Forever Rain

Chapter 15

Today: Rain

"Hi." His voice has grown deeper, and his face is even more beautiful than I'd remembered. There's a familiar quivering in my gut, an increase in speed behind my chest, my knees buckling from one simple word. Suddenly, I feel like an eighteen-year-old high school girl. But I am not. I am a woman. I am not the same little girl whose heart was broken five years ago.

"Hi." I finally responded. "Why are you wearing that tie?" How absurd. There are a hundred things that I could have asked, yet after so many years, I am asking about a ridiculous tie. A tie that I have given him, thinking it meant something more than just a cheap tie.

He slides his hand through it, looking at it with much consideration. Why does he still have that thing? He returned his eyes back to me.

"Why are you still wearing the raindrop necklace?"

I instinctively touch my necklace. Because I haven't taken it off since you've given it to me. I must look quite miserable now, but I have to remember that he is also wearing my tie.

"I'll take your silence as admission that we are wearing it for the same reason," he says under a chuckle.

"I highly doubt that. Sorry you ran out of ties and had to end up with that one. You should really get rid of it."

"Why would I do that? It's my favorite tie. I wear it to all my important events." Oh no. There goes my heart going berserk again. I should know better, letting his molasses-talking affect me this way. I have to get a grip of myself, not let him get the upper hand.

"Well, that's unfortunate." I respond with no emotions. Are we just going to stand here and make small talk? As if I didn't have this ginormous secret lingering behind my throat? "I'm sure your schedule these days is busy. So I won't take up too much of your time. It was nice seeing you, Damon."

I am such a coward, waving him off with a simple statement and walking past him to enter the glass, corporate building. Going through the revolving door, I noticed that Damon was following me inside.

"Excuse me," I turn around to face him. I really have forgotten how tall he was. I feel so tiny beside him, just like I always have, wishing I could just get two more inches on him. Luckily I know how to navigate in heels now, so I'm actually four inches taller. "Is there a reason that you're following me?"

"I'm not following you," he replies amusedly.

"So you just happen to come into the same building I am."

"That's correct. Or maybe you're following me."

The arrogance of Damon Welding. My lips fall into a pout, and I immediately vanish it from my face. Things have changed, and I am a very well respected woman now. So why does he make me feel like a little girl?

"Maybe I can help you find where you need to go." So he is familiar with this building. Maybe he works here. That makes sense. It was a business building for industrial contracts and trading. I speculate that Damon had most likely joined his father's business ventures. Good. I'll know where to find him once I can stop being a coward.

"I'll be fine, thank you. I have to check in at the front desk first." I'm speaking to his tie, because he is too close, and I refuse to look in his eyes. He smells wonderful with the mixture of citrus and woods, and for a second, I can see the forever rain hanging above our heads.

"Rain," he breathes my name, and involuntarily I look up, caught by the marvelous blue eyes and dark lashes, lashes that I know look even darker when they're wet. "Can I at least get your number? Or even an email? Maybe we can meet for donuts or something."