Otherwise Engaged (2 page)

But.

He didn’t have more
time. He was getting closer and closer to losing Carolina forever every moment.
In fact, the date had been set for The Loss.
New Year’s Day.

He put his
phone down on the desk and stared at it for a moment before it hit him. It
bothered him not because of jealousy.
Or not only because of
it.
It didn’t even bother him that she was getting married. Not really.
What bothered him the most was a combination of those things.

Carolina was
getting married, and he wasn’t going to be the groom.

“My God,” he
said, shocked and horrified with the realization as it entered his brain. “I
think I’m in love with her.”

Yeah, he’d go
to that wedding, but not to smile and nod and throw rice at her and whoever
this Manny jerk was.

He was going
there to get his Carolina back.

Chapter Two

Daphne Moore walked
out of the building at the end of her volunteer shift and squinted against the
early afternoon sunshine. She spent most Saturday mornings volunteering with Dogs
for Vets, a small non-profit organization that paired Iraq and Afghanistan Vets
with service and therapy dogs. She helped the organization with everything from
editing grant proposals to caring for the dogs to following up with the Vets
who used their services. It was a small operation with just a few volunteers, and
her volunteer time was spent wherever she was needed. They often needed lots of
help in many different areas. Every shift was different, and she never had time
to get bored. She loved putting in her hours there.

Daphne had
walked that day because it wasn’t a bad walk from her condo in Northeast D.C.
to the location of the non-profit and because she didn’t want to have to drop
her car off later. Her cousin, Bettina, had insisted on picking her up after
her shift so that they could go to lunch and then go shopping in Georgetown. It
was their thing—especially when Bettina had a really hard week at the law
firm where she worked as a secretary. In fact, Bettina was waiting in the
parking lot for her now.

Daphne walked
up to Bettina’s car and got in.

“Hi, how’s it
going?” Daphne said.

Bettina quirked an eyebrow at her.
Her cousin’s stylish,
short,
dark brown hair was perfectly curled. Her green eyes
stood out in a nice way against her caramel skin. “I was there all morning.
That’s all I have to say.”

As soon as
Daphne had both feet in the car and the door closed, Bettina sped off. “What’s
the rush?”

“If I’m not
surrounded by designer clothes and jewelry I can barely afford in the next few
minutes, I might lose it.” Bettina blended right in with the crazy, pissed off,
lane-switching drivers all around them. She zipped down the road much faster
than Daphne would have. Bettina usually drove when they went somewhere because Bettina
didn’t have the patience for Daphne’s driving. Daphne barely had the nerve for
Bettina’s, but she managed.

Bettina glanced
at her while they waited at a traffic light at Dupont Circle. “How was
volunteering?” Bettina muttered under her breath as she cut someone off, having
the nerve to complain about the other person’s driving.

“It was good. I
got to play with the dogs today.”

“Good.” Bettina
swerved to avoid a car that had pulled out of a side street. “Hey! Hey!” she
shouted. She was too busy ranting at the driver for small talk after that.

When they got
to Georgetown and finally found a parking space, Daphne was grateful they would
get to be on foot for a while. Her cousin’s driving tended to make her a little
queasy. Bettina and Daphne made their way to one of their favorite restaurants,
a place on M Street. They sat outside because it was a warm day in late
October, and they wouldn’t be able to enjoy lunch outdoors for much longer that
year.

Daphne filled Bettina
in on her plans—or lack thereof—for that night while they waited
for the server to bring their drinks.

“You should
come out with us,” Bettina said. “We’re going to this new place on U Street.
You’d have a good time.”

Daphne raised
her eyebrows. She and her cousin had different ideas of fun. “The last time you
said that, I woke up in Cancun with a tattoo on my ass.”

Bettina
laughed. “I thought you were going to have a stroke until I told you it was
just Henna and would go away eventually.” When she was able to stop laughing
long enough to speak again, she said, “Really. You never come out anymore.”
Bettina dabbed tears of laughter away from her eyes with the corner of her
napkin.

“I’m out now.”

“You know what
I meant.”

“That’s not
true. I went out for your birthday.”

“Almost a year
ago,” Bettina said. “You’re never going to meet anyone all holed up in that
condo. I know you love it, and you’re so proud of yourself for buying it, as
you should be, Ms. Homeowner. But. The fact remains. You have to get back out
there eventually.”

Daphne sighed.
She didn’t have the greatest luck with men. “I’m taking a break,” she said.
“Just a small one,” she added when a look crossed Bettina’s face that told
Daphne she was about to get an earful. Daphne seemed to attract only the
skeeziest, scuzziest of the no-good good-for-nothings for some reason.

“You know what
happens when you go after the pretty ones,” Bettina said. “You know my theory.
It’s best to always be the prettier one in the relationship.”

“I don’t only
go for the pretty ones, and I know your theory very well,” Daphne said. That
wasn’t hard in Bettina’s case, though. She was stunning. Bettina resembled
Nicole Arie Parker a little. Once, she and Bettina had been stopped on the
street by a director who was filming a movie in D.C. He’d cast Bettina in a
small, non-speaking role on the spot.

“You’re a great
catch,” Bettina said. “You’re beautiful. I wish you’d do more with all that
long, pretty hair, though.”

Daphne smirked.
“So you’ve said.” She had her long, black hair up in a loose bun that day. Her
makeup was minimalist as it usually was when she went to volunteer—just a
little eye makeup, some powder, and lip-gloss. Warm, somewhat golden tones that
went with her even, brown skin.

“And you have
such pretty eyes. I hate you for those lashes. You know how much time and
frustration and how many lash curlers and mascara coats go into these things?”
Bettina gestured toward her pretty face. “Anyway, you need to come out with us.
We’ll get you an outfit right now.” Bettina got excited all over again at the
prospect of having a mission for her shopping trip.

“Maybe next
time.”

“Daphne, I say
this out of love. You keep this up? You’re going to die bitter and alone.”

“I have a
profile up on dreamdate.com,” Daphne countered.

The server
chose that moment to show up with their drinks. They thanked him, ordered
salads—Cobb for Daphne and something with seasonal vegetables and
a fancy
house vinaigrette for Bettina—and the server
went away.

“How’s that
online dating thing working out for you?” Skepticism was written all over
Bettina’s face. She gave Daphne a pointed look over the rim of her glass as she
drank her water.

“This dating
thing is hard work, okay?”

“Trust me. I
know. That’s why I keep trying to get you to come out with us.”

“No thanks.”
Daphne could see it now. Watching guys practically wait in line for a chance to
talk to Bettina. Having some guy spill drinks all over her or offer to buy them
in an attempt to lay a claim to her for the rest of the night. Then there was
always the chance she would get roped into being D.D. and have to drive a bunch
of very drunk women very raucous home or worse—have to keep them from
going off with mistakes they’d regret in the morning thanks to the Beer Goggle
Effect. No thanks.

For the rest of
lunch, Bettina kept trying to sell her on drunken good times, and she kept
giving Bettina reasons why she wasn’t interested. Afterward, they headed for
the nearby shops.

Bettina was
about to cross the street when Daphne put an arm out in front of her. “Just wait
a minute.” She nodded at the orange hand that was the “don’t walk” signal.
“It’ll change in a minute.

“There’s
nothing coming.”

“What about
that car down there?”

Bettina
shielded her eyes with her hand and pretended to have to squint to see the car.
“Oh, you mean that speck way down there? I think that car’s in Virginia, Daph.”

Daphne laughed.
“Make all the fun you want. Car versus pedestrian is not a game I like to play.
Pedestrians lose that one too often for my taste.”

The light
changed, and Bettina turned to Daphne expectantly. “Can I go now, Mommy?”

Daphne gave her
cousin a playful shove into the crosswalk. “Shut up, you.”

They crossed
and went into a shoe shop. Bettina had been coveting an overpriced pair of
boots in there for a few weeks, but hadn’t worked up the nerve to buy them yet.
Next, they hit up a few shops at which Bettina tried to get Daphne to buy some
new club gear.

After they
wandered in and out of a few boutiques, Daphne frowned down at her phone. She’d
missed a call. She must not have felt her phone vibrate.

“What’s wrong?”
Bettina asked.

“I missed a
call.”

“From who? Is
it a man? A cute one?”

“Yeah,” she
said with a slight grin. “But he doesn’t really count.”

“Who is it?”

“Rain.”

“Oh. Him.”
Bettina gave her a knowing glance. Bettina knew about Daphne’s long and painful
crush on Rain Foster. She’d secretly had a thing for him since they’d met
during freshman orientation in college. “Are you going to call him back?”
Bettina asked.

“Yeah.” Daphne
tried to make her tone come off nonchalant. “I might as well see what he’s up
to.” She and Rain both lived in D.C., but rarely saw each other unless a group
of their college friends who lived in D.C. were getting together. Her fingers
trembled a little as she pulled up Rain’s number and pushed send. Why was she acting
like this? So it’d been a while since she talked to him.
Probably
over a year.
So what?

“Hey,” his
easygoing, deep voice came through the phone. She knew why she was acting all unhinged
as soon as she heard that voice.

“Hi,” she said.
She knew Bettina was going to call her out for melting into a puddle in the
middle of the street later, but she couldn’t help it. Everybody had one.
At least one.
That One that no matter what the
circumstances,
could make your knees weak and your heart
knock.
Even if you knew better.
Unfortunately, she
knew who Rain’s
One
was, and she wasn’t it. That
didn’t matter, though.

She was still a
goner for him.

Chapter Three

“How are you?”
Rain asked. “It’s been so long since we talked.”

“I’m good,”
Daphne said, sounding cautious.
Almost suspicious.

“Glad to hear
it,” he said. They talked for a few minutes. As soon as he felt like he could
naturally drop it into the conversation, he said, “So I talked to Carolina
recently.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.” Rain
forced a laugh. “She’s getting married. Can you believe it? How crazy is that?”

There was a
pause. Then Daphne said, “I know.”

“Oh.” Rain took
a fumbling step and then sat on the corner of his bed. “Okay.”

“Yeah. She
asked me to be one of her bridesmaids. I’m in the wedding party.”

“Wow,” he said.
“Makes sense. You two were close when we were all—” He stopped short.
He’d almost said when they “were” all friends. They were still friends, weren’t
they? He said, “When we went to school. In New York.” What had made him add
that last part? Of course she knew where she’d gone to school. He couldn’t get
it together today. No more partying for him for a while. Except…Skylar really
wanted him to show up for a thing he was having for a new angel investor and
his friend that night. And apparently, the guys liked to party hard.

“Yeah. We were
all close,” Daphne said.

“We should
catch up,” Rain said, an idea forming in his mind as he spoke. “I miss you.” He
really did. He always had fun hanging out with Daphne. He didn’t know why he didn’t
seek her out more. He only saw her when they happened to be out with the same
group of people.

“That’d be
nice,” she said.

“How about
tomorrow? We could get together for brunch. There’s this great place near Logan
Circle.”

“I’d love to. I
mean, sounds good.”

He rattled off
a name and an address. “Meet you there around noon?”

“Sure.”

“Looking
forward to it,” he said.

“Me, too,”
Daphne said.

When they got
off the phone, Rain decided to venture out of his room and assess the damage.

“Ugh. Gross,”
he muttered. Whatever had transpired here must have been epic. Too bad he
couldn’t remember most of the night. His living room had been turned upside
down as a result of whatever had gone down. There was no way he could deal with
this. The cleaning lady would be there on Monday. She could deal with it. He’d
have to tip her huge for this one. At least double-her-hourly-rate huge. And
he’d get rid of the old food and anything else that might get funky over the
next couple days. He’d get rid of the skanky stuff, too—like any used
condoms that might still be floating around the apartment.

He bent over
his couch and peered at a scrap of red material on the beige carpet behind it.
Was that a thong? Had the blonde or Red left her underwear behind? Probably.

Sunday was
going to be a big day. Not only did he have brunch plans,
but
he’d promised to have dinner with his parents Sunday evening. They lived in
Virginia, out in Vienna. They would want to drill him about when he planned on
settling down and otherwise harass him. He loved his parents and had a great
relationship with them, though, so it was
all good
.

The first thing
he had to do was recoup enough to destroy his body all over again tonight. And
he still had to be ready for a full day Sunday. He didn’t know why he did these
things to himself. Well, that was a lie. Of course he did. They were fun at the
time—just not so much the next morning or whenever he happened to wake up
the following day.

He would
probably go to the gym after drinking lots of water,
then
drink some more water. Take a nap. Drink some more water.
Do
the little bit of cleaning he planned on doing. And did he mention he needed
some water? He needed to call Skylar, too, to double-check the plan for that
night.

First things first.
He hunted down a bottle of water. It
wasn’t hard to do because there was little in his fridge besides beer and
water. That was the way it would be until his housekeeper did groceries on
Monday and until the meat truck as he liked to call it dropped off his steaks. They
brought other stuff, too, but his main interest was in the steaks. The truck
came once a month—his favorite day of the month.

After he got
home from the gym and finished cleaning, he called Skylar.

“Dude,” he
said. “What is the plan for tonight?”

 
“I’m just waking up,” Skylar said with a
yawn. At least he had Skylar beat. It was almost four in the afternoon. “Hard
to think right now. I guess we’ll meet at that sushi place near the
office—the one we used to always go to—and take it from there. I
told them that’s where we’d start.”

“I don’t know
if I can drink tonight.”

“Oh please,”
Skylar said. “Not this ‘I’m never going to drink again’ thing. You do this
every other week. I swear.”

“No really. I
woke up with not one, but two girls here.”

“Oh no,” Skylar
said. “You broke one of the few rules you have in life.”

“Yeah. Luckily,
it didn’t go too badly.” Rain gave him a quick recap. Skylar couldn’t stop
laughing at his lame story about the cat sitting. Rain had the feeling he was
going to catch grief about that one for a while.

After a few
minutes, they got off the phone. Rain went to get ready. Not sure how formal
that night was supposed to be, but knowing Skylar never got too dressed up for
anybody—even for business meetings—Rain pulled on dark jeans and
grabbed a blazer to wear over his pale blue button-down. Thank goodness for his
housekeeper or everything we wore would’ve been wrinkled.

He went to the
sushi bar that was somewhere between Dupont and the office, which was at
Sixteenth and K. As he suspected, Skylar hadn’t gone out of his way for the
dinner meeting. He wore jeans, flip-flops, and a dark shirt. His blond hair was
cut close. It was a good thing he was a tech genius. If Skylar weren’t absolutely
brilliant, he wouldn’t get away with half the stuff he managed to pull off.
Skylar introduced Rain to the man who was the newest investor in Skylar’s
business, the Bevyx Corporation, and his friend.

“This is the
man who made it all possible,” Skylar said, pointing to Rain. Rain had been the
ideas person and the people person. He’d made all the connections and helped
Skylar come up with the ideas that really set Bevyx apart in the software
engineering business. Rain liked to think those skills translated well to his
work now at his venture capital firm and in the consulting work he did on the
side.

Rain shook
hands with the men and asked them how their flights from New York had been. New
York.
That made him think
of Carolina. Ignoring the
sudden pang of loss he felt, he forced himself to keep his feelings from
showing on his face. Skylar was right. There was no way he could give up
drinking that night. He was ready to order a bottle of sake.

Later that
night, they went to a club on U-Street. Skylar and Rain sat in a plush booth
alone while the two men went to the bar to see what was up with their bottle
service. Skylar had offered to go, but the men had insisted. Rain thought they
were more interested in the bartenders than in asking about the bottle service.
One of them had been eyeing a thin blond guy and the other had been eyeing a
curvy brunette woman behind the bar for half the night.

“Carolina’s getting married, man.”
Rain toyed with an empty
shot glass. Oh man, it hurt to say it out loud. Made it seem more real.

“Psht. Don’t
tell me you still got it bad for her.” Skylar slurred his words. He was feeling
the effects of a night of drinking already. He’d been going hard, trying to keep
up with the angel investor and his friend, even though they easily outweighed
him by at least fifty pounds each.

“I’m going to
the wedding.” Rain stared across the room. “It’s going to be in Puerto Rico.”

“Don’t, man.
Bad, bad idea.”

“I have to.” He
didn’t say it out loud because he didn’t want to hear Skylar’s response, but he
thought,
It
’s my last chance to tell her how I feel.
That I can’t lose her.
That was the kind of thing he had
to do in person. And he couldn’t just take a random trip to New York to do it.
He needed time. The trip to Puerto Rico would last longer than just one day.
Besides, she might not call off the engagement. The wedding was more final. It
would be easier to get her to see what a huge mistake she was making if he
showed up there. Or maybe…maybe he’d just go and wish her well and bow out gracefully.
He didn’t know. All he knew for sure was that he had to be there.

“Well,” Skylar
said. “At least you’ll get to go to the beach. He nodded as if this was good
enough for him. He suddenly sat forward in his chair and squinted. Then he got
up, stumbled forward a few steps, and leaned over the nearby balcony.

Rain jumped up
and put a hand on his shoulder to steady him. “Hey. Hold on. What are you
doing?”

Skylar was
still leaning over the balcony in a precarious way. “I think that’s Bettina.”
He pointed down. “There. In the lime green.”

Rain followed
his pointing finger to an attractive light-skinned black woman with short dark
hair. She wore a lime green halter-top and a short skirt. Nice rack. “Who’s
Bettina?”
Besides the obvious—a very sexy woman in very
high heels.

“She works for
my lawyers,” he said, his gaze still stuck on Bettina.

“Come away from
there,” Rain said, tugging at his shoulder. It really wouldn’t take much for
Skylar to tip the wrong way with the angle at which he leaned over the railing.

“Man. She is
looking good tonight.”

Rain couldn’t
dispute that. “You should go say something to her.”

“Nah,” Skylar
said. “I think she thinks I’m an ass.”

Rain laughed.
“No. What could’ve possibly given her that impression?”

“Well, you
know, sometimes I have that effect on people.” Skylar pulled away from the
railing, stumbled back to the table, and dropped into the booth.

They laughed.
Skylar was forceful and used to getting his way. That didn’t go over well with
people sometimes. It was one of the reasons Rain had decided to start his own
business and leave Bevyx. He still owned stock in Bevyx, but that was his only remaining
tie to the company. It was either
get
out while things
looked good career-prospect wise and save the friendship as well or let things
get ugly.

The angel
investors came back to the table. They told Rain and Skylar how they’d gotten
the bartenders’ numbers, but Rain was distracted from the story. He tried to
show interest, but he couldn’t stop his mind from drifting to Carolina.

He could tell
that Skylar was distracted as well. Skylar was a man of few words—that
was one of the reasons he tried to bring Rain along to schmoozing events like
this—but that night he was quiet even by Skylar standards. And he kept
glancing in the direction of the dance floor below. The place where he’d
pointed out the woman in the green top with the incredible legs and breasts.

San Juan, huh?
Who got married on New Year’s Day? It seemed kind of tacky to him. Not that he
was bitter or anything. He’d never been a relationship man, but maybe he could
be ready to change that for the right woman. And if there was a right woman, it
had to be Carolina.

#

When Rain woke
up the next morning, he reached out tentatively, afraid to open his eyes. His
hand touched nothing but air and sheets, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He
sat up in bed and pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes. What a rough
weekend. At least today would be easier.
Nothing but brunch
with an old friend and the obligatory Sunday evening with his parents.

Thinking of
brunch led to thoughts of Carolina. He’d been shocked by the news was all. He’d
missed out, and someone else had snapped her up. He would go to brunch with
Daphne. It would be nice to see her. After all, he hadn’t seen her in a while.
He couldn’t just stand her up after he’d been the one to invite her out to
brunch in any case. But that was it. He probably wouldn’t even bring up the
wedding. No, he couldn’t just go busting up an engagement and stopping a
wedding that had probably already been all planned out. Right?

First things first.
He needed a shower. He would worry about
the rest when he didn’t reek so badly.

Stumbling out
of bed, he headed for his bathroom. Yeah, he had to let this thing go. Carolina
would be better off with someone who was ready to settle down. This Manny guy
obviously was. Rain was nowhere near that. Right? He shuddered at the thought
of slipping enough to let women sleep over last night.

But those women
weren’t Carolina. It could’ve been different with her. Did he want it to be?
Was he missing his big chance at happiness? Would he ruin hers if he called her
right now and told her how he felt?

All he knew for
sure was he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her since she’d called and
delivered what she’d thought was good news.