Chasing Rainbows - Part Twenty Four

Chapter Twenty Four

Emma looked out at the unusually dark evening and sighed, it was raining, a summer storm, people were rushing home from work in clothing hugely inappropriate for this current weather. But then it had been hot and sunny all day, this storm had caught out the weathermen as well as the unsuspecting London inhabitants.

She was making the most of time to herself, as since she’d returned from her parents the previous day; she’d not managed to shake off the persistent presence that was Jacob Coren.

Her parents had not spared any expense in the family barbeque that they’d arranged the previous day, and Jacob had settled in to the environment like a duck to water. And everyone loved him. Even her parents’ grumpy neighbour, a woman Emma had never seen smile.

From a distance she could admit the man oozed charm, but that was the last thing she wanted. Emma sighed, suddenly she’d gone from being the errant child who never did the right thing, to the best daughter a parent could ask for, and she couldn’t help but resent him for that. It was all Jacob’s fault. Instead of feeling happy that she FINALLY had made her parents happy, that they finally appreciated her in a way she’d always craved, she felt bitter and twisted about it all.

The barbeque had made her cringe, everyone gushing over him, all fighting to talk to him. Her cousins, aunts, uncles all nodded in appreciation casting a different glance to the usual one of pity. She had hoped their opinions would change when she finished filming this new series, when she finally found success as an actress, she knew they’d probably dismiss it all as Jacob’s influence. She hated him so much!

They’d driven back in his hire car, Jacob had refused to let “his wife” drive back to London in the “hunk of junk” that had been her car for more than ten years. She’d started to protest, but her parents had landed heavily in favour of his argument, after all they’d begged her to buy a new car for years. Funnily she had no memory of those arguments, but they could have been tossed in as an addendum to any of their other dismissive arguments. So as he’d followed instructions back to her London home, she snapped out directions and fumed to herself all the way. Childish? Probably. But she couldn’t relax, couldn’t let it go.

His disgust at her car carried over into her home. She’d rented the small flat above a video game shop in a reasonable London neighbourhood, admittedly it wasn’t the biggest, but it was homely, comfortable, and she felt safe there, and she couldn’t say that about every part of London, and she was proud of the place. Of course she wished she owned somewhere, but she didn’t.

                “This is my home, I don’t want you in it, but you’ve made things rather awkward. You either step inside and shut up about the neighbourhood, the traffic and the decor, or you go find a hotel.” She opened the front door before turning back to him, “and make friends with the couch, because that is where you’re sleeping!”

She’d stormed inside and locked herself in her bedroom. Unlike him she’d arrived at her parents for what she thought would be a ‘hello’ and maybe dinner, thirty six hours later she still wore the same clothes, and she felt awful. She’d showered and changed into jeans and a shirt when she finally came out of the room. He was lounging on the sofa waiting patiently.

                “I need to go out, I have things to do.”

He stood, “I’ll drive you.”

She shook her head, “I need space Jacob, you are killing me.”

He stared at her for a moment, “I like this place, it’s warm.”

                “You’re wrong about lots of things. This place isn’t yours; we are married in name only. This is my home, my city, and I’m going to see MY friends. You can do what you want.”

He reached for her hand, stopped her storming out, “Emma, what the hell is it with you? This morning you were returning every inch of my attention, and now AGAIN you want me to burn in hell!”

                “I can’t cope with you here...invading EVERYTHING I know!”

He laughed, “should’ve thought of that before you said ‘I do’!”

Jacob knew that neither of them could remember the night they’d married, but it was apparent that he was going to use anything he could to keep himself ensconced in her life. And she still didn’t know why. All that she could really see between them was animosity and the occasional good screw. Clearly nothing more than that. She wished more than anything that she could go back, to before Isobel’s hen weekend, before that ill-fated trip to Las Vegas.

Tears threatened at her eyes and she sighed, “I can’t do this anymore Jacob.”

He sighed too, “we are what we are Emma, we can either fight this both be unhappy, or we can accept it and get on with life. I think your friends would love to meet me.”

                “He’s amazing!” Isobel hissed when Emma followed her into the kitchen. Jacob had used his persuasive effects on initially her, and now her best friends. Emma had followed Isobel out to the kitchen to get wine and snacks, leaving Jacob with his new best friend Nathan.

                “He’s a charmer, could schmooze even your Aunty Maud!”

Isobel laughed, her notoriously grumpy Aunt was the bane of her family’s’ lives. “I can assure you even he could not make her smile!”

                “And now we’ll find that out!”

Isobel looked up at her, “you don’t want him to come to the wedding?” Within moments of being in her friends’ home, Jacob had been offered, and accepted an invite to the wedding.

Emma leaned against the work surface and sighed, “he was a mistake. We shouldn’t be married, this is all false.”

Isobel reached out, grabbed her friend’s hand, “Em, he’s amazing, I couldn’t have picked a better man from a database for you. I admit he’s kind of overwhelmed you...”

                “Kind of?” Emma laughed out loud. “He has steamrollered me at every turn.”

Isobel opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of wine, “I think it’s kind of romantic, and to be honest, every other man you’ve dated has found himself dumped due to their lack of oomph. So I’m thinking this was meant to be.”

                “Pfffhhh!” Emma snarled as she opened the cupboard, pulling out bags of crisps and crackers. “This man is killing me!”

Isobel chuckled but didn’t reply she was too busy appreciating that the perfect man had rolled into her friend’s life. As Isobel herself faced marriage, a change in her life, she’d been worried about her interminably unsettled friend, but this, Jacob, could be the answer to all that she’d wished for.

Emma stuck to her guns and Jacob spent the night on the sofa, but Jacob didn’t complain, he’d been relieved to survive the weekend; he now had to juggle the rest of his life to allow him to stay until the wedding three weeks away. He did after all have an ulterior motive for coming to London, to meet with a rival games company from Asia who wanted to bid for his game concept. Andy had rubbed his hands together enthusiastically as he’d informed Jacob of the news, once two of the bigger software companies were on board, then the world was his oyster. But for the first time his work, his life’s work was taking a back seat, this, here was more important.

                “So where’s your husband?” Isobel asked a few days later when they met for a snatched lunch. There were two weeks of school left, then it would be the summer holidays for her friend, and full on wedding planning could commence. Instead today they had to make do with a bench in a small park in a London suburb and prepacked sandwiches from a nearby supermarket.

After her initial chocking scoff, Emma shook her head, “he’s gone to see ‘Buck House’, in all the times he’s been to London he’s not seen it apparently.”

Isobel smiled, “and you didn’t want to go with him?” When Emma glared at her she laughed, “ok, I won’t mention him!”

Emma chewed her sandwich for a moment before finally responding, “he’s starting to seem like part of the furniture.”

                “That’s a good thing?” Isobel paused with her sandwich mid ways to her mouth and looked at her friend intently.

Chewing her food Emma tried to contemplate what that meant, even she was confused, here she was complaining that he was starting to grow on her, but she didn’t know what she wanted anymore.

                “I’ve got so much on, I mean recording this new project...going to LA, I don’t need him as a complication Iz, and that’s what he is.”

It was Isobel’s turn to think, and it was a while before she answered, “whether you like it or not, you two are married. You kind of promised him, after that day together you promised him that you’d give him a chance. So the way I see it, you can either go into this thing hating him, making things difficult, or you can take it as it is, and see how it goes. One way is hard, the other a little smoother.”

Emma had nodded in agreement, but she couldn’t help but worry what state she’d be in at the end of this, because the longer this went on, the bigger the chance that she’d get hurt, and she hated the thought of that. Thought that was something she would never discuss.

Jacob had spent the day in London, that much was true, but despite telling his wife he was sightseeing, he was actually in various hotels meeting various gaming executives discussing his concept. Andy had been right, once he’d started meeting an executive from an Asian company, offers and interest had been flying at him via contact with his friend and lawyer back in San Francisco.

Once he’d lied to Emma the first time, and it was a lie, he wasn’t visiting the home of the reigning Monarch, he’d started a web of lies that he regretted with every day. Why had he not been honest with her?

He sat back in his chair in the reception bar of the Presidente Hotel, he was due to meet the owner of a Japanese company in fifteen minutes, and the glass of whisky in front of him was purely to settle his nerves, nothing to do with the impending meeting, but at the thought of more arguments with Emma. Last night she’d invited him from the sofa into her bed, and he knew that meant he was finally winning her over...these lies were enough to blow it.

                “Mr Coren?”He was disturbed by the arrival of a small and wizened Oriental man, “Mr Uchida is awaiting you upstairs in conference suite, follow me please?”

Jacob was stunned, the offers for his work were beyond his wildest expectations, if he accepted one of the companies he’d met so far, sold the patent and the gaming rights, he’d not just never have to work again, he’d been more than comfortable, and with the right tagged on clauses that Andy was desperately trying to negotiate, he’d be richer than his father, he could turn to his parent and laugh. The man thought he was a loser, a waste of space, and he wasn’t, never had been. It was amazing. His life was about to take off and he couldn’t wait to tell Emma.

She’s given him a key a few days earlier. Another sign that she was accepting him, getting used to him. He beamed as he opened the door, he’d sit Emma down tonight, tell her how it was, try and explain why he’d not been honest...even when he wasn’t sure himself.

Inside the door he tripped over something, and looking down he realised it was his own bag. Packed and ready at the door. His heart lurched in his chest. When he looked back up into the lounge, things got worse. Emma was sat on the sofa staring at him, her face blotchy from tears.

                “Emma?”

She shook her head, “don’t say anything.” He hated how distraught she sounded, he had no idea what had happened, what had changed, but he had a bleak feeling.

                “What’s happened?”

She sighed, then swiped at a tear that fell from her eye, “you! Just as I start to trust you, you lie! You always lie!”

He gulped, he had no idea what she was referring to, but she was right, he had lied to her, for the last six days. “What do you mean?”

                “You said you were going to Tower Bridge, that you wanted to see the dungeons!” He nodded, swallowing the nausea rising. She scoffed, “even now you lie. I saw you today, at some swish hotel. Ironically it’s opposite the bridal store where we had our final dress fitting, we saw you go in, or rather I did. We were there for three hours in the end, and you hadn’t come out.”

                “You think I was with another woman?” He could see the anger in her eyes.

She shook her head, “I have no idea and I don’t care! What I care about is you lying. I have no idea why you did that, but I have never trusted you, and this just proves I was right. Now please leave.”

He looked at her, she as determined, angry, frosty. “Please Emma, don’t be like this.”

                “Like what? I barely know you, you’ve lied to me...end of story.”

He was clutching at straws, “I had a work meeting...”

Emma held up a hand to silence him, “you didn’t care enough to tell me the truth this morning, so I don’t want to hear now. Now go.”

Jacob was stunned, he’d blown everything, and for what?

A/N - Sorry it's been SO long, have been really hectic and this story has been the sacrifice. Also a tad bit of writer's block - couldn't get the story to where it needed to be. There now! Hopefully another chapter in a couple of days.