Her eyes are wide and thrilled, and I’m pleased for her, I really am. “That’s great, Jane. Congratulations.”
“I’m so excited! It’s such an amazing opportunity. It’s just as good as the one you’ve got with Williams Security!”
I laugh. “This isn’t a competition.”
Her eyebrows rise. “Of course it is! It’s all about doing better and better. We spurred each other on, you and I.”
Did we? And where did that get us? “You don’t compete with your other half, Jane. A couple is meant to be a team, I mean,” I wave my hand around. “Not that we’re a couple now …”
“But that’s just what I wanted to talk to you about! Kevin won’t move here.” She purses her lips. “He told me that ages ago. And I can’t do a long-distance relationship, if I’m honest.” She winds her ponytail around her uninjured hand. “This whole thing with Kevin …” She sighs. “It’s been such a mistake. I’m so sorry, Jim-bug. I put you through all this for no good reason. Let’s put all this behind us and we can pick up where we left off.” She reaches out and squeezes my hand. “I owe you a huge apology. I’ve really missed you. We were so great together, and I just didn’t see it.”
No goodreason? And the use of that endearment again is like chalk scraping down a blackboard. I hate it. I trusted her so much, and she torched it. She seems so genuine, but she’s like a pile of sand, shifting under your feet and hands, and you’re slipping and sliding, grains running through your fingers until you’re left grasping at empty air.
“That’s not going to happen, Jane.”
A little crease appears between her eyebrows. “Why not?”
Where do I start? “You cheated on me.”
She shakes her head. “I didn’t …”
“And I’m with Sadie now.”
Her eyes bug out. “What? That awful woman who lied about her degree?” She starts laughing. “Don’t joke about things like that. She’s been leeching off you ever since you gave her a job.”
Awful woman? Leeching off me?
Something hot ignites in my chest. “I’m not joking, Jane.”
She stares at me. “You’redatingher?”
Well, we’ve never actually talked about what we’re doing. We’ve only just got to the point where we’re not dealing with my crazy ex-girlfriend or her stepdad. I have no idea what label Sadie might want to put on this, and I need to discuss that with her.
“We’re a couple.”
Her lips part. “You’re kidding me! She wears big cardigans, cheapclothes, and next to no makeup.” She laughs again, and the heat in my blood sets on fire. “You know she’s taking advantage of you, don’t you?”
My face is hot now. “How is she doing that, exactly?”
“Well,” she says, folding her arms like she’s settling in to tell me all the things she understands that I don’t. “She obviously has no money. She conned her way into your company, and she also talked her way into getting a room in a brilliant apartment in the Financial District, I might add. You have to work your way up from the bottom. You can’t just leapfrog over everyone else’s hard graft.”
“Well …”
Jane reaches across the table and squeezes my hand again. “I can’t believe you can’t see this. You’re such a rescuer of timid doormat-type people, James! I know you were really cut up about me, and that jumping off the roof thing …” She pauses, and when her eyes meet mine, they’re red.
Oh no.
Oh no, no, no.
“That was a long time ago.”
“A long time ago? It was six weeks ago! If I’d realized you felt that strongly about me, I would never have gone off with Kevin.”
“What?”
“You never made any grand gestures. You never did anything that said to me, she’s the one.”
So, trying to jump off a building is a grand gesture, is it? I could have done it and died. She’s the stupidest woman I’ve ever met.
