Seventeen Days

by D. B. James

  “N-No, I haven’t. You’re the only one who knows. Well, besides my horrible mother, obviously.” Taking in another deep breath, I continue on, “She’s the one who’s always arranged for everything. It didn’t matter how old the person was, she whored me out to them. Old or young, it didn’t matter. Even if I didn’t like it, I had to abide by her rules. Till I turned eighteen. Although I did grow a backbone and throw down the gauntlet a few months ago. Told her I’d only do appearances, no dates, no sex. Nothing but appearances from there on out. And it worked. She had lost control of me.”

  “We should tell Savannah or Julian. And see about taking some kind of legal action against Sienna. She should pay for what she’s done to you. Just because you don’t want to bring it to light, doesn’t mean she should get away with this. She’s gotten away with doing this to you for four years. Fuck, she’s abused you for your whole life.”

  Hell no. No fucking way. Hard pass. That would mean bringing my personal life into the spotlight. I’d be all over the media. The press would have a heyday with me. I’d be the laughing stock of not only New York but Paris, Milan, London. Anywhere where Sienna is a household name. They’d accuse me of trying to get money from her and ruin her name.

  “No. Absolutely, not. There’s no way I could do that, Harrison. Maybe someday I could tell them, but I could never take legal action against Sienna. It’s done now. I’m okay, I lived through it, it’s all that matters to me. Please understand.” Please, drop it.

  “For now, we can drop it. But understand this, in the future, I’ll bring it up again. There’s no way in hell I’m okay with her getting away with doing this to you. There’s no fucking way.”

  He kisses my forehead, places a hand on my cheek, and gazes into my eyes. “I love you, Morgan, and can’t bear to know what you went through.” Sighing, he places another quick kiss upon my lips. “But knowing how it brought us together, I can’t help but be a tiny bit thankful. Life is truly messed up, isn’t it? All this fucked up shit brought us together. It’s like our paths were destined to cross.”

  “You know I love you too. That isn’t going to change when I leave for a couple of months. In fact, I think it’ll only grow stronger. Absence making the hearts grow fonder and all that shit.” Trying to bring humor to a humorless situation. Hey, it’s a step up from making it more awkward. I’m a work in progress.

  “As long as you come back to me, it’s all that matters in the end,” he says as he pulls me back into his arms. Holding me tight, he kisses me, and I feel all the love he spoke of. Nothing else matters but this moment.

  “Morgan, you will always have a safe harbor in me. Always. For all eternity. If things change between us and we don’t end up being together know I will always, always be here for you. You’re safe with me. Your secrets are safe with me. And I know in time you’ll tell me everything. All the gory details, every single thing she made you do. You can also believe me when I say she will pay for this. I’ll see to that. Karma has nothing on a Montgomery man in love.”

  Here I thought what he said before was the sweetest thing anyone had ever said to me. I was wrong. Dead wrong. Those words right there, those are the sweetest sincerest words I’ve had the pleasure of hearing.

  “Thank you, Harrison. For loving me enough. For never questioning that. We may have only known each other what’s truly only a handful of days, but to us it seems like a lifetime. Who are we to question destiny? If you’re my safe harbor, the same goes for you. I’m yours, too.”

  Somehow, I know this trip into the city is only going to be to gather my things to bring back with me to Alabama. After these few words tonight, I feel like I’d be running from my future not toward it if I went to Columbia for a few months. What’s a couple of months off from school, when I can spend it here surrounded by people who love me preparing for a school nearby? Truly following my heart instead of my head? Suddenly, I feel a bit lighter than I did barely five minutes ago.

  Sometimes you only have to listen to your heart, no matter how selfish it sounds. I’m going to do exactly that now. Always follow my heart. My heart is leading to me Harrison.

  “Harrison?”

  “Yes, babe?”

  “When I come back from the city, will you take me to visit UoA’s campus? I’d like to take a look around and get a feel for it. And see exactly how far of a drive it is from here.” He said once it’s about a four-hour drive. I could handle that a couple times a month to visit. Maybe more.

  “Of course, we can do that. Let’s plan it on my next set of days off. We’ll stay Monday night and drive back the next day.”

  Sounds perfect.

  Waking up the next morning to an empty bed has me in a panic until I hear the shower running. For one brief moment, I thought maybe Red had left for the airport without me.

  That. Would. Have. Sucked. Major. Balls.

  I’m dropping her and Savannah off for their 10 AM departure, and picking them up when they fly back in … sixty-two hours and twenty-four minutes. Yes, I’ve counted. Like I’ll be keeping count when she leaves me until December. It’ll only change if I can make arrangements to fly up and see her on the occasional Monday/Tuesday I have off. Who knows when that’ll be, though, since I’m starting the expansion within the next month. If I put it off—which I’m not—I’d be up in New York every single week seeing her and it would ruin her plan of finding herself. She’d hate me for that. I’d hate me.

  Trust me, I get why she needs to leave. Just because I get it doesn’t mean I have to like it. She’s barely turned eighteen and she’s lived through an unimaginable kind of hell. She needs this time on her own to know who she is. This time with me has opened up her eyes to who she can be and it scares her. If I’m honest, it scares me too. We’ve both been through things that have forced us to grow up faster than we should have ever had to. Losing my parents at such a young age and being handed so much responsibility, while still finding myself, I was forced to grow up. But, I did that in college. She needs to do the same exact thing. Even if her circumstances were completely different from mine.

  Isn’t that what college is supposed to be about anyway?

  Finding oneself?

  She doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life professionally.

  Maybe she’ll go into business management and help me run Montgomery & Son one day? Which we can pass on to our children and their children after that.

  Is it all only a dream? Will she come back to me in December? Should I truly be considering proposing to her?

  Instead of asking myself these things, I should go join her in the shower. As I’m tossing the sheet aside, I hear the shower turn off. It figures I wasted too much time letting my insecurities get the best of me. Fuck it, she can always hop right back in the shower with me. I’m not letting her board that plane without showing her exactly how much I’ll miss her over the next couple of days.

  She’s already dry and has her hair up in a towel by the time I enter the bathroom, but it doesn't deter me one bit. I don’t give a shit about the towel getting wet.

  “Good mor—” She doesn’t get the words out before I’m kissing them away, picking her up, and stepping into the shower with her. Pressing her into the shower wall while still kissing her, I grab the towel from her head, and toss it over my shoulder. Blindly reaching for the shower knobs and turning the water back on. Breaking the kiss for one brief second, she manages to finish her greeting. “—ning.”

  Kissing her deeply again, I finally let her up for air. Now that’s how a man should greet his woman in the morning.

  “Morning, Red. You didn’t think I’d let you get away with showering without me, did you?”

  Gazing up at me shyly, I see the answer in her eyes, she did do it intentionally.

  “Don’t be upset. It’s only because you appeared so peaceful while sleeping and we had such an emotional night, I wanted you to get as much sleep as possible. I planned on waking you up after I brushed my teeth and started the coffe
e.”

  The water running down my back is scalding hot, but I couldn’t care less. She thinks I’m mad but I’m not. Not really. Hurt? Maybe a little.

  “Baby, I’m not mad. Promise. Thank you for caring about my sleep but know I want to spend every possible moment with you before you leave. I’m a greedy selfish man when it comes to you. Besides, you’re making it up to me now.”

  Before she can answer, I turn to adjust the water temperature, my luck I’ll probably end up with burns from the hot ass water. Good thing my body was blocking it from hitting her, or I’d feel like a gigantic jackass for hurting her by being a caveman and hauling her back into the shower with me.

  “Jesus, Harrison. You’re back looks like it’s on fire. Didn’t you turn on any cold water?”

  “Didn’t feel like it, I wasn’t fully paying attention. Was too busy kissing you good morning to care. It honestly doesn’t hurt too much. The water is fine now, please don’t worry. If you want to step out while I wash up, it’s fine. We don’t have much time now before we have to grab Savannah and drive to the airport.” Right then it occurs to me I’ve completely forgotten to tell her about Dave and his mother.

  “Oh! Before I forget again, I meant to tell you last night about Dave. I know you’ve never met him but he’s not coming back to work. His mother doesn’t sound like she’s going to make it much longer. I’m running an ad for his replacement now, but a temp should be in the office when I make it back after dropping you off.”

  I should also send flowers to Theresa, I should probably ask Steve if he knows what she likes. Making a mental note, I’ll ask him when he gets back from his tour this afternoon. Good thing today was a light tour day and I was able to swing it to be able to take my girl to the airport. Obviously, they could have driven themselves, but like I said, I’m selfish and wanted to see them off.

  “Is all his info in your phone? Like his address? If so, I’ll go order a bunch of flowers while you finish your shower.” Have I mentioned I love this girl? It’s like she can read my mind.

  “Yeah, babe, it is. And it’s weird you mentioned that because I was only now thinking about it. Maybe send a gift for Dave too. He likes reading and movies. A gift card, maybe? I’m so bad when it comes to sending anyone condolences.” I hate getting them even more.

  “Okay, I’ll think of something while brewing us our coffee. You finish getting clean. I’ll go take care of this for you,” she says, winks at me, and exits the shower.

  Fuck, I love her. She’s perfect.

  The temp the agency sent over is stupid.

  And slow. Stupid-slow, is that a thing? Cause it’s exactly what she is. After showing her how to turn off the answering machine to actually take the incoming calls for the fifth time, I decide she’s not going to work out and tell her to leave.

  Fuck it, I’ll do this myself in the evenings after we get back from running the tours. It’s how things were done before Dave worked here, it’ll be how it’ll be done until I can hire someone full time to replace him. Or Red gets back from New York and she can help out for a bit. Yeah, because that’ll be a permanent solution. Maybe my sour mood can be blamed on her leaving this morning and I’m not giving this woman a fair chance but I truly think she’s really that fucking stupid.

  “You can go. That’ll be all. Thank you for your time. Tell the agency you worked a full day and I don’t need you here tomorrow.”

  “Um. Well… they told me this was for at least a week?” she asks.

  Yeah, she’s stupid all right.

  “But I told you I don’t need you any longer. You can go now. Goodbye.” I’m not sure how much more bluntly I can put it without flat-out telling her she's dumb. I’ve never had a problem with this agency sending over anyone who didn’t work out before.

  Steve walks into the office as I’m telling her to leave. He hears her huff of frustration, and I see his shoulders move with silent laughter.

  At least he waits until she’s out the door to ask his question. “I take it she didn’t work out?”

  “You can say that again. She was dumber than a box of rocks, Salty. D-U-M-B. I had to show her five times how to switch the phone over, and she still didn’t get it. All you do is flip a fucking switch. One tiny ass switch. Easy as pie.” Feeling bad talking about a person behind their back, I quickly add in, “She was a beauty, though. Still didn’t hold a candle to Morgan, but she was pretty enough.” There that should make up for it calling her stupid.

  “Gentry would’ve liked her. Should’ve waited to let her go till he made his way inside, she could’ve licked her wounds at his place tonight.” He lifts his eyebrows up and down at me. What the fuck, man?

  “Don’t ever do that again, Salty. The eyebrow thing. It’s creepy as hell.” Skived me out, old man. “And I highly doubt Gentry needs his dad to pimp him out. Thad, on the other hand?”

  He makes a weird sound of disgust in his throat and swiftly exits out the back toward the docks, calling over his shoulder, “Low blow, boss. Low blow.” Yeah, it was. There’s no love lost when it comes to Thad and Steve, it was low of me to bring one up to the other. I’m in a pissy mood and want everyone around me to feel the same way.

  If this is any indication of how I’ll be once Red is gone for months, we’re all seriously fucked.

  The plane descends into JFK International, and I feel like I’m frozen to my seat. I’ve turned to lead. The seat and I have become one. Which may be a problem for the other passengers sitting beside me. I’m in an aisle seat, and eventually, they’ll need me to move so they can disembark. But I’m about to turn to them and say, “Hello, meet me, Ms. Crazy Pants, we should get acquainted ‘cause I’m not leaving my seat and now you never can, either. You’re welcome.”

  I’m sure they’ll be pleased. After all, they probably don’t have families or lives to get back too. They can live on this plane with me for eternity. Yup, no problem.

  This is all completely normal, right?

  What sane person would want to get off this plane and return to the world she so desperately didn’t know she wanted to escape, but was trying to run back to, and now wants nothing to do with again?

  Confused?

  Join the club.

  Maybe if I stay on the plane long enough it’ll turn around and take me back to Harrison? That could happen, right? Tell me yes. It’s the only answer I want to hear. Don’t try and be logical with me. I’m not thinking logical right now. I’m thinking crazy. Obviously.

  “Morgan?” Aunt Savannah asks for what must be the fourth or fifth time. I’m not sure, I was ignoring her.

  “Yes?”

  “You need to get up now. We’ve landed, and the whole plane has disembarked except for your row. I’m here with you. We can do this together. Take a few deep breaths, and get up now, sweet girl.” She reaches for my hand, and I let her take it. Baby steps, Morgan. You can do this.

  Taking a deep breath in, I stand up. My horrible mother won’t be here and this is only a city. Why did I think I could come back here and actually go to school? Fuck, I need to call Julian and tell him to cancel payment on my new apartment. One thing at a time, Morgan. Get off the plane first.

  “Aunt Savannah?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Thank you.”

  “Whatever for, dear?” For helping save my life.

  “For loving me and coming with me.”

  “You don’t have to thank for me loving you. As for coming here, it was no problem. Now, let’s get off this plane and out of this airport. Does that sound like a plan?”

  “Yes, ma’am” As soon as the words leave my mouth and I take my first step, the two people sitting beside me, cheer and clap. Fuckers, here I thought we’d be great friends.

  An hour later, we’re standing in the middle of what used to be my bedroom. It’s in tatters. Sienna has ruined what I did have in here. The only things she didn’t ruin were the clothes. She spared my clothes. No idea why. Maybe she figures I actually did earn those.


  My bedroom furniture is ruined. The beautiful oak bed? It appears she’s taken a hacksaw to parts of it. The bedding itself? It’s in shreds. Literal shreds. The matching dresser and bed side table? Also ruined. Why she felt the need to do this, I’ll never know. She must not have wanted me to take these things with me. Not like I was going to anyway. At least, not today. There’s nowhere I could have stored them. Besides, I can replace things like this later. I’m honestly not entirely sure why we made this trip today instead of two weeks from now when actual classes start, and I could have moved everything to my new place, but my best answer is: I haven’t been thinking logically lately.

  My clothes are what I honestly came for. When I left, I only packed enough to get me through a couple of weeks. I always planned on coming back to get the rest when I could.

  Aunt Savannah had the wonderful idea to stop at The Container Store before we stopped here to grab a few boxes and bins to toss my things in. What would I do without her today? She’s my brain, that’s for sure. Seems like I left mine back in Alabama. Shit, maybe I left it on the plane when I first stepped off it in Paris for my birthday.

  “Take a few deep breaths, Morgan, and let’s get this over with. We’ll take the time to mourn the loss of these things later, they’re only possessions. The quicker we can pack this stuff up, the quicker we’re out of here. The faster Sienna is out of our lives for good.”

  See? She’s so smart.

  “We can make it even faster by tossing things in the boxes, hangers and all. Sort through it all once it’s back in Alabama,” I say.

  “Oh? This isn’t going over to the apartment Julian has leased for you?”

  Taking a few moments to form my answer, I stay silent before finally blurting out, “No. Last night I changed my mind. You’re the first to know. It’s actually the first time I’ve given voice to the words. I’m coming back to Alabama and not going to Columbia. I’m taking a semester off and will start classes in the winter. At a place nearby.”