“What is going on, Stace,” I said sullenly. “Is that I am so very fucked.”
Chapter 6
Zayden
My last encounter with Aria had not been nearly as satisfying as I would have thought. Giving her what she wants did not make me feel the slightest bit better, but rather it made me feel weak; an emotion I had never been able to identify with in my whole life. She had sent me an email afterwards, which I unconsciously chose to ignore. Who cared if she felt guilty about my mother? She hadn’t exactly given me the opportunity to explain myself. I couldn’t help but take this time to make her as anxious and vulnerable as she had made me feel. I fully intended to make the payment to her mother’s hospital, but she didn’t need to know that yet. For another couple of days she could go on without knowing whether I was going to do it or not.
Meanwhile, I had my mom and Gina to deal with, and I figured I would start with Gina, who to her credit hadn’t told my mother anything. Perhaps for the same fear I had that she would react in a perfectly irrational manner. And I had come to believe that regardless of the fact that she was a royal pain in the ass, she really did care about my mother.
I had invited her over for breakfast at one of her favorite restaurants, so that the angry phone call wasn’t the last she heard of me. Subtlety was the secret to making sure this ordeal went smoothly from all directions, not that I had definitively decided that I was going to end it.
She arrived about ten minutes late, looking as though she had been crying. Her eyes were puffy even underneath the multiple layers of makeup, and I felt slightly uncomfortable. Oh well. As long as she didn’t start crying in front of me, it wasn’t my problem.
“Hello,” Gina said, sitting across from me. “I am sorry I’m late, I just–”
“It’s okay,” I said and waved my arm nonchalantly. “Not important. Thank you for coming here, especially after that phone call.”
“Yeah, that phone call, it was really something,” she said and attempted a meek smile. “I have been spending the last few days half hoping you were joking.”
“I wasn’t,” I said and frowned. “For what it’s worth, your deal really did sound tempting and I was seriously considering it. But then you came into my office the other day and put on a show, which I am still paying for.”
“What do you mean?” She looked genuinely surprised. “I wasn’t putting on a show. I was in the area and came by to say hello. I thought we were friends and that was acceptable.”
“We’re not friends, we never were. You know full well why you were there that day, and so do I so let’s skip all the pretenses, shall we?”
There was a long silence, during which Gina pretended to be surveying the menu intensely. When she eventually looked up to meet my eye, she said in a barely audible whisper, “I thought there wasn’t anyone else.”
“I thought you didn’t know what I was talking about,” I snapped.
“Look, I did not come in there with the intention of ruining things for you and whoever this girl is. I was, however, curious to find out if there was anyone at all. Because despite of what deal I tried to make with you, I guess some part of me wanted to believe that we could be a real couple one day, which would be impossible if your heart was someplace else.”
“Why? Why do you even care, Gina? You never loved me, by your own admission. And you know what, maybe I would have agreed to whatever you had to say, if I had gotten the chance to explain it to Ar – the girl – before she saw it the way she did. That made the decision for me. You kind of brought this onto yourself, you know?”
She started tearing up upon hearing those words. “Yep, which is why I have spent extra time bawling my eyes out the last few days. I figured it was something like that. But like I said, I wasn’t putting on a show for her, I was just testing to see if you were lying about there not being anyone else.”
“And you caught me, hoorah!” I said angrily. “Hope it was worth it.”
She was openly crying, which made me want to just walk out of the restaurant and never see her again. But I had to be careful, if I wanted my mother on my side.
“Look, I am sorry, Gina. Mostly because for once in our lives you were being honest with me when you proposed that deal. It was a refreshing change to see you so candid. But I am afraid, it can’t work out. I know you need money–”
“More… than… you…realize…” She sniffed tearfully. “I’m losing my house. It was the only thing my parents left for me and it’s getting foreclosed on, and I thought maybe if we could strike up a deal, I could save it and in return you get peace from you
r mom. And perhaps when she, you know, passed on, we could go our separate ways and we would both have gotten something out of it.”
“Why didn’t you just say that from the beginning?” I said, a brilliant plan finally playing out in my mind. This was going to be much simpler than I had thought; in fact, I was disappointed in myself for not thinking of this sooner. It was the perfect solution and I felt a surge of relief spread across my whole body as I spoke again, “I will make you a deal. Another one, but I think you will be quite pleased.”
After explaining to her that I would pay for her house if she signed the divorce papers, she looked considerably cheerful, and was almost too eager to accept.
“Thank you, Zayden! You are actually a pretty good guy, you know?” She said, wiping her face with the napkin on the table.
“No need to fawn all over me, I am doing this because I have something to gain from it as well. Pull something like you did in my office the other day again – or do anything at all to upset me and the deal is off.”
“I won’t! I will be gone forever, Zay, if that is what you want.”
After another few minutes of hearing the needless words of gratitude, I paid the check and got up to leave.
“Just one question, Zayden, before you leave,” Gina said right as I was inching towards the door. “And it is personal so don’t feel obligated to answer. I am just really curious because I have known you for so long, but I have never seen you do so much for just a girl.”