The Broken One ✔

Chapter 14

It was around nine pm when I slowly exited my building wearing a suit - ready for my night out with Sarah. Immediately I spotted her leaning her body against the cab door.

"Is this good enough?" I raised a brow as stopping in my tracks, a few feet in front of her.

"A suit? A bit formal but I guess it'll do" she laughed "let's go"

I was still thinking about Jimmy and how I probably overreacted. But hey, that was the moment when I realized that I didn't want him in my life.

"Remind me what the point of tonight is again?" I questioned as we both slid into the back of the taxi cab.

To be honest, at that point I would have spoken about anything rather then her kissing me unexpectedly a week earlier.

"its to show you what to do on a date when there are hot women around," she told me simply.

"Oh," I nodded my head "so tonight is another date?"

"no" she shook her head "well yeah kinda..tonight is focusing on another aspect of a date"

"which is?" I cocked a brow.

"focusing on her when there are other people in the room...last time it was just us whereas tonight there will be lots of people that could interfere with the date" Sarah explained. "....so um about-"

"Have you heard from Jared?" I asked quickly, avoiding whatever she was about to bring up.

My mission that night was to simply avoid the subject. No matter how difficult it was.

Sarah nods slowly "Yeah I have"

She seemed so natural about it. I knew that Sam would have lost his shit if he knew that Jared had contacted her.

"What what?" My eyes widened. "What did he say?"

"Oh you know the usual" she laughed off despite the pain in her eyes "he's trying to save whatever we had....assured me that he never cheated and that it was all in my head"

"That's crazy" I shook my head.

"Is it though?" Her smile dropped.

"What?" I blinked.

"I don't know...maybe he's right" she shrugged, "he told me that I'm paranoid because my dad cheated on my mum.....he told me that I'm the problem in all my relationships"

"What a fucking loser" I shook my head violently.

He had no right saying all that shit to her. Still, to this day, it makes me angry.

"No he's right" Sarah admitted "I'm the problem in the relationship, not the guy that I always assume is cheating...I do what you do Ned" she looked me straight in the eye "...I leave people before they have the chance to leave me....hell maybe that's why I'm so determined to change you...because I'm incapable of changing myself"

Words cannot express how uncomfortable I was with that conversation. Serious conversations scared the shit out of me.

"There there" I flash her an awkward smile.

The awkward silence was killing me. Which is why I was thankful when the cab driver turned his head and faced us.

"Twenty-five, ninety-five," he told us.

Sarah instantly took out her purse just as l took out my wallet.

"I've got it," I told her.

"no its fine I have it" she assured as but I took my money from my wallet "no seriously Ned-"

"Sarah I've got it," I said firmly.

I could never let my date pay for dinner or the cab ride. Well unless they were pissing me off, then in that case they could pay for dinner.

"fine if you insist" she smiled.

"I do" I give the money to the driver "here you go, buddy, have a good one"

"Have a good night" the driver said as we jumped out of the cab.

"very good Ned" Sarah smiled as we walked towards the long line at the club.

"what?" I asked confused.

"paying for the ride like that, very good" she grinned proudly.

"well there's one thing I learnt from my nanny...she looked me straight in the eye and said to me never let a lady pay for anything" I smiled at the memory.

I hadn't thought about that memory in a while and perhaps didn't want to. The less time that I reminisced about my childhood the better.

"Your nanny is a very wise woman" she smiled.

"yeah, she is" I lightly smiled.

Around ten minutes later, the bouncer at the club called Disco Ball let us in. Suddenly I experienced my aching eardrums due to the loud music.

"Okay, let's get a drink yeah?" Sarah screamed over the music. "one Dry Martini and one..." she looked at me. I was not paying attention to Sarah at all. From memory I was checking out the female bartender "Ned?"

"yeah?" I blinked at her.

"Do you want a drink?" She raised her brows.

"Please" I begged as if it was exactly what I needed.

"What kind?" The bartender asked.

"Do you have a beer?" I asked.

The man nodded "one beer and one dry Martini coming up" he said.

"Are you alright?" Sarah asked me "maybe this wasn't such a good idea"

What was wrong with me? Well talking about Gina brought back memories. Not just good but the bad also. I couldn't help but think about my court hearing, that would occur September that year. I couldn't help but remember Elise and Gina's face when I was handcuffed in front of them both.

"No, I'm fine really" I assured as our drink arrived "you look very pretty tonight"

"Come on" she took my arm and we went to the dance floor. "we're the only two people in the room" my eyes began to wander off, and so Sarah gently held my face with her hands forcing me to maintain eye contact "Don't you dare" she laughed "Keep your eyes on me buddy"

And so I did.

***

I walked out of the men's room when I found Sarah with her cell phone pressed against her ear near to coat check.

"At this rate, he'll be in a serious relationship by the end of the week....at first I was a bit hesitant about the whole thing but now I really think that this is going to work...he's warming up to the whole idea of settling down....opening up? Look I'm trying everything to move things along...hey just today I told him a load of crap about Jared" she told the person on the other line.

I nodded slowly in sadness. That phone call was a lot. I found out whom was on the other line, a little later, but I'll get to that.

Before I could process the conversation that I had over heard, my cell begin buzzing. As a result, I walked outside where I pressed my cell against my ear.

"Yeah" I greeted as running my fingers through my hair.

"Ned" she greeted "it's mum"

By 'mum', she meant my dad's second wife whom I refused to call mum. So instead I called her by her first name, Justine.

"What do you want?" I sighed.

"You need to come home" Justine announced slowly "....Gina Fernandez is dead"

I froze at that moment. Completely froze. All I could feel was my heart tear completely in half, as tears began to roll down my cheeks.

It was like her words weren't real, almost as though they were imagined. I felt like I had slipt into an alternate reality.

That was the day that I lost my mother. The woman who raised me as though I were her own. The girl who stood by me no matter how many times I screwed up. Just like that, she was gone.