Present
It is Saturday morning, and I wake up with the hangover from hell.
It’s been a long time since I last drank myself into a stupor with a bunch of men, though Rocky’s masculinity was questioned several times in those ridiculously tight jeans of his.
Thankfully, I wake up alone and not with a stripper from last night’s shenanigans. Our meeting with the Berkshire Group is organized for seven o’clock tonight. It’s the only time Gerald Huffman and his team can swing a time to meet. It doesn’t bother me working on a Saturday night since I’m not twenty-one anymore, and my life doesn’t revolve around club-hopping.
No, just strip clubs, apparently.
Kate agrees to meet me at the restaurant at six forty-five on the dot. This will give us fifteen minutes to work over our strategy, and I’m confident Gerald will sign the contracts tonight.
In a fleeting moment, the business savvy side of me kicks in. To say I’ve been distracted and off my game of late is an understatement, but with my confidence pieced back together, I’m certain tonight will work in my favor.
Unfortunately, in my pathetic state, I forgot to shave my beard. Thank my lucky stars the hotel has managed to have my suit dry cleaned and pressed at the last minute since it I’d completely forgotten about it.
“Good evening, Mr. Edwards,” Kate greets.
Kate is standing in the restaurant lobby, armed with manila folders and her usual corporate attire. After much consideration, I decided to give her a raise. Once tonight is over, I plan to sit down and have a discussion regarding her performance. The obvious blaring point is I have screwed up multiple times over the past few weeks, and Kate has always picked up where I fell short.
“I’m glad you could make it. No wild parties to attend tonight?”
“No, sir.” She chuckles as if remembering something funny. “I believe we partied to our full capacity last night.”
The restaurant is busy with waiters scurrying about carrying exotic dishes, the aromas enticing me. It makes me realize how much I have missed food. Yeah, I have barely eaten the past week. What’s fucking new, I think. Johnny Walker and Jack Daniels have become my companions of late. I make my way to the concierge as Kate follows.
“Reservation under Edwards.”
We follow the head waiter to our table. The noise is a little overbearing, just your typical Saturday clientele. I pull my phone out, checking my messages as I follow him through the crowd, lifting my head for a moment as the image catches my eye and halts me on the spot.
Kate is also checking her phone, running straight into the back of me. “I’m so sorry, sir. I was checking my mess…” her voice trails off.
Charlotte sits there, her body leaning into him. Unable to move, my eyes are drawn to her like magnets.
Her face looks slightly different, perhaps tired. There’s no smile, no spark in her eyes, no glow to her skin, and she appears gaunt. The light inside her has gone out.
Frozen on the spot, I stare, my name being called but sounding so distant. The bastard leans in further, gently reaching for her hand and entwining his fingers with hers. He cups her chin, and she smiles slightly prompting him to lean in further to steal what is mine.
I don’t know how I move, but suddenly, I’m standing in front of them. Charlotte glances up, her mouth falling open in shock until her expression swiftly turns to anger. The dark circles around her eyes and the prominence of her cheekbones worry me. If this has been hell for her, then why is she here with him?
“Charlie?” Kate gasps before I can get a word in.
“Kate?”
What the fuck is going on, and how on earth do they know each other?
The Louboutins flashed before me. It was her. It was her last night in Kate’s suite. It was her who Kate always talks about, her friend in New York with the fucked-up love life. All of it makes sense, and how utterly stupid I am not to even piece that equation together.
“So, I don’t even deserve an explanation?” I grit, willing the shake of my fists to stop. “You run to him the second things get a little tough with us?”
“Are you kidding me, Lex? A little tough is that what you think this has been?” She laughs while gesticulating with her hands.
“Well, I wouldn’t know, you won’t fucking talk to me.”
I clench my fists as her laughter slaps me in my ears. Does she honestly think this is one big fucking joke? My body stiffens, unable to compose myself, I’m barely holding on, the fury and rage consuming and controlling any rationality lurking within me. I’m a time bomb ready to go off at any moment.
“I’m busy here, Lex, as you can see.” Her voice is calm as she speaks the words, her eyes directly on mine, not flinching for one moment. “Perhaps we’ll discuss this another time.”
Julian stands, creating a barrier between Charlotte and me.
“Okay, Edwards, she told you to leave.”
Oh, so he finally found his balls, I think. Yeah, soon you’ll be fucking choking on them for trying to steal my woman.
My temper gets the better of me. The room is stifling hot, my blood pumping like a volcano ready to rupture. There’s nothing left to do but the obvious. I swing my arm punching him right in the face as he stands there before me trying to take my world away from me. If he didn’t exist, she’d have come back to me, that murderous thought flashes before me.
The rage is overpowering as I try to swing at him again, the blood bouncing off his face as he screams my name, yelling at me, the voices around me in a panic. The image of Charlotte as she pulls Julian back caressing his face only adds to the violent behavior consuming me.
Kate is calling my name, pulling my arm back begging me to stop. “Mr. Edwards, please don’t do this. You will regret it and lose her forever,” Kate begs, holding me back.
If there’s anyone who knows how Charlotte really feels, it’s Kate, her new confidant. With the adrenaline still running through me, I turn to face Charlotte, ready to apologize for my behavior. Beg her to talk to me, at least to give me that. I really have no other option, I can’t lose her again.
“Lose me forever? Too fucking late, Lex. You lost me a long time ago. I was just stupid enough to think it was fixable.”
The apology is devoured now by rage again rearing its ugly head, the hurt and pain of her words stabbing me in the heart with a freshly sharpened knife. I need to let it out, how I really fucking feel. But people are watching, waiting for my reaction. This isn’t some soap opera. This is our life, and I don’t want them to hear the words I’m about to speak.
“¿Quieres lastimarme por lo que te hice, Charlotte? Bueno, has ganado. Para citarlo, he terminado. You want to hurt me for what I did to you, Charlotte? Well, you’ve won. To quote you, I’m done”.
It’s the only way I can say how I really feel, what is deep inside eating away at me. It isn’t my fault. Call me arrogant, call me whatever the fuck you want. I know when I’ve fucked up, but this isn’t one of those times. I lost my trust in her. I no longer want to play this sick, twisted game. Lex Edwards never gives up, but he also doesn’t settle for second place. If only she didn’t run to him, if only he didn’t touch her, and if only I didn’t see a slight spark in her eyes as he leaned in to kiss her.
Charlotte continues to stand there, smothering Julian until he angrily walks away. She starts to follow, but stops, turning back to face me one more time. “I was actually here to tell him it was over.”
Her sullen expression gives away the words I needed to hear only minutes earlier.
As she walks away from me, the restaurant patrons busy themselves pretending to ignore the scene I caused. Mr. Berkshire stands in front of me, a look of confusion on his face. Fuck! Now I have to deal with this. Thankfully, Kate takes over most of the dinner meeting because I can barely think straight. She knows what she’s talking about, and every so often Mr. Berkshire asks me a question which fortunately I’m able to answer. By the end of the night, Kate has him signing the contracts, which for Lexed is a huge deal.
It’s a little after nine when we’re done, and Mr. Berkshire shakes my hand congratulating me on hiring such an intelligent assistant.
Outside the restaurant, I know Kate will finally ask me what I’d said.
“What did you say to her?”
“Kate, drop it. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“Are you fucking serious, Lex?” Her tone throws me off, her abusive language and her calling me Lex all in one sentence. Since when did we cross the line from boss to friend? “For the past month, I have watched both of you in agony. She loves you so much. All along it was you that she’d go on and on about. Had I known, maybe things would have turned out differently. You actually love one another, yet neither of your stubborn fucking heads can seem to comprehend that. I don’t know what you said back there, but believe me, if you want her then go after her. You need to shit or get off the pot and fight until you’re blue in the face. Show her you can’t live without her.”
“What the fuck do you think I’ve been trying to do these past weeks? Sitting around, watching TV, scratching my ass? It’s over now, Kate… I’m done. I have no more fight left in me.”
I walk into the liquor store next door and purchase the strongest whiskey they have in stock. The clerk looks at my blood-stained hands until I pull out my black Amex. Without a single word, he scans my card and passes me the receipt to sign before placing the bottle in a brown paper bag.
As I exit the store, Kate stands there watching me take a swig from the bottle. The whiskey is smooth with an almighty kick.
“Why are you doing this to yourself?”
“Because I fucking love her, and it hurts like hell.”
“And that bottle is going to fix it.”
I don’t answer her, raising my hand in the air to say goodbye and make my way to my hotel a block away.
As I enter the lobby, I run into Victoria who’s checking in.
“What do you want, Lex? Don’t worry, the New York Times is retracting that statement, so you can keep your pornographic shots of me to yourself,” she hisses.
I take another swig of the whiskey. This time the burning has stopped, and the liquid feels smooth as it makes its way down my throat. Victoria is decent-looking, I mean when she isn’t so conniving, I can see that she’s a head-turner. The slutty black number she’s wearing is enough to get me hard if I try to concentrate. Who knows what I’m thinking anymore? My mind’s spinning, and I just want to forget everything that happened tonight.
“I don’t care about the pictures anymore. Come with me.”
I pull her arm as she looks at me confused by my sudden change of heart. I press the elevator button, and as the doors open, I drag her inside, pressing the button to the penthouse suite.
“What the hell’s wrong with you, Edwards?”
When we reach the penthouse level, the doors open, and I pull her hand to my door. As I swipe the card, she asks me one more time what the hell is wrong.
“You want to fuck me? Well, get inside before I change my mind.”
With a grin widening across her face, she runs her fingers along my cheek before following me inside and closing the door behind us.
This time, I’ll make sure Charlotte and I are completely done.
You want to hurt me for what I did to you, Charlotte? Well, you’ve won.
To quote you, “I’m done.”
