Perfect Fit - Brenda Jackson [25]
Sage nodded as she wiped at her tears. Rose was right, a sex-only relationship worked for some people, but it wouldn’t work for her. Even now with all the pain she was feeling because of Erol, she had to believe that some men could be trusted. “I need to go,” she said, standing on somewhat shaky legs.
“What hotel are you going to?”
“I’m not sure yet.”
Rose also stood. “But you’ll call me as soon as you get there and let me know you’re okay, right?”
“Yes, I’ll call you, and if Erol calls here looking for me, just tell him you haven’t seen me, okay?”
“Okay.” Rose reached out and gave Sage a hug. “Do you need any money to hold you over for a while?”
Sage shook her head. “No. I have a credit card I can use, although it was nice having it paid off for a while.”
Rose then gave Sage another hug. “You’ll get through this, Sage. Trust me when I tell you it’s not the end of the world.”
Sage nodded, thinking maybe it wasn’t, but for her it certainly felt that way.
CHAPTER FIVE
Sage checked into the Sheraton Hotel, the one that was locatedin Kannapolis. The short drive from Charlotte did her good, and she preferred spending the night at a hotel that was in another town, needing to put distance between her and Erol.
She called Rose to let her know where she was. Rose mentioned that Erol had come by looking for her, and with a straight face and without blinking an eye, she had told him she hadn’t seen or heard from Sage since they had parted at the airport earlier that day. When she’d casually asked him if anything was wrong, he’d simply responded no, but asked her that if Sage did come by, to have her call him immediately. Rose also added that he looked rather pitiful.
As soon as Sage had taken a shower and changed clothes, she went downstairs to the hotel restaurant for dinner. She hadn’t eaten a thing since leaving Anchorage, and her stomach was making hunger sounds. Twice she’d been tempted to call her parents but had decided against it. She sat in a booth, eating her dinner alone, trying not to dwell on her problems, when she happened to glance around the restaurant, noticing the other people and wondering what stories they had to tell. Were most of them travelers passing through, lovers or married couples wanting a few days alone to enjoy the solitude of seclusion the small town of Kannapolis offered, or were some like her, people who needed to get away for a night to deal with things complicating their lives?
She had picked up her cup of coffee to take a sip when she recognized the couple who had just walked in. At least she recognized the man who was with the attractive woman. She smiled, wondering what sort of business dinner meeting had brought her father all the way from Charlotte. She was about to get his attention when something stopped her. Maybe it was the way his arm was placed around his dinner partner’s waist, or the way the woman was smiling up at him, that made things look more like an intimate liaison than a business affair.
Sage inhaled sharply, forcing her mind and thoughts not to go there. She briefly closed her eyes and tried to convince herself that she was exaggerating; her mind was playing tricks. This mistrust thing with Erol had her on edge, suspicious of anything and everything, and now she was looking at a purely innocent situation through all-accusing eyes. Her father was an honorable man who loved her mother. Their thirty-year marriage was solid proof of that. There was no way he would be doing something sleazy and unfaithful by being involved with another woman, even one as young and pretty as the one he was with. The woman appeared to be in her midthirties, and although Sage would be the first to admit that at fifty-four her father was a very good-looking man, there had to be a reasonable explanation why he was here with that woman.
As a corporate business person, he often had dinner meetings with clients…. But while she continued to watch the couple, another deep, unnerving sensation