Purple Bows
Adele
Three days after the incident, as I’m referring to it, our lawyers call to say the lawsuit has been dropped. No article appears in the news about me and Daniel. There isn’t any news around the collapse of the deal between Faulkner and Daniel’s company.
Nice and neat. All gone away.
Except it’s not. There is a whole big mess still going on inside my head. And heart. He told his father he loves me. I heard him say that as I snuck down the stairs.
The reporter left, he was in the kitchen on his phone, and I figured I could get out of there without confronting him.
My head knew I had to leave his house, but my heart was telling me something different. I fell for him, I fell completely and wholly in love with the man. And then the truth came out. My head won, and I had to get out of there.
Only I heard what he said, and I dropped my shoe alerting him I was there.
I’ve avoided his calls for three days. In fact, I’ve avoided my home, choosing to go to Clarendon Hills. He may show up at the bar to talk to me. Given my home is above it, there is no way of avoiding him other than to leave.
I don’t tell my family why I came home. Everyone assumes it’s about the lawsuit. Not Jay, he knows I’d never intentionally leave someone else to run Blue’s while I ‘worked’ at the brewery.
He saw me with Daniel. He saw what I went through with my ex. It isn’t hard to connect the dots, but he respects me not telling him because I don’t need to see that pity again.
The lawsuit being dropped came at the right time. Not just for the bar, but for me not having to explain myself. Every night when I lay down in the spare room at my cousin’s house, I think of him. I re-run everything that happened. The night before, then in the morning.
What the reporter said, how Daniel tried to explain it, and everything I overheard him say to his dad. Maybe I overreacted. But I had a right to know the truth, and it scared me he could so quickly and easily threaten to do the same thing to that reporter that Faulkner did to me.
The woman might have been intrusive and threatening to ruin me in yet another way, it still didn’t warrant a threat in retaliation.
That is where Daniel and I are different.
Is love enough to get over that? I made a promise to myself long ago I would never compromise my feelings, my moral compass or my ability to take pride in who I am, not for a man.
The more I thought about it, the more I remembered his reaction. He didn’t get mad at me. He didn’t scream and yell, he understood my anger and my reaction to what was going on. That is where Daniel is different to other men I’ve known.
We all make mistakes, right? Is this one too big for me to get over?
All I know, it hurts when I see his name on my phone. When he texts to ask how I am, not if he can explain. He checks in, rather than begs to see me. He apologized but didn’t expect me to forgive him. It’s not an act with Daniel.
I’ve been lied to before. Really lied to. Daniel lied by omission. It’s a little clearer with some time and distance that his lie wasn’t intentional. Like he said. My stubborn ass is fighting my rational side all the way to the end on this.
Ultimately… I’m miserable. Once, I told Daniel I am responsible for my happiness. Only I can allow myself to live with joy in my heart. Keeping away from him is what is making me unhappy right now. I’m doing that. Not him.
Now, Jay and the rest of the family want to celebrate winning the lawsuit. No one wants to hear that we only won because they dropped it. Jay argued, telling me if I'd never started our defense with the advertising and the social media campaign, it wouldn’t have forced their hand. We won.
Of course they want to hold the party at Blue’s Hideaway, debuting the newly blended 312 Blue IPA. Even that makes me think of Daniel. No one has called me Blue for days.
On the drive back to the city, I sit in Jay’s truck transporting the crates of beer.
We’re about thirty minutes away when he brings up Daniel. He heaves out a sigh of relief as soon as he asked what is going on. Like he’s been holding it in for days and can’t stand not knowing anymore.
“It’s complicated.”
“Trigonometry is complicated. Figuring why people prefer salty popcorn to sweet is complicated.”
“Are you going to tell me relationships aren’t complicated?”
“Nah, but that is because women are weird.”
“I’d slap you if you weren’t driving.”
He chuckles. He doesn’t mean it, but he enjoys winding me up. “Truth is Del,” he calls me by his childhood nickname. Funny how the men closest to me can’t refer to me by my real name. “Where you’re concerned no, it’s not complicated. After Pete, you got real good at knowing who you are and what you want.”
“Do we need to bring him up?”
“Yes, we do,” he takes his eyes off the road and gives me a stern look. “You know I hate that prick and if you’d let me, I would have gone to jail over him. You changed after him. And not in a bad way.”
I fidget with the fabric of my skirt and try to pretend he isn’t making sense.
“You know what you want and you’re not afraid to turn away from what you don’t. Try and tell me this isn’t about Daniel. That you came home for three days and left the bar in the hands of those kids.”
“They’re hardly kids,” I snort.
“Don’t lie and tell me you haven’t been on the phone every couple of hours checking on them.”
“Shut up.”
He laughs out loud. “I’ll never admit this in front of anyone, but I look up to you.”
“What?” I half laugh but he’s serious. I turn away from him and tell him to watch the road.
“You made me see that Molly-Mae was treating me like shit and I deserved better. You taught me not to settle.”
“She was a bitch,” I mutter. His ex was a leech. She sucked the life out of my cousin.
“And you were the only one who told me. You knew it would hurt, and I might react badly to you, but you did it anyway. Because you’re not scared to speak your mind when it comes to the people you care about. Including yourself. So, what the fuck is going on with Daniel? You never bring anyone home.
“Shit, all this girl talk, I might need to stop off and get some tampons before we get to the bar,” he groans. “But shit, Del, you looked happy. Happier than I’ve seen you in years. If anything, the fact you’re running away and hiding says a hell of a lot about how you feel about him.”
“Yeah, lets go get you some tampons and how about a pretty bow for your hair too?”
“Make sure it’s purple, it matches my eyes.”
“You’re not funny.”
“I’m hilarious,” he grins. “We got a little over fifteen minutes before we arrive and you damn well are gonna have fun. Now tell me what happened before there are any witnesses.”
When I get done telling him, we’re pulling up at the back of the bar. Jay doesn’t speak while he’s reversing the truck into the alley. When he stops it, the air from the brake’s echoes around us. I purposely don’t look at him.
He grabs my knee, gives it a squeeze and then gets out of the truck.
“Wait? That’s it? No words of advice. No telling me good riddance, or I’m being stupid.”
Jay looks up at me and winks, then slams the door. He’s an ass. At the rear of the truck, he has pulled it open and lowered the ramp.
“Go get Jacob and Curtis to help me out. You need to get the bar ready.”
Screw him. I don’t want to know what he thinks anyway.
My staff and a lot of our family are already here. The guys go out back to help Jay bring in the new IPA and I get to work helping with the decorations. We’re not closed to the public, but it’s already almost half full just with family here.
A couple of hours later, I lean against the wall behind the bar, surveying what is going on. I can’t hide the smile. This is perfect. Family and friends, all celebrating the little man beating the giant one who tried to take us down.
Regulars and new faces alike are trying the new beer and loving it. It’s already trending on social media which I shouldn’t be surprised about, but always am. And proud of what our family have achieved.
Uncle Harvey started this tiny bar over twenty years ago and look at it now. We’re having to turn people away.
“Surveying your kingdom?”
My eyes roll so hard. Brie laughs and settles herself beside me.
“You should be proud.”
“I am.”
“We missed you here the last few days.”
“We had work to do getting the new beer ready.”
Her sarcastic look rivals one of mine. I’m teaching my staff bad habits. “We weren’t the only ones who missed you.”
“What?”
“The customers,” she says with a look of innocence that is so fake it's practically criminal. “I mean, you’re our hero, boss. Everyone wants to meet you.”
“What are you up to?”
“I gotta get back to work, it’s busy,” she glances at the order screen and grins. “Ah, look another new order. Why don’t you deliver this one? Table twelve I believe.”
Without moving, I scan the bar. Subconsciously, I’ve been looking, though I never saw what I was looking for.
Until now. Sitting at table twelve. Where I first laid eyes on him. He’s wearing a black shirt and dress pants, his jacket thrown over the back of the chair. My eyes dart to the spare chair but he’s alone.
There might as well be no one standing between us. I lose all sense of who is around us and my pulse races in a way it never has before.
He came.
There is nothing hopeful in his look, its pure determination. That, more than anything, convinces me.
Turning my back, I hope Daniel is disappointed I didn’t make any kind of acknowledgement he’s here. He won’t need to worry for long.