Complete Indelible Love Series

by Cee, DW

  How, when I was the one who cheated on him, he found something to blame himself for, I couldn’t tell you. The undisputed fact that reared its ugly head—I was the reason this near-perfect man felt insecure.

  “You did nothing wrong. I take all the blame. I know if our roles were reversed, I wouldn’t take you back. And there’d be a hell of a lot of bitterness and anger in my heart. I love you and I’m so very sorry for having stepped away from the security you built for us. I’ve learned my lesson. Please don’t put any blame on yourself. Let’s work on making us stronger than the start.”

  “Agreed.” Max’s demeanor relaxed with his growing smile.

  “Can I bring out the last elephant that’s hiding on my nightstand?” I pointed to the birthday present that hadn’t been addressed yet.

  “That...” I had no idea what was coming next. “I seem to have a repulsion mechanism whenever I have a ring in my possession.” He laughed on his own. “The first girl I attempted to give a ring to, turned it flat down. The second girl threw it back in my face. I possess more diamonds than any man my age.” Now he was laughing even more. “Let’s table this until we are both better prepared.” I had no idea what that meant, and I was super disappointed, but I let it go.

  “When will you be back? I have reservations for us for dinner.”

  “I don’t think it’ll go later than 3-4:00.” He kissed me one last time and asked, “Are we good? Can I get in the shower and be ready before your brother kicks my ass for making him late to his own seminar?”

  “We are good.” And we really were. All this time of reconciling, and this was the first time I felt like the air was completely clear, the chalkboard was blank, the slate was clean!

  The partners’ meeting was an eye-opener for me and the partners. They all stared at me when I came into the meeting flanking Gimpy to the left, while Donovan flanked him to the right. There was no stupid man in that room. They all knew Gimpy was married to my grandmother and the cryptic writing was on the wall for everyone to surmise. I sat, listened, and kept my mouth shut the entire time.

  “What’d’ya think?” Donovan whispered. While the meeting was done, there were still partners in the conference room speaking with the man who signed their checks.

  “You partners get better lunches than we associates.” He laughed and tousled my perfectly coiffed hair. “Hey. I worked hard to look like Alicia Florrick today.” Donovan gave me his trademark what the hell look. “Good Wife?” After a brief while, he dismissed my entire statement.

  “You look better than Alicia, whoever the hell she is. All is good with Max now?”

  “All is freakin’ good, now.”

  “What will you do concerning the firm?”

  “Unsure...still need to talk with Gimpy.”

  Birthday dinner ended up a surprisingly larger affair than I originally planned. The two of us had a romantic dinner planned at my favorite, Le Bern, but something happened between the time Max left with Jake, and my lunch meeting with Donovan. This was the text I got right before the start of the meeting.

  Can you add two more to our reservation?

  Yes, I suppose. I’ll call and ask. Who are the other two?

  Your brother and the man sitting next to you right now.

  Gimpy?

  No. Maybe he’s next to Roland.

  DONOVAN???

  BINGO. CUL8R. <3 U!

  What the hell??? I died laughing from the last line of the text, and I looked over at Donovan and he gave me a what the hell look as well. I suppose I’d figure this out later.

  “So I’ve kind of made a decision in my mind about what to do concerning this move. I’d love all your opinions,” I addressed the three men at the table. “Max, I should probably talk to you about this first, but since Jake is here, I thought I’d bring it up and see where this leads. But, just know that your opinion weighs the most and I’m not demanding anything. I’m just throwing out what I’ve come up with after talking with Gimpy.”

  Before I go on with the rest of the dinner conversation, I should note that Jake didn’t go back home tonight. His seminar was a standing-room only kind of success and the Q&A went so long, Emily convinced him to stay another night and come home the next day. Gimpy had a dinner meeting with the senior, senior partners so he didn’t join us in this celebratory meal.

  “Speak. We are all ears.” My brother encouraged.

  “I’d like to stay put in LA until you,” I turned to Max so he’d know I was talking about him, “finish your last year of med school. It’s not fair for me to uproot you during your last year.”

  “Babe, I don’t mind.” Max put his hand over mine and squeezed it at the dinner table.

  “I know you don’t. I love how selfless you are. Laney was right when she said you upped Jake in that category.”

  “What???” Jake brought down his glass of wine to address me. “I thought I was Laney’s ideal man.”

  “Why the hell is Laney speaking so highly of either of you?” Donovan was even more irked than Jake.

  My boyfriend’s next statement was his payback to Donovan. “She only said that when I offered her my bike after she was devastated upon hearing you tell Kate to use her keys to your place. Do you remember that morning when you spent the night at Jake’s house with Laney?”

  “Yeah, I remember.”

  “You remember your conversation with Kate?”

  “I think so...”

  “You never saw Laney’s beautiful face completely crestfallen during your conversation? But then again, I don’t know anyone who could school his or her emotions as well as Laney. I’m not surprised you didn’t see the hurt in her eyes.”

  “Fuck.” Donovan sighed.

  “I spoke with her, today.”

  “She called you?” Donovan and I simultaneously asked.

  “She called to say hello, to wish me a happy birthday, and she sounded good. She sounded much better than the last time I spoke with her.”

  “When was that?” Donovan and I had the same question again.

  Max kind of did a bit of backtracking in his mind and answered, “She emailed sometime right after her visit to LA to see JR and the email read like a river of tears so I called her to make sure she was all right.”

  Damn, Shit, Fuck...what other words can I use right now? Freakin’ hell! I forgot about that almost kiss. Damn it all to hell. Do I tell Max about this one and go back to square negative 100? Or has Laney already squealed to Max and he’s been waiting for me to confess? Shit! Were there any more sins committed by little ole me that needed confessing? I couldn’t look Donovan’s way and I was sure he felt just as guilty.

  “What did Laney say when you talked to her after her LA visit?” I gingerly approached this subject.

  “Not much. When I asked her what was wrong, she told me she was homesick and she also told me about Michael and her decision to date him.”

  My sigh of relief was internally deafening. Laney was a good person not to take revenge upon me for all my ill-will and for toying with Donovan.

  “What did she say about Michael?” The normally confident Donovan Taylor was shrinking by the second. “What did she say to you today?”

  “She was with Michael today when she called and I got a chance to converse with him. He told me he was taking her away to his grandfather’s country home for a month. He was as psyched as any man would be, taking his girlfriend away for a month. He sounded like a good guy. In fact, I liked him immediately.”

  “I am so screwed.” Donovan finished off his drink.

  “You better get over there fast. He’s taking her away on Wednesday.”

  “What’s Wednesday?” Donovan asked.

  “Her birthday.” Now how my boyfriend knew this when I even forgot...he was truly a good man.

  “Ahem,” trying to break up the glum mood, I brought the attention back to my decision. “I’m staying in LA during the next year, but I’ll be working
in New York, a lot. But, Gimpy promised that the firm would send me back home every weekend to spend with you.”

  Max smiled and nodded, which made me think he approved.

  “Sometime during the year, I’ll know whether I am to go live in New York, or move to London. So, can you apply to residencies in both places?”

  “Of course I can. For you, anything, my precious gem.”

  With dinner done, I figured it was time to go home and have another round of birthday fun, but that wasn’t the case.

  “Davis, can you stay away from my sister for an hour and come have a drink with us?”

  Max looked to me for approval, of all things. I suggested, “By all means. It’s your birthday. Go enjoy yourself.”

  And that’s how I ended up alone, in bed, waiting for my boyfriend to come home from his men’s night out. I still didn’t get to ask him what had changed between him and Donovan, but I was just happy that all was perfect in my world right now.

  August 12, 2013 Where is Platform Nine and Three-qwaters?

  My life has been absolutely crazy! I am writing to you from London as this very moment, enjoying my time with the Davis brothers, Jake, Emily and the three kids. Laney and Donovan have been all over this part of Europe and will be here any day now. I have so much to tell you. Let me try and go back to my few days in New York.

  If you’ll remember, we all got to New York very early Sunday morning and ended the trip with a nice dinner for my boyfriend’s birthday in midtown on Monday. Donovan left for London on Tuesday and somehow, hijacked Laney to Amsterdam before she could go away with her boyfriend for a month. I don’t know any of the details as they’ve been pretty much gone the entire time. We will see them here, very soon.

  Max chose to use our birthday present from Donovan and booked us on a flight to London the day after Donovan left. He figured I could get a taste of the London office, he could help his brother get settled, and we could have a little vacation before our insane school and work schedule started up later this month.

  Jake and Gimpy went home Tuesday morning, and by the end of the week, a plane full of Reids and Davises invaded Belgravia. Jake and Emily + three, Gimpy and Gram, Mom, Dad, Nick and Doug, and the two Davis brothers hopped on Gimpy’s plane and are now here making life absolutely crazy in the flat.

  Let me explain a few things about the plane and the flat. Gimpy does not own his own plane, not really. Think of it as a timeshare. He owns a fraction of the plane and shares it with a lot of other people. He gets so many hours, miles, days (not quite sure how it’s settled) and he uses his allotment whenever he travels. This time, he transported so many people, he got his money’s worth! And Gram’s flat, which has been in her family forever, is no ordinary flat. It’s massive! It has FOUR levels, and let me tell you—the twins are going nuts over the staircases. All day long, they go up and down the stairs and wear themselves out. What great exercise. Maybe I should join them. In any case, the house has six bedrooms, a couple of kitchens, and some big entertaining rooms on every floor.

  Gram and Gimpy are in the master bedroom on the first floor. As Gram got older, she and my grandfather turned the ballroom on the main floor into a master bedroom. Jake’s family take up the entire fourth floor. They created a new bedroom in the large ballroom as their own (which technically makes this a 7-bedroom flat), the twins are staying in one of the bedrooms, Jake has an office / study in the other bedroom, and the baby stays with Jake and Emily for now. Jake and Emily quickly added a bathroom and a closet to their room. Actually, once they decided to move, Gram called her peeps and had them take care of that before the family got there. Mom and Dad are right below them on the third floor. Uncle Henry and Aunt Babs live in the bedroom next to theirs, though Uncle Henry had to go right back home and back to the hospital. With so many of us here, Uncle Henry would be back here in no time.

  Nick, Doug, Josh, Garret and Max all share the second floor ballroom as their bedroom. Basically, they all got air mattresses and a rolling rack and are calling this big room a bedroom. Laney was already on the second floor, so I just moved myself into her life for the short time I’d be here. I didn’t think she’d mind. Luckily, there are two bathrooms up on the second floor. What will be comical is where Donovan planned to stay. Technically, his qwaters (I know, I know...my English accent is bad) are near the Square Mile, in the financial district. This isn’t that far from Belgravia, but it’s not exactly walking distance. We are all wondering whether he will stay in the comforts of a high-end company apartment, or slum it with the other five single guys and buy himself an air mattress. He’ll probably need three rolling racks for all the clothes he has. We turned the ballroom on the third floor into an entertainment room and put a tele, some random couches gathered from around the house, along with the billiard table and grand piano that already existed in the room.

  Though the house was crazy, within a month’s time, most of us would be gone, and I figured it may seem almost empty once we leave. Before Laney left for Amsterdam, she was here to see construction on the fourth floor begin, but when she gets home, she will be in for the shock of her life. Laughter spilled out of my mouth.

  “Whatcha laughing about, Gem?”

  “The fact that Laney left LA to get away from all of us and voila...here we all are!”

  “I don’t think she left to get away from everyone...just one.”

  “She really liked him that much?” Now I felt bad. When Laney got back, it was time for a heart-to-heart.

  Max shrugged his shoulders. “Ask her.”

  Fast forward a few days, we all settled into our space and Max stayed in my room and would go back to the frat house next door when Laney returned. Our gang of six went sightseeing and pubbing (is that a word?) every day. Of course, I went into the office, but since I wasn’t full time at this office, yet, there wasn’t much for me to do.

  “Babe,” Max said while we were lounging around after I came back from work. “How about we give Em a break and take the twins out? She looks exhausted from the move, from trying to settle down in the new home, and Jake hasn’t been around as much as usual because he’s trying to get settled with the new hospitals and schools.”

  “Sure!” I agreed. “Where should we go and what should we do with the little buggers?”

  “I saw a great toy store the other day not too far from here. I believe both carseats have been installed, so why don’t we take the kids out for a ride in the car?”

  “Ellie, James?” They were once again going up and down four flights of steps. It was a wonder that neither had broken any bones nor bruised themselves yet. “You want to go out with Auntie Jane and Uncle Max?”

  They thought about it for a little bit, they looked at each other, and then they nodded yes. These two were a laugh-and-a-half. It’s not as though they fully understood what I said. I didn’t know why they looked at each other, and what silent communication happened in the split second before looking at one another and nodding yes. Who understood this world of twins?

  Max got permission from Emily for us to take them out and we strapped them into their carseats and proceed a couple miles to the world of Hamleys. The kids were in awe from the moment we stepped into this marvelous store. James and Ellie were both pointing at every toy that caught their fancy, and each sound that made their heads turn.

  James wanted to get down to a magnetic board that held these spinning cogs. They were called Clever Cogs and five different-sized cogs moved in various ways and made unique sounds without breaking apart. At first, James and Ellie stood behind the older children and watched in wonder. Soon, I saw both kids inching closer to the board to touch the cogs and to move them around in different formations as they saw the other kids doing. Quite a few kids bumped one another to get closer. The twins were the youngest ones there so I was about to jump in and pull them out of the fray when Max stopped me.

  “Let’s see what happens. I don’t think James and Ellie are in any dange
r.”

  As soon as Max finished his words, the twins methodically pushed their way to the front of the board, with James leading, holding his sister’s hand, and soon they were front and center. I cringed when I saw them touching the cogs that had been touched by so many little booger hands. As soon as they were done looking, I’d have to take them to the restroom, wash their hands, then sanitize them again! They were having a fantastic time playing with the cogs but I just couldn’t stand the possibility of them getting hurt by the older kids, and also the possibility of them contracting the staph disease with so many germs in this toy store.

  Using my own bit of cleverness, I picked up two boxes of cogs and a magnetic white board and lured the twins with the promise of their own set. After thoroughly cleaning their hands, Max and I bought them a few other items and put them back in their car seats.