by Alisa Mullen
When we filled the whole apartment with moans, grunts, and begging, I curled up behind her sweaty body. As we caught our breath, I groaned into her hair. “Baby, my sweet Lizzie, You will always be my Butterfly Girl.”
The next morning, I woke to the phone ringing. I groaned and looked over to see Lizzie miraculous, naked, and still passed out cold. We wore each other out last night and the poor woman was growing my baby inside of her. I slipped out from under her arm and leg. I walked out to grab the kitchen phone just as it was going to hit voicemail.
“Nicholas?” Mother. Ugh. Why, oh why do they think we get up at six in the morning on Sundays?
“Hey Mom, what’s up?”
I yawned into the phone and adjusted my briefs so I am not exposed to a conversation with my mother. Even from afar, some things just aren’t appropriate.
“Oh honey, were you sleeping? We haven’t spoken in weeks. I was worried about you. Your father and I want to come visit you and Lizzie soon.” She startled to ramble on about all the trips they had coming up and when they could come.
“Well, you should come in about 5 months. Lizzie should be giving you your first Sawyer grandchild then,” I yawned again.
I held the phone away from my ear as she shrieked. She called my father and he got on the line. He was pleased and offered congratulations. They asked to speak to Lizzie. When I told them she was still asleep, they insisted that I was never to wake her up when she was sleeping. Was I helping enough at home? Was she eating okay? The questions were endless. At one point, I tuned them out and just grunted.
“Oh and I can’t even believe what happened to the Hughes’ family. I will tell you what. I won’t be donating anything to their charity event this year. You think you know some people and then all of a sudden, they turn out to be slimy rats.”
“Mom, what are you talking about?” I stood up straight and was fully awake.
“Mr. Hughes. Don’t you know, Nicholas? He was arrested for insider trading. He was trying to open a software company and it was going public. He basically orchestrated a huge financial scheme. I don’t know what it all means but he is going to prison. Can you believe that? I am surprised you didn’t know, honey. Don’t you talk to Sam? It happened over a week ago and he is home with one of those ankle thingies.”
Holy hell. He was going to prison? Thank fuck. Wait, but what about Sam? She hadn’t talked to him. She has to know. I needed to tell her she was safe.
“Mom, I got to go. Lizzie wants to start on wedding plans and will call you soon for your input. I love you, mother.” I hung up and quickly dialed the hotel, only then realizing she had moved and I had no idea to where.
TWENTY THREE - SAM
As I took the cab home to my empty apartment, I realized I had nothing to do tonight, tomorrow, or even next week. My only comforts were the new couch, television, and the services the cable company set up for me. I fell onto my king sized bed in my bare bedroom and smelled the photograph of Conner. It was still clutched in my hands hours after Lizzie had given it to me. I couldn’t put it away. I had to keep holding on to it. Because if I let it go, I would feel the emptiness I had felt for all of those months after the accident.
Lizzie may have said it wasn’t my fault but I knew better. I was glad she was told the truth. She can find peace with what happened to Conner. Somehow, I knew when she gave me that photo that I would never find my peace.
I wanted so much to become a girl who found her wings and could fly. Deep down inside, I knew that only had happened once.
Conner O’Malley.
He gave me my wings but now they fell off, shriveled up and are dust. Hell, I do need a therapist again. Or maybe I need a little drunken sex distraction.
Game on?
TWENTY FOUR - NICK
I sat on the bed next to a sleeping and stunning Lizzie with a clean and fed Niall in my arms. I squeezed her ass. She groaned. I squeezed it again. She kicked.
“Hey! Baby in arms,” I pleaded.
She turned around and her smile was priceless. “Aww. I missed you babe. Look at my two handsome men.”
I leaned down and kissed her. Niall slapped her on the face and we both looked at him and said, “No hitting” at the same time.
“I just got off the phone with Mom. I told her we are going to have a new Sawyer baby. She wanted to know everything…like right now.” I rolled my eyes and kissed Niall. He grabbed for his mother and I laid him down on our bed.
Lizzie stretched and nodded her head. “I am sure she does. My mom and dad need to know soon, too. I noticed I am starting to really show.” I put my hand on her stomach and was amazed to feel a hard bump. Why hadn’t I noticed it before? “You are exquisite.”
She laughed. “Don’t be annoying, Nick! I know I am going to turn into a whale. Hey, what sound does a whale make anyway?” Her face was serious and I blinked several times.
“I have absolutely no idea, but we could go to the aquarium again to find out?” I asked. She smiled and sighed, intertwining our fingers together. “Lizzie, she had some news for me. For us.”
I looked around the room, trying to think of a way to get in touch with Sam. I wanted her here to tell them both.
She sat up on her elbows. “What’s up, Nick?” she asked concerned.
“Sam’s dad was arrested for fraudulent trading. He is looking at time in jail.”
Her eyes widened and she put her hand over her mouth. “He did have something to do with getting me fired. I didn’t think it was possible with all of the security but fuck, Nick. That guy really did screw with my career!” She looked upset. Maybe I threw too much information at her last night but I had to tell her everything. We were best friends. We were lovers. If you can’t be honest with the person you love, then what’s the point in having a relationship in the first place?
“I know, baby. I was trying to tell you that last night. We need to call Mac back and see if you can get your job back. I know you were so upset that day. I bet you want an update on Mrs. Crayton.” I chuckled.
Lizzie shook her head. “I don’t want to go back there. I would rather go to the spa and shopping with Sam every day of the week. That is saying something.” She laughed loudly and rolled her eyes. She is different. Less stressed out and…happy.
“Wow, so you aren’t going to work? I mean, it is fine with me, but what are you going to do?” I asked, clearly astonished. “You know you don’t know how to sit around all day with nothing to do.”
Lizzie kicked me playfully and tickled Niall. “Look for a house. Go get a sonogram. Take care of this little guy. Hang out with my fiancé. Have mad passionate sex with my fiancé. Play music. Plan a wedding? Duh.” She widened her eyes and a sarcastic smile spread across her face.
“That sounds like a very busy life,” I whispered. “I am glad you are going to take it easy. On another matter, I am concerned about Sam. She doesn’t know her father was arrested. Did she give you’re her new phone number or her address?”
Lizzie’s head cocked to the side as she was trying to remember something. “I think she lives closer to Cambridge but on this side of the river. It is some high rise apartment complex that overlooks the Charles.”
I nodded. “Ok, well that is something. I will look into it tomorrow. Today I just want to lounge in bed with my two favorite people. Let’s watch movies and eat take out all day.”
Lizzie got up on her knees and one bare leg crossed over my waist. She was so warm and smelled so delicious. “Nick Sawyer, you are a man after my heart. I don’t think you could be any sweeter, sexier, or smart.”
I lifted my eyebrows as I cupped her ass and give it a small squeeze. She leaned over me and we kissed like teenagers. It was a beautiful moment.
These are the moments I wished we had a camera ready to capture the moment of love and life. The past twenty four hours has changed my whole world right side up again. I had no pictures of my depression or my anger while Lizzie was in Maine. Most likely, tomorrow there will be ot
her changes, whether good or bad. Someday, I will need this moment to get me through the hard times. I got up and grabbed my Nikon camera from my dresser drawer and got back in bed. I turned it around and Lizzie brought Niall up to our laps. I took thirty pictures as we made funny faces, smiled and then kissed softly. All thirty pictures turned out perfect.
*************
Lizzie and I spent the next week looking at colorful houses in Cambridge, talking to the band about the recording studio and hanging out like two teenagers in love. She went shopping one day to find some maternity clothes. She tried to get her parents to come into the city for dinner but they were both laid up with the flu. Still holding off on telling them about the baby, we made an appointment with her OBGYN for a sonogram.
“Will you want to know if it is a boy or girl?” Lizzie asked me one day, as we were eating chips and salsa on the couch.
I hadn’t thought about it before. I shrugged. “I think we have had a lot of really bad surprises this year. Maybe we keep this one as a good surprise.”
She smirked at me and kicked me in the leg. “You are so fucking sweet. How did I land a hunk like you?”
I shrugged again. “Good sex?”
“Good one, Mr. Sawyer. Really? Good sex? I think it had something to do with our mutual love of Phish. Oh yes, my first marriage proposal was through an email. That was hot,” she deadpanned.
I laughed out loud. I had forgotten about that email. “I was 100 % serious that day and every day thereafter.”
I leaned over and popped a chip in her mouth. She grumbled something around the chip. “What?” I asked as I cupped my hands around my ear. “Did you say something?”
Lizzie kicked me again and I brought her foot up and licked it from the bottom to the top. She screamed and tried to wipe it away on my bare chest. It was funny to see her grossed out. She could play dirty.
A few minutes later, we continued to eat the chips while eyeing each other to see if one of us was going to do something else disgusting. Neither one of us moved. I exhaled deeply and turned my face towards the phone. Sam. I got up from the couch and started to pace.
“Lizzie, why hasn’t Sam come by this week? Why hasn’t she called?” I placed my hands against the back of my neck and started to rub it.
“I honestly don’t know. Maybe she wants us to have some alone time. Maybe she didn’t like me like I thought she did. Maybe she is busy moving in,” she started rambling.
“Yeah, but it’s not like her to not call. She is almost annoying about calling me.” I had a bad feeling that I couldn’t shake. She must be up to something.
“Maybe she left town. Maybe she got closure with telling me about that night and didn’t feel like she needed to be here any longer. Call her mom. They might know where she is,” she said.
“I won’t ever talk to those people again. I don’t care if I am looking for the President of the United States.” I gapped at her in disbelief. Call Sam’s parents? Preposterous. I wouldn’t even ask my mother to contact them. I wanted them as far away from my family as possible.
“I don’t know, babe. But you seriously need to chill out. Sam is an adult. She has plenty of money and is capable of making her own decisions. I wouldn’t be surprised if she took off to a fabulous beach for some rejuvenation. She probably doesn’t feel the need to contact us any longer, now that we are back together. Sam and I aren’t exactly best friends, you know. I get why she was here in the first place but now…well, that’s over and done with.” Lizzie exhaled loudly. She put her hand on her stomach and groaned. “I am so full but I can’t stop eating.”
“I am going to try those other apartments this week just to see if they know her. I need that list you made, okay?” I asked.
“Sure. No problem. Now rub my feet.” She smiled.
She wiggled her toes out to me as she popped another chip in her mouth. I sat back on the couch and took both her feet into my lap. I rubbed those delectable feet until Lizzie fell asleep. Even then I didn’t stop. I thought about Sam. I thought about everything that had happened since she first showed up in Boston. She had risked everything to come clean to me. Maybe she already found out about her dad and she flew back to Texas. Maybe her father is blaming her for everything that happened. I sighed. I had no answers.
TWENTY FIVE - NICK
It was four in the morning. Three weeks had gone by since I got the call from my mom about Mr. Hughes. There was still no word from Sam and I had all but given up on her. Lizzie jumped up to the phone shrilling throughout our apartment. She raced out the door like she was on autopilot. Four in the morning calls were never good, I thought to myself.
“Lizzie, are you okay?” I yelled as I started out of bed.
“What? No… Phone,” she sleepily called back to me. She was probably sleep walking and didn’t even know where she was. I heard her answer in a husky voice. As I moved out to the kitchen, she was rubbing her eyes.
“Yeah, hold on a sec,” she said into the phone. She handed me the phone and then patted me on the back as she walked passed me.
“Who is it?” I whispered. She yawned and murmured that she didn’t know. She sat down at the breakfast bar looking sleep rumpled and sexy as hell. Nice wake up call. I should set the alarm every morning to see her like this.
“This is Nick Sawyer,” I yawned into the phone.
“Mr. Sawyer. My name is Paul. I work at the Luxury Charles apartments and I have the police here. They were called out from several neighbors of a Samantha Hughes. Apparently Ms. Hughes was having a party but the music is still very loud and the neighbors can’t sleep. The police can’t get anyone to answer the door and I can’t legally allow them to enter. She has you down as an emergency contact. Can you call her or come down here? I would be able to let you in, sir.” He sounded tired and pissed. Fuck. Finally I register what he has said and I realize that it involves the police.
“Yeah, course,” I heave a sigh. “Sorry, man, I haven’t seen her in a few weeks. I can be there in twenty. What’s the address and apartment number?”
I wrote it down as he rambled off all of the numbers, including the security code to the building. Shit, what the hell was she doing partying until four in the morning?
When I clicked off the phone, I updated Lizzie with what Paul had said about Sam and the music. Her worried look made me think twice about having told her. Quickly dressing, I called down to the door man to bring my Audi up to the street.
“I wish I could go with you, sweetheart,” she kissed me. I groaned into her kiss. I didn’t even want to leave this woman for twenty minutes. I think I was becoming obsessed. When she left, my entire world fell away in fallen cracks of nothing. When she returned to me, the world glued itself back together. I pray every day that no cracks will unglue. That is why I was holding on to her so tight. She said she wouldn’t leave me again. My world will not fall apart again.
“I will be back as soon as possible. Go back to bed babe. Niall will be up soon enough and I hope I am only back before he wakes up. You need to sleep for our other baby. We should go to that diner in Watertown you took me to after the Phish concert. That place was bad ass.”
Lizzie brightened up and nodded enthusiastically. I kissed her again goodbye, hoping that I didn’t worry her about Samantha. I was becoming extremely sly by distracting her when she became distraught. Asking her to breakfast put her in a different frame of mind. Besides, only one of us should be flipping out and right now, it was clearly me. I was extremely scared for Sam. She was sad when she left our place and still hadn’t reached out to us. Of course, Lizzie and I had been busy with our many projects. I should have done more to help her after the night she left so down. What was she doing? Her family recently blew up. I couldn’t shake the dreadful feeling that she was on her way to self destruction, too.
Thirty minutes later, I stood outside Sam’s apartment with Paul and the cops, listening to the bass rhythm of techno music. I would literally throttle my neighbor if they played m
usic like this during any time of the day.
Paul unlocked the door and the four of us moved into the darkened apartment at once. I found the music system and turned the music off. I swiveled around and saw four naked people tangled up in each other sleeping. Two girls were cuddled in the middle of two guys, spooning them from each side. I moved closer to see if it is Sam. None of them were blonde, so I move ahead to the bedroom. There was a small lamp on and I looked at the rumpled up bed, where Sam is lying naked in a group of three men. One of the guys looked up.
“What the fuck? Who called the cops?” That woke another one up and they quickly jumped up and started searching for their clothes. I took a blanket from the end of the bed and pulled it over Sam. She looked like hell. Her lips were swollen. She had hickeys and scratch marks on her chest and her arms. She liked like she had been thoroughly used. I shook her to try to wake her up. She said something in her sleep and turned over into the other guys embrace. She let out a small exhale and fell back to sleep.
“Mr. Sawyer, I don’t see any illegal drugs or other offensive paraphernalia. Since we have remedied the music situation, we are going to leave to fill out the report. She will be cited for a small misdemeanor. We will serve it to her tomorrow,” one officer stated.
I looked over at Samantha and ran my hands over my eyes. “Thank you, officers. I apologize on behalf of Ms. Hughes.”
They all nodded and walked out of the room. The apartment manager closely looked at the four naked bodies in the living room long enough to call it creepy. Whatever, it was his reward for his interrupted evening. These were a bunch of fucking assholes anyway. I walked over to the music system and pulled the plug on it. I located Sam’s phone and called my apartment. Lizzie answered on the second ring.
“Hello?” She sounded anxious.
“Baby, it’s me. I am here at Samantha’s and everything is fine. I wanted to call to get her phone number so I can call her later on this afternoon. Will you please star 69 this phone number and write it down when we hang up? I am leaving shortly.”