It’s Only Temporary by Iona Rose

 

Connor

The sounds of keyboards being pounded filtered into my office as my colleagues in adjoining offices hurried to finish last minute tasks before leaving for the weekend. I was about to turn off my computer when I decided to check my email one last time. Always a mistake.

There was a new email and it wasn’t from a client thanking us for the good job we had done on their marketing campaign. It was from a travel agency whose brochure we’d been creating and they didn’t like the draft we sent them.

The images are good but the copywriting doesn’t quite capture the mood.

With a sigh I forwarded the email to Joe, the copywriter working on the account. Within minutes, he was knocking on my always open door.

“I thought it would be you,” I said.

His eyebrows were drawn together and he paced the room, even after I invited him to sit down. I didn’t blame him. It was the third change we had made and still the client was not satisfied.

“I don’t know what other direction I can go with it,” he said. “They still won’t provide a brief?”

I shook my head. Unfortunately, stubborn clients were part of the game. They were the few who failed to provide clear brand guidelines. “No, but I have an idea. I’ve scoured their website and past brochures.”

Joe came to stand behind me and together we brainstormed as we went through their website.

“Thanks man,” Joe said later. “I think I know now what they need.”

When he left, I glanced at the time and let out a string of curses. I was meeting my friends Mathew and Tony for drinks, and I was already late. We had this thing where whoever was the last one in bought three rounds before we started taking turns.

I glanced at my phone to check if Angie had texted or called. Nothing. I swallowed my disappointment. Maybe she’d gotten a last-minute job and was busy. Angie is my fiancée and an aspiring model. It was a tough industry and she sometimes went weeks without a gig.

I turned off my computer and straightened up my office. I wore my jacket and slipped on my winter coat and left, shouting goodbyes to my colleagues.

It was bitterly cold outside and I walked rapidly amongst the throngs of people and five minutes later, I was entering The Ace cocktail bar. The warmth inside hit me and instantly warmed my frozen cheeks.

I spotted the guys sitting at a table in the middle of the room.

“Late as always,” Mathew said good naturedly.

“Hey.” I slipped off my winter coat and hung it behind my chair. “I had to deal with a last-minute email from a client.”

“I couldn’t function in your world. Too much pressure,” Tony said.

“There’s pressure in the real estate business too,” I pointed out.

“Not the same. There’s no one breathing down your neck to come up with creative stuff,” he said.

“Hi,” a sweet smoky voice that I could recognize anywhere said.

I looked up and smiled at Bianca. She was a waitress at the bar and she’d been working at The Ace for a year or so.

“How are you doing Bianca?”

“Good, thanks,” she said.

I ordered a beer and as she left, Mathew and Tony’s gazes were on her back. They were both single and they were the reason that we frequented the cocktail bar. According to their research, it was a favorite with the ladies. It had grown on me as well even though my own girlfriend disliked it.

“Do you think she has a boyfriend?” Tony asked.

“I bet she does. She’s too gorgeous to be unattached,” Mathew said.

I listened with one ear to their conversation as my mind drifted to Angie as I waited for my beer. I decided to text her and let her know I was at The Ace in case she wanted to join us.

I took out my phone and saw a message. My heart leaped when I saw that it was from Angie. Before I could read it, Bianca brought my beer.

“Thank you,” I said and flashed her a smile.

“I really wouldn’t mind a piece of that,” Tony said.

“Hey watch your mouth,” I told him lightly. “That kind of language is the reason why you never get a second date.”

“You’ve become boring since you got engaged,” he threw back.

I laughed. “It’s only been a month, hardly enough time to change.” I’d proposed to Angie on the most exclusive roof top restaurant in the city.

She had been more excited about dining at the restaurant than my proposal. I hated remembering that day. I was haunted by the flicker of hesitation I’d seen in her gray eyes before she said yes.

My laughter died as I read her message. I blinked as if my eyes were deceiving me.

Angie: Listen, this is not working. I feel as if I’m sacrificing my career for you. I’ll send the ring back. Don’t call as I don’t want to talk.

I immediately hit call. It rang and rang and then went to voicemail. I punched out a message.

Me: I don’t understand. We’re engaged.

I hit send.

“Hey man, you’re sweating, what’s going on?” Mathew said. “Bad news?”

My throat was so dry, I couldn’t immediately answer. I looked up but couldn’t focus on what was in front of me. All I could see was Angie’s face. Was this her idea of a joke?

There was no way she could be serious. She wasn’t sacrificing her career for me. I was her biggest fan. I encouraged her to go on auditions and cheered her on when she got a job. How the hell had she interpreted my actions as sacrifice on her part?

“Hey man, you’re scaring us,” Tony said, jerking me back to the present.

I swallowed hard. “It’s Angie. She’s broken off the engagement.”

“What?” Mathew said. “By text?”

I read the text out aloud.

“Fucking hell!” Tony said. “Talk about a bitch.”

“Hey, don’t call her that.” There was a good reason for it. Maybe she was going through a hard time what with work and all.

“What about the wedding?” Mathew asked.

I let out a string of curses. I’d completely forgotten that Angie and I were travelling to Colorado for a week-long vacation to attend my sister Sarah’s wedding. I fisted my hands. It would be a disaster to go without Angie as everyone was expecting her.

I’d been so excited when Angie said yes that I’d immediately told my mom that I’d be bringing my fiancée. We’d been dating for two years and I’d invited her to go home with me but she always came up with a reason why she couldn’t.

Then she had finally said yes to going for my sister’s wedding with me and now this. I reached for my phone to type another message.

Me: What about the wedding?

“I’m asking her about the wedding.” I reached for my beer and gulped it down straight from the bottle.

It was in the evening and cold but I could feel a sheen of sweat covering my face.

The guys were quiet and we were all staring at my phone on the table willing it to move. It did after a minute or so. In my haste to reach for it, I almost knocked down my beer.

Angie: Go without me.

I read it out aloud. It finally hit me. She really meant it. I grabbed my beer and drowned it in two big gulps.

“I’m sorry man, that’s rough,” Mathew said.

“I hate to be the one to say this but she didn’t deserve you and I, for one, am glad that she’s finally out of your life,” Tony said.

“This is not the time for that,” Mathew said in a tone that caught my attention.

“What do you mean it’s not the time for that?” I growled. “It’s not fair to say that just because they never got along.”

Mathew refused to meet my gaze. “I never liked her either to be honest and I kind of echo Tony’s words. Angela is selfish and you deserve better.”

I stared at my friends in disbelief. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing. What did she ever do to you?”

Bianca chose that moment to bring another round of drinks. I couldn’t drink mine fast enough. I kept thinking about the wedding. We were to leave the following week, on Monday.

It was bad enough that I hated weddings but attending one alone? How was I going to explain Angie’s absence to my family? I’d never taken any woman home and I was sure that word had gotten around about the fiancée I was bringing to the wedding.

Mathew and Tony tried to distract me from my woes by regaling us with stories of their days. I put on an expression of someone who was listening but my mind was on Angie and the wedding. I had a feeling that she would come back to me but my immediate problem was the wedding.

“I’m going to look like a loser,” I told my friends hours later. My words were slurring and I suspected I was a little drunk.

“You’ll look like the biggest loser in history,” Tony confirmed.

“There must be something you can do,” Mathew said. “There are quarter of a million women in New York, surely you can get one of them to go to Colorado with you.”

Bianca brought another round. “You boys seem to be having extra fun tonight. Are you celebrating something?”

“No,” Tony said. “But you might be able to help us out with a certain pressing problem.”

She smiled and my heart skipped a beat. I’d always thought she was gorgeous but I was with someone and I’d never given her another thought.

I looked at her closely. She had big almond shaped brown eyes framed with thick eyelashes that made her look mysteriously sexy. Her hair was held back in a ponytail but I remember noticing her hair before. A thick mane that fell to her back.

“She’s waiting for you to ask her,” Tony said, staring at me pointedly.

I cleared my throat. She really was hot. Unconsciously, my gaze dropped to her lips. They were a perfect shade of pink. Like candy. Something was seriously wrong with me because the next thing on my mind was how her lips would feel against mine.

Did she taste like candy and were her lips as soft as they looked? I gave my head a little shake. It was disrespectful to have those kinds of thoughts about a waitress who was only doing her job.

I thought about the proposition I was about to make to her. I knew she was going to say no but I was feeling careless and it didn’t really matter.

“I’m supposed to attend my sister’s wedding in Colorado, for a week and I have no one to go with.”

I’d planned to tell her that my fiancée had dumped me and refused to attend the wedding with me but I didn’t want to look even more pathetic than I already did.

“Put on a cute puppy dog look,” Tony said.

I tried my best to arrange my features but I’d had too much to drink and probably looked like a frog rather than a cute puppy.

She laughed.

“Will you go with me to Colorado?” I asked.

Her gaze bore into mine as if she was seriously considering the offer. “What’s wrong with going alone?”

“Because he’ll look like a loser,” Tony quipped. “No one wants to spend a week enduring sympathetic glances.”

She grinned. “True.” She swung her gaze to me. “Okay. I’ll come.”

We all fell silent, stunned that she had agreed. Mathew grabbed my phone from the table. “Here, write your number. Connor will call you to make the arrangements.”

She tapped her number and bent down to hand me the phone. As she did so, I caught a whiff of her minty scent that made me really really want to kiss her.