“I will,” I said confidently.
I called Jake.
“What do you want?” he demanded.
“Will she talk to me?” I asked.
“What makes you think she’s here?”
“C’mon, Jake, let’s not play games,” I insisted.
“Oh, now you want to not play games, huh?” he said sarcastically. “Guys like you, you really take the cake, you know that?”
“How’s that?”
“You got it all, Jack. Money, looks, a powerful position, and what do you do with it? Bang everything in a skirt. That’s what you do,” he scoffed. “Any idiot with a penis and confidence can do what you do. You slummed for years, and now you’ve finally met someone of good character, and you don’t know what to do!”
“I’m changing that.”
“Ha!”
“No, it’s true,” I vowed. “Sandra means everything to me. She changed me. That’s the truth. Look, I have a past. Everyone does. But I was honest with her. More honest than I’ve ever been with anyone.”
“She says one of your bimbos showed up at your front door!”
“She was an old girlfriend, of sorts, yes,” I admitted. “But she came back, and I sent her away. I’m not interested in her anymore, and I never asked her to show up.”
“I want to believe you, Jack, but she’s my cousin,” Jake said skeptically. “We have to keep our family members safe.”
“Look, you’d think I’d do this just for kicks? Just for the merger? I didn’t ask for this to happen, but I’m in love with Sandra. I want to spend the rest of my life with her,” I pleaded. “Jesus, Jake, can’t you see I’m pouring my heart out here? At least let me come up there and plead my case in person.”
“It’s really not my call,” said Jake. “Personally, I think you can come up here, but if Sandra isn’t comfortable with it. I won’t allow it.”
“That’s fair,” I agreed. “Just tell her… I just… I need to see her.”
“Give me a couple of days,” Jake advised. “I may have to slowly wind her into this.”
“I appreciate that, Jake.”
“Well, I was in love once,” he sighed. “Does terrible things to a man. Try to relax and don’t drink too much. You know how volatile these things are, you might need to be ready at a moment’s notice.”
“I’ll be ready. I swear,” I promised.
“And for God’s sake, get rid of all those…sex toys or whatever you have,” he advised.
“Way ahead of you,” I told him. “Cleaned out the room yesterday. It’s all gone.”
“The camera? The tapes?”
“It’s all gone,” I swore. “And for the record, I never taped anyone without permission. Including Sandra. Didn’t even suggest it.”
“Never understood that whole taping yourself thing,” scoffed Jake. “Why the hell would I want to see my own ass bouncing up and down? That’s not hot. Professional porn stars, at least they’re in shape.”
“I appreciate you doing this, Jake.”
“Don’t thank you me yet,” he said. “Sandra may still say no.”
Chapter Twenty-One – Sandra
Spending time at Jake’s house, I felt lost. New York City was unraveling, and each day, I worried about my friends and family in the city. Bella, as it turned out, had hooked up with a guy she had met while taking out the garbage. He lived in an apartment a few doors down. He was a neighbor we never met, but because they had both been cooped up because of the virus, they were an item now. Good for her. Unfortunately for me, she never had time to talk anymore.
“I’m sorry, babe,” Isabella apologized when I finally got her on the phone. “Manuel and I have been…busy.”
“I appreciate that, but my life is falling apart!”
“I know, I read the text, I’m sorry,” she apologized. “But did Jack really go back with his ex?”
“I don’t know! She showed up out of the blue at his place,” I cried.
“Well, that doesn’t mean anything,” she dismissed. “Women are psychos. We’ve all shown up at the house of an ex.”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Well, I have, and I was pissed,” she admitted. “But right now, I am mellow. Manuel is…gifted.”
“Please, can we talk about me first? I swear you can tell me all about Manuel’s cock later,” I promised. “I’m devastated.”
“Well, what did Jack say? Did he have an explanation?”
“I’m not going to talk with that…that, Cheater!” I exclaimed.
“You don’t even know if he’s a cheater,” she countered. “His girlfriend might not even be a girlfriend. She could be some psycho who tracked him down off a website. You talked about doing that once.”
“I wasn’t serious,” I said, recalling that I did. “It was more like I was just talking about it.”
“Look, Jack is a catch,” Isabella said. “Of course, there’s going to be competition for him. But you can’t just give up! You have to fight for him.”
“But he has so much sex,” I explained. “He had tapes.”
“Of you?”
“No, but of other women. A whole bunch.”