15:30

Fifty

The rain hadn't stopped. It poured incessantly and little droplets formed on every window that Jay saw that day. Jay finished his work quickly that day and left his office queitly. He could not focus on anything that day. He just wanted to see what the deal was. There was no scope of containing his curiosity or his anxiety.

He got into his car, his heart thumping fast. The moment he stepped inside, he felt secure. His car was a safe space. He was alone, with his phone and his thoughts.
The car stood where it was for five minutes as Jay stared at his phone, thinking about all the possible explanations that Tracy could have.

"Where to, Mr. Scott?" the car interjected, disturbing his train of thought. Jay had forgotten to give the command to take him home.

"Oh sorry Martha. Take me home, please. There's no rush, drive as you normally would."

Martha, the car android understood the command. The engine ignited and the car began to drive itself along the wet streets slowly.

Jay let out a deep breath and opened his phone. He swiped left , then right. Scrolled up and down. It was true. Every single bit of information about Tara's life was in those files. Where she went to middle school, her first boyfriend, where she volunteered for community service, every dirty detail of her journey was on there. Jay knew better than to scoop through it. He respected her privacy. He may have had trust issues with her but he wasn't going to go through the material to get an unethically prepared thesis on her life. He'd rather Tara told him all of this herself.

Sure enough, at the bottom of the file was the termination letter of Tara from her Boston law firm. The same letter that she had concealed from him. The one that spoke about how she assaulted her previous employer. The same that was sent to him in an anonymous email. The one that caused him to type the break up text to Tara, and which he would have sent to her if he hadn't met with a car accident just before hitting send.
Jay realized that it was Tracy who had sent him that letter. She had dug up dirt on Tara's life in order to cause a rift. That seemed like the only plausible answer.

Jay's fingers were trembling but he knew he needed the link. Part of him was hoping Tracy would have a reasonable and acceptable answer to explain why she had hoarded and obscured all this information on Tara. A bigger part of him was hoping that his suspicions would get affirmed and that Tracy would have no such answer and that she would admit herself that she was the one that triggered their break up.

The dialtone grew louder. Jay hated confrontation.

"Hi baby," came a cheerful, and somehow annoying response from the other side. Months ago, this response would have illicited oxytocin in Jay's brain, yet now it was only making him irritable.

"Did you see the news? Our wedding has blown up. It's everywhere. Oh! I am so excited to marry you!" Tracy continued.

Jay bit his lower lip in anxiety. He hated confrontation.

"You know I wanted to get married in secret, right?"

"Of course baby. But what can you do?  It's the media. I think they get a kick out of exposing people's secrets. A little whiff, a little hunch is sufficient for them."

"Where are you?"

"Umm, out for dinner at Rashida's. What's up?"

"Can you come home? I need to speak with you about something."

"Is it urgent? Can it wait until later? I really wanted to-"

"If I were you, I'd come home right now. You have Joshua?" Jay said, firmly. Tracy was about to see a side of Jay she would be sorry she invoked. Jay was a patient and tolerant man, but both of those virtues were wearing away.