Page 35 of A Perfect Pairing
“I’ll take the pasta and crab. Can you grab the salad?”
She picked up the bowl and trailed him to the dining room, where he’d set the table using a crisp white tablecloth, pale-blue fine china, with coordinating blue-patterned cloth napkins. A small bouquet of pink roses sat in the center, surrounded by taper candles. “It’s beautiful.”
“Thanks. I wanted this night to be special for us. I learned a thing or two watching you.”
That he’d gone out of his way to set a beautiful table using her favorite color and flower tilted the scales of her heart a little more toward him. He seated her, then took the chair across from her.
After pouring glasses of wine, Antonio gestured for her to fix her plate. “Ladies first.”
Natasha added portions of everything to her plate. “It smells so good.” She waited for him to fix his before sampling the crab cake. The tender, flavorful seafood nearly melted in her mouth. She tried the pasta next and savored the creamy lemon taste. She eyed Antonio. “Did you take professional cooking classes or something?”
“No,” he answered with a chuckle. “I just followed recipes and played around with different combinations until I found what I liked. And cooking wasn’t that bad, was it?”
“It was the best time I’ve ever had cooking in the kitchen.” She’d helped Serenity a few times, but it was different with Antonio. “Can we do this again?”
“We can do it any time you’d like.” Something like a shadow crossed his face, and he lowered his head.
“Hey, everything okay?”
Antonio waved her off. “Fine. Just a memory.”
She nodded. “We haven’t really discussed our pasts. Maybe it’s time we do.”
“You want to know about my marriage.” He placed his fork on the plate. “I met Lori at a business conference, and we hit it off. We dated for a while, wanted the same things, and I thought she was the one. After we married and she got a promotion, I realized that climbing the career ladder was more important to her than our relationship. I have no problem with moving up in the workplace but not to the exclusion of everything and everyone else,” he said in between bites of food. “And I wanted children… but it wasn’t in her plans anymore.”
Her heart went out to him. “I’m so sorry. How could she think it would work if you two wanted different things, and why lie at the beginning? She could’ve saved you both some heartache.”
“She said she wanted children initially, but it was never the right time. We grew farther and farther apart. I wanted us to do things like this, but she preferred hosting parties almost every week. We rarely went out just the two of us. Every outing turned into a networking opportunity. At the end we were nothing more than polite strangers and barely lasted two years.”
“It’s her loss.” Natasha continued eating and tried to process what he’d gone through. He’d had his heart broken twice, and she’d caused one of them. She wouldn’t make the same mistake again. Silence rose between them, and for the next few minutes the only sound came from the music playing.
“I was surprised to find out you moved back home. I thought you planned to stay in LA and open your own interior design business.”
She gave him a wistful smile. “So did I. I guess we have picking the wrong partner in common. Julian and I met during my senior year of college through a mutual friend. He talked about us going into business together after graduation with another friend in our class, but I wouldn’t commit to it because I had my own plans. What I didn’t know at the time is thatfriend—and I use the term loosely—hadn’t been doing as well in our classes. In fact, she was close to failing.” Natasha felt the old anger surfacing again. “And that Julian had only come on to me to steal my designs for her so she could pass. She was the woman he really wanted to date.”
“That son of a—” Antonio cut off the expletive.
“My thoughts exactly. I wanted to strangle both of them. Can you imagine working for weeks on a senior project only to receive a failing grade and a threat of expulsion? The saving grace is that I had sketched some of it by hand first and discussed it with my counselor at least three months prior. Serenity and I threw a party when they got kicked out of school.”
Chuckling, he said, “That sounds like something you’d do.”
“After that I stayed in LA and got an entry-level job at a design firm. But I missed home so much, I couldn’t take it.” Natasha shrugged. “I guess I wasn’t as ready to be away as I first believed, so I came back home after a year.” And when she returned, she’d endured more snickering behind her back from those same girls—Antonio had made it as a big-time investment manager in New York, but Natasha hadn’t, confirming in their minds that she would never be good enough for him.They were wrong, she told herself and pushed the wayward thought away. “Anyway, a job at the real estate office opened up, and I took it. I started out doing some marketing and administrative work, and then studied my butt off, took and passed the exam to become an agent. But I have done a few small design projects here and there, and eventually I plan to do it full time. I’m excited because I’ve gotten a few more clients. The condo project will be my largest and, hopefully, will be the thing that allows me to leave real estate behind.”
Antonio lifted her hand and placed a kiss on the back. “I have no doubt you’ll be opening your own interior design business in the near future. What about marriage?”
That was another thing that hadn’t worked out. “I’ve dated a few of the guys here, but nothing came of it.”
He covered her hand with his. “I guess neither one of us got it right the first time, and we both know what we don’t want.”
“True. Whatdoyou want?” she asked tentatively, hoping they wanted the same things.
“I want to do what we did tonight, to spend time at the inlet talking, to take walks at sunset and share kisses under the moon, to dance in the kitchen even if it’s to music only we can hear. I want to have candlelight dinners and take trips just for pleasure. But what I want most of all is you, Tasha.”
Natasha didn’t realize she was holding her breath until she felt the pressure in her chest. His deep voice poured over her like warm honey, and each word of his impassioned confession hit her squarely in the heart. “I want to do all those things, too, Tonio, but only with you.”
Without releasing her hand, he rounded the table and gently pulled her to her feet. “I’m going to enjoy doing all those things with you.”
“Me too. Thank you for giving us another chance.” This time she was determined to make it work.
