“He’s so hot!”
I chuckle. Since she started the second trimester of her pregnancy, every groom that crosses her business threshold is the most gorgeous man alive.
“Does Calvin know that you crush on all your clients?”
“This isn’t the pregnancy hormones, Liv,” she assures me. “The guy is smoking hot. Imagine if Rodrigo Santoro and Diego Luna had a child who grew up to be the most gorgeous, sexy, super-hot man alive.”
“Yet another reason to leave your husband,” I joke.
“And lose a client?” She snorts. “Never. I’ll just take a picture and add it to the hottie grooms’s album.”
She ends the conversation before I can remind her that I am in charge. She should be at home resting and enjoying her free time before the spawn arrives.
It takes me almost ten minutes to reach the office. Since it’s nearly one, I head to the conference room. I wiggle the handle of the conference room and push the door open. I hate to be unprepared for my meetings. I hate even more the sight of the groom.
Holly was right. He’s handsome. When I enter, he unfolds his tall figure from the chair. His shirt stretches along his broad shoulders. The thin fabric allows me to see every ridge between his muscles. I can even remember his tattoos.
I’m unprepared for the thundering of my heart inside my chest.
I loathe the uncontrollable need to jump into his arms. Under different circumstances, I would even kiss him. Then I’d say, “Where have you been? I can’t believe that you ghosted me. What did I do to you?”
Now, I understand why he disappeared. He’s getting married.
I despise that the groom is the man who makes my axis spin recklessly. That we spent one of the best nights of my life together when I was eighteen. He made me feel whole every time we were together. For some inexplicable reason, I feel as if he’s taking everything he once gifted me back.
He’s snatching the bits of hope I carried with me. Who knew I had them?
“Olivia,” he greets me, and his thousand megawatt smile brightens the room.
I want to remind him it’s Liv. Not Olivia. That’s what my clients, strangers, and employees call me. Not my friends. I guess we’re just acquaintances.
“Hi, um…” I’m not sure if I should address him as Mr. Brown or Mr. Wilfred. Damn it. If I had read the freaking file, I would’ve known what to expect. Isn’t his last name Brassard? Did he lie to me?
No, he’s Persy Brassard’s brother. Unless that’s a pen name.
His facial expression changes to a more solemn one, and he prompts, “It’s Eros.”
I wave my hand. “I knew that. I just couldn’t remember your last name,” I answer with a snippy tone.
Planting a big smile on my face, I extend my hand toward the bride. “Hi, I’m Olivia Sierra.”
“Misty Wilfred,” his fiancée responds.
The name Misty sounds familiar. Where did I hear that name before?
She’s gorgeous. Tall, slim with glossy blond hair. She could be a run away model. They are an attractive couple. Eros, he is an easy-going guy. So, she must be the high maintenance one of the two. As soon as she learns that there was something between her fiancé and me, she’ll fire us.
Misty arches an eyebrow and asks, “So, you two know each other?”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Eros
Life isn’t fair.
I learned a long time ago that life is like a poker game. Destiny deals the cards, and it’s up to us to figure out what to do with them. You can bluff and play to win, or fold and live in misery. I choose the former. There are times things work out in my favor. Some others, I keep faking it until I make it. I learned this from my family.
My parents are the definition of optimistic. They say that we learn to prepare lemonade and enjoy what life throws at us or watch the lemons rot. Mom and Dad are big believers in enjoying what we have instead of yearning for what we can’t reach.
It’s incredible how they handle life, love, and loss. Callie’s death was hard for everyone, but especially for them. A parent should never have to bury their child. Even though it was tough, they’re still going. I look up to them. Though at times they drive me crazy—like my sisters—the way they live is incredible.
Mom always insists that I should seize the day. It drives her crazy that I will jump out of an airplane, but I plan every detail and take my time to make any moves when it comes to my future. It’s pretty simple. I had it all once, invested it in a business that didn’t work out, and lost everything. Since then, I have stopped being impulsive when it comes to my professional life.
I guess she doesn’t remember when I left my profitable job in New York, moved to Colorado, and lost all my savings. Those years when I would invest in anything that looked shiny and gainful. Businesses that would end up making me look like a stupid opportunistic man-child. Nyx, my sister, told me that once. She might’ve been slightly right. I signed contracts without reading them thoroughly. I lost time, money, and credibility.
Those mistakes are experiences. Lessons I used to create a new and better life. A future where I can see more than just getting out of debt and paying my mortgage. Now, I can think about having a family.
You know what is also unfair? Relationships. I can’t make them work for me. And here, in the same room, I have exhibit A and exhibit B.
Liv stopped talking to me. Since I was in Costa Rica, there wasn’t much I could do until I came back home. Instead of flying to Denver, I took a detour to Boston. She doesn’t live there anymore. I knew she was thinking about moving, but she never told me where.
Of all the places in the world, she’s here—in my backyard.
Seeing that whatever we never had was over, I called Misty. I finally decided to stop listening to my sisters and do something with our future. She couldn’t do lunch with me but agreed to grab a cup of coffee after her meeting. I’m still wondering why she asked me to be a part of this freaking meeting—pretending to be her fiancé. Or what was I thinking when I accepted? It’s probably because she just asked me to do it when we stepped into the elevator.
This is so fucked up. Faking in front of Olivia doesn’t feel comfortable, it feels wrong. Not that she cares. She has been ignoring me for months. She couldn’t even remember my fucking name.
If I had to choose between them, I… I don’t want to be in that position. Liv is… special.
But Misty is the woman you should spend the rest of your life with, idiot. You’re trying to fix the oversights from your past.
For all you know, Olivia might be with someone. I glance at her finger. I relax when I don’t see a ring on her hand. Who knows, maybe she found the man of her dreams and that’s why she stopped talking to me. That’s why she’s here. She moved for him and not for me.
Life sucks, love sucks, and I’m fucking doomed.
When Callie died, Misty and her fiancé had broken up too. That could’ve been a great time to swoop in. It wasn’t. Those were some of the darkest days of my life. Liv was the one who made things less grim when I needed it the most. I couldn’t think of being with anyone but Liv.
She wouldn’t come with me, but she did for someone else.