by which time his absence was really starting to make her nervous.
What had happened? Why hadn’t he arrived yet?
Liberty had come downstairs a couple of times to ask her the same thing and to help out with the clients, even though the shop was pretty quiet now that St Valentine’s Day was just a memory.
Summoning up her courage, Zoe tried calling him, but his phone rang and rang and no one answered. What could have happened? Could he be sick? Had something happened to him on his way to work? Anxiety slowly turned in panic as one horrible scenario after another flashed through her head with every passing minute. Suddenly, the idea of facing him after last night frightened her less than the thought of losing him for any other reason.
Liberty tried to reassure her, telling her that if he had had an accident, the hospital would already have called, seeing as he’d put her down as the person to call in case of emergency, but it didn’t make her feel any better. Liberty even tried to joke about it, saying that Eric was probably so embarrassed about everything that he’d climbed aboard the first plane to some unknown destination just to avoid meeting her, but not even that could reassure her.
She was about to walk out of work and go to Eric’s house when Liberty, who had retired to her office, suddenly came back downstairs. Her expression was so gloomy and full of veiled concern that it immediately put Zoe on the alert.
“What’s happened?” she asked, taking a step forward.
“He’s alive, if that’s any consolation. He’s just sent me a fax.”
“A fax?” Zoe blinked in confusion. “What does he say?”
Liberty stared for a moment at the paper she held in her hands then raised her eyes to Zoe’s. “That this is his resignation, with immediate effect.”
She felt as if a truck had driven over her, crushing all of her vital organs. Her head throbbed painfully, not just from the hangover from the previous night, and her muscles had gone so stiff that she couldn’t stop trembling.
She had never felt more angry, bitter and disappointed in her entire life.
*
That morning, when he had opened his eyes and seen the empty bed beside him he had let out a groan of despair, thinking he had only dreamed the whole thing. It wouldn’t have been the first time that he had lived out his love for Zoe in his imagination, but he immediately noticed a couple of things that reassured him.
The pillow on the left side of the bed still bore the imprint of a head, and the fruity scent of Zoe hung throughout the room, on the sheets and on his skin.
He hadn’t imagined any of it, it had all been quite real.
As soon as he saw the note lying on the pillow, though, his anxiety returned. Sitting under the covers, he rubbed his face with his hands before reading the few words it contained:
I need to get changed and get my feet back on the ground. See you later in the store. Zoe xxx
Get her feet back on the ground… What did she mean? Was she so happy after last night that she felt as if she was walking on air, too?
Or did she just want to forget all about it and get back to reality?
It seemed almost impossible. After ten years of waiting and shattered dreams, he – Eric Morgan – had actually managed to go to bed with Zoe Mathison, the most courted woman in New York! But precisely because it all seemed so absurd, that note prompted him to get up and get ready to go out in a hurry. Perhaps the store wasn’t really the perfect place to clear the air, but they wouldn’t have to talk much for him to get an idea of the way things were. He knew Zoe so well that he would be able to tell from a single look at her face whether she was happy or unhappy about what had happened between them.
The words he had heard her saying to Liberty rang in his ears, tormenting him. It had not been his intention to eavesdrop, but when he arrived at Giftland he had heard their voices coming from Liberty’s office and had set off towards them as if drawn by a magnet…
“The problem is that I got it all wrong! I shouldn’t have gone over to his place last night, and I shouldn’t have taken advantage of his mood. He was angry, maybe even drunk. He was acting weirdly, and I let myself get carried away and we ended up in bed together. But it shouldn’t have happened!”
Her words had made him freeze.
Could Zoe really think that for him it had just been sex for the sake of it? That he was stupid enough to go to bed with her just because he had been drinking?
But it was what she said next that was the coup de grace.
“I don’t know… I mean, who’s to say that it didn’t all just happen by chance? I’m so fond of him, and I felt alone and I went to him, but I certainly never imagined… I’ve never thought about getting together him, not seriously… I mean, we’re talking about Eric! The know-it-all with the glasses, the guy who’s more interested in books than in women! Maybe I got him confused. Isn’t that what he’s always said about me? That I make men stupid when I get too close to them?… He’d never thought about me like that either, but last night he was angry and drunk and I was at on my own and feeling sorry for myself… Just like always, for that matter! Oh, Lib, I’ve totally screwed up! He didn’t deserve it! He wasn’t himself, and I should have acted like an adult and stopped him… And now we can’t be friends any more!”
He had heard her sounding more enthusiastic after nights spent in the company of perfect idiots. After she had been in his arms, though, she had seemed mortified and scared at the idea of them no longer being friends…
Without waiting a moment longer he had left the shop, his stomach in a vice-like grip and full of anxiety.
He knew it. What had he expected? That a woman like that would really want a guy like him? She’d had sex with him out of pity, in the name of their friendship… To console him! What an idiot. How could he have thrown ten years of his life away by falling for a person who thought he was a nobody, a loser with too many hormones? Did she think he was so pathetic that he wouldn’t have been able to resist the idea of a bit of healthy sex? Or perhaps so stupid that he couldn’t tell two women apart once he’d had a couple of drinks?
She was right about one thing, though: they could not go back to being friends. For his part, the chapter entitled Zoe Mathison had to be permanently closed that very day.
Once he got back home he wrote a letter of resignation to Liberty immediately, even though he waited a while before sending it. He had decided to stop working at Giftland and to go back to living in Boston with his parents, as far away from Zoe and all the memories of her as possible. But taking the first step was harder than he had expected. He had been hoping for too long to get to that point, and now that at last he had held her in his arms, it was damn hard to get used to the idea of letting go of her for once and for all.
He felt like a coward, but he had no alternative. He would never be able to feel any better if he stayed in New York, where he would always have been terrified that he would bump into her in the street. He had to put some distance between them and hope to forget her in a hurry.
The phone rang several times during the day. Probably worried by his absence, Zoe and Liberty tried to call him on his mobile and on the landline, but every time Zoe’s name appeared on the display, he felt angrier than before.
His eyes fell on the Valentine’s gift that Stephanie had thrown at him after he had left her, and he felt doubly stupid. He had let a beautiful girl who was actually interested in him slip through his fingers so he could chase a ghost, someone who had never considered him a man. And that cute little teddy bear that, with him in mind, Zoe had chosen for Steffy had been a perfect metaphor for the whole story.
A soft toy in Zoe’s hands, that’s what he had always been and what she had always seen.
Almost choking on the anger and bitterness he felt, he sent the fax and lay down on his bed – though not before having thrown aside the scented sheets.
*
He had been lying there for a while when he heard the phone ring again.
He let the answering machine answer, and prepared himself to hear Zoe’s increasingly worried voice again – but it wasn’t her who left a message.
“Bonsoir, mon ami!” He raised his eyebrows at the sound of Clover’s cheerful voice. “You didn’t call me, you bum! You promised to tell me exactly what happened last night but you didn’t – you’re not a man of your word!” she chuckled. “I hope this means, like Cade says, that you and Zoe have been involved in something so interesting that it’s made you forget about everything else. You’ve certainly got to make up for lost time! Anyway, call me when you can, otherwise I will get Zoe to tell me all the juicy details!”
More annoyed than ever, Eric grabbed the phone. “Great idea! Call Zoe so she can tell you what happened!”
“Eric! I didn’t think you were at home…” Clover seemed puzzled by his tone of voice. “Are you okay?”
“No, I’m not okay. And you know what? It’s partly your fault!” snapped Eric, gripping the receiver. “You and your stupid romantic ideas and your sentimental assumptions, you brainwashed me! You stopped me from giving up on Zoe, you kept telling me that there was hope – well there wasn’t any, and you didn’t understand shit!”
“But…”
“I ended up looking more pathetic and more ridiculous than I ever have in my life, Clover. Zoe doesn’t want a guy like me, I’ve thrown ten years down the toilet. But you’re not the only one who’s to blame. Only a loser like me could have believed the words of someone as optimistic as you and hung on to a stupid dream all this time. I should have gone back to Boston a long time ago, but it’s not too late for me to go and end it here. And I hope I never have to see any of you again!”
He hung up, breathless from anger. He already felt guilty for having blasted poor Clover with his despair, but he hadn’t been able to help himself.
Angrily, he unplugged the telephone and lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling.
It was time for him to turn the page and start behaving like a man, but ten years of crumbled hopes were a lot to digest in a single day, so he decided to wallow in self-pity until he felt completely empty.
*
Clover stared at the phone despondently. Eric’s furious words had surprised and confused her, leaving her with an unpleasant feeling.
“Something wrong?” asked Cade, coming into the bedroom.
Clover broke away from the window, which gave onto an incredible view of the illuminated Eiffel Tower, and gave him a sad look. “I don’t know… Eric was furious!”
“Things didn’t go the way you expected?”
“This can’t be right!” Clover sat down on the big double bed, wringing her hands. “I was sure it would work between them.”
“Did he tell you what happened?”
“No. But he said he never wants to see any of us again.”
Cade sat down beside her, stroking her back. “Wait until he’s calmed down, maybe then he’ll tell you what went wrong.”
“If Zoe has screwed it all up because of that idiot of an ex of hers, I’ll never forgive her!” Clover muttered, crossing her arms over her chest.
“You think she’s still in love with Stuart?”
“Of course she isn’t! She’s in love with Eric, she just hasn’t realized it yet! And she will regret bitterly disappointing him, if that’s what she’s done, because she will never find a guy who’s better suited to her!” Her eyes flashing in the dim room, Clover stood up. “I’m going to call her and give her a piece of my mind.”
Smiling tenderly, Cade grabbed her hand and pulled her back down onto the bed. “Honey, leave it. They’re big enough to look after themselves.”
“But I was sure that it would have worked out for Eric, I talked him into telling her everything and now he hates me!”
“Knowing him, he’s probably already regretting what he said.” Cade massaged her neck, forcing her to look at him. “You were sweet to try to help him, you’re a good friend and he knows that. It was time he faced up to the situation. And if things didn’t work out, well, he’ll get used to it.”
“He wants to move to Boston so he doesn’t have to see her any more.” Clover let Cade’s fingers calm her, but her eyes were sad. “That’s why I have to talk to Zoe. I want to know why she is throwing away her best chance to be happy.”
“Maybe she’s afraid. We were too, do you remember?”
Clover thought back to the two weeks when she and Cade had been separated, thinking that it was all over between them, and sighed.
“Do you think that they’ll be as quick as we were at realizing they’re made for each other?”
“If they love each other as much as we do, they won’t hold out for long,” said Cade, kissing her on the tip of her nose. “Now let’s enjoy our last hours in Paris, all right? You can tackle the problem when we get back to New York.”
“I think I need something sweet,” muttered Clover, hiding her face in his neck.
“You mean sweeter than me?” smiled Cade.
“Yeah, you are pretty sweet. Maybe if you were coated in chocolate…”
Clover’s mischievous look earned her a long kiss, then Cade pulled her to her feet. “Let’s go. Zack recommended a few pâtisseries that do the best chocolate, and those macaroons that you like so much.”
“I love that guy!” sighed Clover, dreamily.
Cade lifted her up and slung her over his shoulder, with her head hanging down towards the floor, making her scream.
“Come on, I was joking!”
“Too late, I’m carrying you through the hall upside down. And if there’s a photographer out there, you can say goodbye to that sweet ickle fairy image the journalists invented for you!”
Clover laughed heartily. “I don’t care about my reputation. But you’ll look like a caveman!”
“I’ll be fine.”
When Cade opened the door and started off down the corridor, Clover stared up at him. “Are you really going to go through with this?!”
“Sure. You’re going to need to find a very convincing reason for persuading me not to carry you out of the hotel like this.”
“The blood’s going to my brain. Is that convincing enough?”
“Afraid not.”
“What if I promise to keep you up all night…?” she said in a seductive voice, stroking his back sensually.
Cade gave her a pat on the butt. “I’d already planned on that.”
“I could always refuse to participate.”
In response, he touched her leg with a finger which he ran all along its length to the hem of the woollen dress she was wearing. He chuckled when he felt her shudder and pressed the elevator call button.
Once inside, Clover spoke again. “And what if I promise you never to say another word to Zack?”
“Now there’s an idea I like.”
Amused, Clover shook her head, making her long red hair wave. “No, I’m sorry… I just couldn’t do that!”
“There are seven floors left, you better decide your destiny pretty fast.”
“Oh God, Cade! How can you be jealous of Zack? Ok, he’s handsome, but since I met you I’ve become immune to other men, and you know it!”
“Hmm… And why do you think that is?”
“Because I love you, sweet cheeks. What else?”
Cade set her back down on the ground and put his hands on her hips.
“Correct answer,” he murmured, his eyes full of love, before kissing her.