The first thing I thought when I greeted my former friend and ex-girlfriend? They seemed a little plastic. I half expected them to reveal themselves as wax versions of their previous selves. How had I never noticed how much makeup Arianna wore? All that toner and blending she used to do had seemed normal to me. Compared to Jamie, who seemed fresh and natural, Arianna looked like an evil doll in a horror film. Also, her lips seemed bigger than they once were. Puffed up like one of those fish. What had she stuck in them to make them do that?
“It’s so good to see you.” Arianna gave me one of her best fake smiles, the one she perfected for selfies, with her chin jutted outward and her mouth not quite up over her teeth. God forbid any gum would show above her teeth. How had she perfected that smile? In front of the mirror? Countless selfies until she landed on the right one?
“You as well.” I turned to Rob. His jaw was clenched and his gaze darted around, obviously looking for our server. He wanted a drink. I didn’t blame him. It’s not every day one comes face-to-face with the friend you betrayed.
My nerves had my thoughts jumping around with no logical sense. I must focus. Present my best self, or at least the one I wanted her to see.
“How are you, Rob?” I asked. “It’s been a while.”
His gaze was directed a little to my right, over my shoulder, avoiding eye contact. “Yes, it sure has been a minute. I’m good. Business is good. We bought a competitor recently. Got to crush them one way or the other, right?”
“Tell me about your little company,” Jamie said.
I hid a smile behind my hand. Jamie knew his company wasn’t little. She wanted to take him down a notch.
I might love her.
“You haven’t heard of my company?” Rob asked. “Do you live under a rock here in Colorado?” He aimed for a droll tone, I thought, but didn’t quite make it. His natural nastiness was evident despite the way he’d attempted to mold into someone charming over the years. At school, he’d always been the guy who controlled through fear. We were always worried about what he would say in front of whoever one of the rest of us wanted to impress. It was always something that would cut us down, make us look ridiculous and him glib and cool.
I might hate him.
“I’ve heard of it only recently,” Jamie said, smiling brightly, as if she hadn’t picked up on his disrespect. “I looked you up in preparation for our dinner tonight.”
“I’m in the story business,” Rob said as if he hadn’t heard Jamie. “In the form of video games. Have you ever played Loader? Or heard of it? That’s my baby. We’ve expanded into other games, of course. One has to in this market. Young people always want better and faster, right?”
“I don’t spend time playing games,” Jamie said. “Nor do my friends, apparently, because I’ve never heard of it. I’m old school. I prefer my stories to come from books.”
Arianna laughed, tinkling like a bell. The one she used when she was uncomfortable. She might try to fake it around me, but I knew all her tricks. Everything was done with a purpose in mind. She was indeed an “influencer,” obsessed with her image and her carefully cultivated online persona.
She’d been enamored with Rob’s world, his money, and access to celebrities. I hadn’t stood a chance. Was I like poor Clive Higgins? Simple and humble. Not the man a woman like Arianna would want for a husband. She’d never asked me questions about myself as Jamie had over the last few days. Probing questions. Ones that revealed who I was under my protective layers. Now I could see how ill-suited Arianna and I were. How had I not known it before? How had this woman broken my heart?
“Ari tells me you run the little inn,” Rob was saying to Jamie. “She has her heart set on the wedding there, as you know.”
“Yes, we’re delighted you chose us,” Jamie said, still stiff. She didn’t like Rob. “And we’re scrambling to get it exactly as Arianna wants it for your big day.”
“I should have predicted those carpentry skills of yours would come in handy one day, right?” Rob asked me. “Shame they don’t pay teachers more. It must be hard to take all these side jobs just to pay your rent, huh?”
He was a jerk. He’d always been that way, too. I hadn’t seen that clearly before, either. His aim was always to put the other person off-kilter. Even though his words were not necessarily unkind, I knew the truth. It was a game he played to make himself feel superior.
The server came and asked if we wanted to order drinks.
“Ah, there you are finally,” Rob said to the server in an overly friendly tone while simultaneously looking at his watch. “It’s slower here in the woods, I guess. We’ve been sitting here for five minutes. We’re from LA and conditioned to the treadmill going full speed ahead. I can’t tell you how nice it is to slow down a little.”
“Yes, sir, what can I get you?” The server was young and ruddy, probably a passionate skier who had decided living in Emerson Pass was worth whatever type of job he had to take so he could keep skiing.
“We’ll have a round of cocktails and then I’ll pick out a bottle of wine for dinner.” Rob tapped the wine menu and then winked at me. “Leave this for me, please. I’m taking care of tonight so you order whatever you want. What a treat it is to spend time together after all these years. I’ll have a Macallan. No ice. ”
“Yes, sir. Jamie, what would you like?” Our server obviously knew her. His voice had warmed when he said her name. She was well-liked in her industry. Who wouldn’t like her? She was as smart as she was pretty and had such a genuine spirit.
“Martini for me. With a twist, please. And I’ll have your top-shelf vodka,” Jamie said. “The most expensive, pretentious one you have. That’s the only one that will do, I’m afraid. I’m very fancy.” She fluttered her lashes.
The server’s eyes sparked with humor, but he only nodded and turned toward Arianna. “And you?”
I slid my gaze to Rob. His cheeks had flushed pink. He might be a pretentious jerk, but at least he knew when he was being mocked.
“I’ll have the same as my fiancé,” Arianna said.
Scotch? That was new. When we were together she’d liked sweet white wine, often with ice cubes.
I ordered an IPA and our poor server, probably thinking it was going to be a long night, made his escape.
“How long have you two been together?” Arianna asked.
We’d rehearsed this one. I let Jamie answer. “Since around this time last year. We have a lot of mutual friends and one day I just looked over at him and thought—you’ve been blind. He’s been here all this time.”
“How sweet,” Arianna said. “He’s a good one. Lucky you.”
If I was so good then why hadn’t she wanted me?
Arianna turned to me. “What about you? When did you know there was something between you?”
We had this one figured out too. “Oh, I liked her way before that. I was too shy to ask her out.”
“Too afraid of rejection, this one,” Rob said. “Always been that way. I used to tell him that life was going to pass him by if he never took his chance.”
“Once I showed interest, he didn’t hesitate,” Jamie said quickly. “He was the perfect gentleman, too. Slowly reeling me in until one day I realized I was madly in love with him. No one’s quite like him. Such a combination of brains and brawn.”
“Reeling you in like a fish,” Arianna said, laughing. “So Colorado.”
“I know a good thing when I see it,” I said. “She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
Jamie tipped her head to my shoulder. “He’s always saying the nicest things. It took me a while to get used to being treated with actual respect and loved for exactly who I am.”
“Why aren’t you engaged yet?” Arianna’s eyes darted from one of us to the other. “Or is it a money thing?”
Ouch. She really knew how to dig at a person right where it hurt.
“Oh, we’re engaged.” Jamie grinned. “Didn’t I mention that part?”
“Where’s your ring?” Rob asked. “Or is old Darby still as tight as a USC cheerleader’s bottom?”
“Rob, really?” Arianna’s mouth pursed the way it did when she was irritated. She wasn’t so far gone that she could not see when Rob was behaving like a jerk.
“It’s being sized,” Jamie said. “He found the most exquisite vintage ring for me. I like pieces that have history, and he found the perfect one.”
Was that true? Did she like vintage? I’d have to ask her about that. We hadn’t covered that during our preparation.
Our drinks came, and I took a grateful sip from my beer. We then spent a few minutes looking over the menu. Jamie and I both decided on the steak. Arianna said she’d do the fish. “Trying to keep my girlish figure for the wedding.”
“Babe, no, not the fish,” Rob said. “I’m ordering a cabernet.”
“Right.” She smiled, but this time the varnish wasn’t quite as shiny. “I’ll get the steak too.”
She hated beef. Strictly fish and chicken for health reasons. I remembered even if she’d forgotten who she used to be.
“Yes, good. I’ll get the ribs then,” Rob said as he picked up the wine menu and made a great show of looking through the options. “This isn’t a bad list. Better than I thought it would be out here.”
“People come from all over the world to ski here.” Jamie squeezed my knee under the table. “All winter we see the rich and famous walking in town, spending money. This town was built around this mountain, and people come from far and wide to enjoy what the Barnes family started all those years ago. It’s quite a fascinating history, actually.”
Rob seemed not to hear her, because he didn’t look up from the menu. My hands balled into fists. To keep myself steady, I reached over and laid my hand lightly on Jamie’s thigh.
He must have decided on what wine he wanted to order because he slammed the leather-bound menu shut and picked up his drink. “So, should we talk about what’s really going on here?”
“Babe, not here,” Arianna said. “We’re having a nice dinner.”
“No, old Darby doesn’t mind hashing it all out over a drink, do you, buddy?” Rob gestured at me with his glass.
“What are we hashing out exactly?” I asked. “There’s not much to say. You were screwing around with my girlfriend behind my back. Which is basically how you roll, isn’t it? Didn’t you steal the idea for the game from Mikey?”
“Don’t be absurd,” Rob said. “That was always my idea. He may have written some of the code, but that’s my baby.”
“And he’s been compensated for his contribution,” Arianna said. “There’s no bad blood there.”
“Good for him,” I said, enjoying myself. “But that’s not really the case here. There’s bad blood between us, and we all know it. If you want to talk about it, let’s go. What do you have to say for yourself? Either of you?”
Arianna had paled. Her hand trembled when she picked up her glass of scotch. “We didn’t mean to hurt you. It just happened. The heart wants what it wants, all that. One day, I just knew I couldn’t live without him. I didn’t feel that way about you, Darby, and for that I’m sorry.”
My stomach hollowed and filled with an ache, that old familiar pain from her betrayal slamming back into my body. She didn’t have to say it that way. We all knew she hadn’t loved me as she obviously did Rob. Why had she felt the need to do that?
Next to me, Jamie radiated heat. She was mad. This amused me, distracting me from the humiliation for a moment.
“Listen, dude,” Rob said. “It’s like she said. We fell hard. Did it help that I could give her what you couldn’t? She says no. It’s just me she wants, not my money. She and I, you know, fit together. Soulmates. And when that happens—when a man meets his destiny, there’s nothing either of us could do to stop it.”
“Actually, there was something,” Jamie said. “You could either have walked away or told Darby the truth before you acted on your feelings. At least be honest. Both of you. You behaved badly and now you want to make it seem like Darby did something wrong. It doesn’t work that way.”
“No one said that,” Arianna said. “I know you didn’t do anything wrong, Darby. And she’s right. We should have told you the truth instead of sneaking around behind your back.”
“How could you do that?” I asked. “Pretend like you still loved me? Let me buy that ring and take you to the beach. Didn’t you know I was going to propose?”
“I did.” Arianna’s knuckles whitened as she clasped her hand around her water glass. “Have you ever started down a path and not known how to get off and go a different direction? I cared about you and believe it or not, dreaded hurting you. I let it go on for too long. I know that. And I’m sorry.”
“There you have it.” Rob splayed his hands onto the tabletop as if to push it deeper into the floor. “All right then, there it was—the big apology. Now, let’s move on. Darbs, I’d love to hear more about your life here in the country.”
Darbs. My old nickname. I’d almost forgotten he used to call me that. His mouth smirked every time he said it, as if it were ironic somehow.
“Did you just call him Darbs?” Jamie asked.
“That’s what we all called him back in the day. Less feminine than Darby, don’t you think?” Rob grinned, reminding me of a child in need of attention who thought the way to get it was by saying smart-mouthed quips.
“I always thought it was because he was so good at darts,” Arianna said to Jamie. “He was really good at them.”
“Why would we call him Darbs, then, instead of Darts?” Rob shot me a look as if to say, Can you believe how dumb this chick can be?
“I thought it was a mixture of the two,” Arianna mumbled.
Rob ignored her. “It’s pretty here in Colorado—I have to give you that. Now that I’m here, it’s a little easier to see you here, Darbs. I never saw you as a rugged type of guy, but it seems like you fit right in.”
“Living here doesn’t require one to be rugged,” Jamie said, loud enough that the table next to us turned to look. “But we do appreciate simple, straightforward, and polite people.” The unspoken words were obvious. And you’re clearly not.
“Don’t get me wrong.” Rob glanced toward the window. “It’s great here. I can see now why all the rich and famous come to ski and look for a moose or whatever. It must be rough to see all the tourists come and go, throwing money around when you’re a humble teacher, giving to the community.” Rob looked even more pleased with himself for being gracious and kind to poor old Darbs.
“I’ve done fine,” I said. Pretentious prick.
“He’s a very popular teacher,” Jamie said. “With parents and kids. He teaches reading and writing to adults for whom English is a second language.”
“What a Boy Scout you are,” Rob said. “Master carpenter and saving the old people of Emerson Pass.”
“They’re not all old,” I said under my breath, and then had some of my beer.
“You’re so busy,” Arianna said. “How do you keep up with it all and still have time for Jamie?”
“I’m not that busy,” I said. “The carpentry jobs aren’t often, plus my summers are free. Jamie and I are more about quality time than quantity anyway.” What did that even mean? This night was wearing thin already.
“This is a close-knit community,” Jamie said. “When my inn burned down, the whole town rallied around me and I’d only recently moved here. That might be hard for you to understand, Rob, given what you do.”
“What I do?” Rob asked.
“Big corporate money and all that,” Jamie said, lifting her chin slightly.
“You’re mistaken,” Rob said. “My company has a philanthropic element. At least that’s what my accountant tells me.” He laughed.
“What about your buddy Mikey?” Jamie asked. “You screwed him out of what was rightfully his and everyone knows it.”
Rob’s face went from smugly pale to outraged red in a second. “What? How would you know anything about that?”
“I know how to use a computer,” Jamie said. “There were quite a few stories about how he wrote the code and then you ousted him.”
“Those stories were exaggerated by the press,” Arianna said. “He and Mikey parted ways with no hard feelings, isn’t that right, babe?”
“Sure. He made a lot of money for his actual contribution,” Rob said. “Regardless of what the rumors say. People have been coming for me ever since.”
“Ever since when?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“Since the IPO,” Rob said. “People go insane when there’s money involved.”
“It’s only a rumor that Mikey sued you for firing him and taking credit for all his code?” Jamie asked innocently as the server approached with our first course, a garden salad made with arugula and cherry tomatoes. “Or is that all made up too?”
Rob spoke through gritted teeth. “Like I said, Mikey’s been well taken care of for what he did for us, but the man was not the leader we needed to take us public and meet the demands of our stockholders.” His mouth twitched upward into a smile. He looks like a ferret, I thought.
I took another grateful sip of my IPA. A little tart with a hint of citrus for spice. Kind of like Jamie. If she were a drink, she might be this IPA or a glass of hearty red wine.
Beside me, Jamie nudged me in the ribs. “Don’t you agree?”
“I’m sorry, what?” I asked as I stabbed a tomato.
“That you can’t believe everything you read.” Jamie smiled but her eyes glittered with intensity. “And big money controls the narrative these days, doesn’t it?”
“Always has,” I said.
“People without it seem to think money’s evil,” Arianna said lightly. “But we can change the world with our wealth.”
“Are you planning on doing that?” Jamie asked. “Saving the world?”
“I have some ideas,” Arianna said, tightly. “But right now I’m focusing on the wedding and my business, of course.”
“You may or may not like it,” Rob said to Jamie. “But the world needs people like me. I’m a visionary and not afraid to make the hard decisions.”
“If you say so,” Jamie said, as sweet as could be. She could match Rob perfectly that way. Both of them fakes. “Still, I wonder what your ex-partner would say about it all?”
"Funny girl,” Rob said without an ounce of humor in his tone.
No matter how much money or how well he dressed, Rob couldn’t hide the fact that he was a soulless liar. Men like him won in the short term but someday it would catch up with him. Or maybe not. It didn’t really matter much to me or my life. This was the past. Sitting next to me, lighting up the room with her smile and her spirit—was she the future?
No sooner had I thought it than I realized how much I wanted her to be in my life. Maybe forever. Not since Arianna had I been so smitten. This was a good thing. I might have a chance for happiness. The kind that Arianna had with Rob. As much as I disliked him, she was happy, and that was good. I’d truly moved on. I could sit across the table from her and that giant engagement ring and feel nothing but happy for her. That didn’t mean I had to like either one of them.
Our main courses arrived. Rob muttered something about the quickness of its arrival after our drinks and asked where the bottle of wine was. The server, who appeared to be shrinking with every interaction he had with Rob, looked desperately over at his bartender, who was in the process of setting a bottle on the counter. “I’ll bring it right away.”
Arianna looked horrified by the portion and the blood trickling out of her steak. Jamie let out a delighted squeal. “I’m sorry for the cow who had to die for my dinner, but I’m going to enjoy every bite.”
The server reappeared with the wine. I watched as his hand shook when he pushed the corkscrew in and tugged it out so fast that several drops of red wine spurted out and landed on my shirt. The poor man looked as if he were going to cry. “I’m so sorry.”
“No big deal,” I said.
“I can pay for it to be cleaned,” the server said.
No, he couldn’t. He was living paycheck to paycheck, week to week like most of us. “Dude, I promise, it’s not a big deal,” I said. “A stain remover will get this out no problem.”
“I could send my mom over,” the server said.
Jamie laughed. “Could you send her to my house too?”
“No, please, it’s not necessary.” I gestured toward the empty glasses. “Let’s give this a try.”
The server poured a small portion into Rob’s glass, who then made a big thing of swirling and sniffing before lifting it to his mouth. “Yes, that’s fine,” Rob said.
I draped my arms around Jamie’s shoulders and gave her a quick kiss on her temple. She looked up at me in surprise. “What was that for?”
“For being you.”