Amelia follows the exchange, slightly taken aback, then smiles and agrees. “Yeah, I could use a burger too. Let’s go.”
Eleven
Hack Me
♥♥♥
Monday, July 3—London
“Sprinkle the chicken with a generous amount of curry, then submerge it entirely in broth.” I read aloud the recipe instructions.
Now that Jake’s here living with me, I’m more inspired to be homely, so I’m making us a proper dinner as opposed to my usual of milk and Cheerios. I add the curry and the broth and my next step is… let it rest for half an hour. That’s easy!
Fifteen minutes into the resting phase, I hear the key turn in the keyhole.
“Honey, I’m home.” Jake appears on the threshold, and for one second I’m overwhelmed all over again by the fact that he’s here, living with me. That we’re back together. My stomach contracts with a pang of joy and I launch myself at him, kissing him senseless before he even has a chance to close the door behind him. Who knew this much happiness was possible?
As we break the kiss, I bombard him with questions. I’m so anxious for him to fit into his new life.
“How was your day? How’s the research center? How are the people? Did you make any friends?”
“Whoa, can I at least get my coat off?”
“Yeah, sorry. I’m just a bit over eager.”
“What’s this smell? Are you cooking?”
“Yep. Chicken almond curry.”
“Why, no milk and Cheerios?”
This reminds me I don’t get to do “first impressions” with Jake. He knows me too well. “Not for your first evening back from work.” I smile at him. “So, how was it?”
I put the plates on the kitchen bar and Jake starts setting the table without me saying anything. Just as we used to do when we lived together in college. The familiarity of it all puts a warm fuzz in my belly.
“Work was great. It actually went beyond my expectations. The research lab’s cutting edge, and the funding is unbelievable. Everyone there is top notch, it’s intimidating.”
“Means you’re top notch too.” I give him the glasses. “So did you make any friends?”
“I guess one day is too early to say.”
“So no one stood out?”
“No. Well, except for one that I’m pretty sure is going to stick.”
“Is he a doctor?”
“No, she’s a feisty little thing.”
“She?”
“Yeah, she.”
“Is she beautiful?” I’m menacing him with a wooden spoon.
“Remarkably so.”
“And you’re telling me this… because?”
Jake comes around the kitchen bar and ruffles my hair. “Because I love messing with you.”
“And how exactly is telling me about your feisty and attractive colleague messing with me?”
“She’s not a colleague.”
“What then? Nurse? Patient? Admin?” I’m trying to think of all the love stories that have ever taken place in Grey’s Anatomy to evaluate the possible combinations. I know I shouldn’t be jealous, but I can’t help it. I feel more possessive of Jake than ever before. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m older, or because now that I know how it feels to lose him, I don’t want to go through it ever again.
“Neither.”
“And where did you meet her?”
“In the parking lot.”
This doesn’t sound right.
“So she’s not a colleague, or a nurse, or a patient. Who is she?”
“The right question would be: what is she?”
“Meaning?”
“She’s a cat.”
“You—horrible you.” I start protesting and swatting him, both with my wooden spoon and my free hand, but he suppresses my rebellion, grabbing me by the waist and planting a playful kiss on my lips. “You had me worried there for a second.”
“I told you I loved messing with you.” He ruffles my hair again and leans in to give me another kiss.
“And you made friends with a cat, how?”
“When I went outside to eat my tuna sandwich lunch, she was standing there in a green patch in the parking lot just outside the hospital. I sat on a bench to eat and she followed me.”
“You or the tuna sandwich?”
“Both I guess. Anyway, I patted her, and she purred. Then she started staring at me, keeping the purring going.”
“And you fell victim to the purring-staring combo?”
“I did.”
“Happens to the best of us. It’s impossible not to crumble under the pressure of a kitty stare. So you gave her some of your sandwich.”
“Worse. I gave her so much I had to go in and buy a new one, and I ate it in the canteen because I knew that if I went back out, I’d give her my second sandwich too.”
“You’re so cute.” My heart swells with love. What did I do to deserve this man? He’s gorgeous, a doctor, and feeds stray cats. He’s impossibly kind and very much in love with me. If this is a dream, I never want to wake up. Now that I have Jake back in my life, I could never imagine living without him. A shiver goes through me as I imagine what could have happened if I’d chosen to go to Chicago instead. How horrible and lonely would my life be right now? I shake the thought away.
“You think she’s a stray?” I ask.
“Yeah. She was so thin, she looked famished.”
“You want to bring her home?”
“I’d say yes, but what if she has kittens hidden somewhere? They’d die without their mom.”
“Then I’d better start buying meal sized bags of cat food. You’ll have to feed her every day now.”
“Do we have something she can eat tomorrow?”
“Here.” I give him a can of tuna. “This will do for tomorrow.”
“Thanks.” He takes the tuna and puts it in his workbag.
“What color is she?”
“Stark white. She’s beautiful.”
“Did you give her a name?”
“No.”
“You have to.”
“Okay. She had a regal look, so how about a queen’s name? Victoria?”
“It doesn’t sound like a kitty name.”
“Marie Antoinette?”
“Nah!” I make a disgusted grimace.
“Sisi?”
“Who’s that?”
“The Empress of Austria.”
“Sisi… it has a good ring to it. Sisi the cat—yeah, I like it.”
“Sisi it is then.”
“Now, are you ready for your first homemade meal?” I ask, bringing the fuming pan to the table.
“I look at it this way: at the worst, I already work in a hospital.”
“Shame on you for making fun of me.”
“You always were a good tease, and this smells delicious.”
“I still am a good tease. Open the wine.”
“Yes, madam. But I can’t have more than a glass otherwise I’m toasted in the morning.”
“Who, keg-stander Jake?”
“That was nineteen-year-old Jake; this is an older model.”
“Still gorgeous.”
He gives me a mischievous smile.
“You know, sometimes it’s weird how we’re the same people but in a different way,” I say.
“You still narrow your eyes when you’re trying to say something deep.”
“And you still pull up the corner of your mouth whenever you’re teasing me.”
He pours the wine and raises his glass. “What should we toast?”
“The same people and new beginnings.”
“Same people and new beginnings.”
As our glasses clink, my phone rings in the background.
I take a sip of wine. “Sorry, I forgot to turn it off.”
“Aren’t you going to answer?”
“Nah, not during dinner. I’ll check it
later. It’ll stop in a minute.”
And it does. Only, a second later it rings again. I shift uncomfortably in my seat, worried it could be work. I don’t want to go into the office on my first normal-life night with Jake.
“I don’t mind you picking up,” Jake says.
“But I do. If it rings a third time, I’ll pick up.”
It does. I get up.
“It’s Amelia. I hope nothing’s wrong. Ames?”
“Will’s cheating on me.”
“Oh, gosh. Are you sure?”
Jake raises his eyebrows at me interrogatively and I twirl my index in a later gesture.
“I hacked his computer, I’m pretty sure.”
“What? How? With whom?”
“Some girl in New York. He’s over there right now… I don’t know what to do.”
“You want to come over? You want me to come over?”
“Is Jake there?”
“Yes.”
“Good, I need the point of view of a guy. I’ll be there in twenty.”
“All right, sweetheart, see you soon. Bye.”
I end the call.
“Amelia’s coming over. Will’s cheating on her.”
“I hate to say I told you so. How did she find out?”
“She hacked his computer.”
“You girls want to be alone?”
“No, she said she needs a guy’s perspective.”
We finish our meal mostly in silence.
“What’s bothering you?” Jake asks after a while.
I bite my lip. “This was our first ‘new life together’ night… I’m sorry it ended so soon.”
“Hey, Amelia’s our friend, and she needs us. Plus dinner was delicious, thank you for preparing it.”
“You really liked it?”
“Cross my heart. And don’t worry; we’ve got all the evenings in the world from now on… I’m not going anywhere.”
“How do you know I want to live every moment to the fullest for fear of losing you again?”
“’Cause I feel the same. After all this time, finally being with you feels too good to be true, and I’m scared to death something horrible is going to happen. But it’s not. We’re here. We’re together. Nothing bad is going to happen.”
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
The doorbell rings.
“All right, let’s do this. Could you please clear the plates and pour another glass of wine? Amelia’s going to need it.”
***
“Read this.” Amelia bangs a piece of paper on the now cleared dining table before sitting next to me.
I take the offending document—it’s an email print out—and read it.
Date: Sun, July 2 at 6:07 AM
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Forgive me
Esther,
I know I’m probably the last person you want to hear from, but I couldn’t stay away. I can’t be without you. I’ve been thinking about you every day since I broke your heart. A part of my body is missing when I’m not with you. I’ll never forget the first time I saw you; you were crossing the airport hall, walking briskly in your blue uniform, your flaming hair bouncing behind you. You were breathtaking. I fell in love with you from the first moment I set eyes on you. And I’m sorry for what I did to you. I’m sorry for not being able to resist you. I’m sorry for not telling you I was engaged. And, most of all, I’m sorry for not being able to follow my heart and be with you. Because that’s where my heart is. In New York, with you. Not at home with a wife I never talk to. I can’t live trapped in a marriage I don’t want with a woman I don’t love. Esther, please forgive me. I made a mistake. I chose wrong. I can’t live without you, I don’t want to. I need you by my side. You’re the only woman I want. I’ll figure it out. I messed up, but I can fix it. I will fix it. Please wait for me. I’m going to make it right. Please give me another chance.
Yours always,
William
I reread the email twice before passing the sheet of paper to Jake and looking up at Amelia.
“I really don’t know what to say. How did you find this?”
“It wasn’t difficult. He left his computer on stand-by. He wanted to be caught. This way I’m leaving him and he won’t have to do the dirty work.”
“Ames, I’m so sorry. When did he leave for New York?”
“Yesterday, at noon. He always leaves on Sundays so he can be in class Monday morning.”
“And when did you find this?”
“Last night, but I couldn’t call you right away. It was… it was… too much. The way he talks about me. A woman I don’t love. Trapped in a marriage… I didn’t force him to propose, it was his idea to get married. Then he saw a redhead strolling by in an airport and suddenly I’m the clingy wife.”
“Did, hum. Did err… she reply to this?”
“Yes.”
“Did you print her answer?”
“No need to. It was a one liner.”
I wait for Amelia to tell me the one line. I have a feeling it’s nothing good.
“Her reply was, ‘Are you in New York?’”
“Did he reply?”
“No, he must’ve called her. They’re probably making up right now.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“All I want to do is yell at him, and he doesn’t even have the decency to be here to be yelled at.”
“But how do you feel?”
“I’m mad. I’m so angry… I want to smash everything I find in my path.”
“Honey, I know you must be heartbroken…”
“I’m not heartbroken.”
“What do you mean you’re not heartbroken?”
“I told you, I haven’t had a real conversation with Will since he proposed. I’ve been in love with my wedding for the past year and the groom was just an accessory.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“If I’m being honest, yes I do mean it. I’m afraid my relationship with Will was over a long time ago, only I didn’t notice. He noticed, and instead of coming forward and saying it, he chose to have an affair behind my back.”
“So all you feel is anger?”
“Anger, bitterness… I’m scared. I don’t have a life-plan anymore. I feel cheated of my future and stupid for not knowing something was so terribly wrong. How could I not know? How could I not see it?”
“You’re not stupid.” It’s the first time Jake has spoken since Amelia got here. “Listen, sometimes we’re our own worst enemy. We’re able to tell ourselves all kind of different lies to keep our heads cozily hidden in the sand. Look at me. I told myself I wasn’t in love with Gemma anymore. I was ready to marry someone else just to prove it and force myself to move on. You probably knew something was wrong, and instead of addressing the problem head on, you subconsciously chose to shift your concentration onto the wedding planning. It’s not stupid, it’s human.”
“So are you saying what Will did was him being human?” Amelia asks viciously.
Jake knows better than to defend William in this particular circumstance. “No, that was evil…”
He smirks. And Amelia, despite herself I can tell, cracks the first smile of the evening.
Suddenly, she gets up, fluttering her hands in the air. “Oh, but I’m not going down quietly. Oh no. I already cheated on him.”
My mouth falls open. “You did?”
“You betcha.”
“With whom? When? For how long?”
“Oh, nothing serious. It was just a colleague in my office this morning.”
“You had sex in your office, today?”
“No, I didn’t have sex. There’s this guy I work with, he pity-kissed me.”
“Pity-kissed? Explain.”
“This guy, Dylan.” She starts pacing around the table. “He’s a bit of a D-bag, to be honest. Anyw
ay, today during the general staff meeting he announced he’d stolen one of my clients.”
“Is that normal?”
“Encouraged even, but that’s not the thing. If you steal an account from a colleague, you do it with class. You don’t gloat about it.”
I have some reservations about Amelia’s work ethic, but I don’t voice them.
“Instead, just a few sleepless hours after I read that,” she points at the incriminating email, “he came into my office and asked me if I’d liked my wedding present.”
“No!”
“Yes!”
“What did you do?”
“I threw a mug at him, missed his head by an inch… and then I lost it. I started crying and screaming about cheating bastards.”
“And how did you go from the mug-throwing and crying to the kissing?”
“It’s a bit confused. Somehow he managed to have me tell him the whole story, then he told me my husband was an idiot and then he pity-kissed me.”
“That wasn’t a pity-kiss.”
I look at Jake for confirmation. He shakes his head, no.
“Oh please, I was such a mess it had to be a pity-kiss.”
“Probably more of an I’m-into-you-and-I-can’t-wait-for-you-to-be-divorced kiss.”
“Don’t say the D-word,” Amelia shrieks. “Twenty-eight and already divorced. I’m worse than Ross in Friends.”
“I’m sure Ross was already on his second divorce by twenty-eight.”
“That hardly makes it better.”
“Come here.” I pull her onto my lap and hug her. “You’re going to be fine. We’re going to get through this.”
Amelia starts sobbing on my shoulder. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
“I’m always here for you.”
“Listen, can I stay here tonight? I don’t want to go back to that house.”
“Of course you can stay.” I throw an apologetic glance at Jake, but he’s nodding his head approvingly. And in this moment, I feel even luckier he’s here by my side and more in love than ever.
One Month Later
Twelve
Terminate
♦♦♦
Friday, July 28—London
The working week is over and I’m ready for a cozy night in watching romcoms. I’m already settled on the couch. Amelia has “plans.” She didn’t tell me what they are, but by the amount of time she’s spent in the bathroom, I’m guessing they involve a certain David Beckham doppelgänger.
Love Connection (A Feel Good Romantic Comedy) Page 9
