17
Gray
I sprinkled the roses around the bedroom as quietly as I could so I wouldn’t wake her up. I checked the ring in my pocket for the hundredth time. It sparkled in the pre-dawn light. She would love it. I had the whole thing planned out. I would go down on one knee and propose the way I should have done in the first place.
I had to beg her on my knees to honor me with her hand in holy matrimony. Nothing else made sense now. I only regretted I didn’t do it this way in the first place, but that couldn’t be helped now. I could only make it up to her.
We were having a baby, and I loved her more than life. What could be more perfect than marrying the woman of my dreams and making this official? I would take her on a whirlwind honeymoon before the baby came. We would set the world on fire in one last hurrah before we settled down to becoming Mr. and Mrs. Joe Average.
Those words sounded so nice to me now. I wanted to curl up on the couch with her and the kid at the end of the day. I wanted to take walks in the park and have arguments about who was supposed to put the stroller in the back seat of the minivan.
I snuck out of the bedroom so I could pace around the living room and wait. I kept taking the ring out of my pocket and looking at it. Was it big enough? Was the setting nice enough for her? I snapped the box shut and shoved it into my pocket again. I wrung my hands while I crossed and recrossed the room.
When would she wake up? The tension killed me. I never experienced this kind of anxiety in the riskiest business ventures. They always excited me. This made me want to fall apart.
I almost lost it when my phone buzzed. Before I got it out of my pocket, it buzzed again...and again. It kept buzzing until I answered it. I didn’t have a chance to say hello before Jason screeched in my ear. “What did you do? You’ve ruined everything. It’s all over.”
I scooted across the room to my office and took refuge behind the door. I couldn’t let Gabi hear this. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“It’s all over the freakin’ tabloids, man!” Jason roared. “You boned that girl in the coat check closet at the gala last night.”
I froze. “What did you just say?”
“Some pimple-faced photographer got a picture of you. He followed you when you left the party with her, and when he heard you getting it on, he snapped a candid camera of you two leaving the closet. Don’t tell me you didn’t do it with her, ‘cuz no one in their right mind could mistake that picture. You blew it, man. You blew the whole thing out of the water. Four whole months of work and God knows how many dollars—all gone down the crapper. I hope you’re happy.”
“Listen, Jason,” I began.
“Don’t ‘listen, Jason’ me, Mister,” he shot back. “It’s over. Do you hear me? It’s all over. Even though you guys are married, the press will somehow spin this back to your bad boy days and how you are corrupting her. Your brother knows, and he’s pissed.”
I brought his fist down on the desk. “But she is my fucking wife!”
“Not anymore,” Jason returned. “This nullifies the contract. You broke her clean image. The tabloids are already starting to call out if she was as clean and good as they thought she was. We’ve got to do some damage control. We’ve got to get you as far away from her as we can, and maybe we can come up with Plan B.”
“I’m not breaking up with her, and that’s final. I don’t care what you say.”
“Are you trying to ruin your career and your brother’s?” Jason spat. “When the public sees this, they’ll spit roast you. Got it? You’re history. You might as well get yourself a house in the suburbs. You’re finished in this town if you don’t do exactly what I say.”
I stiffened. “I would rather live in a house in the suburbs that go through with this. I’m not splitting up with her.”
“You can’t honestly want to keep doing this,” Jason countered. “Where are your balls, man? I thought you’d be chomping at the bit to get rid of her.”
“Well, things changed.”
“I don’t care what changed,” Jason snapped. “Dump her. You have to distance yourself from her so we can rework this story in your favor. Don’t speak to her unless we approve it, and remind her that she signed a confidentiality agreement.”
“Forget it!” I shouted. “I’m not doing it, and you can’t make me.”
Jason started to say something about Tanya, but I cut him off. “Shut up! I don’t take orders from you. I’ve had enough of this shit, and I’m not doing it anymore.”
“You’re not doing it anymore is right, buddy,” Jason fired back. “Take it from me. The whole contract depended on the press thinking she was a good girl. They had to believe you were good enough to get yourself a good girl. Now that’s all toast. They will paint her in a bad light and start to tear down her good girl image. She’s poison for you.”
“You cocksucker!” I thundered. “I’ve done everything you said. I’ve bowed and scraped. You’ve made me a laughing stock in front of the whole world. Well, this is my goddamn life! Do you hear me? Forget it.”
“Do you want me to come over there and do it?” Jason asked. “Are you too pussy-whipped to dump her? I’ll do it for you.”
I brought my fist down on the desk again. “No! Are you listening to a word I said? Yes, I heard you, and now you’re gonna listen to me. I won’t do it. I won’t go through with this, so just forget it. You can’t make me. Do you know what you’re asking? You want to ruin my life even more than it’s already been ruined. I never should have listened to you. I never should have gone through with this in the first place. I would have been a lot better off.”
“You’re damn right about that, brother,” Jason replied. “We should have gotten you a nice homely spinster instead of a hottie. We all knew this was a bad idea, but you had to have her. You had to have somewhere to stick that dick of yours, and now you gotta pay the piper. If you don’t have her gone within the hour, I’m coming over, and I’m bringing Tanya with me. Understand?”
“Don’t you dare,” I snarled. “I’ll be the one to handle this situation.”
“How are you gonna handle it, if you don’t throw her out?” Jason asked. “You could wind up making it even worse.”
“I said I’ll handle it, and I will,” I told him.
I threw the phone across the room with all my might, and I didn’t bother to hang up first. Those fuckers! They got me into this situation. Now, when I finally developed real feelings for Gabi and wanted to take her for my very own, they wanted me to end it.
Well, I wouldn’t do that. So, the tabloids thought she was a bad girl. They thought we screwed around in the coat closet. Why shouldn’t we? We were married, weren’t we? We could do it wherever we wanted, and no one had anything to say about it.
Whatever I did, I would not dump her. I would not throw her out on the street. I would not take her ring back or anything else I gave her. My hand landed on the hard lump in my pocket. If the public needed to think Gabi was a good girl, what better way than to make her my wife—my real wife?
Everybody thought she was pregnant. I would make it all right. I would show the world how much I really loved her. I would let them know how happy I was we were having a baby.
I paced around my office until I calmed down. I retrieved my phone and put the pieces together. I didn’t care. I could get a new phone any day of the week. A broken phone only meant I wouldn’t have to field any more calls from those louts—at least not until I got this business worked out.
I snapped open the box one more time to take a look at the ring. It really was stunning, far nicer than the one I gave her at the wedding. I sat down in my office chair. I couldn’t face her angry about this. I had to make this the happiest day of her life. I couldn’t let her know I ever even thought about breaking up with her.
I calmed myself down the rest of the way by imagining the look on her face when she saw me on my knee at her feet. She would try to smile, she was so happy, but her mouth would twist up with pent-up sobs, sobs of joy. She would put her arms around me, and I would sweep her off her feet.