The Perfect Love Storm

by Anna Black

  “Madison, baby, what are you asking?”

  “How much was I worth?”

  “Madison, please, that has absolutely—”

  “How much, dammit!” she yelled.

  He let out a sigh. “Three million.” He left out the bonus his dad had added.

  “At least I wasn’t cheap,” she sneered. “Get out, Chase. Go and collect your money. Enjoy it, because I’m done with you. For the record, I was fine. I was fine with being single. You and your brothers treated me like a charity case. No, they pimped me out to you, like I’m worthless. Did it ever occur to you that you may not have fallen for me, Chase? Did they consider that you’d break my heart in the process of you becoming a reformed player?” She laughed bitterly and shook her head. “Just leave, Chase. I don’t have anything else to say to you.”

  She turned and headed up the stairs. He called out for her, but she kept going.

  * * *

  Chase’s eyes burned with tears. He was hurt. Heartache was a new emotion for him, something he’d never experienced before, and it hurt like a bitch. He left Madison’s and drove straight to Lance’s.

  “Chase,” his oldest brother said when he opened the door and let him in.

  “Don’t fucking ‘Chase’ me. How could y’all pick Madison? Huh? Why her?” He paced. “I’ve lost her, you know? She’s never going to speak to me again.”

  “Chase, she’s just upset. She loves you. Give it time; this will blow over.”

  “Fuck that, man. I mean, that’s all you got for me? I tried to tell you guys after I started feeling her that my feelings were sincere, but all of you, even Dad, acted as if I were a joke. My life was fine the way it was. I was happy. I didn’t have to care about who or what, and now, the first woman I love suddenly fucking hates my guts, L! She never wants to see me again.”

  Chase fell back on the couch and sobbed. He put his face in his hands and cried.

  Lance came over and hugged his baby brother. “We’ll help you get her back,” he said in a low voice.

  “I love her, L. Madison is my baby, my heart. I’ve never loved a woman in all my life. If I don’t get her back . . .” He sobbed.

  “Chase, you will get her back. I’m so sorry. I know we went about it all wrong, but we thought we were doing what was best. We thought we were helping you.”

  “Best for who? Now that I’ve given my heart to someone for the first time, just like that, it’s over. Do you have any idea what this feels like?”

  “No, little brother, I don’t. I’m so sorry for what I’ve done to you and Madison, but I swear I’m going to do my best to make things right.”

  * * *

  “Is he all right?” Gina asked in the darkness.

  “No.”

  “I can’t believe what y’all did, Lance. What in the hell were you guys thinking?”

  “We were thinking of our baby brother.”

  “And apparently not thinking of Madison.”

  “Gina, please, I feel horrible enough.”

  “And you should. If they don’t get back together, Lance, both of them are going to be messed up for a while. Chase loves that woman, and this is his first heartbreak. Y’all think he was bad before this. If y’all don’t fix it, he’s going to be worse than he was before Madison.”

  Lance processed what his wife said. He prayed he could help to get them back together because he was afraid she was right.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  The next morning, Madison woke up and looked around her room. She looked down at her clothes and realized that the night before wasn’t a dream. She and Chase were truly over and done. He had gone out with her on a $3-million wager, and her eyes welled up all over again. She didn’t know how she was going to make it through a day without him because she had fallen so deeply in love with Chase, she felt she couldn’t breathe without him, and she was experiencing love loss all over again. She went to the bathroom to relieve her bladder; then she turned on her shower. She slowly peeled off her clothes, and it felt weird, even like make-believe because she’d never ever imagined herself to be played like that. She felt like a fool, like she was so worthless that the Storms would play such a game like that with her heart.

  After she showered, she went down and got a glass of orange juice to coat her throat, because it felt dry and scratchy. She gazed out her window and looked at the gorgeous lake view and her eyes welled up. She trusted them; she trusted them all, and they’d do that to her. “Sons of bitches,” she said and put her glass down. She went for a tissue and dried her eyes. “Just wait until Hope Gardener hears about this one,” she cried. “Why would you not tell me, Chase? I thought we were close, and I thought-I thought-I thought,” she continued to sob. “I’m going to be the laughingstock of East Texas,” she said, then blew her nose.

  She got herself together and then went to open the door to get her paper. When she opened the door, she was surprised to see Chase sitting in one of the wicker chairs. He had on the same clothes he wore the night before, and she wondered how long he had been out there on her porch.

  “Chase?” she whispered.

  He looked up and noted that he looked just as horrible as she did. It looked as if he slept right there on her porch, but she didn’t have any compassion for his ass after what he had done to her.

  “Can I please come inside and talk to you?”

  “We said all there was to say last night,” she reminded him.

  “No, we didn’t, Madison. This just can’t be it for us.” He stood up from the chair and moved toward her. “I can’t accept that we’re over. Don’t you know how much I love you? Don’t you love me?”

  “Of course, I do, Chase, but that doesn’t mean shit right now. You played me,” she shouted.

  “Baby, I didn’t play you. I was all in, I swear. It started off with the bet for us to meet, Madison, but after our very first date, Madison, the bet didn’t mean anything, and I wish you’d stop being so stubborn and forgive me, and let’s get back to being who we are,” he said.

  “And who are we, Chase? What are we? We are a sham,” she spat and threw her paper at him. “Don’t you get what you Storms did to me is belittling and more than that, childish? If you hadn’t agreed to do it and dated me on your own, I’d let it go, but you went along with them, Chase, and we are over. Done. I trusted you, and you played me for a fool!” she cried.

  “No,” he protested. “We are not ending it this way, Madison, and you can’t stand here and act as if what we had wasn’t real, so stop being so stubborn and forgive me. I’m so sorry for how this all started, but I’m not sorry that we turned out like this. I love you, Madison. I’ve never been in love with a woman in my life until you,” he cried.

  “We’re a big fat joke,” she continued.

  “No, baby, no!” he shouted.

  “It was a fucking bet, now get off my damn porch, Chase Storm, before I call Tyler’s finest to come and escort you off,” she barked. She was too angry and disappointed with him at the moment, and there was nothing he could say right then to make her feel better. She didn’t want to see him or be near him.

  “Call them. I don’t care, Madison, because without you, I’m broken, so call them!” he yelled. “Let them come and take me in because if I can’t fix this and make things right, my world is over anyway,” he declared.

  She looked at him and wanted to reach out and touch him. She wanted to say, okay, I accept your apology, but she wasn’t going to be nobody’s fool, so she stormed into the house and went for the phone. She came back to the porch to let him know she was for real. “I’m not playing games with you, Chase. Please leave me alone right now. I can’t talk to you, and I can’t hear you right now, and I need you to leave.”

  “No, I’m not leaving until you tell me that you forgive me and that you still love and want to marry me and that we can work this out!” he fired back.

  “Are you fucking kidding me right now?” she yelled back. Just then, before she called the law, a ca
r pulled up. It was Lance, Travis, and Damon. They all quickly got out and headed up to the porch. She figured a neighbor must have called because of the commotion she and Chase were causing. Their town was big but small, and everyone knew who the Storms were.

  “Get your brother off my damn porch,” Madison hissed.

  “Come on, Chase, let’s go,” Lance said.

  “No, I’m not leaving until we fix this,” Chase disputed.

  “Get him off my porch before I call the law,” Madison threatened.

  “Madison, that’s not necessary. We got him, and we all owe you a sincere apology,” Travis said.

  “Don’t,” she barked. “I don’t want to hear an apology. I had so much respect for you all, and this is what y’all do. I mean, if this is what the Storm men are about, I’m glad I dodged this bullet,” Madison spat gesturing to Chase.

  “Listen, Madison, we honestly meant no harm. We were trying to do something good, for you both, but we just didn’t think of the consequences if things didn’t work out. We just stupidly never factored that in, but believe me, Chase told us several times that he was in love with you. He told us that all bets were off, I swear, but we’re the ones who gave him a hard time,” Damon tried to say.

  “That’s right, Madison, it was us,” Travis said.

  “Madison, believe me, we had only good intentions for you and Chase,” Lance spoke up. “And we are so sorry. You and Chase belong together. Please don’t hold it against Chase. He loves you, Madison, and everyone knows it. Please don’t let what we did ruin things for you two. We can forget about the six million and put this all behind us,” Lance said.

  Madison’s head tilted to the left, and her eyes widened like saucers. “Six million? Chase, you told me three. What is he talking about?”

  “Oh shit,” Damon said.

  “Baby, please, that’s not important.”

  “No!” she yelled. “It’s all out in the open now. How in the hell did three mil turn into six mil in less than twelve hours?” she demanded. They all were stone-faced.

  “You lied to me again, Chase? Was the marriage double or nothing?” she said trying to piece things together. She was no idiot.

  “No, nothing like that,” Chase said.

  “Listen, Madison—” Lance started.

  “No, I want to hear this from Chase. My future husband, the man that loves me so much,” she spat and folded her arms across her chest.

  “My dad matched the three million if we were to get married,” Chase said in a nervous rush. The look of defeat on his face showed Madison that he was well aware that that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

  She was done with him and his entire family. “Get off my damn porch and please don’t ever come back.” She went inside and slammed the door so loud it sounded like a gun going off. She listened to Chase call out for her and beg for her to come back while he banged on her door. She knew his brothers had to physically drag him out to the car because she heard the rumble of their actions from her stairs where she sat for what seemed like hours. She felt numb all over and couldn’t feel anything. She didn’t want to cry or want to feel anything. She wasn’t a drinking woman, not the hard stuff anyway. She had it for guests, but she went for the vodka. By two in the afternoon, she was sloppy drunk and in her worst moment. Her phone was in the lake because she got tired of Chase calling back to back. Sloppy drunk, she was on her living room floor when she heard keys. The only person it could be was her mother, so she shut her eyes real tight and thanked God. Her momma had finally come to comfort her. As soon as Martha joined her on the floor, she cried in her mother’s lap until she passed out asleep.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  It had been nine days, and Chase was in a world of depression. He had called Madison and texted her so many times, and she never answered nor replied. He drove by her house twenty times a day, and she wasn’t home. He knew she had gone back to her parents and no way would he be granted entrance past their gate, so he had no idea when he’d see her again because she didn’t go into work either.

  Chase prayed that she was okay, but if she felt anything like him, he knew deep down she was doing terrible because he barely even recognized himself in the mirror. His place was a mess, and he hadn’t washed his ass—everything was a funky mess. The doorbell rang, and Chase didn’t budge. It rang again. “Go away,” he growled, but the person on the other side of the door rang the bell again. “Fuck! Leave me alone,” Chase roared, but the persistent person or persons on the other side of the door refused to leave.

  Chase didn’t bother to get up from the sofa; then he heard his garage door opening. “Who the fuck!” he cussed, rising from the sofa. By the time he was on his feet, the door from the kitchen had swung open, and four well dressed men walked in one by one. It was the Storm men, and they came to get Chase’s ass back in gear he figured. Chase was in no mood to hear what any of them had to say, so he looked at them and then flopped back down onto the couch. “Y’all wasted a trip because I have nothing to say to any of you.”

  Lance spoke first. “That may be true, but you have a job that you’ve just abandoned, Chase. When do you think you’re going to get back to it?”

  “You think I give a damn about work right now, Lance?” he yelled, and they all came to the other side so they could stand before him and not behind him. Travis swiped the empty pizza boxes from the sofa and took a seat. Damon posted by the fireplace, and Lance sat on the arm of the sectional. As tailor-made as Legend was, he sat right next to his son.

  “Look, Chase,” Lance said, but Legend raised a hand to silence him.

  “From the looks of things, I’d say that you’re not interested in joining the world right now.”

  “How’d you guess?” Chase said smartly.

  “Because you and this place are funky as hell. Now, I know love has whipped your ass, but you are a Storm, and you are going to have to get yourself together, son.”

  “Really, Dad, really? It’s been a little over a week since she left me, and I’m supposed to bounce back just like that?” he snapped his fingers in the air. “You tell me how long it takes to heal a broken heart. I mean, y’all come up in here in your tailored suits, fresh to death, expecting me to be okay because I’m a Storm. Well, news flash, I’m not fucking okay.

  “Look at you, Lance, and Damon. Just look at yourselves, Trav. All of you are fine. You know why? Because none of you have been where I am today. Tell me which one of you has lost the only woman you’ve loved? Huh? Go ahead, big bro. Tell me in what state of mind you would be if Deena, Gina, or Tasha left?” he barked. “Oh, and you, Dad, how long have you and Mom been together? If you went home, and she was gone, would you just get yo’self together?” he blasted; then he put his face in his hands. “Y’all wanted this, not me. I was happy. I was happy. I didn’t have a care in the world. I only had me to worry about,” he sobbed.

  His brothers and father were all silent. His father then pulled him into his arms. “You’re right, son, and we are sorry beyond words. We should have listened to you. We should have believed you, and we’re going to do everything we possibly can to fix this.”

  “How? She won’t even talk to me,” Chase cried. All of the Storm men’s shoulders dropped, and Lance slid onto the sofa from the arm. Damon took a seat on the ottoman, and they sat in silence for a few moments until Lance said, “We came up with a plan to get her; now, we must come up with a plan to get her back.”

  “No, no more plans,” Legend said. “We have to stop trying to move things like chess pieces. As you all can see, it doesn’t work like that when it comes to matters of the heart. I’ll talk to her, son, and ask her to have dinner with you, and we see if you and Madison can work things out on your own. I owe her an apology just as much, and once I give her my apology, it will only take time for her to forgive what we’ve done and then decide if she wants to start over with Chase. We can’t go in with schemes and strategies. We can only apologize and wait.”

 
“That’s the master plan, Dad?” Chase asked in disbelief.

  “Yes, my son, that is the master plan, and for the record, I will tell you that I know how you feel. Way back in the day before Estelle and I got married, we had a hiccup in our relationship,” he said, and Chase sat up straight. All eyes were now on Legend.

  “What kind of a hiccup?” Chase asked.

  Legend stood and undid his suit jacket and then removed it before sitting back next to his youngest. “Well, back when your mother and I were dating, there was this other gal name Corrina, and, boy, that Corrina was a brick house, you hear me; something sexy, and she knew it. Well, Corrina was working down at the desk at the supply dock, and she had every man’s nose opened wide, but she wasn’t interested in any of them. That woman wanted me. Now, I was young and stupid. Yo’ momma told me that Corrina was just a little too friendly, but me, ‘Aww, no, Estelle, she’s harmless, and she’s just a nice gal,’ but yo’ momma knew she was up to no good.”

  “So, what happened, Pop?” Lance asked.

  “Well, I was a young ninteen-year-old guy, and I was trying to be cool, and Corrina asked me over to watch TV one night when her parents were going to be gone. Now, I was in front of my boys, right, and didn’t want to look soft, so I told her sure, I’ll come through. So I went over, and this gal was all over me, and I was scared to death because I was courting your momma. When I say I got the hell up outta her house, I got up outta there and ran all the way home. The next day, rumors were going around about how me and Corrina had made out, and yo’ momma got wind of me being at her house. She walked up on me in front of everybody and called me a cheating, lying dog and slapped my cheek so hard, you could see the smoke rise off my face,” he said, and they all burst into laughter.

  “Momma did that?” Damon asked between laughs.