Unleash Me: Wedding (The Unleash Me Series)
Page 21
She checked her watch, stood, and started to walk around her desk.
“Now, look, I don’t mean to get all maudlin on you before you go to lunch, and I’ll be the first to admit that I’m unusually emotional right now. But in the wake of Miranda’s death, and whether it comes to my daughters or to Jennifer or you, Lisa, I’m finding myself facing the sudden end of things. Two weeks ago, that’s what happened to Miranda’s husband, their children, and their friends. Everything just ended. Everything just stopped.”
She motioned toward her door.
“What if you two walk out that door and we three never see each other again? What if this moment is it for us? What if we’ve just had our last dance? Because none of us know whether that’s the case. Our final memories of each other could end right here. So, before you go to a lunch I’ve likely just ruined—and I do apologize for that—please give me a hug before you leave and know that I love you both. And that I always will.”
After Jennifer hugged her, I hugged her. “I’m so sorry,” I said again, socked for a lack of words.
“As am I,” she said as she pulled away from me. “But both of you need to heed my advice right now. All of us need to learn from my friend’s untimely death, if only so that we can live our own lives to the fullest. I plan to start doing that now. I plan to spend less time at work and more time with my girls and my girlfriends. Because the eighty hours a week I spend here is beyond the call. I need to get a life. One day, I hope to have a relationship. In the wake of Miranda’s death, I need to rethink everything. And as you and Jennifer go forward with your own lives, I hope you won’t make the same mistakes I’ve made. Life isn’t just about your careers. It’s also about the relationships you hold dear. I plan to tend to that, I plan to celebrate them, and I plan to get better at all of it. Because I need to. And as careerists, I hope you and Jennifer will as well.”
***
“My God,” I said to Jennifer when we left Blackwell’s office and moved toward the bank of elevators at the end of the hall. “What in the hell was that?”
“That was Barbara facing the fact that time is limited for every one of us,” she said. “And by the way, what you just witnessed was her emotional state two weeks after Miranda’s death. I can’t tell you how shaken she was by it when she first heard the news. She’s actually much better now. In fact, it was good watching her be her old self when she first started sparring with you. She’s coming back. I believe she’ll make changes to her life, and I also believe she’ll be back to her old self soon.”
When we stepped into one of the elevators and started to descend, I asked her what surprise she had tucked up her sleeve for me.
“You’ll see. Cutter is going to take us there first before we go to Ruby’s.”
“Why the mystery? You know I hate being kept in the dark. I was always the kid who raided the house a few weeks before Christmas so I’d know for sure my mother was nailing it with the gifts.”
“I remember that,” she said. “And I also remember that it led to plenty of sad faces when you saw that she hadn’t.”
“What my mother never understood was why I’d never want Barbie dolls when what I really wanted were Dracula and Frankenstein dolls.”
“Actually, I think your mother got it when you started defacing your Barbie dolls. You know, when you crossed out their eyes with little Xs, stitched up their lips with black thread, and shaved their heads bald so you could use your bright-green crayons to expose what was supposed to be Barbie’s toxic brain.”
“My poor mother,” I said, thinking back to those days. “What’s so great about her is that she never discouraged me.”
“That’s because she was frightened of you.” The elevator slowed, and the car doors slid open. “Let me text Cutter,” she said. “He’ll bring the car around, and then off we’ll go.”
“But where?” I said as we stepped out. “And why did you ask me to bring Kleenex?”
“You’ll see,” she said.
“As you keep saying, which is irritating.”
“Whatever,” she said. “Let’s go.”
***
“Jesus,” I said to Jennifer when Cutter pulled the limousine to a stop in front of our old apartment building on East Tenth Street, where we’d landed our first one-bedroom flat when we moved to Manhattan. “Look at it. I thought it looked exhausted back then, but check it out now. It’s literally sagging in the heat. It looks like it needs watering.”
“I don’t know,” Jennifer said with fondness in her voice. “Seeing it after all these years is kind of magical, isn’t it?”
“Frankly, it’s kind of magical that we got out before it caved in on us.”
“Oh, come on,” Jennifer said as she looked out the window at it. “Think about it. Everything started here for us. See that window there on the third floor—that’s where you wrote your second book.”
“All I remember is that we nearly died of heat exhaustion in that apartment. Do you remember how hot it was that summer? You know, before we scraped up enough money to buy that used air conditioner of ours?”
“The one that shook the windows?”
“That’s the one.”
“Well, it did the job,” Jennifer said. “As did the rot-gut vodka we used to drink.”
“Breakfast of champions.”
“Do you have a favorite memory here?”
“I do.”
“Tell me.”
“It’s the day we left this sorry dump and got our sweet new digs on Fifth with Blackwell’s help.”
She just shook her head at me in disappointment. “This was supposed to be a moment between us. Why aren’t you taking this seriously?”
“Because I’m not the sentimental type?”
“I know better.”
This clearly means something to her…but why?
In an effort to find out, I took hold of her hand. “Let’s get out of the car,” I said. “If we’re going to do this, then we need to have a proper look at the old girl.”
“Let’s,” Jennifer said. “Cutter, how about if you ride around the block? We’ll flag you when we’re ready to get back in.”
“You’ve got it, Jennifer.”
On the sidewalk, the two of us stood beneath the shade of a nearby maple tree and silently looked up at the dilapidated building we’d once called home.
“No wonder I write about zombies,” I said to her. “I mean, come on. Once, I somehow felt at home here—and this joint is scary. It all makes sense to me now. First were the things I once did to Barbie, which were questionable at best, and then the fact that I was actually happy to live in this building, which has to be haunted.”
“And yet we had fun here, didn’t we?”
When she said that, I glanced over at her and thought back to those days, remembering how much fun we’d had here. I looked up at the windows of our former apartment and recalled how thrilled and scared to death we’d been the moment we first learned it was ours. It seemed like a lifetime ago to me, and yet it had been a matter of only a few years.
“We did,” I said after a long moment. “We made the best of it, Jennifer. As wrong as this building is, at least it offered us a roof over our heads so we could try to make it here.”
“That’s the perfect way to put it,” she said.
“Why are you suddenly so nostalgic?” I asked. “That’s not like you. You’ve never lived your life in the rearview. Instead, you’ve always kept looking forward. What’s going on with you? I’m confused.”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I think what happened to Blackwell when you were gone also affected me. Because when it comes to our own story, Lisa, it feels like the pages have turned way too quickly. You and Tank are married now. Our lives have settled. We no longer are the two hustling broads who came here to make names for ourselves. Back then, neither of us knew that we’d end up where we are today. I guess I miss that raw kind of hustle.”
“You sound almost regretful,” I said.<
br />
“That’s not what I mean. I’m grateful that both of us found good men. I’m over the moon that I have a son whom I adore and a husband I’ll love forever. One day, you and Tank will start a family. And then our children will grow up together. Those are wonderful things that I hold dear. But back in the day, when we first came to live here? Sometimes I do miss the simpler lives we led back then, especially given some of the hellish events we’ve survived since. When you and I first arrived here, the energy was different—it was urgent. Electric. And it drove each of us to get where we are now. I wanted to come here today to celebrate what we’ve achieved. And also to thank you for believing in me.”
“I’ve never not believed in you, Jennifer.”
“Back then someone had to, and it was you, Lisa. You were unwavering in your support of me. I’ll never forget all that you did for me.”
“Jennifer, you edited my books for me back then,” I said. “And think of how much you’ve done for me since. You introduced me to Tank, for God’s sake! You’ve literally changed my life.”
“Don’t you see?” she said without hesitation when she turned to look at me—and when she did, I saw that her eyes were lit with emotion. “I’d do anything for you. I’d do all of it again—and again and again. Thank you for being my best friend. Thank you for seeing me through to where I am today. Because I know for a fact that I wouldn’t be where I am now without you at my side—or without you having my back.”
She turned toward the street when she said that and started to look for Cutter as she cleared her throat. Before I could speak, she took my hand in her own without looking at me.
And in that moment, I chose to just look at her—and admire what stood next to me. Despite her past with her abusive parents, in the end, Jennifer had won. She’d proven herself to be a survivor. She’d fought hard, and she’d made it. She was one of the strongest people I knew, and I loved her for it.
A light breeze lifted her hair off her shoulders. She reached out and captured the stray tresses with her free hand while her other hand clutched tightly to mine. Sun dappled through the trees and lit her with a beautiful mosaic of light and color as people hurried past us on the sidewalk.
“I have one more surprise for you,” she said, not looking at me.
“I’m not sure I can handle another,” I said. And after all that had just transpired between us, I meant it.
“This one you can,” she said when she turned to me. And when she did, I saw in her eyes the love she held for me.
“What is it?” I asked.
“I chose lunch at Ruby’s for a reason.”
“I get that now.”
“No,” she said. “No, I don’t think you do. At least not all of it, because there’s more.”
“I don’t understand…”
“Alex and I had our first date there—and so did you and Tank.”
“We did,” I said. “But what does that have to do with today?”
“Today is full circle for me,” she said. “Now that you’re married to Tank, today marks the beginning, the middle, the end, and the future for all of us. I hope you’ll see today the way I do, because I’ve asked Alex and Tank to join us for lunch. The four of us will gather at Ruby’s for a reason.”
“To celebrate how far we’ve come,” I said, now understanding the profundity of the moment.
“That’s right,” she said, and as Cutter rounded the corner, she held up her hand to grab his attention. He pulled toward the curb. “For me, with all of us sharing the same table together at that miraculous little diner that once seemed so insignificant to us, it now will stand as an exclamation point in our lives.”
“We’ve never been there together,” I said. “Not the four of us.”
“Then let’s be there together now,” she said as she led me off the curb and toward the limousine as Cutter jumped out of the car to open our door for us. “Let’s go and have lunch with the loves of our lives in the very place where love first touched each of us.”
“Full circle,” I said.
“That’s right,” she said as we greeted Cutter and stepped into the limousine’s cool comfort. Before Cutter swept us away, Jennifer put her hand on my knee and then pointed at our apartment building. “Once, we were just two girls from Maine who came here with a dream. And look at us now. We did it, Lisa,” she said. “Who would have thought?”
“We did,” I said. “Because we didn’t come here on a whim. We came here to fight and to win. But you’re right, Jennifer. We did it. We really did.”
She leaned forward and tapped Cutter on the shoulder. “Let’s go to Ruby’s, Cutter.” She turned to me with a smile. “Because Lisa and I have a lunch date with our husbands.”
***
Unleash Me: Wedding marks the end of the Annihilate Me series and the Unleash Me series. My many, many thanks to all of you who have seen the series through to its end. I hope that it was a love letter to you. I also hope you’ve enjoyed Jennifer and Alex’s story as well as Lisa and Tank’s story. Will I ever write in this world again? I’ll never say never. But now it’s time for new books with fresh characters, and I’m eager to introduce the first ones to you soon in my next book, Faking It. But before Faking It arrives, I want to thank all of you for your incredible support for a series of books that will forever be close to my heart. Thank you for sharing my journey and my beloved characters with me. And please know that when it comes to the latter, I’ll create more characters—memorable, loveable, difficult—for you to read about in future books…
Faking It begins that process!
XO,
Christina
BOOKS BY CHRISTINA ROSS
ANNIHILATE ME, VOL. 1
ANNIHILATE ME, VOL. 2
ANNIHILATE ME, VOL. 3
ANNIHILATE ME, VOL. 4
ANNIHILATE ME, HOLIDAY EDITION
ANNIHILATE ME: OMNIBUS
ANNIHILATE HIM, VOL. 1
ANNIHILATE HIM, VOL. 2
ANNIHILATE HIM, VOL. 3
ANNIHILATE HIM, HOLIDAY
ANNIHILATE HIM: OMNIBUS
ANNIHILATE THEM
ANNIHILATE THEM: HOLIDAY
Also by Christina Ross:
UNLEASH ME, VOL. 1
UNLEASH ME, VOL. 2
UNLEASH ME, VOL. 3
UNLEASH ME: BOXED SET
UNLEASH ME: WEDDING
Stand-alone novels
CHANCE
IGNITE ME
A DANGEROUS WIDOW
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XO,
Christina