Chapter 12 It’s Not Me, It’s You #2
Shrugging, I gave myself a break. Why shouldn’t I smile?
I was a free man. I was financially well-off.
Not an unattractive man if you asked the ladies.
I had every reason to be cheerful. This had absolutely nothing to do with Summer, who should be arriving in a matter of minutes to work side by side with me.
To rebuild the place we once made many plans around.
There were no thoughts swirling in my head about a do-over or us picking up where we left off. Too much time had passed.
“Mr. Fitzgerald,” a cold, serious voice said when the elevator door opened on my floor.
Unless my father was behind me, that was aimed at me.
“Yes?”
“Today, we should visit the site—”
“Let’s do this all in a meeting when Sum—the new employee arrives.” I cleared my throat, hoping I sounded casual.
I paced the office on tenterhooks until she finally arrived—late, I might add.
We fell straight into the same routine. Bickering like children.
I wasn’t proud of it, but, damn it, the woman could rile me up.
Summer was clearly ill. She’d run to the bathroom more times than I could count.
Either that or her newest plan to get back at me was stealing company time and hiding in the restroom to avoid doing the work or being around me.
After lunch I’d ask her about those frequent trips to the bathroom. There were more pleasant things to think about now.
I had a lunch date to get to first. Henry was waiting for me at the farm, where you could have food freshly slaughtered and proudly tossed on your plate.
Something about picking out the pig or cow made even a murderer like me uneasy.
Twenty minutes after leaving the office, I pulled in beside his car in the gravel parking lot, surrounded by golden-brown fields.
Henry was yelling into his phone, and even before he’d rolled his window down, I knew it was Ashley on the other end of that phone.
“I don’t want Felix around my son!”
Not him again. I swear that man never knew what line not to cross. Henry noticed me and jumped out of the car, continuing to yell into the phone. “I don’t care about your life, but Wylie is my child . . . Oh, really?”
He and Ashley sounded like Summer and I. We may never have actually made it down the aisle like they had, but we definitely sounded like a bitter old married couple.
“Fuck it, then. Two can play this game; Cora will move down here soon, and I can’t wait to see how you react to her mothering Wylie when he’s with me.
Then I want you to tell me this bullshit about doing whatever you want when he’s with you.
I’ll have him fucking calling her mommy really quick. Fuck with me!”
Oh shit! This divorce was going to be one for the books. There was no way these two could have an amicable one at this point.
“I fucking thought so. Again, keep Felix away from my son. What you do is your business, but that man shouldn’t be around my child.”
With that, he ended the call, gestured toward the entrance to the rustic farm restaurant, and looked at me. “Let’s eat.”
I managed a weak grin. “I’m surprised you have an appetite after that.”
He shrugged. “I’m the bad guy, we all know that, but Felix isn’t going to slither his way near my son. Ashley he can fucking have . . .”
“Well, it’s not like you wanted her.”
Henry nodded, blew out a heavy breath, and pushed open the creaky door.
After choosing a shaky table by the window, we ordered our meals, and within twenty minutes we were devouring some of the most delicious food I’d had in a while.
Though most things tasted good these days after those years of eating prison food.
We were well into the main course when he dropped the question in my lap: “So, how is day one of torturing Summer going?”
The cognac I was sipping went down wrong. I coughed to avoid choking on the liquid.
“Torturing? Who said I’d make her suffer?”
My childhood friend raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that why you agreed? Won’t you admit it? You dropped the charges so you could punish her yourself and make Summer’s life a living hell.”
Well, maybe that was part of the reason.
“I need the public to see us putting the past behind us and working side by side.” I shrugged, knowing he’d probably see through my nonchalance.
Henry looked around at the nearby diners before speaking. “Thad. How long have I known you?”
“You know the answer. Years.” Henry’s mom taught at the prestigious Hackley School, and so he got to attend the school amongst the rich snobs. I’d liked him instantly, and we’d stuck together like glue.
“Thad, be honest. Do you feel nothing at all for Summer these days? Having her around doesn’t bring up any old feelings?”
I sighed and looked down at my plate. “I came to eat. You want to talk about a sore spot? Why don’t we talk about yours?”
Henry cut into his pork chops.
“This Cora lady. She was the reason you were being what I thought was a loyal friend visiting all those years, right?”
He scowled. “Cut it out. I only met Cora three years ago. I was visiting for ten.”
Heat rushed to my face. Shit. Now I felt like an ass thinking it. “My bad.”
My best friend chuckled. “Being a jerk is in your nature; forget it.”
I knew Henry was joking, but I felt like crap. “About the divorce . . . between my father’s connections and . . . shit, I could probably get Brit to help too, you don’t need to stress about losing Wylie.”
He pursed his lips. “I’m willing to share custody, but if Ashley actually goes for full custody, I’ll be taking you up on those connections,” Henry said, then looked uncertain. “What about Melissa? Won’t she be mad you’re helping me? She and Ashley are best friends.”
I gave him a mock-frown. “Who?”
Henry chuckled. “Why not just marry Summer? Shit, you enjoy arguing with her more than anything else you do.”
I grimaced. Why did he keep bringing the conversation back to her? “The list of reasons is long, and the last entry would be that Summer tried to kill me.”
“With what? Her pussy?”
Naturally, I’d told Henry about that night’s events.
At first, he didn’t think it was funny. His main takeaway was that she could really try to hurt me next time.
That’s because he didn’t see how she’d clung to me that night as she bounced up and down my cock.
There was no way she could go through with hurting me after I’d made her feel that good.
“I take it that smile plastered on your face is for Summer.”
Ignoring him, I answered his earlier question. “I’ll marry Melissa.”
Henry shook his head. “Take it from me, a bad marriage can make you do some crazy things. You’ll both be miserable, get divorced, or worse, become your parents.”
Leave it to Henry to say the very thing I fretted about. A lump of coal sat in my stomach, making it harder for me to force down the remaining mouthfuls of my meal.
After paying the bill, I said goodbye to Henry and headed back to the office, feeling far more unhappy than I had on the way to the restaurant.
As I cursed at stop signs and bad traffic, my mind kept wandering back to Melissa and what the hell I should do about her.
The moment I arrived back in the office, a groan left my mouth the second I locked gazes with Melissa.
Going from thinking about a woman who made my cock excited to one whose scowling face made me want to crawl into a hole gave me whiplash.
Melissa didn’t have to say a word; her just being in the same room was enough to drag my mood through the floor.
It was like she had been sprayed with dick repellent or something.
As I dropped into the chair behind my desk, I felt Melissa staring daggers into my soul, and my mind traced back to what Henry said, A miserable marriage is a lot harder than you think.
Seeing as I’d been here for less than a minute and already wanted to clock out, I wondered if there was more truth to his words than I would’ve liked to admit.
“I asked your father, and I understand why Summer is here.”
Great, that meant we had nothing to discuss.
Mimi opened her blouse, lifted, and rubbed one of her perky tits.
She hopped on my desk and lifted one leg, so I could see she had nothing on under her skirt.
A fuck on my desk was typical for us; the thrill of slamming my cock into her while the employees outside were oblivious usually got me off, but today my dick didn’t respond.
“I have work to do. Let’s meet later.”
Shock filled Mimi’s face for a moment, but as soon as she’d recovered from the rebuff, she slid a finger down her clit. “Why do later what you can do now?”
My cock sort of twitched, but I couldn’t, not with Summer right outside. Shit. Why did I feel like I was cheating when the one I was engaged to was inside the damn office?
“I have work, Mimi. I’ll call you.”
Flabbergasted, she slid off my desk. “You haven’t given me any dick in a few days.
So, because your ex is outside, my pussy no longer does it for you?
” You couldn’t downplay the burning in her eyes.
Plenty of men would kill to see a woman this desperate to get banged by them, but her antics honestly did nothing for me at the moment.
It was like staring at a mannequin in a bikini.
“Keep your voice down and relax.”
For three whole minutes, she went on about Summer needing to go, that she’d ruin our plan. Then she grabbed my cock and tried to jerk me off, but no matter how hard she rubbed my dick or the tit in her other hand, it didn’t get me hard.
When Mimi realized there was no hope, she stepped back, and I tucked my cock back into my briefs and zipped up my pants.
“Work has me stressed. Let’s do this another time,” I lied, knowing full well I’d rather never deal with her. This postponement only meant I was pushing the problem off until later, which filled me with even more dread.
“Sure.” For a second, it looked like Mimi would say more, but she fixed her clothes and stared at the door. “You need to get a pill or something, since you can’t get a hard-on?”
“Pill?” My cock had been hard as hell earlier when Summer had stood in front of me, surrounded by the other employees.
I hadn’t been able to take my eyes off her.
The bouncy blonde curls and fitted skirt that hugged all the right places.
Her eyes had sparkled when she had laughed at something someone had said.
When had I last seen her laugh at something I’d said, I’d found myself wondering. I mean really laugh?
At the time, I’d desperately tried to shake those thoughts from my mind, not wanting her or the others around to know I hadn’t heard a word any of them said the last few minutes.
It hadn’t been easy. Every time I tried to focus, my eyes kept drifting to Summer.
Her breasts had gotten bigger during my time away.
The split in her skirt was unusually high.
Were her legs always that long, or were those shoes contributing to the fact I could picture myself with them wrapped around me again?
My mind returned to the present, and I remembered that Melissa and I were still alone in my office. How long had I been thinking back to that moment with Summer?
I didn’t need a pill now.
“Thaddeus, it’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Melissa said. “If you want, I can suck on your dick while you sit at your desk for a bit; maybe that will bring some life to it.”
The images did sound arousing, but the woman I’d have liked on her knees in front of me wasn’t in this room.
I sighed. “I still have work to do. I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that. Let’s do this later.”
“Fine. I’ll stop by tonight to fuck you.” She pouted.
That didn’t even sound enticing; Mimi riding a cock that only wanted Summer.
“Melissa—”
“No, I’ll be there tonight. We have to start working on the baby. I told you to stop fucking me with a condom on long ago. It’s time.”
Not waiting to hear if I agreed, Mimi left, and every part of my body was grateful she was gone.