Falling for Fate (10 page)

Hell would freeze over and the devil would hand out snow cones before that happened.

She waited until he’d turned and strode away from them before turning to Gwen.

“I wish I could tell you we were actors rehearsing for a play.”

Gwen’s blue eyes were bright with interest. “What? No way. That was like a soap opera happening live before my eyes. I am definitely not going back to work just yet. You and I are getting coffee. I need details, lady.”

“O
h God. Lord help me, I can feel it coming.” Gwen cringed while sipping her frothy latte and practically bouncing in the seat across from Fate in the small coffee shop just a block from where she had endured the public scene with her ex-fiancé.

Fate sipped her iced coffee and nodded. “I walked down the stairs and heard them. Then I saw them.”

“Gah! At your fucking rehearsal dinner! How did you keep from stabbing them? Or just going straight Carrie on them and burning the mother down?”

Fate shrugged. “I was too stunned to do much of anything other than run.”

“I would have lost my shit. All of my shit would have been lost. Seriously. One of them would probably still be on life support.”

Gwen was entertaining to be around. She had a flair for the dramatic and everything she felt showed plainly on her face. Fate appreciated that in a person after learning that her best friend had lied to her for the better part of a year.

“It’s certainly turned my life upside down. That’s for sure. We had all these plans. A seven-thousand-square-foot place to live. Now, I’m on my own and I’m not going to lie and say that it wasn’t tempting to take him up on his offer if only so I didn’t have to return to a tiny hotel room that reeks of sweet and sour chicken.”

“Fuck that. No way, Fate. Nothing is worth letting someone treat you like that. I would have tackled your ass if you had tried to leave with him. The things he said, the way he acted as if
he
were doing
you
some big favor by moving past what had happened—
ugh
. It was foul. All of it.” She exhaled loudly. “He made my skin crawl and I didn’t even know the details yet.”

Fate nodded in agreement. Gwen was right. But still…now her self-righteous breakup would cost her mom her medical care and that was a problem she didn’t currently have a solution for.

“If you don’t mind my asking, what was he talking about when he said he wouldn’t pay for your mother’s medical care? Is she sick?”

Fate’s throat tightened and her tongue grew heavier in her mouth. This was the part she didn’t want to share. Well, this and the part about her sexy, virginity-taking beach stranger.

“Um, she was in an accident and still has some recovering to do.” There. That was mostly true. “He was paying for her to stay in a residential rehabilitation facility. But it looks like I’m going to have to figure something out in addition to working at Maxwell Medical if she’s going to get to keep staying there.”

Lines appeared on Gwen’s forehead. “Jesus.”

“I’m not even sure he could help me at this point. Pretty much every aspect of my life is a hot mess right now.” She let out a small, choked laugh. “And here I thought I had it all together.”

“Do you believe in fate, Fate?” Gwen’s eyes gleamed with amusement. “Because I do.”

Fate side-eyed her new friend, unsure as to where this conversation was headed. “I guess so. Lately, it doesn’t seem to be on my side though, so maybe my name is the universe’s idea of irony.”

Gwen moved her latte aside. “I don’t mean to go all Boho fortune teller on you, but I think you were meant to get on the wrong train this morning, and I think you were meant to be on that elevator when you were.”

“Ohhkay, and why’s that?”

Gwen beamed at her. “So you could meet me. We bonded. We’re like this now.” She crossed her middle finger over her index one.

Fate smiled and shook her head. “I have to say… So far, meeting you and that chicken gyro wrap-thing have been the highlights of my stay in New York.”

“See?” Gwen lowered her voice and leaned in. “In all seriousness, I couldn’t live with myself if I thought you’d go back to that asshole. And I might just be the answer to all of your problems.”

Fate arched a brow at the woman across from her. “How’s that exactly?”

Gwen chewed the inside of her cheek for a second before launching into her plan of Operation Rescue Fate. “I have an apartment—well, a small loft—on Greenwich in Tribeca. My dad helped me with the down payment, but I need a roommate. I had one but she hooked up with our boss and then hightailed it out of town.”

“Mr. Pierson?”

Gwen nodded. “Yep. That’s the rumor. And that no intracompany-dating policy is no joke. She didn’t stick around to tell me if she was fired or forced to resign or what, but I have an open room. I could even give you a few weeks to get on your feet before you’d have to help out with rent. She paid in advance and left without asking for a refund. I know how much you make at Maxwell because it’s what we all make, so I know you can afford it.”

Fate wanted to cry. Or leap across the table and tackle-hug the woman. But if she’d learned anything about life, it was that things that seemed too good to be true usually were.

“Gwen, I don’t—”

“No. Wait. Before you say no, let me explain that this is not charity. I do okay for myself, but a roommate to help with bills actually allows me to have extra money so that I can have a life.” She waited for Fate to argue. When she didn’t, Gwen continued. “And my friend Sam works at Lux, a club downtown that pays extremely well—even part-time servers and bartenders make close to what we make at Maxwell. They just don’t get the insurance and benefits. If you’re looking to make extra cash on the weekends to help pay for your mom’s medical care, I could see if she could get you an interview.”

A lump formed in Fate’s throat. Kindness like this was rare. And when everything had been going so outrageously awful, she could fully appreciate the blessing that was nearly knocking Gwendolyn Scott over in an elevator.

“Why are you doing this for me? You hardly know me.”

The other woman tilted her head to the side. “Because I was you once. I was in love with a sorry excuse of a man who couldn’t commit. And then I moved on, and it was hard as hell. I struggled and I still live on leftovers most of the time, but can I tell you something?”

Fate nodded. She could tell her that she was a serial killer at this point and Fate would still kind of love her.

“Sometimes, the worst things that happen in our lives put us directly on the path to the best things that will ever happen to us.”

The words threaded through every fiber of Fate’s soul. “I love that. Who said that?”

Gwen shrugged. “I think I saw it on Pinterest or somewhere. I had it framed and it’s proudly on display on a wall in my bedroom. I believe that it’s true—not because I have any concrete proof, just because I choose to believe it.”

Fate quietly contemplated the worst thing that had ever happened to her and the path it had propelled her down. A beautiful stranger who’d given her the most incredible night of her life.

“I think I choose to believe it too.”

S
he couldn’t have described what she felt for all the money in the world. It was a bit like her entire life had been divided into individual balloons filled with high-octane helium, dozens of them—some carrying her concerns about her mom, a few containing the cost of her mother’s medical care, her rent, her utilities, the need for decent clothes for work, the hours of sleep she’d have to forgo to hold two jobs. All of them had strings, strings she was grasping desperately with already full hands. They pulled and tugged in every direction, threatening to break her apart any second.

But among all the worry and the fear of failure and the stress, there was one memory she held close in a private space she hadn’t even known existed.

Him.

The sexy stranger who’d given her the kind of night she couldn’t forget. Glancing up at the broad expanse of night sky and seeing only a few stars through the glow of city lights, Fate smiled. One star seemed to be flickering, twinkling as if winking at her with the promise of an untold secret. She hoped it wasn’t dying out. She’d read that stars did that before going permanently black.

When she much younger, her mom had called these wishing stars and encouraged her to close her eyes and ask them for something she wanted. “
Couldn’t hurt,”
she’d say. “
Might help.”

She hadn’t actually done it in years, but landing an apartment with a non-psychotic roommate and the promise of a part-time waitressing job that would supplement her income enough to pay for her mom’s rehab filled her with a long-lost hopefulness she hadn’t felt in months.

She sighed and made what she knew was an improbable wish. She’d almost asked the universe to return him to her, but that seemed too ridiculous to even consider. Instead, she’d asked for something a little less specific but probably just as unlikely.

I wish to have a lifetime full of nights that make me feel the way he did.

“Fate?” her new roommate called from inside the apartment. “Pizza’s here.”

Smiling up at the sky one last time, Fate turned and walked back inside.

The persistent, flickering glow of light in the sky continued to shine—not dying as Fate has assumed, but coming to life.

For anyone who has ever had his or her heart thoroughly broken.

The healing will come when you least expect it. There is a certain brand of strength that can only be found in moments of weakness.

Never be afraid to fall.

I never meant to get us in this deep.

I never meant for this to mean a thing.

The One That Got Away | The Civil Wars