Coda Books 04 - Strawberries for Dessert (MM)

back to haunt him. “Allison is here is well.”
    “Why don’t you go find her for me?”
    “I’m afraid she’s busy at the moment,” Frank said, but even I could tell he was lying.
    And then Cole did something that surprised even me. He yelled out, “Allison? Are you here, sweetie?”
    “Sir!” Frank snapped. “ Please keep your voice down. This is a gallery !”
    “Honey, I know . But I asked you nicely to go and get her for me, and you refused.”
    There was a frantic bustling from the front of the gallery, and then a young woman stumbled around the corner and into view. She was only in her twenties, red-faced and flustered. “Yes?”
    Cole gave her his best smile and walked over to shake her hand.
    “Allison, darling, it is so nice to meet you.” He took her arm and steered her back toward the place where the underwater picture was hung. “I’d like to buy this picture over here.”
    She glanced at Frank, and she actually looked a little bit afraid of him. I suspected he wasn’t a fun coworker. “Is Frank helping you?”
    “No, darling,” Cole said in feigned dismay as they disappeared around the corner. “Frank has been absolutely no help at all!”
    Frank’s cheeks were red. There was an obvious pulse pounding in his temple. And I had to bite my cheek to keep from laughing at him as I followed Cole and Allison to the front of the gallery. And so Cole acquired a picture he never really wanted for his bedroom in the Hamptons. He arranged to have it shipped there, saying only that Margaret would know what to do with it.
    “I can’t believe you did all that just to annoy poor Frank,” I said as we left, and he laughed.
    “What’s the point of having money if you can’t have fun with it, right, love?”
    We slowly worked our way back to our hotel on foot. By the time we got there, it was time for dinner, and after eating, we changed and went to the theatre. The play was La Cage aux Folles .
    “I wasn’t sure which show to pick,” Cole said, winking at me, “but this one seemed oddly appropriate.” I hadn’t ever seen it, although I knew the story. I couldn’t even pronounce the title. Cole, being fluent in French, thought it was a perfect reason to laugh at me once again. I didn’t mind.
    We went back to our room after the show, and he stretched out on the bed with the room service menu while I changed out of my suit. He was on his stomach, with his back to me.
    “Would it be terribly cliché to order the strawberries and champagne?” he asked.
    I climbed on top of him so I could kiss the butterfly on his neck.
    “I think it’s a great idea.”
    So we drank champagne and fed each other strawberries and slowly undressed as we caressed each other. When our clothes were gone, I pushed him back on the bed and kissed his neck. He hadn’t shaved that morning, which was unusual for him. It took a couple of days for it to start to show on him, but now he had the tiniest bit of cinnamon-colored stubble along his jaw. “Happy birthday,” I said.
    “Thank you for coming,” he said quietly.
    “Thank you for bringing me.”
    “I hate having to spend my birthday alone.”
    “I don’t blame you,” I said.
    He shrugged a little, seemingly lost in thought. He had one arm around my waist, and the slender fingers of his other hand were tangled into the hair on my chest. Looking down at him, I found myself thinking that he was the most gorgeous man I had ever seen. The brown in his hazel eyes was light, almost exactly the same color as his hair.
    But there was that hint of green in them too. He had delicately fine features, which somehow contrasted beautifully with the stubble on his jaw. And then of course there were his lips, which always drew my eye.
    How could I love him this much? And more importantly, when exactly had it happened? Because I could no longer deny that I was completely head-over-heels in love with him. Finally admitting it to myself, once and for all, was almost overwhelming. I had forgotten how it felt to be in love like that. It was frightening, and exciting, and exhilarating, all at once. It was something I hadn’t felt since….
    Since Zach.
    I pulled my mind away from him, instinctively, almost before I had followed the thought to its end. Not because it was still painful to remember him, but because I didn’t want to taint this , what I felt now with Cole, with memories of that past life. Zach and I had been young, and in many ways, we had been thoughtless.