My stomach flipped from hearing his name, and then it flipped again because I really had to tell her what happened. I fiddled with my napkin and said, “Speaking of Thanksgiving… I do have plans.”
She looked at me with bright, optimistic eyes. “With?”
“My mother. I’ll be in Costa Rica for her wedding, on Thanksgiving.” When Jade’s eyes bulged bigger, I bobbed my head. “Yep.”
“To Rob? What was his name?”
“Roy.”
“Right.” Jade scanned my face before asking, “This is a good thing, isn’t it?”
“I guess.” If she had asked me that before the last five minutes of my conversation with my mother, I may have said otherwise. And time would tell if this Roy fellow was indeed her person. But I needed to give my mother the benefit of the doubt. What choice did I have? “She wants me there, and I said I would go. And now with this Runnel mess, Mom’s call kind of came at a good time. I think it’d be good for me to get away for a while. I called her back this morning to say I’d be arriving in a few days. That’ll give us more than two weeks together.”
Jade’s smile was genuine. “I think that’s a great idea, Aim.”
“Me too. Yeah, she drives me nuts, but I miss her.” When Jade reached over and gave my hand a hard squeeze, her big brown eyes shimmering, I shrugged.
“So will you ask Nate to go with you?”
“No.” I cut my eyes down to my empty plate, knowing I was out of time, and when I lifted them back up matter-of-factly, I said, “We’re kind of over.”
Her eyes again bulged. “What? Why?”
“It’s not working for me anymore.” I proceeded to tell her everything that went down, starting with the party Friday night and ending with our fateful conversation last night regarding Clare and his role in being a superhero. “He had no right to do that.” Jade nodded at my observation but said nothing. “What?”
“If this is true, I know you know why Nate couldn’t discuss any divorce details with you. So, then I’m just wondering why you are making it about him trying to help where he could.”
“Yeah, by giving my work to his ex–fuck buddy. I slept with his best friend ages ago and he went caveman on me.”
Jade’s forehead puckered in an exaggerated way. “So, him asking this person to help you out was a deal breaker for you?”
Losing my patience, I uttered a resigned “No.” She folded her arms and glared at me. “Don’t look at me like that. My dream imploded because of the man I was in bed with.”
“That’s not true and you know it,” Jade said, rubbing her temples. “If this is about him trying to help you, then why not just tell him you’re pissed that he tried to help, milk it for a bit, and continue in a relationship you clearly enjoyed being in?”
“We don’t have a relationship. It was strictly sex.”
“It’s moved on from that, Aim.”
“Not for him it hasn’t. This is all your fault. I wanted to walk away a long time ago, and you said to give it time. Well, I did. And he’s still the same person, and now I’m in even deeper.” I gripped the neckline of my loose-fitting top and tugged it aside while twisting my body to reveal my tattoo. “This. This is why I ended it.” When I straightened my clothes and my body, I stared into my best friend’s eyes without bothering to mask my pain. “I ended it because I began to have feelings for a man who doesn’t believe in that, Jade.” Of course, I purposely left out the word love. I couldn’t bring myself to voice that out loud—not to Nate or Jade. “If I didn’t walk away now, the relationship I have with myself would forever be changed. Would it be next week? Next month? Even if it wasn’t until next year, eventually he’d say to me, it was fun, Jersey. And I’d put on a fake smile, tell him the same, and be consumed with how I could get over him, all while hating the person I became.”
“He could change, Amy.”
“We both know that’s slim to none. His entire career revolves around relationships failing. This is who he is, and like a fool I knew but still got involved. And in my defense, I was really no different from him when we began. I’m the one who changed. This isn’t on him; it’s on me. If he had felt differently, even after I admitted to wanting more, he wouldn’t have left.”
Finally… through her subtle pout and saddened gaze, I knew I’d gotten through to her. And her silence confirmed she couldn’t argue with my reasoning.
Jade and I ended up forfeiting our manicures and pedicures. Knowing we wouldn’t be seeing each other for a while, she stayed through the afternoon, and we did Jade and Amy things like we used to. Ate ice cream for lunch, watched bad reality TV, and laughed our asses off reminiscing about old times. It was the kind of therapy I didn’t know I needed until she left.
And once she was out the door, I booked myself on the first flight available to Costa Rica.
Because I had left my return open ended, there was much I needed to do. Cleaning out my fridge, stopping my mail, and blindsiding my agent.
Come Thursday, as Janis had demanded, I made my way to see her. She originally wanted to meet at our usual lunch spot, but I, on the other hand, headed for her office instead. I purposely arrived an hour before the time of the reservation and thought it strange there wasn’t a receptionist to greet me when I exited on the Steiner Agency’s floor. Stranger still was a spooky silence that had replaced the normally bustling office. A few people were in their cubicles, paying me no attention as I took the path toward Janis’s office.
The sight of her in a bland beige T-shirt and jeans, her always immaculate bob pinned up haphazardly, her always made-up face void of any color, was more surprising than the ghost town I’d just walked through.
“Janis.” She looked up to see me hovering near the door, her expression hardening. “What’s happening here?” I asked but remained standing where I was.
“Maybe you should ask your friend Nate.”
“I’d rather ask you.”
After tossing the pen in her hands onto the glass-top desk, she folded her arms and leaned back. “Well, Richard won… he now holds majority shares of this agency, and all my clients jumped ship because they want nothing to do with a bitter divorced man whose spite overshadowed their best interests.”
“That doesn’t make sense, Janis. Richard never wanted anything to do with the agency. It was your baby. What changed?”
She rolled her eyes at me as if I were an idiot. “Nothing changed. He’s always been a prick who no longer loves his wife and used another prick to take everything I love away from me. He’s probably been fucking anything in a skirt for years, and in some sort of midlife crisis now needed his ego pumped as much as his cock.”
“That still doesn’t make sense,” I argued, but before she could hiss something in her normal nasty way, I continued, “Seriously. He filed for the divorce, and then he set out to ruin you? A guilty man wouldn’t risk all he has if he had skeletons in his closet.” I pointed an accusing finger at her. “It’s you. You’re the cheater.” Her pallor went from pale to paler. “That man I saw you with at the plaza may have been Richard’s best friend, but he’s also Congressman Torrelli. Richard found out about you two, and that’s why he wanted to ruin you.” Another eye roll and her silence gave her away. “Wow. What else have you lied about, Janis? Was there ever a Runnel deal, or did you dangle that to keep me in line, keep me from leaving you?” I had wanted to so many times over the years, but I’d dealt with the ice queen before me, hoping she’d bring me the success I aimed for. Again, she remained silent, and that was when I stood, pulled the letter I had drafted, and tossed it on her desk. “You’re fired. We can make it easy and part ways amicably, or I can contact a lawyer. Your call.”