Page 100 of A Bossy Surprise

I don’t know whether this is the right thing to do or not, but I feel like it’s something I have to do.

To move forward with Kayla in any real way, I need to shut the door on that part of my life.

I don’t know what I hope to achieve from meeting Rachel like this, but I hope it’ll at least show me that I wasn’t the problem with the relationship. That is something I actually still worry about.

I sweep the room with my eyes when I enter the restaurant. Rachel is at a table in the center of the room. She’s just as gorgeous as I remember.

I had hoped that sometime in the past three years, she had been involved in a horrible accident that left her face outrageously disfigured. Or at the very least that she had developed adult acne, but no. Here she sits, as beautiful as ever.

When she stands, she adjusts her tight tea-length dress that hugs her generous hips and tosses her fiery locks over her shoulders.

I come to a stop in front of her and she leans forward and gives me two air kisses.

We both sit, and she says, “I know you’re a busy man and probably have to get back to work soon. So I didn’t want to waste too much of your time. So I ordered for you; lobster ravioli with a glass of Chardonnay. I hope you don’t mind.”

I hate that she knows what I like. All that does is remind me that for a time she was the person who knew me best. I hate that.

“No, it’s fine. Thank you.”

Just as I say this, a waiter approaches with my ravioli and her gnocchi in a brown butter sage sauce.

Once we are served, the waiter disappears, and I dig in.

My full attention is on the plate in front of me, because I’m so nervous. It is not lost on me how ridiculous that is. Of the two of us, the one who should be nervous is Rachel.

After I’ve cleared half my plate and she’s said nothing, I look up to make sure she’s still sitting there.

Our eyes meet and she says, “Adam, I’m sorry.”

My appetite immediately leaves me. I put down my knife and fork and sit back in my chair.

“You’re sorry for what?”

She takes a breath. “I’m sorry for how I treated you.”

“How did you treat me?”

She chuckles. “You’re really going to make me say it, aren’t you?”

I shrug. “Well, if you’re going to apologize for something, I think you should say what it is you’re apologizing for.”

“That’s fair…” She looks down at her plate, then spears one of her gnocchi with her fork and eats it. “I’m sorry for jilting you. I’m sorry for cheating on you with John. Basically, I’m sorry for hurting you. It was a messed up thing to do that you did not deserve.”

“I appreciate your apology, but why now?”

“What?”

“Rachel, the same way you know me…” I gesture at the plate of pasta in front of me. “…Is the same way I know you. Why are you apologizing now? Why not a year ago? Or a year from now? Something must’ve prompted this otherwise you wouldn’t be doing it. I want to know what that something is.”

She takes a breath and holds up her left hand. The light bounces off the giant ring on her finger that I somehow missed.

My heart stops from shock more than anything else. “You’re engaged?”

She looks down. “Yes. John asked me to marry him last week.”

I shrug. “Congratulations I guess.”

She looks into my eyes. “What we did to you has plagued me for years. I don’t want to start our married life together with that hanging over us.”