Chew. Chew. Chew. It was maddening.
“Maybe you should make this a long engagement,” her mother said. “Put the wedding out two years.”
Nicole laughed softly. “That’s a little too far off, mom.”
“You two are still getting to know each other. He seems like a very nice man, but…complicated. Don’t you think?”
“I love him and he loves me.”
“I’m sure that’s how it feels right now. As if everything is so simple, cut and dry. But the fact is—“
“The fact is, it’s my life and my decisions.”
“No need to jump down my throat, Nicky. I’m being supportive.”
“This is not being supportive,” Nicole said. “You’re trying to undermine my confidence with your little digs about our relationship.”
“Now wait just a minute,” her mother said sharply. “I didn’t come on here and tell you all the comments we got from people around town, about the reporters who took pictures of our home and made fun of us. It hurt your father deeply to have our home laughed at and mocked in the news.”
“The Rag is not a news site, mom. It’s tabloid crap. Nobody cares what they say on that website. It’s all vicious gossip.”
“Maybe you don’t care. Maybe Red Jameson doesn’t care, because he courts the attention and publicity. But your father and I don’t want to be ridiculed for living a simple life.”
“I’m sorry that it happened, mom. If I’d have known, we never would have come to the house.”
“So now you’re with a man who you can’t even be seen with in public, without fear of what the news will print about you the next day. What kind of life is that, Nicole? Do you think you can be happy living this way?”
“Mom, I need to go.”
“Think about what I said. I love you, your father loves you—“
“Love you too.” She hung up and dropped her cell back in her purse, wishing it would just burst into flames. That phone had caused her more than enough grief to last a lifetime already.
As she made her way to the elevator and then the lobby, Nicole thought how amazing it was that her mom knew just what buttons to press to make her feel diminished and hopeless.
Here she had finally met the man of her dreams, and her mother couldn’t celebrate and be happy for her. She had to stir up doubt and anxiety and make everything seem as though it were a nightmare.
Wouldn’t most mothers be happy if their daughter ended up with a handsome billionaire who loved them to death?
Red was waiting for her in the lobby, next to the door to the parking garage. As she met him and they kissed briefly, she knew that all eyes were upon them.
I need to get used to this, she thought. This is going to be my life from now on. A lot of my privacy is going to be violated, and it comes with the territory.
And quickly on the heels of those thoughts, were the words of her mother, still ringing in her ears.
“What kind of life is that, Nicole?”
***
The ride to Connecticut was long. Nicole was in her own world, quieter than she normally tended to be.
Red didn’t seem to mind. He alternated between listening to music (mostly rock music) and talking on his Bluetooth. The calls were innocuous stuff; him making little decisions, telling someone how to best approach an important pitch for a big campaign, talking company strategy.
She tuned most of it out, assuming that this was just part of his typical routine.
But there was one call midway through the drive that seemed different than the rest. His voice took on a different tone. At first, he seemed to be discussing something very dull…a company in Germany. She didn’t remember the name of it. And then suddenly his manner changed and became very intense.
“Why would you say that?” Red asked, his eyes staring at the road in front of him as he talked into his headset. “No, no no. That’s not the case at all. We’re heavily leveraged in that market and we absolutely need them to be on board.” There was a long pause while he listened. His hands gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white and she could see his lips press together. “No, John. No. That’s not how it is at all and you can tell them. Tell them they better not fuck with me on this one or so help me God…”
For a moment, Nicole felt afraid of him. He was so intense, so full of a dark rage and she thought that it could somehow be directed at her.
“We need this deal to go through,” he said. “It’s not a little thing, John. It’s a big thing. We’re talking millions and millions…the stock price will go into the fucking toilet otherwise…and you know what that would mean.”
The conversation seemed to downshift from there, and Red made some small talk before finally getting off the phone.
When he was done, Nicole looked over at him. “Everything all right?”
He smiled tightly. “Just the usual business bullshit.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Well, some things are shittier than others. This thing is particularly shitty.”