Cali had made such a mess of things. Syd fell asleep after putting her best effort toward staying up to keep her company. Her Uncle Cal had been sleeping for hours. Normally about this time, she’d be calling Red and having phone sex with him.
Syd had given her a lot to think about, but Cali still had doubts. That’s why she was sitting at a corner booth inside The Ice Box, nursing a healthy glass of cognac. It was Red’s favorite liquor and he’d turned her on to it some time ago. She gulped the contents of the glass down and grimaced at the initial burn in her throat. Leaning her head back against the back of the booth, she sighed.
When a tear dropped on her cheek, she wiped it away with her palm. “What the hell am I supposed to do now?” she grumbled to herself, dropping her head onto the hard table.
“Is it that bad?”
Her eyes popped open. She recognized the voice immediately. Lifting up her head, she frowned at her ex, James. “What the hell do you want?”
“You look like you could use a friend.”
“Definitely not you.”
He slid into the booth as if he didn’t even care that she was less than thrilled to see him. She’d met the much older James when he was teaching her Economics class her senior year in college. They’d had what she’d thought was a once-in-a-lifetime love affair—until his wife busted in one night and threatened to kill them both for the betrayal. That was enough for Cali to throw up the deuces and leave him the hell alone, and vow to never put herself in the same situation again.
Of course, he didn’t take the hint. He’d insisted that he and his wife were on their way to divorce court and that he wanted to be with Cali, but she wasn’t hearing any of it. She was many things, but home wrecker wasn’t one of them. Eight years later he was still trying to get her attention.
“What do you want, James? I’m not in the mood.”
He motioned to a waitress as she walked by and ordered a martini, dry. Some things never change. “I heard your friend Sydney owns this place. I come here often. I must admit, I always hope to run into you. Guess it’s my lucky night.”
Cali sized him up. She’d joked with him numerous times about his rigid posture. That hadn’t changed. His salt-and-pepper beard was clean shaven and his shirt was buttoned up to the top. Still uptight. Still fine. “You didn’t answer my question. What do you want?”
“I’ve been calling you.” He paused when the waitress came back with his drink. After she left, he took a sip. “I wanted to talk to you. How are you?”
“I’m fine,” she lied. “Just tired.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you cry before.”
“That’s because you didn’t see me when our relationship ended. And, excuse me, but I make it a point to never make the same mistake twice.”
“Still a fireball, huh? And even more beautiful.”
“Just go, James.” From his e-mails, she knew James had been trying to get in touch with her, claiming he wanted to apologize for everything he’d put her through.
“You’re obviously not okay.”
Even after all the time that had passed, she could still get lost in James’s dark brown eyes. Rolling her eyes, she filled her glass again. “You’re right; I’m not. And I was trying to deal with it—alone.” Cali noted his ringless left hand. “Where’s your ring?”
He snickered. “Put up in my safe. I’ve been divorced for almost six years. My children are grown and in college.”
Her eyes started to glaze over and she pushed the bottle away.
As he lowered his head, he peered up at her. “I’ve wanted to see you for so long, to apologize for everything,” he said softly. “All the lies. I’ve realized that not fighting for you was my biggest mistake.”
James seemed sincere enough. But he always had. And she couldn’t trust it. Not that it mattered anyway. She could never forget.
He picked up her hand and squeezed, leaning closer. “I just want a chance to make this right with you.”
She slowly pulled her hand from his. “You’re years too late. I’m not the same person I was back then.”
“Neither am I. Let me buy you dinner.”
She let out a heavy sigh and glanced at her watch. “It’s eleven o’clock. It’s too late for dinner.”
“Dessert, then?”
Boy, he doesn’t give up easily. “Fine.”
“Still like cheesecake with caramel topping? I think I saw something like that on the menu.”
“Yes.”
He waved the waitress over and placed the order for the piece of cheesecake. They chatted about meaningless things—the weather, Detroit, and food. He was a foodie, so he spent a lot of time trying out different cuisines. That was one of the things she’d loved most about him. He wasn’t afraid to try new things.
He shared with her travel stories about Paris and Milan, places they’d talked about going to together.
“Somehow we’ve managed to only talk about me,” he said. “You’ve managed to evade all of my questions about you.”
Tapping her fingers on the table, she thought about how she’d rather be at home in her bed. Finally, she said, “There’s really nothing to tell. I’ve been working.”
“Are you seeing someone?” he asked.
She thought about that for a minute, before shaking her head. “No. I mean, I was. But not anymore.”
“Well, at least I’m not the only fool in town. Whoever it was should have never let you go.”
Cali shuddered with his words, felt a flutter in her stomach. James always did make her feel good about herself. The thought of feeling anything but dread appealed to her on so many levels.
He grinned widely and a smile tugged at her lips. With his pretty white teeth, James’s smile was just as contagious as it always had been. She used to muse that it was because he didn’t do it often, preferring to maintain a serious persona. Yet, when he chose to grace anyone with a genuine smile, it was a beautiful sight.
The room seemed to spike in temperature. The bar wasn’t that crowded, but Cali kept glancing around, checking out the customers. Anything to avoid the warm feeling in her gut. She folded her straw wrapper. “How do you do that?”
“Do what?” he asked innocently.
She peered up at him. “Look at me like you—”
“Still love you?” he asked.
“No. Like this isn’t the first time I’ve seen you in years.” Cali narrowed her eyes on him, glad that the warm feeling she’d had a few minutes earlier was gone. “I get that you’re trying to make up for the past, but that’s impossible. One drink and dessert is not enough to make me open up to you about my life or let you back in.”
He picked up his glass and finished his drink. “We have to start somewhere.”
“No, we don’t. You fucked up. I’ve moved on. There’s no going back for me, especially with a man who broke my heart. You can apologize all you want, but no apology will ever change what happened.” Sighing, she clenched her fists together. “Look, this was fun, but…” She frowned when she noticed he wasn’t paying her any attention. Instead, he was focused on something behind her. She turned around to see who he was looking at so intently.
Kent was standing there, arms folded across his chest. Damn.
“What’s up?” Kent asked, approaching the table. “When did you start talking to this asshole again?”
“Wow?” James mumbled.
Cali sighed. It was just like Kent to put it all out there like that. “James was getting ready to leave,” Cali told Kent without looking at him.
“You heard her,” Kent said. “Get up.”
James sighed dejectedly and rose from his seat. He opened his mouth to speak, but then snapped it shut. “Bye,” he said before he turned and walked away.
“Wow, Kent. You do know I can take care of myself.”
“Yeah, but I couldn’t help myself.” Kent called the waitress over and ordered a drink. “Besides, it was better me than Red.”
She scanned the bar, wondering if Red was there.
“He’s in the back,” Kent confessed. “We walked in together, but after he saw you with the nutty professor, he went and made up something to do.”
Cali took a sip of her drink, studied Kent over the rim of her glass. He was attractive, from his bald head to his groomed beard and goatee, to the pressed button-down shirt and khaki pants. “Did I ever tell you the nerd look was out?”
Kent chuckled. “Right around the time I told you raccoon eyes were last year.”
Cali’s mouth fell wide open, but she laughed. Kent’s dry sense of humor always made him stand out from the crowd. During college, everyone had gone to Kent when they needed a good laugh. He had a knack for making even the most solemn moment a happy one. “You suck.”
She picked up her phone and pushed the mirror app to check out her face. He was right, though. All that crying had messed up her normally flawless and supposedly waterproof eye makeup. Closing the app, she set the phone back on the table face down.
“Cali, Cali…” He paused when the waitress came back with his drink. After she left, he took a sip. “Are you okay?”
“What do you think? Me and Red… done. Not that we were ever officially anything. And Uncle Cal is here. I think he may be sick.”
He leaned back and observed her. “Wow. That’s a lot. I’m sure you and Red aren’t done. And I’m sorry about Uncle Cal. I know how much you care for him. But from what you just said, you don’t know for sure that he’s sick, so don’t worry about that until you have something to worry about.”
Red had told her the same thing. Nodding, she said, “I know. I’m stressed right now.”
“Hopefully when Red gets over here, you guys can talk.”
She twisted in her seat and noticed Red heading toward them. Her heart raced as he neared them.
“What’s up?” Kent asked. “Did you get your work done?”
Red stared at her, a deep frown on his face. “Not really,” he told Kent, his gaze still fixed on Cali.
She couldn’t bring herself to turn away from Red’s penetrating stare—or was that a glare? The tiny muscle on the side of his cheek twitched.
“Join us,” Kent said.
“Nah, I’m going to head over to the bar. I came over to let you know I was done.” Then Red was gone, before she could say anything. Panic welled up in Cali, but she couldn’t bring herself to get up.
Kent shook his head. “Are you going to go after him?” he asked.
Taking a deep breath, she jumped up and followed him. “Red, wait.” She grabbed his arm. “Don’t walk away like that.”
He stopped in his tracks. His eyes bored into her and his mouth was set in a hard line.
“I want to talk to you,” she told him.
“Cali. I came here to get a drink with my boy. I don’t really feel like going round and round in circles with you again.”
She shuddered at his tone. She couldn’t believe he’d given her “the voice”: the one he reserved for clients he knew were scum and people he couldn’t care less about. It hurt.
“Maybe you can catch James. I’m sure he’d be happy,” he sneered.
“Will you at least let me explain?”
He pulled out a bar stool. “No need. You’re a grown woman. You can talk to anyone you want. None of my business, Cali.”
“That’s all we were doing,” she explained.
She glanced at Kent, who’d appeared next to them and made himself comfortable in the seat next to Red. “Can you give us a minute, Kent?”
“Hell no,” Kent said. “I came over here to tell you that y’all need to go to the back. No more scenes in the bar.”
It wasn’t that long ago that Syd’s drama had spilled over into the bar, specifically on opening night, when Caden had blasted Morgan and Sydney for sneaking around behind his back.
Groaning, she asked, “Can we go talk, Red?”
Red turned to the bartender and ordered a drink before following Cali to one of the back offices.