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“This will be my last project.” Lyla’s gaze followed the tiny bubbles in her coffee cup. “Then I’ll move to Spain. I just need some time to pack up,” finished Lyla, gripping her hot coffee cup so hard that her knuckles turned white.
She finally raised her eyes to meet the soft grey of the elegant, older woman with a tight grey bun that made her look more severe than she was. Minerva, her grandmother, squeezed the delicate hands around the coffee cup and planted a loving kiss on her forehead.
Concern lit Minerva’s eyes, as Lyla’s painful past five years flashed before her. She wanted only to protect Lyla from more agony. But Lyla Rosewood was a stubborn woman. At twenty six, she’d seen more pain than any person her age ever had. Love. Betrayal.
Loss. You name it, she’d faced it.
“Sweetie, it’s not easy, but you need to let go of the past someday.” Minerva walked closer, allowing Lyla to lay her weary head on her shoulder. Stroking her hair, she added, “Nick’s a fine man and has always kept you happy. Give him a real chance when you come over, won’t you?”
Pain creased Lyla’s forehead as the memory of Nick’s proposal came haunting back to her. She’d accepted to it out of sheer desperation.
Lyla hazarded a look at her purse lying on the table hiding the engagement ring. Old doubts crept in again as she ran a finger around where her engagement ring would have been. Could she endure another man and his betrayal?
Lyla hadn’t let a single man come near her heart in the last five years.
Her Gramma, as she fondly called Minerva, always considered it extreme but how could she understand? She’d been happily married to the same man for the last twenty years and Grandpa Joe was perhaps the sweetest man Lyla had ever known.
“I‘ll give it a try, Gramma.” But her heart wasn’t in it.
Satisfied with her granddaughter’s answer, she started for the door dragging her Gucci suitcase while Lyla walked past to hold the door open. “See you soon, sweetie. Take care of yourself,” Minerva said patting Lyla’s cheek lightly.
As her Gramma marched down the hall, Lyla closed the door and stood with her back to the door, giving up. This time she had no excuse not to move on. Even as relief seeped into her, she shook her head in disbelief at her Gramma’s unwearied determination.
Thinking about her Gramma’s visit, she realized that her weekend had been derailed by her unannounced visit. The worried looks on her Gramma’s face unnerved Lyla as she patiently listened to her rants about Lyla’s lonely life, all alone in a big city like London.
Lyla’s heart crashed when Gramma insisted that she fly with her to Spain that very day. It took all of Lyla’s strength to convince her that she couldn't just run away from her job and her life. After all, London was where she’d lived all her life and leaving a fabulous career just because she couldn’t seem to find a decent man was utterly stupid.
However, it was also true that she’d turned into a loner and Gramma thought that was unfair to her beautiful granddaughter. But Lyla couldn’t believe that every man wasn’t out to betray her.
If someone had told her there were men out there who’d date her just for the woman that she was, she would’ve probably laughed at them. Such men don’t exist, not for her.
Men don’t date to please women. They have their own personal agenda and she wasn’t in the mood to get entangled with one.
She walked to her bedroom, acutely feeling the absence of the warmth her Gramma had brought to her expensive but empty apartment. The ornate mirror on the soft peach- colored walls mocked her as her elegantly dressed image stared back at her. Her hands grazed over the faint lines along the end of her eyes that only a very keen observer could see. Wrinkles at twenty-six? She suddenly felt very sad. Where is that young, bubbly Lyla that she was? And then she remembered when she’d lost her.
Five years ago after throwing Alex out of her life, she was done with men. She literally blocked every other man who tried to get to know her. She’d fallen in love with Alex. How couldn’t she? He was wonderful, stunning and more important; the one who helped her through a trauma, which she never imagined she would’ve endured.
But Alex broke her heart again and her pain was immense. She couldn’t forgive him. She hated him more than anything else. But why couldn’t she find anyone who could replace him? As night fell over her window, she wondered if she really had tried or was it that she didn’t want to forgive and forget.
***
The next morning, Joanne scampered while typing hurriedly on her iPad. She was trying to keep up with Lyla’s long and quick strides, but Lyla was quite oblivious to the fact that she was overwhelming Joanne. Joanne finally stopped chasing Lyla and went back to her desk.
Lyla also didn’t notice that people were scrambling back to their workstations trying to look busy as she passed by. She’d walked into the office earlier than usual, and interrupted a very busy morning gossip time. This drew surprised glances from everyone. Not that it mattered to her.
Lyla never had the patience to stop and chatter. Some called it anti-social but it earned her promotions faster than anyone in the company. She was the youngest senior executive in R&R enterprises; a management consulting company and her specialty was high-risk projects.
She loved it, though it meant long hours in office. And it kept her away from the unnecessary brooding. She relished the success she received - the only high in her life.
Today she was looking forward to her newest project and probably her last. It was a typical high-risk project - big client, unlimited budget and extremely short deadline. The information on the project was she had one-month for completion, two countries were involved and there was absolutely no space for failure.
She rolled her eyes in disbelief when her boss presented her with the file. Her look of disbelief changed into challenge when she realized the scope of the project. Today she arrived two hours early to prepare before her new team and new boss arrived.
The phone buzzer rang shrilly against the silence in her office. Lyla pushed the speaker without looking up from her documents, “Yes Jo.”
“The team is in the conference room. Waiting,” announced Joanne. “Thanks Jo and -
“Oh. I have set the projector, showed them the coffee vendor and also arranged for the snacks. That should arrive in fifteen.”
Lyla smiled at Jo’s efficiency. “Thank you Jo. I’ll be there in a minute.”
As she rose from her desk, she gave a last minute glance to herself in her tinted glass office. She nodded slightly, feeling ready for the challenge and the success this project posed. She had no idea this would become the toughest project she’d ever worked on.