His secretary told me he was in a lunch meeting and informed me of where she made the reservations. If I hurried, I should have been able to catch him there before he left. I couldn’t keep these thoughts bottled up inside a second longer. My idea of the perfect fairytale was already anything but what I had dreamed it would be, so I thought I might as well take the risk of whatever may happen next.
I barreled through the front doors of the restaurant and waved away the hostess, rushing past to survey the heads poking up over the backs of the booths. I spotted Damon’s leg poking out from under one of the tables, and looked up to confirm it was him by the back of his hair. But my heart sank when I saw the woman sitting across from him. An attractive woman with voluptuous curves, beautiful piercing eyes, and perfect long black hair.
Maybe it’s just a business meeting, I thought. Had the secretary said that? She hadn’t. But it could have also just been an old friend. He was allowed to have friends who were girls. Wasn’t he?
I walked forward slowly, trying to think of the best way to politely interrupt and let him know that I had to speak to him immediately.
Great job, Lizzy. You had the man all to yourself for almost a whole week and you wait until the second he’s doing something else to race in and demand his attention. That’ll go over great.
While wondering if I could somehow lie and say I just found out after he dropped me off, I took several more cautious steps toward the booth. But just as I was getting close enough to interject, Damon’s hands reached across the table. He took both of the woman’s hands into his and held them tight.
Retreat! Retreat! Retreat! I ducked into the empty booth behind them and tried to rationalize how what I just saw didn’t have to mean anything. I didn’t work in business, real estate, and I had never owned a nightclub. Maybe it was totally normal for people to hold hands for those kinds of meetings. Or maybe she was just an old friend that he needed to…
Who was I kidding? This was a secret meeting with another woman and they were holding hands. I rolled my head to the side to try and listen to what they were saying before deciding what to do next.
Damon was talking very low, but I caught the tail end of it. “I can’t take back all these years we’ve been apart, but I can make up for it now. I want to be in this with you, Nadia. Please let me do that.”
I held my chest, wondering if everyone had just heard the giant crack splitting through my heart. I was certain I had. It was the heartbreak I had feared all along, but at least Damon tried to warn me in his own way. My fears and his were confirmed. He wasn’t capable of a relationship, and I wasn’t capable of raising a baby with him while he was with another woman. The best thing I could do was leave town and never tell him about our child.
But not before letting him know that I was on to him. I forced myself out of the booth and emerged around the corner so Damon could see me. His eyes grew wide and he immediately dropped the woman’s hands from his.
“Lizzy!? What...what are you doing here!?”
I felt the sting of hot tears on my cheeks. “I came here to talk to you, but I can see now that was pointless. It seems you’ve already got enough on your plate. Begging her to be with you and all.”
“No, Lizzy...this isn’t… I was going to…”
I turned toward the beautiful woman who looked at me with a smug smile. “You should know that if you decide to be with him...he just got back from the Maldives with me earlier today. He told me he loved me. Maybe you don’t care, but… Well. I just thought you should know.”
My voice cracked as I spoke, and I knew I needed to leave before I burst out crying even harder. I wanted to maintain what little shred of dignity I might have left. Before Damon could say anything else, I took off running out the door.
“Lizzy! Wait! Please!” Damon shouted, running after me. “This isn’t what it looks like.”
I spun around, hating that he would see my red and tearful face. But I couldn’t let him follow me around, spouting off more lies. It hurt too much.
“You could at least say something a little less cliche, Damon. Or better yet...have the decency not to lie to me. I worried something like this would happen. I just thought when you said you loved me that...that something had changed. That you had changed.”
“I have,” he replied earnestly, pressing his palm to his chest. “Things did change. I do love you. This is just… I can explain it. I know this is confusing, but please just give me a chance to…”
“To lie some more!? No thank you.” I turned to reach for the door, but his hand covered mine. I flung it off and screamed, “Don’t follow me! Just leave me alone!”
I hated the look of hurt on his face. I actually did love him and didn’t want to hurt him. But if he did feel any real pain or remorse, it was just a slap in the face to me. I couldn’t stand to look at him. I kept my gaze straight ahead and my fists clenched as I marched to my car.
The moment I got in, I broke down completely. I could still see Damon watching me from inside the restaurant’s glass doors. I had to suck in my tears as fast as I could, at least well enough so I could drive. And then pack. I couldn’t let myself break down again until I was far away from Cherry Falls.
19
Damon
I didn’t bother turning on the lights of my apartment when I walked in. I was in a daze, and all I wanted to do was just sit with my head in my hands and try to figure out what the hell just happened. That time yesterday I had been in the Maldives with the woman I loved. The sun was shining, the breeze blowing in her hair. Everything was perfect.
Within hours of landing, I was sitting across from Nadia, realizing that I was now forever entangled with an ex-girlfriend who broke my heart. Lizzy hated me. I had a son I had never met. Everything was falling apart, but I needed it to be more together than ever because I was apparently a father now. Or had been for a while I guess.
Every bone and muscle in my body was itching to go run after Lizzy. I wanted to touch her, talk to her. Explain everything. And maybe I would. But also, maybe it was better to let her hate me. I had a family to take care of now. I didn’t know if she could ever forgive me for everything.
I was supposed to meet with Nadia again that evening to give her some money and discuss what would happen next. I grew up without a father, and I wasn’t about to let my son do the same. As much as I didn’t like Nadia, I wondered if there was any way to make things work for the sake of our child. It was all stuff that I wished I had been given the chance to consider before he was born, but the least I could do was step up now that I knew about him.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. My heart leaped at the chance that it might be Lizzy, so I raced over to answer.
“Oh,” I grunted.
“We’re happy to see you too, bud.” Ben patted my shoulder as he showed himself in with Nick and Joey following behind him. They strolled in and plopped down on the couch looking like something serious was up.
“What now?” I groaned. “What is it? I’m already having the worst day of my life. Go on and make it worse.”
“We do need to talk,” Nick said, hinting that whatever brought them here was serious. And big.