40. JOY AND VINDICATION

40

JOY AND VINDICATION

Summer

The week slithers away quicker than I expected and I haven't spent one night alone. Most nights I'm at their house, even though things with Harvey haven't smoothed over.

A big part of it is he disappears most nights and days too. He comes around, but then quickly leaves. It made me uncomfortable thinking I was making him uncomfortable in his own home, but the guys assured me that wasn't the case.

I am split in two. One part I am happy with where I am with the others, but my happiness can't be complete without Harvey. And I am not willing to accept not having him. I will fight for us. I am giving him his time to go through some of what he's got going on, but I won't give up on us.

But today is Saturday and I am returning from an OB-GYN's appointment. I had to check the health of my privates and make sure my birth control is updated. I wouldn't want an oops baby. I am not here to have kids.

These are my years for fun and I will not waste college juggling it with pacifiers. After the clean bill of health, I decide maybe I deserve a treat for being a good girl; an early meal and a nice dessert.

I head to an outdoor beach restaurant. I've heard great things about their salmon and a chocolatey treat wouldn't hurt either. Tonight is going to be a chaotic night on campus. The guys are having a party at their house, and I don't know if I'm going.

I have had enough parties in this place to last me through senior year. I sit on the breezy outdoors, right next to the sand. Relaxed, I let the view serenade me. The light brown sand and couples taking afternoon strolls makes me think I should suggest to one of the guys that we come here.

I am staring at the waves when a waiter comes with the menus.

"Good afternoon, here are your menus." A voice too familiar makes me snap up to a face I thought I'd never see. When our eyes meet, both of us freeze from shock. I don't know if I'm seeing things.

What the fuck is this bitch doing here?

This is the last place I would have expected someone like her would be. I take her in. She's a waiter? My waiter?

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I spit, feeling like all my rage is going to melt my skin.

Her face twists to that bitchy sneer I always hated.

"What the fuck does it look like?" Tracey responds with cheek.

No, this bitch didn't.

"You assaulted Harvey," I say, trying not to be too loud. This woman violated Harvey and my relationship. I owe her an ass whooping.

"Don't be delusional. He liked it—"

I grab her uniform shirt where her tits are almost spilling out and yank harder than I've ever yanked. The buttons fly everywhere. She stumbles forward, shrieking and tries resisting but I already took her by surprise and her forehead kisses the table. She screams, trying to pull herself from me.

"Stop!"

But I reach for her ponytail and twist as I stand, dragging her to the sand near me. The noise made by others barely registers as I shove her down the sand face first. My rage is boiling over and I see nothing but red, nothing but the vision of her ruin.

I hate this fucking bitch.

Her attempts at fighting back don't help. My father taught me defense and offence to help me against predators growing up. She doesn't stand a chance. I shove her face in the sand, my knee on her back, making sure she has no escape. I push harder as she thrashes like a fish out of water. I feed her sand, knowing she has no choice but to open her mouth to breathe and cry for help.

It only brings me unexplainable joy and vindication. For Harvey.

I ease the pressure so she can hear my words. "You fucking predator!" I lift my hand so I can slap the shit out of her. I don't even care if she loses her hair as I make sure my grip is ironclad. It brings me satisfaction seeing her whole face, nose, mouth covered in sand, and I hope to fuck it's all in her eyes too.

Strong hands yank me off her before I can choke her on the sand some more and I thrash, feet kicking as I do.

"Let me go!" I scream. "Let me the fuck go!"

"Ma'am, stop!" a male voice calls behind me, but I barely hear as I watch for that bitch Tracey. People rush for her, and she is screaming like the bitch she is. I hope she chokes on the fucking sand.

"I can't see!" she screams and it brings a big smile on my face.

"You better run from this town, bitch. I'm coming for you," I scream loud enough for her to hear.

It's downhill from there as police come and I leave in cuffs ten minutes later. But the adrenaline pumping through me has me wishing they could release me so I can finish what I started. At least arrest me for a completed ass whooping. It will be a shame to be yelled at by my father for something I didn't fully do.

By the time the iron doors shut in my face, most of the high is subsiding and I realize the kind of mess I'm in.

I am in fucking jail. For assault. Shit.

When I am allowed to call, it suddenly dawns on me that I don't know any numbers on memory. I don't even know my parents' numbers, nor any of the guys. The other two women I'm with are a prostitute that was the last to come in an hour ago and a woman who is covered in blood, also in for aggravated assault and probably attempted murder.

Apparently, she stabbed her husband after finding him in bed with another woman in their home, coming home from a long work trip to surprise him. For the past few hours, I have been listening to her story as she cried, telling me he won't even come for her.

The whole thing is pretty wild. I was glad when the prostitute came in so she could attend to her, and I could try to remember the numbers. Curse you smart phone generation. If I was a millennial, I wouldn't have these problems. Those people used to carry Nokias, they have a memory that rival today's hard drives.

When I think I have remembered my sister's number, a police officer comes back.

"Miss Bailey, step forward," she says.

I step forward with too much enthusiasm and she gives me a disapproving look. But I have been here for hours, smelling all the weird smells of this place with a crying woman and my bladder is almost giving up. I just want to leave. So, I'll take the chance of a call I was promised an hour ago when the prostitute came in.

"Yes."

"Come to this side," she says sounding bored, like she is over the entire world.

"Okay," is all I can manage.

I am led out front where I came in and find Harvey waiting for me. He meets me halfway and I am allowed to hug him.

"Thank you for coming." I inhale his cologne, and I could sob tears of gratefulness.

"I got you." He covers me with his body.

A throat clearing pulls us apart.

"This is Bruce, your lawyer. Summer," Harvey introduces us and we shake hands.

"You are free to go home, Miss Bailey," Bruce says.

"Why?"

He chuckles. "All charges were dropped."

"How?"

He gestures for us to leave, and we do. Harvey's vintage Camaro is outside waiting as well as a Range Rover I don't recognize.

"You are very fortunate, Miss Bailey. I'll leave the explanations to Mr. Ford. You both have a wonderful evening." He nods to both of us, and we stand a little as I inhale fresh air. He waits with me and watches me take air like I just came out of the sewer.

After a minute, the awkwardness of the whole situation comes back to me. He somehow got wind of what happened, so he knows I ran into Tracey.

"I'm sorry." It's all I can manage because I don't know what he feels about everything.

"Why?"

His cologne massages my senses in such a warm caress, I want to lean in closer and inhale some more.

"I acted out of impulse. I just got so fucking mad when I saw her. Did you know she was in this city?"

"Yes," he answers.

"Oh."

I wait for him to continue, and he doesn't. We continue standing there even as I am getting chilly. But this is an important moment.

"She is in hospital. She had an emergency procedure."

"Why?"

He chuckles. "You shoved her face in the sand, demon child."

I grin a little in pride.

"I saw the video," he says with a small smile.

"Video?"

"Online. It was taken down before too many people saw it," he says.

That sobers me instantly. I forgot people pull their phones for everything. How did I not consider that wouldn't happen? I just hope my parents don't see it.

"It's contained," he reassures me.

"How were the charges dropped, Harvey?"

He keeps my gaze. "I told her to."

"Oh." My mouth hangs open. "How?"

"I still have the video and the doctor's results from the party."

The answer twists my insides for many reasons. "Doctor's results?"

"I had to have proof for the incident . And I didn't remember if she used a condom, so I had to make sure I was…straight," he answers simply.

Too simple for the content of his words. It just makes me feel shittier. Which is shitty in itself because he is the one who went through an ordeal, and I am centering myself in everything.

"I'm so fucking sorry that happened to you, Harv."

"Please don't say that anymore. It wasn't your fault." His fingers dance over my cheeks and I relish in the softness of his gaze.

I nod. We fall in silence afterward, standing there until it's too chilly and I ask to go home. He drives us back to campus and, after getting food, I ask to be dropped at my dorm. He walks me in and places the food on the desk.

"I'm just going to shower. I would like to not smell like a thousand armpits."

I walk to the bathroom, my shorts zipper already sliding down. I'll need to burn them later. From now on they are a bad omen to me.

"Need help with your hair?" He leans on the frame, and I take a moment, considering what he is asking.

"Please."

He joins me as I throw the clothes in the laundry basket and takes his clothes off. We step into the warm shower together. He squirts shampoo in his hands and rubs it in my hair as the hot water beats down on us. Neither of us talk as he massages my scalp and rinses my hair.

I ask for a second wash because I feel filthy after all that time in the holding cell. I take my turn and wash his much shorter and straight hair. His takes a shorter time than mine, but he asks me to wash him twice too. We only smile at each other as we take turns rubbing each other with the loofah.

Nothing is particularly sexual. It isn't the lack of sexual tension, we're just giving and serving one another, trying to ease ourselves back to the same page emotionally.

We are truly bare to each other. Others may have tagged along to what happened between me and Harvey, but it's us who went through it and it's us who did the most. It's us who have constantly pushed the buttons and boundaries.

It's us who tested the limits of our love. So this will not be rushed. All the feelings and everything in between will be honored, it will all be acknowledged, if we are to find true forgiveness and healing.

I pull him by the hand when we finish and dry him first. He stands there in all his glory, watching me intently. When I am finished, he towel dries me, then blows my hair with a hairdryer.

All four of them made it their job to understand my hair. The product it needs and how I care for it, so I don't need to tell him to give me six sleep braids. We choose to not entertain clothes and get in the tiny bed. Still silent.

I'm a little anxious when I remember our last conversation. The ball is essentially in his court, and I'm at his complete mercy. I know I should be, but it still sucks. I am willing to work on his time. We are on our sides, close but we aren't holding each other.

I wait for him to talk. He still hasn't told me how he found out where I was, or much at all. I am dying to know but I wait. Minutes pass by in silence. He just stares at me unhurriedly. I may be a little anxious, but it's a comfortable silence.

"My mother is getting married and Henry is having a baby," he starts. His dad is having another baby? I wait for him to continue before I attack with the questions.

"I hate Craig, but the board already made the decision. And I have to be there to show my support, otherwise…"

"Yeah." He doesn't need to finish. I know exactly how the Fords operate.

"Why do you hate him?"

"He put his hands on her," Harvey says with a dark note.

"What?"

"His company bought the 7% from Attech, bringing them to 41%, taking us out of majority four months ago, and to maintain our position, she was told to marry that scumbag."

"Shit, Harv, I'm so sorry." I know how devastating that would be for him. Power games in these companies are brutal. Harvey has wanted to take over his family business since he was little after seeing the mess his father made of it, then his uncle.

They took the family from a 74% stake in the company to 36%. A loss in generations of legacy to bad investments, harmful partnerships and shady agreements.

"He wants to have a baby with my mom."

"Why?"

He doesn't answer immediately but I get it. They are trying to get Harvey out since he poses a threat as the only sane grandson of old Ford. If his mother and Craig have an heir, they control everything, and Harvey is left in the cold.

Not the cold exactly, he owns a sweet 7% of the company but it's child's play when you understand the larger pie. And to Harvey, his family legacy is everything.

It was his pride, and he worked so hard even when he didn't need to, to gain competence to return his family name back on top and take the company his ancestors started to greater heights.

"Then there's Henry. He is having a child by that bitch. She's six months pregnant." The venom in his voice is as dark as the blackest night. Harvey hates his father, but he also hates his long-term mistress now sort-of girlfriend probably more.

"I'm sorry." It's all I can say, but I know he isn't looking for any answers from me.

"Who was that on the phone the other day?"

"The engagement party I am being forced to go to, next week."

"Are you going?"

"I have to." He really hates that he has to.

"Who are you going with?" I ask.

"I don't have a date."

"Want one?"

He lifts a brow. "You'd come?"

"Of course. If you wouldn't mind."

He is quiet. "If you can handle me in a pissy mood all night, I'd love it if you did."

I grin. "You've been in a pissy mood for months now. I'll be good."

He doesn't reciprocate my attempt at lightening the mood.

"Summer, can we stop all this and just get back together?"

"Yeah. If you can forgive me for everything."

"I'm not entirely blameless. I did keep the truth from you and made the others lie too. I should have trusted you. I apologize." He pauses. "I was angry when I saw you again, especially about Logan. So many things went sideways, how we handled everything after it happened. I asked them not to tell you. I didn't think you'd believe me. That's why I didn't want it out there. I was ashamed and… confused." He sighs, and I grab his hand.

"For a long time, I didn't know if it was a violation or if I allowed it to happen. But I didn't want it. I didn't want anyone else. Everything that happened with us just sucked. I hated seeing you with Logan. I never want to see you with anyone else ever again. That shit is over . I love you, but I will kill any other guy who has their lips on you after this. You are ours and no one else's. You understand me?"

"I understand," I say, many emotions warring for attention.

"I enjoyed the fight. The way you shoved her in the sand. I love your crazy ass." He finally softens.

"I love you too."

He kisses me. Our first kiss in seven months. It's unhurried. An intense fire burning low, instead of bright and fast. Neither of us advance for more as we take it slow. We don't go all the way and end up cuddling and talking all night instead.