Serves Me Wright

by K. A. Linde

  “Thanks, Hollin.”

  He trailed off after Alejandra. He’d thought he was giving me a compliment, and I’d forced myself to take it as one. But it felt like a chain around my neck. Jordan was so proud of me. Hollin believed in me. I couldn’t fuck up. I had to make this right. I needed to get back in there and talk to the distributors again. George had made it seem like a done deal. Why wouldn’t I know by now?

  I cursed and headed back to my desk. I pulled up my computer to get his number but saw that an email was waiting from the company.

  Fucking finally.

  I clicked to open it and stared at the message. It wasn’t even from George himself. It was written from his secretary with him CC’ed on the email.

  Dear Julian.

  Thank you so much for reaching out about the distribution contract. At this time, we’re unable to offer you…

  My jaw dropped as I finished off the letter. A form letter. They’d sent a form rejection of our application for distribution. It didn’t even list reasons.

  What the actual fuck was this shit? I couldn’t believe it. I’d been put through the hoops to get to this position. Yes, we were a new winery. Yes, we were a risk. Yes, there were reasons to deny us. But none of that had come up when I had my meetings with them. They knew Jensen. They were familiar with the Wright brand. They knew the likelihood that we’d stumble and fall was small since we had the capital to keep it afloat.

  If they’d said any of those reasons, I could have put it aside and worked on it again in a year when we had more time and energy and money under our belt. But that wasn’t it. This was straight garbage.

  Without thinking, I dialed George’s number. He’d given it to me on a business card, saying it was his personal line. I hadn’t used it because so far, everything had been working out.

  “Hello?” George said.

  “George, hi. It’s Julian Wright.”

  “Julian, so good to hear from you,” he said as amicably as he’d been at the gala last month.

  “I just received a form letter from the company, rejecting Wright Vineyard’s application for distribution.”

  “Ah,” he drawled. “I thought that might be it.”

  “What is going on?”

  “It just isn’t the right fit.”

  I blinked. “What does that mean?”

  “Nothing personal. Purely business, son. I wanted to work with you, but when we looked at the information provided and compared it to what else was out there, we had to say no.”

  “So, it’s because we’re new?”

  “No, it’s not that.”

  “Is there a real reason for not taking us?” I snapped. I winced at my tone, but desperation took over. My charm had dissolved. This felt impossible.

  “Sorry, son. Try again in a few years.” He even sounded sincere. “We’ll reconsider at a later date.”

  And the line went dead.

  He’d hung up on me.

  I flung the phone across the room, and it shattered against the wall with a satisfying crunch. I regretted it almost as soon as I was done with my burst of anger. Now, I’d have to replace the damn thing, too. I didn’t have time for that. For anything.

  What was I going to do? The question filtered through my mind on repeat.

  They’d turned us down, given me no real answer for why, and then discarded us. Just that easily. This could sink the vineyard. Having a distribution agreement was the easiest way to make money in this business. Now, we could only sell on-site. We couldn’t get into stores or sell online or…anything. We were confined to this one place and time. A huge hindrance to the business.

  And I couldn’t tell Hollin and Alejandra. They’d been so anticipating it. Hollin believed in me. I could go to Jordan. I squeezed my eyes shut and balled my hands into fists. No, I couldn’t do that either. Jordan was always my saving grace. But how the fuck was he going to fix this? And if he did, then he’d know I’d failed. He’d handed me the company, and I’d failed. He’d been bragging to Dad about it. Fuck. I didn’t know what to do.

  I picked up the destroyed phone and saw that it didn’t even turn on. Great. Now, I couldn’t even get ahold of Jen. Not that I wanted to tell her how much of a failure I was either. She thought the world of me.

  Maybe I was thinking too much of myself right now, but this had been my main focus for months. And now, it was gone. There was nothing I could do.

  I ground my teeth together. Realizing there was something I could do.

  But my phone was dead.

  I’d have to go in person.

  I ran a hand back through my hair and hated myself for what I was about to do. But Ashleigh Sinclair could make this right.

  33

  Jennifer

  “Hey, Blaire. Have you heard if Julian is still going to the game today?”

  Blaire popped her head out of her room, dressed in her red Tacos uniform, her long black hair in a ponytail on the top of her head. “As far as I know. Thank God we do not have to have Chase Sinclair again as his replacement.”

  “Bad?”

  “I did not know hot boys could be that uncoordinated.”

  I laughed. “Didn’t he play football?”

  “Oh, he can run. But he cannot dribble or pass or shoot. He kept going offsides. I’m not sure he actually knew the rules.” Blaire shook her head. “A disgrace.”

  “Huh. Okay.”

  “Why? Problems in paradise?”

  “No. I don’t think so. I mean, I hope not.” I flushed, thinking about the worst-case scenario of why Julian hadn’t returned any of my texts for almost twenty-four hours. “He hasn’t responded on his cell. Could you text him?”

  “Sure. Sure. Let me shoot one off to the group to see if they’ve heard from him.”

  I nodded and headed back into my room. I changed into shorts and a tank top for the game, snagging a Blaire Blush baseball cap. She’d foisted one off on me since I never wore hats. I thought I looked stupid in them, but if Blaire said it looked good, who was I to argue?

  I checked my phone again. Nothing. Seriously, I was starting to look desperate. How many unanswered messages were too many? Because I was definitely almost there. Or maybe already there.

  “Hollin says he was at work. Should be at the game,” Blaire yelled across the hall.

  “Oh. Okay,” I whispered.

  So, he’d been at work but not messaged me. That was…odd. Worrisome.

  I glanced at my stash of Xanax. Usually, I didn’t need anything like that for games, but my brain was firing overtime, telling me all the ways that Julian was tired of me. Over us. I’d been a fun flirtation, some nice sex, a trip to Mexico. Now, it was time to move on to bigger and better.

  But Julian wasn’t like that. At least, the small part of my brain not currently overrun by my anxiety was saying that. We’d kissed in front of his whole family. Things had been looking good…looking up. Why did my brain have to do this?

  “Fuck it,” I muttered.

  I popped a half-Xanax into my mouth.

  Then I did another thing that I’d been waiting on. I pulled up my Instagram. The post was already in Draft. It was the portrait I’d done of Campbell, maybe the best picture of my entire life. And underneath it was the caption: Portrait series #1. I’d been wavering on when to post it, if I should even do it. But it was now or never, right?

  I pressed Share and closed my phone.

  “Ready?” Blaire asked.

  “Yep. Let’s go.”

  Piper joined us in the living room, and we piled into her Jeep before we were on our way to the soccer fields. The top and sides were off of the Jeep. Piper and Blaire sang along to the latest Halsey song at the top of their lungs. They both had great voices. I was surprised I’d never really heard them sing before.

  We arrived to the fields early, but neither of Julian’s cars was there. Hollin was hopping out of his truck right as Piper parked. He came around to the side to grab his bag, and his hulking bulk got right up in her
space.

  She cursed under her breath. “Hollin, personal space exists.”

  “Oh, don’t act like you don’t like it, Medina.”

  “You wish.”

  He smirked. A primal thing that made Piper’s back stiffen. “You know, if you ever need to get that stick out of your ass, I could always help.”

  She glared at him as she slammed the car door. “Fuck you, Abbey.”

  He winked. “We’ll see.”

  Steam rose from the top of her head. She was so pissed at him. I thought she might launch herself across the small space and claw his eyes out. Blaire and I were both paralyzed on the other side of the Jeep, waiting to see what she’d do.

  But as if realizing that he was getting to her, Piper just slung her purse onto her shoulder and brushed past him without a word. Blaire and I exchanged a look. She shrugged like she didn’t know. I didn’t either. Hollin sure liked pushing her buttons though. And he swaggered away onto the field like his shorts couldn’t contain the junk between his legs.

  “They’re something,” I muttered to Blaire.

  “Tell me about it.”

  “What the hell happened?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. Nothing as far as I know.”

  We headed toward the fields. No sign of Julian or Jordan or any other Wrights for that matter. Isaac and Annie were already on the field, kicking the ball back and forth. Cézanne’s box braids were swinging as she tried to get around her boyfriend and the goalie, Gerome. He laughed and blocked her easily, even as he pulled his locs up out of his face. Nora was sitting on the bleachers, next to her best friend, Tamara. August stood between them, smiling at both girls as if he had a very dirty dream in front of him. We were just missing Julian.

  “Going to warm up,” Blaire said, dropping her bag. “Julian will be here. He never misses without letting us know.”

  I nodded. I didn’t know why I hadn’t gone over to his house yesterday. It wasn’t like I needed an invitation. But he also always responded to my messages. I was overthinking, overreacting, but my anxiety did that. The Xanax was keeping me calm as I waited.

  “Two minutes, y’all,” Isaac called. The rest of the team moved onto the field toward him. His brow furrowed as he looked around for Julian. But there was no Julian. “Where the hell is he?”

  Everyone shrugged. The whistle blew to get into position for the game to start. And then they were off, playing one man down without Julian, one of their best players. What the hell?

  “Here!” Julian called. He was dashing toward the field, his soccer bag banging into his thigh. He flashed me a smile as he passed, but he didn’t stop. “Sorry.”

  “Get your ass out here, Wright,” Isaac called from his midfield position.

  “Yep. Yep,” he said, sliding into his cleats and stuffing shin guards into his socks. “My bad.”

  And then he was jogging in place while he waited for the ref to let him on. He hadn’t even said a word to me. Just one slightly manic smile. And he had been late. Julian Wright was never late.

  I sank into a seat next to Piper. She was lathering sunscreen onto her tan skin, a hat atop her head to block her face. She offered the bottle to me. “Mi abuelita always says, ‘Better safe than sorry.’ ”

  “Thanks. I burn like a lobster.”

  “What’s with your boy?”

  “What’s with yours?” I countered.

  She arched an eyebrow. “Bradley and I are off-again.”

  “We both know that’s not who I meant.”

  She huffed. “Hollin can go fuck himself.”

  I smirked. “You know he likes to see your reaction.”

  “Yeah, whatever.” She eyed me again. “And Julian? I saw that deflection.”

  “No idea, honestly. He hasn’t returned my messages since yesterday, and he’s never late, but here he is.”

  “Late.”

  I nodded.

  “Well, boy needs to get his shit together. If he hurts my friend, I’ll cut him.”

  I saw something savage cross her face and didn’t doubt her for a second. But the thought of Julian hurting me made my insides twist.

  “Maybe it’s a misunderstanding.”

  She shot me a look that said I couldn’t be that naive. And she was right. My anxiety never let me think the best of someone.

  So, I sat and watched the game. Blaire was a force to be reckoned with. Her feet were quick, and her shots were on fire today. August kept getting in her way, not passing the ball, but somehow, she made up for him. Hollin made a few incredible stops, and Gerome saved more balls than I’d ever seen. In fact, this might be the first match that I’d seen an even competition with the other team.

  And it was the wrong day for that to be the case. Because Julian was off his game. Completely off of his game. I’d never seen him flub so many passes and seemingly trip over his own feet. He usually had mad ball skills, toying with the other team. Today, two times in a row, the ball had been stolen from him by a tiny girl about Nora’s size. She was good, but she wasn’t better than Julian on a good day.

  I frowned at the display. “Something’s wrong.”

  “Yeah, your boy sucks.” Piper laughed when I frowned at her. “I mean, arguably, I know nothing about soccer, but he looks bad out there.”

  He did. And the team couldn’t recover from him screwing up. At the end of the day, we lost, and it was hard to place the blame anywhere else.

  Everyone trudged off the field, exhausted and dejected. Isaac tried for a pep talk, but no one was really listening. They downed their water bottles and changed out of their cleats.

  Blaire plopped onto the seat next to Piper. “Well, that blew.”

  “Better luck next time,” Piper said.

  I patted Blaire on the shoulder. “Sorry.”

  She laughed and shrugged it off. “No big deal.” She was looking down at her phone.

  Then she gasped.

  “What?” Piper and I asked together.

  “You posted the Campbell picture!” she almost shrieked.

  “Uh, yeah. So?”

  She whipped it around to me. “Cosmere fans got ahold of it. It’s viral. You already have over a million likes.”

  My vision blurred, and I took the phone from her to look at it. Thousands of comments. A million likes. On one image.

  “Oh my God,” I gasped.

  “Congratulations!” Blaire said, throwing her arms around me. “I knew it!”

  “This is so great, Jen,” Piper said.

  I handed the phone back. “Wow. Like…wow. What do I do?”

  “First off, don’t read the comments. Second, actually, why don’t I handle your social media for you for a while?” Blaire said.

  “Good idea.”

  “You look like you’re in shock.”

  “I am.”

  “This is good!” Blaire said.

  “What’s good?” Julian asked, appearing next to us.

  Blaire gave him the rundown, and his eyes widened.

  “Holy shit,” he breathed.

  “I know,” I whispered. “I don’t know what to do about it.”

  “Nothing. Leave it to me,” Blaire said, holding her hand out for my phone. I passed it to her. “I got this.”

  Blaire and Piper leaned into my phone as Blaire did her thing. I trusted her to handle this since she was a viral phenomenon and I was clearly…not.

  I turned to my boyfriend. He’d dropped into the seat with his head buried into his bag, trying not to let everyone see how rattled he was.

  “Hey,” I said.

  He smiled at me. “Hey. I’m so proud of you.”

  “Thanks. It’s kind of…surreal.”

  “I could see that.”

  I bit my lip. “Are you okay?”

  “Just a game,” he said with a shrug.

  But there was something else. I knew it.

  “I haven’t heard from you since yesterday.” My voice felt small, but the fact that I was even bringing it up wa
s a huge step. I’d never held my own like this before.

  His face looked pained, and he jumped to his feet. “Fuck, I’m sorry. My phone died yesterday. I have to get another one, and I didn’t have time today.”

  “Oh,” I said softly. Such an easy explanation. “I just thought…you’d find a way to reach me.”

  He ran a hand back through his hair. “Yeah. That’s entirely my fault. I’ve been swamped with work, and I haven’t looked up. I actually forgot about the game today. What with the Wright event tonight at the vineyard, it’s been nuts.”

  “Right. Of course.”

  “Hey, hey,” he said, taking my hands in his and bringing them to his lips. “I’m really sorry. I should have thought about how it would look to not respond. Why don’t we go and get me a new phone right now?”

  “But don’t you have work for the event tonight?”

  He blew out a heavy breath. “Yeah. I really do.”

  “Then don’t worry about it. You can get one tomorrow.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Yeah. I have to get dressed for the party anyway. I’ll see you there.”

  He opened his mouth like he wanted to say more. His eyes had gone distant. Like there was something else eating at him.

  “Julian, are you really okay?”

  Just as fast as the question was out of my mouth, the look disappeared from his face. “Yeah. Yes. Totally. It’s been a rough week. I’ll see you tonight.”

  “Okay. You might need a break after this.”

  He laughed. “Take me back to Cabo, will you?”

  “Anytime.”

  He pressed a kiss into my hair. “See you tonight, Dreamsicle.”

  “Oh my God, that nickname,” I said, flushing from head to toe.

  “I do it just to see you blush.”

  “Everything makes me blush.”

  He winked at me. “Don’t I know it?”

  And then I watched my boyfriend walk away. Something worried at me though. Like this conversation wasn’t over. Like there was more that he wasn’t saying. But I didn’t know what it could possibly be.

  34