by Leach, Kiki
“Thank you. Bye.”
She sat her phone down next to her plate. Adrian raised his hands and began clapping in slow motion.
“Step one,” he said. “Step two is actually going through with telling him the truth.”
“The truth, right. Which will be just as easy as it sounds.”
It was in that moment Sheila wanted to make a run for it across the nearest border.
Part Thirty
Nikki and Vanessa arrived at the Manhattan B&G about fifteen minutes after their official reservation was meant to take place and as a result, were forced to wait at the bar for the next available table. After plopping their purses on top of the counter and sliding on top of the stools, while doing all they could in the meantime to keep from showing everyone within the entire restaurant the color of their underwear, they grabbed a couple of menus and eyed the afternoon specials.
Vanessa was immediately unenthused with just about every meal that she saw.
“None of this really looks appetizing enough to stick around for.”
“You’re the one who decided on this place,” said Nikki.
“And you’re the one who agreed to it.”
When a woman a few feet away started cackling extremely loudly, both women spun around on their stools to get a good look at her, though they weren’t exactly sure where she was sitting.
It was in the middle of all that searching when they both saw Melanie. Nikki spotted her first.
“Don’t look now, but...” She pointed.
Vanessa followed the direction and soured the moment her eyes landed on Melanie’s face. “Blech. I’m surprised she’s not here with Maurice and trying to sit on his lap. Or his face.”
They kept their eyes on Melanie as a long legged red headed woman with electric green eyes joined her, appearing to have returned from the restroom, Nikki quickly spun back around to the bar and allowed her head to fall. “Oh shit,” she said under her breath. She could feel every drop of color and expression draining from her face the longer they sat there.
Vanessa peeked over at her and bumped her on the arm. “What the fuck is it?” she asked. “Do you know that woman?”
“What?”
“Do you know her? Because you act like you saw a damn ghost when she came out and sat down in front of Melanie.”
“No, I just…” She reached for a glass of water provided for her and quickly gulped down every drop. Then she grabbed Vanessa’s glass and gulped that water as well. “She just looked familiar to me, that’s all.”
“Nik,” said Vanessa, panicking. “Are you sure you don’t know who that woman in a more personal sense? I mean hell, she’s starting to look familiar to me, but damn if I can’t place her anywhere.”
Nikki peeked over her shoulder again and squint while staring in their direction.
She recognized the woman alright. Though the last time she had seen her, Nikki was lying on her back while that same woman, who she remembered calling Dr. Shaffer after waking up on a gurney in a cage of fog, had just finished administering the abortion of Oscar’s child.
“No. I’m sure I don’t know her,” she said, turning back to the bar and placing her hands in front of her to keep them from shaking.
There are just some faces you never forget. For Nikki, Jill’s Schaffer’s face would be the ghost that forever haunted her daymares, her past life and mistakes, and if she was as close to Melanie as it seemed from where they sat, her future wasn’t looking all that bright either.
Part Thirty-One
Nathan was surprised to see Sheila already waiting for him at The Bean with a cup of coffee sitting in front of his empty chair. He eyed the shop and noticed only a handful of other people around, including the cashier, then pulled the chair back from beneath the table and sat down
Sheila was nervous as hell. Her palms were sweating, she could hear the sound of her heartbeat inside her ears and her stomach felt like it had already fallen out of her body and hit the floor.
“Hi,” she said to him.
“Hey.” He remained suspicious.
“I ordered you a cup of coffee.”
He looked down at the mug again and widened his eyes. “I can see that. What’s going on Sheila – why did you want to meet here?”
“Um.” She cleared her throat and placed her arms on the table. “Last night--”
“Was pretty damn good, right?”
“No. I mean, yes. I mean.” She shut her eyes and swallowed, trying to think of how to properly form her words. “It was fine for what it was?”
Nathan picked up his mug and made a face, confused. “What the fuck does that mean?”
“It means that what happened last night was a good way to say goodbye.”
He drank back the coffee, then sat the mug down and shook his head. “I’m not following.”
“Nathan. You were gone away for a month. Four weeks, that is thirty days of me not hearing from you, you not returning my calls and then you showing back up and getting your ass arrested on the same night, being inside a house”
“I should’ve never been inside in the first damn place, yeah I know.”
“A lot of things changed while you were gone,” she said. “I changed. You coming back sort of messes all of that up for me.”
“I’m sorry to be such a burden in your life,” he told her.
“You’re not a burden. You’re someone I loved and wanted to marry and had planned to spend my entire life with, good or bad, I had accepted it because I accepted you and us and this a long ass time ago. But I accepted it on the condition, with the belief that things would finally get better between us. That things would finally change. That you would finally love me just as much as I love you.”
“Sheila, last night gave me a chance to think. Gave me a new perspective on a lot of things”
“It’s a shame that it took you getting beat in the head to finally realize how much you had actually fucked up.”
Nathan sat back in his chair and glared at her. “You wanna be with somebody else,” he said.
It wasn’t even a question, it was a matter of fact statement. He could look into her eyes and tell that it was over for them the minute he sat down, and there was no going back to what they had or what she had long hoped they could become.
She reached inside her purse to pull out her engagement ring and placed it on the table.
Nathan’s eyes traveled down to it and he nodded. “Still doesn’t fit?”
“No. But it was never meant to, was it?”
“What do you mean?”
“I had it appraised last night and found out that you bought this ring six years ago, which means that it was never meant to be on my finger.”
He placed his finger in the center of the ring and spun it around until the diamond faced her.
“You don’t have anything to say about that?”
“What can I say, Sheila? I’m sorry?”
His refusal to deny what she had told him, even now, even as she was breaking things off, determined to be with another man, still cut her deep. She didn’t know what was worse, his continued carelessness or the fact that everything she had ever feared about him, and them was truer than even she could have ever imagined.
“No. I don’t need your apologies, not anymore. Save those for the next woman you choose to destroy.”
“I never meant to destroy you,” he said.
“I’m sure of it.”
“I never meant…” He paused to think. “I do love you, Sheila.”
“It’s the way you show it, Nathan, that’s the problem.”
“I can do better,” he said. “Be better about it.”
“It’s too late for me. I’ve already had a taste of something better, something sweeter. I don’t need to spend another five years waiting for you to try and achieve that”
“Adrian,” he said.
Sheila leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs. She reached for her mug and turned to look out of the w
indow.
“I saw the way that muthafucka looked at you when we were at the Hamptons.”
“Please don’t call him that,” she said. She sat the mug back on top of the table and turned to him. “He’s been a hell of a lot more to me within just the last few days than you have within the last few damn years.”
“Then you fucked him.”
She turned her eyes to the table. “I’m sorry.”
“Nah… You’re not. But it doesn’t much matter anyway, because I should’ve seen this shit coming.” He looked down at his hands and exhaled deeply. “How the hell did we get here?”
“I don’t know. But it wasn’t an easy path and I sure as hell never want to take that road again.”
“When did it first happen?”
“I don’t… I don’t want to go into all of that. And it doesn’t matter.”
“It does to me.”
“It shouldn’t.” A beat passed. “Initially, I had planned to keep it to myself. Vanessa thought that it might not be such a good idea to tell you so soon after all the shit that happened between you and Mo at her house last night and--”
“Wait a minute. V knows about this too?” he asked. She nodded. “And how the fuck does she feel knowing that you fucked this guy too?”
“She didn’t flip a table on me or call me a whore like I feel you’re just two seconds from doing,” she said. He sat back. “In other words, she didn’t react the way I expected, like when she found out about us. Then again, she could just be distracted by everything that’s going on with Mo and whatever the hell he may or may not be doing with Melanie --”
“Melanie, who?”
“Oscar’s wife, or soon to be ex since I guess they’re splitting up.”
“Really.”
“Yeah. I remember her mentioning that she thought he was good looking when we hung out at Bar Nineteen. But I never thought she would actually try to go after him. I don’t think I could ever imagine Mo actually going for her. She has a vagina, but she’s not exactly his type.”
“She’s not Vanessa, which is his only type,” he said, skimming his finger around the edge of the mug.
“There used to be a time when I would say the same about you, and it would hurt like hell. Now I just think it’s kind of sad.”
He winced.
She reached out for him, but he held up his hand to keep her back.
“I don’t think that you’re a bad person, Nathan. I don’t even think that you’re a bad man. I just think that you make stupid decisions that affect people badly, and you don’t realize it until it’s too damn late to do anything about it to change it.”
“You’re the same way,” he said.
“I know, but I’m trying to fix that and I think that being with Adrian might help.”
“Better than being with me.”
“Yes,” she shot back. And then she closed her eyes. “I didn’t mean for that to come out the way it sounded. Maybe being by myself for a little while might help to change that too, before we even try to officially get things started.”
“If it weren’t for that ring, would you still have chosen to be with him?”
“Probably,” she responded. “And since I don’t want you to be surprised by anything else, I want you to know that he’s going to be the one taking me to the party next week in case any pictures of us together show up in the papers or on social media--”
“What party?”
“The one William’s throwing for Nikki in honor of her landing the lead role in that play.”
“You’re going to a party for Nikki?” he asked. She bobbed her head. “I don’t want this to sound hard, Sheila, but how the hell did you manage to snag an invite in the first place?”
“I didn’t,” she told him. “Adrian did.”
“Oh.” He sat back even further in the chair and pressed the rim of his mug to his lips. “If it’s for Nikki, then I can assume V’s going too, right?”
“I would expect it.”
“But she’s probably not going with Mo, given the circumstances. Which means she’ll need somebody to take her.”
“And I’m guessing that somebody’s gonna be you, right?” She laughed to herself, unsurprised at his words. “Some things never change, do they Nate?” She placed her hand on top of the ring and moved it closer to him. Then she pushed away from the table and stood up. “I hope you find happiness,” she told him. “Maybe a little bit of peace. It may or may come from being with Vanessa again, it may be alone. But I sure as hell hope that you find it before you leave this earth.”
As she exited the shop, Nathan watched her cross the street to the other side, before turning his attention to the green eyed brunette at the counter.
After finishing the remainder of his coffee and tossing that ring into the pocket of his jacket, he got up from his chair and sauntered over to pay for both he and Sheila.
As the girl holding out her hand for the money smiled at him, he gave her a quick but sincere smile in return.
“Is your, uh…” he started, while digging around in his wallet after looking down at the total. “Is your boss coming in today by any chance?”
“Oscar took the morning and afternoon off,” she said. “But he’ll be in a little later. Is there anything you want me to tell him for you -- ?”
“I’m not talking about him.” He handed her a few bills and smiled again. She appeared confused while counting through the money and glanced up into his eyes. “I mean your other boss, the woman. Melanie’s her name, right? His estranged wife.”
“Oh, um. She doesn’t really come in much anymore unless it’s to check on a few things or drop off her kids. Most of her time is spent at that new shop that’s opening across town.”
“Hm.” He nodded and slipped his wallet back into his pocket. “What if I wanted to get in touch with her, how would I do that?”
She gave him a shy smile and slammed the register shut. “We’re not exactly allowed to give out personal information like that to customers. Sorry.”
She handed him the change, but Nathan never extended his hand to retrieve them. And so the money hung in the air between them until she finally lowered her hand.
“I’m a good friend of someone who used to work here, a Nicole Sanger.”
“Nikki?”
“Yeah. We went to high school together. I dated her best friend Vanessa for a good few years and--”
She waved her hand in his face and started to laugh excitedly. “Ohmygod -- Ohmygod.”
She laughed again and dropped her head back while placing a hand on her chest. It was at a point where she was starting to forget how to breathe and Nathan didn’t know whether to continue on giving her the facts, call for help or get the hell out of the building.
When she finally stopped, she turned her attention back to his face and peered. “You’re Nathaniel Taylor? Ohmygod! I swear I thought you looked familiar when you first came in but your face still looks kind of messed up--” She leaned in and whispered. “I read about that fight you had with Maurice Livingston in Page Six. That must really suck.”
He grimaced. “Yeah--”
“And then when you were sitting over there talking with...” She stopped and gasped. “Ohmygod, was that Sheila Harris that you were talking too? Ohmygod, I can’t believe I actually served Lockney High ROYALTY! Ohmygod. You know I’m actually friends with Vanessa’s sister, Gina, but she never lets me come over to her house because she said her dad is overbearing and her stepmother is a pain in the ass and kind of bitchy and mean, but ohmygod. And she’s never let me actually meet her sister because she said I would just embarrass myself. But wait until I tell her that I’ve finally met the next best thing!” She squealed.
Nathan plastered an intense smile on his face and flared his nostrils. Thrilled to have found his way in to finding out Melanie’s information, it didn’t stop the girl at the register from working his last nerve.
“So what’s Vanessa actually like? Was she as bad as
all the tabloids said back then? My mother’s not really a big fan of her because of all the so-called trouble she used to cause, even though she still buys Attitude Magazine religiously – I mean like on a weekly basis, you should see our house covered in head to toe from all those papers she rips out and sticks to the walls. And I mean--”
“Listen,” he said, finally managing to cut her off. “I can give you all the information on Vanessa that you want. I can even get you into a party that we both plan to attend for Nikki.”
“The one being thrown by her richer than rich boyfriend at that club?”
“That’s the one,” he said. “But none of that can happen until I get the information I need first.”
“What kind of information are you looking for?”
“Melanie’s,” he said. “I really need to discuss something with her of importance, so if you’ve got her information on hand” – he glanced down at her nametag – “Allison, I could really use it.”
She squirmed where she stood. “I don’t know. You’re really hot and all and it’s cool that I’m finally getting to meet you – YAY! -- which is almost like meeting Vanessa since you two were in a relationship. But we’re still really not allowed to give out that kind of information. I could lose my job and I really need the money.”
Nathan sighed and scratched his head. And then he reached for his wallet and pulled out a few hundred dollar bills, glancing around the shop at those still left behind and sliding the bills across the counter. Allison lifted her fingers the moment they reached her and clamped them back down.
“I can help you out,” he said with a sly smile. “In more ways than one. And I can assure you that if you give me the information that I need, you won’t get in any trouble and you won’t lose this job. In fact I can make sure that you’ll be employee of the month once all of this is over.”
A wide smile formed on her lips. “Really?”
He nodded. “Mm-hmm. Now all I need is Melanie’s direct contact information, that’s it.”
She picked up the bills and bit the inside of her cheek. Then she looked up into Nathan’s eyes, curious. “What exactly are you going to do with it?”
“I just need to talk to her about a few things, that’s all.”