Hush

by Jess Wygle

  “I think you were wrong when you said she was the one in trouble. I think you’re the one in trouble. You should see your face right now,” Red mocked. “She may not know what she’s getting herself into, but you’re the one with the problems here.”

  “You’re blowing this out of proportion. It’s not that serious,” I corrected him quickly.

  Red shook his head. “Just keep telling yourself that. But, look, seriously, if things get real between you two, you’ve got to pull the trigger and tell her. You know that.”

  I stared at Red for a moment. He was right. I knew he was right, but I wasn’t going to admit it. It was one of the biggest reasons I didn’t get involved with women and it was the reason I’d have to stay away from Olivia. Nothing good would come of it.

  “Have you gotten any word from Carmine?” I asked, redirecting the conversation back to business. Carmine was the contact for our new business venture in Minneapolis. We were working out the kinks for zoning and permits with the city.

  “Yeah, he sent over the paperwork Friday. I told him to expect to hear from you today. We’ve got some zoning issues to work out with the city, but other than that, it’s all in line to get the site up and operational,” Red explained.

  I nodded. “Well, keep me in the loop with the city. One of us is going to have to make the trip out there to get things started.”

  Red scoffed a little. “And by one of us, you mean me.”

  “I’ve got two senators coming into L.A. next week and they’re coughing up a lot of funds for my ugly mug so Minneapolis is all yours. Have Grant fly you out there as soon as the mess with the city is cleared up and I don’t want you back until you’re comfortable letting those boys run the place by themselves. Make sure everyone knows their shit, the way I like it.”

  “And what about the overseas bullshit that I’ve been dealing with for the past couple of weeks?” Red asked.

  I shrugged. “I’ll take care of it. It wouldn’t be a problem if you would have nipped it in the ass three months ago when I told you to.”

  “My guess is we’ll need to make a trip out there soon, too. Once we get all these drop-ins done, we should be set for a while,” Red said, ignoring my jab.

  “I hate that we’ve got all these places to check in on all in a row like this. We should have it all spread out more,” I groaned. “Let’s push that trip out as long as we can. We’ll do what we can from here for now. The locals haven’t gotten involved as of yet so we shouldn’t have any major problems. Simple fixes with a good kick in the ass will do for now.”

  Red nodded. “Need anything else from me, boss man?”

  I shook my head. “The city of Minneapolis and direct all foreign concerns my way.”

  “Got it.” Red stepped out of the office.

  I picked up my phone on an impulse, dialing a number. “Rick, I need some work done on Dr. Olivia Reinbeck. R-E-I-N-B-E-C-K. Middle unknown. Send the information directly to me, no one else. How long? Great.” I hung up the phone.

  I knew if there was anything I needed to know about Olivia, I’d find out from Rick. He’s the best at digging up dirt, which is why I’d been working with him for so long. I wasn’t expecting to find anything, other than what she’d already told me about herself. I didn’t peg her for a liar and she hadn’t given me any reason to doubt her. The control-freak in me just liked to have all my ducks in a row, in case anything were to come of this.

  Trouble, trouble, trouble.

  2006 - Olivia

  I found myself pacing around my living room, waiting for a pair of headlights to hit my house. The food was done and getting colder by the minute. I moved back into the kitchen, meticulously turning wine glasses and straightening silverware for the meal when I heard a car door shut.

  “It’s about time,” I snapped as Erin let herself in the front door. She smiled widely and met me for a hug.

  “Sorry, you know me, Mrs. Punctual,” she said sarcastically. “Smells fantastic in here.”

  We sat down at the table and dug in to the chili I had whipped up. “You were there for nearly three days and you didn’t do any shopping?” Erin asked about my trip to Chicago.

  “I was at the conference for nearly eight hours both days. I didn’t have much time to shop, but would have loved to. You and I are going to need to take a trip out there. It was actually a lot of fun, just being in an urban jungle like that. Closest to New York City I’ve ever been. It’s completely different from walking downtown L.A., I don’t know what it was, but it was fun.”

  “And how was that Callem guy?” Erin asked before taking a bite of her cornbread. “Did he show you around the town or did he have one of his other guys do it?”

  “No, it was him,” I explained. “He was really nice,” I said simply.

  Erin looked at me sideways, not buying it. “What does that mean, ‘he was nice’?” she asked mockingly.

  I shrugged. I was a horrible liar. I was even worse at being intentionally vague with my details. I knew she’d see right through it. “It just means he did a wonderful job transporting me.”

  “He’s not Jason Statham, and if he were, I’d demand you to introduce me. What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Nothing is sacred when you’re around,” I said smiling. “I think, I don’t know, I might, but I couldn’t. It doesn’t make any sense. I just, you know, it’s one of those things that you, well,” I stammered, pushing some beans around my bowl.

  Erin stopped eating to watch me struggle. She finally held up her hands, clanking her spoon against the side of her bowl. “What is happening here? Are you trying to tell me you’ve got a crush on this guy?”

  I shifted my weight in my chair uneasily. “I don’t know. I just can’t stop thinking about him. It’s so strange. I’ve had crushes before, but with those, I just wanted to stare at the guy all day or I just wanted to hear him singing or something. With Callem, it’s different. I want to know about him. I want to know where he comes from and what his interests are and what makes him happiest. I think there’s something wrong with me.”

  “So you have to be sick now to be falling for a guy?”

  “Erin, he’s thirty-six. He’s fifteen years older than me. He could be my father.”

  Erin turned her head. “Oh come on, no he couldn’t.”

  “Teen pregnancy is on the rise. It’s not just the mothers who are teens.”

  “Calm down, Doc. He’s not old enough to be your father. Okay, theoretically he is, but that’s not important. That’s why you think there’s something wrong with you. You’re working yourself up over this for no reason. There’s nothing wrong with an age difference. It’s perfectly normal and happens around here all the time.”

  “Yeah, for women who want to sit on their asses their entire lives and have everything handed to them,” I spat.

  “That’s no true at all. Look at Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas. Besides, you’re not one of those women. You’re independent, making mad loot for a twenty-one year old. You don’t need a man to support you. The fact that he’s loaded too is just a perk. It’s not like you’ve been searching for a sugar daddy to sweep you off your feet. You just so happened to meet a nice, successful man, who is a little bit older than you. What’s the big deal? Are you afraid of what people would think, because I don’t think anything of it?”

  “I know you wouldn’t think anything of it,” I said.

  “Not unless he was looking for a sugar momma. I would put a stop to that shit real quick,” Erin jumped in.

  I smiled. “I get it. Thanks.”

  “So what are you going to do about it? Are you going to wait for him to make the next move or are you going to suck it up and do something about it?” Erin asked.

  That was a good question. What was I going to do about it?

  2013 - Olivia

  A long soak in the warmth of a bath was more refreshing than I had anticipated. My skin felt stripped of the scum I’d been carrying with me for the past we
ek. I was starting to get cabin fever locked up in this hotel room. I needed to get out but I didn’t have anywhere else to go. I had to have things finalized and legalized before I’d feel comfortable stepping out into the fresh air again, and not under the cloak of nightfall.

  I was about to occupy myself with a personal manicure when there was a knock at my door. A knock said a lot. The knocking of the hotel staff was between four and six quick knocks that were followed up with an identifying call through the door. Erin had only been by once and she knocked with vigor, longer, harder knocks. These ones, they were different. They were hesitant, but audible.

  I looked at the clock. It was too late for Erin and I hadn’t called down for anything. This was probably the visitor I’d been expecting; the one I knew all along would be coming. The one I’d been dreading.

  I slid off the end of the bed, waiting for a reaction to the unanswered knock. I took a few steps closer to the door, my still damp hair sticking to my cheek. The visitor knocked again. “Who is it?” I asked as I approached the door.

  “Livy?” Callem’s voice spoke from the other side of the door.

  My chest seized. It was him. I slowly peaked through the peephole at him. He didn’t look aggressive, if that was an emotion translatable through the owl-eye peephole. I could see a pair of feet on the other side of the hallway, but nothing more of the figure, though I didn’t have to see all of him to know it was Red.

  “Liv, will you let me in?” Callem spoke again when I didn’t answer. “Please, honey. I’ve been worried sick about you.”

  “Go away,” I spat quickly. “I don’t want to see you. Just go away.”

  “Don’t be like this. We need to talk. Can’t you at least open the door? Huh? Do we have to do this through the door?”

  “Please go away and take Red with you,” I said, standing my ground.

  I watched Callem shift his weight on the other side of the door before looking back at Red for a moment. “Look, Liv, there’s a lot you and I need to talk about. I want you back home. If you’d just listen to what I have to say--”

  I cut him off. “I have a lawyer,” I paused. “I’m filing for divorce, Cal.” I waited, letting my words sink in. I didn’t know what kind of reaction I’d get out of him. “You and I can talk when your lawyer has the papers. Until then, I have nothing to say to you and I don’t want to hear anything you have to say to me.”

  “Liv,” Callem said quietly. “Don’t do this. Don’t get the lawyers involved. You and I can work this out. Please, just think about what you’re doing before anything becomes official.” I didn’t answer. Callem propped his hands up on the frame of the door and hung his head. “Olivia, please just open the door. Please, baby.”

  “Go away, Cal, or I will call security,” I barked through the door. “I am not opening this door and I am not having this conversation. Go.” The barrier between the two of us gave me a false front of courage.

  Through the peephole, I watched Callem fight with himself, pacing lightly. He kept coming back to the door as if he wanted to say something else; as if there were words that escaped him each time he opened his mouth. He rubbed his head impatiently. I could even hear him sigh heavily. “Just think about this long and hard before you do it, Liv. Are you doing what’s best? Are you doing the right thing? I still love you more than you…” his voice faded as he hung his head again. “I love you.”

  With that, he walked away, disappearing out of sight.

  I stepped back from the door and my hands were shaking. He hadn’t gotten violent or pushy. He hadn’t raised his voice. He hadn’t threatened me. He was just as Erin had described him; a desperate man, worried about the woman he loved and I hated him for that. It was all a front to lure me back into his trap.

  And now, that trap was as deadly as ever.

  2006 - Callem

  “So these guys kept pushing on the barricades, pushing and pushing,” Red explained dramatically, telling me about the events of his last assignment. “And I shouted at them to back up. I called for more assistance right before the barricades all toppled over and the people started rushing the lot. I was about to grab this guy coming right at me when out of nowhere, Tony comes in and sweeps his legs right out from under him, lays him out, I mean like out cold. He was seeing Tweety Bird, okay? The rest of the crowd sees this, and then sees Tony looking like a fucking bull. They all start backing up behind the barricade. They were like, I don’t want to fuck around with that guy. I don’t want to end up on my back like that idiot. It was nuts.”

  My cell phone rang, humming against my desk top. I looked at it and silenced the call.

  Red saw me ignore a call. “Okay, that’s like the fifth call I’ve seen you ignore this week. Who’s the stalkerazzi you’re trying to avoid?”

  “Olivia,” I sighed.

  “What’s the deal? Didn’t you two had lunch together after the Chicago trip? God, that was like a month ago, wasn’t it? You’re not into it anymore or what?”

  “I just can’t do it, man. She’s great, really she is, but it’s just a bad idea all around to start getting caught up in that,” I explained, trying to play it off like it was easy for me to be so dismissive when in reality, it took a lot for me to shut her out.

  There was a knock at my office door. Tony popped his head in. “Hey Tony, Red was just telling me about your night last night,” I said, smiling.

  Tony smiled, knowing exactly what I was referring to. “Yeah, it was, uh, quite the night I tell you, but hey, there’s someone here to see you.”

  He pushed the door open all the way to reveal Olivia standing just behind him. She moved into the office gracefully while Red and I stared silently, unsure what to say. “Hi,” she said when Tony closed the door behind us.

  “Hi,” I mumbled. “Um, I don’t think you’ve met Red yet, have you?” I stammered.

  Olivia’s wide eyes moved from me to Red. “No, I haven’t. Nice to meet you. I’m Olivia.”

  They shook hands and I could see by the expression on Red’s face that he too could see Camilla in the doctor’s features. “Nice to meet you, too. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  Olivia blushed slightly. “Oh have you?”

  “Don’t worry, I didn’t believe any of the bad stuff he said about you,” he said playfully with a cheesy wink, arousing a chorus of chuckles from the three of us. “Well, I’ve got some things to do, if you’ll excuse me. It was nice to finally meet you, Doctor.”

  “Olivia is fine, thank you and it was nice to meet you, too,” she corrected, as usual, as Red headed for the door. “I tried to call you to warn you I was here,” she started when it was just the two of us. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

  I stood from my desk and moved around towards her. “No, not at all,” I said.

  She looked nervous, her eyes moving quickly around the room, almost avoiding mine. It seemed to make her more nervous that I was closer to her. “I just had to see you,” she started. “Oh God, that sounds stupid. What I meant was, I’ve been thinking a lot, mulling over some things and I think, well I really, I’m just assuming,” she stammered, looking at her fidgeting hands, “that you feel the same way I’m feeling.”

  Her eyes took a deep drink of mine now, searching for a reaction to her inquisition. I waited patiently for my turn. I was curious where she was going with this.

  “The truth is,” she urged on, “I’m terrified to find out that you think about me as much as I think about you. Usually, I’m the kind of person who just lets sleeping dogs lie when it comes to this kind of stuff. I usually don’t want to know the answer, so I remain in the dark about the matter, but with you, I have to know. I just need to know one way or another. I don’t even care if it’s not what I want to hear, as long as I know. I just have to be sure. I need to know if there’s something here or not. Because I feel like there is and that’s the vibe I’ve gotten from you as of late, which could of course all be in my head. I just feel like if there is something, we shou
ld take a chance on it to see if it’s worth our while or not, right? I mean I don’t really know how this works. I’m not sure if this is even the way to go about it, but I couldn’t help myself. I just…” she rambled on adorably.

  I moved towards her with purpose, putting an abrupt end to her confession. I slid my hand between her loose hair and her cheek. She didn’t flinch. She didn’t pull away. Like a woman under hypnotism, I moved my lips closer to hers without a second thought or a moment of hesitation.

  The embrace was exactly how I’d imagined it since I first laid eyes on Olivia; something I’d envisioned many times and something I’d been dying to do. Even though she held on longer than I anticipated, when we parted, I was left wanting more.

  “I don’t ever want to get used to that,” Olivia said, exhaling deeply.

  I smiled, still cupping her cheek with my hands. “I hope that clears up lingering suspicions for you,” I said.

  Olivia chuckled. I could feel her cheek getting hot against my palm. I leaned in and fulfilled my unsatisfied craving.

  I knew I shouldn’t. I knew I should have stopped myself before things got out of control. With everything she said, I knew she was right. What’s it going to hurt to try?

  2013 - Olivia

  “Hey Erin,” I shouted into the quiet house as I let myself in. I dropped my purse on the bench just inside the door, kicking my shoes off before stepping onto the carpet. It had been nearly two weeks since I left Callem and I finally gave in to Erin’s pleas. She promised to cook me a homemade supper and she wasn’t going to talk about Callem at all.

  “Erin, where are you?” I headed for the kitchen. “I’m not staying long, I just want to--”

  My words were smothered by the heart-stopping sight of Callem. He stood ominously behind Erin who sat at the kitchen table, eyes wide with fear. Red stood near the back door, arms crossed in front of him, holding a black pistol. Callem had a matching firearm in his hand, resting at his side.