This time Brendan was motivated enough by her words to stand. He sauntered over to where she stood with her back still against the door to the filing room. In the few steps it took to reach her, Corinne could see the transition in his face.
The man was like a chameleon. He adapted his expressions perfectly to the current situation. For this confrontation he brought out the big guns: the cute, cuddly-boy routine.
He sure knew how to play rough. She was a particular sucker for this one. Had he gone with smooth and seductive, she might have stood a better chance.
No. No, she told herself firmly. She had to be strong. Cuddly-boy face or no, this was their future she was fighting for. Corinne shored up her defense system.
But it was so hard. The soft blond hair that was perfectly trimmed, the wide-open blue eyes framed in a face golden from more than a few hours spent at the tanning salon, and the pouting mouth that had made her knees buckle more times than she could count, all added to the package. Today he had chosen a powder-blue shirt, which highlighted his eyes and coordinating dark-blue suspenders. Those suspenders made her want to pull on them until they snapped against his gym-hardened pecs. Not to cause him pain or anything. Just because she thought it might be fun. Yes, this man was her destiny. This man was her one true love.
If only he would wake up and smell the donuts.
“Babe, what do you mean you’re going to be dead to me? I’m still going to want to see you when you get back.”
Such sincerity. Such caring. Such bull. Corinne knew him too well to believe his words. What she needed to do was show him how awful his life would be without her. “Stay with me, Brendan. I said you’re going to be dead to me. Which means the only place you will see me is in the lunchroom.”
“But why, babe? We have had a good thing going. And I think we’ve got some unfinished business,” he said slyly.
He was talking about the other night when she had kicked him out of her condo before they made it to the bedroom. Corinne was a modern woman. She was perfectly ready to go to bed with the man she knew to be her destiny. But she wanted it to be perfect. Perfect meant that when she went to bed with Brendan, he would stop going to bed with all the other women. It was sort of her rule. Until he was ready to make that commitment, the door to her bedroom would remain locked.
“Can you honestly tell me you’re ready to give up the others?”
“Others?” he asked in that innocently boyish tone he had mastered.
Corinne sighed. “The others, Brendan. The other women.”
“If that’s what you want…”
For a moment Corinne’s hopes were raised, but then a name flashed behind her eyes and she remembered what had started her off on this particular script in the first place. “Ah-hah!” she shouted, as she thrust her index finger into his impossibly firm chest.
“Ah-hah what?”
“You told me the other night that you were going to stop seeing all the other women. You said you wanted to commit to me. Then I had to hear about Marjorie from human resources from Sally in administration. Marjorie from human resources? I mean, really.”
Brendan immediately went for the innocent face. Not that he could fool her. Corinne knew each of his faces too intimately. She’d studied them. As a student of theater and acting she had from time to time graded his expressions. It was why they were so perfect for each other. He couldn’t fool her. He couldn’t charm his way out of messy situations with her. Once he understood that she knew him for who he was but still loved him, she was sure he would come around to her way of thinking.
Or at least almost sure.
Reasonably sure.
Pretty darn sure.
“Honey, Marjorie and I are just friends. So we went out for a couple of drinks. We were with a bunch of other people from the office.”
“Like who?” This was his fatal flaw. He could be a smooth liar, but he could never back up a lie once he began it. Oh, Brendan, is there anyone else on this planet who could love you? Corinne didn’t think so.
“Like…like…uh…uh…Relic was there!”
Corinne actually had to laugh. Although her script did call for a stoic face and a resolute manner throughout the entire breakup scene, this was too funny not to chuckle. “Matthew Relic was at the bar with you and Marjorie from human resources? I don’t think so.”
“No, really, he was,” Brendan continued futilely. “You can ask him.”
She shook her head sharply. “Brendan, Matthew and I are friends. If I ask him, he’ll tell me the truth.”
“Oh.” The man deflated before her eyes. But he was quick to rebound. “Sweetheart, babe, you know you’re the only one I really care about.”
It was the emphasis on the word care that got her. It always did. “I know you care about me, Brendan, but I want more.”
“And I want to give you more,” Brendan said with a smile, while he brought his hands up to cover her petite shoulders. “You deserve the best, honey. I know that. What kind of fool do you take me for?”
“I don’t think you’re a fool, Brendan. But you have to understand I can’t go on this way. The other people in this company are laughing at me.”
“But you always like to be the center of attention,” he volleyed.
“I like to be the center of attention when I put myself there. I don’t want anyone else to do that for me. Now for the last time, are you going to stop seeing other women?” Here it comes, she thought, the big finale to scene one.
Brendan shoved his hands deep into his suit pockets, then quickly took them out and smoothed out the wrinkles he had made. He shuffled his feet and looked to the ceiling for what Corinne could only assume was divine intervention. “It’s just that you know how I am, babe. I can’t help it if other women need me. I mean what about the man shortage? If I give up all the others, I’ll be contributing to it rather than helping it. That’s just not the kind of guy I am.”
He actually thought he was being noble. Corinne couldn’t stop the pain in her heart. Not that she hadn’t predicted exactly this outcome, but still, it took her a moment to compose herself. The touch of wetness to make her eyes look that much shinier would not be difficult to fake.
“Fine. But know this, Brendan. I’m the only woman you know who has seen the real you and has still managed to fall in love with you. You’ll never get from them what you could have gotten from me. Once I come back from this vacation, you’ll know what it means to be truly alone.”
BRAVO! Bravo!
Matthew Relic cheered silently from his current prison—the filing-room closet attached to Brendan’s office. Obviously, Corinne hadn’t seen him in here when she slammed the door, and Golden Boy must have forgotten that he had come in to get one of the client folders a few minutes prior to Corinne’s grand entrance. The polite thing would have been to inform them both of his presence rather than eavesdrop on their private conversation. But before he could stop Corinne—or Rinny as he liked to call her—she was off and running. No, the best thing he could do, he’d decided, was to sit and wait her out. Besides, there were worse things than being stuck in the filing-room closet listening to Rinny let the Golden Boy have it.
Absently, Matthew rubbed his chest and thought to himself that there were much worse things. In fact, all things considered, he had the best seat in the house. Corinne always knew how to play the scene. And he’d been