Page 113 of Loathe at First Sight

Jack storms through the front door, calling, “Liz?”

Before I can answer, he finds me. “Are you okay?” Turning around, he sees Mitch. “Who is this?”

“I’m nobody,” Mitch replies before I can. “Just one of Liz’s bad memories.”

With that, he turns and walks out the door.

forty

Decisions Must be Made

Jack

When Liz texted me, I was in the middle of a meeting with one of the guys who never wants to show up to work on time. Needless to say, her words cut the meeting short.

I don’t think I’ve ever been more scared in my life. For Liz Lawson to say, “I need you. How fast can you get here?” I knew something had to be wrong. If it was just sex that she wanted, she would have just come over and fucked me in the office again, or her text message would have had much more innuendo in it.

When I see her alone with some guy in a suit, my mind fears the worst.

As he walks out the door, I look at Liz, “Do I need to go kick that guy’s ass?”

“No. Well, maybe. Might make me feel better.”

I walk over to her and wrap her in a hug. “Alright, what’s going on? First, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. He didn’t hurt me.”

“Who exactly is he?”

“Mitch. My ex-business partner.”

My eyes just about bulge out of my head. “What? Oh yeah, I’m going to go kick his ass.”

She grabs me by the arm. “Wait. Could you just come here?” Her voice cracks as she speaks.

I pull her into my arms once again and feel her instantly relax against me. “I’m so sorry, Liz. I wish I would have gotten here sooner. Talk to me. Tell me what happened.”

“I guess he cut some sort of deal with the feds to avoid jail time. I don’t know. I was kind of only half listening to that part because I was so pissed.”

“Understandably.”

“He showed up, trying to make amends or something.” She rakes her fingers through her curls.

“Amends like he wants back in your life?”

“No amends like he gave me a check for half a million dollars.”

“Excuse me?” I ask, stunned.

“That was pretty much my reaction too.”

“Okay, baby, you’re going to have to start from the beginning because I feel like I’m only getting a very little piece of this story.”

She starts talking a million miles a minute, and I just try to keep up. She’s faster than the speed of light when she’s on a roll.

From what I gather, though, this asshole is trying to make up for hurting her the way that he did. In my opinion, it’s too little too late, but I’ll let Liz make that call for herself.

“He also then told me that he got me a job back in LA if I wanted it.”

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