“Oh my God,” I say and stand up. “Excuse me, Lois. I really need to borrow a bathroom.”
I hear him say as I walk away, “I’m going to marry her, don’t give me that look, Mom.”
“Well, you seem to be putting the horse before the cart, Randy, and that’s not like you.”
“I’d marry her today if she’d let me,” he says and I close the door.
How could I be so naïve?
Max
I’m home alone as Lexi is pissed at me. She thinks I was secretly trying to get her pregnant. Yet another thing no-one ever did for the poor girl was tell her how the birds and the bees work. She thought when I told her everything would be alright, I meant that she wouldn’t get pregnant.
How dumb is that?
Of course I told her that it meant I would marry her and we would be a happy family. She went to her apartment and told me she’s done with me. My little angel Kate was so unhappy when I told her the news, she said she was coming to fix it all. I don’t know how she plans on making Lexi understand I wasn’t duping her into having my baby, but hey, at least Lexi will talk to her. I’ve been removed from the circle.
Even Marcos laughed and told her how silly she was being, but she told him something about sucking on some rotten eggs or turtle eggs or some crazy thing like that. I told Kate the address of Lexi’s apartment and she’s stopping there first. Hopefully she will come here with my love and everything will be fine again.
Alexis
I lie on my bed and count. It’s what I do when I’m trying not to think about things. I can’t remember ever feeling so dumb. It’s been a week since I broke things off with Max. I took a pregnancy test and thank God it came back negative. That man acts as if I’m insane for thinking he was taking care of the birth control thing.
Okay, now I know! I’m an idiot! Hasn’t that been established yet?
A knock comes on my bedroom door and Marcos says, “Lexi, there’s a sweet, little French girl to see you, dear.”
A French girl? What the?
I open the door and see Kate, Max’s angel. “Did he send you?” I ask and turn to go back and lie on my bed.
“No, no,” she says as she comes into my room and sits on the bed. “I am here all on my own. It’s so nice to see you again, Lexi.”
I sit up and realize I’m being rude. “I’m sorry, Kate. I really am. It’s just that I realize I’m too dumb for Max. I’m so clueless I didn’t even realize he wanted to get me pregnant.”
“Oh! That’s a happy thing, isn’t it?” she asks. “You are the love of his life and he is yours after all.”
I nod. “But, I’m not sure about us yet and I know Max and if we ever have a kid, well he’ll never let me go.”
“He will never let you go anyway. Can’t you see that?” she asks as she pats my shoulder.
“There’s not much he can do about that if I refuse to see him, but a kid, now that changes everything,” I say and fall back on a mountain of pillows.
“I would readily have his children,” Kate says and I sit back up.
“You love him, don’t you?” I ask.
She nods. “Wee, wee, I do, and to be frank with you, if you don’t want him, I’d like to ask permission from you to pursue him. It is you who holds his heart after all. It is only you who can release it to another.”
“I knew it!” I say as I get up and pace around my room. “I knew you wanted him.”
“So what?” she says and stands too. “You do not want him and he’s a special man. Most would cherish him, the good man he is. You run from him and his love. You leave him for wanting only to build a family with you. You cut off your own nose to spite your face. If that’s how you want to live your life, then you are bad for him. No matter how you two were meant to be together or not.”
“And you will take him?” I stop my pacing and ask. “You will make him happy?”
“Wee, wee, I will try. I know I can do better by him than you have,” she says and flounces down on the chair in my room. “Never would I let him go, not ever.”
It rips me apart as she crams in my face how I’m no good for him. My ways are mean and he deserves better. He does deserve an angel and I can’t be one for him. “You know what, you’re right, Kate. I give his heart over to you. I’m not good for him.”
“You would really do that, Lexi?” she asks. “Perhaps you’d like more time to think before you give away someone so precious. Perhaps you’re making a decision which may be bad for you both.”
I shake my head. “Nope, I think it’s the right one. You are his little angel. I’m sure he can be happy with you. I’m sure you’d love to spoil him and he you. Yeah, go take him, he’s yours.”
Her blue eyes dance as she makes her way to the door. “Poor woman, so many insecurities. Great beauty such as yours should flow through every part of you. Whoever hurt you did a great injustice to this world, to destroy a person who was supposed to be a great woman, full of compassion and love, and a zest for life itself.”
“Yeah, well some did and they took it away along with my pride,” I say and lie back.
She closes the door behind her and gives me a sad look. “Bye, Lexi. I hope one day you get better.”
Max
The doorbell rings and my heart races as I make my way to the door. I pray Kate has Lexi with her. I open the door to see Kate, alone. “You couldn’t talk any sense into her,” I say and reach out to hug my little angel.
“She is broken, Max. I do not know what will fix the poor woman,” she says and I lead her into the house. “I told her I was going to pursue you and she told me to go ahead and do it.”
“Really?” I ask. “She’d just let me go, just like that? After all we shared with each other. After all we’ve been through with each other, she’d just hand me over?” I ask as I throw my hands in the air. “What am I to do with that, tell me, Kate?”
“You are to do what I tell you to, if you want her to see her mistake in giving you up once and for all, Max.” Kate’s eyes go narrow and she says, “Place an announcement in the paper and a picture of us in the wedding announcements section. I brought my mother’s enormous and gorgeous engagement ring just in case we had to resort to this.”
“Maybe this isn’t worth trying so hard for anymore, Kate. Maybe I should move on,” I say.
Her tiny hand grabs my arm and she shouts in a tiny voice, it’s adorable, “I will not take this attitude from you too, Max! She is why I found you and you know it. Now we have to make her know it as well, and she’s stubborn so it won’t be easy, but I never plan on letting you give up the fight for a love as glorious as one day yours will be.”
With tiny stomps, she moves away muttering things in French and I can see my little angel will never allow me to give up.
Oh! What Hell will I have to go through for this woman to stop being so crazy and just let me love her already?
Part 6 Secrets of Seduction
Alexis
Light streams through the window and I rub my tired eyes. I slept like puppy poop last night after my encounter with Kate. She wants Max, and I told her to go for it. But I tossed and turned as I dreamt of a life without him in it. It was awful and I know I need him in my life.
The words Kate said about me being someone who was supposed to be something else keep running through my head. Maybe those girls who beat me nearly to death when I was a teenager did break something in me.
I never got any therapy after the incident. When my parents didn’t press any charges, no one seemed to think about the fact it might be something I needed. Now I think I might need some, so I think I’ll find me a therapist today and go see Max.
I can’t lose him. I need to keep him around until I fix what’s wrong with me. I roll out of bed and a banging comes on my bedroom door. “Oh my God, Lexi, you have to see this!” Marcos screeches.
Moving quickly, I open the door and the newspaper is in my face. Max and Kate are on the front page and she’s holding up a
monster engagement ring. I turn and run back to my bathroom as I start crying.
Marcos comes in and wraps his arms around me. “Lexi, sweetie, don’t cry. If he really is marrying her so soon, he wasn’t the one for you.”
“I was going to go see him today,” I say as I feel a bout of nausea welling up in me. “I’m going to get therapy so I can stop being so crazy.”
“What a great idea,” Marcos says and gets a wet washcloth and taps it all over my face. “After your horrible experience, you really should.”
“I love him so much,” I say as I fall apart and cry on Marcos’s shoulder.
“Perhaps there’s still a chance for you two,” he says.
I shake my head as I sob, knowing I did this.
I told her to take him and she did! And he let her!
Max
My stomach aches with what Kate had me do. I know it’ll break Lexi’s heart no matter what she’s said. Kate assures me Lexi will be running to me by the end of the day. She said sometimes that great love comes with great pain. It’s the pain that lets us know what we have is real.
If that’s true, then what we have is very real as this is killing me to do to her. Kate took my cell phone so I couldn’t get weak and call Lexi to tell her the engagement isn’t true. That little chic is hard as nails.
I think I should take a run to put this out of my mind and see what happens. If she doesn’t contact me by tonight, I’m calling her first thing in the morning and telling her it isn’t true. It’s not in me to torture someone.
Apparently the French are ruthless!
Alexis
I lie in my bed and cry as Marcos has left for a shoot I couldn’t bring myself to go to. I cried all day yesterday when I saw the news and this morning I woke up crying again. It’s crazy how awful I feel. I want to call him so bad, but feel so dumb for telling her to take him. And I’m pissed at him for saying he’d marry her so quickly. I’m sure he still loves me.
Why’d he do that?
Something slams outside my room and I sit up. Marcos is gone and I’m here alone. I jump up and run to open the bedroom door.
It might be Max!
As I throw the door open a fuzzy flash comes at me. I don’t have my contacts on yet and someone is grabbing me by my throat. I choke as I’m pushed back onto the bed. The blur sits on top of me, holding my flailing arms down. A woman’s voice says, “You bitch, you fucked it all up for me and now Max is marrying someone else. You should’ve stayed out of his life. You’ve made my life Hell and now I’ll make sure to repay the favor.”
I blink as I try hard to see who’s doing this. Then she leans in as I find I can struggle no more with no air coming into my lungs. I can see her.
It’s Ashley Sinclair!
Max
The time has come to stop this charade which is surely causing my love so much pain. Lexi never called, so I know she’s hurting and this scam of Kate’s didn’t work. I found Kate and got my cell phone back. She apologized for her plan not working and told me I should give it a few days, but I can’t do that.
I call her number, and it’s ringing. And now it’s going to voice mail, so she isn’t going to answer me. Okay then I guess I’ll leave her a text, telling her it’s not true and then call her in a little while. Maybe she’ll call me then.
A man can hope!
Alexis
I open my eyes and find I’m handcuffed to a small bed. The room is dark, but I can make out the red light of a cigarette. It smells awful and a grey swirl of smoke encircles the head of someone with blonde hair as the small amount of light reflects on the platinum shade of it. I try to speak, but find it hard as my throat hurts so much. I swallow hard and manage to whisper, “Why are you doing this to me?”
Her laugh is low, and it sounds more like a growl. “Miss Mathews, you should know why. You ruined my life. I told you I’d get you and you wouldn’t know when or where.”
The crazy woman still holds a grudge. “Ashley, I don’t have him either, so why do this?”
“I would’ve had him securely in my possession if you hadn’t shown up in that park that day. And you could’ve left him alone. You did see he was with a woman after all.”
“He loves me,” I say then remember he’s marrying Kate. “Well, he did love me, but I messed that all up. Believe me, I’m being punished enough.”
“I’ll decide when that’s happened, Miss Mathews.” She takes another puff and the red light brightens.
“You shouldn’t smoke, it can kill you,” I say.
“I’m not worried about that, nor should you be,” she says and takes another hit. “That isn’t how you’ll die, don’t worry. I’m trying to figure out just how I’ll make that happen. I just about choked you to death, but changed my mind in the last moment and decided that would be too easy.”
“Let me guess,” I say. “You want to see me suffer.”
“That I do,” she says and stands up, moving closer to me. “So you hate cigarettes?”
“Don’t even think about it, Ashley,” I say as I try my best to remain calm. “You’re not a bad person, I know you aren’t. Think about things before you hurt me, please think about things.”
She pauses and laughs like a maniac. “Think? That’s all I’ve done is think. I thought about you and my Max fucking the nights away. I’ve thought about you and my Max laughing together about me and how you both made such a fool of me.”
“We never did that. I swear it to you, Ashley.”
I hear a knocking sound and Ashley turns and runs from the room. I see light as she runs out the door and think I may be in some type of hotel suite. Maybe if she leaves I can make a lot of noise and someone will come see what it’s about.
Max
I cannot believe Lexi has not even bothered to text me back. I’m sure she’s pissed at what we did, but come on. At least a text telling me to go fuck myself or something is in order!
It’s nearly nine at night and Kate and I are going over to the apartment to tell her how sorry we are and let her know we only did it so she’d see how much I really mean to her. At least I know Marcos will let us in.
I punch in the gate code and we park. Kate looks up at me as we walk up to the door. “I’m so sorry, Max. This woman is much more stubborn than any I’ve ever known.”
“Kate, maybe you need to know a little about Lexi’s past to understand her better. You see, when she was a young teenager, a bunch of girls got her to go with them to a park. She was hoping they wanted to be friends with her as she had none. Instead, they led her down by a river and beat her, leaving her for dead.”
Kate’s hands fly over her mouth and she pales. “Oh, my!”
I nod. “To make things worse, they pulled all her clothes off except her underwear and when she made it out of there alive they said she went down the river bank with some boys they’d never seen around before and they must’ve done that to her. They accused her of being a slut which she was nothing of the sort. Nothing was ever done to the girls and Lexi got a nasty reputation.”
Kate’s eyes shine with tears. “I should’ve never handled this the way I have.”
I pull her into a hug. “It’s my fault. You didn’t know.”
“How horrible I feel, Max.” she says as she cries. “I hope she can forgive the foolish girl I am.”
I let her go and ring the doorbell. Both cars are here, hers and Marcos’s so I know they’re home. I ring it again and Marcos answers the door. He’s a little inebriated as he stumbles back and gestures for us to come in. “Well, if it isn’t the happy new couple.”
Kate bursts into sobs. “I’m so sorry this was all my idea. Max only went along because I told him it would get Lexi to come to her senses.”
“Well, guess what?” he asks then plops onto the sofa. “She’s run off. Imagine that, Max. You’ve run her off again.”
“Her car’s here, so tell me how she’s run off, Marcos?” I say as I make my way back to her bedroom, sure the two of them cam
e up with a plan to hurt me right back.
I throw open the door and she isn’t there. I make my way to Marcos’s bedroom and throw that door open too. She’s not in either room so I check both bathrooms and make sure she isn’t hiding in the dark on the patio. It did take him a while to open the door after all.
I stride back into the living room where Kate still cries and Marcos looks quite odd as he’s wearing a T-shirt and blue jeans and running shoes. His hair is wind-blown and his cheeks are pink. “You need to tell me where she is, Marcos.”
He looks up at me. “Believe me, if I knew I would. I’ve walked all over this complex to see where she might be. I mean she ran off with nothing. Not a damn thing. Her contacts and glasses are even here. How can she leave without those?”
I shake my head. Then go back into her bedroom and look over the whole thing. Her purse, her keys, everything is still here. My eyes scan the floor and I find something is missing. I run back into the living room. “Do either of you remember the rug that was on the wood floor in her bedroom?” They both nod. “It’s gone.”
Marcos blinks. “Why in the Hell would she only take the damn rug? This doesn’t make any sense at all.”
“Marcos, I think we should call the police,” I say.
Kate runs to me and I hug her. “We’ll find her, angel.”
“I’m so sorry,” she says. Her tiny body shakes as I hold her and she cries. “We will find her, won’t we, Max?”
I nod, but fear fills me.
Who would want to take her?
Winter Page 88