His Best Friend. Patricia Kay

      Laughing at herself, she turned out the hall light and headed for bed.

      Philip couldn’t stop thinking about how it had felt to kiss Claudia. He’d wanted to deepen the kiss, but he was afraid to push. She hadn’t seemed ready, and he didn’t want to blow his chances with her just because he was greedy for more than she was willing to give.

      She was wonderful.

      So different from Emily.

      Maybe that was part of the reason he liked Claudia so much, because she was so different. Normally Philip didn’t allow himself to dwell on Emily and the way she’d dumped him, but tonight the memories didn’t hurt. That was Claudia’s doing. Now that he’d met her and knew he could really care for her, he was glad Emily had showed her true colors before they’d gotten married.

      He should have seen the breakup coming because Emily had made no bones about her ambition. A financial analyst with one of the big oil companies, she couldn’t understand why he was content to work for a small college. She’d kept pushing him to look for another job, one that paid better and had more prestige.

      “There’s nowhere for you to go there, Philip,” she’d said more than once.

      He’d tried to explain that he liked the small college venue. That he didn’t want a high-stress job. That there was more to life than making lots of money. He guessed he’d blinded himself to the fact that she’d never agreed with him, so when she’d told him she’d gotten a “stupendous” job offer in London and intended to take it, he’d been stunned.

      Philip wasn’t like John. John attracted women like flypaper attracts flies. Philip knew why. John was outgoing and fun and he had a job women found glamorous. Philip was much quieter and cautious, and his job sounded dull to other people.

      But Claudia…Claudia was different.

      She was a teacher. Obviously, money and glamour were not important to her or she’d be in another profession.

      And when John had asked her out, she’d said no. Philip smiled over that one.

      That fact alone would have told him he’d met the right woman for him.

      Chapter Three

      “You’ll never guess who was at the party last night!”

      “If you say Johnny Depp, I’ll have to kill you.”

      Claudia laughed. Sally was currently wildly in love with Johnny Depp. “No, Sally, not Johnny Depp.”

      “Well, that’s a relief! Who, then?”

      “You know that cute guy? The one I met in August?”

      “The one you called last weekend that didn’t remember you, you mean?”

      “Yes, that one.”

      “He was at the party?”

      “Uh-huh. He’s Philip’s cousin!”

      “You’re kidding.”

      “And guess what else?”

      “There’s more?”

      Claudia explained about the mix-up with the business card and how John wasn’t Jason Webb but John Renzo. “Sally, he’s going to be living here. He’s taken a job in Houston.”

      “What’re you going to do?” Sally said when Claudia had finished.

      “What can I do?”

      “I know you really liked him. Do you think you’ll go out with him?”

      “I don’t think that’s in the cards.”

      “Because of his cousin?”

      Claudia sighed. “Yes. They’re really tight. So even if he still wanted to, I doubt John will ask me out.”

      “How do you feel about that?”

      “I don’t know. Right now I’m totally confused.”

      “Aside from seeing John at the party, how’d it go?”

      “It was fun. I had a good time. Everyone there was really nice. And Jennifer and I really hit it off. I think we could be good friends. If only…” But what was the use of wishing? It wasn’t as if wishes would change anything.

      “If only what?”

      Claudia sighed again, more deeply this time. “I just wish things would work out the way they’re supposed to once in a while.” She remembered how she’d felt when she and John were dancing. “I mean, I think I could really like John. There’s a real chemistry between us. But now that I’ve gone out with Philip, and I know he really likes me, everything is totally screwed up. John won’t want to step on Philip’s toes and Philip wants to see me again. Oh, shoot. I don’t know what to do.”

      “Did Philip kiss you good-night?”

      “Yes.”

      “And?”

      “And nothing. The kiss was pleasant, but that’s it. There was absolutely no zing.”

      Sally was silent for a few seconds. Then she sighed, too. “Why does life have to be so complicated?”

      Claudia laughed. “Is that a rhetorical question?”

      After they hung up, Claudia sat there pensively for a long time. She kept going over and over everything that had happened the previous evening. The things John had said and not said. The things Philip had said and not said. And the things she had said and not said.

      Finally she came to a decision. It wouldn’t matter how many times she went out with Philip. She would never feel any differently toward him. She liked him as a friend and hoped she could keep him as a friend. But there was simply no chemistry between them at all, at least not on her part, and there never would be.

      So when he asked her out again—and he would, of that, she had no doubt—she would turn him down.

      She would be kind and let him down gently.

      And who knew? Maybe Philip would find someone else to date. And then she and John…

      Claudia let the thought trail off, afraid to hope.

      John spent Monday morning getting brought up to speed on the current working projects at Buffalo Films, his new employer. He’d toured the facility when he’d interviewed, but Kurt Kenyon, who was the owner’s right-hand man and in effect managed the day-to-day operation of the company, gave him a more in-depth tour and introduced him to all the employees who were working in-house that day.

      Soon John’s head was swimming with names. Buffalo had about sixty employees, and at least forty of them were there that morning. John knew it would take a while before he could put names to faces, but he made an effort to at least retain the names of the art director and the acquisitions director.

      After the tour, Kurt showed John into a small office that contained a no-nonsense metal desk, a four-drawer filing cabinet, a computer and printer, and two chairs—one behind the desk, one off to the side.

      “Right now, this’ll be your office,” Kurt said. “When a bigger one becomes available, we’ll move you.”

      “This is fine,” John said. He didn’t expect to be in his office much anyway.

      Kurt nodded. “Ready to dive in?”

      “More than ready.”

      “Good. I’ve got a special project for you. In fact, the only reason we got the project was because these people heard you were coming on board.”

      John was pleased to know his reputation had preceded him. “Who is it?”

      “The Fairchild Cancer Center. They’ve contracted for a promo video with the proviso that you’ll direct.”