"Think we will ever be able to talk and be friends?" She asks and still with the stuttering sighs from crying, but she is calming down.
I shrug and sit beside her, placing a friendly arm around her. "I don’t know. There’s a lot of bad shit between us that we allowed to stay buried there. I have to think of Axe in it all...and her feelings in it too."
"Do I know her?" She asks me and I don’t keep Jen out of this for Tayla's sake, but because she deserves to be the first person to hear it out loud. One thing to admit I am in love, different to tell the ex and now the one I love.
I nod and as she goes to ask I put my hand up. "I am waiting until tomorrow after the show to tell her so I am not saying anything until then." I say and she seems to accept the answer. I feel like I need to break the tension and ask about her and why she needed to see me. Talking about my love life with the woman who tried killing me with ours was too strange.
"What did you need from me?" I ask and we both cringe at how shitty it sounded. "I just meant to change the subject." I explain.
She sighs and looks at me, an uncomfortable touch as she cups my bearded cheek in her hand. "You grew it back, it fits you." She says off handedly and drops her hand. "I have no friends Cal. None. I have industry reps that I associate with, but when I chose Robert I lost everyone."
I always suspected that the girls picked sides after Christmas the year she went to Noah's with Robert Black, but now it is confirmed. "I'm sorry Tayla." I say and I mean it. I never wanted everyone to choose, but even that isn’t true. I knew they would choose. "I hate that this had to happen. Everyone was hurt in this."
She nods. "I know..." She looks at me with sadness and maybe even a little regret, though I get the regret in this moment I know our regrets are completely different.
"Cal, I should have told you. I never should have gone behind your back. Sam was right that night, any chance I had in having any dignity was long gone in how I confronted it."
I laugh without humor. "Confronted it? You didn’t confront shit. You blamed everyone else after you were busted." I try to keep my tone low and from causing a scene. If she was thinking we were going to hash it out and have this fight here, she was wrong.
"I know, but after everything is said and done, for what it’s worth I was wrong and admit it was a mistake." She looks at me through her lashes and I feel a shot of pain, maybe I always will with the looks she gives me. But I won’t let it affect me. I suffered far more than any man should to open Jenny to me, I was not going to lose my Red.
"We didn’t though Tay. We had a lot of shit that last year we were together and fought more than anything else. There is no going back or reconnecting it. I need us to remain civil and that is that. We are in the same industry, we will always be in one another’s faces regardless, but that is all."
"I don’t see it that way." She scoots closer to me and my heart is beating fast. Not from nervous hope, but nervous anger.
"Stop." I say and stand. "You need to leave. I am going to send you the papers to divest any rights to Axe. We never married, it was I who told the judge you would be his mother. Any rights though few, I need divested. You come in here and tell me that you have regrets and made the wrong choice." I cup my hands over my face trying to calm my voice. "You failed us both, betrayed us both and any regrets you have are for you to reconcile. Alone."
"So, what? Because you told me to leave, refused to fight for us-"
"What the actual fuck are you thinking? Fight for you?" I yell, all calmness now gone. "I did fight, I put everything into us. I never went a day without you knowing how much you meant to me. I repeatedly told you that I was where I wanted to be. You did it, you broke it and there was never a chance I would fight for you after that. Never!"
I yell and she jumps from the table and into me, grabbing me and kissing me, begging me to keep her. "Let me show you Cal..." She was fighting my hands as I pushed her back from me.
"Stop, or I will make a scene." I demand.
She ignores my threat and grabs my face. "Stop telling me you don’t want me Cal." She tries to kiss me, gets her lips on mine as I am ready to push her back, when everything went to shit in a really bad way.
Jen
I follow Noah into the PIT as he bitches the whole way in after the traffic nightmare. He parked the new baby, the Cuda and dashed down the stairs and into the PIT. I got in there shortly after him after texting Carrie I would be to get Axe shortly.
I had left my Escalade at the PIT last night and had asked Noah to take me in because Cal was busy with getting everything ready for the show tomorrow. I pause though when I see the Lambo and what looks like Tayla's car.
I know damn well the Lambo is his, but the Range Rover Tayla drives, could be anyone’s. I try not to think the worst, but I am prepared for whatever play she is trying to make on him and Lex right now.
I only saw him for a few minutes this morning, not nearly enough time because he had an interview at the Complex which they booked for the show tomorrow.
I feel the butterflies invade my stomach when I recall how he touched me this morning and the fast and seriously intense quickie we had in the shower. I always wanted Cal, but the way I craved his touch now was borderline crazy.
What I see when I walk in the PIT though stops me when I hear yelling I can’t make out, then begging?
I storm toward the sound and see Noah yell to me seconds before I walk in...and look at the crushing sight before me.
Tayla has Cal's face in her hands, his are on her shoulders as she kisses him. His eyes are open and he sees me, shoving her back with too much force as she stumbles onto Noah's table.
"Where is Noah?" I ask, my voice calm-dead almost.
He called for me, but I don’t think he knows what I know. Not yet anyway.
