by Belle Zimet
“Get me the hell out of here.” She said without missing a beat and walking briskly down the steps with him following her, questioningly. “There is no way I’m getting in her car right now.”
“What-” He started.
She threw her hand up. “Less talk, more walk.”
When they were safely in his car and driving through the gates she let out a sigh of relief and let her head fall back heavily against the headrest.
“Where do you want to go?” He asked carefully.
“I have no idea,” she told him as she attempted deep breaths. “At your pleasure.”
He seemed to instinctively know that it would be best to leave her alone until she had collected herself and he drove in silence. She saw that he was pulling up to his house and she turned to look at him.
“I’m not sleeping with you, I have no idea who to believe and I am thoroughly distrustful in general right now.” She told him bluntly.
“For lack of a better suggestion I drove here,” he turned to study her. “If you are telling me that you don’t feel safe with me, then we can go elsewhere. I have no interest in evoking terror from you or anyone else.”
She shook her head and sighed. “No, it’s fine. I don’t think you’re going to hatchet me at your house.”
“Well, I’m relieved.” He told her.
“Don’t get too comfortable,” she told him pointedly. “I still don’t know what to believe and the reason I left with you is because there is freakier shit going on at my house than being with you.”
“I’ll take it…I guess.” He shrugged. “Care to tell me about said ‘freaky shit’?”
“So you can just disbelieve me and think I’m insane?” She said rhetorically. “I’ll pass, thanks.”
“Ahhhh, the Mercedes phantom again, is it?”
In answer she exited the car and slammed the door and walked with him trailing behind her to the door. He let her in and walked directly to the kitchen and offered her some wine.
“Yes.” She almost yelled. She hadn’t realized she was shaking until she had the glass in hand and the ruby red liquid quaked with the movement of her hands.
“Jesus, what happened to you?” He asked with clear concern etching his face.
“Forget what happened with me. What happened with you and Mercedes? No lying.” She knew she was being an erratic diva, but had lost all executive function, and was helpless to the torrent of demands gurgling from her.
He leaned back against the couch. “Nothing, Ella. I told you that Mercedes came on to me and I turned her down, and the night in question is the night that happened.”
“Why is Alexa so sure you guys had sex?” She questioned suspiciously.
“She misunderstood, that’s the only explanation.” He said with a shrug. “I went over there and Mercedes was upset about a fight she was having with Nick and she was drunk before I even arrived. She was an emotional mess, and it was a state I’d never seen her in before. Before I could even parse her behavior she threw off her robe and attacked me.”
“Nude?” Ella said as she coughed up a little wine.
“Yes, nude. And with such abandon that it was clear that I could have been the mailman or any other suitably equipped male.” He looked directly into Ella’s eyes. “I wasn’t interested in being her vessel to forget that night, so after a few ham handed kisses, I apologized and left.”
“She was naked and throwing herself on you and you just left?” She asked incredulously.
“We’ve gone over this. I don’t let my erections make my decisions for me. If anyone would know that, you would. I wanted you so unbelievably badly when you stripped in the hotel room, but it wasn’t the right time and I didn’t give into it.”
“Look, I know you’re a gentlemen, but this was a girl you had some feelings for, an amazingly beautiful girl who was coming on a lot more strongly than I did. You were younger, you may have had less control.” She argued.
“I did not have sex with her.” He told her directly. “I most certainly wouldn’t have forgotten, if that is what you’re inanely trying to get at.”
“Look, she was beautiful and she looked perfect naked-” she saw his eyebrows rise. “Never mind.”
“I didn’t sleep with her, Ella. You can chose to believe it or not.” He told her with sharp annoyance tingeing his tense voice. “I like Alexa, but she is mistaken here. Unless Mercedes was so drunk that she was babbling incoherently.”
“She had a sex cheat sheet.” She blurted out.
“I’m sorry, what?” He asked incredulously.
She explained it quickly and told him that there were two separate partners listed with his initial. He listened with an impassive expression.
“Neither of them was me.” He said simply. “Before you ask, I don’t know who they were. Could have been random men, I suppose.”
“Can you at least see why I’m suspicious?”
“Yes, I absolutely can. I would be suspicious too.” He stroked her arm. “I understand if you don't believe me, we hardly know each other.”
Without warning she flew into his arms and began sobbing. It was as though the dam holding in the stress and fear that had built in her during her short time at the mansion had burst, and she enveloped both of them with potent grief. She cried incoherent stories on his chest, and he soothingly stroked her hair and interjected appropriate words of sympathy and encouragement wherever he could.
After what seemed like an unquantifiable amount of emotion and time spent cuddling and crying he carried her gently into the bedroom and took off her pants and tucked her into bed. He slipped into bed next to her and held her until she fell into an exhausted sleep.
She woke in surprise to see that it was morning, and sighed in relief at her impromptu respite. It had been needed more than she could have imagined. She turned over and saw that Bryan was not in bed and her nose caught tantalizing smells from the kitchen. She slipped her jeans on and walked curiously into the kitchen, where Bryan was making coffee and had mugs out in preparation. He turned to her and smiled.
She walked over and put her arms around him and buried her head in his chest. “Thank you so much.”
He wrapped his arms around her in kind. “It was so unbelievably my pleasure.”
She lingered a bit and then pulled away and craned her neck to see if the coffee was ready yet. He laughed and shooed her over to some stools at the counter where she dutifully sat and waited for her gasoline. He brought it to her where she fought guzzling it.
He sat next to her and turned to face her. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on at your place, but you were wound so tight last night that I don’t know how you didn’t snap sooner.”
“I’ll be alright.” She told him unconvincingly.
“You can stay here.” He told her.
She looked at him in surprise. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Don’t be alarmed, I’m not trying to rush the relationship. I’m just trying to offer someone whom I’ve come to care about a reprieve from current stresses.” He told her quickly.
“I appreciate that so much, and it is actually very tempting,” She said as she leaned forward and kissed his cheek. “But I can’t run from my problems. It’s running out on my family. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I need to at least try to stick it out.”
“Well, the offer stands.” He told her as he got up with his mug. “I’m going to take a shower. Care to join?”
She smiled. “I need to finish my coffee.”
“Of course,” he told her with a smile as he sauntered out of the kitchen.
She took her cup and walked over to the couch, where she perched with her phone, checking in with the world she’d forgotten overnight.
A text came in from Troy which briefly stated that he and Alexa had decided to go out of town for a few days for a needed breather, and that he thought some time apart from Ella was probably a good idea.
Ella sighed and padded into the kitc
hen for another cup. Certainly she was happy to have the option to go back to the house if she wanted to without the added stress of having to see Troy. She knew she needed extra time to process all the new info about Troy, and consequently had no desire to see and interact with him.
Bryan walked in shortly and kissed her on the cheek. “You look rather deep in thought.”
She nodded and smiled up at him. “Yes, Troy texted and said he and Alexa are going out of town. It’s good, because I need a break from him.”
“Sounds like you need a break from that house in general, Ella.” He held her face tenderly between his hands. “I would like it if you stayed here.”
“I don’t feel right about it. I do have a lot of work to do there, and without Troy and his drama in the way, I may actually make some headway.” She said with a wry smile.
“Hmm, what do you say to some company?” He proposed.
“Like you stay there with me?” She asked, equal parts surprised and excited.
“Yes, and help you if need be.”
She leaned forward and kissed his chest, which she was level with. “No offense, but you are pretty much the ultimate distraction.”
“I can get down to business and fight off your advances if I need to.” He told her as he raised his eyebrows. “Plus, you can’t tell me that someone to share your bed in a purportedly haunted house would be an unwelcome change.”
“Ahhh, yes, good point. Plus the added benefit of possibly turning you into a believer.” She smiled slyly. “Offer accepted.”
“Don’t think that I’ll hear a bump in the night and be ready to join the Ghostbusters, honey.” He told her, staring down and booping her nose.
“Ha! It’s a little more overt than that. You’re lucky if you only hear bump in the night.” She warned him knowingly.
“Alright, let me pack a bag and let’s do this.” He kissed her and sauntered off towards the bedroom. They were on their way to her haunted mansion within twenty minutes.
Chapter 16
The house didn’t look overly foreboding while splashed in vibrant sunlight, especially now that Troy had tamed the previously wild front yard, but Ella knew better, though she did secretly fear as well as hope that Mercedes didn’t do anything while Bryan was present. As tempting as it would be to see the ghostly revelation dawn on Bryan’s face, she decided she would rather Mercedes just stay dormant.
Ella was pleased to see that Troy’s car was gone and that the house was indeed empty. As they walked in Bryan immediately headed for the downstairs spare bedroom where she had been staying when he was last here.
“I’m in Mercedes’ room again.” She told him to halt his progress.
He turned and started for the stairs. “Why would you move there?”
She gave him a knowing look. “The room downstairs mysteriously flooded, forcing me upstairs.”
“Are you blaming that on Mercedes?”
“Yes, actually.” She said sticking her tongue out at him.
He shook his head and they climbed the rest of the way. The room was empty and quiet when they walked in and she noticed that he paused when he saw the bed and stared at it.
“It’s a new mattress.” She told him quickly.
“I’m sure. It’s just…eerie and sad.” He put his head down for a second and she approached him and gave him a quick, reassuring squeeze.
“I haven’t been in this room since before she died, and it doesn’t look very different.” He explained, his voice cracking.
“Yeah, I’ve been working on it, but it’s been slow going. It took a day just to clean out her closet.” She said as she massaged his shoulders from behind.
“She was definitely a clothes horse. One of her more earthly qualities, I always said.” He smiled sadly. “But, I digress. Let’s get to work.”
“Yeah, what sort of manual labor would you prefer?” She asked with a laugh.
“Putting together a website for the B&B?”
“Ha! Nice try. While that would actually be quite helpful and nice of you, I don’t think Troy would be happy with that.” She shrugged. “I think you mentioned that you’re a decent photographer, perhaps you could take photos of the view and of the house from good vantage points for the website.”
“That sounds great.”
She nodded and handed him her camera, before turning to get to work on the set of drawers. She heard him walk downstairs and close the front door behind him.
She would have loved to work beside him, but felt that it would have been a little cruel to have him help her pack up his murdered friend’s things.
She mundanely packed up Mercedes’ camisoles and under things and inevitably got to her lingerie drawer. It was rather full of pretty provocative pieces, and Ella was a bit surprised that Mercedes had kept them so accessible in her parent’s house. They had for sure seen them, as the investigating team had picked through the entire room and her parents had to either pack everything up or put it away again. Clearly they had been in such denial that they went through the effort of refolding everything as if it had never been touched.
Ella tried not to look at every piece, but some were too scandalous or beautiful to not take in briefly as she packed them into a box. When she was done with that drawer she made a quick restroom break and was alarmed to see that everything was mysteriously piled back in the drawer unceremoniously. She sighed and looked out the window and saw that Bryan was almost at the gate busily snapping pictures, and the distance meant that there was no way that she could blame it on him. She would have known it not to be true anyhow as she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.
Without looking around the room any further she marched downstairs and outside and jogged to join Bryan, who spotted her and started taking pictures of her in full trot, even as she waved her finger at him in deterrence.
She ran up and lightly punched him in the arm. “I’m sure those mid-run pictures will be supremely attractive.”
“It’s your punishment for staring out the window at me the entire time I was working in the hot sun taking these pictures.” He told her as he continued to snap.
“I only looked out here for two seconds, and you weren’t even facing me.” She informed him with her hands on her hips.
“Suuuure. I saw you, lazing by the window watching me work.” He accused jokingly.
“It wasn’t me, Bryan. I was working the whole time.” She told him seriously.
“We’ll settle this when we look at the pictures.” He told her stubbornly. Clearly the ghostly revelation would be a long time in coming. “I think I’m done here.”
“How are you at painting? The dining room needs to be done.” She asked with a small smile.
“I am as excellent at is as I am everything else.” He told her.
“OK, boy genius, let’s paint the dining room.” They slowly walked to the house with arms around one another and the rest of the day went by uneventfully as they painted side by side in the kitchen. Of course, his painting was concise and she was nonplussed to see that he’d clearly had experience with painting and knew just what he was doing.
He paused and looked at her after noticing she’d stopped and was staring at him. “Yes, dear?”
“Is there anything you can’t do?”
“Well, I’m not a very good dancer,” he told her in mock seriousness. “I thought you should know before we continued on.”
“You’re probably amazing at dancing.” She told him accusingly. He shrugged noncommittally, before turning back to his meticulously painted wall.
The rest of the day went by blissfully uneventfully. They had finished painting the dining room as it got dark out. They sat in front of the fire waiting for their pizza to be delivered as Bryan hunched over his laptop on the living room table pulling up the pictures he’d taken earlier.
Ella sat with great anticipation behind him with her head peeking around his shoulder. She was pleased to see that all the back of the house photos that he
’d taken looked great.
“Alright, you lazing minx, we’ll just see about this,” he said with a smile as he got to the pictures he’d taken by the gate. “Ha!” He boomed as he pointed to the unmistakable figure of a woman far off in the window, who seemed to just be staring in one position for at least thirty pictures.
“Yeah, it’s a woman, but it isn’t me.” She stated solemnly.
He stared at her face to verify authenticity and then looked back at the pictures. “I suppose it could be a trick of light.”
She held her comments but knew that they could both clearly see that it was a human form.
“Oh my,” he said under his breath as they got to the first picture of Ella emerging from the house. The form stayed just where it had been and then as the pictures were of Ella closing in on Bryan the form moved from the hall window into standing in Mercedes’ bedroom atrium window. This time, right in the middle of the large space with arms down, rather than leaning against the side of the window as she had been before.
“We are not submitting these to any ghost shows for analysis,” she told him. “Will you please look at the pictures of me? I look like a slack jawed, drugged Baywatch reject.” She said as she took in the glorious sight of her mid-run with her finger up in a halt order and her face severe looking.
He laughed heartily and hugged her before again turning to pour over the photos in an attempt to find a suitable explanation.
“There were no workers in the house?”
“No.”