Miss-Fortunate Reality (10 page)

I laid down in bed
but I couldn’t sleep, I turned off all the lights and then I heard Rob come
upstairs.
I usually went to bed naked but I felt vulnerable, so I put on a tank and
panties. He came up and laid down beside me, I had my back to him and I
pretended to sleep, I wasn’t in the mood for the wild sex he liked to have with
me. I didn’t want him to touch me I just wanted to let him know I was in
control and I called the shots. “Can I at least hold you?” he asked, and it was
something about his voice that made me realize he knew he was wrong and he was
sorry. So I turned around and rested my head on his chest, he put his arm
around and caressed my arm. He moved slightly on top of me and began kissing me
softly but deeply, very sensual, very caring kisses. We did that for a while
until he started putting his hand under my tank and I stopped him “I don’t want
to fuck tonight Rob” I warned him “I know baby, I don’t either” he replied.
Tonight he knew what I wanted was love, and that’s exactly what he did, he
loved me, gently and slowly until we fell asleep in each other’s arms.

CHAPTER
TWELVE

The rest of the week went by fast.
Rob and I started to get back in the swing of things again and I had pretty
much forgiven him. He found a therapist to deal with his issues and as promised
we decided on a therapist for the two of us.
I checked my messages constantly but Marc stopped all communication with me,
and I didn’t contact him either.
Pam however did, so I knew what was happening between them either way. I
pretended to be happy for her, but based on what I saw in her earlier in the
week I decided that I would slowly wean her off me. I wasn’t sharing anything
with her anymore or making promises of coming over, because I would never show
up there again. Apparently she had decided to give Marc another go, she
recognized she was difficult to deal with and although it didn’t grant an
excuse for Marc to cheat on her, they had to meet half way. He told her the
woman he was with was married, but she was in an unhappy marriage and she
wouldn’t let him go, she told him she loved him and he believed her but he then
realized that he had more at home with his family and she wasn’t worth it. I
wasn’t worth it.

It
was Saturday morning and I was getting ready for a jog, Rob was still sleeping.
I checked my phone for messages and there were a few from Pam.
Pam: “I’m so happy today, we finally did it last night after almost two weeks!”
Pam: “He gave me oral too, and I was in heaven, he learned a thing or two from
that whore he was seeing”
I put the phone down like it was infected with the plague. I felt sick to my
stomach. I took a deep breath and then I picked it up again.
Pam: “Why don’t you come over for drinks later?”
Me: “No, I can’t”
Pam: “Tomorrow?”
Me: “Busy with Victor”
Pam: “Well who the fuck is your bff?  Me or him?”
Me: “I’m trying to leave the house to go on my jog, I will text you later”
Pam: “Fine fuck you too”
Needless to say I did not text her later, nor was I planning to ever text her
again.

That
evening Rob took me out for dinner and afterwards we took stroll down through
Queens Quay.
We had a come to a full 360 since the previous weekend and I was happy again to
be his and only his.

On
Sunday Victor and I decided to go shopping. We both needed shopping therapy
badly. He was starting his new position the following week and I needed to buy
cabana wear for our trip to Cairo in a week’s time plus I was still getting
over the heart break, shopping was necessary. So we headed to the Eaton Centre.
“So baby girl, how are things?”
“They’re really good Victor, he’s getting help and so are we?
“Thank god, no more drama. I’m still pissed at Rob for what he did, but he is
your husband and Marc is just, well, ugh, I don’t wanna talk about it”
“Thank you, neither do I, I’m still working on breaking all ties with Pam”
“Well I’m glad you’ve finally come to your senses, she’s toxic”
“Anyway, let’s go for some gelato, and we’ll head over to Holts and do some
real damage”
“Now you’re talking!”
We got our gelato and sat by the water fountain talking for a while. We were
discussing the expectations for his new job when a little blond girl approached
me and I recognized her right away.
“Hi
lex
” she said smiling.
“Hi Lucy, how are you sweetheart?” I said giving her a big hug.
“Oh shizzle, speaking of the devil” muttered Victor.
I looked up and sure enough there was Pam with the stroller coming toward me,
with her older son Sam and Marc was trailing in behind them looking down with
his hands in his pockets.
“Hey Alex” said Pam “Victor” she acknowledged him.
“Hey Pam, doing some Sunday shopping?” I said ignoring the fact that Marc was
standing right next to her.
“Yeah back to school shopping, they go back in a month so I figured I’d get
started early. I thought you always shopped in Yorkville” she pointed out.
“Not today, we’re heading over to Holts, going to Cairo in a week, need some
skimpy bikinis, and beach wear” I said looking at her then at Marc, he glanced
at me for a second and then looked away.
“Wow Cairo, sounds expensive” she said. I stood up to be at eye level with her
and just a foot away from Marc, I held my hand out for Victor, he grabbed it
and stood up as well.
I smiled “Well, yeah it is, we have a private cabana, and our own private beach
area,
he
went all out for me” I said sounding as cocky
as I could without breaking a sweat.
“Sounds amazing” she said after a long silence.
“So things are ok between the two of you then I guess” she said
.
“Yeah, things are great” I said and looked over at Marc “What’s the matter,
don’t you say hi anymore?” he looked at me and gestured a hello then looked
away.
“Oh don’t mind him, he hates shopping” said Pam rolling her eyes.
“Well Pam, it was great seeing you but Holts awaits and we have some damage to
do” “Marc” I said acknowledging him. “Bye baby girl, have fun shopping” I said
giving Lucy a hug.
As we walked away, I didn’t realize but I was still holding Victor’s hand.
“Baby girl, I don’t mind holding your hand but I’m in a lot of pain right now,
you’re digging your nails into me” said Victor.
I let it go immediately “I’m sorry Vic, I thought I was going to faint”
“Jesus, I would pay big money to have his facial expression on tape, and you
nailed it” he said laughing.
“Not even a hello, can you believe that?”
“Ugh who cares about him, let’s go shopping” he replied wrapping his arm around
me.

By
the time I got home it was after 5, I took my bags upstairs, got changed and
then went back downstairs to greet Rob. Much to my surprise he had the table
set for two, with flowers, candlelight and a very expensive bottle of wine. He
was in the kitchen slaving away with a pot roast. “You need some help?”
“No, almost done here. Just have to finish the salad and we can eat” he said
kissing me on the cheek.
“What’s the occasion?”
“You always make dinner for me, so I figured I’d do it for you at least once”
he replied smiling.
I raised my eyebrows and smiled “Ok”
“And I have some news for you” he began “Please have a seat and let me pour you
some wine”
“Uh oh”
He cut right to the chase “Well when we made the deal with London, there was an
idea thrown around about moving our offices there in whole or at least part” he
began “the investors feel that in order to create trust with our partners
overseas, we should be there and that includes me, since I am after all the
CEO” he said exhaling.
“Come again? Are you saying you’re moving to London?” I asked a little shocked.
“No I’m saying we will be moving to London”
“What about my company?” I asked.
“Well I’ve had some time to think about this and there’s no reason why you
can’t run both offices”
“Both offices?”
“Toronto, and London. Why not establish Alexam Limited in London, start that
high end line you always wanted, and leave the mass production stuff in
Toronto”
“That’s nice in theory but who do I trust to run the Toronto office, what about
Neiman Marcus, they are going to freak if I’m not here”
“You can travel, twice, three times a year whatever you need to do, we can keep
the house here so you can have a place to stay”
“How long have you known about this?”
“For a while”
“How long Rob?”
“Since I made the deal” he said clearing his throat.
“Let me guess, you’ve already purchased a home over there”
He didn’t say anything.
“When?”
“In a month or so”
“Jesus Christ Rob” I said getting up and walking away.
“Alexandra I see this as I great opportunity for you and me, I wouldn’t have
done it if I’d thought it would harm you in any way” he said walking after me.
“I wish you would have asked me first” I began “Alexam is my life Rob, how
could you do this without even consulting me first” 
“Alexandra I’m sorry, but when I came back from London you were different,
distant even, then the situation at the party, I couldn’t find a good time to
tell you” he said holding my arms.
“I have to think about it, we may have to do this differently than what you’ve
imagined”
“I love you Alexandra” he told me and kissed me.
“I love you too”
After dinner, Rob had to do some work for a meeting he had the next day and I
went upstairs to catch up on my reading. I couldn’t concentrate on anything,
all I could think about was the future of my company with our move to London.
Who would run the office while I was gone, put out the fires, and revise the
samples? Sure I could travel back and forth, but that would get tiring after a
while. I loved Toronto, with all my heart, my life was here and London was
wonderful too but it would never be home. I would miss Victor terribly as well,
and he would be angry with me when he finds out. Running into Marc today was
also a bit of shocker and the worst part was that I didn’t hate him, I still
felt the attraction when I was standing next to him. Maybe going to London was
a good idea. Marc was a shock to my system, I was still not over him, and I
don’t think I would ever be and running into him today made me realize Toronto
wasn’t big enough for the both of us.

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

As mid-week rolled in, I was
anxious. The buzz had already started around the office about me moving to
London and overseeing both offices. Now the question that remained on
everyone’s mind was who would be looking after operations while I wasn’t here.
The announcement was to be made public a week after our return from Cairo and
we were leaving London bound sometime in September. Rob and I decided to make
the announcements public the same day. Like me, his Toronto office would remain
as the head office and the London office would become a partner office.

I
woke up this morning feeling sick to my stomach. The night before we had
ordered Chinese food from our favorite take out place and I was grossed out by
the Kung
Pao
chicken. I forced myself to eat it
anyway because I was hungry. Rob had some as well but he was feeling fine.

I
had a meeting at 10am with the junior and senior designers. The meeting was to
go over the progress for the fall/winter collections for Neiman Marcus but my
hidden agenda was to get a feel as to whom would be good enough to fill my
position. I also invited Jerry. He had been my assistant for only two years but
I was extremely impressed by his eagerness to learn and his attention to
detail.
Because I was feeling under the weather, I didn’t get to the office till ten, I
put my stuff down, grabbed my notes and ran to the board room, which made me
feel even worse.
When I got there, the five senior designers, the juniors and Jerry were already
there sitting and waiting.
“So sorry everyone, I’m a little under the weather this morning”
“You look pale” said Jerry.
“Yes, I think I may have food poisoning”
“Ok so Fall/Winter 2015, we’ll start with leisure wear, Tammy?”
Tammy took over the presentation. She started speaking and showing the group
the slides on the big screen of her progress so far.
I felt a sudden urge to sit and I was feeling dizzy. I tried looking at the
screen but I just felt worse when I did that. All of a sudden I felt my food
come up. “Excuse me” I said and ran to the bathroom. Jerry ran after me and
came into the ladies bathroom with me and held my hair as I vomited in the
toilet. It was explosive and I couldn’t stop. Jerry kept flushing the toilet
for me. When I was finished I was out of breath, but I was feeling better “You
ok?” he asked.
“Yeah I think so” I said getting up, I was still dizzy so he walked me to the
sink where I washed up. “Seriously Alex, are you ok?” he asked concerned “Yeah
I’m fine now, but my jacket is fucking ruined” I said unbuttoning my Chanel
jacket, taking it off and throwing it off to the side “I will take it to the
dry cleaners don’t you worry” he replied taking the jacket with the tip of his
fingers.
“Thank you Jerry, that must have been oh so gross for you”
“No worries darling, I got used to it when my mother was sick with cancer and
had side effects after each chemo treatment”
“You never told me that”
“Well she died about three years ago”
“I’m so sorry, I lost my mother to cancer as well, five years ago”
He gave me a warm smile “Seriously darling, are you feeling ok now?”
“Yeah, but just in case let’s cancel this meeting and move it to the afternoon,
unless of course I have something else going on”
“No that shouldn’t be a problem. Go have a rest in your office and I will get
you some ginger ale” he began “I’ll let everyone know and I’ll have the janitor
come and clean this up” he said leaving the bathroom.
“Jerry” I began “Yes” he replied “Thank you, I won’t forget this” I replied.