by Cindy DeLong
She would have survived if her imagination hadn’t kicked in. It affected her hands first. She quickly found that she didn’t want them touching Jack. She was way grossed out and wanted to wash them. Her hair seemed to start carrying the odor and she couldn’t get away from it. Then she remembered Science class and the study of the olfactory sense. Recalling that the way people smelled things was through microscopic particles of the item breaking off and floating through the air to enter the nose. Yuck! This rottenness was…oh gosh! She couldn’t take it any longer. She was going to be sick!
She said, “Excuse me,” and made a beeline for the bathroom. Once inside she began to relax. She scrubbed her hands at the sink thinking that it would take a very long hot shower for her to feel clean again.
After she emerged from the bathroom, she was quickly approached by her mother and lectured on how to be polite. It would probably have been a much longer reprimand if another young man hadn’t walked up to them to ask her to dance. Her mother was so outwardly overly delighted that Charlene began to wonder if there would ever be an end to the ways this woman found to embarrass her.
Charlene danced with four other guys before she finally convinced her mother that she was all partied out and really just wanted to go home.
On the drive home Charlene’s mother Annette was crazy enough to ask Charlene if she especially liked any of the men who had danced with her. Charlene was momentarily speechless. Where did she start? She definitely wasn’t interested in the boy who claimed that he was in high school although she found it hard to believe suspecting that he haven’t even reached puberty yet. Then there was the guy she tried to talk to during their dance, but was cutoff when he said through gritted teeth, “Just shut up and make this as painless as possible. I am only dancing with you to get your annoying aunt off my back and I hope to never see you or her again.” Charlene was so shocked by him animosity that she couldn’t have thought of any to say if she would have wanted to answer him. Charlene decided on the easy way out and gave her mother a safe answer of “no.”
Maxwell found it strange that he hadn’t heard from Charlene all day. This was a first. Since they had met, they had kept in constant touch. She was ignoring his texts and emails, but he sat down at his computer to check his emails once more before he went to bed just in case she finally responded. While checking his email, Maxwell saw a note from someone he hadn’t heard from in a long time, but this time, instead of deleting the message, he opened it and took the time to read it. The love he felt as he read the words made his heart swell. He quickly tapped in an answer on his keyboard, “I can’t wait to see you again. I have next weekend free as well. Let me know where and when. Love, Max” Then Maxwell went to work clearing his calendar for next weekend.
Charlene returned home to find two text messages on her phone from Maxwell. He had also sent her an email. She felt bad that she hadn’t been able to connect with him all day, but it was too late now and she was exhausted from her long trying day. She would let him know in the morning that she finally had a free weekend. Wouldn’t he be delighted to discover that she could finally see his cabin next weekend. She quickly washed her face and brushed her teeth before hitting her bed and instantly falling asleep.
Chapter 7 – The Weekend Apart
Charlene wasn’t needed at work on Friday so she was able to meet with Maxwell at his cabin that day. It really wasn’t that far from her hometown, only about an hour away. His directions made the drive quite easy and she loved the cabin as soon as she saw it. She had packed a weekend bag and planned to enjoy a quiet weekend without anyone to interfere.
Charlene was so excited that Maxwell was reuniting with his brothers and she couldn’t wait to meet them! But she agreed with Maxwell that he should meet with them alone. It hadn’t helped that Maxwell had seemed more reserved this past week stemming from her ignoring him a whole day. She hadn’t purposely done it and as Maxwell came to understand this better, he had become less distant. As much as she understood his desire to meet with his brothers, she still felt annoyed that he couldn’t drop everything to visit with her during her free weekend. She had looked forward to this weekend for a long time and had worked hard to be able to get away. She hated not getting her own way!
Maxwell awoke early on Saturday anxious to begin his long drive to reacquaint himself with his brothers, Tom and Mike. They had made plans to meet at a small diner not far from his older brother Tom’s house. His younger brother Mike only lived a short distance beyond Tom’s house. It turned out that his brothers had remained close over the years settling into the same town, hoping that one day Maxwell would take the time for them. Saying that his brothers were excited to see Maxwell was the understatement of the year.
Maxwell came to regret that he had missed spending his 20’s with his brothers. He felt more relaxed sitting with them in the diner than he had felt in a long time. The years seemed to melt away and it was like they were young boys again, laughing and teasing one another. As if by some unspoken agreement, they avoided talking about work and spoke of their family and friends. Maxwell soon learned that his brothers were fathers with Mike having two kids and Tom having three. Mike’s family was the traditional million dollar family with one daughter and one son, while Tom had three girls with another girl on the way. His brothers also spoke about their friends.
Maxwell loved hearing their stories but felt like he had been cheated. While he had been chasing the popular idea of success, his brothers’ had focused on the people around them not getting very far ahead. Somewhere along the way, the goals had gotten switched with his brothers coming out ahead. While their actions had enriched their lives, his success had proven itself to be very empty and lonely. He felt duped by the media and popular culture that had misled him and convinced him to give up the important things in life for the meaningless. Yet it had been his choice to climb the ladder and he only had himself to blame.
Maxwell had made reservations at a nearby hotel planning to stay the weekend if the reunion went well. Needing to make up for a whole decade of lost time, he hoped a weekend would be enough time for now. His once empty and lonely life was quickly filling with people he loved, but he there was still more missing, so much more.
Jordon couldn’t believe his good fortune when he discovered that Maxwell had taken a long weekend. Maxwell never took any time off, for vacation or otherwise. The man never got sick, and before today, Jordon would have bet his last dollar that Maxwell would have come to the office no matter how sick he was, trailing an I.V. bag behind him if necessary. Jordon secretly couldn’t stand Maxwell. They were both vice presidents of the same company with an elderly president. When the president took his last breath, Jordon wanted to be the only vice president so that stepping into the top position would be effortless. Jordon was certain that death was the only way he would get the old coot to butt out of the business and let him run the company his way.
In hindsight, Charlene wished she had left her cell phone in the car or at least turned her phone off. Perhaps if the cabin had been deeper in the woods away from cellular reception, she would have been able to relax. But she had been sure to bring it, in case she got lost traveling to the cabin and more importantly, she wasn’t about to spend another whole day ignoring Maxwell; the last one had been torture. Unfortunately, she had her phone right next to her and turned on, when the first call came through. She had been thoroughly enjoying herself in the quiet cabin with only the noises of the woods and the crackle of the fire in the background. She laid down the book that she had been engrossed in and moved the box of chocolates, she had only just begun, further back from the warmth of the fire. Before she answered, she looked at the caller ID on the screen. It was her home number. She was sure that it would be her mother. Ugh!
“Which friend are you visiting this weekend? I couldn’t remember.” Annette asked.
“Oh it is someone that you don’t know.” Charlene responded nonchalantly.
“Well if she is
from high school? Then I would remember her.”
“No mother, not from high school.” Charlene was becoming very annoyed by this conversation.
“Oh from college then. Your father would know her.”
“Not from college either, mother.”
Well, I know all the people you work with too. Why are you being so secretive?” Her mother asked.
“I’m not being secretive. I just decided to get away for a quiet weekend to read and relax.”
“Well our home is relaxing. You didn’t have to go anywhere to relax.”
“Mother, I just wanted to get away!”
“But who are you with?”
Nothing like the third degree, Charlene thought. “Actually I am alone.”
“Well why didn’t you just say so dear?” Her mother asked and hung up.
Charlene suffered through three more calls from her mother and two from her sister before the weekend was over. Charlene was finally able to convince her mother and sister that she was really off relaxing on her own and thought that was the end of the problem. Unfortunately, her mother began to worry that Charlene was becoming anti-social. Her mother remembered that Charlene had missed many family meals and seemed reluctant to meet new people at the wedding reception and acted awkward when introductions were made. Annette also recalled Charlene not wanting to dance with anyone at the reception and her desire to leave early. Now Charlene was vacationing alone and acted annoyed when called. Her daughter was becoming rude, and Annette began to worry and form a plan…
***Sorry about the long delay between posting of this chapter and the last one. I wasn’t sure if anyone was reading this story and I was feeling discouraged. Then a bunch of my girlfriends asked when I was posting more and I knew that I had to share the rest.***
Chapter 8 – Another Wedding
Janice grabbed a stack of folders and carried them across her department’s area and toward the elevator where she sometimes caught a glimpse of the company vice president. He had been friendly to her in the past and she thought he might be interested in her. She was total interested in him. She loved her job and worked diligently to keep her department in top shape. She was a hard worker and a tough boss and she wanted so much to impress the vice president and earn herself a promotion upstairs. Rumor had it that he was seeing someone, but she knew how rumors could be: often untrue.
She looked down at her navy blue power suit and her designer heels and sighed. She hadn’t seen him yet today and had very much hoped that he would see her at her professional best. She turned back to her department with renewed determination to get her subordinates working at their peak. Mr. Vice President would notice her one way or another; that she was sure of.
Here it was another Saturday with another wedding. Charlene wondered why these events always came in groups. She made sure that this time she had gotten ready extra early. Now she was busy trying to convince her father that she needed to drive herself. The man was bull-headed and stalwart and, and… oh, he frustrated her so much. He wouldn’t budge on his decision. Each statement from him felt like a weight on her shoulders pushing her further and further down reminding her that he found her irresponsible, wasteful, immature. She felt defeated, deflated and found herself capitulating, as usual. Gripping her cell phone like the lifeline it was, she climbed in the backseat of her parents’ car for the long drive to her cousin’s wedding. Her mother Annette had more relatives than should be legal and Charlene knew better than to ever dare miss an extended family event.
Jordan thought about how much he loved his job, as he led Julie to his office. His position held many perks, eager women practically worshiping at his feet was one of them. He didn’t usually spend extra hours at the office but with Maxwell away, he had a lot to accomplish. He had spent the afternoon in Maxwell’s office in secret, randomly deleting computer files, shredding various paper files, rearranging anything that looked important and basically changing the order into complete disorder. Yet he had been oh so subtle about it. By the time Maxwell and his ancient secretary Dorothy discovered that things had been tampered with, many position-endangering errors would have been made. The downfall of Maxwell had been set in motion.
Without Maxwell-goodie-two-shoes looking over his shoulder, Jordon was about to celebrate the beginning of his inevitable rise to company president. He chose to celebrate with Julie from Research and Development. Julie was new to the company and not too bright, but he didn’t care. He was more interested in all her curves in all the right places. His future was looking good, very good.
Charlene was suffering through another embarrassing reception. She had been foisted onto another creepy looking male for her third slow song of the night. The woman her male cousin was marrying had the shadiest characters in her family. The men leered around the room and made her shudder as she tried not to imagine the perverted thoughts running through their heads. To make matters worse, her mother was putting every last ounce of her effort into getting Charlene onto the floor with them. In fact, her mother seemed almost fanatical in her efforts this evening. Charlene was doomed to a long night of torture and humiliation.
Although Charlene had brought her cell phone, it was proving to be useless. She hadn’t gotten a moment to use it since early in the reception, but she did have another option for a respite from these deranged delinquents. She saw the hall leading to the bathroom getting closer to her and Mr. Wrong as they slow danced to the farther corner of the floor. This somewhat hidden area of the dance floor would be the perfect place for her to excuse herself and take a break. She may have a few minutes before her mother discovered where she had disappeared to. She knew she had to get away from this monster soon. His denim jeans and denim jacket looked to have never have seen a washing machine, but it got worse. He was leering at her with a disturbingly evil glint in his eye. He looked proud as a peacock with a big secret only he knew. He was more annoying than most due to his incessant questions. Questions about how she liked school, how she liked her job at the accounting firm, and other pointed questions about personal aspects of her life.
When he paused for a moment in his inquiries, Charlene used the opportunity to excuse herself and made a beeline for the lady’s room only to find that Mr. Wrong was right behind her. Now she was in a dim deserted hall with this denim dork. How had things actually gotten worse? Walking faster seeing the wonderful bathroom only a few short feet ahead, Charlene was suddenly shoved to the wall by Mr. Wrong. He had whipped her around and his mouth was pressed to hers while his hands began to wander across her body. She couldn’t yell, she couldn’t get away and before she knew what she was doing, her knee had risen and made contact with his groin. She didn’t think she had hit him hard enough to cause any serious damage, but it was enough to startle him back far enough for her to break away. She took off like a shot and quickly realized that she was headed away from the reception area and all the other guests. She ran as fast as she could; never had she been so afraid. He had recovered quickly because she could hear his footfalls behind her.
Charlene ran down the hall trying to find a place to hide, a place to escape the creep who chased her; the stranger with the wandering hands. As she turned another corner in the labyrinth of halls, a shocking realization tore through her brain and caused her to stumble. He knew too much about her. That could only mean one thing: she wasn’t the only one with a secret. She was so disoriented by the twisting hallways that she wasn’t sure if she was getting closer to freedom or back to where she started. She had just turned left down another hall when two hands reached out and grabbed her, one quickly reaching up to cover her mouth and stifle the shocked scream building in her lungs. She was pulled hard to a male body and began to squirm and fight. She could tell that she wouldn’t be getting free through her feeble attempts yet she continued to struggle. He placed his mouth to her ear and when she heard his words she gave up her fight.
***There is so much more excitement for Charlene, so check w
attpad.com often for updates.***
***Watch for Part 2***