“So, you really mean it? You really want to marry me?”
“Damn it, Adrienne, of course I mean it!”
“Yes, oh yes,” she said. She looked up, sniffed and wiped at her tears as fresh happy ones began to pour down. “Yes.”
We did something entirely careless then; our official time, based on Nicolas’ interpretation of his father’s schedule, actually ended five minutes before, and each moment we stayed together we were playing with fire. But I couldn’t stop myself from lifting her up into my arms and carrying her to the couch to make love, again. She clung to me afterward, preparing to force herself to leave.
“I have some news,” Adrienne said as she hesitated in front of the door. She was glowing for the first time in weeks. “But I want to wait until we have some more time together. Right now…” She glanced at the door, and at the few hundred feet that lay between us and her father.
“What news? You can’t say something like that and then leave!” I exclaimed. I was glowing, too. My fiancée.
She laughed and blew me a kiss. “I think you’ll find it worth the wait. Besides, we have our whole lives together now!”
“Whatever you say, dear.”
Before leaving, Adrienne said, “And don’t worry about me. I’m going to be okay. I know that now. I was silly for acting the way I did, but I’m fine.”
I was not a particularly intuitive guy when it came to women, but I had sensed earlier, in the moments before our fight erupted, there was more to her internal anguish than the usual fears of losing me. Even during the fight, I knew there was something she was not telling me, and the fight was a diversion from a larger issue. But now, I felt the tension leave her body. Whatever it was that she hadn’t told me, my proposal of marriage seemed to satisfy the unspoken need as well.
Later that night, as I was coming out of Nicolas' shower, I heard her voice again downstairs. I wrapped a towel around myself and stepped down the first two stairs, and saw her in her brother’s arms.
At first he seemed surprised she’d thrown herself at him, but then he let his body relax and his arms crushed her small frame to him. He rested his cheek upon the top of her head and I saw him smiling.
“I had the wrong idea about you,” Adrienne was saying. “I underestimated you and for that I am truly sorry.”
His embarrassment came off as modesty, but I could see what this confession meant to him. “It’s not a big deal, Adrienne. Everyone does.”
“It’s a big deal to me. You’re my brother, and I'm sorry I missed out on all of this because I couldn’t see you for who you really were. I’m glad I know now. Thank you for everything.”
Nicolas held her tighter; her words deeply affected him. He kissed the top of her head, and she smiled at him before leaving.
For my part, it meant a lot to me that our relationship could do someone good other than ourselves. I was happy something finally brought them together, and glad I could be a part of it.
* * *
I SAT ON my porch four nights later, sipping cognac in an old rocker as the bugs danced around the gaslights. I could barely put my mind around everything that happened. And now, Charles was taking them all to the Gulf for the rest of the summer. Tomorrow. This I learned after my father called me the most persistent son-of-a-bitch on the planet. After Charles declared I was a disgrace to my family. After Adrienne overheard something she shouldn’t have. After my whole world ended.
Our carelessness with time and overconfidence were in part to blame. We interpreted our success as proof maybe we had more time than we thought. If only we listened to Nicolas when he warned us his help was limited to how cooperative we could be with what we were given. I hoped Adrienne didn’t blame her brother.
I finished off my drink, and reached for the bottle to pour another. Remembering what happened the night before was, unfortunately, not going to come back to me in a straight line. Moments were streaming to me randomly: Charles standing over the bed. Adrienne crying. Nicolas screaming that his father was a tyrant. My father trying to calm me in the driveway, talking to me about my future. Giselle holding Adrienne when she could not hold herself up any longer.
We should have known Charles, living one building over, would eventually find out. We shouldn't have been at all surprised when he slipped in and stood over the bed where Adrienne and I lay naked in one another’s arms, sleeping carelessly, as he waited with amazing patience for us to wake up.
First, we struggled to understand if what we saw was real; then, the terror and urgency as the full realization dawned on us.
Adrienne immediately burst into tears. I desperately wanted to hold her, but knew I couldn’t. The scathing look Charles flashed me made me feel like everything Adrienne and I had was wrong, and evil, and for a moment I believed it. I didn’t hear Nicolas come up the stairs. I began retreating into myself, and all the voices around me were like distant whispers. Nicolas was screaming at his father, calling him a tyrant. He was defending me, and defending Adrienne and I. I loved him at that moment. But I was in many places at once; I was there watching this, I was there with Adrienne, I was a ghost; nothing was real to me except Adrienne’s trembling and tears.
I heard the crack as Charles’ hand connected with Nicolas’ cheek, and I looked up in time to see the hatred and disappointment on Nicolas' face. Then Charles had Adrienne wrapped in the blanket, in his arms, and ushered her away from me as if he had rescued her from a terrible crime scene. Enraged, Nicolas went after them, and when I realized I was alone in the room, I snapped out of the daze I was in and dressed myself quickly.
I knew I had to do something; I had to appeal to Charles and try to explain to him what Adrienne and I had, instead of backing down like I did at the Monteleone. I couldn’t lose her like this.
* * *
I TRIED TO refill my drink and realized the bottle was empty. I was drunk. Good. I needed to be drunk. I needed to forget everything that happened next; that I was such a damn coward.
* * *
ADRIENNE SCREAMED AT her father as he tugged at the blanket, gently. He was afraid it would come off her and leave her revealed. She backed away from him, further into the room, putting distance between them.
“You have no right to treat him like that!”
“I have every right! I am your father!”
“You can’t spend your life submersed in work and suddenly pop up and think you know what is best for me! You have no right to make me suffer for your bruised ego!”
Charles winced, but continued to grab for her. “You girls are all I ever wanted. Don’t ever say such hateful things to me, Adrienne. You can’t take them back.”
“We are your novelties, Father! You love us, but is it for the right reasons? Love isn’t about keeping people under your thumb so you can watch them and pet them whenever you feel like! It’s about wanting what is best for someone. Oz is best for me! He loves me, and is good to me. He knows me in a way that no one else does. Not even you.”
“You are sixteen! How the hell do you know what’s best for you?” Charles let go of her and she stumbled into the couch. “Sixteen, Adrienne! Oz is twenty-one; he is a man! What is it exactly you think men want from young girls? I can assure you they do not hang out with them for stimulating conversation.”
My hesitancy melted away and I rushed to Adrienne’s side. Protectively pulling the blanket up tighter around her chest, I held her, even as Charles lunged forward.
“I love Adrienne!” I declared. Adrienne was shivering, but her body was tense under mine. “I am not backing down.”
Charles' eyes met mine, and for a moment, it was as if he was challenging me. “You don’t have a choice, Colin. She’s not old enough to make these kinds of decisions. I have every right to put you in jail for statutory rape. I thought you might have enough good sense to stay away after I found you both at the hotel, but apparently I underestimated your better judgment. You’ve been like a son to me, but when I see you now, all I see is the pervert abu
sing my youngest daughter. So don’t talk to me about backing down, Colin Sullivan! I am not a man to be messed with!”
“Neither am I,” I stated firmly. If I lost Adrienne, I would have nothing else to lose, so his threats didn’t scare me. “If all I wanted with your daughter was what you claim, then I wouldn’t be standing here tonight.”
The sound of tires in the driveway broke the tension momentarily. “That must be your father,” Charles said to me with a pointed glance. “I called him before I came out here. It's time he has a talk with you about what you’ve been up to.”
I was so shocked he called my father that he was able to take Adrienne from me before I had a chance to respond. Nicolas stood before me then and said, “You have to wonder if women are really worth this kind of bullshit.”
Then we were in the driveway, my father and I, and he was in one of his rare moments of dishevelment. He lectured me about my future, growing more and more frustrated as I stood in stubborn silence, my mind already forming a plan on how I would see Adrienne next.
“Oz, you really are the most persistent son-of-a-bitch I have ever met!”
My father rarely swore. I looked up at him.
“I fail to understand why such a bright young man-“
“I’m sorry if I am bad for business Dad, but I love her!”
“As a matter of fact this is bad for business, but that is beside the point. What on earth did you think would come out of this affair with a little girl? Did you really expect Charles to smile and pay for the wedding?”
No, I didn’t expect that. I didn’t expect her to show up at my door one day and throw herself at me, either. I didn’t expect to fall in love with her, and have my life turned upside down. “I can’t talk to you about this,” I said finally. “This is one area you can’t advise me on.”
My father paced, one hand twined in his short hair, the other guiding his speech. “Colin,” he said finally; a man at the end of his temper, using the voice of a doctor reasoning with a patient. “You have such a bright future ahead of you. Do you know how proud your mother and I are? You're already enrolled in law school and are two years away from joining the firm. What do you think will happen if you take this relationship further? Do you honestly see Adrienne fitting into this picture? She graduates high school right as you graduate law school, and then you have to deal with the burden of family before you've even learned to be a man! Is this what you want for yourself?” He stopped pacing, several inches from me. I could smell his nervous sweat, mixed with expensive cologne. “More importantly, is this what you want for Adrienne?”
I heard a choked sob behind me, and I turned to see Adrienne. She was dressed now, Giselle holding her up. She had heard everything my father said. She searched my face for agreement.
My father didn’t see her, and he continued. “Are you ready to make an adult decision about this, and do what we both know is right? You need to end this now. Whether you think this is love or not, Adrienne is not the woman you are going to marry. Draw on your better judgment for a moment. You know I'm right.”
As I watched Adrienne, my father turned and noticed her as well. I tried to send her signals, to show her I was not in agreement with my father’s opinion, but whatever she saw in my face caused her to turn and run back into the house, Giselle hot on her heels. Somehow, I had failed her again.
“End it,” my father repeated.
* * *
ADRIENNE CALLED ME that night as I shut off the lights to go to bed. She'd been crying, and I knew I was the cause of those tears. It occurred to me she had been in tears, for one reason or another, since we first came together.
“Your father is a smart man,” she said noncommittally. She wanted to know my opinion.
“He doesn’t know everything.”
Adrienne's voice was dry and devoid of emotion, but I knew her so well I could feel her anguish nonetheless. “He makes good points, Oz. Relationships like ours don’t survive in the real world. They just don’t.”
She was not at all convinced of what she was saying. She tried to feel me out and see if she could squeeze a confession from me. She would be unsuccessful, though. If anything, I was more determined than ever to be with her.
“Who defines the real world, Adrienne? We do. We define what our life is going to be. Truly, I don’t give a damn what anyone thinks! Not my father, not your father, not society.”
“Whether that’s true or not, we can’t ignore them.”
“And why the hell not?”
The silence between us felt like the gulf was widening, until she said, “Aren’t you supposed to be the reasonable one?”
I laughed. “You have such a puzzling effect on me, my dear. Puzzling indeed.”
“So I’m the unreasonable one? It’s my influence that's brought you to consider such careless rendezvous with the underage daughter of your father’s best client?”
“Yes,” I said. We both laughed at that, and most of the tension from the beginning of her call was gone.
“Do you want to know what I do think?” I asked.
“What?”
“I think you are only going to be down in the Gulf with your family for one night.”
“I don’t understand…”
“I am coming down there, tomorrow, Adrienne. I am going to take you away, and we’re going to fly somewhere age doesn’t matter. And I’m going to marry you.”
There was silence on her end for so long I thought I might have lost her. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Well, for one you could tell me you love my idea!”
She sniffed into the phone, then giggled softly. “I do, I love it.”
“You do? You aren’t just saying that because you’re afraid to disappoint me?”
“No! I would have said yes to you the first night we were together, if you really want to know the truth. I almost said it when I walked out of your house. It was on the tip of my tongue. But, I couldn’t have told you that then because you were still reeling from your conflicting feelings of wanting me and being repulsed with yourself. You’d have never realized it then. Besides, I knew you’d come around eventually.”
She still amazed me with things, and I knew I could expect that from her for the rest of our lives. I found that comforting when considering my life had always been otherwise pre-destined. My heart felt sick with love for her.
“One of these days,” I teased, “you are seriously going to have to stop obsessing over me.”
Adrienne feigned surprise and her voice took on a playful childlike quality. “But you’re my Big Hero!”
* * *
FOR THE NEXT thirty minutes, we planned out the rest of the details. She would call me when she arrived and give me the information on where they were staying. I would come down during the night, and she would sneak out and meet me at a location she picked out upon arrival. We would take a bus to Florida; either Orlando or Tampa. From there, we would catch a flight to a location decided upon sometime during the drive. We didn’t want to decide then, and we never said aloud the real reason: if cornered, neither of us could be sure Adrienne would be able to resist confessing everything to her father. And, although he would inevitably find out where we went, by the time he did we would already be married.
We didn’t talk about how I still had a home and law school in a few weeks, nor did we discuss the potential consequences if we returned home before she was of age. You would have thought we had concocted a battle strategy that was impenetrable for all we ignored the better sense in our heads nagging about important details that would put us off course.
Adrienne and I were invincible again, and nothing could touch us. And in a few days, we would be married. I firmly set aside my resolve to wait until she was older and do things the right way.
But then, if I am being honest with myself, I suppose reality never really did play much of a role in our relationship.
“Oz, I cannot wait to be your wife,” she said with maturity that warm
ed me.
“Adrienne Leigh Sullivan. It has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?”
“Eh, it’ll do.”
We both laughed again and all of our worries and stress dissipated into hopes and plans for our future. I wanted to reach through the phone and pull her into my arms, crushing her to me until neither one of us could breathe, for all we wanted to be a part of each other.
* * *
THAT WAS THE last time I spoke to her until she called me three years later, without even a single memory of all we had been through that summer.
Chapter 24
Adrienne
ADRIENNE’S HEART AND mind were racing. She remembered back to when she first began having her cryptic dreams, wishing they were more clear. Be careful what you wish for. Once the memories started, they came in something like a flood, but more like electrical pulses. There was no reason or order to them; the part of her brain keeping them locked up had been flung open, excreting memories in a random and disorderly fashion. She squeezed her hands against the side of her head as if doing so would force them out.
* * *
SHE WAS BACK in her bedroom again, at Ophélie.
“Adrienne, he loves you. This is the real deal. We are all so jealous,” her sister, Giselle (her name was no longer memorization, but actual memory) was saying. Adrienne was seeing her sister as if for the first time. Giselle was so beautiful. Soft, blonde hair like corn silk. Her cerulean blue eyes flashed, and turned upward at the corners like Adrienne’s own eyes. Adrienne felt her stomach seize thinking of her stolen future.
The Adrienne of the memory was blushing. “Sometimes it doesn’t feel real. Like if I blink or look away, the whole thing will be gone.”
Paranormal After Dark: 20 Paranormal Tales of Demons, Shifters, Werewolves, Vampires, Fae, Witches, Magics, Ghosts and More Page 270