I opened my eyes and savored the sight of all that chocolate. Midnight chocolate was even more welcome than daytime chocolate.
I put a finger on the silvery cardboard base and turnedthe cake around. There was a small folded note on the side of the box.
I’m sorry, Ava. Please let’s talk.
I stared at it for an entire minute and then groaned loudly to myself.
That … that … fool. How can I be so angry now?
34
AVA
Early the next morning, I got to work, feeling a nervous flutter of excitement in my stomach. I’d see Desmond again. I’d hopefully get a chance to sort this out with him later on.
I worked the café until ten, when the daily meetings started and it was my turn to cart the coffee to the various meeting rooms.
I looked up my schedule and saw that I was taking coffee and snacks to the quarterly team meeting for the finance department on the sixth floor. Walking to the pantry, I loaded up the cart with the coffee carafes, bagels, and snacks before I took the elevator up.
When I reached the sixth-floor meeting room, a long room that could easily hold fifty people, I saw all of the finance team was assembled, waiting and sitting around a large wooden table that was cut in a designer woodwork way. I started arranging the food and drinks on the counter that ran along the wall when Des showed up.
Not stopping or slowing down, he walked past me to theempty chair at the end of the table, and I froze with my back to him. The air around us changed as he took his seat silently. We hadn’t spoken or texted since our fight six days ago. There wasn’t a hint of a smile on his face or a sign that he recognized me.
I finished arranging the food and took my empty cart out of the room, heading down the corridor to the elevator. I got into the elevator, finally accepting that I perhaps wouldn’t be able to talk to Des at work, and hit the button for the lobby, watching the doors close. I looked at the numbers on the display panel as the elevator went down.
Five, four, three?—
It stopped.
I pushed the cart to the side to make room as the elevator doors opened with a beep. I saw Desmond standing there, huffing slightly. My jaw fell open as I stared at him.
“You—what are you doing here?” I asked in a hoarse voice. “Your colleagues are waiting for you in the meeting.”
“They can wait.”
It had been so long since I’d heard his deep voice that I felt the ache inside me ease a little.
He stood outside for a minute before looking at me with such longing that I felt my heart tug.
“I’ve wanted to tell you,” he said, standing resolutely outside the elevator while I stood inside, “tearing the restaurant up was a backup option from the beginning, and I wasn’t sure I would consider it.”
The doors made to close, but he put his hands on either side of the elevator, and the doors opened again. Obliging to the billionaire, like everyone else. He kept his hand on the sides to prevent them from closing again.
“And besides, when my team first brought up the ideathat the location for The Galley was a much better option for a new Luxe Hotel, I was thrown for a loop. I couldn’t think straight. I’d just run into one of the most intelligent, beautiful women I’d ever known, and I didn’t want to ruin things by telling you I was about to destroy your baby.”
The elevator made a beeping sound, like it wanted to close its doors, but couldn’t.
Desmond didn’t let go.
“Wouldn’t you have dismissed me right off the bat if you’d known? Wouldn’t you have ignored me if you’d known?”
I nodded. “I would have,” I whispered. “But at least I’d have been safer. I wouldn’t have gotten hurt, like I am now.”
He bowed his head, thinking deeply. When he raised his head, he gave a slight nod. “You’re right. I was selfish. I was selfish in wanting more time with you. In wanting to see what Ava Hale ten years later was like. What Desmond and Ava ten years later would feel like.”
I hesitated, tripping over the wordsDesmond and Ava. I looked away for a minute before looking down at the ground. “It feels awesome,” I whispered. It felt like a confession.
When I looked up, he was leaning his head against the wall to the side of the elevator. “I agree,” he said in a low voice. “And that tiny, selfish reason is the one thing that kept me going. It was the lie that started this amazing thing that is us.”
