“What’s wrong?” I asked, puzzled.
“Something's come up and I can’t stay.”
“Huh?”
“I want to stay, trust me, it’s just business, I have to go.”
“Oh. Okay.” I tried to suppress my disappointment, I guess people don’t get rich working nine to five. If business comes up on a weekend, he has to go.
“I brought that disposable cellphone, I put it in your purse so you wouldn’t forget it this time.”
“Does that mean you’re not coming back to the hotel?”
“Yeah, but the bill’s settled, so take as long as you want here.” My heart sank.
“Will I ever be able to have a normal relationship with you again?”
“Yes. I promise. It should all be sorted out this week.”
“Can you pass me my keys and wallet?” he said, gesturing to his bedside table.
“Sure.” I wiggled my body over the bed and picked them up.
Bentley key fob. Wow, he wasn’t kidding about being rich. I’d lifted his wallet halfway to Jay, when it occurred to me, his driver’s license photo. Those are the worst pictures anyone can take, if I made him see the beauty in it, he might understand how gorgeous he is. I snapped the wallet back to me and began to open it.
“What are you doing?” he demanded, snatching the wallet from my hand.
“I wanted to see your license photo,” I protested.
“No. I’ll text you.”
Dumbfounded, I watched as he turned and walked away. The hotel room door opened and clicked shut behind him. Though no one was there to see my protest, I flopped my body over, facing away from the direction of the entrance way and sulked.
I couldn’t decide if his departure was a reflection of me or not. Why the sudden change in plans? And I couldn’t shake the warning bells over the whole non-contact, disposal phone thing. What did our relationship have to do with a business deal?
The need to pee finally won out over my reluctance to leave my bed, and I left the comfort behind. Once up I wanted out of that room as fast as possible.
I threw on my clothes from the night before, leaving my ripped bra where it had landed when Jay had taken it off me, and hurried home.
35
The first thing I saw when I walked into my condo was the vase full of lily’s Jay had brought me. Petals had started to fall off onto the table underneath. They were getting past their prime and as much as I didn’t want to, I would have to throw them away. Dispose of them. One lily in the bunch hadn’t opened yet, and it struck me as being clamped shut to hide whatever it held inside.
To get my mind off of Jay, I decided to do some work. It was the first time I had ever done any work outside of office hours, let alone at home on a Saturday, but I needed to get a head start on my new role. To impress Richard and make the department what I always thought it could be if Calvin hadn’t been in the way.
But restructuring the entire reporting process wouldn't be an easy job, I just had to hope all the extra work will pay off and make a name for myself within the company. It was great having direct access to Richard without having to go through Calvin, but if I ever wanted to be promoted into Richard’s position I would need all the senior managers to know my name.
I worked all the way till dinner, using my personal laptop to map out reporting information and lay out a timeline for the implementation of each report, since the work would have to be done in stages.
My phone and the disposable sat on the table on either side of my computer but there hadn’t been any word from Jay. I tried not to let it distract me. But with each passing hour the weight in my stomach grew heavier.
I hadn’t decided if I was mad at him or not. I was definitely annoyed at the way he had left this morning, without even a kiss goodbye. And I was disappointed he had to go at all, instead of spending the day with me like he’d promised. But then I thought a little further back, to last night and my insides swirled like a tornado of lust. How could I be angry at someone who had had that effect on me?
He had made the Calvin attack in the bar shrink away to nothing, notable now only to highlight the way Jay made everything better.
He said he loved me. Love. And I believed him. I think I felt the same about him.
The wealth bombshell even seemed insignificant since his reason for not telling me made so much sense. Every once in a while I’d wonder what his house looks like. How he got his money.
I tried googling Jay Mickle, but found a big fat nothing. No Facebook page. No twitter account. Though maybe rich people don’t go on those websites. I trolled through Google images, but found nothing. Maybe that’s the reason he doesn’t want his picture taken, to keep some anonymity.