Mid Life Love: At Last (22 page)

I’d decided that my eyes were playing tricks on me so I simply parked my car. With flowers in tow, I’d headed towards the Starbucks, but then I saw her again—with Ryan, pressed up against her car with her fucking leg around his waist, with her lips inches away from his mouth.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get that image out of my mind...

I hadn’t been home in a week, and I had no plans to return any time soon. I was too damn angry to be anywhere near her.

When she’d broken up with me last year and went her separate way for three fucking months, I was livid. Infuriated. Inconsolable. But this recent stunt of hers was—there were no words for this shit.

What part of ‘I don’t share’ does she not understand? What part of ‘Call me ASAP if Ryan shows up’ is difficult to comprehend?

She’d been sending me numerous text messages to apologize, trying to explain her side of the story and beg me to come home, but I never answered. And I sent each and every one of her hourly calls directly to voicemail.

I didn’t want to talk to her right now. I didn’t want to talk to her
ever
.

“Mr. Statham?” Angela’s voice suddenly came over the intercom.

“Yes?”

“Miss Gracen is—”

“I’m not here.”

“Sir, she’s standing right outside your door.”

“
I’m. Not. Here
.” I gritted my teeth. “Are we clear?”

“Yes sir...”

I waited for an hour, until I was sure Claire was gone, and then I stepped outside. I walked around the corner and stood at Angela’s desk. “Did my—” I stopped myself. I’d almost said
my wife
. “Did Miss Gracen leave another note?”

“Yes sir.” She handed me a folded sheet of white paper and I took it into my office.

I debated whether or not I should toss it into the trash with all her other ones, but I decided to open it:

Jonathan,

I know you’re very angry with me, but please give me a chance to explain what you saw last Friday...I’m sorry I ever allowed it to happen, and it’s not what you think. I promise.

I love you and
only you
, and I wish you would come back home...

Yours,

Claire

I crumpled her letter into a ball and tossed it into the trash. I took a deep breath and shook my head, trying to think about what I needed to do to get this off my mind.

I called Angela back.

“Yes, Mr. Statham?”

“Is the security team meeting still going on right now?”

“Yes sir.”

I sighed. “Write this down: I want last Monday’s interior and exterior security video footage from the Powell Avenue Starbucks—everything between the hours of four o’ clock pm to seven o’ clock pm. And I want
audio
. The very second that Corey gets out of his meeting, ask him to put his best team on it.”

“I will sir. Is that all?”

“No.” I balled my fists. “I want them to hack into Smith & Hayes Associates in Pittsburgh and get me Mr. Hayes’ full client list. I want the name of every client he worked with before he made partner, even the clients he worked for when he was a fucking intern. I also need a list of every single law firm in Pittsburgh—big, small, independent, commercial, every last one of them.”

“I’ll make sure it gets done. Um...Are you still sending flowers to Miss Gracen this week? The order has to be put in within the next half hour if you still want to send something.”

I was silent.

“Mr. Statham? Is that a yes or a no?”

I shut my eyes and tried to block out this past week. I’d never missed a day sending Claire flowers. Even when she was in Costa Rica, I’d called a local flower shop and made sure she woke up to a new set of blooms every morning.

Not sending them felt wrong—
hurtful
, and even though she’d damn near made me cry last Friday, I couldn’t bring myself to say no.

I sighed. “It’s a yes, Angela...But no note—just the flowers...”

J
onathan

“You don’t look too good.” Hayley slid a bottle of water across my desk. “And you barely spoke at this morning’s meeting. Are you okay?”

“
No
.”

“Are you
living
in your office now? I haven’t seen your car move all week and you didn’t come over with Claire for dinner last night...”

I didn’t answer.

She sighed and walked around to my side of the desk. “Look, I know it’s none of my business...”

“
It isn’t
. Did you break up with your secret boyfriend yet? I’ve noticed that your work has improved from terrible to
average
.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

I rolled my eyes and opened the water bottle.

“Mr. Statham?” Angela called over the intercom. “Corey’s here for your three o’clock meeting. Should I tell him your meeting with Hayley is running over?”

“No, we’re finished here. Send him in.”

Hayley gave me a hug and smiled. “I didn’t spend six hours trying on bridesmaids’ dresses for nothing, Jonathan. You better talk to her and fix whatever it is. Claire loves you and you know it.”

“
Goodbye
, Hayley.”

“I love you too.” She jumped up and headed for the door as Corey came in.

Then I looked up and saw it. Plain and clear. The way Hayley’s eyes lit up as he held the door open for her, the way he almost leaned down to kiss her good bye, but held back and smiled instead.

What. The. Fuck.

I waited until he closed the door, until he took a seat at my desk—directly in front of me.

“So...” He cleared his throat. “About the Meyer’s account. I was thinking we could investigate their background a little more before we fully commit. What do you think?”

“Are you fucking my little sister?”

“
What
? What are you talking about?”

“It’s a yes or no question. Are. You. Fucking. My. Little. Sister?”

“I...It’s not like that.”

“
Yes
or
no
.”

He sighed. “No...Not—”

“
Yet
? You
plan
on fucking my little sister?”

“Johnathan, man...It’s not what you think it is.”

“For your sake I would hope not.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “When the fuck were you going to tell me about this shit?”

“I wanted to tell you weeks ago, but I knew how you would react to this...What I have with Hayley is nothing like what I’ve had with all those women in the past. And if you would just listen to me for a second I can explain.”

I couldn’t hear anything he was saying. The only thing I could focus on was breaking every single bone in his face, pushing him out the window, and watching him fall to an early death.

I didn’t care how long this shit had been going on or why. He wasn’t worthy of Hayley as far as I was concerned—best friend or not; especially not the same best friend whose body count was more than
quadruple
mine.

“I would never hurt her,” he said. “I swear.”

“Get the fuck out of my office.”

“Don’t do this, man. Just—”

“I can only deal with so much bad shit at a time, so excuse me if I don’t want to talk to the man who is days away from fucking my little sister and hanging her heart out to dry. Just get the fuck out.” I turned around in my chair and waited until I heard the door close.

Is this shit really happening?

I picked up my phone and called Angela.

“Yes, Mr. Statham?”

“Did Miss Gracen send out a memo to every person in my life and tell them to make me as fucking miserable as possible this week?”

“Um... No sir. Not that I’m aware of.”

“Can you please
check
?”

“Yes sir...Are you still meeting with the ring designer this afternoon?”

“
No
. Cancel that please.” I hung up and sighed. I’d called Miss Valenti yesterday to ask if Claire had ever stopped by to design my ring and—
surprise, surprise
, she hadn’t.

I knew I’d previously joked with her about not knowing who she was anymore when she revealed that she’d been taking erotic classes, and when I found her in that bondage room at her bachelorette party. But with our wedding falling apart at the seams and her ex-husband slipping into her life again, I could honestly say that I didn’t know who she was right now.

She wasn’t acting like the Claire I loved...

––––––––

I
rolled over in my bed, reaching for Claire—cursing at myself for even doing that. It’d been a week and a half since we’d last spoke and her phone calls to me still came every hour on the hour.

I was still staying in my executive suite at the office, collecting the notes she dropped off and actually reading the more recent ones. The one she’d sent yesterday read, “You are the only love of my life. Please hear me out—Claire.” And the one she’d sent today read, “I missed when you used to send notes with the flowers...That’s what made them special...”

I could practically picture her face as she received my note-less flowers, could literally see her shaking her head and trying not to cry. As much as it hurt me to know that she was in pain, I couldn’t bring myself to console her because I was hurting too...

I sighed and looked at my watch: 2:58. Even though I was still hurt—
beyond
hurt, I figured that when she called this time, I would try to pick up.

At exactly three o’ clock, my phone rang and I held it up to my ear.

“Hello?” I tried to hide the pain in my voice.

“Hey, Jonathan.” It was Caroline.

“
Caroline
? Hey, how are you?”

“I’m okay. Me and Ashley want to come home this weekend and eat dinner with you and mom if that’s okay...We’re kinda tired of campus food.”

“That’d be fine. I’ll...I’ll set that up. Is that all?”

“Almost...Do you think me and Ash are
identical
-identical or just identical?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, how long did it take you to figure out who was who after we’d met you for the first time?”

“A week.” I laughed. “Why?”

“Good enough. I’m going to ask Ashley to take the rest of my tests for Strategy Physics.”

“
Excuse me
?” I heard her gasp and I knew she hadn’t meant to say that last sentence out loud. “You’re going to risk
expulsion
? Is that what you just said, Caroline?”

“What?!
No
...”

“You have ten seconds to tell me what the hell is going on. Don’t you dare bullshit me.”

She sighed. “I missed the first two weeks of classes because I overslept...I went out partying every night and—I mean it’s
Physics
, like my best subject. Or so I thought...I can’t get into the flight program with less than a B minus...”

“
And
?”

“This isn’t like regular physics...It’s a strategic level course. It’s not about
how many
you get right, it’s about
which ones
you get right. Apparently the problems I pick to solve are the ones only worth two points...” Her voice cracked. “There are only four tests this semester and I already failed the first one. Terribly. I need to make an A on every single one to get the B minus average...”

“I take it that Ashley isn’t failing?”

“
Ha
! Are you kidding me?” She scoffed. “Of course not. Strategy is her best asset. She has the highest score in the class...I tried to get her to help to me, but I just don’t get it...”

I sighed and shook my head, telling her how disappointed I was that she would even
think
to ask Ashley to cheat for her, and that I was upset because she wasn’t taking college seriously. I told her that I would hire a private tutor for her, but she’d have to commit to twenty hours’ worth of sessions a week—
at night
, during party hours. I knew that was the only way she’d take it seriously.

She sounded like she was trying not to cry, but I could tell that she was. “When will I start the tutoring?”

“
Tonight
. I’ll have Greg fly out to get you. I’ll help you with some of it here.”

“Okay...Thank you...” She sniffled one more time before hanging up.

Claire’s four o’ clock call came across my phone and I wanted to pick it up, but I couldn’t.

Instead, I ordered two kettles of Caroline’s favorite hot chocolate and had a local candy store set up a small sweets bar in my office. I figured that a long night of physics problems would keep me from thinking about Claire.

It was a little after eight o’ clock when I heard knocking at my door.

“One second.” I set a few calculators down on my desk and opened it.

It was
Claire
. And Caroline. And Ashley.

“Hello ladies.” I avoided looking directly at Claire. I knew she’d been crying by the way she’d done her makeup, by the way she’d brushed her hair over her face, but I couldn’t bring myself to say anything to her.

“Just because I have an
A
in the class doesn’t mean that I don’t want to be whisked away in the private jet, Jonathan.” Ashley grabbed a chocolate stick from the candy bar. “I’m
offended
that I didn’t get a call. Don’t you love me too?”

I rolled my eyes and showed them over to my desk. “Let’s get started, shall we?”

While Caroline took out her books, I let my eyes follow Claire over to the couch where she was placing her head on a pillow. As I went over problems with the girls, she lay curled up in a ball, watching us without saying a word.

As usual, Ashley and Caroline were great learners. They watched every equation I broke down, and asked questions whenever they didn’t understand.

It took a while—
five hours
, for Caroline to finally grasp what she was doing wrong, but I gave her problem after problem to make sure she wouldn’t forget anytime soon.

“Finally! It took you long enough to figure that one out!” Ashley smiled at Caroline’s paper. “I think we should do this again
next weekend
. Do you know how many pictures I put up on Twitter of the two of us in your jet? Wait until people see that we can do that anytime we want...”