Hating the CEO

Chapter 22 - Finally!

For the last couple of days Zoey had been bombarding Julia with calls and messages, which Julia had chosen to ignore. Her friend had been asking how she had been, whether she would talk to Jack, when she was coming back to New York... After receiving no reaction whatsoever from Julia, Zoey had changed her strategy though. She started informing Julia what she was up to, what Jack was doing, where they were going...
Thanks to these messages Julia knew exactly where to go the next morning. Instead of driving straight to New York, she directed her car to Mrs and Mr Deschanel's house. According to Zoey's latest messages the Deschanel siblings intended to spend the weekend there.

I bet she told me that, hoping to lure me to the Deschanel's den... Julia thought, shaking her head in disbelief.
Julia was sure Zoey knew very well what she was doing. She wanted to see her brother and her best friend back together.
"There is someone, isn't there?" her mom asked as Julia was getting into her car. "I can see you are thinking of him... a lot..."
Julia felt bad for leaving her mom so soon. Originally she'd intended to stay at least a few more days. So now she did not want to lie to her.
"Yeah, mom. There is someone... And maybe I can still get him back. If I do, you will hear all about it. I promise."
"Alright, baby." Her mom gave her a hug. "You know where to find me."
"Thanks, mom. I love you." Julia squeezed Mrs Stiles, hoping this would show her mother how grateful she was for her support in the last year. Then, without saying anything else, she got into her car and was off.

                                                                       ***

It hurt. It actually fucking hurt to lose Julia.

"I will not be waiting long..." he had told her, but the truth was he was going to wait for as long as it took. Jack was head over heels for that intelligent, stubborn, strong woman and he was shocked by the physical pain he was feeling at the thought of not being with her, of not having her by his side.
True, Julia's lack of trust in him did annoy Jack, but he was way over that anger he'd felt when she'd burst into his office a couple of days ago. She had all the right to suspect his involvement in Nicholas' death, but Jack understood it only now. Initially his ego had been hurt by Julia's untrue accusations and somehow Jack hadn't been able to look past them at first.
He'd almost dialed her number a couple of times already, but had ended up putting the phone down each time. He'd told himself that he should give her time, but the truth was he was scared. Jack was scared that Julia would turn him down and he wasn't ready to cope with that. He would never be ready...

Where's Zoey with that scotch? Jack thought annoyed, breaking his reverie and turning around to look at his parent's house.
Zoey had dragged him down here, convincing Jack that visiting mom and dad would be a nice break from work and other stuff, as she had nicely put it. They both had known what she'd meant by that.
Jack heard the doorbell ring and he lied back on the sunbed with a sigh. Last thing he wanted and felt the strength for was to face his mother's gossiping friends, or worse, Zoey's old school friends. Bah!

There is only one friend of Zoey's that I would love to see now... he thought hopelessly.

                                                                         ***

It had been barely a few seconds since she rang the bell, yet to Julia it felt like eternity before she heard footsteps and the door opened.
Mrs Deschanel was the one who opened the door and Julia was welcomed by a shocked expression on the woman's face.
"Julia...!?" she finally managed to utter. "What are you doing here?"

Auch!
"Mrs Deschanel I'm sorry for the intrusion, but..."
"Nonsense, dear! You are not intruding at all," Mrs Deschanel must have realized that her first reaction was not an appropriate one. "I'm just surprised to see you. Zoey said you are at your mom's..."
"Julia?!" Zoey and Mr Deschanel exclaimed in one voice, coming out of the kitchen.
Julia walked into the house feeling embarrassed and out of place.