Page 54 of Real Forever
“Ok.” Madison nodded and folded her hands in her lap.
“A few years ago, my parents and I, well mostly my mom I guess, we made this plan. I was going to become an insolvency trustee, open a small practice to establish myself and then expand to three larger centers. One per year. I’d move to the new office to set everything up and then hire replacements for myself when I moved on.”
“Sounds like a good plan,” Madison said. She shifted in her seat and straightened her back.
“Well, yeah. It’s a good plan, but…” Jake surveyed the room, searching for the right words.But what?
“I just… I like being with you, Madison. And I don’t want to stop.” He looked her square in the eye. “I know I’m leaving, and maybe it’s not fair of me to ask you to keep seeing me, knowing that, but… I want you to keep seeing me.”Madison sat in silence, nodding and staring at the ceiling. “I know my Mom said February or March, but I’m thinking it’ll be further into the spring.”
She hates me. She’s going to tell me to fuck off. God damn it, Madison. Please don’t do this.
Madison brought her gaze back to meet Jake’s eyes, which were pleading for her to stay. She reached her hands across the table, palms up, inviting Jake to take them. He did.
“I don’t want to stop either, Jake.”
What?Jake’s mouth fell open and he let out an almost silent huff of air. “Really?”
“Yes,” Madison smiled. “Why are you so shocked?”
Jake laughed. “I… I guess I had sort of prepared myself for you to tell me to fuck off today.”
Madison laughed. “It’s cool, Jake. Honestly, I’m not looking for anything long term anyway. This way we can keep having fun and it’ll be casual. No pressure.”
Oh. Casual.Jake nodded.That explains why she’s okay with this. She doesn’t see this going anywhere long term.He plastered on a smile. Maybe it wasn’t what he’d meant or what he’d hoped for, but if he was being honest with himself, keeping things casual made sense for both of them.
Madison pulled her hands back and sat up straighter in her chair. “So, back to business. I talked to Lauren last night.”
“And? How did she take it?”
“Surprisingly well. I expected her to be furious, and she was. At first. But once she found out about the refund thing, she calmed right down. I think she was relieved.”
“Great. So I’ll have Nathan send the letter right away then, and she can start the refund request process on her end. Does she know I’m involved?”
Madison nodded. “She does. And she knows we…” Madison raised an eyebrow.
“Ah. Okay.”
“And she’s fine with it, too. I mean, she was pissed at first but she got over it pretty quickly.”
“Good. Well, it sounds like the talk went well.”
“Yeah. So next we have to figure out our plan with these pictures.”
Jake rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot. I wanted to talk to you about maybe, possibly, not using the pictures. Not blackmailing Tammy.” Jake clenched his jaw, waiting to gauge her reaction.
“What? Why not?”
“Well, now that this refund is going to happen, maybe we don’t need to?” Jake lowered his voice. “We could get in a lot of trouble, Madison. I could lose my business and lose my license. We could get arrested.”
“But,” Madison threw her hands up, “this has been the entire plan all along. We did it. We got this bitch.”
“I know. I know how much you want to do this. But I’m telling you, it’s not a good idea. For either of us. Lauren wouldn’t want you going to jail over all this, right?”
Madison was quiet. Fuming, Jake presumed.
“Ugh. Fine. I guess you’re right.” She crossed her arms across her chest. “So she’s going to get away with it all?”
Jake frowned. “I know it’s not fair.”
