by Lena Skye
Look at David and Victoria Beckham. You could be like that. You would be adored. You would be wealthy. Your career would be set in stone. You and Jennifer are good friends. That wouldn’t be terrible. You get along. You would probably get along better than most married couples do. Think about that. Think about that really carefully, because you are playing with fire right now, and you might just implode. You got me?” he asked in a challenging voice.
Scott had listened to every word that Harold had said, and he had taken it all to heart, even though he didn’t like it. “Yeah. I heard you. I understand. I’m just not sure that it’s the right choice for me. Jennifer and I talked about just a little while ago. That’s a huge move for both of us. We aren’t romantically involved with each other and we never will be; it’s just not part of who we are.
We would have to forego being with anyone else if we got married. Neither one of us could have any kind of a love life, because we would always be in the spotlight, and if we were with anyone else, it would be an even bigger disaster than the mess we’re in right now.
I don’t know if I can do that. I care about Naomi. I want her. I want the baby she’s carrying. I could have a family with her, if I could stop screwing up for one whole day.” He rolled his eyes in chagrin.
“Well you can’t have both,” Harold shot back firmly. “You can have the money, the power, the fame, and the glory… you can have everything that you’ve worked your whole life to get, or you could have love.
If she takes you back. You don’t even know if it would work out with her. Didn’t you tell me not too long ago that she has walked out on you like four times already or something like that? You willing to risk that? You willing to let your whole career take a dump just for some broad who will probably walk out on you again? You better think long and hard about it, Scotty. You have way too much at stake her to take a chance like that. You better start thinking with your head.”
Scott frowned. Harold had a solid point. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. Jennifer and I said we would spend some time thinking about it and get back to each other.”
“Well you better think long and hard about it, Scotty, because we’re talking about the rest of your life here. Call me when you make up your mind.” Harold was finished talking, and he ended the call without saying goodbye.
Scott looked at his phone and set it down, returning his gaze to the images in the newspaper in front of him. He felt as if the entire world was on his shoulders, and there was no way it could get any heavier.
He didn’t sleep well that night, instead he spent hours tossing and turning until his exhaustion finally overtook him. Scott ran what seemed to him like every possible scenario through his mind, over and over, and hoped that somehow he would come up with a solution that was viable for him, but it came out the same way every single time.
He was going to have to make the hardest decision of his life. He would have to choose between having the career he had always wanted, or having the love and family that he felt he had found with Naomi. There was no in between. When he woke up in the morning, he felt as though he had woken up in a nightmare.
Chapter7
Scott thought nonstop about it the next morning, and when his phone rang and he saw that it was Jennifer, a muffled moan escaped him. He wasn’t ready for her call. He answered the phone with a quiet hello, and waited to hear what she had to say.
“Good morning. Did you sleep last night?” she asked, sounding as tired as he felt.
“Not much, no. What about you?” he returned, already sure of her answer.
“I didn’t sleep at all. I wish I could. I’m exhausted, but this is way too heavy on my mind.” She spoke with a gentle voice. “I’ve been going over and over it, and I felt like I just couldn’t find the right answer, and that was when I realized that I already had the right answer.”
He opened his eyes wide in surprise, as his heart picked up speed. Her answer was going to have an impact on him no matter what it was. “You did? What was it?” he asked her curiously.
“Well,” she said, exhaling a long slow breath, “after agonizing over it all night long, I realized sometime in the last hour that if it was right to marry you and use that to try to fix my public image, then it wouldn’t feel wrong or weird to do it. I wouldn’t have to think about it. I would feel in my heart that it is actually the right thing to do.
The fact is, I don’t feel that in my heart. That’s why I’m wrestling with it so much. That’s why I didn’t go to sleep last night. It doesn’t feel right because it isn’t the right thing to do, and no matter how much I think about it, or how many ways I try to make it make sense to myself, it’s just not going to change.”
He sat up straight and almost held his breath. “So you don’t want to get married?” he asked in anticipation.
He could hear her smile through her voice. “No. I don’t want to get married. When I finally admitted that to myself, it was such an enormous relief. I felt like the weight of the world was suddenly lifted from me.”
“I know that feeling; I’m there right now… the whole weight of the world right on top of me.” He half-smiled to know that he wasn’t alone in that pressure.
“I just think that right now the only thing that is really important to my heart is my career. Not my career with a fake marriage… just my career. I’ve worked hard to gain the success that I have now. I’ve made it on my own because of all that I sacrificed and worked hard to do to get here, and now I’m here. Now I’m where I always wanted to be my whole life; except for all the trouble with David, but that’s just one of the steps in my path. The best way to handle it is with honesty and integrity.
He might want to come back to me, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to let him. He got arrested again. That’s his problem, not mine. I am going to keep doing the work that I’m doing with the children with cancer project, and with a new album after that, and even with just settling in here at my house and redecorating it; if Naomi will still help me do that.
I need to get on with my life, and marrying you isn’t the right way for me to go forward with it. No offence or anything; I love you Scott, but I could never be married to you. Plus… how horrible would it be for the two of us to have to stay single the whole time we were married? Not even dating anyone else. That would be rough on us both. My career comes first, so I hope it doesn’t affect you too badly, but I had to make this choice for myself and my future. I’m not going to marry you.” She sounded almost sympathetic when she said it to him.
Relief washed over and through Scott like a tidal wave. “I have to be honest, I’m so glad that you said that, and that you were the one to make the decision. One of the things I was worried about was that you would feel obligated to marry me because you would be worried about my career. You have one of the biggest hearts I’ve ever known, and it would be something that I could see you doing; kind of taking one for the team here and marrying me to save my career, even if it was something that you didn’t want to do.
I thought you might feel like you had to, and I didn’t want you to make the wrong choice on my behalf, just because we’re friends. So, that’s a relief. Also, this takes huge pressure off of me. I won’t have to worry that because of me, neither of us could ever be with someone we are in love with or want to be with, because we’re locked into a high profile marriage that would prevent us from having a relationship with anyone but each other.”
“Well, I’m glad that I could be the one to help us both. You’re a nice guy, Scott, but you’re not the right one for me. I don’t even know if there is a right one for me. What I do know is that I’m super focused on my singing career, and that is my biggest priority.” She sounded happy and just as relieved as Scott felt. He was glad to hear it in her voice.
“Okay. Well, I’ll call Harold and let him know… and, you know, I’ve been so angry with that idiot reporter down at the Times that I think I’ll call his supervisor and get him into some trouble for printi
ng a story about us that he didn’t check on. He’s printing false information; we aren’t engaged, and maybe it will be enough to get him off of our backs.” Scott was feeling better about it all the time.
“Sounds good. I think I’m going to go make sure that I still have a decorator, if you don’t mind.” Jennifer laughed nervously and Scott frowned with chagrin.
“Yeah, that’s good. Go talk to her. I need to try to straighten things out with her too, if I can. I’m not sure we can fix what has been broken between us, but she’s worth trying for.” He said goodbye to Jennifer and ended the call.
Harold was upset that Scott and Jennifer had decided not to get married, and he felt that his brilliant maneuver to save both of their careers had been thwarted beyond repair, but he told Scott that he would try to think of something else; some other way that they could fix all of the problems that were plaguing Scott and his career.
Scott called the Times and had a long conversation with the editor-in-chief, who apologized profusely over the reporter who had been printing nonstop stories about him, Jennifer, Naomi, and Cora. He even admitted to Scott that Naomi had put a restraining order on the reporter. The editor-in-chief told Scott that the reporter had gone too far one too many times, and that he wasn’t willing to risk the integrity of the news that they printed by keeping such a scandalous writer on his staff.
He said that the man would be out of the door that day, and that Scott and no one else, would have to worry about him being on their heels again afterward. Scott thanked him, and after he ended the call, he felt that things were finally going as right as they could be, at least a little bit, and the world wasn’t quite as heavy as it had felt to him the night before.
***
Jennifer walked into Summit Interior Design with her heart in her throat, and she hoped that she wouldn’t be thrown out on sight. Looking around she saw a young lady sitting at a desk near the door. The young lady looked up at her and smiled, holding her forefinger up to indicate that she would be just a moment, as she finished her phone call.
Once the call was done, she hung up the phone and looked back at Jennifer. Her pleasant smile faded from her mouth and her eyes grew fully wide as she stared.
“Oh my god. You’re Jennifer Jones,” she said barely above a whisper.
Jennifer smiled. She often got that kind of response. She nodded. “I am… or at least, that’s what it says on my driver’s license. Is Naomi here, by chance?” she asked, looking around the room.
Keisha nodded, visibly trying to collect herself. “Uh… yes. She’s here. She’s in the kitchen right now, I think.” Keisha looked at Naomi’s empty desk and then at the kitchen door which was partially open, and she confirmed what she thought. “Yes, she’s in there. I can see her.”
Jennifer raised an eyebrow. “Would it be all right if I go in there to talk with her please?” she asked, wondering how much the girl before her knew about everything that had happened with Scott and Naomi, and hoping that it was nothing or close to nothing.
Keisha looked uncertain for a moment, but then grinned and nodded. “Yeah, I guess that would be okay. Go ahead and go back there.”
Jennifer gave her a nod of thanks and walked to the kitchen, and she thought she could feel Keisha watching her go the entire way. She reached the door and knocked on it gently, stepping in partway. Naomi was in the room alone, washing out a teacup in the sink.
“Naomi… hi. I was hoping that we could speak in private. There are some things I think we should probably discuss.” Jennifer gave her a friendly smile, and stepped all the way through the door into the room, closing the door behind her.
Naomi turned with a start and blinked in surprise at the sight of Jennifer Jones standing in the kitchen of her business. She never had clients in the kitchen, and only rarely at the office. Her heart began to pound and a wave of nausea washed over her.
“Yes, of course… please, come in and sit down.” She was grateful that her manners kicked in immediately, because her mind was going a million miles an hour down a rollercoaster, and it felt like there was no way to stop it. “May I get you something to drink?”
The woman who was engaged to her lover, or ex-lover, and the father of the baby in her womb, was sitting down to talk with her. It was enough to make her want to bolt from the room and never come back again. She knew she had to stay. She had to finish Jennifer’s houses or she was not going to make the money that she would need by the end of the month so that she could pay Reggie Davis.
She had to keep her business. She had to do whatever it took to keep her business, she told herself over and over. Talking with Jennifer Jones and finishing the work on her house was going to be the biggest challenge she would have to overcome, but she was going to do it. She had never felt so determined about anything in her life.
“No, I’m all right, thanks. Will you sit with me, please?” she asked, indicating the chair in front of her. Naomi sat down in it and folded her hands in front of her, watching Jennifer as the other woman began to speak.
“First, I want to tell you again how excited I am that you have agreed to do my house, and I am really looking forward to spending a lot of time with you in getting it done. We’re going to make it so beautiful; so perfect, together.” Her face was bright as she looked at Naomi.
Naomi felt like her heart might beat right out of her chest. “Actually, that’s something that I wanted to talk with you about…” she trailed off a little, and Jennifer held her hand up to stop her.
“I know you probably do want to talk with me about that, but before we get to that, we should talk about a couple of other things first, if that’s okay.” She looked hopeful.
Naomi knew that the only way that she would be able to stand redecorating Jennifer Jones’ house, would be if she could do it when the singer wasn’t there. She knew that if she had the entire space she was working in to herself, then she wouldn’t feel quite as uncomfortable about it. She was going to have to bring that up to Jennifer, and get Jennifer’s agreement to it, but at least they were talking, and she could request it while the other woman was there with her.
“I’m not sure if you saw the newspaper… I guess it’s the Times… but there was an article printed yesterday about Scott and me,” she started, not entirely sure of where to start.
Naomi nodded and looked down at her hands for a moment. She hated that Jennifer was going to bring up their personal lives, but she knew that it was part of what was happening between them and they were going to have to discuss it.
“Yes, I did see that. Congratulations,” Naomi said quietly, lifting her eyes back up to meet Jennifer’s gaze.
Jennifer smiled gently. “Well, I guess you could congratulate me if it was real, but it wasn’t real. Scott and I are not engaged. That was a story that was set up by Scott’s agent, Harold, in an attempt to further our careers. He was trying to fix some of the publicity nightmare that we have both been facing.”
Naomi blinked in surprise. “You’re not engaged? Really?” she asked in wonder. Her heart had been beating fast before, but then began to race inside of her.
Jennifer shook her head. “No, we’re not engaged at all. Remember I said that Scott and I are friends? Well, we are. I love him, and he loves me too, but neither one of us could ever stand to be in a romantic relationship with the other, let alone married to one another. That’s so far out of the question that it’s impossible!” She laughed and continued, all the while keeping eye contact with Naomi. “Besides, Scott couldn’t marry me, because he loves you. You should know that.”
With a shake of her head, Naomi looked away from Jennifer. “I’m not so sure about that, but I wish that he did.”
Jennifer looked at her confidently. “Oh, he does. You two probably have a lot to work out, and the two of you should definitely talk to each other, but he does love you. I know that for sure.”
Naomi swallowed hard and a small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “Thank you so much for coming
here to tell me that. I thought… well, I thought that what I had read in the newspaper was accurately reported. I thought that you two really were engaged. It made things pretty awkward for me.”
Jennifer nodded. “I’m sure that it did. I didn’t know that the two of you were involved. You never said anything, and Scott keeps his love life to himself most of the time. I just thought that you were his decorator, and that was it. You did such a great job on his house that I just had to have you come do mine as well.
Thank you for taking the job, by the way, and for not walking out of it when you thought that he and I were engaged. I’m so glad that I didn’t lose you in all of the confusion.” She laughed lightly.
Naomi agreed. “I’m glad that I kept you, too. Yours is the biggest account we’ve ever had here, and I’ll be honest; right now we really need it. We’re at a crucial juncture with the firm, and your redesign is going to make a huge difference for us all. I am grateful that we have it, and I promise you that we’re going to do an excellent job for you.”
“Well that’s great news! I’m glad that I could be a help to you and your business. I’ll be sure to recommend you to my friends too. I’d like to see you do well.” Jennifer gave her a friendly smile. “I do want to ask you when you’ll be over next.”
“We’ve gotten really busy, but your house is my top priority, so I can be over there today,” Naomi told her, feeling better about everything that had happened with her and Jennifer already. “Right now I can give you five days a week.”
“That’s perfect!” Jennifer clapped her hands together. She leaned forward then. “I also wanted to tell you that Scott let me know about your little one… and I wanted to tell you congratulations. I’m really happy for you both, no matter how it all turns out. You two are going to be great parents, and that is going to be one lucky baby.”
