Fragile Love Read online

  When I finally laid eyes on the mirror, I loved it. It made me look like a different person—a handsome one.

  Maybe Ness knew a thing or two after all.

  After she paid, she took my elbow and yanked me out of the salon and we went next door to the eye place. They fitted me with contacts, and even though I hated them, I promised myself I wouldn’t give up on them so easily this time.

  Ness and I had made plans to tackle the apartment tomorrow. I didn't think I could handle a full makeover in one day. Besides, she needed to get back to her family, so she could tuck the girls in for bed, and I needed to get home and put everything away, so I could be well rested for tomorrow.

  Tomorrow, when I went to work, I’d find out exactly what I’d accomplished with the new look. I couldn't help but wonder if people would think it was because of Elise. Truthfully, what she did to me had played a part in it, but only a small part. I’d wanted to change, and so I had. With so many women deceiving me, it was high time I took a new approach at life.

  I slipped into my sister’s house when we got back, just to give my two nieces a hug and speak with Jace before I left.

  "Mommy, who is that?" Skylar asked. "He's cute."

  Jace turned around in his chair so fast I thought he might get whiplash.

  "That's Uncle James, sweetie. Doesn't he look good?" Nessa said, giving Jace a kiss.

  "Hot damn! You look different." Jace laughed. "You look real different. My wife is a magic maker." His smile when he looked at my sister was filled with adoration and pride.

  I wanted that so bad. I wanted that with Bella.

  "Uncle James? No way!" Skylar said as she walked up to me and poked my face.

  "Yes way, big squirt." I picked her up and twirled her around.

  "James and I are going to work on his apartment tomorrow. Maybe we could get a sitter and you could help?" Nessa said to Jace with a flutter of her eyelashes.

  He looked to me, rolled his eyes, and shook his head yes.

  "Speaking of, if you want me to cut your grass or something for the next month, I'll do it free considering your wife just spent a good chunk of money on me," I said, my voice low.

  Jace turned to Vanessa, and the smile that lined her face reminded me of a little kid. A silent conversation took place between them.

  "Nah. It's my pleasure, James. Besides, we still owe you for all the help you did on the house," he said, stepping to me and clapping me on the back.

  "Well, uhh—thanks, I guess."

  Nessa walked me to my car, giving me a tight squeeze before I could open the door. "I’m going to bring some of Jace's old things for your apartment. And I'll bring boxes to pack away your collection. Total upgrade." She winked.

  "Okay, but only if you promise to talk to Jace about what you told me.” I gave her a stern look. “And Ness, I'm going to ask him tomorrow."

  "Deal." We shook on it and I hopped in my car and headed for my apartment.

  When I finished putting my new clothes away, I walked back into my living room, my eyes scanning the action figures displayed on the shelves. Then my gaze fell to the posters covering my walls.

  Change could be good, and it was time to be an adult now.

  I had a few boxes in my closet, so I grabbed them, packing away the real expensive collectibles as I said goodbye to that part of my life. It was time to welcome a new one.

  Carefully, I removed the posters from the wall, rolling them up and tucking them away in a box. Then I stepped back, brushing my hands together as I admired my work.

  It already looked a little different. Boxes of action figures still remained, and little bits and pieces of who I used to be were still sprinkled here and there, but what I’d done so far had started the change. Satisfied, I headed toward my bed.

  I sent a quick text to Bella, cancelling tomorrow's game night, then plugged my phone in the charger. After my nightly routine, I didn’t even check for her response before I hopped into bed—a first for me, but I still didn’t know if she’d been part of the deception with Elise, and I couldn’t face it yet.

  Whispers about the handsome new guy swirled around me at the office. I ignored them, never bothering to correct them.

  I was making coffee for my boss when I heard him scream out my name. I finished what I was doing and ran to his office, holding his coffee out.

  "Where's James Winters and who are you?" he barked.

  "Sir, it's me," I said.

  His eyes popped to my face. He looked me over a few minutes before recognition lit his features. "Never mind then. My apologies." He stood, walking around me. "What's with this?" He circled his finger around me. "Never mind. I already know."

  "You do?"

  "I'm assuming the rumors about your girlfriend are true?"

  "No—well, yeah. They are true, but that isn't why," I said, my voice strong and sure.

  "Coincidence?" he questioned.

  "Just time to grow up, Sir. Time to accept I'm an adult now," I said, my eyes glancing at my new shoes.

  "Okay. Fine. Then I suppose you won’t mind firing Miss Davenport?"

  Fire her? I raised my eyebrows at him. "Is that what you want?" I tried to keep the shake out of my voice, but I failed.

  She didn’t deserve to be fired just because she’d done what she had to me. I’d rather her be here to get a glimpse of what she’d thrown away. So, no, firing her wouldn’t do.

  "Isn't that what you want? She did use you after all."

  "No sir. I don't want her to lose her job," I said.

  "Very well. Send her in my office please." He waved me away.

  I walked out of his office and straight up to her desk.

  "Mr. Freedmon would like to see you," I said.

  I could tell the moment she realized it was me. Her eyes widened as she took in my appearance. Then, she began batting her eyelashes at me.

  "Sorry Elise, you had your chance and you blew it," I said, heading back to my own desk right outside of Mr. Freedmon's office.

  Elise left the door slightly ajar, and as I heard him yelling at her, I cringed a little.

  "That is not how we conduct business, Miss. Davenport. Your behavior is distasteful and I'm afraid I will be passing you up for that promotion you applied for. I cannot have my employees playing high school games to get ahead."

  "Yes, Sir. I'm sorry, Sir."

  "You're quite lucky Mr. Winters didn't want you fired because I was ready to let you go. You owe him more than an apology. Now get out of my office."

  She walked up to my desk, whispering an apology and a thank you. I shook my head and went back to my work.

  "Bella didn't know," she said before walking away.

  I glanced up at her retreating form and released a breath. Relief rushed out of me, and the tightness in my chest evaporated. I’d never wanted to think the girl I loved had been capable of such deception, and she hadn’t been.

  Work passed by in a blur, and by lunchtime, most of the women I worked with had caught on I wasn’t a new guy, just an upgraded version of an old guy. It didn’t stop them from taking an extra-long time walking past my desk, and they made it their mission to bend over right in front of me, giving me a nice view up their short skirts.

  None of their antics moved me. They never did any of that when I was just the nerd, which meant they weren’t worth my time. Although I couldn’t ignore their flirting. One woman even made it a point to come by my desk once an hour to hand me papers just so she could brush up against me.

  By the time my shift ended, I ran from the building.

  My sister and Jace were waiting on me with pizza when I walked up to my door. They also had boxes in their arms, and their awkward stance had me shoving past them, unlocking the door, and opening it for them in a few seconds flat.

  While Nessa put the pizza on the table, Jace brought in the boxes.

  She looked around and whistled. "Looks like you got a bit of a head start. Bella coming tonight for game night?" she asked. "Six years and
I've barely even met the girl."

  "No, I cancelled it. I'm still too chicken to see her," I admitted.

  "Well dig in," Jace said.

  Once he flipped the box open, he grabbed a few slices and hopped into a bar seat, right next to Nessa. I took my own slice, then took a seat on the couch behind the bar.

  "What is going?" Jace said, looking around and scrunching up his nose.

  "Everything nerdy," Nessa said.

  "So..." He looked around. "Everything?"

  I laughed, spitting food into my lap. My cheeks burned with embarrassment. No wonder the ladies didn’t want me. All I could do was laugh about it because Jace couldn’t have been more right. Ninety percent of everything I owned, everything on display in this apartment, was nerdy.

  "Geez Jace. I can make some of this work," Nessa said, slapping her husband on the shoulder.

  "Just saying."

  I was glad I had my back to them, because I must’ve been bright red by that point.

  Unluckily for me, Nessa dove over the back of the couch, landing right in my lap with a loud giggle. "Aww Jamesy is a tomato," She pinched my cheeks.

  "Get off me Ness." I growled, pretending to be angry.

  She stood, smoothing out the wrinkles in her jeans before assembling boxes. As soon as I finished my pizza, I jumped up to help her.

  Packing away my action figures hadn’t been something I’d dreaded, but I did now. I loved some of them so much I couldn’t stand the thought of them being squished inside a box. How sad was that? I begrudgingly packed them away, though, because I had to do this. It would help me in the long run, even if it made me itch right now.

  When we’d finished packing everything away, I stored the boxes in the closet of the spare bedroom, then I started looking through the other boxes Nessa had brought. I had to admit Jace had some nice stuff, so I picked what I liked and we set to work decorating. Jace disappeared for a bit, leaving me and my sister to do all the hard work.

  "Did you tell him?" I asked.

  "I did."

  "And?"

  "And we’re gonna come up with a plan," she said, her voice even.

  I watched as she hung a few picture frames, one a collage with pictures of me and my family. I wondered how she managed to put that together so quickly, but then I realized it was one of the collages from her own home. The other picture frame was a single picture of me and her on the day of her wedding.

  She even surprised me with a photo of me and Tuck to place beside the picture of me and her. Tucker had been my best friend since high school. He was almost as nerdy as me, but he didn't look the part. He looked more like a college guy than anything. He paired his button downs with t-shirts, and some tight jeans.

  Tucker had a steady girlfriend, Brianne, who would most likely end up his wife. She always came to game night with him and became fast friends with Bella.

  Thinking about Tuck made me remember I’d forgotten to tell him game night was cancelled. Before I could get my phone out, a knock sounded at the door. Figuring it was him, I got up to answer it, but snuck a peek through the peephole.

  "No," I said. "I'm not ready yet."

  Nessa came over and looked out the hole, laughing because there behind my door stood Bella and Tucker.

  "Tell them I'm in the shower or something," I said, rushing off to my bedroom.

  The creak of the door opening traveled to my room, but I ducked inside, too much of a coward to leave.

  "James is in the shower," Nessa told them.

  "Whoa what happened here?" Tucker said.

  "Just a little minor redecorating." Nessa laughed.

  I smiled, wishing I could see their faces.

  "Minor my ass," Bella said.

  Her voice was like music to my ears, causing my knees to go weak.

  "I'm just going to wait for James in his room," Bella said, her footsteps tapping closer and closer. "We have to talk about some things and he isn't answering my calls which is so unlike him."

  I panicked as I searched for somewhere to hide. My closet wasn't big enough and I doubted I could slide under my bed fast enough.

  The door clicked open and I faced the wall, unable to turn around.

  "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know anyone was in here," she said.

  I didn't answer, I just stared at the wall.

  Real mature James. Real mature.

  "Who exactly are you?" she finally asked after a few minutes of silence.

  "Umm, no one," I said, trying to disguise my voice a little.

  She wasn't having it though. I should’ve known she wouldn't just let it go.

  "Well? Are you going to look at me or am I going to have to come over there and make you?" she demanded.

  I couldn’t look at her. Fear had frozen me, but the moment had come—the deciding moment. What if she thought I was shallow for changing myself? What if she hated the new look?

  When I didn't answer, she waltzed across my room and spun me around. She stiffened, her hand still on my shoulder as she stared into my eyes.

  "James?" Her voice was filled with shock and maybe a little bit of awe.

  I cleared my throat and held her gaze. "Yeah."

  Her hand went to my hair, smoothing it down as she gave me a breathtaking grin. "I always liked you better with contacts," she whispered.

  "You did?"

  "Yes. I don’t know if I like the new look though." She stood there a moment, her hand resting in my hair. Then, as if the spell had been broken, her hand dropped as she turned and sat down on my bed.

  "I know we need to talk." I sat beside her and stared at the wall.

  Here it is. The “we can never be together” talk.

  "Why didn't you answer my calls?" she asked.

  "I'm just going through some things."

  "Obviously." She chuckled. "Is this—"

  "No," I said, cutting her off.

  "I was going to ask if you did this for me, but that seemed a little selfish and egotistical. I know you like me, James. I'm not blind. And I swear I had no idea about Elise. God, I'm so angry with her. After everything she did…" she trailed off, meeting my gaze again.

  "If I said it was, would you change your mind?" I asked, even though I hadn’t done it for her. At the end of the day, it’d been for me, but I needed to know if the way I looked before had been the thing keeping her away.

  "No," she replied.

  I looked down at the floor, my stomach twisting in knots because it really didn't matter what I did, she wouldn't ever give me a chance. "Oh."

  Her hand found my cheek, lifting my face to hers. "No, but only because I already decided to give you a chance. Before I could tell you, you got with Elise. So, all this, it doesn't change my mind because my mind was already made up. Besides James, do you think I'm that superficial?" Her eyes bore into mine as her words washed over me.

  "I get it Bell...wait what?"

  She laughed, running her hands back through my hair. "I don't like the hair. It's too short." She frowned, mashing it down again.

  "So, if I hadn't gotten with Elise, you would’ve given me a chance?" I asked, still not sure if I heard her right. "Fuck, I only got with her to try and forget about you. Obviously, it didn't work."

  "James your chance is now. You get one date. Make it worthwhile and you might get two. Show me what I've been missing by saying no all these years."

  "Really?" I asked. I still couldn't believe it. After six years of asking her out she finally said yes.

  "Really."

  I jerked her to me, crushing her to my chest and placing a kiss against her hair. "You won't regret this."

  "I know I won't. I could never regret spending time with you. You're my best friend." The look in her eyes sparkled with love, which told me she meant what she said.

  "Come on. Let's join the rest in the living room." She pulled away from me. "Later, after everyone leaves, we have some things to talk about.”

  "Okay."

  "Who’s the hottie?" Brianne
asked, earning a smack from Tucker.

  "It's James and he's always been a hottie." Bella winked.

  "James?" Tuck said, circling around me.

  "Yeah man."

  "Boy, you don't take rejection well," he teased as he clapped a hand on my back.

  Jace barreled through the door with two giant sacks from the mall. I groaned, knowing they’d bought even more for my apartment.

  "I come bearing gifts." He beelined to Nessa, giving her a big kiss.

  "Listen, if you guys stay and help, pizza is on me," Jace said, looking at all the new people in my apartment. Everyone nodded.

  "Okay, well, get to it. " Jace said, tossing the bag to my friends

  We all set to work while Jace ordered more pizza. When we were done, we sat around the living room waiting for the food to show up.

  “I bet that pizza delivery place loved me today,” Jace said.

  Nessa rolled her eyes and shifted to face Tucker. I held in a groan.

  "So, Tuck. It's nice to see you, as always. How's life?" Nessa asked to get rid of the awkward silence, which she hated—even though she was the queen of it. I guessed neither of us could help our genes.

  "Same as always. Lots of course work and lots of actual work," Tucker said. "Bri keeps me busy the rest of the time. Guess that’s what I get for going back to college while working a full time job though." He leaned in and bumped noses with her. I thought it was weird, but they did it all the time.

  "Nice to see you again, Bella. Haven't seen much of you lately," Nessa said as her focus turned to Bella.

  "I don't know why, I've been right here with James." She inched a little closer to me, resting her hand on my thigh.

  Inside, my inner school boy did a victory dance, but outside, I tried to hide my excitement and remain calm, which was harder than I imagined. Everywhere she touched me, my skin felt like fire—the good kind that made your skin tingle.

  She reached over with her pinky and brushed my hands, which were locked together in a vice grip in my lap. I scrunched my forehead at her. I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I’d waited so long to have a chance with her, but I wondered if she felt more than she let on.

  Either way, I couldn’t go into this half-assed. I had to prove to her I was worth her time, so I had to go all out.