Derailed (11 page)

“You’re going out with Liefie’s rival?”

“No, no, no. Her name…it’s like, um, Rival.” Botched again.

With her eyes on the roses, she scratches her chin. “So…so…so you’ve been a bastard to Liefie’s rival, then?”

“Eh, yeah. I mean, she…she left me too.”

For a few moments she stares at me. After a shake of the head, she reaches into a drawer under her counter and brings out a card. “My cousin, Indira.”

I squint at the business card.

Cheapist and genuvine tarot psykick readings. I'm hear for you to seek & find trusted angel card readings guidance. I am wery wery intuitive psyskick. Vhether you starting something new, rekindling past flame or vorking on an existing relationsheeps I will with my spirit guides & angels offer you genuwine psykick guidance to enrich your relationsheeps & lifes parths.

“Ah.” Pity about the spelling errors. 

“Tell her I sent you and she will tune into the animal guides as well.”

Animal
guides? What the…?

I flip the card around to show my interest. 

“No extra charge for that. A bonus.”

“Great,” I say, trying my hardest to sound thrilled at the bonus. “Thanks.” Imagine if Girly knew I betrayed her with someone else’s tarot cards? And with their
animal
guides too? She’d make a giant voodoo doll out of me and stick paring knives into it, let alone pins.

Gaytri’s just about to process the transaction when I spot a little white fluffy bunny with the words,
I love you forever
. I smile and pick it up. “This too.”

“Okay.” 

Then I spot a heart-shaped box of chocolates. I grab it and hand it to her.

“You’re that desperate?” Gaytri asks.

I nod. “I’m
that
desperate. In fact, you don’t have to deliver them. I will take them now.”

As I drive off toward my offices to hand a bunch of keys over to Bear, I practice what I am going to say to Rival when I flush her out from wherever she is.

I’m sorry, Rival. I’m insecure, I’m childish, I’m pig-headed
…no, maybe lose the word pig – way too close for comfort.
I’m hard-headed.
That’s better.
Hard headed,
like the Cat Steven’s song. Anyway, back to my groveling…
Arena is right, that was a tantrum I threw. I’m sorry. I just want you to know that I love you, and yes, I consider Bradley a threat to our happiness. I guess he’s such a hot shot attorney with a stairway to Kirribilli house, while I am just a mere businessman with a highway to hell.
Okay, maybe lose the “highway to hell” bit to avoid copyright infringement from a certain songwriter who is known for his drug habit and violent temper.

I can’t compete with Bradley and I don’t really want to. All I know is that I really want you in my life, by my side. I don’t want to lose you, and if I have to learn to enjoy humble pie, so be it.
Lose the pie bit. She will think I’m nuts for talking about pies at a time like this. And whatever you do, don’t use the word
nut
.

Time for me to look at the broader picture, so I am going to change the way I view your situation. Hopefully, you will wake up one day and decide that I am enough for you. So, baby, let’s sit down and talk like adults. I don’t want another moment to pass without you.

A warm feeling oozes through me when I picture her smiling blue eyes, her full, cushiony lips, her warm hugs, and her soft, generous lips. I can hardly wait to hug her. With a satisfied smile on my face, I swing into the parking lot of our offices, race toward the building to hand over the bunch of keys to Bear and skid to a halt.

Talking to Bear is Rival, looking sexy in a short skirt and top that shows off her tits. When she sees me, she smiles and walks slowly toward me, a look of uncertainty in her eyes. My heart gongs with joy and it takes absolute restraint not to run up to her, scoop her up and hug the heck out of her. Rival’s here.
She
came to
me
– who’s eating humble pie now?

But I’ve got to play it cool, and I do.

Chapter Eight

RIVAL

My pride is thinning rapidly. I’m ashamed of my need for Ritchie, but I can no longer wait for him to make a move. I have to go to him and end this fiasco. I love him, he loves me – that has to suffice. This deep yearning inside me – only his hug and his kiss can put an end to it. I’m tossing pride aside to avoid a fall.

The moment I make a decision to go to my lover, I feel an incredible sense of lightness.

Dressing with care, I make my way to his place of work. In the parking lot, I find myself losing my nerve. My palms are sweaty, and I continuously blow out my cheeks.

Six deep diaphragmatic breaths…one, two, three…I can do this. Four, five, six. I can do this.

When I arrive at his place, to my disappointment, all psyched to claim back my man, the secretary looks up at me and says, “Mr. MacMillan is not in at the moment, and he isn’t expected in today.”

Is she playing with me?

“Sorry.”

My shoulders sag and I feel like flopping onto a couch.

“Rival?”

I whirl around to look into Bear’s face.

“Hey Bear.”

“Here for Ritchie?”

“Eh, yeah. Is he not in today?”

“No. But he’s supposed to…” he looks past me. “Talk of the larrikin.”

I whirl around and look into Ritchie’s face. Ritchie’s handsome, clean-shaven face. He’s wearing that t-shirt that really shows off his muscles, and his eyes sparkle brightly like gems. God, he looks so good – so fresh and so relaxed. He does not look like someone who has missed his girlfriend. My confidence dips. Is he going to reject my apology?

When he sees me, he stops in his tracks for a few moment before he walks slowly toward me.

“H…hey, Ritchie,” I say, wringing my hands.

“I’ll leave you two.” Bear quietly backs away.

“I want to apologize,” I blurt.

My directness seems to take him aback. “Oh.” He cocks his head at me.

I nod, walk right up to him and stand inches away from him. He folds his arms across his chest, his legs slightly apart – not a good sign.

“I’m…sorry, Ritchie. I wasn’t thinking, and –”

“Yeah?”

I nod. Suddenly, I’m aware that both secretaries are staring at us, hearing our every word. Not to mention Bear – he too eyes us from a distance. It’s embarrassing.

“Can we talk in private?” I ask.

“Sure.” He jerks his head toward the parking lot.

We walk out of the offices in silence. The only sound I hear is the crunching of gravel beneath our shoes.

“My car is here,” I say.

He nods and walks toward it, his eyes ahead most of the time.

Surreptitiously, I glance at him, excited to be in his company. “How’ve you been?” I ask.

He looks sideways at me, then ahead. “Okay, I guess.” His voice is guarded. “You?”

“Good. Very good. Yeah, good.”

Silence. 

“No, Ritchie, I’m not good,” I confess. “I miss you.”

His head jerks to look at me. “Yeah?”

“I really miss you,” I whisper, my steps slowing to a crawl, my eyes filling with tears.

“What do you miss, Rival?”

“I miss you…calling me baby. I miss you sending me goofy texts. Random ones, I miss your arms, I miss…”

He looks at me, his steps dragging. “Yeah?” His voice is hoarse.

“I’m deeply in love with you, Ritchie. I don’t love Bradley anymore. I love you, and I don’t know how to handle all of this. I feel overwhelmed and confused about everything, except the bit where I love you. I don’t know if you have the same feelings for me, because you could so quickly break things off with me. In spite of that, I have to come clean and purge myself. So, I’m confessing, I love you and I’m really hurting right now.”

His expression is inscrutable.

We arrive at my car. “I’d invite you to the back seat, but as you can see…” I gesture toward the kids’ booster seats.

“I’d have the same problem,” he says. “Uncool huh?”

Laughing at the reminder that we’re both parents eases the tension a bit.

We get into the front seat of the car and shut the door.

Then, we’re all alone. Ritchie and I are alone in my car again. It feels so good. I wait for him to lunge at me and bear-hug me, to kiss me wildly, to grope me and want me, like he usually does when we’re alone. He doesn’t. Just stares ahead. What is he thinking?

“I need another chance,” I say.

“What about Scarlett? What about Bradley?”

“Well, I wanna win with Scarlett, I’d like to, but if it means losing you, then I don’t want to win anymore, Ritchie.”

“Seriously?”

I nod. “Once the courts grant me shared custody, I can relax.”

“I get that.”

“I want to marry you, Ritchie.” I reach over and place my palm against his cheek. “I want to make a future with you.”

“Yeah?”

I nod.

“And your room at Bun’s?”

I remove my hand from his face. 

He grabs my hand. “It’s all or nothing, Rival. I need you to feel confident enough about us to shut that door. I need you to take a chance on me. I need you to love me enough to brave Bradley, ’cause I’m prepared to put my friendship with him on the line because of you.”

Bradley. I avert my eyes.

He grabs my chin and lifts my face to look into my eyes. “It’s what people in love do, honey.”

Honey
. How sweet. I missed that.

“Why you smiling?”

“I missed you calling me
honey
.”

His smile is sheepish. 

Encouraged by this, I whisper, “Permission to hug?”

He moves toward me, then quickly pulls back. “Not yet. I have a few…
requests
.”

“Awww!”

“No more Facebook stalking.”

“Okay.” Like hell I am going to stop my Facebook stalking. “Permission to hug?”

He shows me a palm. “Stop dressing sexy when you go to see Bradley. I don’t like him ogling you. You’re my woman, only I get to do that. So, save it for me.
All
of it. I’m a jealous, insecure moron, I admit that, but…”

“Okay. You’re an insecure moron, I get that.” I chuckle.

“I want you to move in with me. Officially. Tonight.”

I smile. “I like that. Officially…” My smile suddenly dips. “Shouldn’t we tell Bradley and my kids?”

For a moment, he stares ahead out the window and appears to think about it. “Guess so.”

“Let’s tell him tomorrow, then?”

“Why not today?” Ritchie asks.

I shift toward him. “Because we won’t have time.”

“What do you mean?”

I inch up to him and whisper in his ear. “I will be spending all afternoon ravaging you.”

His eyes pop.

I crawl over him and straddle him. “I’ve booked a sleazy motel for us, cleared your schedule with Bear and –”

“What?”

“– planned a marathon –”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously. To make up for the four days I missed out on.” I crush my mouth to his. As I do, all Ritchie’s defenses crumble like shortcake. He kisses me back, his mouth hungry and greedy, and we make out in my car like crazy.

He doesn’t tell me he’s missed me, but judging from his thirst for me, I believe he’s missed me as much as I missed him.

“Let’s get to that sleazy motel,” he says between kisses.

“Okay, leave your car here,” I say.

“Okay. But…” he looks back at his car. “I need to fetch something first.”

“What?”

He opens the door and runs up to his Jeep. To my absolute surprise, when he returns, her presents me with a huge box of roses, a bunny rabbit, and a box of chocolates.

“For you.”

Confused, I open the card.
I’m sorry.

I look at Ritchie. He’s grinning.

“All along, you were gonna come to me and yet you…” I shake my head at him. “You’re a dog, you know that?”

“I know, I know,” he says with a cheeky grin. “I’m a dog, alright!”

RIVAL

Now that Ritchie and I are back together, I believe our love is stronger than ever. The funny thing is, I don’t feel that I am missing out in any way by letting Scarlett win. I truly feel like I have won. So much so that I’ve decided to forgo publishing a sequel to Scarlett’s book. I don’t need it. I don’t need that drama in my life, and it’s a way of letting go.

All we have to do is to tell Bradley and my kids about Ritchie and me, and I can have a proper life with Ritchie.

Sure I’m a little hesitant about telling Bradley, but if Ritchie is prepared to brave it, then I should be too. How long am I supposed to duck and dive from my ex, who married another woman?

“Rival?”

I look up at Ritchie and nod. “I’m ready to tell him.”

“Okay, let’s do this.”

“You’ll keep your phone on so I can hear the conversation?”

“Babe!”

“C’mon, Ritchie! I’ll be stressing here, and at least I’ll know how things –”

After a moment’s pause, he nods. “Okay, fine.”

“I’m taking champagne over to Arena’s so we can all celebrate once Bradley knows, okay? Celebrate our ‘freedom.’”

“Okay. I’ll drop you guys off and join you all later.”

I look at Girly. “You coming?”

“Yes, yes, yes! I wanna celebrate too after you tell Bradley.”

“Okay. Let’s all go then.”

When we get to Arena’s, Liefie is there with her family.

“Sorry,” Arena mutters. “I didn’t know she was going to drop by.”

I shrug.

Ritchie spends a few minutes greeting everyone, then looks at me.
Ready
?

I stare at him, my nerves a little taut.

“Ritchie?”

We both turn around to look at Liefie.

“Girly says you are going to tell Bradley about the two of you?”

After a quick glance my way, Ritchie nods.

“Won’t he get mad at you?”

A worried look appears on Ritchie’s face.

“We owe him a lot, remember?”

Ritchie doesn’t answer.

Liefie covers her mouth with her hand for a moment, then shakes her head.