Not a Second Chance (12 page)

He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stood up. The bed creaked like it was a hundred years old. He peered at it. Nope, it looked pretty new. But for some reason, it had decided it didn’t like him.

He was putting on his shirt—slightly wrinkled from lying on the floor all night—when Allison rubbed one eye and said, “Sidney?”

Crap
. Now that she was awake, he wouldn’t get out of here without an argument.

“Yes?” he said, bracing himself for the inevitable.

“What time is it?”

“Six thirty.”

She slid up the headboard so she was half lying, half sitting, her black hair tumbling over her shoulders. “Where are you going? Shopping again?”

“No.”

“Good. Because I don’t need any more food. Not after that schnitzel.”

She was wearing an oversize Leafs T-shirt, and he stared at her as he buttoned his shirt. Burning the image of her into his mind for a rainy day—though it would probably be best if he didn’t think of Allison at all.

“You still haven’t told me where you’re going,” she said.

“I’m leaving. I can’t make it to the end of today. I’m sorry.”

She looked at him in confusion. “What? I thought we were doing pretty well. You’re telling me you’re too much of a wimp to put up with me for another twelve hours?”

“Call me whatever you want. I don’t care.” He needed to get out of here more than anything.

She nodded slowly and crossed her arms over her chest. “I get it now. We’re getting along
too
well for you.”

Yeah, exactly. And now it hurt all over again.

“I refuse to spend another year playing poker and pissing my life away because of a woman.” Even worse, it would be the
same
woman. “So I’m leaving.”

She studied him for a long time, her face impassive.

“Okay,” she said finally. “You can go.”

So she wasn’t going to stop him. That almost disappointed him—he’d expected something a little more dramatic.

But when he started to open the bedroom door, he felt her hand on his wrist. He tensed, yet at the same time, he was relieved. This was how it was supposed to go. He would get to see her for just a little longer. Even if she was pissed at him, it was better than nothing.

“You can’t manage twelve more hours so you can say you did it and get two hundred and fifty dollars?”

“I could,” he said. “But I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“I’m not sure I can make pancakes on my own.”

“You have a PhD in chemistry. I’m sure you can figure it out.” He tried to pull his wrist from her grasp but only with a halfhearted effort. “I should have asked my parents to make reservations at the molecular gastronomy restaurant. I bet you would have appreciated it.”

“What’s molecular gastronomy?”

“Look it up when I leave.”

“Okay.” She let go of him. “I know you want me to put up a fight. So I was trying to give you one. But I’m not going to stop you.” She raked a hand through her hair, which didn’t help tame it. “You think if you stay, I’m going to hurt you more, and maybe you’re right. Since I don’t want to cause you any pain…” She gestured toward the door.

Sidney bent down and kissed her cheek.

And then he left.

He decided to walk home, but he took a different route from yesterday. A man whose clothes had seen better days asked him for change for a coffee. Otherwise his walk was quiet, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

One thing he regretted about leaving early was that he didn’t get to learn what Kristy was up to with that bet. But he needed to move on and stop thinking about Allison. Unfortunately, the image of her in that big Leafs shirt kept popping into his head. Perhaps he should have closed his eyes while he was getting dressed. But then he’d just be thinking about her in that damn red dress, that one that was now lying by her door.

Well. Next weekend he’d call Jared and ask him to have a few drinks at Faulkner’s. If someone had been trying for a sophisticated atmosphere with that name, they’d failed miserably. It was anything but sophisticated, and in Sidney’s experience, it was the best place in the city for picking up.

The idea held little appeal at the moment, but he hoped it would by then.

It better.

* * * *

“You didn’t have to come over.” Allison deposited Kristy’s pancakes on a plate and sat down at the dining room table. Thank God she was done with this pancake-making business—she wasn’t exactly good at it. “Wasn’t the whole point of brunch to prove Sidney and I were spending the weekend together? And we’re not.”

Unfortunately. It would have been fun, and she would have made a couple hundred bucks.

But he’d said he needed to leave, so she’d let him. It seemed like the kind thing to do, since it wasn’t like they were going to start up a relationship again.

“Shit,” Maya said. “The picnic basket. Did that screw things up? I shouldn’t have brought it over. It was Kristy’s idea.”

“No, we just ate the food at the table like it was a normal meal,” Allison said. “Sidney kept suggesting we sit on the floor, but I refused. He…
Wait
. Shouldn’t you be
happy
that we didn’t make it to the end of the weekend?”

Maya and Kristy looked at each other.

“We should tell her now,” Maya said.

“Tell me
what
?” Allison did not like where this was going.

Kristy nodded. “I guess we should.”

“What the hell is going on?”

“You’re sure grumpy this morning.” Kristy poured a generous amount of syrup on her pancakes, then started cutting them up. “Okay. Here it goes. I made that bet because I wanted to force you two to spend some time together. I thought you’d be able to do it.”

Allison stopped staring at her misshapen pancakes and looked at Kristy instead. “Are you serious?”

“I always liked you two together,” Kristy said. “I thought all you needed was a little forced proximity to figure things out.”

“You’re saying you liked us together back in university?”

“With him you were more…lively? Spirited? Help me out here, Maya.”

“Yeah, well, I think you get the picture.” Maya turned her attention to her plate.

“I don’t think I do,” Allison said. “We fought a lot then. We fight a lot now.”

“Because you have
chemistry.
” Oh, no. Kristy had that stupid glint in her eye.

“Please.” Allison held up a hand. “Spare me the doctor of chemistry jokes right now. I’m really not in the mood.”

After Sidney had left, she’d stayed in bed for an hour, lacking any motivation to get up. Plus it was Sunday morning. No need to get up early. She could burrow under the blankets—which no one was trying to steal from her now—and relax with happy thoughts of puppies bounding through fields of wildflowers.

And maybe it would have been relaxing if that’s what she’d actually thought about.

“Okay, no jokes.” Kristy paused. “But some of the time, I think fighting is a way of protecting yourself from your feelings.”

Allison’s eyebrows shot up. She looked at Maya. “You agree?”

“I don’t know shit about this stuff. Plus you really don’t want to take advice from me. Kristy’s the one with the psychology degree and happy relationship rather than a drug-dealing ex-fiancé. You’re better off listening to her.” Maya stabbed at her food.

“What happened with Justin was a fluke,” Kristy said. “As I’ve told you hundreds of times.”

“I’m still not convinced,” Maya muttered.

“Anyway.” Kristy turned to Allison. “We told you that you’d fail because we knew that would make you want to prove us wrong.”

“You could have told me all this rather than trying to manipulate my love life.”

“What would be the fun in that?”

Allison sighed. “Well, we couldn’t even manage forty-eight hours. He left this morning because…I don’t know. I was asleep at the time.”

“Sure you were.” Maya rolled her eyes. “I bet you had some big argument.”

Allison had a bite of her pancake. It wasn’t bad, despite looking like it had been stomped on. Or dropped off her balcony. Perhaps she could do this again and use up some more of that enormous container of baking powder.

Maya tapped her fork against her plate. “We’re waiting. What actually happened?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Tell us.” Kristy put her hand on Allison’s wrist. “I didn’t do this to make you upset. I’m sorry.”

Allison opened her mouth to say she wasn’t upset, then promptly shut it. No way would her friends buy that one. She’d have to tell them at some point—might as well do it now.

“Fine.” She took a deep breath. “He was falling in love with me and thought it would hurt too much to spend more time together. I guess when we broke up before, he didn’t take it too well, so he didn’t want to go through that again. He hasn’t had a single relationship in the past ten years. Happy?”

Allison sure wasn’t happy. She’d been looking forward to spending today with him. To having someone to cook pancakes for her. And having lots of hot sex.

Still, she shouldn’t be in such a bad mood. She’d missed a day of fun. No big deal. Maybe she’d opened up a wound in Sidney’s heart, but she was sure he’d survive—he wasn’t twenty-two anymore. And she’d survive—it wasn’t like she’d ever wanted something serious with him. So why did she feel so shitty?

“You don’t think it would be different now?” Kristy asked, withdrawing her hand.

“Why would it be different? And even if I wanted to try again, he clearly doesn’t see that as an option.”

“What if—”

“No. We’ve talked about this enough.” Allison was in no mood to hear more about Sidney. “Kristy, I owe you dinner. And you still haven’t told me why you had five hundred dollars to waste on a bet.”

“Oh, that.” Kristy chuckled. “My grandma gave me a thousand dollars for my birthday. Instead of a hundred like usual. She assured me the extra zero wasn’t a mistake, but I’m not convinced. It seems wrong to use that money to buy things for myself because I don’t feel like I should have it in the first place.”

“Can’t say I’d feel guilty about that,” Maya said.

Kristy leaned toward Allison. “I know you want me to shut up, but are you sure you don’t love him?”

“I didn’t love him then. How could I suddenly love him a decade later?” That was ridiculous. After only thirty-six hours together? Not happening. She might miss him, but that didn’t mean it was
love
. And why couldn’t they get off this stupid subject? Although…“So what was with the picnic basket?”

“It was Kristy’s idea,” Maya said. “To remind you of the good times. That indoor picnic date you two had. Though I was afraid it would just lead to more bickering.”

“I didn’t believe the picnic-date-with-Les excuse for a minute. But I assumed you were doing that—and babysitting Dex—as sabotage. By the way, Jo sent me a text asking me to thank you.”

“Wow. That’s new.”

Yeah, Allison had been a bit surprised when she got the text earlier that morning. She’d been buried under the blankets, practically comatose, but reached for her phone as soon as she heard it chirp.

And though it was silly, she’d been disappointed the message wasn’t from Sidney.

But it was good that Jo had bothered with a thank-you text. Hopefully she’d call ahead next time. And if not, Allison was going to refuse. She needed to start doing that.

“So after babysitting Dex,” she said, “you did have a date with Les, right? In the evening? That’s what I remember Kristy saying.”

“A date which I really did cancel.” Maya groaned. “I just wasn’t in the mood to eat dinner with a stranger. If I don’t like the guy, it’s painful. And if I do like him—which is rare—I spend the whole time trying to figure out how he’s going to screw me over.”

“Les is a good guy,” Kristy said.

“Then he’ll hate me.”

Maya had had a lot of bad luck, and it was understandable that she was pessimistic. But she’d been like this for a long time. There seemed to be nothing that would change her mind.

“Since Maya has been equally unenthusiastic about all the men you try to set her up with,” Allison said to Kristy, “why don’t you try to find someone for me instead?”

“Yes, please,” Maya said. “Let’s all meddle in Allison’s love life instead of mine. We’re already off to a good start.”

“But if it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t date at all,” Kristy protested.

“And maybe that’s the way it should be. All my serious relationships have been epic disasters.”

“You have to stop thinking like that. Be positive!”

“Like that’s going to happen.” Maya stood up and started poking around the kitchen. “Is eleven thirty too early to start drinking?”

“Yes,” Kristy said.

“What about champagne breakfasts?”

“Those are for happy occasions.”

Like lazy mornings in bed with your new husband while on your honeymoon. But in Allison’s opinion, alcohol was more appropriate on a morning like this one—not that she would indulge. And not that she should be upset about losing a stupid bet. Which hadn’t been a real bet anyway, since her friends had wanted her to win.

“So you’ll start looking for men for me instead of Maya?” she asked, putting aside fantasies of lazy mornings in bed with champagne and non-misshapen blueberry pancakes—calorie-free ones, of course. “I’ve decided I should start dating more.”

“Okay.” Kristy sighed, then glanced out the window and shook her head. “But right now, I’m having trouble picturing you with anyone other than Sidney.”

Yeah, so did Allison. She—

Wait. What the hell was she thinking? Her mind was probably just mixed-up because she’d spent so much time with him in the past two days.

That’s all it was, right?

Thursday night, Allison stared at her empty container of instant noodles. It should be no surprise that it hadn’t satisfied her craving for chocolate. She’d hoped she could go a day without chocolate, but apparently not.

She opened the cupboard where she kept her dwindling chocolate stash and sighed.

Tonight she wanted something a little different.

The bakery was open until nine. She slipped on her shoes, grabbed her jacket, and took the elevator downstairs. As she walked out the door, she noticed a new sign: “Please do not hold the door open for strangers. Thank you.”