Fool's Gold (Contemporary Romance) (15 page)

C
HRISTMAS
 garlands hung above the door to Beta’s office, and the decorators had even put a wreath in his window. Beta ran a finger along the inside of the window pane, checking to see if the frost would smear. It did, leaving a smudge on the glass and some kind of white powder on his finger. He wiped it off on a tissue, then settled into his chair. One nice thing about living in the building was the commute. Unless he went out for lunch or groceries, he never went below the fifth floor.

It was probably how the people in
Wool
felt, but to the negative one power. Or something.

A sonorous piano tune rose from the baby grand in the common area. Sol was in early, too, practicing. Beta didn’t recognize the tune, but whatever it was, it was beautiful and haunting.

He closed the door.

Once in his chair, Beta set his feet on the desk and settled the keyboard into his lap and went to work. Time lost meaning when he got buried in the code. People wandered past his office, and someone may have even talked to him, but he couldn’t remember who it was or what they said. When he next surfaced into conscious thought, it was pushing 11:00 and his legs ached from sitting still for so long.

Beta wandered down the second level walkway to Jerome’s office. The big guy was at his desk, hunched over his keyboard, his attention fixed squarely on one of his monitors. Beta cleared his throat.

Jerome jerked and looked. “Beta dude, how’s it going?”

“It goes. You got lunch plans?”

“Sol mentioned something to me this morning when I came in. You want to come with us?”

“Is that okay? I need to get out of the building. I don’t think I’ve been on the street in a week.”

Jerome shook his head. “That can’t be healthy, dude. You need to get out and see the town a little. Not just spend your time in EVE.”

“I haven’t been online much, actually. I take it you haven’t, either?”

“Nah, Charity and I have been going to the gym and stuff. Seen a couple movies, some shows up in Midtown.”

“Well, ping me before you guys leave.”

“Will do.”

Beta wandered back to his office and settled back in front of his monitors. Coming in early and staying late had turned into a routine. It was funny how that worked. Back in Omaha the routine had been tech support, web development, EVE.

Jerome and Sol gathered him for lunch and distracted him for a while, and it was good to walk around in the fresh air--even if it was cold enough to make him think he was back home in the Midwest--but the afternoon soon meandered into the evening and Beta was working alone in the building.

At least he thought he was, until Sol knocked on the window. “Benjamin, you’re here late again.”

Beta rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. “Yeah, Sol, what’s up?”

“Are you trying to impress me, young man? Because working yourself to exhaustion and burn-out isn’t something I find endearing in my employees.”

“No. I was just busy.” Beta gestured toward the screen. “Lost track of time.”

“How was your evening with Zoe?”

“Weird.” Beta met Sol’s eyes. “That girl has issues. And probably diseases.”

Sol chuckled. “I’ll refrain from passing that message to her mother. So I take it your evening wasn’t enjoyable?”

“It turned out alright. I ran into Vidya and a couple of her friends.”

“Vidya Butala?”

Beta nodded, but a pang of worry hit him. They hadn’t exactly had a date, but was there some company policy against it? “Is that okay? That we work together, I mean?”

“It’s fine, Benjamin. Please remain professional in the office, and try to avoid an acrimonious breakup, but you’re both adults. Be responsible.”

Beta exhaled. Well, that was good news, at least.

“What happened to your girl from Nebraska that you came out here to see?”

“I haven’t seen her since she left the hospital. I thought...” He looked away, studying the whiteboard and thinking about the last time he’d seen her laying on her hospital bed, pale and weak. “I thought maybe something would change. I’d ride in like Prince Charming and she’d be swept away and...”

“And it didn’t work out?”

“I only came to the city because she was in the hospital, right? And then when she was released, she ran straight back to her Wall Street boyfriend and I’ve barely heard anything since. So forgive me if I’d rather just carve out a niche of my own here, and not spend my evenings worrying about her. Because I’ve done that.” Beta clenched his fists. “God, have I done that. I’ve spent ten years chasing Victoria, and each time I catch her, she twists away.”

“To another man?”

“No. Not until this year. And then she meets this asshole banker from up here and the next thing I know she’s moving halfway across the country. Only, I’ve met this guy. He really is an asshole. So I don’t know what I’m doing anymore. Just trying to make it, I guess.”

Sol stood up. “Come on. We’re getting a drink. I’m saying this as a concerned friend and not your boss. You need to get out of this building for a few hours.”

“Sol, I really don’t think--“

“Benjamin, grow up. You want to know why she keeps running away from you? It’s because you act like a child. You chase her when you should give her space, and you hide from her when you should call. I don’t claim to know a lot about women, but I know more than a few things about people. Now get up.”

Beta rose reluctantly, and followed Sol to the elevator. Sol was right. Deep down, Beta knew it. He didn’t want to admit it, but he knew it. Life wasn’t a fairy tale, and he wasn’t Prince Charming. The best thing he could do was put Victoria out of his mind. Well, that and maybe see if Vidya wanted to get dinner sometime.

H
ALF
 a dozen stormtroopers in white body armor milled in front of Beta and Vidya. Darth Vader had a dog in a wampa costume on a leash behind them.

“We’re moving,” Vidya said, startling Beta out of his trance as he watched the dog. The line for the New York Comic Con stretched into the Javits Center like one long road into nerd paradise.

The wampa was actually a seeing eye dog, he decided as he turned away. The stormtroopers were already a dozen feet ahead, leaving a gap. Beta took a few steps forward. “Should we have gotten costumes?”

“Couldn’t have hurt.” Vidya fluffed her hair. “I’d make a marvelous Indian Leia.”

“I always pictured myself as Luke Skywalker.”

“More like Han Solo, I think.”

“You sure that doesn’t make you Chewbacca then?” He grinned at her and made a croaking sound to imitate Wookie speech.

“I will cut you down with your own blaster.” She pointed a finger at him, then poked him in the shoulder. “Scoot up. You’re not very good at lines.”

Beta drifted forward again, keeping pace with the stormtroopers. He slipped a hand into his pocket, grabbing his phone. He wasn’t sure what had possessed him to buy two tickets and march into Vidya’s office with them, but she hadn’t turned him down when he’d suggested they go to the convention.

And then he’d walked off and left the tickets in the office when they got in the cab to Javits.

The upshot of it being the 21
^st
century and them being in New York was that he didn’t need paper. The QR code in his email would work just fine.

The stormtroopers passed through the front holding area, and a convention worker came over to scan Beta’s tickets. He presented his phone, waited for the scanner to beep, and they were through.

“So what’s the plan, Ben?” Vidya asked. “Anyone in particular you want to see?”

“I don’t care. I saw that Nathan Fillion is going to be here. Maybe him?”

“Not Stan Lee? Or Frank Miller?”

Vidya was into comics? He wasn’t sure why it came as a shock, but it did. She was Indian. And a girl. “If you want to see them, we can.”

“What? I see that look.”

“Nothing.”

“You didn’t think I’d know who they were? I’m a nerd, Ben. Of course, I know who they are. I’ve seen Spider-man and Sin City.”

Beta laughed without thinking. “The movies? They’re comic book writers.”

“What, you’re discriminatory in your fandom? Five minutes ago you were fine with me being Princess Leia.”

Beta held up his hands. “Sorry. Not judging. If I was, I apologize. I was just surprised. If you want to get Stan Lee’s signature on something, I’m all for it.”

Vidya pointed to a tent with soft drinks. “I’m thirsty. Let’s go there first.”

They picked up a couple drinks, then worked their way into the exhibition hall. Vidya slipped closer, and Beta wasn’t sure if it was from the press of the crowd or just... because.

She leaned in and whispered into his ear right as he took a sip of Dr. Pepper, “So I was thinking of getting Stan Lee to sign my chest.”

Beta spewed his drink all over the girl in front of him. The soda burned his nose, and it was all he could do to breathe without choking more.

The girl glared at him. “Get yourself under control.”

“Sorry,” Vidya said, stepping between them. “My fault.”

The other girl huffed, but stormed off into the crowd.

“I don’t actually care about Stan Lee, you know,” Vidya said once she was gone.

“Really? You whisper that in my ear and you don’t even want his signature?”

“Nah. Hey, look.” She pointed a couple booths down. “It’s the Firefly.”

“Want to go see if Nathan Fillion’s there?”

“Absolutely.”

They wove through the crowd, edging between the mass of bodies until they were too thick to go any farther. “Line’s back there, buddy,” someone told them.

“Sorry,” Beta said. “Just trying to see if-- yeah, there he is.” He turned to Vidya. “Do you want to meet him? We could do a picture or something.”

“Okay.”

It took half an hour of waiting in line, and then Beta was surprised that he had to pony up twenty bucks for a picture, but he got one taken with Vidya and him on either side of Captain Mal Reynolds. Vidya even picked up a blu-ray of
Firefly
and got Fillion to sign it. For another twenty bucks, of course.

“Where to now?” Vidya asked.

“I don’t care? Feel like wandering?”

“Sure.”

So they wandered up to various booths ranging from anime to comics to movies to the sci-fi and fantasy authors. Beta even stopped and bought a copy of
Old Man’s War
and got Scalzi himself to sign it.

“You’ve read
Forever War
, right?” Vidya asked as they walked away from Scalzi’s booth.

“No. Heard of it. Never read it.”

“Dude, seriously?”

What, was she channeling her inner Murderboat? “Is it good?”

“If you like
Old Man’s War
, you’ll like
Forever War.
It’s got some clever views on the future shape of civilization.”

And she had opinions on science fiction. Good, informed opinions. Beta marveled at her as they exited into the bright lights outside the convention center.

“Do you want to get a drink or something?” Beta asked.

Vidya hesitated. “Not tonight. Maybe next time?”

“Okay.” He flagged down a cab, held the door for her. All in all, it had been one of the best evenings of his life, even if it was ending a little early.

V
ICTORIA 
stood in the hallway outside Trent’s apartment. Her veins flowed with ice cold determination. When she knocked on the door, it came across as a pounding, not the firm rap she had intended.

Trent opened the door and stared at her a second. “Victoria, what a surprise. Come in.”

She strode past him, not waiting for him to close the door. If Jennifer--or anyone else--was over, she couldn’t spot any evidence. No discarded shirts, no abandoned purses. Trent didn’t have any random lipstick on his jaw.

Victoria plucked her copy of Trent’s key from her purse and swatted it down on the marble countertop. She faced him and squared her shoulders. “We’re done.”

“Excuse me?”

“Done. I want my clothes. Our relationship is over.”

“Victoria, baby,” he moved forward, caught her by the shoulders, “what are you saying?”

“I will not abide a man that cheats on me. I cannot.” She tried to pull away from him, but he tightened his grip and held her still.

“I don’t understand. Is this about Jennifer?” He laughed, though it sounded hollow. “I told you, she’s the company’s interior designer now. I was about to have some work done on the apartment, you know, in case someone else were going to be living here in the next few months.” He looked her in the eye. “In case you were.”

She succeeded in pulling away, and stalked across the living room. Midtown stretched out below her, and Central Park stood in the distance, a black hole in the glittering city. “You can say whatever you want, Trent. I know you can justify whatever you do, and you think you can talk your way out of any of your sins, but I’m just not that kind of girl. I don’t want an open relationship. I don’t want mistresses on the side. I want a man that loves me. That loves only me. And you’re not that kind of man.”

She turned back him, tears in her eyes. “And when you lie to me about it and try to explain shit away like you think I’m some kind of idiot, all it does it make me certain that walking out that door is the right thing to do.”

His calm façade fractured, and as he moved toward her, it shattered. “Victoria, baby, I’m sorry.” He made to sweep her into a hug, but she held out a hand, forcing him to stop a pace away. “It really was about redoing the apartment, but then she was here and one thing led to another, and I didn’t
mean
to sleep with her, but...”

“But you couldn’t control yourself?”

“Baby, I know. I didn’t mean to do anything. I would never do something to hurt you. It’s just... my father has always been a womanizer and my mom has always known. That was the example I’ve had all my life, and I’ve never found a woman I wanted to be with, not for more than a couple months. And then I found you, baby. And I’m sorry.” He shook his head. “I thought I could control the situation. I thought I could keep it professional, but you were in the hospital and--“

“Excuse me? Don’t you
dare
try to blame me for this. I didn’t make you stick your dick in another woman. I was just trying to stay alive.” She stood up straighter, the kernel of determination sprouting into a sapling of anger. “And you barely came to visit. I was there five days and I saw you three times? And then you left after twenty minutes?”

His look of hurt shifted, and cold calculation glinted in his eyes. “Yeah, I was probably there a fraction of the time Beta was.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” A tremor passed through her.

“I see how he moons after you. You never quite send him away, either. It’s like you want to have a backup, just in case.”

It was like he was two different people. One second he was apologetic, trying to win her back, but as soon as he was convinced she was leaving, he turned into someone else.

Victoria took a step forward, getting dangerously into his space. “It’s nothing like that. I’ve known him since we were in grade school.”

“And?” He looked down at her, a sneer developing.

“You know what? Fuck you, Trent. I’m done. I’m out. I thought I loved you. I was wrong.” She cocked her hand, thought better of it, and stalked past him toward the door.

“You wait one damn minute.” He caught her by the arm. “I’m not through talking to you. Do you want to know the difference between us? You have a child’s idea of love. The world is more complicated than a Disney movie, Victoria. You think you know what love is? Love is the misconception that one woman significantly differs from another.”

Victoria spun and swung without thinking. Her palm cracked across his face so hard the sting in her hand made her wince. It was still the sweetest note she’d ever sung. “I’m through with you.”

She jerked her arm away and practically ran out of the apartment, slamming the door behind her. She jabbed the button on the elevator and stood there, shaking with rage until the car stopped and she got inside.

Halfway across the lobby she realized she had forgotten to get her clothes. Whatever, he could keep them.

***

A lonely wind whistled down the glass canyon, carrying spitting rain with it. Victoria shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket and tried to ignore the cold. It was hard to tell if her shaking was the lousy weather or the still simmering rage.

But at least she had done it. Trent was so sweet, so charming. When he wanted to be. But now that she was putting mental distance between them, she recognized his type. Her mom had boyfriends like that. The sort that put a woman on a pedestal until they got what they wanted, and then she went from being the sole object of his attention to just an object. A thing to be used when convenient and then discarded.

She ducked under and awning, gaining respite from the rain. It was turning into something like sleet, and if the temperature dropped any more, they were going to have snow tomorrow. She dug her phone from her purse and hit the button to call Roxanne. Nothing in the world sounded better than a hot drink and a sympathetic ear.

Roxanne didn’t pick up.

Victoria stared at the slush already starting to accumulate on the sidewalk. She dialed Christine next, hoping she might be in town. Naturally, Christine didn’t answer, either.

Charlotte was in Omaha, and Victoria knew nothing worthwhile was happening in Omaha. The phone rang until it went to voicemail.

“Damn it!” Victoria kicked at the slush and started marching toward the train stop.

At the bottom of the stairs, she sighed and dialed her mom. Her mom picked up on the second ring.

“Why, look who it is. You aren’t in jail are you?”

Victoria settled into the seat on the eastbound train. “Hi Mom. I don’t think they let you make your personal call on a cellphone from jail.”

“Uh huh. You calling to chat or you got something important to say?” She was slurring her words subtly, but not enough to make Victoria worried. It would be more worrying if her mom were sober.

“I just wanted to say I’m sorry, and that you were right.”

“Is that right? You been drinking a little too much tonight?”

“Not yet, but I’m on the way home to fix that.” Victoria looked out the window and realized that they were just about to go under the river. “Hold on, Mom. I’m going to cut out, but I’ll call you right back.”

“If you’re calling to apologize, that must mean something happened. You get yourself knocked up?”

And then the phone cut out. Great, now her mom was going to think she was pregnant. Victoria’s luck would be that her mom got on Facebook and broadcast it to the world in the next two minutes. Victoria leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. Her heart rate had settled down and the anger had ebbed. She just felt numb. An ache was settling in. The train was climbing up the track into Queens when she realized it was regret. Not for leaving Trent, but for wasting six months with him in the first place.

She called her mom back.

“Sorry, mom, my train just went under the river.”

“You could have given me more warning. I thought something had happened.”

“I did. Anyway, no, I’m not pregnant. I broke up with Trent earlier.”

Her mom snorted. “Well, hallelujah.” It came out a smear of “L’s” but Victoria understood the sentiment if not the actual word. “I knew that boy was trouble, but you just wouldn’t listen.”

“Mom, you’re not exactly helping.”

“Well, I wish you hadn’t moved halfway across the country chasing him. It gets lonesome here in Shady Acres without my baby.”

“I didn’t move out here just for him, Mom.” It felt like she had, though. Lord knew she hadn’t accomplished much else.

“You finally get your break and land you a singing a job then?”

“No.” You could always trust your mother to cut right to the heart of the matter. She expected her mom to drive that point home, and then twist the blade to boot, but she didn’t.

“Well, shoot, Victoria. I’m sorry to hear that. If you decide you’re tired of the big city, you know you can always come back here, right?”

“I know. Thank you.”

“But you’re not leaving?”

“Not yet.”

“That’s alright, hon. I don’t blame you for giving it a try. If things don’t work out for you, at least you’ll always know you gave it an honest effort. That’s more than most folks can say.”

It was thin praise, but it really did mean a lot. When all you heard in life was criticism or complaint, even a dribble of praise seemed like a torrent. “Well, thanks, Mom. My train is about to stop, and it’s raining outside, so I need to let you go.”

“I love you, Victoria. Whatever you decide to do next, you’ll always be my little girl.”

The words caught her unprepared, and she started to tear up. It took a hard swallow to keep herself under control. “Thank you, Mom. I love you, too.”

She hung up and waited on the train to slide to a stop, then dashed out into the falling sleet. There was a bottle of wine in the apartment that had her name all over it. And if those tears needed to flow, at least they wouldn’t freeze to her face.