by E V Darcy
Mallory burst into a fit of laughter. Was he good? Ellie gave her the finger.
I hate you both.
The other two girls fell into a fit of giggles as they began to make their tale more and more outlandish between them.
‘Whatever,’ Ellie sighed. ‘I’m going to shower and get changed. Oh, by the way, I’m really sorry, but I can’t come tonight. I’m off to a party with Marc, Luc and some others.’ She closed the bathroom door. She made sure she locked it quickly, as she knew exactly how—
‘What!’ Marie shrieked and Ellie snorted as she flipped on the shower. ‘You come out here this instant!’ The handle on the door jiggled, followed by a few bangs on it before silence fell. Ellie imagined it was to tell Mallory what bomb she had just dropped.
‘Ellie Jane Roscoe!’ It was Mallory’s turn to start banging on the door. ‘We want to come! We promise to behave.’
‘Yeah, alright!’ she scoffed.
‘We do!’ Marie’s voice came through right after and she knew both girls would be egging each other on in their desperation for an invitation.
She unlocked the door and poked her head out, narrowing her eyes at the pair. ‘You really want to come?’ Both girls nodded enthusiastically when Marie signed. ‘And you promise you’ll be on your best behaviour?’ Again the head bobs, followed by Girl Guide salutes. Ellie snorted. ‘Marie, you were never in the girl guides.’
‘I wore the uniform once.’
Ellie wrinkled her nose, then with a put-upon sigh, opened the door. ‘Okay, well I suppose I could ask if it would be okay to bring you both.’ She found her phone from her bag again and sent a text to Marc. ‘What about Trent’s meal, though?’
‘Cancelled,’ Mallory hurriedly told her. ‘That’s what we were calling to tell you.’
Her phone vibrated with an alert that Marc had replied. ‘Okay he says you two can come. Does Trent want to come?’
‘No, Trent does not want to come, thank you very much,’ he called over, while still on the phone. Ellie noticed that the man looked very stressed. She was about to comment on that fact when her phone vibrated again.
‘Marc says The Mouth has to leave her phone here and that she is not allowed to hound him or Luc with question after question. I think that means you,’ she told Marie.
‘Why that—’
‘Go and get ready girls.’
She cackled profusely as she watched the two of them race out of the door towards Mallory’s suite which had two bathrooms.
‘You haven’t told them something, have you?’ Trent asked as he hung up his call.
‘I don’t know what you mean,’ she said as she stepped back into the bathroom and locked the door with a click.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
‘Marc, c’mon, let me in,’ Ellie stage-whispered through the door, as she knocked. ‘C’mon, come on!’
Marc hurried to open the door, concerned she’d run into a problem on the way—perhaps a crazed fan had got to her. Fuck. Frank had told him what happened earlier that day in the VIP room; he should have insisted she come down with his bodyguard. Instead, on Ellie’s plea, he’d sent Frank up to go and get the other two so they could get access to the floor—hotel security had seen Ellie enough, so he’d managed to get her a free pass to come to his suite.
Marc certainly hadn’t expected Ellie to push him back into the room when he’d barely opened the door, and to force it shut as fast at the slow-close mechanism would allow.
‘Bloody doors,’ she huffed as if it was an ongoing issue.
She definitely wasn’t hurt; he could see that in her little shorty pyjamas and tank top—although he was a little confused by the bag in her hand—she actually appeared giddy rather than terrified.
‘What on earth’s the matter?’ he asked, as she leant in against the—finally—closed door with a huge grin on her face. Her eyes twinkled with mischief and her chest heaved with exertion as if she’d just run all the way down from her room. It drew attention to that already tight tank top declaring she hated mornings; he wondered if that was true.
His eyes dropped to the shorts with little grumpy monkeys dotted all over, then down her legs to her ballet-style pumps. ‘Cute PJ’s, by the way.’ His voice dipped low and he moved towards her, his hands gravitating towards her hips.
‘Wish I could say the same,’ she said, as she met him for a welcome kiss. He was about to deepen the kiss when she broke away, sharply turning her head, to listen to something through the door.
‘Crap!’ she giggled, and launched herself right out of Marc’s grasp and away from the door, all but running into the living area.
A knock at the door stopped him following and asking what was going on, but once he opened it, everything clicked.
Her two friends stood in the corridor, with Frank behind them biting his lip. The two were dressed to impress—at least he hoped that was what they were dressed for. Marie had on trousers so tight they looked like they’d been painted on. Olivia Newton John’s leather trousers in Grease looked big compared to what Marie was wearing. Mallory, slightly more conservative, wore a dress, but it was so tiny Marc prayed she didn’t bend over in front of Tyler.
While their dress sense wasn’t his cup of tea, he could tell Frank was highly appreciative of the display; his eyes kept lingering on Marie’s posterior.
‘Ellie told us you were having a party?’ Marie said, looking at his own attire quizzically.
‘Yeah,’ Frank chimed in, ‘Ellie said a party.’
Ah. Now Marc understood.
He thanked God he was an actor as he schooled his face into one of indifference. ‘Of course, sorry. Running late,’ he said as he stepped aside to allow the girls entrance. He directed them through to the lounge area. ‘Ellie’s just through there.’
He turned back to his bodyguard with a huge grin. His friend returned his own beaming smile and the men quickly followed the girls, eager to see their reactions.
‘Umm…’ Marie paused as she stepped into the living space. She swept her eyes over its occupants and the room’s contents.
Housekeeping had brought Marc a dozen blankets and even managed to find two large floor pillows—it was amazing what you could get when you were famous! He’d tossed the blankets around the furniture and put the pillows in front of the giant couch. The table had been piled high with popcorn, candy, and soft drinks. And, to ensure everyone had somewhere to sit, he’d turned the armchairs around to face the T.V.
Jen had commandeered one and was already wrapped up in a blanket, head resting on a pillow. She blinked at the girls as they stepped in as if trying to work out if she was hallucinating or actually witnessing the sight before her.
Luc was dressed in plaid pyjama bottoms and a t-shirt. He’d taken up residence on the shorter side of the L-shaped couch. He raised his glass of Scotch. ‘Looking very lovely this evening, ladies.’
Ellie was seated with Tyler on her lap, on the corner of the couch, snuggled in a blanket tucked up to their chins. She looked at her two friends, her eyes all wide and innocent as if she hadn’t purposefully misled them into the type of party they were attending with their favourite stars.
‘Ellie?’ Mallory asked suspiciously.
‘You little cow!’ Marie exclaimed, throwing her handbag on the floor in outrage. Ellie threw her head back and laughed, and Marc fell in love with all of it. He watched her eyes crinkle, her long neck exposed, and smiled at the beauty that just bloomed from her. Her whole being lit up and Marc swore he could almost see her soul in that moment.
‘You knew—you knew exactly what you were doing—’ Marie stalked forwards towards her friend who was holding up Tyler as a shield. The boy squealed in good nature, wiggling to get Ellie to let go in her weakened, laughter-induced state. He made it to the safety of Luc’s welcoming arms before Marie pounced.
‘You little charlatan,’ she exclaimed as she pushed her friend down onto the couch. ‘You’re a fraud… fake…’
Ellie howled wi
th laughter as Marie mercilessly tickled her. The rest of the room joined in the mirth and giggled along. Tyler was bent double, laughing hysterically as his new friend thrashed around under her own friend’s ministrations. Luc could barely hold on to the boy.
‘I’m sorry!’ Ellie wheezed. ‘I’m sorry! I give! I give!’
‘Oh, you’ll give alright!’ But Marie was already relenting.
‘My bag,’ Ellie gasped, waving to the other armchair. ‘Clothes.’
Marc grabbed it quickly and signed to Mallory that there was a change for her within it. Frank led the two girls to the bathroom while the bodyguard nipped into Marc’s bedroom to get into his own sleepwear—Tyler had insisted.
‘That was funny,’ Jen said as she peered at them with bright eyes over the arm of her chair. ‘I like her, Marc. I’m Jen, by the way.’
‘Hi, Jen.’ Ellie smiled at the woman as she sat upright again. ‘Nice to meet you—Ellie.’
‘You sure they’re going to be okay with you?’ Marc asked Ellie as he hesitantly took a seat next to her on the sofa. He draped his arm over the back of the couch above her shoulders and she immediately tucked up next to him. He thought it would be weird and strange, and although he noticed Jen’s eyes growing wide, it actually felt perfectly natural for him to be there and he felt himself relax as she lifted up the blanket to share it.
‘Yeah,’ Ellie said, snuggling in as close as she could. ‘We pull crap like that all the time.’ She still wore a smile and—without thinking—Marc dropped a kiss onto the top of her head.
A few minutes later, the girls came back into the room. They both wore nightwear, but Marc suspected Mallory’s wasn’t her own. She was a lot smaller than either of the other women.
‘So we’re having a slumber party, I gather?’ Marie asked as she simultaneously signed for Mallory’s benefit; that was the norm for her.
‘Marie, you have the night off,’ Ellie said, ‘Tyler doesn’t know BSL, so Marc and I can sign for the evening.’
‘Most of us can sign well enough,’ Luc added. ‘So you won’t really have to interpret, Ellie.’
I have to say, that will be nice, Mallory gestured. I miss just being able to converse with a whole room so easily.
Are you Ellie’s deaf friend? Tyler asked; he’d sat up at Mallory’s signing, his eyes wide as he suddenly understood who Mallory was. When she nodded, Tyler’s grin grew huge and the little boy got excited. Are you completely deaf like me, or can you sometimes hear?
Sometimes I can hear really loud noises, she explained. But I have to be right next to something.
Do you have a processor? Mine broke. The boy pouted.
Well, they wouldn’t if you didn’t jump into pools with them, Marc reminded him.
No, I don’t have a processor, I wasn’t suitable for an implant, Mallory replied. And hearing aids aren’t any benefit—they just annoy me, so I don’t bother.
Tyler seemed enthralled at another deaf person in the room with him and eagerly began to question Mallory on all aspects of her life.
‘I guess I’ve been keeping him too sheltered,’ Marc murmured into Ellie’s hair as he watched his son interacting with enthusiasm. Tyler was learning all about Mallory’s post-accident hearing loss. A heavy, guilty feeling knotted in Marc’s chest as he watched how much it meant to his son, finally having someone who understood what it was like not to hear. Marc and the rest of Tyler’s extended family could all communicate with him, but they didn’t understand how it was—hopefully, they never would—but Mallory did.
Marc sighed as he quietly explained to Ellie, ‘I didn’t want the world to know about him, so I have him in a very exclusive private school. They provide everything he needs to do with his hearing, including an on-site interpreter if he needs it, but there are no other hearing-impaired kids there. In fact, I can’t recall if he’s ever met anyone else deaf before today.’
‘How did he learn to sign so well? He’s very advanced with it.’ Ellie asked as she turned her face up to his, a small frown wrinkling her brow. He kissed it away.
‘I taught him. I took lessons while he was a baby. Every free moment I had was spent in learning. When we found out Tyler was deaf, I looked for a nanny whose skills included ASL. So I practised with Jamie. For a long time, we only used Sign—at my insistence—so I could become fluent. Then I just used it whenever I spoke or taught him words. Even when he got his implant I made it so it was natural. The implant has given him such a good hearing experience, but if the external processor breaks—like we know it can—he needs another way to communicate.’
‘I see,’ Ellie said as she turned back to the room. ‘You should really let him experience Deaf culture, it’s part of him, and keeping him from it is almost like saying that there’s something wrong with being deaf.’
‘Yeah,’ was all Marc said; the guilty feeling twisted deeper when he saw Tyler ask if Mallory missed hearing and whether it was better to hear than not. There was nothing wrong with Tyler, he was a bright and able boy, with or without hearing.
‘You could also promote learning Sign more,’ Ellie continued. ‘A name like yours encouraging people to learn the languages would open up the discussion towards it being more widely taught. With the size of the fandom of Destiny, centres for the deaf would probably see huge increases in registrations.’
The idea of standing in front of people, talking about Tyler and about their lives, made Marc feel quite sick. It was bad enough what had happened this weekend. It dawned on him then; the paparazzi were going to start hounding him again. Fuck. That was the last thing he wanted or needed. Tyler didn’t know about those bastards as he’d purposefully kept a low profile, a boring lifestyle, and had become a hermit within his own home to stop them even considering him newsworthy. Now, he was going to be their golden ticket again.
They’d be hunting down information on who Tyler’s mother was.
Oh, fuck.
They’d put the pieces together and deduce it was Kelly.
No. Fuck, no!
He’d have to call Roger. He had to warn him.
Ellie turned to him again as his breathing quickened under her cheek. ‘Marc?’
He shook his head. He couldn’t do this now, couldn’t talk about Kelly—not with Ellie, not with anyone. Even to those who knew, those who’d been involved in everything, he couldn’t speak about her.
And now the world was going to want to know.
Shit, he couldn’t breathe.
No, he was breathing too much.
‘Marc, are you okay?’
He was having a fucking panic attack!
‘I just… I need the bathroom,’ he declared, standing so quickly he pushed Ellie off his lap and dropped the blanket to the floor. ‘Excuse me.’
He avoided concerned looks from Luc, Jen and Frank, and ignored the calls from Ellie as he disappeared further into the suite.
He just needed…
He needed his life back to the way it was.
~ ~ ~ ~
‘Marc?’ Ellie’s hesitant voice called through the bathroom door. He had no idea how much time had passed since he’d hidden in there, but he knew his ass had gone cold from sitting on the tiled seat in the shower. He dropped his hands from his face and rubbed his knees before he stood up and moved out of the enclosure.
‘Yeah?’ he said and hoped that if he just answered they’d leave him be. He didn’t want any of them around him, he didn’t want anyone around him. He wanted the whole world to fuck off and for everything to be just the way it was before the convention. He’d been happy with his life.
‘Are you okay? You’ve been in there a while now.’
He turned on the tap and let the water run cold before splashing it over his face. As he ran his hands down his cheeks, he glanced up in the mirror and caught his own eyes, looking back.
Well, perhaps happy wasn’t the right word. Content, yes, he’d at least been content. He had Tyler, that was all he needed. Tyler and a home over their heads. Th
at was all they needed. He’d be content for the rest of his life as long as his son was safe and well.
But content wasn’t happy. Not completely.
He had to admit he was lonely. He did miss having someone to talk to when work was done, when Tyler was tucked up asleep, when Jen, Frank and everyone else he employed had finished work and gone home. He missed having someone to laugh with, cry with, to cuddle up against. Even in his man-slut days, he’d enjoyed cuddling up to someone after sex.
God, he also missed sex.
He hadn’t realised that until that afternoon, with the taste of Ellie on his lips, her warm skin under his hands, her cries of pleasure assaulting his ears…although, he didn’t think he’d miss sex so much if it wasn’t with Ellie.
‘Marc, please, you’re scaring me.’ He could hear the worry in Ellie’s voice. He screwed his eyes closed and willed himself not to yank open the door and fold himself into her arms. That would lead to them talking, which he knew would end up with him spilling the beans about everything and he had only known her…what, a day?
A fucking day!
Just over twenty-four hours. It was utter madness how he craved to be around her, how days ago he was content with never having another woman in his life, and now he was considering asking Ellie to keep in touch, to visit, to let him visit her.
He was considering asking her to be with him, and only him.
It was dangerous.
But, fuck—he wanted it, wanted her.
He hadn’t desired anything other than Tyler’s safety for years now, hadn’t asked for anything for himself, so wasn’t it time for him to take something he did want?
‘Okay, Marc,’ Ellie sighed, and for a moment something in him fluttered in panic at the idea of her leaving him alone. Even though he didn’t want to talk to her, didn’t want to see her, Ellie being on the other side of the door was enough. ‘Just tell me to go away because you’re having a crap or something, and you’re embarrassed…’
He snorted to himself. If only that were the case. No, he was a thirty-six-year-old man who’d had a panic attack and locked himself in his bathroom.