Reparation(78)
“I've been thinking. Instead of flying -,” Jameson started as they got on an elevator.
“Oh, so you have been thinking about this?” Sanders asked, glancing up at him.
“Of course. Constantly. You can't just forget a woman like Tatum O'Shea. Getting her back the last time was a battle. This time, it's going to take a war. We have some ground work to cover, before we reach her. I was thinking,” Jameson began again.
“Now I am afraid.”
“How about we drive?”
“I'm sorry, what did you say?”
“We take the Bentley, and we drive. It would take us a week, at most.”
“Why do you want to drive?” Sanders asked.
“She doesn't do well with memories. There are a lot of them in the Bentley. I'd bring the goddamn house if I could. The car will have to do,” Jameson explained.
“If we take turns,” Sanders added, “we can get there in about three days.” Jameson laughed.
“Three days. I was hoping for a little more time.”
“It is plenty of time. You will use most of it to think of how you are going to say it.”
“Say what?”
“It.”
“What?”
“Love.”
“You have completely fucking lost me,” Jameson said, staring down at Sanders. “What are you talking about?”
“You will use the time it takes to drive out there to think of how best to tell her that you are in love with her,” he spelled everything out. Jameson lifted his eyebrows.
“You just don't quit today, Sanders. Just because you believe everything is peachy keen, and just because she believes in fairy tales, does not mean I -,” Jameson started to grumble. Sanders held up his hand.
“Then say you don't,” he challenged.
“Huh?”
“You are such a man of honor, you claim. You 'never lie', you say. Then say you don't.”
Jameson pressed his lips together hard for a moment, glaring lightning bolts at Sanders. Finally, he took a deep breath and looked away. Stared at the elevator wall for a few moments. Then he cleared his throat.
“Nunca miento,” he said softly. I never lie.
“That's what I thought.”
“Jesus. Maybe you should be calling me 'mein Sohn',” Jameson grumbled, still not meeting Sanders' eyes.
“I have often had similar thoughts.”
“This is all going to blow up in our faces. You realize that?” Jameson warned him. Sanders nodded.
“Probably. I am prepared to face that. Are you?”
“No. But let's get it over with. Like ripping off a band aid.”
The two men walked out of the building, sucking all the air out with them.
*
Tate hurried across a street, holding her hand up as a car honked at her. She held her phone to her ear with her other hand, listening to Ang bitch at her. She sighed, rolling her eyes.
“I'm sorry, all I'm hearing is whomp wuh whomp,” she laughed at him.
“Seriously, Tate. Two weeks ago you called me, all crying and sobbing, and now this!?” he snapped at her.
“I've gotten over the crying,” she assured him.
“Yeah, but do you still do it?” he asked.
“Only sometimes.”
“Tatum. Why are you doing this?” Ang asked.
“I told you. I just want a normal life,” she said.
“You're using him,” Ang hissed.
“No. He knows how I feel. I told him this is just a trial thing. It's his idea,” Tate pointed out.
Nick had asked her to move in with him. She had resisted for a while. She hadn't had sex with him since that time in her hotel room, two weeks ago, but he had kissed her plenty. He was trying to win her heart. She warned him that there was a strong possibility that it would always belong to Jameson.
“Then why don't you go be with him?”
“Because he doesn't have a heart to give back.”
“So if you can't be with the man you want, you're going to settle for a man who wants you?”
“No. I could just be alone. Unfortunately, there is a certain man who won't leave me alone.”
“Sorry. You're addicting. I have high hopes that I can change your mind.”
“I have rational realizations that you most likely won't.”
“When you talk like that, I think it's really him talking.”
“I think so, too.”
Conversations like that were what made Tate decide she was going to take Nick up on his offer. She had been living in a hotel room for over a month. Sanders hadn't answered her phone calls for the last two weeks. No word from Jameson, at all. It was really over. She needed somewhere to go, someone to be. Maybe it wouldn't work out with Nick, but he was okay with that, okay with trying. And she had to at least try.