32. Jessica
JESSICA
It was time to head back. The natives were getting restless. Mom, because she wasn’t able to fill her motherly quota these last two weeks and Julius was starting to grumble each time we talked. I think the only reason I hadn’t rushed back thus far is because I’ve been sleeping so well at night.
I don’t know what it is about this place, but I’ve decided that from now on this is going to be my home base. I haven’t been slacking off while here, though. The situation with Dale and Charlotte had pretty much been taken care of on my end, and things had progressed much better than I’d expected.
For one, Charlotte was facing serious jail time and had already been picked up by the Feds the day before.
As I said, I hadn’t meant to take things this far in the beginning.
Even though I’d found hints here and there of what she’d been up to, I hadn’t pushed any further because it was none of my business and in my experience, those things usually came to light sooner or later.
But that night, I’d seen the predatory look in her eyes when she looked at Julius, and it just rubbed me the wrong way. As for Dale, he got the boot long before she got taken in. Last I heard, he’d hired a team of lawyers to prove his innocence and get his job back.
I never realized just how thick he is. Losing his job for having an affair with a staff member had nothing to do with the fact that said member was a thief. He seemed to think that since there was no evidence linking him to her crimes, that should absolve him of the other.
The reason this was so satisfying was that he was up for promotion, and everyone knew it. He was the young rising star at the company, something he was very proud of. And now he’d be lucky to get a job washing dishes in the financial sector.
I was still wondering whether to reveal that it was I who had destroyed his future as I packed to return to the real world. I’d given myself a thousand excuses, but the truth is, I missed that idiot Julius. I missed his scent and the way he looks at me when he thinks I’m not looking.
I was no longer afraid, and the hurt was mostly gone. I hadn’t spent these two weeks just plotting against Dale and his side piece; in fact, most of my days were spent thinking about the past and the things he’d said in the café that day.
Everything was a lot to unpack, but the bottom line is I don’t think I can live without him. I want to see where this goes, I want to have dates with him and to wake up next to him each day, feeling the way I did when I spent the night with him.
I can’t go back to not seeing him or hearing his voice first thing on the phone, nagging me to come home. No matter where my mind goes when it comes to us, it always comes back to that fact. The fact that I can’t live without Julius Blair.
Does that mean I’m going to let him off the hook?
Hell no! It just means that now I’ll have more than enough opportunities to make him pay.
He did promise to make it up to me for the rest of his life, after all.
And though people usually throw those words around like empty sunflower seeds, I plan to hold him to them this time.
I looked around the room I’d called home these past couple of weeks and already missed it.
There was a stillness to this place, a quietness that had allowed me to think without white noise.
It had become so much more than a place for me to hide and lick my wounds, or a way to stick it to Julius by emptying his pocket.
It felt like home, and that was the problem. Both Julius and I come from families that find it hard to cut the apron strings. They call it family compounds, but I know better. In both families, this tradition had been set in stone for generations; no one leaves the nest.
But this place had come to mean a lot in a short time. It’s where I’d allowed my heart to bleed without feeling weak or soft. It’s where I’d come to terms with the truth about my true feelings, and it’s where I’d forgiven Julius for the hurt he’d inflicted all those years ago.
Between these walls I’d hashed out the pros and cons of our being together, and it was here that I’d put my past grievances to rest. But there was new excitement growing in my belly. Something I hadn’t let myself think about even after making the decision to stay and give him another chance.
That excitement caused me to pick up the phone before I thought better of it. “Julius, can you take the day off and spend it with me?”
“Absolutely.” He didn’t even hesitate.
“Don’t you have meetings or anything more important on the books to do today?”
“It doesn’t matter. You come first, always.” That excitement grew and spiraled from my gut to my heart and stayed there like a warm smile. Even the air smelt different when I walked outside to my car, and I found myself rushing to get back to him.
Something inside me had freed itself up. For the first time since I admitted my crush, there was no fear, no suffocating feeling, and no jumping leapfrogs in my gut. I made the drive in record time and went straight to him instead of going home.
He was waiting for me on the steps outside, as if he knew, and I did something my tough-girl heart had never imagined me doing. I ran, jumped into his arms, and burst into tears. He didn’t say anything, just held me as I blubbered all over him.
His hand on my hair, brushing gently, just made me cry harder. We’d missed so much of this, lost so much time. But now I can put it all behind me. From now on, we won’t ever be apart. I didn’t realize that I’d spoken those thoughts out loud until he answered. “Never again!”
JULIUS
I held her and closed my eyes, my heart finally at peace. I knew what her coming back meant even though the words were not spoken. I knew how hard it was for her to come back to me, to forgive me, because no one knows better than I do how badly I’d messed up back then.
I owe her for this, for overlooking my mistake and giving me another chance, because I didn’t deserve it.
I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to her like I’d promised, starting now.
Mom snatched her from me as soon as we walked in, as if she were afraid I’d mess up again, and the two of them disappeared into the belly of the house, leaving me behind.
I smiled at her back, feeling something new brewing inside. I had that feeling I get when a new business venture is about to take off, and I know it’s going to be a success. Until her, nothing else gave me as much pleasure as that.
She’s a monumental pain in the ass. Where the hell did I ever get the idea that she was a sane, rational person? She fights me at every turn, from where we should have lunch to how to rearrange my room, our room now. Those two things were easily dismissed as I couldn’t care less.
But that damn human robot of hers has got to go, and that’s our latest standoff. I didn’t think anything of it when she told me she had to bring Toby here if she was going to spend any real time at my place. Since that was a given, I didn’t bat an eye.
I knew who Toby was from her siblings, the human-like robot she’d made when she was like fourteen, the nerd. What I didn’t know was all of his attributes. No wonder her sister had smirked when she explained it to me.
“Why the hell do you need a robot with that function?”
“He’s family.”
“He’s a fucking sex toy.”
“Is not. That’s just one of his functions.”
Negating the fact that a teenager had made such a thing, there’s no way in hell she’s keeping him around.
I hacked him to pieces, and that’s what led to our latest standoff.
She was pissed, rightfully so, I guess, but I didn’t care.
She could make another one without that particular function, which I told her.
She claimed I’m a pigheaded man with no sense and turned to my mother and sister-in-law to pick up the battle for her. Now my house is in a deep freeze with the men on one side and the women on the other.
My own mother, that saint, claimed there was nothing wrong with it and decided she might have her new daughter-in-law make one for her as well, with Victoria butting in to say she, too, might be in the market for one.
This just led my father and brother to lose their shit and look at her like public enemy number one, which she completely ignored because her new posse made her feel brave.
I took that shit out on her at night, and she held her own pretty well, and went back to being her annoying self with the sunrise.
“I don’t care what you say; you’re not making another one of those things for yourself.” I’d come to learn that the disgusting shits were on the market and had been for years. They go for millions, which means that, along with her trust fund, she was a very wealthy woman within her own rights.
The paltry sum she’d spent on the house using my money was just a fraction of the cost, which is something I refuse to think about too closely because what man doesn’t want to be the breadwinner?
It pisses me off that she doesn’t need me, and that makes me feel small and petty, but damn.
I’d thrown her away, stepped on her innocent feelings, and all that while she was this capable.
It scares the shit out of me that I could’ve lost her for good because the bottom line is that she doesn’t need me.
She could’ve kept running for the rest of our lives, and I wouldn’t have this amazing woman to spar with, to wake up next to, feeling as if the world were mine. Even our arguments make my dick hard, but even there she wins.
She’d completely taken me over to the point where I knew I’d go insane if I had to live without her.
I miss her as soon as I walk out the door to go to the office.
Since she works from home, I can find her any time.
We’ve spent every free moment of the past month together, getting to know each other in a new way, and I’ve come to realize just how special she is.
Beyond the legacy, which used to feel like a noose around my neck, she’s just the kind of woman I would’ve chosen for myself. She’s strong and smart with a heart of gold, but if she makes another one of those things, I’ll lock her away somewhere and throw away the key.
“You’re not making another one, and that’s final.” She snorted and gave me a look that I saw right through.
“You think I won’t burn that house to the ground?”
“What house?” Her eyes got suspicious.
“The one you ran off to the last time, dimwit.”
“How did you know about that? Have you been spying on me?”
“Did you never notice the indentation on the pillow next to your damn head?”
She opened and closed her lips three times before screaming and rushing at me.