Career Driven Woman

Chapter 69

It was coming up to our 6 month anniversary with Carlos. He was saying it had actually been a year if you count the other 6 months that we had been together.

The queasy feelings of anxiety had passed and I was ready to forget what had happened. I acknowledged that if Carlos really loved and respected me then he would tell me that he was up to something. Hopefully.

Regardless I was prepared to live and let go of all of that. Carlos had apologised on multiple occasions and he had made efforts the size of Australia to show me that he was sorry for his behaviour and it would never happen again.

I decided to trust him and forgave him for his actions. I wanted to put everything in the past. We had spent many an evening talking about our relationship and where it was going. How I wanted to be treated versus how he has treated me in the past. Most of the time it always ended in sex and I wasn't complaining. Have you seen him. My god.

Oh to be in love.

He had told me that he had been planning something very special for me this evening. He made me go get my nails done and buy a new outfit. One that I would feel sexy in. I obliged and took his credit card and bought a dress that I knew he would love. I got my nails done yesterday and I was really feeling myself.

But before I could spend anymore time thinking about that I first promised Max that we would hang out today. He had split with Kelly some time ago, the day after my housewarming to be exact. Mutual differences apparently. We know that she wasn't happy but Max assured us that it was for the best. I got dressed and quickly cleaned up the apartment before the door rang. I buzzed Max in.

"Hey" I said opening my arms letting him in.

He returned the hug "hey" he smiled "thanks for letting me come over" he said wandering in and shrugging off his coat.

"Of course. You know I love hanging with you" I smiled wandering into the kitchen to boil the kettle "by the way Charlie said he wouldn't be able to make it so you're stuck with just me today" I laughed.

"That's okay" he smiled before taking a seat at the dining table.

"I wasn't sure what kind of sweets you wanted so I just sort of picked an array of things that looked good" I said shrugging.

"I'm sure whatever you picked will be delicious" he said.

The kettle finished boiling and I made Max a hot chocolate and myself a chai tea before sitting down and chatting with Max.

We chatted for a while, Max indulging in all the details of his and Kelly's breakup. We eventually moved topics over to next years race and he started to divulge little details about his performance, the car, his expectations. I smiled and nodded not really understanding a lot of it, but I was happy to lend an ear to a friend when they needed it.

Max pulled out his phone and started showing me photos of some of the PR work he had been doing whilst he was on break when a notification from Charles showed up. A text that read 'you think Saff has seen this article yet?'.

Max stared at his phone and quickly swiped away the notification but Charles was quick to text again but Max was quick to swipe it away this time. I stared at him for a moment before he looked at me. He tried to continue on with the conversation.

"What was that?" I said crossing my arms.

"What was what?" Max asked, his eyes looking confused.

"Don't play coy Max" I said becoming cross "what were you and Charles talking about?"

"Nothing"

"Don't lie to me" I said sternly.

Max stared at me for a couple of moments before sighing. He didn't say anything but open up the texts between he and Charles to reveal a link to an article.

"Open it" I said, my eyes darting from Max to the phone.

He refused to make eye contact and clicked on the link.

It opened.

Max showed me the article.

I stared at it for a moment.

"Read it" I said staring back at Max.

He whined before scanning the article.

"Out loud" I instructed.

Max sighed "these pictures taken the morning of suggest that on more than one occasion Sainz has been seeing other women with one woman being identified as model and influencer Jackie Donna" he read trailing off.

I cleared my throat.

"Jackie had declined to provide any comment at this stage but fans of the influencer/model have been able to pinpoint her as being in the area t the same time coincidentally" he said before stopping. A painful look waving across his face.

A single tear rolled down my cheek as I saw my whole world come crashing down in front of me.

"I think it's best you leave Max" I said staring off into the distance.

"Saff please" he said placing his hand over the top of mine.

"Please" I said trembling.

He nodded and gave me a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry"  he said.

"What are you sorry for? You're not the one who cheated. You're not the fool who believed he wasn't" I said chuckling, tears now streaming down my face.

Max didn't say anything but instead grabbed his coat and left. I watched him walk down the hallway towards the elevator. As he stepped in he made a call. Presumably to tell Charlie.

I closed the door and slunk down. The tears now flowing hard down my cheeks. My nose red and warm from the heart ache. I wailed in silence. I couldn't believe that I was foolish enough to believe him.

What an idiot Saffron.

An utter utter idiot.

I'm not sure how long I spent on the floor crying but after a while I managed to pick myself back up and wander into the bathroom. I blew my nose and cleaned up my face before returning to my phone. Charles was blowing up my phone with missed calls and texts. I ignored them and instead opened up google.

I searched a couple of words and lo and behold news articles immediately flooded my phone with enough pictures and evidence that I didn't really need to hear anything from him. I spent an hour reading through articles and looking through pictures. I threw my phone away before bursting into tears again.

I took a couple of deep breaths before composing myself. I looked over at the time on the clock in the kitchen. I needed to get ready for this date that Carlos had planned. I stood up and wandered to the bathroom showering and doing my hair and makeup in silence. Slowly formulating a plan of what I was going to say and how I was going to confront him.

As I finished getting ready I ordered myself an Uber. It was to arrive in the next ten minutes. As I grabbed my coat and bag I wandered to the kitchen and grabbed myself a small bottle of vodka that I had in the cupboard. I took a swig before shoving the small bottle in my bag.

My plan?

Get horrendously drunk so I could pluck up the courage to confront him. Yell at him and then leave.

Not the best plan but I was all over the place at the moment and I needed something to numb the pain.

I locked up the apartment, took another swig and shoved the bottle back into my bag. I went down to the street and waited before jumping in the car and heading off to my destination.

About 15 minutes later I was stood outside a very fancy looking restaurant. I screwed my face up and took another swig from my handy little bottle. I was starting to feel the full effects of the vodka kicking in.

As I stood waiting in the cold, he arrived. He wandered down the wooden steps and wandered out towards me with his arms wide open. For the first time I was disgusted at the sight of him. He gave me a hug and placed a kiss on my cheek "hola princessa" he said smiling.

"Hola" I said quietly forcing a smile on my face.

It was going to be a long night.