Chapter Seven
Dinner with Cooper was a lot more pleasant than Emily would have liked. He’d always been fun and more than one date had ended in them laughing uncontrollably together. Just like old times, they were soon laughing and joking together tonight.
“How’s your parrot?”
“He’s great. You’ll see him tomorrow. I’m having pest control done at my house and they said not to leave him locked inside all day the first day. So I’ll bring him to work.”
“I noticed the stand in the corner of your office.”
“I don’t bring him in often and lately I just haven’t had time to bother about it. Everyone loves him, though. It makes the office a chatty place whenever he’s there.”
“How’s your crazy friend Jordan doing? Did she ever manage to settle on one guy?”
“First, she’s not crazy. You use that word a lot and I suspect it is highly inappropriate. Jordan was just trying a new way to meet the right man. Second, her and Luke are engaged.”
“Luke? I met him the night of the toilet-bowl-around-the-neck incident didn’t I? They seemed like they were just friends.”
“Yes, well, Luke felt a bit stronger than that and Jordan finally realised she felt the same too. It took all year though! He asked her to marry him on New Year’s Eve so she almost reached her goal.” She popped a mouthful of roast beef into her mouth and chewed. “We’re counting it as a win.”
“Definitely. So she ditched the toilet bowl guy, what was his name?”
“Richard.”
“That’s it. He seemed fun.”
“Yep, turns out a bit too fun. She wasn’t the only one.”
“Wow. How could he do that to her? If he was serious he should have finished up with the others.”
Oh, this from you!
She paused before she answered. “I guess some people like to keep their options open. One of his options was his wife.”
“Wow!”
“Yeah. Jordan said a lot worse things than that.”
“Have you ever cheated on someone?”
Have you?
“No, why would you ask me that?”
“No reason. I’d never do that so I wondered.”
“You’d never go out with one woman while you were dating another?”
“Of course not.”
“Have you ever? Even once?”
“Nope.” He sipped his drink and watched as she put her cutlery down. “I don’t want to ruin the friendly atmosphere we’ve got going here by discussing our private life, but when you and I met, I immediately curtailed my activities with anyone else.”
Sure you did!
“Really? Why?”
“Because I thought we had something. I thought you felt it too. Turns out I was way off base.”
She bit her lip, and considered telling him what she’d overheard and asking him to explain it to her. Nine months had passed, though, and now they were working together. Nothing good could come of making him confess that he was seeing someone else back then. Work would be awkward and she still had many weeks of working with him. Best to change the subject.
“You’ll need to get your suit dry cleaned.”
“Luckily I brought more than one with me for just such an occurrence.”
“No one could have predicted today. We didn’t even compare our score sheets.”
“I left mine on my desk for tomorrow. I thought she was a great candidate but she was so nervous. If that was just interview nerves we can overlook it. If she’ll be like that every time there’s a problem or a hard decision to make, then she’s not a good fit.”
“I agree. Let’s do the other interviews and then get her back for a second if we need to.”
“Good idea. You know I nearly held Lacey’s baby this morning. She was super cute.” He looked wistful. “To think I passed up that chance because I was worried about getting vomit or snot on my suit.”
Emily snorted through her drink. “Oh my god, stop it! How did that work out for you?” she laughed until tears rolled down her cheeks as he grinned at her.
“I don’t think it’s nearly as funny as you do.”
She continued giggling as he watched her with a mixture of amusement and bafflement. Finally she was able to draw a breath and take another sip of her drink.
They ate their meal, and then she asked the question that had been burning inside her ever since their most eventful interview wound up. “Who was in the photo in your office? That was yours wasn’t it, not left behind by someone else?”
He quieted down and she focussed her attention on him. “That’s my mum.”
“You bring her photo everywhere you consult?”
“Not usually, but she passed away a few months ago.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Cooper.” Instinctively she reached out and wrapped her hand around his. “That must have been awful.” He looked at her hand but made no move to remove his own.
“It was. She used to call me over and over and I used to get annoyed with her. She’d been in a nursing home for the last twelve months. She’d call me, crying to ‘go home’ and begging me to come and get her. I wanted her to stay at my place but she needed round the clock care, which I couldn’t provide. I planned to get a nurse but she had a fall before I could organise it and the hospital said the best place would be the home.” The words were pouring out of him like he couldn’t stop talking. Emily rubbed her finger over his thumb while he spoke and ignored the tear that glistened in the corner of his eye. “Anyway, I got a call one night. She got out of bed alone and had another fall. She hit her head and passed away.”
“That’s so sad.”
“I feel really guilty, you know?” He looked up at her. “All those calls where I told her I loved her and we’d be together soon, and I didn’t make enough time to visit her. I was busy with my life and there never seemed to be enough time. When I did visit sometimes she didn’t know who I was and that was hard. She used to text me and it was just gibberish that I dutifully replied to.” He sat back in his seat and Emily looked hard at him for the first time. He’d aged since they’d been together. Nothing drastic, but the signs of stress and grief were etched into the tiny lines around his eyes and his mouth. No doubt he’d have had a few new grey hairs showing had he not been surfer-blonde.
She had her own dose of guilt to add to his, though. She suddenly knew who he’d been talking to the day she’d overheard those phone calls and watched him text all through lunch. There was no other woman. Emily had stupidly assumed the worst and she’d punished him for it. Worse than that, she’d punished herself. They’d had a promising relationship and it had been her who had ruined it. Not him.
In that moment, staring across the dinner table at him, she’d never been less proud of herself.