The Game Changer (8 page)

“But that’s clearly what he wanted,” Melody said. “To go home with someone. And I’m just not that girl. It’s fine for you to do that, but I just can’t.”

Olivia looked like she wanted to ask why, but she didn’t. She knew why. Melody wasn’t the one night stand type. She wanted love and monogamy and just plain
more
from someone than a heated night of passion, and a quick, impersonal goodbye.

“I know.” Olivia sighed and drained the rest of her drink. She looked past Melody, and her eyebrows drew together over narrowed eyes. Before Melody could turn around to see where she was gazing, Olivia nudged her with her foot. “Look.”

Melody looked in the direction Olivia inclined her head. Julian was talking to a pretty redhead, and unlike with the blond, he actually appeared interested. After a few minutes of conversation, the pair stood, and Julian led the woman toward the archway, his hand planted firmly on the small of her back. They paused when they reached the opening to the main part of the club, and Julian said something in the woman’s ear. She nodded, pressing a kiss to his cheek, and flashing him a seductive smile before carrying on through the archway.

Without looking at Melody or Olivia, Julian returned to the bar, had a short conversation with the bartender, then placed several bills down on the bar. Turning, he glanced toward the girls’ table, gave them a smile and a nod, and disappeared in the direction the redhead had gone.

Melody and Olivia remained speechless through this whole scene, watching Julian as if mesmerized by his every movement.

“See?” Melody said, feeling slightly deflated. “Guess it wasn’t really me he was interested in after all. Anyone would do.”

Olivia gave Melody a sympathetic look. “Ready to go, then?”

Before Melody could answer, the bartender appeared at their table with two fresh cocktails. “Compliments of the gentleman who just left. He said it was nice to meet you both and he hopes to see you here again.”

Olivia couldn’t keep the grin from her face as the bartender left. “Hmm. I don’t know many guys who would send drinks to a woman who shot him down. Maybe it was more than just a passing interest after all.”

Melody felt the corners of her lips curve upward. “Maybe,” she said casually, shrugging and holding up her glass. “Cheers.”

CHAPTER 5

Melody was surprised the next morning when neither she nor Olivia appeared to be all that hung over. She had lost count of the number of drinks Olivia bought them throughout the night, plus the drink Julian sent before leaving.

She and Olivia met mid-morning in the kitchen. It hadn’t even been a week, but they’d already fallen into a routine. Olivia started the coffee while Melody poured them each a glass of orange juice. While the coffee was percolating, Olivia would blurt out what she wanted for breakfast, and Melody would either agree or veto the idea before suggesting something else. The slightly bizarre morning ritual worked for them, and harkened back to their days of high school sleepovers.

That morning they agreed on pancakes, so Olivia the maybe-chef slipped her apron on over her pajamas and set to work making peanut butter banana chocolate chip pancakes from scratch. Melody was skeptical about the combination, but once the batter hit the sizzling frying pan and the smell found its way to her on the other side of the kitchen island, her stomach began growling loudly.

When they were seated at the small kitchen table, their forks poised over syrup-soaked pancakes, Olivia sighed and looked at Melody with her brow furrowed.

“I have to tell you something.”

“What’s wrong?” A dozen different thoughts flitted through Melody’s mind. Olivia wasn’t happy living here…she wanted to go back to Toronto…she didn’t enjoy living with Melody, but wanted to stay in Bellevue…

“I saw Rick at Atlantis last night,” Olivia said.

“Rick? M-my…” She was about to say ‘my Rick’ before she remembered he was no longer her anything. “At Atlantis? Are you sure?”

“I wasn’t at first.” Olivia cut a bite of pancake and popped it into her mouth. She chewed so slowly that Melody wanted to throttle her. “But then I saw him a second time and I was sure it was him. I just didn’t really recognize him. He looked…different. He was dressed kinda like Julian, only you
knew
Julian’s clothes were designer and Rick’s clearly weren’t. Ever the cheapskate.”

She paused, and Melody made a ‘keep going’ motion with her hand.

“Well…he was…there was…” She let out a frustrated sigh that Melody echoed. “He was with a woman.”

Melody’s stomach turned sour, and she dropped her fork onto her plate with a clatter. “Are you sure?” she asked again, her voice unnaturally high.

Olivia scrunched up her face and nodded. She looked like she wanted to crawl under the table and hide from Melody’s intense stare. “I’m so sorry, Mel. I didn’t even want to tell you, but I also didn’t want you to run into him and find out on your own.”

Melody nodded slowly. Needing something to do with her hands, she took a sip of her coffee, barely feeling the scalding liquid as it burned down her throat. “A woman. He was with a woman. We broke up, like, two seconds ago, and he’s already dating?”

Olivia reached across the table and put a soothing hand over Melody’s, then jerked it back when Melody started to laugh. The sound was borderline maniacal. “I could have gone home last night with the hottest guy
ever
, but I
didn’t
, partly because it felt like it was too soon and I didn’t want to disrespect what Rick and I had by moving on so quickly, even if it
was
just meaningless sex. But then he…already…this is unbelievable!”

“Oh god, I wish I hadn’t told you,” Olivia groaned, leaning her elbows on the table and rubbing her temples.

“No, no, I’m glad you did. It’s fine. Really.” The nearly hysterical tone of her voice didn’t do much to convince Olivia she was fine. Seeing Olivia’s wide, worried eyes when she raised her head, Melody said, “Okay, I’m not fine, but I’ll
be
fine. It’s just…a shock. He really is a dick.”

Olivia ducked her head, but Melody caught the grin she was attempting to hide.

“I think we should go back to Atlantis tonight,” Melody said, her appetite suddenly returning. She pulled her plate toward her and dug into her pancakes with gusto.

“Tonight?”

“Mm-hmm. We had a blast, didn’t we? Maybe Rick will be there and I can show him that he’s not the only one moving on. Or even better, maybe
Julian
will be there, and I can find the courage to do what I didn’t do last night.”

“You mean go home with him and have crazy, sweaty sex?” Olivia looked at Melody through lowered lashes, covering her smirk by stuffing a bite of pancake into her mouth.

“Yes. Exactly.” They both knew it was a lie, but they let it go, and began planning what to wear that night.

*****

“My mother is driving me crazy!” Angelica said by way of greeting when Melody picked up the phone late that afternoon. “She won’t leave me alone. She keeps asking when I’m moving home, or why I can’t find a job that pays better, or why I have to live in a city like Bellevue when I could live in Kingston, or when am I going to meet a nice man. I’m losing it, Mel!”

That was the most Melody had ever heard Angelica say at one time. She sounded frazzled, like a live wire buzzing with electricity.

“I’m sorry, Ang,” Melody said slowly, not exactly sure how to react to the outburst. “How much longer is she staying?”

Angelica let out a long sigh on the other end of the line. “That’s the thing. She called her boss and asked for some time off, so now she’s staying an extra night, and wants to spend Monday together before heading back to Kingston. I have this awful feeling it’s going to stretch past Monday, though. I love my mother, Mel, but there’s a reason I moved an hour away.”

Melody thought of her own mother, less than ten minutes away. They lived in the same city but rarely saw each other lately, because Mrs. Cartwright was raising Melody’s ten-year-old niece, Ava. Melody’s older sister, Jackie, who had moved to Ottawa before Melody graduated from high school, had always been into things she shouldn’t be—drugs, alcohol, partying—and after an incident where Ava was left alone overnight, Children’s Aid had finally stepped in and taken her away.

Melody’s mom had been trying to get custody of Ava for years, and after extensive paperwork, Ava was finally able to move from Ottawa to Bellevue to live with her Grandmother. Because Jackie and Ava had lived in Ottawa and Melody didn’t have a car, she had only seen her niece a few times in the last decade. That made her practically a stranger, so as much as she wanted to help her mother and support Ava, Mrs. Cartwright didn’t think it was a good idea until Ava settled in and got used to her new life. Mrs. Cartwright said the young girl had more than her fair share of emotional issues, and they were working through them with a child psychologist.

Melody blinked her eyes quickly, fighting back the moisture that threatened to spill over her lids. She and her mother had always been close, and Melody wanted more than anything to be there for her. But she understood mother issues—after all, Olivia’s mom brought new meaning to the words absentee mother. Shaking herself from her thoughts, Melody perched on a kitchen stool and took a cookie from the covered plate on the island.

“Olivia and I are going out again tonight,” she told Angelica, examining the cookie and trying to figure out what kind it was. “I know you said you couldn’t go last night because of your mom, but you’re twenty-five and living on your own, surely she can’t expect you to stay in with her the entire weekend.”

“Actually, she can and
does
expect that,” Angelica said with a bitter laugh. “But she’s usually in bed by nine or ten, and then I have to find quiet things to do so I don’t wake her up.”

“Well there you go,” Melody said, waving to Olivia as she walked down the hall. She covered the receiver and whispered, “It’s Angelica. I’ve invited her out with us tonight, is that okay?”

“Of course.” Olivia plucked the uneaten cookie from Melody’s fingertips and took a bite.

Melody made a face at Olivia and uncovered the receiver. “Why don’t you come over here once your mother has gone to bed, and we’ll all head over to the club together?”

“Well…” Angelica hesitated, and Melody could picture her worrying her lip on the other end of the line. “I guess that’d be okay. If she’s in bed anyway, what difference does it make, right?” Her voice rose slightly, sounding more confident. “I’ll take the last bus over and see you girls around ten. Thanks, Melody.”

They said their goodbyes and Melody turned to Olivia. “She has one of
those
mothers,” she said, taking another cookie from the plate.

“Oh, one of
those
,” Olivia echoed, nodding her head in understanding. She climbed onto the stool next to Melody’s and turned to face her. “You’ve got that faraway look in your eyes. What’s wrong?”

Melody considered denying it, but Olivia knew her far too well. “I was just thinking about Mom and Ava.”

“Ahh.” Olivia nodded again, her eyes softening. “Do you know how they’re doing?”

“Not really. I’ve called Mom a few times, but I always get the machine and she hasn’t called me back. I know she’s busy trying to get Ava settled in, and I know how hard and weird and scary it must be for Ava, but…”

“You miss your mother,” Olivia stated simply.

“Yes.” Melody wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. She had been living away from her mother for ten years, but she was used to seeing and talking to her on a regular basis. She realized now that she took it for granted that her mother would always be available to her, and when she wasn’t she felt like a little girl who missed her mommy.

“It’s silly, really,” she said, leaning her elbows on the island and propping her cheek in her hand. “I’ve been independent for so long, but she’s always been there, you know? It’s such a strange feeling not to talk to her regularly, but at the same time I feel incredibly childish and selfish because Ava needs her more than I do, and all I can think about is how I feel snubbed because Mom’s too busy to return my phone calls.”

“You’re entitled to your feelings, Mel,” Olivia said.

Melody sighed and shook her head. “I’m jealous of a ten-year-old,” she said with a hollow laugh. “How pathetic is that?”

Olivia smiled sadly. “With very few exceptions over the last fifteen years, the only person you’ve had to share your mom with was me. You’re not used to it.”