From Cupid (Working Girl Book 1)

by CY Jones

  “Just because it’s the first time, that’s supposed to make what you did okay?” I ask incredulously.

  “No, of course not,” he stutters. “You were busy, and Tonya and I both had a bit too much to drink. I didn’t mean for it to get this far.”

  “Then what, Justin? Try telling me again how all this is some big misunderstanding?” I air quote the word. “You’re a good talker, you always have been, but even you can’t bullshit your way out of this,” I cry out as I twist the princess cut diamond engagement ring from my finger along with my wedding band and throw it at him. I hear the faint sound as they ping across the floor, but I’m already making my way out of the door. When I get halfway down the hall, I turn back. Going back in the room, I catch the brief flash of hope in Justin’s eyes, but too bad I’m not here for him.

  Ignoring him, I bend over and search the floor. When I find what I’m looking for, I pick the ring up before tossing it in my purse. “On second thought, I earned that shit. I’ll get a pretty penny pawning it off and it’ll go towards our divorce, oh and this,” I say grabbing his hand and pulling his wedding band right off his finger. With those parting words, I leave them both to it.

  I don’t even make it outside when the tears come rushing down my cheeks. Despite the brave front, I was a mess inside. I felt like my whole world just exploded and left me standing in the middle of the aftermath. How could he do this to me? When most people break up, there are signs, but besides today, I haven’t seen any. Three years of marriage, a thriving business, and what? My husband cheats on me at my best friend’s wedding.

  “Are you okay?” A familiar deep voice asks and I internally groan.

  I don’t want to look up. I don’t want to see the pity in his eyes, or hear any offers of help. I know it’s a total bitch move since Harrison hasn’t actually done anything to me, but right now, all men are the enemy. I steel myself, and like magic, the tears in my eyes dry up. When I look up, he takes a step back as if the devil was before him and, with as much hate as I could muster in my voice, I tell him one of the two phrases no man wants to hear from a woman ever, “I’m fine.”

  Holding his hands up like he’s trying to herd a feral animal, he says, “no need to get nasty, I was just checking on you, you looked upset.”

  “Upset?” I laugh maniacally. “I’m fucking dandy. Didn’t I tell you inside I’m married? Why are you even looking at me? What’s with men thinking all women are cheaters? A dick doesn’t make you an expert,” I spit out. In the back of my mind, I know I’m being irrational, but I seem unable to stop myself once I got started. It’s like all the anger I feel towards Justin is unintentionally being aimed at Harrison.

  “What the hell? I’m just checking on you, not asking for a fuck or whatever else your coo coo mind has conducted.” He’s starting to get angry as well and is one hell of a formidable opponent as he stands before me. We’re starting to attract attention and I don’t want Justin and his whore to see me like this.

  “Like I said, I’m fucking fine.” I leave him standing there, going outside to call an Uber. Instead of going home, I have the driver drop me off at a hotel where I finally break down. I cry like I’ve never cried before and don’t stop until I finally pass out in the early dawn.

  Starting Over

  Paige

  “Get up,” Jodie says, crashing into my room uninvited. Going to the bay window in my bedroom, she yanks the curtains open and I shrink back in my bed like a vampire when the bright light shines on me.

  “What the hell, Jodie?” I grumble, pulling the covers over my head which does me no good when she yanks the whole comforter off the bed.

  “Jodie,” I yell. “Why are you being such a bitch?”

  Sighing, she says, “Paige, it’s been a little over a year now. You’re going to get up, get out of bed, and stop sulking for Christ's sake. Justin has moved on with his life and you need to, too. I’ve allowed you to wallow in your self pity long enough.”

  Her words hurt and a fresh wave of pain hits me all over again, like when I first caught Justin cheating on me. Apparently, Tonya wasn’t the first time. There were other transgressions that didn’t come to light until after we separated. After that, I fell into a deep depression wondering how I could be so blind and stupid.

  “Sweetie, I love you and I refuse to let you carry on like this. You can’t live off your savings forever. You need to get up and become a functioning member of society again. Work, build your business, and stop letting that cheating bastard win.”

  I laugh at her words, well at least the building of my business part. What business? True to my word, I pawned our rings and used the money towards a divorce lawyer. Since I refused to go through mediation, after a full year of separation, I was granted my divorce and everything was split down the middle. Our house and furniture were sold off, our joint and business bank account split and dissolved. With the exception of our cars since they were in our names, everything else was an even split, but even though I was rewarded half the business, our staff, as well as our clientele, followed after him. The contractor and his crew and both secretaries, which I learned later on he apparently fucked, as well as our material contacts left me high and dry. There's nothing to pick up, he’s taken it all.

  I took my half from the sale of the house and purchased a small, one bedroom condo before putting the rest in savings, which I have been using to live off of.

  “Jodie, you know as well as I do, I don’t have a business anymore, so there's nothing to pick up,” I voice out loud what I’m thinking.

  “You need to stop thinking like that. It’s not the end of the world. You can start again, plenty of women do it.”

  “Jodie, I’m really not in the mood for the inspirational speech. I appreciate you coming by, but I’m fine,” I lie.

  “Paige, so help me God, I’m not leaving here until you get up and become my best friend again. I miss her and this sad excuse of a replacement needs to go. You have people in your life who love you and I refuse to let you carry on like this. Now, get up before I make you,” she threatens.

  When our gazes meet, I can see the fiery determination in her eyes. She’s fucking serious and she’s not going to go away until I give in.

  “Damn straight,” she says reading my mind and I sigh in defeat.

  “Don’t you have a tree to hug somewhere?” I mutter as she stares back at me, unrelenting. “Fine,” I huff, sitting up.

  While she waits in my small sitting area, I take a shower, hoping I can rinse away my sorrow. Jodie is right. I know she is, but I can’t help thinking about Justin. Jodie wasn’t kidding when she said he moved on with his life. During the separation, he was all too happy to start dating again. According to my mother, he's been out with Tonya a couple of times, not at all sorry that she was the reason why we broke up in the first place. After her, it was a few flings here and there as he tests the waters as she put it. She didn’t hesitate to tell me I was a fool for letting him go and that some men just need to stretch their legs a bit. Since when is sticking your dick in someone else good for your marriage? At the ripe age of 25, he’s too young for a midlife crisis, but there’s no telling my mother that as she and his mom cluck together like a couple of hens on how much of a disappointment I am. Isn’t she supposed to be on my side?

  Stepping out of the shower, I change quickly as I avoid looking in the mirror. I have lost a lot of weight since I haven’t been eating and my skin was super pale from the lack of sun. My hair was limp and lifeless and I brushed it into a messy bun on top of my head. I didn’t even bother with any make up, having not touched the stuff in over a year.

  “Well, mate, you do look a lot less sad since you had a shower,” she comments as she looks me up and down and I roll my eyes.

  “Gee, thanks,” I mumble, taking a seat beside her.

  She’s sitting with my MacBook on her lap typing away and I look at it with interest. “What are you doing?” I ask, curious.

  “Signing you up
for this dating website I heard about.”

  “What? No,” I shout, trying to snach the laptop away, but she moves quickly out of my reach.

  “I’m not kidding, Jodie, I’m not being a guinea pig on some dating website.”

  “I heard great things about this website, it’s the real deal.”

  “I don’t care, I’m not doing it.”

  “Why do you have to be so stubborn Paige? It’s called From Cupid and its success stories are off the charts. Apparently, it’s not the typical booty call site. As a requirement, you have to PM the potential prospect it matches you up with for two weeks before you can meet up.”

  “Get real, Jodie. Most people online lie about everything. Ever heard of Catfish? I think I’m chatting with Ken, when it’s really Ronald McDonald behind the screen.”

  “Please, Paige. Will you at least try it? For me,” she pleads, giving me the sad puppy dog eyes. I hate that look. I want to ignore her, but she’s so damn good at it.

  “Fine,” I grumble. “But if Pennywise shows up on my doorstep, I’m sending him to your house,” I tell her, knowing she's scared to death of clowns.

  Waving off my threat, she smiles and hands me the laptop so I can take the introduction questionnaire. I will give them this, the people at From Cupid are super thorough. I felt like I was taking one of the psychological tests with how many questions there were. An hour later, I’m done and clicking to download my answers, not believing I let Jodie talk me into this. Maybe I relented so easily because I know she and Brian both felt guilty about what went down at their wedding. I didn’t want her to worry about me on her honeymoon, so no one told her about what had happened until she got back. Brian felt worse since it was his cousin.

  “We don’t have to upload a picture?” I ask.

  “Nope. I told you, they choose your person based on your answers on your questionnaire. If that person doesn’t work out, they move on to the next and so on and so on.”

  “How is it you know so much about this dating site?” I ask, curious.

  “A colleague from work told me about it. She’s getting married in the fall.”

  Well, I guess that answers that. Maybe there's something to this dating site after all. It’s sure as hell better than what I got going on now.

  “Come on, let's go to lunch. I have a business proposition for you.”

  Intrigued, I follow her out and lock the door behind me. As soon as the sun hits me, I swear my sun deprived skin soaks it right up. How long has it been since I’ve been out and enjoyed a cloudless Californian day? Too long. Jodie drives and I sit, looking out the passenger window, deep in thought. This is the start of a new day. A new beginning.

  Friends and Business

  Paige

  Jodie takes me to our favorite surf side restaurant and the hostess seats us outside on the patio. The ocean view is a refresher and I’m immediately reminded why I love this place so much. The sound of the crashing waves work well to calm me and I breathe the salty air in deeply.

  “Feeling better?” Jodie asks, giving me a knowing look.

  “Yeah, you’re so lucky you get to work out on the water,” I tell her. As a marine biologist, Jodie gets to work with her two favorite things, the ocean and animals. She’s wicked smart and excels at her job. She’s won numerous awards from her research and has made leaps and bounds for the environment. She’s actually quite the celebrity, even though she prefers to live low-key, but you know how the media is. A gorgeous doctor making waves in her field is hard to hide.

  “Speaking of work. I’m actually getting sent out on a research expedition next week in the Artics,” she says excitedly.

  “Oh, really? How long will you be gone?”

  “Four months,” she answers.

  I cry, "what?” It’s not like this is new, but right now, I am feeling super fragile and needy. I didn’t want her to leave me.

  “Yeah well, I’ve been pushing it back with the wedding then the honeymoon, but now I’m expected to leave,” she replies, giving me a sympathetic look.

  “I get it, it’s your work. You can’t be expected to babysit me. I just don’t know what I’ll do while you’re gone.”

  “You, my friend, will be working on my house,” she says, smiling. I look at her confused. The waitress picks that time to take our order and I have to wait for her to leave for answers.

  Tasting her water, Jodie explains, “I bought a house, well Brian and I bought a house in Newport. We decided, with being married, we would want to work on a family in the future so we needed more room. We got the house at a steal, but it needs a lot of work.”

  “Jodie, I want to help, but I don’t even know how. I don’t have a team of people any more, or a contractor, or even an office building to work out of.”

  “I have a contractor and he’s agreed to work with you. Think about it, you can use me to build your business. Once people see the fabulous job I know you will do, they’ll be lining up for your services. You need to get back out there and make a name for yourself. Don’t let Justin win. Do a good job and the rest will follow.”

  She’s right, of course she’s right, I just don’t want to fuck up, so I tell her that. “Jodie, babe, what if I fuck up?”

  “Paige, I’m going to be straight with you. You used to be part of a successful business. Who’s the one who worked primarily with the contractors?”

  “I was,” I admit.

  “Who’s the one who helped with the build of the house, worked on and chose the design for most of the houses you flipped, dealt with the city and building inspectors?”

  “Okay, I get it already, me.”

  “Frankly, babe, you were the one who made that business. Justin just did the sales and reaped the benefits of your hard work. If anything, he needs you, not the other way around. I’m sure soon he will realize that.”

  “Aren’t you scared to mix business and friendship? You’ll be off freezing your ass off in the Artics, watching penguins do belly slides while I could be messing up your house,” I tease, smiling for the first time in a long while.

  Laughing she says, “I’m not worried about it. I know you’ll do me right.”

  “Okay, friend, if you’re sure then okay. I have to admit, I’m looking forward to getting back on the horse, plus it’ll help me forget about Justin. So who is this contractor I’ll be working with? Is he any good?”

  “You remember Brian’s mate Harrison from the wedding, right? He’s one of the best contractors in the state, so I’d say he’s good. He even has his own warehouse where you can buy supplies, so I’m sure that’ll help a lot with your four month deadline.”

  Oh, fuck me. Harrison. How can I explain that I was a total asshole to him after I caught Justin cheating on me? I mean, in my defense, I was in no shape to deal with anyone with a penis, but it still doesn’t excuse how I acted. “Jodie,” I start, but the waitress drops off our food and I’m interrupted once again. In fact, I’m starting to freak out. Maybe I’ll be lucky and he won't remember me. I remembered him saying he works out that way, so he deals with a lot of high end clientele. No way will he remember one rude house flipper, right?

  “What’s the matter, mate? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Jodie asks as soon as the waitress leaves.

  “What exactly did Harrison say when you told him he’ll be working with me?” I inquire as I think of a way to broach this subject.

  “I don’t know. I didn’t talk to him, Brian did. Why?”

  Fuck, well that’s no help. Instead of explaining, I pick up my fork, stab my salad, and pile a huge mouthful into my mouth. “No reason,” I tell her between bites.

  “Did you forget your manners through your depressive state?” Jodie asks with wide eyes as she watches me eat.

  “Nope, just hungry,” I reply.

  “Well, I am glad to see you eating. If you got any skinnier, a stiff wind would blow you away.”

  “Ha, ha,” I smile. It’s really good to be here with my friend. I�
�m glad she dragged me out of bed and gave me the wake up call I needed. I need to take my life back. She’s absolutely right about working for her. If people like what I’ve done, word will spread quickly because of her celebrity status. Clients will practically be knocking down my door and I can take my life back. Not that I’ll ever use her that way. This is all her idea and I’m grateful for the opportunity.

  “Thank you,” I tell her and she smiles, nodding her head. Hopefully by now, Harrison has forgotten about me and how much of a bitch I was to him.

  “So what exactly does this house look like?” I ask and for the rest of lunch we go over the details.

  When Jodie drops me back off at my condo, I fire up my laptop and search for the house listing to her and Brian’s house. They bought the house for $689,000 and in that area, surrounded by million dollar homes, they got it for a steal, but as she said at lunch, it needs a lot of work. Apparently, the previous owner was elderly. With her declining health, she was not able to make repairs on the home and it just succumbed to age. Her children no longer visited her or even saw to her about her health, so her in-home nurse convinced her to sell the home and downsize. Fate would have it so Brian was taking over another mail man’s route that day, who was out sick with the flu and ended up chatting it up with the woman while she was relaxing on her porch. Fate worked its magic, and Jodie and Brian were able to buy the home for full asking price before it was put on the market, which was lucky for them because multiple bids would have driven the price up. I’ve been given a 250k budget. If all goes well, I can up the house value to a million dollars easily.

  I love that Jodie has all this faith in me, but a lot of my success rides on how well I work with the contractor. At least I take comfort in knowing it’s not just my reputation on the line, but Harrison's too. Like it or not, Jodie’s house will make news. Blowing out a breath, I take my notebook out and jot down some ideas, making sure I’m well prepared. Later, I’ll sit down with Jodie and Brian before she leaves to do a virtual mock-up of the design. Until then, Brian set up a walk through with Harrison, so I’ll be able to see the shape of the house for myself. I’m hoping to get everything done in the four months Jodie will be gone, but I know with the chance of unforseen problems as well as HOH hold ups that can be a stretch. Hopefully everything will work out though. It has to. Before dropping me off, Jodie left me with the master key so I was all set. All I need now is to meet with Harrison. Lord help us.