Page 222 of The Havenport Collection

Luke

N ora had been quiet. Suspiciously quiet. All throughout the flight to New York and the taxi to my apartment on the Upper West Side, she was silent. I kept looking over at her. She looked beautiful with her dark hair tucked under a purple knit hat, but her eyes were trained straight ahead.

And it wasn’t just the travel; she had been off all weekend.

Since Friday really. Moody and quiet and in her own head.

I knew she had a lot to do. She had been working incredibly hard—she had managed a successful event at the store on Saturday, spent this morning cleaning up and working with Gina, and then packed for this trip.

I knew she was nervous, but I wanted her to talk to me, to let me help.

When she did speak, she was eerily calm, and there were no wild hand gestures or f bombs in sight. I was worried. Really worried.

Something was bothering her, and she wasn’t telling me. My stomach dropped. Things had been so amazing between us, and I wasn’t used to this whiplash.

She chatted politely with the doorman as we made our way upstairs and kindly admired the building, which by New York standards was nothing special.

Within minutes of walking in, she had hung up her outfit for the meeting and unpacked her laptop. She was set up in my office before I could even get my coat off.

“Wanna order dinner?” I asked.

She smiled and nodded. “Anything you want.”

I walked around, turning on lights and looking at the sad artwork the interior designer had hung on the walls.

I had bought this place a few years ago and rarely spent time here.

Back when I was more productive I used to come to New York constantly for meetings.

I’d attend a Knicks game or a charity event, usually with a date, and then head to my next destination.

I enjoyed this lifestyle for a while, hopping between my properties, dating casually, and working nonstop. But, standing here in this soulless condo, I knew I was well past that stage. I was ready for something real, something lasting. And I wanted it with Nora.

I went back to the office and kissed her neck. “Can I help with anything?”

“No, thanks. Just studying up on some numbers.”

“Nora, you’ve been preparing for weeks,” I chided gently.

She looked up at me sharply, and I took a step back. “I know that. But I recently updated some things and want to feel confident.” Her eyes narrowed. “Is that okay with you?”

I wasn’t used to Nora snapping at me. I was used to sarcastic remarks, eyerolls, and sassy comebacks, but this was something else. She seemed angry and frustrated, and I wished she would let me in, let me help her.

“I’ll order us a pizza and leave you to it then.”

Nora was up at five a.m., and I found her in my kitchen drinking coffee and pacing. I pulled her into my arms and placed a kiss on her head. “You are going to be amazing today,” I said, breathing in the scent of her shampoo and willing her to be honest with me. “I am so proud of you.”

She held me tight, her body asking what her words could not.

So I hugged her tighter, letting her melt into me, hoping that I could ease some of her anxiety.

When I put Nora in a cab at eight a.m., she was vibrating with nerves as I kissed her deeply before shutting the door.

I said a silent prayer as I watched it drive away that things would go well.

Nora had spent almost two years working on expanding her business.

I knew she was exhausted, and I knew how badly she wanted this.

I was trying desperately to resist the urge to read into things. It had been so long since I had been in a relationship, I wasn’t quite sure what to do. She wanted space, so I gave it to her.

Nora was not the type to want to be smothered, so I tried to calm my paranoia and get on with my day. Hopefully things would get better. After all, Nora was on the verge of getting everything she wanted. I just hoped when she did she would come back to me.

After a quick workout, I showered and headed downtown to meet James for lunch. We had worked together after college. He was the COO of my company before I sold it, and we had been friends for years.

When we first moved out to Silicon Valley to start the company, we had slept in his car—an old Volvo wagon from the 1980s that his mother had given him.

We had been through so much together. I had not been great about keeping in touch over the last couple of years, but I had been the best man at his wedding, and I was looking forward to catching up.

I walked into the restaurant—a typical downtown tavern filled with dark wood, leather, and enough top shelf alcohol to power a small nation—and was shocked to see him.

James was always a big, robust guy. He played rugby in college and had a round, jovial face.

The guy in front of me had deep shadows under his eyes and looked as though he had lost forty pounds and hadn’t slept in months.

After a quick hug, we grabbed a table and he began to fill me in about his divorce.

“What?” I was incredulous. “Laura? You guys were so perfect for each other.”

He shook his head. “I thought so too. I thought she was my soulmate, man.”

“What happened?”

“She turned out to be no different than the rest of them. Quit her job, then started demanding expensive gifts and pouting if she didn’t get them.

We had decided to have kids and then she said she didn’t want to.

She wanted to launch her business first. She used my money and connections to get it off the ground. ”

Laura was a yoga teacher and had a pretty big following online. She ran a very successful yoga website and app. I had always assumed it was a business they had built together. “Okay, but you guys were married.”

“I supported her dreams totally. You know me, I’m just a simple guy from the Midwest. I’ve been lucky, and I was happy to share everything with her.

But at some point I stopped being her husband and became an ATM.

I wrote the code for her app, and I was by her side while she was figuring out how to build her platform.

And then she cut me out. She was too busy for me, not interested in what I had to say.

Months later, I found out she was sleeping with one of her cameramen. ”

I slammed my fist on the table. “No.”

He hung his head. “Yeah. It just broke me. She said she was leaving me for him. He’s an aspiring actor in his twenties.”

“I’m so sorry.”

He buried his head in his hands. I had never seen James like this.

“Logically I know that the cheating is about her, not me. But I can’t help but feel so shitty. Like I wasn’t good enough.”

“Stop right there. Laura turned out to be a selfish monster and you blame yourself? Man, you are one of the kindest, most honest people I’ve ever met. Don’t do that to yourself.”

“What do I have to offer? Aside from money and connections? I’m a forty-year-old nerd who got lucky. I don’t have abs and piercing blue eyes.”

I stared at my friend, taking in his exhaustion and the defeat in his eyes. He had been used and discarded, and I couldn't make it better for him.

“We were going to have a family. You know I’ve always wanted to be a dad. And that’s over. So now I’m paying out the ass for lawyers and dividing up my life.”

I waved the waiter over. “Two glasses of Jameson, please.”

James looked at me with alarm. “It’s noon.”

“I know. But you’re going to tell me everything.”

After a few whiskeys and a really delicious burger, James was feeling better.

“What about you? I was shocked to get your text yesterday. What are you doing in the city? Buying another corporation?”

“Nothing, actually. I flew in yesterday with my girlfriend. She’s pitching at X-Chrome Capital today.”

“Damn. That’s cool.”

I smiled. Nora was really fucking cool. “She’s an entrepreneur. Women’s clothing. I introduced her to Sarai a while back.”

I filled him in about Jeanious Bar, Nora’s plans, and what she had been working on.

“Just be careful,” he said, gesturing for another whiskey. “This is a new relationship.” I immediately felt defensive. But then I looked at the shadows under my friend’s eyes. He was in hell, and I knew better than to take it personally.

“We’ve known each other for years, actually. But we’ve only been together a few weeks.” And Nora was not the type of person to use people. She was loyal and generous to her core. She had a temper and didn’t take any bullshit, but her heart was big and beautiful.

“I love you, man, you know that. Just don’t let your guard down. You’ve been burned before.”

“Nora is not a gold digger.”

He put his hands up. “I’m not saying she is. She just sounds really…ambitious.”

“She is.”

“And that’s great. But just because she doesn’t want your money doesn’t mean she doesn’t want other things from you. People in our position, sadly, have to be more careful than the average guy.”

I shook my head. “It’s not like that.”

His face was skeptical. “I hope not. But I’m going through a very expensive divorce right now to the woman I thought was my soulmate. And it turns out she just wanted to use me like another chump. I buried my mother alone while she went to Costa Rica for a meditation retreat.”

We sat for several hours, drinking and talking about the old days, about our lives, and about our business.

It was fun, but I walked out of the restaurant filled with dread.

I was tipsy and confused. I had known James and Laura for almost a decade.

He called me the night before he was going to propose, and I remember cracking a beer and toasting him over the phone.

They were so happy at their wedding. They’d been married on a beach in Mexico, and I remember my heart ached because I had never seen two people so happy to have found each other.

I just couldn’t wrap my mind around her cheating and using him. But shit happened. I knew that better than most.

In my inebriated, confused state, my mind started to wander.

What if Nora was using me? What if she just wanted a leg up for her business?

Was that why she had been so cold yesterday?

Because she was getting what she wanted and didn’t need me anymore?

Nora was a bright shining star, and I was the guy who got to bask in her glow.

But could we last in the long term? Could I be enough for her?

I shook my head. There was no way. Nora wasn’t like that.

She was genuine and authentic and not capable of using people like that.

But I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong and she hadn’t talked to me or confided in me.

What could be so big that she wouldn’t talk about it?

She was generally an open book and told me everything on her mind.

Had I done something? Had she done something? Was she not feeling this anymore?

I needed to stop. I was just being paranoid.

But as much as I tried to silence it, the small voice in my head persisted.

Yes, things had been incredible lately, but that was only a few weeks.

Prior to that, she had despised me for almost six years.

And now we were in love? Even drunk, I realized this timeline was a bit suspect.

I had wanted her for years—that wasn’t a secret anymore—and had thrown myself headfirst into this relationship.

But what if things were different for her?