Mercy

"I need to get back to work." Nikki says suddenly, running away from Leland and back across the street and into her office. Pushing the door to and locking it, she rushed back over to her desk, pulling out the card. "Duane Lee." she said softly, reading the note. "Our promise... Oh my God." she says to herself. She sank down in her chair, still clutching the card. She had almost forgotten about that day they shook hands, standing naked just outside her shower. The day he called her "The possible... future Mrs. Chapman."

She looked up, hearing a knock on the door. "Who is it?" she yells from across the office.

"Its Kelly, you have a...visitor. And another delivery of flowers." The receptionist replies from the other side of the locked door. Sighing, Nikki tucked the card back into its hiding place deep within her desk drawer. She couldn't risk James finding it, she could only imagine the fury that would accompany that fight!

When she opened the door, Kelly was standing there holding an even larger arrangement of flowers, and beside her was Leland.

"Thank you Kelly." Nikki says, taking the flowers from the receptionist and pulling Leland into her office, Kelly gives her a silly grin as Leland walks past.

"What are you doing here?" she asks quickly, looking left then right, to make sure no one but Kelly saw him come in.

"Nice to see you again too." he says sarcastically as he hold s up Nikki's purse to show her that she had forgotten it. "Oh." she says, taking it from him as he looks around her office, studying the pictures on the wall, her college degree sitting proudly on a shelf. Leland smiled when he saw the picture of himself, Bailee and Nikki from years ago on her desk. "Nice office." he says plopping down in the leather chair beside her desk. "Never pictured you with one...but its nice." he says, picking up her name plate and sitting it back down.

"You're not the only one." she says sadly. Nikki sat the large flower arrangement down on a small table in her office, she wanted so badly to read the card that was tucked between the stems of bright pink roses, but had to resist the urge until after Leland left.

"Working for Daddy now." he says with a smirk. "Never thought that would happen...of course a lot of things happened that I never imagined."

"Well... I didn't have a choice. You wouldn't pick up the phone and call...there went the only job I had." Nikki tells him.

Leland shakes his head, crossing his arms and sighs. "Sorry... I didn't know what to do. Do you think we can we start over...still be friends?" he asks, hopeful that she might give him the answer he's wanted to hear for the last three years.

"We'll work on it." Nikki says, giving him a slight smile as she glances at the flowers. How could both these Chapman men come back into her life in one day. Had they planned it? Or was it just a coincidence?

Nikki and Leland look up as someone enters her office. "James." she says quietly, standing up as he walks toward her.

"Nicole?" he says, almost a question as he looks down at Leland, who's still sitting in the leather chair. "Aren't you going to introduce us?" he asks expectantly.

"Oh! Yes...um James, this is Leland... my friend...from the picture." she says nervously laughing, pointing to her desk. Leland stands up to shake the hand James was offering. "And Leland, this is James." she says as they shake hands.

"Her fiance." James says in a very arrogant tone. "Yes! My fiance." she says, correcting her deliberate mistake of not mentioning that little fact to Leland.

"Oh, your fiance. How lovely. Congratulations." Leland says politely, raising a questioning eyebrow in Nikki's direction.

'Yes how lovely.' Nikki thinks to herself as James keeps her under his ever vigilant glare. She knew that tonight would be a very long night filled with question after question from James.

"I was stopping in to take you to lunch Nicole. But I see you're...occupied. So I'll just take a rain check and see you at dinner tonight." James says with a wave of his hand, leaning in to kiss her before walking out of her office.

Leland starts to laugh as he sits back down. "Nicole..." he says stressing her given name. She rolls her eyes and tells him to "Shut up." as she sits down in her own chair, but not before plucking the card from the flowers. Her curiosity was killing her, she had to know what it said.

"Whats with all the flowers? Someone must love you." he says looking from one arrangement to the other.

Nikki ignored his comments as she pulled the card from the small envelope. "Lunch @ 1:00, Pier 41 Restaurant. If you're not there, then I'll know where this stands. ~ DLC"

Nikki smiled reading it once more. Her heart skipped a beat as she looked over at her clock, it was 12:55. She stood up suddenly, causing Leland to stand up with her.

"I need to go..."

Considering the lunch time traffic in Kona, Nikki managed to make it to the restaurant in record time; fifteen minutes. The casual atmosphere of the restaurant allowed people to seat themselves. She stepped outside to the seats overlooking the water, searching frantically from table to table for Duane Lee.

They had made a pact with each other three years ago, and even though she was engaged to James, she felt she owed it to Duane Lee to tell him face to face. Her shoulders dropped when she realized he wasn't there. She was too late.

“Nikki.” A deep voice says somewhere off to her right. She whips around, and he’s there, standing near the door. “Duane.” She says walking quickly toward him.“I thought I was too late… I thought you had already left.” She says almost out of breath.

“I'm here.” He says softly, giving her a warm smile; "You look so beautiful.” he says to her, wanting desperately to reach out and touch her; to know that this was real.

“I thought you weren’t coming.” He admits, as they find a table to sit at.

“I didn’t get the flowers until after 12:30 …it’s a long story.” Nikki says laughing nervously as she sipped her tea. “I was surprised when I got the tulips from you…they’re my favorite flower, how did you know? ”

“I pay attention…and it helps that I don’t forget much.” He tells her as the waiter brings their food to the table. “You really do look great, I meant what I said earlier.”

Nikki blushes, her cheeks turning a deep shade of pink as he compliments her. "Thank you.” She says shyly. “You look great too. You still work out…I can see that.” She says, biting her lip, trying so hard not to wonder if he still looked the same underneath his clothes. From the looks of it, at thirty nine he looked better than he ever had.

"I’m sorry that we ever lost touch. My life has become – I don’t know what it’s become.” Nikki says rolling her eyes, not quite able to push the thought of James to the back of her mind where she wanted him to stay, at least until lunch was over! She didn’t know how to go about telling the man she made this crazy promise to; that she was indeed taken. As Nikki listened to him go on about his life for the last few years, it made it that much harder.

“Im sorry. Im rambling.” He says laughing and taking a big bite of his food.

“No, no, no. You’re fine. Its so good to hear your voice again.” She says, closing her eyes as a warm breeze from the water blows around them. He reaches across the table to move a few stray pieces of hair from her forehead, causing the heat to rise in her neck.

“There’s something I need to tell you.” She finally says, breaking the magic of the moment. She had to face the facts and tell him the truth about being engaged, but chickened out at the last minute. “I saw your brother earlier today.” She finally says, not yet ready to tell him the truth.