Page 123 of I Love My Mistake

Chapter Fifty-Nine

Never Say The Worst Is Over

Looking toward the door, I’m blown away by who I see. David, of all the people on Earth, has strolled into the gallery and is walking from painting to painting.

“Oh no.” I search the room frantically. What is he doing here? I have to warn Jess. I spot her and realize I’m too late; she’s clawing her way through the crowd to get to him with murder in her eyes. I pull on Mark’s hand. “Walk faster! Come on!”

“What’s your hurry?”

“It’s Jess’s ex-boyfriend who cheated on her!”

I watch as dickhead David turns and unexpectedly sees Jess. His jaw unhinges in shock. From the look on her face, she’s going to make Mark’s wish for bloodshed come true. I can’t let this happen! I let go of Mark’s hand, pull up my long dress to run and take off to intercept her.

She beats me to him, her voice piercing hot. “What are you doing here? Stop following me, you crazy stalker!”

He’s completely taken aback. “I’m not following you, Jess!”

She fumes. “Oh really? We’ve run into each other three times David. Now four! And you’re telling me there’ll all just an accident. I know I fell for your lies once but I’m not stupid twice!”

I force a smile, but it ain’t pretty. “Everything okay?”

He turns to me in shock. “Nicole. Shit. Wow.” He looks around and sees Amber and Josh. He thinks nothing of the guy who’s looking at him like he’s an asshole. He’s never met Chris, so why would he? But he knows he’s completely ambushed. We all know what he did. We were all friends with this asshole, once upon a time. He’s looking at the jury and everyone on it knows he’s guilty.

Mark arrives behind me. He scans our faces and says, “Hi Dave.”

Dickhead looks at him. “Hi Mark.”

I’m completely lost. Confusion slams into Jess. She stutters as she asks Mark, “How do you know David?”

Mark doesn’t want to say it, but he has to. “Dave’s meeting me here to see Nicole’s paintings.”

“What?!!” Appalled, I throw up a thumb toward Dickhead. “He’s the investor?”

Jess struggles hard to understand. “What investor? What’s going on?”

Mark gently tells her, “For my app idea. The one I told you about?”

Poor Jess flushes beet-red and mumbles, “Oh.” She looks at David. “You’re not following me?”

“No. Not that you’re not worth stalking.” She sneers at him. He smiles, amused. The cocky bastard, I never liked him. “You know I’m in finance, Jess. My firm and I are in negotiations to work with Mark on his idea. He gave me the gallery name and the address, but I didn’t hear who the painter was. These are yours, Nicole?”

I nod, sucking in my lips and thinking of what to say. Mark is clearly disappointed. He narrowly escaped Jessica’s recent wrath and this new discovery does not bode well for his project.

In an awkward, strange, and very human moment, Josh and Amber limp up, saying “hey.” David shoves his hands in his pockets and has the good sense to look insecure as he greets them. We all used to spend time – a lot of time – with David. He used to be in our group, and now he’s just the asshole who broke our friend’s heart when he didn’t have to. His eyes flicker as Chris joins us to put his arm around Jess.

Breakups are so weird. But betrayal is weirder.

Recovering quickly – as he’s so good at doing – David adopts a professional tone immediately, turning to Mark. “My partners couldn’t be here, but I’d love to talk with you, if you can spare a minute.” It’s difficult for me not slap him in the face, and just as I’m thinking this, he surprises me and turns to her. “Jess, I know what I did to you was wrong.” His eyes go soft, and he struggles. “I’m sorry. I really am sorry. You didn’t deserve that.”

Jess’s eyes are like stone. “Okay.”

He pauses and concentrates. “Is it okay if I work with Mark and Nicole on the project? I won’t, if you don’t want me to. That’s more important. I’ll walk away.”

This surprises her. Amber gasps. I think it surprises Chris as well. From the look on his face, he can’t help but respect the earnest gesture. Jessica glances from David, to me, to Mark, and back to rest on me. I know anger still burns hot in her. I may be moodier than my girls, but Jess is more like me than she thinks. She just covers it with humor. Without breathing, I stare at her, wondering what she’s going to say. The ball is in her court. He gave her permission to shut the alliance down, and the money with it. But as she looks at me, her face transforms. I can see the love in it – the love she has for me.

“This time I’m going to make the right decision when it’s given to me, not later when I’ve almost lost the people I love.” She looks at David, takes a deep breath and says, “I’m okay with it.”

Mark exhales. We all relax as a group, like we were all holding our breaths. It’s a wild thing to be a part of.

“Okay then,” I take a step away, releasing Mark’s hand. “Let’s let you two guys talk business. We’ll be over here.”

He smiles at me and I shake my head, but smile back.

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