“You can just drop me off instead of parking,” he says, his voice monotone, his eyes emotionless. I know he’s upset about the loss and how the end of the season went, but I’m still surprised that he doesn’t want to spend time with me.
“You don’t want me to come up?” I ask, confused and hurt by his lack of attention.
“I can’t do this anymore, Jenna. Let’s stop pretending that we are in a real relationship for once, okay?”
“What do you mean?” I ask, suddenly very confused by what he is talking about.
“You’ve never once invited me to stay at your apartment. We’ve been together for almost a year and I am not allowed to sleep over?”
“Jax, I told you that I didn’t want to make Avery uncomfortable if she woke up and saw you in the house. You said you understood!” I explain, getting annoyed that we’re going over this again.
“Yet, it’s okay for Cal to sleep there, who hasn’t even known her that long?” he asks bitterly, his voice so filled with jealousy that I’m finding him quite unattractive at this moment.
“That’s her father, Jax! There’s no comparison!”
“Does she even know that he’s her father yet?”
The car is filled with silence as he’s just proven his point since she doesn’t and he’s absolutely right.
“Jax, I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to hurt you,” I plead, not wanting this to end like this.
“I know you didn’t mean too, but you did.” He opens the door to the car and looks back at me with longing and sadness in his eyes. “Goodbye, Jenna.” I jump when the car door slams and watch him walk into his hotel with tears streaming down my face.
I drive back home in shock that my relationship with Jax has ended and ashamed of how I treated him. I realize that Robert may have been right - I used Jax and not only did I use him for sex, but I took advantage of his feelings for me without giving them right back to him. All Jax wanted was for me to love him back and I didn’t. The realization makes me cry harder and I truly feel horrible for any pain I’ve caused him.
I get back home, exhausted and disgusted with myself. I open the door to see Cal and Robert sitting on the couch, talking softly so they don’t wake up Avery.
“Jenna, what’s wrong?” Robert asks, noticing right away how upset I am.
“Jax broke up with me tonight,” I whisper, not able to look at either of them. “If you both will excuse me, I’m going to bed now. Please see yourselves out if you don’t mind.”
“I’m sorry, Jenna,” Cal says, and even though he sounds sincere, I don’t believe him.
“Somehow, I quite doubt that.” I say and shut my bedroom door.
The hits keep on coming the next day, but this time it’s News Channel 3 calling, saying they’re canceling our monthly news segment.
“Why?” I ask angrily, knowing the answer before the producer needs to say it out loud.
“Right now, Jenna, the owners feel your current situation is a little too scandalous. While the ratings have been through the roof, they want to pull the plug. I’m so sorry, Jenna, as there’s nothing I can do.”
I hang up the phone, mad as hell at the unfairness of it all. Now Cal Harrington has affected my personal AND professional life and I am sick of it all. I need a release. I need to go have some fun and be around people I trust.
“We’re going to O’Malley’s tonight!” I say to Layla on the phone.
“Really? We haven’t been there in almost a year!” She says, her voice sounding excited.
“I know, but this has been a really shitty week and I need some time with my best friends. I’ve got to release some of this stress.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice, I’m game!”
I hang up with her, call Robert to confirm and secure a babysitter since Cal will be working very late tonight and won’t see Avery until the morning.
After I pick up Avery from school, I make sure to feed her and get her ready for bed. The babysitter arrives and I get myself ready. I decide on skin tight jeans, with a red low-cut v-neckline blouse and a black blazer to go over it, paired with mesh black peep toe ankle booties. I wear smoky eye make-up and paint red lipstick on my lips. Feeling good with how I look, I kiss Avery goodbye and make my way to O’Malley’s.
The paparazzi follow my taxicab and get pictures of me as I exit the cab. Once inside the safety of the restaurant, I find a booth away from the windows and wait for Layla and Robert to arrive.
O’Malley’s is exactly what everyone needed as three hours later, I’m feeling better from being in the company of my best friends. They made me laugh, we ate bad food and I was feeling buzzed from the many ciders I ingested. Robert and Layla decide to stay behind as they both started chatting up people while I want to go home and snuggle with my girl.
I walk out of O’Malley’s and am pleasantly surprised to find it empty with no paparazzi insight. With my apartment only being a couple of blocks away and other pedestrians on the street, I decide to take advantage of this beautiful evening and walk home like I used to do.
As my apartment complex comes closer to view, I suddenly hear a car screech behind me and a door close. I start to feel uneasy and quicken my pace, my intuition telling me that the paparazzi just found me.
“Well, well, well, look who decided to take a nighttime stroll. Did you enjoy your time at the bar?” Danny Salari walks in front of me and flashes the camera in my face. I stop and close my eyes to readjust them as I was not prepared and forgot to wear my sunglasses.
“Yes, thank you. Please move out of my way,” I ask politely as I walk faster around him. Two more paparazzi follow me on my side and continue taking pictures with their flash. I pull my hands up and try to shield my eyes from the side.
“I don’t think so, lady, as you owe us a good quality photo,” he says, as he flashes his camera again at me, this time lower since my eyes are downward. The flash makes me stop again, the blindness making me unsteady on me feet. I keep walking forward, my building seeming so close, yet so far.
“We’ve been here for almost two months, every day spending our hard earned money, hoping for one quality shot of you, yet you just won’t cooperate with us.” Another flash in my face, and I try to shield my eyes and just walk forward watching my feet, but they now have boxed me in, inching closer to me.
“Okay, I’m sorry. How about I give you the photo now?” I pull down my hands and smile, but with the flashing of the bulbs, I can’t seem to keep me eyes open. And as more paparazzi arrive, the more blinding the flashes become.
“No, your eyes are too squinted. We need you to open your eyes for us.”
“Well if you would stop for a second and let my eyes adjust, they will open!” I snap, getting irritated with them.
I hear them stop and I keep my eyes close, giving them a break before I open them again. They give me two seconds to look around to see my bearings. I smile and then the flashes begin. But this time, they become relentless.
“Stop, I can’t see where I’m going!” I cry, but no one seems to care as the clicking keeps going. I try walking forward by only watching my feet, but someone puts their camera down low again, the flash back into my eyes. I lose my balance and fall to my knees.
“Look boys, she’s on her knees where she belongs!” They laugh at Danny’s crude remark and continue taking photos of me. I start to crawl forward, scraping my hands on the concrete, but they have me surrounded and won’t move.
My anger has vanished and is replaced with utter terror. I push my knees and legs to the ground and huddle down, covering my head with my hands, hoping one of them will soon see how wrong this is and call the police.
“Look, she is too drunk to even get back up.” I flip them my middle finger and the taunting continues. Scared for my life and not knowing what to do, I start to panic and cry silently, my night turning into a nightmare. I start to tune the taunting out and go inside my own head, rocking back and forth to try to soothe myself.
I have no idea how long I’m on the ground for, but suddenly I hear yelling. A male’s voice is shouting, telling them to get back.
“You fucking assholes, what the hell is wrong with you!” I hear someone say. I feel hands on me and I start to shrink inward, my hands hitting their fingers off of me.
“Jenna! Jenna, it’s Chase. I’m here to help you! It’s Chase, Jenna! I’m right in front of you. Look at my black converses.” I hear his panicked voice get closer and closer as I start to tune back in. There are two black converses in front of my knees.
“This is my hand waving to you, Jenna, can you see it?”
My vision is blurred, not able to focus from all of the flashes to my eyes. I see a blurry hand in front of my face and nod.
“Grab my hand, Jenna, grab my hand! I’ll get you home!”
I grab his hand and he immediately helps me to my feet.
“Get the fuck away from her, Salari! You’re going to pay for this!” Chase lifts me up under my knees and continues to carry me the rest of the way to my building. I wrap my arms around his neck and bury my head into his chest, wishing the noises of the flash bulbs and the clicking of the cameras would stop.
“I didn’t do shit - I can’t help it if she has had one too many drinks tonight and can’t walk. You’ve got nothing, Canada!”
“What the hell is going on? JENNA! Oh my god, what’s wrong?” I hear Robert’s worried voice come next to me as Chase continues to carry me.
“She was attacked by the paparazzi. I fucking thought you were with her tonight?” I hear a ding and my mind registers we are in my elevator.
“We were with her, but we thought she took a taxi home, not walked! Oh my god, she’s shaking. Is she okay?”
“She’s in shock. Why the fuck does Harrington not have a bodyguard on her? This is so fucking typical. Selfish asshole!” I whimper out loud, Chase’s anger making me scared.
“You’ve got to lower your voice, Chase, once we get off this elevator. We don’t want to wake Avery and scare her, not to mention these nosy neighbors.”
I’m trying to fight against the darkness that wants to overtake me as I try to stay conscious while Chase walks us off the elevator, onto my floor. I hear Robert open the door and tell the babysitter to not say a word.
Chase walks briskly into my room and lays me on my bed. I so want to go hold and sleep with Avery, but no words will come forth and before I know it, I lose the fight and complete darkness enfolds me.
29
I wake up with a start, another vivid nightmare from last night haunting my sleep. Unlike last night’s feeling of being the scared prey before a shark attack, this morning I am angry. I’m a lioness ready to pounce on anyone ready to hurt me.
I get out of bed and put my workout clothes on, my need to run out these feelings inside of me before I have a mental breakdown.
I walk out of the bedroom to find Cal and Robert talking softly to some stranger. They all turn and look at me, concern on their faces but something else, as if they have been up to something without my knowledge. I’m immediately on alert. I stare suspiciously at this stranger who’s in my home without my invitation. His haircut indicates military, his eyes are cold gray steel as they stare back at me. No amount of clothing can hide his rock hard body. He’s stunning in a completely dangerous way. I know the situation is serious since Robert is not drooling all over him.
“How are you feeling today?” Robert asks in a sweet voice that he would use on Avery.
“Fine,” I say firmly, shooting him a questionable look. “Where’s Avery?” I walk to her room but find it empty.
“I took her to school already,” Cal says, his tone of voice all business, his eyes penetrating as he assesses my mood. “Jenna, I want you to meet Mason, your new bodyguard. He’ll be with you at all times when you need to leave the house. We’re extremely fortunate that he was available on such short notice.” Cal nods his thank you to Mason. “I’ve reviewed his credentials and I am 100% confident that he’ll be able to keep you and Avery safe when out in public.”
I stare at Cal in silence, my anger toward him mounting to a new level for not consulting me. He never discussed getting a bodyguard, nor did he ask if I even wanted one. He has completely taken away all forms of freedom from me.
I turn to Mason with an extended hand and my most dazzling smile, “Nice to meet you. Do you have a last name, Mason?”
“You may call me Mason, ma’am,” he says, his voice just a little too cocky for my liking. He grips my hand in a tight, brief handshake.
“Well, Mason, I do appreciate you being here for my well-being, but you see, there seems to be a slight miscommunication as I was never asked whether or not I wanted you here and no offense to you personally, but I don’t need a bodyguard. I am sure Mr. Harrington is paying you generously to waste your pristine skills on babysitting me and my daughter. I apologize on his behalf and wish you the best of luck as I do not need your services.” I smile sweetly, turn on my heel and head to the front door.
Three steps in and my arm is grabbed by Cal, who whirls me around to face the fury that is raging in his eyes. “Mason, it seems Ms. Pruitt is ready for a morning run. Please feel free to get ready to join her by changing into your work out attire in the guest bathroom while I have a little chat with her.”
Mason picks up a duffel bag from off the floor and heads straight to Avery’s bathroom. How does he even know where it is already? How long has he been here?
As Cal drags me by the arm to my bedroom, I glare at Robert, hoping he can read my mind as it screams TRAITOR at him. He could have sent me a text message this morning while I was in my room to warn me about Mason and he didn’t. Rational thinking Jenna would try to understand why Robert would think it was okay to not tell me what Cal was planning. But rational Jenna is not here right now and irrational Jenna is mad as hell. All I’m thinking about is what a selfish prick Robert is to go behind my back and side with Cal.
I yank my arm out of Cal’s grip and walk to my window to try to get as far away from him as I can. Cal shuts the door and all I hear is his footsteps pacing back and forth.
“Jenna, I know you’re not stupid enough to believe that you don’t need a bodyguard after last night’s incident.” His voice is harsh and condescending with his insult.
I ball my hands into a fist and turn around, the image of punching him in the face providing immense pleasure. “Well, Cal, I guess in your eyes I AM stupid, because I DON’T need a bodyguard as I feel that last night was an isolated incident and won’t happen again as people will hopefully be appalled when they see the images once published.”
He closes his eyes and grips the bridge of his nose and takes a deep breath. He keeps his jaw tightly locked, his patience with me obviously on thin ice. “Unfortunately, that is not how it works in the paparazzi world. Last night just fueled their fire and they will be after you even more.”
I calmly approach him and look him in the eyes so that he understands how dead serious I am. “I don’t know the paparazzi world. I don’t know your world. What I do know is that I don’t want any part of their world. Just like I don’t want any part of YOUR world. You brought this into my life. YOU need to fix it.” And with that, I turn on my heel and throw open my bedroom door, not caring anymore what Cal Harrington thinks.
I want MY life back.
He OWES me my life back.
Mason is waiting for me at the front door, the look on his face indicating that his intensions are to escort me on my run.
“Hope you can keep up with me, Mason.” I wink at him with a venomous smile on my face as I exit my apartment.
“Ma’am, I’m sorry if my presence is causing any tension between you and Mr. Harrington,” he says, as we get into the elevator. “But I did see the images from last night and what they did to you is not acceptable.”
“Not your fault, Mason. Completely Mr. Harrington’s fault,” I say with a sweet smile as we exit the elevators. I stop to think what the be
st route would be to take, but an idea springs to mind. “Mason, have you ever been in downtown Chicago before?”
“No ma’am, I haven’t.”
“Well, you are in for a treat! Just follow my lead,” I say seriously as I put my sunglasses on and adjust my hat. I notice the paparazzi have been moved behind a police barricade twenty feet from the apartment building’s entrance. It looks like there are even more of them than before and a flicker of doubt momentarily flashes through my mind. Maybe it is good that I’m not running by myself today. I push that thought aside as this is still all Cal’s fault that I don’t even have the freedom to go out by myself anymore.
We get outside and start to jog, the paparazzi immediately starting to follow us. Some of them hop in their cars and some start on foot.
“Looks like Princess Jenna couldn’t handle us, boys!” Danny Salari says, referring to Mason as he tries to run alongside us. “Wonder how long it will take before she has sex with this one!” he says, getting laughs out of some of the other photographers. I grit my teeth and proceed to run faster. Soon Salari and some of the few who decided to try to run stop following us. The only paparazzi remaining are the ones following us by car. My intention is for us to head into the city on our run. While normally I stay on the lakefront trail for my runs, going into downtown will be my best chance to lose both Mason and the paparazzi.
I run west for half a mile at a steady pace, trying to keep my head straight while my eyes follow the lanes of cars to my left, trying to gage when there will be a break for me to quickly dart through. Finally, I see one and my heart starts racing. Saying a quick little pray of hopes that I don’t die, I suddenly veer left and run straight into the oncoming traffic. Car horns blare, tires screech and cars collide as I narrowly make it across to the other side. I hear Mason yelling my name and I take off even faster. I start zig zagging through people, turning right onto a new street, then left onto another new street, trying to see where I can go without being followed. After making another turn onto another different street, I look behind me and see no one that I recognize, but I refuse to take a chance as Mason could have made it across that traffic once those cars stopped. My lungs are screaming, my legs are tired and sweat is dripping down my face as I decide to slow my pace down to catch my breath. I see a huge department store that takes up the whole block with multiple entrances on each of its four streets and run inside. I follow the signs to the restroom, find it and go inside to dry off some of my sweat. I splash cold water on my face and take a couple of sips. Once I have caught my breath, I head to an exit that leads to a different street.
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