Chapter 21
For the entire next week, Isa’s MO had been work, followed by more work.
Come very early Saturday morning, Isa walked downstairs to Sable Concierge in tall brown boots, a pair of skinny jeans, and a shirt with a long, cream-colored cardigan over the top. She’d left her hair down and put her makeup on, but the reflection in the mirror didn’t show her to be the confident, professional woman her clothing should portray.
The hollows beneath her eyes were from lack of sleep and the hole in her heart was because she’d completed a tumultuous first run at a relationship. Eli Crane. What a disastrous choice.
Three hours later, she felt more human than before. At her desk, fingers on her keyboard, it was impossible to not be surrounded by purpose. By blessings. By strength. She’d started this business from nothing, and without the support of her family. She’d built a business from scratch, then nurtured it into being.
A series of knocks came at the glass front door. Isa looked up to find a courier holding a package. She hopped up and jogged to the door, accepting the box before shutting the door again.
She plunked the box onto the nearest flat surface—Chloe’s former desk—and grabbed a pair of scissors from the pen cup. Carefully, she sliced the tape as she read the return address.
The Crane Hotel.
Her mind raced to puzzle what might be hiding behind the cardboard. Surely not a delivery from Reese? And surely nothing from Eli.
But when she opened the box, she found a handwritten note on top of the white tissue paper—from Eli.
It read:
Sable,
One thong, one shirt, one red dress. I promised to replace all three while we were together. You deserve this and more.
Eli.
This and more? What was that supposed to mean? She peeled back the paper to reveal the items promised. A black pair of lace thong panties, which made her remember the day in his office when he’d taken a pair of scissors from his lap drawer and joked, “In case of emergency.”
One red dress—like the one he’d popped the threads on in his hurry to get her out of it the night after Dooley’s bar. The night he’d made love to her against the wall and uttered a request that echoed in her brain: “Fuck me.”
A cream silk shirt like the one he’d sliced the buttons from before their first kiss, when she made him a promise she’d meant at the time: “Do it. I won’t run.”
But she had run, hadn’t she? She’d run and Eli hadn’t chased her this time.
Reverently, she stroked the fabric of the shirt, her eyes filling. The door opened, this time letting in Chloe, her auburn curls blowing.
“It’s freezing out there.” Chloe fluffed her hair, then frowned as she caught sight of Isa. “Oh no, what’s wrong?”
Chloe didn’t wait for an answer, rushing over to survey the random clothing now spread on her former desk.
“Eli?” she asked after reading the note. “Sent you a random assortment of designer clothes?”
“They’re not random.” That, she was sure of. What she wasn’t sure of was whether this was Eli’s way of saying things were over for good between them or something else entirely…
Chloe flipped over the white cardstock. Blank.
“I asked him to give me time and he’s giving it to me.” Knees weakening, Isa sat in the desk chair. “He asked me for time, but I didn’t give it to him. I thought because I was in love with him he had to commit right away.” She shook her head, remembering the dinner and how excited he was about the COO position. How she’d selfishly turned a spotlight on what he hadn’t given her. “I behaved like a child. No. Worse. I behaved like Josh.”
The epiphany hit her so hard it hurt. Josh had once delivered an ultimatum. Either Isa bend to his will or he’d find someone who would. It wasn’t exactly the way things had gone down with Eli, but her terms were now or never.
“Oh, Chloe.” Isa put her head in her hands. “I screwed up.”
“Isa.” Chloe put a palm on Isa’s back and rubbed. “Don’t beat yourself up. And don’t compare yourself to that douchebag ex of yours, okay?”
Isa gave her friend a weak smile. “I made a big mistake.”
“So what? People make mistakes. You screwed up.”