Shattered Portrait (Jack Gilinsky)

Chapter Four

Friday night I was working late and had no time to take the boys over to Jack's new home for the weekend. Jack apparently didn't have time to go all the way to Ms. Kim's house to pick the boys up, so on my break I picked them up and brought them here to work where they ran around and talked to Tanner all night. They were currently out with him on a late night delivery to a fancy dinner party.

I was with Greta and Rose in my office. The two of them were sitting across from me while I worked on scheduling events and work hours. Rose sat with her feet up on my desk, flipping through a Marie Claire magazine while Greta scrolled through her phone. The two of them were supposed to be off by now, but Shelby had made it very clear that we were not allowed to talk about stuff that would distract us on the job anymore, so the two of them stayed back to hear about my issues off the clock.

"Well, I haven't really seen an Angie on his Facebook." Greta sighed and put her phone down on the desk and slid it over to me. "But, I did find this Angeline girl. She fits the description that JJ gave you."

I stopped typing on the computer and picked up Greta's phone and started to scroll through the profile pictures of the woman. She was young, maybe 21 at the most. She was tall and thin with black hair and a slightly round face. One of her profile pictures in the past was a picture of her sitting at a table drinking from a smoothie, it was taken by someone else and it looked as if they could have been on a date. I swiped to the next picture and this one was of her in a black leotard and pink tights, hair slicked up into a bun. She was surrounded by a bunch of children no older than eleven dressed in the same thing as she was. The next picture was of her in a pair of shorts and a crop top with a flower crown on top of her head and sunglasses over her eyes. She had a smile on her face, white and dazzling.

"She's pretty," I gulped and swiped some more before putting the phone down and leaning back in my chair.

My insecurities were coming back to me in a flash. I wasn't as tan as she was, nor as thin. My hair wasn't as thick and dark and shiny, I wasn't a ballerina, I couldn't take flawless pictures. I was stressing out. This Angeline girl fit the kids' descriptions, so if she was actually the girl, I could already feel the jealousy twisting in my stomach.

"She's you four years ago," Greta pointed out, going through her pictures.

"Without kids," I added, "with a talent, with a pretty face and a nice body."

"I told you guys looking her up was a bad idea. I told you it would just make Hailee upset, but oh no, nobody listens to Rose." Rose flipped a page in her magazine.

"I'm not upset!" I defended myself.

I was upset. I felt like Jack moved on too quickly. He basically forgot about me and moved on to a woman who my kids already knew and liked. JJ already seemed like he liked her more than he liked me.

Rose put her magazine down on the desk, put her feet on the ground and leaned forward. She took my hand in hers and said, "it's okay to be upset. You feel left behind and not good enough and you feel like no man is ever going to want you again because you're now considered damaged goods-"

My throat tightened and a sniffed a little bit, staring down at the surface of the desk.

"Wow, this is really making her feel better, Rose. Thanks." Greta scoffed and got up from the desk with her phone in her hand, still going through Angeline's facebook page.

"I had a point I was getting to," Rose rolled her eyes at Greta and then turned back to me. "As I was saying, you don't think you're going to get back out there, but you are! Want to know why? Because Greta and I are going to set you up with someone! You're not damaged goods, you're not dented or ripped. We're going to get you out there and you are also going to move on from Jack, you don't have to be sitting here miserable while he's out. A man would be lucky to have you, so we're going to find that lucky man."