Page 24 of Tryst
After an entire night of tossing and turning, I think maybe we can try and give this thing a chance. How bad can a long-distance relationship be? She's not Callie. We were in the same city, and she cheated on me. Jade’s not running from commitment. She wants it, with me. As for Alan…I’ll figure it out.
Bright and early, I'm in the office. Nervous as fuck. Ready to lay it all out for the girl whose heart I broke days ago. I'm hoping she doesn't tell me to go fuck myself. She's an hour late, and Jenny informs me Jade called in sick.
I pick up my phone and call her. No answer. I leave a message. And call back four more times during the day. Worried I call her father. “Hey, Alan, Jade called in sick today. I wanted to make sure she's okay, nothing serious?”
“I'm sure she's fine. When I left this morning, she was asleep. You know these young people. Probably wanted a day. She'll be in tomorrow.”
“Sure.” Jade doesn't take days off just because. Maybe she needed a day away from me. The tension between us has been enough to choke a horse.
The next day is the same. I slam my hand on my office door, then open it. “Jenny, she's an hour late, again. Get her on the phone for me, please. Use your cell.” If she calls from the office, Jade'll probably ignore it.
She fidgets nervously with the keyboard on the desk. “About that…Jade quit.”
“She what?” I say in disbelief. “She has another week left.”
“I saw her crying in the bathroom on Monday after she came back from lunch. I don't want to gossip, but I think she was dating someone in the office, maybe Gary and it ended badly. She’s going back to LA.”
I walk away dazed and sink into my chair to do some serious thinking. What the hell will I do now?
Ican't pack my bagswithout thinking about Ian. He was kissing her. I walked out of there as fast as I could. I couldn't even stop when my mother called after me.
“Jade, may I come in?” my mother asks from the door.
“Sure.” I stop folding my clothes. “What's up?”
“What’s the real reason you’re leaving early? It's not because you miss your friends and want a jump on the new semester. Don't tell that lie to me again.” Her accent comes out with the concern I hear in her voice. “You may have fooled your dad with that this morning, but not me.” She sits on the bed.
“I'm sure I don't want to discuss this with you.” I sit next to her lying back on the bed.
“I'm sure you don't. But you'll have to, before you leave this house, if you want your tuition paid.”
“You're resorting to blackmail?” I stare at the ceiling, not threatened in the least.
“Of course. It's the best way.” She smiles, and I roll my eyes.
“It may have something to do with a guy. A guy I liked more than I should have.”
“You more than liked, if you're leaving and quitting your job.”
“Maybe.” I shut my eyes trying to block out his face along with the pain that accompanies it every time I think of him and the way he dismissed me—as if I were a child whose feelings were inconsequential. It was a blinding pain that cut deeply.
“You know what else I think?” my mother says, reminding me of her presence. “I think the guy's names is Ian.”
I shoot up ready to deny it—but I can't in my surprise. “How'd you know?”
“I put the pieces together after you walked by me and didn't answer when I called you over the other night. I could tell you were upset. I saw Callie and Ian coming from the same direction.” She takes my hand in hers. “Then I thought about it, why his eyes drifted more toward you than Tandy, his lovely date I hand-picked. I know she was exactly his type, gorgeous sophisticated and worldly. For some reason, his eyes were more preoccupied with my twenty-year-old daughter. The intern he sees every day. And you, mi dulce niña, you couldn't look at him.”
“Did you tell Dad?”
“Not my place. If Ian wants you, he has to step up and be a man about it, and deal with the consequences.” She arches a brow at me. “He helped himself to more than he was supposed to, in and out of the office.”
I'm not going to tell her he dumped me breaking my heart. Not yet. “Are you disappointed in me?”
“For playing Bill and Monica?”
“Ugh, Mom!”
“Honey as long as there wasn't a blue dress fiasco on our hands, and he's not married, I'm fine.”
