Page 86 of The Likelihood Of You

My head snapped back around to face him, his cigar now lit, matches back where they were, and his face free from all the smugness that had lived there just a second ago. I thought he was fucking with me, but his face was deadly still, guilt and shame radiating from him.

Now that I’m looking at him, he had the same wicked smile she did, and now that I’ve seen it, I’m concerned about how I didn't see the resemblance sooner.

"I suppose you deserve a little story time."He props out his arm, urging me to take the seat in front of me, before his head drops before plummeting back into the seat behind him.“She didn’t tell me you guys were dating until she’d already blown you off. But she knew I represented you. Knew everything about you. And I can promise you that when I finally pulled what she did to you out of her, I was furious with her.”

The tap of his cigar on the ashtray brings my eyes back into focus.“You’re a good kid, and so is she, but all she saw when she looked at you was dollar signs and recognition from the world, and it hurt me so much because that was not the kid I raised."

I screwed my eyebrows together, shuffling in my seat."But, this doesn't make sense. Why the fuck would she come after me when you already have good connections? Her dad's a fucking publicist, and she leeches off me instead?"

His head drops again, each time like the shame Darcie inflicts on him takes over."That's all my doing. I'll be damned if I raise a kid that doesn't work for what she wants and instead relies on other people for her fame just because they're family."He takes a drag."I ain't raising a kid like that, Jacob."Another slow drag, while I stifle a tight, humourless laugh. "And I'm gladI had the sense to do that. Lord knows what those fucking comments she made all those years ago would have cost me to fix.”

My ears pricked up.

“She came home at two in the morning, the day after they’d been resurfaced. I’d already been online and seen what she wrote, and I was so disgusted with her that I turned her away from the door when she asked to move back home. It broke my heart seeing her cry like that, but she had to learn that her actions had consequences, and I was ashamed that she even needed to learn that lesson.”

“Charlie…I had no idea that you were…”

“Related? Believe me, Jacob, after that hell that she’s caused this family, there are some days I wish we weren’t. And I feel awful for admitting that, because she’s my baby.”He stood up from his chair, his face drained of all emotion, his back arched in a way that showed off his age.“But I think of you like a son just as much as I consider her my daughter. And knowing what she did to you hurt me a helluva lot more than anything that’s happened to her recently.”

I shake my head at him, standing up to meet his height.“So, how did she find out my number? My address?”

He shook his head back at me.“I caught her in here a few months back, convinced me she wasn’t snooping, and was instead just looking for my schedule so she could plan my birthday dinner. I knew something was off because my birthday was two months ago at that point. But I forgot about it, but I’m guessing she’s done something else now? Otherwise, why would you burst in and fire me like that?”

I immediately felt like the asshole now, when on the car ride here, I’d been calling Charlie that exact name in my head.“You could saythat.”If I’d said anything more than that, I’d no doubt double over and struggle to find my breath, because it only happened yesterday, and everything still feels so raw and too real.

“I don’t want the in’s and out’s. As long as you’re okay, that’s all that matters.”He said, sitting back down and sulking back against the padded leather of his chair.

“But, if you weren’t plotting all this right along with Darcie, why don’t you like Florence? What was with all the links and screenshots of the negative things people were saying?”

He sat up straight, and took one last puff from his cigar before stubbing it out, smoke billowing into the space between us.“Look, I’ve never met the girl. But I was just scared of another girl, one who was exactly like my daughter, latching on to you again, only with a better way of hiding things.”

You thought the same things, too, and so did your friends,I remind myself.

“But by the way you’re looking off into space with a dopey smile and probably recalling all the ways this Florence is nothing of the sort. I’m assuming she’s a good one?”He asked, the corner of his mouth upturning for the first time.

I nod my dopey head at him.“She is.” Was.I want to correct him, but I don’t. There’s still a part of me holding out hope she’ll find her way back to me.

“Well, get out of my office and go sort out whatever mess my daughter started. And I’ll tighten up security on my end, and maybe invite her to that birthday dinner she never planned and give her a talkingtoo.”

I let a low laugh slip for the first time that day, one with humour at least, and it would be the last one I’d let escape me for the next six days.

“I’m sorry for firing you,”I say before turning to head back out into the hall.

“It’s fine, Jacob, but if you don’t mind making a mental note, Allure is next Thursday. No more Florence-shaped migraines.”

“Do you know what you’re gonna do?” Nate asked, snatching my attention back.

“Not at the minute, no. She wanted space, so that’s what I’m giving her. But I can’t just keep sitting here working myself up over this. I need to explain what happened to her, no one else but her. But I can’t.” The cracks in my voice returned. “I don’t know what to do, Nate.”

Of course, my initial reaction was to go after her when she left. I wasn’t going to let her go when I had everything to explain. But she told me to let her go, so I did. As much as my heart was yelling at me to find her, as much as it asked me why I was sitting here and not trying to fix things, Florence’s words were louder in the end.

You explaining how you ended up kissing her isn’t going to change how I feel about it. Not now. Not a week from now. It won’t change how much myheart is breaking again.

Her words replayed in my mind. That happy pang in my heart that I’d tried to cling to slipped away, and the pain in my chest returned, rightfully.

“Did she ever tell you why she came here?”

I turned my head to Nate, shocked by his question. “Of course she did, which makes this whole thing ten times worse." My hands found there way back to my face, before shooting back to face him, as I realised that I never told him why Flo—

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