Fifteen Weekends (18 page)

  Emily shifted the conversation asking, “So where are you off to next?”

   “California, Big Sur actually,” Ashleigh replied then took a sip of her tea. “Speaking of California, why don’t you fill me on your time with Ethan and your big campaign?”

  Emily explained how she and the rest of the advertising team were able to come up with some creative strategies for the impending campaign. Ethan even sat in on a couple of the brainstorming sessions and offered some helpful suggestions for promotion. She and Ethan will need to return to Los Angeles when they begin shooting the commercials, but that is still a few weeks away.

  “We had a wonderful time. Ethan introduced me to his family and took me to their winery.”

  Ashleigh’s eyebrows lifted, “Really? Seems kind of soon.”

  “Tell me about it. I was pretty ticked with him at first, but it was very casual. His family made me feel right at home like I’d known them forever. We stayed the night on Friday then Ethan took me to this amazing resort and spa in Santa Barbara. We drank wine, ate delicious food, and Ethan booked me a spa treatment. I had the most amazing seaweed facial and deep tissue massage.”

  Emily’s phone began to buzz, the caller ID said private. She answered, but there was no one there. A few seconds later a text message then appeared: WHAT
’
S
YOUR
FAVORITE
GAME
?
MINE
’
S
WATCHING
YOU
,
EMILY
.

  Knots twisted in Emily’s stomach. Her heart began to race, and she just stared at her phone. Emily slowly scanned her surroundings. She didn’t notice anyone suspicious. All the message did was leave her feeling freaked out.

  “Emily, you okay?” Ashleigh asked. “You’re as white as a sheet.”

  Emily passed her phone to Ashleigh so she could view the message. Emily began to tell her about all the strange phone calls she’d been receiving. A shiver moved through Ashleigh.

  “Are you going to talk to Ethan about these creepy messages and phone calls?”

  “Things are going so well between us, I’m not sure our relationship is ready for this kind of drama.”

  Ashleigh scoffed and said, “That’s ridiculous, Emily.”

  Emily shot Ashleigh an irritated look.

  Ashleigh strummed her fingers on the side of her cup, then said, “Hey…what about that former Assistant of yours, could she be involved?”

  “That’s an interesting thought,” Emily pondered. “This is exactly the kind of shit she’d pull. Next time the phone rings, Morgan’s getting a piece of my mind.”

  “If you engage her though, she will know it bothers you. It’s probably best to just ignore every unknown call and force it to voicemail. She will eventually tire out,” Ashleigh advised.

  Emily felt better knowing that Morgan was most likely the pest behind the calls. Emily recalled time and time again how Morgan tried to capture Ethan’s attention in the break room or shamelessly flirt with him at company events. It was entirely possible that Morgan found out that Emily was dating Ethan and it sparked jealously.

  Thunder rumbled in the distance. Ashleigh hurriedly grabbed her purse and said, “I gotta go Emily. I don’t want to be caught in this rain storm.”

   Ashleigh gave Emily a quick hug and darted to her car. Emily waved as Ashleigh peeled out of the parking lot.
I hope you get over your fear of storms someday soon Ashleigh

Chapter Twenty-Three:

Amanda

   Amanda found herself feeling restless and bored on a Saturday afternoon. Should she go shopping?  Hit the gym for a workout? Vince had been in his study for most of the morning and had scheduled a round of golf at the club that afternoon. He invited Amanda to accompany him to the club where he thought she might want to work on her tennis game or have a spa day, but she declined. Amanda had spent the previous day at the spa and was apprehensive about picking up a tennis racket again. It had been so long that she was sure her game was more than a little rusty.

  Amanda’s feelings for Vince were growing stronger with each day. However, things with Vince had yet to reach a physical level, and she was beginning to think either he was not attracted to her or that he was impotent. Vince was a hard man to read at times. Through all the gifts, dinners and even the surprise overnight trips she was still unclear of his feelings for her. He had yet to introduce her to his kids, not that she minded, but it did seem odd. The more she thought about it, she wondered if Vince had even seen his kids at all this summer.

  Maybe his ex-wife was a bitch, or crazy, or both. Amanda didn’t know much about his kids, his ex-wife, what their marriage was like or even why they were divorced. Amanda thought maybe she should be grateful that the wife and kids were not a distraction or worse, a problem. She would welcome the idea of coordinating schedules for school activities, weekends and basically step-parenting business in general, if Vince wanted her too.

  Picking up a bottle of lotion, she poured some in her hand and began rubbing it onto her legs. In that moment she wondered how everyone at The Bath Shop was doing, which was weird because Amanda never imagined she would ever think of her former co-workers again. These were a bunch of people who she never much cared about.

  Earlier in the week, she had gone to lunch with Daniel and he filled her in on the new guy in his life. The relationship was still blossoming— they had been dating for about two weeks. Stephen was a Pediatric Speech and Language Pathologist. Daniel said work was positively boring since she had left the company, and he had transferred to the Woodfield Mall to take over Amanda’s position. It was a shorter commute, for which he expressed his gratefulness many times as he knocked back a few martinis.

  Amanda checked her phone for the time and noticed she had missed a few things. She saw Emily had checked in on Foursquare to the Fulton Street Farmer’s Market, and Ashleigh had a Facebook status that said she just had a great workout and was ready for her trip tomorrow.

   Her boredom, along with thinking about Vince’s ex-wife, led her to do something she hadn’t done in a long time—social media stalking of her ex-husband, Brandon. But first, she needed some liquid courage. She walked to the bar and poured herself a vodka on the rocks. She was starting to feel quite anxious, so she retrieved two pills from her medicine cabinet and washed them down with a swig of the cocktail.

   Amanda had Julie’s Facebook login information, which allowed her to look at Brandon’s page. Julie was one of the last ties to her old life. If there was anything she needed to know, Julie was the one who kept her in the loop. It was nice to see Julie still maintained a friendship with Brandon despite the divorce.  Last update she heard from her sister, Brandon was so busy with his case load at the law firm he had no time for a social life. Although, looking at his Facebook page, Amanda saw a much different story

   It looked like Brandon had found a new girlfriend and recently taken a trip to Costa Rica. He and Erica Hamilton spent a lovely vacation at the Four Seasons at Peninsula Papagayo. Erica was very pretty, but quite the opposite of Amanda. Erica had short dark hair, bronzed skin, basically no curves, except for an all too apparent chest enhancement, and brilliant blue eyes. Amanda studied the photos of the two of them. Brandon looked happy, like over the moon elated. She was glad for Brandon. He deserved to be with someone who made him smile so genuinely.

  She stumbled upon something else of interest, Andrew Langston’s profile.
Why is Jules friends with Andrew Langston?
Amanda couldn’t imagine that their father would allow this friendship. Amanda searched Julie’s messages for a conversation between the two of them and found nothing. She clicked on Andrew’s page. It seems he had graduated from college and was living in Chicago working at Alpha Street Partners, a private equities firm.

  Amanda decided to leave Julie a message. It was a code they had worked out when they wanted to see each other. Amanda pulled up the inbox and created a new message to Julie Richards and simply typed
“TEST”.
Julie would see that message, read it and delete it. Then she would get her disposable phone and use it to call Amanda. It could be hours or days, but when Julie had the time she would find a way to contact her sister.

  Amanda logged off of Facebook and decided she needed to work up a good sweat. The best way for her to do that was to run, since sex apparently was not an option at this point. If Vince didn’t try to fuck her soon, Amanda’s BOB was going to have a meltdown from overuse. Amanda heard the door to the apartment open as she was putting her running shoes on.

  “Amanda? Are you around?”

  “Hey, Alex, I’m getting ready to go to the gym.”

  “Would you like some company? I’m feeling like a run, too.”

  Amanda opened the door of her bedroom and saw Alex looking a bit flustered.

  “Yes, that would be fun. You okay, Alex?” Amanda approached him gently placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. His entire body became stiff, and Amanda drew in a sharp breath. His gaze caught hers, and she dropped her hand back to her side.
That was weird.

  Alex cleared his throat and said, “I will be. I just had a fight with my sister about our dad’s birthday party next weekend. My sister is impossible.”

  Amanda replied, “I know how you feel Alex. Sisters can be a real pain in the ass. I understand completely.”

  Alex let out a half-hearted laugh, “Okay Amanda. Let’s go run it out. Give me a few to change.”

  Just then, she heard the front door open again. Walking into the living room she found Vince was home.

  “Hey, Vince.  How was the golf game?”

  “Hi, gorgeous.”  He greeted her smiling, and then gripped her waist kissing her firmly on the lips. “We had to cut it short. There’s been an emergency in New York with one of our clients. I have to fly out tonight and try to smooth some things over and make sure everything gets worked out. I am so sorry to bail on you this evening and abandon our dinner plans. Can you help me pack me a suitcase? I need two suits, two casual outfits and of course my pajamas.”

  “Oh Vince please, you never have to apologize for your work schedule,” she replied calmly trying to not let her disappointment ring in her tone. “Will Alex be joining you?”

  “No, he is going to stay there with you. I should be back after work on Monday.”

  “I’ll go pack your things now, and you can get cleaned up.”

  Amanda was upset that Vince was leaving. He seemed to be gone almost every other weekend.

 
Why didn’t he ever invite me to go with him?

  Since Amanda didn’t have a job and Vince was practically gone all the time, it left her feeling irritated and lonely, like she felt when she was married to Brandon. She needed to shake things up. You can shop, workout and go to the spa only so much before you turn into a zombie. 

  “Ready to go hit the gym, Amanda?” Alex asked as he came around the corner in his workout gear.

  “You go ahead Alex. I have to pack Vince a suitcase for New York City. He has an emergency with a client.”

  The expression on Alex’s face changed instantly. “Okay,” he said quietly. “See you down there.”

  “Good. We’re going to have a chat about this difficult sister of yours.”

Alex gave Amanda a sour look and playfully stuck out his tongue as he turned around to close the door.

   Amanda walked down the corridor past the bar to the bedroom. She didn’t mind that Vince had a personal bedroom all to himself. She liked having her space. Vince spent most nights in his own room because he worked late and did not want to disturb Amanda, who usually went to bed around eleven. Entering Vince’s room, Amanda heard the shower running and Vince singing. She smiled. Amanda grabbed his suitcase out of the closet placing it on the chair by the window. Thinking that Vince’s head was probably in problem solving mode she took a chance and decided to ask him if she could get a job.

  Stepping into the bathroom she took a deep breath and said very sweetly, “Hey Vince, can I ask you something?”

  “Sure, anything you need, gorgeous.”

  “Okay, here it goes. I’m finding myself being a little bored. I didn’t think I would ever miss work, and I’m not saying I want to work forty hours a week or anything, but would you object to me getting a part-time job?”

  There was silence for a few moments. Finally, Vince replied, “Instead of a part-time job, have you thought about doing volunteer or charity work?”

  That idea hadn’t even occurred to Amanda. She didn’t need money, she just needed an outlet. Working on a charity project or a fundraiser was something she could definitely do. She was on the board of a few notable charities and often helped organize special events when she was married to Brandon.

  “Vince!” she shouted. “That’s a wonderful idea. Do you have any suggestions? ”

  “I have lots of connections Amanda. I will have my secretary send you a list of the charities and organizations I support and you can take your pick.”