Chapter 32
CHAPTER 32
H er heart jolted. She clicked the button to send his call to voicemail and turned the ringer off.
Sunny’s phone rang. She checked the screen. “Dylan?” She sounded surprised and picked up. “Hey, what’s up?” There was a pause. “Yeah, Mallory’s right here. I finally found her a place.” Another pause. “Okay, I’ll text you the address.” Sunny rang off. “Dylan says you forgot your phone charger. He’ll bring it over.”
Heat tinged Mallory’s cheeks, but she didn’t know what to say. Dylan didn’t need to bring over her charger. Would he show up with all her stuff? How awkward. She couldn’t form a protest Sunny would understand, because no one had even known that she and Dylan were together, so she stayed silent.
“Do you mind if I show him the apartment? It’s the only one I directly had a hand in staging.” Sunny pumped her fist in the air. “Sold on day one. Thank you.” She grinned big. “How much do you want to bet that I’ll get to decorate another?”
“He’d be lucky if you did. You did a beautiful job.” Mallory sank down onto the white sofa. She pulled a fluffy throw pillow to her chest.
The phone rang again not ten minutes later. Sunny got back on the phone with Dylan. “I’ll meet you downstairs and point you to Mallory’s new garage. You’ll appreciate the private entrance.” There was a pause. “Okay, see you in a few.”
Sunny rang off. “You look as stunned as I feel. You made such a big purchase in the blink of an eye. Shall we celebrate with steak or champagne?”
“Champagne. Let’s go after Dylan drops off my charger.” She refused to choke on his name. “Somewhere public and lively and fun.”
“Sold.”
Maintaining her composure was a little more difficult a few minutes later because Dylan was standing in the doorway, looking like his shockingly handsome self, holding a black phone charger with the cord wrapped around his hand.
The charger wasn’t hers. Mallory went to her bag. Her white phone charger was right there. “That’s not mine.” She pulled her charger out and plugged the end into the outlet by the island. Breathe. Dylan would go soon.
Sunny laughed. “At least the trip’s not wasted. Come get the tour of Mallory’s new place.”
Mallory could feel Dylan’s gaze on her, but she didn’t meet his eyes. Not that she was blaming him. Perpendicular had been her idea. Back in Paris. When their time together had been a fling. She went to stare out at the river. Let him get through the showing and go.
Dylan and Sunny completed a tour and joined her at the floor-to-ceiling windows. Sunny hooked her arm through Mallory’s but directed her words to Dylan. “We’re going out for drinks to celebrate.” Sunny smiled at him with a friendly look. “We’d invite you, but…” She shrugged. “You’re you, and we’re going to get toasted somewhere public.”
“Is that a good idea?” Dylan asked.
Mallory’s heart spun at the sound of his voice. It made pretending he wasn’t there more difficult. Go already.
“Ugh. You sound like my brother. Yeah. It’s a good idea to take my single friend to a bar and celebrate that she’s found a place in Seoul. Now behave, or I’ll call your sister to join us.”
Mallory turned from the window. “Can we go out on a boat? Or somewhere on the water?”
“Yes, put something cute on, and we’ll go.”
Mallory blinked. She didn’t have anything, and she didn’t want to return to Dylan’s apartment, not today. “I haven’t brought my stuff over.”
“Shopping, then salon, then champagne on a boat.” Sunny did a little skip. “Lock up behind us, Dylan.”
Mallory sat across from Sunny while the waiter poured the champagne. Their two-top table was at a window overlooking the Han River on the docked boat.
Seoul did dress up well.
She and Sunny wore knee-length cocktail dresses with long sleeves. Mallory’s was olive-green and Sunny’s was a peachy-orange shade. Their heels were high, their makeup light, and their hair down in loose waves. They looked as if they were going to a posh party instead of having a drink together.
Sunny held up her narrow glass filled with bubbly, golden liquid. “To your new address.”
Mallory clinked her glass against Sunny’s and sipped the fizzy, chilled champagne.
“Should I get a divorce?”
“Whoa.” Mallory swallowed swiftly. She didn’t make light of the question, though. “I can think of three ways to answer a question that has a million answers. Do you want to hear them?”
“If one of them is about a vow or a promise, don’t go there. It tortures me nightly.” Sunny’s voice quavered. “Usually in the voices of my parents and brother.”
Her heart ached at that, but she stiffened her spine. “Okay, that leaves us two answers to that question. Ready?”
“No.” Sunny took a deep drink. “Tell me anyway.”
“The serious one first. Have you done everything in your power to save what’s worth saving?”
Sunny nodded. “Tad won’t go to couples’ counseling. I went to therapy on my own. He won’t even talk about the fact that we agreed on no kids before we got married. As far as the career goes, I’ll give him this. I didn’t know how much I’d love having a professional life outside of running a home. I was the one who changed there.” She pressed her manicured fingertips to her temple. “I circle around the same stuff again and again and get nowhere. What’s the other answer?”
“The flippant answer is, if you have to ask the question, you already know the answer.”
Sunny grimaced. “My family’s going to kill me.”
“They might surprise you, and your friends will support you.”
“Some will. Some won’t.” Sunny chewed on her bottom lip. “We’ll both be better off in the end.”
Mallory swallowed. “Happier is good.”
“True.” Sunny pressed her manicured fingertips to her temples, not looking happier.
“You don’t have to make the decision today.” Mallory softened her voice.
Sunny covered her mouth with her hand. “I’m sorry. We’re supposed to be celebrating, and I’m turning it into a drama, tissue-needing kind of night.”
Sunny’s potential loss of a marriage put her own breakup in perspective. Losing Dylan was nothing compared to what Sunny was going through. Repeating that in her head didn’t quite help, because her heart was so heavy she wanted to roll into a ball and cry. Which was why she wouldn’t.
Sunny blew out a breath. “When the first guy comes over and hits on us, what should I lead with? Know any good divorce attorneys? Or shall we have a toast with us to all things dark?”
“Let’s focus on our future happiness. Let’s toast to all the things that will make us happier.”
Sunny’s eyes lit up. “Like another glass of champagne.”
“Nice.” They drank to that. “Here’s to a dragon swooping from the clouds down to the river and back up again.”
Sunny drank to that. “Why back up again?”
“Dragons create havoc when they linger.”
“Like emotions?”
“Sometimes.”
“To books and dragons.” Sunny tapped her glass. “They create killer realtor bonuses.”
“There you go.” Mallory smiled appreciatively. “I’ll always toast to books and dragons.”
Sunny swiveled on her stool. “Look at our fellow barflies.”
Mallory examined the sparsely populated bar. There were a few couples, a few older patrons, and two groups of people their age. The bar would no doubt pick up as the hour grew later.
“We should appreciate men like museum-worthy works of art. At a distance. Look, but don’t touch.”
“Look but don’t touch?” Mallory wrinkled her nose. “Do we really want to toast to that?”
“Nope.” Sunny shook her head. “I’m not the writer, so I didn’t get that comparison quite right.”
“To autonomy?”
Sunny clinked her glass. “To relationships with autonomy.”
Mallory looked out at the water. “To being in a relationship so entwined, so impassioned, so fulfilling that you never want to let go.” Would she ever have that? She’d thought that was forming with Dylan. One-sided love hurt.
“Ohh. Exactly.” Sunny looked sad for a moment then brightened. “To never wanting to let go.”
Mallory clung to the door of the taxi, speaking to Sunny in the backseat. Her new shoes were swaying. Did Seoul have earthquakes? The sidewalk wobbled. “That boat gave me sea legs. I’m going to make the worst first impression on the doorman.”
“Meh. Use your private entrance.”
Mallory wasn’t quite sure she could work the unfamiliar private elevator in this toasted state and didn’t want to end up sleeping in the garage. Unable to articulate those doubts, she just echoed, “Meh. See you tomorrow.”
She did her best to go inside and key her entry while looking sober. Then she was in her new foyer. She kicked off the pretty heels that would swiftly be donated so that someone with better balance could enjoy them and went inside.
Dylan was still there.