Laura took the seat across from him and crossed her arms.
“What can I get you two?” Elena asked, popping up next to the table. She smiled wide like it wasn't her fault no one was manning the bar and Laura was now stuck at this stupid booth.
“I'll have a jack and coke,” Ethan replied. They both turned and smiled at Laura, waiting for her drink order.
“Um, I guess I'll have the same,” she said with a shrug. She didn't want drinks. She wanted to get Mia's stupid cheese and get out of here. The last thing in the entire world that she wanted was to have a conversation with Ethan. He hated her guts and didn't want anything to do with her. She still remembered the conversation that she had with his secretary, and the mean things that the secretary had relayed to her. Why he wanted anythi
ng different now was a total mystery to her, one that she didn't really want to find the answers to.
Elena waited for a second to see if they wanted anything else before thanking them and heading off to the bar. Mia crossed her arms and waited for her drink.
Ethan cleared his throat, breaking the silence between them. “I figure I'll just get this out of the way now,” he told her. “I'm going to be in town for a few weeks while Carter is busy with the baby. I'm setting up the R&D department in Denver, so I'll be here for awhile.”
“Okay,” she said with a shrug. “Why does that matter to me?”
His pale green eyes met hers, and she felt their electric pull in. She wanted to resist, but to resist him was to resist the tide or the need to breathe.
“I want to see you.”
She blinked twice. “What?”
“I'd like to see you,” he repeated. “I know you said that you weren't interested after the party, but given what happened at the fundraiser...”
“Wait, what? What do you mean I said I wasn't interested?” she asked, suddenly confused for more reasons than one. She had certainly never said that after the party. “You were the one who told your secretary to let me down easy.”
He frowned and shook his head. “No. You had your boyfriend tell me off when I called you.”
“Uh, no.” She shook her head hard enough that hair went across her face. “You never even called me. You never talked to me after the party. I didn't have a boyfriend, and you never called.”
“Here's your drinks,” Elena said setting the drinks down on the table. She pulled out her pad to take their order, but as she looked at the two of them staring across the table like two cats in a territory fight, she quickly pocketed it and went back to the bar.
“What do you think happened after the party?” Ethan asked once Elena was gone. His voice was calm, but there was a small tick at the base of his jaw that drew Laura's attention.
She reached for her drink and swirled the thin red straw through the dark liquid without drinking it. Slowly, she raised her eyes back to his. There was a hurt there that she hadn't seen before, or at least she had recognized.
“I gave you my phone number, and we left the mother's room,” she replied. “Your secretary found you, and you had to go off to some important business thing.”
“That part matches my memory,” he replied. “What happened next?”
She took a sip of her drink and remembered.
Chapter 6
Laura
Sixteen months ago…
He didn't call the next day after the party.
Laura was disappointed, but as she was nursing a small hangover combined with jet-lag for most of her Sunday morning, she wasn't too devastated. She figured he was probably in the same boat. She kept her phone on her for the whole day as she explored the area near her hotel once she felt up to walking.
It was only one day and a hungover day at that. Plus, maybe his business still needed his help. She wasn't sure what he did for W Motors, but he seemed important.
She woke up early Monday morning, eager to enjoy her last day in California. Today they were supposed to go rock climbing, and she hoped to have another fantastic time together. Her flight home was at noon on Tuesday, so today was really her only day. She checked her messages and voicemail twice before nine am, but there was, of course, nothing.
She sat down on the foot of her bed, staring at the phone. He said he'd call, but she was getting nervous he wouldn't.
“But,” she rationalized out loud, “he doesn't know that I'm leaving tomorrow. He might be following the appropriate 'wait three days' rule. I should just call him.”