"So, it was Mark?"
"Does it matter?" I ask expectantly. I don't want Mark to tarnish this for me. I finally feel as though I can see a future and I desperately want to leave the past where it belongs.
"It will always matter until you're free of him." Jax shifts his body away from me so he's staring out the car window now. "Are you going to call him back?"
My stomach tightens at the question. "No."
"Is the apartment the only thing tying you to him?" his voice is anxious.
"There's more." I grit my teeth together as I say it anticipating his reaction.
"More?" he repeats as he circles back around so he's completely facing me. "Like what?"
"I actually wanted to talk to you about it." I run my hand through my hair. It's fallen everywhere now and I expected to have this conversation looking more like a business woman than someone Jax just fucked.
He sits in silence, an expectant look on his face.
"Mark, well… when we split…you know after he cheated…" my voice trails as the car comes to a stop.
"Sorry for the interruption, Mr. Walker, but we're here." Leonard jumps from his seat to exit the car.
"We'll continue this in my office." Jax says as he takes a step out of the car. He walks ahead of me as I struggle to tactfully exit the car having left my panties back at the Chelsea apartment.
The elevator is at full capacity as we ride in silence to the seventh floor. I follow him to his office, only stopping to wave briefly at Teresa. I make a mental note to send her those earrings I promised as Jax closes his office door behind me.
"Sit, Ivy." He motions towards a leather couch. He takes a seat behind his desk.
"Are you angry with me?" I stand in front of the desk, my hands nervously fidgeting with the leather strap of my purse.
"Angry?" He finally makes eye contact with me. "Why would you ask that?"
"You changed in the car." I search for the right words before continuing, "I know you don't like Mark and what he did to me."
"You're right." He flips through the messages on his desk before opening his drawer to remove a pad of paper and a pen. "He's an asshole who hurt you. I can't stand him."
I move to sit on the couch and take a deep breath. "I don't really like talking about him."
"We need to." He pushes his suit jacket off before moving to sit next to me. He brings the pen and pad of paper with him.
"Are you taking notes?" I try to lighten the mood but his expression doesn’t change.
"Perhaps." He studies my face before he speaks again. "Tell me about your ties with Mark."
"Okay." I place my purse on my lap and adjust my necklace. I take a deep breath and look directly at him. He's looking past me to a bookcase in the corner. I've come to recognize his aloofness as a tactic he uses when coping with uncomfortable situations.
"Mark and you?" he prompts me again.
"When Mark cheated and we separated we didn't involve any lawyers." I spit it out.
"That was unwise." The pen in his hand gets to work jotting something down on the paper.
"I'm sure it was." I try not to feel offended by how impersonal he's acting. "Mark offered to give me something to help I guess or maybe to quiet me, I'm not sure."
"Quiet you?" his eyes jump from the paper to my face. "In what way?"
"We were always on the society page for being at this party or that party. The Post ran a story on our impending wedding. When news broke that we weren't together, the media was asking a lot of questions."
"So he bought your silence?" He shifts his body away from me.