His hands go for my neck and I manage to throw his arms out and land a punch to the stomach. He recovers quickly and I’m about to throw a leg kick to his side when he grabs my leg and spins, forcing my body to go airborne and twist. I face plant into the mat with a loud thud. He places his knee into my back and leans down, both of his hands keeping me to the ground.
“Your head isn’t here and you’re about to get hurt. Get out and go for a run to clear your thoughts,” my Krav Maga trainer says as he gets off of me. I flip onto my back and take some deep breaths, trying to get as much oxygen back into my body as I can. He holds out his hand for me to take and helps me up.
He’s right, I shouldn’t be here right now. I’m mentally all over the place due to the phone call with my brother and should have known better than to try to train if I wasn’t going to be one hundred percent focused. I enter the locker room and get my running shoes. After putting them on, I lock up my belongings and proceed to go for my run. I head straight east, pounding the pavement and running as fast as I can until I run through Millennium Park and reach Lake Michigan. My lungs are screaming in pain and I slow my run down to a walk and continue on Lake Shore Drive. As my breathing finally starts to settle back down, I reflect on the conversation with Rhys.
At first, he was adamant that we should not consider Cal as an investor due to my current history with him. He feels we need to focus on the people who are already established in the industry, but my argument back was that we could use a celebrity endorser, like Cal, which can then lead to other endorsements from celebrities, and possibly open up more doors on the international scale.
“I don’t understand why you want to stay connected to Cal Harrington,” Rhys questioned.
“It’s always good to stay connected to high powered celebrities, Rhys. If he’s interested, why should we turn him away?”
“I think there’s something you aren’t telling me. We have to be one hundred percent honest with each other. It’s only you, me and Mom in this together. Everyone else wants to see us fail. So please, tell me the real reason why you want to stay connected to Cal Harrington.” Rhys could always see through people’s bullshit. Even though I wasn’t bullshitting him about having Cal as our celebrity endorser benefitting us, he was right to assume that was not the only reason.
“Fine, it’s because of Layla,” I finally admitted to him.
“Who’s Layla?” Rhys asked, annoyance in his voice from the knowledge that I’m still here for a woman.
“She’s the one I slept with that night in Las Vegas - the one who told me about Cal and Jenna.”
“Jenna’s best friend? The widower? You’re staying there to try to sleep with her again to get more information out of her?” He then proceeded to laugh in a bitter, mocking way. “Are you fucking kidding me? Wow, you really have reached a new low, Chase.”
“No, I genuinely care about her, Rhys. The more I’m around her, the more I see what an incredible woman she is. I’m falling for her,” I admitted and this only seemed to make him laugh harder, which in turn, made me livid. “Fuck you, Rhys! You don’t know shit about my life here! You haven’t been in my shoes, nor have you even met her, so stop making judgments.”
“You aren’t fooling anyone, Chase! You aren’t in love with her. You might be in lust with her, but it isn’t love. You’re convincing yourself that you’re in love with her, when really, you still feel like the deplorable human being you were for doing what you did to her. You still feel guilty and that’s what you are confusing with love.”
“No, you’re wrong, Rhys!” I yelled into the phone.
“Leave her alone, Chase! Get your head out of your ass and get the fuck back to Vancouver!” And with that, he hung up on me again.
As I sit watching the calmness of the water of Lake Michigan, I wonder when my brother got to be so bitter. While he was the quiet and emotionless one, he was never bitter. I know being at the helm of Wilson Enterprises is doing this to him.
YOU did this to him!
Your lack of stepping up and not facing your rightful place in the family has made him bitter!
I groan and hold my head in my hands, his words playing through my head like a broken record. I know I need to go home. It’s the right thing to do, despite my reluctance. And it isn’t because of the beautiful woman I’m trying to pursue here.
I don’t want to go back to the desolate offices of Wilson Enterprises.
I don’t want to see the hopelessness on the faces of the remaining employees.
I don’t want to see the hurt that is still evident in my mother’s eyes from my father’s betrayal.
I don’t want to see the coldness and hatred in my brother’s eyes at me for leaving it all on his shoulders.
The list of reasons to not want to go home are continuous, but I have to stop running. I’ll go home, but before I leave, I will accept Cal’s offer to watch over Jenna and spend my remaining free time with Layla. With my decision made, I start heading back to the gym and decide to call her while I walk back.
“I’m still working, Chase,” she says, as soon as she picks up.
“Ah, you programmed my phone number so you know it’s me when I call. Progress!” I boast to her.
“What do you want?” she asks, but I can hear the smile in her voice.
“What time are you getting off of work?” The need to see her in person is so strong that I’ll go wherever she is just to see her face.
“Hopefully not too late as I’m tired. Why?” she asks, suspicion laced in her voice.
“It has been a trying day and I was hoping I could see your beautiful face to cheer me up. I can come to wherever you are for a drink. Will you have just one drink with me?” Silence is her answer back and I start to think we got disconnected.
“Layla?”
“Okay Chase, I will have one drink with you tonight. I’ll text you the address of the bar to meet me at once I’m done with my last appointment.”
“See you soon, Angel.” I hang up and start to run, not wanting to be late for my very important date.