Page 51 of Meant For Love
What that stage is, I have no idea, none whatsoever. All I know is that since I’ve been with Nash, it’s been the most amazing time I’ve ever had. At first, I thought it was because we were on vacation, but then working side by side with him, seeing how much he’s done with his company in such a short period. I’m in awe of him. Which makes me going out to talk to Josh that much more difficult. I walk into the closet, grabbing a pair of jeans and a white bodysuit. The jeans are loose all the way down and just tight around my hips. I swear, even getting dressed I feel like I’m going to throw up, and it has nothing to do with Josh and everything to do with Nash.
I pick up my phone when it beeps, hoping it’s Nash, which is stupid since he’s downstairs on the couch, working on his laptop.
Josh: Where do you want me to pick you up?
Me: I’ll meet you there. See you at seven thirty.
Josh: See you then, Zoey.
I don’t even answer him, and when I walk out of the closet, Nash sits on the bed. “Hey.” I stop in my tracks.
“Hey,” he replies as he looks at me from head to toe, taking my outfit in. He gets up and walks over to me. My heart beats so fast that I can’t hear anything else. “You know he doesn’t deserve you, right?” He puts one of his hands on the side of my neck, making my mouth dry, before he bends to kiss my neck.
He turns and walks out of the room, and I have to walk over to the bed to sit on it. “You go and say what you need to say, and then you leave,” I tell myself, walking into the bathroom and not even putting makeup on. I finish getting dressed and walk down to say goodbye to Nash. I find him in his home office. “I’m going to head out,” I tell his back, and he looks over his shoulder, the look on his face gutting me.
“Take the car,” he says. I stand here waiting for him to tell me not to go. Secretly wanting him to say “Stay with me.” Secretly wishing he would say “You aren’t going,” and I wouldn’t go because I don’t want to go anymore. I wanted to go to close the chapter, but as time went on, I wanted to go less and less.
I get in the car, pulling out of the driveway, and look back at the door to see if he’s there, but he’s not. I try to blink away the tears that are coming, but one escapes, and I fight back the rest. The last thing I want to do is show up there and look like I’ve been crying and have Josh think it’s for him.
I get to the restaurant, park the car, and then put the keys in my purse, along with my phone, before walking into the restaurant Josh booked. The restaurant is bursting with people. A couple of people wait by the hostess stand for their table. I smile at the hostess, who is standing at the podium, before spotting Josh right over her shoulder, waiting for me at the bar. He spots me, getting off his stool. His blond hair is pushed back to the side, his white button-down tucked into his blue chino pants. I walk around her toward him, and his face lights up with a smile, and I feel nothing for him. Actually, I’m more pissed at myself for coming than I am for him booking a trip to come and see me. “Zoey,” he says my name, wrapping an arm around my waist and trying to kiss me on the lips, which is avoided when I turn my head to the side and the kiss lands on my cheek.
“Josh.” I move one step to the side so his hand falls from my waist, and he’s not touching me. “Shall we sit at the bar?” I ask him, hoping that it’ll be even less time, but he shakes his head. I look at the only empty chair, hoping for the best.
“Our table is ready.” He points at the table for two in the corner. “I was just waiting for you.” He puts his hand out in front of him so I can walk. I hold my purse in both hands to stop him from trying to hold my hand. I zigzag my way to the table as he pulls out the chair for me and I sit down, watching him pull out his own chair before he sits in front of me.
Before either of us can say anything, someone pulls out a chair beside me, and when I look over, I see Nash sitting down. My eyes widen in shock as he smiles at me. He’s wearing a T-shirt and jeans, exactly what he was wearing when I left him in his office. “Sorry I’m late, baby,” he says, kissing me on the lips before turning his head toward Josh, who is staring at him with his own shocked expression. “You must be Josh.” I'm assuming he holds out his hand with his wedding ring, just to spite him. “I’m Nash, her husband.” Score one for Nash. Well, if you count the wedding ring in his face, that would be two.
Josh looks at Nash’s extended hand and then looks at me. “This is a joke. You brought him with you?” He laughs nervously.
“She didn’t bring me anywhere,” Nash quickly informs him, and it’s a good thing because I’m actually still in shock that he’s here sitting next to me. He puts an arm around my chair. “So what are we going to talk about?” His hand that was extended is now on his leg.
“We,” Josh says through clenched teeth, “were going to talk about what a mistake this is.”
“What is?” Nash is the one having the conversation with him. My hand goes to Nash’s knee now, to make sure I’m not dreaming he’s here. His hand moves from around my chair to on top of my hand, linking his fingers with mine. Josh’s eyes follow Nash’s every move.
Josh puts his head back and laughs, but not a real laugh, a laugh that you know is fake and irritating. “Your wedding-slash-fake marriage, obviously.” He shakes his head. “You have to know she did it because she wanted to make me jealous.” Nash is the one who now throws his head back and laughs, but his is a full-on belly laugh, and it’s so loud people around us look over. If you were looking at us, it would look like three people having a great time, but it is anything but that. “You can’t think it’s for real.” Josh’s head advances toward us. His tone is almost hissing, and I don’t know why I find this funny.
“As real as it can be,” Nash confirms to him and then looks over at me. “A man and a woman who will spend their lives together, in holy matrimony.” He makes a joke, and that just pisses Josh off even more. But I can’t help the smile that fills my face.
“She did it just to spite me,” he spits, pissing me off, and again, before I’m able to talk, Nash is the one opening his mouth.
“You keep saying she did all this for you, but you have not once mentioned anything about her.” My stomach soars when I hear that. Of course Nash would think about what I want instead of what he wants, because that’s Nash. That is who he is, maybe who he always was and I was too blind and dumb to see it. “Maybe she did it to make herself happy, like she deserves to be.” He leans back in his chair before turning his head to me. “From what I heard, you didn’t really make her happy nor did you even ever try to make her happy.” Okay, that part is a lie, more or less, because we’ve never even spoken about Josh, to be honest. Since we got married, we’ve never even brought up Josh unless he called or texted me.
The jab must sting Josh because he quickly defends himself. “I made her happy.” He looks from Nash to me. “We were happy.”
“Um,” I say, unsure of what I’m supposed to say, and again, Nash doesn’t even give me a chance.
“What was your plan?” he asks Josh. “How were you going to fix it all?” I can see the frustration grow on Josh’s face because he probably doesn’t even have the answers to these questions. “How were you going to build the trust with her? Do you know she hates fucking steak? And you booked a steakhouse to take her to.” Nash shakes his head. “You had your chances, buddy. Why did you decide to step up now?” He waits for a beat, but literally just one. “Is it because someone else wants her? Because someone else would do anything to see her smile?” I squeeze his knee as I listen to his words. “Because I would happily drink matcha if it meant she was in that kitchen with me. You couldn’t make me walk away from her.” He then turns to me. “Do you want to stay for dinner, or would you like to go home?”
I look at Josh, who is seething and, to be honest, hasn’t even tried once to say what he was here for. He made this whole trip to plan this grand gesture, and what does he do? Books me a restaurant that I hate so he could tell me he missed me and wanted me back. It’s literally been almost a month since we’ve gotten married, and he waited this long to come to me. I left Nash five minutes, if that, before he rushed out to chase me. The answer was written on the wall even before I walked in. “I’d like to go home.”
“Zoey,” Josh says to me when I’m getting up.
“I want to thank you,” Nash says when he is standing next to Josh, looking down at him. “Thank you for fucking up with her because I will never forget how important and special she is.” He reaches for my hand. “She will never, ever have to wonder if I’m committed to her. I’ll show her every fucking day.” He pulls me to his side, dropping my hand so he can wrap his around my waist. My hand comes up on his chest. “You ready, baby?”
I bend my head to silently laugh before looking over at Josh. “One month,” I tell him. “Actually, it might be even longer since we had that last meal together where I gave you that ultimatum.” He glares at me. “Then you saw my wedding picture on Instagram and what did you do?” I ask him, but like Nash I’m not waiting for him to answer. “You called and texted instead of getting on a fucking plane and coming to me. If you wanted me so bad, you would have moved heaven and earth to find me.”
“I wasn’t just going to show up in Vegas,” he says, as if the thought alone was ridiculous.