Jessie Slaymaker's Non-Existent Love Life (The Jessie Slaymaker Series) (34 page)

‘Do you remember when I drove you to the airport when you were flying off to Hong Kong?’ Tom asked, allowing himself a quick glance up. He was met by Jessie’s steely, unreadable gaze and a raised eyebrow. This was not going to be easy, he thought to himself as he swallowed a lump in his throat.

‘Well, I gave you some advice,’ he continued after a slight pause. ‘I told you to be selfish for once in your life and to be with whomever you wanted to be with. Sometime during your trip I forgot about what I’d said to you… and I told you how I felt about you without really and truly giving you much of a choice. Thinking back now, I don’t think you ever made a real decision to be with me. I think you just fell into line with what I wanted. I’m so sorry Jessie,’ Tom said, clutching her hand more tightly. ‘I bullied you into being with me,’ he said, quietly focusing on her hand like it was some kind of lifeline.

‘Don’t think that way,’ Jessie said with a huskier voice than usual, causing her to clear her throat. ‘I just wanted you to be happy. Having a happy you makes me happy. But it seems I’m not enough to make you happy, Tom.’

‘You’re more than enough, Jessie,’ Tom protested, looking up at her with a moistness in his eyes.

‘Be honest with me,’ Jessie said, looking at him earnestly. ‘I’m a big girl and I can take it. I know you love me and I stir some strong emotions within you, but obviously not strong enough. I think you miss being with men?’ she half-asked, half-stated.

‘I think you’re right,’ Tom said, suddenly sounding very weary. He’d tried. He’d really tried. Jessie was wonderful, but he just wasn’t engineered that way. However much he’d tried to override his own instincts, his nature couldn’t be surmounted.

‘I just think we both need a cock in our lives!’ Jessie said, doing her typical Jessie thing of trying to lighten the mood. ‘There’s nothing wrong with that,’ she added, clasping his hand with her free one and giving him a squeeze.

‘I love you, Jessie,’ Tom said with a big fat juicy tear splashing down his cheek.

‘I know,’ she replied.

Chapter 85

Jessie felt numb. It would definitely take some time to process. She was newly single, and this was something she hadn’t envisaged one jot when she’d woken up that morning. Tom had been brave and decided to let her go finally, but she couldn’t help but feel anger towards him for letting things go on for so long. She’d turned down a life-changing job in Hong Kong for him. Jessie hoped things would return to some semblance of normality between the two of them, but she knew it wasn’t going to happen right away. However much she churned things over in her mind, she continued to come up with the same conclusion: Tom would quickly bounce back from this chapter of his life, but it was she who’d have to rebuild and start again.

Perhaps she was being unfair on Tom. He couldn’t be a hundred percent to blame. She’d talked herself into being in love with him. It hadn’t been totally natural or organic, and she had done her utmost to actively encourage and engineer her feelings towards him. But she’d done all that for
him
. Because he seemed to so desperately want to be with her.

Tom’s words came back to haunt her.
‘Stop doing whatever everyone else wants you to do. Choose one, or choose none, but make a decision based on who
you
want to be with.’
Maybe it wasn’t so much about
whom
she wanted to be with, but
where
she wanted to be.

As she listened to Nadia and Nick’s wedding ceremony, she wondered if Mr Chan still needed someone to set up and run his research team in Hong Kong. Probably not, she told herself. People moved on quickly these days, and they were bound to have found someone more qualified and experienced than her by now.

Tom was sitting next to her, having decided to make good on his promise and attend the wedding with her. She’d half-expected him to do a disappearing act but, no, he’d stuck by her. She could feel him glancing over at her every few minutes and every now and then he would tentatively give her hand what she thought he perceived to be a reassuring squeeze. All Jessie wanted to do was go home and cry into her pillow for a week, but she was not a flaker. She didn’t give up when the going got tough. No sir. Not like some people whom she cared not to mention. She had a wedding to look fabulous at, and she focused on her inner determination to put on a brave face and look fabulous. For the next few hours, at least.

Chapter 86

He knew she wouldn’t have failed to notice the way he’d looked at Jessie. Sonia was sharper than your average person and Jack was well aware that he’d been less than discreet in his ogling of Jessie in her daring dress. After Tom had made his farewell in hot pursuit of his girlfriend, Jack had forced himself to regain some composure and remember what it was he was supposed to be doing. He had his eye on a prize. Freedom.

Jack and Sonia were seated in the hotel coffee shop just as he’d orchestrated, and they’d ordered their breakfasts in quiet civility. Their coffees arrived and Jack took a quick swig of his non-alcoholic Dutch courage before looking Sonia directly in the eye. There was no point delaying the inevitable any further.

‘Sonia. I wanted to talk to you today regarding the status of our relationship,’ Jack began, formally, as though he was officiating at an important meeting. Sonia took a laboriously slow sip of her coffee with a knowing look in her eye.

‘I think we both know this isn’t working…’ Jack continued, determined and unfazed by her nonchalance. She was just being Sonia.

‘Let me stop you there, Jack darling,’ Sonia said, cradling her coffee cup just in front of her face, drawing attention to her mouth. ‘Does my father know you’re ditching me for
her
?’ she asked, raising an eyebrow with a scathing note in her voice.

That stopped Jack in his tracks and he sat back in his chair, staring at her, momentarily flummoxed. Jessie wasn’t the only reason he was taking action now, was she? Jack hadn’t really considered Jessie to be the chief motivating factor, but perhaps she was. If he hadn’t bumped into her the previous day, would he have grown the balls to do something about Sonia?

‘No, Sonia. You’re wrong,’ Jack replied with more conviction than he actually possessed in that moment. ‘I’m ditching you because of your cold controlling power and image-obsessed self,’ Jack snapped at her vehemently. That felt good, he thought to himself. Liberating. Daring, even. Why had he been so afraid of this woman? Sonia’s eyes narrowed and her expression became distant and unreadable.

‘I know you’re not happy, Sonia,’ Jack said with a little less venom.

‘Don’t you pin this on me, Jack.
You’re
the one who wants to leave
me
,’ she semi-wailed. ‘I love you,’ she said with a wobbly voice, and a flood of tears sprang from nowhere.

This wasn’t the reaction he’d anticipated at all. He’d thought she’d start hurling stuff at him, not open the floodgates. Jack would have preferred dodging cutlery any time to this. Conscious that people were starting to look at them, Jack edged his chair a few inches closer to Sonia’s and patted her shoulder in an ineffective attempt at consoling her.

‘I think we’re better off being friends,’ Jack said quietly, now patting her in the small of her back, wishing she’d stop crying.

‘Well, Jack, I don’t agree,’ Sonia said, her sobbing suddenly ceasing as she looked up at him with daggers in her eyes. Jack’s hand left her back alone and he leaned back again in his chair to give himself some distance from this acerbic woman.

‘I asked you before if my father knew you were ditching me for that no-hoper? I doubt he does. In fact I’m sure you’ve gone and cleared the air with him regarding your little contravening of your deal concerning me, but for some reason I don’t think you’ve told him the whole story,’ she sneered. ‘You do realise, of course, that one word from me and he’ll come down on you like a ton of bricks. You do want to stay alive, don’t you, Jack darling?’

‘What would you have me do then, Sonia?’ Jack asked wearily, sensing imminent defeat.

‘Well, if I were you,’ she began, studying her nails as though blackmail were an everyday breakfast occurrence for her, ‘I would get yourself down on one knee and ask me a certain question. Sooner rather than later.’

‘Over my dead body,’ boomed a voice from over Jack’s shoulder, making them both jump. Jack hadn’t seen her approach. The look on Sonia’s face was priceless—she looked like she’d seen a ghost. Jack guessed she hadn’t factored Jack’s grand old mother into the grand scheme of things.

‘I’m sorry, Cicely, but I really don’t think this is any concern of yours. Jack’s a big boy now,’ Sonia said sarcastically, quickly regaining her composure.

‘There’s no need to be overfamiliar. You may call me Mrs Davenport, and if you’re trying to manipulate Jack into marrying you, then I wholly disagree with you. This is
very much
my concern,’ Cicely said, plonking herself down between them in a chair which seemed to appear from nowhere. Jack couldn’t help smiling. There were perhaps only two people who wouldn’t bat an eyelid at Sonia’s diva attitude. Her father Mr Shum, and of course his mother. He should have just asked her to come and fight his battles from the beginning.

Cicely looked backwards and forwards between them, waiting for one of them to speak. Sonia looked like she’d just been given a dressing-down by the school headmistress, which in effect she had. Not many people spoke to Sonia Shum that way.

‘Now, my dear,’ Cicely began, turning to Sonia when neither of them seemed to have anything to say, ‘I’ve spoken to your father and explained that Jack here has eyes for another and that it would be a crime against love if you wouldn’t let him go. I must say, Mr Shum was most accommodating and reasonable. Seems he’s not such a fan of Jack as either you or I are,’ Cicely said with a glint in her eye. ‘But, having said that, he’s not the gangster Jack here seems to think he is, and he won’t be harming a single hair on his head. So if I were you, dear, I’d get yourself back on a plane to Shanghai and start building some bridges. You’ve only got one father, you know.’

Sonia’s bottom lip started to pout and Jack wondered if she was going to start to cry again. Maybe this time it would be for real. Without saying another word, Sonia got up and walked away, and with any luck she’d be following Mrs Davenport’s advice. And soon.

‘Good riddance,’ Cicely said with disgust, as a waiter brought her a pot of tea. When had she ordered that, Jack wondered, momentarily perplexed.

‘Thanks for coming to my rescue, Ma,’ he said sincerely, giving her a peck on the cheek.

‘Well, what are mothers for? I knew you’d probably handle it, but I had a feeling a matriarch like me might upset the little princess a little more than a nice young fellow like yourself.’

‘I wouldn’t be so sure of that. Your timing was perfect and much appreciated. I was beginning to fold,’ Jack admitted. ‘I just don’t understand her. There’s no way in a month of Sundays that she was happy with me, but she seemed to desperately want me to stay with her for some inexplicable reason. I don’t get it,’ Jack mused.

‘Apart from the obvious, that you’re quite a catch, Jacky darling, I’m not certain. But I’d say she has some complex issues with her father. Seems to me she set out to deliberately defy or at least antagonise her dad. She knew Mr Shum didn’t want you pursuing her, so she clung to the idea of being with you to displease him. Sad, isn’t it?’ Cicely said, sipping her tea thoughtfully. ‘Fathers and daughters, Jack, they’re entirely different from mothers and sons.’

‘So what happens now?’ Jack asked, not quite able to comprehend that he was Sonia-free.

‘I’d say you have some serious thinking to do. About where you want to be and what you want to do with your life. But first, you can take me for a walk and treat your old ma to a spot of lunch. And then you can go and get your girl,’ Cicely said with her all-knowing smile.

‘She’s not my girl, Mum,’ Jack said, suddenly feeling shy at the thought of his mother playing match-maker.

‘I wouldn’t be so sure of that, Jacky. She may not be your girl just yet, but she very soon will be. Call it a hunch, but I don’t think you’ll be needing my help with that one!’

Chapter 87

Jack loved his mother, but he was anxious to get back to the hotel and find Jessie. When his mum finally gave him his leave, he hot-footed it through town as fast as he could. He imagined the reception would be in full flow by the time he got back and he just hoped that Jessie was still there and hadn’t made an early exit on account of the dark mood he’d seen her in earlier. Jack desperately wanted to talk to her.

Although wedding crashing wasn’t his usual
modus operandi
, Jack didn’t give a damn. He spied Jessie the very second he entered the reception hall. She was seated across the room, playing with her glass of champagne. Tom was seated at her side, talking quietly to her. Studying her body language—Jessie’s slightly standoffish posture and carefully blank face—Jack guessed that she still wasn’t in the best of moods. Tom seemed to be trying to cheer her up, but to an observer it was clear that in that moment Jessie was holding all the power.

Suddenly, something changed and Jessie smiled. Slowly at first, and she seemed to try and fight it, but her beautiful smile appeared at its most brilliant a few seconds later. Tom then led her over to the dance floor for a slow dance, where they whispered intimately into each other’s ears and held each other close.

Who had he been kidding? Tom and Jessie were seriously loved up, sharing intimate moments like they were the only people in the room. Anyone could see they were seriously in love with each other. Whatever they’d been fighting about earlier had obviously been rectified, much to Jack’s chagrin. When he’d seen Jessie the previous day, he’d been under the distinct impression that Jessie wasn’t entirely happy with Tom and that he had an outside chance of stealing her away from the entrepreneur. And since he’d seen her clearly unhappy that morning, he’d thought his chances had significantly improved. Now, Jack felt seriously deflated. He’d spent the day with his mother allowing his hopes to be lifted, only to have them dashed.