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to
her ex.
    And now she understood why Jamie had left
early. He had accomplished his goal. He was in her head.
      The waitress came and took their order, and the rest of the
night passed in empty conversation.

 
    THE
REST OF the week was one of the worst Grace could remember. The days passed
slowly and painfully as she tried to stay on top of her other accounts while
keeping up with Jamie’s relentless demands. She found herself staying late at
the office each night, unable to get home before Jake’s bedtime.
    Every
time the phone rang and she saw Jamie’s name on the caller ID she jumped,
afraid of what new project he was going to give her or what he wanted changed
about something she had already completed. He had already scrapped a few of her
proposals and had made her redo multiple projects in the late stages, telling
her that he had come up with a whole new concept in the middle of the night.
    By
the time Friday afternoon came around, she was exhausted. The promise of a
beautiful September weekend was the only thing keeping her from losing her
mind. She could not wait to spend two whole days being lazy with Jake, watching
cartoons, baking cookies and ignoring her emails.
    Jake
had been talking lately about wanting to go to the zoo. She thought of how nice
it would be to take him for a few hours. It would be just the two of them, the
zebras and the monkeys. No Jamie.
    The
phone rang an hour before she was set to go home.
    “Hi,
Jamie.”
    “Grace.
How are you?”
    “I’m
fine.” If he didn’t hear the bitterness in that statement, he was deaf. “How
are you?”
    “You
sound tired.”
    She
couldn’t help but sigh. “I am tired.”
    He
was quiet for a moment. “I suppose I have been working you pretty hard.”
    She
thought about saying something to him about how she couldn’t keep up with this
pace, but she didn’t want to disappoint Charlie or set Jamie off. The Jamie she
remembered never backed down from an argument, and she knew if she started one
they would be back on personal ground. She needed to try to keep things between
them at least semi-professional if she were going to protect herself.
    “I
understand,” she said instead. “This is a brand new market for you and it is
going to take a lot of work for your company to establish itself here.”
    “I’m
glad to hear you say that. Something has come up.”
    She
had a feeling she wasn’t going to like this.
    “I
need you to come to New York with me this weekend.”
    Grace
sucked in a breath. “What?”
    “I
know weekends are your days off, and I’m sorry to do this to you, but I need
you to come and sit down with our marketing director. You two really should be
on the same page with everything.”
    This
was the first Grace had heard of a marketing director. Why hadn’t she been communicating
directly with her instead of Jamie from the beginning?
    “I
can schedule the trip for an upcoming weekend,” she told him, trying not to
panic. She felt hot, all of a sudden, and a bit faint. “I’ll set something up
with your marketing director. There is no reason for you to go with me.”
    “No,
it has to be this weekend,” Jamie said. “We are hosting a black tie gala at the
brewery for charity. It’s going to be really great PR for us. We need you to be
there and mingle. Some of the attendees own national restaurant and bar chains.
If they like our beer this could be huge for us.”
    Grace
wanted to scream. Just the thought of going with Jamie to New York for the
weekend depleted even further the little energy she had left. She needed her
bed, she needed comfort food and she needed to be with her son. She did not
need more stress or to spend time around Jamie. She couldn’t handle it.
    “Grace?
Are you there?”
    “This
is too short notice. I have plans for the weekend that can’t be canceled. I’m
sorry.”
    She
could practically hear his mind working on the other end of the phone, and she
wondered why she was even trying to get out of