A New Opportunity

Haven.

One year later

“Come on, Haven.” Joe can be very persistent when he wants to be. “It’ll be fun.”

“The last time you said that we ended up in a hotel with two lunatics who were trying to get us drunk so we’d sign a marriage certificate. A marriage certificate, Joe. That’s not fun.”

“Oh, come on.” He laughs. “Are you never going to let that go? All the other times we went out, nothing weird happened and you had a great time. Admit it.”

He points at me while walking backward—I’m just waiting for him to fall so I can laugh at him.

He’s the best friend anyone could ask for and he helped me enormously when I decided to leave town, but ever since Debra vanished from my life after the contract was signed, he’s been a pain in the ass trying to set me up with every woman he can get his hands on.

As if replacing her were possible, no matter how much she doesn’t want anything to do with me.

I could have looked for her all this time.

In fact, I went to Whittemore Corporation as soon as I got settled, something Joe doesn’t know.

I told myself I just wanted to make sure she was okay, but when I got there, I couldn’t bring myself to walk into the building.

After everything she’d written in the letter, I wasn’t sure she’d appreciate my visit, so I left without seeing her and never tried again.

I still have that piece of paper, and I’ve read it so many times I can recite it from memory.

“Haven, I know you probably don’t want to read this, but it’s necessary.

I don’t want to give you false hope when what happened between us was nothing more than a distraction from the stress of dealing with your father.

It was simply an adventure I’ll remember fondly.

We’re impossible. I told you—my life is planned down to the last detail and there’s no room for you in it.

Be happy. Debra.” My father, much to my surprise, insisted I shouldn’t let her get away, but I simply don’t want to fight the obvious.

Debra warned me—she told me many times that this would lead nowhere, that it would end the moment my father signed, and that’s exactly what happened.

She left without looking back the instant she had the papers and I can’t even be angry because she never lied to me.

I was the one who fooled himself into thinking I’d broken through her defenses and finally reached her heart.

So if she’s that certain after what we shared, who am I to sow doubt in her perfectly planned life?

Certainly nothing escapes her control except, perhaps, those moments when I managed to throw her off balance with my kisses.

Or so I want to believe, because apparently it wasn’t enough to make her stay.

“Earth to Haven.” Joe’s voice brings me back to the present. “Can’t you stop thinking about her for one single minute?”

“So you can try to pair me up with another crazy woman?” I smile at his sour face. “I’ll pass.”

“Damn it, Haven. It’s been a year since you’ve seen each other. If you can’t forget her, go after her.”

“She doesn’t want anything to do with me.”

“Not even she believes that.”

“She made it pretty clear in the letter.”

“Think about it, Haven.” It’s the first time we’ve talked about Debra directly since I left town to find work in the city.

“The Odell Textiles contract gave you the chance to do whatever you wanted with your life. Do you honestly think she would have stayed so you’d choose her over your own future? ”

“I wanted to choose her.”

“And that’s why she left,” he concludes, as if it were obvious.

“Your logic makes no sense to me, Joe.” I frown.

“My logic makes perfect sense. She wasn’t going to give you freedom only to take it away by staying with you.

I know you, Haven, and from what I can tell, so does Debra.

Tell me something—would you have taken the position you have now if you’d been with her?

Your job has you traveling all over the country and you wouldn’t have wanted to be away that long.

” My jaw tightens, but I know he’s right.

I was so fixated on her and what she made me feel that I would have given up everything to keep us together.

“I’ve seen the way you look at her, Haven.

You’re crazy about her and you would have put her before everything else. ”

“But what I feel or decide doesn’t matter,” I add, almost bitterly. “She chose her work.”

“She chose your freedom, man,” he corrects me. “Letting you go is the greatest act of love she could give you.”

“And what good is being able to decide my future if I can’t have her in it?”

“Well, enough time has passed to show her that choosing her isn’t a rash decision.” He shrugs. “What do you have to lose by trying now?”

“My pride,” I note, but in my mind I’m already sketching a plan for our reunion.

“I could arrange for you to see her tonight,” he says so casually I struggle to process it.

“How?” If he tells me he’s been in contact with her this whole time without telling me, I think I’ll hit him.

“Because we have a mutual friend, though she doesn’t know it,” he rushes to say when he sees I’m about to object.

“I haven’t spoken to Debra once, Haven. You know I’d never betray you.

I didn’t ask about her either. She came up one day in a conversation with my friend and I didn’t even tell her I knew Debra. ”

I open my mouth to say something but end up closing it because nothing comes to mind.

I want to see her—that goes without saying—but I’m worried about how she’ll react.

What if we’re wrong and she really meant everything she wrote in that letter?

What if I was nothing more than a distraction from the stress my father caused her with his constant refusals?

Every one of her words hurt. And those are precisely the ones making me hesitate now.

Because, as much as I want to believe it was her way of setting me free to decide my future, there’s a small part of me that says she wasn’t lying when she wrote them.

“Stop overthinking and act, man.” Joe smacks the back of my head and I focus on him, frowning from the surprise blow. “Forget your pride and forget that letter. Go after her.”

“If I do, it won’t be in a nightclub with neon lights and sweaty, drunk bodies all around us,” I declare, thinking about what it’ll be like when I see her again.

“What you want is her sweaty body underneath yours.” Joe laughs.

“What I want is for her to have no doubt that I want her by my side, that it wasn’t some fling that lasted a few days.

I need her to see me and understand that this time I won’t let her leave unless she gives me a good reason.

And even then, I intend to fight for her.

Because she deserves it. Because having her by my side is the greatest reward this world could give me. ”

“Tell her all that and she’ll fall at your feet.” He whistles.

“I’m serious, Joe.”

“So am I. You’ve got a romantic soul I’ll never share, but it suits you. If that’s what you feel, you need to tell her.”

“First I need to arrange a way to see her.”

“Tell me where you want her and she’ll be there. My friend is a romantic like you and I’m sure she’ll be thrilled to help. We can organize something like a party, have her bring Debra along. Then we leave you two alone and—”

“No,” I refuse once more. “We need to be alone from the start. The picnic and the dinner I prepared when she was in town were a hit. I know she loved that I went to so much trouble, so I need to do something like that for her. She deserves everything and I want to give it to her.”

“You’re the boss, my friend.”

“I need to think about it.”

“Fair enough, but you’re not weaseling out of going out tonight,” he warns. “Don’t think you’ll use her as an excuse.”

“But a chill outing,” I stipulate. “If you drag me to some dive to drink until I don’t know my own name, I’m going home.”

“Deal. Nice and chill.”

I wake up with a hangover. I don’t know how Joe does it, but he always ropes me into the wildest plans.

I think last night we drank our body weight in alcohol because all I want is to stay in bed and let life pass me by until my head stops pounding.

However, I have a lot to plan for the reunion with Debra and that motivates me enough to get up.

Last night, before the tequila reset my brain, I turned the matter over and over.

I wanted to find the perfect place to set up a romantic date with her, but I also wanted it to be private.

I earn good money now, but it’s not about spending more to impress her—it’s about showing her I haven’t been able to forget her in all this time.

I don’t need to do it with luxury, but with heart.

That’s why I think I’ll set everything up at my apartment.

It has stunning views of the city, especially at night when the lights illuminate everything.

I won’t even need torches this time. The living room is huge and the round table is perfect for getting close to her whenever I please.

Or whenever I see she’ll allow it without getting defensive.

Despite Joe’s conviction that she truly likes me, I still have my doubts.

Maybe when she finds out I’m the one who organized it, she’ll just leave.

“Positive thinking, Haven,” I say aloud on my way to the kitchen.

I take a pill for the headache and sit down at the computer to make a list of what I need to prepare the apartment: flowers, music, new table linens, matching plates and glasses, a reunion gift…

That last one will be the hardest to find because I don’t know what she could possibly want that she doesn’t already have. But I’ll think of something.