42 Hours (Time for Love 3)

Chapter 1 – Scott

“Maria, have you heard anything back from Mr. Brandt on tomorrow’s meeting?” I asked my secretary through the speakerphone.

“No, sir,” she responded clearly. “Just the initial correspondence that said to expect one.”

“Alright,” I said as I logged off my computer. “Just shoot me a text if anything changes. I’m going to head out for the night.”

“Yes, sir,” she replied before disconnecting.

I stood up and grasped my suit coat off the back of the chair, taking one last look at my calendar as I put it on and buttoned the front. I should be staying at work and making sure I was ready for my impromptu meeting with the boss tomorrow, but Gaby said we were having an emergency gathering of our friends at Cal and Shelly’s, and I’d promised her I’d be there.

I didn’t know what it was about, but if my friends needed me, nothing would stop me from being there for them, not even my job. I could only hope everything was okay with Shelly and the baby.

As I rode the elevator down the sixteen-story office building in the center of town, I assured myself that Gaby would have told me if it was something truly serious. She was too kind-hearted to make me walk into something devastating without a warning.

I slid behind the wheel of my new BMW 7 Series, black on black. My lips stretched wide in a grin as that new car smell hit me. I’d wanted a new car for years, and had saved diligently, but hadn’t had enough to get the kind of car I really wanted. Then, just a few weeks ago, I’d been promoted and given a raise that made my dream become a reality.

I thought back to the day that Mr. Brandt had called me into his office and told me that he wanted me to be the Director of Operations, because the last guy had failed to meet his expectations. I’d been floored. It was everything I’d been working for since I’d begun interning during college; I’d just never imagined I’d get the opportunity so soon. Brandt Industries was the leading supplier of medical equipment and supplies in the region.

I locked up the beamer and jogged up the stairs as I looked at my watch. I was about fifteen minutes late, and I hoped I hadn’t kept everyone waiting.

I opened the door and called out. I knew everyone was supposed to be there, so Cal and Shelly shouldn’t be off getting busy, but you never could be too careful.

“In the living room!” Cal yelled out.

I barely registered the fact that his voice sounded off before I turned the corner and found everyone sitting in the living room. All eyes were on me as I rounded the corner. I stopped abruptly as a feeling of unease came over me at the expression on their faces.

Gaby and Shelly looked sad, Sasha looked nervous, and Cal and TJ just looked uncomfortable.

“What’s up?” I asked nervously as their eyes bore into me.

Gaby stood up and walked slowly toward me, her long gray skirt swishing around her legs, and the bracelets on her arms clinking together as she moved. Her long blonde hair was loose and flowed around her shoulders. She wasn’t wearing any makeup, and her expression was somber, but she looked as beautiful as ever.

She held her hand out to me, and when I took it, she led me toward an overstuffed chair and indicated that I should sit, before going back to her place next to Sasha on the couch and facing me once more. “Scott,” she began in her soft, sweet voice, “we’re all here today because we love you.”

My head swiveled as I took them all in, curious, but unsure of what Gaby was doing.

“Scott.” She took a deep breath in, then let it out slowly before she said, “This is an intervention. We’ve tried talking to you individually, letting you know our concerns, and although it looked like you were on the right path for a while, for some reason, you took a U-turn and headed right back down the wrong road.”

My eyes scrunched up and my head began to pound as I tried to decipher what she was saying. “What the hell are you talking about, Gaby? U-turns and wrong paths … Just say what you mean.”

“Victoria, Scott,” Cal piped in. “She’s talking about your relationship with Victoria.”

I closed my eyes briefly as blood rushed to my head.

“You can’t marry her, Scott,” I heard Gaby say quietly from my right.

I opened my eyes again and looked Cal in the eye.

“We’ve already discussed this,” I said between clenched teeth.

“Yeah.” Cal ran his hands through his hair, indicating his frustration. “We did talk about it, and

you said that you were going to break it off with her … Then, out of nowhere, the wedding was back on. What the hell, Scott?”

“You know she’s wrong for you, brother,” TJ said, his hand clasping Sasha’s in his, as if he was her anchor.

“We want you to be happy, Scott, and you know as well as we do, that she will only make you miserable,” Sasha added, twisting the knife that my friends had metaphorically placed in my gut.

“Look,” I began, trying to keep control of my anger. “I know there is no love lost between you guys and Victoria, but you don’t know her the way I do.”

“Are you saying behind closed doors she’s a sweet, caring, and giving woman?” Shelly asked, her eyes sad as she rested her head on Cal’s shoulder. “Because that’s what you deserve.”

I didn’t respond to that. No, they knew as well as I did that Victoria didn’t care for anything as much as she cared for herself, but I was so deep into this relationship, I didn’t know how to get out of it without hurting her, and my mother, in the process.

“I get what you guys are saying,” I admitted. “And, yes, I did try to call off the wedding at one point, but Victoria was devastated, you guys. She cried and begged me to take her back. She promised to be a wonderful wife, and to try harder to get along with you guys.”

“I’m sure she was upset, Scott, and I’m sorry for that,” Gaby said, pulling my attention back to her. “But Victoria isn’t our concern … you are. If you stay with her, you will end up in a cold and loveless marriage, just like your parents had. Is that the way you want to live? Is that how you want to raise children?”

“You told TJ and I, at your house the night we were playing cards, that you were having second thoughts about marrying her. You asked us to ‘tell you the truth before you ruined your fucking life’ … Well, we’re telling you now, Scott,” Cal pleaded. He stood up and walked toward me, laying his hand on my shoulder and looking me dead in the eyes. “We’re begging you … Don’t do it.”

I closed my eyes and stood, unable to look into the faces of the most important people in my life. “I have to go.”

“Scott,” Gaby pleaded, coming toward me.

“Gaby.” I looked down into her worried eyes. “I hear you, okay? I hear you all.” I looked each of them in the eye before turning on my heel. “I have to think,” I said over my shoulder as I hurried back out the way that I’d come. I tried to avoid their gazes, but the look on Gaby’s face was imprinted on my mind, and as I started up my car and pulled away, I couldn’t shake the image.

“Fuck!” I screamed out in my empty car.

I meant what I said, I heard them. Loud and clear … And I knew they were right, but I was a coward. A total fucking coward. I hated the thought of dealing with the confrontation that I would face if I told Victoria the wedding was off … Again. She’d flipped on me last time, and deep down, I knew that she knew exactly what she was doing. Victoria was just like my mother, a master manipulator, and she knew how to push my buttons. She’d known that I would cave at the sight of her tears.

I’d been trying to convince myself the marriage would be fine, that she would be the perfect wife for me, and the position that I held, and maybe we’d even be happy, but I knew my friends were right. I was just fooling myself. Victoria was exactly like my mother, and my mother was one of my least favorite people in the world.

I was going to have to man up.

It would be better to end it now, before we were legally bound together, than to live miserably.

What Gaby said about raising kids cemented it for me. I didn’t want my kids to be raised in an environment similar to the one I’d been raised in. I wanted my family home to be like Cal’s parents. I’d always loved going there as a kid, and I still did. It was obvious that his parents loved each other, and their children. That’s the life I wanted.