Designed for Love Read Free

Conference Call in 15 mins , flashed on
the screen of her handheld. She pushed the button to turn the obnoxious beeping
off.
    “I’m
sorry; I need to go.” She stepped back.
          Vincent
followed her step, keeping them close. “Chelsi, when can—”
          “This
isn’t a good time.” Holding one hand up to ward off his advancement, she clenched
her fist around her two recycle bags in her other hand and shuffled back. “Nice
to see you again.”
    “Chelsi!”
          Giving
him one last look, she turned and rushed to her car, praying that he wasn’t watching
her backend. It was a long way from the shape it was in when she was on the
drill and dance team in high school.
          Getting
to her car, she activated the automatic unlock, slipped in behind the wheel,
and started the engine in one motion. Driving away, she allowed herself one
last look at him through her rearview mirror. He still stood at the tail end of
his limo, staring in her retreating direction.
          “Just
focus on the contract, Chelsi,” she chided herself. “This is no time to try to reclaim
a lost relationship.” She and Vincent were history. In the past.
          Things
had really switched between them. Not that she wasn’t doing well for herself. She
was second designer for a man who was moving to the top of fashion with a
steady pace, and she was fastened to his coat tails. Yup, things were different
now. Vincent dressed and rode like a man who had people reaching for his coat
tails. He’d become a sexy, successful business man. Long gone was the poor
geeky teenage boy.
          She
chuckled to herself. The chance to have gone to their class reunion and seen
how all the jocks, cheerleaders, and wannabes talked about him now would have
been priceless. But that opportunity was two years ago, and she’d missed it.
Apparently, Vincent hadn’t shown up either, because her best friend Becky would
have told her that.
          Hell,
why would he have to go and try to get false approval from people who wanted to
make his life miserable for four years? The only reason he’d escaped their
ribbing in the last year was because he was dating her.
          Then
it had all ended. Brief images of a beautiful summer filled with laughter and
love flashed in her mind as she drove. At eighteen, they spent their final
summer of youth by her pool, at amusement parks, museums, and on Lake Norman .
The two of them had discovered physical love in each other’s arms. Then the
days of freedom had ended. They both had known it would.
          They
were headed off to college in two different directions, him to the University
of Iowa and her to New York University. It was over. They had ended as friends,
making no promises to each other. Together they had decided it would be best to
end it, focus on school and their chosen careers.
    And
he hadn’t called.
          For
the first two years, she hadn’t changed the number to the cell phone her
parents had gotten her as a graduation present. Not expecting him to call but
hoping he would.
          And
he hadn’t called. Feeling wet heat rolling down her face, Chelsi realized she
was crying. She hadn’t cried since her second week in college when she’d been
rushed to the emergency room with severe stomach pains. She’d miscarried a baby
she didn’t even know she’d been pregnant with.
          She
waved to the guard as he opened the gates of the community where she lived.
Pulling up into her designated parking spot, she turned the car off and sat
there.
          The
memory of that fateful night flooded back into her mind, and the agony of the
experience rested in her heart as fresh as it did then. She’d wanted to call
him. She remembered clutching the phone in her hand and wanting to hear his
voice. Tell him what happened, what they’d created that summer and lost.
          But
she had no number for him. Nothing but his parent’s home and the