The Game Changer (14 page)

“I know,” Julian said. “She’s in the ladies room right now. I was in a business meeting on the second floor, and we ran into each other down here while I was leaving and she was coming in.” He motioned to a leather briefcase on the floor by his feet. “She mentioned she was meeting you for lunch, and when I asked her to say hello and that I promised to call you soon, she suggested I join you.”

Melody could feel her eyebrows rising as Julian spoke. She had told Olivia all about her run-in and subsequent diner trip with Julian, and how he had suggested they try being friends. Olivia had laughed herself silly before attempting to make bets with Melody on how long it would be before he tried to have sex with her. Melody hadn’t taken the bait. “Oh. Well, that was serendipitous.”

Julian grinned. “Good word. Yes, it was serendipitous. I really have been meaning to call you, I just got swamped with work.”

“No worries,” Melody said, waving her hand as if batting his apology away. It occurred to her that in the hour and a half she’d spent with him the Sunday before, work hadn’t come up. “What do you do?”

“I own an internet company that provides social media help for entrepreneurs and small businesses,” Julian explained.

“Wow,” Melody said. “That sounds really interesting.”

“I think you’re the first person who’s ever said that with a straight face,” Julian said. “I don’t usually talk about business because people find it boring.”

Melody shrugged. “Not me. I work for a marketing and consulting company, so I know the work involved in social media and what it’s like working with the type of people you probably work with. And to
own
a company? That’s seriously impressive.”

Julian’s lips curved into a pleased smile. “Well, thank you. I was always a bit of a computer geek, so it just seemed like a natural step for me.”

“I can’t picture you as a computer geek,” Melody said skeptically. “At all.”

“Oh, I totally am,” Julian assured her. He pulled a pair of wire-rimmed glasses from the breast pocket of his vest, and donned them. “See, I have the glasses to prove it.”

Melody laughed. He looked more like a sophisticated businessman or sexy young professor than a geek. She had trouble envisioning him in front of a computer screen for hours at a time, wearing his glasses, and spouting computer-speak. “You’re just full of surprises.”

“Funny, women usually tell me I’m full of something else,” Julian said. He looked over her shoulder and stood as Olivia approached their table.

“Hi kiddies.” Olivia stared at Julian when he pulled out her chair. “Are you for real?” she asked him.

He gave a one-shouldered shrug, and Melody could have sworn he looked slightly embarrassed. “My mother is very old fashioned, and she was always a stickler for manners. She taught me from a young age how you should treat a lady, and it stuck.”

When he turned to sit in his own chair, Olivia leaned in close to Melody and whispered, “You sure you just want to be friends with him?”

Melody nudged Olivia with her elbow and straightened up to find Julian watching the two of them with a small smile hovering around his lips.

“If I ever have kids, I want them to know those things, too,” Olivia said. “There aren’t enough guys that still open doors and pull out chairs and stand when a woman enters the room.”

Melody couldn’t argue with that. She’d only ever dated one guy who opened doors for her. She wasn’t exactly old fashioned, but she wasn’t a feminist either—she could open her own doors; it was the thought that mattered. Men often opened the door for her when she was entering her office building, and since breaking up with Rick she’d started wondering if guys did it to get a woman’s attention or just to be kind. She had a feeling it was often the former.

Melody grasped around in her mind for a topic so she could change the subject, but was saved by Kevin, who came to their table to take their lunch order.

“You girls going out this weekend?” Julian asked when Kevin left to take their order to the kitchen. He blinked as if suddenly remembering he was still wearing his glasses, then took them off and tucked them into his vest pocket.

“We haven’t decided yet if it’s going to be a weekly thing or not,” Melody said.

“I think she’s worried she’ll end up having to take care of me every Sunday,” Olivia told Julian. “But we very rarely drink that much. It was just…circumstances.”

“Circumstances?” Julian asked, brows raised.

Melody glanced at Olivia, who gazed back at her innocently. “Well, it did start out with us just drinking too much,” Melody said. “Cheap drinks, and you could hardly taste the alcohol in them…”

“Those are the deadliest,” Julian interjected with a smirk.

“Which we know now,” Olivia agreed.

“And then I sort of had a run-in with my ex’s new girlfriend, and taking a few shots helped me get over it,” Melody said, trying to sound nonchalant.

Julian’s expression warred between amusement and concern. The concern won. “What kind of run-in?”

Melody filled him in on the incident with Sydney in the bathroom, and how it had left her shaken.

“Crazy bitch,” Olivia muttered when Melody finished speaking.

“Well, yeah,” Melody agreed with a shrug. “I just hope Atlantis isn’t their new hang-out of choice.”

“I could be your escort,” Julian offered.

“Like a personal bodyguard?” Olivia asked, lips curving upward. “I like the sound of that.”

Julian chuckled. “Something like that. If we’re all going, we can go together. We don’t have to spend the whole night together, I can just keep an eye out for this Sydney woman and make sure she doesn’t bother you.”

“Wouldn’t that put a crimp in your, uh…” Melody trailed off, not exactly sure how to express her thoughts. His game? His ability to pick up women?

Julian looked at her expectantly. By the way his eyes danced with barely concealed mirth, she was certain he knew she was struggling with how to finish her sentence, and he seemed to want to see her squirm.

“I’m just guessing it’d be hard to pick up women if you were with two other women,” Melody finally said.

“You’d be surprised,” Julian deadpanned.

Olivia snorted. “Well there you go,” she said. “Maybe we’d help his game instead of hurting it.”

Melody laughed under her breath and shook her head. “Why not then. I did really like Atlantis.”

Olivia nodded. “Hard to find something that nice outside of Toronto or another big city. Tomorrow night work for you?” she asked Julian.

“Sounds good.”

Olivia glanced at Melody, and the devilish look on her face made Melody’s stomach drop. “Melody’s working late tomorrow, but why don’t you come over around seven and have dinner with us? Then we can all hang out for a bit and head to Atlantis together.”

Julian looked from Olivia to Melody and back again, his lips twitching as if he were trying to hold back a laugh. “It’s a date.”

*****

“I still can’t believe you invited him over here,” Melody said. It was 6:30 Friday evening, and she had just arrived home after a day of meetings. She was tired, her feet were killing her, and all she wanted to do was lie on the couch and veg.

“Hello to you, too,” Olivia said from the couch, where she was sprawled out watching television. It was a commercial, so the TV was on mute, and Olivia held the remote at the ready, anxious for whatever show she was watching to come back on.

Melody kicked off her shoes and walked across the room to lean on the back of the couch. “Who’s cooking what today?”

“Oh, it’s not the Food Network, it’s the W Network,” Olivia explained. “I cooked all morning, then ran a few errands, and when I got back I turned on the TV, and there’s a marathon of…oh!” She fumbled the remote and hit the mute button as the show came back on.

“
Property Brothers
?”

“You’ve watched it?” Olivia asked, bright eyes never leaving the screen.

“Of course. Where do you think I got the idea for that chandelier?” Melody pointed to the long, rectangular chandelier hanging over the small dining room table just off the kitchen.

Olivia bobbed her head, her eyes still riveted on the television screen. “They have good taste, eh? I think I’m in love with Jonathan.”

“Well that makes two of us.” Melody hitched herself up on the back of the couch and tumbled over so she was sitting next to Olivia. She noticed a notebook and pen in Olivia’s lap with several pages of scribbled notes.

Wait for it
, Melody thought, trying to keep the smirk from her face.

“I’m thinking about getting into interior design,” Olivia said.

Melody tried not to laugh, but couldn’t help herself. She thought it was great that Olivia was exploring her options and letting her imagination run loose, but she also couldn’t help but think about the time Olivia was wasting when she already had a unique creative talent.

Still, it had only been two weeks since Olivia moved in, and Melody didn’t want to push her.

Olivia cast her a sidelong glance before her eyes snapped back to the TV. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing,” Melody said. “I think you’d be good at interior design. You have a great eye for colour and texture. Or, you know, you could just stick with fashion design since you already
know
you’re good at that…”

A beat passed, then another, and finally Olivia met Melody’s eyes. She was silent for a moment, her expression unreadable, and Melody held her breath. “
Or
maybe I should look into real estate like Drew from
Property Brothers
.”

Melody sighed. She wasn’t sure whether Olivia was a hopeless case, or if she really was so uncertain about her future that she felt the need to try every occupation known to man before settling on one. “You could,” she said, deciding to just play along. “Maybe you’ll get your own TV show, too.”

Olivia grinned and turned her attention back to the couple on screen who were demolishing their old kitchen with sledgehammers.

“I’d better get in the shower before Julian gets here.” Melody heaved herself off the couch with another sigh. She wasn’t sure exactly how this was going to work. She and Olivia usually got ready an hour or so before they went to the club, but with Julian there that would make it difficult. She had pointed that fact out to Olivia the night before, and been told they could take turns keeping Julian company and getting ready.

“You’re
friends
, don’t forget,” Olivia had said to her. “So you shouldn’t mind being alone with him while I get ready.”

Fifteen minutes later, Melody walked out of the bathroom in her robe with her hair wrapped in a towel. She came to an abrupt halt when she found Julian sitting on the couch next to Olivia.

She must have made a noise because Julian looked up and saw her. He smiled in greeting. “I was early, so we’re just…hanging out.” He pointed to the TV where the Scott brothers were still doing their thing.

“Hi,” Melody said, glad of the fact that her robe wasn’t skimpy or see-through like some of Olivia’s. “I’ll just go…” She motioned down the hall, and before he could say anything else she disappeared into her bedroom.

When she emerged, Julian was setting the dining room table and Olivia was pulling dinner from the oven. Melody wasn’t sure what it was, but it smelled amazing.

“Do you know I almost forgot we had a dining room table until you mentioned it earlier?” Olivia called to her from the kitchen.

Melody could believe that. They usually ate at the tiny two-seater kitchen table, the island, or the coffee table in front of the couch so they could watch TV. The only reason she even had a dining room table was because her grandfather had made it for her before he died. It was a beautiful, rustic-looking harvest table, and she knew it should be in a more visible spot, but because she didn’t use it often, it was fitted into an alcove off the kitchen, and usually covered in files and boxes Melody brought home from work.

“We should move it,” Melody said, taking the bottle of wine Olivia handed her and setting it on the table. “There’s enough room between the kitchen and living room. We could turn this space into an office for you, maybe.” She surveyed the area where the dining room table was—huge window that looked out over the river, along with plenty of wall space for bookshelves or filing cabinets. Why hadn’t she thought to turn it into an office for herself?