Two Perfect Wrongs

A Blast From The Past

Life was going rather good for Adam Newman. He had a wonderful son, an amazing girlfriend, his job was okay minus his unstable sister being his boss. However, he couldn't shake the feeling that the other shoe was going to drop. Things could never be going good for him for too long.

"You are being ridiculous and paranoid." Sally told him as the couple walked into the Grand Phoenix for a mid-afternoon meeting.

"Am I?" Adam questioned. "I mean look at my previous history of..." He froze mid-sentence when a woman walked past them. "Oh my God. Diane Jenkins."

The woman in question turned around at the sound of her name. Her eyebrow raised when she saw who it was. "Adam Newman?" Diane asked, pretending to have trouble recognizing him.

"What? No hello for one of your former co-conspirators?" The CEO snarkily asked. "It's the least you could do after leaving me holding the bag."

Ms. Jenkins sighed in annoyance, "Fine. Hello Adam. Okay, let's skip over the fake pleasantries. Who told you I was alive?" Diane really hadn't wanted to run into Adam, though it was inevitable with this town being as small as it was.

"Victor"

Diane just nodded, who else. "Of course the old man had to open his mouth. Did he say anything else?"

"He told me to stay far away from you and any plans you might have. Oh, and to never trust you." They both rolled their eyes at that. Like Victor was in any position to judge.

Sally was staring at the two, eyes wide in fascination. There was clearly a history between them, one Adam hadn't filled her in on. Taking matters into her own hands, the redhead interrupted their conversation. "Hi. we haven't had the pleasure, I'm Sally Spectra." She introduced herself, extending her hand to Diane. Adam stared at his girlfriend with a confused expression plastered on his face.

The older woman smirked in amusement, she liked this girl's gusto. "Diane Jenkins, nice to meet you as well." Her eyes flickered between the two and she picked up on the slightly protective body language Adam was giving. "A hotel in the middle of the afternoon? Is this a business or personal meeting?"

"Wow" Adam exclaimed as Sally turned red. "I never would have pegged you for the judgmental type. That seems more like Nikki's deal. Or Phyllis." He replied just to get a rise out of Diane. It worked as the older woman had an angry expression flash quickly across her face.

"You're right. My apologies, I shouldn't be judging. Lord knows I've dealt with enough judgment to last a lifetime."

"I feel you on that" Sally chuckled trying to cut the awkward tension in the room.

"So can I." Adam backed his girlfriend up, "Look Diane, I'm in no position to throw stones. I have no ill will towards you nor do I care about whatever scheme you've got going on now. As long as it doesn't involve me."

"No scheme, Adam, I promise. I'm back to reconnect with my son. That's it." The recently returned to the living woman swore. Adam didn't believe her, but chose to let it go. He and Sally wished her well and turned to the elevator to head upstairs.

Adam could feel Sally's eyes on him the entire ride up. He knew she was just dying to ask him about the relationship between him and Diane. The CEO was surprised when Sally attacked him with her lips instead of her words once they got into the room. The couple fell onto the bed for an intense round of steamy love making.

"So," Sally turned to Adam while they were catching their breath, "what's the connection between you and Diane? You mentioned being a co-conspirator."

Adam chuckled, "I'm surprised you waited this long. I could tell you were dying to ask me everything downstairs."

"I was. But we had more important matters to attend to first." She snarkily replied as she left a trail of kisses up his chest and neck. "Wouldn't you agree?"

"Oh, I definitely agree. But you want your answers now, don't you?"

"Absolutely." The redhead flashed her bright smile; a smile he was finding harder and harder to say no to.

He sighed trying to think of where to begin, before launching into a brief summary. Sally listened, eyes with fascination, as Adam explained his and Diane's scheme, how they came up with a plan to fake her death, and how that turned into him being a suspect in her "murder".

"Wow, that was quite the story." Newman Media's COO stated shock evident in her voice. Her boyfriend nodded, not knowing what else to say. "But as far as schemes go, that wasn't so bad. And you were trying to help a mother, so that's actually kinda noble."

Adam barked out a laugh, "Noble? Sure. That's the word we'll use." He looked over to her in disbelief that she wasn't freaking out. "That's all you have to say? No judging or comments?"

"Why? That was your past. Is this something you would do now?" He shook his head no. "Then who cares. You've grown as a person since then. I'm not going to hold your past against you. I mean mine isn't squeaky clean either and I hate hypocrites." A thought popped into her head and she had to know. "Just for my own curiosity, all you and Diane were was co-conspirators right? It never went beyond that."

The CEO flashed her a smirk, "Diane and I had a complicated friendship that stayed a friendship. Though she did marry Victor twice and had a fling with Nick."

"Diane and Nick?"

"Yep"

"Wow, Nick certainly gets around. No offense, but your brother is a slut."

Adam struggled to hold in his laughter, "Yep, that's Nick." The couple made eye contact and couldn't hold in their laughter anymore. They stayed in bed just soaking in each other's company until Sally's phone went off. It was her assistant informing her that their meeting with a major streaming platform got moved up.

"Crap, I gotta go" Sally shouted as she jumped out of bed. Adam watched as she hurriedly got dressed while shouting out ideas to him. Impressed by her ability to mutli-task he wished her luck. His COO smiled her beautiful smile, gave him a brief kiss, and ran out of the room.

Chuckling, Adam laid back down in the bed, thinking about the conversation they had about Diane and Sally's complete non-reaction. Sally was even impressed when he told her about the scheme he and Diane had carried out. No judgments, just confirmation that he had grown as a person. The fact that she never threw his past misdeeds in his face was one of the many things he loved about her. 'Loved' that word stuck on repeat in his head. The feeling hit him like a freight train, he loved this woman. He replayed that thought in his head repeatedly, getting used to the idea. Smiling, he accepted it, now if only he could tell her.

His phone, pinging with new text messages, forced him out of his happy bubble. He looked down reading the messages all from Victoria. That piqued his interest, the prodigal daughter finally returns to town. And she was requesting a family meeting in dad's office. He was surprised that he was included, but he was most definitely attending. He had to know what Victoria had planned. He texted Sally about this latest development, then headed to Victor's office. This should be the most interesting Newman family meeting in a long time.