Addicted To Greed (24 page)
Authors: Catherine Putsche
Destiny’s
second, third and fourth date with Spencer went down
with a bang, they both fell head over heels in love with each
other and became inseparable, always hand in hand with their
books and many friends. They became a social couple, often
going on holiday to the Lake District, where Spencer’s father
had a five bed roomed fairytale rural farm house, always
inviting their friends, often other couples they had befriended at
university sharing the love of the great outdoors. They both
enjoyed abseiling and mountain climbing the most. They dated
for all of two years before Spencer surprisingly announced soon
after he graduated from St John’s he wanted to go travelling
around Canada and America.
Destiny was in her third year of her deg
ree and couldn’t
understand his decision to go travelling straight away,
why
couldn’t he wait for her to finish and they could go travelling
together, she never envisaged a future without him.
“Look Destiny I know it may come as a bit of a shock but it’s
something I really wanna do and if I don’t do it now I never
will, or maybe I’ll become too old to pursue it, it’s my dream
and you know this!”
“I know, it’s both our dream remember or have you forgotten,
all I ask is that you wait eight months and we can go globe trot
together, it’s not something that I want to do alone and I can’t
understand why you’d wanna go it alone without me!”
“I can’t wait that long, it’s something I feel I’ve gotta do
now,
put it this way when you’re finished with your degree you can
join me, at least then I’ll have some experience of travelling that
I can share with you, you’ve gotta try and understand me on this
Destiny, and besides who knows a lot can happen in eight
months and you may change your mind anyway, I just can’t wait
that long!”
“Ok
, yeah, I guess I understand when you put it like that, I guess
I never thought about it until now but I’d never change my
mind, we made a pact remember, or have you forgotten that as
well?”
“No
, I haven’t and we can still fulfill that pack of ours, it’s just
I’ll be starting a little earlier than originally anticipated that’s all.
I don’t know why you’re making this into such a big deal,
besides maybe the time away from each other will do us good;
doesn’t absence make the heart grow fonder?”
“Spencer just what are you trying to say, just spit it out for
heaven’s sake it sounds very much like you want to call time on
our relationship, am I right?”
Destiny could feel her heart breaking inside and was trying to
hide her feelings so Spencer wouldn’t see just how upset she
really was.
“No it’s not that at all, I love you and always will, I just want a
little time to travel by myself, explore the world through my
own eyes before we commit ourselves to marriage, we’ve talked
about this so many times I thought you of all people would
understand my decision!”
With this Destiny stormed out of his apartment in tears grabbing
her jacket and flagging down a cab to her sisters, hoping that she
was home from work.
Ella took one look at her devastated sister and offered her a glass
of wine to calm her down, she understood her little sister more
so than she thought she understood herself at times and couldn’t
bear to see her distraught and heartbroken.
that?”
“No, I can’t believe it after all your plans to do it together when
you finish your degree!”
“He thinks the time apart will make our hearts grow fonder
before he commits to marriage with me, at least that what he
says. I just can’t understand why he couldn’t wait for me you
know, its breaking my heart Ella and he’s no idea how much, I
never envisaged this, not now, not yet!”
Ella poured herself a glass of red wine, topping Destiny’s up in
the process; she sat patiently listening to her sister, trying not to
judge Spencer too much, secretly she thought he was a selfish
bastard like most men she had come into contact with; she was
down on men due to the fact that her second son Carter had
come along and his father was nowhere to be seen, off the radar
somewhere, drinking with his buddies in the town centre
admiring all the single girls that threw themselves at them,
unable to acknowledge the fact that he had just become a father
and his son just may want to meet him for the very first time in
his short existence, after all Carter was only six months old and
had never met his father.
“Oh D
estiny sweetheart, I hate to see you like this, I sometimes
think men are all the same, selfish and self absorbed, I can
imagine what you’re going through. You know Carl hasn’t even
bothered to visit Carter since his birth, it’s like he miraculously
disappeared off the planet, maybe abducted by aliens!”
Destiny began to straighten up
, sobbing wasn’t the answer. She
managed to sympathise with Ella as she never seemed to have
any luck with men either.
“Why don’t
we hit the town tonight, go to our favorite haunts,
dance the night away, get drunk and forget about men for the
evening?”
“I couldn’t think of a better remedy myself, why not
!”
Ella arranged for the faithful Mrs Walsh to come over and
babysit whilst they both got ready, luckily Destiny still had
some going out outfits stuffed into Ella’s drawers somewhere
and borrowed her sisters make up, hairdryer and hair straighter.
The next day Destiny woke up with a hangover from hell
forgetting the night’s events, she couldn’t even recall how she
managed to get into bed at her own apartment, still fully clothed,
and then the realisation of what Spencer had said to her came
flooding back and her heart began to sink even further.
Fuck the
coffee this morning
, she needed something far stronger, she
realised she needed, “hare of the dog” She opened the fridge
grabbing a bottle of beer she usually kept in good supply for
Spencer and opened it taking a big mouthful. Out of curiosity
she played her answer phone messages as she remembered
leaving her mobile at Ella’s for the evening in case she got
tempted to call Spencer in her drunken state and give him lots of
verbal abuse, or text him nasty little hurtful messages.
There were a few messages from her friends inviting her and
Spencer out at the weekend and there was another message from
Spencer himself informing her that he had spent the entire
evening trying to contact her and apologising for their
misunderstanding yesterday, he wanted to meet up for lunch, she
ignored it and decided it was better to take it easy in her
apartment today, as drinking herself to self pity sometimes
worked, then she didn’t end up feeling so bad the following day.
Spencer c
ould wait, she wasn’t about to give him another
opportunity to hurt her feelings again, she had too much pride
for that. She placed a call to Ella; she was feeling rather delicate
too and couldn’t remember too much about their evening either,
Mrs Walsh was coming over to help with Broody and Carter as
it was Saturday and Ella was nursing the headache from hell.
Destiny hung up assuring her older sister that if there was any
news on the Spencer front she would give her a call, equally if
there was any news on the absconded father that Destiny would
be the first to know.
Destiny had previously emailed her résumé off to several Media
Consultant firms in the nearby areas and in London in the hope
that when she finished her degree she would be short listed
forever thankful she had swapped the psychology side of her
degree two years ago and combined social science with media
studies instead, this is where she felt her passion in the latter.
Much to her surprise she fired up her laptop and received an
email offering her a immediate position at one of the firms only
five blocks from where she lived, she couldn’t quite believe her
eyes and immediately dialed the contact number given on the
email asking for a Stanley Hargreaves, she recalled meeting at
one of the career nights St John’s often hosted on behalf of its
successful aspiring under graduates, often the companies
scouting for fresh new talent, she recalled handing her résumé
and introducing herself to the chairman of the company, who
was in fact no other than Stanley Hargreaves himself and had no
idea it would lead to this. Forgetting her hangover, her argument
with Spencer she talked away to Mr Hargreaves accepting his
job offer and the one month trial to see if it was what she wanted
to do and if she was the right candidate for the position of media
consultant. It was agreed that with regard to her degree the
company would allow her to work around it part time until
completed, an opportunity she couldn’t refuse.
In her excitement she placed a call to her father’s offices over in
New York to inform him of the good news, half expecting him
not to be in the office and having to speak with his snooty
secretary.
sweetheart?”
“Hi dad
dy I am great thanks, I have some good news, I’ve been
offered a position at Southern Consultancy as a media
consultant, they want me to start straight away, can you believe
that?”
“Destiny slow down did I hear you correct, you’ve
been offered
a job as a media consultant? What about your degree? You still
have under a year to complete it yet!”
“Don’t worry about my degree, they’ve
honored me time to
complete it. Can you believe my first real job, I can’t believe
my luck!”
Destiny started to sense the disappointment in her father’s voice.
“Destiny
, I beg you to reconsider my dear, there’s no possible
way you can find the time to do both, your degree is more
important and requires your full attention, there’ll be plenty of
job offers in the near future when you graduate. Don’t be hasty
like Ella to get out there in to the big wide world too soon,
you’re educations way more important, I thought that you’d go
on to do a masters in the social spectra, not to go into middle
management, you’re worth more than that, look at your sister
she can just afford to keep her head above the water, without my
help I daresay she wouldn’t be able to survive, do you really
want this type of life for yourself? What’s the salary they’re
offering you?”
Destiny
wasn’t in the mood for another one of her father’s
lectures and started to regret her decision to inform him of her
good news.
“Oh dad
dy why can’t you understand it’s what I want to do. The
salaries negotiable basically I start off with a fixed annual salary
of twenty five thousand, when I graduate it’ll go up
considerably!”
yourself on that?”
Destiny could feel her temper rising.
“I tell you what daddy, I am sorry you were the first person I
choose to inform of my good news, I obviously thought you’d
be pleased and I was wrong, this feels like deja vu. I remember
you lecturing Ella in the same context. Why can’t you ever be
happy with our choices? Why do you judge me? When I daresay
you don’t even know me, I’ve had it with trying to please you,
its time I made a life of my own, as I am old enough to make my
own decisions and if you can’t find it in you to accept them then
I guess I no longer want you in my life!”
ever conversation she would have with her father.
♣
Eight years passed and Destiny worked herself up to partner in
the consultancy firm, her dedication, and long soul destroying
hours in the office, often spending twelve hours a day and
weekends to become the best consultant she hoped she would
be.
Spencer became a long lost memory, he wrote to her for the first
six months promising her they would re-unite after her degree
completion.
Destiny sometimes replied in the hope he would come home and
walk back into her life and then the letters stopped, she found it
hard to accept she had lost the love of her life and buried herself
even further into her work.
Her father still financed her apartment up until the day she
graduated and still sent her monthly cheques that she placed into
her bank account, vowing to never touch any of his money
again.
Destiny sometimes felt the urge to call her father, but her
stubbornness got in the way, she hoped that they would make
amends one day, if he would just call and tell her proud of her
he was all would have been forgiven. Why couldn’t he just do?
She had no idea. It became harder for her to accept with each
year that passed.
Was he still disappointed in her and her
decisions? Should she swallow her pride and call him? She
really missed him.
The little time she had left in her busy working schedule she
would visit Ella and her beautiful nephews, and gorgeous little
new niece who she was smitten with. Anna, was the first girl
and was just adorable, Destiny found it hard to put her down,
how she longed for her own children one day, she envied her
sister to some extent, she was a great mother and she adored her
family even though she couldn’t hold onto a man. Destiny
thought that she was also doomed in the male department just
like her sister, there had been no one special since Spencer, just
dates she didn’t take up as she wasn’t interested in getting her
heart broken again, she was lonely that was true but she vowed
to rather be alone than in the wrong relationship, her career
became her main focus.
Destiny
hadn’t prepared for her father’s sudden death, all that
time he had been nursing a brain tumor without even informing
her, Ella, and Chase. Why?
Here she was sitting next to her
sister in Wallace’s offices her
late father’s accountant and best friend listening to the sums of
money her father had left them all. She was grief stricken,
shocked, lost for words barely listening, occasionally glancing
over to Chase who had just flown all the way from Hong Kong
to be here, with a devastating expression on his handsome face.
She gently let go of Ella’s hand and went to Chase holding out
her arms.
