I was agitated and I whirled on my brother. “Look, I don’t know, okay? Maybe she sent the contract months ago. I don’t know! All I know is that Gloria is not who I thought she was!”
“Have you talked to her? Maybe she’ll work it out so that she won’t lose you as clie—”
“Do you think I was fucking born yesterday?” I interrupted. “Of course! Gloria was the first stop I made when I got back into town this afternoon, Jeff! She laughed in my face.”
“Calm down. I’ll file a temporary restraining order if the publisher won’t cancel the contract willingly.” He seemed matter of fact and dismissive. Clearly, he thought it was no big deal.
I huffed in disgust. “If there is a ghostwriter clause in Addison’s contract, and Gloria already sold it to them, they can use it under someone else’s name, even if I refuse. I couldn’t stand that, Jeff! At least if it publishes as me, I can give her the royalties and I can control some of the publicity.”
“It sounds like you’ve worked it out with the writer. At least, that’s something.”
I shook my head in disgust. “Hardly. She won’t even speak to me. Apparently, she doesn’t trust me. I wanted to talk to her, and I knew we would need a copy of her contract to fight this, but she won’t take my calls.” I didn’t want to admit to my brother that I’d been shut down cold when I went over to her apartment, so I intentionally left that part out.
“Well, email me a copy every contract you’ve signed with Gloria and any publishers in the past seven years. I’ll contact your girlfriend to get a copy of hers. In the meantime, go speak with your editor or whoever you deal with over there, and leave the young woman alone. Give her a chance to cool down. Let me contact her about the contract. Now, I really have to meet mom and her lady friends.”
I glowered at my brother and reached for the bottle wrapped in the brown paper off of his coffee table where I’d left it. I had Marcia’s direct number so maybe I could reach her, though she might be more receptive if I waited until office hours on Monday. I wasn’t sure if I could stand waiting that long. I felt like my skin was melting off. I grabbed my coat and stormed toward the door.
“Have fun with the blue hairs,” I spat as I stormed toward the door.
“Maybe you should come with me? Mom would be happy to see you and who knows, maybe you’ll meet a MILF! Of course, you’re dressed for shit.” I knew Jeff was just trying to take my mind off my problems because there wasn’t much either one of us could do for the next thirty-six hours. “Some cougar pussy might be just what the doctor ordered.” He chuckled. “Some older women are hot.”
“Nah, you’re welcome to the double-baggers,” I tried to put a humorous tone into my voice with the joke, but I couldn’t. Inside I felt like hell.
“Talk Monday, Jax. If you need to play a game of racquetball to blow off steam tomorrow, I’m game.”
“We’ll see.” I raised a hand to wave without turning around. I opened the door. “Thanks,” I said and then closed it behind me.
24
“Addy?”
Michelle’s voice called from the main room of our apartment. I was tired of crying in front of her as I had done for hour upon hour. Now, I was exhausted. My head hurt, and my eyes were swollen, and a new bought of tears began when Jax showed up unannounced. Well, not exactly unannounced. My phone had been going off non-stop until I shut it off.
The buzzer to the apartment had wailed for ten minutes straight until she finally gave in, after I’d refused to answer it.
We knew who it was immediately, but somehow, I just couldn’t face Jax. I wasn’t even ready to speak to him over the intercom. My heart was shattered and to look at him would hurt so badly and I was positive I’d break down. I couldn’t let him see me like that.
What was I supposed to believe? I was young and naïve, and I was ashamed of falling for any of it. This entire situation was humiliating as hell, and I just wanted it to go away as if none of it had happened.
When Michelle had finally gone downstairs to speak to him, I hid away in the bathroom to soak away the misery, the headache, and emotional pain. I couldn’t bear to hear any excuses and worse, I didn’t want to fall for his charming charisma. I was beginning to think he loved me… as I knew I did him, and it would be too easy to fall into his arms and believe every word he said. I was heartbroken at the turn of events. How could something so perfect suddenly fall to shit? I’d just shut off the water when my roommate knocked on the door. Tears still squeezed from out of my closed eyes, so I ignored her, too.
“Addy?” Michelle called again.
I focused on my big toe as it burrowed into the faucet on the old free-standing tub. The water was cloudy with soap, but as still as glass; marred only by the small waves my foot made as it moved. I gasped in a breath as I tried to hold back a sob. “I just need some time, Michelle.” I was curious to find out what Jax had said to my friend, but another part of me was terrified.
“Don’t you think you should have talked to him?”
Her voice was soft, but I could clearly hear her through the closed wooden door. “I was afraid of what he’d say.” I spoke so softly, maybe she wouldn’t be able to hear my answer.
“He came all the way back from Tennessee to talk to you. He’s freaking out as much as you are.”
She had a point, but what if he was just a great illusionist; a magician who used his good looks and charms to trick people into doing what he wanted? My heart seized up just thinking it. Maybe it was just a trick Gloria was trying to play, but what if she was just like me? Maybe she loved him, and he broke her heart, too. Maybe I was no different from anyone before me. My face crumpled again as a sob threatened to burst from my chest. My mind was racing with all of the horrible possibilities. I should have known not to trust anyone. I should have known by the way every woman reacted to him, and his success. I should have known that I was a fool to think he could love someone ordinary like me.
Silence followed and I could only assume Michelle had moved away from the other side of the door and back into the main room of the apartment.
Part of me was disappointed Michelle didn’t force Jax’s words on me, but another part was grateful. It was like taking a final exam and wanting the relief of knowing how you did, but terrified of finding out that you failed. Only, this was worse. I knew it would take forever until I’d even be able to breathe. How would I ever be able to write when I felt like this?
I’d been crying for the past twenty-four hours, ever since Luke had brought me home. He was sweet when he implored me to let him stay, but I couldn’t even answer him because I was so hurt. I was anxious to read my contract and to find out if I was royally screwed, and to get into the privacy of my apartment before I fell apart. In my heart, I already knew the answer. I’d rushed inside and scrambled to pull out the contract from Bloom and Wandough.
After twenty minutes, I finally found the ghostwriter clause in the fine print on the second to last page. It was one sentence buried in the “all future work” paragraph. I wanted to kick myself. It was barely mentioned, but there it was. I’d be paid a fee of ten to fifty thousand dollars depending on the success of the author I was writing for. Even now, after a full day of processing, I still couldn’t fully wrap my head around how monumentally stupid I was. Sure, Gloria and Jax may have taken advantage of my ignorance of the industry, but I should have known better than to sign the fucking thing without reading every word at least ten times.