Chapter 10 – Are we back?
When Rose had agreed to join Jake for the rest of day, she didn't intend on become surrounded by a massive group of people that were asking him dozens of questions every single minute. Rose wore an amused expression on her face the entire time, Jake walked around like a man who had graduated from Harvard with a Masters Degrees. Sure, this attention and all of this praise for Jake made her feel small compared to him, but she had the pleasure of knowing Jake as he truly was. What he was down to Earth.
And it wasn't in his ruthless Billionaire Tycoon.
He was a normal guy, with emotions and feelings and somehow Rose knew that Jake understood what it was to be without. But none of those things mattered anymore. That was the past and this was now, and right now Jake was a Billionaire and a Tycoon. She was just the poor woman who happened to mother his only child. Well, that's what she thought anyway, what she wanted to believe after Jake had left for California. But she knew that she and Jake would always, one way or the other, come back to each other.
"Rose," Jake knocked her out of her thoughts, "Are you coming?"
Rose shook her head clear and nodded, "Yeah, where are we going?"
"My private box," Jake smiled and opened the door.
When she walked inside, a cool breeze hit her and she found that she had entered a whole new world. This was the world that Jake was used to. It was first class. A desk, a big comfy looking chair, a bar, several televisions tuned to cable news shows and financial networks and a big window pane that looked out over the trading floor, "Wow, I could live in this room."
"Yes you could," Jake chuckled and hung his coat up on the clip next to the door, "All this place is missing is a kitchen, there's a shower and toilet in the back. We can have lunch here. They cater and deliver to the people here."
Rose shrugged and walked to the small area that surrounded the Televisions. Taking a seat in one of the lounge chairs, she crossed her legs and looked back up at him, "Is this box tailored to your interests Jake?"
Currently at the desk, picking up a few papers, Jake looked up and shook his head, "No, I haven't been back to New York in 10 Years, this is my CFO's Box, but I gave him the week off and told him I'd handle everything here. I have never come back here for three reasons, I hate traveling, I run the company from the Corporate World Headquarters in San Francisco. Not to mention that I've always sort of have a fear of coming back here."
Rose scowled, "And why is that?"
"Gee," Jake answered back sarcastically, "I don't know Rose, the painful memories of leaving this place. I swore to myself that if I came back here, I'd stay. And to be honest, I'm considering it, but it'll take a little while."
"Why not just quit?" Rose asked, her pulse jumped at the thought of Jake staying in town personally and she wanted to purse that to its end.
He smiled and sat down across from her and laid the papers down on the table, "I like my job and I don't intent on quitting until I'm at least forty years old. I mean I have several options. I could fly back and forth from California on the weekends. Or I could move my Corporate HQ out here."
But Rose wasn't listening. She was too caught up in his vocabulary. Shaking her head with a winning smile, she continued to snicker at him. For a moment, the thought occurred to her that she really hadn't snickered like this since …well…she saw him last, "Dragon Boy? Why are you so smart?"
"What do you mean by that?" Jake asked in a curious, but light tone.
"Well, the last time I saw you, you were a High School Graduate with only a High School Diploma, you talk with a vocabulary of a Harvard Business School Graduate and you're not that awkward skating kid any more, what happened?" She asked quietly, she was still absorbing all of this rapidly.
Jake chuckled and leaned back, "I dealt with some of the most conniving, brutal, ruthless, greedy, corrupt and smart bastards in the world. I've had to deal with Political Parties and Organizations offering me money to broadcast their ads. I've had to deal with very tough people whose only goal in life is to bring my company down. How can I not gain knowledge?"
Rose snorted, "You have a point."
"Besides, Harvard Business School granted me an honorary degree three years ago," Jake added, smugly, at her, "I'm the king of the world, Rose."
And just like that, Rose's eyes misted slightly, "And do I have a place in it?"
"Of course," He stopped his smug rant about his life and looked over to her with an equal bit of seriousness in his voice, "Unless of course you're still pissed at me. Well, I can't ask you not to be mad, but if you're willing to work on this, there's always a place for you, with me. Understand Rose?"
Despite all the anger and bitterness that she felt towards this man, she couldn't help but still love him. Of course she wanted to work on their relationship. Also, despite the fact that she had sometimes wished otherwise, they shared a child together and Trevor needed to be around his father and have him in his life, "I understand, but I'm not going to California."
"Just for the hell of it, why not?" He asked, he already knew the answer.
"I'm the Huntsmistress, if it were not for that fact, I might consider it, but I can't just up and leave," Rose reasoned, she could technically leave, but in a pine box, "If you want me in your life, and your son too, that I suggest you find a way to be here in New York. I'm sure that you can do that easily."
He studied her for a moment, his intense glare made her skin tingle, but she fought that urge. He was contemplating something, something big and Rose wanted desperately to know what he meant, "What are you thinking about?"
"I'm thinking," Jake said, leaning back and reaching into his pocket to withdraw his blackberry, "About calling My Office and my Real Estate Agent and starting the process of moving back to New York, to be with you."
And for the first time in years, Rose was genuinely shocked.