Jennifer was at the Ascot waiting for Garson. She was dressed normally tonight; she wasn’t there to see Vaughn, but rather to meet Garson for dinner. She was sitting at a table perusing a menu when she noticed a blonde bombshell come into the restaurant and sit at the bar. Jennifer couldn’t help but notice her; she was drop-dead gorgeous, like a centerfold from a men’s magazine.
And this bombshell had words for Vaughn. Many of them. Flying fast.
“You promised we could go away together! You told me you loved me! I thought of leaving Ian for you! Now I have to go back to that stupid house and pretend I still love that fucking bastard Ian Henshaw!”
“Hope, Hope,” Vaughn tried to smooth over the situation. “Not here, I’ll come see you in a few days, and we’ll work this out. Don’t tell Ian anything or do anything rash until I have a chance to work this out.”
“You'd better, Vaughn. If you ever loved me, you would make this right.” Hope started crying.
“It’s okay, Hope. Just go home, and I’ll see you later. I promise.”
“All right.” Hope dabbed her eyes with a bar napkin and left the restaurant.
Jennifer was awestruck at what she just witnessed. So Hope was having an affair with Vaughn, the bartender? She saw it with her own eyes.
Jennifer couldn’t wait to tell Dr. Prentice.
What would Dr. Prentice say? Would she tell Ian that Hope was cheating on him, or leave him hanging in the wind? Jennifer considered the consequences briefly, then decided she couldn’t keep a secret like this from her employer.
She ordered a drink from the server and sat dumbfounded, trying to take it all in. She knew from his file that Ian was married to a woman named Hope.
Was that her?
It had to be.
Unbelievable. Unfathomable. And Jennifer was the first to know that a prominent billionaire’s wife was cheating on him with a barkeep. Jennifer was bursting to tell someone, but that would have to wait until tomorrow when she went to work.
But Jennifer couldn’t wait until tomorrow. She had something so juicy to tell Dr. Prentice about the man she was falling in love with, Ian Henshaw.
It was nine o’clock, and Jennifer was starving. Where was Garson? Damn him for being late again. Jennifer texted him, and after a few minutes, he texted back.
Garson: Sorry, babe, going to be another hour. Have a few drinks and relax. Call one of your friends to keep you company.
It wasn’t unusual for Garson to be running late; to take over his father’s business, he had to work all kinds of crazy hours, while Jennifer waited around like a dutiful wife. She was preparing herself to endure a dull marriage. One where she imagined herself sitting at home with a dinner in the oven and two fussy children.
Garson’s father loved Jennifer for the same reason Garson did. She completed the ideal image that the Joss family was so eager to present to the world. The entire Joss family believed Jennifer was the sophisticated, well-mannered girl who would make a home for Garson and raise the grandchildren properly as a stay-at-home mom.
That would never be Jennifer.
Jennifer knew that Garson was probably in the middle of an important meeting or a never-ending scolding from his father. She couldn’t even get angry because she understood that, in the Joss family, the man’s work took priority, and the women were there to support them in any way needed.
Fine.
But Jennifer would no longer wait for Garson. She was through with him, and she was dying to talk to Vaughn.
She was going to do it. She was going to tell Vaughn everything. So she finished her drink and went to the bar.
“So, Vaughn,” Jennifer said, situating herself on an empty stool. “You know Hope Henshaw?”
“Excuse me?’ Vaughn blushed three shades of red.
“You heard me.” Jennifer was being coy. “How do you know Hope Henshaw?”
“What? How in the hell do you know Hope Henshaw?”
“From around. It looked like you were having a bit of an argument. A lover’s quarrel, perhaps?”
“You don’t know what you are talking about. I think it’s best you leave.”
“C’mon, Vaughn. I’m not here to bust your balls. I know Hope is having problems in her marriage, but I didn’t know it was you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Vaughn was gripping the bar.
“Relax, Vaughn. I got the information second-hand from Ian Henshaw’s file.”
“His file?” Vaughn was still riled, but now he was curious.
“I work for his psychiatrist, Dr. Prentice. Did you know he was going to a psychiatrist?”
Vaughn stared at Jennifer blankly.
“Well, he does, and I have access to his file, but I never met his wife, Hope. She lives up to her name.”
“What do you know about Ian and Hope?”
“Just that they’re having problems.”
“You have to tell me…Am I in that file?”
Vaughn was panicking.
But enough fun.
Jennifer had to put him out of his misery.
“No, you’re not in the file. He never mentions Hope cheating on him. Relax. You’re in the clear.”
“Then what do you want from me?”
“Nothing,” Jennifer said. “I am in just as much shock as you are. I wanted to share this information with someone, and you happened to be here.”
“Who else are you going to tell? What do you want?”
“I don’t want anything, and I’m not going to tell anyone. It was just such a weird coincidence that you were both here when I was. Then everything made sense.”
“What am I gonna do? What if he finds out? I’m a dead man.”
“Don’t worry. He’s divorcing her. He doesn’t care if she’s cheating on him.”
“Oh, God. That’s worse.” Vaughn poured himself a shot and sighed.
“Why is that a problem? I thought you would be relieved that everything is out in the open and it doesn’t matter if you get caught.”
“No, it’s a worse problem. I promised Hope we would run away together if things didn’t work out with Ian.”
Jennifer couldn’t help but laugh.
Vaughn looked peeved. “What’s so funny?”
Jennifer laughed harder. “The thought of you running away with a stripper is too much!”
Vaughn looked serious until he started laughing too. “Can you imagine? That would make me her new sugar daddy! I can’t afford that!”
A few more minutes of laughter. Hard. Unadulterated. Hysterical laughter.
Finally, Jennifer said something. “Where were the two of you going to go?”
Vaughn stopped laughing long enough to answer. “Miami.”
“Miami? Stop, I can’t take any more!”
More minutes of laughter, and then it was Vaughn who stopped laughing long enough to ask Jennifer a question.
“Would you like a shot?”
“Yes, Vaughn, I would love a shot.”
The two of them threw back a bourbon, neat, and Vaughn poured two more.
“Here’s to Miami.”
“To Miami.”
“But seriously,” Jennifer said, “what are you going to tell her?”
“I have to dump her; this whole thing has gotten ridiculous.”
“Then pour another shot, Vaughn, and let’s drink to dumping our significant others.”
Another round of shots, and then Vaughn got curious. “What do you mean, our significant others?”
“I’m dumping my boyfriend, Garson, tonight. As you can see, he stood me up again.”
“That bastard.”
“Yeah, and I have a few other names for him, too. So, what do you say we hook up? It was pretty hot in here between the two of us the other night.”
“You’re hitting on me?” Vaughn gave Jennifer a wicked smile.
“Maybe I am.”
“Then you'd better be prepared to go home with me tonight.”
“I might do that.”
Vaughn mused over this new development. “You know I’m a player. I don’t stay around too long with any one girl.”
“I am as far away from committing to a man as you can imagine.”
“Then come home with me tonight.”
“I will.”
Jennifer leaned over the bar to give Vaughn a long, deep kiss.
The door swung open, and there was Garson.
This was the final straw for both of them.
The kiss barely had time to land.
Garson stood just inside the doorway, frozen, his hand still on the handle. His expensive suit was rumpled from a long day of work. He had taken off his tie.
“What the fuck is going on here?” he commanded from the doorway.
The din of the bar came to a standstill. Silence. What was this guy’s problem, people thought?
As Garson made his way to the bar, people stepped aside. He stopped short of making contact with Jennifer. Instead, he took a solid stance in front of her and demanded an explanation.
“I asked you, what the fuck is going on here?”
He didn’t look at Vaughn, who was poised behind the bar, ready to leap to Jennifer's defense. He just stood there. Waiting.
“I’m not in love with you anymore, Garson,” Jennifer said. “I’m sorry you had to find out this way.”
“Do you know how humiliated I feel? Couldn’t we have done this in private? Do my feelings mean nothing to you?”
Everyone in the bar area was listening to see how this played out.
“I’ve tried to tell you in private,” Jennifer said. "But you never listen. You always shut me down and think I’ll do whatever you say to get what I want. Although no matter what I do, no matter what I give up for this relationship, it’s never enough.”
“So you’re willing to throw everything we have together away? Just like that?”
“What exactly do we have, Garson? A plan to buy a home, a plan to have children, a plan for a picket fence life?”
“Any woman would be glad to have what I am giving you, and you are just willing to throw it all away so you can earn a college degree.”
The bar crowd was losing sympathy for Garson. He was sinking fast.
“He wants to keep her barefoot and pregnant,” Vaughn said from behind the bar.
“You stay the fuck out of this,” Garson said to Vaughn. “You’re the reason she is overthinking things, thinking that I’m what’s holding her back. Well, for your information. I am offering her everything any woman could ever want.”
“What does she have to say about it?” Vaughn asked Garson.
“I don’t know,” said Garson. “Why don’t we let her speak?”
Jennifer stood. She was ready to make a speech.
“What I want is a future with myself. A future where I can decide exactly what I want without thinking about anyone else but myself. A future where I can grow as a person who is responsible for her own happiness.”
There was applause all around the bar.
Garson had been defeated. “So you’re willing to give up all I have to offer you for some low-life bartender?”
“You didn’t listen, Garson, you never do,” said Jennifer. “I want to make my own decisions, not let some man make them for me.”
“Then, Jennifer, you leave me no choice. I’m leaving you.” Garson said. “And don’t bother coming back, groveling, because I won’t be there. Goodbye, Jennifer.”
Garson made a dramatic exit, the bar cheered, and then everyone went back to their own business.
“Are you okay?” Vaughn asked Jennifer.
“No,” she said, “but I will be.”
Vaughn poured them two shots, and they toasted to Jennifer’s newfound freedom.
“So what are you going to do now?” Vaughn asked.
“I have a whole new life ahead of me,” she said, and it starts with going to work tomorrow.”