Chapter 27

Chance

I WASN’T TOO proud to admit that I was a miserable bastard to be around the next few days. I spent the weekend after Melany’s departure drinking and sulking around my apartment, glaring at the things she left behind like they might magically spring to life and give me a perfect outlet to vent my still brewing anger on.

I didn’t even shower until I woke Monday morning, smelling like a goddamned distillery. I might have made partner at my firm a few years ago, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be snatched away. And that was exactly what would have happened if I stumbled into the office looking and smelling like a drunken bum off the streets.

I’d convinced myself that Melany would come to her senses by Monday and call me, apologizing for kissing that needle-dick bastard, and we’d ride off, on horseback, into the sunset—or some such sappy, chick-flick shit. But that didn’t happen. Tuesday morning passed with the same sense of hope, but by Tuesday afternoon, I realized I was being a dumbass. I awoke Wednesday pissed off and ready to bite the heads off anyone who looked at me sideways, and Thursday wasn’t any better.

It was now Friday. Exactly one week from my meltdown with Melany, and I still hadn’t heard a word, not even so much as a goddamned text. Needless to say, no one wanted to be anywhere near me.

“Cynthia!” I boomed into the intercom on my desk phone. “Where’s the goddamned discovery file for the Hanson case? I asked for it two days ago!”

My assistant’s beleaguered voice carried through the speaker. “I put it on your desk next to the draft of the motion in limine just as you asked.”

I began shuffling papers as I replied sarcastically, “Well, if you put it on my desk just like I asked, then I wouldn’t be asking you where the hell it is, now would…?” I trailed off as I lifted a deposition transcript I’d tossed on my desk the day before, uncovering the discovery file sitting exactly where Cynthia had indicated.

She knew exactly what my silence meant. “You’re welcome,” she snapped before disconnecting. If this shit went on much longer, I was going to owe her a seriously large Christmas bonus.

I was losing my mind. And it was all Melany’s fault. Resting my elbows on the cluttered desk, I dropped my face into my hands and scrubbed violently. I couldn’t manage to pull myself out of my foul mood no matter how hard I tried.

There was a knock on my office door just as I was in the middle of my self-flagellation. “Go away,” I grumbled, but whoever was on the other side wasn’t in the mood to take orders.

I looked up just as Richard, Devon, and Collin came waltzing through. “Jesus, man. You look like shit,” Richard announced.

“Told you so,” Devon muttered.

“Good to see you too,” I deadpanned. Pointing to Collin, I said, “I’m not sure what he’s doing here, but I know for a fact you two have other shit you could be doing instead of harassing me, so if you don’t mind, don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. I’ve got shit to do.”

“We’re here for an intervention,” Devon declared, clearly the ringleader of the three of them.

“They’re here for an intervention,” Richard stated. “I’m just here to witness the train wreck everyone in the office is talking about.”

I flipped him off and turned back to my computer screen, trying to tune them out by burying myself in work.

“I wouldn’t necessarily call this an intervention,” Collin chimed in. “I’m mainly here to tell you to fix whatever the fuck you did to my assistant. Melany’s been damn near impossible to deal with all week.

My head shot up at the mention of Melany’s name, all thoughts of work quickly dissipating. “What are you talking about? Is something wrong with Melany? What happened? What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything!” Collin exclaimed defensively. “I’m the victim here. Look, I don’t know what you did last weekend to piss her off, but whatever it is, fix it! I made the mistake of asking her to grab me a cup of coffee if she happened to pass the break room, and she actually told me to, and this is a direct quote, ‘Get it your damn self. Then shove it up your ass.’ Not even lying, man. The look on her face when she said that was downright terrifying. Thought maybe she’d been possessed or something.”

For the first time in a week, I felt the desire to laugh, but I didn’t. “Whatever’s going on with your assistant’s got nothing to do with me. Not my problem if you can’t handle your staff.”

“You’re one to talk!” Devon cried.

I turned my glare on her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

She was all sass as she propped her hands on her hips and leveled me with a killing look. “It means Cynthia and the rest of your staff are about to mutiny. You need to remove whatever bug crawled up your butt this week before your testicles have an up close and personal one-on-one with her size seven heel.”

I flinched at the image that painted in my head and unconsciously tried to cross my legs beneath my desk to protect my junk.

“Fine, I’ll admit that I’ve been a little… difficult this week. And I’ll work on it.”

“That’s a start,” Devon said. “But what about Melany?”

“Not my problem,” I replied in a dry, emotionless voice.

That answer obviously didn’t make Devon happy. The look on her face said my nuts were seconds away from meeting her high heel. “Excuse me? What the hell does that mean?”

“It means exactly that. She’s not my problem. She moved out last weekend, and we haven’t talked since. If you’re unhappy with how she’s been acting, then I suggest you take this little intervention back to your fiancé’s office.

“She moved out?” All the sass fled Devon’s face. “What happened?”

I leaned back in my chair and prayed for patience, squeezing my eyes closed and rubbing at my temples. “Look, whatever happened between Melany and me is between us. If she wants to share, that’s up to her. But I don’t. Now, please, I have a lot of work to do. I don’t have time for whatever—” I waved my hand to encompass all three of them. “—this is. I appreciate the concern, but I need to get back to work.”

To my surprise, they relented and left without argument. Not that it mattered. My head was now swimming with all things Melany.

I managed to kill the next five hours without getting anything productive done.

Melany

“HE’S SUCH AN asshole!” I shouted, before dramatically stuffing my face into the pillows of the bed in Constance’s guest room.

“That’s my cue to leave,” Frank muttered. A second later, I heard the bedroom door open and close, signaling his exit. I couldn’t really blame him for wanting to escape. I’d been at his and Connie’s house for the past seven days, and all seven of those days I’d been completely insufferable. Even I hated my own company. It was no wonder all three of the boys were avoiding me like the plague.

After my hours’ long crying jag the Friday before, I recounted the entire fight with Chance, detailing each word out of his mouth, verbatim. Constance held me while I cried and kept my wine glass topped off until I eventually passed out.

Since that night, she’d taken care to be cautious with me, treating me much like she would one of the boys if they were having an emotional breakdown of their own. But as I lay in bed just then, once again cursing the day Chance Hoffman was born, I could see it on her face. She was finally starting to get sick of it. My assumption was right when she pulled one of the pillows away from my face and declared, “Okay, sweetie. This ridiculousness has gone on long enough. I’ve let you cry and yell and bitch for a week, but it’s got to stop. You know I love you with all my heart, so you know it comes from the heart when I say this. Melly, you’re an idiot.”

I shot up from the security of my pillows. “What?” I squeaked. “I can’t believe this! You’re taking his side? You’re supposed to be my friend, you… you… Judas!”

She rolled her eyes at my melodramatics. “I’m not taking anyone’s side. I’m stating a fact. You’re an idiot. But so is he. Don’t you realize that, if you two had just pulled your heads out of your asses and talked, then none of this would have happened?” She shook her head in disappointment. “Lack of communication, the number two reason for all failed relationships, only surpassed by social media.”

“I…” I stared at her in bewilderment. “I’m not sure those statistics are sound, Connie.”

“Whatever,” she replied, waving me off. “My point is, both of you are in the wrong here. He manipulated you, granted, it wasn’t for nefarious purposes, but still… and you lied because you were afraid of how he’d react. Did you ever stop to think that, if you’d just told him the truth, told him exactly what happened with Logan the minute you walked through the door, that you wouldn’t be where you are right now?”

“But he lied too!”

She nodded in understanding. “He did. And that was also wrong, but I can’t say I don’t see his point. Now, just hold on before you go all crazy,” she said when my mouth fell open to object. “I’m not saying I agree with his methods, but, babe, put yourself in his shoes for a second. Before you met him, you were happy to live in your little bubble, never letting anyone in, keeping yourself safe and protected from the harshness of the real world, and I get it, I do. I’ve been your friend our whole lives. I know better than anyone that you’re justified in your reasons for staying guarded. But he hasn’t known you as long as I have. He didn’t have the chance to discover he didn’t have to handle you with kid gloves before he started falling in love with you. You have a right to be upset, but don’t you think you at least owe it to him to talk to him and straighten this whole mess out? Melly… the man’s in love with you.”

I heard every single word she said. I really did, but the betrayal I felt at knowing he’d taken advantage, using my neurosis for his own personal gain, still hurt. “You don’t manipulate the people you love just so you can get laid,” I snapped.

Constance let out an exasperated sigh just as someone knocked on the bedroom door.

“Who’s that?” I asked.

“Reinforcements,” she stated, as she stood from the bed.

“Reinforcements?” I asked, growing panicked at who might be standing behind the door. “What? Why?”

Without an answer, she swung the door open, allowing Devon and Tomas entry into the bedroom. I rolled my eyes on a groan and threw myself back against the pillows.

“Oh, honey bunches of oats. No. Just… no. You look wrecked.”

Of course he would say that, dressed in a fashionable three-piece suit with a stylish scarf draped around his neck for asthetic purposes only. He looked like he just walked off the set of a photoshoot.

“You and Chance, I swear,” Devon said on sigh. “It’s like dealing with twelve-year-old girls on the first day of their periods.”

“You’ve seen Chance?” I asked, far too eagerly.

“Of course I’ve seen him. I work in the same damn office, and his sour mood’s been following him around like a shadow all week. You two are a mess.”

“I’m not a mess. He’s a mess,” I pouted petulantly, sitting up and crossing my arms over my chest. “This is all his fault. He’s a big jerk who gets off on toying with other people. I’d have been better off if I never met him.”

I hated myself as soon as the words left my mouth, and by the hard set of Devon’s mouth, she wasn’t too pleased with me either. “You’re wrong for even saying that. You know that’s not true.”

I did know that, but I wasn’t willing to let go of my pride in that moment, so I held on fast. “I don’t know that at all. Obviously, I don’t know the guy as well as I thought I did, because I never would have taken him for someone who’d play head games.”

Constance threw her hands up in the air and looked at the ceiling, as if seeking divine intervention.

“Well, then let me share with you just how wonderful a man Chance really is,” Devon replied in a serious, no-nonsense tone of voice. “He’s the kind of guy who will remain friends with a woman who chose another man over him, all because he knows the man she chose in the end was it for her, and he holds no ill will. He’s the kind of man who’d save face by befriending the man he lost to just so things would remain copacetic for all parties involved. He’s the kind of man who’d meet a shy, timid woman who kept herself closed off from the rest of the world and do everything in his power to get past her walls because he saw something in her that was worth his time. He’s the type to take a woman to buy a whole new wardrobe, when in all honesty, he despises shopping with a passion. Then he’s the type to turn around and hand over his credit card without batting an eye because the woman loved all the pretty new clothes, but couldn’t afford to pay for them herself.

“He’s the type of man who’d throw down with an evil shrew of a mother because he can’t stand to see the woman he cares about in pain. But most of all, he’s the kind of man who’d call in every favor he’s owed, even racking up a few markers of his own, just to get that woman’s mother out of jail by paying her fine, then write her a check fat enough to pay off all her debts, get her house out of foreclosure, and live a comfortable life for as long as that money will stretch. And he did all of that to guarantee the evil shrew of a mother wouldn’t cause the woman another second of pain for the rest of the woman’s life. Because he cares about her.”

By the time she finished her impassioned speech, my mouth was hanging open in shock and tears were running down my face unchecked.

“Now, look me in the eye and tell me that Chance isn’t the guy you thought he was.”

“He…” My throat was suddenly dry as the desert and a golf-ball-sized lump had formed, making it difficult to breathe. “He did that? For my mother?”

“He did.” She nodded. “He can’t stand the woman, but he saw how guilty you felt for leaving her to her own mess—something, I have to add, I don’t think you should feel guilty for. But in any case, he didn’t want you to have to live with that guilt, so he paid her off so you could sleep easy at night and she would go far away.”

When I moved my gaze to Constance, I saw that she too was crying with her hands over her mouth. She didn’t know about that either. And she knew exactly how horrible my mother had been to me, so she knew how huge Chance doing that for me was. If she hadn’t fully been on his side before, I had no doubt she was now. Not that it mattered, because I was suddenly seeing everything very, very differently.

“H-he told me…” I swallowed and tried to rein in the flood of emotion coursing through me. “He told me he loved me.”

“Oh my God,” Tomas said on a dramatic gasp. “It’s like a fairy tale. The handsome prince is in love with the beautiful swan!”

Devon and Constance each shot him the same “will you shut your stupid gay mouth” look, then Devon turned back to me. “I might not know him on the same level that you do, babe, but I’m willing to bet that, if Chance said he loves you, he means it.”

“I think…” Oh God, I was such an idiot! “I think he does. And… I love him too.”

Constance’s hands went into the air on a squeal of delight as Devon smiled and Tomas declared we celebrate with cosmos. But I was too focused on something else. “I screwed up. I lied and hurt him. I need to make it right, but I don’t know how.”

“Oh, honey, then it’s lucky for you that my fab-u-lous ass is here, because if there’s one thing the gays know how to do, it’s go big or go home.” He reached out and grabbed my hand, pulling me from the bed as Constance and Devon opened the bedroom door and started out. “I’ll play mixologist as we work out a strategy.”

“A strategy for what?” I asked, as I let him lead me toward the kitchen.

“For Operation Grand Gesture, of course. This is probably going to take all night, ladies, so batten down the hatches and pull up your big girl panties. Shit’s about to get real.”

It was right at that second that a very naked Patrick decided to come running down the hall with his brothers hot on his heels. “Shit! Shit! Shit!” they chanted at the top of their lungs.

“Don’t worry about it,” I whispered to a frightened-looking Tomas. “They look scarier than they really are.” And because I couldn’t help myself, I added, “Just be sure not to look any of them in the eye.”