Page 74 of Forked (Frenched 2)
Well, you might have. But you said everything happens for a reason, and that I just had to be willing to take a chance. I was never one to trust fate, but you helped me give myself permission to fall for him, not knowing what the end result would be.”
“But Lucas hadn’t hurt you in the past. Lucas was perfect,” I grumbled unreasonably.
“No one is perfect, Coco. Lucas has his faults just like anyone, and he’s nothing—nothing—like the man I thought I’d marry, but now look at me.” She smiled, her face lighting up. “You helped me see that things don’t always go according to plan, and that’s OK. Life’s full of surprises, right? Now I’m not saying Nick is the perfect one for you, and God knows I don’t like what he did, but if you still love each other after all this time, well…” She shrugged. “That’s a pretty powerful sign, in my eyes.”
“Right.” I took a deep breath. “Maybe I just need a little more time to get used to it…but I do love him, the cocky bastard.” Mia’s wedding dress caught my eye. It was wrapped in plastic, the hanger hooked over her closet door. “God, Mia. I can’t believe you’re getting married next weekend.”
She grinned. “Me neither.” Then she grabbed my leg. “Hey, maybe you’ll meet the man of your dreams in France!”
Erin cleared her throat. “Excuse me, no. I insist that any dreamy man left in France go to me. You two have had your share.”
#
I owed Nick a phone call, but I didn’t want to do it with Mia and Erin around. I’d call him on my way home. Since I wasn’t preggo, we opened a bottle of wine and watched Mia pack her wedding suitcase, oohing and ahhing over her gown—so much simpler than the puffy confection she’d been planning to wear for her first wedding. She’d sold that one on ebay and managed to get enough for it to buy this one plus our beautiful lavender bridesmaids dresses and plane tickets to France, her gifts to us. Erin and I, her only two attendants, had gone in together on a pair of gorgeous strappy, sparkly Jimmy Choo heels for Mia, and we’d had I DO put on the bottom of one shoe in tiny blue rhinestones, and her wedding date on the other. We’d also done a little research and had arranged for a day at a spa for the three of us in Provence once Erin and I arrived.
Watching Mia dance around her room, happier than I’d ever seen her, I felt this lovely warm hum beneath my skin. She was going to spend the rest of her life with the man she adored, and she couldn’t wait to get started.
Suddenly I thought of the story from Nick’s family history, about the way his great-grandmother, the little one called Tiny with the red lips, had shown up at his great-grandfather’s house to announce she loved him in the middle of Sunday dinner because she couldn’t wait. I thought about the note we’d found with today’s date on it—really, what were the odds of that? Probably a million to one.
So what was I waiting for? If you loved someone, you should say it, right?
The hum began to build into something more expectant as I realized I no longer wanted to wait either. Even though I wasn’t pregnant, if Nick still wanted me, I wanted him too. I stood up, gripping my empty wine glass by the stem.
“Where are you going?” Erin asked.
“To see Nick,” I said breathlessly. “I have to give him another chance.”
Mia burst out laughing. “You decided that in the last twenty-five minutes? Now that’s the Coco I know.”
Grinning, I hugged her hard and then Erin too. “Thanks, girls. You’re the best. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Have fun!” Mia yelled as I rushed out of her bedroom.
“But be safe!” called Erin.
“I will!” I took the steps down two at a time and headed for the back door. “Hi, L
ucas. Bye, Lucas.” I raced through the kitchen past Mia’s handsome fiancée, who’d come home while we were upstairs and was preparing dinner.
“Hi, Coco. Where’s the fire?”
“Grand Circus Park,” I yelled without stopping to look back. I jumped into my car and drove downtown, frowning only once when I realized I was in sweatpants and a Detroit City Distillery t-shirt. My face was sort of puffy and tear-stained too, and I had no makeup on. Oh, well. If he loves me, he loves me like this.
I pulled into the parking garage next to his building, took the first empty spot I could find, and rushed up to Nick’s apartment. By the time I got to his door, I was panting, elated at the way I was recreating a story from his family’s past. I took a second to compose myself before banging on the door.
Nothing.
I knocked again.
Nothing. My heart rate slowed, and my shoulders fell slightly. He wasn’t home? This wasn’t supposed to happen. The guy has to be home when the girl shows up. Had Nick mentioned he was going out? Maybe he was at the restaurant? I knew how anxious he was about the test, so it didn’t seem likely that he’d just take off somewhere without calling…wait, had I even checked my phone?
I dug in my bag and pulled it out. Sure enough I had two missed calls, a text, and a voicemail message from him. The text said Hey, please call when you can. The voicemail message was longer, and more disappointing.
“Coco, it’s me. Listen, I just got a call that my event schedule changed and my agent booked me on a flight to L.A. tonight. I’ll be back Wednesday, but I’ll call you as soon as I can. And listen, I can’t stop thinking about the other thing, so can you please let me know as soon as you can? See you soon.”
Turning around to slouch against the door, I hit delete with more force than necessary, trying not to be too angry over this. After all, Nick was a “celebrity” now and he’d have “events” to do and flights to catch and people in his life that had to come before me. But how annoying that this one had to happen just when I was coming over here to give him a second chance.
The date was today’s date, not Wednesday’s
