“Hey, what’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” I clipped as my head swiveled around. I leveled my eyes at Drew’s perplexed glare.
“You have an offer for a company in Seattle? A six-figure offer, and you never thought to tell me?” Drew eyes traveled over my shoulder as his jaw ticked at Brian.
“Hey, I didn’t know you didn’t tell her. I mean, dude, I thought you would have said—”
“Brian, I feel like playing some pool.” Lisa shot up from her seat and pulled him by the arm. “Oh, look, I think the table’s free. Let’s go.”
Brian’s face crumpled in confusion. “What table? They’re all full.”
“Ugh,” she groaned. “Take a hint and let them talk.” She pushed Brian away from the bar and toward the back, giving me a wince of concern before stalking toward the not empty pool tables.
“Sara, I’m sorry.” Drew slid into Lisa’s vacant seat and grabbed my hand. I let it hang there and wouldn’t let him intertwine our fingers. Something inside was about to blow, either in tears or fists pounding into his chest. I was afraid making a sound or a move would set me off, so I stayed stoic and silent.
“Seattle,” a humorless laugh escaped me. “All these months you knew and never thought to tell me you were leaving at the end of the year to take a job in Seattle.”
“I didn’t take it. They’ve been asking me to come in to finalize the offer, but I never accepted.”
“But, it’s the whole reason you went to graduate school in the first place. How can you not take it, just like that?” My head dropped into my shaking hands. I pinched the bridge of my nose to ease the hurt, but it didn’t work.
“Fucking Brian,” he muttered under his breath. “Plans change, Caldwell. I told you to trust me.” His dark eyes pleaded with mine under his long lashes. He was so beautiful. Even while I was furious, he took my damn breath away. My beer bottle label now annihilated, I went after my napkin, pulling it and shredding the shit out of it in a failed effort to calm my nerves.
“It’s a little hard to do that after you lied to me for all these months.” I regarded Drew with an icy glare, doing my best to be pissed off and not devastated. He reached for my hand again, but I yanked it away.
“Plans change. It happens. When I applied at Ontech, things were different.” He inched closer and draped his arm around me. Drew winced when I stiffened and scooted away from him. I couldn’t touch him now or have him touching me in any way. I was upset on too many levels: scared, sad, angry, and the worst one, uncertain.
His features hardened as he sat back. “You never exactly factored me into your plans either.”
My jaw dropped as my eyes widened. “Drew, I can’t uproot my daughter. You know that.”
“That’s not what I meant.” His hand raked through his hair. “I know you can’t move from Queens and I’d never ask you to. You won’t even talk about what would happen with us after you graduated.”
My angry eyes fell to my fidgeting hands. He had me on that one. I couldn’t be upset with him not telling me about an offer when I acted as if I never wanted to talk about our future. Truth was, I couldn’t handle it. I burst into random tears at the thought of us having to part ways. He caught me a couple of times but never called me on it. I wasn’t a crier, but this new stage of my life reduced me to a blubbering mess.
“This is more than just an offer, Drew. It’s a six-figure starting salary.” My breathing quickened as I tried to digest the bombshell dropped into my lap moments ago. “No one gets that right after graduation.” I lifted my head and met his dark chocolate eyes. “It sounds like the opportunity of a lifetime. You can’t give that up.”
“I got another opportunity of a lifetime.” He tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. “I’m not leaving to go to Seattle. I can stay here and do just as well.” I squinted in disbelief before he gave me a nod. “Maybe not that well out of the gate, but I’ll have my master’s and I’m IT; I can work anywhere.”
“Before me . . . us . . . you would have said yes without hesitation, right?”
He offered an irritated shrug. “Probably. Maybe. There is a you and an us, so thinking in hypotheticals is a moot point.”
“So that’s a yes, then?” I exhaled the air that stilled in my lungs since I’d heard the word “Seattle.”
“Stop assuming. I don’t know what’s racing through that brain of yours, but you’re more important to me than anything or anyone. I don’t know how else to convince you.”
What I had with Drew always felt too perfect, too precious to keep. It was as if our love was on loan, and now our time was up. It would be so easy to ask him to stay and give this up for me. I couldn’t do that, no matter how much my heart would shatter at letting him go. Our age gap wasn’t huge, but it was big enough to have a different perspective. His heart was pure and full of love for me, but it was clouding his judgment. This was only the first concession he’d have to make for a life with me, and even though he wasn’t your average twenty-five-year-old, he had the shortsightedness of one. I saw clearly and far into the future, and the vision broke my heart.
“I think . . .” My voice scratched as it tried to form words. “If you don’t take this, you’ll regret it. And resent me for it.” My teeth sank into my bottom lip, the finality of what I was feeling turning my stomach over. A tear snaked down my cheek before I could stop it. There was an odd relief to your worst fear being realized.
“Wait just a fucking minute. Back up. You don’t want to be one of my regrets? Do you have any idea how I feel about you? I don’t care what I have to sacrifice. Jobs are a dime a dozen as far as I’m concerned. I could settle for something closer.” He framed my face and kissed my lips. Although I wanted to with everything I had, I couldn’t kiss him back.
“Stop it, Sara. Brian made a big deal out of nothing.”
“Sacrifice.” I nodded as my hand draped over my eyes. “You have tosacrificefor me.Settlefor me.” I grabbed my purse and stood. “Tell Lisa I’ll see her at home.”
“No!” Drew bellowed and stepped in front of me. His eyes searched my face in panic. “That’s not what I meant. I love you. I love Victoria. I’d do anything for the both of you.”
