“I’m so lucky, I wonder if anyone has any idea. Every day he fights and wins, even if he can’t fully walk yet. He always wins. He is my hero. A car crash couldn’t stop him. Brain damage couldn’t stop him. He’s my superhero.”
I turned my head and watched the boy with the thin legs wobble up each step and wondered if I would have had that strength. Even when I saw Henrik with Zooey a few hours ago, I acted like a child and resorted to name calling—even if it was just in my head. This boy and his mother took on challenges I take for granted, and I couldn’t even act like an adult and deal with a real situation.
“Maybe I should be asking David for advice.”
“He told me once, a few months ago when his verbal skills improved to the point he was using three and four-word sentences. He said, ‘Mom there’s more. Always more.’ For the life of me, I didn’t know what he meant.”
I tilted my head. “I don’t get it either.”
“At dinner that night I asked him what he meant, and he said, ‘Hurdles, problems. Always more problems. I don’t like problems. But you smile. Then I do more.’ He was telling me that my happiness was the reason he tried so hard and kept going. And my love for him was why I kept pushing him. That’s what love is, an endless cycle of ups and downs where there is no finish line, only reaching for each other’s happiness.”
She took a breath and patted my hand. “Henrik is not an easy man to love, Morgana. But if you keep reaching for his happiness you will find him reaching for yours.”
I sighed, “Maybe, but he has made it clear he doesn’t want to see me anymore.”
THIRTY-FOUR
Payne’s Rule
Always get rid of dead weight.
Gray and dull.
The sky overhead seemed to match how I felt. Even the damp chill in the air, not so unusual for a mid-June day in Chicago, seemed to mimic my heart.
“You’re in a mood.” Zooey’s tone dripped with annoyance.
I glanced up at the coffee shop sign above the door Zooey was reaching for. “Maybe I have seasonal affective disorder. The cloudy sky is affecting my mood. I’ll go see a doctor.”
As she ushered me inside the warm shop filled with every shade of brown, from the dark leather chairs to the walnut counter at the register. It’s as if the interior designer thought brown was the new black.
“Considering it’s been sunny for the past week, I doubt you have that disorder. Are you worried about getting an investor?”
We stood in line to place our order with only one person in front of us.
“Yeah, that must be it,” I lied.
It’s been three days since I told Morgana I never wanted to see her again. Three days since I lied to her. The truth was something I just didn’t seem to have a talent for, might as well stick with what I was good at.
Zooey grabbed my arm and squealed, “Then I got some news for you. When we sit, I will tell you.”
The person in front of us went to the pickup area, and we moved up to the front of the line to find a kid behind the counter. He looked about David’s age.
“Welcome to Wake Up Joe’s. What can I get for you?”
I stared at him and wondered if it was bring your kid to work day.
“I’ll take a large coffee,” I said.
“And I’ll have a medium caramel mocha skim latte, little man.”
The kid leaned over the counter toward Zooey and wiggled his eyebrows. “I’m not little where it counts, honey.”
“Ewww.” Zooey frowned.
“Do your parents know you’re here?” I asked because this all seemed highly inappropriate.
“My uncle runs this place. I help out from time to time. We can’t all be rich.” He smirked at me as he spoke the last line.
“Whatever, just fill our orders. Here’s a ten, keep the change.”
I shuffled Zooey away. She mentioned she needed to use the ladies’ room, so I went to find us a table. While glancing around the room something red caught my eye. And the red had glasses.
Morgana.
She didn’t notice me, so I slipped into a seat directly behind her. As I peered around, I noticed she wasn’t alone at her table. There was a man, tall with an athletic build. His eyes were small slits, like he slept on a bed of weed.
“Hey, April, I knew you couldn’t keep away from me for too long.”
I was about to turn and punch his beady-eyed face when something stopped me.
April?
That’s not her name. Maybe she led a double life. What if this whole time she was shacking up with this guy on the side and telling him her name was April?
What if that was her real name and Morgana was the fake one?
So many questions and so many names.
“I’m not April anymore, Trevor. Since you put up that sex video, ‘April did it Dirty,’ I go by my middle name now. Which is why I am here.”
Sex video?
What sort of double life does Morgana lead?
“You want to do another video? I knew it. That thing has like five hundred thousand views, April, I mean, Morgana. I have received a lot of messages for a sequel. When do you want to start? I’m up for tonight.”
I dug my nails into the square wooden table to stop myself from tackling Trevor.
“What? Ugh, no Trevor. Just no. You need to take that video down. That’s why I’m here. My career is taking off, and I don’t want people to find out that my ex-boyfriend once filmed us having sex.”
“You loved it.”
“I had no idea you filmed me. Take it down.” Morgana raised her voice loud enough for a few heads to turn.
I was about to stand to physically make Trevor remove the video when Zooey showed up with our drinks.
“Here you go. I put some cream in it but didn’t know if you wanted sugar.” She placed the steaming cup in front of me.
“Henrik, what’s wrong? I’m sorry if you don’t like cream, I can ask them to redo it, but I really don’t want to talk to that boy again.”
I bent forward and lowered my voice, “No, I’m not mad at you—”
“Henrik?”
I looked up to see Morgana standing in front of me. Her hands on her waist. Based on the thinning of her lips and clenching of her jaw I would guess she wasn’t too happy to see me.
“Hello, Morgana.”
I started to get up but stumbled slightly when I noticed Trevor move beside Morgana and draped an arm over her. She shifted her shoulders and pushed Trevor away.
“Please don’t touch me, ever,” Morgana said to the lanky pervert. She turned her attention back to me. “What are you doing here?”
Zooey stepped beside me and wrapped herself around my arm. I hated it when she did that.
“We are having a business meeting. I was about to tell Henrik that his old company Mimir has agreed to meet with us to consider investing in R. Payne Works.”
“What?” I said as I removed Zooey from my arm.
“I set up the meeting for later today. That’s why I wanted to meet with you this morning. Jacob Mimir only had time in his calendar for just after lunch, and then he’s off to London for several weeks. I know it is short notice, but I think it’s our chance to get a solid investor.”
I shook my head and chuckled. Having Mimir as an investor would be extremely helpful, not only to help get my ideas off the ground but to attract other investors.
“That’s a great idea, Zooey. Thanks. I’m surprised you went to them considering I was fired from Mimir.”
I pat her on the back. “Thanks, but it really wasn’t my idea. Well, not completely. Your former coworker reached out to me. We talked, and she suggested they might have an interest in investing in a new venture like yours.”
Did Morgana contact Zooey? She seemed to have been impressed by the idea I had and wanted to help, but I really thought when Morgana punched me in the stomach it meant she would never do anything for me ever again. I guess I was wrong.
I turned my head toward Mo
rgana. “Did you contact her?”
Her eyes widened as her hands went up. “What? No. No offense, Zooey, but other than Henrik, you are the last person I want to talk to.”
“None taken.” Zooey’s lips tightened.
“Then I don’t understand; you said it was a she. Who could have called . . . oh no. Not Grace.” A shudder ran through my body causing my balls to shrivel back inside me.
Zooey shook her head. “No that wasn’t her name. I have it written down in my purse. It was Evie or Angeline or—”
“Evaleen Bechmann? You’re telling me Evaleen Bechmann contacted you?”
“Yes, that was her name. She said she worked in HR at Mimir.”
My world began to spin out of control. First Morgana was really April and had a sex video, now Evaleen was helping me with my company. Next thing they would tell me the Cubs would win the World Series.
Oh wait, that happened.
That only meant one thing, I’ve somehow stepped through a wormhole into an alternate universe where everything was the opposite.
“Quick, Morgana, do you love cake?”
Morgana let out a loud snort. “Do I love cake? Is that a joke? Let me put it to you this way, I hold my farts in around cake so it will never leave me.”
“That’s disgusting,” Zooey said taking a step back.
Morgana narrowed her eyes and pointed at her. “No, that’s true love.”
“Hey, Morgana, I have an idea. Maybe these two could join in on the sequel. Make it a four way. That will sure get a lot of hits.” Trevor was sliding his eyes up and down Zooey while licking his lips.
“Trevor, I told you no.”
I stomped up to Trevor, dwarfing him with my height. Due to him having a thin build I mistakenly assumed he would be tall. I was wrong. I had at least a half a foot on him.
“I believe the lady requested you to take down the video. It seems you will be too busy tonight to do anything but clearing the Internet of your sad little claim to fame.”
He folded his reedy arms. “I don’t have to do anything.”
That was when I smiled. I had hoped he would be this stupid so I could scare the shit out of him. Leaning down I lowered my voice so only he could hear. “That’s interesting you say that since Morgana mentioned she had no idea she was being filmed. Therefore, she must not have signed a waiver. You know what a waiver is Trevor, don’t you?”
I stood tall as he shook his head no. How could someone be this dumb? What did Morgana see in this guy?
“It’s a little piece of paper that says the other person in the video can’t sue you and take all your money as they agree to be in the video.”
“Oh, uh, yeah. If I recall, she did sign it.”
I stepped back to get a good view of Trevor. He was bouncing from one foot to the other as his eyes darted around the room.
“Morgana, did you sign a waiver or any paperwork for this video?” I didn’t take my eyes off Trevor as I asked Morgana.
“No. I didn’t even find out about it until a few weeks later when Aria stumbled upon it on some porn site.”
“Oh, Trevor. It’s a good thing we aren’t in court, or you would have been guilty of perjury. Wait, Morgana, isn’t Aria’s dad a lawyer?” Still keeping my eyes on Trevor. He was shaking now.
“Yeah, but—”
“So you see, Trevor, Morgana is just itching to take all the money from you. You would owe her so much that even if you worked at wherever you work—”
“I, uh, I work here. I’m an assistant manager.”
“Okay, then even if you work fifty years here you might have paid her back by then. Do you want to work that long never seeing a dime because of one pathetic sex video?”
“Which I wasn’t even in the shot half the time. Your camera skills are worse than your boyfriend skills, Trevor.” Morgana came and stood beside me.
“Fine, I’ll take it down tonight but only if you promise you won’t sue.”
“Now how can I promise that, Trevor? What if it resurfaces at some point in the future?” She walked up to him and dug her finger into his chest. “If that video ever sees the light of day again, you better go into hiding because you won’t want me to find you.”
I stood behind Morgana and mimic slitting my throat as I stared at him. Because if that video did come back, I’d kill him.
“Yes. Yes, okay. I’ll take it down and delete the file. I got to get back to work. Bye, April.”
He huffed and with a brisk step, headed behind the counter. I made a note to contact Edgar and have him pay Trevor and Trevor’s computer a visit.
“Thanks, Henrik. Aria mentioned before about suing him but I thought if I talked to him he would just take it down. I guess I was wrong. I’m really wondering what I saw in Trevor.”
“Me too,” I mumbled.
“What?” Morgana asked.
“I guess he just needed to be told that the law was on your side. You know, if you really need a lawyer I can find you one. Even if he takes the thing down you still have a right to sue him.”
Her body seemed to deflate without moving. “No, I just don’t want it having a bad effect on my job.”
“Henrik? We need to discuss things before the meeting.” Zooey’s eyes darted between me and Morgana.
“Oh, right. Give me a minute, Zooey. I have to discuss something with Morgana.”
“Fine,” she groaned and turned toward the counter and found the young boy making googly eyes at her. Zooey stopped and turned toward the pickup counter where a lip licking Trevor was staring at her.
“They should rename this place Sleazy Joe’s,” she mumbled before heading back toward the restrooms.
“I hope Ed patched up that peephole,” Morgana said glancing at a retreating Zooey.
“What?” I looked back at Zooey but was distracted by the noise of Trevor and the boy pushing each other out of the way as they tried to make it into the Employee Only area. They must have breaks often around here.
“Never mind.”
I stepped closer to Morgana as her hazel eyes moved away from the back of the shop and returned to me. She smelled of lavender and rosemary, and somehow, I felt like I was home. In that shop full of perverts and coffee grounds, standing next to Morgana I didn’t yearn for more. I only wanted this.
“Morgana, I think—”
“I’m sorry I punched you, Henrik.”
I wince remembering the pain. She had a mean hook. If she took up boxing, I would definitely place my bets on her.
“I deserved it. Truth be told, I’m surprised you hadn’t punched me before then.”
We laughed, and I waved to the chairs for us to sit.
“There were things about my past, the accident that killed my parents and Tiffany’s husband that I don’t know if I will ever get over. I know logically I was not to blame, but when something like that happens there is always a ‘what if’ in the back of my mind.”
She placed her hand on mine. It’s warm, and I want to bring her fingers to my lips.
“I know my mother’s drinking caused that crash. I know that if I had told my parents that I would get my sister from her friend’s house, I wouldn’t have drank that night at the office holiday party. Even if I did drink, I would have called a cab to go get her, but I was a young selfish twenty-something. I believed that since I got rich from helping to create a big company, I didn’t have to look after my family. I didn’t have to be there for them.”
I rubbed my thumb over her palm. “I was so stupid. Even that didn’t stop me. Their deaths. I kept drinking after that. It wasn’t until an accident a few months later that involved a tree and my car did I realize how utterly selfish I had been. Even have a scar across my torso to remind me.”
“Henrik, I’m so sorry. But their deaths are not your fault.”
I closed my eyes, took a breath, and opened them once more. “I’m trying, Morgana. Really, I am. There are days that I believe that, and with R. Payne Works I seem to believe it more an
d more. Somehow doing something good instead of doing something just for a paycheck has me believing I might not be so bad after all.”
I glanced over at her as a tear escaped her eye. My thumb grabbed it before it fell into her coffee.
“Thank you for helping me see that I was not just a Payne, Morgana.”
“You’re welcome, Henrik.”
I sighed. “You said the other day you wanted us to talk. I’m ready to talk.”
I paused and gave her a moment to say no, but she didn’t so I continued, “When I told Jacob that your distribution idea was mine I was doing it so he would fire me. I knew you had told Evaleen and she would jump at the chance to have me fired. She did, of course. But then I saw the pity in Jacob’s eyes, like he was willing to give me another chance. I knew he saw me like a brother, so I had to make him hate me.”
Her brow did that cute little wrinkle that I loved. “But why? Why did you have to be fired and why did you want him to hate you?”
“Because I was done with that job. I loved Mimir and what it had done for me, but it was time to move on. Besides, I knew there would always be a conflict between us if we worked together. I don’t know if Jacob would ever believe anything I told him when it came to you so I had to leave and you needed to stay. The only way he would fire me was if he hated me. So I said those awful things about you. Told him you were tricking me.”
She cocked her eye at me. “You could have just quit.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I could have but you know me, Morgana, I’d rather people hate me than feel sorry for me. Jacob and maybe even Edgar would have taken pity on me if I walked away. They would constantly try to contact me and at that point, I just wanted to be left alone. I lost you, nothing else seemed to matter.”
A moment of silence had passed before she nodded.
“Morgana, I would very much like to see you again. I didn’t mean what I said the other day—”
“Henrik?” Zooey was standing next to the table.
Morgana took her hands away, placing them firmly on the counter as she rose. “Don’t let me keep you. I have to get back to my job. I actually got your old office, Henrik. Now I get to brood in that big black leather chair and throw pink sticky notes around.” Morgana winked with a sad smile while grabbing her purse.
Rules of Payne (Cake Love Book 1) Page 20