18 A Colossal Mess

(JORDAN)

His eyes, wide as the open sky, danced back and forth on the both of us.

"Is anyone up for explaining this to me?" Alec asked.

Rose and I both spoke together.

"It was his mother—" she said.

"We're in love—" I rolled my eyes.

We both stopped and turned to face each other as the words escaped our mouths.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she asked looking at me with an expression that spelled crazy. "We're not in love! It has something to do with this mother," she turned back to Alec.

"What does Emily—" Alec looked at me with sudden realization, "Oh."

"Oh." I walked over to my desk and leaned. "She was relentlessly hounding me about the same old thing. Just to shut her up I told her I had a girlfriend and the next thing I know she's in town."

"Emily is in town?" Alec's surprise was evident in his tone.

"For now."

"But what does this have to do with you?" he turned to Rose.

She anxiously looked up from her phone, "I would love to stay here and chat, but I have to go."

I grabbed her by the arm and turned her to face me. "I never said we were done for today. Besides we have a lot of things to discuss now that you've made such a colossal mess."

Jerking her hand out of my grip, she moved away and threw daggers at me with her icy eyes. "That is postponed to tomorrow. I have to get out of here."

She turned away and quickly plucked her stuff from the chair before marching out of the door. I heard the sound of her heels hitting the marble rapidly fade with every hasty step she took away from me.

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that she hates your guts," Alec sprawled over the couch.

"If it wasn't for you she would have been long gone," I pointed a finger at him.

"And was it also for ME that you asked her to dinner?" Ignoring the implication in his tone, I walked up to the liquor cabinet and grabbed a bottle of bourbon. "Oh, c'mon man," Alec grunted.

"After the day I've had, I need the brown stuff," I sat down next to him and poured the liquid into a glass.

"J, you gotta be careful with that stuff."

I slid a glass of bourbon to his side of the table. "I am."

Alec picked the glass up. "So, are you going to tell me what the hell was that picture about? And what does your mother have to do with this?"

I took a small sip of the deep brown liquid that slid through my throat with a seething sensation as I started to recite the entire matter to Alec.

Omitting only a few obvious details from last night's dinner, I told him everything. From my mother's entry to my elaborate lie, the ultimatum that I gave Rose, and the unanticipated, shocking kiss that was caught on camera a few minutes ago.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?!" Alec snarled. "We can't lose Skylar to your stupid self-serving motives, Jordan. You can't involve her in this," his eyes threw sharp daggers my way.

"Yeah, I tried to get her out of it. I gave her a clear out and what did she do? She kissed me in front of everyone and then had the audacity to throw shade at me like it was my fault what happened when it was she who lost the bloody screws in her mind!" I barked.

"What do you mean you gave her an out?" Alec straightened up in his seat, supporting his elbows over his knees, and looked at me.

"At lunch, I told her that she didn't have to be a part of my lie. I gave her an out," I said.

"You took her out for lunch, too?" A hint of a smile played across his lips.

"Yes, Alexander, we had lunch together. Get over it," I rolled my eyes at the stupid smirk on Alec's face.

"So, let me get this straight... first, you got her into a tricky situation and then within a night's time you changed your mind?"

"My brain is a fickle organ, you know that," I shrugged.

"I do believe that, however, there's more to it and you're holding back," he said.

There was more to it.

Somehow, the idea of forcing Rose into this deal seemed oddly wrong. I was desperate to get my mother off my back but a part of my brain was screaming at me to not entrap Rose in any kind of a deal.

I escaped a forced relationship not too long ago and to put someone else in a position similar to mine, it just felt wrong.

"There's nothing more to it," I said firmly.

"Do you seriously expect me to believe that you had a change of heart just like that?" he raised an eyebrow in my direction.

"You have no choice but to do that," I straightened up. "When Emily showed up, she took me by surprise. She thought Rose was the girl I told her about—"

"Which you did," Alec interrupted me. "You took Skylar's name on the call with Emily."

"I didn't say Skylar, I said Rose."

"And who is that to you?" his brown eyes opened wide.

"I didn't think, okay? She was right in front of me and I just had to get mother off my back. She's been relentlessly pursuing me about this ever since I canceled my engagement with Claire."

"Yeah, she's been mad about that for two whole years," Alec scoffed.

"Who hasn't? Claire hasn't spoken to me in two years. She was my best friend, Alec!" I gulped down the bitterness of that feeling along with the burning liquid.

The bitter, restricted memories proceeded to resurface in my mind and I stared at the empty glass around which I had wrapped my fingers tightly.

"Jordan, you didn't love her like that. And besides, the whole marriage was a business deal between your families. You did the right thing before they made a huge announcement out of it. You would have never gone through with the marriage, you know it. If anything, you saved Claire and both of your families from public humiliation."

I moved my eyes from the glass to look at Alec. "Bet you a million dollars Claire had differing opinions 'bout that."

"Claire had a differing opinion about anything that made sense. You did the right thing and if she hasn't realized that yet, she probably never will," he said.

"Ugh. My mother is proving to my worst nightmare," I groaned rubbing my temples. My head felt heavier than a boulder.

"If you ask me, your entire family belongs in a Stephen King's novel," he scoffed.

"It wasn't too long ago that you felt differently," I chuckled.

"That was before your sister went psycho on my car and totaled it."

"Bygones, Alexander," I said nonchalantly.

"Yeah, whatever. But seriously, man, with the business dwindling, we can't afford any more failures. You can't afford to lose Skylar at this point. We need her. The spectator is the biggest name in the media. We can't open our gates to everyone and lose our public image so we need The Spectator and Skylar is the best they got to offer. Don't lose her with this unnecessary drama in your life."

A buzzing sound pulled him away from the lecture his intent lecturing. He picks his phone from the table before it vibrated itself off from it and a few seconds later, I find the device shoved in front of my eyes.

"What is it?" I groaned.

The same picture that had gone viral on the office groups was now on the website of a leading business news channel!

"Fuck this!" I groaned. "Remind me to fire whoever it was who took that picture," I kept the glass down on the table and poured myself another drink.

Alec extended his arm and snatched the bottle from my grip. "That'll be the last of it for today."

I rolled my eyes at his reaction and leaned back on the couch. "You worry too much, Alexander."

"When you're in the constant presence of a child with temper issues, worrying comes as a bonus."

"There's a crisis in need of aversion. I would prefer your judgemental tone to take a break."

"And I would appreciate if you could refrain from repeating the history and focus on the present mess you've created."

"Oh, I didn't create any mess. I was cleaning the mess up when your best friend Skylar screwed things up."

Alec looked at me with open-mouthed incredulity.

"Well, you two seem to be very buddy-buddy with each other. Why else would she want to talk to you in private like that?" I tried to feign disinterest and shrugged my shoulder.

"Don't tell me you are jealous of that, Parker."

"I'm not jealous of anything—"

"She was asking me if some guy named Max Jones worked here and besides, why do you care that she likes me better? At least I treat her like an equal," he spat.

"I don't care about that. You can braid each other's hair for all I care." I stood up from the couch and walked over to my desk in an effort to hide the growing nose on my face.

Alec would see right through it.

I don't know why but Alec and Rose's friendship bothered me a bit. She appeared to be happier around him. More calm than she looked around me and that made me a bit queasy. I know that I had not done anything to deserve that reaction from her but the way she seemed so relaxed and comfortable in Alec's presence made me feel... bad? I guess.

"Oh, please," Alec, too, stood up from his place and walked up to me. "The way that you've been lusting over her, it's written all over your face. It has been for a few days now. Asking her out to dinners, taking her to your mansion outside the city, and now having awkward lunches with her. Not to mention the kiss that has gone viral. You can't honestly say that it's nothing."

I turned around to face him, "You've clearly lost your mind. Maybe you should, too, take the rest of the day off and go see a psychologist."

Alec laughed, "You're a fool, Parker. I've known you for 20 years." Patting a hand over my shoulder he said, "Get things right with Skylar. I'm going to find out how this got out but I don't think that's going to do us much good."

"Fire that wretched person," I spoke with gritted teeth, my fingers curled into my palms.

"Whatever fucked up personal reasons you have, set them aside because we can't afford to taint the image of our company, Jordan. Talk to Skylar. We can't invite bad press, it'll only force our competitors to dig up dirt and we need more time to un-fuck the mess that we're already in."

"I know, Alec. I'll do something," I put a hand on his shoulder and reassured him.

He looked at me with hope and walked out of the room.

"Fucking hell!" I cursed out loud in frustration.

I punched a few buttons on my phone and brought it to my ear. I heard the bell ring.

"Hello?"

"Where are you?" I barked.

"Um, home..."

"Stay right there," I disconnected the call.

Wasting no more time, I quickly grabbed my car keys off the desk and made my way to the parking lot.