Ready For You (14 page)

“There you are. I’ve been looking all over—” Garrett’s words evaporated as he came closer. “Are you crying?” he whispered.
 

I reached up with my fingertips and felt the wetness of tears.
 

“Hey,” he said cautiously, pulling me into his arms.
 

It was the first time he’d held me in years, yet it still felt familiar and safe.
 

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
 

“It’s okay. Let’s get you out of here and get some fresh air, all right?”

I nodded, not risking another glance at my surroundings. I didn’t need another reminder of everything I’d lost. The man holding me was enough.
 

~Garrett~

I took her out of the toy store, and her tears dried up rather quickly. She’d tried to hide them as if she were embarrassed by them.

I was just glad she’d stopped crying. I hated seeing her in tears.

As we walked down the street, I knew it would take more than a bit of fresh air to cheer her up from whatever had upset her in that store.
 

I’d only left her alone for a few minutes. When I’d found her, she looked destroyed. She had been staring lifelessly at the baby-doll accessories, her fingers grasping a tiny pink blanket like her life depended on it.
 

I couldn’t figure out—and then, it dawned on me.
 

No, she wasn’t allowed to mourn that. She couldn’t.
 

It had been her decision.
 

I glanced over at her eyes, still rimmed in red, and I wondered if something else had happened to her in the years we were apart to make her react that way. Had she experienced some other sort of loss? The thought soured my stomach.

“Hey, I’ve got an idea for dinner, if you’re up for it?” I announced, hoping to cheer her up and pull my mind out of the darkness.

She gave me a ghost of a smile and nodded.

I hailed a cab because it was now well into nighttime, and I didn’t want her to have to walk while feeling upset.
 

Within a few minutes, we arrived at the place I’d whispered to the taxi driver.

Mia looked up, and she laughed. It was a genuine laugh, and I breathed a sigh of relief. She was coming back to me.
 

“Wasn’t this place in a movie?”

“Probably several. There was a movie named after it actually.”

She smiled. “I know. I loved that movie. It was about two people finding each other after so long. It was very romantic.” Her eyes widened, and she immediately clamped her mouth shut.

I laughed. “Come on, let’s go inside.” I grabbed her arm, pulling her into the front doors of Serendipity.
 

The place was always packed. So, we waited our turn and made some plans for the next day. I had to meet a client in the morning, but I had the rest of the day free since I had originally planned on flying home afterward. I bought us tickets to the Statue of Liberty on my phone while we waited, and we planned on eating somewhere in Times Square for dinner.
 

Our table was called, and we followed the hostess upstairs to a small table in the corner.
 

“What’s good here?” Mia asked me after we’d been handed our menus.

“I always get the frozen hot chocolate.”

“Frozen hot chocolate? It’s really a thing? I thought they just made that up.”

“No,” I said, pointing to the spot on her menu. “See? It’s right there.”

“So, do you order anything else?”

“Cake.”

She looked at my deadpanned face and laughed. “So, we’re going extra healthy tonight then?” she joked.

I grinned. “You could get pie if you want.”

We ended up ordering a few desserts, and at my insistence, we each ordered our own frozen hot chocolate. Mia thought I was insane when they brought those huge suckers out, but I wanted her to have her own, so she could enjoy the full experience. She ate a few bites of each dessert and declared she was stuffed. I polished off everything else, and she watched in fascination.
 

“I don’t know where you put it.”

“I’ll work it off,” I said.

She caught me looking at her, and she blushed. I hadn’t meant it in that way, but I definitely wouldn’t mind giving it a try.
 

Damn it, Garrett. Stop.

Friends didn’t sleep together.
 

But fuck, I wanted to.
 

“Thank you,” she said.
 

I polished off the last bite of pie. “For what?”
 

“Taking me here…everywhere. Really, it’s been a great day.”

“Well, I wanted you to have some of the fond memories and experiences I had as a child, that every kid should have, when visiting New York. No one should come to a city like this and spend it inside a hotel room.”

She sat across from me and silently played with the straw in her drink. “You always had the best family,” she said wistfully, her eyes downcast as she continued to fiddle with her straw.
 

“Yeah,” I agreed. “They’re great. My parents used to bring Clare and me here whenever we came to New York. My dad would let us pick anything we wanted off the menu even if it was cake and pie,” I said with a wink.

That earned me a small smile, but I knew her thoughts were somewhere else. We finished up, and I paid the bill. She tried to slip her credit card in there, but I refused.
 

“My treat. I insist.”

She pouted but let me win.

We caught a taxi outside the restaurant, and I gave him directions back to the hotel. Halfway there, I changed my mind and asked him to take us somewhere else.
 

“What are you up to now?”

“Just trying to squeeze it all in,” I answered. “Come on!”

She squealed and jumped out of the car when we pulled up to the Empire State Building. I loved this place, and I had hoped she would too. As an architecture major, I’d spent years studying buildings like this.
 
It made my chest tighten in anticipation and warmth to see her giddy with excitement over something that was so near and dear to my heart.
 

Stop it Garrett.
 
Friends, you’re just friends.
   

“Oh my gosh, Garrett. I’ve always wanted to come here!”

“Well, here we are.”

We bought our tickets and waited our turn to take the tight elevator ride up.
 

“Do you ever wish you were making buildings like this?” she asked.

I thought about it for a moment as the elevator went up the eighty-sixth floor.
 

“Yes. Maybe not quite like this, but I do wish I was still designing.”

“Then, why don’t you do it?” she asked.
 

I shrugged and chose not to answer. Frankly, I didn’t have an answer. The market had changed in the last few years. There were more jobs now than there were a few years ago, and if I wanted to use my degree, now would be the time to do it. So, why didn’t I?
 

The elevator came to a stop, and we were escorted out before I had a chance to ponder that question further. We walked out onto the observation deck and the entirety of New York spread out before us.
 

“It’s beautiful,” she said, taking in the panoramic view of the city.
 

I just stared at her. “Yes, it is.”
 

I had always dreamed of proposing to Mia at a place like this—someplace worthy of her beauty and elegance. It would have been an engagement story she could have told her friends about. She could have run home, excited and full of bubbly glee, showing off the ring I’d spent months saving up for.
 

But sometimes, things didn’t happen the way one had planned. At the time, none of that had mattered. It hadn’t mattered that our engagement was a secret or that when I had knelt down, it had been in the wet grass on the banks of the river we’d dubbed our own secret spot. It hadn’t mattered that the ring I gave her cost less the class ring I once wore. We had been happy and ready for anything.

Or at least, I’d thought we had.
 

Chapter Eleven

~Mia~

I heard him slip off to his morning meeting a few minutes after I’d woken up. The sun was just starting to break over the horizon, and I knew I was alone. I was still lying in bed, curled up with a pillow, staring at the wall next to me. I was trying to avoid the crumpled-up map sitting on the desk across the room.

The map that had kept me up most of the night.
 

The map that clearly showed the three blocks separating me from my parents.
 

I couldn’t go.
 

I wouldn’t.

But what if I do?

It had been eight years since I last saw them, since I’d heard their voices or seen their faces. The only reason I knew their address was because I was nosy, and I’d kept tabs on them after they moved. It hadn’t been more than a couple of weeks after I left Richmond that my father announced the news he’d been offered a job in New York. They had quickly and quietly moved and never looked back. My father had tried to contact me once or twice, but I’d made it clear that I was done.
 

I’d been done being manhandled and bullied. They’d run my life long enough, and when I’d needed them most, they’d chosen themselves instead.
 

As I stared across the room at that tattered map, I tried to picture them in my mind.
 

Would my mother be just as perfect looking—never a hair out of place or a toe out of line? She’d carried herself like the Queen of Sheba and expected nothing less. Would my father still be conveniently absent, letting my mother make all the decisions so that he didn’t have to? He had always allowed her to run his life, never standing his ground for anything—including me. He’d chosen her over me, pushing me away when she told him to, even though I knew he didn’t want to leave.
 

I’d sometimes wondered how their lives would pan out without me in it. Would they even notice my absence? Would it matter that their only daughter wasn’t around anymore? Or would things go on as normal?
 

I gave one last glance at the creased and crinkled up map that had become my obsession over the last twenty-four hours, and I let out a curse.
 

Thirty minutes later, I was showered and dressed. I walked down the street, doing something incredibly stupid. I turned around and walked back to the hotel half a dozen times. I had no doubt that I looked insane to the pedestrians around me.
 

When I finally made the decision to go through with it, I found the address easily. Like most of Manhattan, the apartment building was well-kept with an uppity doorman who looked down at me as he held the door. I slipped inside with a group of unassuming tenants.
 

My hands started shaking, and my palms were sweaty by the time I made it up to their floor.
 

I was so stupid. What was I thinking?
 

But still, I kept going.
 

The wide-eyed eighteen-year-old girl who had had her heart crushed by the two people she trusted most in the world needed to know.
 

I needed to know.
 

I needed closure, whatever it might be.
 

So, I continued my journey down the ornate hall, counting the apartment numbers as I went.

My parents definitely hadn’t lost their love for flare. Everything was decadent. From the plush elevator to the exquisite hallways and right down to the gilded door knockers—everything screamed money.

At last, I found my parents’ place. I took a deep breath, pushed the buzzer, and waited.
 

~Garrett~

She’d been quiet all day.

Last night, as we’d waited for our table at Serendipity, planning everything out, she’d been excited. She’d peeked over my shoulder as I’d bought tickets for the Statue of Liberty, and she’d begged me to take her to the Hard Rock Café even though there were dozens of other restaurants that would have been much better.

But that was where the excitement had ended.

I’d gotten back to the hotel a bit later than I’d planned, but it had still been early enough that we had time to pick up lunch and head out for our boat ride to the statue. After I’d changed and packed up my work clothes, I’d knocked on the door separating our rooms, and I’d gotten a faint reply. I’d opened the door and found her curled up on the bed, staring at a map of the city like it was the saddest thing ever.
 

“Hey, you okay?” I’d asked, coming forward to comfort her. I’d stopped myself because I hadn’t known where the boundaries of our friendship were.

She’d looked up in a daze, and I’d thought that was when she finally realized I was in the room. She’d appeared startled and quickly shook herself out of whatever funk she was in. It’d felt like a slap in the face to watch her change moods so quickly, but I hadn’t known what else to do, so I’d just gone with it. She’d jumped up and grabbed her things, and then we had headed out for the day.

We’d picked up a quick lunch at the pub downstairs, and she’d barely eaten. We’d ridden the subway, and she hadn’t said a thing.
 

Even as the boat had pulled away from the harbor and we’d gotten our first glimpse of Lady Liberty, she had been eerily quiet. I’d tried to ask her what was going on, but she had just shrugged it off and cheered back up, posing for pictures and skipping ahead to read signs.
 

Dinner hadn’t been any better. She’d pushed around her food and stared at the wall. I hadn’t known what to do. Minus the woman sitting in front of me, the only experiences I’d had with women were brief drunken interludes. But even she was different than what I remembered.
 

Mia from years past would have come out and told me what was troubling her. She would have bled her soul to me the second it was hurting. I didn’t know what to do when she was closed off and silent.