“Messages, Jessica?”

She snaps to attention.  “Yes, sir.”

I roll my eyes while she scrambles to gather up the pieces of paper with my phone messages scribbled on them.  Yeah, she’s a nervous wreck.  I mean, I probably would be too after the things I said to her yesterday.

But they needed to be said.

I didn’t even realize what was going on, and I wouldn’t have, if it hadn’t been for one very angry client that managed to get ahold of me yesterday morning.  He said that he’d been trying to get in touch with me for days regarding his account, that he was losing money and needed me to sort some things out for him.  I asked him why he hadn’t been able to get in touch with me, since I’d been pulling seven thirty to five fifteens every day since we’d gotten underway.  He informed me that every time he called, nobody picked up the phone.

My attention immediately turned to Jessica, but I didn’t understand why she wouldn’t have given me a message or transferred a call into my office like she was supposed to.  She listened to me about being on time, we got through the couple of weeks I had to communicate with her by phone, and when I made the move she was still prompt, and usually waiting for me with a Starbucks coffee and a pleasant attitude when I came to open up in the morning. It always put me in a good mood, and I started to trust her.  We didn’t have many problems besides that the work was overwhelming at times, and caused her to forget certain things in the daily routine I’d made up for her.  She was new, so I expected it.  What I didn’t expect, was for her to piss my clients off and ignore their phone calls.  Client service, I’d made clear to her from the get go, was my number one priority.

I went back and reviewed the security tapes after I got off the phone with him.  I had to credit some funds back to him as a courtesy, which meant the company had lost money, and nothing made me angrier.  I started on a random day, from the hour she clocked in, until it was time for her to go home for the day.  The first hour was fine.  She was diligently working at her desk, but when the second hour hit...the dot of the second hour in fact, she would leave her desk to go outside.  

The same thing would happen every hour, on the hour, until she went home.  The girl even took an extra fifteen minutes on her lunch. That meant the desk was unoccupied for fifteen or twenty minutes every hour, and the phone would ring without an answer for that span of time.  I was in the building, but oblivious to it, choosing to work in a private office, where I couldn’t hear the incessant ringing of the phone.  I did the same thing at Goldman, but Cheryl was always on top of the phone calls and transfers.  I do have a private line, but I barely give it out.  Only to Abbey and the most important clients on the books.  

What was Jessica doing?

Smoking cigarettes like her life depended on it.

Now, I’m usually lenient with smoke breaks.  Once or twice a day apart from lunch usually isn’t a problem for me.  But every hour? I didn’t know how many calls she’d missed, but I did know that I was losing business, and I couldn’t afford to at such an early stage.  I called her into my office immediately after that to have a talk.  When she sat down across from me, she was giving me a pleasing smile, but when I didn’t return it, her expression fell serious immediately.

“Justin?”

I sat up a little.  “Let’s go with sir, or Mr. Timberlake, okay?  We’re not friends.  I’m your employer.”

“Oh...”  She looked down at her lap.  “Okay.”

“I need to talk you about your cigarette situation.”

Her head immediately snapped up then, her eyes wide, a look of doom on her face.  She was scared, and I knew it.

But I wasn’t going to go easy on her.  I never had before, with any employee that was breaking the rules, and I wasn’t about to start then.  “I received a concerned call from a client a this morning,” I went on.  “He hadn’t been able to get in touch with me, and if he didn’t get a hold of my private office number, he probably wouldn’t have either.”

She said nothing.

“I had to credit back some funds that he lost due to your negligence.  Thousands, from the company’s bankroll.  I’ll be docking your check three hundred dollars for four pay periods.  That’s a grand, and doesn’t nearly cover the loss, but I figure it’s enough to cover the hours you spent outside during my time.”

“I...sir...”

“I’m not a smoker,” I told her gently, because I knew she was about to break down in front of me.  “But, I know how it is.  I’ve worked with people who are, and I know it’s hard to contain cravings.  Yours is the worst case I’ve ever seen I think, but...as long as you tone it down and keep it to two breaks a day outside of your lunch hour, we’ll be fine.”

“Just two?”

She said it like it was worse than me docking her pay.

I narrowed my eyes at her.  “If that’s not enough time, you can always show yourself the door, too.”

She pressed her lips together and let out a long breath after a few moments.  “I’ll...I’ll figure out a way to do that, sir.”

“You better.  Now get back to work.”

She stood up harshly from the chair and whimpered as she walked out of my office, letting the door close behind her.

I’ve gotten twice the amount of phone calls because of that talk, and while it’s good for business, it pisses me off that I’ve most likely lost money because she wasn’t putting them through to me the entire time we’ve been open.  I’m giving her another chance, only because of who she’s related to.  If she messes up one more time though...she’s gone.  

As if things weren’t bad enough, I had a heated argument with my contractor later that day.  Things weren’t coming together fast enough for me.  We were still working out of the temporary office, when I thought we would have been able to work in the new one while they were finishing up.  But some of the foundation still wasn’t in place, and I felt they’d had more than enough time to get the job done. It pissed me off.  I wanted to run my business properly, hire more people, and I couldn’t until the office was safe enough to work in while under construction.

Anthony, that’s the guy who’s running things.  He’s in his late thirties, seems nice enough, but I haven’t spent any time trying to get to know him, because there’s no point.  I make him come to me in the temporary office to fill me in on things, and that’s all.  He told me he was working his guys as hard as he could, and that there was nothing he could do to speed up the construction process.  According to him, things were running right on schedule.

But I was tired of waiting.  I was paying out of my own pocket for the renovations and I expected timely results.  Being a business man myself, I always made sure to exceed the clients expectations, getting things for them faster than my competition could, getting them more money out of their investments than my competition could.  I guess because I had such a high approval rating in my own business, I expected the same level of service everywhere.

I told him he better call his boss and find a way to get the job done ahead of schedule, or else I would hire another company that could.  I think that got his ass in gear.  The owner, Bill, called me up later that afternoon and assured me he was sending out some more workers to get the job moving more efficiently.  He’s a good business man, I just wish his son in law was a little more responsible.  I’m going over to the site this afternoon, to make sure everything is going as planned.  Bill told me to do it, and call him if there was another issue.  The guy is even crediting me ten grand for my trouble.

I’m sure I’ll recommend him to a friend, despite the trouble Anthony has caused.  That’s what the business is all about, after all.  They’re a small construction company, and I went with them because of their local client five star ratings.  I like to give small business a chance, because I’d been given a chance when I had come from nothing.

“This is everything.”  She hands the sloppy bunch of papers over to me.  “Oh and your wife called.  She said your cell went to voicemail.”

“Abbey?” I smile, and she looks shocked.  “Did she say what she wanted?”

“She said...”  She trails off and looks down at a notepad in front of her computer.  “Could you please get some formula on your way home?”

“Oh, okay.”  I take the papers from her and start shuffling them into a neat, manageable pile.  “Thanks.”

“I didn’t know you had children.”

I pause as my hand lands on my office’s doorknob, and glance at her.  Really, I never had an intention on sharing my personal life with her.  But I guess...god...I guess I feel kind of bad about the way I spoke to her.  If Abbey knew, she’d be quick to slap me upside the head and call me a selfish asshole.  “Twins,” I smirk.  “And my two kid brothers live with us too.”

Until that number changes to one.

“Damn,” she laughs like she’s an old friend of mine.  “Four kids and you’re not even thirty.”

I raise an eyebrow.  “How about that, huh?”

She licks her lips, like she feels stupid for saying it.  “I’ll just...buzz you if a call comes in.”

I nod.  “I’m making a trip to the work site around eleven too.  Somebody is supposed to be coming to escort me.  Make them wait, all right?  At least twenty minutes, and then call me.”

“What if they get impatient?”

I flash her a cocky smile.  “That’s the point.”

I walk into my office after that, without another word, and when the door closes behind me, I can feel her giving me the finger.  I wouldn’t blame her, either.

I can be a real big asshole, and I know that I just acted like one.

But I just don’t care.  I’m too annoyed with her and ‘Johnson and Holtoy Construction’ to give a damn.

I work tirelessly through the morning, trading and buying shares, and taking in dozens of phone calls.  Work takes my mind off my agressions, how annoyed I am with my assistant and Austin.  I just...forget about them, stay focused on the market and making lots, and lots of money.  I’m in such a daze, I barely hear the buzzing of my intercom for a few moments, until I hear my name being called through it.

“Mr. Timberlake?”

“Yeah.”  I keep my gaze focused on the stocks flashing across the computer screen.

“The gentle...the gentleman...from...from the construction company is here.”

She sounds completely terrified, and I stare down at the intercom for a moment, trying to figure out if there’s a serious problem.  “What’s his problem?”

“Nothing, nothing,” she laughs nervously.  “But he’s ready for you.”

I hope she made him wait the twenty minutes.  “Fine. I’ll be out in a minute.”

She hangs up without another word.

Fuck, she’s so weird.  I don’t care what she says, or what anybody else says, the military screws with people.  It makes them uneasy around people and nervous about living life in general.  I’m sure that’s where Jessica gets her annoying smoking habit from, and I would never ask but...I really wonder what happened to her over in Afghanistan.  By the way she acts, I can tell that she didn’t have a “decent run” there, like she told me at her interview.

I can’t focus on that right now though.

I wait ten minutes, just to give the impression that I’m in no rush, before I venture out into the lobby.  

Jessica’s desk is vacant.  I know she’s already been on two smoke breaks this morning, and I feel the anger boiling inside of me.  I’m ready to fire her.  So ready.

“So it’s actually you?”

I look over to my left, and then...I’m just staring, my mouth hanging open, having forgotten all about Jessica, because I can only focus on one thing at a time.

And right now, I’m focusing on Braeden.

“Wow...I...”

“Damn, I should have known.”  He runs his hands through his hair and laughs.  “I mean, I saw that the invoice said Timberlake Financial but I really...I guess I was counting on it to be somebody else, even though Anthony told me what an asshole you were.”

“That was the giveaway I guess,” I laugh.  “But...why are you here?”

“I’m working on your building you impatient bastard.”  He tries to maintain his serious expression, but fails.  His face breaks into a smile and he steps forward and sticks his hand out.  “It’s...good to see you.”

I nod and shake his hand firmly.  “You look better...a lot better than you did.”

It’s the truth.  He looks refreshed and rejuvenated, and much healthier.  But it’s not making this meeting any less awkward.

“I got myself some help, finally.  Low and behold, something actually worked for me.”

Now, I feel like complete shit that I complained about the construction work, because I can tell he’s probably been busting his ass.  His hands are rough and flecked with paint, as well as his clothes and parts of his face.  He has a job now.  He’s not...that fragile fucked up freak anymore.  He’s coping, and that’s amazing, considering everything he’s been through.

I’d say I was proud of him but...I’m still a little shocked that I’m standing here with him.

“How is she?” He asks next.

I smile.  “She’s good, a little overwhelmed...you know...the kids...”

“I saw the picture.  They’re cute kids.  You must be proud.”

“Yeah, we are.”

“I um...”  He sighs and strokes his chin for a moment.  “I never got to thank you for sending Mark and Hannah.”

“I wanted to do it,” I say, automatically.  “Did you have a good holiday?”

“The best in years,” he smirks.  “You?”

“A lot was going on, but we managed.  You should come for dinner or something, you know?  See the new place?  I’m sure Abbey would want to say hello.”

“Oh...yeah, maybe.”

He doesn’t mean it.  I know, deep down, it’s taking everything inside of him not to run away from me right now.  I know, because I feel the same fucking way.  While we respect each other, the simple fact that I’m part of the reason Abbey isn’t with him anymore, can’t be easy for him to stomach.  “Let me just find my assistant and then we can head out, okay?”

“She...she needs a minute.”

“Yeah and takes plenty of them too,” I laugh, and start to walk to the door so I can summon Jessica back inside the office.

But she’s not there...or anywhere.  She’s just gone.

“What the hell...”

“It’s me.”

I turn back to him.  He’s looking at the ground, and I don’t have a clue what the hell is wrong.  “What?”

“We...knew each other.  Jessica and I.  Small fucking world, right?”

I stare at him.  “Damn small.  What, she’s like your ex...”

“Well, no.”

“A one nighter?”

“No.”

“Then...what...”

“Just trust me.  She wasn’t expecting me to walk through the door, and...she needs a minute.”

There’s a pleading in his eyes that I can’t understand.  It’s obvious that there’s more to this, more to her, and more to his relationship with her.  It’s too deep for the moment though, and I need to handle business and get over the fact that he’s even here.  That alone has made me uneasy, so I’ll just worry about Jessica later when we’re alone again.  “I guess we should head out, then.”

He agrees and I decide to drive us over there, rather than walk the ten blocks that he just did.  

“So hows...” He trails off and thinks hard for a second.  “Austin?”

I raise an eyebrow and laugh bitterly as I drive a long.  It’s not funny that he’s asking, it’s just funny because Austin is a world away from the kid he met a couple of years back. “Fifteen,” I nod.  “And impossible.  He might not be staying with us much longer, actually.”

“Why?  He was attached to Babs...I mean, Abbey, like glue.”

After all this time, it’s still hard for him to refer to her as anything other than the pet name he was used to calling her.  It’s kind of heart warming, but at the same time, she’s my damn wife now, and he’s gotta drop it.  “He was, but then he grew up, and we had the twins.  Things have changed, you know? He’s...not handling our new life well, and we don’t have the time to baby him like he wants us to.”

“That’s a shame.”

“I know, but we’ll get through it.  I mean, we’ve gotten through everything else.”

“Don’t I know it?”

He lets out a bitter laugh.

I just focus on the road, and then my phone starts to ring.  I hate that I can’t look at the ID with him in the car, and hate even more than I have to talk on bluetooth speaker because I’m driving.  “Timberlake.”

“Hey baby,” Abbey says, her voice filled with a smile.  “Guess what? I really think Austin is going to come through this.”

I feel Braeden staring at me.  “What happened today?”

“Well, you know how that tooth has been coming in on Mason?”

“Yeah.”

“He was crying all morning.  I guess it’s really starting to bother him, so Austin came down, and watched Victoria for me while I iced Mason’s gums.  Isn’t that great?”

I sigh.  It’s a breakthrough, sure, but it doesn’t mean Austin is going to change his mind, and Abbey is just being set up for more heartbreak.  “That’s awesome baby.”

“I know! Did you get my message?”

“Yeah, I’ll pick it up on the way home.”

“Great.  How’s your day going? Are you tired?”

I glance at Braeden, and he’s smirking at me like he loves the fact that I’m trapped in the car with Abbey on the phone.  “It’s...different.”

“Why?”

I guess I should tell her.  It’s stupid to keep it from her, because she’ll just flip out on me later on at home.  “Guess who’s here with me?”

“....who?”

“Hey Babsey,” Breaden speaks up.  “How’ve you been?”

I could punch him.

She doesn’t make a sound.  I can picture her standing in the kitchen, phone to her ear, wondering how the hell this is possible.  “Ab?”

“Is...is that really you, Bray?”

“Yeah.  Small world right?”

“Oh...God...”

“I thought I could bring him by for dinner,” I say, trying to break the awkwardness.  “How about it?”

“Of course...I mean...Braeden are, are you all right? Mark told me...everything...”

“I’ve been doing better.  Don’t worry about it, for now.  I’ll come to dinner and we can all catch up, okay?”

“Oh...oh...okay.  I’ll just go to the store and get something...I mean, yeah, dinner...I’ll do that.”

“Abbey?” I laugh.  

“I’ll see you tonight.”

She hangs up.

Awkward isn’t the word to describe this day.

And I have no idea what’s going to happen tonight.  I’d like to think that we can all be friends, because Abbey’s life has changed so much since the last time she saw Braeden, but I’m still unsure.

But I’ll suck it up, because we respect each other, and I know Abbey needs to talk to him, just so she can be reassured that he’s going to be okay.  It’s crazy that I love her enough to allow this.  No other man in his right mind, would, I’m positive of that.

Maybe I’m crazy, or maybe, deep down, I can tell that Braeden is beyond his relationship with Abbey.  That he couldn’t be with her now, even if she said she would be with him again.  He’s changed.  He’s grown.  He’s over their love.

And weird as it is, I know he has a thing for Jessica.  I could see it in his eyes, that he cares for her, that he sees something in her that nobody else does.  I guess she’s a lucky girl.

I mean, I certainly can’t fire her now.  That would make me the ultimate asshole.

Although, I will get to the bottom of what’s been going on with her, for the good of my company, and maybe Braeden can help me with that while he’s in town.

Maybe fate brought him here, to help her.

Stranger things have happened.