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“Why do you keep apologizing? What’s going on?” Rhea asked, turning the top half of her body to look behind her, her arm resting on the back of the chair as she followed my gaze to see what had caught my attention.
Although the restaurant was busy, from the moment I saw her, Tricia was the only woman present. I found it hard to miss her, she was simply stunning. Tall, elegant with that long wavy dirty blonde hair cascading down her back, she was a real head turner. No more so than when she walked past me wearing a white figure-hugging dress and sky-high black stiletto shoes.
“Ah, I see who you’re looking at. Guess I’ve got competition,” Rhea teased good naturedly.
“No competition,” I snapped, instantly remembering Juliette had described herself in comparison to Tricia in the very same way. Juliette and Rhea were both beauties, but neither of them were Tricia. “I just didn’t expect to see that.”
“That being those two over there in the booth? Do you know them?” Rhea asked, sounding surprised.
“Her. I know… knew her. I’m just a little surprised to see her here in Denver, that’s all. She’s from New Jersey.”
“From the way you’re enthralled, I’d say you more than know her. Did you or did you not date Tricia Mattison?” she asked in a tone laced with disbelief.
“No,” I said a little too quickly; a mixture of anxiety and anticipation from knowing we’d bump into one another again during the week. None of what we had done came down to a date, not a properly arranged one anyway. “Wait, you know her?” I asked, my heart racing faster in disbelief when the situation became even more obtuse from the second Rhea had said her name.
“Yeah, we’re friends. Tricia was my mentor when I worked for that bank I told you about. Those were crazy times. The foreclosures came in faster than we could process them, but Tricia’s a genius. That woman helped keep a roof over many families’ heads with her creative thinking… saved the bank a load of money in foreclosures in the process. It was a win-win situation. I have a lot of respect for her.”
“You’re still friends?”
“Sure, we usually meet up at these conferences, we kept in touch, and we’re still friends. These conferences are a great place to network, but I’ve known her a long time. We do dinner in New York occasionally as well, but not often because she lives in New Jersey all the time now.”
My relationship with Tricia had consisted of a few intense sexual trysts. What we had gave me no impression of her as anything other than an independent woman who had used me for sex.
Before we’d hooked up, we’d briefly had small talk conversations about her career before she knew my sister-in-law, but the main focus of those talks centered around her working with Billie. However, I did glean that mortgage brokering was a something Tricia enjoyed doing, rather than her being financially dependent on the money.
When she’d mentioned she was a graduate in finance from the University of Rochester, I knew she had to be sharp as a tack and having seen her rather large 4500 square-foot home, I figured she was a woman of substance. Tricia had also mentioned retiring from wealth management by the time she was thirty-five.
Hearing Rhea’s praise for Tricia surprised me as my opinion had been that of the ultimate party girl, someone who lived for no-strings sex and a good time. Even though her wealth implied it, until Rhea, I had never had validation of how smart she was or how adept she was in the workplace.
“She’s a friend of my sister-in-law,” I replied, reverting back to the description I’d used when Juliette had asked.
“You never answered my question,” Rhea probed. Glancing from her to Tricia again, my mind flashed back to a scene from the last time I’d slept with her. When I stopped reaching out, I had told myself if she were actually interested in something more, she would have contacted me. She never did until that day she ambushed me at Hammer’s and then replied to my drunken text. The way I saw it, Tricia had wanted something she couldn’t have, and I didn’t pursue that again. Yet, even in the face of all of that, as I sat there in that restaurant I still craved her.
Oblivious to my presence, Tricia chatted animatedly to her male companion as he sat with his back to me. My heart ached with envy at the scene and for a moment I had wished he were me.
Dragging my eyes away from them, I looked back toward Rhea and shrugged, remembering the question she’d asked of me. “Yeah, no, I mean I…we… my brother’s wedding,” I smirked and shrugged, embarrassed by my tongue-tie. I sighed and tried again. “Tricia and I … we had a thing … several things,” I admitted honestly and chuckled quietly, as my chest tightened uncomfortably and I ran my fingers through my hair.
Turning, Rhea glanced over her shoulder again and then looked back at me. “She may once have had a thing with you, but you’re still hanging on to whatever that was.”
“Nah, it wasn’t like that.” It was meant to be a throwaway comment, but from how it had sounded I hadn’t even convinced myself. Rhea looked at me with a rueful sad half-smile.
“Well, I’m sure you’ll have ample opportunity to catch up with her, regardless, since she’s here for the conference.”
What were the chances of running into her again so far from home?
