Caleb accompanied Jena to her car. For a few seconds, neither said anything. Caleb rubbed his cheek and jaw with his palm and fingers, and decided he would have to initiate a conversation, "Once again, allow me to apologise."
Jena shrugged and kept moving. "Apology accepted." Best to just accept things and move on, she thought. And now was not the right time to ask about the unspoken message she saw in his eyes. In any case, she was going to review her own unspoken message.
Caleb frowned. Surely she would want a fulsome apology. "I apologise for my remarks about your company." Jena nearly laughed. Interesting that he was only apologising for his remarks about the company but did not offer an apology for the remarks he made about her character. "I wasn't aware of Sophie's games." He modified his stride and walked beside her.
Jena said nothing. What was the point of discussing Sophie's behaviour, she thought. She delved for her keys, flicked the electronic door lock and unlocked her car.
"I think she had good intentions." Caleb muttered. Jena said nothing. "I'm not sure what's got into her." Caleb added when Jena said nothing. Her body language spoke volumes. Irritation was written all over her face. Frustration and exhaustion was seen in her eyes. "I can see you are cross with us."
Tonight was turning into a fiasco as she could not stop herself from saying, "I can see that your sister is spoilt!" She opened her car door and continued to say, "And that you have an issue with integrity. You can't be bother to even proffer a full apology!"
Caleb's head snapped back and blinked like an owl. "Wait a second..."
Jena put her bag on the car seat and turned around to face him and interrupted with no hesitation, "Your sister is used to getting her own way! I was not expecting a diva of this scale!" Exasperation laced her words.
"My sister is not a diva." He corrected with a tone that told Jena she was an idiot.
Her eyes glowed like barbeque coals! "Yes. She is!" Jena hissed.
Caleb held his hands up, as if he could stop a tsumani, "Rubbish! Based on one episode?"
"Yes." Jena snapped.
"And you reached a conclusion about Sophie's character on one episode? That is ridiculous, Ms Silva."
Jena folded her arms and declared, "People living in glasshouses should not throw stones!"
"What?" Caleb growled like a bear.
Jena ignored his growl. "I assume you know the phrase."
He grated, "Yes, I know the phrase, Ms Silva."
There were times in your life when you have to stand up and be upfront. "Remember Melanie?"
"Of course." Which was not actually true. He recognized the name, but could not put a face to the name! He remember Melanie was supposedly a girlfriend to the cousin of the woman currently standing in front of him. But he could not remember Melanie's face! He scrapped through his mind, dredged up some facts. Blonde hair, or brown, he thought. But longish hair. But he could not even remember her eyes' colour, whether she was short or tall.
"You thought she was a sweet, kind, loyal woman..."
"Yes..."
" ...after seeing her at an event. One event." She reminded him. He narrowed his eyes, registering her point. Jena snorted, "Or even better, remember our meeting at your office?"
Well, he thought, that was a better question. Their meeting was engraved in his mind. Snippets of their conversation replayed in a loop in his mind. He remembered he had all but shooed her out of his office. In his dreams that meeting end with a different outcome. When he reviewed their meeting in broad daylight, which was too often, he knew he won the debate about him dating Melanie but knew he had lost the battle because that date was a flop.
Jena ran her tongue over her lower lip and said, "You called me arrogant, based on one meeting in your office." He held up a hand to stop her. But she ignored his gesture. She continued, "Today you called my company unreliable! You apologised for your remarks about my company but failed to apologise for your remarks about me! I consider that a half-baked apology!" Her anger escalated, like a runaway train. "I suggest you tell your sister, that if she continues to play these sorts of games, I and my company will cancel the contract!" Her eyes flashed like a Catherine wheel. But her voice remained calm. "And, as I said, thank you for your apology." Her eyes were still sparking with temper, but her voice was cool. "A pity your apology was pitiable!"
Obviously Sophie wasn't the only diva here, Caleb thought. Caleb asked with sarcasm, "Melodrama your middle name?" his eyes telling her that he thought she was acting like a diva. "Evidently Sophie was having a moment, but to use one event to tar her as a diva is not fair or accurate."
Jena ignored his question and the implication. She had wasted time here. She had heaps to do. Coming all the way here was a waste of her time. Because their new client was spoilt by her brother and prospective husband.
Jena threw her hands in the air and announced, "You are a hypocrite, Mr Harland!"
Surprised by her statement he growled. "What?" He jammed his hands into his pockets to hide the fact he was furious.
"You used one event to tar me as arrogant and vain." She snapped. At some point, she was going to tell him exactly what she thought about him and his family! But not tonight. Because she was trying to keep a lid on her frustration and rage while fending off a headache. She could not help the speaking glance that accompanied her final salutation, "Good night Mr Harland." She stepped into her car.
He held the car door which thwarted her attempt to close her car door. He kept his anger at bay, and opted for a more yielding statement, "I accept, Sophie is used to getting her own way. But you are wrong. My opinion of you were formed and condoned by various experiences with you! Not just one event. You are a charlatan!" Jena glared. Caleb's body straightened up. He gritted, "Sophie's recent actions suggest a temporary bridezilla, but apparently we have engaged an immoral, hypocrite, contractor for her wedding cake!"
"What?"
"My sister has a good heart." Sophie was normally kind, and fair. The fact that Jena had not backed his statement about his sister had his eyes flashed at Jena. Caleb added, "Sophie's behaviour today was unacceptable. She knows that. We know that." Caleb said bluntly, "And I apologised for that. You blithely accepted my apology only for you to then accused me of a half-baked apology!" He ran his fingers through his hair and left his fingers laced behind his head and said, "You are behaving like a charlatan contractorzilla!"
Jena rolled her lips and caught them between her teeth to stop her from screaming at him.
Exasperation, frustration, anger merged, with an unrecognised feeling that registered in their eyes. Both knew they were wading over egg shells, with an elephant in the room. They failed to recognised the elephant because they could not name it without conceding there was more going on here. Racing pulses with no exercise. Hearts that were drumming with an unknown tune. Scattering illogic thoughts like confetti in their minds.
Neither said anything for seconds. Seconds that stretched like hours.
Eventually Jena mumbled. "If you say so, Mr Harland." She knew she was goading him. But the headache erupting in her head was influencing her response, and not helped by the fact her heart was racing. Her mind could not work out why, so she quirked an eyebrow, and she asked with irony, "Anything else?"
"Yes." Caleb snapped. For someone with a decent track with women, he knew the woman in front of him was running circles around him. What was the matter with this woman? And him?