Page 39 of Irresistible Second Chance

Johnna shook her head, “Well, he should be.”

“Quick, change into your pjs, brush your teeth, bedtime.”

They walked off in the direction of the guest room barely protesting and I sat down heavily on the couch. Part of me felt like I was leading Chris on. I didn’t want anything serious, at least not now. I sighed and sank into the couch. I didn’t know what I wanted but I knew what I needed and that was sleep.

Pushing away thoughts of Chris, I stood up and made my way towards the guest bedroom, my mind far from at ease. Would it be so bad if Chris and I got together? What’s the worst that could happen? I already knew the answer to that question: He could break my heart.

Chapter 11

“Mark, seriously, you need to stop calling me.” I was angry and cranky. He’d called everyday for the past five days. I was so over it. I had a lot on my mind and Mark wasn’t making the situation any better with his insistent calling. He rarely called me when we were dating, and I realized now, most of our marriage he treated me like I was invisible. I’m not sure why he so desperately wanted my attention now.

“Finally, you picked up. You haven’t called me back. I’ve called you dozens of times.” He sounded exasperated, like he had a right to be angry. Had he always been so insufferable? I felt a migraine starting.

“Exactly, Mark! It’s annoying. Stop it!”

“But I need to talk to you.”

“But I don’t WANT to talk to you.”

“Why not?” Now he sounded like a petulant child. He always behaved like this when he didn’t get his way. I guess I’d ignored that too while we were married.

“Because I just don’t,” I was sitting at my desk at work looking over reports. My concentration was off, and I totally blamed Mark and his constant phone calls. I also missed Chris. He was off on a work trip and was due back this weekend. I had to resist the urge to call him every night just to hear his voice. On the other hand, it was really easy to ignore Mark. Not caring, I hung up on him mid-sentence and went back to staring at the reports.

My new administrative assistant peeked her head into my office and smiled at me. “Everything ok?”

I nodded and smiled stiffly back at her, “Yes, of course, why wouldn’t it be?” I was pretty sure the office gossip had gotten back to her, and I was certain I had been described as probably that crazy lady who knocked out the power, so I tried my best to be super professional and sane around her. I’m not going to pretend it wasn’t difficult. I even stopped muttering to myself.

“Ok, I just wanted to check in. Oh, and by the way, you have someone here to see you.”

My eye began to twitch. I knew it was nerves. Please tell me it wasn’t Mark. I didn’t want to get a restraining order, but I was surely thinking about it now. I smiled tightly and said, “Who is it?”

“Just me,” Chris said peeking out from around the corner too.

Instantly, the tension I didn’t even know was there eased from my body. “Hi,” I said softly, a real smile appearing on my face.

He walked towards me with his hands behind his back. I was instantly suspicious.

“What’s behind your back?”

“What? These?” he asked, bringing forward a bouquet of roses. I stood up and put my hands on my cheeks. I was in shock. None of my previous boyfriends had been romantic at all. Mark definitely hadn’t been. A man had never given me flowers. And then I realized actually that wasn’t exactly true. I swallowed back a wave of emotion at the memory. And as I looked up at Chris, I realized that he remembered too.

He handed me the roses and said, “So what do you think? They’re nicer than the crumbled-up wildflowers I gave you.”

I smiled to myself as I buried my nose into them. “I remember that day like it was yesterday.”

“So do I,” he said.

We had been at nearby summer camps together. I’d been miserable and missing home. He was at a camp down the river, and I was closer to the mountains. We conspired to meet up one day and went on a hike in the woods after hours. We’d had a little picnic next to a calm lake using food we had both stolen from our respective camp sites and he had walked away to find firewood and came back with a hand full of wildflowers. I kept a few of them for years pressed into a journal. I wondered if that journal was still somewhere in one of the boxes in my Dad’s garage.

“We should do that again.”

I raised an eyebrow, “Sneak off into woods and get yelled at in the morning? And grounded by our parents?”

He laughed, “I mean, go somewhere together. We can get out of town this weekend. Head to the mountains. It’ll be nice.”

It did sound nice. I looked at the mountain of reports sitting on my desk and shrugged. “Ok. Why not?”

He looked shocked, “So, it’s a yes, you’re not going to fight me on it. You sure you’re feeling well today?”

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