Page 16 of Jameson Fox

The refusal to give an inch.

Neither of us speak another word.

We simply wait each other out.

In the end, she grabs my hands and forcibly removes them from her body before stalking out of the bathroom with one last glare at me.

As I promised, she will learn.

I’ll allow her to win some of our battles, but only when it suits me.

5

Adeline

Natalie: I saw your Insta stories tonight. Why must MA look so good in a suit?

I stretch my legs out in front of me on the bed I now share with Jameson and reply to her text. It’s just after 1:00 a.m. which is a time we often catch up after the events of the day. We both struggle with sleep, so this nightly debrief sometimes helps with that.

Adeline: He doesn’t. He doesn’t look good in anything.

Natalie: I see we’ve moved back to the first stage of grief.

Adeline: I’m in all the stages of grief at fucking once right now. Oh wait, no, I’m not in the last stage. I’ll never accept any of this. Seriously, the man is unbearable. I have no idea how he has that long line of women he’s dated behind him.

Natalie: Not to mention the long line still waiting. I accidentally tapped his Insta hashtag tonight. I can’t wrap my head around how many women post about him.

Adeline: Accidentally?

Natalie: Okay, so that was a lie. I was curious.

Adeline: Ugh, please talk to me about anything other than my husband. I had to survive hours of him tonight and let’s just say he’s lucky to still be breathing.

Natalie: I thought you were going to Brax’s club by yourself?

Adeline: I was, but Jameson didn’t want me to go. I stood my ground and ended up with him along for the ride.

A text comes through from Vanessa, my assistant. We’ve been going back and forth all night with work stuff. Vanessa works almost as many hours as I do.

Vanessa: I just realized your meeting with Jenna has been scheduled for Tuesday, not tomorrow.

Jenna Pearce and I are in the early stages of putting together our plans for the fashion company we’re building together. I asked Vanessa to schedule a meeting for tomorrow and confirmed with her earlier when she came over that it was going ahead. She assured me it was.

Adeline: Why is it scheduled for Tuesday?

Perhaps Jenna can’t make it tomorrow.

I try to give Vanessa the benefit of the doubt, but she’s been making a lot of mistakes recently, so I’m finding this hard.

Vanessa: I apologize. This was my error. I can call her first thing in the morning and see if she can change it.

I quickly check my calendar, noting that I don’t have even a spare five-minute slot during my day. There’s no other time I can meet with Jenna. I had her down for a 9:00 a.m. meeting; I highly doubt she’ll be able to rearrange her own day to make that happen at such late notice.

Adeline: No, leave it as it is.

Vanessa: I’m sorry, Adeline. This won’t happen again.

Adeline: Is everything okay, Ness?

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