Stephanie Doyle - One True Love?

But it was so hard. The soft blond hair that was perfectly trimmed, the wide-open blue eyes framed in a face golden from more than a few hours spent at the tanning salon, and the pouting mouth that had made her knees buckle more times than she could count, all added to the package. Today he had chosen a powder-blue shirt, which highlighted his eyes and coordinating dark-blue suspenders. Those suspenders made her want to pull on them until they snapped against his gym-hardened pecs. Not to cause him pain or anything. Just because she thought it might be fun. Yes, this man was her destiny. This man was her one true love.

If only he would wake up and smell the donuts.

“Babe, what do you mean you’re going to be dead to me? I’m still going to want to see you when you get back.”

Such sincerity. Such caring. Such bull. Corinne knew him too well to believe his words. What she needed to do was show him how awful his life would be without her. “Stay with me, Brendan. I said you’re going to be dead to me. Which means the only place you will see me is in the lunchroom.”

“But why, babe? We have had a good thing going. And I think we’ve got some unfinished business,” he said slyly.

He was talking about the other night when she had kicked him out of her condo before they made it to the bedroom. Corinne was a modern woman. She was perfectly ready to go to bed with the man she knew to be her destiny. But she wanted it to be perfect. Perfect meant that when she went to bed with Brendan, he would stop going to bed with all the other women. It was sort of her rule. Until he was ready to make that commitment, the door to her bedroom would remain locked.

“Can you honestly tell me you’re ready to give up the others?”

“Others?” he asked in that innocently boyish tone he had mastered.

Corinne sighed. “The others, Brendan. The other women.”

“If that’s what you want…”

For a moment Corinne’s hopes were raised, but then a name flashed behind her eyes and she remembered what had started her off on this particular script in the first place. “Ah-hah!” she shouted, as she thrust her index finger into his impossibly firm chest.

“Ah-hah what?”

“You told me the other night that you were going to stop seeing all the other women. You said you wanted to commit to me. Then I had to hear about Marjorie from human resources from Sally in administration. Marjorie from human resources? I mean, really.”

Brendan immediately went for the innocent face. Not that he could fool her. Corinne knew each of his faces too intimately. She’d studied them. As a student of theater and acting she had from time to time graded his expressions. It was why they were so perfect for each other. He couldn’t fool her. He couldn’t charm his way out of messy situations with her. Once he understood that she knew him for who he was but still loved him, she was sure he would come around to her way of thinking.

Or at least almost sure.

Reasonably sure.

Pretty darn sure.

“Honey, Marjorie and I are just friends. So we went out for a couple of drinks. We were with a bunch of other people from the office.”

“Like who?” This was his fatal flaw. He could be a smooth liar, but he could never back up a lie once he began it. Oh, Brendan, is there anyone else on this planet who could love you? Corinne didn’t think so.

“Like…like…uh…uh…Relic was there!”

Corinne actually had to laugh. Although her script did call for a stoic face and a resolute manner throughout the entire breakup scene, this was too funny not to chuckle. “Matthew Relic was at the bar with you and Marjorie from human resources? I don’t think so.”

“No, really, he was,” Brendan continued futilely. “You can ask him.”

She shook her head sharply. “Brendan, Matthew and I are friends. If I ask him, he’ll tell me the truth.”

“Oh.” The man deflated before her eyes. But he was quick to rebound. “Sweetheart, babe, you know you’re the only one I really care about.”

It was the emphasis on the word care that got her. It always did. “I know you care about me, Brendan, but I want more.”

“And I want to give you more,” Brendan said with a smile, while he brought his hands up to cover her petite shoulders. “You deserve the best, honey. I know that. What kind of fool do you take me for?”

“I don’t think you’re a fool, Brendan. But you have to understand I can’t go on this way. The other people in this company are laughing at me.”

“But you always like to be the center of attention,” he volleyed.

“I like to be the center of attention when I put myself there. I don’t want anyone else to do that for me. Now for the last time, are you going to stop seeing other women?” Here it comes, she thought, the big finale to scene one.

Brendan shoved his hands deep into his suit pockets, then quickly took them out and smoothed out the wrinkles he had made. He shuffled his feet and looked to the ceiling for what Corinne could only assume was divine intervention. “It’s just that you know how I am, babe. I can’t help it if other women need me. I mean what about the man shortage? If I give up all the others, I’ll be contributing to it rather than helping it. That’s just not the kind of guy I am.”

He actually thought he was being noble. Corinne couldn’t stop the pain in her heart. Not that she hadn’t predicted exactly this outcome, but still, it took her a moment to compose herself. The touch of wetness to make her eyes look that much shinier would not be difficult to fake.

“Fine. But know this, Brendan. I’m the only woman you know who has seen the real you and has still managed to fall in love with you. You’ll never get from them what you could have gotten from me. Once I come back from this vacation, you’ll know what it means to be truly alone.”

BRAVO! Bravo!

Matthew Relic cheered silently from his current prison—the filing-room closet attached to Brendan’s office. Obviously, Corinne hadn’t seen him in here when she slammed the door, and Golden Boy must have forgotten that he had come in to get one of the client folders a few minutes prior to Corinne’s grand entrance. The polite thing would have been to inform them both of his presence rather than eavesdrop on their private conversation. But before he could stop Corinne—or Rinny as he liked to call her—she was off and running. No, the best thing he could do, he’d decided, was to sit and wait her out. Besides, there were worse things than being stuck in the filing-room closet listening to Rinny let the Golden Boy have it.

Absently, Matthew rubbed his chest and thought to himself that there were much worse things. In fact, all things considered, he had the best seat in the house. Corinne always knew how to play the scene. And he’d been waiting for this particular breakup for some time now. Once Brendan was out of the way, he would finally have his chance. This time he was going to take it.

In the last few months, since he’d recovered from the bullet wound that had put a hole in his lung, Matthew Relic had learned two important things about himself. One: he was in love with Corinne Weatherby. Two: he would never again put off until tomorrow what could be done today. Life was precious. If that punk in the convenience store had taught him anything it was that.

Yes, he was definitely in the right spot at the right time. After Rinny was done dumping Golden Boy, she would need a shoulder to cry on. More than likely, the shoulder of someone who had a few extra tissues handy.

Matthew patted his breast pocket. He normally kept three tissues there. Today he believed he had four. A good thing, too, since Rinny tended to be extra watery.

He sat and waited for the rest of the scene to play itself out. She’d already given him the soulful goodbye. After that she would wipe the tears from her eyes. Then she would hold up her chin and carry her five-foot-nothing frame out of his office. She might turn dramatically for one final glance to show him what he was giving up, then in another second he would hear a slam signaling her departure and his release from the filing-room closet.