Page 19 of Mistletoe Mistake
As she'd suggested, Holly made a beeline for the mulled wine. Gemma and I hung back while Holly and Jackson joined the queue.
“So, I don't actually know anything about you,” Gemma admitted. “Other than that you're in the hotel business, of course. Where is home for you?”
Though I didn't want to get into too many personal details, that particular question seemed harmless enough. “New York. Whenever I'm there, anyway.” I hadn't really thought of any place as ‘home’ in a long time.
“You travel a lot?” she guessed.
I nodded curtly. "We've been focused on expanding outside the US this year which has meant a lot of time abroad, but you said you didn't want to talk about work."
"It depends on the context," she clarified. “In this case, since it related to a personal question, I'll let it slide. It's a grey area.”
I simply raised an eyebrow at her. “I don't do grey areas.”
My tone made her shiver, no matter how she tried to hide it. "I'll keep that in mind, Cole."
Holly and Jackson returned with drinks for all of us and we wandered further into the park. Around the bend, a choir sang Christmas carols, so we stopped and listened for a few minutes. Jackson had his arm around Holly casually, but Gemma and I kept a careful distance from each other. Public displays of affection hadn't been part of the terms.
When the performance finished, we carried on walking, and just as I thought this might not be so bad, we turned a corner and a skating rink appeared in front of us. For years, I had done my best to avoid this particular memory, but suddenly, without warning, it hit me hard.
I could almost smell the fresh winter air in Central Park on that day four years ago and feel the ice beneath me, the wetness of it soaking through the fabric of my jeans as I got down on one knee in the centre of the rink. I could still see the way hands shook and feel the nervous beating of my heart as I held out the ring to Samantha. I could hear the cheers of the other skaters around us when she said yes.
At the time, I believed it to be the happiest moment of my life.
“Cole?” Gemma's voice pulled me back to the present, and I looked over to see her giving me a curious look. I must have stopped walking, my gaze still focused on the rink in front of me, and I blinked quickly to try to erase any trace of the memories that had just engulfed me. Showing weakness definitely went against my rules.
But before I got a chance to offer an explanation, or before she could ask any follow-up questions, a new voice joined us.
“Gemma? Is that you?”
~Gemma~
Before I had a chance to figure out what caused the colour to drain from Cole's face, my ears were assaulted by the last voice I could possibly want to hear right now; or ever, for that matter.
“Itisyou! We haven't seen you in so long.” The bleached blonde woman sailed past the rest of the group and came right up to me, putting her arms on my shoulders and giving me an air kiss while I stiffened at her touch, making no move to reciprocate her blatantly phony greeting.
“Why the hell would she want to see you, Annabel?” Holly came up beside me, ready to jump to my defense as Annabel took a step back.
Annabel looked between me and Holly with wide-eyed innocence. “Oh, we're past all of that, surely. It's good to see you too, Holly. You've both been such strangers lately.”
The icy shock of seeing her quickly started to thaw as my blood began to boil.We're past all of that?How dare she suggest that when she had never even bothered to apologize, never made any effort to speak to me about it at all? I could only hope that she was here on her own or with some girlfriends, that she was here with anyone but...
“Bel!” Edwin's voice called from a few feet away, and I went even more rigid, my body freezing in disbelief.
“You've got to be fucking kidding me,”Holly swore under her breath.
Knowing she had my back made it a little better, but I still didn’t feel ready for this. I hadn't seen him since we broke up, and though I inevitably would have to, I hadn’t planned on it happening right that moment. Unfortunately, it looked about to happen whether I wanted it to or not.
In the next moment, Edwin appeared next to Annabel, taking her hand and not even glancing at the rest of us. He looked just the same as always: the slicked back hair, the long, elegant nose, the slightly pouty lips; classic, unintimidating good looks that were pleasant to look at but ultimately forgettable. His face had never lingered in my mind the way Cole’s did.
“You can't get away from me that easily,” he teased, pulling her back the way they had come. Only when she resisted did he finally look over in my direction, and the moment that he actually saw and recognized me couldn’t have been more obvious. The smile on his face disappeared immediately as he swallowed hard. At least he had the decency to look embarrassed, unlike Annabel. “Gemma? What.... uh, what are you doing here?”
“We're performing heart surgery,” Holly spat at him. “What does it look like?”
From the corner of my eye, I could see the look that Cole and Jackson exchanged, and my heart sank. This hadn’t been part of my plan for this evening at all. I had just one night with Cole, one night to see just how hot things could be between us, and the last thing I wanted was for him to see me as the sad, rejected fiancée that everyone else in the whole damn country saw me as.
Taking a deep breath to steady myself, I racked my brain for the quickest way to salvage this situation. One thing I knew about Edwin was that he didn't handle confrontation well. If I gave him an easy out, he would definitely take it.
With that in mind, I put on an unnaturally cheery voice and answered his question as if Holly hadn’t said anything. “You know me, I love Christmas stuff. I wouldn’t miss Winter Wonderland.”
