Page 20 of Rush
Ash was right, he always was, but it stung knowing I’d been so stubborn I couldn’t see my own failings. I was risking everything.
Maybe Jade had turned up at exactly the right moment, and this was how things were meant to be. How they were meant to work out.
Maybe this was my second chance.
7
Jade
Isat behind my desk, swinging back and forth in my chair.
I had a lot to cry about, but there were no tears in me. Apart from Friday night?, I’d become a shell. Not even Margaret’s bitchiness rated a mention. ?????
I needed a fucking break.
Slipping the engagement ring off my finger, I put it on the desk in front of me. It was a Tiffany & Co classic diamond setting, eighteen-karat, rose gold, twenty-thousand-dollar ring. If Hunter had never been serious about marrying me, then why would he have bought me such an expensive piece of jewelry? Was this his trade-off? Keep me comfortable with his money, drape me on his arm in front of his family and work colleagues while behind everyone’s back, he was fucking whomever he chose? I’d been destined to become a trophy wife—that was what this was.
I’d wanted true love, but all I’d gotten was a filthy dick.
Thinking about Ryan, I picked up the ring and held it in my palm, studying the flawless cut of the diamond. Like the fighter, it was multifaceted. After all the shit he’d seemed to have gone through when I knew him the first time around, he’d come out on top. I snorted. The old Ryan certainly would’ve asked me to stay at his place, but the new one… He was different somehow.
Rummaging through my bag, I found the old receipt from the day before and pulled it out. Scanning the bucket list, I wondered if completing some of these wouldn’t be such a bad idea, but what about the last item? Maybe number five with the question marks should be ‘be less selfish.’ Or at least, ‘be less of a pushover.’
It seemed like something I could start working on now that I was single.
Oh fuck. I was single.For good this time. My perfect little world had fallen apart, so what was I supposed to do now? There was no plan B.
A knock at the door had me scrambling. Opening my desk drawer, I scraped the bucket list inside and slammed it closed as my assistant, Juliette, walked in. The beautiful, black-haired, athletic, smart woman with the perfect boyfriend. She’d been through a lot, but she was so put together now, that all I felt was a pang of jealousy. Someone loved her.
“Morning,” she said cheerfully, holding her notebook and pen at the ready. “What’s on the agenda today?”
I wanted to scream, ‘Fuck the agenda,’ jump on top of my desk, and kick the contents all around the room, but I straightened up and forced a smile.
“Is everything all right?” she asked, peering at me like I was sprouting a second head. “You look a little pale.”
I sighed. She would find out eventually. Everyone would, considering Hunter had changed his relationship status on all his social media to single.Good luck finding another pushover, asshole. Even as I thought it, I knew he would come out of this smelling like roses. Men always did. Sexist fuck.
“I caught Hunter fucking another woman on Friday,” I declared.
Juliette’s mouth fell open, and she stared at me for a full minute before she blurted, “Asshole!”
I rolled my eyes. “Believe me, I said far worse.”
“Oh, Jade, I’m so sorry…”
“My house isn’t mine, so I have to arrange to remove my things at some point,” I went on, the ring digging into my palm as I squeezed it. “And I have to look for a reasonably priced apartment, close to the city, that’s more within my budget.” I sighed. “I have to readjust my expectations.” In more ways than I’d ever imagined I would have to.
What was that movie? The disaster one where the Earth’s poles reversed and everything changed from tides, landmasses, and seasons? That was what I was going through right now. An extinction level event.
“He kicked you out?” Juliette exclaimed.
“I’m staying with a friend for now,” I replied, fidgeting with the notebook on my desk, the one I wrote a million to-do lists on every morning. Today, it only had three items on it, and they were all bland and boring. “Luckily for me, we’re between releases.”
“Let me help you,” she said, grabbing her phone. “Let’s make a list.”
First Ryan and now Juliette. My life was a list full of things to tick off. Grades, check. University, check. Boyfriend, check. House, check. Wedding, check. The job of my dreams, check. Where on that list had my identity slotted in?
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “Organizing my shit isn’t in your job description.” Even though getting her to do it was the first thing I’d thought about hours after the incident. I was trying to be less selfish, after all.
