“Yeah.” Brad smiles but I don’t return it. “Where is it you said that you were staying?”
“Oh no, I’m not telling you that.”
“Why the fuck not?” I bite back.
“Because you would go straight there and try to speak to her. I can see that she means a lot to you, but for the time being, I think that you need to give her the space that she needs. I may not understand what is going on, but I know that doing the opposite of what any woman asks is just going to piss them off.” I clench my jaw, knowing that he is right.
Just how much more space is she going to need though?
It may have only been a couple of days, but it feels like a lifetime.
“Fine.” The buzzer goes on the intercom, interrupting our conversation.
“I better get going anyway,” Brad says as he stands up. I stand up and reach across the desk, grabbing his arm to get his attention. He looks at me questioningly.
“I meant it when I said don’t touch her.” My tone is laced with warning.
“I’m not going to, bro. Jeez, I have learnt from my past mistakes. You’re just going to have to trust me on this one.” He shrugs out of my grasp and walks to my office door.
“I’ll call you later,” he says as he opens the door, and then he is gone.
To say I am shocked by the conversation that we just had is an understatement. Half of me is pleased that I am finally able to find out how Stacey is, but the other part of me is extremely wary of Brad’s motives. I just have to hope that he is being true to his word.
Trusting Brad is like swimming in a sea of sharks with no cage.
Chapter Nineteen
Stacey
I have spent the whole day writing again, and it feels so liberating. At least I have managed to do something productive in the last two days, instead of just wallowing in misery.
I click the kettle on to make myself a drink and my phone starts to ring. I check who is calling before answering and see that it is Martin.
“Hey, Mart, how’s tricks?”
“Oh, baby girl, I have had the most awful day,” he says sounding glum.
“Oh no, what’s happened?”
“Ugh, what hasn’t happened. First of all, work was totally shite, and then Clayton phoned me to say that he wasn’t coming back. He doesn’t see a future for us.”
“Oh, honey, I’m so sorry.” I feel awful for him. I know that he loves Clayton, and I was rooting for them to work out their differences. “Did Clayton say why he didn’t see a future for the two of you?” I ask, ignoring the work problem for now.
“He just said that he feels like we have grown apart, and that he loves me, but he isn’t in love with me anymore. I had a feeling that this was coming, but actually hearing him say it hurts like hell.” My heart goes out to him. I know how he is feeling right now. I know that we are both going through different circumstances, but heartbreak is gut-wrenching, no matter what shape or form it comes in.
“Oh God. Do you need me to come and give you a hug?” I feel like such a shit friend for shutting myself away in this bed and breakfast. I should be there for him.
“I appreciate the offer, baby girl, but I think that I just need to be by myself for tonight. It’s a lot to take in. At the moment I just feel sad, but I know that anger will kick in shortly, and I don’t want anyone to witness me screaming the place down like a baby.” I hear him take a deep breath on the other end of the phone. “I really thought that he was for keeps, Stace.” His voice breaks, and I know that this break up has deeply affected him.
“Oh, Martin.” The line goes silent for a few minutes as I listen to my friend weep for his broken relationship. “Please let me come and see you,” I say, wanting to be there for him.
“No, I can’t face seeing anyone. I feel like someone has come along and ripped my heart from my chest.” I have never heard Martin talk like this before, and it scares me. Martin has always been fun, bubbly and flamboyant. Yes, he has had down moments before, but he has always tried to make a joke out of things. He isn’t known for taking life too seriously. I could kick Clayton’s ass for doing this to him. “I just… I feel hollow.”
“I know the feeling well.” Too well, actually.
“It’s not quite the same though, is it?” Martin says, causing me to question what he means.
“How so?”
“Well, I know that you are hurting, but at least Jake still wants you. He loves you and would do anything to get you back. Clayton doesn’t want me. He isn’t going to try and fight for me.” Martin’s words cause my heart to thump in my chest. He doesn’t say it maliciously, he’s just voicing his view of both situations.
He’s right. Jake has done nothing but try to get me to speak to him.
All of a sudden, I feel ridiculous that I have let this situation drag on for the last few days. Here’s Martin, on the end of the phone, in bits. He has lost the guy that he loves more than anything.
My guy is still waiting for me.
My guy hasn’t ended things with me.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper into the phone.
“Don’t be sorry, Stace, just make sure that you are staying away from Jake for the right reasons. If you still love him and want to be with him, then make it work. I don’t want you to lose him and feel like I do right now.” I don’t know what to say in response. I let a tear fall down my cheek, and I hear Martin blow his nose into a tissue. Maybe a change of topic will help?
“How about you tell me what happened at work today?”
“Ugh, where do I start?” he says, sighing in exasperation. “Basically, I came up with this fabulous idea for the Waters Industries summer ball. I have been working on it all week long, but today, when I showed Jake my ideas, he completely shot me down. It was humiliating. He’s still not handling things well.” Although the change of topic gives Martin something else to focus on for a few minutes, hearing that Jake is still struggling causes a pain to travel straight to my heart.
“He shouldn’t be treating you badly, Martin.”
“He can’t help it. He’s hurting. I get it.” His short answer halts our conversation, and I decide to change the topic again.
“Listen, why don’t we hit the town on Saturday night? I feel like we could both do with a good night out.”
“Okay.” I expected a little more enthusiasm, but then I remember how numb I felt when I left Jake in The Den car park the other day.
“Great.” I inject some cheer into my voice.
“Listen, I’m going to go and take a long, hot bath. Thanks for listening to me, baby girl. And keep in mind what I said. I don’t want you to lose your happy ending.” I smile, even though I know that Martin can’t see me. I know that he is just looking out for me.
“I’ll call you tomorrow. If you need me before then though, just let me know and I will be straight there.”
“Will do. Love you, baby girl.”
“Love you too, Mart.” We end the call and I feel the need for a glass of wine.
Martin’s words have really hit home.
I leave my phone in my room and make my way down to the communal room. When I enter, I see that Doctor Bradley is sat in the same chair that he was sat in last night when we were talking. He has a bottle of beer in his hand, and I see that there is a full wine glass on the table. He looks up at me and smiles, gesturing me over to sit with him.
“There you are,” he says as I take a seat opposite him. “I was beginning to think that you had stood me up.” He laughs at his joke and I take a sip of my wine.
“Mmm, I need this.” I say, taking a few more sips.
“Bad day?” he asks me.
“It was okay until a few moments ago. I just finished up a call with a close friend. He’s having some trouble and I feel awful that there isn’t anything that I can do for him.”
“That sucks, but you seem like you have your own problems that you need to sort out before you start to worry about anyone else’s.”
&n
bsp; “I may have my own problems, but my friends are important to me,” I say defensively.
“Whoa, I didn’t mean anything by it.” He holds his hands up in surrender and I instantly feel guilty for snapping at him.
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay. You know, I am here if you need to offload about anything.” I know that he is dying to know why I am here, but I still don’t want to tell him too much. It’s actually been nice having a bit of company here, but I don’t expect to see him after I leave.
I shake my head at him, smiling. He doesn’t give up easily.
I place my wine glass back on the table and let my gaze wander to the window. It’s raining heavily, the sound of the rain on the glass putting me at ease. I always love it when it is raining, and I am sat indoors just listening to it patter on the window. The sound relaxes me.
“Stacey?” Doctor Bradley says after a few moments, making me pull my gaze away from the window to look at his face.
“Yeah?”
“There is something that I need to tell you.”
“Okay.” I feel my eyebrows knit together, wandering what on earth he could have to tell me that has caused him to have such a serious look on his face. He puts his beer down and leans forward, his arms resting on his knees as he looks at me. His look is intense, and it is starting to make me feel slightly uncomfortable.
“I don’t quite know how to tell you this, but I feel that you have a right to know.” He takes a deep breath, and his words leave me feeling more confused than ever.
Oh God, please don’t let him tell me that he is some kind of deranged stalker or something? I have already had to deal with one of those, and that was enough to last me a lifetime.
“Stacey, I am Jake’s brother.” And just like that, I feel like the wind has been knocked out of me. I can’t have heard him correctly. This must be some kind of joke.
“Excuse me?” I say, finding my voice, even if it is quiet.
“I’m Jake’s brother. I know that this must be a shock, but you had a right to know.” He pauses and picks his beer back up, taking a long gulp.
“What the hell are you talking about? I don’t understand. Your surname is Bradley. Jake’s surname is Waters.”
“My surname is Waters too. Bradley is my first name. I have called myself Doctor Bradley for years. It sounds less pompous than Doctor Waters.”
Is this guy for real?
“No, no. This is a wind up, right?” I say, my hands starting to shake.
“Afraid not.” He’s being deadly serious.
“Oh my God.” I close my eyes and feel stupid for not spotting the connection earlier.
Jake’s brother moved to America.
Jake’s brother is a doctor.
Jake’s brother is called Brad.
How the hell did I not put two and two together in the first place?
“I saw Jake today. He knows that I have met you. I only realised who you were when I saw you calling him the other day when I was at his office––”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. This is too much.” I am way out of my depth here. It feels like the room is closing in on me.
I abruptly stand up and bolt from the room. I run up the stairs to my room, and can hear Doctor Bradley, or just Bradley as I now know him, calling my name. I unlock the door to my room quickly and slam it shut behind me. My breathing is laboured, and I feel shaky. I lean against the door and process the limited information that Bradley just told me.
Bradley is Jake’s brother.
Did Jake send him here to keep an eye on me?
What the hell is going on with my life?
Will this madness never end?
I make my way over to the bed on shaky legs, and I sit on the edge.
How did my life become so complicated? It’s like a fucking soap opera.
I almost laugh at how eventful my life has become over the last couple of months, but I am broken from my thoughts by a knock on the door to my room.
“Stacey, please open the door.” It’s Bradley.
Fuck.
What the hell do I do?
“I just want a chance to explain things to you.”
Do I trust what he is saying to me?
I know that Jake doesn’t have a very high opinion of him. They haven’t been close for years.
Would Jake really want me speaking to him?
My legs seem to make the decision for me. They take me to the door and I unlock it before my brain has caught up with what I am doing. I open the door and Bradley is stood there with fresh drinks in his hands.
“I thought that you may need a refill after hearing what I just told you.” He holds the wine glass out to me and I take it. “Please can I come in?” he asks.
“I don’t think that is a good idea.”
“Please, just five minutes. If after that you want me to leave, then I will.”
In this moment, he seems so genuine that I decide to hear him out, so I step to one side, allowing him to enter my room. I close the door behind him and walk over to the table and chairs by the window. I sit down and gesture for Bradley to sit in the chair opposite me. He takes a seat and I wait to see what he has to say.
“I’m sorry if I went about telling you that Jake is my brother all wrong, but it didn’t feel right to keep it from you any longer.” He puts his beer down on the table and runs one of his hands through his hair. The action makes me picture Jake, seeing as it is something that he also does.
I study Brad’s face, and now that I know they are brothers, I can see similarities. They both have the same strong jaw line, the same shaped nose, and similar striking eyes. “When I went to see Jake today, I told him that you were staying at the same place as me.”
“Oh God, does that mean that Jake knows where I am?” I ask, panic engulfing me.
“No. I refused to tell him where we were staying.” I breathe a sigh of relief at his words. “I have done some awful things to Jake in the past. I have fucked up in so many ways, but he has always helped me out of the shitty situations that I found myself in. I don’t know how much you know of mine and Jake’s past.”
“Not much. He doesn’t really talk about you.”
“I figured as much. If you knew half of the stuff that I had done, then you probably wouldn’t even give me the time of day. When we were younger, we were close, but as we got older, I became jealous of Jake. He was always the together one. He always knew that he wanted to be a successful businessman, and he made that happen.
“I resented his success, so I tried to piss him off in other ways. Before I left for America, Jake was seeing this girl. I was always a bit of a jack-the-lad, and anything Jake had, I wanted. Jake wasn’t serious about the girl, but I didn’t know that at the time. I slept with her behind Jake’s back, and then I took her to America with me.” I gasp at his admission.
“It’s safe to say that Jake lost all trust in me at that point. I think that it hurt him that, as his brother, I could do something like that to him. You can imagine how he first reacted when I told him that I had met you.” He pauses and stares at the floor, clearly ashamed of his actions.
“I haven’t been in Jake’s life since the day that I left, but I still know how he works. He’s always been the same, but I have never seen him like this. He’s a mess. He’s suffering, and I think that you are suffering too. I know that I don’t really know you, but I feel like we have a connection. I just want to help the both of you in any way that I can. I don’t know the ins and outs of what has happened between you and Jake, but I know that he regrets whatever it is that he has done.
“He’s a good guy, Stace. Don’t tell him that I said this, but he’s one of the best. Don’t let a mistake he made ruin what you two have together.” He takes a swig of his beer and I am left reeling from his confession. He looks at his watch and sighs. “I guess my five minutes is up.”
He stands and starts to walk over to the door. He places his hand on the door handle and turns to look at me. “I
f you need to talk, I’m in room number twelve. Thanks for listening to me.” With that, he opens the door and leaves my room whilst I sit in complete shock.
I grab my wine glass and drain the whole thing in one go, slamming the glass back down on the table when I have finished.
Well, fuck me.
Jake
My phone rings and I see Brad’s name across the screen. I answer immediately.
“Is Stacey okay?”
“And hello to you too.”
“Cut the shit, Brad.” I’m not in the mood for idle chit-chat right now.
“Jeez, you really need to loosen up, bro.” I clench my jaw in frustration.
“Just tell me how she is.” It took every ounce of willpower that I possess not to follow him to wherever he is staying earlier and see how Stacey is for myself.
“Honestly, I don’t know. I told her that I am your brother.”
“Fuck.” Why the hell did he do that? I don’t want Stacey to think that I have been keeping tabs on her by using him.
“Yeah. To say that she was shocked is an understatement, but I guess that is hardly surprising. She ran off when I first told her and locked herself in her room, but I managed to get her to let me in to speak to her.”
“Wait a fucking minute. You were in her room?” He shouldn’t be anywhere near her room.
“Yes, Jake, but I was only in there for five minutes. She listened to what I had to say, and then I left.” He sounds exasperated saying this, but I don’t like the thought of them being alone together, especially in the privacy of her room. I know that Stacey wouldn’t do anything with him. I trust her implicitly. I just don’t fucking like it. “I think that she is going to need some time to process everything that I told her. You need to leave her to think things through.”
“That’s easier said than done.”
“I know, but you need to do this, for her sake. Keep your cool, and if anything else happens, I will phone you.”
“Fine.” There isn’t really anything else that I can say. “I suppose I should thank you for helping me.”
The Complete Perfect Series Page 53