Carly sat back in her chair, a neutral expression on her face, and watched her. “Fair enough. Anything could’ve gone wrong. Deals often fall down at the last minute.”
“I know that and that part was fine. It was the other reason that threw me.” She swallowed. “They didn’t want to tell anyone until they’d gotten the money tied up in case they suddenly got an influx of ‘new’ friends.”
“But you were his girlfriend.”
“I know. I was the one who supported them through the years it took to get to that point. In one foul swoop, he reduced me to one of the people who would come running with their hands out for cash.” The bitterness rose in her throat. She could still taste it. The terrible aftertaste of despair.
* * *
She hadn’t sounded happy to hear from him but Simon had been expecting that. He had a lot of pain to make up for. He just had to plan how to make it work within the timeframe he had because he wouldn’t get another chance.
Tyler strode into his office from their connecting workroom. “Hey, want to come and play with that new program and see if I’ve got the glitches out?”
A smile creased Simon’s lips. Their play room dubbed ‘the basement’ that belonged to the two of them where nobody else was allowed to enter. The space where they’d let their wallets do the talking and they’d brought the best money could buy at the time. It was their space to test things out, to let their imaginations run wild before anyone else had any input. Before their testing team had a chance to try and improve or find bugs they’d missed.
“I thought you’d never ask.” He followed Tyler to the room. Simon pulled out his chair and hit the keyboard to wake up his machine. “So, thanks for last night. I appreciated you coming along with me.”
“I had fun. Besides, I owe you. What can I say?”
“No you don’t.” Simon hit a few keys and watched the data loading to the big screen in front of him. “If I wanted to tell Ruby back then, I could’ve ignored you but I chose to go along with it. So I’m as much to blame as you are.”
“True. So, how are you going to do this?”
“The dates or the program?”
Tyler threw a paperclip at him. “The dates, man. How are you going to convince her you’re still boyfriend material?”
“Not too sure. I did think of letting her have the lead for the first night or two. I think she’d be expecting me to come in and run all over things, push my own agenda and flash the cash around. I think it might be better if I sit back and let her find her feet.”
Tyler glanced at him around the side of his screen. “Good thinking. You know, I don’t think it’s the money we have—it’s more the lack of trust and I don’t blame her. I wish you’d let me go and apologize for stuffing up so bad. If it wasn’t for me being so freaked out over having that kind of money, you two would be happily married, living the dream.”
“I don’t know, maybe we would. But leave it to me, okay? I want to make her love me for me now, not the crazy freaked out guy I was back then. I’ve matured, I hope. And don’t worry, I’ve got this.”
Tyler rolled his eyes. “Sure you have.” He put his head down and started doing what he did best – playing with data and building programs.
* * *
Ruby turned in front of the mirror again running her hands over the fabric, second guessing her choice of clothing. Would Simon like her dress? Why should she even care?
Because she still had feelings for him, that’s why. Might never forgive him but that doesn’t change the way she felt about him.
She wanted to kick the wall but any displays of anger would send poor Ziggy running for shelter. The tiny pug had only settled down in the last couple of months. She’d been skin and bone when Ruby found her wandering along the road to the shelter. Whoever had dumped her hadn’t even bothered to knock on their door and hand her over. They’d kicked her out of the car while it was still going and sped away from the look of her injuries.
She’d come in with sores on her hip and back where the vet said she’d hit the road, tearing fur and flesh from her tiny body. Those had been the easiest to deal with. It was her timid nature that had made her difficult to foster out, hence the reason why Ruby had taken her on. That brought her fur babies to a total of five. Thank goodness she had a great landlord and as shelter manager, could take her babies to work with her. One day she’d have to say no and stop taking more dogs home.
They played in the yard or slept in the office with Carly most of the day while Ruby worked with the other volunteers and hustled for donations. “Babies, Momma is going out tonight but I won’t be long. Promise to behave?” She glanced at them all in turn sitting watching her knowing that they would be left behind. She rarely left them alone so it was a big deal to her babies.
Honey, the old Maltese girl she’d taken home just as Simon had hit the big time, pretended not to watch her. She lay with her little nose on her paws, her eyes almost closed. She was the quietest of the dogs. Never expecting much because she’d been traumatized when she was dumped. Many old dogs were replaced with a younger version and this is what she feared had happened to Honey. When Ruby
