Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 105756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Not long after that, we arrived at my building, and Ben carried on the journey to Ada’s place of work. I frowned, thinking of all the opportunities it gave them to get to know one another better, but I couldn’t let that be a concern. Ada had been a companion to my mother during the years we’d been estranged, and I was grateful to her for that. It was the reason I was helping her. Nothing else. If she and Ben enjoyed one another’s company and something transpired between them, it was none of my business.
The pesky attraction I felt for her would fade soon enough.
Unfortunately, my morning was blighted by a meeting with a new client who turned out to be an old friend of Mam’s. Maureen Dolan had gone to school with my mother, and as soon as she saw me, she recognised me.
“I was so sorry to hear what happened,” Maureen said, her eyes sad and consoling. “She was a lovely woman, your mother. We always got along so well but lost touch over the years. It must be hard, Jonathan, losing her in such a tragic accident, but at least you were lucky to have a parent who loved you as much as Leonora did.”
Obviously, Maureen had no clue about Mam’s and my estrangement, and I wasn’t about to inform her. I did, however, go straight to my office once the meeting was over to drown my agony in two glasses of obscenely expensive whiskey that a client recently gifted me. Maureen’s use of the phrase “tragic accident” caused all the horrific images I’d been suppressing to rise to the forefront of my mind, images that gave me panic attacks.
My mother had drowned in the South China Sea, and I couldn’t help asking myself bleak, gut-wrenching questions, like had she known she was about to die? Did she go quick or slow? Did she feel pain? I couldn’t stand the idea of her terror, of the suffering she might’ve endured, all knowing her son had never gotten over his issues and foolish pride and told her he still loved her. That he always would, no matter everything that had happened in the past.
Yet again, self-hatred slithered over me. Wherever my life went, it would always be a part of me now. For the rest of my days, I’d never not be filled with regret, despising my own face when it looked back at me in the mirror
By the time the workday was almost at an end, I had every intention of finding a bar to drown my sorrows when, by chance, Maggie popped her head into my office.
“Hey, sorry to interrupt. Shay and Rhys are taking Derek out for drinks tonight. Supposedly, he’s been unusually down lately, so they’re trying to cheer him up. I thought you might like to join them?”
Well, drinking with company was always preferable to drinking alone.
“Are you certain Derek’s the reason for this outing?” I questioned, suspicious that it could be a ruse my half sister had conjured because she was concerned about me and had tasked her husband, his cousin and his cousin’s best friend to take me out and provide some man talk.
“Yes, actually,” Maggie said, lowering her voice as she stepped into the room. “Rhys claims Derek’s been acting out of sorts lately. Burying himself in work, cancelling family dinners and barely leaving his apartment the rest of the time. They think he might be depressed.”
Poor bloke. I wondered what was getting him down. I’d heard he went through a rough divorce, but that was several years ago.
“Fine. I’ll go,” I replied, satisfied that I wasn’t being tricked into spilling my guts over a few drinks.
I shot off a quick text to Ben, letting him know I was going out after work and that he only needed to drop Ada home that evening instead of stopping to collect me. It allowed the two of them yet more time alone together, but I was determined not to be bothered by that. She wasn’t mine to obsess or be possessive over.
And if the need to get drunk was intensified by thoughts of them spending time together, it was merely a coincidence.
I caught a cab and met with Shay, Rhys and Derek at a bar in town. It was bustling with patrons, but luckily, the three men had claimed a good table in the back. On my way to them, I pulled aside a server and asked for a bottle of Patron as well as several shot glasses to be delivered to the table. Yes, I planned on getting wasted. It was Friday night, the stock market was closed until Monday and I decided I was going to spend the interim obliviating my inner turmoil with alcohol.
I’d only sat down when the server appeared with a tray.