by Shealy James
“Welcome aboard, Miss Bryant. Please come have a seat anywhere you want,” Lucy said. “How about I bring you a cocktail?”
I chose one of the four cream leather captain’s chairs that surrounded a small round wooden table. “Just water, please.”
“Still or sparkling?”
Water! I don’t care. “Whatever you have on hand is fine,” I replied as politely as I could while I wondered where Grant went.
She brought me a bottle of each and a cup with some ice and set it all in front of me. I poured some of the still water with Grant’s company label on it into my cup. They were ready for takeoff and Grant was still on the phone, so I went back to the room Grant closed himself in and knocked lightly before opening the door.
When he saw me, he put one finger in the air. “No, Dad, this is unacceptable. You take care of this before my return flight on Sunday. No more discussion” He hung up the phone and looked at me. “Sorry, baby. Did Lucy get you a drink?”
I just stood there with my arms crossed and eyebrows raised.
“We aren’t going to talk about it here. Let’s get you buckled into your seat. Safety first, Georgia girl.” He smiled at me, but it wasn’t his usual easygoing, happy smile. It was forced. I didn’t smile back.
Whatever his connection with Lucy was, it ruined his good mood and his plans for the plane ride, considering he gave me his iPad so I could read one of the e-books he let me download onto it. He pulled out his laptop and started working. All of this drama and uncertainty just reminded me it had only been a short time since I met Grant. There was still so much I didn’t know about him.
About an hour into the two-hour flight, Grant hadn’t said a word and Lucy hadn’t appeared again. I put his iPad down and stared at him until he acknowledged me. “What do you need, baby?”
“This was not how this trip was supposed to go. You were in such a good mood until we boarded the plane, so tell me what ruffled your feathers.”
“Eve.”
“Grant.” We went through our usual avoiding the topic routine.
He ground his teeth angrily. “I told you, not here.”
“Fine,” I snapped and picked his iPad back up. I folded my legs into the chair with me, so I was in a tight little ball.
“Don’t be like that, Eve.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
I turned back to him and looked him in his brownish-colored eyes. I made sure to speak quietly, so the pretty little flight attendant in her hooker heels wouldn’t hear. “You know, it irritates you when I don’t tell you something right when you want to know it, but you do the same thing. I think I can get a little peeved when whatever you don’t want to tell me has ruined the unexpected trip I gave up my weekend to take with you.”
He took the iPad out of my hands and set it on the table next to his laptop. He reached under the blanket covering my legs and unbuckled my seatbelt, and then pulled me onto his lap into our favorite “can’t be naked” talking position. “I love you. You know that, right?” He opened.
“Yes, and I love you. Now talk.”
“I used to travel a lot more several years ago. Lucy and Otto were the regular flight attendants.”
“And you’re a member of the mile high club. I get it, but what about seeing her made you so upset?”
“We slept together for a while, just when I was flying.” Okay, that kind of hurt. First I found out that morning he has had girl after girl in the penthouse. Then I discovered his plans to create mile high memories with me were actually a recreation of experiences with the floozy flight attendant.
“And?” I prompted.
“And when I didn’t want a relationship with her, she went after my dad. She had an affair with him, and I figured it out one day when Dad and I took a flight together.”
“Holy shit.” I almost laughed because that was not what I was expecting. She slept with Grant and Harrison. Gross!
“Yeah. She was after money, looking to be a trophy wife. Supposedly Dad let her go after she tried to blackmail him, so you can imagine my surprise when she was on this flight instead of Otto.”
“Hmm,” I responded.
“Say something,” he said, and then pressed his lips to my head.
“I don’t know what you want me to say, Grant. I’m sorry about how girls went after your money, but you didn’t exactly let anyone believe you were worth more than what is in your bank account. That being said, you screwing your flight attendant doesn’t bother me in isolation, because I know you didn’t feel about her the way you feel about me, but the girls are starting to add up.”
“Babe—”
I held my palm up to stop him from placating me. “I’m not jealous. I knew you had a past, but it’s one thing to know it exists. It’s another to have names and faces to put with the places. None of this is ours.” Grant was the only man to have been in my bed in Seattle, and the only man besides Nolan to be in my apartment. That meant something to me. I wasn’t saying Grant needed to do anything about it or even that he could do something about it, but his past was being thrown in my face every day, especially with his mother on the warpath.
“Eve—”
“Just don’t.” I climbed off his lap. “Don’t say all the right things and make me forget. Just let me be for a minute. I’m not upset. I’m processing.”
He leaned over and kissed me gently, but Lucy clearing her throat ruined the moment. I sat up but refrained from looking directly at her.
I did see that she at least had the decency to look contrite. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but the captain has asked that you buckle your seatbelt in preparation for landing.”
“Thanks, Lucy,” Grant said. He reached over to buckle my seatbelt, but I batted his hands away and did it myself while he watched me with his lips pressed into a firm line.
By the time we checked into the Fairmont, it was late. A bellboy led us to the expensive suite I suspected would impress most people, but I just saw it as a colossal waste of money. Grant caught me grimacing at the sight of the extravagance and laughed. “Sorry. Old habits. We can downgrade if you want, but they already delivered room service. I figured you’d prefer this to eating on the plane.” No. He originally had other plans for the plane ride, but they were foiled the minute he saw the floozy flight attendant.
Grant passed the bellboy a few crisp bills and closed the door after him. He then led me to a dining table with two covered dinner plates, champagne, and chocolate covered strawberries. We ate in almost complete silence until the strawberries. He took the platter and champagne over to a luxurious sofa and then led me to it. He poured me a glass of champagne and then one for him. When he handed it to me, he looked at me with greenish-bluish-brownish eyes.
Grant gently tucked my hair behind my ear. “You’re wrong, you know.” I tilted my head and looked at him confused. “You said none of this is ours. To me, it is all ours, because it’s all new to me. You’re the first girl I have ever wanted around for more than…well, for more. I want you with me all the time for everything. That makes you the first girl who has traveled with me, the first girl I have actually invited to spend the night at the penthouse, the first girl who has gotten me to sleep at her place. You’re a lot of firsts for me. Most importantly, you’re the first girl I have ever fallen in love with. We both have to face the choices the other has made before we met. I wish that weren’t the case, but I can’t change that. If I had known I was waiting on you, then I would have done a better job of actually waiting.”
I felt the tears stinging my eyes at his wonderful words. His words mixed with my emotions of the day were just too much, and a tear leaked out of my eye. He wiped it away with his thumb and kissed me gently.
It occurred to me while he was speaking that there were some firsts I wouldn’t be able to share with him. The biggest one was if we ever were to decide to get married, he wouldn’t be my first husband, and that made me more than a little sad. He should have been. I should have been so lucky to be this
in love with my first husband, but as they say, you live, you learn.
I set my glass down and climbed on top of him. With my body pressed to his and our arms tightly holding on to one another, I whispered, “I’m sorry that I keep letting my emotions take over. Didn’t anyone ever tell you women are crazy?” I let out a laugh before turning serious again. “I’m heartbreakingly in love with you, and it scares the living daylights out of me.”
“I know, baby. Me too.”
We continued to talk and eat strawberries and drink champagne. I told him what was going on in my crazy head, and he told me the whole divorce thing was still hard for him. I tried to make him feel better by explaining I chose to marry someone I wasn’t in love with because he was familiar. It was the first time neither one of us held back. I learned he had slept with every one of those girls from his high school at the party, including Kitty, but most of them only had one night with him and it was years ago. We both really struggled through that discussion, but his last little tidbit of information made me feel a lot better. Before me, he hadn’t been with anyone in over eight months. He said he thought he was making room in his life for me before he even knew me. I told him I was probably doing the same thing in my life.
When we were all talked out, and our demons of the past were exorcised, we went to bed. We carefully undressed each other, and slowly made love that night. It was a wonderful night, a turning point, and I finally felt like I wasn’t holding on with just my fingernails. I had put my feet firmly on the ground in Grant’s life, and he, in turn, was grounded in mine.
Chapter 19
The weekend was so amazing that work on Monday was hell. Grant made sure the rest of the weekend was romantic. He went to his meeting early Saturday morning and was back in the room before I was finished getting dressed. He took me sightseeing—okay, Alcatraz wasn’t exactly romantic, but I wasn’t going to pass up the chance to see it—and out to a romantic dinner. There was no more arguing or even discussing. We were just two people who were very much in love. You know, hand holding, public kissing, whispered ‘I love you’s every chance we had, the whole nine yards.
I almost started crying when Otto welcomed us back to Seattle because I knew we would be facing reality when we stepped off the plane. Our bubble burst right away when Grant said he needed to go back to his place to work a little. I asked him to take me to my apartment, but he just looked at me like I had said I wanted to walk back to Georgia.
He drove me to work the next morning and dropped me off with a long goodbye. Tara noticed my new dress courtesy of my very rich boyfriend—hello dramatic eye roll—as soon as I walked in the door. Fortunately we didn’t have time for girl talk because we had the anniversary party to prepare. I had to get a minute-by-minute schedule and get the speakers confirmed. We had to go by the florist and meet with the caterer to make final choices on food and flowers.
We did have time to catch up over lunch. I told her about my weekend, filling her in about Iris and San Francisco and the closet, which I think she was most excited about. She, in turn, told me about her weekend with Daniel in explicit detail. Yowzers.
While everything was perfectly successful and pleasant, I was missing Grant and our quiet weekend all day. His text messages didn’t help. They started five minutes after he dropped me off and continued throughout the day after that. The all-day conversation gave me butterflies in my belly and a smile on my face.
Grant: You look beautiful in red. Missing your red lips already.
Me: You miss my lipstick? I can get you some of your own.
Grant: Not the same. I want it on your lips and your lips on me.
Me: I want that too. I hate Mondays. :(
Grant: I hate that you work away from me.
Me: Absence makes the heart grow fonder?
Grant: I’m already fond of you. I don’t need any help.
Me: Not for that problem anyway ;)
Grant: What are you saying gorgeous?
Me: You might be crazy.
Grant: Crazy in love.
Me: I knew you secretly loved Beyonce.
Grant: I secretly love you.
Me: That is no secret.
Grant: How did you figure it out?
Me: It could have been the closet or San Francisco.
Me: It was probably the way you tell me all the time.
Me: It was definitely the way you make me feel.
Grant: And how do I make you feel?
Me: Like I’m the only person in your world that matters.
Grant: You are. I wish you were here, baby.
Me: Me too.
Me: Are you picking me up today? I can walk, but it is raining. :(
Grant: You are not walking anywhere alone in this city!
Me: I’ll be fine. No one wants to kidnap me. I’d drive them crazy!
Grant: I said no. Pick you up around 5:30.
Me: I’ll be waiting with bated breath.
Grant: About to go into a meeting now, but I will see you at 5:29.
Me: Have fun. Love you! Xoxo
Grant: Love you, my gorgeous Georgia peach.
At four o’clock Tara and I were back in our respective offices finishing up for the day, and that was when my phone went off and my day really went to shit.
“Evie, it’s Martin. How are you?”
I stood and closed my office door for some privacy. “I’m doing well, Martin. How are you?”
“Good. Good. Listen, I spoke with Mark’s attorney. We scheduled the mediation for the sixteenth. Can you get into town for that?”
“It shouldn’t be a problem.” Except for the fact that my overprotective boyfriend wants to come with me. I jumped online and started looking up flights.
“Good. I’m going to need to get a written statement about the things we discussed on Friday. I’ll need the rest of the information on both of your finances included. I also need to get another statement from your parents about how things have been since the order of protections took effect.”
“What’s that now?” I was sure I misheard him. “What order?”
“Your parents didn’t tell you?” he asked disbelievingly.
“No! What is an order of protection?” I didn’t recognize my high-pitched voice.
“You should call your dad. He should be the one to tell you.”
“I have to go. I’ll call you tomorrow. Don’t worry about the statements. I’ll get you whatever you need.”
“Thank you, Evie. Talk to you tomorrow.”
As soon as I was off the phone with Martin, I was calling my dad. “Evie?” he answered.
“Dad, why do you have an order of protection against Mark? What did he do?” I asked in a rush.
“Shit…” he uttered. “Martin spilled the beans, huh?”
“Daddy!”
“All right, all right. Mark kept coming around the house. It started when you first moved in, and I would never let him in or tell him where you were. He had been seen following you around, and after you left for Seattle, he forced his way into the house in one of his drunken rampages.”
“What?” I screeched. “Why didn’t you tell me about this?”
“Evie, you were in such bad shape when you finally decided to leave that sack of shit. We just wanted him to stay away from you. His behavior was one of the reasons we encouraged you to move all the way across the country. We needed you to be safe. The restraining order is simply a way to make sure he goes away for a long time if he tries anything else.”
“Has he been bothering you since?” I was upset and worried now. How did I not know anything? Was I really that out of it?
“No, but you might want to talk to Holly and Jane. When you first moved away he tried to get information from them about where you went. The girls didn’t tell him anything, but he was pretty awful to both of them.” He sounded regretful when he spoke about my best friend and my sister.
“Dad, anything else I need to know?”
“No, Evie. That’s pre
tty much it. I’m sorry we didn’t tell you, but we were just trying to keep you safe and make sure you got better.”
“I know, Dad. I love you.”
“I love you, peanut.”
My head was whirling and tears were pooling in my eyes. It seemed Mark was way worse than I imagined. I knew he was drinking more after I left and filed for divorce, but he couldn’t really expect me to stay after how bad things had gotten.
I picked my phone back up and dialed Holly.
“Hey, Evie. Ready to tell me all about San Fran?” Holly said by way of greeting me.
“Maybe later. Right now I need you to tell me about Mark. Martin told me my parents had a restraining order, and then my dad told me about Mark breaking into their house and following me. He also said you’ve had some trouble.”
“Evie…” She sighed.
“Tell me. I have been blissfully in the dark long enough while people I love are getting hurt. This is not okay, Holly. It’s all my fault,” I sobbed.
Hearing me upset always riled Holly up, and she climbed right up on her soapbox. “No, it isn’t, Evie. It’s Mark’s fault. He’s the asshole. He’s the one who can’t control his drinking. He’s the one who verbally abused you to the point where you thought you weren’t worth anything. It’s him who’s the problem, not you!”
“Holly, what did he do to you?” I asked.
“Evie.”
“Holly! Tell me,” I snapped.
“He came by my work a couple of days after you left. I had to work late, and no one was there. When I wouldn’t tell him anything, he kind of roughed me up a bit.”