Page 55 of A Secret Chance
Muriel approached the table, “Do you want to order any food?”
They both looked up at her, neither of them had even glanced at the laminated menus that sat in the wire napkin holder on the table. Muriel stepped back, “I’ll come back,” she whispered.
Lauren pulled the menus out of the napkin holder and slid one across the table to Baxter. “It’s okay. It was a long time ago.”
“Ten years,” Baxter said. “Time flies. You’re a powerful woman now; not that you weren’t back then too,” he corrected. “I just mean—”
“I know what you mean,” she said. “And you’re a powerful man now. Not that you weren’t one back then too.” She volleyed the pseudo compliment back to him.
“I tried to find you,” he whispered.
“You did?” This was news to her.
“Lauren, that night wasn’t just about sex to me. Don’t you remember, we sat up all night talking?”
“I do,” Lauren said.
“And when I woke up in the morning you were gone,” he said.
“I had to go to work,” she said.
“You didn’t leave anything, a number, a last name, anything,” Baxter said.
Lauren remembered sneaking out of Baxter’s room just as dawn lit up the silhouette of his face. She had thought about leaving her phone number, she had actually written it down on a piece of paper, but as she watched him sleeping, his full lips slightly parted, she shoved the number into her pocket and had left the room.
“I didn’t think that you wanted me to.”
“What would make you think that?” Baxter’s brow was furrowed, and she felt like he was boring holes into the back of her skull as he stared at her. “Fuck, Lauren, we had a connection.”
“We were kids,” she said. “I had never done that before. You know, a one-night thing.”
“It didn’t have to be a one-night thing.”
“I didn’t know that. All I knew is that you were a rich kid, in and out of town for a heli-ski vacation with your rich dad and his buddies.”
“I wish you would’ve given me the opportunity to prove that I was, that I am, more than that.” Baxter took Lauren’s hand in his.
“I’m sorry. If I could go back in time and change things, I would.” She pulled her hand out of Baxter’s. “But Baxter, we’re both adults now, and if you haven’t forgotten, we’re on opposite sides of the bargaining table right now. Even if we have a, um, history, that’s exactly what it is – history.” She folded her hands in front of her and stared at them while she spoke. “We can’t do this.” She looked up at him, his hands were also folded on the table.
“Right now,” he added.
“Right now,” she agreed. Her chest tightened, she needed to tell him about Tabitha. She opened her mouth, but the words wouldn’t come. She squeezed her lips together, How was she going to tell him that he had a daughter? “After the development is...” she paused. This is where they got into trouble earlier, “After the development is either approved or not approved, we can get together and talk about... this.” She pointed to him and back at her.
“Deal,” he smiled and reached out his hand.
Like two businesspeople, Lauren and Baxter shook on the postponement of, whatever it was, that they were. Baxter slugged back the last of his coffee. “I’m not going to be able to sleep after that,” he cleared his throat and thumped his fist on his chest like he was dislodging something solid. And just like that, the charge in the air between them was gone. Lauren relaxed back into the booth. They weren’t lovers, they weren’t friends, they were two businesspeople who both agreed that business had to come first.
“Me neither.” Lauren glanced at her watch and breathed a sigh of relief. It was only eight o’clock. She could still get home and work on the documents she needed to get done for Monday. “I should go,” she said.
“Let me call the driver and we can drop you at home.” Baxter pulled a twenty-dollar bill out of his wallet and left it tucked under his saucer.
“No,” Lauren said. “I appreciate the offer, but I think I’d like to walk tonight.”
“Well, let me walk you home then. What kind of gentleman would I be if I let you trudge off into the storm alone?”
Lauren glanced behind Baxter, the biggest snowflakes she had ever seen were falling heavily in the light of the streetlamp outside the diner window. “I’ll be fine.” She pulled on her coat and hat.
Baxter’s eyes flashed. “No.”
