Absolution

“Your two thirty is here.” Tara looked up from her big bowl of frothing soap whip. Her assistant, Anna, stood gracefully in the doorway of her shop room.

“I didn’t realize I had a two thirty,” Tara replied. She turned the mixer off and tapped it on the side of the bowl as the excess soap plopped to the bowl.

“I told you about it yesterday. A meeting for a new skin product…” Anna opened the notebook in her hands and skimmed through the appointment book. “Yes, right here. James Walker. Two thirty. Leg product.”

Anna walked over to her and showed her the note. There it was. It must have slipped her mind.

“Go ahead and show him to my office. I’ll be there in a few.” Anna smiled then left.

Tara wiped her brow and realized her skin had turned cold. She brought her hand down and saw the slight tremors raking through her fingers. Her nerves were jumping through her body and her throat became dry. It wasn’t the appointment that had brought this on. She had met with hundreds of potential buyers and investors. It was the name of the appointment. James Walker. It couldn’t be the same James Walker she had lived next to when she was younger. The James Walker she grew up with. The James Walker that broke her heart.

They had been so close growing up. Every summer they would go to the lake and lay in the grass for days on end. She would stare at the sky and he would draw in his notebook. They would talk about everything, and nothing. It was Heaven. That was until he had gone away to football camp the summer before their freshman year of high school. When he came back, he was no longer her best friend. He had changed, but not just physically, which he had. He had grown a foot in just two months and had muscles in places he never had before. But he also had new friends. Popular ones. Ones that would never glance in Tara’s direction except to make fun of her weight. Weight had always been a struggle for Tara growing up. Now, she managed it better. She had lost a hundred pounds since high school. It had been hard work, but she had done it. Hard work wasn’t something she shied away from. She didn’t build a multi-million dollar company making soap and bath products by being afraid of hard work.

She looked around at the stacks of Moleskin notebooks she used for recipes, appointments, and ideas. She claimed it was because they were the best. Not only did the ink not bleed, and the paper not rip when erasing, but it was the brand he used. He never went anywhere without his little black book. Tara knew that the chubby girl inside still loved James Walker. She also knew that she still hated him for throwing her aside, for standing there while his “friends” laughed at her throughout high school. He became prom king, and she faded into nothing. Oh, what she would give to put James Walker in his place.

But she will never see that James Walker again. And this James Walker was waiting in her office.

Her bowl of whipped soap now ruined, she walked to the sink to wash her hands. She hated wasting product. She supposed she could blame James for it. That sounded reasonable. She let out a giggle and then quickly fixed her dark brown hair and mascara. She may never be beautiful, but she could be presentable. She walked to her office that was surrounded with glass windows. It made her feel less confined when she was doing the monthly sales reports and ordering. But she paused before she could get there. Looking through the glass, she could see her appointment waiting for her. It was him. The James Walker. How was this possible?

Tara quickly dodged into the bathroom to her right. Her hands were shaking as they gripped the porcelain sink. She looked in the mirror. She was certainly no longer the chubby kid from high school. She was a millionaire. Independent and strong. She was not going to let James do this to her. She wanted revenge, and now she would get it.

“You can do this, Tara,” she told herself. The chubby girl inside her smiled.

She took a deep breath, straightened out her black top, and smiled.

She walked from the bathroom straight to her office. James quickly stood when she entered. He was even taller since high school, well over six feet. His brown hair was short showing every feature his handsome face had to offer. Sculpted nose, chiseled jaw. He really was a piece of art all to himself. She could see he still had muscles even under his white button-down shirt and black pants. And his blue eyes still dazzled.

“Hi, I’m James Walker.” He held out his hand, and Tara realized he didn’t recognize her. She shook his hand waiting for him to show some sign, but he didn’t. She caught his eyes falling down her body before quickly snapping back up, but it was no different than any other man had done.

“Anna Williams,” she said, but still no sign of recognition.

Anger swept through her. She knew she didn’t look like she had in high school, but to completely forget her! Not even a name?! She dropped his hand and walked around her desk to sit in her over-sized leather chair.

“I’ll go ahead and dive right in.” James bent over to his briefcase and pulled out a stack of papers. “I want you to invest in my product.” He began laying the papers out in front of Tara. Drawings and sketches that she knew he had done himself. She could spot his artwork from anywhere. A sense of longing washed over her. He made his way to her side of the desk and leaned over her with one arm resting on the mahogany wood. He was so close to her she could touch him. His cologne washed over her. His voice tickled her ears. “What I want to create are exoskeleton bionic legs. They are lightweight, can be hidden under clothing, and more importantly, can allow paraplegics to walk again.”

“Hold on,” Tara said, as she came to her senses. He was intoxicating being this close to her. “I make soap. Bath products. Things that you find in a mall. I don’t make medical equipment.”

“No, but you do donate to numerous charities including those for advancement in medical science. I’m asking for twenty thousand dollars to make the prototype. I believe once they are working, the buyers will come pouring in.”

Tara was floored. The vengeful chubby girl inside laughed her evil laugh.

“You have to be kidding me?” Tara said. “You want me to give you twenty thousand dollars for an idea that you have yet to test?”

“It will work.”

“Because a shooting star told you so?” James took a step back before walking back around the desk.

“My invention will work.”

“Your invention is an idea at best. Did you really think you could just walk in here and ask for money on a whim?” James went to say something, but Tara cut him off. “I know guys like you. Quarterback of the football team. Prom king. The most popular guy in school. You bullied anyone and everyone you deemed lesser than yourself. You think you’re a god among us mere mortals, and that everything will simply fall into your lap. I have news for you, buddy. Things don’t just happen because you wish it. You have walked in here with no business plan, no fact sheets, no data to even support that if you build this contraption, it will even work or sell. Don’t waste my time with drawings.”

Tara felt good. She felt so vindicated she could smile. It took everything in her not to. Telling him off felt even better than she had imagined. She watched as James picked up his drawings from her desk and put them back in his briefcase.

“I’m sorry I wasted your time,” he said. “But my idea will work. It must. And you’re right. I was all those things. And more. I was a terrible person who did terrible things. I was so terrible I convinced my little brother to go to a frat party with me in college. We drank all night. And then I got behind the wheel with my brother in the passenger seat and drove us into a light pole. Maybe I am a god because I barely had a scratch on me. But I found out that night that my little brother wasn’t. He’s now a paraplegic, and I did that to him. These legs will only give him back a fraction of what I took. But at least it will be something.”

Tara looked away. She had always liked his brother Brian. She looked back at James. “That’s a sad story, but my answer is no.”

Tara watched him walk out of her office. He looked shorter walking away. The vengeful chubby girl inside had grown silent. Tara stood up to close her door. She looked down at the seat James had been in and saw, fallen underneath it, was a little black book. She picked it up and opened it. The pages still held their ink. She flipped through it until she came across a page that took her breath away. Staring back at her was a chubby girl. She recognized that girl instantly. It was like staring at a mirror. He had to have drawn it in high school. There was a small scar above the lip where her braces had cut it. She didn’t get that scar until her sophomore year in high school.

A tear fell down her cheek as she closed the book.

***

James walked back to his hotel. He felt utterly defeated. Tara was his last hope. He thought maybe if she recognized him, she would give him the loan. Or maybe she did and that’s why she said no. He trekked up to the room and shut the door behind him. He looked down at his phone. His inbox was full of texts and voicemail from his brother asking how the meeting went. He didn’t have the heart to tell him he had failed… again. No one would give him a loan. Not with his DUI and track record. He failed his brother. He failed himself.

A knock on the door startled him and he turned to go see who it was. Probably room service with the wrong room again. He opened it to a bike messenger standing in front of him.

“James Walker?” the messenger asked.

“Yes.”

“A package for you.”

James took it then closed the door. He sat at the foot of the bed and opened the box. In it was his journal. He must have left it at the meeting. He took it out and tossed the box on the bed. In doing so, he ended up dropping the journal.

James let out a curse as he bent down to get it but realized there was something in it. He opened the journal to see a white envelope sitting between the pages. It was Tara’s page. He had been so awful to her in high school. He had let his friends convince him she wasn’t good enough, but she had always been good enough. He always loved her. Seeing her again brought back every feeling he had for her. She looked great now and still as beautiful as she was then.

He opened the envelope and pulled out the note. He recognized Tara’s handwriting instantly.

For Brian.

Behind the letter was a check for twenty thousand dollars.