Butterfly Girl

by Greenleigh Adams

  “My little Cameron is finally bringing a girl over to our house. I’m so happy, I not sure how I’ll be able to contain my excitement until tomorrow. What’s her name?”

  “Her name is Alexis. She works with Lean Bean.”

  “Oooh, so she’s a nurse?”

  “Yes. And we’re just getting to know each other, so don’t go planning a wedding or anything. Besides, she just wants to be friends.”

  “Well, that won’t last. You’re handsome and charming. You’ll win her heart over before long, sweetheart. Tell her I’m thrilled beyond words to have her over for dinner tomorrow.”

  “All right, MommaRita. I will, but I have to go. Love you.”

  “Love you, too. See you tomorrow.”

  He ended his call and continued to stare at me. “I’m sorry. My mother is very loud on the phone. I have to remember to turn the volume back up after we’re done talking, otherwise, I can’t hear anyone else who calls me.”

  “Does she always speak that loudly, or is it just when she’s on the phone? I’d like to have an idea what I’m in for since you told her I was going to her house for dinner without even asking me yet.” We both stood in our respective spots. He in my living room, and me at the edge of the hallway.

  “Will you please go with me to dinner at my parents’ house tomorrow? Charlie will be there. And Louis. And Claudette. And apparently, Travis.” He shook his head as if trying to wrap his mind around that.

  “I’ll think about it.” I shrugged and began to retreat to my bedroom. His footsteps followed behind me.

  “Butterfly, trust me. You’ll want to go. My mother is an amazing cook. You won’t want to miss out on her culinary magic.” That did sound tempting.

  I whipped my head back around to face him once I had re-entered my room. What is he doing in here anyway? How is it possible that he feels like it’s okay for him to be in my personal space just like that? “What’s with the ‘MommaRita’? Is there a story there? And what about Lean Bean?”

  He took a seat on the edge of the mattress and chuckled. I continued to stand, taking in how comfortable he appeared in my room.

  “My mother’s name is Rita. So you can call her that. Or Mrs. C. That’s what Louis calls her. But don’t call her Mrs. Callahan. She hates when adults do that.” He slid back toward the headboard and stretched his long legs out in front of him. Then he padded the area next to him. As if it was the most natural thing to do, I instinctively slid into the spot next to him. “When I was five or six, my mother was going out to have some drinks with her friends. They were going to have margaritas, but I thought she had said momma-ritas. I thought there was a drink named after her, so I started calling her MommaRita. She thought it was adorable, so it stuck. Louis and Charlie have always teased me and called me a momma’s boy. Maybe I am. Technically, I’m the youngest, and I’m the only boy, so she’s always had a soft spot for me.”

  “Which means you could get away with murder.” The irony of my statement almost made me shudder. I had meant for the comment to be lighthearted, but given the dream I had last night, I felt my insides begin to churn.

  “I guess it’s fair to say that I tended to get away with more than the girls. My mom always said it was my hazel eyes. My sisters have blue and gray ones. MommaRita said that the hazel ones are magic. She said I have the same eyes as my dad and when she looks into them, she is totally hypnotized and can be manipulated into anything.” He shrugged indifferently.

  “So that’s Batman’s superpower? Hypnotic eyes? I guess I better not stare too long, or you’ll get me to do all kinds of crazy things.” I was inexperienced at flirting, but I was pretty sure that I may have sounded like I was doing just that.

  Cam leaned toward me, and my heart turned over in response. When my phone vibrated on my nightstand, I reflexively jumped. Still startled, I released my cell from the charging cable and viewed the name on my screen.

  “Hey, Charlie,” I answered while watching Cam roll his eyes and flop back on my bed.

  “How do you feel about shopping?”

  I wasn’t sure what she was asking. I needed clarification. “You mean, like, for groceries?”

  She snickered on the other end of the line. “You are just like me. No, I mean for clothes. Like trying on outfits at stores in the mall and then spending too much money.”

  “It’s not really my thing, why?”

  “I have to go to a firehouse awards banquet with Louis, and I need a new dress. Please come with me! I’ll take you to lunch afterward. I absolutely hate shopping for dresses. I don’t want to go by myself, and if I ask Claudette, she’ll make me look for accessories, and I’ll end up with a manicure and a makeover. Please save me from that torture!”

  I could understand the whole misery loves company mentality. “Okay. I’ll go. What time should I meet you?” I wasn’t even sure what time it was. I hadn’t glanced at the clock before I walked into my living room this morning.

  “I’ll pick you up in a half-hour. Can you be ready by then?”

  “Yep. See you soon.” I ended the call with Charlie and then observed her brother still laying on my bed with his hands covering his eyes. “You need to go. I don’t want your sister finding out that you spent the night at my place.”

  He removed his hands from his face and sat upright. “I guess I should explain that Charlie—or as I call her, Lean Bean—and I don’t have secrets from each other. I won’t tell her right now, but I will eventually. Because she’s my best friend, and she is going to want to be told about every detail with Butterfly girl. If you spend the day with her, she’ll be probing you for information, too. And you’ll likely give it to her, because she’s a good friend, and you’ll want to tell her.”

  “So you’re saying, everything I share with you will go to your sister.” I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

  “If there’s something you don’t want me to tell her, I’ll keep it to myself. I should rephrase. I don’t usually keep secrets from her. But I can assure you that Lean Bean and I are the best secret keepers you will ever meet.”

  “Is the reason you call your sister Lean Bean a secret?”

  He flashed his megawatt smile at me and let out the cutest chuckle. “Uh…no. I couldn’t pronounce Charlene when I was little, so I called her Lean. At some point, I added Bean, and that’s how it’s been ever since.”

  “So you have a nickname for your mom and your twin sister…”

  “And you,” he interjected before I finished my thought.

  “What about Claudette? You have a nickname for her, too?”

  “Nah. I just call her Claude. She and I didn’t exactly get along very well when we were growing up. She hated being called Claude, so that’s why I did it.” He slid closer to me. “I only have nicknames for the most important women in my life.”

  My heart ascended into my throat, so I choked it back down. I wasn’t exactly sure what he was saying. Does he mean I’m one of the most important women in his life? We hardly knew each other anymore. I was aware that he wanted to get reacquainted again, but I certainly wasn’t ready to tell him about my past.

  I finally convinced Cam to leave my apartment so I could get ready to go shopping with Charlie. She picked me up just as promised.

  “Thanks for going to the mall with me. I haven’t met many girls like me, so I’m usually forced to go on these adventures alone.” Charlie looked genuinely happy that I had agreed to tag along. Then again, maybe she was happy for another reason.

  “Thanks for asking. I haven’t had real friends in a while. This is nice.” I returned the smile while sitting in the front seat.

  “I’m just ecstatic to have a female friend. I love Louis and my brother, but I can’t count on them to give me an honest opinion when it comes to shopping. They’d say everything looks great just to get out of the store faster,” she scoffed.

  “It sounds like you have done the whole shopping excursion a time or two with them before?”

  “Unfo
rtunately, yes.”

  We went to several different stores, and Charlie tried on a dozen dresses. She finally decided on a long, flowing black dress with a low-cut bodice and tapered waist. She looked amazing in it. I was sure that Louis would love it. After that, we went to get some lunch. We left the mall and visited a restaurant across the highway from the shopping center.

  “So I can’t keep it in any longer.” She sat across from me in a booth after we placed our order with the waitress. “I know you’re Butterfly.”

  I must have let my astonishment overtake my expression because I was truly taken aback by her abrupt comment. “Okay?” I figured she had more to say about the topic.

  “And Cam said you just want to be friends, which is absolutely fine. But I just wanted to tell you that I have never seen him so into a girl before.” That bit of information actually made me do a little internal happy dance.

  “So he told you I was the girl from the school bus?” He had said he told her everything.

  “Please.” She let out a slight giggle. “I figured it out the same time he did. Of course, I had to fill Louis in later. He didn’t put two and two together as easily. Plus, Cam and I have a little bit of a twin vibe between us. It sounds weird, but we’re very in tune with each other. He can sometimes tell what I’m thinking before I do.” She laughed again.

  I enjoyed hearing about her relationship with her brother. They were such good friends, and Louis seemed to fit well into their dynamic. I couldn’t imagine another man being so accepting of the special bond those two had. I could see a different boyfriend being jealous of the closeness the twins had. I envied that connection. I certainly appreciated that they both wanted to include me in a friendship.

  “He invited me to your parents’ house for dinner tomorrow.” My inner teenager felt a little like I was confessing to my friend about a secret crush who had just asked me out on a date.

  “Oh, I’ve heard. My mother called me right after I spoke to you this morning. I could barely understand what she was saying between all the squealing.” She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table to move closer to me. “She’s more than a little excited that my brother, the ever bachelor, is bringing a girl home to meet Mom and Dad. She’ll probably hug, kiss, and squeeze you to pieces. I hope it doesn’t scare you off.”

  “I appreciate the warning.” How in the world am I going to survive that? I can’t stand to let someone hug and kiss me. Maybe I should rethink this whole dinner-with-the-parents thing.

  I drew in a quick, sharp breath as I grappled with the sudden onset of anxiety. I couldn’t erase the panic I was sure I wore across my face and wreaked havoc within my body. Perspiration oozed out of my pores, causing a cool, clammy sensation along my skin.

  “Are you okay, Alexis? You look pale and diaphoretic. If you weren’t so young, I’d be worried you were having a heart attack.”

  Maybe I was. My throat was dry. My hands were sweaty. I felt lightheaded. Maybe this was what a heart attack felt like. “I guess I’m just not a touchy-feely type of person,” I managed to squeak out.

  “Well, I’ll just tell my mom to keep her hands to herself.” Her expression was serious and stoic. “And don’t worry, I already told my brother to keep his hands to himself.” Then a smile broke across her face. She got me. I may not have had many friends over the span of my life, but if I had to wait until now to end up with the Callahan twins, it was worth it. Maybe I had finally come across people who understood me, and that realization calmed my fears.

  The clouds hung dark and low in the sky, indicating a summer thunderstorm was about to unleash. I managed to escape from Charlie’s car into my apartment before being pelted by an outpouring of thunderous rain pellets. I wasn’t inside my place very long before there was a gentle knocking on my door. After peering out the peephole, I discovered that I had left one Callahan twin only to have another show up at my apartment.

  “What are you doing here, Cam?” I asked as I flung the door open. It really had only been a few hours since I had last seen him.

  He pushed my door open beyond my grasp and eased his way in just as he had done previously. “I understand that you hate surprises. We’ve established that I need to be better about arriving unannounced, but I wanted to see you, Butterfly.” He turned to face me and held up a DVD. “We still haven’t watched Batman. You had said some other time, so here I am.” His hair was freshly wet from the storm, and his T-shirt had caught several hundred droplets of rainwater.

  He was persistent; I’d give him that. “I figured it’d be more of a mutually established time versus bulldozing your way into another opportunity.”

  “Oh, you know you can’t wait to watch this movie.” The devilish grin he displayed was part confident and part sexy.

  “It better be Michael Keaton.” I was actually super excited to see Cam again, but I didn’t want to be obvious. I was confused by my own mixed emotions. I could only imagine what signals I must have given off to him.

  “Of course it is. It’s the perfect rainy-day activity. We’ll watch a DVD, and then if the showers stop, I can take you out to dinner. If it is still downpouring, we can order in.”

  “Cam, you just left me a few hours ago. Aren’t you going to get tired of spending so much time with me?” I had gotten pretty used to being alone, and these Callahans hadn’t left me alone at all today.

  “I will never ever get tired of spending time with you.” Those damn eyes bore a hole right into the pit of my stomach. “If you get tired of me, just say the word, and I’ll go.”

  Say the word. I couldn’t say any words. I had always thought it was the fact that Cam was such an attractive man that made me nervous to be around him. But now I realized it was so much more than that. I wanted him back in my life so desperately when I was six years old. Now that he was here fifteen years later, I couldn’t seem to stop myself from letting him get close to me. I wasn’t sure how all of this was going to work out. I truly didn’t share my crap with anyone. My life was full of baggage, and so far, Cam had been patient and hadn’t pressured me for any explanations about anything. But with him back, how long would I be able to continue to keep my secrets? These contemplations were what made me nervous now.

  I was scared that Cam would find out where I came from, what I had done, and leave me again. I considered myself a strong woman. I dealt with a lot of stuff in my life, but having Batman leave again might be more than I could handle. So now I struggled with clinging onto him and holding on for dear life or keeping him at arm’s length. I would have him as part of my life, but not as an essential piece of it. Who am I kidding? I was screwed.

  “Fine. You can stay.” I hoped I didn’t regret this. “But I need to tell you something.”

  Cam cocked his head and jutted out his jaw. Worry creased his brow in anticipation of what I might say.

  “I don’t want you to get the wrong idea about having you at my apartment. It’s just to watch a movie. I am not having sex with you.”

  The frown he had cautiously worn transformed into that sexy-as-hell crooked grin that he must have perfected during puberty because he did it so effortlessly, and it made me gasp. “For someone who says she’s not going to have sex with me, you certainly think about it a lot.”

  I was only standing a few paces from him, but he stepped toward me, closing the distance between us until he stood so close I could smell the rainwater in his hair.

  “When I said watch a movie and have dinner, that’s what I meant.” He brushed my hair off my shoulders, and when he tucked it behind my ear, an unexpected tingling sensation shot up my spine. “If we were to have sex, I’d skip the movie and dinner.” He leaned toward me, and I didn’t feel one bit afraid of his close proximity. I thought he was going to kiss me, so I licked my lips in expectation. His lips quickly brushed against my forehead, and then he quickly retreated to my living area.

  “Uh, Butterfly?”

  I had to break free from the buzzed feeling I was savoring
in when I heard Cam’s voice.

  “Where is your DVD player?”

  Okay, so he made me laugh. He made me lose my ability to think, and he made me smile. I was in trouble for sure. “I don’t have one.”

  “Then how are we supposed to watch the movie?” Confusion marred his face as his brows drew together and his eyes narrowed.

  “It’s on Netflix, silly.”

  He swiped his brow as an exaggerated sign of relief. He really loved his Batman movies.

  We settled onto the couch next to each other while the obligatory preview to the movie started. Cam reached across my lap and linked his thumb with mine. I wasn’t sure what the very warm feeling that began to stir within my belly was, but it was comforting…and it felt right.

  He had been right next to me, but now he was gone. I knew we were next to each other on the couch, and Cam was holding my hand in our special way. But now it had gotten dark. I must have fallen asleep during the movie. The glare from my television provided enough light for me to see in my dark living room. I was alone on my couch. Maybe Cam had gotten up to use the bathroom? Maybe he had gone to get food? I remembered him saying if it was raining, he’d order takeout. But why didn’t he tell me he was leaving? When I heard knocking, I didn’t even bother to look through the peephole. It had to be Cam. He probably went and picked up dinner.

  However, when I opened the door, a man who I hadn’t seen in over a decade stood on the other side. I attempted to shut the entrance quickly, but he was fast enough to push against the heavy metal. He got his fingers wedged around the jamb, but I didn’t care. I wanted him gone, so I slammed the door against his hand in an effort to force him to release his hold.

  “Get out of here! I don’t want to see you ever again!” I yelled as I shoved my door shut, cracking against his now bleeding knuckles. I continued to push against his hand, but he used his body weight to press against my door. I wasn’t going to be able to keep him out.