Chapter 8
Mistakes After Mistakes
Hillary Beck
“Ican’t say how happy I am that you are here,” Jack said, giving me a huge smile. “I mean, I know you have been busy lately. The Avery case, and then the recent scandals, but I was starting to feel that you were avoiding me. I am just glad that I was wrong.”
“You were not wrong,” I said, biting my lip. I had spent the last few days trying to decide what to do.
I had felt guilty about using Jack like this, but the previous days had just confirmed to me that this was wrong. I had hoped that by being with a man as good as Jack, I could forget about Gale and move on. Now I saw that that wasn’t possible. I could never get over Gale so easily. In the end, I was just using Jack for my own motives.
“I am sorry?” he asked.
“Jack, I need to talk to you about something—” I stammered, but he cut me off.
“Hillary, I think I know what you are going to say,” he said. “I know you don’t feel for me as strongly as I feel for you, but that’s not going to stop me. I will keep trying to win you over because I am sure, with time, you will want me as I want you. I am not going to let you give up on us, Hillary. I want us to be together. I want you to give us a chance, and I promise I can make you mine. Just give me one chance?”
“I guess,” I said, suddenly feeling very confused. I had called Jack here to tell him the truth, but now I was having second thoughts. What if all I needed was time? What if in the future I could learn to be with him and love him? What if he really was the one for me? Ididlike him a lot. Maybe I could grow to love him too. He leaned over and kissed me, pressing his lips tightly against mine.
“So, what’s up these days? How is it going at Fears Co.?” he asked.
“Just fine,” I said with a smile. “We are working on the Avery case, but it isn’t going all that well. Fingers crossed that things actually work out.”
“How is your friend doing?” Jack asked. “You told me she had some accident?”
“Oh, Erica,” I said, my mind flashing back to her. She still had nightmares about what had happened to her. She still suffered from that horrible incident. She barely slept or ate, and it didn’t help that I didn’t have much time to look after her.
“She is doing fine, I guess,” I said. “I just wish there was something I could do to help her, you know?”
Jack opened his mouth to reply, but at that moment, his phone rang, and he said, “Wait, I need to take this.”
He got up and walked away, and I turned my attention back to the cake I was eating.
“So, it’s you,” a voice said, and I looked up to see Stella standing over me.
“What do you want?” I snapped.
“I want you to keep your hands off my man,” she said loudly.
“What the hell are you talking about?” I said.
“I know you slept with him,” she said. “I have the pictures right here with me. I know you two are having an affair behind my back.”
I was well aware that everyone was looking at us, and I started to feel uncomfortable.
“What’s going on here?” Jack said, walking over.
“This woman has been sleeping with Gale behind my back,” Stella said.
“That’s not possible,” Jack said. “Hillary isn’t like that.”
“She is just a gold digger,” Stella said. “That’s all she is. She played Gale first, but when she failed, she went after you. You don’t think she is playing multiple men at the same time? Leading you on while sleeping with other men?”
“You are lying,” Jack said. “And I am not going to let you stand here and talk shit about her.”
“You don’t believe me?” Stella asked. “I have pictures.”
She held out her phone with a picture of me Gale together, naked in his office. It seemed like someone had taken it from the corner of one of the windows, through the curtain parting.
