Page 2 of Irresistible Second Chance

That hurt.

“I deserve more. You’re all wrong for me. It hurts me to say it, but I realize now that I settled.”

He what?! Desperation was now replaced with fury.

He wasn’t done, “And I don’t want to settle anymore.”

His words felt like a slap to my face. The next thing I knew, I was trying to throw the desk lamp at him. Instead, it hit the floor, I heard a popping noise, and the lights went out on my side of the building.

Without a word, he turned around and left and I stood there with my mouth open. I felt like my legs were jelly and sat down hard in my office chair. On autopilot with my stomach feeling like it was churning knots, I continued to work on the presentation, in the dark, tears falling down my face.

And that’s how my boss had found me.

“Syd, did you hear me?” my dad asked bringing me back to the present. His voice was full of concern. He had come to get me from the office after Robert, my boss, had called him. I’d been too upset to speak when he arrived and had sat in the car with him unspeaking as he drove me home, a thunderstorm not far behind us.

The thunderstorm had caught up quickly and didn’t seem to be going anywhere for a while. I found that ironic given the state of my life at that moment. Emotionally, I felt like I was standing, unsheltered in a storm. I nodded, “I’m fine.” He hadn’t asked that, but his eyes sure did. His concern made me uncomfortable. I was the strong one. He didn’t need to be concerned about me.

“You sure?”

We weren’t the type to discuss feelings or hug. We expressed our emotions in grunts and nods. I grunted and nodded and said, “Can you handle the bucket?” I handed it to him and went to sit down at my antique dining room table that was way too big for my tiny dining room that shared a space with a large living room and fireplace. I’d bought the house because I loved the vaulted ceilings and old-fashioned fireplace. I tapped my fingers on the table, my mind spinning with so many emotions that I wanted to silence. I wanted all the questionable emotions to disappear… I wanted to disappear.

My phone rang, and I picked it up automatically.

“This is Sydney.”

“Sydney,” Robert said, “I hate to do this to you, especially now, but Sebastian is running a fever and now so is Krissy.” He sounded exhausted and panicked. I knew his son, who was about to turn two soon, had been sick but I hadn’t known Krissy, his wife, was also. I could hear Sebastian crying in the background, and for the first time since Mark’s announcement, I was able to focus on something besides the pain I felt.

“Tell me what you need, Robert.” I knew what I needed. I needed a distraction from my pitiful life. “I’d be happy to help.”

“I’m supposed to meet up with a few potential clients for our Latin America and Caribbean division. One group in particular works with an NGO that I think could help us expand our community relations and corporate social responsibility programs.” Robert had left the corporate world, using his vast funds to invest in smaller businesses and nonprofits around the world through a microlending program. As a result, we spent a lot of time working with community groups and saw a need to expand into the corporate social responsibility realm, after witnessing first-hand how large-scale corporations impacted local communities. His work now gave him a sense of purpose. I had been shocked when Robert had ditched the corporate world for the nonprofit world since I’d worked with him at our previous company for a better part of 10 years, first as an intern and then a project manager. When he’d offered me a position with his new company, I’d been hesitant, but loved a challenge, so I had joined him, stepping into the unknown. The work was interesting and meaningful, and I loved it. Never in a million years had I expected Mark to hold that against me. He was a historian who lived and breathed his job, yet somehow my job was the problem?

“Which partnership?” I forced myself to concentrate on the conversation at hand. I would have plenty of time to think about Mark non-stop after my conversation with Robert.

“You have a passport, right?”

I smiled. Finally, the distraction I needed.

“Bienvenidos!” a beautiful young lady with curly brown hair said to me as I approached her in the airport. She was wearing black shorts and a plain white tank top. Her smile was wide, and I returned it. Her short nails were polished black, and she held up a sign with my name on it.

It had been a relatively short trip. I had slept most of the way, and now I was ready to get to work.

“I hope you enjoy your stay here. Have you ever visited Santo Domingo before?” her English was lightly accented.

“I haven’t.”

She smiled, “Well, you’re in for a treat. I’m Jesenia.”

We shook hands, and I liked the sound of that. It had been a few days since Robert had called me, and I had arranged to fly out to take over for him. He hoped to join me soon, but I was sure soon wasn’t going to be when he expected. I didn’t have kids, but my little sister did, and I barely heard from her when her kids were under five. When her kids were very little, she spent most of her time either taking care of them when they were running a fever or coughing up a storm, or sick herself courtesy of contracting some version of cold and flu from one of the kids.

I noticed then that we weren’t leaving. I looked around confused. “I’m ready if you are,” I said to her.

“Oh, I thought you knew,” she said with a frown, “Mr. Robert called us today and told us to expect one other person.”

I frowned, “What other person? He never mentioned that to me.” I figured that Robert had probably been so busy with his kid that he hadn’t texted me an update. Second thought…maybe he had, but where was my phone? It wasn’t like me to be so disorganized and scatter-brained. I blamed Mark.

She shrugged, “I don’t know. Mr. Robert said it was a consultant of some sort. He’s supposed to assist you.”

Frowning, I found my phone tucked deep into my carryon. I realized that it was still turned off. I’d done so to keep myself from texting Mark—I’d forgotten about that. I figured that he just needed some space, that eventually he would come to his senses, and we would get back together. I conveniently ignored the part where he confessed to loving someone else. I turned my phone on and tried not to look disappointed as I looked through my text messages. Not one of the messages was from Mark.

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