“I’m not hungry anymore.”
“Do you want to go?”
“No, you’re starving. I’m fine with coffee.” Picking it up to take a sip, the vile liquid caused me to grimace. “Ugh, this is awful,” I said just as he bit into a french fry and made a similar expression.
“The fries suck, and the burger doesn’t look too appetizing either.” He reached into his back pocket, pulled out his wallet, and tossed more than enough to cover our meal and a tip on the table. “We’ll find a drive-through on the road. Let’s go.” When he slid out of the booth and offered his hand, I wordlessly took it while feeling very sorry for myself.
We did manage to find a designer café before getting on the highway. I got us each a tall coffee and blueberry muffin, but even after repeatedly pushing it on her, she hadn’t touched it. Her silence the entire ride home meant she was devastated, and that caused a foreign reaction within me. I wanted to make it better, fix it… and not in the way that usually benefited my business or my career.
In fact, the thought of what I did on a daily basis caused a sour taste in my mouth. The conversation with Janis had been short enough that it probably hadn’t included divorce details. Still, I worried that witch had run her mouth with lies.
After I pulled up in front of Amy’s building, I twisted in my seat and took her hand. “I’ll go find a spot and come up.”
“Actually, I really want to be alone. I’m sorry. I know you made these plans, took the day off for me, and I ruined it.”
“You didn’t ruin anything,” I argued. “But I understand. No apology needed.”
She stared back at me, leaned across the console, and kissed me softly. “Thank you, Nate. All you did… it means so much.” With that, she got out of the car, grabbed her bag from the back, and disappeared into her building.
What I had done was played a role in this mess, and that was even more of a reason I needed to fix it and help her.
Waiting until she was out of view, I drove home, consumed with regret. By the time I pulled into my garage, I had no desire to deal with all the camping crap I had jammed into my car. I knew the woman who cleaned my place had a young son. I’d offer her all the gear if she could have it hauled away.
Once through the door, the first thing I did was shower, during which I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to go to work. If nothing else, it would provide a distraction.
Less than an hour after dropping Amy off, I walked off the elevator, passed my receptionist with a nod, and headed straight for my office.
Hearing my approach had Simone lifting her head. “You’re here.” When I threw her another bland nod, she tilted her head and asked, “Everything okay?”
“Yeah.” Saying nothing further, I flipped on the lights and closed my door.
There was plenty I could get done, but I wasn’t there to catch up on work. It was the possible distraction that propelled my body into coming to my safe place. But as I approached my desk, a thick manilla envelope sitting in the center of the clutter-free surface stopped me in my tracks. I didn’t even have to read the return identification stamp to know what it was.
Ironically, it had been something my client and I had desperately waited for. Yet having it in my hands now served as a slap in the face. I picked it up, feeling its heavy weight in my hand and in my heart. Pulling the contents out wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be, because this contract now represented both the death of the Steiners’ marriage and of Amy’s dream.
As I flipped through the pages where both parties had signed, I tapped the speaker button on my desk phone and one-handedly dialed Richard.
“Nate,” he said in his authoritative way.
“It’s done. She signed… no amendments, no contesting, all terms agreed on.” I should’ve felt relief that Janis handed over her beloved agency. That years and years of her hard work were now gone because she fell out of love, cheated, and lied.
Instead, I felt sick to my stomach.
“She’s smarter than I thought. Saved me the trouble of exposing them. I told you those photos would wake her the fuck up to stop fighting me. They were my golden ticket.”
“Well, personally, I’m glad it didn’t have to come to the public scandal you were planning to foster.” My name would forever be associated with that scandal. Better the world didn’t know Janis was fucking the congressman, or that we pretty much bribed her to concede.
“If it had happened, it would’ve been her doing,” Richard said, undeterred. “Regardless, it’s time to celebrate. I’m heading to the Caribbean for a few weeks. Once I’m back, my yacht is yours whenever you need to escape, Nate… as a thank-you.”
Yeah, no thank you. That yacht represented all the greed that made my business a moneymaker. I wanted to accuse that this victory was all on him. I was merely a puppet in the vindictive games he engaged in with his ex-wife. My role was doing whatever was necessary to legally dissolve their union. But deep down I knew I’d played a huge part in emboldening Richard to go for the jugular. I wanted Janis to be held accountable for betraying him. Disloyalty was what always spurred my determination to win.
And even though Janis Steiner had it all coming to her, I still regretted the manipulative path Richard had chosen to close this thing up, one that made me guilty by association. Having said that, I also knew nothing would stop him from using those pictures. Because after all the dominoes fell, some that I had carefully erected myself, the last one had fatally landed on Amy’s Runnel deal. My girl was a victim of all the nastiness between the Steiners.
For the first time in my career, I was ashamed of my work… and that epiphany had me sick to my stomach.
Admitting to none of that, I simply said, “Sounds good. Enjoy.”
Desperate to cancel the ache that thumped painfully in the middle of my chest, I grabbed my cell and called Clare, determined to do my damnedest to make things better.
“Hey, you,” she said cheerfully. “I was going to call you later to see if we could meet to chat… with Amy.”
Like magic, the optimism her words elicited dulled the ache a tad. “I can arrange that. Does that mean what I think it does?”
She laughed. “Maybe. I will tell you that I did get great feedback from Sphere.”
“Sphere, as in Runnel’s biggest competition?”
“That’s them. The rest I’ll reserve for our meeting.”
“Thanks, Clare. I really appreciate this.”
“No thanks needed. I’m glad you reached out. Hopefully it will lead to great things for Amy… and me.” I could hear the smile in her voice. “Besides, it’s not every day that Nate Navarro asks me to help out a girlfriend.” I could’ve countered otherwise yet didn’t. “Let me know what day works.”
“I will.” I hung up feeling much more optimistic than I had all day.
There was one more phone call I needed to make, and when Jade answered with a sweet hello, I said, “Hey. Can you check on Amy? She had a rough morning.”
I had no desire to write. In fact, I had no desire to do anything. What was the point? Besides, if I attempted to get some words down, every one of my characters risked dying in a fiery crash because of the mood I was in.