Read Online The Winemaker's Dinner: Dessert (The Winemaker's Feast) by Dr. Ivan Rusilko - Free Book Online Page A

usually…”
    “Shame,” she said as she stood and nonchalantly stepped up to the mirror. “Wife?” she asked as she reapplied her lip gloss and smoothed her hair.
    “No.” He pulled his pants up, still as hard as a rock, and zipped.
    “Maybe next time, hmmm?”
    With a quick backward glance over his shoulder, Ivan uttered the only thing that came to mind. “Never say never.”
    He pulled the door closed behind him, leaving her in the bathroom—probably not for long, but he wasn’t about to stick around to find out. Ivan thought he noticed more than a few grins and chuckles from patrons sitting near the bathroom in his rush to leave. He pushed through the doors and into the brilliant Miami morning, relishing the warmth of the sun as it beat against his face. He took a deep inhale and felt like he could breathe again. He looked around for a moment. Something was different. As he looked off toward the horizon it hit him: For the first time in a long time, his gray world appeared a bit pastel. A hint of color played just outside his field of vision. He had some thinking to do.

Chapter 11
    “Someone Like You”
    T HE M ESSAGE -W AITING I CON T AUNTED I VAN over and over again. This wasn’t just any unread message. It was her —a person he hadn’t spoken to in more than six months. Granted, he’d left many of these messages unheard and unanswered since the night she shattered his world, but for some reason this message, without even being heard, had incited a riot of emotions inside him.
    The freak was still pissed that he’d cut short his encounter with the Comeandlickmypus , but Ivan now channeled all his need and tension back into the one thing that had always served him and his body best: exercise. He ran harder and faster along the path than usual, working his muscles and flooding his system with endorphins. He ran as if he were trying to outrun something, and maybe he was, but he was thankful that after a while his head and his thoughts began to feel less deadened and fuzzy.
    As he ran flat-out along the path, he noticed the sky darkening with a distant thunderstorm, and after a moment he realized he’d noticed the contrast between the brilliance overhead and the looming darkness for the first time in a long time. She’d stripped him of more than just his heart and soul. Colors, smells, sounds—his awareness and appreciation of life and the things around him had all been lost six months ago. She’d left him without his usual zest, truly destroyed. He smiled as he gripped his phone in his fist, pumping his arms as he ran, the thin cord of the ear buds bouncing against his chest and classic rock blasting in his ears. For some reason, he felt better.
    However, neither the run, the sky, or the darkening clouds overhead could distract him from the voicemail. It promised him the possibility of his life back, Ivan realized. But whether he’d be putting something to rest or breathing it back into existence, he wasn’t yet certain he wanted to know. Redoubling his efforts to force all thought from his mind, he turned up the volume and pushed himself harder. But not even AC/DC could tear him away from his spinning brain.
    A storm was coming.
    He thought back to the day of the meltdown at The Bath Club, and he could feel the despair, loneliness, and anger build with every passing moment. The thought of her in bed with Damian, the douchebag’s hands touching places he’d once held sacred, made Ivan sick to his stomach. But after a time, memories of the nights he’d spent in Jaden’s embrace and the mornings filled with laughter tempered his hatred. What was he missing? How had this happened? He missed her and found himself wishing for a way to forgive her.
    But there wasn’t a way. The betrayal was too big. It changed everything, and that’s what left him with no idea what to do. Why did he even want her anymore? It was as if some parts of him just refused to face the truth. He watched as little by little