Enlightened (Red Flags) (16 page)

"This is a large account for SDSM, and you are being granted a hell of a lot of responsibility with it.  I just want to make sure everything goes smoothly."  I was at a loss for words so I simply nodded my head. 

A quick knock on the door had me turning in my seat to find a sharply dressed Damian standing in the doorway.  William stood and buttoned his jacket, making his way over to Damian and giving him an overzealous handshake.  I wondered if Damian had said anything to William about me, but then I thought about what he could have told him, and nothing came to mind.

"Are you ready, Cara?"  Damian asked, his greenish-grey eyes lowered while smiling at me.

"Yes, just let me grab my stuff."  I quickly moved to my office and grabbed my briefcase and purse, waving to Amanda who gave me a sympathetic glance on my way out. 

William rode down the elevator with Damian and me.  They made small talk while I stood there, curious to as to what had brought on such a shift in William since the last time I had spoken to him.  When we stepped out on to the lobby floor, William walked in between Damian and me, stopping at the entrance of the building and turning to me, while Damian walked out to his car.

"Remember, Cara.  You need to keep Mr. Rossi happy."  He placed his hand on my shoulder and leaned in even closer to whisper, "Your job depends on it."  He gave me a wicked smile before turning to head back up to his office. 

I stood flabbergasted for a minute.  When I turned to look back at William, he was long gone, but my gaze was met by a look of fury from Sunny.  She looked like she wanted to commit murder.  I turned my head away from her and watched as Damian pulled up in his sleek BMW.  He jumped out and opened the door for me, and I slowly made my way into the car.  Was William threatening my job?  Did Damian have anything to do with it?  Questions were swirling around in my head, so I sat and pondered them, not saying a word to Damian.

<>

We drove up to the Del Mar Fairgrounds and then back down to Balboa Park, making small talk, which was mostly initiated by Damian.  I was still reeling from William's words, and wondered how much of a part Damian had in all of this.  The fact that I had to work so closely with him, William's cryptic words, and Damian's connection to Stacey had me wanting to throw my hands up in the air and just say,
fuck it!
 

Damian said he was hungry, and pulled into the parking lot of Frank's Bistro.  I couldn't decide if I was hungry or not.  My stomach was rumbling, but I wasn't sure if it was from hunger or my nerves, so I didn't object.  When we were seated on the outdoor patio, Damian removed his jacket and eyed me intently. 

"You haven't been okay since our last chat.  What's going on?" 

I took a long sip of the water that had been placed before me.

"I'm fine.  I just have a lot going on right now," I lied.

Damian pointed out something on the menu to the waitress, who nodded her head and scurried away.

"I can't help but think that I put you in this mood.  It was certainly not my intention.  I just figured Bradley worked his charm on you and didn't give you the full story."  I looked him in his smoldering eyes as he said it, and watched as a wicked smile spread across his lips.  For some reason, the look made me sick, and I downed the rest of my water.

"Look, work is not the time to talk about our personal lives.  We are still on the clock, you know?" 

He face fixed in a surprised expression at the sound of my blunt tone. Our meal was finished with a mix of Tide conversation and comfortable silence.  I didn't want to talk about Jason and Stacey every waking moment. I
definitely
didn't want to while I was at work, and
especially
not with someone who had a vested interest in both.  I couldn't be sure if Damian was being straight with me, so I didn't want to engage him any further.

When I returned to the office, William was out at a meeting with finance and Amanda had a pile of work-ups from the print guys for me to take a look at.  I sat down in my chair, thankful for some alone time, when she knocked on my door and made her way into my office.

"I forgot to tell you. That hottie friend of yours stopped by while you were out," she said, smiling brightly in my direction.

"Who?" I asked.

"Um, I think his name was Chase.  Yeah, that's it.  He stopped by, saying he couldn't get in touch with you. I told him you were out of the office for the day."

I reached into my purse and found a turned off cell phone.  I remembered turning my phone off, but had forgotten to turn it back on.  When I powered up my phone, I found that Chase had texted me a couple of times, which I hadn't responded to.  I also found a couple more text messages from him and even a couple of voicemails, including a message from Jason.  After thanking Amanda, I waved her off and asked her to shut my door, as I listened to the messages.

Voicemail from Chase

Hi, Cara.  Just wanted to check-in with you.  Call me.

Voicemail from Chase

I hope everything is okay.  I haven't heard from you and I'm wondering if I did anything wrong.  Talk to you later.

Guilt rose inside of me.  I felt terrible for not getting back to him.  I just had so much shit going on and I was trying to handle my largest problems first.  I made a mental note that I would call him when I had a free moment, but a mark on my phone indicated that I still had a voicemail from Jason, so I listened to it.  It brought a much needed smile to my face.

Voicemail from Jason

Hey, Gorgeous.  I can't thank you enough for takin' time to talk to me.  You have no idea how that simple little act corrected and reaffirmed so much in my life.  You turned me into a little cry baby bitch, but if that means getting' everything out in the open and workin' my way back to you, I'll cry all fuckin' day.  I hope you know just how much I love you.

I sat like a grinning fool for a few minutes after listening to his voicemail.  When I finally broke free of my thoughts, I got back to work on the print work that Amanda had left on my desk.

<>

Laughter greeted me as I strolled into our condo that evening.  I sat my briefcase down by the stairs and walked into the living room, shocked to find Chase sitting on the couch with Hunter and Chelsea.  I slowly walked closer to them, wondering why Chase was here, when he stood and spoke.

"Hey.  Sorry about this.  I just hadn't heard from you, so I stopped by after work."

I looked over to Chelsea who smiled over to Hunter before saying, "Time for us to get to dinner."  He agreed, and gave a quick hug as he and Chelsea made their way out of the condo.

I turned my attention back to Chase, who eyed me cautiously, not sure how I would react.

"I'm sorry," I said, running my hands through my hair, "I got your messages, and I was going to call you tonight."

He let out a light sigh.  "I just know you ran off with Jason at Chelsea's party, and then I didn't hear from you anymore.  I wondered if he'd said anything about me or if I did anything wrong?"

I took off my shoes and crashed down on the couch.

"No, you didn't do anything wrong.  I'm just so busy right now, that’s all."

He eyed me quizzically. "Are you two back together?" he asked, carefully.

I glanced at him for a second before answering, "No."

The muscles in his face relaxed and a smile crept across his lips.  I tried to smile back at him, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.  Jason and I may not have been back together, but in my heart, I wanted nothing more than for us to be a couple again.  It was my head not allowing it.  I decided the best thing to do would be to change the topic.

"How is work going?"

"It's going." he responded, once again looking defeated.

"What's wrong?  I thought you were excited about your internship," I said, curious as to what had gotten him down.  I wondered if Jason was back up to his old tricks, and was making Chase's life miserable because he felt like he was making his way back to me and wanted to keep him away.  "Is it Jason?"

"I wish," he smiled, "It's the new guy running the show.  He's a dick."

Thoughts rummaged through my brain.  Jason hadn't mentioned a new guy at work.  By the looks of things, Chase was having it rough, but the fact that Jason wasn't the source of his sour mood did make me happy.

"There's a new guy?" I asked, hoping he would stop giving hints and just tell me what was going on.

"Yeah, Jason is in charge in name only.  There's a new guy there running things--I think his name is Tran, or something like that.  Anyway, the guy is a damn tyrant." He ran his hands over his head clearly indicating that he was not enjoying what he thought was going to be the opportunity of a lifetime.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Chase, but you are an intern, so sometimes you have to scrape the bottom before rising to the top."

"I know.  I just thought my biggest challenge working there would be Jason and it turns out he is the least of my worries."  He looked up and stared straight into my eyes.  "Cara, I don't think I can hack staying there any longer.  It's crazy to say, but with Jason gone, I don't see the point."

His words sparked a series of questions in my head.  Why would it matter if Jason were there or not?  He wasn't making any sense and I was tired of the ambiguity. I wanted answers.

"What does Jason have to do with any of this?  And what do you mean about him being gone?"

Chase looked at me as if he shouldn't have said what had just come out of his mouth.  I widened my eyes, prodding him to speak.  He stood and ran his hands over his face before speaking.

"He hasn't told you?"

I shook my head, awaiting his response. 

"Figures," he mumbled.  "Word around the office is the reason that Jason brought this Tran guy in is because he is going to let the San Diego offices of Bradley fall where they may.  He's got some new job lined up that’s he's been putting all of his time and effort into."  He stared at me and scowled.  "What a prick.  This is his family's business and he's just letting it get destroyed."  A slight grin crossed my lips and Chase walked up to me and grabbed my hands.  "Cara, he's the same prick he's always been, only he's showing himself to be a selfish prick now.  I hope you don't fall for whatever he's told you."

I stepped away from Chase, unable to break the joy that was swirling around inside of me.  He stood, flabbergasted as to how I could be so happy when things seemed to be crumbling around him.

"You don't know the details Chase, if any of that is even true."  I said, handing him his things that were sitting on the couch.  "Sorry, but I have some phone calls to make." 

Chase watched me with a confounded look on his face, but didn't say anything further.  I walked him to the front door and gave him a hug before telling him that everything would be okay.  He shook his head slightly, not believing my words, and turned and walked out the door.

I ran back into the condo, grabbed my cell phone from my purse and called Jason.  He picked up midway through the second ring.

"Hey, Gorgeous, you get my voicemail?"

"Yes, but that's not why I'm calling.  What's going on with your job?"

Light breathing filled the phone for a second before he asked, "What have you heard?"

I contemplated telling him everything that Chase had told me, but I wanted to test him and see just how forth coming he would be with me.  "I just heard that you've been occupied with other things, so I was wondering how things were going there at Bradley."

He sighed.  "Cara, I'm making some changes in my life, for the better, and I feel like they will ultimately make me a happier person.  I don't want you to see me as a vindictive asshole, but where my dad is concerned, that’s kind of what I've turned into."

"What do you mean?"  I asked, trying to get him to give more detail.

"My dad has dicked me around for too long, so I'm givin' it right back to him.  I'm leaving the San Diego Bradley office in someone else's hands, and if it succeeds, then it succeeds. If it doesn't, then hey, fuck 'em."

I started to ask him exactly what all of that meant when I heard a man in the background say, "Mr. Bradley, you're up." 

"Who was that?  Where are you?"  I blurted out, unsure of the voice I had just heard.

I heard Jason swallow hard before answering.  "I'm at my anger management meeting." 

"Anger management?"  I asked.

"Yeah. It's been a long time coming." He paused.  "Can I take you to lunch tomorrow? I really have to get in there."

"Yeah.  Call me tomorrow and we'll figure it out."

"Alright.  I love you, Gorgeous."

I swallowed and wanted oh so badly to reciprocate the love, but settled on, "See you tomorrow," before hanging up.

Jason was now in anger management.  The thought pounded against my skull.  I'd never believed in a million years that he would seek out help like that.  We'd never discussed it, but the thought did cross my mind a few times.  I just figured if he never sought out help to deal with his familial problems, then he certainly wouldn't seek out help to deal with himself.  Dealing with yourself requires you to admit that there is a problem, and Jason had always seemed much too prideful to admit that. 

The thought made me smile.  I wasn't smiling because this angry man was now sitting down amongst other angry people, sharing his feelings. I was smiling because he did this on his own.  At least I thought he did.  Whatever the case, he was doing it.  He was making changes to make himself a better person and that made me happy. 

I lay down on the couch and turned on the TV, hoping to occupy my boredom.  Chelsea was still out to dinner with Hunter, so I was left alone.  When I got tired of watching whatever was on my television screen, I picked up my phone and dialed Mila's number since I hadn't spoken to her in a while.