All That Glitters

Bent over an ice cream cart in Central Park, elbows deep in heavenly hash, 27-year-old Angela Pearson froze when she heard a familiar voice in her ear. An invisible hand squeezed the breath from her throat.

"Hello, Angel," the voice said in a tone that flowed like warm caramel.

She forced herself to breathe. There was only one person who called her Angel. And he was the last person on the face of the earth that she wanted to see today. Or any other day. Especially looking like this; elbow deep in ice cream, her hair unkempt, her apron smeared with heavenly hash.

She shook with panic. She wasn't strong enough yet, not even after four years. How many nights had she’d prayed that when their eyes finally met again, somehow, magically, everything would return to how it used to be when they were kids? Instead, she felt like a stranger in her own body, her skin scraped raw.

As she raised her eyes to him, every muscle fiber in her body twitched. For a split second, she couldn’t decide whether to jump into his arms or run away as fast as she could. Nothing was as she'd imagined it. In her imagination, she was supposed to be wearing a flowing silk gown, her hair raked by the wind. She nervously smoothed the unflattering bun pulled tightly at the back of her head. A spark of excitement and joy rose in her, but it was diluted with a deeper sense of hurt, anger, and confusion. Overwhelmed by the tumble of feelings, she could barely remain upright, never mind speak.

"Are you going to pretend you don't see me?" the voice persisted, tinged with hurt.

"Hello, Griffin," Angela finally managed to say in a strangled voice, raising her ice cream scoop in the air as she looked up. "What can I get you?" She forced herself not to focus on the hue of his eyes. They were greener than the purest jade. The color of money. Lots of it. A red tide crept across his jawline and up his cheeks. She silently gloated. Good, he should be nervous. After disappearing without so much as a goodbye! After everything he'd promised her! After what they'd meant to each other!

"I can’t believe I ran into you here. Are you back in the city?" he asked, his eyes pleading with her not to freeze him out. "Are you living here?" He gave her a wry grin, trying to coax a smile out of her. "Still scooping ice cream, I see."

"Dad's employee called in sick this morning," Angela said, dropping her eyes again. It was too hard to hold his gaze. "He's not well enough to be on his feet all day, supervising the shop." She effortlessly pulled the scoop through the hard-packed ice cream. “Besides, I don’t mind. I’m good at it."

"I won't argue with you there," Griffin smirked. "You've been doing it since you were barely tall enough to reach over the counter. The rest of us could never keep up with you.”

Still unsure what to say, Angela focused on filling the cone. It was true. She'd worked at her father's ice cream shop on afternoons and weekends during the school year and most days during the summers for years. Griffin even worked there over a few summers, doing the heavy lifting, teasing her while they handed out cones and sundaes. But, of course, that was before his mother decided it was beneath his social standing and arranged a job for him at the country club.

“So, how are you?” he asked, his eyes boring into her.

She wanted to duck down and hide behind the cart but finally met his gaze again. She took a long look at him. Despite her wariness, her heart raced with pleasure as she admired his perfectly-fitted suit. Even his shoes, probably expensive Italian leather, were shined to perfection as if he'd just walked out of a showroom. She could see the outline of his well-toned body through the expensive fabric. He was still working out. Even his features had matured. Was it possible he was even better looking than she remembered him?

When she tried to speak, Angela choked on her words. "I…"

"Come on," Griffin said gently, putting his hand on her elbow. "I know I have a lot of explaining to do, but at least give me a chance. You never even heard my side of the story. After I left, I tried calling you, texting you, I even sent letters to your house. It was like you fell off the face of the earth. Why did you ghost me like that?"

Anger boiled over as she pulled her arm away from him. "I ghosted you?" she asked incredulously. "That's rich. You abandoned me! Completely disappeared without a word." Hot tears gathered under her eyelids, threatening to fall. She ferociously blinked them back. She was stronger than that. She would not let him see her cry.

"You're right," he said. "It was all my fault. I shouldn't have left without talking to you. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would be this long before we saw each other again. When I finally came home at Christmas, your house was the first place I went. But you weren’t home, and no one seemed to know where you were."

"I moved to Boston," Angela said, trying to keep her tone even. More like she dragged herself there like a wounded animal, hiding to lick her wounds.

"That's right," he said, his expression brightening. "I heard you got into Harvard Law.” He smiled for the first time. “Impressive. I didn't even know you'd applied, never mind that you got a scholarship."

Angela's heart tugged at the sight of his lopsided grin. She loved how one side of his lip curled higher than the other. It was one of his few imperfections. She fought to resist its charm. "Who said I got a scholarship?"

Griffin's face fell, and his jaw flamed red again. "Well, I…I just assumed. Harvard's a top-notch school, and you're a top-notch student."

"Don't you mean you didn't think I could afford it?" Angela challenged him. He was a typical Graystone! Everything was about money!

"That's not fair," he said coolly. "I was happy for you. It was just unexpected. You didn't even mention that you'd applied. But you're going to make a great lawyer. Just like you always planned.”

“I just passed the bar,” she said proudly. There. Let that sink in. Poor little Angela graduated from a top-notch law school. It felt good not to be the underdog anymore. She knew she wasn't being fair. Griffin had never flaunted his money or made her feel less than him. Of course, his mother was another matter, but that was a story for a different day.

"That's amazing," he said. "Congratulations. Any prospects for work? Are you planning on moving back to New York City? I bet your dad misses you.”

"He visits me often in Boston. It was easier for me while I was in school. And he’s been lost without my mom."

"Yes, losing her was hard on both of you," Griffin said kindly.

"This is the first time I've been back to New York City since...we last spoke. As far as work goes, I've had a few offers," she said. More than a few. And good ones. But that was none of his business. "I haven't decided where I'll end up."

"So why didn't you call me?" he cried, changing the subject. "At least to let me know you were okay?"

"I didn't think you’d be interested," she answered flatly.

"How can you say that?" he asked, his bottom lip trembling as it did when he was upset. "Of course, I was. Am. We've been best friends since we were six and lovers throughout high school and college. We even talked about marriage one day. You don't just throw that kind of relationship away without some kind of explanation.”

She had to look away from that soft, sexy bottom lip. "We'd made so many plans together for that last summer before we started graduate school," she sniffed, angrily wiping away a tear that had managed to escape. "Instead, you left. Out of the blue. Without any explanation! Not to mention—" She cut herself off before she said too much. "But you don't owe me any explanations. You moved on. So did I. That's life.”

He reached over and took her firmly by the shoulders. "There was nothing I could do, Angela. My mother sprang the move on me. She secured a plum position for my residency at the University Hospital. But I had to leave immediately or risk losing it. There were a lot of other candidates fighting for the same spot. I tried to contact you, but there wasn't time."

"No doubt she pulled some strings or donated money on your behalf," Angela sniped without thinking.

Griffin looked hurt. "I prefer to believe I earned it on my own merit." He grinned again. "Though I have to admit her influence didn't hurt."

"Of course you earned it," Angela said, meaning it. There was no denying Griffin was an excellent student with grades to match. But that never stopped Cookie Graystone from interfering. She always got everything she wanted, for a price.

“Don’t cross that woman,” Savannah, Angela's other childhood best friend and the third member of the trio with Griffin, had warned her many times about Cookie. “She has money and influence, two things that make her very dangerous.” Savannah also came from wealth and understood the culture in ways Angela never would. Angela had wished many times since then that she'd paid more attention to Savannah's counsel. Ignoring it had come at great cost.

Griffin shrugged. "You know my mother. She's a force of nature. Yes, she can be demanding and overbearing, but she loves me and means well. She handed me my suitcase and a ticket, and I was in New Haven before I realized what was happening," he explained.

"You couldn't at least wait one day to talk to me?" Angela asked sadly. “To explain everything. I knew how important your career was to you. I would have understood.”

"It a completely unexpected opportunity. I had to make a snap decision. You know how hard I worked in med school. I couldn't turn down the opportunity to do my residency at Yale. I tried calling you over and over, but you didn't answer. I left all kinds of messages. Why didn't you call back?"

Angela's stomach lurched at the memory of that day. It was true. She hadn’t answered his calls. Far worse things than Griffin leaving were happening at the same time. Much worse things. But she couldn't allow herself to think of them now. In fact, she rarely allowed herself to think of them at all. She'd done what she had to do to survive and forced herself to move forward despite the pain. Griffin, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, would never understand. Or forgive her. That's why she needed to do everything she could to ensure he never found out.