Local Flavour: Big Apple (Book 3, the Local Flavour Series)

Part 5: Shards

Lucy pulled the shade down on the plane window, blocking out the early November sun. She could hardly wait to see Quinn and roam around her favourite city with him for the weekend and was counting the minutes until they landed.

She sat back to close her eyes for a moment; she'd been up early that day. She began to drift slightly, somewhere in the space between awake and dreaming. The light danced before her closed eyelids and she saw flashes of something; a glint of shattered glass. A memory came to her unbidden, something she'd tried to block out for years. My shittiest birthday.

Dark memories surfaced. Instead of stuffing them down or ignoring them, she let them come.

It happened during the last dying days of her relationship with Trent. She tried to remember the exact point where contempt had settled in. Looking back with clear eyes, she saw that once he lost respect for her, it was all over. But she didn't know it then. She didn't know much of anything when it came to bad relationships, including the fact that she was smack in the middle of one.

She should have realized it was over the moment he started looking at her with scorn in his eyes. Probably around the same time he started banging his administrative assistant.

He'd been in a particularly foul mood that week. She tried to raise the subject of her birthday several times, but he shut her down each time. Finally, it was the night before. After a wordless supper, she was cleaning the kitchen when he came up behind her and gave her a stiff hug.

"Babe, it totally slipped my mind, but I have to go to New York tomorrow. Potential new clients, you know how it is." Babe. He'd taken to calling her that just recently, but he only said it when he wanted something. She hated it.

"Great! I love New York," she said, turning around. The expression on his face was pure panic for a brief flash, replaced by a smile she would later remember as distinctly crocodilian. "Not this time. Just the senior partners, sorry." He turned to go.

"But I'm the senior marketing director! If it's a new client meeting, I should at least be introduced; see what they're looking for in terms of brand recognition, ROI..." Besides, tomorrow's my birthday... it was something she thought but didn't say.

He put his hands in the air and shook his head. "Next time, Babe. It's not my call."

She crossed her arms in a rare display of temper. "Trent, I was perfectly happy as the marketing lead for the hospital. I was thriving there! You were the one who convinced me to join your company so we could be closer. You said you couldn't stand wondering what I was doing all day, who I was with. I see less of you now than I ever did! What's the sense of working together if we never see each other? And I never thought in a million years I'd end up reporting to you!"

Tears stung her eyes as her own truth hit home. Working with Trent was supposed to be a dream come true, but it had quickly turned sour. It was not what she expected at all. He chased and chased her, couldn't get enough of her in the beginning and wanted her all to himself. She found that kind of intensity impossible to resist. But something had changed once he got his way, and she felt him pulling away. And she didn't know why. Did things become too boring once they moved in together? They certainly weren't having fun anymore and hadn't for quite a while.

His face and tone changed in a snap. "This is so typical. Do you ever give a moment's thought to me and the pressure I'm under? It's always about you, Lucy. Did you ever notice that? You're the most selfish person I ever met!"

That knocked her back. Am I selfish?

"I'm not—"

"I'm finally starting to make some headway in my career, and you want to sabotage me," he snarled. "You never have my back. How about just once, you put me first? You give absolutely no thought to my needs, ever." He banged his fist on the counter, knocking a glass off the edge. It shattered on the floor, and she jumped.