One Wild Night

Once Lucy returned to her office after having lunch with Tom, she shut the door behind her and walked over to her seat. She had tried to hold in her emotions for Tom's sake, but now that she was alone and could process all that Tom had told her, as well as Anita's recorded conversation, she couldn't stop herself from crying. She rested her forehead on her desk as she sobbed.

She stopped crying when a knock sounded on her door, and she cleared her throat, "Yes?"

"Can I come in?" Amy asked politely.

"Do you need something?" Lucy asked, reaching for her handkerchief to dry her tears.

"Yes, I want to see you," Amy said, and Lucy picked a piece of tissue from her table and blew her nose before giving her the go-ahead to enter.

Once Amy entered, she looked at Lucy closely while holding her phone to her, "You were crying?" She asked with a slight frown.

"No."

"Yes, you were. Is something wrong?" She asked with concern as she moved closer to the desk.

"No. Everything is fine," Lucy said and forced a smile, "What did you want to see me for?" She asked, wanting to move the subject away from her.

"The CEO asked me to check on you and report to him," Amy said, making Lucy frown.

"Tom? When?"

"Just now," Amy said, pointing to the phone in her hand, and Lucy sighed. How did she keep forgetting that Tom always read her like a book?

"I'm fine. I wasn't crying," Lucy said as she reached out a hand for Amy to hand her the phone.

"I'm fine. You don't have to be worried," Lucy assured him.

"You were crying again, weren't you?" Tom asked in concern.

"It's not like I can tell my eyes not to cry when I feel like crying, can I?" Lucy asked, trying to make light of the situation.

Tom sighed, "I don't like this."

"You do realize that this is Amy's phone, right?" Lucy asked since Amy was still standing there looking at her, "You could have just called me instead of disrupting her work," Lucy scolded.

"It's part of her job. I've just added it to her job description," Tom said, and Lucy giggled.

"I'm hanging up now. Don't worry about me," Lucy said as she hung up the call and returned the phone to Amy.

"I'm sorry," Lucy told Amy.

"It's fine. I don't mind. Is everything okay?" Amy asked, and Lucy gave her a nod.

"You haven't told us the outcome of the board meeting. Did they like the new design and your presentation?" Amy asked curiously.

Lucy almost sighed when she realized that she had almost forgotten all about the board meeting, "Yes. They all loved it and have given us the go-ahead," Lucy said, and Amy gave her an 'I told you so' smile.

"That's great news. I will relay the message to others. Call me if you need me," Amy said as she walked away.

Lucy watched as Amy shut the door behind her, and somehow she felt like the dynamics of her relationship with Amy had changed over the weekend. Or maybe it was just Amy's personality. She acted more like a friend than as a secretary.

Now that she was alone and was no longer crying, she tried to think about everything from a logical angle. Although she had never really been fond of Rachel, she felt deeply hurt and pained by this new revelation. If she felt this way, she could only imagine how Lucas was going to feel.

Perhaps she should tell him about it and get it over with? She didn't like the idea of keeping away something that concerned him away from him, especially when she knew that if she were in his shoes, she would prefer that she is told about it. At the same time, he was still struggling with the break-up, and she didn't want to add guilt to his sadness. Maybe she could tell him about it at a much later time?

Or perhaps she should talk to her parents about it, and then they can all decide whether or not they want Lucas to know about it yet. At least that way, it would be a family decision and not just hers alone.

Just as she picked up her phone to make the call, she remembered that she was yet to tell her parents about who was behind the scandal. If she told them about Rachel's involvement, they would want to know how she found out, and then she would need to tell them about Anita, and then they would want to know who Anita is and why Tom had a bug in Anita's office, and she didn't want to tell them about that.

Although she knew that her parents were smart enough not to blame Tom for Anita's mess, she just didn't want to create a situation where her parents might begin to worry about her safety and start asking her to stay away from him so that she would be safe.

Yes, her parents were smart. But they were also very protective parents and would choose her safety over any relationship regardless of how much they liked Tom and his family.

She thought about giving Sonia a call, but once she remembered that Sonia was out with Jade and Bryan, she decided to just talk to Sonia later in the day.

Meanwhile, Jade led Sonia into a restaurant in a different part of the mall where they had been shopping.

"I thought we were going to pick a dress?" Sonia asked as Jade sat down and picked up a menu.

"I'm hungry. Let's eat and talk before doing that," Jade said as Sonia took the seat opposite her.

"So about Harry," Sonia reminded her.

"Yes. About Harry..." Jade said with a wide smile as she signaled to a waiter to attend to them. Once they finished placing their order, she smiled at Sonia.

"There are no exclusive details. I kissed him last night pretending to be drunk... Okay, that's not exactly what happened. I actually..." the rest of Jade's words trailed off when Sonia shook her head.

"No. Not like that. I don't want a summary. I want everything. Please give me all the details. From the first moment you set your eyes on him to the moment you realized that you were attracted to him," Sonia said as she dug into her mini handbag and took out her phone to record the conversation.

"I hope you don't mind if I record this? I would have preferred to jot this down, but I'm not with my journal," Sonia said apologetically.

"As long as you're the only one that listens to it. With the exception of Lucy, of course. Although I don't see her sitting down idly just to listen to this," Jade said with a grin, and Sonia giggled.

"I know, right? She is such a busy bee, whereas I'm a busy body," Sonia said with a wide grin, and Jade couldn't have agreed more with the description.

"Which category do you fall into? Busy bee or busybody?" Sonia asked thoughtfully.

"Busybeebody. I'm a bit of both, so I can relate well with you two," Jade said with a wink, and Sonia giggled.

"That's perfect! I am going to turn on the recorder now. So tell me how and when you first met Harry," Sonia said as she reached to tap on the record icon on her screen, but Jade stopped her.

"The waiter is coming with our order. I will start after he serves us," Jade said, jerking her head towards the waiter who was approaching them with their order.

They both waited until he had served their meal before Jade gave her the go-ahead to start recording.

"I met Harry for the first time four years ago," Jade said, and a small smile curved her lips, "Thinking about it now, I think I would probably have considered our first meeting pretty romantic if I didn't have a boyfriend then, and if he wasn't present there," she said, arousing Sonia's curiosity.

"Your boyfriend was there? What happened?"

Jade had a bittersweet smile as she remembered that day. Bitter because she would have preferred not to think of Todd, but unfortunately, there was no way she could think of her first meeting with Harry without thinking of Todd.

"C'mon, Todd. Let's take a stroll around the neighborhood. We can't just stay up here all day," Jade pleaded with Todd as she tried to pull him out of bed, but he refused to budge.

"But I already told you that my head is aching, and I don't want to go out. Besides, it's too cold to go out, and you are still recovering from the flu," Todd reminded her as he tried to pull her back on the bed.

"Although I feel better already, but since you insist that it's cold outside, why don't we just chill in the living room with my parents? We will be here for only a couple of days, so we should at least spend the time with them instead of staying locked up in my bedroom," Jade pleaded.

"Alright. You can go down. I will join you guys shortly," Todd said as he kissed her hand.

"Are you sure you're going to come down?" Jade asked doubtfully.

"Sure, babe. I'll just give my folks a call, and then I'll join you," Todd assured her, and then she leaned forward to kiss him.

She didn't bother checking her appearance in the mirror since she was just going down to chill with her parents. She was decently dressed in a red sweater which her mother had gifted her the last Christmas, and a pair of faded boyfriend jeans which was folded at the bottom.

Just as she walked down the stairs, the door opened, and Tom walked in, surprising everyone, "Surprise!" Tom exclaimed from the doorway, and both their parents, who had been cuddled together watching a soap opera, exclaimed in surprise as their mother hurried over to embrace him.

"TOMMY!" Jade screamed excitedly as she ran down the stairs to join them, and in her hurry, she missed a stair and fell forward. But before Tom could notice that she was about to fall, a pair of strong masculine hands caught her.