The Game Changer (13 page)

“Can I get you anything else?” the waitress asked Julian.

“No, I’m good, thanks,” he said, shooting her a quick glance before his eyes returned to Melody. “Mel?”

She shook her head when the waitress gave her an icy stare.

“All right, well, I’ll be back to check on you,” she told Julian. She stood there for a moment longer, smiling expectantly, then shot Melody another hard look before walking away.

“Yeesh,” Melody muttered, pulling her plate forward and picking up her fork.

Julian let out a long breath. “She does that every time I’m in here,” he said quietly, glancing up to make sure the girl was out of earshot. “I sit over here on purpose because her section is on the far side, but she always sends Robbie on her break so she has an excuse to talk to me. I’d stop coming here altogether if it wasn’t for Robbie.”

“She’s not your type?” Melody asked, taking a bite of her omelet. She almost groaned with pleasure as soft egg and gooey cheese hit her tongue.

“Well she’s too young, for starters,” Julian said, stabbing a fried potato with his fork. “And I don’t really have a ‘type’ per se. It’s more about a connection for me.”

Melody wondered what kind of connection he meant. Her guess was the physical kind, but she supposed she could be wrong. She had a feeling Julian was the male version of Olivia—they were both looking for a good time without commitment or attachments.

“Maybe now she’ll finally get the hint,” Julian said, drawing Melody out of her thoughts.

“Why’s that?”

“I’ve never come in here with anyone before,” Julian said, his tone almost conspiratorial.

“Never?”

He shook his head.

“Well that explains the icy stare, anyway,” Melody said. “She thinks I’m competition.” The thought of it almost made her laugh out loud.

“Am I bad for thinking it’s funny that she was jealous?” Julian asked, his eyes twinkling.

Melody did laugh now. “Not at all. I’ve never had anyone be jealous of me before, so it’s definitely amusing to me.”

He chuckled. “I’m sure that’s not true.”

“No, it is,” Melody said matter-of-factly. “And I’m not saying that to get your sympathy or because I feel sorry for myself or want you to boost my ego. I’ve been best friends with Olivia almost my whole life, and she’s the one people have always been jealous of. Guys were jealous of the other guys who paid her attention, and girls were jealous because she was beautiful and rich and seemed to have it all.”

“Seemed to?” Julian asked, cocking his head.

Melody was surprised—and impressed, if she was being honest—that he had picked up on that. “Yeah. She was beautiful and rich and lived in a fancy house and had nice clothes, so of course people assumed she had it all. But nobody ever bothered to get to know her well enough to see that her dad gave her money instead of attention, and her mother would rather be shopping or having an affair than be with her family.”

Julian nodded slowly. “Appearances can definitely be deceiving,” he said. He met her gaze, and Melody had the feeling he might be talking about himself.

She cringed inwardly. Where Julian was concerned, she had been just as bad as those girls in high school who had made assumptions and jumped to conclusions about Olivia’s life. “I guess that’s why they have that saying about asses and assuming,” she said.

Julian laughed quietly. “I guess so. Sometimes people are right, though. Guess it just depends.”

Melody nodded. She tensed up when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye and thought it was the auburn-haired waitress returning.

“Sorry about that, guys,” Robbie said, rolling her eyes. “Ashley grabbed your plates before I could get to them. I hope she didn’t bug you too much.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Julian said, smiling at her warmly.

“I don’t know if you’ll have to worry about her bugging you anymore anyway,” Robbie said, trying to contain a giddy grin. “She came back into the kitchen fuming about you being with a girl, and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s his new girlfriend’.” Robbie covered her mouth with her hand, but a giggle escaped despite her efforts to hold it back.

Melody bit her lip and looked at Julian, who was watching her with a small smile. “You’re devious,” he said to Robbie, his smile growing. “And I love it.”

Robbie’s giggles were infectious, and Melody found herself laughing along. “I aim to please,” Robbie said with a little bow. “I’ll be back with more coffee for you in a sec.”

“I might have to call you to meet me every time I want to come here for a meal,” Julian said when Robbie was gone.

“I somehow don’t think the thought of you having a girlfriend is going to stop…Ashley, was it? She seems like the persistent sort.”

“Oh, she is,” Julian agreed. “It’s been three months and she still hasn’t gotten the hint that I’m not interested. Still…would it be so bad to hang out with me once in awhile?”

Melody couldn’t tell if he was serious or not. “Oh. I don’t know…” She knew she shouldn’t assume anything, but she still couldn’t get over the idea of him as a womanizer. She pictured him going through a different woman every night of the week, and she didn’t want to be some conquest for him.

“Remember what I said before: appearances can be deceiving,” Julian said quietly. “Just to prove to you that I’m not a dog, I say we should be friends. Completely platonic. People think guys and girls can’t just be friends, but I say we prove them wrong.”

Melody looked at him, bemused.
Friends?

“That is, of course, unless you don’t think you can keep your hands off me.” There was that cocky grin again. Melody didn’t want to be attracted to him, but she was. She didn’t want him to know it, though, and she felt like he was daring her. She had never been one to turn down a dare. Plus, if she was completely honest with herself, the idea was rather appealing. She’d never really had any guy friends before.

“I think I can resist the temptation,” she said dryly. “If you can.”

“Ahh, touché.” His grin morphed from cocky to pleased. “I think I can manage. No promises, though.” He held out his hand, and she placed hers in his, trying desperately to ignore the tingles that ran through her at the contact.

With her hand in his, Julian pulled her forward so their faces were close. “I have a pretty good idea what you think of me,” he said softly. “And I’m not saying you’re wrong. But if we’re going to be friends, I want you to know I take that seriously.”

Rendered speechless, Melody simply nodded. There was an intensity about Julian, something in his eyes and lying under the surface of his calm demeanor, but his words struck something inside her. She believed him.

When she remained silent, Julian’s lips twitched. “If we’re going to be friends, you’ll have to get over your nervousness around me.”

Melody yanked her hand from his and shoved his shoulder. “Get over yourself!” she said, and he laughed.

CHAPTER 8

When they left the diner, Julian offered to walk Melody home. She told him it wasn’t necessary because she just lived a few minutes away, but he insisted. They exchanged phone numbers before parting ways in front of Green Pea’s, and when Melody got upstairs she wasn’t surprised to find Olivia still asleep in her bed.

She was unsure what to do with herself now. She was used to being alone on Sunday afternoons and cleaning or running errands, but Olivia had taken care of that. Even when she and Rick were together, she usually spent Sundays alone because he visited his parents, claiming it was the only day they were free. Once a month or so, she was invited to their place for Sunday dinner; after three years, Melody thought it might become a weekly occurrence, but it never did. Obviously they knew what she hadn’t—Rick didn’t see a future for them, so why bother getting to know her?

“I never liked them anyway,” Melody murmured to herself, flopping onto the couch. Pompous and stuffy like their son, the Whites treated Rick like a golden boy, spoiling him and acting like he could do no wrong. Melody wondered what they would think of Sydney, and grinned rather evilly as she pictured Rick taking her home to meet the folks, with Sydney in a dress like the one she’d worn the night before.

Chuckling to herself at the image, Melody rose to go check on Olivia. It was something she had been doing the last nine years, ever since they’d turned nineteen and could drink legally. She always made sure Olivia was still breathing, like a new mother would do with an infant. Melody didn’t know why she still did it; even though she knew Olivia was okay, it had become a habit.

Olivia was sprawled in the middle of the bed on her back. Her hair was fanned out around her head in a tangled mess. Leaning in the doorway, watching Olivia’s chest rise and fall, Melody realized she had been lonely for a long time. It was something she was aware of at times—late at night when she couldn’t sleep, or on Sundays when she had nobody to spend time with—but she always tried to push the thought to the back of her mind and forget it. It was easier that way.

The same way it was easier to push aside thoughts of Rick not being right for her. Had she really been so desperate to ward off the loneliness that she had spent—no,
wasted
—three years of her life with Rick? And what had she accomplished? She was still lonely, it was just a different kind of lonely. They didn’t spend as much time together as most normal couples, but she enjoyed having him around, and appreciated his company. She couldn’t remember why now.

Things felt different since Olivia’s return to Bellevue. It hadn’t even been a week, but Melody felt that lonely little piece of herself fading, and not just to the back of her mind. She had always imagined living with Rick and having someone to come home to; having someone around to share her life with, good and bad. Now she had that, even if it wasn’t what she had expected or imagined. It was comforting knowing that Olivia would be there when she got home, and that she finally had someone to talk to, laugh with, and spend time with.

“You’re being creepy,” Olivia said, her voice hoarse from sleep. “Why are you standing there watching me sleep?”

Melody couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up in her throat. “My mind was wandering.” She stepped into the room and sat on her side of the bed.

Olivia’s eyes slipped closed again, and Melody was about to get up and change back into her pajamas when Olivia said, “Are you ever going to feed me?”

*****

Melody soon discovered that not only would she never be lonely with Olivia around, she would also never be bored. Her best friend had boundless energy and enthusiasm. She got up every morning to make sure Melody ate a balanced breakfast before work, then sent her off like a mother sends a child to school.

She met her for lunch every afternoon, either bringing something she’d made or treating Melody to lunch in the café downstairs, depending on her mood. When Melody returned home each afternoon, Olivia was working on one project or another. She had picked up scrapbooking—“Not as a job, of course, just a hobby. I can afford to have hobbies now,” she’d told Melody.

On the Thursday of Olivia’s second week in town, she suggested they meet in the café for lunch. Angelica had joined them twice that week, but she had a lunchtime appointment that day.

At noon, Melody made her way from her third floor office down the stairs to the main level of the big building. She said hello to the owner of the café, Kevin, as she passed the front counter and wound her way through the tables and chairs to the back where she and Olivia always sat.

She froze when their table came into view; instead of Olivia sitting there, she found Julian. She hadn’t heard from him all week, and wasn’t able to work up the nerve to call him herself. She wasn’t sure why—they had agreed to be friends, after all—but he still made her nervous for whatever reason. And, despite how seemingly serious and sincere he had seemed at Becky’s Diner, she still wasn’t entirely sure he really meant for them to be friends.

“Hey,” Julian said with a warm smile when he saw her. He stood to greet her, and when she reached the table, he gave her a one-armed hug and a peck on the cheek. “Great to see you.”

“Umm, you too,” Melody said.

Julian scoffed, a look of mock hurt on his face. “I know you think my ego doesn’t need any more boosting, but I’d hoped for a little more than that.”

“Sorry.” Melody slid into the chair Julian pulled out for her. “I just wasn’t expecting to see you, that’s all.” She didn’t bring up the fact that she hadn’t heard from him all week. She didn’t want to be that girl who smacked of desperation and neediness after a guy was nice to her. “I’m meeting Olivia for lunch.”