Page 22 of The Leader

JAZZY

Jazzy drove into a parking lot near Pier 39 for her meeting with Tommie. As she walked up to the Eagle Cafe, she thought about the phrase that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Even though technicallyshewasn’t the one scorned this afternoon, she still felt like unleashing hell on someone. The reasons were simple. First and foremost, the confrontation with Vanessa and Gio, which had been like a scene straight from a bad drama. She didn’t care that apparently her husband had finished things with the blonde weeks ago. No, she didn’t care one bit. What shedidcare about was the way the blonde—obviously a model, judging by her perfect figure and reference to a photo shoot—looked. She was gorgeous. Perfect body, perfect hair. How did Gio go from that perfection to Jazzy? Not that she was some insecure twit, but still. She was curvy; short even, compared to leggy Vanessa, and a brunette. Their wedding night had been packed with passion, their chemistry off the charts. But would that be enough to keep him while he had women like this Vanessa chasing after him. And why did she even care? That chafed her the most: that she gave a damn. In the end, their marriage was one of convenience. She was nothing more than a business deal to him and she would do good to remind herself of that. The second aggravating thing this morning was that she still hadn’t been able to reach her sister.

A million things went through her head as she walked into her favorite cafe on the wharf.

“There’s my girl,” Tommie greeted her. He had secured them a place in the back, overlooking the ocean.

“Hi, little smurf.” She gave him a kiss on the cheek as she dropped on the chair across him.

“Admit it. You love my new hairdo.”

Jazzy rolled her eyes. “Fine. It suits you.”

Which it really did. The ice blue hair suited him, just as his eyebrow piercings did. Never judge a book by a cover should be Tommie’s motto, because under that blue Mohawk, ratty jeans, and all over bad boy look, there lay a commercial shark. Of the two of them, she was doing most of the coding for their program, and he was taking on the creative side such as marketing, but also the finances.

Sadly, neither of them had the money to bring their software to life. Not yet. She couldn’t ask her grandfather to finance their business, because he would find the thought of a female Rossi working utterly ridiculous. And Tommie barely made enough rent working in a computer shop. If it hadn’t been for his scholarship, he would have never gotten into college, but instead, had become a super villain, ruling the world.

“So, you know how I’ve been looking for a place for us that isn’t too expensive or in a too shady neighborhood?”

“Uh-huh.” She waved at the waitress in the back, mouthing that she wanted coffee. “How’s the search going?”

He made a face. “Not too great.”

“That’s what our business plan is for, right? To convince the bank to give us a start-up loan.”

“Hmm.” He clicked on his laptop and showed her some charts.

All the while, as she was discussing their business plan, her mind kept drifting back to Gio. And Vanessa. It ate her up from the inside not knowing whether she could expect something like that happening again. Or, even worse, him going behind her back to pick things up with Vanessa, or another woman. It was obviously time to set some ground rules between them. As she pondered the happenings of that afternoon, she realized she had made a mistake. Her mindset that this marriage was only temporary wasn’t helping her at all. In fact, it may even give Gio the idea that it was okay to sleep around on her.

“I have to go.”

Tommie stopped mid-sentence. “What?”

Jazzy put some bills on the table and grabbed her bag. “Sorry, I forgot that I have to do something. Can we finish this next week? At my place?”

Without waiting for a response, she gave his puzzled face a kiss and left.

***

“Welcome home, Mrs. D—” Thea cleared her throat. “I mean, Jocelyn.”

“Hi, Thea.” Jazzy hung her coat on the rack and glanced around. Apart from a cleaning maid in the corridor, the house seemed empty. “Is my husband around?”

“No, he left not long after you.”

Guess their talk had to wait. “Okay, I’ll be working in the living room.” She situated herself on the leather couch near the fireplace.

Half an hour later, her butt started to hurt from the unyielding leather and she got up. She did some stretching and relocated to the plush carpet in front of the fireplace. Still, she put a cushion under her butt before she started typing away.

She tried to reach her sister again, but Carmen didn’t pick up the phone. Maybe she really was in San Diego, or maybe she had had a fight with Franco. It was really awful to hope for someone’s marriage to fall apart, but it was exactly what Jazzy did. It was killing her to be this helpless, all the while knowing her sister was in pain. Unfortunately, all she could do was text Carmen that she was there for her if she needed help.

She was another two hours into coding, and ready to take a break, when a shadow fell over her.

“Why are you sitting on the floor?”

She looked up to see Gio towering over her. He looked amazing in his dark suit and black tie.

“Because your couch is like a rock,” she answered, as she crawled on her feet. “We need to talk.”

---