The Winter I Left Him

"The ring isn't for you." I was clutching the diamond ring I'd just found under the pillow, and my smile froze on my face. Today was my twentyseventh birthday.

I'd thought that after five years of a secret relationship, Gregory was finally ready to give us a real future.

But he only lowered his head to light a cigarette and calmly added: "The ring isn't for you.

I'm getting married." Chapter 1 The moment Gregory's words landed, I went rigid all over, my throat suddenly tight.

Still, the words came out on their own. "When…?" He leaned against the side of the bed and tapped the ash off his cigarette. "Rachel, seven years ago, when you first told me you wanted to break up, I didn't ask a single question." "Now I'd like you to do the same." I froze for a second.

He'd already gotten up, grabbed a towel from the foot of the bed, and wrapped it around his waist.

The dim light fell across Gregory's body, over the clean, sleek lines of the muscles in his back.

The kiss marks I'd left there moments ago still showed, a suggestive pale red against his skin. Soon the sound of running water came from the bathroom.

I lay limp on the bed, staring up at the harsh ceiling light, and the tears came no matter how hard I fought them.

Why would the man who'd been tangled up with me in bed so desperately just moments ago turn around the very next second and tell me he was marrying another woman? The water stopped.

When Gregory came out, I was still curled up limply under the covers.

Any other night, he would have scooped me up off the bed, carried me to the bathroom, and washed every inch of me clean. But not tonight.

He just took a clean shirt from the closet and put it on. Then he opened the nightstand drawer, took out a check, and set it by my pillow.

It was for three times what I'd received my freshman year of college. I understood what he meant almost instantly. For a moment my breath seemed to stop.

Mechanically, I pulled on the nightgown lying beside me and spoke, my voice cold and hard. "Don't worry. I'll make this a clean break." Click.

The metal lid of a lighter flipped open, and a small flame leapt up. Gregory bowed his head and lit the cigarette between his fingers.

Pale smoke curled slowly up past his fine features as he raised his eyes to me. "Rachel, if you don't take it, does that mean you still plan on hanging on to me?" All these years, he'd been decisive at work, never one to leave loose ends.

Now he was the same in love. After a few seconds of standoff, I finally reached out and took the check. It weighed almost nothing in my palm.

But to me it felt like a ton. "You forgot the ring." I called after Gregory before he could leave. He stopped and turned to look at me. "She doesn't like the style.

The ring's yours." Then he added, "If you don't like it, you can sell it." I didn't say anything. He pulled the door shut behind him on his way out. I lowered my head.

I stared at the brilliant diamond ring in my palm, and the tears came without warning. The truth was, a year ago, Gregory had given me a diamond ring too.

Chapter 2 It was at an auction in Houston, the room packed with the elite, all lavish light and glamour.

With a crowd of Houston's wealthiest bidding against each other, he raised his hand and signaled to the auctioneer that he'd top any bid, no matter who made it.

In the end, he paid five million dollars to win me that sapphire and diamond ring. The whole room erupted. Stunned, I turned to look at Gregory beside me.

His eyes held a gentle smile. "You looked at it the longest." "If you like it, it's ours." As the auction broke up, the president of the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, an old friend of Gregory's, came over smiling and clapped him on the shoulder. "¡Señor Langford, hacía mucho que no te veía tan pendiente de una muchacha!

Este anillo dice mucho.

Parece que ya viene la boda. ¡Que el amor gane, y que se casen pronto!" His wife, seeing that I didn't understand Spanish, switched to English as they were leaving and added with a smile, "That ring would make a lovely engagement ring." I blushed instantly.

That night, back at the hotel, I worked up the courage to ask him, "Gregory, when are you going to propose to me?" He paused, and the smile at the corners of his mouth slowly faded. "I think we're good the way we are." My heart sank at once.

At the time, I knew better than to press. Or maybe I'd known the answer all along. Gregory had never, from start to finish, thought about marrying me.

The morning after my birthday, when I came downstairs after getting ready, that alltoofamiliar car was parked outside the hotel entrance.

The window rolled down, revealing Gregory's cool, sharp features. "Get in.

I'll drive you back to the office." I refused on reflex. "No need." He put on his sunglasses and turned his head toward me. "Everyone else headed back yesterday.

The company doesn't have a spare car to send for you." Silently, I opened the door and got in. The car was dead quiet. There was only the sound of the tires rolling over the road.

Watching the streets outside rush backward past the window, I finally asked the question I'd kept buried for so long. "Gregory, all these years, have you ever thought of me as your girlfriend?" He kept his eyes on the road, his tone giving nothing away. "What kind of girlfriend?" I turned my head and stared hard at him. "A normal relationship." He gave a flat "Oh," his tone as light as if he were talking about something that didn't matter at all. "I always thought we were the kind who just sleep together and don't date." My breath caught.

I jerked my eyes away and couldn't bring myself to ask anything more. I'd been kidding myself. After all, seven years ago that was exactly what we'd been.

Never allowed to see the light of day. Seven years later, that wasn't going to change.

The threehour drive flew by, and as usual the car stopped at the traffic light three miles from the office.

All these years, to keep things from looking bad at work, no matter how tangled up we'd been the night before, he never once drove me to the front of the building the next morning.

I got out and watched the black sedan pull away, then called a rideshare to get to work.

When I walked into the office and went to get some water, a burst of gossip drifted out of the break room. "Guess what I saw downstairs this morning!?" "A woman actually got out of Mr.

Langford's car this morning!" "All these years, and it's the first time I've ever seen anyone catch a ride with Mr. Langford. She's definitely got something going on with him.

She might even end up being the boss's wife." I froze for a second. Hot water spilled over the rim of my cup. The skin between my thumb and forefinger went red in an instant.

Around ten that morning, HR director Curtis Tate came in smiling, someone in tow.

Chapter 3 He clapped his hands. "Everyone, stop what you're doing for a moment." Heads came up all around the room. "I'd like to introduce the newest member of our department, Juliet Harwood." The moment he finished, every eye in the office landed on the newcomer.

She was slender and softlooking, easy to pick out of a crowd, the kind of pretty you remembered at a glance. I'd seen her before. In the innermost compartment of Gregory's wallet.

Back then, he'd even blown up at me for looking at her photo without asking.

Only when he saw my eyes go red did he soften his voice and explain. "Rachel, that's all in the past." That was how I found out the two of them had grown up together and fallen in love young.

They'd broken up in the end because they wanted different futures. Behind me, some coworkers were talking in low voices. "That's her. I saw her get out of Mr.

Langford's car this morning." "She's so pretty. And I heard she graduated from some top school overseas. She and Mr. Langford are a perfect match." Tate looked over at me. "Ms.

Fontenot, would you mind helping Juliet get up to speed?" I was caught off guard for a moment, then said, "Sure." Juliet's eyes turned to me.

She walked up to me with a smile and took something out of her bag. "Ms. Fontenot, this is your wallet, right? You left it in Mr.

Langford's car this morning." The instant she said it, the office exploded. "Wait, what? Ms. Fontenot got out of Mr. Langford's car this morning too?" "Oh my God, this is juicy.

I just realized—last night on the company trip, I think the only two who didn't come back were Ms. Fontenot and Mr. Langford. So they…" "Well, well.

No wonder she's landed so many projects the last few years. Turns out she hitched her wagon to Mr. Langford behind everyone's back." My mind went blank for a second.

Without thinking, I felt my empty pocket. Juliet smiled, looking completely harmless. "Sorry, Ms. Fontenot, I peeked at the photo in your wallet." "Here.

Back to its rightful owner." I took the wallet she held out, a sudden, sour knot lodged in my chest. After that day, gossip about me spread all over the office.

People were polite to my face, but behind my back they always shot me looks of contempt. As if they'd decided that everything I'd achieved had something to do with Gregory.

How absurd. For years I'd worked day and night. I'd never once tried to use Gregory to get any kind of shortcut at work.

In fact, to avoid any hint of favoritism, he'd been far harder on me than on anyone else. So much so that my road to promotion had been especially rough.

But no one would believe me when I tried to explain. People only believed the truth they'd already decided on. I had no energy for anything else.

I just wanted to see the project in my hands through.

Under the company's promotion rules, once this flagship project of mine closed, I'd be promoted to project director before the end of the year.

I'd thought results earned on merit would at least be worth all the effort I'd put in and everything I'd swallowed.

But a week later, at a meeting, Tate announced in front of everyone: "By decision of the company, Juliet Harwood will serve as the company's project director, effective immediately." The air went still for a moment.

Every head turned toward me at once. Some sympathetic, some mocking, some gloating. I stood rooted to the spot, staring in disbelief at Gregory at the head of the table.

He glanced at me and said flatly, "Rachel, you don't need to be involved in the Harborline project anymore." Chapter 4 "Juliet will handle the wrapup." After the meeting, I stormed into Gregory's office, past caring about anything.

He stood with his back to me at the huge floortoceiling window, tall and cold. "I built the Harborline project from nothing. I worked on it day and night.

Why does someone else get to walk in and take all of it?" My eyes were red, and my voice kept shaking from how unfair it was. "It's not like you don't know how much I've given these past few years to get that position." "Why?

I already agreed to a clean break.

I'm not going to hang on to you anymore." "Why let her, a new hire, steal my project and take my promotion?" Gregory turned around and looked at the tear tracks on my face.

A faint trace of emotion seemed to flicker in his eyes. But the next second, he spoke coldly. "You left your wallet in my car on purpose.

Didn't you want Juliet, and the whole company, to know about us