Page 61 of A Night To Remember

“Is it because you are still in love with your husband?” he asked.

“Jake, I…yes. It’s because I’m still in love with Paul. No one will ever take his place in my heart,” she whispered.

Jake paled. “So where does that leave us?”

“There is no us. There’s a physical attraction and that’s it. We can’t get married but there’s no reason why we can’t still be lovers.”

Jake gave her a long hard stare. “I asked you to marry me because I love you. I worship the ground you walk on. I want you as my wife, yet, you’d rather just be lovers. Not lovers really, but fuck buddies, because that’s all it would be if there’s no love. Your offer is insulting and degrading. I won’t be your stud.” He slid out of the bed.

Charlie watched as Jake grabbed his clothes and pulled them on. “Jake, you won’t… I mean you won’t let this affect your relationship with Kristy will you?” she asked tentatively.

“You must really have a low opinion of me, Charlie.”

“No, I don’t,” she said hastily.

“You obviously do, or you wouldn’t have implied such a shitty thing. I love that little girl more than life itself and I won’t stop seeing her just because her mother wants to use me like some man-whore she can dismiss at the snap of a finger.”

“That’s not true!” Charlie protested.

“Isn’t it? Look, I need to get out of here. I know I said I’d have a support check for you today but I got a little sidetracked. I will mail it to you, so you’ll have it this week. Don’t forget, I have Kristy for the weekend, so is it okay if I pick her up Friday night?”

Charlie nodded mutely. What could she say? She could see how hurt Jake was but her fear would not allow her to go to him and throw herself into his arms as she longed to do.

“Well, this is it then. There’s no way you will consider marrying me?” he asked stiffly. Charlie shook her head tearfully.

He nodded. “Okay. I’ll respect your wishes. I do want you to be happy, Charlie, and I’m sorry you’re still grieving over your loss. If you need me for anything, don’t hesitate to ask,” he said before walking out the door.

Charlie sat in the middle of her bed when Jake left. Tears rolled down her cheeks, before she broke into loud, body-shaking sobs. Jake loved her, yet, she sent him away. She knew she had hurt him, but she ended up hurting herself far more.

“Jennifer, cancel all my meetings for the rest of the week. I’m going to take a few days off,” Jake said as he walked into his office the next day.

“My, my. Mr. Workaholic is taking some time off?” Jennifer asked in amazement.

“Please, Jen, I’m not in the mood. Please just cancel all my appointments.” He sighed heavily.

“What’s wrong, Jake? You sound frustrated.”

“Nothing I care to get into right now.”

“Okay. I’ll cancel those appointments right away.” She knew when to back off.

Jake went into his office and closed the door. If he didn’t have an important meeting today, he wouldn’t have bothered coming in. As it stood, he didn’t know how he was going to get through the rest of the day. Charlie had taken his heart and ripped it to shreds.

Fortunately, he had a million things on his desk to attend to so he was thankfully able to throw himself into his work. At least work was the one thing in his life that wasn’t out of whack. Jake was so engrossed with what he was working on he was surprised when the intercom buzzed. He frowned when he looked at his watch. It was just before noon. His meeting wasn’t for another couple of hours and he didn’t have any other appointments scheduled.

“What’s up, Jen?”

“Steve is out here. He’d like to see you, Jake,” Jennifer announced.

Jake frowned. The last person he wanted to see right now was Steve. “Tell him to go away,” he growled, not caring whether Steve wanted to see him for work-related reasons or not. Jake didn’t want to see that rat’s face. He sat back in his chair as he recalled the events of yesterday.

When Jennifer had told him what was being said around the office and from where it had come from, Jake saw red. He stormed out of his office and strode down the hall to Steve’s, like an angry avenger. The wind was taken out of his sails when Steve’s personal assistant Janice informed Jake Steve had gone for the day.

Not able to leave right away because of an important meeting with a client later on, Jake impatiently waited until his meeting was over to leave. He drove straight to Steve’s house. Steve’s car along with another car was in his driveway. Jake figured it was probably a woman. How like Steve to heal his wounded ego with a session of sexual aerobics, Jake thought with disgust. He hammered on the door impatiently.

“Steve! Get your ass out here!” Jake called.

“What’s the commotion? What are you doing here? I have company upstairs,” Steve asked opening the door.

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