Back to Square One (Brandon Bay Babes) (24 page)

She’d told J.J. that she had started painting again and that Charles had bought one of her paintings.
 
At the time, Charles had not committed to show anything she’d done; he’d just asked to see more.
 

Kit swallowed down the hurt that had formed a lump in her throat.
 
Taking one last look at her painting hanging on the wall, she excused herself and made it outside just before her wall of composure fell.

“Damn you Jeffrey Jones” she mumbled.
 
Here she’d thought she had real talent only to find out that he’d convinced his Uncle to show her work; that it had nothing to do with merit.

Kit angrily walked the streets until it was almost two-thirty, she then high-tailed it back to McIntyre and Jones; her fury escalating rather than declining in the interim.

Wendy the witch greeted her arrival with an evil cackle that Kit ignored as she swanned right past her and through the door marked
Jeffrey Jones, Partner
.

As she burst through the door, J.J. looked up from his desk with a look of surprise, then pleasure, then worry.
 
Wendy the witch was on her tail, but he quickly banished her from his office with a nod.
 
As the range of emotions flitted across his face, Kit failed to notice that Paul was sitting opposite him, and she let J.J. have it with both cylinders.

“Why did you do it?” she accused.
 
“How could you do it J.J.?”

Paul stood up.
 
“Maybe I should leave you and Kit alone”

Jeff looked at both her and Paul. “How do
you
know Kit?” he asked with a glare.

“We met in the elevator” Paul said simply.

J.J. looked at Kit warily.
 
“There’s a lot of that going around lately”

“I’ll come back” Paul said, hastily leaving the office with a small smile in Kit’s direction.
 

“Now
what
exactly are you ranting and raving about?” he questioned, indicating that she should sit in the chair Paul just vacated.

“I’d prefer to stand thank you.
 
What I have to say won’t take long” If he wanted to hear ranting and raving, well she’d give him one doozy of an earful.

Jeff was now looking at her with a mix of apprehension and fear.
 
“What is it Kit Kat?
 
What’s happened?”

“Why did you convince your Uncle to show my work?” she asked icily.

Jeff looked at her in bewilderment.
 
“Why do you say that?”

Kit scowled at him. “Charles told me you did.
 
He said you convinced him to give me
a shot
”

“Exactly” J.J. corrected. “
A shot
.
 
The fact that Charles decided your work was good enough to show, has nothing to do with me.”

“
Doesn’t it
?” she squeaked.

J.J. was on the defensive. “You’re forgetting that Charles bought your painting
long
before I even knew you painted.”

“So you admit it.
 
You did speak to Charles?”

J.J. hesitated a moment.
 
“What if I did?
 
Why are you making me out to be the bad guy just because I suggested you for the show?
 
In fact, it’s quite the opposite –I did you a
favour
”

“And
who
asked you to?” Kit exclaimed, close to tears.
 
“Did it even occur to you that I wouldn’t want it that way? How am I supposed to know if I’m good, or if it’s just a favour?”

“Look Kit.
 
Don’t go blaming your insecurities on me.
 
If you’re suddenly getting an inferiority complex about your work, then that’s your problem.
 
It has nothing to do with me suggesting you as a fill in to my Uncle; and it has nothing to do with
us
either”

“
Us?
” Kit shook her head in confusion.

“Yes, us.” he said quickly, coming around the desk and placing his hands on her shoulders.
 
“You’re not going to let this
little art show
come between us, are you?”
  

“
Little art show
?” Kit frowned and shrugged off his hands.
 
“This little art show means everything to me.
 
It’s all I can think about it.”

“
All
you can think about?” he asked sexily with a lifted brow.

“You don’t get it, do you?” Kit fixed her gaze and narrowed her eyes at him.
 
“Here I thought I was really getting somewhere, on my own, without help from anyone.
 
I was so proud of myself.
 
For me, that’s a big thing.
 
And now I find out …,”

“Aren’t you exaggerating just a
little
bit Kit?” he said in exasperation.
 

Kit winced. “If you knew me at all, you wouldn’t say that.
 
You’d
know
how important this was to me”

“And if you knew me,
you’d
know I did what I did, because I care”

“Well, I guess I really don’t know you at all, now
do I
Mr. Jones?”

“Cut the Mr. Jones crap Kit, I’m not your boss anymore”

“Aren’t you?
 
Seems to me you’ve been pulling strings and managing everything like you’re in charge.”
 
Kit looked at the ground, “Well, not anymore” she mumbled to herself.

J.J. raked his hand through his hair.
 
“Just what do you mean by that?”

Paul popped his head in at that exact moment to ask, “Shall I come back or are you done?”

Raising her eyes, Kit was resolute.
 
“Yeah. I think we’re done here”

When Jeff didn’t respond, but just continued staring at her in disbelief, Kit turned on her heel and left his office.

All the way back to Brandon Bay, Kit alternated between mentally kicking herself in the behind, and tearing up.
 
She knew she was playing with fire getting involved with someone like Jeffrey Jones.
 
He was out of her league, and now more significantly and miserably, out of her life.

She would call Charles tomorrow and pull out of the art show.
 
She couldn’t do it now.
 
Even if he tried to talk her into participating, she couldn’t go through with it.
 
Her heart wasn’t in it.
 
Her heart was in an office, on the twentieth floor of McIntyre and Jones, laying in pieces at the feet of one, Mr. Jeffrey Jones.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

The enormity of giving up the Art Show hit Kit as she drove into her mother’s front driveway.
 
She had wanted it so bad, she could taste it.
 
Now all she could taste was J.J.’s betrayal and unfortunately no amount of parsley could undo its stench.

When Gladys found her crying in her car, she immediately called Jasmine and an emergency meeting was called to order at the kitchen table.
 
The three of them: Kit, Jasmine, and Gladys soon appointed Ben and Jerry as honorary board members and got to work on settling the latest deal gone awry.

Gladys was the first to offer her opinion.
 
“Men are from Mars, women are from Venus”

“More like men are pond scum” Kit said with good deal of venom.

“Has it occurred to you that maybe J.J. thought he was helping, and it
didn’t
occur to him that it would upset you” Jasmine chimed in.

Kit snapped angrily at Jasmine, “Don’t defend him; he knew what he was doing.”
  
She then put her hand on Jasmines’ arm apologetically; there was no need to snap at her best friend.
 
“Look, I know he may have just wanted to help me; but the fact that he didn’t say a word about speaking to Charles tells me that he was just being plain sneaky”

Gladys scooped another bowl of Chunky Monkey and passed it around.
 
“Is it
unforgivable
?”

“Yes” Kit spat quickly.
 
“No” she amended just as quickly.
 
“I don’t know.
 
But I do need to know I can trust the guy I’m with to not go behind my back like this”

“Trust is important” Jasmine weighed in.
 

“Trust is everything” Kit put her face in her hands.
 
“Oh why did he have to ruin it by doing this” she added with a sob.

Putting her arm around her daughters shoulder, Gladys tried her best to comfort her.
 
“Seems to me you really care about this guy”

Kit lifted her head.
 
“I do Mom, I really do.”

“Did you hear yourself?
 
You said you do care for him, not you did”

Kit shrugged.
 
Her mom could analyze the semantics of her slip of the tongue all she wanted; it didn’t change the fact that J.J. had hurt her feelings in a big way.

“Kit, I’m not saying you
should
, but maybe you really want to forgive him in your heart.
 
And if you want to be with him; it may be wise to give him another chance.”

“Maybe” Kit admitted.
 
“But I’m not through being angry with him, just yet”

“Don’t leave it too long baby.
 
Remember, he’s a man.
 
And man does not live on bread alone”

Kit rolled her eyes, but also thought about what her mother said.
 
J.J. had been a dumbass, but would she really be happier in the long term if she forgave him?
 
All signs pointed to yes; but that didn’t mean she wasn’t still angry at him, and if anyone needed to make the first move at a reconciliation; it should be him.
  
If he was truly sorry, and she meant anything at all to him, he would seek her out and beg her forgiveness.

 
What Jasmine said all those weeks ago was true for Jeffrey Jones, the same as it had been for Barnaby.
 
If it was meant to be, it would happen.
 
If not, then it was J.J.’s misfortune.
 
She’d live.
 
But life would just be a little poorer without him in it.
 

******

By late in the evening, Jasmine and Gladys had convinced her to keep her promise to Charles and not pull out of the show.
 
If what she painted wasn’t good enough, then let the public decide.
 
With that resolved; the conversation then turned to good old male bashing in the best sense.
 
Nothing like denigrating the male species for pleasure!