“But you’re in love with her.”
“Yeah.” My voice sounded glum even to me.
“And I’m pretty sure she’s in love with you,” Ariel continued.
I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter now.”
“You’re just giving up then?” she asked.
“What else can I do?”
“Fight for the woman you love,” Ariel said, her voice conveying that she thought I was an idiot. “Has she tried to contact you?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t looked at my phone in days. I don’t even know where it is.”
Maeve popped up and stomped around my condo, returning a few minutes later with my phone and a charger. She plugged the charger into the outlet by the table, then attached my phone to it, bringing it back to life. The device started beeping with message after message. I sighed and pressed my forehead down on the table, too depressed to deal with any of it.
My nosy friends had no such hesitance.
“You have dozens of missed texts and calls,” Maeve reported. “The two of us, your mother, Theo, your assistant, and several from Nicole.”
“Delete it all,” I said wearily.
“I’ll do no such thing,” she shot back. “We’ve decided that we’re going to have aSchitt’s Creekmarathon, eat some junk food, and get you out of this stupor.”
“Great,” I sighed. “Just what I don’t need, more time with you two.”
“We love you too,” Ariel said fondly. “And you can thank us later. Now eat your damned sandwich.”
Nicole
One month later…
“Have you heard anything from Grace?” my mother asked as we stared at the stack of boxes lined up along the wall in the living room.
I shook my head. “No, I called and texted her multiple times with no response. She doesn’t want to talk to me. It’s over.”
“I promised myself I’m not going to try to run your life anymore,” Mom said. “But I would be remiss if I didn’t suggest that you try to see her.”
“I can take a hint. I need to move on.”
“Well you’re moving on in a big way, aren’t you sweetheart?”
After a long conversation with my parents I’d totally upended my life. First, I quit my job at the family company, although I was retaining my seat on the board of directors. Then I filed papers to open my own architecture business and purchased a small four floor building on the near north side. I was turning the existing retail space on the main floor into my architecture firm headquarters, and I was moving into the large apartment that took up the entire fourth floor. The second and third floor each had two apartments per floor, all currently rented, which would give me additional rental income while I waited for my business to pick up.
Not that I needed the money. I’d saved a lot over the years, and my grandparents had left me a sizable trust fund that I’d never even touched.
It was amazing how quickly everything had come together after I made my mind up. My business was ready to go, and I was moving into my new place today. Now I just needed to sell my townhouse next door to my parents and my transition would be complete.
I had to admit that my parents had taken the changes all in stride. I think I was struggling more with the transition than they were. Then again, I was also nursing a broken heart.
I understood that I’d hurt Grace when she came over to my house that day and I’d denied that we were dating, but any hopes that I had about us talking it through were shot when sheignored all my efforts to contact her. At first I was depressed, then I got angry. I thought I’d meant something to her, yet she couldn’t even talk to me when we had an issue? I didn’t deserve to be shut out like that.
I was done with Grace. It hurt like hell, but I wasn’t going to grovel.
As it turned out, I didn’t need to. It was only my first week of business when my assistant Maria popped her head in the door. Much to my father’s annoyance, I’d taken her with me when I left the family company.
“Hey Nicole, there’s someone here to see you.”
