Page 79 of Wild for You
My heart sinks in my chest when I see the footage of him on the life raft. It’s not something I ever expected to see. Then as I catch my breath, an image of myself wearing a bright red bikini and holding a fishing pole flashes across the screen.
“Everyone’s talking about the massive news Wombat Willy dropped on his final episode of his YouTube channel. Not only did he lose his leg during his epic rescue attempt, but he’s resigning from his massively popular YouTube channel, which currently has over a million subscribers and counting. It’s the most viewed episode in YouTube history, and it only dropped four hours ago. I think Wombat Willy needs to rethink his business strategy—”
Sandra turns off the TV, staring at me in stunned silence before finally speaking. “You did it! I don’t knowhowexactly you did it, but somehow you’ve managed to twist this into the biggest media event of the century! The phone’s been ringing off the hook; clients are pouring in; everyone wants the chance to work with you. In my forty professional years, I don’t think I’ve ever been so surprised. I’ve got to go. It’s all hands on deck. We’ve got to capture as much business as we can. At the rate we’re going, we’ll double our revenue by the end of the quarter.”
She turns to leave, but not before saying, “As much as I’d like to celebrate, I hope you’re in for the long haul tonight! I’ll need my right-hand woman by my side. Congratulations, Gwenneth. I’m naming you the new VP of Éclat! Now, don’t celebrate just yet. We’ve got a lot of work to do if we want to capitalize on this. I’ve scheduled a press conference at four. They’ll want to speak to you, of course.” She cracks the door, still talking through the crack. “Prepare something magical to say and woo them all! Make sure they know it was your expertise that drove the narrative. I’ll be right there!” ahe calls over her shoulder before closing the door, leaving me with a kaleidoscope of emotions.
Heart racing, I open the Youtube link and click play, preparing myself to relive something so terrible, so impactful, that I never thought I’d actually see.
My breath hitches when I see Jack, with his face clean-shaven face and with short-clipped hair, sitting in front of the camera. My eyes catch on his missing appendage.
“No …” I whisper. How could he have kept this a secret from me? Surely I would have known …
“Hey, Dubbies. Before you watch this footage, I just want you to know that this community means the world to me. Everything I’ve done in life that is good has come from pursuing this dream.” He sucks in a breath. “So, when my girlfriend and I,” he pauses, scratching the back of his head, “Well, I don’t know if I get to call her that anymore … Anyway, when we crash-landed on an island in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, I thought we were as good as dead. The entire experience changed my outlook on life. It showed me what’s really important. I hope you enjoy the footage I was able to capture. We certainly faced our share of adversity on that island, but somehow we were miraculously saved through no survival skill or technique on my part.” He sucks in a hiss. “I hope I haven’t given you any false confidence in making these videos. It was never my intention to steer you wrong or entice you to chance fate. So I hope you can learn this hard lesson from me and maybe even laugh about some of the shit we got ourselves into.” He pauses, swallowing hard. “I apologize for any harm my videos may have caused, and I know that the life I’ve led isn’t the norm. Sometimes we have to grow up and stop living with our heads in the clouds and take responsibility for our actions, so this is me saying, Goodbye, Dubbies. We had a good run. This is Wombat Willy signing off.”
A gut-wrenching sob cracks through me, and I can’t hold back the tears as I watch his resignation video. Jack’s face looks so sullen and broken. The dark circles under his eyes tell me he hasn’t been sleeping. He looks absolutely miserable. There’s no trace of his trademark sunshiney glow, and he’s just going to quit … After everything he’s been through?
A knot twists in my stomach, and suddenly, I feel like I’m going to be sick.
This isn’t what I wanted from him. I never wanted him to change who he was for me.
I suck in a breath and push through, playing the rest of the video, and my heart breaks all over again as I watch us fall in love, fighting and bickering in the beginning. I see the footage of me learning to swim, and I can’t help but belly laugh when I watch as I throw a bloody tampon over my head in an attempt to save myself from the non-violent shark. Then he’s teaching me to fish and swim.
My heart swells as I catch glimpses of him eyeing me with stars in his eyes. I was so oblivious in the moment, but watching it all back, there’s no doubt in my mind of the shared feelings, feelings that Jack caught way before I came around.
My chest caves in when I listen to his goodbye messages to his viewers but mostly to me. He really sacrificed his own life for the slight chance that someone would find him, dead or alive, and through his videos, eventually find me. I shake my head as my tears flow. He loves me. I knew it before, and I know it now, but something doesn’t add up.
I flick open my phone screen and stare at the text messages I’ve burned into my memory.
Is it actually possible he didn’t know about the baby? Just like I didn’t know about his leg?
I drop the phone with a gasp when his face fills the screen. He’s lying on the raft we built together in the middle of the ocean.
“This is my message in a bottle. If these are the last words I ever speak, I hope you’ll play them over and over again, so everyone knows the love I have for Gwenneth Pierson. Baby, you changed me in the best way. Before I met you, I was living life for only myself, and hell, I was having a damn good time. But I would trade it all, anything I have to give, for one moment with you. In the short time on that island, I felt love in a way I thought only existed in fairy tales. I hope you know you were the very last memory to cross my mind at the end, and I wouldn’t have changed anything about our short love story … Well, except for your rescue anyway. I love you, Gwen.”
The tears fall down my cheeks like waterfalls, and there’s no use even trying to wipe them away. I’m puffy and wrecked from watching the footage, and all I can think about, all I long for, is to be in Jack’s arms again. I have to talk to him, and I don’t care how far or long I have to travel to do so.
I check my watch, and it’s right on time. I stand up from my desk and march downstairs to the press conference, just as Sandra gives her opening remarks.
“It is my absolute honor to introduce my most prized employee, Gwenneth Pierson, the new VP of Éclat. She’s prepared something brilliant in regards to her first-hand experience working with the internet sensation you all know as Wombat Willy. Let’s all give her a warm welcome!”
I walk up to the podium and take the mic, not bothering to wipe my makeup or fix my disheveled clothes.
“Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Gwen Pierson. Three months and three weeks ago, I was assigned to help repair the public image of the man you all know as Wombat Willy.
We chartered his private plane and set out to film content in Costa Rica, and as you all know by watching his video, that plane never reached its destination.
Instead, Jack crash-landed the plane somewhere in the middle of the Caribbean near a deserted island where we—” I force a smile through my flowing tears, “fought like cats and dogs for weeks.” I laugh at the memory.
“Together, we built a raft that Jack would later use to try to find help, but the ocean didn’t care about our plans.” I suck in a breath, not caring that I’ve got a heap of snot and mascara mixing on my face. “He documented our failures and successes along the way … all the way up to the end.” I wipe my face with the back of my hand and draw in a long calming breath. “This entire experience has changed me, as you can imagine how any near-death experience changes someone. I set out in an attempt to help Jack not to lose any sponsors, but what transpired on that island had the complete opposite effect on me.” I turn, so I’m facing Sandra as I deliver my last punch.
“I learned that there’s more to life than being appealing to everyone. Jack taught me that character is how you behave when no one is watching, and he has more honor in his pinky finger than anyone I’ve ever met,” I laugh. “If anything, we should all be learning from him how to live life in a way that’s right for us … No matter how silly that may seem. With that being said, I’m stepping down as the newly named VP of Éclat in pursuit of literally anything else that lights my heart up.” I place my hands over my lower stomach. “I’ll take no further comments on Wombat Willy or any affiliation I have with him. Sandra, you can take that promotion and shove it up your ass.”
I step away from the platform with what feels like a two-ton weight lifted from my shoulders.
For the first time in my life, I’m finally free.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-EIGHT
