Not A Chance (Sweet Nothings)

by Carter Ashby

  "Name? Uh...I think it was Jamie...or Jenny..."

  Arden shrugged. "Close enough. How are Tonya and the baby?"

  Travis shrugged again. "No complications. The baby seems healthy. It just lays there, so I don't know how you tell. But it breathes and cries and shits and stuff...so I guess it's healthy."

  Arden was smirking at him, still. He wondered what the hell was so amusing. "She, Travis. You call the baby...she."

  "I'll call it 'she' when it starts looking more like a human being and less like a squid."

  Arden sighed and rolled her eyes.

  Just then Travis's nurse came out to talk to another family. Travis's back was to her. Arden stood on her toes and peered over his shoulder. "Is that her?" she asked, an amused glint in her eye.

  Travis glanced back. The nurse saw him and smiled. He turned back to Arden. "Yep."

  "She's cute," Arden said. "She's coming this way."

  Travis turned to meet her.

  "Hey, handsome," she said. But Arden came up beside him, slid her arm around his waist and rested her other hand on his chest so that he had no choice but to put his arm around her shoulders. The nurse's smile died. Travis stared down at Arden in confusion.

  "Hi..." Arden looked down at the nurse's name plate. "Hi, Jessie. I'm Arden. His fiancée."

  Travis's eyes went wide. He looked at Jessie and laughed nervously. She glared pure death at him. "Nice to meet you, Arden," she growled, still staring up at Travis.

  Travis opened his mouth to talk, but nothing came out.

  "You'll have to forgive him," Arden said with mock sweetness. "He's new to the whole monogamy thing. Sometimes he forgets about me."

  Jessie gave her a tight-lipped smile. "Of course." She walked away, giving Travis one last deadly glare and a flip of her middle finger.

  Arden was grinning, clearly trying not to laugh. She turned and went back to her purse. She slung it over her shoulder and came back to his side. She took his hand and started pulling him toward the hallway. "Come on," she said. "Let's get coffee."

  They were halfway to the cafeteria when Travis finally laughed. "I don't know what just happened back there."

  "Oh, don't worry. You dodged a bullet. You're welcome by the way."

  "I don't agree. She was really nice."

  "No, she would have been one of those super clingy women. When you tried to break things off she would have gotten all vindictive and scary. I saved you."

  They made it to the cafeteria and Arden bought them coffee. Travis collapsed at a table, confused, more than angry. The cafeteria was relatively empty and therefore quiet. Arden sat across from him, slid his coffee across the table and lifted her own to her lips. There was something different about her. She looked peaceful. Travis didn't know what this meant.

  "Was that fun for you?" Travis asked.

  She smiled, closed-lipped. "Yes. And I think I want you to quit making dates with strange women for a while."

  "Really?" Travis felt a sudden surge of excitement.

  Arden nodded. "And when you get Tonya settled back home with the baby and you find you can get away for an evening, I'd love for you to come over."

  "To your house?"

  She nodded matter-of-factly. "I had so much fun during our snow-storm whenever we cooked together. Maybe we can do that again. I've been recording Food Network shows that I like so I can learn how to make some of the recipes they demonstrate. Sound fun?"

  Travis swallowed and shifted in his seat. "Yeah. Sounds fun."

  "So, maybe Saturday? If you're able to get away?"

  Travis nodded vigorously, trying with all of his might not to knock over the table and tackle her right then.

  She stared into her coffee and smiled. "I appreciate you restraining your excitement."

  Travis cleared his throat. "You're welcome."

  "I've got another treat for you," she said.

  "Yeah?"

  "Yep. You get to drive me home. Because I don't care if Emma is with me, I'm never getting in the car with Dustin again."

  "What did he say to you?" Travis asked.

  Arden added another packet of sweetener to her coffee and swirled it around. "Nothing. He did nothing but look at me dirty. I tried talking about you and when he had to reply, it was in monosyllables and grunts. I've never known with so much certainty that someone hated me."

  "He doesn't hate you, sweetheart. He's just convinced you're the source of my misery lately."

  "Am I?" Her hair fell into her face and he longed to push it back. She did that herself, though.

  "Not entirely."

  She nodded. "Well I won't hurt you anymore. I have to finish breaking up with Nick before anything can happen between us," she said, just as though she were discussing her to-do list for the day, "so I'm not going to kiss you today."

  Travis felt the blood leave his brain at the mere mention of kissing her. He was so starved to be loved by her that just the thought of a kiss lit him up. "But you're going to kiss me after you break up with Nick? Maybe on Saturday?"

  "Oh, definitely on Saturday. Possibly before if the break-up is pretty clean cut. I'll call you."

  Travis sat on the edge of his seat. She was digging around in her purse for something. "Arden?" he said, getting her attention. He looked into her pretty brown eyes and felt himself start to smile. "You're so straight-forward and calm about this, I just have to make sure...we have a date on Saturday...right? A date? Like, I can put the moves on you and you won't completely reject me, right? That kind of date?"

  She looked into his eyes, smiling. But suddenly her eyes welled up and her smile became strained. "A real date." She nodded, some of the tears spilling down her cheeks. "I'm very much looking forward to having the moves put on me. My parents are going out of town this weekend. So we've got the whole place to ourselves."

  Travis couldn't sit still for the excitement. He grabbed her hands and brought them to his lips, closing his eyes and relishing the feelings that filled up his chest. He opened his eyes and looked at the ring on her finger. "When's this come off?"

  She pulled her hand back and started digging through her purse again. "Soon as I can find...oh, here it is." She pulled out a small, velvet drawstring bag. Then without any hesitation, she slid the ring off and dropped it in the bag. "I'll try to get this back to him today. I'm thinking about doing it at the bank while he's working. It can't get too ugly if we're in public."

  Travis felt a brief moment of fear. He hoped she would never break up with him. But if she did, he hoped she would show more emotion than this. "Don't you love him at all?"

  She met his eyes. "No. I don't. And I was recently made to realize that everything I want out of marrying him, I can actually have by myself. Which leaves me no reason to marry him."

  Travis reached for her hand again, and she didn't pull it away. He held it and stroked her fingers with his thumb, thrilling at the absence of that ring. "This is the single best moment of my life," he said softly. He hadn't actually meant to say it out loud.

  "Oh, Travis," Arden said. She was trembling just slightly, the only sign of emotion there was. "I'm going to see to it your life is filled with moments even better than this one."

  He grinned then. "Saturday."

  She nodded. "Saturday." She drank the last of her coffee. "Can we go see the baby?"

  "Sure."

  Travis kept his hand on Arden's back all the way back to Tonya's room. While she held the baby and leaned over it, he brushed her hair back behind her ear. He rested one hand on her waist and watched her face as she smiled and made baby talk at the baby. Travis couldn't stop touching her. She didn't seem to notice him hovering around her, or else she didn't show it. He figured as long as he wasn't annoying her, he was just happy to follow her around.

  She handed the baby back to Tonya and made a little small talk with Emma. Then she took Travis's arm and looked up at him. She was telling him it was time to go. Like they'd been married forever and all they had to do to communi
cate was send little signals back and forth. Travis beamed down at her.

  "I'm gonna take Arden home," Travis said, not taking his eyes off of her. "I'll be back in an hour or so."

  "What?" Dustin jumped to his feet. "You're leaving me here? Alone?"

  Travis looked up at him in surprise, prepared to tease him for being such a wimp. But then he saw the genuine fear in Dustin's eyes. Something was going on with him.

  Emma laughed. "You won't be alone, silly," she said, wrapping her arms around Dustin's waist. "You'll be with me."

  Dustin was silently pleading with Travis and Travis couldn't understand why. Still, he couldn't leave his brother in this situation if it was so uncomfortable for him. "Well, actually, you could drive Arden home, Dustin. You have to get back to the shop anyway. Neil's there all alone."

  Dustin nodded. "Sure. I could do that."

  Arden went stiff at his side. "No!" she said sharply. "That's okay. I'll walk. Thanks."

  Travis touched her cheek. "He doesn't bite. Do you Dustin?"

  Dustin shook his head. "Not at all. I'm more than happy to take you home, Arden. Give us a chance to talk about Travis behind his back, right?" Dustin laughed nervously.

  Arden stared at him like he'd just sprouted a third eye. She looked up at Travis and he begged her with his eyes to please go silently. She looked back to Dustin. "Okay. Thanks." She gave one last wary look at Travis.

  Emma kissed Dustin goodbye, clearly oblivious to the fact that he was having some sort of problem. Then Dustin ushered Arden out.

  After they were gone, he found Emma grinning at him. "So?" she asked. "What's changed?"

  He smiled, feeling more peaceful inside than he'd felt in years. "Everything," he said.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Arden glanced at Dustin several times during the car ride. He was stiff and silent, but this time at least she didn't feel like he was freezing her out.

  "So...you and Emma, huh? Is that going well?"

  Dustin didn't react. Just stared at the road. "She wants to get married and have babies. That's normal, right? Most chicks want that, right?"

  Arden shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. I'm sure she doesn't want you to rush into anything, though."

  "You sure? She seems pretty ready." His voice was pitched tight and he gripped the steering wheel to the point that his knuckles turned white.

  "Well, she might be ready," Arden said. "But she can wait. Don't let her push you around."

  Dustin glanced at her, a hint of a smile forming. "It's hard to say no."

  "I'm sure. But you've only been dating a couple of weeks. Set your boundaries early so she doesn't form expectations that you're not comfortable with."

  Dustin laughed. "That's some damned good advice. You should have your own column in the paper."

  "Right," Arden said sarcastically. They rode the rest of the way in silence. Arden was glad to get out of the car and away from him.

  At home she gathered up the basket of things that belonged to Nick. She got the ring out of her purse and tossed it in. Her plan was to drive to the bank and put the stuff in Nick's car. Then go inside and break up with him. And be home by lunch. But her phone rang again.

  "Yeah?" she said, frustrated that she kept getting interrupted from this task.

  "Hey, Arden," said Shannon. "Could you come over in a few minutes?"

  "Sure. What's going on?"

  "Nothing. Vince wants to talk to you. I don't know why. But he didn't want to call you himself because he hates talking on the phone."

  Arden smiled. That sounded like Vince. But she couldn't figure out what he wanted from her. They weren't exactly close friends. "Okay," Arden said. "I'll be there in a little while."

  She hung up. Okay, she thought. Amended plan. Talk to Vince, then break up with Nick.

  Arden drove to the café where Shannon greeted her with a kiss on the cheek. "Vince isn't here yet. Can I get you anything?"

  "Coffee. Please."

  Shannon hustled off to the kitchen. Arden took a table in the corner. Vince showed up and sat across from her.

  "Thanks for coming," he said, in that low, booming voice of his.

  "No problem. Did you want to talk about Alice? Because as her friend, everything she says to me is confidential."

  Vince's face remained stony. "I can talk to Alice myself. She's my wife. She'll always be my wife. I came to talk about my next door neighbor, Clint Holbrook."

  Arden was taken aback. She didn't have any connection to Clint.

  "I'm buying his farm," Vince said.

  "Congratulations," Arden replied, not sure why she should care.

  "Shut up and listen."

  Arden's jaw dropped, but Vince didn't let her object.

  "He's going bankrupt. Can't hold onto his farm. I offered to help him out, but he decided he just wanted to move on. So I'm buying it off him. I asked him how come he was having money problems. He said he took out all his savings and gave it to Nick to invest. That's how come I wanted to talk to you. I wanted you to know."

  Arden's brows drew together. "I don't understand."

  "I assume it's the same investment opportunity that Nick came to me with. Some sort of corn hybrid for biofuel or something. Nick said he was investing and the return was huge and about as sure a thing as you can get."

  "Did you invest, too?"

  "No. I keep my money tucked under my mattress. But Clint did. And the Raymers. And Lloyd Redding. Probably a bunch more folks, but those three were convinced enough to put all their eggs in Nick's basket. I guess some FDA or EPA or some government agency put a halt to the project with a bunch of investigations and regulations and so no one saw their money again. Nick just told them that was the risk they took. Which I guess is right. But these people weren't rich, city speculators...they were friends and neighbors...working folks.

  Arden felt all emotion drain from her. She sat back and stared in front of her.

  "You don't seem surprised," Vince said.

  "I'm not."

  "Well, I wasn't going to bother you with it," he said. "But Travis thinks you're the best thing since camouflaged duct tape, so I figure maybe you're a nice person and might want to know this about the man you're fixing to hitch yourself to."

  "Thank you," Arden said. She felt terrible. She knew Vince was telling the truth. Nick wouldn't have troubled himself worrying about the consequences of financial loss to the people in this town. He'd always had money. It would be nothing to him. But when she recalled the image of June and Rory lying together frozen in the attic, she realized she should never have been with Nick.

  Vince pushed his chair back, about to stand up.

  "How are you?" Arden asked, thinking about Alice.

  "I'm fine."

  "You and Alice are doing alright?"

  Vince clenched his jaw tight and Arden saw tears spring to his eyes. "We're fine," he said.

  "She'll come around, Vince," Arden said softly. She hated to see him in pain. It reminded her of how Travis looked every time she rejected him.

  "She hates me. I don't think there's any coming back from that," Vince said.

  "She doesn't hate you."

  "She used to chase me around. You probably don't remember. She was just a little girl. She called me Mr. Evans. I'd be at church with my first wife and Alice would come running up to me. 'Mr. Evans, Mr. Evans!' And then she'd ask me to marry her. Once she put a ribbon in my hand, all solemn like, and told me ladies always gave a ribbon to their chosen knight. After Kate left, I never wanted to fall in love again. But Alice swore to me on her life that she would never break my heart. Wish I'd known then that she was a liar."

  "Why did you marry her? As careful as you were with your heart after Kate left...you went and gave it to the most volatile, unpredictable woman on the face of the planet. We used to think she'd never get married."

  "Why would you think that?"

  "Because nobody likes her," Arden said, certain that he must have been aware of that fact.
<
br />   He wasn't, though. He looked confused and a little hurt. "Nobody likes Alice? Why?"

  Arden laughed. "Because she's a bitch. Even she admits it. How do you not know it?"

  Vince looked even more confused. "I guess I never noticed. Up until her parents got divorced, we had a fairly blissful marriage. But you like her, don't you? And Shannon and Emma?"

  "Of course."

  "Good. Because she needs friends. You'll take care of her for me since I can't, won't you?"

  Arden swallowed, a lump forming in her throat. It was so pitiful and heart-breaking. She simply nodded.

  "Good. I have to go. Don't tell Alice we talked." He stood and left.

  Arden stared down at the table and lost track of time.

  Arden had parked outside of the bank and sat there for almost an hour. She finally realized that she didn't want to do this in public. Too unpredictable. The situation had the potential to be completely humiliating. So she'd gone home and killed time. When she was sure Nick would be finished with work and would have gone home, she went to his house. She walked up the steps to his front door with the laundry basket of his things on her hip.

  He opened the door, but didn't smile. Instead he stood tall and proud, clearly certain he was the superior one in the relationship. "Come to apologize, at last?" he asked.

  "To break up with you. May I come in?" She didn't wait for an answer and instead shoved past him into the front hallway. She tossed the basket down next to the stairs and then reached in her purse to retrieve the black velvet bag that contained his ring. He was staring at her in shock, now, as he closed the door behind him.

  "I was going to break up with you because you clearly don't respect me and I very obviously don't love you," Arden said. "And then I talked with someone who told me that you were the one who invested the money that bankrupted the Raymers."

  "Did Ashley tell you that? I told you not to believe anything that comes out of her mouth!"

  Arden shook her head. "Someone else told me. Also that you invested Lloyd Redding's money. You saw the paper a couple of weeks ago, didn't you? He committed suicide."