The Rules In Paradise (Playing By The Rules)

by Woods, Lindsey

  Five years into our business venture and we were doing great things. We were making tons of money, Cole was happy with this girl, Vanessa, and life was good. We spent most nights out partying with the rich and famous, which was made possible by Fredericks. We could network because of him, which grew our business even more. Cole moves in with Vanessa two years ago. He designs this amazing and expensive house. They get engaged.

  Olivia, we were in Mexico for Cole’s bachelor party. He was supposed to get married the weekend you guys left.” Jason finally took a breath.

  I felt my heart drop. His bachelor party. The friends. It made sense.

  “Well needless to say we got home that weekend and he called it off. He said he didn’t want to marry her. He had met someone in Mexico and he was in love. Vanessa was devastated. I liked her fine but she was a rich brat. She ran to daddy. He’s pissed Olivia. He’s convinced almost every single one of our clients to go elsewhere. I’ve been literally fighting with one client, the mega job we got when we went home, to stay with us. Fredericks is spreading all kinds of lies about how we do business. He’s powerful. He’s trying to single handedly destroy our company we’ve worked hard to create. The problem is he’s suing, saying we have done all of these things on top of not paying him back. He’s backed Cole into a corner. He had to sell the house to Vanessa for literally a fraction of what it’s worth. She lives there with all of their stuff. He’s moved into a condo outside LA.

  He’s lied to you about so much Olivia, I wish that was it. When he came back he called the wedding off, like I said. There was instantly backlash. Obviously. Olivia, he moved out two weeks ago. He’s been trying to soften the blow by getting back into her good graces since then, so she’d call dear old daddy off.

  I have no doubt about his feelings for you, but he’s a businessman. He has something threatening his business and he’s fighting for it, unfairly. Basically Vanessa said he had to marry her if he wanted this whole thing to be over. That’s finally what made him get out. She’s crazy. She’s definitely a woman scorned but she deserves to be. So do you. He knew what could happen if he chose you over her.” Jason stopped talking, but he still looked gravely serious.

  “So let me sum this up. Cole was getting married three weeks after we met. He was having his bachelor party. He leaves, breaks up with her. Sees that it makes waves at work and stays with her until she delivers the ultimatum. Did her dad cancel the lawsuits once he went back to her?” I asked. I was surprisingly calm though my blood was speeding through my veins.

  “Yes. He said he would fix it all if Cole married Vanessa. He didn’t do it though, he loves you I think. He asked Kyle to do some research, on what he could do to Fredericks because essentially it’s slander. We’ve never been dishonest in how we’ve done business.”

  “It was her,” I said.

  “Her what?”

  “There were times he would take a phone call, or frown at his phone, it was her,” I sat back in my chair, shocked.

  “Yes, probably so.”

  “He lied, I asked him if he had a girlfriend.”

  “Olivia, I don’t know what he was thinking.”

  I looked at Jason and suddenly felt bad for the way I had treated him. I felt the pricking at the back of my eyes and struggled to keep it under control.

  “I don’t know what you want to do with this information. Even if you do nothing with it, I just wanted you to know. He really cares about you, I know that.”

  “Yes, he cares about me enough to cheat on his wife-to-be and then use her to not have to deal with the consequences. Jason, I’m sorry that your business and hard work are being effected here. What is he suing for?” I asked.

  “He just wants to ruin us. He’s asking for our start up money plus interest. He’s trying to get all of our clients pulled out, he’s also trying to mess with our new multi deal, the fourteen chains Cole told you about. If he wins he can ruin us.”

  I lowered my head. Cole had made a disgusting mess. He had lied to me in Mexico, he has been unfaithful to her, he had canceled the wedding just weeks before they were supposed to walk down the aisle and then decided to come see me at the time he was supposed to get married. It was all a lie. He had lied to me about her, and then pretended to stay with her to get out of his giant screw up. My head was reeling. I couldn’t focus on much of anything. I felt increasingly sick to my stomach.

  “I’m sorry, I had to, it wasn’t right,” Jason said.

  “You didn’t,” Cole said, standing in front of the table, his shock clearly visible on his face. “Olivia, I’m sorry, please just listen.” I stood up quickly from the table.

  Chapter 17

  I took a moment to take him in. He was standing there, looking just as handsome as before. Only this time his faced was completely different. The expression registered as a mixture between shock, hurt, confusion and awe. His face was lined, it aged him at least five years. He stood there, statue still, looking at only me. I felt the intensity that I had grown so accustomed to. This time I felt it had no power over me. I wanted it to be tangible so I could push it away. He didn’t move a muscle. He didn’t even blink. He was waiting for me to react. I hadn’t decided how I was going to handle that part yet. His hands were nervously fumbling with the bottom of his suit jacket.

  He finally blinked and looked at Jason with a look of disbelief. Jason hung his head, almost like an admonished child.

  “She deserved to know, you know that,” Jason said.

  “Get the fuck away from her and I,” Cole said. His voice was seemingly calm, but I could feel the tension radiating from him. He meant business and Jason knew it. He got up from the seat across from me and gave me one last look.

  “I’m so sorry, you just deserved to know,” he said softly. He walked away without a backward glance.

  I sat there, staring at the table in front of me. There were millions of thoughts swirling around in my head. I felt like not only had the rug been pulled out from under me, I should have known. There were signs, but I was too blinded by how great it was to be around him to pay attention to them.

  “Please say something,” Cole said in a very small voice.

  His voice was unlike I’ve ever heard. He sounded scared like a lost child. I stared ahead for a few moments. I heard him moving next to me and then he dropped into the chair that Jason occupied a few minutes ago.

  “Olivia, I,” he started, but I held up my hand.

  “You don’t get to say my name, or anything about me while we’re at it. You made me out to be such a fool.” I closed my eyes, willing my tears not to fall.

  “I’m sorry, I swear I am. I thought I was doing the right thing by keeping it from you.”

  I looked around at the people on the patio with us. They were all dressed nicely and were chatting amiably.

  “You know what, I’m not doing this here. This is my best friend’s wedding day and I refuse to be one of those people who makes a mess of the whole thing.” I walked from the table and looked at him. He was sitting in his chair and his body was slouched. He looked small and scared.

  “I’ll be waiting, please give me a chance to talk,” he said quietly. With that I turned and walked into the reception. I pushed everything as far from my mind as I could and pretended to enjoy myself for the next three hours.

  I never went back to the patio. As everyone was packing up I hugged Kyle and Charlotte and told them how happy I was for them. I walked out front, and took a breath of fresh air. I was about to start digging for my cell phone to call myself a cab when I noticed Cole sitting on the bench in front of the building, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. His head was down, almost between his knees. His hair was disheveled and his tie was untied, hanging from him neck.

  “What are you doing?” I asked. Disgusted by the cigarette burning between his lips. He looked up, but didn’t make eye contact.

  “Old habits die hard,” He said, taking another drag. “One person’s nerves can only take so much before y
ou need an intervention.”

  “I should agree.” I took the cigarette from his mouth and threw it on the ground, stepping on it to put it out.

  He sat silently, looking down at the ground again. He was hurting, I understood that. So was I, and he deserved every ounce of hurt he had.

  “How are you getting home?” He asked.

  “I’m going to call a cab.”

  “It’ll cost you a fortune. Jason and I brought the car we rented here earlier, please let me take you home. I don’t want to think of you in the back of a sketchy cab at midnight.” He stood and started walking toward the car. I didn’t move right away. I didn’t necessarily want to be with him, in his car alone at midnight. He must have noticed I was not walking with him. He turned and finally met my eyes.

  “For the love of God just let me take you home.” I put my bag on my shoulder and started to follow him, keeping my distance. We drove in silence for a few minutes. I looked out my window concentrating on the cars that we passed.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said after awhile.

  “I don’t care.”

  “Please, let me explain.”

  “Well let me see if I have the story right yet, you were engaged, told me you weren’t with anyone, you cheated on her with me, you left, went back to her for awhile and left just in time to come see me again. Did I get that all right?”

  “Olivia, it wasn’t like that,” he pleaded.

  “It was exactly like that. Tell me that those things didn’t happen.”

  “They’re true, but not in the way that it sounds.”

  “What way does it sound? Does it maybe sound like you’re a scumbag dog who got caught cheating? Because it should sound like that. I can’t believe this honestly. I can’t even begin to comprehend what a complete and utter asshole you are.” I was clearly still in the anger phase of grief.

  “Olivia, I didn’t know I was going to meet you. I didn’t know you existed. You are the most amazing person I’ve ever known.”

  “So what? What happened when we got really serious about each other and you met someone who you also didn’t know existed. Hell, look at this woman over here, you didn’t know she existed until right now, would you like to trick her into sleeping with you?”

  “I never tricked you.” His voice was firm for the first time all evening.

  “You sure as hell weren’t honest. I asked you if you had a girlfriend or if you were married, you said no. So excuse me, you lied, maybe I’ll save tricked for another time.”

  “I was honest Olivia. We weren’t married, and she wasn’t my girlfriend.”

  “You really want to play a semantics game with me? Man the fuck up Cole.”

  “I knew before the night we slept together that I was in love with you and not her. I knew I wanted to be with you. I knew it was over between she and I.”

  “Yet you went back to her.”

  “Meeting you that night, really getting to talk to you confirmed what I already knew. I knew I didn’t necessarily want to be with her but I didn’t have a reason not to be. I felt like I was holding out for the reason to make me leave. You were my reason.”

  “But you went back.”

  “She was destroying my life Olivia. She had changed the locks on my own fucking house. She was accessing my personal bank accounts and spending money on ridiculous things. She put her father up to ruining me. I went back in hopes it would stop all of the craziness until I could get a better handle on what was going on. I needed time to think about how I could make it be ok without being with her.”

  “Did you sleep with her then?” I asked the question that had burning in my brain all night. I needed to know.

  Cole held the steering wheel tightly and stared forward. The longer I watched him the more I felt the tears in my eyes fighting to come out. I knew that his silence was the answer I needed.

  “You unimaginable bastard. You are truly one of the biggest assholes I’ve ever known.”

  I stared out of my window, not moving. I closed my eyes and bit my lip hard. I couldn’t cry, not here. Not until we had parted ways. I couldn’t let him see me cry.

  We pulled up in front of my building and he turned off the car.

  “She means nothing to me anymore Olivia. Not since I met you. I don’t care about her. It’s been about you since the first day I met you. You’re who I want to be with.”

  I sat there in the silence and I wondered, could we ever go back? Could I ever look at him at this gorgeous guy who was on the surface, so near perfect and not see what a liar and a jerk he was?

  “At least you have a back up plan,” I said through a strained voice.

  “It’s over Olivia, I’m never seeing her again. I’ve signed the papers, the house is hers. Kyle has been working on a deal with Don, so he’ll leave us alone. We’re offering him millions to get him out of the picture. I’m done with her. It’s only you.”

  “You know what the worst part is about this Cole? I’ve watched how good you are with people so many times. I watched you at the pool, on the boat, at lunch and dinner, and I saw how great you are with people. I admired you for it and it made me feel good. I fell in love with the man who could command a room and yet make everybody feel so comfortable and so important. But it wasn’t until this very moment that I saw it for what it was, manipulation. You’ve manipulated so many people in your life that it doesn’t phase you. You might have gotten away with it up until now, but I see it for what it is.”

  “Is that what you think, that this is what I wanted? To fool you into falling in love with me? I haven’t made you do anything Olivia, you’ve come willingly into everything. I have never lied to you and I’ve never forced you to do anything.”

  “You’re right. I can’t argue with that. I was so blinded by what I thought you were that I fell in love with you. I really need to be more careful about that.” I gathered my bag and shoes in my arms and my hand was on my door handle.

  “Olivia, please give me time to make it up to you, I love you.” I heard a catch in his voice and looked at him.

  “You’ve had plenty of time to make it right, like from the beginning.”

  “So what does this mean? Are you leaving me for good?” His face was the epitome of anguish. I took a deep breath to steady myself.

  “Cole, let me make sure you hear this and hear it well. I do not want to see you, I do not want to hear from you. You are the most manipulative bastard I’ve known, and I’ve known quite a few. You tricked me into falling in love with you and just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, the rug was pulled out from under me. I don’t care if you go back to her or not, I don’t want you. I will not be mistreated and be ok with it. You’ve had so many opportunities to tell me the truth and to let me in. You chose not to do that.” By now I was talking in between sobs. “I have no need for someone like you in my life. My only hope is that one day you’ll realize that you can’t just have people fawn over you and then you get to do whatever you think you can behind their backs. I never want to see you again.”

  I watched his entire person crumble. First his lips parted and the lines in his face went deeper, creating shadows on his face in the dark car. I saw the reflection of car headlights passing us by in the dampness of his tears. They were freely falling down his face though he was making no noise. I closed my eyes tight and started to cry. I could hold it in no longer.

  “Please don’t leave me Olivia. Please don’t do this. I can’t bear it. I love you so much.”

  I sobbed harder. I couldn’t will myself to pull the latch to open the door.

  “You have no clue what it means to love. Love isn’t hurting someone when you can avoid it. You’ve ruined everything.”

  “Then it’s all been for nothing. The house, the lawsuits, the fighting. I might as well give it all up. I did it all for you. I put it all on the line because I loved you and now you can’t bear the sight of me. I thought in the end I was doing the right thing, I really did. I thought that looking
back on this you would see how hard I worked to be with you. I thought I could prove that it’s all been for you. From the moment I realized I loved you, I had these delusions that I could be a hero. I could turn this situation around and win you over. You’re the only thing I care about losing. If you don’t want me I don’t want any of it. I don’t want the company, the money, the house. You were my breath of fresh air, but since then you’ve been the air in my lungs. I don’t want it without you.”

  “That’s something you need to take up with your business partner who you’ve already screwed, figuratively, at least I hope anyway. Please, let me walk away.”

  He sat staring at me. His face soaked with tears. His hands and lips were shaking as he broke apart. I watched his eyes close and he gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles were white.

  I pulled the handle on the door and it released. I heard a sob escape Cole’s lips. I slowly got up and out of the car. I saw the sobs racking his body as I stood and turned to look at him one last time. I blinked away the last tears I would cry for him as I shut the car door. I heard what I thought was him behind me as I walked toward my building and never looked back.

  Chapter 18

  I woke up the next morning and my head was pounding. I pulled the covers over my head and had to stop myself from crying. I took a deep breath and threw the covers off of me. I walked to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. There were long black lines going from my eyes to my chin and my eyes were swollen to twice the size. I felt like every muscle in my body ached. I started the shower and it turned it all the way up. I wanted to burn last night off of every inch of my skin.

  I stripped down and got into the shower. I sat on the small seat, letting the water fall over me. It burnt my skin but I didn’t bother to turn it off. Within moments I began crying. I cried so hard that I fought the urge to throw up.