“Come on, sweet girl—Mommy’s gotta go. If you’re a good girl, we can watch TV. Yeah, you like TV. All the lights and pretty colors.” She starts to settle and finally latches on to her pacifier. I think her back teeth are coming in, which kept us both up all night.
The doorbell rings, and I yell to Carrie, my babysitter, that it’s unlocked and to come in. “Oh, thank god. I’m running late. She’s super fussy, but just started eating.” I hand her over, my eyes catching spit up over my right shoulder. “Shoot! Um…I’m going to go change real quick, then I gotta run.” I dash into my room and swap out my white dress for a navy blue one. “Oh, don’t forget, I have drinks with some coworkers after work, so I’ll be a bit later tonight.”
“Got it!” Carrie yells back as she sings to Bria.
I make it to work with a minute to spare. I toss my purse under my desk and log into my computer just as my boss enters the office. “Willa, you look extra lovely today. Anything you want to tell me?”
Yeah, I had spit up all over my regular work attire—oh, and you’re a pervert and should be fired. “No, just felt like something a bit fancier.”
“Okay, then. Meet me in my office in five. Looking forward to all your morning intel.” I smile slightly as my insides curdle with disgust.
“I can’t believe you haven’t gone to HR yet. He’s disgusting.” Tracey, my coworker and closest friend, groans as she takes a sip of her beer. The bar is crowded with businesspeople with the same idea: drink many drinks to erase away the day.
I sigh, enjoying the coolness of my vodka and soda as it slides down my throat. I can only allow myself one since I need to get home to Bria, but I’m going to savor every last sip. “I can’t. I need this job.”
“But you don’t need the harassment. Sue his ass. You could live off the settlement money while you look for a better job.”
“I wish it was that easy. So many places require a degree. This is one of the few that doesn’t. I’m kind of stuck until I finish at least two years of school.” Which I plan on starting soon. I spent all weekend filling out forms for the local college.
“Girl, you’re like a machine. I wish I had your stamina.”
“Stamina? More like having a screw loose. Not sure how I’m going to juggle work, a baby, and college—”
“Willa?”
Tracey and I laugh as someone grabs my attention. Smiling, I turn to my right. My eyes land on him, and the glass I’m holding slips from my grip and shatters at my feet as everything sways and goes black.
“Willa, come on. Hey, there you are.” I start to come to. My eyes flutter open. I’m not sure what happened, but I’m now sideways…on the floor.
“Is she okay?” I hear Tracey, and I blink away the confusion.
“What happened?” I grab for the back of my head and find a nice bump.
“You passed out.” That voice brings me back. His face. Those lips. It can’t be…
I struggle out of his hold and climb to my feet. A wave of dizziness washes over me, and I sway to the right. Jake grabs onto me and holds me steady, but I thrust my palms forward and push him off.
“Let go of me,” I snap. My bitter tone comes as a surprise.
His eyes widen in shock. “Hey, sorry, I was just trying to help. I heard your voice…swore it couldn’t be you, but then…I saw you… What are you doing here? I thought...you were traveling?” My world starts to spin and spin and spin. I can’t grab onto reality. “Whoa, you okay—?”
“Stop! Don’t touch me.” I reach for the table to steady myself. How is he here? In front of me? He pulls back, his eyes filled with confusion. His lips thin, and his brow draws down. He opens his mouth to say something, but I can’t hear it. I need to get out of here. I turn to run out of the bar.
Tracey is right on my heels. “Hey, Willa, wait. What just happened in there? Are you okay?” No, I’m far from it. My chest feels heavy. Each breath I take is like shards of glass cutting at my insides.
I turn to face her as the door to the bar opens again, and Jake steps out. “No, I need to go. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I turn to run, but two hands quickly grab at my waist, halting me. “Hold up, Willa, what the hell?”
I bite down on my lower lip, almost breaking the skin. I can’t take the feeling of his hands touching me again. Too many memories flood my mind, and I whip around. “What the hell to you, Jake!” Two years of built-up anger and betrayal. I’ve always imagined how this day would happen. What I would say. What he would do. Would it be a beautiful reunion or an ugly showdown? Right now I’m putting my money on the showdown.
“Yeah, what the hell? I don’t see or hear from you in two years, and I finally run into you, and you run away from me?” He looks hurt, like I’m the one who wounded him.
“And how exactly did you imagine I would react after you turned your back on me?” You broke my heart.
“I didn’t turn my back—” But he did, and he knows it. “You know I didn’t have a choice,” he growls.
“You didn’t have a choice to…what? Warn me? Tell me you were moving across the world with no way of contacting you? With Rebecca, no less? Or should I have been content with your cold and heartless letter—”
“What the hell are you talking about? Heartless? I practically poured my damn heart out in that letter. I explained. Told you how to reach me so we could talk as soon as I was settled. I left it with your mother the night I left.”
His steely gaze takes hold of me, and my heart stops. Air escapes my lungs, and I gasp. I wish I could deny my mother would do such a hateful thing and hide it from me, but I can’t. The only letter I received was him turning us away. “Well...that’s not the version I got.” The worst part is there’s not a doubt in my mind she read it, which means she knew damn well our love was real and still chose to shame me. “What did the letter say?”
He studies me for a moment before shoving his hands through his hair. “It said I was sorry for how I was leaving. It was why I was so angry at the guest house. My father tricked me, no doubt my mother as well. There was no plan for me to do my residency upstate. It was to ship me away to France and do it under the nose of a man my father owed a favor to. And by sending Rebecca with me, it would push us to get engaged.”
It brings back the pain of his letter and his request to let him and Rebecca have their happiness. “And how’d that go? Did I miss the wedding invite too?” I snap, so damn angry, my hands begin to shake.
His mouth opens, and a stunned gasp falls from his parted lips. “What? No! No. It never happened.” He shoves his fingers through his hair. “Turns out, she wanted to be married to me about as much as I wanted to be with her. She was so desperate to get out of it, she leaked some photos of herself in a compromising position. It caused a huge scandal. She was in France for less than a week.” I don’t know whether to be thrilled or angrier.
He takes a step toward me, but I back up. I can’t be this close to him. “Willa, I came home a few months later, but you were gone. Your mother said you decided to take a year off and travel.”