25. Jake #2
She’s listening to some explanation that can only be feeble because I feel her fury mustering.
“I told you I had a client meeting and didn’t want to be disturbed,” she says, not even stopping for breath.
“But did you listen? No, you did not. There are seven voice mail messages on my phone from the last ninety minutes, all from you, and another three from the hour before that. I’m sure there are text messages, too, and maybe even a message on the landline at home.
Clearly, you do not listen to anything I say, and those messages will only prove that point again.
I will bet that every single one of them includes a request for me to book a flight west right now to tour your vineyard etc.
, even though I have already told you six hundred and forty times that it is impossible for me to take time off right now.
We are starting the harvest. It’s the only high-pressure time of the year for me, and of all people on the planet, you should be the one to understand that.
But no, you just keep insisting on your way, ignoring everything I say, and if that isn’t a portent of doom for any shared future, I don’t know what the hell is. ”
Ah. Mr. Darcy has stepped square in it.
I try to keep my expression impassive and just drive.
“No, I could not take your call when I was with a client. I was busy trying to…oh, trying to escape his plan. What plan? He had an idea that I should sweeten the deal by sleeping with him. Fortunately, a friend of mine arrived at the restaurant and helped me out.”
I feel the smile Mackenzie casts my way. It’s like a beam of sunlight touching my face, but I don’t look at her. I pretend to be oblivious.
I’m anything but.
“A friend,” she repeats, her voice hard. “Yes, a friend. Am I allowed to have friends? Am I allowed to know anyone who hasn’t been pre-authorized by you? Am I allowed to have a past? Because I have a past with this friend. We’ve been friends with benefits, because the sex was awesome.”
There is a choking sound from the caller and it’s hard to bite back my smile.
“And why was it awesome?” Mackenzie demands.
“Because my friend pays attention. Because he listens. Because he cares about something other than his own satisfaction, and that, I suggest to you, is the key to every successful relationship of any kind. It doesn’t matter if someone is working for you, if they’re a casual acquaintance, if they’re your spouse and partner, the only way the relationship will work is if both parties give a fuck about something other than themselves.
” She takes a breath. “And that’s why we’re done, Darcy.
I am already tired of you making choices for me.
I am fed up with your refusal to listen.
I hate being a trophy instead of a person.
I know how to do my job and I do it well.
I love my job and I love where I am and my dreams are full of where I want to be.
No one but no one is going to tell me I’m wrong or that my dreams are irrelevant or whatever the hell it is that you’re saying to me now. We are done.”
And she ends the call.
We drive in silence for a few moments.
“So that’s what kindness sounds like,” I muse. “I should take notes.” Mackenzie swats me in the arm and I chuckle.
“It’s the seventh time I’ve broken up with him this week,” she says, her frustration clear. “He will not get the message.”
“I thought persistence was for stalkers.”
“Me, too.” Mackenzie looks out the window, more shaken than I’d like. I could wring this bastard’s neck without a second thought. “Sorry,” she says, her voice shaky.
“Don’t be. It sounds like your response was deserved.” I steal a glance at her, and try to make her smile. “And you’re right, it was awesome, every time.”
She smiles back then, her gaze warming.
But before she can say anything, her phone rings.
“No,” I say as she looks at the displayed name of the caller.
“Yes,” she snarls.
And I laugh. I can’t help it. “If you need any proof that you’re right, there it is.”
“Yes!” Mackenzie agrees but she frowns.
I put out my hand. “Let me. Please.”
“I don’t need anyone to fight my battles.”
“I know, but I’ll really enjoy it. Please? A bonus for the bear?”
She shakes her head but hands me the ringing phone.
“Hi,” I say and I can feel a shock wave all the way from BC. “Mackenzie can’t take your call right now, but I will.”
“Who are you?”
“A friend.” I lower my voice. “The friend.” He makes an indignant sound but I carry on. “I heard what Mackenzie said but apparently you didn’t. She said no. She said no thanks. She said don’t call; we’re done. And that means you’re supposed to disappear forever right now. That’s how it works.”
“You can’t know that…”
“I do know that. I heard the words she said. I understood the words she said and I know she meant them. I know she is a smart woman who makes her own choices. It’s not complicated. Mackenzie said no, asshole.”
“You’re the asshole!”
“I am. And I have no problem telling the truth to people who don’t want to hear it.
Say goodbye, Darcy. You’re done. Mackenzie is probably too nice to get a restraining order against you, but I’m not.
Call her again and watch it happen.” I end the call and toss her phone back to her. “Block the number now.”
She does.
“And if he calls you again at home, let me know. I like to keep my promises.”
“Thank you, Jake.”
“You don’t have to thank me. I did enjoy it.”
“So that’s what it means to be the asshole,” she muses. “You’re the one unafraid to tell people the truth.”
“A lot of the time, yes.”
“That makes you honest, to my thinking. Perceptive. Honorable.”
“Do not go there, Mackenzie,” I warn. “I’m not a hero.”
“Well, that’s just it, Jake Cavendish. I’m starting to think you are.”
“No. You’ve got the wrong end of the stick. I’m the bear, remember?”
She laughs, unconvinced, and really, I don’t mind having her think something good about me. We have a deal, after all. She will stay in her lane and I’ll stay in mine.
“Mind if I open the window?”
“Not at all.” Most women don’t like the window open, in my experience, and even I’ve gotten used to having them closed.
Mackenzie opens hers and the evening air flows into the car, replacing the cool from the air conditioning.
It’s a nice night, not so humid as it could be this time of year, warm enough to feel tropical.
I realize that I’m enjoying the quiet roads around Empire more than expected.
A drive like this one is particularly relaxing.
Who would have guessed that I wouldn’t miss the city? Not me.
I open my window, too, and turn on some music.
I was listening to jazz on the drive down, and Miles Davis is just about the perfect accompaniment to this moment.
There are fields in the darkness on either side and no one else on the road.
Mackenzie is quiet and so am I. It’s fine.
It’s companionable. It’s good. I admit to myself that I’m inappropriately glad to have participated in the dumping of the Darcy.
Mackenzie and I don’t have a thing.
We can’t have a thing.
It wouldn’t end well.
It would be amazing until it suddenly wasn’t, and the end might finish me.
There’s a bit of honesty I wasn’t expecting.
I don’t want to step away from Mackenzie, even though I know it’s the smart thing to do.
Huh.
I can see the lights of Empire casting a glow into the sky when Mackenzie finally speaks. “Jake, I could use some awesome tonight.”
It’s like she read my mind. “Even with a bear.”
“Especially with a bear,” she replies, her words heartfelt.
I fake a growl and we laugh together as I drive past Rhodes Vineyards. My mood is vastly improved, although I’m not going to think about how much influence this woman already has over me.
I’m just going to enjoy the unexpected.
Savour the moment.
I pull into the parking lot at Cavendish Enterprises, the greenhouses gleaming and all the office windows dark. The house looks abandoned, and it isn’t the most welcoming of destinations. “I hope your expectations are low,” I say and she smiles.
“Of the location, yes. Of events to occur there, no. Those expectations are sky-high.”
“Game on, then,” I say, and get out to open her car door.
We can’t have a future, but we can have another night, tonight, and that suits me just fine.