The first ten days had gone by quickly. Starting at Payco with Nick was very bittersweet. Our fathers used to talk about Nick and me running the company with them one day. That day had finally come, but neither of them could see it.
The morning I moved into my new home Kora came over. It was the first time we had seen each other.
"What are you doing here?" I asked in between kisses.
"I figured we should touch base and go over this week's plan for a final time. I also thought it would be nice to help you break in your new bedroom."
"Oh, really?" I chuckled and swept her off the ground running up to the bedroom.
I tossed her on the bed.
Kora was one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. We went through most of our training together with Kai. Because of that, we knew each other inside out. She knew my every strength and weakness both physical and mental as I knew hers. We made a good team.
My hands automatically started pulling off her shirt.
"Wait, Aiden," she stopped me, "I thought we said we were going to stop while we are here."
She bit down on her bottom lip as she waited patiently for my response. Her long black hair hung over me lightly touching my chest.
"We can stop if you want."
"No, I was just thinking with Bridget Gallagher and everything else you would want to stop."
"As long as we are careful and don't tell Kai, I don't care if you don't."
"Me too, now, keep going." She ordered.
"Wait, I can't. I forgot I'm meeting Bridget for coffee."
I scrambled to find my clothes.
"You could have remembered that before you got me turned on." She said irritated.
"Sorry," I said, "Where are you staying?"
"A hotel for now. Just until I find a place."
"You can stay here if you can stay hidden."
"While that is tempting, we can't risk anyone seeing us together, but thank you."
I rushed to meet Bridget at the local cafe she picked out. Luckily, I got there barely a minute before her. Her reserve was clear in her body language. I expected this of her. One of the first things we talked about was Matt. She apologised for the thousandth time for his actions.
"Did you grow up in Santa Barbara?" I asked sipping on straight blonde espresso.
"I thought we were here to talk out a entry budget analysis at Payco." She countered.
"I'd like to know who I'm getting financial advice from." I flashed a smirk her way. She rolled her eyes before answering.
"Our main office is on Wall Street so my family lived in New York for awhile until my dad expanded the company to the west coast. Then, I spent most my time here. Where are you from? Your accent doesn't scream Malibu."
I remembered the history I had rehearsed with Kai.
"My family was from a small town outside of Manchester, England and we lived there until I was thirteen. Then, we moved to San Diego."
"Do your parents still live there now?"
I shook my head and swallowed the bitterness of discussing my family with someone like her, "They passed away in a boating accident when I was sixteen."
"Oh, I'm so sorry. I—" she looked down. Her phone interrupted her. She pressed ignore.
"Sorry. What happened after your parents passed away? Who took care you?" She wondered.
Well, I still don't know if my father is actually dead. Your father sent me to a juvenile detention centre and then into foster care.
"I moved in with my grandma until I went to Stanford. That's when I met Nick."
Her eyes flickered down to phone which had gone off again. This time, it was texts.
"You can answer it. I don't mind." I said honestly.
She looked back at the phone. Her facial expression changed. She was perturbed.
"What happened?"
She was hesitating to explain. I was a little too excited to hear about the first shot I took at Alec from his daughter.
"My parents see a marriage counselor, and their office computer system was hacked. They leaked videos of patients' sessions. My friends keep calling me about it."
"Oh, do you need to be home with your parents?"
"No, I can't imagine that they had said anything too destructive. Let's just ignore it. What were we talking about before?"
"I think we were talking about how I met –" It was my phone this time to interrupt. I glanced down for a moment to see Nick's text.
"Dr. Davenport. That is the therapist I used to go to." I said acting surprised.
Dr. Davenport was a psychologist who wrongfully authorized my time at a children's detention center after accepting a bribe from Alec Gallagher. Now, he was about to face the wrath of patients whose privacy has been violated.
"You went to a therapist?" She asked skeptically.
"Yes, for a month after my grandmother passed away. My sessions were leaked. I don't know why anyone would care about mine?"
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a few girls staring back and forth from the television on the wall to Bridget. I looked at the television to see what they were looking at. It was a news story about the leaked sessions. Bridget's and her parent's faces were on the screen.
"Jacob, what are you looking at?"
She turned to look at the screen and saw the girls' faces. Her cheeks turned pink in embarrassment. I felt eyes in the room fixated on Bridget.
"Oh my God." She muttered.
Bridget followed me out of the coffee shop. When I held the door open, I noticed how perfect her body was. Her white shorts complimented the length of her legs. Even in a high stress situation, she carried herself with grace. We rode together in my to car to my house. Once we were inside, we pulled up the video that had Dr. Davenport's leaked sessions.
The first patient in the video was my nineteen year old self speaking with one of the first faces I saw when my life turned to hell.
"Everyone I've ever loved has died. I don't know how to come back from that. I don't know how to find a bright side. How can I be excited about the future if I have no one to share it with? I don't even want to be close with another person again only to lose them." I told Dr. Davenport in the video.
The video cut off exactly where Nick and I planned. I remember Kai scripting every session I had with Dr. Davenport. That specific line was my idea. There was a slight truth behind it.
"Oh my gosh, Jacob, I'm so sorry." Bridget said.
"It's okay. I don't feel that way anymore. It's just a little embarrassing for that video to be public." I said pretending to avoid eye contact.
"You have nothing to be embarrassed about. If anything, that video made me admire your strength. How do you get passed losing so many people?" She asked.
It was hard to tell if she was concerned or intrigued.
"It's not easy. I was nineteen and in the middle of my sophomore year of university. I just put everything I had into school so I never had to think about it. When I did think about it, I just had to tell myself that everything happens for a reason. The universe always finds a way to balance things out."
"What was your balance?" She asked.
"I'm still looking for it." I said truthfully.
"Why do you think the hacker included your sessions in all of this?"
"I don't know. Maybe because they wanted something on Payco, and I'm their new CFO."
Her phone buzzed again.
"Cara sent me the video of my parents." She said and played it.
As she pressed play, her shoulders grew tense like she knew whatever they were going to say couldn't be good.
"Tell me about the tension with Bridget." Dr. Davenport asked.
"I love Bridget. Out most recent argument is her not fitting in at the company. I don't think she is smart or strong enough. I don't think she even cares about the legacy she was born into. Sometimes I wonder where she fits in with the family." A female voice said. It was her mother Diane Gallagher.
I tore my eyes away from the road to catch a glimpse of her reaction. Humiliation and hurt was all over her face.
"Diane, she is smart enough. She graduated from Yale. If she gets her head out of the clouds and drops the law school bullshit, she'll be fine. It will come with maturity."
"She got into Yale by our money and nepotism. She isn't like Peter. You should not trust her with a lot of responsibility at the company," Diane disagreed.
Bridget shut off the video. She looked out the window and didn't say anything.
"Are you okay?" I asked sounding concerned.
She nodded.
"Do you want to take a walk on the beach?"
"That sounds perfect." She said.
We left our shoes inside. I rolled up my pants to the middle of my calves. I dragged my feet in the sand and let the water just barely touch my ankles.
"Why would your parents say that stuff about you?"I asked.
"Because I didn't want to work for their company. I wanted to be a lawyer. I wanted to have my own career that I had control over. They refused to pay for law school. They are dead set on all of us working for the company. Eventually, after a year of fighting, they won, but it still wasn't enough. I know I've disappointed them, but I just can't believe they would say that about me. I mean I am their daughter, not some random employee whose credentials are not up to par." She ranted.
"They sound harsh." I said.
"They are. What were your parents like?"
I avoided her gaze. Talking about my family was not something I could even pretend to do with a Gallagher without losing it.
"I don't like talking about my family." I said.
She looked at me sympathetically and dropped the subject. We continued walking for a bout a half mile down the beach until she stopped me.
"I need to confess something," she said nervously.
It was the only unpredictable thing she had said all day. I nodded for her to go on.
"Nick's sister Cara wanted me to go on our 'not coffee date' so I could talk her up to you."
"Why are you telling me this?" I asked. Bridget bit down on her lower lip as her cheeks turned a soft pink.
"Because I like you, and I want to be honest."
"You never said anything about Cara earlier."
"Also, because I like you." She said with a little hesitation.
She leaned in to me. Her lips two inches from mine. She had to be the one to kiss me. I couldn't kiss her first. With a hand resting on the back of my neck, she finally brought her lips to mine. They were soft and tasted like vanilla, but that was all it was. When my tongue touched the roof of her mouth, I tasted satisfaction in the fact that I was finally avenging my family. I was fighting back. I savoured the sweet vanilla taste of writing my own karma. Just as her lips parted, she pulled away.
"Wait, I can't— I have a boyfriend. I can't do this. I'm still with Matt."
"Bridget—"
"I'm sorry, Jacob. I need to go home." She ran her fingers through her hair.
"Do you want me to drive you to your car?"
"I'm going to call my driver." She started walking away, but I pulled her back. Once again we were centimeters apart. Her eyes avoided mine as though she would turn to stone if she looked up at me.
"Bridget, that—"
"Was nothing. It never happened." She cut me off and gently tried to pull her arm away from me. I didn't let her go.
"You just kissed me."
"No, this never happened."
She finally looked up at me with a pleading look in her eye. "I need to go. I need to go, now. I'm sorry."