She waited a beat before she stepped backward, giving him the space to enter the office. She shut the door behind them and turned to face him. “Catelyn was in the office when I got here at eight this morning, working on the biggest wedding we’ve ever booked and looking like she saw a ghost. She won’t talk about you at all. What did you do?”
He sighed. It had been a process, convincing Lydia not to write him off. It had taken so long to persuade her that he’d almost missed his flight to New Jersey. The entire time the plane was in the air, he’d prayed that Catelyn had gone there instead of…anywhere else in the world. He’d banked on her commitment to her business, and he’d been right.
“It was my mistake,” he admitted. There was no point in lying to Laura about it, or sugarcoating things. Catelyn would tell them eventually. “I—misjudged our relationship.”
“How?”
Daisy appeared at Laura’s side. “It’s not going well,” she said to Laura. “Rami. You’re here.”
“You don’t sound very enthusiastic about that,” Rami said wryly.
“I saw my friend’s face this morning.” Daisy pursed her lips. “What did you do?”
“He ‘misjudged their relationship,’ whatever that means,” said Laura.
“How did you do that?” Daisy crossed her arms over her chest.
“I assumed that it really was all business,” Rami said. “Until the moment I realized that it’s not. That it’s never been about that. There was always more between us, and I—” He shook his head. “I blew it.” He stood up straight, lifting his chin. “And I’m here to set things right. Or at least apologize.”
Daisy’s face softened. “We all make mistakes.”
“We don’t all make mistakes this egregious,” said Laura.
“Oh, it was the most egregious,” Rami agreed. “And I swear, I’d never do it again.”
Catelyn’s friends regarded him steadily.
“It’s up to her,” Daisy said finally. “It’s up to her, what she wants to do.”
Rami opened his mouth to ask her what she meant but at that moment Catelyn’s office door opened and a woman in a black floral wrap dress rushed out, dabbing at the corners of her eyes with a wadded-up tissue. She hesitated at the sight of them, then pushed past without another word.
What was happening here?
“Maybe this isn’t the best time…”
“There’s never a perfect time.” Daisy stepped behind him and gave him a shove. “Go.”
* * *
Catelyn didn’t look up from her desk when he stepped into the room. Her head was bent over a sheaf of papers in front of her, and she rubbed idly at her forehead with one hand.
“We’re better off without her,” she said. “The way she’d already been harassing the baker—” She glanced up, and at the sight of him her entire face changed. “Rami.”
She looked exhausted. Rami’s heart twisted at the sight of the bags beneath her eyes.
“Hi.”
Catelyn leaned back in her chair, letting out a breath. “Hi.”
There was a silence between them, during which Rami wanted to leap across the desk and take her in his arms.
“I see you decided to come to New Jersey after all,” Catelyn said. “Very brave, after how you acted at Lydia’s.”
“If I were brave,” Rami said, looking her in the eye, “I’d simply live with the consequences of what I did. I’d live the rest of my life missing you, but I’d let go. But I’m not.” He swallowed hard.
Catelyn studied him.
He took it as an invitation to continue.