12. Chapter 12 #2
We arrive at my house, and I get her inside and make tea. She sits down and is silent until I bring her the mug. “I’m really sorry about that night, too, you know. That’s not me. I’d had too much to drink and I barely remember half of it.”
It’s cool to joke around now, right? “Ouch.” I chuckle.
She has the grace to blush. “That’s not what I mean.”
“I know it’s not what you meant. I was just teasing. Hey, let’s just forget about that, okay?”
“Sounds good to me.” She takes a sip of her tea. “The truth is that I’ve been talking to someone, so I had no business doing that.”
“You mean you have a boyfriend?”
She shakes her head quickly. “No. Not yet, anyway. We’ve just been talking back and forth. But if he found out what I did it might sway him in the wrong direction.”
“Then telling Freddie sure wasn’t the way to go.”
“I know. But luckily, she doesn’t know about him. Nobody knows. I don’t even know if it’s going anywhere, that’s why I wanted to go out with you to see where that went. I don’t like wasting my time.”
“That goes double for me. Which is why I told you straight up that I’m not interested.”
“Are you talking to someone, too?”
It’s on the tip of my tongue. Jinny and I don’t owe each other anything and she’s not obligated to me any more than I’m obligated to her. So it comes out plainly. “Not really.”
She tilts her head, unconvinced. “What does that mean?”
“It means what it means. I’ve been spending some time with a girl that I met in high school. But I’m not a relationship person and neither is she, so it works out well.”
“Well, then, you and I definitely would not be a good match. I’m a relationship person through and through. In fact, what happened between you and I was a first for me. I’ve never been with anyone that I wasn’t in love with.”
“So, are you telling me that you’ve been in a relationship? Long term?”
“Yes.” She smiles. “I was. For a couple of years. We just broke up last year.”
“Can I ask what happened?”
“He just...fell out of love, I guess. He didn’t cheat. He was honest with me before he started talking to someone else. They’ve been together over a year now.”
“Are you sure he wasn’t cheating? Like, even just entertaining the thought?”
She levels with me. “The truth is, I don’t really care. I didn’t realize until we broke up, just how unhappy we were.”
I take a sip of tea and pull the chair in front of me out, so I can rest my foot on it. “How’s that?”
“The first week was miserable, but after I had a little bit of an adjustment period, I found that I was happier alone. Without him. He was an eccentric type. Very by the book. Not spontaneous. Not fun. And he didn’t really support my career, either.
Once I got the job with Wesley, I realized just how much I’d missed out on since we were together. ”
“It sounds like him breaking up with you was a blessing.”
“It really was. It took some time, but I’m a much better person now.”
“I think that’s why they call it a ‘significant other’. Because that person is supposed to enhance your life, not hinder it.”
She nods. “Exactly.”
I change the subject. “So, what are you going to do about Freddie?”
She’s blunt. “Catch her in the act. She has no idea that I’m on to her and I know how to choose my moments.
Freddie trusts me and that’s my in. I’m going to dig deeper and find out if she’s screwing with anything else.
She has no right to go after Axl without Wesley’s knowledge.
It’s not like a cat dragging in a dead mouse for its owner here.
Wesley takes his company very seriously and he does everything professionally.
No stabbing another person in the back to get ahead.
If that’s what he was about, I would never have even considered taking this job. ”
“It sounds like you admire him. Bowie does, too. She’s like a groupie.”
“I sort of am, too. Wesley is a genius. No two ways about it. And he’s noble.
Do you know that he’s been married to the same woman for more than thirty years?
And you can tell that they’re so loyal to each other.
I’ve seen the difference. One of the companies I used to work for.
..she was a trophy wife. It was disgusting. ”
“You won’t find anyone at Lawson Enterprises that doesn’t think the world of him.”
“I can see why he chose you to work with. He saw that there was a lot of reciprocity.”
“Definitely.” She sets down her mug. “Well, I should go. Do you mind giving me a ride home now?”
“Sure. Not at all. Thanks for the little pow wow.”
“Any time. We may cross paths in the future, so it’s nice to be able to personally get to know someone like this.”
“Absolutely.” I take her mug and mine and place them in the sink. “If there’s ever anything I can do for you, just let me know.”
“Same to you.”
As I drive her home, I can’t stop thinking about some of the things that she said about business and loyalty and everything in between.
I also can’t help but think that she’d be a good match for one of my brothers.
I just hope that Axl doesn’t get too mixed up with Freddie if she’s as poisoned as Reya says she is.
If he does, he’s going to be doomed in more ways than one.
Jagger won’t touch him with a ten-foot-pole for sure, and neither will Wesley.
The man will ruin himself for any future growth with either company.
After I drop her off, I head back home, but sleep won’t come.
My mind is boggled with all things work, what happened tonight, what’s to come after tonight, but I also can’t stop thinking about the one person that I never thought I’d think about so often.
And all I can think about is if she’s also thinking about me.
It’s past two o’clock in the morning when I finally decide to send her a text message.
I sit there on the edge of my bed for twenty minutes compiling it.
I mean, what do you say, when you’re messaging someone in the middle of the night, just because you can’t sleep because you’re thinking too much, and thinking about her?
What do you say when you’re not supposed to be thinking about a person.
When you promised yourself that you’d never put yourself in that position.
When you made that promise to yourself for your own protection, and simply by reaching out, you’re violating your own trust in yourself.
I manage. “Hey.”
A half second later I decide to unsend it. I wait another ten seconds and decide that I’m better off this way.
...and that’s when I get a text message from her.