Chapter Sixteen
Annie – Sunday
“Urgh, God,” I groaned as I sat up in my bed, gripping tightly onto my forehead. How was it possible to have a two day hangover? I really was getting too old for tomfoolery now. I should have known that before things got a little too wild with Justin…
Not that I was thinking about Justin – at all!
“Hey, Mommy,” Rae’s sweet little voice called up from my bedroom floor. I leaned over to see her coloring in her pictures, just waiting for me to wake up. “Are you awake now?”
“I am,” I practically growled in my still ragged voice. “What did you want to do today?”
She regarded me curiously, as if she could see that I wasn’t totally feeling myself. “Shall we have a blanket day? I have a lot of cartoons that I want to catch up on.”
She is too perfect; how did I get so lucky to have a child that could sense exactly what I needed? “That sounds lovely, sweetie. You can even help me make breakfast, if you like?”
As Rae bounced into the kitchen, I followed behind with a lot less enthusiasm. If anything, I felt much worse than I had the previous day, but that was maybe because I had something to focus on then. I had work to keep me going. Today, I could just wallow in the crappy feelings. I couldn’t even face doing a cooked breakfast, so I simply poured us out some cereal, instead.
“You go and sit down, Mommy,” Rae insisted. “I’ll bring it through. You look all pale and green.”
I followed her instructions carefully and slumped my weary body on the couch, allowing my eyes to slide shut for just a few seconds. I even half considered contacting Nancy for some help, just to get me through the day, before recalling her mentioning another date. Whoever she was going out with these days seemed to be treating her really well. I just hoped that I got to meet him soon enough.
As Rae and I ate in silence, I allowed my mind to get lost in the cartoons for a while, enjoying the mind-numbing effect it was having on me. Then as Rae finished, she climbed behind me and played with my hair, easing some of the pain in my head.
“Mommy, when can I come to the store with you again? That was fun!” she asked happily, making me smile to myself.
“We’ll see. You have fun with Nancy, though, don’t you?”
“Of course, but I like meeting all the people. I especially like Justin.”
Justin… However much I tried my best to forget him, everything reminded me constantly. Now that we’ve slept together, now that we’ve caved to that temptation – for which I am most certainly to blame – it was difficult to consider him in only a business sense…
Business…shit!
I had almost forgotten about Justin coming over to actually discuss business with me tonight. I’d told him to come to my home, thinking that we would be better in a less-tempting environment, one with much less alcohol. I’d assumed that if I was at home, surrounded by my reality, I wouldn’t give in quite so easily. What I hadn’t considered was how messy my house was. It wasn’t a pig sty or anything, but for someone who probably lived in a massive mansion complete with cleaners in Portland, I wanted to give off the best impression I could.
“Hey, Rae,” I said slowly, hoping that I could get her on board. “How do you feel about helping me today?”
“Ooh, I like to help!” she insisted quickly. “What do you want to do?”
“Well, Justin is actually coming over later to go over some business details with me, and I think we should get the place straightened up a bit. Would you like to help me with that?”
“Yes, yes, yes!”
Not many children would be jumping up and down on the couch at the idea of cleaning, but I was lucky. “Great, let’s get started.”
***
“That was so much fun!” Rae cooed happily. “And, the place looks great.”
“I couldn’t have done it without you,” I told her honestly, kissing her on the top of the head. “And you look lovely, too, darling.”
Once we had the house cleaned, Rae insisted on bathing, having her hair brushed and styled, and wearing her favorite blue, sparkly dress. In a weird way, as I helped her to get dolled up, it made me think of what it would be like to one day help her dress up for her very first date, and the thought brought tears to my eyes. I just wasn’t ready for her to be growing up as quickly as she was.
“Thank you; you look nice, too.”
I hadn’t intended to make any kind of effort, but Rae had insisted that I should. But I wouldn’t wear anything too date-like. I was doing my best to keep the lines as clear as possible. So instead I’d decided to wear my nicest red top, which looked pretty nice with my black skinny jeans. I looked as nice as I could while keeping a causal air around me.
“What time is Justin going to be here?” Rae’s question was punctuated by a knock on the door.
“Oops, that sounds like him now. I’m just going to answer the door.”
Of course, I wasn’t going to be allowed to go alone – my little shadow followed me to the door. As I swung it open, and I spotted him there in a very causal jeans and tee shirt combo, my heart did a very unwelcome dance in my chest.
Stop it, I thought angrily to myself. This is just business.
Luckily, I could get away with a weak smile because Rae immediately took over the conversation. “Do you like my pretty dress?”
I followed behind them into the living room, happiness bubbling in my stomach. It was really nice to see Justin and my daughter getting along so well. In a weird way, it was a shame that this was only business because if it had been different, if we were dating, then at least I would know that Rae would be all right with him. The way that she looked at him…it was as if he was the best guy on the planet.
For a moment, I wondered what it’d be like if things were different and her dad was still here. Would she have looked at him in the same way? Would he have been so good with her? And where would my life be…
No, this wasn’t the time for that.
“Would you like a tea or coffee?” I stammered, needing to get my head back in the game here. This was where things went wrong last time, I allowed myself to get distracted. I wouldn’t do that again!
“Coffee, please,” he grinned at me, causing me to gulp down a ball of unwanted emotion.
After a little while of allowing Rae to play with Justin, I sent her upstairs to play in her room, just to give us some quiet time to really get this done. We needed to focus, and her chatter wouldn’t help us with that. She wasn’t too happy about it, but after only a couple of moments arguing, she did as she was told.
“Right,” he sat down and grinned at me. “I have the proposal here for you.”
I nodded silently and took the papers from him, my heart thumping loudly in my chest the entire time. This was a good sign; it meant that Justin was taking my “no funny business” rule very seriously, which I wasn’t disappointed about at all…honestly.
“Wait,” I eventually glanced back up at him, confusion plastered across my expression. “Are these numbers right?”
His proposal was asking for a much higher stake in my company than I was willing to give, especially for the investment amount he was willing to put forward, and I wasn’t comfortable with it at all.
“Yeah, well, my advisors helped me write the majority of it,” he admitted, making my heart sink. “They crunched the numbers and they believe this is the only way I can make any money from Boffees.”
“I don’t know,” I told him, shaking my head in despair. This piece of paper dashed all of my dreams, and it made my heart shatter in my chest. “This all seems a little…much.”
“I know it might seem like that on the surface,” he replied, sitting up straighter in his seat, really getting into this now. “But it isn’t just the money that you’ll be getting from me. It’s the experience, too. I’ve taken many businesses to the next level. I know that I’m talking about, and my advisors know what they’re talking about. You will be getting a good deal.”
That all sounded okay, but I still wasn’t convinced. Boffees was mine – my dream, my vision, my creation. I’d built it up from nothing during one of the worst times in my life. I just wasn’t ready to give over that much control. Sure, I knew that I would have to make some sacrifices to make my dream come true, but this? This seemed like a step too far.
“Okay, I can see that you’re struggling with this,” he told me. “So I have a proposal for you. Why don’t you come up to Portland for a few days? Maybe next weekend so you don’t miss too many days of business yourself. Come and see the company? See what I can do for you. See if I can change your mind?”
“But what about Rae?” I wasn’t sure that I could leave Rae alone with Nancy for a few days; that didn’t feel fair.
“She can come, too. Bring her babysitter as well, if you like?”
He was going too far with this, offering me too much. This was far beyond what was expected from an investor. That was probably because of what had happened the other night, but at the same time, could I turn down this…just in case?
“Okay,” I eventually nodded, unable to think of any decent reasons not to. “Yeah, okay, we’ll come.”
“Great,” he smiled, standing up and moving to go. “Well, I better get going.” I could tell that he wasn’t really wanting to leave, but he was doing what I’d asked of him. “I’ll send you the details of the hotel later on in the week.”
“Thank you.”
We said a very quick goodbye before he went on his way, leaving me totally blindsided and more than a little confused. I wanted to call Nancy, to check that she was okay with being away all the following weekend and to get her advice, but I didn’t want to disturb her evening, so instead I went into Rae’s room to get her into bed.
“Has Justin gone?” she sounded disappointed to see me alone, which made me feel bad. I’d been so wrapped up in my own conflicting emotions that I hadn’t thought about her feelings.
“He got called away and he had to leave really quickly,” I gave her a small lie, just to protect her feelings. “But he did invite us to go and see him next weekend, for a little vacation. What do you say to that one?”
“Are you serious?” she exclaimed excitedly, jumping up to give me a big hug. “I would love that. Will Nancy be coming, too?”
“I hope so. I’ll call her tomorrow and ask her. Now, we really better get into bed…” But from the way that she was running around the room like a lunatic, I knew it would be a long time before I could calm her down enough to get her to sleep. “Okay, hot about some hot coco instead? We can curl up on the couch and watch a movie?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah!”
I had a long night ahead of me!