7. Rose #2
As Shirley walks away to put in my order with the kitchen, Luc has already started transferring my mug of black coffee into the cup of ice, adding two packets of sugar and three creamers in an attempt to make it drinkable.
I don’t even think he realizes that he didn’t ask and just automatically fell back into the role of my Luc from all those years ago.
I’m not going to call it out. Instead, I’ll use this momentary peace to ask some easy questions and get the conversation back into neutral territory.
“I’d love to hear more about your company, Precision Builders. The house you and your team built for Dante is breathtaking. It almost reminds me of some sketches I did years ago of my dream home.” There, that seems like a safe topic to start with. Well done, Ro.
Luc pauses a little longer than normal for such a basic question before responding. “I thought you said it was...how did you put it...‘a good starting point’?” He can’t contain his smile, as if he knows I was enamored with the house from the beginning.
“Luc, you know the house is beautiful. I have to remain professional and unbiased with clients, that’s all. But seriously, I want to know how you got into that line of work.”
“Well, you know how I always loved drawing in high school. I ended up taking some architectural courses after graduation to see if I’d be interested in that, and it turns out, I was a natural.
But it also ended up being a lot more work than I initially expected.
I worked as an apprentice with a distant family friend out of state who helped show me the ropes and ultimately helped me start my own company.
He even invested some money to aid with startup costs, materials, and hiring a crew.
I was able to get some smaller projects through networking and word of mouth, but I really had a breakthrough when a wealthy friend of his asked me to design and build his custom winter home in Aspen.
I had never done anything like that but couldn’t pass up the opportunity, so I took it, and I guess the rest is history, as they say.
Once that project was complete and the client started showing off his home to his friends, I had an influx of custom luxury home requests.
I was able to pick the projects I wanted to work on.
Architectural Digest magazine even did a spread on the house once it was finished. ”
“Is that how Dante found you? He doesn’t seem like the type to mix and mingle with the rich and famous in a ski town in Colorado.”
“No, Dante actually reached out to me directly. He didn’t mention any referral, but once we discussed what he was looking for, I knew there was no way I could turn it down.
Plus, it would bring me back to New York longer term, which was a bonus.
I never asked him, but I figured he found me from the magazine article. ”
“How did you end up referring me to Dante? I don’t remember working with your company on any of my previous projects with Franklin & Sons.
Dante mentioned the owner of the construction company he used personally referred me by name.
I thought it was a bit odd and maybe they had confused me with another designer.
Still, I wasn’t in the position to turn down the job, so I took it as a sign to say yes. ”
“It’s possible one of my contractors worked with you in the past and provided your information. I didn’t even know you were still in the city, let alone in luxury design.”
I know Dante said the owner of the company referred me, and he doesn’t seem like the type to mix up people and confuse information based on the short amount of time I’ve interacted with him. But I don’t sense any hesitation or dishonesty in Luc’s response, so I guess it’s possible Dante misspoke?
Regardless, I try not to let the hurt on my face show that Luc didn’t even bother to check in on me from time to time to see what I was doing through the years.
I spent countless hours, days, and weeks talking to anyone who knew him, scouring online sites for any mention of him, only to come up with nothing.
It’s like he disappeared off the face of the earth…
or even more, like he never existed. Which is weird, considering he was apparently in a magazine article.
I will definitely be looking that up later.
In some of the darker days that followed his leaving, I could almost convince myself that he wasn’t real and the time we spent together was a figment of my imagination.
That was the only way to pull myself out of the mental spiral.
I made the decision to live my life by only looking forward and doing my best to forget the past. Because when it came down to it, I had been forgotten by everyone else in my life from the moment I was born, so it was time to build a new one.
Maybe I wouldn’t have even gone to college and worked so hard to get a top-tier internship if Luc hadn’t left me. But I’m not about to give him any credit for the blood, sweat, and tears I’ve poured into my career. He doesn’t deserve that kind of credit.
“Well, if you could find out who on your team referred me, I’d love to say thank you to them directly.
Dante is my first client since I left Franklin & Sons, and if all goes well, this could be a big pivot for my career.
That is, as long as Dante and I can figure out how to get along.
He’s been really short with me and kind of makes me uneasy.
I can’t get a good read on him, but I want to make sure I keep this project.
How was he to work with while you guys were collaborating on the design for the build? ”
“He’s actually been one of the easier clients to work with, honestly.
He’s very particular about details and knows what he wants, which can be a pain at times, but it takes the back-and-forth out of it completely.
Dante even did some of the work on the house himself, and we only had to provide the materials.
I’m guessing he has specific taste and prefers to handle certain details himself.
We didn’t even do any of the final construction in the basement.
We only poured the foundation to his specifications and did some framing, but he handled the rest. I haven’t even seen what he ended up doing with the space.
That’s part of the reason I was excited about the walkthrough today.
I had hoped to get a look at the work he did down there.
You’ll have to let me know once you get a look at it,” he adds with a wink.
Now this is the playful, flirtatious Luc I remember. Time to expertly transition into some more difficult questions.
“Why didn’t you say goodbye after graduation?
Or actually, why did you leave in the first place?
” I blurt out. Not necessarily the smooth transition I was hoping for, but it’s out there now, and I really need to know the answer.
After everything, that is what I can’t get past. I can understand—at least on some level—wanting to leave and pursue his dreams, but for him to vanish without a word is really what hurt me more than anything.
Luc is silent for several moments. I can tell he is trying to organize his thoughts and words before he says anything, which I know from experience means I’m going to get a half-truth.
He forgets I’m like a human lie detector when it comes to him—or at least I used to be.
Who even knows what lies he’s told me? Is the iced coffee secret just the tip of the iceberg?
I sit perfectly still, not breaking eye contact with him.
I’m not about to let him out of this without some explanation or, at minimum, an attempt at an apology.
Luc finally clears his throat and sighs. “Do you really want to get into all that tonight?” He wears a look of exhaustion on his face, not willing to make eye contact with me.
“If we don’t talk about it now, I don’t know if we ever will,” I say with conviction.
“It’s really important to me, Luc. Plus, we are going to be working together on Dante’s home for the next couple of weeks, and I don’t want things to be awkward.
While I wish we could just sweep the past aside and pick up where we left off, I can’t do that.
I just need to know.” I sound more desperate than I intended, but I want Luc to know what he did really hurt me, even if it clearly felt like nothing to him.
“Ro, honestly, I didn’t really think it was a big deal.
I went to visit my family’s friend that I apprenticed for right after graduation.
It was a surprise trip from my mom, and I didn’t know about it until we were already on the way to the train station when we left the auditorium.
I had planned to call you and tell you all about it, but he didn’t have great cell service at his house in the mountains.
Then when everything started happening with the architectural classes and stuff, it just slipped my mind.
I figured you had moved on and were living some fabulous life in the city without me since I never heard from you either. ”