The Billionaire Saved My Life - The Finale

by Sherie Keys

  “That was dramatic,” Mae said. “And Tanya, he looked so genuine. Are you going to give him a chance?”

  “Quit it, Mae,” Kaya turned to her. “Don't fall for all that talk of his. He's a charmer, he knows how to get what he wants.”

  Kaya grabbed Tanya's arm and led her back to the kitchen. The others followed.

  “I don't want to meet him,” Tanya finally said. “I'm tired. Tired of the whole thing.”

  “Can I say something?” Jeannie said. All three turned back to look at her. “I've known Kurtis most of my life. I've known him to do some pretty dumb things. One of them was to fall in love with Catherine. But as much of a bitch as she was, Kurtis never treated her badly, never cheated on her and never lied to her. Now, I don't think that he would do any of that to Tanya. Not lie and certainly not cheat with Catherine. I saw how different he was when he fell in love with Tanya. You were the person who completed him. I really think you should give him a chance to explain. Remember how he walked in on you and James? Imagine what that must have felt like to him.”

  “It's true, I know what you mean, Jeannie,” Tanya said, her eyes looking from one girlfriend to the next.

  “You know what I think?” Jeannie continued. “You owe it to yourself to hear him out. A few hours ago you were going to talk to him. If you do that tomorrow and you still don't want to get back together with him, then that's fine, I'll support you. But wouldn't you rather make that decision based on fact rather than assumptions? Assumptions are what broke you guys up in the first place.”

  “Jeannie has a point,” Mae said, draping an arm around Tanya. “What you gonna do?”

  Tanya put her head down, searching the kitchen floor for the answer. She shrugged and walked back to the counter and all the food and drink just lying there.

  “Someone pour me a drink. It's a long time until three o'clock tomorrow. Still got time to party.” She turned to them, waving an empty glass, which Kaya was quick to fill. After the sobering moment of Kurtis's arrival the party was back on and this time, Tanya did start dancing.

  Chapter7

  Early the next morning, Kurtis was banging on Catherine's apartment door.

  “Come on, open up. We need to talk,” he kept saying.

  “What about?”

  He turned to see Catherine on the top of the stairwell with a bag of groceries.

  “I'm surprised to see you here,” she said, lowering her bag to the floor and searching for her keys. She entered the vast living space of her apartment, leaving the door open for Kurtis to follow her and talking to him over her shoulder. “Don't you think you've got some nerve coming here after you humiliated me at our lunch date?” She dropped the groceries onto the table in her kitchen and started unpacking.

  “And don't you think you've got some nerve sending a picture of you outside my hotel room to Tanya?”

  “Oh that,” she said.

  “Yes, that.”

  “Well what does it matter when you told me you'd finished with the both of us?” She opened a bottle of mineral water and started to drink. “Oh, I'm sorry, Kurtis, did you want a drink?”

  “Save it.” He propped himself on a high stool in the kitchen next to a granite topped counter. Ironic that Catherine's kitchen was so well equipped when she hardly ever cooked in all the time he'd known her. “There's only one thing I want from you,” he said.

  “And we've already established that that something is not my body.” She walked back through to the living room. “Honestly, Kurtis. A woman has her pride, you know. How could you insult me like that? I offer you my body and you turn me down when everyone in New York knows you're screwing around with every big-busted bimbo going. Aren't you afraid your dick will drop off?”

  He approached her, striding across the room standing just inches away.

  “I hope it does drop off,” Catherine said, looking him straight in the eye. “It's what you deserve.”

  “I'm sure you think that, but you know exactly why I'm here. Stop beating around the bush.”

  “So, now I'm a mind reader?” She sauntered away and sat on a large, red sofa, spreading her arms across the headrest and barely looking at Kurtis. He sat in front of her on the coffee table.

  “Do you know how much that table is worth?” she said.

  “Should do – I paid for it.”

  “Oh yes, the days when you used to buy me gifts. Now I guess you're throwing your money around after those women you're chasing.”

  “Catherine, cut it out. I'm here to appeal to your better nature. I know you have one. You have a good heart, at least you did. What happened to you, Catherine? Why did you change so much?”

  “You should ask yourself that question?”

  “Look, I don't know how many times I have to apologize about that accident. If I could turn back time, if it could be me who was lost at sea, instead of you... That's what should have happened. You didn't deserve anything that came to you after the boat crashed. It ate me up for the longest time and I still can't get that day out of my mind.”

  “Well you have a strange way of showing it.”

  “Why can't you see that I'm not responsible for what happened after the accident? I mean, meeting Tanya almost two years later and what happened since then. It's not my fault I fell in love again. It could happen to you, Catherine.”

  “For Christ's sake don't patronize me. Anything but that.”

  “Well, all right then, but I need you to help me out. I need you to talk to Tanya for me and tell her the truth behind the picture you sent of you outside my hotel room.”

  Catherine shook her head and snorted. “Why should I?” she said.

  “Because of what we once had, because I'm asking you to.”

  “I hate you, Kurtis.”

  “I know you do and I know I can't change the way you feel about me. But I still need you to tell Tanya the truth. I want you to meet her face to face.”

  “No, Goddam way!” She shot up from the sofa and paced to the other side of the room. “You want me to stand there and let her laugh in my face?”

  “She would never do that.”

  “And this is just what I expected of you. I told you you'd go running back after her.”

  “Jesus, Catherine. I have no idea she wants me back at all. I just owe it to her to let her know the truth. I know it was James that set her up and it's only fair she knows about the picture. I can't live with her not knowing.”

  “And then you expect to live happily ever after with her, don't you?”

  “Like I said, I have no idea what she wants to do. I seriously doubt she wants me back but it's important to me I clear the air.” He stood up. “Now I'm hoping she'll meet me this afternoon at our place.”

  “Your place? You two have a place? We never had a place.”

  “It's just a part of Central Park we like to walk around. Just a place we both liked before we ever even met.”

  “Oh, how romantic.”

  “So will you do it? Will you meet us so we can get this out in the open once and for all?”

  Catherine stood silently watching Kurtis. Watching the anxiety and impatience in his eyes.

  “All right,” she said after what was a very long pause.

  “You'll do it?” he exclaimed.

  “What have I got to lose, right? If she has any sense she'll dump you and we can all go our separate ways.”

  “Exactly.”

  “So, where is this, 'place', of yours,” she said making quotation signs with her fingers.

  “Bow Bridge. Be there a little after three. I'm meeting Tanya at three o'clock.”

  “If she bothers to turn up.”

  “I feel as though she will.” He walked to the door. “Thank you, Catherine. You know what you were telling me about us being friends?”

  “Yes,” she sighed and crossed her arms, her face straight and unreadable.

  “I wonder if it could ever happen. I hope so, but I think we both need to work through some issues.�
�

  “You mean me, I need to work through some issues. Somehow, you always come up smelling of roses.”

  “I'll see you later, Catherine.” He gave a half smile and left the room. He didn't see Catherine pick up a small onyx ornament and throw it at the door. It landed just feet from it and she gritted her teeth in anger.

  ***

  Later that morning, a little closer to midday, the girls at Jeannie's mansion were all waking up from a late night of drinking. Jeannie entered Tanya's room.

  “I'm putting on some coffee. You getting up?”

  “If my head will let me. I'd love some coffee though.”

  One by one, they were lured down to the kitchen as the smell of fresh coffee drifted up the vast staircase and into their respective rooms.

  “My head,” Kaya said, walking with her eyes closed to the dining table in the kitchen. She was the last one up. “Don't worry Jeannie, we'll make sure all this mess is cleared away before we leave.”

  “No need, the maid comes by later.” Jeannie poured some coffee for Kaya.

  “Oh, what it is to be rich,” Kaya said. “I could get used to this.”

  They chatted quietly before realizing that Tanya had not joined in the conversation. As their small talk petered out, they all sat staring at Tanya.

  “Why is everyone looking at me?” she said innocently.

  “You know,” Mae said. “Today, three o'clock. You gonna go?”

  “Maybe.” She looked at each of them and then picked up her coffee cup and walked to the door. She turned back and smiled. “Sure I'm going. But don't get excited. I'm not gonna come back wearing his ring. It's just to listen to what he has to say. I still don't want him back.”

  *

  Tanya lied. Deep down inside, she wanted Kurtis back. She just wished the circumstances could be better. Too many terrible things had happened to them both to make going back easy. All her fears still remained; the fact Kurtis was so quick to judge her and she, him. That wasn't a good background to a romance she kept telling herself as she showered and got ready to go to meet Kurtis.

  The other voice in her head was telling her not to be so ridiculous. Love is love, no matter how you look at it. If they are both innocent of doing anything wrong then they should both be together. As Tanya slipped into a turquoise blue summer dress, she told herself that she needed a sign. Something that would tell her that getting back together with Kurtis was the right thing to do. If she didn't get that sign when she met him on Bow Bridge then she would walk away.

  She had no idea what that sign might be but somehow she thought something would happen and that something would guide her into making the right decision.

  “I've called a taxi for you, Tanya,” Jeannie said when Tanya came down the stairs all ready for her rendezvous with Kurtis.

  “Thank you, Jeannie. Thanks for everything really. That goes to all of you girls. I don't know what I'd do without you. This has been like a merry-go-round and a helter skelter ride in one. I've been up and down, sideways and back again. I didn't know where I was sometimes, but you've all been great.”

  The girls all hugged each other and were only able to let go at the sound of the taxi, honking its horn outside on the drive

  “Well, this is it,” Tanya tried to sound as light as she could. She let herself out and for a second time in two days, she sat in the back of a taxicab on her way to have a talk with Kurtis. She had butterflies in her stomach but she knew she needed to be focused and strong. This was the make or break time.

  Across town and in Central Park, a parade was going on. Kurtis weaved his way in and out of a throng of celebrating people. What they were celebrating he had no idea and didn't make it his business to find out. He headed for Bow Bridge. He looked up at the arch in the middle of the bridge, hoping to see Tanya there, but she wasn't.

  It was ten minutes to three when he got to the top of the bridge. There were so many people in that part of the park, hundreds more than he was expecting, because of the parade and the bridge was crowded. People walked slowly from each side of the bridge to the other. He looked at all the brightly dressed people, all summery and happy. There were couples holding hands, children running and skipping along.

  He was jittery as he looked all around, hoping he wouldn't miss seeing Tanya when she showed up. Silly, he thought, she was bound to stand out in the crowd. He looked at his watch, it was five minutes past three. No Tanya yet.

  On the far side of the park and making her way through the wave of people all there for a special summer recital, Tanya made her way to Bow Bridge. She was tapped on the shoulder.

  “Tanya!” a woman declared and threw her arms around her shoulders. It was one of Tanya's clients. “I've been meaning to call you. Since I decided to give my idiotic husband a chance to make things up to me, I found out he was telling lies again. I needed you to help me dress for a divorce party, remember? – well the divorce is back on.”

  “Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. But call me any time,” Tanya said trying to edge away from her client

  “I think I've got my diary here. We can arrange a date now if you can hang on.” She was already rummaging through her purse. Tanya looked, impatiently, across the grass and saw the bridge in the distance. She was unable to make out anyone on the bridge. She was already late but she was sure Kurtis would be there waiting.

  “Now let me see,” Tanya's client said, flicking through the pages. “My son is always saying to me, 'Mom, when you going to start putting appointments into your Smartphone?' He bought me the damn thing. Do I know how to use it? I can just about make a call and send a text. You know what I mean?” She laughed, Tanya laughed back and looked over shoulder at the bridge.

  Meanwhile on the arch on Bow Bridge, Kurtis stood leaning with his elbows on the ledge, looking out to the water, baffled by the crowd of people and still trying to spot Tanya in the crowd. Suddenly someone pressed up next to him and stroked his hair.

  “Catherine! You came.”

  “Yes, you told me a little after three. Am I late?”

  “No, you're right on time.”

  “Well? Where is she?”

  “I don't know.”

  “She's not coming, Kurtis, otherwise she'd be here. What time is it?”

  “Twenty past three.”

  “Oh dear.” Catherine bit her lip and looked at Kurtis. “You know I nearly didn't make it myself. I wasn't sure I should do you such a big favor after you nearly tried to kill me.”

  “Catherine, this is no time to kid around.” Kurtis was fretful and kept turning round, expecting Tanya to appear at any minute. What if she'd changed her mind? “Look, you wouldn't be here if you weren't going to talk Tanya the way I asked you.”

  “Wouldn't I? How would you know I haven't just come here to fan the flame? To tell your little girlfriend that I was there because you wanted to see me. That you'd just banged my brains out and we've been sleeping together since I got back?”

  “You wouldn't. Why would you do that? What have you got to gain?”

  “I don't know, Kurtis, the question should be, what have I got to lose.”

  “I knew this was a mistake.”

  “Relax,” she said. “I'm sure we can strike up a deal.”

  “What deal?”

  “Well a kinda 'you scratch my back and I scratch yours' deal.”

  “Why now, Catherine? Why are you bringing this up now? You want me to beg you, is that it? Well I'm begging. Please do this for me. What do you want? Do you want me to pay you? Just name the price, Catherine. I'll pay you want you want if you do this for me.”

  “Oh so dramatic. You really, really will never want me back, will you?”

  Just then, Tanya was about to get free from her client. They had made an appointment and Tanya had to write it into her client's diary because she'd forgotten her glasses.

  “The truth is, I hate wearing the damn things,” she was saying to Tanya. “They really age me. You on the other hand, are so young and beau
tiful, and so talented the way you've helped me out in the past. I don't know how I could have coped.”

  “Oh, you do just fine. Anyway,” Tanya smiled at her, “I should go. I'm meeting someone.”

  “Is it your boyfriend? It's the nicest part of the park, don't you think? I've been a New Yorker all my life. I've seen quite a few changes here. I could tell you all about them.”

  “Why don't you tell me when we have our appointment next week? Right now I really need to go.” Tanya was still smiling, still being professional, but she'd seen on her cell when she was putting in the appointment, that it was almost half past three.

  “Oh yes,” her client beamed. “We don't want to keep the young man waiting.”

  “Okay, I'll see you next Wednesday. 'Bye.” Tanya rushed away before her client could start another conversation. She walked quickly through the crowd, smiling at how well she did to not lose her cool. Tanya wasn't too worried. She knew Kurtis would wait. She looked ahead and saw the bridge. It wasn't too far now, another three minutes and she'd be there.

  By now, Kurtis was getting more and more frustrated with the way Catherine was behaving. He hadn't thought about it before but right now, but he was wishing that Catherine had never regained her memory and then none of this would have happened. Maybe he and Tanya might already be married. Right now, he wasn't sure that Tanya was actually going to show up and, if she did, would Catherine go along with him and tell Tanya the truth?

  “Is it always going to be like this, Catherine?” he said.

  “Like what?”

  “You trying to punish me at every opportunity you get?”

  “Oh silly, Kurtis. There's only one thing I want from you so that I can tell the precious Tanya the truth.”

  “And what's that?”

  “One kiss, Kurtis. That's all I ask. Just one kiss. You owe me that at least. A goodbye kiss. We never got to have one.”

  “People don't give each other goodbye kisses when they break up.”

  “Who says? Well, to hell with everyone else. It's what I want. I remember your kisses, Kurtis. It's one of the things I know I missed, even while I had amnesia. I knew something was missing. I missed the feeling of your arms around me, those big strong arms of yours.” She touched his arms, Kurtis shrugged her off and looked around desperately to see if Tanya was anywhere close.