She was right, of course. There was a difference. You could get fake, bottled romance from just about any man who wanted to sleep with you, but the things Stone had done were specific to him. To us. No other man would know how much those little things like the calzone, the snow globe, would mean to me. No other man would know how important it was to let me know I was loved and desired. Cherished. “Him. Definitely him. Most definitely.”
“Well you’re not completely hopeless, then.” Eva flashed a sympathetic smile just as the oven timer sounded and hopped up. “I was beginning to wonder if you were actually going to let him go and fall in love with Professor Super Sexy & Sweet.”
“Maybe I should. I’ll be Babs has less baggage than I do.” And didn’t Stone deserve a woman who wanted what the did and was fully prepared to give it to him?
“Probably, but she’s not who Stone is in love with. That would be you, so do you want him back because you don’t want to lose his friendship or because you can’t live without him?”
I was pretty sure I could live without anyone if I had to, but the thought of never seeing Stone again, of never laughing together over something stupid, of never kissing him again or seeing his eyes sparkle with happiness whenever he looked at me, that I was pretty damn sure I couldn’t live without. “How can I ever come back from this?”
Olive pushed the cake away and rubbed her belly, a slow smile spreading from one ear to the other. “What you need, my friend, is a good old fashioned grand gesture.”
“I love it!” Eva nodded and added the pizza and pizza bites on the table with a nod. “We need something good. And big because those words, well, they won’t be easy to forget. We have booze, cake and brainstorming food so I’d say we have everything we need.”
They were right. I had my girls and I had fuel, plus all night to come up with a plan. “I love you girls.”
“She can say it to us but not to him,” Eva mumbled under her breath. “Sorry but its true,” she said, not looking sorry at all.
“You’re right but maybe let’s focus more on how to get Stone to forgive me and less on all the ways I’ve screwed things up?”
“I can do that,” Eva said with a wide, innocent smile.
“I make no promises,” Olive said and reached for her fourth pizza bite.StoneThe gym was the quietest the first hour it was open, making it the perfect time to work out some of my anger. My hurt. My frustration. Almost a full week had passed since I dropped Sophie off from what could be considered the worst weekend getaway in the history of weekend getaways. It would likely go down in the history books as an example for how not to do a romantic getaway, and my twice a day workout sessions had done nothing to relieve my anger or sadness.
But I knew what I needed to do and that was continue keeping my distance from Sophie, not to punish her as much as to preserve my own sanity. And my heart. And distance was the only way to get myself to the point where I could start moving on from Sophie.
It was only the beginning of a plan, but it was a plan.
So far it had been easy to keep my distance since Sophie hadn’t reached out to apologize, to pretend as if nothing had ever happened between us, or anything else for that matter. I decided to look at it as a blessing and nothing else.
“Hey, Handsome. You’re working that bench pretty hard.” Babs’ voice interrupted my thoughts and I wasn’t sure if I was grateful that her tone was less flirtatious than usual, or annoyed that she was handling me with kid gloves like every other person in town.
“Not today, Babs. Sorry but I just want to finish my work out.” She didn’t deserve my bad mood but I wasn’t sure I could do anything to conceal it right now.
“Well if you grip that bar any tighter you might end up pulling a muscle and that would be bad for business, which would make you even grumpier.”
Dammit, she was right. “Sorry. I’m not fit for company right now.”
“No kidding.” Hands on her hips, she laughed and shook her head. “That’s okay, I like grumpy Stone. It makes you seem less perfect.”
I barked out a laugh at that accusation. “I’m anything but perfect, Babs. Trust me.”
She shook her head, one pale pink nail tapping her chin in consideration. “Nah, I like thinking of you as perfect. Keeps me grounded.”
Another laugh escaped and once again I wished the stars had aligned differently and there was something more than friendship and workouts between me and Babs. “Good to know. How’s it going?” It was the first genuine, not TV-based laugh I’d had all week, so why not enjoy another distraction?