Page 2 of Finding Jacob
That was it. I laughed manically and rounded the table. I grabbed his arm. I wasn’t anywhere near strong enough to frogmarch him to the front door, but he got the meaning and walked there himself. He took my door key off his key ring and threw it on the floor, then left.
I slammed the door behind him…and then slid down it and cried.
I heard his car wheels spin from the drive and had no doubt there would be gravel dents on my Porsche.
“You fucking prick,” I shouted to an empty house.
I knew I’d get over him, but I was hurt. We’d been together for three years, he was the only man I’d allowed to move in with me, and he’d broken that one precious commodity I rarely gave—my trust.
I was further hurt when, six months later, I found out the truth.
“Can you believe this?” I snapped, throwing an invitation on the table in a restaurant I was meeting my girlfriends for lunch in.
Dory picked it up. “No way! Seriously? That girl has got some gall.”
Penny snatched it from her. “Fucking hell, my darling. What have you said?”
“I haven’t said anything yet. My mum is all, ‘it was a while ago and it’s family, and you should forgive your sister, she’s the only one you have,’ bullshit.”
In fact, my mother had stunned me. I called her to ask if it was a joke that I’d been sent the invitation and she’d confirmed it wasn’t. It was my pregnant sister’s wish that I attend her wedding….to my cheating ex. My sister wasThe Slutand, according to my mother, they had split up when I’d found out for the first time, but got back together because, ‘true love is never easy and they’re in love, can’t you understand that?’My ex, Harry, had gotten her pregnant and for the sake of decency, they were now getting married!
True love, my arse.
“You should go. We all should,” screeched Penny. “Think of how funny it would be. They’d be squirming with embarrassment. Or, I’ve got it, take a hunk!”
“Oh, yes, take a hunk. It’s not like you don’t know loads. I’ll help you choose,” Dory added.
The girls laughed and, although I didn’t want to, I joined in. “Yeah, maybe I will!” I knew I wouldn’t, but the fantasy was fun for a half an hour.
We ordered cocktails and lunch and gossiped. Mostly about my shitty sister and my parents’ belief that I should have gotten over it by now. The drunker we got, the more turning up with a hunk sounded appealing. And I wanted the girls to come in the evening, for sure. I couldn’t invite them for the day, of course, but balls to the plans and numbers for the evening. I also suspected my hunk would probably slope off after theofficialduty was done.
By the end of lunch, I’d filled in the RSVP and added a fictitious first name. Now to find a plus one called Jacob. I popped it into my bag and promised the girls I would send it back.
I posted the RSVP while staggering home later that evening.
CHAPTERTWO
The following morning, I woke with a headache and a sinking feeling in my stomach. I hadn’t beensodrunk that I couldn’t remember sending the bloody RSVP back, but I regretted I had. I wasn’t worried about crying off, I didn’t care what my family thought, but there was something tempting about turning up with a gorgeous man on my arm.
Harry had been all about his looks, his insecurities had endeared me at first but then had become annoying. It would blow his socks off to arrive with someone better looking and more successful than he was. I started to laugh. It was immature, not becoming of me, and so out of character, but I loved the idea.
“Jacob, I’m coming to find you,” I said, swinging my legs from the bed and heading to the shower.
For the next couple of weeks work had kept me super busy and I forgot about finding Jacob. I was due to fly to New York with some of my models for a fashion show. I hadn’t the chance to catch up with girlfriends, but Dory was coming with me. She was a royal who was about fifth in line to the throne, if the ones above stopped having kids, and had been my best friend since university.
“Are you ready?” I heard. I looked up from my desk to see Dory standing in the doorway.
I smiled. “Nearly. Is the car here?”
“Yep, and the driver said to get your arse downstairs, we’ll miss the plane.”
I laughed. My driver, Nathan, was a part-time model of the silver-fox type, and a fabulous friend. I gathered the papers I wanted to work on during the journey and my briefcase. Nathan had my bags already loaded.
“Let’s go,” I said.
My personal assistant, Jane, and the four models attending from my agency had gone ahead and would meet us on the plane. It was a private flight, which the designers paid as part of the model fee.
“Have you found Jacob yet?” Dory asked as we drove to the private airstrip.
