When Sparks Fly

“That might be good, but based on how things are going with Jerome and Stephanie, he might be hitting single town sooner rather than later.” Jerome has been on the fence about this relationship for months, but they’ve been together for a year, and their families like each other and get along, so he’s been trying to tough it out. The issue is that Jerome wants a family and Steph would rather have a dog or three.

“We can bring it up when they come over? See how they feel about it? Unless you want me to drop it in the group text?” Declan offers.

“Maybe do that instead? Just to sort of feel it out?”

The guys seem to be handling the new, changed dynamic in the group well, although it hasn’t been seamless. Not much has changed in the way we interact with one another, but there’s a new edge to our hangout nights, with Jerome and Mark a little uncertain as to where the new boundaries lie. I get it, because I’m just as uncertain, and I don’t want to create tension when there doesn’t need to be any.

“I’ll send a message later this morning and put feelers out. Sound good?”

“Works for me if it works for you.”

“Definitely works for me.” Declan drums his fingers on the center console. “So it seems like London is good with working with me again. She scheduled a conference call to discuss the Spark House portfolio.”

I smile, happy that things are settling with my sister. After I realized how much she was taking on, and how focused I’d been on myself and nothing else, I made a concerted effort to take the things off her plate that caused her the most stress, like client calls and follow-ups. I don’t even ask her permission since I know she’d just tell me she’ll handle it. They don’t really faze me, but they took up a lot of her mental energy. And now, with me back at work, she’s less of a stress ball. “It wasn’t really you she was angry at, it was me, but I’m glad things are finally getting back to normal.”

“Me too.” He gives my leg a squeeze. “There’s an event coming up and Go Green will be there. I’m going to name-drop Spark House and see if I can get them to reconsider sponsorship.”

“Don’t risk your account over it.” I also don’t want to get excited in case nothing comes of it. “Plus, I made some good headway with a couple of local wildlife preserves. They’re using Spark House to host a charity dinner in the spring. And London made a new connection with an ecofriendly party supply company, so that’s another great step.”

“I’m glad to hear that, but if I can get them to reconsider, that would be awesome all the way around, right?”

“Of course. I really appreciate you trying.” I won’t hold my breath, but it’s nice that he’s willing to give it a shot since any attempt at communication on my part has been met with polite refusal to host a call.

I pull into the Spark House driveway and park in front of the main entrance. We both get out of the SUV, and Declan meets me at the center of the hood, pulling me in for a semi-chaste kiss before he gets back in the SUV to head to work.

Spark House is quiet this morning, the office empty, with only a couple of staff cleaning or prepping for the event this weekend. Today London has an off-site meeting and Harley is dealing with event setup, which I had been involved in until she noticed me limping around yesterday. It’s been damp the past few days, and the weather seems to affect my ankle, so I’m managing paperwork today, which isn’t my favorite part of the job, but still necessary.

I do a double take as a new email appears at the top of my Spark House inbox, the sender’s name catching me off guard. I click on it, sure it has to be some kind of odd coincidence, or a strange error, but it’s not. I haven’t heard from Sam in a long time. Not directly anyway.

Back when he broke things off, I had been gutted and hadn’t been able to handle any kind of communication. His cheating had been such a betrayal, and it wasn’t something I was able to really recover from. With time, I saw that his ending the relationship was the right thing to do, even if the execution wasn’t. The relationship lacked balance, and he had moved on, so I did too.

So much has changed since then. But it’s still a shock to see an email from him. Last I heard—through social media—he was married. He’d ended up with the woman he’d left me for, and I sincerely hoped he’d stayed faithful to her in a way he hadn’t with me.