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I drove home, tears in my eyes, feeling more like a failure than I had in years.
I needed to figure out if anything could be salvaged and then do something about it. And hope it wasn’t too late.
* * *
I was staring out the cab window when my phone rang with a call from Dylan. I almost didn’t answer it, but I forced myself.
Dylan deserved to hear what I had to say as soon as possible. As painful as it was, there was no need to put it off.
“We should talk,” Dylan said when I answered. “Let me come over so we can talk in person?”
“I’m out of town, Dylan. And we do need to talk, but we can do it on the phone. I wanted to tell you how sorry I am about everything that happened last night. I didn’t handle it well,” I admitted, “and I know I made everything worse. I’m so sorry, Dylan.”
He sighed. “No, baby, it wasn’t you. None of that was your fault. Todd had no right to talk to you like that. Anybody would have reacted the way you did.”
“I’m not so sure about that, Dylan.”
“I am.” Dylan took a deep breath. “I’m sorry I made it seem like I was blaming you for Todd finding out last time we talked. I was out of line. Todd’s behavior isn’t on anybody but Todd. I feel like I’ve been giving him passes for years and blaming everything and everyone else, and I’m sorry if I did that to you.”
I sniffed. It was wonderful to hear all that, but it didn’t really matter anymore.
“I appreciate that, Dylan. But given how he reacted to me and the idea of us together . . . I think we need to stop seeing each other.” It hurt so much to say that I could barely get the words out.
“No,” he said sharply. “Lana,no. We can’t let Todd’s reactions dictate what we do. I won’t accept it.”
“Dylan, I can’t keep causing a rift between the two of you. I should never have let that happen,” I explained.
“You didn’t, baby. That’s Todd and his unwillingness to face facts. It’s not your fault.” He inhaled sharply. “Just come home and let’s talk about it. Don’t make a rash decision after what happened yesterday. Everything’s going to be ok. Please, just come home.”
I wanted to say yes. I wanted to agree to go back and throw myself into Dylan’s arms. But I knew I couldn’t. It just wasn’t right or fair to do that.
“I’ve made everything such a big mess for you. Your business prospects. Your relationship with Todd. I just don’t think we can keep doing this, Dylan.” My voice broke on his name, so I covered my hand with my mouth and tried not to sob.
“Baby, stop talking like this. Where are you? I’ll come to you and—”
“I’m sorry, Dylan. I have to go.” I hung up and turned my phone off so I wouldn’t be tempted to answer if he called back.
Then I took a deep breath and braced myself for what was coming.
I needed to look together and not like I’d been about to cry like a baby in the back of a cab.
* * *
“They’ll see you now,” the receptionist said, leading me to the meeting room where Vera and Shane had agreed to talk with me.
I took slow, deep breaths on the walk there.
The worst they can say is no, and then at least you can say you tried.
“Thank you so much for agreeing to meet with me,” I said as they shook my hand and I sat.
“We were surprised when you called,” Vera said. “It shows a lot of initiative that you’d come all this way after what happened.”
“I just want to explain and hopefully make it clear that what happened isn’t representative of Deft Rock. Not at all.” I did my best to look them each in the eyes as I explained what happened was completely unacceptable to Deft Rock and that it would in no way be associated with the Emberox Spirits brand.
Vera steepled her fingers together. “Look, Lana, we were really impressed. The tasting was a success as far as we were concerned. At least until the brawl.”
Shane nodded. “Until that point, we were ready to sign on.”
