Three days later, Jenny pressed the phone to her ear as Cooper told her he loved her. “I miss you, Jen. I’m trying my damndest to hurry this up. Why don’t you fly over to see me?”
“I told you. I can’t now. The auditing team is keeping the whole bank busy. I can’t ask for leave.”
He sighed. “I know.”
“Coop…do you and Dex have an issue? Like problems at work or something?”
Cooper paused. “Not really. Why? Did he say something?”
“No, he didn’t say anything. He just got a little weird while I was talking to him. I thought maybe you two…”
“No. Dex is the only one I don’t have problems with. That’s why I've kept him in New York and the rest I’ve stationed in Sydney.”
“Okay. Just had the niggling feeling.”
“However, I think now he and I are going to have problems, since he told mom about you and she’s going bonkers.”
Jenny chortled. “What did she say?”
“She’s planning to come with me, to stay with us.”
“That’s nice.”
“No. I've told her it’s not a good idea. Not yet, not until we…you know.”
“Have sex?” Jenny offered.
He guffawed. “No. Until we both know what we have is headed in the right direction. That we have something worth showing.”
“Oh.”
“Listen, I have to go. I’ll call you when I get back to my hotel alright?”
“Okay. Bye. Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
She hung up dejectedly, and glanced around the apartment, wondering what to do.
Her gaze fell on his desk in the far end of the apartment. It needed to be dusted and cleaned, so she got a dust cloth. She collected the random sheets of paper lying on the desk, and opened the top drawer to see if they needed to be sorted. It was stuffed full of papers, and as she extracted them out, she realized they were financial statements and credit card bills.
She hadn’t planned to snoop, but her eye fell on a considerable amount of money charged by The Ritz. She sat at his desk and wondered why he had to stay at a hotel in the city, when he had an apartment. He probably didn’t have the apartment back then, which meant the papers were useless and old. She sighed at Cooper’s laziness, and checked the date.
Feb 18.
Feb 18?
She knew the date well. On Feb. 17, she had lost her job and come to New York. And the next day, Cooper had left for Sydney.
“What the hell?” she whispered, checking and double-checking the date on the statement. Maybe it’s last year’s statement.
No.
His credit card was charged with ten nights worth of stay, at The Ritz in New York.
In the days he had said he was in Sydney.
She rested her chin on her hand. “What is this?” she hissed, confusion swamping her. Then a pretty image crossed her mind. Celia, blonde, gorgeous, model. She had walked in on them the previous night, and he had suddenly decided to get up and go to Sydney.