It’s Only Temporary by Iona Rose

Bianca

I’d been up since eight working on a collection of bracelets. The piece I was currently working on was the last in the collection. It was an emerald bracelet cuff and I was almost done with it. It came out so well that I was tempted to keep it for myself.

The sound of a key being inserted in the key hole broke my concentration and I glanced at the time. Nine on the dot. It was my twin sister Eva. Unlike me, she was as regular as clockwork and was a stickler to routines.

I listened to her footsteps as she made her way to the kitchen. Minutes later, she showed up in the studio carrying two mugs of coffee as she did every weekday.

“Morning,” she said cheerfully as she handed me one mug.

“Morning.”

“That is so beautiful, it’s going to be a hit,” she said staring at the bracelet.

“I was just thinking how much I’d love to keep it for myself,” I said with a laugh.

“All the pieces you make are beautiful.” Eva sat down at her desk and turned on the computer.

She was the business side of Biva jewelry and thanks to her, our business had really grown in the last three months.

“How was your shift last night?” she said as she sipped her coffee.

I waited until mine got colder. I could never understand how people drank piping hot anything.

“It was okay and nothing’s changed. They are getting rid of some of us.” I shrugged.

Our manager at the cocktail bar had warned us several weeks earlier that the management was working on trimming the overheads. They wanted less servers and being one of the newest, I was on the list of the people losing their jobs.

It was a part time job and I only waitressed on Fridays and the weekends but I still felt a pang. My waitressing job was like a warm blanket. It made me feel safe to know that I had a guaranteed paycheck.

“Wipe that look of worry off your face,” Eva said. “I’ve told you, the business is doing well. It can afford to pay us and still leave enough for operations. You’re such a worrier. Relax.”

I inhaled deeply. Eva was more than my identical twin. She was my best friend too and knew everything about me. “Okay, I will.”

“Good girl.”

I remembered the events of the previous night and laughingly told Eva about Connor’s proposal and we laughed about it.

“You said no, right?” she said.

“Actually I said yes. I gave him my number.” Not that I thought that he’d call. Connor had been pretty plastered when he asked me to go to Colorado with him.

A part of me wished that he would. I’d worked so hard for the last six months. A mini vacation would have been awesome. The mention of the word Colorado had taken me back to the few nice memories I had of my childhood.

My parents had loved skiing, which was the only thing they had in common. They took us all over the country for skiing vacations and I’d loved it.

“That’s crazy,” Eva pointed out. “You don’t even know this guy.”

“Yeah, I do. His name is Connor and I’ve known him for ages.” I chose to misunderstand what she was saying.

She rolled her eyes. “He’s a customer. You don’t know him.”

I let out a sigh. I was tired of being so responsible and hardworking. For the first time in a long time, I felt like letting my hair down. “You’re always telling me to have some fun. This is it.”

Eva widened her eyes. “Fun. Not lunacy. There’s a difference.”

I laughed. “Don’t worry. He’s not going to call.”

“If he does go ahead with this crazy proposal, I’ll need his parents’ names and phone numbers and the address where you’re staying.”

“You’re worse than a mother,” I said.

“I’m glad you didn’t say your mother,” Eva said in a dry tone.

“I don’t have a selective memory.”

“How’s Jeremy?” I asked her, referring to my brother-in-law and her husband of two years.

She shrugged and my antenna for trouble went up. “Is he still insisting on you guys trying for a baby?”

“Yes. He’s starting to sound like someone scraping a blackboard with their nails. I keep telling him that I’m not ready and to give me more time. I want to take Biva far and I can’t do that if I’m pregnant or I have a small baby,” she said hotly.

My sister was the nicest and easiest person to get along with. The problem came in when she made a decision about something. Getting her to change her mind was damn near impossible.

“I’ve heard that there are women who work and raise a family,” I said.

“Hahaha, you’re a regular comedian sis,” she said. “Seriously though, I like to give a hundred percent to this and Jeremy simply refuses to understand that.”

It was time to point out something I’d been wanting to say. “Jeremy is not exactly in the wrong. You’re the one who has changed the goal post.”

She glared at me. “What do you mean?”

“When you got married, I remember you telling me that all you wanted was to be a homemaker. Be a wife and a mom who was always available for your family. You told Jeremy the same thing, I’m sure.”

An irritated look came over her features. “So I changed my mind, sue me.”

I laughed. “I’m just saying, be kind to the man. You sold him a dream and he loved it. Now you want to back off and expect him to give up his dream without a fight?”

“I never knew how fulfilling it was to have your own business,” she said, her eyes filling up. “I also know that you didn’t have to make me your partner. You could have just employed me. I want to repay you for that by giving this business everything I’ve got.”

“It was a strategic decision to make you partner. It would make you dedicated to its success. Still, you shouldn’t sacrifice your personal dreams. You can do both.”

Her face hardened as it did when she had made up her mind about something. “I don’t want to do both. I want to concentrate on this first.”

I sighed. That was one problem that Jeremy was going to have to solve by himself.

Later that evening, after Eva and I had wrapped up for the day and she had gone, and I was relaxing with a notebook, my phone vibrated. I picked it up and swiped to read the message.

Connor: Hey Bianca

I smiled at the two-word message. I wiped my hands over my shorts before responding.

Me: Hey Connor

Connor: Is this a good time to call?

I swallowed hard and willed my pounding heart to go still.

Me: Sure

A second later, my phone rang and after another deep inhale I swiped to answer.

“Hi.” I cleared my throat to get rid of the breathlessness.

Confession time. I’d always had a crush on Connor ever since I saw him and his two friends, almost a year ago. He had never come to the cocktail bar with a date and I’d always assumed that he was single.

I knew his friends, Mathew and Tony were single from the way they flirted with women in the bar. Tony even flirted with me and had asked me out on a date. I’d politely said no. He wasn’t my type, even for a little fun.

But Connor, now that was another story. He never flirted with me or other women in the bar. Obviously, he didn’t have a girlfriend else he would have attended his sister’s wedding with her. Maybe he had finally worked up the courage to ask me out albeit in an unconventional way.

He was sexy as sin and a total gentleman. It wasn’t once or twice that I’d thought he belonged on the front cover of a men’s magazine. Advertising underwear. Or an expensive cologne – in his underwear.

“I wasn’t sure you’d know who it was,” he said in his deep voice that resonated over my spine. “Anyway, I called about the trip to Colorado. I just need to know. Were you serious when you said yes?”

My heart pounded hard against my chest. Would he think I was a psycho if I said yes? He had the excuse of being plastered when he asked me while I’d been stone cold sober when I said yes.

I felt pulled in two different directions. The need to salvage my pride and the need to let loose and just go and have some fun. The latter won.

“I was.” I held my breath as I waited for his reaction.

He exhaled loudly. “I thought I’d dreamed up the whole thing. It’ll be fun, I promise.”

“I have a feeling it will be.”

Eva was going to have a fit when I told her that I was going to Colorado. Connor gave me more details about his sister’s wedding. It was going to be in a lodge that was family owned and we were going to stay for a week.

“Will that work for you?”

God, I loved his voice.

“Yes.” I’d become breathless again.

“Great.”

We arranged the time he would pick me up that Wednesday. I shook with excitement as we spoke. Nothing that crazy had ever happened to me. I knew romance had nothing to do with it but he must have been attracted to me on some level to offer the invitation.

“Thank you so much for doing this,” he said in that sinfully sexy voice. “I’ll forever be indebted to you.”

“You’re welcome,” I said and then added. “To be perfectly honest, your offer came at the right time when I really needed a vacation. So we’ll call it even.”

He laughed. “Fair enough.”

We said goodbye and hung up. I just sat there, in the same exact spot, grinning like an idiot.