Chapter Twenty-two
Eric was right.
Jennifer kept running it all in her head over and over again, and Eric was right. This whole time she’d been expecting him to be something he wasn’t. To be Charles. But she loved him because he wasn’t Charles.
It was unfair. In a way, she’d been doing to Eric exactly what Charles had done to her.
Jennifer made her way back to the table and stared at her parents as she stood there.
“Oh, did he leave you here, Jennifer? Love them and leave them. That’s what those sorts of people are like.” Her mother managed the most patronizing tone Jennifer had ever heard.
Her father gave a sharp nod of agreement.
She stared at the woman sitting at the table. She loved her parents, but sometimes, she really didn’t like them.
“Jen,” she said.
Her mother paused mid-drink to quirk a brow at her. “Pardon?”
“My name is Jen.”
Her father cleared his throat loudly. “Now that he’s gone, we can talk seriously about Jordan. He makes good money and comes from a good family. The sort of man we’d like to see you end up with.”
Jen gaped at the gall they had talking to her like this.
“Of course, not as good as Charles,” her mother interjected. “Won’t you reconsider? I’m sure he would come out to dinner if we called.” She pulled out her phone, and Jen snatched it from her hands.
“Enough.”
She stared down the other two alleged adults in front of her. Over and over, they had derailed her from going on the path she wanted. They had kept her from meeting the people she wanted. And for what? To be like them?
“Jennifer, really,” her mother started again.
Jen slammed the phone down on the table. “It’s Jen, for fuck’s sake,” she shouted.
Her parents paled.
She shook her head. “And I’m not some doll you can order around.”
They looked at one another, likely waiting for the other person to speak first.
“Charles is a prick,” she continued. “He was never happy with me, and I certainly was never happy with him. If I were to marry him, I’d spend the rest of my life miserable.” The two looked surprised by her words and likely they were. It was the first time she’d been totally honest with them. “I’m with Eric. In fact, I love Eric.”
Her father scoffed loudly. “You barely know the man.”
Jen shrugged. “That may be, but in the short time I’ve been with him, I’ve been happier than I’ve ever been in my entire life. And a hell of a lot happier than I ever was with Charles.”
Her parents grew quiet.
“What are you going to do?” her mother asked after a moment.
Jen took a seat across from them. “Eat desert, I guess and figure out the rest from there.”
* * *
Jen was surprised when the rest of their time together went by both painlessly and quickly. As they drove her back to her apartment, she found herself feeling lighter than she had in forever. Having gotten everything off her chest, she was able to just relax. Of course, it didn’t hurt that they were watching what they said to her and wouldn’t be at all surprised if things went right back to the way they were after a while. After all, her parents were creatures of habit.
They came to a stop just outside the building, and she stepped outside.
“You sure you don’t want us to come up?” her father asked.
Jen shook her head. “I need to change and then head over to the pub,” she said, then offered a small smile. “Thanks, though.” She gave a quick wave to her parents before heading inside and out of the cold.
She tapped her foot in the elevator as she made her way up, anxious to change clothes and find Eric. She needed to apologize and let him know just how important he was to her.
The doors to the elevator slid open, and she quickly made her way inside the apartment. Jen closed the door and frowned.
An overwhelming noxious smell filled the air. Was there some sort of gas leak? She turned to head back downstairs when a familiar voice stopped her dead in her tracks.
“Hello, Jennifer.”
* * *
Eric stopped the truck outside of the pub. He’d already gone home to change out of the getup she’d had him in for her parents, but it didn’t ease the pain in his chest. He loved Jen. There was no question in his mind, but the fact was, they were from two different worlds.
How was he supposed to fit in a world like that? Hell, he was fairly certain that even if he did, he didn’t want to. Nothing about the way those people operated made any sense to him.
He shook his head and stepped out of the truck. Didn’t matter. It was all up to her now. If Jen wanted to be with him, she’d just have to take him exactly how he was.
With renewed conviction in his decision, Eric made his way inside.
“Where the fuck have you been?” were the first words out of Pat’s mouth.
Eric frowned. “I told you, we were going to dinner with Jen’s parents. That’s why I needed the truck.” He made his way farther into the pub. He could see Crystal was sitting on a stool next to Patrick, her face buried in the crook of his arm.
“I’ve been trying to reach you for the last hour on your cell,” Pat said.
Eric pulled out his phone and cursed to himself. He’d turned the damned thing off before they went inside the restaurant so it wouldn’t ring. He looked back up and over to Crystal, who had been oddly quiet.
“What’s going on?” he said, tension spreading from his neck.
Crystal lifted her head a little. He could see she was visibly shaken, but it was Pat that spoke first.
“Some creep came in here asking for Jen,” he spit out. “I was in the back and missed nearly all of it, but he grabbed Crystal. It was only when she called out that I came running in here. Fucker took off in some expensive black car.”
Eric’s jaw tightened, and his heart hammered in his chest. There was only one rich douche that might come in there and harass a woman so blatantly.
“Where’s Jen?” Crystal said. Her voice was quiet, almost a whisper, but her words sent his heart hammering a million miles a minute.
Eric whipped out his phone. It rang for what seemed like minutes before going to her voice mail.
“Hey, Jen. Yeah, um, it’s me. Listen, call me back. I think Charles just came by here and roughed up Crystal.”
Eric hung up his phone. The steak from dinner now sloshed in his stomach.
The restaurant. Maybe they were still there, and she had her phone off as well.
He searched on his phone for the fancy French restaurant, and finally found it, if only because of the pretty bird logo they used.
Eric waited as the phone rang, Pat and Crystal watching him as he paced the floor.
The man on the other end answered and rattled off their normal welcome.
“I need to speak to Mr. or Mrs. Harrington.”
The other end of the line went quiet for a moment before the man returned. “I’m afraid they have already retired for the evening. May I—”
Eric didn’t bother listening to the rest before he hung up.
Every part of him hoped that he was wrong, but the only logical place they would take her was back to her apartment. He tossed the keys to the truck to Patrick.
“Take Crystal home and lock up,” Eric said.
Without waiting for a response, he bounded up the stairs and to his bike just in front of the truck. It would be faster anyway.