Author's note: First and most importantly, I'd like to thank Nelle1022, not only for all the time and effort put into reading and editing my stories but also for offering invaluable feedback. Thank you so much! You rock! Also, this is a continuation of Rain Falls. If you haven't yet, I strongly suggest that you read that first. While this story probably could stand on its own, it was not intended to do so.
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I prided myself on never forgetting a face or the name that went with it. Even if that had not been true, I would have liked to think that I never would have forgotten his. Dylan. I owed him a debt of gratitude. Thanks to him, I had a life that I could be proud of. I had an education, a career, and I had been loved. I spent five very happy years being loved to a degree that, while it hadn't erased the damage that had come before, it certainly had made up for most of it. Even the tumultuous year and subsequent horrid breakup did not negate the joy that those five years had given me. It had ended so badly with Eric that it had taken us a year to be able to be in the same room without screaming at each other.
Nonetheless, I owed the man sitting across from me a heartfelt thank you. He had changed my life, for the better. Our only prior meeting had been brief and I wondered if he remembered me. I hung back after the negotiations had completed, hoping for my chance to speak with him. Unfortunately, he left with the others. I sighed, thinking maybe next time, and stood to gather my copies of the paperwork.
"Mr. Dutton? Was there something else?"
I looked up from my briefcase to see him standing in the doorway, holding the conference room door ajar. I smiled, "Mr. Granger." Encouraged by his return smile, and emboldened by the knowledge that he, at one time, found me attractive, I took a leap. "Would you like to have lunch with me?"
"It's three o'clock, Mr. Dutton," he pointed out.
Perfect setup. "How about dinner then?" I suggested.
I watched the smile drift from his features as his eyes slowly scanned my body. He stepped forward, allowing the conference room door to close behind him. "Was there something business related that you wanted to discuss?"
He looked concerned. He hid it well but I knew what to look for. There was a slight hitch in his breathing and a small, almost nonexistent, downturn of his beautiful brown eyes. There was nothing in his appearance, dress, or mannerisms that declared his sexuality, but I had inside information. He'd already told me that he was gay. "Not business related, no." I smiled at him again but, this time, he didn't return it. "I would like to talk to you. Someplace not here." I swept my arm to indicate the office.
He studied my face but I wasn't sure what he was expecting to find there. I wondered if his hesitance was due to the fact that he wasn't interested in me, he wasn't out, or if he just had a problem with the fact that we now, technically, worked together.
"Just talk," I assured him. "I promise that I don't bite." I couldn't contain the small chuckle over the memory that the statement brought to surface.
"I remember you, you know," he told me as soon as the hostess had seated him at my table.
"Do you?" I asked. "That's good. It saves me the trouble of a long explanation."
"I didn't," he admitted. "Not until after you left this afternoon. It was the name that triggered the memory. There are not a lot of people named Rain. I guess that I never believed that it was really your name."
I grinned and nodded. "That's understandable."
"So you're in networking now." It was a statement, not a question.
"Yes," I answered anyway. "It's a pretty big change from 'entertainment', right?"
He chuckled. "Not bad. How'd that come about?"
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about." I halted while our waitress came to take orders. I studied him while he ordered, much the same as I had done that afternoon during the business meeting. The past seven years had been kind to him. He was just as handsome as he had been then. There were small lines at the corners of his gorgeous cinnamon eyes, but he still had a full head of light brown hair, cut short in the typical business appropriate style. His tailored suit did little to hide the strength in the breadth of his shoulders or the power in his arms and legs. His glasses had changed but they were still wire rimmed and accentuated his strong, square jawline and masculine features. "Do you still build furniture?"
He looked surprised. "Yes. When I have the time."
He quietly evaluated the changes in me while his drink was delivered and he waited for me to continue. I had changed a lot in the last seven years, and I knew he was comparing what he was seeing now to what he remembered from before. I had filled out considerably from the skinny kid that I was. My body would never be bulky and massive but I had some good definition and I worked to keep it that way. My face had aged but was still more on the pretty side than handsome, with the same blue/gray eyes, pouty lips, and sharp features. My thick, straight, black hair was short now. I had cut it all off in a fit after Eric and I had split up, and I had kept it short since.
"I wanted to thank you," I told him.
"For what?"
"You helped me see some things that I couldn't have on my own. After I left, I talked to Eric."
"Dracula?" he smirked.
"Yes," I laughed. "Him. We were together for six years. Five of them were very good. He put me through school and I discovered a talent for computers. That's how I got into networking. What you said to me that night, it changed my life and I'm grateful."
"You're welcome, but I don't think I actually did anything except give you someone to talk to," he replied. "And on that note, thank you as well. You helped me work out a little of my own issues too."
"With your parents?" I asked.
"Yes," he explained. "I tried to keep what you said in mind every time I had to deal with them. It helped, and I managed to keep a good relationship with them until the end. They've both passed now and I'm not left with any regrets."
"It's hard to fathom that half an hour spent with each other had such a profound effect on both of our lives."
"So what happened with Eric?"
I shrugged it off. "People change. We both changed, me more than him, I think. I love him. I will always love him, and I think he loves me too. He told me from the beginning that he was not good at relationships and he hated talking about himself or his feelings. It made it very difficult to please him when he wouldn't tell me what he was upset about. He would keep everything inside until he flew off the handle and I couldn't cope with his outbursts. He's an artist and he's temperamental to start with. I exacerbated the issue. We became very volatile toward the end."
He frowned. "I'm sorry to hear that."
"What about you? Surely you haven't been single all this time. You're entirely too yummy to not be snatched up."
"I'm yummy?" he chuckled. "That was a pretty gay phrase for a man who wasn't sure of his sexuality."
"Oh, I'm sure now," I said. "I fall somewhere in the range of gay with bisexual tendencies. I'm still attracted to women but I can't imagine ending up with one in the long term."
