Leo's Chance(52)

"Jake, I’m on my way up." She doesn’t even wait for me to say hi.

"What the f*ck, Lauren? I didn’t tell you to come to my condo. Who let you up anyway?"

"The front deskman let me up – I told him who I am. Of course he did."

Ah hell – I forgot to talk to Joe. I’m going to ream his ass when I go down there.

I step out into the hallway just as the elevator dings. Lauren steps off, giving me a huge grin. I don’t smile back.

"Still a moody teenager, I see," she says, breezing past me into my condo.

She looks around. "I love it, Jake." She goes over to the window and looks out at the view. "You know I’d move here if you want me to. I’d prefer you move back to San Diego with me but–"

"Lauren, why are you meeting with the board? Why’d they have to sacrifice a Saturday for you?"

She sighs, stepping closer. "Jake, I met with the board today to let them know that I’m contesting the will. Phil wasn’t in his right mind when he left the majority of the shares to you. My lawyer has advised me that I have a very good case. I made an appeal to the board to halt all financial decisions until I reclaim ownership of the company, which I will."

I stare at her for a couple beats. I wondered if she’d try to make this play. "It’s not going to happen. Phil’s will was ironclad, and he was very much in his right mind. You have all the money you’ll ever need. You know the only reason you’re doing this is to try to control me. Life was pretty good for you when you had control over me, wasn’t it?" I grit out.

"Oh, Jake," she sighs. "What this is about is me getting what is rightfully mine. I was married to that workaholic for twenty years. Do you know how much I sacrificed? Until you came along, I was lonely all the time. You need to let go of the unnecessary guilt. Phil being gone makes it easier for us to be together. It’s the truth. It’s just how it happened. You don’t need to feel badly about it. It isn’t possible for two people to be as attracted to each other as we are and it not be right."

"Lauren, this is a waste of my breath because you hear what you want to hear, but I was never attracted to you – at least not for more than twenty very confusing, ultimately horrifying minutes eight years ago, during an episode that was the beginning of the end for me. The most f*cked up part of what happened between us is that a part of me complied with you because I didn’t want to disappoint you. I had been a disappointment all my life and I thought… I thought I was finally going to have a family who cared about me. A very f*cked up, very confused part of me just wanted you to like me, under any circumstances. And somehow, I think you knew that, preyed on it even. When you talk about what’s "rightfully yours," I get the feeling you’re referring to me more so than the company, Lauren." I’m practically spitting the words at her, my jaw tight. She won’t hear me, but maybe I needed to say that anyway, not for her, but for myself.

She looks defeated for just a second, and I wonder if maybe my words penetrated, but then she comes closer to me, and tries to put her hand on my cheek. I block her, moving away. "You don't have to act like this. Let me make it better, honey." Then she leans up on her tiptoes and tries to press her lips to mine. I step back, and put my hand up in front of me. Done. It always comes to this.

"Don't start this shit. I explained to you in San Diego the nature of our relationship and that is that there isn't one, okay?"

"You lie to yourself, Jake. You can't just make this go away. You can't just make me go away."

"The f*ck I can't. Get out."

She steps toward me again and tries to wrap her arms around me.

"Get the f*ck OUT!" I yell, the anger spiking inside of me now. Why did I even waste my breath with her? I swear to God, she’s psychotic.

She looks down and whispers so softly I can barely hear it, "I'm never going to get you back, am I?"

I don't even answer. What's the point? Her saying that doesn't mean anything – she'll just come at me in some other way once she regroups.

I stride over to my door, flinging it open. Holy f*ck, Evie is standing there blinking at me from the hallway. My adrenaline is pumping through my veins and this is the worst possible scenario I can think of. How much did she hear? I can’t even remember what was said, I’m so filled with anger and now fear. "Shit. Evie. What the f*ck are you doing here?"

Her face goes pale, her mouth opens to say something and then closes as her large, expressive eyes fill with hurt. Fuck, f*ck, FUCK! I want to roar and smash something.

I clench my jaw, struggling to keep control as Lauren walks out my door and halts in her tracks when she sees Evie. She looks between the two of us and then clips out, "Really, Jake? Already?"

This is a nightmare. Evie cannot find out about Lauren in this way. I close my eyes momentarily, fighting for strength, and say as calmly as I possibly can, "Get out."

Lauren ignores me, as usual, and walks over to Evie saying, "I’m Lauren," in the bitchy, condescending voice that means something bad is coming.

Evie blinks and starts extending her hand, whispering, "Nice to meet you, I’m…"

"Mom!" I yell. Evie cannot say her name. Lauren never met her, but she sure as hell knows her name since I said it about a thousand times on our way to San Diego. She knows that Evie is the name of the girl on my back. I doubt if she’ll recognize that this woman is that girl, especially since she’s only seen my tattoo a couple times, but I can’t have her hearing her name. I know that calling Lauren 'mom' will get her attention. She's always hated it.