Page 38 of The Revenge Plan

We had stopped pretending to stomp and were now standing in the middle of the field. His face was contorted with surprise and anger, “Don’t act like you don’t know that he’s been obsessed with you for a long time.”

I laughed even harder. That Caiden was obsessed with me was ludicrous. He hated me. If the obsession was based on hate, then yes, he was obsessed. I had no response but to shake my head at him in disbelief. Caiden, as if he had a sixth sense, came to us then. Ax glowered at me and looked like he was about to say something, but refrained at the last minute. We all went back to our table and watched the rest of the match. I couldn’t see anything. My mind was still on what Ax had said. He was mistaken. He had to be. That was the only thing that made sense. The alternative was too enticing, but unthinkable. It was a slippery slope to fooling myself.

21

Ihadn’t noticed that Hailey was no longer by my side until I saw a flash of her dress from the across the field. She was with Ax. Their postures looked serious, like they were talking about some grave news. From my vantage point, it looked like Ax was on the attack and she on the defense. She had a posture I had never seen before. She was withdrawn.

The need to rush over to her overcame me. Where was this protection instinct coming from? I had acted in a similar manner a moment ago. I noticed she was taking longer than I had expected to come back from the bar and thought nothing of it at first until I heard Dana saying, “Is that Gigolo Jerry she’s with?” It was odd that Dana, who had endured a litany of nicknames in high school, was now doling out her own. I looked up to see who she was referring to. Hailey was laughing with a tall blonde man who liked he had dropped from Norse mythology. They looked comfortable together, as if they knew each other intimately. I felt my heart constrict. An unsettling feeling settled in my stomach and an emotion grew out of it I didn’t want to acknowledge.

“What’s with the nickname?” I asked in a voice that was as casual as I could muster.

“That’s because women pay him to have sex with him?” Ax said, “I get it honestly. The man is the definition of hunk.”

Of course. It was a dumb question. The answer was in the nickname for chrissake. Hailey, however, looked like she was hanging on his every word. Whatever he was saying to her, she liked it because she had a wide smile on her face I had never seen before. She looked genuinely happy, and that man was making her happy. I shouldn’t be bothered by it, but here I was having fantasies of breaking the Norse god’s skull.

“They’re probably just friends,” Ax said, looking down at the grip on my chair. My knuckles had turned white. I calmed myself down. You’re not a caveman. I told myself repeatedly. You will not run up to them and beat him up for daring to touch your wife, I said to myself as I got up and made my way to her.

He looked even better up close. It brought out an irritating feeling of wanting to show him she was mine. She had flinched when I put my hand on her waist. I felt a tinge of rejection and had been elated when she melted into my arm. It should not have felt like jubilation, and yet it did. When he greeted me, I had to fight the overwhelming compulsion to twist his hand. When the man had given me his business card, I pocketed it immediately and made a mental note to burn it later. This is what she had reduced me to. One drink from her pussy and I was acting like a man bewitched. I had to get it together.

That was then. So when I saw her again talking to Ax and felt that uncomfortable emotion rising again, Ignored them. For all of thirty seconds. By the time I got to them, however, Ax had left her. Her brow was furrowed. “What were you two talking about?” I asked.

“Do I have to tell you everything I say to every man?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Anyway, there’s a photographer coming, let’s look happy.”

After the match came the celebrations. I didn’t want to attend, but they were the reason why we had come. The club patrons wanted us to give away the cup to the winning team since we were the ones who were sponsoring the match.

“You go,” Ax said to me, “you’re the CEO.”

I went over and presented the cup. The winners received it with fervor. Hailey was looking at me with a peculiar expression on her face.

“What is it?” I asked.

“You should have told me you’d be the presenting sponsor. I would have, I don’t know, worn something nice.”

“I had forgotten the entire thing was happening. Trust me, I wasn’t prepared. You look good anyway. You always look good.”

Her skin color deepened to a shade of red. Her responsiveness to the most mundane things was endearing. “Come,” I took her hand into mine, “I’m done with this and I want to go somewhere with fewer social climbers and socialites.

“Where are you taking me?”

“You’ll soon find out.”

22

It took us longer than expected to get out of The Hamptons. Many people who knew Caiden wanted to have a photo taken with him. I did not know that he had become this popular. Some tried to get him to stay or invite him to some other event. He evaded them all while all the time he kept my hand in his. I never got used to being held by him. My heart hammered each time he would squeeze me whenever someone would keep him. After all that was over, we hurried over to the helipad and we got into the helicopter we came with. I felt a little sad when I saw it making its way back to the City. Perhaps he had forgotten about the thing he wanted to take me to.

When the mechanical bird landed, he took my hand again and helped me out. “Where are we going?” I had to ask. The suspense was killing me.

“Don’t be impatient. You’ll see soon enough.” He pushed a door that led to a white stairwell that gave nothing much what sort of place I was in. We went down several floors and then opened the door to a corridor that had a row of doors at both ends and a bay of elevators in the middle. We were in a hotel. He punched in a code next to one of the elevators. The doors swung open, and he led me in. It dinged, and the doors opened to a restaurant. It was quiet, even though there were quite a few patrons in it. The decor was modern, elegant, and chic. Tiny lights that dangled down a blue-black ceiling. It gave the room a feeling of dining under an enchanting night sky.

a hostess who recognized Caiden immediately greeted us.

“Can we have the private booth please,” Caiden said.

“As you wish, Mr. Scott.” She led us to a booth overlooking the New York skyline. It was private, intimate, and made you forget you were in a restaurant. She left our menus and went away.

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