Page 2 of Between Desire and Denial
My only friend.
She left us that night after fighting for every extra second she could.
My father wasn’t even there to say goodbye.
Chapter One
OLIVE
“I don’t lovethat girl, not when I’ve felt real love with you.” My boyfriend’s voice sounded beautiful and poetic in the crisp night air as he talked on the phone. “I’ll tell her soon, sweet pea. And of course the project is yours. Olive will understand.” The wind carried the words of the man I loved straight to me even though I was around the brick corner. They cracked like a whip on my heart and split it in two.
It was my best friend, Kee’s, wedding night. She’d married the man she loved, and I’d invited the man I loved to witness it. We’d watched her say vows in her childhood backyard and then we all went to stay at a luxurious HEAT resort about thirty minutes away. It’s there they held the reception where I thought I’d be dancing and snuggling my long-distance boyfriend.
Yet, he’d taken two calls already and then his phone rang again. I told him we didn’t have much time together, but he pulled me close and unclipped his one-of-a-kind Rolex from his wrist, “Time is nothing when you’re in love. Here, wear this. I promise I’ll be back in five minutes. Time me.”
And, like always, I’d melted under his spell. I’d missed him so much after months away from one another. My boyfriend and Iweren’t seen together much. He was my professor after all, plus I traveled for work. But when we were together, Rufford was normally attentive, doting, and loving.
That’s why I was shocked he’d been outside for nearly twenty minutes and now I was hearing him on the phone with another woman.
“If she doesn’t understand, she still has to pass my class. So, she’ll have to comply. It’s why I’m here tonight. I told you. She and I need to talk things over.”
The conversation felt wrong, made my skin itch and my heart beat fast. I should have announced my presence right then and given him some sort of heads-up that his conversation wasn’t private anymore, but one of my biggest problems had always been that I was too curious.
Or paranoid.
“Of course that won’t happen. That’s over. I’ve told you that. I love you, adore you, and only you.” His deep voice rolled through the air. I knew that phrase—I adore you and only you—and it made me feel naive to have believed him.
Those words were ones anyone could interpret. I heard them. I knew the meaning of them. I didn’t question my hearing at all.
Yet, I couldn’tunderstandthem. No way was the man I loved having a relationship with someone else.
I took a step back, not sure how I wanted to react. Then another and another toward the resort’s doors. They swung open to make way for the rambunctious, boisterous laughter of a man with a beautiful woman on each of his arms.
Dimitri Hardy was this phenomenal specimen of a godlike man that would have just the right amount of audacity and confidence to entertain two women at a wedding rather than one. He was the brother of the groom and a very close friend of Kee’s. We knew each other through her. We weren’t close, butwhen he saw me, his laughter died and those green eyes of his pierced through me, “Olive, what are you doing outside?”
“Oh. Olive, sweet pea, I was just finishing up my call.” Rufford draped an arm around me, but my gut reaction was to jerk away from him now.
Dimitri’s gaze narrowed but I hurried to explain, “my boyfriend and I just needed some air.” Then I turned to Rufford, “I’d like to talk to you over there.”
I pointed around the corner and Rufford frowned but he steered me that way rather than toward the reception. At least I contained myself until we rounded the corner, but then my anger had me blurting out, “Who the hell were you just on the phone with?”
Rufford’s beautiful blue eyes widened. “Darling, so sorry I had to take a work call. How is Kee’s reception going?” He glanced behind me and smiled at Dimitri, who’d decided to walk without a care over to the side of the building and lean on it, like he had nothing else to do.
Well, I did and I didn’t care about the audience. “A work call, Rufford? Do you tell all your coworkers that youadorethem?”
“Olive.” He reached out and touched one of my shoulder-length curls. “I’m sorry you had to hear that. You know how some of these calls can go. I’ve got students—”
“Don’t play me for a fool.” Rage swam rapidly through my veins as I looked at him in his tweed suit and expensive shoes. He had a full head of gray hair that I’d always thought looked so distinguished, but now I felt like the age that color represented mocked me. “I’m not stupid. Don’t treat me like I am.”
He straightened then, wiggling his tie as he seemed to assess me. “No. You’re not stupid, Olive. So, you must know I’ve been lonely while you’ve been gallivanting around the nation with Keelani Hale and Dimitri Hardy.”
He hurled Dimitri’s name as if I should be ashamed of my actions. I knew Rufford always felt intimidated by Dimitri. He was an overly confident billionaire investor who traveled the globe with us as I worked for Kee handling PR and her hair.
“You knew I traveled for work, Rufford. I told you how my mom said I should…” I choked back a sob and threw my hand over my mouth, willing back my crying fit. Rufford didn’t even try to comfort me. Straightening my spine, I took a breath before continuing. “I’ve been extremely blessed to have found someone I could work for who became a friend. She gave me the opportunity to heal and feel like I belonged while I traveled with her. It’s why I took your online courses instead of in person. But I told you that job was coming to an end.”
“Not soon enough,” he grumbled. “We should be working together now.” I’d had my next plan with Rufford. I’d been ready to take on his research and finish out my thesis. We’d studied the effects of social media on communities and people. It’d been interesting and enlightening. I thought it would be my stepping stone into the field.
“I was supporting myself through college, Rufford. You told me how proud you were of that.”
