Betrayed (11 page)

The kitchen smelled glorious. I set the baking pan on the counter and poked a fork into it. It slid free of the batter without a touch of the brownie sticking to it - just right. I sliced a corner piece and scooped it gently onto a plate. Steam rose from it, and the smell became even more glorious.

I poured a tiny glass of milk and set it on the dining room table along with the plate. I had everything just where it needed to be; everything in its right spot. I was going to sit down and have a nice snack. Then, I would be ready to get back to work. I would attack everything I needed to do just after my snack was finished.

That was what I would do.

I nearly had the first bite to my mouth when a knock at the door made me jump.

Who can that be?
, I wondered.

I put the fork on the I tip-toed over to the door and leaned into it. I raised my eye to the peephole.

What the hell?

My hands began trembling, and went numb. I stared at the door for what felt like an eternity. My hand paused over the deadbolt. I stood there, frozen, until the door rattled with another knock.

The knock sounded urgent and hurried. At least, it did in my mind. I shook my head and blew out a breath. The lock popped as I turned it. The door creaked as I opened it.

Ethan stood there looking at me, a curious expression on his face.

“Hi,” he said, awkwardly. He turned his body and faced me fully.

He wore slacks with a polo tucked in. A light blazer was wrapped around his shoulders, and he looked devastating. My legs began to tremble along with my hands, but for a wholly different reason.

“Hi,” I squeaked. I couldn’t believe he was standing there, at Dana’s apartment, talking to me. A long, awkward moment of silence played out between us.

“I hoped you were here,” he said.

My mind scrambled to make sense of things. The door opened a bit wider, but I kept myself firmly planted behind it.

I nodded softly. “Did you need something?” I asked.

His cheeks tinged red.

“Sorry, yes,” he said. “I’m sorry to barge in on you like this, but I needed to talk to you.”

“I’ve been avoiding your calls for a reason,” I said.

He winced and shook his head. “I’m sorry about that,” he said. “I know you need your space, and I should have respected that.”

“Dropping by unexpected is how you respect my space?” I asked.

“No. No, this is different. I need to talk to you about something.”

“How did you even know where I was?” I asked. The notion of Ethan tracking me down to Dana’s place should have been scary - but for some reason I wasn’t nearly as scared as I should have been. Things had never been scary or tense with Ethan; and that scared me more than anything.

He hesitated for a second, and his cheeks blushed even redder.

“I can’t lie to you,” he said, simply. “But I don’t want you to get the wrong impression. So, if you really want to know, I’ll tell you.”

I frowned, confused. What could he possibly mean by that?

“Of course I want to know. How’d you even know I was staying in town?”

He blew out a breath. “Can we at least talk inside?”

I glanced over my shoulder for a second, eyeing the brownie still sitting on the table. Then turned back to him.

“Right here is fine,” I said. I wasn’t ready to let him in; he hadn’t even told me why he was there, yet.

He shrugged and blew out another sigh. “Right,” He began. “Well, then. Last weekend, after the whole blow up at my place, I kind of talked to Dana, and she mentioned that you were going to be with her all winter.”

I was shocked. My jaw would have hit the floor if it was only a few inches closer. I didn’t know what to say, or how to respond.

“So, days after I break up with you because I found out that you used to date my best friend - you go out on a date with my best friend?”

He raised his hands and held them open. “See, this is what I meant about you taking it the wrong way,” he said. “It wasn’t a date. It wasn’t
anything
like a date.”

“Then what the Hell was it?” I demanded.

He looked at me fiercely. “I wanted to see you,” he said. “You weren’t returning any of my calls. I was desperate, and I thought Dana could help.”

“How could Dana possibly help?” I said. “If you have something to say to me - you need to say it
to me.
”

“You weren’t taking my calls; what was I supposed to do?” he said. His voice took on an edge of desperation. His eyes were tight, pained. He closed them and took a deep breath. “I didn’t mean to make things worse,” he said. “But you and Dana are best friends, and I figured that if anyone could help put me back in touch with you it would be her. And when she made it clear she wouldn’t help, I left. Simple as that.”

I considered him for a long moment. I didn’t doubt that he was telling the truth. What upset me was the fact that he had gone and seen Dana. And why hadn’t she mentioned it to me?

“What did she tell you?” I asked.

“She said that you were hurting,” he said. He strained, like he wanted to say something more, but he held himself back. Then, softly, he added, “She said she was going to be with you this winter, making sure I didn’t make things worse.”

My heart raced, but now it was because I was annoyed with Dana for not saying anything. And who was she to decide who I could see? If I wanted to talk to Ethan, I was damn well going to.

I looked at him. The pain he was feeling was obvious, and it gave me a twisting feeling in my stomach. I didn’t like seeing him like that. It was his own fault, but that didn’t make it feel any better.

“What did you need?” I asked, after a long, silent, minute.

He looked up at me, his eyes hopeful. “I need your help,” he said. “I wouldn’t have come to you, but it’s important.”

I sighed. A pang of guilt appeared at the back of my head. For the briefest second, I was suspicious that he was just trying to get back in my life, or back into my pants. But, Ethan wasn’t the sort to play games. He was straightforward, and he seemed sincere enough.

He had hurt me once already, though. And I wasn’t going to easily forget that. My guard was going to stay up.

“Help on what?” I asked.

Ethan let out an exasperated sigh.

“It’s my research,” he said. “They bumped up the deadline by a week. I’m impossibly behind.” He gave me a long and hard look. Normally, he was very composed; but right then he looked like something else. He was vulnerable. “I wouldn’t have come to you, but you’re the only one I can turn to. You helped me out on my research during the semester, and you’re the only one that’s familiar enough with it to be able to help me.”

I paused and thought about it. I could only imagine the guts it took to actually come and ask me. He was right, I was probably one of the few people that was intimately familiar with his work. But the last time we had worked together, there had been a strong sexual tension between us. And I wasn’t sure I was ready to deal with that, yet. Not so soon since we had split up.

“Am I interrupting something?” he asked, after a moment. He sniffed at the air and tried to peak in through the doorway. “Is someone cooking?”

The brownies
.

I blushed. My nose had already become accustomed to the smell, and I didn’t notice it anymore. But they were fresh, and their delicious odor was pouring out the front door as I stood there.

“Oh, I was just doing some baking,” I said. I could feel the heat in my cheeks.

“You mind if I?…” He poked his head in past my shoulder and looked around. “That smells so amazing,” he said.

Heat rifled through me as his head came so close to mine. I felt my knees getting weak, but didn’t trust myself to move and put any distance between us. My nose was flooded with new smells - ones that I had grown used to, and hadn’t smelled in too long. I realized just how much I missed the way he smelled.

“Yeah, come in,” I said in a soft whisper.

His eyes met with mine. We stood their, locked inches apart from one another for what must have been an eternity. The heat in my cheeks spread down to other places. Ethan licked his lips. They glistened, and I couldn’t bring myself to stop staring at them.

Finally - thankfully - he sidestepped me into the apartment. I stood, still facing out the front door, my back to him, for a long moment. I took a few deep breaths and composed myself.

Ethan had walked straight to the dining room table and was eyeing the brownie sitting there.

“This smells delicious,” he said. “I didn’t realize you baked.”

“That’s nothing,” I smiled, shutting the door. “It’s just Betty Crocker.”

“It doesn’t look like nothing,” he said. “Can I try it?”

I cringed. I hadn’t been able to try it yet myself, and I hoped that it would taste alright.

“Sure,” I said.

He scooped it up quickly, shoveling the fork-full into his mouth. He moaned his pleasure afterward. “This is delicious,” he said.

I blushed. “It’s really nothing. I just needed to blow off some steam.”

“You must have spent a lot of time in the kitchen growing up,” he said.

“You’re embarrassing me,” I said.

“I’m sorry,” he said, but the sparkle in his eye told me he wasn’t.

There was a long moment that passed between us. My mind couldn’t comprehend the fact that Ethan was standing in the living room of Dana’s apartment with me. The idea seemed so far-fetched.

“How did you know where she lived, anyway?” I asked. My nerves twisted and curled the moment the question escaped my lips; I didn’t want to know the answer.

Ethan cocked an eyebrow at me, and my guts twisted even harder.

“Never mind,” I said. “Don’t answer that.”

He smiled nervously. “I never came in,” he said. “I just dropped her off once. Honestly, I didn’t even know if she still lived here - but I saw your car outside and thought I’d hit the jackpot.”

“You never came in?”

He shrugged. “I walked her to the door, and left it at that.”

My guts were still twisted in knots, but I felt like less of a tangled mess. I couldn’t imagine the two of them together in the apartment. I didn’t think I could stand to stay there any longer if they had been. That would have made the winter break much, much, longer.

“How’s your application coming along?” he asked.

I sighed, and plopped down on the couch. “It’s horrible. There’s no way I’m going to finish it,” I said. I didn’t even want to think about the thing anymore. The un-started business plan loomed over my head like dark clouds that were going to unleash a storm at any moment.

“What are you having a hard time with?” he asked.

“The business plan,” I said. “I haven’t even started the thing yet, and it’s due in a little over a week.”

“I’m sure you could find some sort of template or something online to work from. That would at least give you a starting point.”

I looked at him, dumbfounded. Why hadn’t I even considered looking online for sample business plans? It was the most logical and straightforward suggestion anyone had given me so far, and I felt dumb for not having thought of it myself.

“That’s actually a good idea,” I said.

His face twisted in a tight smile. “Don’t act too surprised - I’ve been known to have them from time to time.”

“No, that’s not what I meant,” I said, suddenly flustered. “Why didn’t my business advisor mention doing that? It seems like the easiest thing in the world.”

He shrugged. “She probably wanted to see how you’d do on your own. Gotta be resourceful in the business world - can’t go reinventing the wheel every day.”

I nodded. Ideas and possibilities began flooding my head. I now had a starting point, and felt infinitely more comfortable than I had just a few minutes before.

“There’s still one problem, though,” I said. “I have no idea what kind of business I want to research.”

Ethan took another bite from the brownie, and wiped a smudge of chocolate from the corner of his lip.

“Ever considered opening a bakery?” he asked.

“A bakery?” I said.

He shrugged, licking chocolate from his finger. “It makes sense, doesn’t it? You like baking; so, why not look into opening a bakery?”

I shrugged. “I never considered it,” I said, almost to myself.

“It seems like there’s a lot you didn’t consider,” he said. His eyes were focused on me sharply, and my hands instantly went cold, again. He wasn’t talking about the business school application anymore, but I didn’t think I was ready to get into a conversation about
us
just yet.

Ethan must have sensed something, because he didn’t push the issue.

“So what do you say?” he said. “Will you help me?”

I thought about it for a bit longer. I wasn’t even sure that I had enough time to finish my own application that was due in a week, let alone help Ethan on top of that. But I knew that wasn’t enough to talk me out of it. I liked to think that Ethan and I would one day be friends again. He still meant a great deal to me, and he was asking for my help. There was no way that I could live with myself if I told him no.

“I’ll do it,” I said. Ethan’s face beamed. “But, there are some ground rules,” I continued. His smile faltered, but only for a second.

“Anything,” he said. “Name it.”

I blew out a sight. Right then, I was sure he would agree to anything, and that wasn’t a good thing. I needed to make sure that he knew we needed to keep things just business between us. There was no way I would be able to handle this otherwise.

“First, we must keep this
strictly
professional,” I began. I used the sternest ‘Mom’ voice I could muster, because I needed him to take me seriously.

“Done,” he said, hesitating for only a second.

My eyes narrowed as I regarded him.

“Second, we have to meet somewhere neutral. I can’t go to your place - and you definitely can’t come here. I wouldn’t be surprised if Dana came home at any second - and that would be a
mess
.”

I cringed as I considered the idea of Dana walking in to find Ethan and I together in the living room. The more I thought of it, the more I knew Ethan needed to be gone -
soon!