The Summer Heat Passes and I Hold You Close

At the company retreat dinner, we were playing truth or dare.

Alma, you and Mr. Delgado used to be together, didn't you?

Everyone in the industry says Mr. Delgado's stayed single all these years, waiting for his first love to come back from abroad. Don't tell me that's you!

Alma Pruitt smiled faintly, feigning reluctance. "That's all ancient history. Caspar doesn't like it brought up. If you're that curious, you could always ask Sheila Winfield. Back when we were dating, she was practically my little guardian angel."

Every probing, gossip-hungry eye in the room swung to me at once.

Nobody knew that Caspar Delgado and I had been secretly married for two years.

I looked up and smiled.

A few airy words from Alma, and my coworkers' eyes lit up. They kept pushing me to tell them all about the sweeping campus romance Caspar and she supposedly had.

Right then, Caspar pushed the door open and came back in.

"We've got an early meeting tomorrow. Let's call it a night."

A ripple of disappointed sighs went around. Only I let out a quiet breath of relief.

The moment we stepped out of the restaurant, a female coworker close to Alma spoke up. "Mr. Delgado, you're the only one who didn't drink tonight. Would you mind driving Alma home? She's pretty, and it isn't safe for her to go home alone after that much wine."

My steps stopped before I could think, and out of the corner of my eye I caught Caspar turning to look my way.

Before he could answer, Alma pressed a hand to her stomach, her delicate features drawing tight.

"Caspar, my old stomach trouble is acting up. Could I trouble you to take me home? The address hasn't changed."

Caspar gave a slight nod. "I'll go get the car. Wait here, the two of you."

The two of you.

Two small words, like little slivers of ice working their way into my chest.

I curved my lips in a bitter little smile, took out my phone, and, taking the hint, booked myself an Uber.

While I waited for the car, someone tapped me lightly on the shoulder.

"Sheila, why don't I give you a ride home?"

I turned and recognized Alex Harding from the marketing department.

Before I could politely decline, Alma laughed and teased, "Oh? Has Alex taken a liking to our Sheila?"

"Alex has good taste. Sheila's steady, real marriage material. Grab your chance!"

The cheering got louder. Someone nudged my shoulder, steering me toward Alex, and Alex was grinning ear to ear.

Caspar's headlights cut through the dark toward us. Behind the windshield, his brow was knit tight, and he sat there watching this side quietly.

Good, I thought, that settles it. "Thanks, but I'm fine."

Just then a message popped up on my phone: my Uber had arrived out front.

I turned and walked quickly to the car and got in.

As I shut the door, I saw Alex's face go stiff

and Alma's careless voice drifting after me:

"Don't be discouraged. I know Sheila too well. She's soft, and she's starved for security. Go after her boldly. She won't have the heart to really turn you down."

I rode home.

In the storage room I found a pair of beige knit gloves, a clumsy letter stitched at each wrist.

I'd never seen them before. They appeared out of nowhere, and thinking back on Alma's vague answers and Caspar's dating history, a sour ache spread through me.

These must have been what Alma gave him back in college.

After all these years, Caspar still kept them.

The last small hope at the bottom of my heart was gone.

Even after two years of marriage, there was still a place in his heart for Alma, higher than mine, his wife.

Caspar and I had been in the same year at college. For four years I'd carried a quiet crush on him.

After graduation everyone went their separate ways, and I thought our paths would never cross again.

I never expected that after finishing my graduate degree, I'd end up hired at the very company where he worked, with him as my direct superior. The day I started, I saw him and I was over the moon.

A few years into the job, my family's pressure to marry grew relentless. On one blind date, the man insulted me to my face, and he put his hands on me too.

I was still arguing with him when Caspar happened to pass by and pulled me out of the tight spot.

He looked at my reddened eyes and said, out of nowhere,

"Sheila, my family's been pushing me to marry too. Would you want to give it a try, with me? Sign the papers, get married?"

I always understood that this marriage began out of settling, with nothing to do with love.

But I had my own selfish hope too. I told myself that being near him gave me the first chance, marriage first and love after.

That heart of his would warm to me one day.

Now the first love he pined for was back, and I, the stand-in filling a temporary role, should make my exit.

Failure and regret twisted together until my composure gave out completely.

I threw the gloves to the floor, and the sobbing I'd held down so long echoed through the storage room.

The door was pushed open. Caspar stood in the doorway, and the moment he saw the gloves on the floor, his whole body went rigid.

He crossed the room in quick strides, snatched up the gloves, and hid them behind his back. That composed face of his, always so steady, wore something rare now. Panic.

I wiped away my tears and slowly got to my feet.

"Sorry for messing up your things. Actually, this is good timing. There's something I need to tell you. We"

Caspar's phone cut in with its ringtone. One glance told me it was Alma Pruitt, still hovering around like a ghost that wouldn't leave.

The words I hadn't finished stuck in my throat.

He pulled a faint smile across his lips.

"Get some rest first. Whatever it is, we'll talk when I get back."

I turned, walked into the bedroom, shut the door, and dropped onto the bed, worn out.

That night, I slept unusually well. Maybe because there was nothing left weighing on my mind.

I went to work in a daze, thinking that Caspar and I had reached the end of the road.

I got my resignation paperwork ready. I got my rsum ready too.

Then a voice came at me from behind, eager and warm.

"Lunch together? My treat."

It was Alex.

I wanted to set things straight. Caspar and I weren't divorced yet, and it wasn't right for me to eat alone with another man.

"Alex, last night the others were just joking around after a few drinks. Don't take it seriously. I don't have any special feelings toward you."

Before I'd even finished, Alex let out a cold laugh, his face full of contempt.

"Drop the act. Alma told me a long time ago exactly what kind of person you are. You just look down on me because my salary's average and my position isn't high enough."

A coworker happened to pass by my desk right then and caught the whole exchange. Then, one after another, interested stares settled on me.

I knew Alma had engineered every bit of this. She wanted me disgraced, wanted me to know I'd lost and back off on my own.

I gave a calm smile.

"I don't like you, and besides, I'm already married. I'm not interested in your salary either, so there's nothing to look down on. As for whatever Alma told you behind my back, that's not my concern."

"A grown adult should be able to judge for himself."

Alex's face went white, then splotchy. He threw out one nasty line and stormed off in a rage.

Half an hour later a notice went up on the board: "Emergency marketing department meeting at two this afternoon."

I put together the materials for the meeting. Once it was over and every coworker in the room had left, I walked up and handed my resignation report to Caspar.

"You're resigning?"

The hand holding the report shook a little.

I was the anchor of the marketing department. There wasn't a client I couldn't win over. I wasn't anything like Alex, a man with no standing to speak of.

It made sense that my leaving would rattle Caspar.

"I'm tired, Caspar."

"Either way, the moment I walk out of this conference room, Alma will come in with her proposal to pitch herself. And you and the board will use her proposal, of course."

"I've become a bit of an eyesore here."

Better that I go. Let him rekindle things with his old flame.

"Sheila, don't act on impulse, all right?"

I lifted my head and looked straight into his eyes.

"Our marriage was just each of us getting what we needed"

I didn't get to finish. Alma pushed open the office door and poked her head in.

With an outsider present, I couldn't get into what was between Caspar and me, so I shut my mouth, pushed open the conference room door, and walked out.

The moment I stepped out, a soft but bone-cold voice rang out.

"Sheila Winfield. You hid this pretty deep."

She deliberately raised her voice, and the coworkers nearby quickly set down their work and cocked their heads to listen.

Alma's face twisted into a sneer.

"No wonder you showed up at every single event Caspar attended. I truly thought of you as a friend, and here you were, going behind my back to steal my man?"

The mocking rose from all sides.

"'The Heartbeat With No End in Sight.' Makes your scalp crawl just reading it. And she didn't even stop to size herself up."

Alma held up the diary I'd left behind in the university library, laughing at me.

"How could Mr. Delgado ever look twice at her? I heard he stayed on as president of Pruitt Corp precisely because he was waiting for the young mistress to come home from abroad."

"Quiet as a mouse all day, and who knew she was this calculating underneath."

I gave a cold little smile.

"Something's come up, I'm off. Good luck with everything!"

After I left the Pruitt company, I went to work for Caspar Delgado's biggest competitor.

"Uncle Duncan Lawrence, thank you for taking me in."

"Don't say that. If it weren't for you back then, this company wouldn't be standing today. And your father..."

My hands trembled slightly, out of my control. Whatever I felt about Caspar was one thing, but I didn't want my family to know we'd fallen apart.

I'd rather everyone believe I'd been thrown out on the street.

Duncan sighed and shook his head. "You're as stubborn as your father. But whatever you decide to do, Uncle Duncan will always have your back."

"Thank you, Uncle Duncan."

Three months into working for him, I ran into Caspar again after all.

Both our companies were bidding for the same contract.

"Sheila Winfield. I never imagined you'd go this far for Caspar."

Alma Pruitt's stare burned into me.

I felt like I'd been dropped into a block of ice.

I wanted to tell everyone in that room, wanted to say one word in my own defense that Caspar and I were legally married, even if the divorce was almost done.

But I glanced at Caspar, sitting by the window, and his expression was as calm and unbothered as ever.

I laughed at myself. I was still praying he would step up and explain, just one sentence for me.

What on earth was I expecting.

Two years of marriage, and he'd never once been willing to make our relationship public. At work he kept his distance from me on purpose.

If he wanted to, if he said a single word, all of it the misunderstandings, the whispers would vanish.

But he didn't want to.

Seeing that I stayed silent, Alma spoke up again, smiling, playing the gracious one.

"Forget it, Sheila, I don't blame you! I know Caspar's type, and it is definitely not someone like you. If you really can't help it, if it hurts you that much, we can always compete fair and square."

The crowd laughed again. Caspar stood up, frowning at the cluster of people, his voice cold and clear.

"Why are you all crowding the doorway?"

Then his eyes settled on my face.

Frowning, Caspar walked over.

The murmuring filled my ears.

"I'll bet the whole company's afternoon coffee run old grudges, new ones, who's actually going to land today's bid?"

"A hundred bucks says Mr. Delgado's company wins."

Alma's face went dark. She knew Caspar's rule he didn't allow his people to make a scene or cause trouble in public so she could only soften her tone, coaxing.

"Caspar, breaking up back then was me being childish. I told you that you could only find someone who couldn't measure up to me. That was just something I said in anger, don't hold a grudge over it on purpose. I'm back in the country now. Let's get back together, all right?"

I froze where I stood, holding my breath, waiting for Caspar's answer.

But he said nothing, the silence dragging on, and Alma shot me a resentful glare before she turned and walked off.

His face flushed, Caspar tossed out two documents. One was a reinstatement form. The other had a corner sticking out, the words on it glaring: divorce papers.

Whatever was left in me went cold. Still, I made myself lift a polite little smile.

"Mr. Delgado, this is two rival companies bidding today. Poaching me like this is beneath you, isn't it? But don't worry, I'll sign the divorce papers."

"We're in the middle of a bid. Private matters can be settled privately."

I finished, ready to leave with some grace and hide the loss in my eyes.

Instead he caught my wrist.

"Sheila, are you misunderstanding something"

A sudden knock cut him off.

"Mr. Delgado, the meeting's about to start."

He let go, irritation all over his face. "After the meeting, we're going to clear this up."

When the meeting ended, I didn't wait for Caspar. There was nothing left for us to say.

I walked out of the bidding company's building and saw Alma standing at the entrance. She was waiting for me.

Gone was the softness she wore in front of Caspar. In its place was something sharp and mean.

"The truth is, I knew Caspar was married before I came back. I just never imagined it would be you."

"Really? I thought I hid it well."

"After all, we kept the marriage a secret."

"Before I went abroad, I told him out of spite that if he left me, he'd only ever end up with someone lesser than me. Guess what Caspar said then?"

I had no desire to hear any of it, but she kept going anyway.

"He said even if he chose Sheila Winfield, he'd never come back and coax me again."

I understood what Alma meant. I was nothing more than the casualty of a fight between her and Caspar. Don't think too highly of yourself.

"You still don't know, do you?"

"He knew back in college that you had a crush on him. And he even had a few things to say about it"

"That's enough. Either way, he and I are getting divorced."

"I wish the two of you a long and happy life together."

I cut her off and walked away fast.

Back at the home I'd shared with Caspar for two years, I sat down, took out the divorce papers on the coffee table, and signed my name. Then I called a moving company and cleared out everything of mine.

Years of loving him in silence ended right there.

On the other side of the city, Caspar was in a small meeting with the board.

The moment it was over, he pulled out his phone. On the security feed he saw the divorce papers I'd left on the coffee table, and his pupils shrank hard.

He rushed out of the company without a thought, and when he looked at the empty home, he froze where he stood.