John Rutherford had excused himself and left for the men’s room. So, it was just Jason and Ed on the terrace. “Jason you can’t be serious about Vicky. Yes, she’s a beautiful girl but Jason she works in customer service? Is she pregnant? Is that it? Or, is Angel yours?” Jason looked incredulous, “Ed, not that this is any of your business but you can run and tell Bridget that no she is not pregnant and yes, I hope to adopt Angel one day. You should know that if Angel were mine there is no way in hell you would just now be finding out about it”. Ed was genuinely dumbfounded. “Jason, you are the head of CkR International, Inc. what are people going to think when you show up with that woman on your arm?” “What do you mean ‘that woman’?” “You know what I mean Jason. She is not like us. She works in customer service for god’s sake. You screw women like that you don’t make them apart of your life.” Jason couldn’t take Ed’s condescension any longer he grabbed Ed by the lapels and shoved him up against the wall. “Don’t ever and I mean ever let me her you talk about Vicky in that way or I swear I’ll….” John Rutherford returned at the perfect moment to diffuse the situation. He put a strong hand on his son’s shoulder while looking directly at Ed. “You should probably know that there is nothing worse than a Rutherford man feeling like he has to protect a Rutherford woman.” Jason held Ed for another moment before he let him go. John Rutherford lit his cigar as he focused in on Ed “Just a suggestion, but maybe you should go find Lilly. We’re probably going to be calling it a night here soon”. Unbeknownst to Jason, his father had overhead the last part of their conversation. John wasn’t the only person who’d overheard the last part of the conversation, so had Vicky. She stopped walking mid –stride almost causing Miriam to walk into the back of her. She inhaled sharply after hearing what Ed had to say about her. Vicky didn’t stay around long enough to hear John’s response. She picked Angel up, turned on her heel and headed straight to the ladies room. When she walked in the ladies room was divided into two parts; the actual bathrooms and a powder room. Vicky sat Angel down in the power room and went to splash cold water on her face in the bathroom. Lilly was in the bathroom and didn’t hear Vicky come inside. She was on her cell phone talking to Bridget. “I can’t believe Jason would date someone like her. You know men, they will screw anything. I just didn’t know Jason liked the dark kind. She was wearing a cheap dress and cheap shoes. She’s not even in your league Bridget. Oh, and it’s obvious that Mr. Rutherford was livid. He didn’t say two words during the entire dinner. Personally, I think once the novelty of dating her wears off you two will get back together”. Lilly turned around and almost dropped her phone when she saw Vicky standing there. Lilly hung up the phone without saying good bye to Bridget. “Please, don’t stop on my account. I’m sure Bridget would like to hear all the juicy details from tonight’s dinner”. Lilly haughtily tossed her blond hair to the side “Look, I’ve known Bridget and Jason a long time. Jason’s going through a thing and for whatever reason he wants to be your savior. That’s all fine and good but it gets old. When he’s done with his ‘hero’ thing he and Bridget will get back together. They’ve known each other a long time and are great partners. Really, Vicky isn’t it? I mean what can you offer Jason? He’s the head of a multi-billion dollar company? He’s someone very important. Do you really think you can plan events and attend to the social obligations that come along with being with someone of his status? Can you help him close business deals by schmoozing other powerful men and their wives? I think not. Don’t get me started with the press. They will eat you alive. They will question everything about you down to ‘whose your baby daddy’. I’m sure that would be very helpful to Jason”. Vicky squared her shoulders and looked Lilly dead in her eyes. “Then, it must really kill you and Bridget with all of my perceived shortcomings that Jason would still choose me over her. With all your money and ‘breeding’ and I use that term loosely, he still chose me. Maybe, instead of trying to figure out why me, maybe you should try to figure out why not Bridget. Especially, since she has the pre-requisite qualifications”. Lilly fumed and stomped out of the ladies room. Once Vicky was alone all the bravado she’d displayed disappeared. She took a deep breath. Some of Lilly’s points hit home. Hadn’t Vicky wondered some of the same things? All her life she’d tried to please people to be accepted and loved. But, she’d promised herself after Angel was born, she had to be enough. She didn’t want to pass down those insecurities to Angel. Yet her emotions were all over the place. For the first time in her life Jason made her feel special and loved. But old feelings had resurfaced too. She was crying more and feeling more insecure than ever. She was stronger than that. She may not have had a lot of money but she was strong and she’d overcome a lot in her life. She was making it in this world and what she lacked in possessions she’d more than made up for in the way she lived her life. Angel was proof of that. Yet, she still had these silly doubts. What if Jason met someone more suitable? It was obvious his father didn’t approve of her either. Regardless of what Mrs. Rutherford said if Jason had to make a choice he’d never choose them. No one ever had. Why would he be any different? And, just where would that leave her and Angel? Vicky dried the tears that she didn’t even know were falling. Then she became angry at herself for letting herself believe in stupid fairytales. Especially when everyone knows they do not exist. Angel was falling in love with Jason too. Vicky had to end this farce before Angel was hurt any more. She’d made up her mind that it was time to get on a plane and go home.
Chapter 21
The ride home was quiet. Jason seemed lost in his own thoughts. When they made it into the house Jason went to his office. Vicky was true to her word. As soon as they got back she went upstairs to their bedroom and grabbed her suitcase and started packing. She had been upstairs for about an hour before Jason finally made it up to their room. The first thing he noticed was the suit-case on the bed. “What are you doing?” Vicky had worked herself up and took all her anger out on him “What does it look like. I’m leaving. I’m going home. You and I both know that this is never going to work. We are just too….different”. Jason was exhausted trying to prove himself to Vicky. “So, you are just going to quit before we’ve even given ourselves a chance?” Jason was angry that he was willing to literally fight for this relationship and she seemed too easily willing to just give up. He felt defeated. He’d done all he knew how to do to get Vicky to trust him but he needed her to be willing to fight for them and it was obvious she wasn’t willing to do that. “You know what…maybe you should go. If every time we have a challenge in our relationship the best option for you is to run away and not deal with it, then you’re right we are never going to work. I’ll even call and have them get the plane ready.” He turned and walked right out the door.
Half an hour later Willa came up to let Vicky know that Fred would be ready to take her and Angel to the airport whenever she was ready. All of Vicky’s energy was gone. How could she stay knowing that she had nothing to offer Jason? She didn’t know how to operate in his world. Even his parents didn’t think she was good enough. She didn’t want to be a burden to Jason and have him constantly defending her from his friends and family. Yes, she loved him very much but he would be so much better off without them. It was best to end this now before things got any deeper. She took one last look around the bedroom, closed her suitcase, and walked out the door.
Chapter 22
Vicky and Angel had been home for about a week. She hadn’t talked to Jason since they’d been back. He’d made no attempt to contact her. Although, she and Angel had fallen back into their normal routine she missed Jason like crazy. He had changed her life. Her first day back to work that Monday was a little awkward. Everyone was curious as to what the CEO could possibly have wanted to talk to her about. Vicky stayed mum. She was so love sick that it was affecting her physically. She couldn’t eat and wasn’t sleeping much. Lately, she’d had a hard time keeping food down. She was so thankful that it was lunch time so she could go outside and get some
fresh air. Maybe that would be refreshing enough to get her through the rest of the day.
As Vicky was making her way to the elevators Sandy approached her “Can I speak with you for a moment?” Vicky had no idea what Sandy could possibly want. “Sure, I was just making my way down to the courtyard. Would you like to ride down with me?” Vicky nodded and they entered the elevator together. Whatever Sandy wanted to talk about she kept it to herself since they weren’t on the elevator alone. Once they made it to the courtyard Sandy started to speak “I’ve noticed you’ve been extremely distracted…” Vicky interrupted “I’m sorry Sandy, whatever I’ve done wrong if you just tell me I’ll fix it”. Sandy shook her head “No, no Vicky it’s nothing work-related. You can tell me it’s none of my business if I’m over stepping my bounds and I’ll butt out but I just want to help. You don’t know how much you helped me when I needed it and I would like to repay the favor. I don’t know all the facts but something obviously went down between you and Mr. Rutherford”. Vicky started to get tense. She did not want to have this conversation with Sandy or anybody for that matter. Sandy noticed how uncomfortable Vicky had become but decided to push ahead anyway. “Whatever happened between you two seems to be eating away at you. You’ve lost weight, it’s obvious you’re not sleeping because you have dark circles around your eyes, and you just look tired. What can I do to help?” Vicky blinked a couple of times before staring out into space. Sandy was starting to think she wasn’t going to answer her. Right when she was about to give up Vicky started talking, “I am a mess. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist for you to figure out that my boyfriend was Jason”. Sandy nodded “I didn’t know that he was the CEO when we started dating because I’d never seem him around here before. And why would I? I work in customer service and he’s the damn CEO. I guess now I understand why you got the call from Franklin.” Sandy nodded “So, why did you break-up?” Vicky looked exasperated “Didn’t you just hear me? He’s the C-E-O. We are from two different worlds. We’re just too different in so many other ways too. I don’t want to burden him with my life’s baggage.” Sandy put her hand on Vicky’s arm and forced her to look into her eyes “So, it sounds like you got scared and called it off”. Vicky’s eyes started to water she whispered “what was I suppose to do? I would embarrass him Sandy. I don’t even own designer knock offs and I’m terrible at small talk. People would see me as that stereotypical black woman: single-mom, without any education or family, and working a dead end job. No offense about the job part because I desperately need it to pay my bills. I’m not even going to talk about the fact that people like him don’t marry black”. Sandy gave her a sympathetic look “hmmm…so I understand now. You don’t think you’re good enough for him. Does he feel the same way?” Vicky closed her eyes “He says he doesn’t and maybe right now he doesn’t. But, we hadn’t really announced our dating status to anyone yet except his parents and a couple of his friends. That was a disaster. He would constantly have to defend my honor and our love. How he would feel later on is another story. Don’t you see Sandy…I couldn’t let him do it. His mother and father love him so much. I’ve never had that. I would not ever come between him and his family.” All of a sudden Vicky felt sick. She felt herself turning green. She put her hands over her mouth and ran to the nearest bathroom. Once inside she threw up what little she’d had on her stomach. Sandy was waiting for her when she came out of the stall with a cool napkin. “Are you feeling better?” Vicky nodded yes. “Vicky, I hate to ask you this but could you be pregnant?” That was something Vicky hadn’t even considered. It was definitely a possibility since the first time they made love they’d never used any protection. Oh my goodness, how could she have been so stupid. The gods would not do this to her “I don’t know Sandy but I guess it is possible”.
Out of Nowhere Page 8
