Page 37 of The Revenge Plan

“Hailey?”

I turned to the direction of the voice and was greeted by a face I hadn’t seen in ages.

“Jerry?” We had been friends a long time ago.

“Fancy seeing you here?” he came towards me and gave me a hug.

“Me. What about you? This isn’t your scene at all.”

“Ugh. Tell me about it. But your boy’s gotta eat.” He glanced at a group of older women.

“You have a new girlfriend?” I asked, trying to be as polite as possible.

He laughed. “You’re the only one who calls my clients ‘girlfriends’ but yes.”

“Which cougar is it?”

“The one in the white dress. And cougar is right. The woman has been giving me back aches,” he leaned in and whispered, “She’s insatiable.”

I belt out a laugh. “Well, at least you’re having fun.”

“We gotta do what we gotta do. We can’t all nab a rich motherfucker.” He said pointing at my ring.

“If you stop complaining about your back, you might get a rich motherfucker of your own.”

He slapped my shoulder, laughing.

“Who’s your friend?” Caiden had come out of nowhere and was now standing by my side. He slid his arm around my waist and pulled me into him. I looked up at him. His face was taut, his tone was barely polite.

“Caiden, this is Jerry. He’s a model.”

“Former model,” Jerry said, extending his hand. Caiden sized it up, and I thought he would not accept his handshake, but he finally did. Jerry took out a business card and gave it to Caiden, “I’m starting my own skin care line for men.” I looked at him with surprise. Here I thought that he was a simple gigolo since he retired from modeling. Caiden took the card and looked back at him. An awkward silence passed between us and Jerry finally said, “I’ll see you two around,” he leaned into my ear that wasn’t the side where Caiden was and whispered, “Your hubby doesn’t like it when you talk to other men.” He leaned back and gave me a wink and went back to his girlfriend, leaving me alone with Caiden. His hand was still around my waist and turned us around, “don’t you want to stomp the divots?”

“It’s halftime already?” I looked at the field. People were entering it and stomping the grass. The activity was the only thing I liked about Polo. I nodded. He let go of my waist and took my hand.

The stomping was more fun than it should be. I had wondered a few feet away from Caiden as I stomped merrily away when I bumped into Ax.

“Sorry.” I said to him.

“You must be enjoying yourself.” He sounded sarcastic. I ignored it.

“I am!” I replied with enthusiasm. I looked up at him. He was glaring at me like he wanted to zap me out of existence with only his eyes.

He frowned. “I don’t get it,” he said.

“What?”

“Why he would still want to be with you after all you’ve done. What did you do to him? Did you blackmail him?”

Ah. We weren’t talking about the stomping then. “Why do you care so much?” I said.

“He’s my friend.”

“If you think I’m doing something to him, you shouldn’t be worried. He has more potential to do harm to me than I to him.”

“Ha! Don’t pretend like you don’t know the power you have over him.”

It was my turn to laugh, “What power. I wouldn’t be in the situation I am in if I had any.”