Page 9 of Reaching Gavin

I dialed Jess, who was at least in the same time zone as me and ducked into a quiet room.

I didn’t expect her to pick up. Mostly because I envisioned her sunning herself on a Mexican beach while her shiny, new husband fanned her with palm leaves. Still, she answered on the second ring, sounding mildly breathless.

I ignored the fact that I’d probably interrupted a honeymoon moment and jumped right into the sordid story. “Trevor is a dick of spectacular proportion—and I mean that figuratively. Because he definitely doesn’t have a dick that fits that description.”

“What did he do?” she asked.

I filled her in, this time fully aware of how many expletives were filtering through. I was averaging an F-bomb every other word.

“Why is he so intent on making my life miserable? He’s the one who cheated.”

“Didn’t you charge a $10,000 vacation to his credit card?” It was more of a statement than a question.

She had me there. I had done that, and I’d enjoyed said vacation all the more. She had been present for that monetary revenge scheme. Hell, she was enjoying her own honeymoon because of it. “That was damages for the emotional trauma of finding him with that girl from his business class.”

Jess wisely didn’t respond.

“Okay,” I conceded, “so he can hate me, but why does he get to be the chosen one?”

“Screw him. Go to that meeting.”

“I wasn’t invited to it.”

“Better to ask forgiveness than permission,” she advised. “He stole this internship from you. Take it back.”

“You might have a point.” She did have a point. I’d only needed her to say it out loud. I needed to hear it. There had been bad behavior on both our sides following our break-up, but that was then, this was now.

“Let me know how it goes,” she said.

I promised I would before hanging up. Was I really going to sit around and let Trevor seize another one of my opportunities? I charged off in the direction he had headed before my courage faltered. It didn’t matter if I knew where the meeting was being held. I’d given my conscious thought over to my inner tigress and she was on the hunt. All I had to do was follow the trail of bullshit Trevor had left behind.