Page 89 of Some Kinda Romance

“That quote wasn’t what you think, Serenity,” I said directly, looking into her narrowed eyes. “The guy asked me if we were together⁠—”

“We’re not, so like I said, we don’t have anything more to talk about. If something else comes up with the wedding, I’ll be in touch. Otherwise, I’ll see you next weekend.”

“You’re not going to hear me out?”

“No,” she said firmly and without thinking twice about it. “I really don’t want to go there again, Dash. It’s over and it’s for the best.”

“I don’t want it to be and I don’t agree about it being for the best.”

“Well, I’m sorry you feel that way, but it’s time for you to go. I have another meeting coming up, and since we don’t have anything else to discuss, we’re only wasting each other’s time here. I’m sure you need to get back as well.”

I sighed but stood up and showed her my palms. “Fine. I’m going, but if you’re ever ready to talk, give me a shout. Otherwise, I guess you’re right. I’ll see you next weekend.”

She nodded, not even walking me out or saying goodbye. She simply picked up her phone and told her assistant she was ready for her next appointment. Knowing when not to push, I left, sighing heavily, and drove back to my office.

Although I thought I’d done a pretty good job of hiding it, I was reeling a little at how efficiently and completely she’d shut me down. In the past when I’d messed up, she hadn’t been nearly as closed off to me as she was now. To be fair, I supposed this was my third strike, which probably meant I was out, but I wasn’t ready to give up yet.

I just needed a grand gesture. Something that would make her realize how much she meant to me. Only thinking about her, I’d completely forgotten about the Robertson meeting until I walked back into the foyer at the estate to find a furious Lance waiting for me.

My friend was generally a pretty docile guy. He didn’t get red-faced or tense about many things in life, but he sure was both of those things now. Tension rippled through him, his shoulders stiff as a board and his jaw tight as he glared at me.

“The Robertsons are gone.”

I frowned. “Already? What happened?”

“What happened is that you weren’t here,” he seethed, turning on his heels and stalking away from me.

I followed him down the hall to his office, confused but still wondering how I was going to convince Serenity to take me back. “Relax, Lance. Just tell me what happened and I’ll fix it.”

“You can’t fix it,” he snapped, only spinning around to face me again once we were shut into his office and alone. “They wanted you in the meeting and you knew it, but you blew them off and they figured it out.”

“I didn’t blow them off. I had to go take care of something for my mother’s wedding.”

He arched an eyebrow at me. “What was it, Dash? What was the emergency that was so important that you couldn’t take a meeting with a fucking ambassador?”

“The chef broke his hand this morning,” I said. “The sous chef is stepping in.”

Lance snorted loudly. “That’s it? How is that so important? That’s a text, Dash. The chef is out, but we’ve got another one. Do you realize that we just lost a politician whose event would’ve gotten us international attention because you rushed to a meeting that could’ve been a fucking email?”

I swiped my tongue across my lips as surprise punched a hole in my stomach. “What do you mean we lost him?”

“What I meant is that we lost him. He’s not going to be using our venue after all. They wouldn’t even talk to me without you, so they walked in, realized you weren’t here, and then walked right back out.”

I blinked a few times in rapid succession. “I thought you got along well with them?”

“I did, but they don’t want me as a wedding planner. They wanted you. The St. Clair of the St. Clair Estate. People don’t like it when they don’t feel important enough to get your attention, Dash. You know this, and the Robertsons walked because, in their case, they were right. They weren’t important enough.”

“It’s my mother’s wedding, Lance. What did you want me to do?”

He glowered at me as he shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know. How about picking up the phone and asking what’s wrong instead of racing over there for nothing?”

“It wasn’t nothing.”

He rolled his eyes at me before he started grabbing all his stuff and shoving it into his laptop bag. “Do me a favor and stop fucking up the business for some girl you couldn’t even tell one reporter you cared about. I’m leaving for the day. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“I’ll fix it,” I promised him as he stormed past me.

“You better,” he shouted as he left, slamming his office door behind him.

Once he was gone, I groaned and dropped my head back. Feeling like shit for being a bad friend as well now, I knew I had a lot to make up for, but I was going to fix things with everyone. I had to, or I was going to wind up alone and even more miserable than I had been before.

The difference was that now that I knew what it felt like to be truly happy, I couldn’t just go back. It was like I’d seen the light, but the door had been shut before I could walk into it. There was no going back after something like that.

I really had changed. It was just time that I finally fucking did something about it.