CHAPTER FIVE
Zane watched Wynn leave, wondering what in the hell he did wrong. He didn’t consider himself a Casanova by any means, but he certainly wasn’t that bad. What was it about her that got to him so much? And why did she always seem to keep him at an arm’s distance?
Zane glanced around the room, no longer wanting to be there. The memory of Wynn’s laughter and bright eyes, fluttered around him like a ghost—fleeting and intangible. The murmured conversations in the room were dull, consisting of egocentric workaholics and a lack of excitement for holiday plans. The only thing interesting about the party, the only person capable of warm, intelligible conversation, just went out the door, taking his desire to stay and mingle with her.
He took a long drink from his Heineken and turned towards the bar to get another.
A manicured hand curled around his forearm. “Hey there, stranger.”
Shit. Zane bit back the expletive before it escaped his lips. “Meredith, what are you doing here?”
Smiling, her overly bleached teeth were a startling contrast to her hot pink lips. “You invited me. Remember?” she said, her voice innocent.
Zane shook his head. “That was before we broke up, before you cheated on me. Remember?” He brushed past her towards the bar, but the click of heels behind him signaled she was not giving up that easy.
He took the drink the bartender offered and gave him a grateful smile along with a big tip. Turning, he expected Meredith on his heels, both because of her uncanny persistence and the overpowering smell of her Poison perfume.
The fizz of his beer burned in his stomach and throat, as he nearly emptied it—his fortification for whatever came next. “I think you should go home,” he said, trying his best to maintain his cool. He had known she was up to something, from her recent phone calls and then the trip to the mall, and now it was obvious what it was. She wanted him back.
Meredith’s lips curled, snaking a smile across her slender face. “Come on, Zane. You know that’s not what you really want.” Smoothing her hands over the buttons of his shirt, her fingers lingered just above the top button over his bare skin. “Why don’t we get a drink, and then you can come back to my place.”
Zane’s jaw clenched. He noticed the way the other men in the room gaped at her, the way they looked at him with both envy and admiration, but he was tired of it. “Meredith,” he said, drawing out her name, hoping to get through to her. “We’re over.”
She threw her hands up. “Come on, that guy was nothing. Just a fling, a mistake. You’re the one I want, Zane. You know that. You’ve always been the one I want.” Meredith pushed her lower lip out like a child, something Zane found neither cute nor amusing.
“It’s not about that. I don’t care that you cheated on me. Actually, I’m grateful. I shouldn’t have been with you in the first place. Your cheating just gave me the push I needed to finally end a relationship that, frankly, was headed nowhere. You gave me the push I needed to stop being a coward and go for what I’ve really wanted this whole time.”
The image of Wynn’s face came to him like a dream, her soft smile and bright eyes. He wished she were there. He wished he had never started dating Meredith all those years ago and instead told Wynn how he really felt about her—that despite their year of friendship and one short date, he had fallen for her.
He loved the way she tucked her hair behind her ears, the flush of pink to her cheeks when they spoke. The way she smiled made his heart stop. And her laugh. He would do anything to hear it again, to be the one to make her laugh day-in and day-out. But after their brief night out, by the time he had mustered up the courage to tell her how he felt, he was greeted with the news that she had started dating somebody else. She had been with him ever since, leaving Zane heartbroken and wondering what he could have done differently. After a few short weeks, he relented and gave into Meredith’s persistence and asked her out.
