Kismet: A Serendipity Novella Read Online Free

expensive clothing from Saks and showing up at her hotel room
in the middle of his workday to ... what?
    She had no idea, and that scared her.
    *
    As Trevor rode the elevator to the
thirty-sixth floor, he figured he’d lost his mind. He had no other
explanation for doing something so out of character as leaving work
in the middle of the day. No doubt about it, though, his phone call
with his mother had shaken him badly.
    For years he’d assumed that once Lissa had
gotten pregnant and Brad had done the right thing by marrying her,
she’d lived a charmed life as Bradley Banks’s wife. The money, the
country club, all the things that at the time, Trevor could never
be sure he’d be able to provide. And once she’d had Brad’s baby and
married him, whether or not Trevor succeeded in life no longer
mattered. He’d had a decade to build a picture in his mind of how
good her life had been without him, while no matter how much
professional success he achieved, Trevor still felt hollow
inside.
    It had taken no time to have his
illusions—or rather, delusions—shattered. According to his mother,
Lissa’s married life had been a decade-long embarrassment. The
bastard had married her in name only, doing the so-called “right
thing” by his child. Not by the baby’s mother. When Lissa finally
had enough and walked out, her settlement had been paltry and she’d
been forced to take a part-time job serving coffee at Cuppa Café
while writing the obituary column for the
Serendipity
Gazette
. She lived in a small house on her original side of
town, and though their daughter’s future was secure thanks to
Brad’s parents, Lissa worked for everything she had.
    No wonder she’d nearly passed out when he’d
mentioned a formal affair and a dinner party this weekend. Not only
couldn’t she afford those kinds of clothes, she probably didn’t
even own them. Trevor had misjudged her, the life she’d lived, and
who she’d become. And though nothing could change what had happened
in the past, he damned well respected her choices now.
    He should have known better. If he could
have gotten past his hurt and anger sooner and let his mother fill
him in, he’d have known how unhappy her life had to be. Would it
have changed anything? Would he have gone back for her, married or
not?
    He’d never know.
    On that thought, a mechanical voice
announced he was on the thirty-sixth floor, and the elevator door
opened in front of him.
    Well, whatever was in the past, Lissa was
here now and Trevor had this one chance to see what might have
been. What could be. Either way, when this interview process was
over, he’d have the one thing that had been missing all these
years.
    Closure.
    And he’d also have Lissa one more time. He
refused to accept any other outcome.
    Trevor reached Lissa’s room and found the
door partially open. He walked in to find her sitting on the edge
of the bed surrounded by bags of clothing.
    “Hi,” he said to capture her attention.
    She glanced up, meeting his gaze with a
wide-eyed, wary gaze. “What is all this? And don’t say
clothes
,” she said, before he could do just that. “Why
didn’t you just let me go shopping?”
    Trevor ran a hand through his hair,
embarrassed. It wasn’t like he went around ordering clothing for
women. “It wasn’t hard to figure out that I was putting you on the
spot with the formal affair and the dinner party.”
    “And I said I’d go shopping.”
    “You also mentioned something about serving
coffee and you literally paled when it dawned on you that you’d
have to buy new things. I realized I knew nothing about you now.”
He stared up at the ceiling, knowing he had no choice but to admit
the truth. “So I called my mother and she filled me in.”
    Lissa felt her face flush hot with
embarrassment and awkwardness. “So you found out all about my life
and realized I couldn’t really afford a new wardrobe for the
weekend. You felt sorry for me and sent these clothes over?”