6
Jason
Two weeks later and I’m still missing a woman that I hardly knew. Since that first day I went digging into her life on the net, I’ve had to talk myself out of spending every free moment doing the same. Things had got so bad that I’d found all the old video footage of her that was out there. I spent many a night studying her, trying in vain to see what it was about her that held me enthralled.
The girl on the screen was a far cry from the one who’d stormed into my office weeks ago. This girl was care free and full of life and light. It was eye opening to see her in that arena, the socialite heiress flitting from party to party, seemingly wild and uninhibited. Maybe it was because I’d seen her in a different light before being exposed to this side of her that I caught it.
I wondered that no one else ever picked up on the difference between her and the other young people surrounding her. Though she was there physically, if you looked close enough you’d see that she wasn’t really a part of whatever was going on. Almost as if she were on the outside looking in. Not, that she wasn’t in the middle of it all; but there was something in the way she held herself, a certain look in her eye. Like she found the whole thing silly and was just going along for the ride.
The girl in my office had strength and smarts, fire. This girl kept that all hidden it seemed. It was hard reconciling the two vastly different personas, and since I didn’t grow up rich and famous, I wasn’t sure if that was the in thing, to pretend to be something you weren’t. But I do know about peer pressure. Somehow I didn’t see the Emily Bronson who stood toe to toe with me and called me an asshole giving into the wishes of others.
“What’s your story butterfly?” Where the hell did that come from? I wasn’t in the habit of giving my women cutesy names. ‘My woman’, what a thought. I hadn’t quite decided if I wanted to go there no matter how my body still reacted to thoughts of her. It was for that very reason, my growing need to be near her, that I was putting it off.
I’ve never let emotion play any part in any relationship I’ve had so far. There was usually a basic attraction of course. But never once have I ‘felt’, not anything more than the need for release anyways. The fact that her face across a screen could get that much out of me gave me pause. I wasn’t in the market for anything heavy. Besides, she was dealing with her own shit right now I’m sure. The word is that she had been a daddy’s girl so I can imagine the excess baggage she’d be carrying now that he’s gone.
I hadn’t seen or heard from her in the past few weeks so I’m guessing she was okay. The gossip mill hadn’t churned out anything about her or her mother and I’d kept my ear to the ground just in case. It seems maybe Bronson had taken care of them after all and I could give up that worry at least. I’d bought the company fair and square yes, but I wouldn’t have been comfortable knowing that I was taking food out of her mouth. That’s not the kind of man I am, and besides, I would never hold her accountable for the actions of her old man.
“Fuck it!” I gave into the temptation and switched on the tube, going straight to that show I’d been watching repeats of on YouTube. I took a swig of beer as the commentator ran through the night’s headlines and almost choked. “Which ex-socialite has been selling her drawers to pay the bills since her dad died, leaving her penniless?” My heart froze when a smiling picture of her face flashed across the screen.
I listened with half an ear as the asshole grinned through the latest bit of gossip meant to hurt and abase. I don’t think I blinked as he went through the story of how a source had told them where to look for evidence. He held up a pink box, which he opened to reveal a little slip of a dress. The piece of shit then showed another picture of her wearing that same dress at a party in Vegas. “Fuck me!”
I wasn’t sure what to do. Should I call her? I’ve had her number for days, fighting the urge to just call her up and see how she was doing. The decision was made when the next announcement was made just before they broke for commercial. “When we come back, we’ll tell you the real story of how the late Timothy Bronson exited this world, and the illegal dealings that led this once great man to take his own life.