Chapter 12
Nina
I was surprised to find Clara waiting for me in my apartment when I got back that night. I knew I was a little drunk. After the singing was over, I had helped myself to the open bar and eventually called a cab to bring me back to the apartment. My sequined dress was short, my hair was a mess, my makeup was smudged…but I couldn’t care less. I was having the worst couple of days I’d had in a long time and I didn’t care about propriety any more.
“You got drunk at work?” were Clara’s first words when I banged the door shut behind me. I flung my purse on the couch next to her and slid down to the carpet. She was sitting prim, in a tailored skirt-suit, with her blond straight hair tied up in a bun at the back of her head. She had come straight over from work, and now I regretted ever giving her a key.
“After work,” I corrected her, aware of the shininess of the tip of my nose. I was tipsy and smiling too much, but at least I was feeling better. Nothing seemed so bad any more. I had all but forgotten about Cole and what had happened that morning, but now it seemed like Clara wanted to talk about it.
“You should really clean up around here more often, sis,” she said, looking about her and noticing the pile of empty pizza boxes near the kitchen sink. I waved my hand in the air without a care and got up again, to go look for the bottle of gin I usually had stashed away at the back of the kitchen cabinet.
“What’s going on with you? You rarely ever drink so much,” I heard her saying as I banged the cabinet doors open, looking for the gin and tonic.
“Don’t you think I deserve a few drinks with what’s been going on lately?” I said, in a loud voice.
“No. I think you need to think clearly. You have to figure out what Cole Emery is doing about the annulment. You can’t keep drinking yourself silly and expect him to take care of it,” she said, as I poured myself the drink and took a hurried sip of it.
“I went to see him today. He’s done nothing yet,” I said and flipped around to look at her again. Clara’s eyes widened.
“You went to see him?” she asked and stood up from the couch.
“Yeah, and he’s not even spoken to the lawyers about the annulment,” I said and took another sip of the drink. Clara walked towards me, looking worried.
“Why not?” she asked and I shrugged my shoulders.
“He doesn’t give a Fuck,” I said, in a loud harsh voice again and I noticed that Clara flinched. We had been raised without any profanity in the house, and unlike me, Clara still found it uncomfortable to swear or hear anyone swearing. I smiled at my sister. I thought then, that maybe we were both really naive. Just like Cole suggested. We believed in a fairytale life, in finding perfect happiness…when maybe none of that existed. I suddenly felt very stupid.
Clara seemed upset, and I felt like she deserved more of an explanation.
“He doesn’t care about marriage. To him it’s just a stupid piece of paper. He’s going on living his life, without giving this a second thought,” I said bitterly, and just then there was a knock on the front door.
Clara looked at me with her eyes wide.
“I’ll get it,” she said and walked over to the door. I saw her peeping through the hole, and then she looked at me, horrified.
“It’s him. It’s Cole Emery,” she said and my brows crossed. Even through my drunken haze, I knew that this was odd. I hadn’t told him where I lived. And we had just seen each other a few hours ago.
When I said nothing, Clara gingerly opened the door. I saw Cole on the other side, smiling charmingly at my sister as he stood before her, still in the very same clothes that he had stripped off himself in the afternoon.
“Cole Emery,” Clara said, starry-eyed.
“Indeed I am,” he said and then his gaze flickered. He looked past Clara and to me standing several feet away in the back. It all felt like a dream to me. It couldn’t be real.
“I’m Clara. Nina’s sister. I work for Lancer & McMillan & Associates,” Clara held out her hand to him, sounding business-like and professional. Was she networking in the middle of all this?
“Nice to meet you, Clara. I’ve heard good things about your firm,” Cole said and I watched as they shook hands. Clara was blushing, and she opened her mouth to speak again but Cole was looking past her, at me now.
“Nina…” he said my name, without taking a step into my apartment.
“What are you doing here?” I asked him, my voice turning sour. I had been good. I was trying to get over him. I had successfully stopped thinking about how handsome he was. How warm his hands were. How badly I wished that we had met under different circumstances.
“I came to talk to you, but I can see that you’re busy,” he said and I clenched my jaw.
“We can talk now, Clara was just leaving,” I said, making my voice hard. All my self resolve was beginning to dissolve. His physical presence was having its effect on me again.
“No, you’ve been drinking. We can’t talk now. I want us to have a sober discussion,” he said and then without waiting for a response from me, he looked at Clara and gave her his widest, most charming smile.
“Have a good night, ladies,” he said and turned and walked away.
Clara stared after him, with the door still open. I could do nothing other than take a large gulp of my gin and tonic.
“There you go. That’s the man I married,” I said and emptied the remaining drink straight into my throat.