Mine to Lose (14 page)

“No pressure there,” I answer through
gritted teeth.

“Which part? Friends or the event?”

“I’ll let you know.”

What do you do when your client tells you
he has feelings for you? The same client that you interact with every day and
invades your dreams at night. Well, if your name is Emogen Kane, you go home,
eat a gallon of ice cream, get no sleep, go to work the next day and hope you
hear nothing from him. Then, you call your big sister and hope she can calm
your ass down. I could go to Joss, but she already thinks something is up with
Trey. Langley always knows the best way to handle things.

I pull her number up in my phone and wait
for the call to go through. As soon as she answers the phone, my voice rushes
out, sounding urgent,
“
Lang, you got
a sec?
”

“
Hey
Emmy! Omigosh, I was just about to call you- I have some exciting news
,
”
she spills
out before I can share my latest drama
.

“Oh really? What's going on?”

“Reid asked me to marry him!” She screams
so loud that I have to pull the phone away from my ear.

“Are you serious?” I have to ask, because
it’s not out of the realm of possibility for her to play a joke on me.

“Yes!”

“What? How? I mean…”
I’m at a loss.
“I had no idea you two were serious, I mean, you’ve been dating, what, two
months?”

“And?” she retorts, hurt. “When you know,
you know.”

I’m an asshole; my sister shares her good
news with me, and I’m raining on her parade. “That’s amazing, Lang! I’m so
happy for you. How did he do it? Does mom know? Do you have a date set, yet?” I
rapid-fire the questions, hoping I sound as excited as she is.

“It wasn't as romantic as your proposal,
but I loved it,” she prefaces. Ryan’s proposal was amazing and over the top;
I’m not sure anyone could one-up it. “Last night, he took me to the restaurant
where we had our first date, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. He kept
talking about the future, and I knew we had one, just not so soon. Anyway,
after dinner we went to this courtyard and there were benches everywhere, so we
sat down. We were talking and he said, ‘this is the place where I saw you the
first time, and I knew I had to meet you.’ And then he dropped down on one knee,
had a box in his hand, and he said, ‘I know it seems sudden, but I need you in
my life, forever. So, Langley, will you please marry me?’ And I started
screaming. I think people thought something bad was happening to me, because
they came rushing over. But when they saw him on his knee with the ring, they
started laughing and clapping. And I mean, of course I said yes.”

Stunned into silence by her story, tears are
burning my eyes, but I have the biggest smile plastered on my face. I wish I
were there with her to hug her and celebrate, but I’m here.

“You still there?”

“Langley,” I finally manage to croak
through my constricting throat, “that’s beautiful. Congratulations, sis.”

“Thank you. And yes, mom knows, I just
got off the phone with her when you called.”

“What did she say?”

“Well, you know mom and marriage, she
didn’t seem thrilled. But she congratulated me. I’m getting a little worried
about her. She’s been drinking more lately and this Scott guy that she’s seeing
is an asshole. She seems to be morphing into someone I don’t really know
anymore. At least she was happy for you when you got engaged. She’s met Reid,
and I guess she likes him. She’s just a little strange.”

“I’m sorry, and then you tell me, and I’m
no better. You’re right, when you know you have to go with it, and Reid sounds
like a great guy, I can’t wait to meet him. Speaking of, when are you guys
coming out to visit?”

“Well, I know you just had Ryan there, so
I thought maybe you’d like some company next weekend? We could drive out
Thursday after work. It would be really late, but at least we’d have Friday and
Saturday there. Whatcha think?”

“Seven hours is a long drive, are you
sure you’re up for that?”

“Absolutely!”

“Then I can’t wait,” I tell her, happy
that she’s finally going to come see me.

“So wait, why were you calling me?”

I am not an asshole. I’m not going to
lay this on her.

“It was nothing,” I lie, not wanting for
one second to take away from what is a wonderful day for my deserving sister.

We hang up and I bask in the awesomeness
of her news.
Langley Jennifer Kane is getting married.
I never thought I
’
d see the
day. She used to say she never wanted to get married, not after dad split when
we were kids. It's a wonder either of us are in relationships, period, because
mom instilled in us that men are ultimately single-minded, selfish creatures
who will screw you over the second something better comes along.

Trey

His name floods my head again, and I decide
to talk the next best thing to my sister, Joss.

Me: I need you to come over, no
questions asked, just meet me at my place.

Joss: What?

Me: No Questions. Get. Over. Here.

Joss: Fine

That
’
s the good thing about best friends; they really aren
’
t in a position
to argue, especially Joss. That
’
s what she signed up for when she moved out here to
be near me, and that's what she gets for being my best friend. We have had our
girl
’
s nights out, and nights in. We
’
ve laughed our asses off when one of us does
something stupid and held each other when our worlds fell apart. I
’
m not sure
what this situation falls under, but I
’
m pretty sure this is a girl
’
s night in,
where I vent, she listens, pretends that I
’
m making the right decisions, then snaps me back into
reality.

I need reality.

There
’
s a knock at my door, followed
by her less than chipper voice.
“
Open the door, Emogen.
”

“
One
second,
”
I yell, unlocking the deadbolt,
followed by the chain.

She barely looks at me as she shoves past.
“
This
better be good, because I had a date.
”

“
Shit!
”
I slam the door shut and walk over to the back of the
couch where she is glaring at me,
“
I
’
m sorry, I had no idea. Do I know him?
”

“
Well,
I could have had a date, but you blew that one up.
”

“
What
do you mean?
”

“
What
do you think? I was going to pick up some random guy tonight and
‘
date,
’
him for the evening,
”
she says, turning to stare me
down.

My jaw drops open, shocked at her
revelation,
“
You were not!
”

“
No,
”
she pouts,
“
but I could have. So what
’
s the
emergency?
”

I shove her aside and take a seat on the
couch, wondering if she would really do it.
“
You
’
re such a bitch sometimes, you know that?
”

Her face contorts to shock as she throws
herself to sit on the other end of the couch.
“
Excuse me? I
’
m a bitch all
the time.
”

I laugh, because it's expected, but it
’
s not
genuine. Now I have to tell her the reason I needed to see her so urgently.

“
Something
happened today.
”
And for whatever reason, guilt fills my heart.

Her posture rights and she looks
concerned.
“
Is everything okay?
”

“
I
don't know. My head is all over the place. First off, Langley's getting
married. But I just found that out. Second, it's about Trey.
”

“
What
about Mr. Intrusive?”

“Huh,” I scoff, “funny you would call him
that. I met him for lunch yesterday to talk about some changes he wanted to
make. But the thing is-”

“There were no changes,” she finishes for
me. “What’s the deal with this guy, Em?”

Here it comes. I fidget with the tassel
on the corner of the pillow I’m holding, before looking her in the eyes. “He’s
‘attracted’ to me,” I cringe, repeating his words from yesterday with air
quotes.

“He’s what? Did he tell you that?” she
asks, appalled.

“Yeah, he knows I’m with Ryan, he just
thought it best to own up to it, I guess.”

“What an asshole!”

“Yeah,” I say half-heartedly.

On the one hand, I’m flattered that Trey
told me what he did, but I feel like I’m not being true to Ryan. Ryan is the
man I’m going to marry, and I love him with all my heart, so why is the
unsolicited attention from Trey wreaking havoc on my head?

“Unless? He’s not an asshole? What’s
going on? What are you not telling me?”

“Fuck, me!” I wail at the ceiling. I
compose myself and finally look at Joss. “I’ve been having these dreams about
him. Lang says it’s because Ryan’s been gone and I’ve had to spend so much time
with Trey for work, that it’s normal. But it’s not. It doesn’t feel normal.”

She stares at me a little too long and I
know what’s coming. “Do you have feelings for him, too?”

This is the question I have tried to
avoid completely, even with myself.
Do I have feelings for Trey?

“Do I find him attractive? Yes. Do I
enjoy working with him? Yeah, he makes me laugh. But do I have feelings for
him? No.”

The moment the words come out, I know
it’s a lie. Of course I have feelings for him, otherwise I wouldn’t have been
the slightest bit jealous that he had a date with him the other night and I
wouldn’t be trying to figure things out. My heart rate wouldn’t sound in my
ears when he compliments me.

Oh shit! I have a crush on Trey
Miller.

“So what are you gonna do?” Joss asks,
when she sees the look on my face.

“Nothing,” I protest. “There is nothing I
need to do. I’m in love with Ryan. We’re getting married and that’s it.”

She looks at me and leans over to grab my
hand before speaking. “Just because you have feelings for this guy, doesn’t
mean you don’t love Ryan. But you better sort your feelings out before you do
anything you might regret.”

“I would never cheat on Ryan,” I argue,
wounded she would suggest anything of the sort.

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” she
says, giving me a knowing look.

* * *

After our lunch, I do my best to avoid
Trey as much as possible over the next week and a half, even going so far as to
communicate only through Hattie. The first week is easy; he was out of town.
But the Hattie-solution proved fruitless, because she’s a few cards short of a
deck. Every time I email her, she would email him to ask how to respond but keep
me on the correspondence. At first, I thought it was funny, but every message is
handled in this way, so finally Trey sends an email to only me, asking that I
just send all questions to him. Now, when my inbox alerts me to a new message
from him, I feel giddy.
Not what I was going for.

Since he was out of town this week, I
have found it much easier to think without the constant phone calls or meetings
with him. Unfortunately, he will return by Friday and is already requesting two
meetings for next week to select the caterer. He provides me with a list of
items he would prefer for the dinner, so I narrow the companies down based on
the ones I feel are the best option.

I visit with Lisa a few times, and even
though she is giving us carte blanch, no doubt because she has a thing for hot
younger guys, I still make sure to run things by her. Best decision I made,
because Ivy Glen has certain
“
rules
”
about which
vendors they let bring things in. When I mention we are using Everette’s
Catering for the evening, she seems less than thrilled with the choice. When I
press for answers, she eyes me, prompting my hand to fly up to swear that I won’t
repeat anything.

“
They
overcharge by twenty percent,
”
she admits in
a hushed tone.