by Sadie Grubor
I can’t even remember the last thing I was thinking before I fell asleep but it led to me waking up panicked from a horrible dream. I had dreamt about having a little boy holding his arms up to me, no matter how hard I tried to reach for him I couldn’t. I felt his little fingers as he seemed to be pulled away from me and then he was in the arms of a faceless man who was taking him away. It was horrible.
I grabbed the papers from the coffee table and threw them into the garbage can.
"God damn him!" I shouted to the garbage can. I went to my room to get ready for another night at the club.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The club was packed tonight and I didn’t get a moment to think about anything other than work, which was great given my current train of thought. As I finished shaking up a couple of drinks I noticed a familiar face at the end of the bar. I poured the cocktails and placed them in front of the group that had ordered them before heading down to the dark, handsome man.
"Hey you," I smiled and leaned forward to kiss his cheek.
"Hey," Demitri replied back.
"Haven’t seen you for awhile?" I smiled again. "What’s going on?"
"I’ve been traveling for the past few months, overseeing different projects."
I nodded as I poured his whiskey and placed it in front of him.
"So…?"
"So?" I teased.
"Such a tease. What time do you get off tonight?"
"Not sure, how quickly can you make that happen?" I winked and he swallowed a gulp of whiskey.
"You never change do you?" He smiled.
"Would you want me to?" I batted my eyes.
"Never," he winked. "How about you let me drive you home tonight?"
I nodded and was just about to speak when Celia interrupted.
"Demitri, when did you get in town? We haven’t seen you around here in forever." She leaned forward and kissed his cheek.
"I’ve been in Vegas overseeing a project." He shrugged.
"Vegas huh? I would love to go to Vegas sometime." She smiled.
"Excuse me." Celia rolled her eyes and went to help the person yelling for a drink.
"I’ll see you after two, okay?" I said walking backwards to the other end of the bar.
"See you then," he shouted over the music.
The rest of the night went slow, but it was busy. I think it was the anticipation of seeing Demitri tonight. It had been awhile and it was needed. The batteries could only do so much.
At the end of the night, Celia stayed to finish up and I headed out to look for Demitri. Once I was out of the club doors I scanned the street for his black car. I caught sight of a familiar silver car but, before I could think too much about it, Demitri’s black car appeared at the curb in front of me. I climbed in. First stop his place.
Demitri stopped at a twenty-four hour diner with a huge neon open sign in the window. With sandwiches, soup and a couple side dishes, we went to his place. The building held multiple studio apartments. Demitri, of course, leased the largest on the top floor.
His place held minimal furniture; a couch, coffee table and chair. The light gray walls held a few modern artworks. The most intriguing piece lined the wall of the staircase leading to his balcony bedroom.
With no dining table or chairs, we ate on the couch, catching up on each other’s lives. After laughing about a story he told, things got physical. Starting with a tender kiss to my mouth, his ministrations soon turned urgent. Leaving a trail of clothing ripped from our bodies, we barely made it to his bed.
When I woke up next to Demitri and saw the first rays of light fill his room, I headed to his bathroom. After showering, I put on my clothes from the night before, grabbed my things from his room, kissed his cheek and left his apartment. This was the routine. We had a good time together and that was all there was to it. Demitri wanted a relationship with me at one time but soon realized we were best this way; friends with occasional benefits.
On the walk to the nearest bus stop, I grabbed a coffee and a bagel. Nibbling on my bagel, I waited for the bus to arrive. I couldn’t help but think about the prior night and smile. It was a much welcomed evening. Sighing, I took a sip of coffee. Lost in my thoughts, I didn’t see the strangely familiar silver car pull up.
"Get in!"
My eyes widened at the sight of Aidan’s car stopped in front of me.
"No!" I shouted back. "Stay away from me!" I growled, crossing my arms and leaning back onto the bench.
"I’m not leaving until you get in the car," he argued.
"Fine!" I stood. He smirked. Idiot! I threw my coffee and bagel bag into the garbage next to the bench and walked down the sidewalk, away from the bus stop and away from Aidan.
Chapter Eight
Stalker
Aidan
I didn’t know what I expected to happen. She would probably think me a crazy stalker but, still, I sat outside of the club waiting for her to emerge. I needed to apologize again for the way I’ve been acting. With the desperation of this awkward situation, I thought we could help each other out.
Lost in my own thoughts, I didn’t even see her walk out of the club until a sleek black car pulled up. She climbed in. Who the hell is that? Before I knew it, I was following the car.
Stalker.
The car stopped in front of a diner and a tall, dark haired guy hurried into the diner. When he emerged, he had a few white paper bags. Once he was in, they sped off until I was in front of a large apartment building, watching them walk in together.
I had never heard anything about a boyfriend. Was she seeing someone? Was she even more upset with me because I had assumed that she wasn’t with anyone? Shit.
Eventually, I dozed off, waking with a cramp in my neck and stiff back. Barely daylight, I assumed she was asleep with this guy or had left, so I started home.
Two minutes into my drive, I caught a glimpse of her sitting on a bus stop bench eating and steam rising from her cup. With her eyes closed, she didn't notice me pulling up to the curb until I rolled down the window and ordered her in.
Her eyes widened and her face reddened. She was pissed. "No!" she shouted. "Stay away from me!"
"I’m not leaving until you get in the car."
"Fine!" I gave a victory smirk as she stood up but when I didn’t hear the door open I looked over and saw her back as she retreated from the bus stop down the sidewalk.
I quickly found a place to park and got out of my car.
"Lilli, wait!" I caught up and stood in front of her.
"What, Aidan? What?" she crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes.
"I’m sorry. Lilli, I never meant to imply that you were for sale or a whore. I know you aren’t, honestly, I didn’t mean that in any way. It came out wrong when I was talking with you."
She furrowed her brow but didn’t say anything.
Before I could stop myself I blurted, "Are you dating someone?"
"Am I...?" She paused. Her faced filled with hate. "Did you follow me?"
I didn’t answer.
"You did! Oh. My. God. You followed me!" She moved to walk around me and I grabbed her arm quickly.
"Let go!" Her hand connected with my face. I knew she'd hit me but I didn’t feel it until the slow sting crept over my cheek.
"Lilli, please, I just…I wanted to talk with you after you got off work. To apologize and to hopefully explain myself but I saw you drive off with someone else and I just couldn’t help it. I figured that maybe you were insulted that I assumed you were single or that—"
"Go to hell, Aidan," she slammed her palms against my chest. "You don’t know anything about me! Leave me alone. You can’t own me, go find someone else to proposition." She stalked away down the sidewalk and I didn’t follow.
Shoulders slouched and my hands in my pockets I headed back to my car. When I climbed in, I took a deep breath, realizing what I needed to do. Pulling out my cell phone, I quickly made a call.
"What the fuck do you want?" he answ
ered with great irritation.
"Well, hello to you too, Dixon."
"Whatever," Dixon spit out and before he could say another word, I launched into my apology and what had happened since last night.
"You did what?" He yelled. "I can’t believe you are such a selfish fucking asshole. Stay away from her."
"Dixon, I don’t want to lose our friendship over this and I am sorry for what happened. I didn’t mean for it to be this way…I just—"
"You are just lucky that she didn’t kick you in the balls. I would have. You deserve it."
I sighed as he continued to rant.
"Dixon, can we please talk. I need to clear this all up." I spit out at him before he could get another rant started.
"Fine, come by tomorrow, after seven, so Lilli isn’t home."
I was about to thank him but he stopped me.
"You’ll be lucky if I don’t kick you in the balls when you get here." He hung up.
Oscar was next, to see if he would also come along.
I should have expected it but was caught off guard when Dixon opened the door and his fist connected with my cheek. Pain blossomed in my cheekbone, spreading to my eye and the side of my nose.
"Fuck!"
Oscar grabbed my shoulders to help steady me.
"You're just lucky I don’t do worse." Dixon shouted before motioning us inside.
I flinched as we walked past Dixon, his hand twitched towards my presence.
"So what do you want?" He sneered as he sat down across from Oscar and me.
"I want to apologize for everything," I said. "I truly didn’t mean for this to get this way."
"Well, it did!" Dixon snapped. "I just don’t understand what happened to you?"
"What?" I wrinkled my forehead in confusion of his question.
"Aidan, when we were in college you totally knew how to talk and charm a girl. What made you think that propositioning a girl like she was a whore would work?" Dixon sat with his eyebrows raised.
"I-I don’t know. I guess I was trying to be businesslike," I answered.
"Idiot," he mumbled.
"Asshole," Dixon corrected.
"Okay, I get it!" I groaned out. "Did you guys ever think about my side of this? I know that you all laugh at the ‘conditions’ that I have and think that I could just randomly select some girl to marry and all that, but it’s much more difficult than that." I ran a hand threw my hair.
"I only have a little over 6 months to get married, which means that, essentially, I need to be planning marriage arrangements in no less than four months." I groaned out loud and threw myself back onto the couch.
"Damn it!" I slapped Oscar’s hand as he placed a towel full of ice on my cheek.
"Use it to keep the swelling and bruising down."
"Okay, so you are desperate, but why be an asshole to Lilli?" Dixon growled.
"I wasn’t trying to be. I guess I just came off that way. I told you it wasn’t my intention." I sighed. "I don’t think for one second that she is ‘for sale’ or that she is a whore. I simply know that she could use some help and I could use a lot of damn help."
Dixon shook his head at me.
"You’re screwed!" He laughed loudly.
Well it was good to see Dixon back with me, at least a little bit.
"Do you even understand what these ‘inheritance conditions’ truly mean to me?" I answered before either of them could say anything. "It means that I am responsible for the security of over 5000 employee’s. If the board takes over the company, my family’s company, I don’t know for sure what they will do but I’m pretty sure that Gideon will do everything in his power to ruin it just to spite Grandfather and my family. Then, on top of that, I’m responsible for securing my family and keeping my grandfather’s things in our family." I sighed in heavy frustration and put the damn ice pack to my cheek.
"I get it," Dixon said in a low voice. "I didn’t really think about it that way but that doesn’t mean —"
"I know, I know. I was wrong in my approach." I sat up quickly. "How can I fix it?" I looked directly into Dixon’s eyes.
He shrugged. "She’s stubborn. I think you should cut your losses and move on to plan B."
"Lilli was plan B." It unintentionally came out condescendingly.
Dixon raised his beer up.
"Here’s to plan C then." He laughed before he took a drink.
I groaned, laying back onto the couch.
"Fuck!" I yelled. Oscar patted my shoulder.
"Look, you have charmed a hell of a lot of women, why are you so intent on it being Lilli?" Oscar drawled. I caught Dixon’s intense look at my face.
"I like Lilli."
Dixon groaned. I sat up straighter.
"I think Lilli is nice and I think she deserves to be better off than she is right now. I know I don’t know her well but at least I do know her, she knows me and we have some of the same friends." I sighed and looked at Dixon. "I really do want to help her out, she’s a nice girl."
"Yeah, she is a nice girl, which is why she shouldn’t get involved with you!" Dixon smirked. "Yet, it would be nice for her to not have to work so much and be so…" He didn’t finish.
"I doubt she would talk to me at this point. Besides, I don’t even know where to begin to –"
"Uh oh," Oscar said after he swallowed the gulp of beer that was in his mouth "I know that look. What are you up to?"
"Nothing." Smiling, I took his beer from him. Tilting my head back, I finished it off.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I sat at my desk trying to concentrate on the contracts in front of me but I was too anxious about my plan. I kept looking at my watch, when I saw that it was four in the afternoon I called Dixon.
"You're crazy," Dixon answered.
I smirked.
"So do you think it will get her to at least talk to me?" I said through my small smile.
"That or she will think that you are an even bigger stalker," he laughed and I frowned. "You still there?"
"Yeah," I breathed out. "You think that it was smart to not go with roses?"
"Definitely. Very smart move on your part, she would’ve thought you were really crazy if you had done that," he chuckled.
"You sure? Because I am trying to make—"
"Aidan, stop. Lilli isn’t a roses kind of girl. Walking into a room full of flowers is going to overwhelm her enough." I could almost hear his eyes rolling.
"Okay," I still felt nervous.
"Calm down. I’ll talk to you later."
"Yeah, later." We hung up.
I sat wondering if this would work.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Lilli
Having repeated nights of not getting enough sleep, I headed straight for my room when I got home after class. Thankfully, my classes for the semester would be coming to an end then I would just not register for the next semester. I would pick up another job but was hoping to just find a more full-time, better paying, Monday to Friday day job. I could catch up on sleep during the weekends.
When I opened the door I was assaulted by a strong floral smell, the kind of smell you experience when you enter a flower shop. My room looked like a blanket of white and pink petals. Vases filled to the brim with Peonies sat on my desk, bedside table, dresser and floor.
I shook away the shock clouding my head and stepped to the middle of my room. Spinning in a circle, I took it all in, catching sight of a large white envelope, my name written in perfect black script.
Opening the crisp white envelope, I pulled the obviously expensive note card from within. 'Forgive Me' in large silver and blue calligraphy decorated the front.
It couldn’t be.
I flipped it over. In neat handwriting, I read the note.
Lilli,
Please forgive me for being so inconsiderate of your feelings. I was a selfish asshole who deserved more than a slap in the face. Thank you for taking it easy on me.
My intentions were good but I failed miserably at being respectf
ul and good to you.
Please forgive me and give me a chance to explain.
The Loser
I snorted but as the weight of his words sunk in, my knees felt weak. Sitting onto my bed, the card in my lap, I thought about the whole crazy situation and tried to decide if I wanted to come to terms with his actions.
Waking up curled up to my pillow, I stretched, my hand landing on something that crinkled. That was when I remember the card and the scent of flowers assaulted my nostrils again. I sighed and pulled out my cell.
"Hey Lilli," he picked up on the third ring.
"I need a phone number," I mumbled out.
"Oh you do?" Great he knew and he was fucking with me. Big jerk!
"Dixon," I warned.
"Who’s number would that be, dear Lilli?" I heard him stifle his chuckle.
"Give me his damn number," I groaned.
He laughed. "I’ll text it to you. Oh hey…"
"Yeah?"
"Don’t take it easy on him and if you hit him, try to match his left cheek where I hit him," he laughed and my mouth fell open.
"You…you hit him?"
"Damn straight. No one messes with my little sister." I was waiting to hear him pound on his chest.
"Thanks Dixon," Although he was barbaric, he was my big brother in all sense of the words.
"No problem. You’ll get my text shortly. Later, Lilli," I said good bye as he hung up.
My phone beeped two minutes later. I stared at the number and did a mental pep-talk. In the end, I dialed the number and prayed that it would go to voicemail, no such luck.
"Hello?" I could hear the confusion in his voice at the unknown number.
"Aidan?" he said nothing. "Hello?"
"L-Lilli?" he stuttered and I smirked. He was worried and nervous. Good!
"Yep."
"Um…" he cleared his throat quietly, "Hi."
"T-Thank you for the flowers. You really shouldn’t have…"
"I should have done more than flowers," he interrupted. "Actually, I shouldn’t have put myself in the position to have to do any of this, but, hey, I’m a jerk."
"Loser," I corrected.
"Ahh, yes, loser," he chuckled.
"Well, thank you and if you want to try to explain then I will listen, but, so help me God, if you make me feel like—"