Jim looked at her and said, “I really don’t want you to go now, but if you have to, then please drive carefully. Text me and let me know you got home safely.”
Giving him another nod, she got in her car and put on her seat belt. Backing her car out of the driveway, she pulled onto the street and felt some of the tension in her chest ease.
Picking up her phone she dialed Sara’s phone.
On the third ring, Sara picked up and said, “Hey, Elle. What’s up?”
Trying to keep the quiver out of her voice, she asked, “Can I come over?”
“Yes. Of course you can. What’s wrong, honey?” Sara asked, alarm in her voice.
“I can’t talk about it now. I’m in Sherman Oaks. I’ll see you when I get there, okay?”
“Sure, sure. Drive careful, please.”
“Thanks. I will,” Elle said, disconnecting the call.
Talking to herself, she asked, “Seriously? She had to pick a dead, stray cat?”
Elle took a few calming breaths. Focusing on the freeway in front of her, she felt herself relax slightly. She needed to get it together. Stress like this wasn’t good for the baby.
A few minutes later she replayed the conversation in her mind and started to pick it apart. Her concern for Jim had seemed incredibly genuine but now that she wasn’t just emotionally reacting to her deepest fears being voiced aloud, she realized some of it didn’t ring entirely true.
Jim told her about the baby via e-mail. How would she have any idea about his feelings? Jim had described their relationship as “strained.” That she’d have a deep enough knowledge of her son’s feelings after less than a full day together with him seemed a little unlikely.
Patrice didn’t give Jim much credit either. She basically said that he had no self-control or discipline when it came to helping those that were “weaker” tha
n him. Ignoring the insult, she thought about Jim’s life. He was up at five each morning, working out. He worked sixty hours a week, and owned a hugely successful business. You really couldn’t do those things without having an overabundance of self-control.
She knew Jim physically wanted her. He was constantly touching her. Christ, he’d asked her to move in with him. He’d told her that he wanted to take care of her, but in that same conversation he’d also admitted that her self-reliance was a little bit intimidating. He didn’t see her as one of those “weak things” that he so liked to help.
Slamming her palm against her steering wheel as she headed toward Sara’s place, she realized Patrice had been trying to mess with her head and Elle had totally let her. What a manipulator!
Elle pulled into a spot down the street from Sara’s place and texted Jim, “I didn’t go home. I’m at Sara’s now. We definitely need to talk. Can I call you in a little while?”
“We do need to talk. Call me,” he responded back immediately.
Wincing, she got out of the car. He didn’t sound happy at all. Maybe he was pissed at her? At this point, she had no idea. How had things gotten so screwed up?
Elle rubbed a hand over her face as she buzzed Sara’s apartment.
Sara immediately buzzed her in. By the time she’d reached the thirteenth floor and gotten off the elevator, Sara stood in her open doorway waiting.
“What happened, honey?” Sara asked, appraising her.
“Jim’s mother happened, Sara. Get this, we’re in the kitchen and she starts off like we’re having this heart-to-heart talk about Jim. She proceeds to tell me a story about Jim wanting to take care of this stray cat when he was little. It got sick and died. She tells me that she’s not trying to be mean, but that I am the stray cat in this relationship.”
“What the fuck!” Sara shouted.
Holding up her hand, she said, “It gets better. She continues to tell me that he has this penchant for taking care of things that are weaker than him. She hopes that I won’t just let him settle for me because she feels like one day he could find someone he really loves.”
Sara stared at her, speechless for a minute and said, “Tell me you killed the poisonous bitch and we need to hide her body.”
“No,” Elle admitted. “I let her get into my head for a minute. She basically expressed every single one of my fears and confirmed them. I didn’t confront her about it. I just left in a hurry. Probably scared the shit out of Jim.”
“What a piece of work. How does Jim come from stock like that, I wonder.”
“His dad seems okay. Then again, until she went for the fucking jugular in the kitchen, I thought that about his mom too. Anyway, I realized in the car that she was screwing with my head. Even if he doesn’t love me, at the very least he wants to be with me.”