“I don’t know how I’m going to face him at work tomorrow. I don’t know what I’m going to do.” I cried out. “I hate him, Meg. He used me. He made me feel cheap. Even cheaper than when he dumped me outside Butler Library. I know I lied, but I didn’t do it maliciously. I didn’t do it to hurt him.”
“He’s obviously got other issues, Katie. I mean, he is starting to sound like a bit of a psycho. Let’s be real here, you never really knew him. You didn’t even date for a year. It was a whirlwind relationship. He was your first love, and he’s turned out to be a jerk.”
“Why would he treat me like this?” I sobbed. “He has a son.”
“Oh.” Meg’s eyes widened and she held my hand.
“He told me he never even had sex with his fiancée, but they have a kid.”
“Are you sure it’s hers?”
“She’s the one that called him and told him that his son was in the hospital. As soon as she called he forgot about me. He dismissed me, like I was nothing. And then he casually thanked me for the f**k.”
“Oh, Katie.” She shook her head. “If you don’t want to go back, you don’t have to. We’ll figure something out. If I’ve got to break into my trip fund, I will.”
“No.” I shook my head vehemently. “You’ve been working on that fund since you were ten years old. I’m not going to let you use that money on rent.”
“I’d rather do that than have you face him one more time.”
I squared my shoulders and wiped my tears away, while taking a few deep breaths. “Thank you, Meg.” I squeezed her hands. “I’ll see how I feel in a few days.”
“So you’re not going back to work?”
“Not tomorrow, I’m not.” I sighed. “Let him fire me if he wants. I’m going to go in the shower now.”
“Okay, I’ll be out here if you need to talk.”
“Thanks, but I’m feeling pretty tired. I’ll probably just go to bed.”
“I’m going to start looking for new jobs right away, and not just law jobs. I’ll take anything. Just so we can pay our rent.”
“Thanks, Meg.” I smiled at her gratefully and walked to the shower in defeat. It was over. It was definitely over. Every hope and wish I’d had in the last seven years was gone. Brandon Hastings and I were never going to get back together again. I slipped my clothes off and got into the shower, allowing the scalding hot water to burn my back and hopefully wash some of my sins away. There were so many things I regretted about our history together. So many little pieces that I would have changed. I thought back to his phone call and started crying again. He had a son. A baby boy that was probably his pride and joy. A child that he loved with all his heart. A child that came first in his life. And it broke me. After everything, it was the news that he had a child that finally broke me down.
***
“Hello, can I speak to Ms. Raymond, please?” a snooty-voice asked as I picked up the phone.
“Speaking.” I sat up in my bed and put the ice cream tub to the side, not wanting it to fall over while I was on the phone.
“Ms. Raymond, this is Priscilla calling from Marathon Corporation’s HR department. You haven’t been to work in three days, and you haven’t called in, so we wanted to make sure that everything was okay.”
“I’m fine.”
“Then why are you not at work, Ms. Raymond?” Her voice was harsh and I knew that if she could, she would fire me on the spot.
“I don’t know what to say.” I replied honestly and laughed about what her reaction would be if I told her the truth. I slept with the CEO, who’s my ex, found out he was engaged and has a son and he broke my heart again. Oh yeah, and I also let him f**k my ass**le. Win for me.
“Will you be coming in tomorrow, Ms. Raymond?”
“Doubt it.” I grabbed my spoon and dug into my Ben & Jerry’s. I needed a strawberry cheesecake ice cream fix.
“Ms. Raymond, I have to tell you that...” She paused and I heard some whispering in the background. “One moment, please.”
“Katie.” His voice was silky and smooth and my heart flipped.
“Brandon.” I replied softly, the ice cream in my spoon long forgotten as it dripped onto the bed.
“What are you doing?”
“Eating ice cream.” I replied automatically and he laughed.
“Come in to work tomorrow, please.”
“I can’t.” My voice shook.
“I need you on my team, Katie. Please come into work tomorrow.”
“You hurt me.” I whispered. “I don’t want to see you again.”
“Fight for it, Katie.” His voice was urgent. “You worked so hard to get this job. Are you really going to throw it away?”
“I don’t know what to do. I hate you.”
“Think about what you really want.” He paused and then continued. “Think about what’s in your heart and fight for it. Don’t just walk away again.”
“What are you talking about?” My tone grew angry.
“I hope to see you tomorrow.” His voice was soft now. “I hope you’re the warrior princess I always thought you were.” And then he hung up. I lay back on the bed with my eyes wide and my heart beating fast. I was shivering even though it wasn’t cold. I closed my eyes as I remembered the last time he had called me his warrior princess. It had been a Saturday, and we’d gone to lunch at some cute chic restaurant in Soho. We’d shared a salad and a sandwich and had been playing footsie under the table. I’d been going on about some new book I’d read—I think it was A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, so it wasn’t actually new, just new for me. I had never really studied much history, so I had been fascinated by the history of relations between France and England. Brandon was a bit of a history buff, so he’d been telling me about Louis the Fourteenth and his wife Marie Antoinette when I saw the manager of the restaurant run outside and start berating two young boys who were going through the trash can at the curb. The two boys looked tattered and dirty and had taken food out of the trash can to eat. Without thinking, I jumped up and ran outside.
“What’s going on?” I asked the manager, and noticed that one of the boys was crying.
“These two thieves are going through the trash. They need to leave.”