Succeeding Love

Get It Together

Nick

“You look good, daddy,” Jessie smiled sweetly at me as I stepped into the living room.

“Thank you, honey.” I adjusted my tie in the mirror, then bent over the couch to kiss the top of her head.

Preston barely glanced up at me from his phone. He was lying across the couch, the same scowl on his face that he had when he got here. That’s the only expression I see on him now.

Pursing my lips, I adjust my cufflinks while willing my son to look at me. When he didn’t, I sighed, then asked, “Do you have dinner sorted out, Preston? Did you order pizza?”

“Yep.” he still didn’t look away from his phone.

“How did you pay for it?” I didn’t get a notification about my card being used and it was still on the counter exactly where I’d left it.

“Mom’s card.”

I rubbed my eyes, holding in a groan, before sighing and putting the card back in my wallet. “Why didn’t you use my card?”

Preston shrugged. “Mom’s was saved on my phone. It’s not a big deal.”

“It is a big-” I stopped myself before I let my frustration show too much. Jessie’s smile had already dropped, and she was looking at us like she was scared we were about to fight. “It’s fine,” I said to myself more than to him. “I’ll just pay her back.”

“Why? She won’t care. Vin’s probably paying for her food all weekend.”

I gritted my teeth to keep myself from exploding. Every chance he gets, Preston brings up Fay’s new boyfriend. It’s like he’s just trying to rub it in that she’s moved on and I’m alone without her, miserable in my mistakes.

I grabbed my keys, heading for the door. “I’ll be back in a few hours.”

“Bye, daddy!” Jessie waved after me. “I love you. Have fun!”

“I love you too, honey. I’ll try.”

I looked one last time at Preston, but he was still staring at that damned phone. If it wouldn’t damage things more, I’d take the thing from him.

I was irritated on my drive to the gardens where the charity dinner was taking place. If my bosses were not the ones that invited me to this event, I wouldn’t be going. They purchased the table for our firm and it was an invitation I couldn’t refuse.

The drive was short. Living downtown, all my drives are short, seeing as everything is within a few blocks from my condo. Even with the convenience of a short drive, I still get hits with waves of loneliness at every turn.

Fay is moving on. I’m trying so hard to accept that, even keeping my distance, but it seems to just get harder and harder as time marches on.

My weekends with the kids haven’t been helping. Jessie being Fay’s little clone and Preston rubbing his mother’s relationship in my face at every opportunity keeps me with a bottle of Johnny Walker next to my bed at night for the rest of the week.

Pulling up in line for the valet, I strum my fingers with annoyance on the steering wheel, itching for something to help wain my irritation now. Staying sober with my kids at the condo isn’t the easiest thing.

“Sir,” the valet handed me my ticket as I got out of the car.

I grumbled, “Thanks,” while passing him a twenty.

The stairs leading up to the building were awkwardly spaced, which was great if you wanted to pause and talk to others, which I did not. I just wanted to get this night over with and get back home to spend some time with my daughter and try to turn things around with Preston.

Memories flooded me of Fay on my arm at these events, hugging and talking in that excited way she does to everyone, even acquaintances she’d only seen in passing a few times. She made these events tolerable.

I tried going with Arlene a few times after the divorce, but it was never the same. Arlene felt like a weight, making events like this drag even longer. With Fay, I never noticed the time passing by. She lit up the room just being in it.

“Nick! You made it,” Leroy slapped my back as I walked into the dining area outside of the main conservatory.

Grabbed a glass of wine off the tray from a passing server, I lifted it in greeting before taking a long sip. It was going to be a long night of forced smiles.

“Glad you made it out,” Stevens said, lifting his glass too. His wife was hanging on his arm, clearly already drunk.

“Nick,” she squealed, holding her hand out awkwardly. I gave it a gentle squeeze.

“Your date arrived before you!” She laughed, tossing her body drunkenly against Stevens.

Another wife tried to shush her, but she just looked glossy-eyed and confused, before giggling again.

I was confused. Were they talking about Arlene? She had left this past week for another job, I had thought.

“You’re mistaken, sweety,” Stevens whispered to her.

“Am I?” SHe furrowed her brows, then shrugged. “Okay.”

Another wife or girlfriend hooked her arm in Steven’s wife’s, then pulled her away to the bar.

“Sorry about that,” Stevens said dismissively, but there was still an awkward set to his jaw. “Let’s get you another drink.”

The women love this event every year because of the venue. The gardens and koi ponds get them excited as the men talk business and network. Networking with the city’s most influential people is why the firm buys a table every year, but I’m not in much of a mood for talking with a fake smile today.

Standing at the bar with Stevens, he pulled me into a conversation quickly with a chairperson of some kind of committee for something that was probably important. I couldn’t focus much on what was being said. I just nodded along and smiled at the right times, knowing my boss just wanted me for my smile right now. These older women love a successful younger man, and I’m the only fully single man in the firm right now. I know that was the main reason Stevens insisted I attend.

I was agreeing with some trivial compliment Stevens just gave the chairperson when familiar, sweet-sounding laughter reached my ears, making my heart drop to the pit of my stomach. I went still and almost spilled my wine everywhere, searching for the sound.

Stevens coughed, trying to catch my attention again. He wanted my focus on Miss Cougar-With-Too-Much-Perfume, but nothing could stop me from searching for the source of that sound.

That was when I saw her. My Fay. She was across the room near the cherub fountain, wearing the most gorgeous soft blue dress that exposed most of her back. Her thick, dark hair was swept up high in a ponytail, pulling your attention to her bare neck.

I knew it was her before she even turned her head to gaze up at her giant of a date. He was in a single sports coat and white shirt, not even buttoned all the way. His tattoos were showing open on his chest, making him look like a barbarian. His cowboy boots and jeans were nothing too out of the ordinary compared to the old money cowboys and cattlemen in attendance. Jeans and sport coats were the norm among the older tycoons, but seeing it on him was different.

And the way Fay was staring up at him. Damn, it made me sick. Did she ever look at me that way? I feel like I only get glares and the cold shoulder from her now.

“I’m sorry, chairperson. Let me guide you back to your table,” I heard Stevens say, but I still couldn’t take my eyes off my wife.

My ex wife.

Damn it.

When the bastard looked at her, it was like he was claiming her for all to see. His eyes were taking her all in, moving over her beautiful face, and then glancing at the alluring curves of her body periodically.

When I saw him lick his lips, eyes lingering on her bare back, I wanted to explode.

“Pull it together, man,” Stevens was suddenly in my ear, prying the wine glass clenched in my hands.

“That’s my wife,” I whispered roughly, fighting down so many emotions storming inside me. “That’s my wife!”

“I know it’s hard seeing your ex-wife with another man,” he gripped my shoulder, leading me a little forcefully back to our table. “I remember the first time I saw my first ex-wife at a restaurant on a date. I wanted to flip tables and the whole shebang, but this is work. Get it together, Nicholas.”

“That’s my wife,” I said again, trying and losing the fight not to stare back at that beautiful back and slender neck.

Stevens pushed me towards the bathroom, telling me to cool down and get it together again. He looked less sympathetic and more agitated, and his mutterings to Leroy sounded harsh.

This was my job. I needed to pull myself together.

I just didn’t know how to do that with my ex wife in the same room, looking the way she did in that gorgeous dress. She was lighting up the event without even trying, as she always did, but she was doing it on his arm instead of mine.

How do I ‘get it together’ just like that?