KAY

“What a beautiful couple,” Kay’s mother remarked, her face lighting up with pride and admiration. For a moment Kay thought she was going to cry.

Her heart lurched. She didn’t want to hear the inevitable questions. “Aren’t they?” she replied, knocking back her champagne. It was the only way to get through this.

Tobias and Savannah were on the dance floor again with eyes only for each other. Everyone watched the beautiful, and so-sickeningly-obvious head-over-heels-in-love couple glide on air.

Kay observed the rapt looks on the faces of her mother and Savannah’s parents. She’d made the huge mistake of sitting with them, and had only done so because she’d seen Xavier at the bar and she was eager to avoid him.

Get me out of here.

As much as she loved her cousin, she couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit envious. She wanted that. Not right now, not today, not this month, or this year, but eventually. Despite what she said to her friends, and to Savannah, and despite her easy-come-easy-go attitude towards men, what she wanted, one day, in the not-too-distant future, was everlasting love, and marriage, and commitment.

She wanted forever, even if she wasn’t yet putting out the right signals to attract the right things.

She didn’t need a rich guy because she wasn’t penniless, but if he was rich, it wasn’t a bad thing. The security she craved wasn’t financial, it was emotional. She was an independent woman with a great career; one which sucked the life out of her, yes, but she partied as hard as she worked to make up for it.

What she needed, wanted and hoped for, was a man to be her counterpart, to support her, and be there for her.

She didn’t need a man to rescue her, she just needed him to treat her right.

Of course, the future couldn’t be predicted, but who, looking at Tobias and Savannah, would wish anything less for that couple?

She could continue having fun, but none of her fun times had ever resulted in meeting anyone who had made her believe that ‘he was the one.’
She needed another single man just like Tobias.
As she set off for the wedding, she’d had designs on Xavier. The younger brother was rich, handsome and undeniably sexy. He’d seemed like the next best catch, especially now that his brother was no longer single. Unfortunately, she had found out the hard way that Xavier wasn’t quite the man she had imagined him to be. The testosterone rolling off him in waves should have been a stark warning.

“They look so happy together,” her mother cooed.
“They would, Mom. They just got married.” Kay’s insides pinched together as she braced herself for the inevitable question. Would it be too obvious if she got up now and wandered away?

“It would be lovely if you settled down soon. Don’t leave it too late, will you, dear?”

It wasn’t a secret that her mother’s dearest wish was for Kay to settle down. Her mother didn’t understand and no amount of explanation seemed to help. Working long hours at the investment bank didn’t leave much time for anything else, and working in Hong Kong, where she had spent most of last year, hadn’t helped her dating prospects much.

Savannah’s parents looked at her apologetically.
“She’ll settle down when the time is right, Sylvie,” said Aunt Jean.

“You tell her, Aunt Jean.”

She wished her mother could be as understanding as Savannah’s mother was. Both sisters, they shared similar traits in many respects, but her mother seemed to be caught up in the same happy-envy that had dogged Kay for most of the day. The wedding had long finished and everyone had spent most of the day, and now the night, celebrating the wedding.

The happy couple had invited close family and friends to their beautiful private island in Fiji, and it was impossible not to be in awe of the new world that Savannah had now stepped into through her marriage to Tobias. From his condo, and his homes around the world, his private jet, and this island, as well as the new multi-million dollar mansion home on which Tobias had lavished millions of dollars on in refurbishments, it all seemed surreal.

The splendor of Savannah’s new world was unlike anything that Kay had ever read or dreamed about, even in those celebrity magazines which she had stopped reading. She had also stopped following those Most-Eligible-Bachelor lists, and blindly buying celebrity magazines in order to keep up-to-date with A and B-lister gossip.

“What about Tobias’s brother?” her mother asked, after a few peaceful moments had passed.

The apple obviously didn’t fall far from the tree.

“Mom!” she hissed, hoping that nobody had heard her. “Stop trying to fix me up.” It was one thing Kay herself having an ulterior motive for wanting to get to know Xavier, but it was something else to hear her mother saying it out aloud.

“But why not? His brother is just as good looking.”

“No.”

No. No. No.

Her insides knotted together, and it wasn’t due to the copious glasses of champagne, or the seafood entrees. “Can we not talk about my love life?

Uncle Dale and Aunt Jean were walking towards the dance floor hand in hand. Sweet, she thought, watching them. She could see her mother’s sadness written all over her face. Her father had passed away a few weeks before she had graduated from college. The lung cancer had taken him much too soon. Receiving her college degree had been a bittersweet moment, and in the end, her mother had attended, with Savannah’s parents there for support. There had been no-one since, and her mother hadn’t expressed any interest in meeting anyone new.

She seemed content with her life, and maybe it wasn’t so surprising that days like today made her slightly wistful, and wish for Kay to find someone.

“I wasn’t talking about your love life. I was only saying that it was about time you—”

“Mom. Please.”

Her mother let out an angry breath and looked away. “They’re perfect for one another. Perfect. Why you don’t want that, I don’t know.”

Kay stared in front at the happy newly married couple. Marrying New York’s most eligible billionaire was a dream come true, for sure.

No wonder Savannah looked so happy.

Her life was complete and she would never have to worry again. She had achieved the impossible. Not only had she been married before, she also had a kid, and she had been married to a pig. But she had come to New York penniless, and had managed to win the heart of the city’s most eligible bachelor.

If Savannah Page could do that, there was no reason why she couldn’t.

Not that her cousin had ever worried much about men or her love life. Savannah, in complete contrast to Kay, had worried about money, and debt, and Jacob, whereas Kay had no debt, had plenty of money, worked hard, had a great job.

Yet her love-life was in tatters.

She had experienced a couple of short flings in Hong Kong. They had been nothing serious, and more to help her pass the time with.

But things hadn’t fared any better since she’d returned to New York. She’d met up with one of her ex-boyfriends a few times. Dean had been the closest she had ever come to serious, and when he’d called her a few months ago, she’d gone running back instead of heeding Savannah’s advice. He had used her for a weekend, and then discarded her just as easily. So much for ‘talking’, and a possible reconciliation.

She never learned.

A booty call, Savannah had said later, when she had confided in her cousin. So when her mother talked about Xavier Stone being a possible future prospect, it was the last thing she wanted to hear. She had already tried to make conversation with Xavier. Tried and failed. Made out with him too, and failed.

Xavier had spent most of yesterday evening—well, not most, some—showing her card tricks, and they had talked and flirted, and had ended up kissing. She had to give him that—the guy was a good kisser.

A great kisser.

Things might have progressed to something else had it not been for Tobias showing up out of the blue. As soon as his brother had appeared, Xavier had dropped her like a dirty stone.

Humiliation washed over her like a dirty rag. He turned his back to her and ignored her completely. She’d left, walked away into the night, back to the beach, and the bar, once more wondering why some girls had all the luck, and why she didn’t.

Xavier walked into view, standing on the other side of the dance floor and eyeing up all the guests. The sight of him irritated her. The last thing she needed was for him to come over to this table, or for her mother to notice him and wave him over. She couldn’t put it past the woman.

“I’m going to mingle,” she announced, getting up from her chair.

It was too early to go to bed, too early to be lectured on the virtues of being married, and too early to sit around with a bunch of old people.

Surely there had to be other good looking guys on the island?