Mixed, p.11
Mixed, page 11
part #2 of Breaking Free Series
"Us having sex doesn't mean anything to you?"
"I didn't say it didn't, but you sure haven't been acting like it mattered. Since I pretended to be your girlfriend at that wedding, you only seem to want to pull the girlfriend card when your ex is around. I’ve come into this bar how many times over the past weeks and you haven’t made a single move on me." Her hands were firmly planted on her hips and she tapped her foot.
"That's not true. I thought you were trying to play things cool," he said, on the defensive.
"I wasn’t. I was trying to show you I was interested, but obviously, you’re not interested in me beyond that one night together. Maybe Cheryl's right. Maybe you are still in love with her," she accused. His head snapped back as if he'd been struck.
"I wouldn't go anywhere near that woman."
"Maybe not, but you sure as hell aren't ready to be in a relationship with another one—namely me. To think that you can make demands about who I can and can't be around or see or touch is craziness, Mark. I don't need another man in my life trying to tell me what I can and can't do."
"Jen, listen—"
"No, you listen. Maybe you aren't ready for a relationship yet with the divorce over and the stuff happening with The Bramble. Maybe you don't still have feelings for your ex, but you’ve been trying to keep me at a distance since we slept together. Twice that night, I might add." He attempted to interrupt, but she held her hand up. “You don’t think I’m busy and worried about being in a relationship? Have you thought that maybe me being here is screwing with things in my professional life, but I like being around you, so I do what I need to do to see you?”
"Jen, I care about you."
"You say that, Mark, but you can't even say we're dating or that I'm your girlfriend. And I'm not going to have you pull this jealous boyfriend stuff without even being my boyfriend."
She studied him for a moment while he searched desperately for something to say. She shook her head. "You know what, Mark? I don't have to be around here while you figure your shit out. So, until you do, I'll see you later."
Before he could figure out how things had gone so wrong so quickly, she stormed out of his office and down the stairs. He stood there frozen for a long time. Had she really walked out on him? He’d acted on instinct when he saw her with that guy at the bar. Cheryl hadn't exactly been the most faithful wife.
There had been signs throughout their relationship, but he had been blind to them all, never wanting to admit what he saw. Even his friends tried to tell him. Hell, Rox hadn't even come to the wedding, she was so pissed that he married Cheryl. But his response was a kneejerk reaction because he saw the woman that he loved flirting with another guy.
Loved. Did he love Jen?
It seemed so plain now to see that he did love her, but he didn't know if he could get over what happened between him and Cheryl and let her in. His parents had been the perfect picture of a loving relationship. The failure for not being able to make things work with Cheryl sat heavily on him for a long time.
He'd spent so much time trying to find the perfect relationship, that he'd never taken the time to look for someone who would be a match for him. And now he'd screwed things up with the woman who was perfect for him. Maybe it was better to leave things where they were before they fell apart. Was he being blinded again when it came to Jen? Was the love real or was it just another projection of what he wished he could have?
18
Jen slammed the door to her apartment and threw her bag on the couch. Stalking to the kitchen, she pulled out a glass and grabbed a pitcher of water from the fridge. Drinking it down, she slammed the glass down on the counter and paced. Who the hell did he think he was? How dare he act like that?
She’d been practically throwing herself at him for the past few weeks. Always showing up at the bar, but Mark never made a move. She was always given free drink and food, but she felt like she was more of a friend than anything else. He’d never given any inclination that their night together after the wedding would turn into something more. She’d hoped that it would and that he was just being weird around her because of everything going on, so she’d thought that maybe he needed more time. Then tonight—out of the blue—he lost it like that.
She’d been caught completely off guard, thinking that she’d been sequestered firmly into the friend zone. At least the friend zone came with really good food and drinks, but now she was thinking he had more things he needed to work out. Did she want to wait around for him to try to fix that?
The fight with him was a mess. She didn’t know how much longer she would be able to deal with his back and forth. It seemed like whenever they started to make progress and he got more comfortable, he’d freak out and back off. Every night she’d been in the bar, he would make time for her. It was like she was the only person there. But then he was right there, seeing her out of the bar night after night without making a move. It seemed like he was still stuck in a holding pattern when it came to Cheryl or at the very least afraid to get into something new.
It had been over a year since the divorce. She was sure that Cheryl had done a number on him, but she couldn’t keep being pulled to him even though he kept pushing her back. While she’d never been married, let alone divorced, she knew what it was like to be with someone who couldn’t give you their love freely. Holding onto someone who couldn’t show her his true feelings wasn’t good for her, so maybe she needed to move on or at least back off. Sitting at her desk after a sleepless night, she felt like she was going to pass out at any minute.
And dealing with the fallout from Alex and Gabe wasn’t helping things at all. She’d been receiving email alerts from at least a dozen news sources over the last twelve hours notifying her of stories about Alex and Gabe Stevens, the movie-star father of Alex’s daughter, Emma. As much as her friend wanted to keep things low-key, that wasn’t going to happen. When you’re involved with someone as famous as Gabe, things don’t stay quiet for long. The ugly tabloid stories coming out of the UK about Alex worried her.
She’d known that Gabe’s soon-to-be-former manager was an ass, but he took it to a whole new level. He’d hidden the fact that Gabe even had a child, and since his client had accidentally found out about Emma and made contact with her, the sleazebag agent had gone public, trying to salvage his career. He’d called Alex a gold-digger and made up stories that were outright lies.
Jen had been there for Alex in the beginning when things were really rough. She’d seen how hard it was for Alex, raising Emma alone, so the current situation really pissed her off. Alex tried everything she could to try to get in touch with Gabe, including sending him letters and pictures of Emma over the years—letters that Jen had copies of tucked away in her files at home.
Alex made sure there were copies and records of everything for Emma when she was older, so that she knew that her mother tried to contact her father. Come to find out, Gabe’s manager had hidden all of the correspondence in a filing cabinet, never telling Gabe about them. Talk about a mind blower for Gabe, and then for Alex when he showed up on her doorstep after more than six years of silence. What a mess!
She’d sent about twenty messages to Alex last night, warning her about the tabloid stories. Now that she thought about it, she almost wished she’d have just kept her mouth shut and hoped that Alex missed it, but when it came to Gabe, there were very few things that people let fly under the radar, and she felt that her friend needed to be prepared.
A voice from outside her office pulled her from her thoughts. “The Gabe Stevens meeting is tomorrow. It looks like his previous contract is a lock. Not sure what can be done about it.” Chad’s voice filtered into her office from where he stopped in the hallway. Jen shot out of her chair.
“Did you say something about Gabe Stevens?” she nearly shouted. Chad and the other associate were startled at her sudden appearance.
“Were you listening in on my conversation?”
“You’re standing in the middle of the hallway, taking loud enough for everyone to hear. I’m not listening in on anything. What did you say about Gabe Stevens?” she repeated.
“He wants to change representation, but the previous contract he has with his old company is ironclad. So, it looks like he won’t be able to get out of it. We’ve considered a few things, but don’t have any other options.”
“May I see the file?” She held out her hand for the file in Chad’s hand.
“There’s nothing you’ll be able to come up with, Jen.”
“I didn’t say I would. I just want to see the file.” She held out her hand, tapping her foot.
“You can take on his dumpster fire, if you want.” He thrust the file into her hand. She grabbed it and walked off into her office without saying anything else to them. Surprised the new talent management firm brought in outside lawyers, they must have been having a harder time of the case than expected. She started flipping through everything and saw the note on the file that the meeting started in under an hour. If she couldn’t sort out her life, at least she could make sure that Alex’s didn’t get any more complicated.
Jen hustled over to the management agency building. The meeting would be starting any minute and she was already running late. She had all her files and was ready to go. She’d read over both the contract with Gabe’s soon-to-be-former talent management agency and the proposed new one. Tucked away in her folder was her trump card for all the crap that his former manager would try to rain down on him: the letters that Alex had sent to Gabe every year about his daughter. Those years had been stolen, not only from him, but from their daughter.
She hadn’t talked to Alex since the tabloid stories had come out, but she knew that her friend was upset. Whatever happened with the two of them was a mess, much like her own life, but in this situation, she knew what she needed to do. She could get him out of his old contract by playing hard ball and making sure that he didn’t make the same mistake she made of pushing away the people she loved out of fear or anger. She didn’t know if she would be strong enough to do it with Mark, but she hoped for Alex’s and Emma’s sake that Gabe was stronger than she was.
She swept into the conference room with confidence, then used every trick that she knew against Aaron and the old management agency to make sure that Gabe had a chance to get out of the terrible contract he was in. She’d been wary of Gabe’s reappearance in Alex’s life and even more skeptical about his claim that he hadn’t known about his daughter, but once she met Aaron, it all made sense. He was a slimy, despicable little prick. She could see how Gabe had been railroaded into the contract back when he hadn’t known anything about the film industry, and her blood boiled at how Aaron leeched off him to make a name for himself.
She wouldn’t let him profit off the pain and misery he’d sowed in the lives of the two most important people in her life, Alex and Emma. She’d pushed her way into that boardroom ready to do battle. Armed with all the case files and her personal arsenal of documents that Alex entrusted her with, Jen was ready to take this case on like no one else would. She’d make that little weasel rue the day he ever thought of trying to mess with her friend.
“Jennifer, that was impressive work back there.” She turned at the accolades from the senior management agency partner. “You were able to do what even our own in-house lawyers weren’t able to do. Get us out of that contract without a messy battle.”
“I did have a particular connection to this case, which made me especially suited to getting things done as cleanly as possibly.”
“That may be, but it was still impressive. We look forward to working with you more in the future,” he said, holding out his hand and shaking hers.
She walked to the elevator, giddy that she’d been able to make at least a small part of Gabe’s and Alex’s lives easier. She only hoped he’d be able to convince Alex to take the leap with him and give them a real try.
She still didn’t know what to do about Mark. Every time things were going well, he would do something else to push her away. Knowing she wasn’t much better when it came to being bold in the face of a commitment, maybe it was better if they weren’t together. Maybe that was her lot in life: being a successful lawyer who sketched things every so often and was alone. Maybe she should get a cat …
19
Jen hesitated at the doorway to the classroom, her pad under her arm and her bag on her shoulder. It wasn’t a human model class, but a free sketch. She didn’t know why she hadn’t just done it in her living room. It wasn’t like she didn’t have all the supplies there, but it was nice to get out of the apartment and get professional advice about how she could improve.
She finally had some time to sketch, but wasn’t sure if Keira’s class would be the best place right now. With everything that had gone down between her and Mark, she didn’t know if she would even allow her into the class. She hoped it wouldn’t be too awkward. With any luck, there would be so many people in the class that Keira might not even get around to seeing what Jen painted. Taking a deep breath, she pushed her way into the classroom. She wasn’t late, she was early, so there weren’t any other students there yet.
She started to set up her things on one of the easels. They would be painting today with acrylics. She got out her supplies and set them up on the table. The classroom door was flung open and Keira came barging in. She stopped short when she saw Jen.
“Oh, Jen. I didn’t expect anyone. I was coming to put away the easels. No one else signed up, so I cancelled for today.”
Her heart dropped. She was looking forward to getting out of the apartment to do some painting outside today.
“It’s okay. I can just head back home.” She reached for all the items she had already unpacked. Keira came up next to her and placed her hand on top of hers.
“Don’t go. It’s fine. I have the room reserved for today anyway. My studio is across town and I didn’t feel like going there, so I was going to paint here. We can paint together for a bit if you’re okay with that.” She gave her a small smile and hefted her own bag off her shoulder.
“Sure, that would be fine. Thanks.”
“No problem.” The both unpacked in companionable silence and prepared their canvases and paint. She had just made the first stroke with her brush when Keira cleared her throat.
“Do you think that you might want to show some of your pieces in a show we have coming up?”
“My pieces? Really? I haven’t ever shown them anywhere,” she said, uneasy as she went back to her canvas.
“Even better. We’ll be the first ones to be able to display any of your work.” Keira peered over her canvas at Jen. “I know you don’t think so, but you really do have a gift. You have a lot of talent. It’s still raw, but better than 99% of the people out there. I can only imagine what you could do if you had some time to develop it even more.”
“Time is certainly something I don’t have much of these days.”
“I’m sure. Mark told me all about the crazy hours you’ve been working lately.”
“Yeah,” Jen replied, noncommittally, feeling that sharp pang at the mention of his name. She’d been happy to pretend none of it had happened for the past hour.
“I heard about what happened with you and Mark.”
Jen knew that once she started painting, she wouldn’t be able to pack it up and go, so she just hung her head and continued to paint. “What exactly did you hear?”
“I heard that he acted like a complete and total jackass and went all Tarzan on you.”
“It was something like that.” Her brush dragged across the canvas as the outline of her work began to take shape.
“He didn’t send me to say this or anything, but I’m sure he’s sorry about what happened. He’s not usually that kind of guy, but when it comes to anything he perceives as cheating, he can freak out a little bit.”
“It wasn’t anything even remotely near cheating. A guy tried to brush something out of my hair. Before I could tell him to get the hell off me, Mark was there freaking out on the both of us. I wasn’t doing anything wrong and he stepped in before I could take care of the situation on my own.”
“I’m sure you would have. It’s just with the whole Cheryl thing, he can overreact to anything he even perceives as a threat to cheat. She did a number on him and he’s still working on it. I know it’s no excuse for his behavior, but I wanted you to know where he was coming from.”
“It wasn’t even that part of it that pissed me off. I mean who doesn’t want a guy who goes just a bit crazy that someone’s hitting on them? It’s the fact that he still refuses to call me his girlfriend or even say we’re in a relationship. I thought the whole fake-girlfriend thing from the wedding might spill into something more. Then we were hanging out a lot more, but every time we get close to defining just what we are, he backs off.”
Keira shook her head, resigned. “Also a side effect of Cheryl. He’s afraid to dive in officially. It’s scary to him and he’s worried about making the same mistakes again.”
Jen attacked the canvas now, mixing her black and white to give her various shades of grey and throwing up the paint as quickly as she could. Using new brushes rather than cleaning off the old ones, she was quickly creating a pile of artistic debris all around her.
“It seems like he’s still pretty caught up in the whole Cheryl thing and what happened with her,” she said, stabbing at the canvas, not pausing for a second as she poured all of her frustration onto her canvas. She wasn’t even paying attention to what she painted, but every line of it came to her rapid fire and she had to get them down.
“You’re not wrong,” Keira said, shrugging. She picked up some blue on her brush and went back to work on the painting. They painted in silence for a while, the room silent except for the sound of the brushes sweeping over the canvas. Both worked at a furious pace, unable to contain whatever it was that they were creating.
