“Oh, you still are,” I assured him with a playful grin, “but I think it’s safe to say you’ve redeemed yourself today.”
His expression became serious and genuine. “Do you mean that?”
I nodded earnestly. “Yes, I forgive you, Jake Cassidy.”
He looked like I’d just lifted a heavy burden from his shoulders. “I don’t know what to say.”
I shrugged and kept eating. “You don’t have to say anything. We’re good. Although there is one thing you could say.”
“And that is?”
I dropped my voice a couple octaves to mimic his voice. “Gabi, I’d like you to take the Lambo back. Seriously, I won’t take no for an answer.”
He burst out laughing. “I do not sound like that.”
I held my hand up, holding my forefinger an inch apart from my thumb. “You do a little bit.”
Still chuckling, he told me the Lambo was mine. “I’ll drive it to the office for you on Monday and you can take the keys from me then. I’ll have my driver take me home at the end of the day.”
I lifted my glass of water. “Cheers to making amends, and sexy yellow Lambos.”
“Cheers to that.”
After a month of chaos, regret, confusion, loathing, and despising my job, I finally felt like I was stepping back into the version of myself I liked. It felt freeing.
But we still had to have another conversation. I couldn’t let things linger like this. I was a woman of action. Things unspoken were torturous for me.
“So,” I started, continuing to eat innocently, “what’s this thing between us? Should we define it? Am I just your employee or…”
Jake washed his risotto down with a sip of water. “You know what I like about you, Gabi? There’s no bullshit. You’re a straight shooter.”
“My mom says I can be relentless and stubborn and that those qualities will scare men off.”
He scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Small men, maybe.”
Good answer.
He rested his arms on the table. “If we’re speaking openly here and you have truly forgiven me, then you should know that I want this to be more between us. I’ve wanted that for a while.”
“Me too,” I admitted.
“But I want to step into things with honesty. You should know about my last relationship before we go any further.”
My heart started beating faster. “Okay.”
He wiped his lips with his napkin. “I married my high school sweetheart when I was young and thought I knew what I wanted. I thought she was my forever, and I think at some point in the very beginning, she believed I was that for her, too. Her name was Shannon. She was a good woman. She wanted a life with me, children, happiness, Christmas mornings in our sunny LA high rise. And I wanted to give her all those things. We were well on our way, too, but then I caught her in bed with the best man from my wedding.”
I felt the blood drain from my face. “Seriously? That’s awful, Jake. I’m so sorry.”
“Thanks. It was a long time ago, and it turned out the affair had been going on behind my back for years. Turns out she’d been in love with him the whole time, but she didn’t want to end things with me because of the money I was making when I started my business.”
“That is so shitty. What a—” I stopped myself from calling her a bad name. He’d loved her at one point. Bashing her wasn’t productive. “That’s so shitty,” I said again. If the person I’d trusted more than anyone had done that to me, I’d be pretty damn grumpy and jaded too.
Jake cracked a smile. “Yeah, well, my counselor says the way things ended gave me abandonment and commitment issues, on top of what happened to me as a kid. So, if you step with me into this, I just want you to know that I’m not where I want to be yet. I still have a lot of work to do. A lot of shit to process. A lot of steps forward to take.”
I reached across the table and took his hand. “You working on yourself won’t scare me off, Jake. It just makes me like you more. I think it’s really admirable that you’re talking to a professional and taking initiative instead of letting these things fester and ruin the joy in your life. I’m really proud of you.” I smiled and ran my thumb over his knuckles. “Like, really, really, really proud of you.”