Page 54 of Charming
“What do you want?” Katie quickly asks in an interrogating voice.
“I’m not talking to you,” Jeremy says.
Katie starts to get out of her chair and I almost laugh. “Hello, Jeremy. What brings you to our table? It appears you’re otherwise…well whatever you are with her,” I say waving to the table where Jackie sits glaring daggers at me.
“I just wanted to tell you that I’d still like for us to get together and talk. I would like the chance to explain.”
“That’s not needed nor is it necessary. I don’t care for an explanation.”
“Look, can we talk in private for a minute?”
“No, thank you. Whatever you have to say to me, you can say in front of them.”
Sighing deeply, he rolls his shoulders a few times before proceeding. “I saw in the paper that you took off to Cabo and ended up marrying that actor guy and I guess I just feel bad that I drove you to do something so crazy. I didn’t know that losing me would…well make you go off the deep end. And, by the way, I never intended to cheat on you, it just happened.”
Staring at him in disbelief, I look at Katie as if I need her to confirm that I just heard what I think I heard. The look on her face is a clear indication that he did in fact just spout complete and utter foolishness. Looking back at Jeremy, my mouth open and feeling speechless, I begin to laugh. I laugh so hard, that tears pour down my eyes. Katie joins me too and I look at her, “You heard that, right?”
“Oh, I heard that.”
“Can you believe that shit?”
“You know, the sad thing is that I do believe it,” she says making me laugh harder.
It takes effort but eventually I calm down enough to respond, “Jeremy, you didn’t make me crazy. And trust me, the ending of ourrelationshipwas the best thing that could ever have happened. I fell in love with a man and in the short time I was with him I learned what real love is and what it feels like to be unbelievably happy. You can take your apology, or your guilt, or hell, given the fact that you’re with Jackie, maybe it’s your regret, regardless, you can take them all and shove them up your freaking ass.” Jeremy’s face floods with color and I feel satisfaction at the sight. “You know the truth is, I should probably be thanking you. If you hadn’t cheated on me, I never would have met Asher. And the thing is, I would endure going through that infamous and doomed wedding day of ours a thousand times over again if it meant I would always end up with those days I spent with Asher. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m here with friends and we have some catching up to do.”
Turning back around, I give him my back and never look at him again. Pride is shining in Katie’s eyes and Vanessa and Riley can’t stop smiling and giggling at witnessing our little interaction. Maybe I should feel bad for being so cruel, but the truth is I blame Jeremy in part for what’s going on now with Angelica and all the crap in the press that was said about Asher. He gave an interview to the press about our wedding like he was some victim, never once mentioning his role in the demise of our relationship. Not to mention he undoubtedly hoped to make out in the end should the board decide I’m not in my right mind to run my company.
I enjoy the rest of the evening with my friends. I stay longer than I intended, but the longer I’m with them, the more I realize that their support is making my heart feel lighter than it has in days. We keep our conversations pretty superficial – talking about the latest fashion and the latest gossip amongst our friends.
When Katie and I walk in our front door a few hours later, I give her a hug and wish her sweet dreams before escaping to my room. Shutting the door behind me, I change into my pajamas and then get into my desk drawer pulling out a manila file I keep inside. Rifling through the contents, I select what I want, then pull a shopping bag out from under my desk and take out a wrapped package.
Peeling away the tissue paper, I take the back off of a silver picture frame. Placing the picture I just selected inside, I close the back then bring the frame to my bedside table. The photo is the beach in Cabo. It’s a panoramic view of the shore and off to the side are rocks with water spraying into the sky from the impact. Looking at it makes me sigh with pleasure. If I close my eyes I can almost feel the sun on my face, wind in my hair and the sand in my toes.
It’s the first time since my return I’ve been able to frame an image printed from the many photographs taken while away. It’s also the first time I’ve been able to look at one and feel fondness and not heartbreak. Today was a better day.
My hands are shaking and I honestly don’t know if it’s due to nerves or if it’s because of the three cups of coffee I’ve already had. I woke up with the sun this morning unable to sleep. I was too wound up thinking about the meeting with the board. I actually did something I haven’t done in a long time. I got out of bed, got dressed, put on my running shoes, and went for a jog.
It’s something I did a lot after my father passed away. Running somehow helped relieve my stress. I’m no marathon winning runner by any means, but I can do a fast paced walk, light jog while looking pretty good in running attire, with the best of ‘em. Typically, with every smack of my feet against the pavement I’ve been able to beat the stress or sadness from my body into the concrete. It’s true that sometimes I nearly ran myself sick, not always able to stop, but I felt a need to run until I felt nothing at all.
Nothing.
That’s something that I could walk away with today.
Angelica has been manipulating things behind the scenes for a while. I’m sure she and Jackie had some kind of plan when it came to my relationship with Jeremy and planned on using him to push me out of the company. I remember she intimated that when she told me about their affair, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all. And when she didn’t have Jeremy to use as planned, she determined to use the wedding fiasco against me. And my time with Asher and what happened between us only played nicely into her hands. It gave her the right ammunition she needed to put her little plan into action, I’m sure.
Planting the story in the news about my mental status and allowing herself to come across as the worried stepmother was brilliant really. The board of directors, while old friends of my father’s whom have known me since I was in diapers, are old fashioned. They will protect the company they helped build at any cost, and if that means pushing the founder’s daughter and CEO out in order to preserve its reputation and standing that’s what they will do.
I get it. I do. Our company gains clients because of our unmatched reputation in this industry. It’s a company built on integrity and intelligence. How can we expect to thrive and gain new business when potential clients could be worried that the CEO is out of her mind? Or that I could embarrass their company’s voice or brand?
I have no idea what’s going to happen today, but I know that I’m not going down without a fight. From the information I’ve been able to gain from gossipy board members, the rumor mill at work, and from my assistant April, they are under the impression that I completely lost my mind over the heartbreak of Jeremy’s betrayal. Some of the board members were at my wedding; they saw first hand how that went down. And I’m told that Angelica told them that I was on medications for a long-term mental health condition. One that had never been exposed to protect me. I suppose I can see why they might think I’d lost my mind. I suppose a lesser woman than me could.
Then there’s my marriage to Asher. They believe that it was a quickie wedding because I was reeling from the loss of Jeremy. That I was acting out. Or further evidence of my instability and irrationality. It doesn’t help that there were people that came forward with stories about our time in Cabo. Asher’s “friend” Spring gave an interview telling the press how worried she was about Asher because his new bride seemed “unstable.”
The woman that took a picture with Asher at the restaurant and kissed him on the mouth, sold the photo to the press and gave an interview stating that I almost “lost my mind” when she kissed Asher, her friends that were nowhere near the table when it happened, backing up her story and adding details about how I yelled and screamed for them to get away from “my man.”
The man that offered to help me with my sunscreen snapped photos of Asher and I together. The weird thing is that he took them not only of us at the pool but getting ready to go out into the ocean on our wave runners too. That means he had followed us which is incredibly creepy. His story stated that I flirted and came onto him, asking for help with the sunscreen, and that Asher lost his mind and almost hit him for touching me.
I mean really, I’m not sure why Hunter was so worried, if anything, it sounded like poor Asher had trouble reeling in his crazy wife. My guess is he’s eliciting more sympathy than anything else.
