29. Jack
Chapter twenty-nine
Jack
N ew York is incredible. I’ve been here for a month and I haven’t stopped. The contract I’ve been working on has been full-on. And, due to the nature of the project and people being pulled in from all over the world, we’ve all been eager to see as many sights and experience everything New York has to offer. I’ve already been to a basketball game at Madison Square Garden, taken a ride on the Staten Island Ferry, and visited some of the swankiest bars and restaurants I’ve ever seen. It’s been amazing.
But, even with my days and evenings filled to the brim, I miss Cassidy and Tom. The time difference and the craziness of work make it hard to speak to them regularly. The group chat is still going and full of banter, but it feels like ages since I saw their faces—even on a video call.
Today is my first Saturday off from any social plans since I arrived and I’m determined to speak with them and see how they are doing. I even set an alarm to wake up early so that I could catch Tom before he heads to the bar.
It’s 8 am New York time making it lunchtime in the UK. I’ve realised my error in not letting them know in advance I was planning to call. What if I can’t get hold of either of them? I decide to try Tom first because he’s likely to be heading off to the bar soon.
I scroll to his number and press ‘call’, listening as it rings and rings. Just when I think it’s going to cut to his voicemail, he picks up.
“Jack, hey,” comes his deep voice. It feels like fucking home. I gulp and draw in a deep breath as a tightness grips my chest. I didn’t realise how much I missed him.
“Hey, man. Glad I caught you. I was worried you’d already be at the bar.”
“Not yet. I’ve got about half an hour before I need to leave.”
“Is Cass with you?” I ask, unsure what I want the answer to be.
“No, she’s deep in her editing cave. I’ve not seen her since the start of the week. Wanna switch to a video call and see if we can get her here too?”
“That would be awesome.”
“Hold on, I’m putting you on speaker so I can send her a message.” I hear a ding from my phone and look at the screen to see he’s messaged her in the group chat. A notification comes up across the screen to indicate she’s typing.
“She’s seen it and she’s replying.”
“I saw. How are you, Tom?”
“I’m good. We miss you,” he says with a sigh.
“Yeah, I miss you guys too. It’s been crazy busy. Hard to get a moment to myself.”
A reply pops up:
Cassidy: Yes - I miss both your faces! Call me now!
“Jack, I’m gonna hang up and then add you both to a video call,” Tom tells me before the line goes dead.
My phone buzzes with an incoming FaceTime which I answer straight away. And there they both are, in little squares on my phone screen. Cassidy is grinning. Her hair pulled up in a messy bun, looking adorable. Tom appears to be shirtless, if his naked shoulders are anything to go by.
“Hey, honey. How are you?” Cassidy asks me.
“I’m good, Cass. It’s so good to see you.” So fucking good. A lightness washes over me. Fuck, I miss them.
We chat for a while—me filling them in on some of the stuff I’ve been up to while I’ve been here. I’ve been sending snippets and photos in the group chat at their insistence, but it’s good to give them a few more details.
“How have you two been? What have you been up to?”
“We’ve both been super busy with work. I’ve got a deadline for editing this book before it goes to my editor, so I haven’t seen daylight all week.”
I smile at Tom’s frown at that comment.
“Cassidy, you need to leave your flat, even when you do have a deadline,” he tells her with furrowed brows.
“I just need to get three more chapters done and then I will take the rest of the day off, I promise. In fact, I was thinking about coming and propping up the bar for a couple of hours this afternoon. Get the gossip from Abby on her latest beau, and perve on you while you make drinks. I’m gonna see if Mel can come along too. We can choose a book for book club.”
“It’ll be good to see you,” Tom tells her with a grin.
I feel that pain again and rub at my chest. I wish I could be the one to drag Cass out of her writing cave and down to Tom’s bar. I’m grateful they have each other, but it sucks to be on the other side of the Atlantic right now and not just across the hall.
“Book club?” I ask.
“Yeah, Mel, Abby and I are going to start a book club at The Thirst Trap. Abby’s going to try and come up with themed cocktails and maybe even snacks for each book we read.”
“That sounds like fun.” I’ve never been much of a reader, so I know I’ve got the homesickness bad when I find myself wanting to join their club.
“How’s work going, Jack?” Cassidy asks.
I tell them a bit more about what we’ve been working on and some of the people I’ve met.
“Any hotties on the team?” Cassidy asks with a grin.
“There might be a couple.” She raises her eyebrows, obviously keen to get more information out of me. “But they’re banging each other, so I don’t stand a chance.”
She giggles, but Tom is frowning.
“Perhaps you could join them,” Cassidy suggests with a wink. I laugh but can’t figure out how to respond. How do I say that I only want to be with Cassidy and Tom? No one else. Especially when it was me that up and left, just as things were getting good. As much as I am enjoying New York, there’s a twinge of regret for what I walked away from.
We chat for a bit longer, but it’s clear that Tom is getting ready to head out to the bar. I watch as he pulls a t-shirt branded with the bar’s logo over his head.
“Hey, sorry, guys. I need to run. There’s a delivery due in and I need to be there so Abby doesn’t turn into Supergirl and lift everything by herself. You guys keep chatting though.”
“Actually I should crack on with this editing so I can take that break later,” Cassidy says with a wink in Tom’s direction. “It’s been lovely to see your face, Jack. Can we do it more often?”
“Er, yeah, I’ll see what I can do. It’s early Saturday morning here. Maybe the same time next week?” They both agree they can make it work as the call comes to an end.
I heave a sigh afterwards and wonder what the hell I’m doing in New York when I could be with those guys. Sure, it’s exciting visiting a new place, but the work I’m doing here is pretty similar to what I was doing back home and at least there I was getting laid on the regular. It’s laughable that I’ve not had sex since I left them a month ago. I’ve had more than one offer, but I’ve turned them down. I can’t even think about sleeping with someone else when there are two amazing people in the UK that blew my mind with everything we got up to. There’s no way a one-night stand could live up to the stuff that Cassidy, Tom, and I were doing together. Maybe I should see if they’d be up for some exhibitionism and video call me next time they are getting down to it. At least I’d be able to get myself off while I watched.
One month later
New York is still awesome, but I’m constantly aware that it’s missing something. Two somethings. Cassidy and Tom. I’ve been speaking to them every Saturday morning on video call. A couple of times I’ve got up earlier so we can talk for longer. With increasing frequency, I wake up hard, having dreamt about them and all the filthy things we did together. I really fucking miss them.
It’s Friday morning and I’m just arriving at the office. Brad, the lead on the project I’ve been working on, is out on the open plan office floor as I make my way over to the group of desks myself and the project team have been using. He looks up, watching as I walk towards him.
“Jack, got a minute?”
“Sure thing. Let me just put my bag down.”
I follow him across the office space to one of the meeting rooms. It all feels quite ominous as he shuts the door and gestures for me to take a seat.
“I’ll cut to the chase, Jack. We’re really pleased with the work you’ve been doing. We know your original contract was for three months, but we’d like to extend that to a year.”
“Wow,” is all I can think of to say. Here I have been, counting down the days to the end of the contract, thinking I’d be back in the UK with Tom and Cassidy and grovelling to see if they’d take me back. And now this. I can see that Brad is now watching me, expecting me to say more.
“Can I have some time to think about it?” I ask.
He frowns. “What’s there to think about? When you accepted this contract, you told us you wanted to stay longer. Have you changed your mind?”
“I’m very grateful that you’ve given me this opportunity. I just don’t want to rush into anything.”
“Okay, well, not everyone is being offered the extension, so you have a little bit of time, but I’ll need to make other arrangements if you’re not going to accept. Could you get back to me as soon as possible?”
“Sure thing—would after the weekend be okay?” I wonder if I'm pushing my luck asking for three days to think about this. But he agrees and we chat about the progress we’ve made this week. I’m eager to crack on, so make my excuses and head out to my desk to get stuck in for the day.
At lunchtime, Tara, one of the permanent members of staff, stops at my desk, asking if I want her to pick me up anything for lunch. It’s not the first time she’s done it, but today I take her by surprise when I ask, “Actually, would you be up for some company? I could do with some fresh air.” She smiles and we head out of the office together.
“I’m so glad you wanted to come for lunch, Jack.” She gives me a shy smile as we are walking along to a local deli. “How about we sit in?”
I agree and we are soon in a queue with what feels like half of New York, waiting to order food.
We find a small table and take a seat.
“How are you finding New York?”
“It’s great. I’m grateful to have this opportunity.”
“Is there anything you still want to see that you haven’t?” she asks. “I’m happy to be your tour guide. I don’t have any plans this weekend.”
I can’t decide if she’s coming on to me or not. I don’t want to be presumptuous and assume she is. Perhaps she’s just being friendly to the visiting Brit.
“I’ve been quite fortunate to see quite a lot of the sights already,” I tell her with a smile and notice a small frown of disappointment at my reply.
I get distracted when my phone buzzes in my pocket. I pull it out and see it’s an incoming call from Cassidy. I do the mental time zone calculation in my head and realise it’s early Friday evening there. It’s unusual for her to call me at this time because she knows I’m working. Perhaps something is wrong.
I grimace across at Tara before saying, “I think I need to take this. It’s a call from the UK.”
She nods, gesturing for me to go ahead. I tap on the answer button and hold the phone up to my ear.
“Jack!” I hear Cassidy shout my name.
“Cass—are you okay? What’s wrong?” The background of the call sounds loud. I can’t work out where she is. And with the added noise from the deli, it’s hard to hear anything at all. The connection’s bad and I can only make out the odd word of what she’s saying. It’s difficult to work out if she sounds happy or upset.
“Cass, I don’t know if you can hear me, but the connection is really bad. Let me head back to the office and find a quiet space. I’ll call you back.”
The call cuts off abruptly. When I check the screen it says ‘call failed’. Hopefully, she heard what I said. I feel the need to rush, not having a clue what’s going on. I check the group chat and messages and can’t see anything new. I look across to Tara.
“Everything okay?” she asks, looking concerned.
“To be honest, I’m not sure. I need to call her back. Sorry to desert you, but I think I’ll wrap my sandwich and head back to the office. Is that okay?”
She looks disappointed but nods her acceptance. I gather my Reuben sandwich and iced coffee to rush off.
When I get there, I find an empty meeting room, closing the door before trying Cass’s number. No answer. On the third attempt, I get her voicemail and leave a message explaining I couldn’t hear her but am keen to speak to her and check she’s okay.
I try Tom’s phone, but that goes straight to voicemail, which makes me think it’s off or he’s on another call. To Cassidy, perhaps? I drop a message in the group chat to check everyone is okay and try my best to get on with work and finish the week strong. But when there’s still no word from either Tom or Cassidy a couple of hours later, I’ve never felt further away.