by H. P. Landry
“I am not his student.” Her wide eyed expression clearly indicated that I hit the nail on the head. “And no I didn’t know I was working towards the same profession as he, but I don’t mind it, yet.”
“Yet?” He looked startled.
“Yes yet. You took my dream job, which means I have to find a job somewhere else.”
“You’re not staying in Pointe Hope?”
“Well, how can I work as the law professor when the current professor has tenure? It’s okay honey. I can work in Morganville.”
“Morganville is an hour’s drive Mylie; that is a long commute.”
“I know, but I will just buy a house in Morganville.”
He shook his head.
“You can’t be serious? We have two perfectly good houses we can live in. Why would you buy a house?”
“No, I live in my grandparents’ house, and Nik will live there until he is done with school. You have a house, but I do not have one. I would like something that is my own. Why are we even discussing this?”
“We are discussing it because it’s important. This is our future we’re talking about.”
“What future Damien, I could be dead tomorrow if Xander finds me!” I snapped, fighting the urge to cry.
He pulled me into his embrace and the tears slid down my cheeks. I had always been a fighter and hated to cry, but lately it’s all I was doing. I didn’t care that his aunt was here, or that my makeup was smearing, or that there were people in the train station staring. I was going to die, and I was tired of living in fear where I couldn’t plan my future. I hated Xander. He was ruining my life, and there was nothing I could do.
“Mylie, I love you, and I will spend the rest of my life loving you. We will figure it out, and we will have a future. You’re not going to die.”
He kissed my hair as I inhaled his wonderful intoxicating scent. I just nodded my head. The Number Six train had come and gone, just as the Five, and finally the Number Four train arrived. Why, I couldn’t say, but Damien insisted that we ride the Number Four train.
We rode silently, people standing holding the bars above us as we sat in the blue plastic seats. Others the subway’s interior stripper pole, but I cringed at the thought of all the germs that lurked. The train was clean, filled with advertisements for schools and businesses across the lighting. Other people read their e-readers, but what caught my eye was a book.
I saw from a distance someone reading a book called Hopeless by Colleen Hoover. The irony was perfectly situated in my tattered life because everything felt hopeless, and I knew it would get worse before it got better.
Damien
Shit. Shit. Shit. This was so fucked up. What the hell was I going to do? She would freak if she knew. Shit!
Opal just stared at me, and I knew she was thinking the same thing I was. This wasn’t my fault, but how did I explain this to Mylie? She would think the worst, she always thought the worst, but she loved me, right? So she would listen to reason. It wasn’t my fault, so she couldn’t blame me, right? Fuck!
We rode the Express Number Four train because I refused to ride the Five or Six because it reminded me of Jen. I wanted nothing that I had done with Jen to be in the same case with Mylie. She was my future. I replayed Opal’s warning.
I had to tell her, but how? We walked out of the 96th Street Station and walked a few blocks towards Fifth Avenue. Before my eyes, I saw Central Park. It was huge. We kept walking up towards 102nd street. We approached a tower building as the doorman opened the door.
“Damien!” My doorman smiled, his brown eyes twinkled and crinkled at the corners while his salt and pepper hair hid under his hat, “Ms. James.”
“Hello Eddie,” Opal said as she nervously looked towards Mylie while I gave him a big hug.
“It’s been too long.” Eddie beamed.
“This is my girlfriend.” I hesitated on her name, but Mylie extended her hand,
“Mylie Mier, it’s very nice to meet you.” She smiled as the older man lost his balance. I caught him.
“Dios mio,” he muttered and glared at me as I shook my head.
“What is it?” Mylie watched them, especially the man before her.
“Mylie, my mom is waiting.”
“Your mom? Damien you didn’t tell me we were meeting your mother.”
“I wanted it to be a surprise.”
“Surprise. I look horrible! I’ve been crying.”
“Why were you crying?” Eddie asked once again glaring at me.
“Eddie, it’s been a long flight, and she has been through a lot. I have it under control.” My clipped tone was unmistakable, but Eddie didn’t falter in the least.
“We need to talk Damien.” Eddie simply said putting his arms in front of his chest in a very familiar way that I couldn’t place.
“We will.” I smiled towards Mylie. “Come on. My ma is waiting. You mind Eddie?” The doorman walked to the elevator and slipped in a card then inside put in a turnkey and pressed the glowing button that read PH.
“We’ll talk later,” he simply said to me, and he looked towards Mylie with grief in his eyes. “It was very nice seeing you Mylie.”
“Likewise Eddie.” She smiled genuinely, not being able to place why Eddie looked so familiar to her. He nodded. When the doors closed, she looked at both Opal and me. “You’re both hiding something, and I will figure it out. Damien you better hope I don’t find out myself. I’m warning you now.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and waited. When the doors to the penthouse of my mother’s home opened, she faltered a step. Here goes nothing.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Mylie
The foyer was brilliant white with white marble flooring and walls the color of peach. A beautiful round table in the center of the room hid the most magnificent view, and it also hid the women in a cream suit sitting in a wheelchair. My shock was evident and showed in my faltered step; Damien squeezed my hand as we walked further into the foyer, reassuring me. The woman in the wheelchair had a vacant stare, but her eyes lit up when she saw Damien.
“My boy!”
Her radiant smile met her once vacant eyes as tears welled to the rims threatening to escape her beautiful blue eyes. Her dark auburn hair was pulled back elegantly in a chignon. The woman was the epitome of Upper East Side sophistication wearing a beautiful diamond tennis bracelet with matching studs, but it was the necklace that caught my eye. Something all too familiar to me made my heart ache. I stared at the #1 Mom charm, the exact replica we had given to my mother the Christmas before she passed away. I fought through the grief and smiled, surprised that such an elegant woman would wear something so simple, something that a common housewife like my mother had worn.
“Ma, this is Mylie.” She looked towards me and gave me a sweet smile.
“It is so nice to meet you Jen. I hope you take care of my boy.” What?
“No Mama, it’s Mylie.”
“Oh hush boy, that’s what I said. Jen darling, it is so nice to meet you sweetheart. My boy has told me so much about you, and how you both run around Columbia like love sick children.”
She gave sweet chuckle. All I could do was stare. Damien squeezed my hand tightly, and I gave him a reassuring smile. I realized that Mrs. James must have suffered from dementia or Alzheimer.
“It is a truly a pleasure ma’am.” I gave her my reassuring smile and proper southern etiquette.
“Bless your heart, you’re from the South! Oh Damien, you got yourself a fine woman. Please dear, come sit with me.” She pointed towards. I did as I was asked and sat next her on a comfortable couch in the sitting area of the home.
“You have a lovely home ma’am.”
“It is nice, isn’t it? It was my parents’, but when they passed on, they left it to me. My sisters had the plantation in Savannah, and the beach house in the Hamptons was split among the three of us. Where are you from?”
“I live in a town called Pointe Hope, and it has been my home since
I was a child. My grandparents retired and are abroad now.”
“Damien, isn’t that where you bought that Victorian?”
“Yes ma,” he said hopeful.
“Pointe Hope.” She grabbed my hand, and like Opal, she was quiet. “Hopeless.”
“Excuse me?”
“You feel everything is hopeless, but it isn’t. Soon, you will have a reason to hope.” I turned to look at Damien and Opal where they stood quietly. “So much tragedy for such young children. It does break my heart, but at least you found your family now.”
“Ma, are you feeling all right?”
“Yes my darling but I am sleepy. I think I will have my nap now. Jen, will you come with me?”
“Uh, yes ma’am of course.” Damien’s and Opal’s expressions matched my own, confused. Mrs. James guided me to her suite in the spacious penthouse.
“Dear, do you see that box on my vanity?” I nodded. “Would you mind bringing it to me?”
“Of course.” I did as she asked and placed the mahogany wooden box on her lap.
“Oh no dear, that is for you. Please open it.”
I slowly sat on the bench at the end of her king size bed as I lifted the heavy wooden lid. What was inside took my breath away, and I couldn’t speak a word. My hands carefully went through the contents in the box, as my mind tried to process the information I saw.
“Mylie!” Damien broke my concentration. “Ma how could you? This isn’t what it seems Mylie.”
I felt betrayed.
“What part Damien? The part that you had this, or the part that you knew who I was? Or the part that you lied!”
“Please let me explain,” he begged, but I was too furious to listen.
“You lied, why should I let you explain?”
“Because I didn’t realize until this afternoon, and I have spent all day trying to figure out a way to tell you. I promise I didn’t know.”
“What made you sure? What gave it away this afternoon?”
“When you talked about the accident, I suspected, but when Eddie saw you, his reaction confirmed it.”
“Eddie? The doorman?”
“Yes, Eddie the doorman. Your Uncle Eddie.”
Oh my God!
Damien
“Do you understand now?”
We’ve been talking for hours, and she just sat in silence. I watched as she looked through the newspaper clippings of her parents’ accident. I had collected them in hopes of locating her and Nik for Eddie. Eddie was filled with guilt due to a fight with Mylie’s dad; Eddie had kicked them out, but has lived to regret that decision ever since. When he saw in a newspaper article that his brother had died in the hospital, he was on a mission to find his niece and nephew. His family refused to tell him anything for his actions.
Unfortunately, Mylie’s grandparents changed their last names to their grandmother’s maiden name when they received guardianship, and we couldn’t locate them. Mylie was her middle name; her birth name was Alessandra Mylie Velazquez. When I was fifteen, I found Eddie crying in the back of the building clutching the newspaper, and when I asked him what was wrong, he didn’t hold anything back. I was distraught for this man, but I knew that I wanted to help him find those kids.
I went to the library every day for a year, searching for clues, but everything I found was a dead end. Every year on the anniversary of his brother’s death, we would go the library to try to collect more information. Random Google searches never came up with anything useful.
“You’ve been looking for me my most of my life.” She stared in awe at the clippings.
“It’s fate.” We both turned to look at Opal; she was quietly watching us, smiling. “You were destined to meet each other. Mylie made sure no man could fit her perfect ideal, and you Damien have been searching for her never knowing she was the one you were destined to be with.” She had a lost look on her face. “But you need to be careful, for you’re not out of the woods until you find that man.” She left as quietly as she had arrived, but the darkness that loomed over us still was there.
“She’s right.” Mylie just stared into my eyes, and I waited, “I’ve been waiting for you. No one has ever met my standards; you infuriated me as much as I desired you. You’ve had me puzzled. I think I’ve loved you since the first day you found me.”
I pulled her face towards mine and stared into her eyes. I loved her, and I wanted her. I kissed her softly, and then pulled away.
“I have a surprise for you.”
“I think I have had enough surprises to last me a lifetime.”
“Come on, just one more.” She bit her beautiful full bottom lip and suppressed a smiled while nodding her head.
“Okay, but I want to see someone first,” she conceded
“Of course.” We tried to leave the room quietly while my mom was napping on the sofa, but she stirred and saw us leaving.
“Oh Mylie, I knew you were the one.” She fluttered her eyes and fell back to sleep with a beautiful smile.
“You’re right about that Ma,” I whispered, and she just nodded her head and continued to sleep.
Her nurse waved us off as we went down the elevator. We approached the desk, and Eddie had his hands covering his face, his shoulders visibly shaking.
“Tio,” Mylie startled Eddie, but when he looked at her beautiful face, he cried shamelessly. “It’s not your fault Tio.”
“Mi nena,” he choked out as he walked towards Mylie, unsure of what to do, but Mylie grabbed the man in a hard embrace.
They cried in each other arms for the loss of the man they both loved. He had lost a brother, and she had lost a father. Mylie and Eddie’s pain and suffering multiplied when a few women in the building who knew of Eddie’s story cried at the sight of the reunited family. They may never get Xavier Velazquez back, but they had found each other, at last.
“We will catch up okay?” She pulled away and wiped her tears and smiled.
“Yes we have the rest of our lives to catch up.”
We left the building and walked across the street into Central Park. We walked in silence, and she looked around smiling and slowly grabbed my hand. All was right in the world with this singular action, and I felt like I could do exactly what I had planned to do. It was relatively warm for December, but the ice skating rink was in full season.
“You ice skate before?”
“No, it doesn’t get cold much in Pointe Hope.” She laughed, and I smiled. She was perfect.
“Come on.”
We grabbed some skates; she was wobbly standing there in her gloves and scarf, cowl neck sweater and jeans. Her leather trench coat was keeping her warm, but I didn’t want to prolong this too long. “You ready?”
“Don’t you dare laugh if I bust my ass,” she giggled as she unsteadily walked her way to the ice.
She held the wall for support and slowly let go. Her nose was rosy and her cheeks were red and she had the biggest smile I had ever seen. As she made her way around the rink, I signaled the worker to get everything ready. I skillfully skated to the middle of the rink and watched as a little girl with a bright pink fluffy coat went up to Mylie. She tugged on her coat, and smiled.
“Excuse me,” she said softly. Mylie stopped and bent over to talk to the little girl who looked to be no more than six years old.
“Yes?”
The little girl pulled from behind her back a single white tulip with a tag saying WILL. She handed it Mylie and skated away before she could react. Next, a little boy went up to Mylie and gave her a yellow tulip with the tag saying YOU, followed by another little girl with a lavender tulip. The third child turned Mylie towards me in the middle of the rink. I had a bouquet of red tulips in one hand; she covered her mouth. Next to me were seven children holding letters that spelled out MARRY ME, as I got down on bended knee with my great grandmother’s engagement ring that Aunt Opal had retrieved from the bank earlier that day.
The kids behind Mylie pushed her forward causing her to lose her bala
nce and fall on her ass. The rink was silent until Mylie’s trill of laughter rang through the rink, then everyone started to chuckle. She steadied herself, got up, and slowly skated towards me.
“So you want me huh?” She smirked, with a small dimple showing on her cheek, and her eyes full of love.
“No, not want. I need you like I need air. I desire you like a burning flame to wood, and within the ashes and the embers will be a phoenix with my love for you always. I more than want you Mylie, I want you to be my wife. Will you marry me?” Her tears glistened in her eyes as she stood watching me in awe. “My knee is getting cold babe?”
“YES!” she reached down and pulled me in a tight embrace.
All was right in the world for once because I had found the love of my life.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Mylie
I stared at my ring in awe. Saying yes felt right, and everything felt right for once. I looked at myself in the mirror wearing an ice blue negligee that matched Damien’s eyes, something that Diana had insisted I pack. My garter belt attached to my thigh highs, and the only piece of jewelry I wore was my engagement ring. My lips were glossy, and my hair in waves. However, my gift for him was under the negligee.
Damien had left to check on his mother, and I took advantage of my time alone at the hotel. I wore a satin white robe tied in the front, pacing and taking calming breaths. I looked at the sexy woman in the mirror, scared like a little girl anticipating what was to come. This would be the first time that Damien would see me naked since our first time, and I was excited to see how he would react to my surprise. I was also nervous and scared, but in the end, I knew that this was the beginning of our forever.
“My’!” Damien yelled out.
This is it girl. Let’s rock his world.
“I’m in the room.”
He walked into the room filled with lit candles that cast a romantic glow on the bed where I lay propped in a seductive, yet unnatural, position. I wanted to give him the full effect, so I placed my left hand on the bed moving it just so that the diamond would catch the light of the candles giving the desire twinkling effect I wanted.