“I’ll ‘weigh in’ but you won’t like what I have to say.” Ivy scowled at me, then returned to her note taking. Having a mother hen watching over my shoulder was irritating, but she had saved me more than once, so I relaxed and sat down in my chair, leaning back with my hands cradling my head.
“All I’m saying is, we can play this to our advantage.” Charles glanced at Adam then turned back to me. “We can say you’re just getting out of a bad relationship.”
Ivy pressed her palm to her forehead. Adam looked down at his lap, trying to avoid eye contact. I could tell neither of them wanted to get into this conversation again. Charles, however, was not shy.
“But I’m not getting out of a bad relationship.” I began to wonder if Ivy spoke to Charles about the issue I was having with Katherine, but Ivy wouldn’t do that to me. I knew she cared about my reputation and my mental health too much to be so petty. “Why would I lie about that?”
Charles scoffed, then rifled through some things in his briefcase. He pulled out a newspaper and a local tabloid, tossing them at me. “The press already has a line on your little fling. Pictures of you at the farmer’s market with her, and Harwin Puschel wasn’t the slightest bit shy about telling them not only is she 14 years younger than you, but you dated her mother too.”
I opened the paper to see the damning headlines. The picture of Katherine standing with a pumpkin beneath her arm, my arm draped around her, was front and center on the gossip page. I wanted to be angry and rage that someone would be so callous as to publicize my personal life, but all I could do was stare at Katherine’s beautiful smile and feel like a total ass for my behavior that day.
“You can’t tell me that you would continue seeing her after this. The entire city will have their judgments. Andrew Barker will pull out and half of our clients will follow him. If it wasn’t bad enough that she was so much younger, they know now that you were with her mother first. Think of the field day they’ll have.”
I dropped the paper, my anger finally kicking in. Charles was looking out for the interest of the firm—I’d give him that. But this was still my firm, not his. I didn’t even bother looking at the tabloid magazine. It was likely just more of the same, maybe worse. If they were saying those things about me, they were saying things about her too, and I hadn’t stopped to think how this would damage her career.
I stood abruptly realizing I had to do something now to fix this, before it hurt her. I’d let it hurt me. I would even take the full storm of the press and whatever public backlash may occur, but I would never let Katherine carry the brunt of this. It was in that moment I knew that I really did love her. That no matter what, she and I belonged together. What we had was incredible, and if she didn’t feel what I felt, it was okay. She would be mine regardless.
“I am not breaking it off with her,” I barked. Ivy straightened in her seat; her eyes wide as she looked up at me.
“Gosh, Vic, settle down. We get it.” Adam tried to calm me, but I was having none of it.
“Charles, we are set to make you a partner soon. You probably already figured that out. But if my partners can’t stand behind me, then they won’t be my partners. Got it?” I glared at him. “Now, I have some business to attend to, and you need to get your shit sorted. Barker isn’t worth all of this, but Katherine is.”
I stormed out, letting the door slam behind me. I was only a few paces down the hall when I heard the clicking of Ivy’s heels as she chased after me.
“Victor, stop. Wait up. What are you doing?” Her calls to me drew the attention of the rest of the office. Interns looked up as I passed, and the ginger paralegal watched as if it were the juiciest story since the Nixon impeachment. I noticed a copy of the tabloid on her desk and rolled my eyes.
“I’m going to do what I should have done ages ago.” I heard her heels cease their clicking and turned to see her stopped a few paces back, a huge grin on her face.
“Go get her.” Ivy looked ready to cry. I had never pegged her for the romantic.
“I’ll let you know how it goes.” With a few backward steps and a quick turn, I was at the elevator with my phone out shooting Katherine a text. I asked her to meet me at the same restaurant where we were reunited. I thought it would be special.
By the time I’d gotten to the ground floor, Katherine responded. She did not want to go out to dinner; she wanted to stay in—her place. And after my stint with distancing myself from her, I was surprised she even responded. I really should have called, but I didn’t want to ruin anything by being hasty or emotional. We would talk about it tonight and when we did, she would know how much I loved her once for all.
22
KATHERINE
Iwas certain my face looked like I’d been in a perpetual state of sobbing hysterically when I opened the door for Victor to come in. He carried a dozen long-stem roses in a large vase in one hand and a box of chocolates in the other. There was a hesitancy in his expression that came across as apologetic and sweet, but I was still angry at him.
“Well, come in.” I took the vase and set it on the coffee table, then plopped into the armchair—far away from the empty couch where I knew he would sit down. I didn’t want to sit right next to him. I felt like if I did, he would sense the swirling emotion inside of me—my overpowering need to have him in my life juxtaposed with the intense anger over his treatment of me.
“Kat, I…” Victor placed the chocolates next to the flowers and sat down on the edge of the couch, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. I didn’t want to hear his excuses, but I fully expected an apology. “Hurt” didn’t begin to explain what I was feeling.
“Yeah?” I raised an eyebrow, my tone cold as ice. I wasn’t going to make this easy for him. He would have to beg. For almost two weeks he’d barely spoken to me. He had to have known what that did to my self-confidence.
His face fell. He licked his lips and rubbed his hands over his cheeks, then returned to his posture of leaning toward me. I didn’t know whether he was having a difficult time finding the words, or if he was drumming up some excuse.
“I’m sorry.” His eyes pleaded with me to hear him out and I thought of my mother, the way I’d do anything for her to just hear me out. So, I sat calmly and listened to him continue. “I judged you wrongly. I made a mistake. I was afraid you were just like your mother.”
“Just like my mother?” I couldn’t let him continue. I was hurt so deeply by his words. “My mother doesn’t even know what real love is. She’s used men her entire life, just to get to the next stage of wealth. I would never do that to anyone. I don’t need your money, Victor. I am making my own path, and I’m doing fine on my own. I don’t need money, or fancy cars, or luxury items to make me feel confident. I need a man by my side, who believes in me and is there for me. Not one who ignores me for two weeks when I’m hurting because he hurt me.”
After venting, I crossed my arms over my chest and my right leg over my left. My foot bounced angrily, and I stared him down. He shrank back, pain in his expression. My words hit their mark. I could see him contemplating what I’d said, but he didn’t speak.
“You know I had a crush on you all those years ago. It was wrong because you were dating my mom, and at that point I was still a minor, but I realized when I ran into you again, it wasn’t just a crush. I love you. And call it stupid but I loved you back then. Not because you gave me fancy gifts, or expensive clothing.
“I loved you because you were there. You cared about me, spent time with me, loved me. But maybe I was wrong. Now that we’re together finally, I’m starting to see a side of you I hate. Maybe you’re too selfish to be a father, too narcissistic to take responsibility for your actions. Is that why you didn’t respond to my texts or return my calls for two weeks?”