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“Look, man, you gave it all you had, and it just didn’t work. These things happen. You have to stand up, dust yourself off, and move on,” Chase rambles in my ear.
“I told you not to marry her,” he smarts.
I tried to fix it, but the business was still there, still needing my attention and in the end, it wasn’t enough. I wasn’t enough.
I tried to cut back on my hours, but we were opening a second location, and I’m the owner. I had to be there.
Even when I wasn’t, my phone was blowing up and our time, the time we were using to find our way back to one another, was inter...
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When she looks up, she gives me a soft, sad smile. “I’d like to remain Gwendolyn Drake, your honor,” she says, never taking her eyes off me.
“You kept my name,” I whisper, leaning in a little closer. “Yeah, I just—” She looks down for three heartbeats. I know because I counted them before she gives me her sad eyes. “I wanted to keep a piece of you, a piece of us.”
“Winnie,” I pant. “Just this once,” she murmurs.
Because it’s him. Harrison. It’s always been him. From the first moment I saw him in the library our sophomore year at State, we were inseparable.
“You’ve lost weight,” he says in a disapproving tone. “That’s not for you to worry about,” I remind him, my words coming out in short little pants. “Angel, I will always worry about you.”
This is Harrison. My Harrison. But he’s not anymore.
And he never disappoints. At least when it comes to sex.
I never dreamed when I started working here right after college, that I would someday be the owner.
I'm in the process of opening two more new locations, and all my hard work has paid off. Except for one small detail. I lost my wife.
I couldn't keep her happy, and this job was the reason. I didn't put her first, but in my mind, I was doing just that. I was securing us financially for the future, for the family we never got to have. I let myself get zoned into giving her the world, yet lost her in the process.
Three weeks until Winnie's birthday. I was so busy last year that I didn't remember her birthday until the day before.
I rushed out to buy her a gift, ended up with a necklace, a heart-shaped pendant that apparently, she already had.
“She’s not gone,” I bite back. “Yeah, Harrison, she is. She divorced your ass. You’ve got to move on.”
“Let's go out tonight. We can have a few beers at Twist of Lime. You need to put yourself back out there.” “Jesus, Chase. Do you hear yourself right now? The ink is barely dry on the divorce papers, and you're already pushing me to find someone else.”
“Hey, there,” a sultry voice greets us. Looking up, I see a blonde bombshell. She’s stacked, curves for days, and she’s on the prowl.
“It starts with a game of pool. Next thing you know Harrison’s got his groove back.” He wags his eyebrows.
The calendar lets me know it’s my thirtieth birthday, a day that most people celebrate and hate just the same, but it’s more than that.
It’s a reminder of my failures. The life I had planned but didn’t have the ability to follow through. Our plan.
But life stepped in. Harrison became the most sought-after trainer at the gym. Even though, as the boss, he had control of his hours, he was busy, his schedule packed.
Our dream of becoming parents at twenty-five was pushed to twenty-seven. Then twenty-eight. He started working six and seven days a week, more hours than any one person should. It was for the business, I know.
The gym took off, and in a way, so did my husband.
We hit the fork in the road. He went one way, and I went the other.
“He probably would have missed tonight anyway,” she adds with annoyance. Gabby loved Harrison. Being two years younger than me, she was that bratty little sister who followed me everywhere.
Sex. Oh, God! We had sex!
Unprotected sex!
“You take the ring off yet?” he asks. “Don’t,” I warn. “Jesus, Harrison.”
We did have a plan, but it kept getting pushed back. It never seemed like the right time with the gym expanding, but now that it’s here, and it’s our reality, I couldn’t be more thrilled. We made a baby together after our divorce was final.
“Love was never the issue,” she counters. “I know that. I let myself get carried away with work. All the while I thought it was for us. To make the gym a success, so when we decided to start a family, we would be set financially so you could stay home if you chose to do so.”
Harrison sets our joined hands down on my abdomen. “We still have a lot to figure out. We have a lot of talking to do, something we stopped doing there at the end. That’s my fault.” “That’s both our faults,” I assure him.
“Chase and Gabby in the same room? Together? We better hide the breakables,”
“My conference call went longer than expected, and Gina is still learning the ropes. I told her to interrupt when it was time for me to leave, but she didn’t.”
“Unfortunately,” I say, running my fingers through my hair. “I told her not to call unless it was an emergency. She called three times back to back, so I answered.”
“She knew about the appointment?” “Yes. It’s on my calendar, the one she has full access to.”
“Gina, you remember my wife, Gwen.” “Ex-wife I thought,” she says, holding her hand out for Winnie to shake.
“Enough.” My voice is low and menacing. “She is my wife, and you will refer to her as nothing but. Do you understand?”
“No.” There’s something about Gina that rubs me the wrong way. I can’t put my finger on it, but it’s there all the same. “She needs to know her job and what’s expected.”
“Gina, let me make something clear. My wife and my unborn child are my priority. Not paint samples, unless it’s Gwen asking for suggestions. When I tell you not to bother me unless it’s an emergency, I want the gym to be on fire. Got it?” I know I’m being a dick, but I can’t seem to find the will to care.
“Gina, you knew I was leaving, and I’m not staying because of your mistake. You fix it.”
“We’re all replaceable, Gina. All of us. You want to walk? I’m not going to stop you.”
It’s one of the things I’ve noticed about Gina, her provocative attire that borders on inappropriate, but Harrison has never said anything.
Everything seemed good Saturday evening. Really good for Chase and Gina, if you know what I mean.
They couldn’t keep their hands off each other the entire day, even though I’m pretty sure one of his eyes was constantly watching my sister.
Gina had her hand down Chase’s trunks and they bolted from the boat as if their hair was on fire.
He stops, shaking his head and closing his eyes. “This can’t happen again, Gina. No more issues like this or you’re gone.”
