Stilettos & Scoundrels (5 page)

“Forget him. When are you leaving for Alkon? You should do this, just go. I mean why not?”

“I was planning on leaving tomorrow morning. I just need to throw a few things in a bag
,
and it’ll only take me a couple of hours to get there since I would be going against traffic coming into the city. The interview is already scheduled for Saturday. I can hang out for the weekend and visit my parents. Maybe stay a few extra days since I can write the article from anywhere. Well, at least stay until I get bored or my mother drives me insane.”

“Have fun and call me when you get back so I can keep you posted on all the office gossip.”

I
got off the phone with Tonya and found the will
power to
walk away from the ice cream in my
freezer. It was freezer burnt anyway
,
so
it wasn’t too difficult to resist. My thighs would thank me later. Promising myself a glass of wine after I packed, I walked into my bedroom to make sure I
had
clean clothes for the trip. I thought I should call my
parents and tell them
I was on my
way
, though maybe I
would take a nap first.
Today had been stressful and I
deserved some relaxation.

I
choose the nap
,
thinking
that
maybe being unemployed wasn’t so
bad after all if it allowed me
to take naps in the middle of the day
. But just as I
snuggled down and start
ed
to close
my
eyes, the phone rang again.
Who the hell was it this time?
I thought irritably. I
wasn’t in the m
ood to speak to anyone else. I
just wanted to sleep.
I
tried ignoring it, but it wouldn’t stop ringing. Gr
umpy and in no mood to talk, I
snatched the phone off the table.
T
he c
aller I.D. said unknown, but I
answered it anyway. Maybe it was someone from
Trevor’s office. Though once I
heard
the voice on the other end, I
realized what a big mistake that w
as. Stupid, stupid move. I threw my
self back down on the couch
and gritted my
teeth
i
n frustration.

“Hey, Sweet
Pea.” It was Rick. I
groaned
, wondering why I
had answered the phone. I
should have known b
etter. Maybe I
could just hang up on him. Forget it.
He would just call back, so I
might as well get it over with.

“Why are you calling me
, Rick?” I
said, sighing heav
ily, hoping he would realize I
had no desire
to speak to him and wishing I
had poured that glass of wine after all. Talking to Rick would require it.

“Baby,” he whined, “
d
on’t act like you don’t want to talk to me.” Tha
t was another thing. Why had I
not noticed before how a
nnoying his whining was? Did I
ever really think it was cute? No, but his ass was and that
,
along with his big baby blues
,
overshadowed many of his flaws for a long time. However, a hot body only can take
you so far, and now it made me
want to puke.

“Well
,
I don’t want to talk to you, I have told you this a hundred times. I don’t really understand why this is so difficult for you to comprehend. Why don’t you give Linda a call? I bet she’ll talk to you.” Linda was the infamous assistant
, and yes, I admit
,
I
was still a little bitter. Who wouldn’t be?

“You know you don’t mean that, baby. How many times do I have to say I’m sorry? It was a one
-
time thing. Linda meant nothing to me. It’s you that I love. I need you. We belong together. I know that now.”

Blah, blah, blah,
I thought, rolling my
ey
es. I
had heard the same story so many times
I
could tell it better than he could. Did he really think he was being sincere? “Was that what you were thinking as you were screwing her in the back of your car? Besides, I don’t care anymore, Rick. About you or our relationship. Because there is no relationship. Get that through your head.
I don’t have time for this. I have to pack. I need to go
.
P
ermanently, as far as you’re concerned.”

“Where are you going
?
” Rick asked, changing immediately from whining t
o that possessive tone I
had always hated
, even when I
had still liked hi
m. Since they had broken up, I
noticed it much more than whe
n they were together, though I
was sure it had always been there. They say love
is
blind and sometimes deaf and stu
pid too. Why had I
put up with him for so long?
I
thought
I
was a reasonably smart g
irl,
but
I
kept choosing losers.
M
aybe
I
should thank Linda for
helping me
see the light. Mental note, send Linda the slutty assistant a
t
hank
y
ou card. That
’s what made me
even madder. Linda was still his assistant even after that had happened. The asshole wouldn’t even fire her. Sai
d it wasn’t fair to her. I
figured he was afraid of the same sexual harassment lawsuit David Ritter was worried about.

“Not that it is any of your business, but I am going home for a few days.”

“What about work?”

“I quit.” I
figured if he could lie
,
so could
I
.

“What! Why didn’t you tell me?” Rick demanded.

I
held the phone out from her ear.
Why me?
Why couldn’t I
just find a normal guy to get involved with?

“And why would I
tell my ex-boyfriend?” I
said exasperatedly, trying to stress the
“ex”
part, though he either was not getting it or choosing to ignore it. “It happened barely two hours ago
,
and again, it is none of your business.”

“We need to talk about this, Presley.”

Are you kidding me?
Was he smoking crack? What made him think
I
need
ed
to discuss anything with him?

“Rick, there is nothing that we need to talk about. There is no
“
we
”
anymore.”
I
enunciated slowly to
help him understand.

“Listen, Presley,” he started.

“Bye, Rick. I am done with this conversation.”

“Quit being a bitch, Presley
.
I...”

I
hung up and turned the p
hone off because even though I
wa
s too irritated to sleep now I
was definitely not in the mood to talk to anyone else. Since a nap was out of the question,
I
decided to pack.
What an ass
! Then I
pushed all thoughts of Rick from
my
mind and tried t
o think happy thoughts about my
new career.

I
roc
ked out to Pearl Jam as I
headed down the h
ighway the last few miles to my
parents
’
home
in Alkon. I
enjoyed watching the skyscrapers and exhaust smell of the city morph into the calmer
landscape of
suburbia and
felt happy when I saw
the rolling countryside just beginning to green up with spring.
I didn’t usually
notice
the landscape on the drive to Alkon—I was always
too preoccupied with work,
but today I
realized how truly different Chicago and Alkon were
,
although they were only a few hours
apart. The city was still my
favorite place
, but I
could appreciate the pretty landscape outside the city
too
. Nothing like a calming roadside view and
good
music to put a person in a good mood.
While my current playlist consisted of Pearl Jam and Counting Crows tunes, I also liked to get my
groove on to hip-hop, top 40
,
and
,
if
I
was feeling melancholy or nee
ded to chill with a glass of my
favorite wine, a little blues.

After yesterday
’s drama, I was surprised I
woke up in such a good moo
d. I realized I
was probably in denial about not having a steady income but
I refused to let it get to me
. Besides
,
this morning
I found my
favorite Tiffany choker
. It
had been missing for weeks.
I put my
ten
nis shoes on and hit it with my
toe.
As soon as I
did,
I remembered what was in there. I
ha
d put the silver necklace in my
shoe the last time I
went to Pilates. There had been a new girl in class
who had
just seemed a little off. You could never be too careful and Tiffany necklaces didn’t grow on trees. Even though that asshole Rick had bought it for
me, I
wasn’t about to give up fine jewelry. H
ell, I
wasn’t stupid about accessor
ies, just men. Why was that? I
was a reasonably intelligent woman
, so why was I
always picking guys who seemed great at first and then turned into assholes
? Maybe I
was trying too hard and should just take a break from men. That might be
—
HOLY CRAP!
I slammed on the brakes and my
car skidded sideways
,
coming to a shuddering stop about two inches from a cow.
This
is why I
lived in the city. You might have to watch out for drunks and crazy people wandering around the streets
,
but traffic didn’t move fast enough fo
r it to be much of an issue. My heart was pounding and my
hands
,
shaking, thinking about how my
poor Kia would have crumpled
around me like an accordion if I
had hit that cow. The cow didn’t even seemed fazed by the
near miss. It looked at me
through the windshield as if to say
What? Is there a problem?
I
sat there for a second
longer, waiting for my
heart rate to return to normal and will
ing
the cow to get the hell out of the middle of the road. Where had this thing come from any
way? The cow quit staring at me
and
a
mbled the rest of the way across the road.
Thank god there wasn’t any traffic coming or there would have been quite a back up.
I
p
ressed the gas to move back on down the road. Feeling a little more composed
, I started to laugh. I couldn’t wait to tell my
friends in the city about this. They would never believe it.

Cow crisis averted
, I
went back to thinking about the events of yesterday. Today was the start of a completely new career, a new journey, a new chapter
in the story of my
life.
See how good I can make things sound?
I
thought.
I can do this writing thing
. Everything was going to be just fine
, and I
just wasn’t going to worry about how to pay the bills. Life usually worked out, which was why having good karma was important
—s
omething that David Ritter, and Rick, would find out. They would eventually get what was coming to them. That is why
I
couldn’t pass up a homeless person on the street without giving them some money, even though
all of my
friends
made fun of me for it. I
was convinced
that I
would
be able to balance out all the bad I
had done
with good deeds
.
Nobody’s perfect and it was my
way to even things out.