Ray of Love (Lifestyle by Design Book 3) (12 page)

"Overall, yeah. Some speakers were boring but a couple of them were of great value."

"That's good. Do you want to have a meeting today? We have thirteen possible businesses we could feature in the next three issues and, of course, we can only select three."

"Um, I don't think I'll have the time. Could you email me your suggestions? I'll go through them tonight."

"Okay."

Ray stared at Clarise's retreating back with a twinge of guilt. The truth was he didn't want to spend too much alone time with her, Jessa or Victor for the time being. They reminded him too much of Faye.

Besides, he trusted Clarise's judgement. She could make those kinds of decisions by herself easily. He only insisted on getting involved simply because he wanted to remain in the loop with the important things that went on in his company. Plus, meeting them one-on-one gave him the opportunity to build a good working relationship with his staff.

But right now, his priority was to unplug from anything relating to Faye. Just until he stopped hurting.

He was making some sort of progress. He hadn't succumbed to the temptation of calling her back. She left a few messages for him during the week but he forced himself to delete them without listening to them. If he heard her voice, he was scared he might beg her for that casual-only relationship she wanted. He missed her so damned much. But he knew a physical-only relationship with her would kill him in the long run.

He couldn't imagine what she could possibly want to say to him. His best guess was she wanted to apologise for leading him on and wanted to make sure things were going well between him and her best friends. She cared a lot about them.

One of these days he'd ring her back and give her the assurance that he was fine with everything that had happened. But not yet. He was still far from fine.

~~~~~~~

His laptop pinged with a new email message. He groaned as he read Rita Maxwell's email inviting him to lunch so she could show him samples of her new range of men's accessories.

He couldn't think of anything more boring. He responded to her email, apologising for the fact that he simply wasn't into accessories and that he didn't want to waste her time.

He wasn't very surprised when Rita called.

"Hi, Ray. I got your email."

"Hi, Rita. Look, I'm really sorry but I think you would be wasting your time with me. It's nothing against accessories but I'm just not into them," he said, reiterating the contents of his email.

Rita gave a nervous laugh. "Well, to be honest, Ray, that was just an excuse to have lunch with you."

"Oh?"

He heard her sigh deeply. "I happen to enjoy your company. I like discussing business with you. It's very stimulating. But I was also hoping we could get to know each other better."

"Right," he responded cautiously.

Rita wasn't the first woman to ask him out. In fact, in the past year, all of his dates were instigated by the women. Apart from his date with Faye. He engineered that one.

"Is that a yes?" Rita asked in a teasing voice.

Could he lead Rita on, knowing it was Faye he wanted to be with?

Whoa, wait a minute. You want to get over Faye, not be with her again. And what's wrong with getting to know Rita better? Who knows where that might lead?

"Sure. Let's have lunch, Rita."

"Great! I'm at one of my stores close to you. How about I pop in your office around twelve and we can go from there?"

"Okay. See you soon."

*******

Faye stopped dead in her tracks when he saw Ray and Rita Maxwell enter a posh seafood restaurant. Rita was hanging on his arm as if they were on a date, not a business meeting.

Clarise had assured her Ray didn't have any lunchtime appointment after checking his online diary that everyone in the office could see. Obviously, this one was last minute - or wasn't business-related.

A cutting ache assailed her. Was he moving on?

She shook her head and forced herself to keep walking towards the Lifestyle by Design building. The plan was she would turn up at his office before she and the gang went to lunch with the hope that she could have a couple of minutes with him. At the very least, she wanted to get a glimpse of him even if they didn't get the chance to talk.

Well, a glimpse of him she did get - with Rita Maxwell's flirty paw all over his arm.

She arrived at Ray's office building, heaving and puffing. It was partly from the fifteen-minute walk from her office and partly from trying her utmost best not to burst into tears.

She didn't know what on earth was the matter with her. Ever since Ray dumped her, she'd been such a cry-baby. It was almost as if she was making up for all those times she didn't cry when everyone else expected her to.

She wasn't used to being this out of control with her tears. Even when she split with Steve, who was the longest boyfriend she'd had, she only cried a little. And it definitely wasn't the sob-my-heart-out kind of bawling she'd been giving in to the last few nights.

She stepped into their reception and saw Elena sitting at her desk. The sight of her almost made her lose it, remembering what Ray had overheard her saying. Fortunately, Elena was on the phone and merely waved to her as she made her way to Clarise's office.

All three of her friends were there waiting for her. Judging by their dejected expressions, they weren't looking forward to telling her Ray wasn't around.

"Hi. I know he's not here," she said as she gave each of them a hug.

"How did you know?" Victor asked.

"Because I saw him walk into a restaurant with Miss Flirty Woman of the Year."

Clarise winced. "Sorry, Faye. It wasn't in his diary."

She smiled her understanding. "Let's go to lunch. Do you guys mind if we go to where they are?"

"What?"

"I don't want to annoy them or anything, but I want to know if they're out on a real date or not. He's not picking up my calls. I don't know how to get him to talk to me."

"You're going to approach them?"

"Just to say hello," she responded weakly, then pressed her hands on her face in frustration.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Faye almost stumbled as she realised where they were going to be seated. There was only one table separating them and the cosy corner table occupied by Ray and Rita. Miss Flirtatious was laughing at something Ray said, and she was batting her eyelashes at him.

Blood rushed to her face as anger, hurt and embarrassment swirled within her.

Desperately, she looked around to see if they could be seated elsewhere. This was much too close for comfort. To her dismay, this was the only table for four still available.

"Hello there!" a female voice called out.

Unfortunately, Rita had seen them, causing Ray to turn around from his chair and look. She saw his eyes widen in surprise.

She felt Clarise squeeze her hand in support as they waved and muttered hello to the duo.

"I can't believe we bump into each other again," Rita was saying.

Out of politeness and respect for the other lunch-goers, they stepped closer to them so they wouldn't have to talk too loud.

"What brought you guys here? This isn't your usual," Ray asked, looking at Victor.

"We felt like something different and we haven't been here for lunch before, so we thought we'd try it out," Victor responded.

Faye thought this was a good opportunity to discover why Ray was having lunch with a woman whose interest in him was obvious. "You guys going through the new men's accessories?" she asked.

"No," Rita answered with a little chuckle. "This isn't a business lunch," she added, looking at Ray with a secretive smile.

Faye's heart stopped and her eyes flew to the same man. He was … looking at Rita with a small smile on his face.

"Well, enjoy your lunch," Clarise said, indicating they should all go back to their table.

"You, too," Rita said, oblivious of the tension going on around her. "By the way, Victor, maybe you would be interested in having a look at my new samples and letting me know what you think?"

Victor reluctantly engaged in a short conversation with their client while Faye stared at Ray.

Look at me, damn it,
she screamed silently at him.

But Ray didn't. Even though she was literally standing in front of his table, he ignored her. His focus was well and truly fixed on Rita.

Faye felt Clarise take her arm and escort her away from him. She followed mechanically. She was grateful that Clarise made sure she sat with her back to the couple. She had just found out she couldn't handle watching Ray pay so much attention to another woman for even one minute. A full hour of it would be pure hell.

"What are you ordering, Faye?" Jessa asked.

She shook her head. She wasn't hungry.

"Hey, you need to eat," her friend scolded her.

"This was such a bad idea," she said softly. "I'm so sorry, guys. Now I'm going to ruin your lunch, too."

"Don't be silly."

The server arrived and looked expectantly at them.

"Okay, I'll have the soup of the day," she said with a sigh.

Faye listened to her friends chat about a variety of topics. They steered clear of anything to do with Ray, and she could understand why. Not only did they want to distract her but it was also awkward. They only needed to talk one level louder and their conversation could be heard by Ray and Rita.

But no matter how hard she tried to concentrate on something else, she was stuck on one thought.
Ray was moving on.
The arrow that went through her heart at this recognition had pinned her in a gloomy place she couldn't get out of.

"Why do some of us humans wallow in our pain and suffering?" she asked in a low voice, to her friends' bewilderment. "I mean, if it was one of you in my position, I would probably already have told you to get over it, to open your eyes to reality, that you'd find someone more special and more deserving of you."

Clarise smiled at her fondly. "Yes, you would and you have told us something similar in the past."

"I know I should move on because obviously, he has. But … I'm finding it hard to give up on him," she whispered as fresh tears escaped her.

"I don't know what to say," Jessa admitted. "You're usually our sage and our coach - the one with wise words that whip us around so we push on even through pain."

"Alas, I'm only human," she said with a self-deprecating smile.

"What would you say to yourself right now, Faye?" Victor queried gently.

"I would say for fuck's sake, move the hell on. There's no point hanging around weeping for something that will never be."

Murmurs of agreement went round the table.

"I think my problem is even though he hardly acknowledged me today, part of me believes it's because he's still hurt. And if he's still hurt, that means he must still feel something for me. And if he does, then how could it be over?"

"What if he ignored you because he
has
moved on and wanted you to take the hint so he didn't have to tell you to your face?" Clarise asked.

"You think that's what it is?" she asked weakly, discreetly wiping away the tears that fell down unbidden.

"I honestly don't know, Faye. I'm just asking a question you would have asked in this situation."

She nodded, contemplating on the two very different possibilities. "Well, I think I know what I need."

They looked at her with burning curiosity.

"I still need for him to say unequivocally, while looking at me straight in the eye, that he doesn't want me anymore. That's the only way I'll be able to force myself to stop hoping for another chance with him."

She looked at her friends in frustration. "But he won't even talk to me, much less meet with me for an honest conversation."

"Well then, we need to come up with a plan," Clarise said with determination. "And if we're all finished, I think we should get out of here."
 

Faye couldn't seem to stop the waterworks.

*******

Ray was surprised at how calm and collected he'd been so far. Apart from the initial shock of seeing Faye and having lunch under the same roof with her, he'd managed to keep a lid on his emotions. He hadn't even looked once in her direction.

He felt the weight of her stare on him when they came over to their table earlier but the mantra he adopted worked like a charm. Over and over, he had said to himself, '
focus on Rita, focus on Rita, focus on Rita.'

He was here with Rita, after all. It wouldn't be fair to her if his self-control slipped. He knew all it would take was one glance at Faye and he wouldn't be able to stop looking at her, so better not start at all. Fortunately, he had his back turned to her group so it made it impossible for him to 'accidentally' look her way.

The conversation with Rita was as boring as if she had shown him her accessories. The woman was nice and pretty but all she could talk about was her damned bling-blings. Frankly, though, he didn't want to bother with anything about Rita. Especially when his heart kept on reminding him who else was in the restaurant.

Stupid heart. You don't know what's good for you.

"You know," Rita babbled in a low voice, forcing him to draw his attention back to her. "I think Farah … Faith … what's her name? The one who doesn't work for you out of those four?"

"Faye," he said a little breathlessly.

"I think Faye's having some sort of problems."

He frowned. "What makes you say that?"

"Don't look or they might notice we're talking about them, but I think she may be crying."

"What?" His heart started to race. "How do you know?"

"Well, she has her back to us but I can see her dab the corner of her eyes with her serviette and the others look like they're comforting her."

He started to shift so he could check it out for himself when Rita grabbed his arm.

"Don't look," she whispered frantically. "You'll be too obvious."

He sighed, debating with himself whether to look or not.

Why the hell is she crying? Did she have a fight with Steve? Did that fucker hurt her? Doesn't he know how lucky he is, and this is how he treats her?