Page 32 of What Happens In Vegas: Jessa & Jaxon
Music blasts through the speakers, a heavy bassline rattling the walls as I push through my workout. I go through the motions—lifting, pressing, stretching—but nothing settles the irritation eating at me.
Sweat courses down my body as I increase the weight again. Pain is irrelevant. Weakness is unacceptable. I push until muscles scream in protest, until each breath burns in my lungs.
This was just sex.
Her voice echoes in my head and cut deeper than they should. I slam the barbell back onto the rack, the metal clanging violently. The frame shudders, but it’s nothing compared to the turmoil swirling within me.
JJ lied to me. I saw it in her eyes, in the way she held herself stiff, as if saying it aloud would make it true. She’s running scared, and I’m left here with no playbook or strategy to prove my good intentions.
A week passes. I lose myself in work.
Meetings blur into deals into contracts into expansion proposals. The office becomes my refuge and my prison. I arrive before dawn and leave well after dark, letting spreadsheets and conference calls fill the spaces where thoughts of her would creep in. The grind should be enough. I tell myself it is enough.
It’s not.
Because no matter how many hours I work, no matter how many projects I sign off on, JJ remains stubbornly lodged in my thoughts. And despite all my business acumen, all my supposed skills at negotiation, I’m no closer to figuring out how to win over the one person who matters.
“The team is waiting in the conference room,” my assistant, Claire, says as I skim through the latest acquisition report.
“Let them wait,” I mutter.
Claire hesitates. I can sense her standing there, arms crossed in a way that means she’s about to step beyond professional boundaries. I allow this from her because strategic leaders understand the value of having an assistant who speaks the truth without fear.
“You’ve been on a warpath all week,” she finally says. “Are you okay?”
I lift a brow, meeting her gaze directly. “Do I look like I want to talk about my feelings, Claire?”
She snorts. “No. But you also don’t usually bite people’s heads off for breathing too loudly, so I figured I’d check.”
I don’t dignify that with a response. Instead, I grab my tablet and head to the conference room, ignoring the look she shoots my way.
Inside, Kamal and Antonio are already seated, along with half a dozen department heads. The room buzzes with the low chatter of pre-meeting conversations.
I take my seat at the head. Even as equal owners, Kamal and Antonio flank me on either side, a formation that emerged organically from our earliest days coding in Kamal’s bedroom. What began with three outcasts huddled around a salvaged computer has transformed into JAK Innovations—named for our initials and built on our complementary strengths.
The department heads wait for my cue. Their postures reflect varying degrees of deference. It’s surreal sometimes how the world bends to accommodate my ambition rather than the other way around. How the skills that once made me a target in high school now make me formidable.
Everyone except JJ. She alone has seen through every layer of my transformation, from the awkward teenager to the man who commands boardrooms. She’s the only person who’s never been impressed by how far I’ve come.
The dichotomy fascinates me. In this room, I control billions with a word or gesture. Companies rise or fall at my command. Yet with her, my usual strategies crumble to nothing.
Logic dictates I should cut my losses. Reallocate resources. Move forward. That’s what I’d tell any associate about a deal this problematic. Identify the sunk cost and pivot. Walk away.
But JJ isn’t a failed acquisition. She’s the only woman I’ve ever loved.
Seven days of silence stretch between us like a chasm. No text. No call. No sign she’s reconsidering. Each passing hour amplifies my frustration until it’s pacing inside my chest and clawing at my concentration.
JJ thinks I’ll move on. That I’ll get bored, just as she predicted. That I’ll prove every doubt she’s ever harbored was justified. The thought ignites a determination that burns hotter than anger.
She forgets who she’s dealing with.
I didn’t build a multi-billion-dollar empire by accepting defeat. I see what others miss. I recognize value before the market catches on. I persist when competitors retreat.
And suddenly, clarity breaks through the haze of defeat. My marriage isn’t a lost cause. It’s my most important investment. JJ isn’t pushing me away because she doesn’t care; she’s protecting herself because she cares too much.
The realization transforms my frustration into purpose. My wife is a woman worth convincing she’s the center of my universe. Because she is. And I’ll find a way to prove it to her.
One of the junior execs, Eric, clears his throat and I’m pulled back to the present. “We should delay the Phoenix rollout another quarter,” he says, shifting nervously under my hardening stare. “It would give us more time to—”
