In a week from last Saturday, Jeff Erickson will be visiting Great Falls to discuss his merger with Travelocity. His incredibly successful line of five star Hudson Hotels will benefit majorly from this transaction and farther his career. While in Great Falls, it is confirmed that Erickson will be visiting with Governor Forrester in the Governor’s hometown.
I read the article on my phone during my first period class. It’s Monday and since yesterday, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this thing with Jeff and his visiting Great Falls. Not only is he visiting though, but apparently, he’s going to be meeting with my dad. The article goes on to babble about a lot of business stuff that I don’t understand so I lock my phone’s screen and put it in my pocket.
I go through the morning without really listening to any of my teachers because I’m so preoccupied with this whole Jeff Erickson mess. We didn’t exactly end on good terms, considering I was shouting at him and he was shouting at me and then he physically threw me out of his front door. I mean, he wasn’t abusive or anything but it still wasn’t a gentle gesture by any means.
“What’s on your mind?” Emmett wonders as I sit down at the lunch table.
I look up at him and shrug. “Nothing. I’m just peachy on this lovely Monday afternoon.”
“Okay then,” He laughs. “Aren’t you going to eat?”
I shake my head. “I’m not all that hungry.”
He nods and then turns his attention to the conversation that he’s having with his friends about some movie or video game or something that just came out. I’m not interested in it and I have a lot on my mind so I manage to zone them out while I try to decide what I’m going to do about Mr. Erickson. More importantly- what can I do?
The bell rings and I go off to music theory. By the time that I get there, Benson is already there, texting somebody on his iPhone. After I saw Jeff Erickson on the news yesterday, I kind of just scarfed down my half of the pancakes and dipped out after putting my hoodie and Uggs back on. I didn’t really explain at all, I just told him that I had to get back before my dad started to worry.
“Hey,” He says quietly. He doesn’t seem particularly happy to see me, but I’m too busy refreshing the article on my phone to try and decipher his mood.
“Hey there,” I respond dismissively. There’s a new update on the article for the first time all morning.
“So, we uh, we need to talk,” Benson announces to me after I sit down.
This just in, (I can’t believe they actually said that) our sources have announced that Erickson will only be staying for the weekend. With Travelocity and Governor Forrester in his schedule, it looks like he’s going to be pretty busy. What’s his rush to get out of Great Falls? A girlfriend perhaps? (I thought this was a political newspaper, not a gossip magazine) The rumor mill is spinning, but he has confirmed in a press conference this morning that he is, indeed, coming to Great Falls alone. Maybe he has a special somebody here as well. The man is full of secrets.
Special somebody.
Oh, God
“Venice,” Benson says, waving a hand in front of my face to try and get my attention.
“What?” I kind of snap at him. I don’t really mean to snap, but I’m so incredibly on edge right now that I can’t exactly remain calm.
“I said that we need to talk,” He repeats slowly.
“Okay,” I sigh, reading through the article once more to get any more answers about his visit here. I know for a fact that he does not have a girlfriend there in Billings because he’s a really terrible boyfriend and no decent human being is able to stand to be in a relationship with him for over a week. Not to mention, I only left a little over a week ago, so that doesn’t give him much time to find somebody else to fuck over. Nobody knows about me though, I’m like his dirty little secret. “Okay, what do you want to talk about?”
“So, I’ve really been thinking about the whole friends with benefits thing and I don’t think it’s a good idea at all. I mean, it was really amazing, Saturday night, and you have no idea how hard it is to tell you that it can’t happen again but yeah, it can’t happen again,” He explains.
“Sure,” I shrug indifferently. “Whatever.”
“You’re okay with it? Just like that?” He wonders incredulously. “I figured you’d at least want some kind of explanation.”
“God, Benson,” I groan. “My sex life isn’t at the top of my priorities right now. If you don’t want to sleep with me, that’s fine. You were my first choice but you’re not the only guy in this school that I can get into bed, okay?”
“You’re snappy today,” He mumbles his observation. “What’s got your panties in a bunch?”
“Life is shit,” I snap, refreshing the page again even though I suspect nothing is going to change. “Just everything… it’s all shit.”
“That’s very pessimistic of you,” Benson says with a small, awkward laugh. The bell rang a while ago but the teacher isn’t in here yet, so nobody is doing any work at all.
“C’est la fucking vie,” I say.
He’s silent for the rest of the period, which I appreciate, because I don’t want to take my irritation out on Benson. He really doesn’t deserve my wrath but he’s just the only one around right now and I’m so incredibly anxious about what’s going to happen this weekend. I have my two worlds- my Billings world with Erickson and my real world here in Great Falls. I can’t have the two worlds colliding because I will get crushed in the middle.
After school, I go straight home and I’m relieved when I see my dad’s car in the open garage because I have questions I need to ask him about this weekend.
“Hey, Dad,” I chirp as I get inside and see him reading some paperwork while sitting on the couch and watching some news show or something like that.
He looks up from his papers and smiles at me. “How was school?”
I shrug and sit down beside him. “School was school. So I heard that Jeff Erickson is coming to town this weekend. Are you really going to meet him?” I wonder.
My dad nods at me. “Yeah. We all are, actually.”
“We?” I squeak.
He nods again and then jumps into an explanation. “It’s a family dinner and I invited Jeff when I found out that he was going to be in town. Do you know who he is?”
“Dad, everyone knows who he is. He’s super young, super cute, and super rich.”
“Yeah, but he’s just the CEO of a hotel line, usually people like that aren’t famous,” He defends.
“Well neither are governor’s daughters but we all have our circumstances,” I sigh. “Anyway, I have homework to do so I’ll see you later, Dad.”
“Have fun with that,” He calls as I leave the living room and go upstairs. When the door shuts behind me I storm towards my bed, bite a corner of my pillow between my teeth, and I scream. I’m being crushed between my two worlds and I have no idea what to do about anything. I’m going to have dinner with Jeff Erickson with my whole entire family there too.
The same Jeff Erickson who I was staying with when all of the police in Montana were out looking for me, when my dad was worried sick here in Great Falls, Jeff Erickson was over in Billings, fucking my brains out.
I finish screaming just in time to hear my phone start ringing in my pocket, so I pull it out and answer it without even looking at the caller ID.
“Hello?” I snap into the phone.
“Hey,” Nate chirps awkwardly. “Are you busy?”
“Not really,” I say shakily, kind of surprised and a lot of confused as to why Nate is calling me right now. Even with everything going on right now, I still feel that annoying burning in my chest start to grow.
“Sure?” He wonders skeptically. “You sound upset.”
“You asked if I was busy, not emotionally stable,” I remind him. “What do you want?”
“Are you okay?” He ignores my question and asks me one of his own. “What’s wrong?”
“I shouldn’t have come back,” I admit, sitting on the edge of my bed. “That’s what’s wrong. I should have just stayed hidden and everything would have been so much easier than dealing with all of this… this shit. Fuck, I don’t even know why I just told you that. What do you want, Nate?”
“I was just calling because I want to know the truth,” He says. “You know, like why you really left.”
“I thought Sam already filled you in on that,” I tell him bitterly.
“Yeah, but I’m starting to have my doubts about that story,” Nate informs me. “I mean, obviously this is a bad time for you though, so maybe we can talk later?”
“Sure,” I say absentmindedly as I open my laptop at my desk and search Jeff Erickson. “Later.”
“Okay. If you need anything, Vi, just call. Oh, and by the way, I’m really glad that you came back. And even if it’s shitty right now, I think you’ll be glad that you did too,” He says to me just before hanging up the phone. I sit my phone down beside my laptop and continue searching. I don’t know what I expect to find that I don’t already know, I’m just looking for anything that can get me out of this mess.
Without any other options, I decide to call him. I remember his personal cell number by heart, so I just dial it into my cell phone and press the green ‘call’ button without giving myself any chance to hesitate or change my mind. I put my phone to my ear and calm my breaths so that I don’t sound panicky when I talk to him.
“Jeff Erickson,” He answers his phone with his full name as if I don’t know who I just called. Obviously, I know that he’s Jeff Erickson because that’s the number that I just dialed.
“Venice Forrester,” I mimic him because that’s how I always used to reply on the phone when I called him and I guess that’s just a habit now.
“Venice,” He laughs. “Wow, I never thought I’d hear from you again.”
“Touché,” I say smoothly. “Yet, here we are.”
“So you’ve heard the news,” Jeff says it as a statement and not a question.
“I most definitely have,” I confirm. “And I must say that I was pretty surprised to find out that you want to meet my dad. You’re supposed to do that before the break up, you know.”
“Right, I’ve heard that,” He laughs that smooth, confident laugh that he uses so much. Most of the time, it’s intimidating but other times, that dumb laugh is the most annoying thing I’d ever heard and this is one of those times. “It was your father who called me though, if I recall correctly.”
“Either way, I’d appreciate it if you cancel,” I say. “I’m not particularly keen on the idea of a reunion.”
“You don’t miss me?” He wonders arrogantly. “I’m actually looking forward to this weekend. Meeting your family and everything.”
“Have it your way then,” I sigh irritably. “Our time together remains a secret.”
“Are you telling me that I shouldn’t tell the governor of Montana that I housed his runaway daughter for seven months and did unspeakable things to her? Not to mention what I got you involved in at the office. I was going to use that as my opener,” He responds sarcastically. “I do have common sense, you know.”
“That’s debatable,” I tell him. “And if you even give a hint that we know each other, my dad will be the least of your worries if my brothers pick up on it.”
“I’m free on Friday night,” Jeff tells me randomly. “You should come to the hotel. Just one last time, you know? We never really got to say goodbye properly.”
I think for a moment even though I know what I’m going to say. “You have to at least buy me dinner,” I say.
I hear him laugh again. “Always the gold digger.”
“Always the pervert,” I fire back at him.
“Fair enough. We’ll order room service, okay?” He reasons. “I’ll have press all over me and by the looks of the news recently, you do too, so a public dinner just the two of us won’t go well. Meet me at my hotel, room 1205, at ten on Friday.”
“How did this become a booty call?” I wonder, more to myself than him.
“When it’s you and me, Venice, it will always be a booty call,” He tells me. “Is that all you wanted to discuss?”
“Don’t brush me off like a fucking business deal,” I snap at him irritatedly.
“Goodbye, babe,” He laughs again before hanging up the phone.
I put my phone down on the desk and lay my head down on top of my now-closed laptop. Closing my eyes, I wonder why I agreed to meet with him this weekend. I mean, why shouldn’t I? Nate doesn’t want me. Benson doesn’t even want me. Ever since that night seven months ago, I’ve felt like my body really doesn’t mean that much. It doesn’t really belong to me, it belongs to them. Not just one person specifically, but just the male population. It’s theirs, it’s not mine. I’m not really worth more than an asshole CEO who doesn’t give a shit.
Because I don’t really give a shit either.
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This is dedicated to mintsareawesome for getting the question right in the last chapter and the answer is Goodnight Moon
Thanks for reading! <3