by Sherie Keys
“Then the business type are all sort of bored in one way or another. They vary, really, because I’ll find some really nice, humble people or entitled ones. Then there are the kind that sort of mix it up. They’d rather not be at business events, but they really love what they do and enjoy working and also enjoy the fruits of their labor and definitely always give back. Then at the elite parties, most of the people are entitled, stuck up, fake, or jerks,” Melanie said and I laughed.
“I think you’re just about right, Mel. You really have those events down to a science don’t you?” I asked and she shrugged.
“Pretty much, I think soon I’ll have to find a new moonlighting affair,” she said and I laughed.
“So which am I, from your analysis, where do I fall?” I asked her and she smiled at me slowly.
“I think you’re the mix it up type, or just a normal guy with a really good job,” she said and I smiled.
“I’ll take it,” I said and she looked down at her plate and finished her last taco.
After we ate, we walked around a bit on Hollywood Boulevard and visited the walk of fame. Then we went back to the hotel to sleep off the jet lag. Mel was exhausted and I was tired enough to lie down with her.
“You know…I was exhausted a minute ago, but now that I’ve laid down my eyes seem to be wired open,” Mel said and I chuckled. The TV was on, but we weren’t watching it. Mel was on her side looking at me and I was lying on my back and staring at the crown molding of the room. “You have a nice profile,” she said and I smiled and took that as a cue to turn and make eye contact with her.
“Why’d you surprise me with this trip?” she asked curiously and I shrugged.
“I wanted to do something special with you and have you all to myself, I figured you’d want to visit LA since we sort of talked about it once,” I said and she smiled. “I was actually fifty-fifty on whether you’d say yes or not, though,” I admitted and she giggled.
Her blue green eyes were bright as she looked at me and I got such an urge to kiss her and then wrap her up and hide her away so that I’d have her all to myself for as long as I wanted.
“I wasn’t actually sure at first, but then figured that I trusted you enough and knew you wouldn’t actually try to kill me or sell me to some sort of human trafficking trade or something.”
“What is it with you and the stalkers, murderers, and the like?”
“I had a thing for thriller movies and they almost always centered around some shady character in the black market of some kind or a murderer or serial killer. Then these people would almost always find their victims in big cities, of course, so ever since that phase of my life I had a sort of complex,” she said and I cracked up.
“Hey don’t laugh! It can so happen, people wouldn’t make movies or books or TV shows on that stuff if it didn’t happen in real life.”
“You’re right, I’m sorry, but that’s sort of a bad complex to have. Going around thinking that everyone you meet could be an axe murderer waiting to steal you away to LA so that they could kill you,” I said and she cracked a smile.
“Whatever; I say, you should always have your eyes open is all,” I smiled and she poked her finger into my one dimple. “My god you’re pretty.”
“Whatever keeps you here with me, gorgeous,” I said and winked at her.
“You’re such a dork…it’s okay, though, because I like it.”
I pushed my head closer to hers so I could kiss her.
“And you’re kind of weird to be honest, but it’s okay because I like that, too,” I said and she rolled her eyes, but kissed me again.
“I think I’m tired now,” she said and I nodded then watched her as she fell asleep.
After she feel asleep, I watched a little bit of TV and then finally dozed off.
* * *
“Okay, I admit, we shouldn’t have done that, that was a bad, very bad idea,” Melanie said before she stuck her tongue into her ice cream sandwich shake.
We had decided to be daredevils and try the spiciest curry in LA and then immediately started to question our own sanity.
“That wasn’t an idea at all, we were trying to be cool, it didn’t work out,” I said and Melanie laughed, though she was still tearing up from the spice of the two bites of curry she had.
They had given us some sort of concoction to stop the burning effect, but there were still some residual effects only the ice cream sandwich shakes could cure.
“Let’s thoroughly investigate and ponder our decisions when it comes to ‘the spiciest’ anything from now on,” she said and I nodded while I sucked a huge mouthful of my shake into my mouth and just let it sit on my tongue.
“I’m still kind of mad I put myself through that,” Melanie murmured and she took another drink of her shake.
I finally swallowed and then thought back to the expression on Mel’s face when she had that first bite of the curry. She was the brave one and had her first bite without the rice, then went for another with the rice to see if it made a difference.
Her expression went from pained, full of contempt, and vaguely hopeful, to completely devastated and full of remorse and anger. It was quite the emotional downhill ride for Mel. For me, I was just sad and my tongue was in pain.
“You went through a lot of emotions when you ate it, though,” I said with a laugh and Mel chuckled.
“I know, I was trying to find the flavor, but all I was getting was the spice! It was just so…upsetting,” she said and I laughed at her again. “That is something I’ve never done, with a boyfriend or someone I’m dating, is go and voluntarily put myself through pain,” Melanie said and I cracked up at the comment.
“So your past boyfriends have never taken you out on trips to LA to kill you or sell you off to the sex trade?” I asked and Mel threw her napkin at me.
We were still sitting outside of the little ice cream shop recommended to us by the waitress at the Indian restaurant.
“No, actually, past boyfriends have pretty much kept it local, simple kind of,” she said and I smiled slowly.
“One more thing I have going for me,” I said and she rolled her eyes, but smiled. “But one thing I can’t quite get is how you’ve never gotten a date out of one of the parties you’ve crashed, no one has ever been persistent enough?” I asked and Melanie shrugged.
“I usually steal away before they can get persistent if someone is flirting with me at one of those parties,” she said and then took another long drink of her shake.
I remembered how she got away from me and how I was pushing, as it was, for her to at least take my card.
“I bet you drive a lot of guys crazy,” I said and Melanie snorted.
“Only if they let me,” she said with a wink and I just smiled and shook my head.
“Minx.” She smiled innocently and then stuck her tongue out at me. “Have you ever had any real serious relationships?” I asked her and she pursed her lips for a moment.
“Well, I’ve had one, but it ended badly. The guy was selfish,” she said shortly and I saw that she didn’t really want to expand on that.
“That’s too bad. I’ve had a couple of serious relationships where I was sure the girl was the one, you know? Then they just turned out to be in it for my money in some aspect. It was never real, but that’s what I got for picking up dates at elite parties,” I said and Melanie snorted.
“See what happens when you meet someone real at a deli on Wall Street? You get to go to LA with them and eat really spicy curry and wish you’ve never been given taste buds,” Melanie said and I laughed.
“Yeah, you’re right about that. I’m glad I met you in that deli,” I said and she grinned.
“Me, too…I really like you, Caleb,” she said and then it was my turn to smile.
Chapter10
Hunter
Melanie had been away all weekend and didn’t even tell me what she had been up to. So on top of not seeing her all week, I was left wondering what she was doing and who sh
e was doing it with while she was away.
“Hunter, what’s wrong with you, you’re pacing like you’re on hallucinogens or something,” Anthony said as I paced around his Brooklyn studio.
The place was nice, it had a huge view of Brooklyn, and was pretty new. It also had an industrial feel and a lot of square footage for a studio in the city.
“It’s Melanie, I don’t know…sometimes I feel like she’s pulling away from me and then we get together and it’s like things are completely fine,” I admitted and Anthony shook his head at me.
He was sitting on his couch, watching the game and eating from a bag of chips, completely carefree.
“Dude, you’re just dating. I hate to break it to you, but it’s not like you guys are in a committed or even exclusive relationship. You don’t even know each other all the way yet. You’re getting way too worked up over a girl you just started seeing,” Ant said honestly and I sighed.
He was right, I was getting all emotional when I didn’t have to. But I couldn’t really help it, I wanted Melanie to be mine and I wanted to be in a relationship with her; that didn’t just mean we have sex and talk every once in a while.
“I want her, though, bad, I can’t get her out of my system either. I’ve tried to figure her out, I’ve had sex with her, I’ve spent time with her, I’ve fucking cuddled with her and nothing, nothing is getting this itch I can’t scratch whenever I’m not around her. I mean, what is that?” I asked him and Ant sighed heavily and shook his head at me sadly.
“Well, my friend, I hate to break it to you, but it seems like you really, really like this Melanie chick,” Ant said and I rolled my eyes at him.
“I know, but I don’t think she likes me as much. What. The. Fuck. Do. I. Do?” I asked him and he shrugged.
“Why don’t you just take her out, spend some time with her and let her see the you that’s spouting all this sappy crap right now. Chicks dig that, if she likes you half as much as you apparently like her, then things will work out.”
I put my hands on my hips and started to pace again.
“But what if she’s dating someone else? I kind of have this feeling that she is, she’s dodgy when I ask her certain questions, like now, for instance. She told me that she was going to be ‘away’ for the weekend. When I asked her where, she never got back to me. Nothing, it’s not the first time she’s practically ignored me like this either,” I told him and Ant put down the bag of chips and sat forward on the couch.
“Stop pacing, it’s making me dizzy. Look, from what I’ve seen, Melanie’s a beautiful woman. Of course there’s a very good possibility that she could be dating someone else, but like I said earlier, you guys aren’t exclusive. So to get one up on whomever else there may or may not be, again, like I said, spend time with her!” Ant said and I pursed my lips while I thought about what he said.
“I could take her to my house in the Hamptons, she could bring all her painting stuff so she doesn’t fall behind on work, and I’ll take a few days off of work. That should be perfect, right?” I said and Anthony shrugged.
“Sure, a nice beach getaway sounds nice, I’m sure Melanie would be all over that,” Anthony said and I smiled the more I thought about it.
I decided I’d talk to Melanie about that the following Monday when I knew she’d be back from wherever the hell she was with whoever the hell she was with.
“You can’t just take her to the Hamptons and keep her holed up in your house, though; other than the beach, what’s up there anyway?” Anthony asked after I sat back down on the couch and grabbed a few chips from the bag.
“Lots of things; she likes to eat, there are a few good restaurants, there’s stuff like spas and whatnot. I kind of want it to just be a relaxing getaway with Melanie,” I said and Ant smiled.
“I can’t believe it. I really have to meet her. I never thought the day would come where I’d see Hunter Berkshire head over heels for a woman,” he chuckled.
I threw a chip at him, which he simply picked off of his jacket and put into his mouth.
My phone rang in my pocket, and I fished it out quickly, thinking it was Melanie. My eyebrows furrowed when I saw it was my mother calling me. Since when does she call me? I cautiously ignored the call and then put the phone face up on the couch.
“What’s up?” Ant asked me as he noticed that my whole demeanor changed.
“I don’t know, my mother just called, she never—” I was cut off by my phone going off again and that time it was my sister. I answered on the first ring.
“What’s up?” I asked cautiously and she sighed heavily.
“Dad had a bad heart attack, he has to have surgery and everything…Mom is freaking out,” she said and I clenched my jaw.
I hardly ever liked the man, and still resented him as being part of the reason for my brother’s death. But he was my father and if not for him, I wouldn’t have ended up where I was. I never wished for him to die and didn’t like the idea of him dying with us being on such frigid terms.
“What hospital is he in?” I asked and Ariana texted me the name and address. “Are you there…with…Mom?” I asked and already felt awkward about being around my mother and my father, even though he would most likely be unconscious.
“Yeah, I just pulled into the parking lot, please get here fast,” she said and I could hear the anxiety in her voice already. No one wanted to be left alone with my mother if she was anywhere near hysterical.
“I’m on the way,” I told her reassuringly and then ended the call and got up to leave.
“What’s up? Do you want me to come with?” Ant asked, ever loyal.
“My dad had a heart attack, he needs surgery. I have to go upstate, it’s just a family thing for now,” I told him and Anthony got up to walk me out.
“Alright, just let me know if you need anything, I’ve got your back,” he said and then we shook hands before I left his place and hurried down to my car. Good thing I had given the driver another night off. I sped to Rochester and got to the hospital as fast as I could.
When I got there and checked in with security, I was given directions to the ICU waiting room. Of course hospitals were like fucking mazes and it took me longer than it should have taken for me to find the waiting room. Both my sister and mother were there sitting and waiting. They weren’t talking. Ariana was stiff in her chair and she kept glancing at the double doors doctors occasionally came out of.
My mother looked a lot like Ariana did, but she had blonde hair and blue eyes, whereas Ari and I got our dark hair and green eyes from our father. She was wringing her hands in her lap and looking at the same door Ari was.
They both looked up at me at the same time when I walked in. Ari smiled in relief and the corner of my mother’s mouth twitched up, but she looked haggard. Kind of like she did when my brother died.
“You made it!” Ari said and she got up from the chair and hugged me tightly.
“I tried to get here as fast as I could, what happened, did you get any update?” I looked from Ari to my mother who was standing sort of despondently behind Ari.
“Y—yes, one nurse came out before they took him into surgery, he’s getting a bypass…” she said softly and she looked so lost and afraid that I had to hug her.
“It’ll be okay…he’s a fighter, he won’t die so easily, you know that,” I said and she held on to me tightly then started to cry against my chest. I looked over at Ari in a sort of panic and she simply shrugged while staring at me with wide eyes.
“I know…I know we drove you kids away and you’re perfectly justified for not speaking with us. It’s just that, if he goes…what will I have?” she said sadly and I glanced over at Ari again who simply looked up at me, at as much of a loss as I was. But she did have sadness and a little pity in her eyes for our mother.
“Come on, don’t start talking like that, Mom, he’s not going to die.”
“Hunter is right, he’s a fighter,” Ari said and then mom finally let go of me and wrapped her
arm around Ari’s waist and Ari wrapped her arm around her mother’s shoulders.
“How long has it been that they’ve had him in surgery?” I asked mom and she sniffled.
I reached into my suit pocket and gave her a handkerchief. I had gone to Ant’s right from work without changing, so I was still in my suit.
“About an hour or so now…” she said with a shaky voice and I glanced around the waiting room full of tense people.