Jasmine responded to Julian by screaming in my ear. “I’ll show you batshit. You’re on my side. My SIDE!”
“You’re right, I’m on your side.” Seconds later, Julian’s voice was on the line. “Hey, man!”
“What in the hell have you gotten yourself into,” I muttered as Jasmine’s voice rang out.
“I heard that you Australian asshole!”
“It’s South African,” Julian corrected. I chuckled as the phone was dropped, another grunt sounded and then Jasmine came on the line breathless.
“You don’t deserve her.”
“I know. But I love her, and I swear to God, I’ll do everything I can to make it right.”
“It’s probably already too late.”
“What do you mean?”
“She went back to New York. Ian… you really fucked up.”
“Too late for what?”
“Her parents own a Fifth Avenue apartment. I’ll text Steven the address, and that’s all you’re getting from me.”
“Fair enough. Thank you. Out of curiosity, what’s the situation with this guy, Steven?”
Steven opened one of his eyes across from me and sat up as if I’d thrown him a bone.
“He’s just as screwed as you for the moment.”
I chuckled again. “That bad, huh?”
“Tell her I’m coming to get her,” Steven spoke up.
“Tell him I’m being taken care of,” she shouted back. “Good luck, Ian, you’re going to need it.”
“Jasmine, I know you’re pissed, but before you go, will you just tell me if she’s okay?”
“She got her heart shattered by an asshole who knew better, is about to have her home destroyed by an act of nature, and is currently living with her mother, what do you think?”
“Jasmine, please tell me what I might be too late for?”
The line went dead, and I cringed in my seat.
Steven let out a sigh. “She’s gotten a lot tougher since I left.” I recognized a bit of a southern drawl as he spoke.
“Left? You’re the ex-fiancé who left her in St. Thomas?”
“Yep,” he said, rolling a tumbler of whiskey in his fingers. “Biggest mistake of my life.”
“Why did you do it?”
“I had my reasons. None were good enough, hence the penance she’s making me pay. I know she’s with someone else right now. I’m biding my time and sooner or later she’s going to have to hear me out.”
“So, she’s taking her revenge by making you board her friend’s house?”
“Amongst other things,” he said dryly. “It was my pleasure to do it. I’m not the total bastard she paints me to be.”
“I’m afraid I may be the bastard she’s accused me of being,” I said, taking his whiskey and tossing it back. “My apologies. I think I needed it more than you.”
He motioned for the attendant. “Don’t worry about it, man. Plenty where that came from.”
I looked down at the islands as they slowly disappeared from view and briefly wondered how the sight of it would change when I returned.
“So where can I drop you?”
“As close to Fifth Avenue in New York City as possible.”
Steven grinned. “Looks like today’s your lucky day.”
I watched the expansive darkening sea fade as we drifted through the sky. “Hope so.”
Dark clouds laced the sky as I walked toward Fifth Avenue, my thoughts as muddled as the sounds of the bustling city. We’d had a layover in Atlanta for a day and a half due to a string of storms from the approaching hurricane. I spent the night in one of Steven’s mansions. Jasmine, in her wine-induced tale of woe months ago in St. Thomas, had failed to mention that Steven owned half of the media in the southeast. I liked him well enough and he’d been kind to lend me the use of his plane to get to New York. Despite that, Julian had my loyalty. I couldn’t fault Jasmine for her indecision. Steven had a certain likability. Julian, if he had real feelings for Jasmine, was in for a fight.
Racing thoughts multiplied as Jasmine’s words had me panicking.
Too late?
For what?
Had she found someone else?
And how long had she been in New York?
I couldn’t breathe, and maybe that agony was the penance I deserved, still, the idea of seeing her had my flesh burning. Needing her wasn’t the plan all those months ago, but each of my steps was purposeful, a way back to the truth of the fact that I did. I needed her. And she had to know that I was half a man without her. I had nothing rehearsed, no great speech planned of what a screw up I was to think we could treat our time together as a fling, that it hadn’t changed my life, my dreams, me.
All thoughts slipped away as I saw her exit the building feet away from me. My wind knocked out from the mere sight of her, I scoured her from head to heels. She was dressed in a sleek black power suit, a curtain of long blonde hair shielding her face. The wind graced me by pushing it away so I could get a glimpse of her. She was painted perfectly, her eyes lined with black, her lips colored in deep red. My whole body spiked in awareness as she surveyed the street in front of her, stunning me motionless. Her head held high, she was the perfect picture of a Park Avenue princess. I’d never seen her in more than a smile and a bikini, and although it was my preference, for a moment, I was a bit intimidated by how incredible she looked. She glanced in my direction not seeing me before slipping into a waiting town car.
“Koti!” I chased after her as the car began to pull away. Months, I’d waited months to try to mend the gap between us. Fear of every color clouded my vision as did jealousy I didn’t have the right to feel. Rain started to pour from the sky as all of my hopes began to fade.
What if her heart was no longer mine?
My veins screamed at the idea as I spit out the threatening defeat. There was no greater pain in life than losing love. Koti’s own brand of affection had smashed through the brick and mortar of my resurrected heart. Rights be damned. I wanted her, she belonged to me and I to her, so much so my soul bled in that street streamlining in her direction. I managed to hail a cab just as her town car passed me.
“Follow that car, please.”
The cabbie gave me a disbelieving grin in the rearview. “Are you fucking serious, man?”
I pushed my drenched hair away from my eyes. “I’ll give you every fucking dollar in my wallet, man. Follow it!”
Taking off like a shot, I sat back in the cab as the sight of her swam in my head. Absolutely nothing about her appearance resembled the woman I fell so much in love with.
Was I too late? No, it could never be too late, no matter what the case and I was desperate enough to breach anything between us. Repaying the favor, no matter what it took, I would break down every wall she built, even if I helped to resurrect them. I would never love another woman, of that I was certain. My fate was in her hands and I would make it known. We had something time and geography couldn’t touch. Regardless of my mindset, fear scorched me everywhere making me nauseous. Seconds after the cabbie pulled up behind the town car, Koti dashed into the building as I looked up at the sign in bold letters next to the front door. C. Zanders-OBGYN.
“Hey man, is this your stop or what?”
All the blood left my face as I stared after her.
Too late?
I shoved all the promised cash into the cabbie’s glove covered hand as blood filled my ears and my heart slammed against my chest.
Confused thoughts multiplied while I caught the door and held it for a woman with a stroller. She thanked me as I waited for her to move past before I rushed down the corridor. I stopped in the lobby searching for the floor. After a trip in the elevator, I stopped outside the office door and tried to collect myself.
Was she pregnant? Half of me boiled in thoughts of betrayal at the fact that she’d hidden it from me while the other half of me begged that was the truth of it. Jasmine had been cruel with her warning and maybe I deserved the state I was in, but I couldn’t let it last a minute longer. The waiting receptionist gave me a kind smile.
“I’m here to meet Koti Vaughn. She has an appointment today.”
“And you are?”
“Her husband?”
“Is that a question?”
I cleared my throat. “No, I’m her husband.”