Hitting the Right Notes (5 page)

He knew it all and respecting her wish – let her go.

“Can you believe this idiot let her go without asking for a phone number or her address
or
another date or at least a tattoo of her autograph on his stupid useless butt?” Margo yelled like crazy.

As if she was the one who had just scored a date with the only true love of her life and let it go…

True, Margo and Alison had been part of his life for so long and had heard him whining miserably about his lonely heart, that now they would never believe he had let her go so easily. Unlike Eric, Margo’s true love sat right on her lap and tried to calm her down. Thank god, at least one of his crazy best friends had the decency to keep it calm and not throw punches into his face and tell him what they thought about him.

“Relax, babe,” Alison did her best to calm her down. “If that’s his decision, we should support him. Eric is a big boy and he knows better than us what he wants for himself.” Her eyes didn’t show that she meant what she said though and under her thoughtful eyes he blushed.

“No. He knows not! Do you think I want to see him suffer another decade with his constant whining and even worse the…” Alison cut her with a sharp stare. She didn’t let Margo mutter the words, but the three of them knew what she meant. They had been through his hard times together and Eric could not disagree that repetition of it could be a possibility.

“She didn’t want me,” he protested weakly.

“Did you ask her?” Alison covered his hand with hers and gave him a soft nudge.

How could he explain to them that he saw it in her eyes? His “
problems
” from the past that they all so conveniently tried to avoid mentioning had left him more sensitive and able to read more on people’s emotions that could be visible or said.

“I will never understand you!” exclaimed Margo, devouring the croissant as if the breakfast carried the guilt of what Eric had been unable to accomplish.

“I don’t know what to say. It was amazing to talk to her, to hold her in my arms, but… she introduced herself as D. She didn’t even want to share her full name with me.”

“You know her name Eric. Knew it for years. Prayed to her. And let her go now.” If the situation wasn’t this bitter, Eric would’ve been amused watching how poor sweet Alison was being torn between the two of them – trying to keep Margo’s rage under control and encourage him at the same time.

“What was your feeling; could there be any development if she opened up to you?” Alison asked.

He gave the question long consideration. Something in his guts screamed that yes, there was no doubt in it. They were born for each other and he knew it from the first day he saw her. That was years ago. She had changed a lot since then. She was a different person. Was he ready to accept that? Or was he chasing a dream that existed no more?

“Maybe,” he had to give it a chance. How could he deny it all?

“I love this sweet confusion on your face, Eric.” Alison’s smile warmed his heart and he wanted to cry, to hug both of them, and never let them go. But they were right and he was a big boy, and he had to take actions and not hide under the skirts of his best friends.

“Eric, falling in love is truly scary. But if you don’t try, if you don’t tell her how you feel, she might never know it.” Even Margo sounded tender now. Was he that desperate?

Images of the night filled his mind. They lay there on the rooftop for hours, ignoring the early morning cold. Watched the first lights of the new day fill the sky and swallow the stars. They talked and that was the most relaxing sensation any words had ever had on him. They talked about random things – friends, hopes, cities, travel. How she was tired of it, how he dreamed about it. They were so different, but at the same time, when he kissed her, he knew they belonged with each other. The kind of a feeling you never mistake with anything else.

His friends looked at him with so much love and care. He never thought they were so romantic. Alison and Margo always claimed to be realists or pragmatics or whatever else they thought they were, but to sit here with teary hopeful eyes and motivate him to pursue his dream? That was a new. Love did make miracles after all.

Eric was shy. He had never been the successful confident guy around girls, even though many appreciated his looks, the moment he opened his mouth they usually ran away looking for some confident jerk or megalomaniac or whatever else the girls liked.

But Darya was a woman – a mature woman who seemed to appreciate his care for her.

“Just do it, Eric. We’ll think about it later.” Pushed Margo.

“Exactly. Whether it ends good or bad we are here to support you.” Alison added.

Then both of them shifted their attention to their breakfasts – probably to give him some time to think, or maybe the croissants were more interesting than his desperate love stories.

“Alright, I’ll give it a try.” He finally said. “Now the question is how to find her. I know she is staying at some hotel and having a conference there. Probably a 5-star hotel. So how many such hotels are there in Milwaukee?”

They all exchanged comprehending looks. If they were going to make this work, a busy morning was ahead of them. At least they knew her full name, so that solved part of the puzzle.

Alison quickly grabbed her tablet and searched for the list of all the 5star hotels in the city. Margo fetched the phone and both sat with sheepish expressions as he took a deep breath and dialed the first number.

“Go get your girl,” they said as the receptionist of the first hotel answered to the call and Eric’s hands started to shake with nervousness.

Hello Hangover, good morning
, Darya murmured. She wasn’t particularly happy to welcome the headache, which started the moment she ran down the stairs of the building and got into a cab to hurry to her hotel. It was a good distraction from the pain gnawing through her heart, though. By the time she entered the conference hall and found Kiara, there was a huge dark hole inside her heart – plain emptiness that she was used to having.

It was stupid to let down your guard and allow someone get to close, that their absence hurts now.
She had broken her own rule and was ready to face the consequences.

The only good outcome of it was that Darya had to put much more effort to concentrate on the work, to push away the thoughts and images of the last night.
He was beautiful and so caring.

He was a stranger and will be that forever now. Better just to keep good memories. That’s all I’ve got from the last night.

Indeed, the memories were sweet and colorful. She smiled to them, though her business associates thought the smile was for them and answered them in their own nods and brief smiles. That formed a good start for the day. She was not in the mood to create another scandal, so the plan for Darya was simple – to survive until the end of the meetings, not perform any stunts, and keep her thoughts on the business at stake only.

Surprisingly to her own self, it turned out Darya was capable to generate useful thoughts and suggestions during the negotiations at the table. She simply needed to concentrate. Even Kiara looked pleasantly surprised at her serious approach. Her assistant had somehow managed to apologize for her yesterday’s show and have Mr. Collins in good mood and ready to collaborate. Indeed, Darya had forgotten that she had started all of this to make her crazy ideas come true and she was good in that when she wanted to.

Why did she have to constantly remind herself of her own value? Why would she constantly doubt and undervalue herself?

“For me this is all about inspiring women,” said Darya surprised at her own words. “It changes the whole ideology of Fashion and Haute Couture for being only meant to those lucky rich ones who made it to the runway shows, now they can be part of it even from their home if they are housewives.” Mr. Collins nodded. “That is why I believe we should be able to help you with expansion overseas and carry the promotion campaigns to enter the new markets. We will be glad to contribute with our knowhow as well as financial investments.”

Once they went into details, she let Kiara take the charge and let her thoughts slip away to her beautiful stranger again.

She had left without telling him her real name or giving her phone number, which meant he had no chance to find her even if he really tried. She simply gave him no chance and did not even stop to consider his opinion on that.

He was going to betray me anyway, sooner or later. He was so young… Would simply get bored and leave one day. It is better this way.

“I don’t know what you did last night to be so great this morning, but please keep on doing that, Darya.” Kiara whispered into her ear as they sipped their coffees preparing for the next meeting.

“I don’t think so,” and her own words made her lonely wounded heart squeeze. She had made the choice and had to live with it now.

The other meetings seemed to be even more productive. Darya even found herself caring about the outcomes and made some final decisions, instead of being the beautiful dummy and letting Kiara decide. Her assistant apparently disliked losing control over the situation, but that was not on top of Darya’s concerns. Not for the moment, at least.

What if I gave him a chance? Who said that every man is bound to betray me? What if this boy was the exception? Too late!

If it was not about the hopes that she herself crashed this morning, it would’ve been fun to follow the inner struggle between her two selves – Darya the realist and DaYa the dreamer. Both of them still lived inside her mind, even if she did her best not to listen to the latter one.

“Darya, you were just great. But I think you should trust me with the meeting with Mrs. Nolan. She’s an important VC. I think I can deal with her better,” Kiara said and Darya confirmed to herself her initial feeling about her assistant being much happier when Darya didn’t care about their work at all.

“It’s ok, don’t worry that much, Kiara. I’ll be fine. Just smile,” she gave her one of her shiny smiles and could clearly see that it never mirrored in the eyes of her assistant.

Was Kiara jealous or envious or whatever else could there be? She knew she had to worry about it, but one thing at a time – right now she wanted to worry more about her lost chance rather than make things better with her assistant.

“I’ll go out for a smoke,” she told Kiara. The cigarette wasn’t going to calm her conflicting thoughts, she didn’t even like the taste of it recently, but that was a distraction she needed now.

Darya stepped out of the building. It seemed like a nice, bright day, but Darya didn’t care much about the weather. She was too preoccupied with her thoughts and didn’t have much interest in the city. Then suddenly she could feel the weight of somebody’s stare on her. Probably somebody had recognized her or thought that she reminded them of someone and were trying to figure out who she was. Darya was half tempted to turn and go back into the safety of the hotel, but as she was preparing to hurry back, her eyes found the person who was looking at her and her whole body froze refusing to make another step towards the hotel. Once again her lungs burned as all the air left them.

Was
he
here? Or was that the borne of her imagination standing with the sweetest bouquet of bright field flowers in his hand and smiling to her?

“Hi Darya.” Eric smiled to her and her knees trembled. Her treacherous body was going to betray her and give away her confusion, but she didn’t care. She looked into those deep eyes and saw so much care. The excitement warmed her heart and she started breathing again.

He looked confused and unsure, but even that couldn’t take away from the moment.

“I had to find you. I know you might not want to see me again, but… I … I couldn’t live with it if I didn’t give it at least a try…” he sounded so sincere. He wasn’t playing games with her. He was being himself. And she had to tell that again and again to herself. She did trust the man last night, why run away from him now?

“This is for you,” he awkwardly stretched the flowers to her. Whatever this man did, made her heart sparkle and dance. She was still unable to form any words. “Are you busy, or do you have time?” More silence. “Please say something. I feel miserable standing here and trying to guess what you think.”

Darya’s body reacted first. She wrapped her arms around his neck in a warm embrace, which gave her mind enough time to form the first coherent thought.

“Let’s go say hello to the city,” she whispered into his ear and without waiting for an answer covered his lips with a tender loving kiss.

Sometimes happiness is so close that one can reach out and touch it, hold hands with one’s own happiness
.

For Eric, all it took was to make sure to hold that hand firmly and never let her go. Eric was not sure how all of that was going to work out – for now, there was only one thing important to him – he was holding her hand, she had chosen him over her work, and she wanted to spend the afternoon with him.

That was more than enough happiness someone like him could dream about.

Strange thoughts crossed his mind while he was waiting for Darya to go into her hotel room, change, and come back for their day in the city. He knew she was going to come back with thousands of questions about how he had found out her name and he was not sure he had all the answers. He didn’t have time to consult with Alison and Margo who loved playing the role of experts in love and relationships. The truth was they knew nothing. Things had been so easy for them. They had not waited for one another for decade and more… How could he give her true answers without revealing all the history hidden behind them?

Eric bit his lips, trying not to laugh when he realized that for Darya, he was just a random young guy whom she had met the day before. Would she be scared and ran away if she knew he had been in love with her for almost fifteen years? Eric was definitely not ready to find out the answer to that question just yet.