Page 6 of Third Time is the Charm
Col stepped inside her office, casually walking over to her desk to set her coffee down for her, his eyebrows raising once he could see what she was doing. “Ahh,” his sigh turned into a chuckle. “I see the rain managed to get ahold of you this morning.”
Beth rolled her eyes. “I knew I should have worn my rainboots today,” she mumbled. “I see that you managed to make it through the flood-zone unscathed.” Beth picked up her coffee, taking a sip as he just shrugged his shoulders with a grin.
“Sorry you missed your coffee yesterday,” he began. “I ended up having to stop in at the Fairmont to talk to the manager about the Contest Ball.”
Every year, the Dempsey Center hosted the Dempsey Contest – a fifty-mile bike ride to raise awareness and support for cancer research. It was the cornerstone of the Center’s PR events, and consequently, the major focus of Beth’s new job. However, it wasn’t the only focus – it was growing. Colin wanted to expand the contest into other cities, other states, since it had such great success in Boston; bringing her on was to help him accomplish that. It was too late to grow it for this year since the ride was coming up on the third of June – two weeks after Jane’s wedding. But that didn’t mean there wasn’t something to be done.
Beth had suggested that this year, the Dempsey Contest be accompanied with an after-party: The Contest Ball. First, to honor those who won the top spots in the race, but also as a more formal charity event for the Contest’s biggest donors. Beth smiled, remembering how Colin’s eyes had gone wide when she’d suggested it and the way he’d whispered, ‘Genius’just before his dazzling smile lit his face.
She remembered because her heart had clenched painfully wishing that it had been that easy to make Darcy smile.
And so, the planning had begun. Since the race started and finished in downtown, Beth had suggested using the Fairmont Copley Plaza as their home base for the weekend, and the Grand Ballroom as the stage for the evening ball. It had been an easy decision, having worked so closely with the Plaza in the past; Beth knew the Fairmont would meet every expectation that they, and more importantly, their donors had.
“I thought you were meeting with them at the end of next week?” Beth asked curiously.
She’d known about the meeting – Col wanted to have a look at everything from the Ballroom to the guest rooms, as they were reserving a significant amount of them as a courtesy to their guests. That was one of the things that she admired most about him – no detail was too small to deserve his attention. Sure, he could have relied just on her and her word alone that it was perfect or he could have sent someone else on their team; he didn’t have to take the time to do it himself, but he did because it mattered to him.
That was a rare thing to find.
Her eyes broke from his for a second wondering if it was all these little, admirable qualities that had allowed him to slip past her defenses.
“I was going to, but I might be… ahh… out of town next weekend so I wanted to make sure I got in there since we’re less than a month out,” he explained.
“I see. Did everything go ok?” Beth asked.
“Yeah, they had everything under control just like you assured me that they would. The space looks great although I’m sure that you will manage to improve on it – you always do,” Col answered warmly.
Now, she could hear the genuine affection that was laced into his compliment; now she could see his words and actions more clearly, and how many of them had been tainted with a similar tone.
“Thanks,” she murmured, sending him a brief smile before pulling her gaze from his as she felt her face begin to warm. She turned to pull her laptop out of its bag and set it on her desk, taking a longer time than necessary to do it before moving her bags to the floor since a pregnant and awkward silence had followed his heartfelt compliment.
“So –” they both began again at the same time, breaking off with a quick laugh.
“Go ahead,” Beth said, sitting down in her desk chair, her lower lip firmly between her teeth.
“So,” he began again, his warm eyes capturing hers. “About tonight… I’ll pick you up at your place?”
“Sure,” she said a little too enthusiastically; her attempt to make the conversation not awkward only making it more so.
“Does seven work for you?”
“Yeah, that’s fine.” Her reply much calmer this time.
A relieved smile spread over his face as though he was afraid she was going to back out on him after the coffee incident Wednesday morning. “Great,” he said with a sigh, “I’ll see you later then.”
As soon as the door shut behind him, Beth sagged into her chair, her breath rushing out of her.
Well, it was still awkward. But it was endearingly so.
Her biggest fear was that his attempt for their friendship to mean more would ruin the foundation on which it was built. She didn’t know if she was ready or able or willing to do this, but she didn’t want to lose him, too. Even though it was awkward as they navigated this new potential side to their relationship, Beth was grateful that it hadn’t become uncomfortable between them.
She could see that he was nervous; he knew enough about what had happened to know there was a good chance that she wasn’t ready for this, that an attempt to get too close would only serve to push her further away, and yet he’d managed to navigate those treacherous waters, maybe not with ease, but with a calm that somehow reassured her that it was going to be ok – that he wasn’t going to hurt her.
Beth stared out over her computer screen into the starkly bare room that was her office. She’d brought nothing with her and, honestly, had zero desire to make the space ‘hers’. There were no photographs, the only artwork on the wall was there the day she’d arrived. There were no plants. There was nothing adorning her desk except her office phone, a day planner, and her laptop – when she was there. She’d put nothing in the space to tie it to her because she didn’t want it tied to her; she didn’t want anything tied to her – at least that’s what she thought.
The enormity of what she’d agreed to was finally sinking in. Just like her friendship with Colin had crept up on her, just like the realization had crept up on her that he had more-than-friendly feelings for her, the ramifications and implications of her acquiescence were finally catching up to her.
Did she really want to be doing this? Should she have changed her mind?
