The Cost Of Love And Sanity

Dear Reader:

Out of all the topics that I get advice emails about, being reluctant about entering into another committed relationship due to lack of trust is one of the biggest. It is hard for a woman to take a chance on love, expose her vulnerability, and become emotionally attached once she has been through a lot of heartbreak and pain. Such is the case with Alex Carter, in Jaye Cheríe's
The Cost of Love and Sanity.
Alex is concentrating on her career path, is recently single again, and is prepared to give up on love altogether. Then one day, at a crowded gas station, she runs into Nathan Chestnut, a man who betrayed her a decade earlier. He still looks good, he is still charming, but she remembers what he did. He professes to have changed, to have matured, and wants another chance.

This leads to another common topic from my email: second chances. Sometimes it is possible for people to be apart for years, even decades, and evolve into the soul mates that each desires. But Alex still has serious insecurity issues that she must overcome, along with suspicion, and overall trying to find something to disqualify Nathan yet again.
The Cost of Love and Sanity
is an interesting look at a dilemma that millions of women with tainted pasts face globally on any given day. Is love worth taking a chance on, or is it better to run from it? Will the next man be another example of disrespect, cheating, and being untrustworthy or will he be
the
example of what true love looks like?

As always, thanks for supporting the authors of Strebor Books. We try our best to bring you the future in great literature today. We appreciate the love. You can find me on Facebook
@AuthorZane
and on Twitter
@planetzane
.

Blessings,

Publisher

Strebor Books

www.simonandschuster.com

To every woman who believes in true love—May you never give up on love and may God reward you for it;

To the real “Nathan,”—It always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. —1 Corinthians 13: 7-8

First, I want to thank God for giving me another opportunity to express my creativity through the written word. It is truly a blessing for me and I hope my work is a blessing to others. I want to thank the people that read and purchased
The Golddigger's Club.

To my family—thank you for your continued support. First Coast Christian Writers Group—thanks for the feedback. As always, it makes a difference.

Toastmasters International, especially Lillian R. Bradley Toastmasters Club—thanks for your support.

My Strebor family—thanks for your guidance. It's helping me become a better writer.

“U
h um,” the VP of Operations, Mr. Eugene Sims, stood behind his executive chair and cleared his throat. The room acknowledged him with silent cooperation. “Surely, you all are wondering why I've called this meeting. Everyone is in a hurry to get out of here and enjoy their New Year's. Nevertheless, we have a pressing issue to discuss before the first of next month.” He frowned.

“As you all know, our numbers are down twenty-eight percent this quarter after being down nineteen percent last quarter. We've lost contracts. We aren't getting as many good people placed with our present clients and this is affecting our business.” He leaned on the chair. “Golden Burch has been looking for a sales professional for four months. We haven't sent him anyone in four months!” the VP raised his voice, allowing his aggravation to erupt like a volcano.

For a second, you could hear a rat pee on cotton. Alexis Carter, one of three junior recruitment managers, blinked four times in rapid succession. Until Mr. Sims' outburst she'd been fighting hard to stay awake. She should have made herself a cup of tea that morning or at least stopped somewhere and bought a tea. A tea and two sunrisers. She could smell the steaming hot, peppered sausage, melted cheese and buns burning up her fingers as she pushed one into her mouth. Her stomach growled in response to her food fantasy. She quickly placed her hand over her stomach
and looked to her left and her right to see if anyone heard it. Nobody showed any signs they did.

Suddenly, Dan Reece, a coordinator, raised his hand, looking like a fifth-grader about to ask his teacher if he could go to the bathroom.

“What?” Mr. Sims zeroed in on Dan.

“We haven't sent over any sales candidates because none of them fit their qualifications,” Dan said.

“And what did you do about that?”

Dan fell silent, searching his colleagues' faces for ideas about what to say next. When no one offered him a lifeline, he answered on his own, sitting up straight in his chair. “Well, I…I called everyone I could in our database.”

“And?” the VP said, without blinking.

Dan swallowed. This meeting was going further downhill by the minute.

“And no one matched,” Dan said.

The VP pointed toward the embarrassed employee. “This is my point. As bad as the economy is, with all the people out there looking for jobs, all we're doing is making excuses. We're not doing everything we can to find the candidates. That's not gonna cut it.”

Alex sat back in her chair. She knew this talk would come. The year started with a bang and ended with a whimper. She'd hoped their tongue lashing wouldn't come today, especially since her stomach seemed intent on gearing up for a second growl.

“Last year, we launched the Referral Program. Whatever happened to that? I heard it a couple of times in the meetings but not one person has mentioned anything about it since.” Mr. Sims walked toward the right side of the room. “What about other ideas? Has anyone even attempted to find other ways to solve this problem?”

In an effort to look productive in this train wreck of a meeting, Alex answered. “I've had my people making triple the calls, to unemployed candidates as well as employed ones. I figured maybe some people are ready for a career upgrade.”

She saw Dan smirk out of the corner of her eye.

Mr. Sims nodded. “Well, Alex, we'll have to continue finding ways to recruit. It's the company's goal to find people jobs, right?”

“Right,” the room said in unison.

“Good. I'm glad we agree on something. In the meantime, we're going to have to make some changes.” Mr. Sims scanned the board room. “The company will have to let someone go in a few months.”

Everyone looked around at each other, except Alex. She couldn't see herself on the chopping block and, most importantly, she wouldn't see herself on the chopping block. She'd exceeded her recruitment numbers over the past two years. She became one of their top recruitment managers her first month there.
This can't apply to me. I'll make sure of it.

“We'll be observing you guys. We should be making a decision around March or April. Until then, come up with ways to help our clients. Immediately. I'll be watching you.”

After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence and exchanged glances, Mr. Sims dismissed the executive staff from the boardroom. Alex sped away from the low chatters and panicked expressions and headed toward the elevator. Courtney Davis and Romero Martinez filed behind her.

“Wow!” Romero said. “I guess we'd really better get on the ball, huh? We need to work harder at protecting the image of the company.”

“Forget the image of the company! I need to keep my job,” said Courtney. As Alex watched her talk, she thought about Courtney's
uncle—the CEO Mark Davis. Somehow, Alex didn't think the spunky redhead had anything to worry about.

Courtney bounced off the elevator onto the third floor.

Romero shook his head and said what they were both thinking. “Like she's gonna get fired. I hope they don't get carried away with the rest of us. I have a kid in private school.” Romero narrowed his eyes and wrinkled his forehead.

“This only means it's really time to buckle down,” Alex said.

Romero's eyes stared off into the empty space. “Yeah. I suppose you're right.”

The bell rang and the elevator doors opened to Alex's floor. She turned toward the door and raised her foot to step off.

“Hey!”

She turned back toward Romero.

“Thanks.”

Alex forced a smile and nodded.

“Say. Did you get my email?” Romero asked.

Her brain flashed back to the email she had received from him yesterday. Romero had asked her to attend an art exhibit with him. Refusing to allow recognition of the email to cross her face, Alex feigned ignorance. “What email?”

“Oh, I sent you an email about the art exhibit downtown tomorrow. I wanted to know if you would like to go check it out with me?” Romero asked, smiling.

Alex took a deep breath. She hated to tell him no. He really was a nice guy—but not the guy for her. Besides, she'd been seeing Phillip for about six months now. Even though she and Phillip were far from heading toward the wedding chapel, she couldn't see making a run for Romero.

She snapped her fingers. “You know what? I already have plans with my friend.”

“Oh, yes. Yes, of course,” he said, lowering his head slightly.

“But thank you. Thank you for the invite.”

“Sure. Maybe some other time,” Romero said.

“Maybe.” Alex stepped forward and the elevator door closed behind her.

She shook her head.
Not a chance.
Romero wanted more than she could possibly give him and she did not believe in dating nice guys because they were, well nice. Besides, any romance between them would spark unwanted office gossip. Employees already had enough food for thought with the coming layoff. She had to concentrate on how to keep upper management off her back and what she wanted to do for New Year's Eve.

A
lex steered East onto Camelot Drive determined to release all thoughts of the emergency meeting. The crisp air seeped through the small cracks between her car doors, while hot air swished through the air vents, blowing her dark brown, shoulder-length hair off her neck. Christmas lights still lined most of the houses in her subdivision. Each house Alex passed seemed to outshine the one before it. Her house, on the other hand, fit into the small group without holiday decorations. As she pulled her black Lexus up to the two-story home, Alex couldn't help but notice the lack of holiday spirit there. She should have been embarrassed but she had an excuse; she'd been too busy at work to bother with decorations and she didn't feel like asking Phillip to do anything these days.

The man initially represented himself as the perfect gentleman— patient, polite and thoughtful. But, over the last couple of months, Phillip had become impatient and a little selfish. Suddenly, his time and objectives took precedence over anything she had to do. Yet, he liked to present reasons for his requests as if they made more sense. He would have probably told her she didn't need light decorations because she had no children around to appreciate them.