Broken #3 (The Broken Series - Book #3) (10 page)

He looked up at me and looked me
over again. I could tell that his girlfriend was starting to get very
uncomfortable. “How is it that you manage to go to work looking like that?”

“Dad, I don't have a part-time
job. I can barely manage my schoolwork with my training. I'm a professional MMA
fighter; I get paid for the fights I do. That's how I make money. That’s on top
of the sports scholarships I've attained, so I do pretty well for myself.”

Craig broke into the
conversation. “You should have seen Jet, Dad. He took on this monster, and he
did so well ... you would have been so proud.” He left that hanging in the air,
and silence fell over the table. When the salads arrived, dinner conversation
led to Craig and Ashley and what plans they had for the rest of the year. I was
grateful that the limelight was off of me for the moment, as things had begun
to get a little heated.

It wasn't long, however, before
the conversation swung back my way. His new girlfriend had the nerve to speak
in my direction.

“So, Jet, how long have you and
Natalie been dating? We've never heard of her.”

I looked at Natalie, who looked
like a deer caught in the headlights. I turned back to Joy and said, “Well,
Joy, why would you have heard of her?”

She bushed a bright red, and I
continued on, “Natalie and I have only been dating for a short time; maybe
about a month.”

“What do you study at school,
Natalie?” my father asked her.

She cleared her throat before
answering. “I'm an art major, sir, I've had a few exhibits around town, and I
plan on freelancing when I finish school.”

“Well, that sounds far more
feasible than the career choice your boyfriend has made.”

“Dad ...” Craig said. “Can we
just lay off the fighting for one meal?”

“There's nothing wrong with what
I'm saying, Craig.” Craig looked away from his father and shook his head.

“I think it's preposterous to
base your whole future career option on punching someone in the face. I
supported it when you both decided to go into the sport as a hobby, but to
choose it as a career is foolish. I'm just glad you chose to go a different
career route than Jet did.”

“Why can't you just accept what I
do, and leave it at that? There are plenty of dads out there who have sons who
don't pick the career they want, and they support them anyway. Why can't you do
the same?”

“Because I have already laid out
a future for you, one you choose to ignore in order to run around in boxers all
day. When you wake up broken and jobless one day, you are going to wish that
you stayed within my company.”

“Dad!”
Craig said.

But Father was on a roll, and he
would not be silenced. The whole table looked shell shocked, and you could cut
the tension in the room with a hatchet. But still, my dad carried on as if he
had no idea that it was all going to end badly.

“Dad, I have zero interest in
business, especially any business that you created. I don't want anything to do
with your company. Craig can run it; you do have another son. You don't have to
expect me to do it.”

Natalie tapped my leg under the
table, attempting to calm me down. I took a deep breath and tried to do just
that. I looked over at her, and she smiled nervously. I could tell she was
alarmed by what was going on around her, and she probably felt helpless to stop
it. I felt bad, and suddenly regretted bringing her, but I had thought her
presence might prevent a scene like this, but apparently my dad didn’t care who
was there to listen.

My dad’s voice caught my
attention again and I turned to him. “I want you to be responsible for the
decisions you make in your life and realize they impact others. This isn't
about Craig and what you think Craig should do. This is about you’ and the fact
that you are behaving like a child’ and it's about time you grow up and do
something useful with your life.”

I practically shook with anger
when I stood up at the table. I could hear both Natalie and Craig telling me to
sit down, or calm down, or a combination of the two, but I didn't care. I
leaned over the table, yelling in my father’s face, “How dare you tell me to be
responsible when you have been parading your whore around as if you didn't
cheat on my mother with her! How dare you bring her to dinner! I can barely
stand being around you, never mind having to look across the table at a woman
who helped ruin your marriage to Mom.” I heard Joy gasp, but I kept on going,
well aware that the other patrons in the restaurant had turned to stare.

“You're a sorry excuse for a
father, and if you think I would walk in your shoes for one minute, and take
over a company that means nothing to me, then you're sadly mistaken. I suggest
you get used to the joke of a career I've chosen, because I would rather die
than come work for you.” I slammed a fist on the table, and stormed out of the
restaurant.

I sat outside on a bench, willing
my blood pressure to go down. I needed to cool my temper, because I had to go
reclaim my date from a nightmare dinner. I couldn't go in there, however, the
way I was feeling at that moment, or I would explode all over again. I wish I
could go in immediately, though, because Natalie probably hated me just then
more than she normally did. She was now stuck in there alone, not knowing
anyone, trying to maintain an awkward conversation until I came back in.

I wish I hadn't invited her,
although I wasn't sure how I would have survived it without her. She didn't
deserve to be a part of the issues that were between my dad and me. My father
didn't have enough class in him to let one conversation go long enough to have
a dinner with his son. I had been avoiding these dinners for months for that
reason alone. Wouldn't it have been better to not discuss issues just once in
the hope that I may return for another dinner? But no, Dad just had to get his
two cents in, and ruin yet another dinner.

It was Natalie who eventually
came to find me, as I hadn't been able to calm myself down enough to go back
in. She slowly walked out of the restaurant, clutch in hand, with her jacket
over her arm and sauntered slowly toward me.

Chapter Nine

Natalie

I was fuming when I walked out of
the restaurant, and I really had no idea what I should or could say to Jet at
that point. Dinner had been an absolute disaster, and the least Jet could have
done was warn me about the impending doom. As if dinner wasn't bad enough, he
then got in a screaming match with his dad, and stormed out. He didn’t ask me
to go with him―he just stormed out; leaving me with a bunch of people I
didn’t know, in one of the most awkward situations I have ever been in. I had
been humiliated, and had to sit through Jet's dad going on about Jet's level of
respect, when all I wanted to do was tell him to shut the hell up.

Instead, I had slowly gotten up
from the table, and without saying another word to any of them, I had walked
out of the restaurant. There I found Jet sitting outside, looking like he was
still going to explode if you dared touch him.

I sauntered over to him, trying
to find the words to express what I was feeling at that moment. He looked up
and me and tried to smile, but the storm clouds in his eyes just wouldn't allow
it.

“I was starting to think you left
without me.”

“Natalie, I would never do that.
I was just trying to calm down before I went back in there, I'm sorry.”

“Jet, what the hell is going on
between you and your father?”

“It's just the way it's always
been. He wants to pass his company down to me, only me. It can't be Craig, and
I just don't want any part of it. It's not the dream I want for my life, so ever
since I said no, things have been like this. And that was long before we all
found out that he was cheating on my mom. Now it's a minefield every time we
are anywhere near each other.”

“Why did you tell them I was your
girlfriend? Why would you go there? You brother for sure knew that it wasn't
true.”

“Look, Natalie, I know you aren't
my girlfriend, so you can just relax on that whole thing. I just didn't want my
dad to have something to complain about. That I didn't have a girlfriend like
Craig did. He's always comparing us. And I didn't want him to say anything
about me bringing just a friend to a dinner with family; I just didn't want to
go alone. I really thought if I brought you, it would have stopped the fighting
from happening, but it happened anyway. All I can say is I'm sorry; it
shouldn't have happened at all.”

“Well, a little warning would
have been nice, Jet. I'm a big girl; I can handle conflicts. It's just alarming
when they are seemingly out of the blue. The least you could have done was warn
me that there was a chance there would be a fight, or at least tell me the real
reason you wanted me there. Telling me you didn't want to have to sit through
an awkward dinner was a little far from the truth. You should have prepared me
for what would happen, instead of throwing me in a war zone without any
warning.”

“Are you joking right now,
Natalie?”

“No, I'm not. I think it's the
least you could have done.”

“Well, why should I? You're no
different. You’re very secretive about your family life, and I don't flip out
about it.”

“Yeah, maybe I am, so what? The
difference is, Jet, I don't sit you in front of my father and let all the
secrets come out over dinner. That's the bloody difference.”

“It's not just that, Natalie. You
are secret about many things in your past. I'm pretty sure whatever happened
with your last boyfriend has a lot to do with why we are so messed up.”

I laughed, shocked that he
brought things right out in the open. He was right, we were pretty messed up,
and I couldn't see a way of changing that. But I knew for a fact that it wasn't
just my fault. If he and I remained just friends, he had some part in that as
well. He had a terrible reputation, and right off the bat we had a rocky start,
with him telling his roommate we had slept together before we had. I had trust
issues, but he didn't help them go away, by any means.

“Well, what do you have to say,
Natalie? It's not fun, right, when the tables are turned back on you, is it?”

I lost my temper, just as he had
in the restaurant, and yelled at him. “My ex-boyfriend cheated on me with my
best friend. There, are you happy? Does that make us even in the secret sharing
today, Jet?”

He looked at me in shock, and had
a look on his face I couldn't quite read, but it seemed like regret.

“It wasn't just a one night
stand, either. They had carried on an affair for almost a year. This was a guy
I spent three years with. I thought I was going to marry him. He left me for my
best friend, and they had both been lying and sneaking around behind my back for
a year. So, yeah, Jet, you're right on the money. That is exactly why you are
right on the money, Jet. That's exactly why you and I are never going to be
anything more than friends. Because I can bet any amount of money that you are
exactly like him, and I refuse to let another man break me like that again.”

I stormed away from him as I
heard him calling my name. I started running down the street until I could no
longer hear him calling my name. I started looking for a cab, and since I was
in a busy part of town, it wasn't long before a cab pulled up to the curb.
There were tears running down my cheeks as I got into the cab, and closed the
door behind me. I looked behind me, and saw no sign of Jet searching for me. I
gave the cabbie my address, and began sobbing in the back of the cab. The
cabbie asked me if I was okay, if I needed him to call someone. I just shook my
head, and lay back against the seat. I closed my eyes as tears streamed down my
face. I was mortified by how the evening had gone, but even more so, I was hurt
that Jet hadn't fixed it, but instead had gone on the attack.

Maybe I should have been more
honest with Jet, and told him about my past, but I was trying to keep things
neutral between us in order for me to protect myself. I didn't want to deal
with my emotions with someone like Jet. He was always so tough, and considering
his own past with women, how did I know he hadn't done the exact same thing to
a girl as Tom had done to me?

I was fairly certain at that
point, however, that I was finished with Jet permanently. I couldn't keep going
on that roller coaster ride of emotion and regret with him any longer. It was
becoming glaringly obvious that we couldn't even maintain a normal friendship,
so I thought it was just time to cut the cord and move on with my life. I
groaned when I realized that I would have to start from scratch with my art
project, and find a new subject. I would have to do three drawings in one month
to make sure I was back on schedule. The creative story I could still salvage,
because essentially it was fiction, and I could just tell whatever story I
wanted to. Maybe I could try to have Jet and me live happily ever after in the
story; it was, after all, just fiction. I wiped away my tears, and decided that
I would send Jet a message before bed, after I had calmed down, and let him
know that I felt that contact should be broken at that point, and that I didn't
even want to be friends anymore.