“She’s the reason Mason is in prison right now. It’s the reason she got black balled and to be fair it’s why I tried to get her to move down here.”
My mind is going to a million places, and not a single one of them is a good place. Not any kind of good place at all.
“How bad?” I can hear the anger in my voice.
Bryan can too. He knows it’s not directed at him, but he still winces.
“Bad, but not the murderous place I can see you think. That vein on your neck looks like it’s going to burst.”
“Bry, I swear to god I need you to tell me.”
“Ok, from what I know from people I know. He never assaulted her, but he may have mentally ground her down,” he pauses and looks like he wants to puke.
I stand up and go to the cabinet and get out the hard stuff and two empty glasses.
“After you left, he ground her down till she felt so worthless she was a shell of the person we both know she was five years ago. I wanted to tell you. But you didn’t tell me about the conference and how you basically threw women in her face all night till a year after it had happened. She hated your guts after that, that’s when I figured out who your Sara was. She told us all about the job, and I knew it sounded like stuff you’d told me. Sara kept you two a secret the whole time. We didn’t know until after it exploded. Catherine didn’t know much about you. She just knew she was seeing some guy from work. Catherine and I had only been dating a couple of months. By the time Sara had told us about you, Catherine had already wrote you off. I’ve never told Catherine about your past.”
“I was such a dick.”
“Yeah, you were, that’s why I blasted you for it. But I also know you’re a good guy, and Sara has not been happy since you. Catherine has been wanting to set the pair of you up for years. I thought now might be okay to get you two in the same room. It’s why I got you both to come stay for a few days before the wedding. I didn’t want the first time for you to be seeing each other in five years to be at the wedding.”
I’m pacing the room now and need some way to get this aggression out of me.
“Anyway a friend of mine was looking into Mason and his dodgy dealings and well I convinced him and Sara to talk. She worked and passed on information to them on the condition her name was not on a single piece of paper.”
My hands have been threading through my hair, and I feel like I’m a disheveled mess. Bryan had to have worked out that deal for her.
“Of course, people talk and everyone thought Sara was sleeping with him and now, well, you know. I’m just glad she took you up on your offer.”
“Fuck” I’m equal parts angry that this is the first time I’m hearing about it and I just want to hold Sara in my arms and tell her everything is going to be okay. I need to see her.
Adrien: Sara I’m coming. I need to see you for a minute.
Sara: Ok, well, Catherine is otherwise engaged, but you’ll have to be quick.
As I exit the elevator,I see her outside her suite. She wears short shorts and a vest and looks sexy as hell.
“You just couldn’t stay away, could you?” she teases. “Ady, it’s one night. I promise.”
I just walk over to her and grab hold of her, holding her in my arms. Pulling her into my chest. I never want to let her go.
“God, Ady, how much have you and Bryan been drinking?”
I know she’s only joking, I can tell by her tone.
“I just really missed you, that’s all. I needed my Sara fix.”
“Well, this hug is going to have to be enough. There is no way I am letting you in this room. I know if I let you in here, this very PG hug will change to something very X-rated.”
I laugh at her, but it's forced. She’s not wrong. She knows me too well.
“I just can’t wait till I get to see you every day at work and sleep next to you every night and wake up with you every morning.”
I need to get a grip on this. I’ll get her to tell me her story in her own time. At the moment, though, I just feel like a bomb is getting ready to blow.
“Oh, Ady,” she looks like I just told her she’d won a million dollars. “You can be so sweet sometimes. I can’t wait, either. We have a lot of lost time to make up for. But we’ve got all the time in the world to make up for it. After. The. Wedding,” the last part she says between kisses.
“Okay.” I give her one long hard kiss, then walk down the corridor, smiling.
“Ady,” she shouts. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
I know I’m smiling like an idiot for the first time in the last hour.