The Game Changer (15 page)

“Ooh, I like it! As long as I can keep the chandelier,” Olivia said.

Melody glanced at Julian, who had finished setting the table, and was now standing watching the two with a look of amusement on his face. “Don’t mind me,” he said. “Please, carry on. I’ll throw out any decorating ideas if they come to me.”

Melody laughed. “We weren’t trying to ignore you. We’re just used to it being the two of us.”

“No worries.” He picked up the wine bottle and began pouring three glasses. “It’s kind of entertaining, actually.”

“Glad we can amuse you,” Olivia said, stepping into the dining alcove and setting a covered serving dish on the table. “Voila.” She removed the lid. “Guinness, steak, and mushroom stew. I have to get the mashed potatoes and carrots, I’ll be right back.”

Melody’s mouth watered as the scent of the stew wafted toward her. She peered into the dish to see the thick, dark gravy, chunks of meat, and button mushrooms.

“Mel, I know we don’t use the table often, but generally people
sit
at it to eat, not stand around it,” Olivia said, returning with two more serving dishes balanced in her hands.

“Har har,” Melody said dryly as she grabbed one of the dishes from Olivia and placed it on the table. “I was just mesmerized by the smell. You’ve outdone yourself, Liv.”

“You really didn’t have to go to all this trouble,” Julian said, taking the other serving dish and setting it on the table.

Olivia beamed. “It was no trouble, I love doing it. Now sit, let’s eat!”

CHAPTER 9

During dinner Melody began to think that being friends with Julian might be easier than she’d originally thought. She was finally able to relax and enjoy his company. He was funny, intelligent, articulate, and a good listener.

He seemed to prefer to ask questions or talk about his business rather than get into much detail about his personal life, but they did find out he was an only child originally from Ottawa, and he’d started his first internet business when he was twenty-three.

After dinner, Julian offered to help Melody with the clean-up while Olivia showered and got dressed. Standing side by side, Melody washing dishes and Julian drying, they were silent for the first time that night. Melody felt at ease as they got into a rhythm; he was standing close, their hips and hands occasionally brushing as he moved to take a dish from her. It felt right, like they had done this a thousand times before.

“This is a really great place,” Julian commented. He spoke quietly, as if he was afraid of startling her after the long silence. “I knew a lot of these old buildings had lofts above them, but I had no idea they’d be this nice.”

“A lot of them aren’t,” Melody said. “I think of this place as a hidden jewel; most people don’t even know it’s here. A few of the buildings across the street have multiple apartments, and they’re really run down and nasty.”

“How’d you find this place?” Julian asked.

“Olivia and I spent a lot of time down in Green Pea’s during high school, and we got to know the owner pretty well. He and his wife lived here for awhile, got it all fixed up, but then decided they wanted to buy a house. He mentioned it to me one day when I was in the store, and I was about to start looking for a place of my own anyway, so it was perfect. That was ten years ago.”

“Serendipitous,” Julian said with a small grin. “It looks like something you’d see in a movie set in New York City, you know?”

“That’s exactly what I’ve always thought. New York or Paris or London, or one of the other places I’ve always wanted to visit but have only seen on TV and in movies. I love it.”

Julian dried the last dish Melody handed him and put the cloth over the oven handle to dry. “You mentioned at dinner that you’re really close to your mom. If you went to college in town, why didn’t you just live at home?”

“It’s…complicated,” Melody said. That was usually code for ‘I don’t want to talk about it’, but the way Julian cocked his head to the side and gazed at her imploringly, she felt like she could tell him anything. “Let’s have another glass of wine and sit down.”

“Oh, it’s one of
those
stories, is it?” Julian asked.

Melody chuckled. “It’s not really that bad, but if I want to do any dancing tonight, I need to get off my feet.” She opened a new bottle of wine, took two of the freshly washed glasses from the counter, and led the way into the living room.

“My mom and I
are
incredibly close,” she said, uncorking the wine and pouring it. “And I actually planned to live with her during college to save some money, but…well, she started dating this guy I really hated, and…” Melody stopped. She felt flustered all of a sudden, and she sank back into the couch, resting her head against the soft fabric.

“I hated him,” she continued. “He was all wrong for her. She accused me of not liking him simply because he wasn’t my father, but that wasn’t true at all. She didn’t date for years after my dad died, but when she started, I was fine with it. She was still relatively young, and I wanted her to be happy. It’s just this guy…” Her upper lip curled in distaste, and she shook her head. “He wasn’t good enough for her. He used her, and didn’t treat her the way she deserved to be treated, but she just couldn’t see it. I couldn’t stand to be around them, so I moved out.”

Melody stared straight ahead. Olivia was the only other person who knew why she’d moved out all those years ago. Other people had asked her the same question, but she always told them it was because she wanted her independence, or she wanted her mother to have freedom to live her own life.

Julian’s warm hand on her arm surprised her. She angled her head to look at him, and felt completely exposed by the sympathetic look in his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

All she could do was stare at him. Finally, she shook her head again and attempted a small smile. “It’s okay. Everything’s fine now. I think my mom thought I was bluffing about moving out, but when I found this place and started packing up my stuff, she was so upset. But she let me go, and she ended up dating that guy for another six months or so. When he pushed her to live together, she finally came to her senses.”

“And you guys obviously got back on track,” Julian said.

“It took awhile, but yeah, we did. She felt horrible. She said she was blinded by love, or what she
thought
was love.” Melody shrugged. “Funny thing is, I ended up making the exact same mistake a few years later. You’d think I would have learned from her mistakes.”

“Love makes you stupid,” Julian said. His eyes shifted out of focus, like his thoughts had wandered away from the conversation. When he noticed Melody watching him, his eyes refocused and he smiled slightly.

“Speaking from experience?” Melody asked.

“Something like that.”

“All right cupcakes, I’m back!” Olivia announced, sashaying into the room and effectively ending their conversation. “Hope you didn’t miss me too much.” She cocked an eyebrow at Melody as if to ask if everything was okay, and Melody nodded. “How do I look?” She spun around so the hem of her dark emerald dress flared out at the knees.

“Gorgeous, as always,” Melody said, using Julian’s shoulder to leverage herself off the couch. “Now you can keep Mr. Reynolds here company while I get ready.”

She headed into the bathroom, where she pulled her air-dried waves into a loose up do and pinned it with jewel-tipped bobby pins. Examining her face in the mirror, she replayed Julian’s words in her mind.
Love makes you stupid
. So true, in both good ways and bad.

She knew people who became more daring and adventurous when in love—the sky was the limit, and love made them stupid in the best way possible. She would put her parents in that category; right up until her dad died, her parents had been madly in love, always touching each other, whispering things when they thought no one was paying attention, and then laughing at some shared secret, their eyes shining with adoration. Melody and her sister had always fake gagged when their parents were being overly cutesy or affectionate, but Melody secretly loved it and wished that someday she’d have a relationship like that.

So far, that hadn’t been the case. She’d been at the other end of the stupid spectrum, the bad end. She’d only ever been in love with Rick, and it had never been that butterflies-in-the-stomach, sunshine-and-roses kind of love. They had met, dated, and slowly fallen in love, but there had never been any fireworks. He didn’t find any excuse to touch her the way her father had with her mother. He didn’t kiss her hello and goodbye, or whisper sweet, secret words in her ear while they were out with friends.

Melody was smart enough to know that sometimes that’s just how love was. It wasn’t always wonderful and romantic, and not every love story had a happily ever after. But
god
, she wanted a happily ever after. She’d never been the type of woman who needed a man, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t
want
one.

The sound of Olivia’s laughter from the other room drew her back to the present, and she continued getting ready, layering eye shadow and applying eyeliner and mascara the way Olivia had shown her. With her hair and makeup done, she slipped down the hall into her bedroom and rummaged through the contents of her closet.

When Olivia had returned her clothes after purging many of her older pieces and altering some of the others, she had organized everything—work clothes were now separated from casual clothes, which were separated from evening wear. Having Olivia around definitely had its advantages.

Melody decided on a coral-coloured dress Angelica had helped her pick the week before. She wriggled into it and stepped in front of the full-length mirror behind her door. Satisfied with her appearance, she returned to the living room, where Olivia and Julian were talking.

Julian let out a low whistle upon seeing her, and Olivia joined in with a louder wolf whistle of her own. Laughing with pleasure and a bit of embarrassment, Melody did a quick little curtsy. “I take it this meets your approval?”

“Absolutely,” Julian said.

“Most definitely. Prepare to fend off guys all night long,” Olivia said. “Now get your shoes on. We thought we’d get an early start, so Julian called the taxi already. He said things usually get started a little earlier on Friday nights.”

On the cab ride to Atlantis, Olivia declared they should set some ground rules for the evening. They agreed that Julian didn’t have to stick with them the entire night, but he promised he’d always keep an eye on them in case Sydney showed up and made any more threats to Melody. Olivia decided it should be a ‘free night’, which Melody explained to Julian meant they were free to go home with whoever they wanted. Melody had been wondering how long it would take Olivia to get restless and need the company of a man.

“And everyone has to promise to clear things with each other,” Olivia said as the taxi pulled up in front of Atlantis. “We can’t leave without letting each other know.”

They agreed, Julian paid the cab driver, and the three of them climbed out of the car to wait in line outside the club.

*****

“I think I found who I’m going home with tonight.”

It was several hours later, and Melody and Olivia were on the dance floor. They had each danced with a few guys, and Julian had even joined them for a few songs, but so far there had been no serious developments.

Until now, apparently.

“Where?” Melody looked around, catching sight of Julian at the bar talking to a woman.

“Just over your right shoulder,” Olivia said. “Dark blond hair, tall, broad chest.”

Melody took Olivia’s hand and spun her to the music, ending up where Olivia had been standing a second before so she could see without being too obvious. She found the guy Olivia was talking about, and when he saw her, he smiled and nodded in her direction. Returning his smile, she twirled Olivia back to her original spot and looked at her with wide eyes. “He’s seriously hot,” she said. “You should go for it.”

“You think so?” Olivia’s gaze was trained over Melody’s shoulder, and she smiled and gave a little wave. “He’s coming over,” Olivia said, squeezing Melody’s hand.

Melody had a vivid flashback to their high school days when Olivia would get so excited over a boy, she’d squeeze Melody’s hand until Melody was sure the bones were going to pop out of joint.

He approached them and said hello, bending slightly to be heard over the music. Melody was envious of Olivia’s sudden calm demeanor as she said hello and introduced the two of them.