Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chance
I had to admit; I was nervous. Sitting there in the middle of the restaurant where I had broken up with Natalie was giving me major stress. I hated coming here myself, so I could only imagine how she must feel. But I wanted to drive home the point that we were not getting back together. I was fairly sure that was what she wanted to discuss.
I ended up ordering a drink for myself, hoping that the alcohol would soothe my nerves and give me the strength to maintain my cold façade when Natalie got here. I kept thinking about the tears running down her face when I had told her I didn’t want her anymore. I kept thinking about Jason’s black eye, and Lindsey’s cryptic words before she had left the bar the other night.
My head was spinning when I saw Natalie enter the restaurant. She didn’t see me at first, so I had the freedom of staring at her hungrily as I watched her talk to a waiter. She looked absolutely beautiful, like some floating angel out of an ancient painting.
She walked through the tables towards me and on instinct, I rose from my chair, trying to force my expression into one of indifference.
“Natalie.” I nodded.
She gave me a breathtaking smile that I had to resist. Then we sat down together, and after the waiter had taken our drink orders and disappeared, Natalie turned to me.
She looked different from that morning, I realized. Her face was brighter, her eyes were dancing, and her features were arranged into an expression of softness. She didn’t look sad or depressed, and she certainly didn’t look like a woman seeking closure.
“How have you been?” she asked, breaking the silence.
“Fine,” I replied shortly.
Natalie nodded, but she didn’t seem perturbed by my coldness. “You looked very nice today in your robes.”
“Thank you,” I said, refraining from offering her a compliment in return.
“My parents liked you,” she went on. “I think I’m going to tell them tomorrow who you are.”
I frowned. “Why?”
She shrugged. “Mom’s been asking about Chance this whole trip. It wouldn’t be right not to mention to her that you are Chance.”
“Do you think she’ll care?” I couldn’t help but ask. “That I was your teacher?”
“I don’t think she will,” Natalie replied. “They are not ones to care about something as superficial as that. We’re both adults, and we didn’t do anything wrong, despite the university’s policy.”
“That is entirely subjective,” I pointed out.
Natalie’s expression didn’t change. “I suppose it is,” she agreed.
“There’s another reason not to tell them,” I said.
“Which is?”
“We’re not together anymore,” I said.
Again, her expression stayed the same. “Hmm.”
That answer surprised me, and I started to question what had led her to ask me out for dinner in the first place. It was almost like she had moved on and she wanted me to know that. I gulped back my questions and stared at the menu. We ordered a couple of dishes and the moment the waiter cleared our table, I checked my phone, as though I had more important places to be.
I realized that I had a message from Lindsey. All it said was, “You’re welcome.” Puzzled, I scrolled down to see if there was more to the text, but she hadn’t written anything else.
“Chance?”
“Yes,” I said, looking up at Natalie.
“You seem distracted.”
“I…have lots on my mind.”
“Anything you want to share with me?” she asked, and I wondered if it was just my imagination or if she was trying to coax something out of me.
“Not really; I’m not the one who requested this dinner.”
I was being rude, and I knew it, but I hoped that my attitude would make it easier for her, but it was killing me inside. Why did she have to look so damn perfect?
“What are your plans?” Natalie asked.
“My plans?”
“Are you planning on staying on as a professor?” she asked.
“Uh… I’ve been offered a position at the university,” I admitted. “A permanent position, but… I don’t think I’m going to take it.”
“You want to move again?”
“Maybe a year or two in Germany,” I nodded.
“What about France?”
I frowned, unsure of Natalie’s motives and confused by her line of question. “I’m done with France for the time being,” I said. “I don’t think I’ll see Paris for a few years at least.”
“I miss it,” she said. “I think about it every day.”
If she was hoping to dredge up feelings from our romantic trip to France, it was working. I felt shifting uncomfortably in my seat, trying not to let the memories weaken my resolve.
“I don’t,” I said sharply. “I’ve had better trips.”
Natalie looked at me carefully for a moment. “I don’t believe you,” she said.
“No?” I said. “Doesn’t make it any less true.”
“You’re really good, you know,” she said unexpectedly. “If I didn’t know any better, I would have been thoroughly convinced. You could have gone into acting. Hollywood would have been all the better for it.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“Is there anything – anything at all – you want to tell me, Chance?” Natalie asked pointedly.
I frowned. “No,” I said. “But why don’t you tell me what you expect me to say.”
She nodded. “Okay, how about, ‘I’m sorry I broke up with you, Natalie… I’m sorry I broke up with you because I didn’t really want to. I only did it because I was being blackmailed.’”
I stiffened at her words. “What are you talking about?”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” she said. “I know everything, Chance. I know all about Jason and the deal he made with you.”
I just stared at her for a moment. “That fucking asshole… He told you?”
“No,” Natalie shook her head. “Jason didn’t say a word. I actually haven’t spoken to him in months.”
“Then how did you know?”
She laughed. “It’s a strange story,” she said. “And, I was hoping you could fill in that part for me.”
“I’m feeling very confused right now.”
“This morning during my graduation, I received a text,” she told me. “It was from an unknown number, telling me to ask you out to dinner, that it would pay off.”
“An unknown number?”
“Yes.” She nodded. “I decided to follow through and ask you out to dinner. Just after I got ready and just before I left to meet you, I got a call from the same number. She didn’t tell me who she was – I don’t even know her name – but she did tell me all about Jason and the real reason you broke up with me.”
I took a few moments to process that. “You got a call from a strange… Was it a woman?”
“It was,” she nodded.
“Lindsey,” I breathed, remembering the message she had sent me only moments ago. It could only be her; there was no one else apart from Sophie who knew about my relationship with Natalie. And Sophie didn’t know the real reason behind our breakup yet.
“Lindsey?” Natalie repeated. “Is that her name?”
“Yes.” I nodded, but now I was starting to get angry. “She had no right to contact you, much less tell you all that. I confided in her because I trusted her and expected her to keep my confidences.”
“She was trying to help you.”
“By butting in?”
“By sorting out the problem.”
“How has she sorted out the problem?” I demanded. “Jason’s a psychopath – he will go through with his threat and the university will rescind your degree. I’m not going to let that happen.”
“We don’t have to worry about Jason anymore,” Natalie rushed to assure me. “Lindsey took care of it.”
“Excuse me?”
“She had Jason followed,” Natalie explained. “Turns out, he had moved on from me, and he was now stalking a new girl. Lindsey’s friends informed the girl of this, and she went to the police and filed a restraining order against Jason.
“The officer who was put in charge of the case went to check out Jason’s dorm, and apparently, he had a huge number of pictures of all the women he’s stalked over the years.”
I felt a little bubble of panic. “He had pictures of the two of us.”
“Don’t worry, Lindsey’s friends took every picture Jason had of the two of us,” Natalie informed me. “They had enough evidence of stalking to take Jason into custody. He spent a couple of nights in jail.”
“The black eye,” I said, mostly to myself. “That’s where he got it.”
“Apparently,” she nodded.
“How was he able to attend graduation?” I demanded.
“His father has connections,” she explained. “He was able to get the charges dropped. But I think his jail experience was enough to convince Jason to behave himself.”
“He’s leaving the state.”
“I heard,” Natalie nodded.
“And, Lindsey told you all of this?”
“Lindsey did all this,” Natalie smiled. “You two must be really good friends.”
“Better friends that I imagined we were, actually,” I said, in amazement. “She didn’t say a word to me.”
“Who is she?” Natalie asked curiously.
“She’s a professor at the university.”
“Professor Lindsey Hayes?” I asked, in shock.
“The very same.”
“I didn’t even realize you guys were friends.”
“I can’t believe she did all this.”
“She told me she did it because she told me that she’d never really believed in true love…until you convinced her otherwise.”
I turned to Natalie, and I saw the smile in her eyes. I realized suddenly that Lindsey had saved me. She had made sure that I would have a future with Natalie.
“Natalie,” I whispered her name, with all the love and warmth I felt inside.
“Yes?” She smiled.
“I love you,” I said. It felt so amazing to say the words out loud.
She laughed, and the sound was filled with hope and promise and happiness. “I know.” She nodded. “I mean, for a while there, I didn’t know it. I believed you when you said you didn’t want me anymore.”
“You believed me so easily,” I said accusingly. “That hurt.”
“It never made sense for someone like you to love me.”
“Are you kidding?” I asked. “That was the same way I felt about you.”
Her eyes went wide. “You’re joking.”
“No, serious,” I said. “You’re so open and pure and honest, whereas I am…scared and cowardly and broken. At least I was, but I think you’ve managed to fix me.”
“And you have managed to complete me,” Natalie said.
We just stared across the table at one another, and I felt purpose rush back into my life.
“Chance?”
“Yes?”
“I think you owe me a kiss,” she said with a shy smile.