Half an hour later Willa came up to let Vicky know that Fred would be ready to take her and Angel to the airport whenever she was ready. All of Vicky’s energy was gone. How could she stay knowing that she had nothing to offer Jason? She didn’t know how to operate in his world. Even his parents didn’t think she was good enough. She didn’t want to be a burden to Jason and have him constantly defending her from his friends and family. Yes, she loved him very much but he would be so much better off without them. It was best to end this now before things got any deeper. She took one last look around the bedroom, closed her suitcase, and walked out the door.
Chapter 22
Vicky and Angel had been home for about a week. She hadn’t talked to Jason since they’d been back. He’d made no attempt to contact her. Although, she and Angel had fallen back into their normal routine she missed Jason like crazy. He had changed her life. Her first day back to work that Monday was a little awkward. Everyone was curious as to what the CEO could possibly have wanted to talk to her about. Vicky stayed mum. She was so love sick that it was affecting her physically. She couldn’t eat and wasn’t sleeping much. Lately, she’d had a hard time keeping food down. She was so thankful that it was lunch time so she could go outside and get some fresh air. Maybe that would be refreshing enough to get her through the rest of the day.
As Vicky was making her way to the elevators Sandy approached her “Can I speak with you for a moment?” Vicky had no idea what Sandy could possibly want. “Sure, I was just making my way down to the courtyard. Would you like to ride down with me?” Vicky nodded and they entered the elevator together. Whatever Sandy wanted to talk about she kept it to herself since they weren’t on the elevator alone. Once they made it to the courtyard Sandy started to speak “I’ve noticed you’ve been extremely distracted…” Vicky interrupted “I’m sorry Sandy, whatever I’ve done wrong if you just tell me I’ll fix it”. Sandy shook her head “No, no Vicky it’s nothing work-related. You can tell me it’s none of my business if I’m over stepping my bounds and I’ll butt out but I just want to help. You don’t know how much you helped me when I needed it and I would like to repay the favor. I don’t know all the facts but something obviously went down between you and Mr. Rutherford”. Vicky started to get tense. She did not want to have this conversation with Sandy or anybody for that matter. Sandy noticed how uncomfortable Vicky had become but decided to push ahead anyway. “Whatever happened between you two seems to be eating away at you. You’ve lost weight, it’s obvious you’re not sleeping because you have dark circles around your eyes, and you just look tired. What can I do to help?” Vicky blinked a couple of times before staring out into space. Sandy was starting to think she wasn’t going to answer her. Right when she was about to give up Vicky started talking, “I am a mess. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist for you to figure out that my boyfriend was Jason”. Sandy nodded “I didn’t know that he was the CEO when we started dating because I’d never seem him around here before. And why would I? I work in customer service and he’s the damn CEO. I guess now I understand why you got the call from Franklin.” Sandy nodded “So, why did you break-up?” Vicky looked exasperated “Didn’t you just hear me? He’s the C-E-O. We are from two different worlds. We’re just too different in so many other ways too. I don’t want to burden him with my life’s baggage.” Sandy put her hand on Vicky’s arm and forced her to look into her eyes “So, it sounds like you got scared and called it off”. Vicky’s eyes started to water she whispered “what was I suppose to do? I would embarrass him Sandy. I don’t even own designer knock offs and I’m terrible at small talk. People would see me as that stereotypical black woman: single-mom, without any education or family, and working a dead end job. No offense about the job part because I desperately need it to pay my bills. I’m not even going to talk about the fact that people like him don’t marry black”. Sandy gave her a sympathetic look “hmmm…so I understand now. You don’t think you’re good enough for him. Does he feel the same way?” Vicky closed her eyes “He says he doesn’t and maybe right now he doesn’t. But, we hadn’t really announced our dating status to anyone yet except his parents and a couple of his friends. That was a disaster. He would constantly have to defend my honor and our love. How he would feel later on is another story. Don’t you see Sandy…I couldn’t let him do it. His mother and father love him so much. I’ve never had that. I would not ever come between him and his family.” All of a sudden Vicky felt sick. She felt herself turning green. She put her hands over her mouth and ran to the nearest bathroom. Once inside she threw up what little she’d had on her stomach. Sandy was waiting for her when she came out of the stall with a cool napkin. “Are you feeling better?” Vicky nodded yes. “Vicky, I hate
