Glass Ceilings (51 page)

Verity stood up suddenly
.
Alternating waves of wonder and trepidation were crossing her countenance.
She ne
eded to face him squarely, but when
Royce moved closer,
she immediately backed away
.

H
e grew still
and t
hey stood, staring at each other, until Royce said, ‘And as far as my moving to the states goes, I’ve got
i
t all sorted.’

‘Oh, have you.’ She forced
a frosty
note
into her voic
e
,
which was in total contrast to her inner
, fiery
heat. It felt l
ike she was full of boiling magma
, rolling
and
bubbling
inside her
. ‘
W-w
ell, I’m pleased for you, but right now I need ti
me
to digest what you’ve told ...,’ she
shook her head, ‘um, asked
...
me
.’

‘Of course.’ Royce
had been
only
barely
res
is
ting the urge to reach for her, but h
e rallied and
assumed a more casual
manner
, aware this would seem
less threatening
to her
. ‘I’ll leave you with it, but I’d like to take you to dinner this evening
,
so we can talk some more?
’

Without thinking, she nodded.

‘I’ll p
ick you up at seven
.’ Royce
paused, and she nodded
again
.
H
e
turned and strode
to the do
orway
where he
cast one last, lingering look
at her
before going out.

Verity
glanced at her watch and saw
that her hands were shaking. She breathed deeply to calm herself, and decided that no matter what the time, she was finished
work
for the day. She quickly tidied
her desk, grabbed her bag, a
nd went to the door
to bark at
Claire, ‘I’m off home.’

‘Oh? Taking an early one for a change?’

‘Yes.
Hey
Claire, could you do me a favour?
As a friend.
’

‘
N
ame it.’

‘Could you come over as soon as you finish work? I
need someone to talk to.’

‘Of course, I’ll see you there shortly.’

‘Great, t
hanks,’ and Verity gave her a tight smile before heading out.

If ever she
need
ed
someone to talk to, and
time to think
, it was now.

Chapter Twenty-One

‘I can tell
when
you’r
e dod
ging a
subject
, y’know
.’ Claire raised an interrogative eyebrow at her friend. They were sitting
on the sofa
in Verity’s lounge
room
, with drinks and a platter of olives, cheese and crackers in front of them.

Verity
flopped
back
against the cushions
and sighed, ‘Yeah, you’re onto me.
I
got you here to talk, but
now I
don’t know where to start
....’

‘
Just start somewhere.
You need to talk and I’m here to listen.
’

Verity pulled a face
.

Claire
’s expression remained
dogged
.
‘It’s about Royce, isn’t it?
’ Whe
n
that
went unchallenged
,
sh
e added
,
‘
The way you shot out of the office after your meeting this ‘arvo ... I wondered what was going on.’

Verity remained tight-lipped, but Claire persevered.

‘
You never did
give me a straight
answer
when I asked how you feel about him. So let’s
begin
there
, shall we?’

Verity took a long swig
of wine
.
‘Well, in a nutshell ...
I-
I think I ... but then ... I could’ve ... what if....’

‘Oh, for crying out loud! Spit it out girl, it’s not that hard a question!’

Verity gave a rueful grin. ‘Yeah, I sound like a loony, don’t I?’

‘
Well, n
ot
like
yourself, that’s for sure. The Verity I know would just lay it on the line.’

‘The Verity you know
now
...,’
and she
paused and sucked
i
n
her bottom lip, ‘is very different from the one who laid her heart on the line once before, only to have
it
crushed
underfoot
.’ Bitterness crept into her voice. ‘
That
Verity
, and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men, had to work hard to put
all the bits of her
trampled
life back together
again
. And along the way she
came to reali
se that love is too risky. T
here’s
too much to lose when you’re gambling with your heart.’

‘But
hearts
do
recover, and
lots of
risk
s
are worth taking. A
s CEO,
y
ou’re not afraid to take
short term
chance
s
when you can see long term benefits. Take Royce’s project for example. That didn’t come with a “risk-free guarantee” did it? But you
foresaw
the advantages it c
ould bring to the company
,
and
went for it.’

‘But that’s business, Claire.’

‘Yeah,
and
the same principles can apply
to person
al
stuff
too.’ She put an arm around
Verity’s
shoulders
. ‘You simply
backed the wrong player first time round. Love is
n’t meant to hurt, it’s
meant to shield your heart from harm.’

‘Well
, it didn’t shield me and David. But how could it
when all
we had
wa
s
a thin veneer
,
masquerading as the real
thing, j
ust a
fragile
defence that shattered
like brittle glass
at the first blow?
And
not even a serious
blow, more like
someone
just
chucked
a
handful of
loose change
at it
.
’ Verity
straightened
to sit rigidly on the
sofa
’s edge
. ‘
Money, the old “root of all evil”. Just ’cos I was earning more of it
than
David
was, and making him feel
inadequate,
that’s all i
t took for him to turn on me and
ruin my life.
He even managed to make the friendliest cat in the universe permanently wary of men.
’

She took another mouthful
of wine
and went on
,
‘And what’s to say the same
won’t happen again if I let Royc
e into my life?
He’s even
more
career-oriented than David was.
Come to think of
it, David wasn’t ambitious, he just didn’t like b
eing upstaged by his own wife. N
ot that it matters now.
’ She lifted her glass again and drained it in one gulp.
‘
B
ut
what
if
it turns sour again?
I may not be a
ble to find all the pieces next
time
.’

‘And if you don’t
give this thing with
Royce a chan
ce, you could be passing up a
wonderful
future
. Don’t le
t your bad experience with the
wrong
man
stop you from finding the
right
man, the one who’ll make you happy
,
and stop you from being
lonely for the rest of your life.’

Verity considered Claire’s word
s before saying
thoughtfully, ‘Look, I know some people think I’m weird for choosing to be on my own, but we come into this world alone, and when we leave it we’re alone. So why should it be unnatural to spend the time in between on our own?’ She
looked into
her empty glass
,
mumbl
ing
,
‘Maybe I’m
just
not cut out for love,
’
and
raised
her eyes to frown at Claire
. ‘It felt like love
with David
,
at first anyway,
b
ut it couldn’t have been
,
to end like that, surely?
’

Both women found their
thought
s
straying
to the
Davi
d days. All had been shiny
until
he’d realised
he was no match for his wife’s intellect and abilities
. His envy and resentment at
the unflattering contrast between her success an
d his own un
remarkable accomplishments
,
had him moaning,
to anyone who’d listen
,
about his wife
’s ‘ruthless ambition’ and ‘self
ish
disregard
’ of his feelings. And o
nce
the rot
set in
there’d been no going back. He
started ha
ving tawdry,
shor
t-lived affairs
, but
portrayed
himself as the injured party
when their marriage finally broke
down
.

‘People talk about love as though it’s the be-all and end-all,’ Verity mused, ‘but
my marriage to David only
confirmed
love
’s skin-deep
superfi
ci
ality
.’

‘
That may have been the case with you and
David, and I have to sa
y,
he
certainly didn’t love
you
,
otherwise he w
ouldn’t have done what he did, b
ut
t
hat
doesn’t mean
real love is
n’t
still out there, waiting for you. But you have to have the guts to take it when it’s offered.’

‘But how do you know Royce is offering this
“
real love
” you reckon
is out there
?’

‘I do
n’t, but then how do you know he isn’
t?’

Verity chewed on
her lip
while Claire poured them both another drink
,
and handed Verity hers
.
She took it, saying
quietly with a small frown,
‘He asked me to marry him, Claire.’

‘WHAT?’
Claire nearly dropped her glass
, and had to quickly mop up the spilt wine with her napkin
.

Verity exhaled in a rush,
‘Yeah that
was pretty much
my re
action too. Look at this
,’ and she hande
d over the
box
Royce had given her, containing the engagement
ring
.