by Andrea Rose
“Grace, I appreciate that but she changed the locks so your spare key won’t work. Maybe go to a hotel.”
“Won’t you be there to let us in?”
“I, uh…She scares easy. Y’know. Maybe stay at a hotel and invite her for brunch or something. My treat.”
“Scares easy? Can’t be talking about my daughter,” Dad muttered under his breath, his arms dragging two large suitcases out the front door.
I heard a distorted creak come out the phone speaker. “Anyway, I’m just getting in the door. Let me get the place clean…” Braydon’s voice fell away. “Dino!”
“The babies were in the city this whole time?” I said reaching out for the phone. Mom turned her back to me.
“Hey, was that Ar—?” Dad snatched the phone from mom’s hand and smashed it on the receiver.
“Twenty-thousand dollars that kid stole out from under me. Twenty thousand dollars meant for our dream fucking retirement cruise!”
Ten minutes passed in a fluster of suitcases, packing wrap and boxes. Dad’s hand tremored as he adjusted in the Tahoe and put the key into the ignition. No way he was letting his daughter be near the danger that was my ex.
“Your wrist OK to drive?”
“Stress. Excitement. You don’t worry about me, Ariana. I’ll go get those dogs back for you and make sure they’re safe. I’ll pack what I can of your stuff. You stay out the city, y’hear me?”
HOOOONKKKK!!
My heart jolted in surprise. “Stop, Dad.”
“Not until he is in a padded or barred cell.”
He didn’t relent from punching the horn at Mom delaying him.
“Relax, Alex. Jesus Christ. I’m getting food for the damn dogs! You and your excitement over your fucking mini-missions.”
“Mini-mission? Saving my daughter from a loony might be the most important mission I’ve fought. I should have seen through the bullshit, Ari. He seemed a perfect fit with the fucking Porsche, and the brunches and the sun tan.”
“He seemed perfect to me, too.”
“Bye, sweetie. Please stay safe. See you in two days!”
Mom waved Dad on in the rental truck, a far better suited vehicle for shifting as much shit out that apartment as Dad could manage.
Mom went inside after a thoughtful nudge of my shoulder.
Braydon preyed on the weak for a living in his private equity firm. Then after work Fridays, he found an afterwork treat— Me, the wide-eyed waitress, bent over her homework on the bar post-shift.
Bastard.
The wind howled. The trees shadows looked more menacing. I lingered on my parent’s porch wondering where to go next.
Behind me was a house. I lived in it for six months once. I never cared for it after moving from a bungalow in Hawaii. The place stank of mothballs, no matter how much Dad washed the carpets. The walls were paper thin, the backyard was concrete and Mom and I never got along.
Some twenty minutes down the road, however, was a hotel and the one thing I needed to stop this hurting in me.
“Mom!” I yelled through the kitchen window.
“What?"
“I’m going out! There’s somewhere I need to be!”
“Fine!”
“Might not be back for a few days!”
“Glad to have our Ari back!” Mom yelled, used to a restless daughter.
“Wait!” Her head poked out the door. “Where are you going this time?”
“Somewhere safe, I promise.”
“Ariana Grace…”
“The safest place.”
I checked if Dad kept his spare set of keys under the planter still.
I tossed and snatched them back into my hand when I found them, sliding over the hood of his night black Corvette I hadn’t driven in years.
The engine revved, the pedal beneath my feet. I’d forgotten how badass driving this thing was.
I skidded backward running right for the eye of my storm if only he’d just stay at the hotel.
43
I’d rented a car to chase Ari down this morning. It’d been some years since driving my own vehicle and it felt good to finally have my hands on the wheel.
“Here’s the address,” Chrissy said, slamming a box of chocolate pretzels into my chest.
“Where’re the flowers?”
“Flowers?” Phoebe straightened my collar and gave me a once over.
“Yeah, flowers. Y’know, the ones I spent hours choosing?” My eyes went wide before she knocked my chin.
“I’m kidding,” she reassured me and passed through the large bouquet of lilies.
Never had I put so much effort into asking a girl on a date and I hoped to hell it’d pay off.
“You look good, ex-boyfriend,” she said and pat my buttons. “You know that already.”
“Good luck,” Chrissy said leaning in the window too. “Don’t tease her too much. Go easy…Oh! Don’t bring up the court shit unless she does…Just comfort her…She doesn’t need stress…”
“I’ve got this one under control.”
“…Shut up when she’s trying to tell you something,” Phoebe added.
“Noted.”
“Validate her feelings, too. We like that. Let he be angry at you because you have been kind of a prick to her.”
I held out my hand in a wave and reversed. My sat nav showed me to Ari’s Baltimore house some twenty minutes from the hotel.
I wouldn’t quit on her yet.
I needed to do this— to make the grand gesture to her to prove I was deadly serious about my commitment to us.
I didn’t want the things I thought I did: The success, the money, the fame and the legacy. What the fuck did that mean without someone to care about you when you’re left bleeding out on a stoop?
I wanted this woman to be my wife.
I saw King-Maldova kids running around the ranch.
I saw her waking up in my bed every single morning.
I saw her in every memory from this day forth.
I crested a hill to the lights of three police cars and the police guards keeping fans from the Lightning’s hotel. Standing beside them, Jacquie and Gavin.
His eye looked at me as he got cuffed and taken into a car.
Jacquie caught me and waved. When she turned, I saw cuffs on her and an officer held her head into the car beside.
She gave me a thumbs up and a bright smile.
Think of Ari.
That’s all that mattered this moment. Nothing else could hold me back anymore. I couldn’t be made to feel bad for these people paying their own dues.
I pressed the accelerator pedal toward my next and final focus:
Her.
The car’s bluetooth rang as I pulled off the Exit ramp.
“This is Tyler,” I said, not checking the caller ID.
There was silence a while.
I’d about hung up when I heard a man’s voice.
“T—Tyler, it’s Richard…It’s your father.”
The car swerved over the center line.
“Oh…Dad, uh, you need help? Are you alright?”
My mouth felt dry. “Yes, yes, I’m fine. I’m calling ‘cos I saw you on the TV this morning.”
“Thought you sold the TV?”
“I’ve been staying at Aunt May’s.” He coughed away from the speaker. “I’ve been staying with her a while. She’s been helping me get on this whole foods bullshit meal plan, get healthy.”
“Plant-based!” Aunt May yelled in the background
“Plant-based food bullshit.”
I rubbed my hand down my mouth. “That’s good, Dad. That’s real good.”
“I saw you on the TV just now. This old girl here forced me to pick up the phone. This after catching you at some fundraiser bullshit on a laundromat’s old set…and then your letter…”
“You got the letter?”
“I got it. I got it. Took me some weeks to open it.”
My face screwed up at my eyes stinging.
“I’m not a superstitious man but if I were, I’d say the Universe is trying to get me to swallow my pride ’n’ speak to my goddamned son, Ty.”
It took all the man in me to be strong right there. Emotion overcame me enough to have to pull over the car.
I rested against the steering wheel.
“I’m sorry, son. Credit to you for coming out a man on the other side of my shit-awful parenting. Your letter showed me you’re a higher breed than I. Makes me have hope you won’t make the same mistakes I did.”
“You weren’t a bad dad.”
“I didn’t say bad, kid. I said shit-awful. I was. Losing your mom, I’d never been right since. I got lost in the game when she left. Take it from this King, between picking the sport or the girl, you made the right fucking choice. Maybe, once I’m well enough and with your blessing, I might get to meet this lady one day. She’s gotta be one tough cookie to take on a King man.”
The baby yellow house with the green door came into view— Ariana’s parents’ home in the suburbs.
“Hey, Dad,” I said, “I hate to cut this short but I gotta go. I got something I need to do right now that can’t wait any longer. I’ll call you back. You have my word.”
“No, you will not call me back, jackass. It’s hard to believe but, as miserable an old fart as I am, I do have my own friends to look out for me. Angels, you said. We’re blessed. Now, do me a damn favor, quit worrying about my fucking happiness and go get your own.”
“Pop.”
“I love you, too, son. Now fuck off and go get that girl.”
Dad’s phone call energized me.
I slipped out the car fast I could up to the porch and knocked on the door, my heart racing through my chest.
She’d be here.
In front of me.
Soon.
My hands hadn’t shaken this much in a year. That’s why I fumbled that goddamn touchdown pass—It lead me to her.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
Blood beat fast in my ears.
I clicked my neck side to side.
Dad’d only made the road ahead that much clearer for me.
I hid Ari’s gifts behind my back.
Wrong house? I thought at the delayed answer.
A long, grey-haired beauty in her pajamas opened the door. I could tell who she was.
“Oh,” Mrs. Maldova said to my chest then craned her neck backward. “Oh, shit. Tyler King?”
She slapped her hands together and tried to calm herself down.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“This is real. Wow, OK then. You’re here? Why are you here?”
Her neck leaned out the doorway to survey the street.
“My husband is a big fan of your work. I’m Grace Maldova.” She had the same wrinkle above her brow that Ari got when she freaked out.
I hid a smile at the thought of her and arched my gaze inside the house to find where she might be.
“Grace Maldova, I’m Grace,” she said with the shake of my hand. “How can I help you?”
“Grace, I’m here to see if Ariana might be free for dinner or…a minute alone, at least.”
Her face fell.
“What is it?”
“Oh. Oh, Tyler, honey, Ariana left last night.”
The lilies fell to my side.
44
Morning broke through dense clouds laying underneath the sky. I thought I’d made the right decision leaving for Tyler but police rerouted or blocked anyone who weren’t guests. I didn’t stay to argue it. Exhaustion had over come me along with this growing sense I was finally free.
My hand hung out the open window of Dad’s Corvette that I raced down the Interstate, face burning up from shock in the sub-degree air.
I took my first bite of McDonald’s fries in four years and sang along to the radio blasting angsty pop hits.
“THREE YEARS!” I yelled out the window. “MY GOD, ARI!!
Three years I never noticed Braydon had set me up in a fauxmance of my own, so realistic even I fell for it. I’d have to get tips if ever public relations wished to hire me in their industry again.
But why would they now Yuri had blacklisted e?
The upside to this: I had a medalled hero for a Dad willing to fight this particular battle for me. Tyler helped me practice what it feels letting people help.
Baltimore fell further behind me, some two hours down the road.
“…Breaking entertainment news…” The fuzzy radio said… “…trouble in paradise for Phoebe Kite and Tyler Kent…” My leg shot back under the dash and I straightened in my seat.
I turned the dial…
A Spanish station.
Static.
“…Raunchy photos of the starlet and her famous pal were leaked online yesterday…”
Dad’s car skidded into gravel at the side of the road.
I leaned a head on the steering wheel and turned against the leather.
Phoebe’s stalker leaked the photo.
Hands gripped tighter on the wheel. This wasn’t my job anymore. Anything I did for Phoebe would be a favor and I didn’t have time for favors either.
I spun the dial and let the loud music takeover the gossip and the bullshit, foot pushing back on the pedal.
“Fuuuck!” I screamed and burst into tears fighting which way to keep driving because every way felt wrong.
But one.
I exhaled, pulled off the freeway leading me to California to start a new life by the sea and turned back to Maryland. I couldn’t run from this one.
Besides, I had one more safe-house I hadn’t tried yet.
Staring out over the King Ranch backyard some hours later, I felt a new, empty sensation in my stomach. No nausea or stress, though. It was either freedom total freedom, loneliness or loss of control and whichever it was I didn’t want it.
A hawk cawed over head.
It didn’t feel safe without him here beside me. I hated how big the place was. I hated the cold weather. I hated the silence.
This wasn’t home either.
I stood by the outdoor lounge with a coffee mug, sniffing a worn old sweater of Tyler’s. Cologne and his smell lingered in the worn cotton—The only thing that made it feel a little more safe.
Sunset faded.
Stubborn old me wanted to light a fire for the evening to fight this lingering sadness. I found Tyler’s separate stashes of books and tea, both equally pristine and untouched and started preparing.
I set my night on the table and nestled down by the fire with my matches, fire-starters and kindling. My hand took the handle and tugged.
“Ugh!” I heaved but it wouldn’t budge.
My leg pressed the brick surroundings for leverage…
I grunted and tugged harder.
Nothing.
“Reminder: Quit weekly pilates classes, because I can’ t fucking move it!” I gonged the lid with my hand and the ring resounded around the valley
“Tyler, help,” I wheezed and wandered back inside.
A widescreen TV hung on the wall in the living room.
I landed on the sofa and cuddled in tightly to Tyler’s smell. The harder I breathed, the more elusive it got.
“No!” I grunted.
Three more controls sat beside me, none that actually turned the stupid thing on.
With one motion, I swiped them all from the glass coffee table and bounded around the house for someway to connect my new phone to the Wi-Fi. I’d bought it with the last of my money from a gas station hoping to check in on Phoebe.
“Password?”
I-L-O-V-E-A-R-I-A-N-A
Denied.
“Then I have no idea!”
I launched my recently purchased phone into the pool.
Fuck phones.
Fuck freedom.
Fuck this.
The record player sat under the bar near the pizza oven for entertainment. I didn’t know how to use that.
The phone on the wall in the kitchen— My last true connectio
n to the outside world. I lifted it from the hook and typed the only three numbers I knew of Tyler’s:
6-1-0…
8…
I tapped a nail on my tooth and shut my eyes.
8-1-2…
“Ugh, useless,” I said and left the phone hanging on the wire.
“No one remembers phone numbers, Tyler!”
I turned to see the infamous card with the donkey on the front sitting on the edge of the kitchen counter.
“Sorry I’m an Ass,” I read aloud and tossed the card angrily through the air.
“Stop punishing me. Stop! I know! I get it! I know!”
I wasn’t gonna torture myself on the day of my emancipation from all responsibility. I’d made a mistake coming back here of all places.
My wounds were raw.
I snatched up my keys knowing there had to be somewhere else I wouldn’t feel so alone.
I got back on the road and let the wheel decide my fate, even if that happened to be on the opposite coast.
45
“Where is she?” I asked Grace Maldova. “Is everything OK?”
“She left somewhere for a while really early this morning.”
“Where?”
“She never tells me but somewhere safer than New York, she says.”
“She’s in Baltimore?”
“Somewhere in the state I hope or her father won’t be too pleased. She borrowed his car a few days. Anyway, I’m sure she’ll stop by the game tomorrow. You want me to give her these?”
Her hands reach for the gifts.
“Chocolate pretzels,” she said with a clap of her hands.“Her favorites. How romantic.”
“I won’t be at the game tomorrow, Grace. I need to find her now.”
She laughed and put her hand to her hip. “Ha, right. Miss the final. You fuck a hooker and get shot again?”
“Nope. I would like to ask your daughter on a first date and I’m sick of waiting.”
She blew through her lips. “What’s that now?”
Blinking.
“Would you give me permission to date your daughter?”
Grace’s body tensed up. After her own version of Freakout Face, she sniffed.