Chapter 28
“Yes!” the girls squealed when I asked them to come with me on the work trip. Olivia was already making our shopping plans and Mel was looking up which spa had the best reviews.
Driving would have extended our trip by more days than I was willing to be away from Love, so I booked a small charter plane to take us to Calgary.
“Damn, Stella! You’ve been holding out on us!” Melody exclaimed as we walked up to the plane on the small local airstrip.
I laughed at the girls. I did have a good savings account, and had some investments pay off for me, but it wasn’t information I liked to flaunt or the lifestyle I wanted to live.
When my own income was the only thing I could control in my life, I did it almost obsessively and was grateful for that choice as it afforded me with the opportunity to get away from Nick and treat my beautiful friends.
We landed late Friday afternoon, and my meeting wasn’t until Saturday morning, so we spent some time perusing the bookstores around the city before finding somewhere to eat for supper.
“So, you and Calvin, huh?” Olivia said, raising her eyebrows persuasively at me.
“Ew!” Melody cut in. “I mean, yes, I want details but not details, details, y’know?”
“Don’t worry.” I laughed. “There’s nothing like that to tell, anyway.”
“Phew, good,” Melody said, comically wiping her hand across her brow.
“Because you don’t want there to be?” Olivia pushed. “Let’s be honest, we’ve all seen the way Calvin looks at you so that’s definitely not his call.”
Was it really that obvious? I noticed the heat in his eyes when he looked at me sometimes, but was it really that noticeable to everyone?
“Chill. You look like we just told you your childhood dog died or something. It’s been obvious for a long time,” Melody replied casually while taking a bite of her burger.
“He’s just always there.” Exactly when I need him to be, knowing exactly what to do and what to give me. “He makes me feel so safe and secure and seen. He’s gentle when I need it, and supportive of me finding myself again.”
I told them about the way he brushed my hair when I was sick, about the gift of the cut flower garden for my birthday because he noticed how much I loved Trixie’s. I couldn’t tell them about the night I panicked on top of him, though. That was a memory I wanted to keep for myself.
Melody’s demeanour softened. “Yeah, my big brother’s always been a big protector. But he’s also a big teddy bear so it doesn’t surprise me to hear he’s that way with you. You are good for him,” she assured me, grabbing my hand and giving a gentle squeeze.
As someone who was an only child, it felt so good to have the love of these women, who felt more like sisters than just friends.
A few more drinks and desserts later, we retreated to our respective hotel rooms with our new book hauls, each looking forward to a quiet night of uninterrupted reading time.
My meetings the next morning went by in a flurry of blueprints, vision boards, and, ultimately, handshakes.
It was a great job for me to just be getting back into it.
The building Voyager Hotel was taking over already had great bones and the renovations toward plumbing and electrical were well underway.
All I had to do was the fun stuff—design and decorate.
Once I had all the different room specifications and measurements, I would be able to do most of the work remotely, ordering what was needed and having it delivered straight to the hotel.
I’d have to make one trip once everything was delivered to set up a stage room and the rest would be done by hotel employees. It was perfect.
My eyes locked with Melody and Olivia who waited for me in the lobby as I exited one of the boardrooms. I couldn’t help the smile that overtook my features. I was so excited for an afternoon at the spa, celebrating with my girls.
“My goodness, I didn’t think I would have to go to all this work to finally get a hold of you, Crystal.” The voice I heard coming from behind me had only been in my nightmares the last few months.
Oh no, no, no.
Mel and Liv’s expressions changed from smiles to confusion as my face fell, but the familiar fingers of shame had already gripped its hold on me from that very first breath of a word, and I whipped around to face Nick before we got too close and they could hear anything he had to say.
“What are you doing here?” I hissed.
“What am I doing here? Darling, you should be thanking me. I’m the one who got you this job.”
I felt the colour drain from my face, and his laugh in response made my blood turn cold.
Placing his hand on the small of my back, he guided me into a nearby conference room. “Come, let’s talk somewhere private before you make a scene that will only embarrass us both, shall we?”
As he shut the door and locked it behind us, I felt little tingles of anger starting to course through me.
That was a new feeling. Before I would have cowered in shame and believed everything he was saying.
But now I knew it wasn’t me who would be making the scene.
He was the one who needed things to be said behind a close door so he could save face in front of everyone else.
“I knew you’d have to come crawling back eventually.
” Amusement laced his tone. “After you sent me your car, it was only a matter of time before you ran out of money and had to work again. Did you think one of the hotels I do business with wouldn’t tell me when the fiancée I had been heartbroken over emailed them to say she was starting up work in Canada? ”
His eyes started to darken, and it reminded me of a sight that used to frighten me to my core, but I could only focus on one thing he let slip in what he was saying to me.
He didn’t know.
He didn’t know I hadn’t run out of money.
Not even close. He thought I was here because I had to be, and not because I wanted to be.
He thought he’d outsmarted me, but he had no idea about my savings account.
Judging by the way he startled and his eyes grew wide when a loud pounding started on the door, he also didn’t know I wasn’t alone.
“Excuse me, I just need a quiet minute alone with my—” Nick started as he opened the door.
“Yeah, no,” Melody cut him off, shoving her hand into his chest and pushing him back with a force that surprised even him. I guess you didn’t grow up with two big brothers without being able to hold your own. “We will be taking our friend, thank you very much.”
She grabbed my hand and led me toward the open doorway when Nick tried to argue.
He didn’t even get a full word out before she whipped back around toward him, her flaming red hair smacking him in the face in the process, her nose inches away from his.
“And if you even so much as say one word, I will punch you right in your pretty face. What a shame it would be to get blood all over that nice little suit, wouldn’t it?
” She flicked the collar of his shirt to emphasize her point.
I couldn’t wrap my head around the feeling I had, to see someone stand up against Nick for me.
Nick threw up his hands and took a few steps back. Admitting defeat for now, but the look in his eyes told me this was far from over.
“Who the hell was that?” Olivia asked as we walked back to our rooms.
“Nick.” His name felt like lead in my mouth.
“Fucker! I should go back and punch him!” I swear Melody’s anger could be more fearsome than both her brothers combined.
“Please, don’t,” I begged her. “He’s not worth getting in trouble over.”
“Maybe he’s not, but you are,” Olivia added, but Melody stayed put and didn’t try to fight anybody, thankfully.
“Wait a minute, why did you come if you didn’t even know who he was?”
“Are you kidding?” Melody asked. “We saw that look on your face switch like night and day. Plus, I didn’t like how he led you into that room. That was creepy.” She made an exaggerated shivering movement, and I finally cracked a smile.
“Thank you for coming for me.”
“Of course, you’re one of us now,” she replied as she wrapped her arm around my shoulders.
We spent the afternoon in the spa, determined to still make the most of our weekend and not let Nick ruin things, but also to get out of the hotel for the rest of the day.
Our flight didn’t leave until the morning, so one more night and we’d be out of here.
Next week I’d email Voyager Hotels and tell them I couldn’t take the job.
No way would I come back here or risk working for a company that might have me crossing paths with Nick. I would have to find something else.
My mind was running circles for the rest of the day, barely registering our time in the spa or the meal we ate afterward, just ready for this day to be over and go back home to Calvin.
Home. That is exactly what he felt like, and I was beginning to realize it more and more.
What felt like moments after I closed my hotel door that evening, there was a knock, but before I could even feel the slightest bit of worry, I heard the sweet voice of Olivia.
“It’s just us.”
I opened the hotel door to my friends, all their bags packed in hand as they waited to come into my room.
“What are you doing?”
“As if we were going to let you sleep alone after a day like today,” Melody said, barging in, Olivia right on her heels.
“You don’t have to…” I started, but really, I already felt the relief of not spending the night with my own thoughts.
“I think my brother would kill me if I ever let anything happen to you,” Melody joked, but then she pulled me into a big hug and whispered into my ear, “Love you, Stella.”
As Olivia’s arms circled around us to complete the group hug, I had never felt more loved in my entire life.