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That sent a slight chill down my spine.
“Why would that matter to him?” I asked.
“I think he’s trying to get to you,” I said. “He knows you won’t just talk to him, so he’s trying to figure out as many ways as he possibly can to work his way back into your life.”
The surge of anger rushing up through me was swift, quickly joined by sheer annoyance. I couldn’t believe Justin was pulling this mess. Actually, yes, I completely could believe he was pulling it. The longer I was away from him, the more I was able to see how manipulative and self-serving he really was. If he hadn’t been able to pull himself back up onto his feet since our breakup, he would want to drop back into the safety net of me taking care of him. Especially when she found out I was working with an investor to build my money back up.
“This is ridiculous,” I said. “This has to be some sort of harassment. Or something.”
“I don’t think it is,” Nick said regretfully. “He didn’t threaten either one of us. He didn’t make any aggressive moves or linger around for hours or anything. All he did was come in an unlocked door into an investment office and talk about investing money. Yes, it’s weird and inappropriate for him to ask me, but that doesn’t make it illegal.”
“So, there’s literally nothing we can do about it,” I said. “Because he technically didn’t do anything illegal tonight, and we haven’t been able to figure out how to prove that he stole the money from me and I didn’t just hand it over to him. So, we can’t show that he did anything wrong. He’s just going to get away with that?”
I was up on my feet at this point, pacing back and forth.
My fists clenched by my sides and my jaw was so tight it ached. After a few seconds, Nick got up and came over to me. He reached out and took hold of one of my wrists to stop me. I stood in front of him, fuming, as he ran his hands up and down my arms gently. It helped to calm my shaking a little, but he made no move to unclench my fists. I was entitled to that anger.
We stood there together, not saying anything for a while. Finally, I let out a long breath.
“What are we supposed to do now?” I asked.
“I don’t know yet,” Nick said. “We don’t really know what he has planned, or what he’s going to try next. Until we do, there isn’t anything we can do about it. Like I said, he hasn’t done anything that warrants any kind of action.”
“I don’t want to just sit around and wait for him to do something else. He’s never been violent toward me or anything, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the ability to pull something else that might hurt me or cause more trouble for one of us,” I said.
“It’s going to be okay. I promise. We’re going to figure this out. I won’t let him do anything to you,” he said.
Nick stayed for just a while longer but didn’t stay the night. I walked him to the door, and he leaned down to give me a comforting, reassuring kiss.
He cupped my face with his hand, stroking my cheek with his thumb as he looked into my eyes. “It’s going to be okay. Good night.”
After he left, I was still thinking about the whole thing, trying to force it to make sense in my head. If Nick was right and Justin was trying to figure out a way to wiggle himself back into my life, that needed to come to an end immediately. He needed to have a quick reality check that it wasn’t ever going to happen.
Maybe I should just take the initiative and talk to him. Rather than waiting for him to say or do something else, I should be the one to take a stand and cut him off at the pass. Maybe that was what it would take to get him to leave me alone for good. Not giving myself any more time to think about it and possibly talk myself out of it, I picked up the phone and called Justin.
He sounded mildly surprised to hear from me, but not enough that I really believed he didn’t think I was going to call. More like he was surprised it was so fast.
“We need to talk,” I said.
“About anything in particular?” he asked.
“Just make sure you have time available tomorrow afternoon. I’ll text you to tell you where to meet me,” I said and hung up.34NickWhen I told Bryn everything was going to be okay and that I was going to make sure nothing happened to her, I figured she understood that meant I would take care of the situation with Justin. I didn’t know how exactly I was going to do that, considering I was still unsure of his angle.
