Chapter 7
The smell of meat pies surrounded Hadley as she walked to the entry way, towards the ringing door bell.
“Aunt Hadley!” Cassy greeted her. The two women hugged, Hadley kissing her niece’s cheek. Cassy looked so much like Schuanne in jeans and a Giants tee shirt.
“It that Shu’s tee?” Hadley asked, leading the way into the house. “It looks familiar.”
“Yeah. I’ve been starting to wear her clothes sometimes. At first it freaked me out, but --” Cassy stopped in her tracks as they neared the kitchen. “Damn, Aunt Hadley! Something smells so good!”
“Those are the meat pies I was telling you about. We’ll make them for your reception. Speaking of… tell me all about your meeting with the caterers.”
Hadley listened to Cassy talk excitedly about the meal that would be prepared for her wedding reception. After they’d covered the complete menu, Cassy stopped herself.
“Wait a minute! Here I am going on about food when you just got back from a trip to South America! How was it?”
Cassy tucked into the bowl of pistachios that Hadley had set out, waiting for Hadley’s response.
Hadley took her time, hesitating before speaking about the trip.
How was it? she wondered. ‘Wonderful’, she wanted to say. ‘Magical. Astounding. Eye opening.’
I feel alive again.
I fell in love.
But these statements did not come from her mouth. What had happened between she and Jack had twisted and turned in the four days since she had returned, and every time she retold the story in her mind, the details became more hazy. Was it really magical, and intimate at Jose’s house, or was she merely so desperate for intimacy that she had imagined it?
Was their relationship as exciting as she remembered, or was she just star struck by him, swept up in the glitter and allure of his reputation?
What had happened between them, exactly?
On the journey home, Jack had been busy with conferences via his laptop, and Hadley had not talked with him.
Upon return, she found that she was not scheduled for work again for several days. She was due to go into the Lion’s Den tomorrow. She hadn't talked to Jack since they stepped off of the jet.
He’s busy, she told herself.
He knows he’ll see me at the Den. He wants to see me… of course he does. Doesn’t he?
“Auntie H? It was a work thing, right?” Cassy prompted. “Tell me about your new job. You said it’s for a club in the financial district? What kind of club?”
Hadley thought of the Lion’s Den. How could she describe it to her niece, and be honest, yet maintain her dignity.
She pulled a salad, which she had prepared earlier, out from the refrigerator.
“Yes, it’s an exclusive club on Broadway. It’s not marketing, but I needed to make some quick cash in order to keep my mortgage afloat,” she said vaguely.
“Is everything all right? I didn’t know it was that bad, with the business.”
“It’s been rough,” Hadley said. “When we lost the Garner account two months ago our numbers took a big hit.” And by a ‘big hit’, I mean they went to zero, thought Hadley bitterly. She shrugged. “But what can you do? Things will look up soon, I’m sure they will. Don’t worry about it. I have a prospective opening with Millennium Starz…” she found herself saying, just to ease Cassy’s mind.
Cassy’s frown lines faded. “Oh, good,” she said. “That woman, who used to work for you -- Gina, wasn’t it? She got a gig with Millennium Starz, didn’t she?”
“Mmmhmmm,” Hadley said. Talking about the sleazy magazine made her think about the camera she’d placed. There was no way she was going to follow through with that idea. Not now. Not after everything that had happened between she and Jack.
“So, the trip, was it a business thing? Did you get to do anything fun?”
Hadley’s mind flashed back to the drive in Jack’s Corvette, her day at the spa, and the nights that followed.
“Yes,” she said with a smile. “It was a complete change of pace. I saw the Andes, which are gorgeous. It was the middle of winter there… the views were breathtaking.”
“Wow,” said Cassy. “Must be some club that you’ve hooked up with. What do you do there, exactly?”
“I serve food to the business men,” Hadley answered.
Cassy scrunched up her nose. “And women?” she asked. “Aren’t there business women there too?”
Hadley shook her head. “No, it’s a sort of co-op. A few business men own it together, and they hire all of their own personal staff. It’s very small, actually. I think all of the men are friends. There’s only five or six of them, I believe.”
“But no women owners. Correct?”
“Mmmhmmmm,” Hadley agreed noncommittally. She could tell that Cassy was trying to bait her into saying something about the unfairness of it. When Hadley did not say anything of the sort, she heard her niece sigh.
“Aunt H, isn’t that kind of sexist?”
Hadley bristled at the word. She thought of the way it felt so good to remove her suit and shoulder pads, to stand before a man full of her own femininity.
Hadley shrugged. “It doesn’t bother me,” she said. “It’s a very unique environment. I’ve never been anywhere quite like it,” she said.
“It’s not degrading? I mean, you own a business. You should be the one getting served, not the other way around,” Cassy said.
The oven timer went off, and Hadley walked towards the oven. She was glad for the distraction. Her niece’s questions were bringing up uncomfortable questions within her. Why was I so eager to be ordered around? she thought. Why did that feel good?
She reached into the hot oven with an oven mitt, and retrieved the pie. It looked as good as it smelled. The top was golden brown, the crust flaky and crisp around the edges. She’d cut a star in the middle, and there was steam pouring out from the slits.
Cassy was reaching into a cupboard as she spoke. “I’m glad you found something though, just to make up some cash. I hope you don’t have to do it for long.”
“Me too, baby,” Hadley said. She knew that the club was not a long term solution for her. She didn’t even know what it would feel like to return to it the next day. She did know that she had to make 10,000 dollars by the end of August, and that was now three and a half weeks away. They’d turned the corner into August while in Patagonia.
Throughout dinner they talked about the coming wedding. Hadley had many ideas and Cassy was happy to hear them.
As they polished off a second slice of pie each, and Cassy reached for the salad, she asked, “Do you think you’ll get married, Aunt H?”
“Me? Well… I thought I was going to. That was years ago.”
“The Marine, right? I remember he was here a lot when I was younger. I know you don’t like to talk about it.”
Hadley smiled sadly. “It’s okay,” she said. “I’ve been thinking about it lately. We were so in love, but I thought the timing wasn’t right. I wanted so badly to be successful.” She looked around the house.
She thought of the letter that had come in, from his parents, announcing that he was MIA. Later there had been a death certificate, when shards of bone were identified.
They had already been broken up for a year before he left for the war, but Hadley always assumed that they would get together again as soon as the time was ‘right.’ She knew that he was madly in love with her, and she felt the same for him. It was inevitable.
Or so she thought.
“There’s no time like the present,” she said wistfully. “He asked me to marry him, once. Then again, six months later. And again a year after that.” She laughed sadly, thinking of all of the times she’d begged him to wait.
“It was exciting starting a business. I thought if we could just hold on… just get it up and running… just wait a little bit longer. Time kept slipping through our hands. He didn’t want to wait any more.”
She
stood, and collected Cassy’s empty plate. Cassy stood as well, and started tidying up the salad bowl and dressings. As Hadley rinsed the dishes and loaded them into the dishwasher, Cassy scooped the leftover salad greens into a Tupperware.
“So, if there’s no time like the present… you know… are you seeing anyone? The wedding is in two months. Who are you going to invite, as your date?”
Hadley added the silverware to the dishwasher, and clicked it closed. “You know, I have met an interesting man. He’s… he’s handsome. Kind. Interesting. Intelligent.” She smiled as she thought of Jack, and the way he never let his intelligence get in the way of his enjoyment.“Smart, but not too smart,” she said with a smile. “He loves life.” She laughed a little bit at the understatement. Emotionally, she thought, he’s a wreck.
“He sounds amazing!” Cassy said with a little squeal. “When am I going to meet him?”
“I’m not sure,” Hadley said. “I don’t know if he’s looking for a relationship right now. I don’t know if I am, either.”
“What do you mean? You just said you let the last great guy get away. Don’t do it again.”
“It’s not that simple,” Hadley said. She sat on a tall kitchen stool, wondering just how much of her financial situation she could reveal to her niece.
“The business has lost quite a few accounts. All I can think about is saving it.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” said Cassy, sitting next to her on a stool. “But I think you need to have a little fun. You’re so serious. I know you had to be… with my mom and all. She was the crazy, wild one, and you had to be the voice of reason. All the time.” Cassy rolled her eyes, and laughed a little. “I saw how you guys were together. But with my mom gone, you’ve only gotten more serious, more tense. I think if you lightened up a little bit -- you know, got back into the flow of things -- you could start picking up clients again for Wilder Marketing. You could get big again -- if that’s what you want.”
Hadley had to chuckle at the astuteness of her niece’s diagnosis. Here she was thinking that she was the wise old aunt, while her niece was seeing things with much more clarity than Hadley had given her credit for.
Hadley sighed. “You’re right. I know you’re right.” She stole a glance at her niece. Cassy had grown up so much over the last few years. She’s a woman now, she thought.
“I can tell you this,” Hadley said, slowly. “I -- well, we -- this man I’ve been seeing… we had sex… and it was good. Really good,” she said with a smile. “It was the first time in a long time, and I felt all of this power reignite in me. That spark, it just came back.”
Cassy nodded. “I thought there was something different about you. But what is it? You’re hesitating, like there’s something else.”
“He’s Jack Pittman.”
Cassy gasped. “What?! You mean the Jack Pittman? The billionaire Jack Fucking Pittman?”
Hadley blushed. She rarely heard her niece curse, and she didn’t often curse around her niece. It seemed they were in new territory.
“Yes,” she said. “He’s an owner at the club.”
“So… what, you guys like hooked up while you were in Patagonia? That is incredible!” Cassy was squinting as she pieced the story together, and her eyes widened as the different stories started to click. “That is unbelievable! But he doesn’t want a relationship? Or you don’t? I mean… I don’t know for sure, but isn’t he kind of a player? There was that thing with Jada Locklove just a few weeks ago.”
“I know, I know,” Hadley said, burying her head in her hands. “I think he is. It’s not perfect. It’s more complicated than I could have ever imagined. But the thing is… I like him. I think I like him. Those things I said about him being interesting, and loving life… that was true.”
“How did you leave it?” Cassy asked. “When you parted ways after the trip?”
“We -- didn’t really,” said Hadley. “He was off to a meeting, I was going home. I barely saw him.”
“And has he called?”
“No,” Hadley said, frowning.
“Aunt Hadley! He’s the luckiest man in the world! You’re a prize. He better not mess this up,” Cassy said kindly, and Hadley could tell that her niece was trying to boost her spirits. “So, when are you going to see him again?”
“Tomorrow,” Hadley answered.
Cassy’s eyebrows shot into the air. “Ooooh, Auntie! You are right in the middle of this, aren’t you? This is big. When you start to date, you don’t mess around, do you?”
“I guess not,” Hadley said with a laugh. “Just don’t tell anyone for now,” she added. “He’s big on privacy and I don’t want this to get out in any way.”
“I understand,” Cassy said. “My lips are sealed.”
Hadley brewed two cups of tea, and enjoyed talking with her niece for another hour before Cassy had to head back to the city.
As she went to sleep, Hadley thought about how proud she was of the woman her niece had become, and how grateful she was for their close relationship. She was excited about the wedding, and was glad that it was to be in her own backyard. It felt right, even if she did possibly have to move out a few days later.
The next day, Hadley arrived at the Lion’s Den on time. She had no intentions of interrupting Tony again, and figured that her safest bet was to enter right on schedule with the other women. She filed through the security check along with a dozen other girls, and left her phone, as usual, at the desk. Soon she was changed into the now familiar black dress and heels, and stepping out onto the polished club floor.
*****
Jack looked up and saw her step through the staff door. She was just as beautiful as he’d remembered. Before he caught her staring, he looked down again.
The last few days had been difficult. He didn’t know why he couldn’t stop thinking about the woman who had walked into his life only a week and a half before. He no longer felt in control of the situation. He was used to holding his cards close to his chest, but with Hadley he felt that he could not. She was smart, mature, and something about her company made him feel more like himself than he had in years.
She also made him remember his first love, and what they had gone through together. That was not easy for him. All these years, he thought suddenly, I’ve been guarding myself. Not letting anyone in. I didn’t want to experience that again.
Jack could not look at Hadley. He focused on the computer as she approached. He wondered how she felt, showing up for work after he hadn’t even called her. Though he didn’t want to think about it, he was aware that he was pushing her away. He had thought that she would be another easy conquest, another woman who he slept with and moved on from without a hiccup.
He’d hoped that perhaps they could still be physically intimate, through their work relationship. He’d done that with many women at the Lion’s Den. But with Hadley, something was different.
From the corner of his eye he could see her stand nearby, next to the other women.
She looked upset. He wanted to say something, but didn’t know what.
Perhaps it is better this way, he thought. Maybe if she is upset with me, she’ll back away. We’ll both be better off.
He steadily avoided eye contact.
“I’ll take my massage now, Grace,” he said, after doing several more minutes of work. “I have a meeting here at three p.m. I expect all of you to be here then.” He stood, watching Hadley’s reaction from the corner of his eye. He saw her shoulders droop, and he felt a stab of guilt.
You’re hurting her, he thought, and the thought filled him with pain.
Everything was so different now that they were back in the city. He felt the sides of himself that had emerged in South America falling into the background once again. He was back to his old ways. The ways that became comfortable for the last twenty years -- since he’d learned what happened when you loved someone.
Though he knew that she’d been right, that he had become emotionless, he knew t
hat at least he was safe.
He was back to all of his old habits.
If only he could stop thinking of her.
*****
Hadley watched Jack disappear through the back doors. She felt her lip trembling. Do not cry, she scolded herself. A girl to her side was watching her closely.
“How was the trip? I heard you got to see his Patagonia cabin. Was it amazing? Probably more like a mansion, right?”
“It was very small,” Hadley mumbled.
“Was it hard work? I mean, probably you had to serve a bunch of dinner guests and stuff?”
“No.” Hadley shook her head. “It was just him. It was easy,” she said.
“You’re lucky,” the girl said. “I’d love to get paid twenty-four hours a day for that. Plus the bonus. You must have made bank!”
“Bonus?” Hadley asked.
“Yeah, all of the billionaires give bonuses when you go off on unexpected trips like that. My friend Tonya works for Wyatt Lightman and said that he once had a helicopter pick them up on the roof and fly them to Vegas for three nights, and she made five thousand dollars!”
Hadley’s head was spinning. She excused herself and rushed out of the room, through the locker rooms, and towards the lobby.
When she found the attendant, she was out of breath. “I need to speak with Roger,” she said, her chest heaving.
Jack had mortified her in there. This was not the way she wished to see him, after what they had done together. If the information she’d just received was correct, she may have made the ten grand that she needed already. The numbers tumbled through her mind as she waited for the attendee to call Roger.
At her hourly rate, if she was really being paid twenty-four hours a day, she would have made six thousand dollars. How much is the bonus? she wondered.
When the attendee handed her the phone, her fingers were trembling. Seeing Jack in there, like that, had taxed her to the core.
“Roger? I’d like to know how much I’ll be paid for the trip to Patagonia, if possible,” she said into the receiver.
The line was silent as Roger looked through his notes, and finally spoke. “Looks like Jack cut you a check for ten thousand,” he said. “Not bad for five days!”
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