Not a Reunion

Chapter 36

Mason

Thea has broken off her engagement, and the first thing I could do was hug her. I didn't know what possessed me to do it, but she was heartbroken in front of me. I could see it in her face as soon as she uttered the words.

He fell out of love with me, Mase.

He fell out of love with her. Who falls out of love with a gorgeous woman with the biggest heart? I had told her that he was an idiot, and I stand by my word of choice. He was dumb for having the girl and still falling out of love with her. How was that even possible?

I had uttered that phrase, which made things awkward between us. How could I say "That's impossible" in front of her knowing that we once loved each other? And that maybe, I don't know. I didn't know how to make sense of my feelings.

I guess that, in a way, I would always love Thea. She was my first love and my only one. There was something about it that I couldn't shake off. She was the only girl that I allowed myself to be seen with. She had seen all of me while I was Ranger, and she was Ray. That was when all of it started. The only time I would allow someone to get to know me.

I didn't let anyone else know me. I didn't willingly tell women about my life, but really, they had never given me the chance. Or maybe they were good enough to not give me that chance because, well, would I even take it? I didn't think that I would consider everything that I harbor.

I'm heading into the office on Monday when I pass by my employee talking to someone by the staircase. I walk over to find that the woman is none other than Thea Merrit, and Vincent is talking to her. From what I just walked into, he was apologetic for the lunch he had stood her up on. I had wanted to tell him how awful that was of him, but I mean, it was lunch, and he had been insanely busy with work. I just hoped that he had remembered. That was the bad part. He hadn't remembered about the lunch and had left Thea waiting by herself for forty minutes.

"I'm sorry," Vincent apologizes with a duck of his head in order to look at her. Thea only looks up at him as she shakes her head, waving off the apology. "Really, it's okay," she says with a little fidget of her hand. Her eyes stray to the side to find me standing there, where she adds, "Your boss went to apologize to me. Mr. Katz paid for the meal, so it's fine."

Mr. Katz.

Was that what I was to her? Just a work colleague she knew about? But that couldn't be considering that she had called me by that old nickname last Friday.

"He paid for it?" Vincent asks, glancing over at me.

I give him a nod and say, "I told you that I would."

"I guess you did," Vincent says, drawing his attention to Thea. I watch as his eyes fly down to where she rests her hands on the side of her skirt. His eyebrows knit thicker when he doesn't find the item that Thea used to possess.

He moves a little closer to her and says, "For a woman that's engaged, you don't have a ring?"

Thea furrows her eyebrows together as she looks at my employee with a quizzical expression. "Who told you I was engaged?"

"My boss," Vincent  said loudly, and I backhanded him on the head. He yelps, places his hand on his head, and then says, "Right, sorry, boss." I let them believe that I was hitting Vincent about the fact that he had called me boss instead of the fact that it was obvious I was talking about Thea to my employee. That would be a line I didn't need Thea to know that I had drawn. That didn't seem to be a good idea.

"Well," Thea says, summarizing the brief exchange between us. "I'm not engaged, and I have to go. I'll talk to you later, though, right, Vincent?"

"Right," Vincent says with a grin, placing a hand out like a boy scout. He then adds, "I promise, sweetheart."