Chapter Five

“Well,” she said, “you want the long or short version?”

“I have nowhere I have to be,” he replied. “Share whatever you’d like.”

“Remember, you asked me,” she warned. “Let’s see. I have an MBA with Accounting Concentration, and I’ve been working in accounting almost fifteen years now. I transferred down to Fort Worth about eight months ago with my old company.”

She paused for a moment, absorbing the sudden realization that she found herself wanting to bare her soul to this man she’d just met.

“The weird thing is, being a bean counter is NOT what I planned to be when I grew up. I had every intention of becoming a best-selling novelist or screenwriter or teaching Shakespeare to college kids. But life had other plans for me too, I guess. I kind of fell into the career I have, discovered I am good at it, and people need accountants wherever you go, so no worries about job security.”

“Well, that certainly explains you catching my right brain/left brain setup so easily. Where were you before you moved here?” Rick asked.

“Philly area,” she said, a little tersely. “For four years. Hated it. Too damn cold up there for my tastes.”

“But,” she sighed, “that’s where Kevin’s career took him, so off to freaking Pennsylvania we went.”

“Kevin?” Rick’s eyebrows raised.

“My ex-husband,” she said.

“Oh. Well, I remember you mentioned earlier you weren’t married anymore. What happened if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Um…well……,” she sputtered.

“You don’t have to share this, if you’re not ready,” Rick said quickly, hand raised. “No pressure.”

“No,” Faith shook her head. “It’s okay. It still hurts to talk about it, but it is what it is.”

Taking a deep breath, she continued.

“The short version is, he turned out to be extremely allergic to being faithful,” she stated, gazing at Rick as she sipped her tea.

“We were together twelve years, married for ten. I came home early from my Friday night dinner out with friends and found him in our bed with some trampy twenty-two-year-old waitress. As a matter of fact, it was a year ago today I caught him.”

“Ouch,” Rick said, and his eyes filled with sympathy.

“Yeah,” Faith muttered, “and I found out later she was just one of many. Looking back, I don’t think he was faithful the whole time we were together.”

She sighed and picked up a French fry.

“I wanted to kill him, but I held it together. I packed my stuff, filed divorce papers, and lived out of a motel until my transfer came through. Funny part is, it took longer for the transfer to happen than the divorce to be granted. Those proceedings tend to speed up when you’re able to submit videotaped proof of adultery. Go figure,” she said sarcastically.

“Anyway, the transfer finally got done, and I drove down here with all my stuff, then camped at my sister’s place for a while until I found my own place. And here I am.”

She sighed again then took another drink.

“So, yeah. That’s my sad little story. And I’m amazed I shared that much. I’ve never really talked details about it, not even with family.”

Despite her best efforts, tears suddenly welled, and a single stray tumbled down her cheek.

Rick reached out carefully and gently traced her cheek where the tear had fallen.

“I am so sorry you were betrayed like that. You didn’t deserve that. Can I tell you a secret? Your ex is an idiot.”

Faith chuckled through the tears.

“Yes. He is. It’s no secret.”

“Part of me wants to thank him for being such a colossal screwup.”

“Why?”

“If he’d been the man you deserved, you wouldn’t have come to Texas, and I wouldn’t have met you.”

Now he leaned in a little closer, his eyes never leaving hers.

“And I am so very, very glad I did. My next question to you is, I’ve been here for about five months, you’ve been here for about six, and we don’t live that far apart. Why is it we are just now finding each other?”

She broke eye contact to fiddle with her glass.

“I’ve done nothing but work pretty much since I moved in, to be honest.”

Easier that way. Safer, she added silently.

He nodded in understanding.

“Can we change topics? This is bringing the mood way down,” she said, a little too brightly.

“Agreed. No need to cover absolutely every topic on the first date,” Rick grinned. “But I’d like to, eventually. If you’d like to go out again, that is.”

“Wait a sec, let me check my social calendar,” she said in mock seriousness as she pulled out her phone.

“Hmmm, the national bean counter’s convention isn’t until July, they haven’t published the cotillion schedule yet….”

Faith’s sentence trailed off as she looked up; Rick had leaned in further, and framing her face in his hands, he tenderly pressed his mouth to hers.

All coherent thought fled as her nervous system danced with the electricity passing between them, and she felt the blood in her head rush toward her shoes. Lust, long dormant, once believed extinct, had been resurrected in her core.

Oh, sweet Baby Jesus, her inner self moaned.

Mama J appeared at the table, and grinned as they broke apart suddenly, both blushing furiously.

“Ahem. More tea? Any dessert?”

“I’ll take a lemon bar, Mama,” Rick said, “and some coffee.”

He glanced at Faith.

“You?”

“Lemon bar, absolutely. And you still got that English Breakfast tea?”

“Coming right up,” Mama J said, and beamed at them both before she turned away.

I do love seeing that, she thought to herself. They just fit, don’t they?

It made her misty.

***

They kept to small talk as they savored their desserts. When Mama J brought the check, Faith insisted on paying her half.

He started to argue the point, saw the way her eyebrow shot up and jaw set stubbornly, and let it go.

As they strolled together back toward the bookstore, Rick casually took her hand, and said, “Faith, I have to see you again. Have dinner with me tomorrow night. You pick the place.”

“I can’t,” she shook her head. “I fly out tomorrow afternoon for a week-long conference.”

“Oh,” he murmured. “Rain check, then?”

Silence, and Rick could feel her hesitation. So, he met her halfway.

“Why don’t we do this? You know where I am. When you’re able, and if you want to, come to the store, we can figure it out from there.”

“Great. Well, here you are,” Faith said, stopping underneath the Book Keepers sign.

“I should probably get going.”

“Happy to walk you there,” Rick said sincerely. “It’s only two blocks.”

“I appreciate the offer. I really do,” she began. “But…”

“But you’re not ready for me to know which townhouse is yours yet.”

“Probably sounds silly.”

“You’ve been bruised. I understand.”

“Rick…”

“Faith,” he said, gently taking her in his arms. “I get it. I really do.”

And he just held her for a moment.

He could feel the muscles in her shoulders and back coil instinctively at first, then gradually relax again. Slowly she brought her arms up and hugged him back briefly, then broke contact.

“So, yeah…um… see you later?” she asked, taking a step back.

And he smiled at her.

“Absolutely.”

“Okay then.”

She smiled back, then turned, striding away towards home.

He watched her go, then grinned like an idiot as he went upstairs for the night.