Sam's little street fight with Christine had not gone unnoticed, not in a time when taking a video was a basic feature on almost any cell phone.
The media flurry that followed was enough to make Sam want to dig himself a hole and never come out of there. At the time, he hadn't properly gauged the circumstances. He'd been so tired, so hurt, lashing out at Christine was only natural. But what she'd said in return...
Half of the press was focused on his performance issues. A quarter threw in wild theories that maybe his long term relationship was nothing but a rouse to hide a different orientation. The other quarter wondered whether Christine had been cheating and with who.
The effect, however, was the same. He couldn't step out of the house without someone discussing his sex life, or lack thereof. He just wanted to die.
And to top it all off, Jerry had disappeared and no one else wanted to talk about it. Not that he wanted to talk about it, there was nothing to say, but he needed the encouragement, someone to tell him all of this didn't matter.
All he'd gotten was a very vague "Jerry's fine" from Jimmy, accompanied with a smirk, so Sam just dropped it and returned to pretending that everything was normal.
He wished he could do something to make all this go away, but he drew a blank. But stepping out into the world... He didn't dare. A part of him knew he should take this to Skye, but just the thought of her commenting on it made him want to punch a wall. Or her. Or her into a wall. Which was very nasty and unhealthy.
Even his mother was giving him funny looks now and he half expected her to ask if there was something he wanted to talk to her about. There was nothing to talk about. All of this was just a reflection of how much of an idiot he'd been. Would it have been worse if Christine had cheated on him even if they were already having sex? He was sure she would've still found a way to blame it on him.
As he lay in bed in his old bedroom, Sam wondered how long he could just stay in there and not move. Not face the world. Because he never wanted to.
His phone chimed and he checked it out of reflex. There was a text from and unknown number.
You're late for therapy.
Another thing to thank Herrison for, handing the psycho therapist his phone number. He groaned and swiped the notification away. There was no way he was going to her now just to spend half of the session with her scolding him for being late.
The phone chimed again and Sam's fist tightened. He half wanted to call Skye back and yell at her to unload. But when he picked up the phone, there was a text from Lisa.
We need to talk. Can you meet me in half an hour?
He blinked and read it again. He hadn't spoken to Lisa since the function at the school when she'd promised to get in touch and meet up with him and Harry. Of course that had gone to hell once Sam found out that Harry was doing his girlfriend behind his back.
Something clicked inside his exhausted mind. Lisa worked at The Herald. It was one of the few papers that chose to focus on Christine cheating rather than how it was his fault. Maybe she wanted to give him a heads up about what would follow. God knew he needed all the prior warnings he could get.
So he agreed and met Lisa at a small cafe on the ground floor of the office building which held the headquarters of The Herald. She was already settled in a small booth, a laptop opened on the table, notes scattered everywhere. She raised her eyes when he approached and pursed her lips.
"Hey," she said, nodding towards the seat opposite to hers.
"Hey," he said back, a little disconcerted by the less than friendly greeting. He quickly tried to determine if she had any reason to be mad at him, but it was more the other way around.
YOU ARE READING
Lose Control (The Jewel Project #5)
Adventure"It's never going to end, is it? The rivalry, the hatred, the madness. Not even now. Not even after so many years." It has been three years since the last jewel was recovered, and the Agency seems to have put the project to rest. They have a new tar...
