Read Online Letting Go by Ann O'Leary - Free Book Online Page A

begun to forget about her. The rest of the week seemed to fly by as Laura and Tony worked hard together, creating some great ideas for presentation the following week. By Friday night, Laura was looking forward to relaxing with her friends. She and Jude and a few others met at The Three Sisters for dinner and planned to stay on in the bar later. It got quite crowded on Fridays and Saturdays, and was often a lot of fun. It was here, later in the evening, amidst a crowd of women, with Melissa Etheridge playing loudly in the background, that Laura bumped into Kelly.
    She’d appeared out of the crowd and placed a featherlight kiss on her neck, accompanied by a sexy low growl. Laura felt a rush of lust sweep through her. Kelly stood for a while with her arm around her while they talked and flirted with each other. A few times, they’d kissed briefly. Kelly was going on to a party and then heading off for the weekend. They made plans to see each other the following week.
    Jude had, of course, observed all this and looked away in disgust, but Laura was unconcerned.
    64
    * * *
    Kate had come into the café at around nine. She passed close by Laura’s table as she headed toward he bar, but Laura was engrossed in a conversation and didn’t notice her. Kate couldn’t relax. She kept looking over at Laura. The past week had been extremely difficult for her. She’d thought of a hundred ways to approach Laura and a hundred things to say, but she had no confidence that there was anything she could do. Laura seemed to have made up her mind and she was obviously strong-willed.
    Laura was standing near the bar when a tall blonde woman dressed in black leather pants and a red and white striped shirt came over and put her arm around Laura, kissing her.
    Shocked, Kate stood there watching this scene with Laura and the other woman. Who was she? Kate wondered. Laura had told her she wasn’t involved with anyone. But maybe now she was?
    Kate’s fists were clenched and her heart was pounding. She felt like screaming. At last the other woman left. At least Laura wasn’t leaving with her, she thought. Maybe she’s just a friend fooling around, Kate imagined hopefully. Still, it looked suspiciously like a lot more than that. She’d thought that a night out would do her good, but she felt desolate and decided to leave. She didn’t want to go home, but she couldn’t stay there any longer, looking at Laura yet forbidden to speak to her or touch her. She drove around for a while, found a café, had a coffee, and then after a couple of hours, resolved what she would do. 65
    * * *
    Laura arrived home about eleven thirty. She’d enjoyed the evening but didn’t want to spoil it by staying out too late after such a hard week at work. She put on some music. The relaxing strains of Chopin’s Piano Concertos sounded good after the thumping disco music at the bar. Then she had a hot shower, preparing for bed. She was just getting a glass of water when her intercom buzzed. Who on earth could that be? she thought as she went to answer it, it couldn’t be Kelly.
    Her heart skipped a beat when she heard, “It’s Kate, Laura. I’ve got to see you.”
    Laura felt flustered. She’d just managed to convince herself this week that this problem would go away. She answered gently, “Kate, you know the situation. We agreed to not see each other for a while.”
    Kate responded firmly, “No, Laura. You said we shouldn’t see each other. I didn’t agree.”
    Laura was now feeling anxious. “Please go home, Kate. I’m sorry I can’t invite you in. It’s for the best, believe me.”
    But Kate evidently had nothing to lose and everything to gain and was clearly going to hold her ground. “Laura,”
    she said, her voice tight with anger, “if you don’t let me in now, I’ll stay down here all night pressing this buzzer. I mean it.”
    Laura could hear that Kate did indeed mean it. She thought half-heartedly that maybe she could talk some sense into