Read Online Obsessed With You by Jennifer Ransom - Free Book Online

If he
hadn’t made business his priority, Cathy might still be there with
him. They had a big struggle to get through over the woman who was
calling her, but he believed he would have gotten to the bottom of
that. His leaving that morning made it impossible for anything to be
worked out.
    His mother cried when he called
her to tell her the wedding was called off. She knew him better than
anyone, and knew he had waited to get married until he found the
right person. When she asked him what happened he told her the truth.
She was too straightforward of a person to accept anything else. He
respected her too much to lie to her about it. His father, too. His
parents had given him the gift of character, and it didn’t matter
how much money he made or didn’t make, his character was all that
mattered.
    He called all of his friends and
family members who were going to attend the wedding and told them the
news. It was painful and difficult to avoid their questions. But he
did it. He also cancelled the trip to Jamaica, which pained him more
than anything. Aaron was a seasoned traveler, but Cathy was not and
she had been excited about going to Jamaica.
    After he’d done his job,
canceling everything he was responsible for, Aaron took off the rest
of the week—the week before the wedding—and the following week,
which would have been his honeymoon.
    The house he had bought was empty
and vast, but he had nowhere else to stay. It seemed ostentatious to
him now, a big status symbol just because he had the money. He
wondered if Cathy would have been happy there in the long term. It
was a beautiful house designed in his favorite style, but was it
Cathy’s favorite style? Had he pushed the house on her? He wasn’t
sure now.
    On what would have been their
wedding day, Aaron texted Cathy. She didn’t respond back to him and
that didn’t surprise him, though it hurt him to his core. He drank
scotch until he passed out. The rest of that honeymoon week was
pretty much a blur to him. He slept, he drank, he ordered take-out,
he drank, and he slept.
    When he returned to work at the
end of October, he was aggravated to see Halloween decorations on the
secretary’s desks and hanging in the hallway. He was further
irritated to see the annual ceramic pumpkin full of candy on Marsha’s
desk as he passed by. Marsha smiled at him when she saw him walking
her way, but he bypassed her without eye contact. He felt bad about
that later.
    Aaron found on his return to the
office that he didn’t care about it anymore. He only cared about
one thing, and that was Cathy. The irony wasn’t lost on him when he
cancelled meetings with clients because he wasn’t up for them. He
should have rescheduled the golf game. For his relationship’s sake.
For the love of his life.
    Aaron muddled through his days at
the office. Marsha was especially attentive, fussing over him
constantly until he couldn’t take it anymore. One day, she reached
to straighten his tie before a meeting, something she had done in the
past, and he knocked her hand away. The look of hurt in her eyes
stayed with him for a while.
    The only client Aaron cared about
was Mrs. Davidson, and it wasn’t because he wanted her to stay with
him after he formed his own company. It was because he knew she was a
good person who relied on him and his expertise. He didn’t want to
let her down.
    One evening at dinner, he opened
up to her about his cancelled wedding. She had been too kind to ask
him about it, but she listened intently as he talked. He was
completely honest with her about everything.
    “ And you have no idea who could
have set you up like that?” Mrs. Davidson asked. “An old
girlfriend, perhaps?”
    “ I’m on good terms with all
of my girlfriends,” Aaron said. “At least I think I am. But the
killer is that photo with the tie in it. I don’t know how that
happened.”
    “ That has me stumped, too,”
she said. “Who all knew about the tie?”
    “ I guess a lot of people. I