Always The Second Choice

9. So Much Effort

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Natasha watched intently as Dominic restlessly played with the fork.

"Don't worry about it," She spoke up. "I made sure that no one would find out we are here together." She had reserved a private room.

"Which makes it all the worse, doesn't it?" He asked. "It's as if we are actually doing something we shouldn't be."

Natasha tsked. "Don't think so negatively, Dom. I know I stepped out of line, but we are still friends, right? And friends are allowed to have lunch together. No matter how the insecure wives react."

Dominic looked up. "Don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Make this Nicola's fault."

"Do you have a soft corner towards her now?" Natasha tried to modulate her tone but she failed miserably as her voice came out shrill and bordering on hysterical.

"She is my wife," Dominic said. "I think she should be my priority."

"You don't even mean that." Natasha scoffed. "I get what you are trying to do, Dom. You found out about my feelings for you and now find our situation awkward. So you are trying to put some distance between us. You don't have to do that, Dom. I understand. I was mistaken and I won't let you pay the price for my misconception."

Dominic stared at her and finally nodded, a trace of a smile on his face.

The woman deserved an Oscar.

And the man needed a brain transplant.

"So tell me, what do you have in mind?" Natasha leaned forward, finally touching him again as she placed her hand on top of his fidgeting one. "And more importantly, what can I do to help?"

Dominic shrugged. "I need to fix my relationship with her." He looked at his phone, wondering if he should call her.

Natasha's eye twitched but she still managed a tight smile on her face. "Maybe...M-aybe you should call her!" She supplied, her voice shaky.

"You think so too?" He looked up at her.

She used up all her energy to relax her features. "Of course. Do you want me to call her and..." She took a deep breath. "And apologize for my behavior at the party?"

Dominic shook his head immediately, "No no no, you don't need to do any such thing."

He was worried about how Nicola might react. She was breathing fire these days and she was always taunting him anyway about his and Natasha's relationship. If Natasha made a move to make any contact with her not even a week after the incident... Let's just say he did not know what to expect from the new Nicola.

"But you are right. I should call her." He got up from the chair, grabbed his phone, and made his way out.

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Nicola sighed as she stared at a picture of Keith Foreman.

"If I knew that there would come a day when I would get to work with you, I wouldn't have gotten married to that asshole even though he is the love of my life."

Blair looked up from her phone, confused if the Boss was talking to her.

"You would have been the love of my life." Nicola sighed.

"As much as that is flattering..." Blair started to panic. She couldn't say anything wrong or else it would cost her the awesome job that let her lounge in the Boss' office on a mundane afternoon. "I am into men, you see."

Nicola looked over, giving her assistant a flat look. "Get out of here!" She rolled her eyes.

Blair was instantly on her feet. "Am I getting sacked?"

Nicola let out a sigh. "Why are all the people in my life so dumb?"

"You are not much better," Blair mumbled under her breath.

"What did you say?"

"I said your extreme intelligence makes us mere peasants look comparatively dumb to you." Blair gave her a sugar-coated smile.

"Uh huh." Nicola narrowed her eyes at her assistant and dear friend. "I have been too easy on you lately, haven't I?"

"I wouldn't say that." Blair grinned nervously.

"Go get me my macchiato. I don't feel like having lunch today." Nicola grinned right back.

Blair blew out a breath of relief. That was easy. That was not hard at all. Their cafeteria served the best macchiato on the planet, hotshot expensive Martin's be damned.

"Wokey." She gave her Boss a thumbs up.

"From Martin's." Nicola kept her grin intact. "I feel like drinking expensive coffee today."

"Huh?" She cursed her luck. She should not have insulted Martin's in her head. The late barista had come to take revenge.

"Go."

Blair nodded vigorously and turned on her heels, scurrying away as if her tail was on fire.

"And make sure the ice doesn't melt by the time you get here," Nicola called after her.

She snickered at how evil she was and then scoffed. She was so easy on her staff that getting a cup of coffee seemed like a task to them.

She took out her little blue notepad. "Don't go easy on them." She hummed as she scribbled on it.

She yawned, stretching, and was ready to go back to ogling the perfect human specimen named Keith Foreman when her phone rang.

Nicola raised her brow at the caller ID.

loml (Taylor's version)

Who had gone and done that? There was only one person who knew her pin and that was Blair. And there was only one person who had the audacity to do that - Blair. She wondered what was the use of the thirty-year-old always worrying about getting sacked when this was what she kept doing.

"Hi, this is Ms. Montgomery's assistant. She can't be reached right now. Please leave a message." She said in a robotic voice, internally snickering.

"Oh right... This is her husband."

Nicola bit the inside of her cheek, chanting to herself not to be disappointed or hurt. He didn't know her or love her to recognize her voice.

"I wanted to ask her out to dinner tonight. Could you check her schedule to see if she is free sometime in the evening?"

Nicola raised a brow. Wow, he was going hard at damage control. Which was good, wasn't it? The faster the mess got settled, the faster she could get her divorce and walk away.

"I am afraid she is completely booked tonight."

"Oh okay. It can't be helped then. I will talk to her later."

Nicola pulled the phone away from her ear and just stared at it, hating the disappointment she felt.

This man was not even trying.

She jabbed on the hang-up button, courtesies be damned.

She tossed the phone onto her table and tapped her fingers together.

"Why am I feeling bad again? Why?" The lump in her throat made her voice hoarse.

Squaring her shoulders, she decided once again that she did not care.

NICOLA MONTGOMERY DID NOT CARE.

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