The One That Got Away Read Online Free PDF

knew Chicago’s University of Illinois campus had a good rep, but Northwestern was the Harvard of the Midwest.
    â€œSerena,” Tony replied as he weaved and bobbed toward the Dan Ryan Expressway, “you gotta work with me here. Kym and Jade are thorough . You start studying with them, you’ll be the top accounting student at your school before you know it.”
    â€œThat’s assuming I can even keep up with them,” she sighed, just loud enough for him to hear.
    â€œJust give it a try, please?” One hand on the wheel, Tony placed the other on her knee. “You’re a natural, trust me.”
    She still couldn’t explain it, but something about the confidence Tony transmitted with his touch seeped into her veins; it always had. He was the one who got her to admit she’d always had a knack for numbers, even though she viewed math and accounting as nerd fields. Tony called her out, though, pointing out her facility with things numerical and mathematical, from her ability to instantly calculate each person’s share of a big restaurant tab to her uncanny knack for predicting their grocery bill to a near-penny. His gentle, nearly subliminal prodding convinced her to switch her major to accounting from general studies. Now that she was making her way through the coursework but questioning her ability, he had taken it on himself to introduce her to Kym and Jade, who were accounting stars at Northwestern and might make great study buddies.
    Tony hadn’t always shown the soft touch, though. Sherecalled one of their first dates after she moved to Chicago, when she lit vanilla-scented candles on his glass coffee table and sang her two favorite standards for him—Patti LaBelle’s “If Only You Knew” and Anita Baker’s “Sweet Love.” Even though they hadn’t slept together yet and she’d shared her desire to quit college and pursue a singing career in New York, he said exactly what was on his mind. “Don’t take this the wrong way, sexy, but you suck.” Singing being her deepest passion at the time, Serena reacted with a stream of profanity, followed by her best attempt to nail him with a carefully aimed potted geranium.
    That day as they drove to meet Kym and Jade, who would become not only great study buddies but her best friends, Serena looked at her scrappy, cocky boyfriend and felt nothing but blessed by his contradictions. Foul mouthed, full of himself, and materialistic, he was a man with an earnest, sensitive core.
    He would come to cause her great pain, but in a sense Serena owed Tony. Without his influence, she might be waitressing in New York today, awaiting her elusive big break and still burdening her parents with raising Dawn. By now, she’d surpassed her own mentors: although Jade was a successful accounting manager for a manufacturing company and Kym was a vice president at her parents’ mortgage bank, they both agreed Serena’s job—managing the $500 million budget of an urban school system, along with a staff of dozens—outclassed theirs.
    He didn’t stand by you. As her eyes popped open, reason warned Serena to release her revisionist history. Propping herself up on her elbows, she turned toward Jade’s bed, only to find her girl knocked out, as worn from the day’s pace as she felt. Feeling too wiped out to check in with her parents, Serena toyed with her cell phone and considered trying Tony again. She’d sneaked a peek at his cell number during a visit the other night to Kym and Devon’s condo, when they’d let her use their home PC to check her work email.
    She dialed the first three digits of his number but stopped suddenly. He hadn’t answered last time, and she knew Tony Gooden was not the type who hadn’t had the phone on when shecalled. Cell phones hadn’t been that common in their days together, but she had no doubt that a motormouth like Tony abused his