Learning the Ropes (15 page)

After not hearing from him for four days, she’d thought the pain would lessen, but it hadn’t. Sometimes she woke up crying in the middle of the night, fresh from a dream of him walking out on her, leaving her again.

Part of her felt vindicated that he had left.
See
, that part of her said,
I knew all along that he would leave me, just like he did the last time. The only difference is that everyone knows this time and they’re feeling sorry for me. “
Everyone” might have been too large of a sample size—but her best friends and their boyfriends, they all knew. Plus, Noah had probably told some of his friends by now. And if their voice mails were anything to go by, her friends did indeed pity her. They apologized and inquired about her feelings and begged her to call them back. But she never did.

The only person she wanted was Noah and it didn’t look like she was going to get him anytime soon. Now that they were over, she could so clearly see what she had done wrong. She had treated him like she was ashamed of him when the exact opposite was true. She had believed he would be ashamed to be seen with her. That problem didn’t exist for her any longer. He definitely didn’t want to be anywhere near her now.

Rory curled into a tighter ball in the corner of the sofa. Her reprieve from the world was about to end. The day after the breakup had been a teacher work day and the following day she had called in sick with a temporary ‘flu relapse. Tomorrow she would have to go back to work though. Some time to lick her wounds was one thing, but her students needed her to get it together and get back in the classroom.

Her misery was interrupted by the peal of her doorbell, followed closely by what sounded like twenty fists banging on her front door. Rory briefly considered pulling a pillow over her head and ignoring it, but if the culprits were whom she thought they were, there weren’t enough pillows in the world to block them out.

She dragged herself up and over to the door, in no particular hurry at all. Let them wait. Upon opening it, she confirmed her suspicions: Mac and Celeste stood on the doorstep, fists raised to continue their pounding. Rather than say anything, they just blinked at her. Rory wasn’t sure if the cause of their stupefaction was her appearance or the fact that she had given in so easily. Well, if they could be silent, so could she.

Rory turned and walked back to the sofa, curling back up into the still-warm body-print that she had made over the past few days. The girls followed her inside and shut the door behind them before coming to sit in her living room.

“So, you don’t really look over him.” Ever tactful, Celeste started the ball rolling. “And don’t tell me you were never
under
him because no one looking at you now would ever believe that,” she said scornfully.

“I wasn’t going to deny it.” Rory’s voice came out rusty even to her own ears. Had it been so long since she had used it?

“You were certainly denying it the other night. ‘We’re like cats in a bag together. It would never work.’” Celeste mocked her in a voice that was an annoyingly accurate impersonation of her own.

“Celeste.” Mac stepped up before Celeste’s palpable frustration boiled over. She directed her next words at Rory. “Honey, we’re just confused about what’s going on here. First, you hate him and say that no one can be with him. Then you’re hooking up with him in Grant’s office. Which I would have paid good money to walk in on, mind you. Then he’s walking out all stoic-like and you follow him in a teary rush a minute later. Now neither one of you will talk to anyone.”

“It’s… complicated.” Rory’s voice broke and she had to leave it at that.

Celeste had no such problems. “We’re reasonably intelligent women, so
un
-complicate it for us.”

Rory drew in a deep breath and tried to figure out where to start. “We’ve been sort of seeing each other for a few weeks now.”

“What does ‘sort of seeing each other’ mean?” Apparently Celeste wasn’t going to give her any sympathy.

“Sleeping together,” Rory snapped.

That put both women back on their heels. “Rory, that’s so not like you,” Mac said with raised eyebrows.

“You’re right—it’s so not like me to have a man like Noah want me. Which is why I didn’t tell you.”

Mac moved to sit next to Rory on the sofa and put her arm around her shoulders. “Of course he wants you. You’re sweet and wonderful and smart and he’d be lucky to have you,” she said loyally.

“Blah, blah, blah. Sure, I’m all those things—but I’m not gorgeous like you, or sexy like Celeste. Jaws don’t drop when I walk in the room.”

“Ha!” Celeste scoffed. “Then it must have been someone else that carried on a secret affair with one of the hottest guys we know. It must have been some other hussy that got caught doing what could only be termed as
unspeakable acts
in Grant’s office. A room that not even I have gotten to christen yet, mind you.”

Rory considered her words for a moment. She certainly had come a long way, but not long enough apparently. “There’s more.”

“Of course there is.” Celeste stood up and went to the kitchen. There was a lot of rattling and a little cursing until she reappeared with three juice glasses and an old bottle of brandy given to Rory as a Christmas gift years ago. “This is the only booze I could find and you look like you need it.”

Rory shrugged. “I drank everything else.”

Celeste laughed and poured them all healthy doses of the stuff before sitting down again and gesturing that Rory should continue. Rory felt her first smile in days. Trust Celeste to put everything to rights in her own way.

“These past few weeks haven’t been the first time Noah and I have hooked up.” She used her glass to gesture to Mac. “Before you and John first got together, Noah and I did.”

It was Mac’s turn to clarify. “Please define ‘hooked up.’”

“Made out, light petting, over-the-clothes action with the promise of more. Again in a semi-public place: a house party we were both at.”

Celeste raised her glass in salute to Rory’s daring. “So what happened?”

“Nothing. We were all at The Lucky Stripe the next night and I go up to him thinking things are great, and he just shuts me down. Totally ignores me.”

“What a jackass!” Mac breathed.

Rory winced. “It’s not quite that simple. I mean, it was kind of a jackass thing to do, but he had somewhat of a reason. Remember when I went out with Greg Francis?”

Celeste squinted as if trying to form a mental picture. “Vaguely. Sort of. Not really.”

“We went out twice and he tried to molest me against the front door and I never saw him after that.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“He’s a friend of Noah’s. And the night that we hooked up, Greg told Noah that he and I were dating. So Noah thought that I was screwing around on his friend and…”

“Gave you the cold shoulder the next day,” Mac finished. “You guys are like star-crossed lovers.”

“Yeah, except I don’t understand what’s keeping you apart now,” Celeste chimed in.

“Mostly my stupidity I think. But it’s hard to tell,” Rory admitted.

“So we know what happened back then. Why were you stupid this time?” Mac raised her hands as Rory began to protest. “Fine,
he
was stupid last time. Happy?”

“We hooked up again around the barbecue you and John threw last month.”

“How long around?”

“Um, before, during, and after.”

Mac pumped her fist triumphantly. “So you
were
the girl Noah was with at the party! I knew it! God, can John keep a secret!”

Celeste scoffed. “The only reason you
knew
it
was because I told you my suspicions about these two a long time ago.”

Rory looked at them both through wide eyes. “Are you kidding me? Both of you knew about me and Noah?”

“Oh, not definitively. But the air around you guys is so thick when you’re together, we figured it would be just a matter of time.” Mac shrugged.

“If it was so obvious to everyone else, why didn’t anyone tell me?”

“Like you would have believed us. You obviously have this, ‘He’s too good for me’ refrain going around in your head. You can’t even see that the man is in love with you,” Celeste said.

Rory’s head snapped up. “Did he tell you that?”

“No, but I’d put money on it. You didn’t see his face when we caught you two the other night. When you started lying about being with him, it was like you’d stabbed him in the heart. And there were other signs…”

“What other signs?” Rory demanded.

“Back before I found out that Grant was my mystery texter and we started dating, I thought it was Noah, remember?”

Rory nodded.

“Well, one night at The Lucky Stripe I just came out and asked Noah if he had sent them. He denied it, of course. But he said some things about love that really made me think.”

“What kind of things?” Rory was glad Mac had asked the question because her throat felt too tight to speak.

“Like that when you find someone who is important, who you could love, that it’s worth a little embarrassment.” Celeste raised a brow at her.

“He didn’t say that.”

She put her hand up as if taking an oath. “I swear. He certainly did. Mostly it was to make me feel better since I felt like an ass for asking if he was sending me dirty texts when he wasn’t. But I think the point applies here as well.” She was silent for a few moments, letting Rory absorb what she had said. “Face it, kiddo, he’s in love with you.”

Rory thought back on everything he had said over the past few weeks. And, more importantly, everything he had done: comforted her, asked to take her out to nice restaurants where they could be seen together, took care of her when she was sick, and, oh yeah, made her feel like a sex goddess.

And what had she done in return? Lied and made him feel unwanted.

Rory dropped her head in her hands and groaned. “Oh, my God.” Mac patted her shoulder comfortingly until Rory was able to lift her face. “What am I going to do? He won’t answer any of my calls, or texts, or emails. I think I screwed it up too bad this time.”

Celeste grinned at her. “Well, I happen to know exactly where he is. The Lucky Stripe. He’s been sitting at the bar almost non-stop since Friday night.”

Rory abruptly stood up, already looking for her purse. If nothing else, she could at least apologize to him face to face. Celeste stood up as well and moved to block her way. “Hey, whoa there! Where do you think you’re going?”

“To talk to Noah.”

Celeste shook her head. “Not smelling like that you’re not. Let’s not show him the worst-case scenario just as you’re asking to get together with him.”

Rory realized her friend was right. She had been a mess for days now and was certainly not looking her best. Noah, she felt sure, would be able to overlook her appearance if he could forgive her. But there was no reason to run around scaring the populace. Plus she would need a little extra time, anyway. She had an idea that would need a little time to execute.

Rory turned to her friends and put her hands out to her sides. “Clearly I need help. I’m in your hands.”

Mac and Celeste looked at each other before making their first suggestion in unison: “Shower.”

***

Rory rubbed her hands on the dress that Mac and Celeste had bullied her into as she walked into The Lucky Stripe. Her palms were sweating like crazy and she could barely catch her breath. She sincerely hoped that Noah was still there and willing to listen to her for just a minute. Of course, she also hoped that, after he’d listened to her, he’d be willing to forgive her. But she knew that was asking for a lot. Maybe too much.

She peered into the back of the bar where the pool tables were, looking for Noah as she walked deeper into the room. Celeste and Mac followed behind her and grabbed seats at a small table, presumably so they could watch the action. Rory didn’t begrudge them the view. If only she had been straight with them from the start about what was going on with Noah, they may have been able to talk her out of her disastrous plans to keep him at arm’s length. And they had certainly done a Cinderella job on getting her ready to try to get him back. They’d even cleaned up her apartment a little while she had been in the shower.

Rory ventured further into the room, looking all over for his familiar blond hair, but not finding him. She was beginning to worry that he had gone home and that she had missed her chance. Already balanced pretty precariously, her emotions took a nosedive and she had to steel herself against running back to the parking lot. She had to be better than this. She had to be brave. It was her turn, after all.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Grant wiping up at the end of the bar closest to her. He would know if Noah was in the building. As she got closer to him, he looked up and smiled at her.

“Hey, Rory. How are you doing?” She smiled back at him and slipped onto the bar stool across from him. She had always liked Grant and really appreciated how cool he was being. Especially considering that the last time he had seen her, she had been fresh from defiling his office.

“I’m doing pretty well. I’m actually looking for Noah. Have you seen him?”

Grant looked up from wiping the bar and stared at her. “Only every second of this weekend. He’s down there.” He nodded towards the end of the bar where Noah was drinking alone. He looked so handsome that she caught her breath. Grant continued on, “I don’t know what happened between you two, but he’s been miserable ever since the other night. I mean, I’m all for drinking your cares away, it’s a chief cornerstone of my business, you know—but he’s just been taking it to the next level. I would really be grateful if you could fix whatever’s wrong and then get him out of my bar. He’s really depressing the other regulars.”

Rory laughed and tried not to feel heartened. She felt terrible that he had been so miserable, but so had she and she was glad she’d had company. She nodded at Grant and then walked down to where Noah was sitting. She thought he might have seen her coming but he didn’t acknowledge her when she sat down next to him.

“Hey, Noah.”

Noah picked up his beer and took a deep drink. “Rory. Are you sure you want to be seen sitting next to me? People might get the wrong idea about us.”