Ten Reasons to Stay by Candace Knoebel

Author:Candace Knoebel [Knoebel, Candace]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-08-28T16:00:00+00:00

Dinner went as it usually did every year. Toasts were made. Jokes were passed around. Business propositions were served alongside the main courses. I was relieved by the time we moved to cocktails, knowing soon everyone would be on their way home, satisfied.

Jack had wormed his way beside George and Dennis, so I decided to sneak off and find Corinne. I’d let her be the entire night. Kept my attention focused on my guests though I burned to find her. I had taken it too far. I was bordering wrong. I just… I couldn’t get past what I’d discovered about him. What she didn’t know. What he didn’t deserve to have.

What my heart felt.

Corinne was nowhere to be found when I made my rounds through the apartment. I stopped, having an inkling about where she’d be… her favorite spot in the penthouse—the balcony.

She was leaning against the glass rail, wrapped in a coat, hair flowing in the chilling breeze. Like an angel in the night. The crescent moon peered in and out through the silver clouds.

“You’re going to freeze out here,” I said, approaching her slowly, cautiously.

She lifted her gaze, her face shaped in sadness. I thought she might have been crying, but it was too hard to tell in the dim light.

She faked a smile. Wiped from under her eyes. “I just needed a breather.”

I wanted to pull her against me. Erase the sadness from her soul. Make her see there was another side to the rainbow, and I could give it to her. I could give it all to her.

“Same,” I said, stopping beside her. Leaving a safe distance between us, though every inch writhed to be filled.

She let out a sigh, heavy and dark. “I hate the fakeness of all this.”

I could feel my brow wrinkle. “What do you mean?”

She was shaking her head, distress shadowing her features. “No one really cares to know anything about anyone else here. I mean, aside from the information that helps them get ahead, no one really cares. It’s empty conversations in there. It’s lonely. How do you… how do you stand it?”

“I don’t. Why do you think there’s an unlimited amount of liquor available?” I tried to joke. It fell flat. She didn’t smile. I exhaled. “It’s all I’ve known. Business is business. In that room, we separate our emotions from the corporate life. Personal lives don’t belong.”

“Then why the show? Why the need to host an intimate party where there’s no intimacy?” she retorted.

There was more to it than that. Jack made her lonely. Being in a room with the two of us was probably more than she could handle. None of this was fair to her. Guilt sunk like rocks in my stomach.

“Because it’s all a part of the show, Corinne. To make them feel comfortable. To make things seem more than they really are.”

She nodded, the real truth beneath those words registering deep in my gut. Jack was the master at putting on a show. It was obvious she knew it, too

“Jack is going out of town tomorrow,” I said, touching her hand.

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