by Cherry Kay
Just as Decker finished talking Ted sent a flare flashing past his face. Ted cursed and fumbled with the gun as he struggled to reload it. Tina watched Ted with terror as Decker jumped off the cabin and charged them. At the last moment Ted fired the flare gun, hitting Decker in the midsection. The deranged man fell to the snow, crumpling into a ball.
“Tina, get to the car, quick.” Ted screamed.
Tina got in the car and started it. She was thankful to have had the forethought of putting the keys in her pocket. Ted jumped into the passenger seat and they made their way down the mountain
It took them all day to get down the mountain and back to Denver. When they got to the city limits they were stopped by the same officer that had talked to them the day before. Once he saw that Ted was hurt he had both of them get in his car, assuring them that the department would take care of the rental.
“What happened up there?” the patrolman asked. “Did he come back?”
“Yeah, he came back,” Ted said. “I shot him a few times with a flare gun, though, and it seemed to take the wind out of his sales. I'd be willing to bet you anything that he's staying in the cabin right now. I don't think there is anything of value left up there but--”
“My ring!” Tina interjected. “We left my engagement ring up there!”
Ted turned and smiled at her in the back seat of the patrol car.
“Nope. I picked it up when I picked up the flares,” he said. “Pretty lucky of me to think to do that, isn't it? I mean, I could have told you, but how would have sounded. Hey honey I'm going to keep the ring with me in case we have to abandon the entire place because a crazy man ends up driving us off. That would have freaked you out, right?”
Tina nodded.
“It sure would have, so I'm glad you didn't tell me,” she said. “Officer, what do you think will happen to Decker?”
“I'm not sure,” the officer said. “I'd like to think that he'll figure shit out on his own and quit being a wild man in the mountains, but I don't think that's going to happen. What I think will happen instead is that I'll go up there to check out the place in a few days and it will be burned to the ground.”
“Burned to the ground?” Ted exclaimed. “Has he really been doing that?”
“He sure has,” the officer said. “I just didn't mention it when I saw you the other day because he's never done it before with people in a building, and I didn't want you two to freak out and try to make it back to Denver when the roads were super bad. I was hoping that you would be able to ride your stay out without ever having to deal with Decker again, but I guess that wasn't the case. Sorry that things went so wrong for you two. I know that you were probably looking for a nice vacation away from everyone and instead things got fucked up.”
“I don't know officer,” Ted said. “I did ask Tina to marry me and she said yes, which is absolutely amazing to me. I feel like the luckiest guy in the world right now. I know that might sound strange considering, but it wasn't something that we had talked about prior to this, it was spur of the moment, and I had brought the ring not knowing if I'd use it or not. It wasn't like it is for a lot of people who talk about it a bunch before they get married.”
The officer nodded.
“Oh,” he said. “I see what you mean. Well then you've most definitely experienced some mixed luck while you've been here. At least some good came out of it. Would you like me to mail your stuff back to you if any of it is salvageable?”
“I don't think there will be anything left,” Tina said looking out the back window.
Both men turned to look and saw what Tina saw. There was a thick cloud of smoke rising from the side of the mountain they couldn't see, where their cabin had been. Ted just shook his head and didn't say anything.
“Well, folks,” the patrolman said. “I'm sorry that it looks like all of your stuff has gone up in smoke. Would you like to file charges on Decker?”
“Would it matter?” Ted said. “I mean, when you pick him up he'll likely spend the rest of the days in the loony bin, right?”
“Pretty much for sure,” the officer said. “Since he's obviously crazy as shit there isn't a whole lot of sense in dragging him through the judicial system. And he might end up hurting someone in jail, or end up getting hurt himself. Where he belongs is in a mental institution where he can get help.”
Ted agreed. The two men talked for a little while longer but soon enough their conversation faded out and the car rolled down the highway in silence. Once they got to the station the captain talked to them a little bit before having them driven to the airport. At the airport they got some fast food and a new change of clothes each. Tina had never been in the Denver airport before and was surprised at how big it was, at how there vendors were everywhere selling everything from food, to electronics, to clothes, to books. It was like an open market except in an airport. Eventually, after they had changed clothes and eaten, Ted inquired about the policy on their tickets. Once he had explained what had had happened the person in charge of their airlines booking accepted their return tickets even though they weren't there at the appointed time.
“It's no worry folks,” the man said. “We've got room on a plane to where you are going and it sounds like you had one hell of a weekend. I'd hate for you to go back home with bad taste in your mouth, so I'll hook it up so your return tickets count for these. It'll pretty much be an even exchange anyway. So please, travel safe and don't hesitate to come back.”
Before they turned to leave the man spoke again.
“Was that story really true?” he asked. “I mean, even if it's not. you can still go home on the tickets I just printed off for you. But I'd actually like to know because me and my wife have a cabin in the mountains right around where I think you are talking about.”
“I'll read the address of the cabin off to you once I find it in my wallet,” Ted said. “And yes, that story was one hundred percent true.”
Ted read off the address and it turned out to be the very cabin that the man had reserved for a weekend getaway.
“So you think it burned down?” the man asked.
“I don't really have any real clear idea,” Ted said. “But that is certainly what it looks like, unfortunately. I'd call whoever you booked it from and have them go and make real sure before you head out there. Also, I wouldn't put any more money down than you already have.”
The man thanked Ted and started texting furiously on his phone.
“That's a strange thing, isn't it?” Tina asked. “To have the cabin we rented be the same one that that man rented?”
“I'm learning new every day how strange the world really is,” Ted said. “Just to think that when we came out here I didn't know if I was going to propose or not, but when a crazy man shows up from my past to scare the shit out of both of us and assault me with a knife.”
Tina rested her head on his shoulder and smiled.
“It's going to be one hell of a story to tell our parents,” she said. “Especially about the part where we are getting married.”
Ted chuckled.
“I honestly can't wait.”
The plane took off and before they knew I, they were back home, with a story of trouble to tell, along with the good news. And to their surprise, everyone took it much better than expected.
The End
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Should only take a moment!
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Melanie Carter had been through some seriously tough times in her life and she wondered if she would ever find happiness once again.
Ex-marine Stuart Bent is the light at the end of the tunnel for Melanie. He is sexy, charming and most importantly he is very prote
ctive of her.
However he seems too good to be true. And as they say, when something appears to be too good to be true it usually is.
So when Melanie discovers Stuart's secret she finds she has to do things she never thought she would have to do and all in the name of love. Just how far are they both willing to go in order to find happiness?
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#Book3
HER LITTLE
WHITE LIE
CJ HOWARD
About This Book
Holiday season is fast approaching and Grace is dreading it.
With no immediate family she is going to be expected by her boss to work on Christmas day. So she gets her white best friend Mikey to pretend to be her fiance and announces she will be spending Christmas with him. However, as the interracial couple spend more time with each other, one of them begins to develop romantic feelings for the other.
Could this little white lie be a lie that tears their friendship apart or one that creates unexpected love?
1
“Hey, what are you guys up to now?” I asked them.
It was 6 am. I arrived, tired and freezing, at the hotel and made my way down to the locker room. The Chipmunks, as I call them, were already up to no good. Known as The Chipmunks because they were off-the-scale and mischievous whenever they were on a shift together. But as individuals, Ramon and Damion were pretty nice guys.
“Shh, Grace.” Ramon put a finger to his lips. “We're breaking into Rico's locker.”
I knew I shouldn't have stayed around to ask questions, but my shift wasn't due to start for another fifteen minutes.
“You know he can press charges, right?” I asked them. “And what are you two hoping to find anyway?” I took off my coat but it was too damned cold in that locker room for me to lose the hat and scarf just yet.
“We got to wondering,” Damion said, “how come that quiet dude, with that slicked back Ricky Martin hair, got him so many pairs of expensive shoes. They all shiny, they got them leather soles and shit. And damn, he on the same wage as us. Where he find the money?”
“Maybe he's got two jobs,” I said. “Maybe he doesn't spend all his cash on women and booze like you guys.”
“Correction, Grace,” Ramon cleared his throat. “That's fine women and expensive booze.”
“My point exactly.”
I was about to leave but Damion managed to pry open the locker. He started drawing in breath and not releasing it, his voice all high pitched and surprised like he just won an Oscar. I looked inside Rico's locker too. There were two pairs of five inch pumps; one patent red, one with crystal buckles. A pair of suspender belts, Chanel No. 5 and three pairs of black, silky stockings.
Weeks later Rico left the hotel after expressing his disgust over the break-in and the fact that management didn't fire the Chipmunks. Turns out Rico is now Ronda and he works at another hotel across town as a chambermaid. I also heard the tips were better.
But a chambermaid was how I first started out at Great West International Hotel. I was sixteen and it was only supposed to be temporary so I could save up and put myself through college. I left Boston hoping for a fresh start and thinking I'd have better opportunities in New York. But having to be out there on my own, fending for myself and trying to make ends meet, I never made it to college.
I worked hard and got promoted, stepping up a rank each time and, after six years, I was offered a job on reception. Front of house, baby. But I'm still down with my 'behind the scenes' buddies. When I was a chambermaid we used to make fun of the front-line crew and they looked down their noses at us.
But I loved to be at reception, I met all kinds of people every day and when it wasn’t too busy, I got to do the thing I loved the best. Reading.
I could totally lose myself in a book and forget where I am. It gets me into lots of trouble, especially when my mind starts wandering to all those far off places I read about.
It was in the run up to that particular Christmas, that something compelled me to read all the Holiday stories I could find: A Christmas Carol, Miracle on 34th Street, Little Women. You name it, I read it. Only trouble with that was it got me feeling nostalgic.
How I could have felt nostalgic over Christmas, I have no idea. You see, I had not had a traditional Christmas Day. I had no idea how to celebrate the holidays because I never got the chance.
Mom died when I was real little and Dad worked all hours to feed me and my brother Tommy. My Dad was dead set against the whole family Christmas bit. He didn't even like it in a small way. I guess it had a lot to do with him not believing any more, you know, since Mom passed and everything. So he never bought us Christmas stockings or dressed up as Santa and he never came to the nativity pageant at our school.
I suppose that rubbed off on Tommy and me and if it didn't, we made a good job of pretending to be the only kids in our school to not like Christmas. When Dad died, our Uncle Zeek moved up north to stay until we became old enough to look after ourselves. He must have been the only atheist in the whole of Bible belt country, because when he moved into our house in Boston there was just no way we'd be putting up a tree or stringing popcorn around it, either.
Since coming to New York and living on my own, I found myself incapable of finding the holiday spirit and, as I'd never been used to it, I still never bothered with Christmas. But after reading those books I wondered, what would it be like? What would it be to stay up late, hang stockings up, leave a glass of milk and a cookie out and wake up the next morning and find presents under a tree that I got to decorate? And what if I had Christmas dinner with a family, ate a roast bird with dressing and pumpkin pie for dessert? What if?
“Grace!”
My supervisor was standing beside me at the Reception Desk. I didn't know for how long, for but her hands were on her hips and her glasses were sliding half way down her nose.
“Are you day dreaming again, Grace Danvers? What if I had been a guest?”
“I'm sorry, Miss Poole, it won't happen again.”
“I'll have to stop you keeping a book under the desk, it really is getting too much.”
“I know, Miss Poole and I'm really sorry. You wanted me?”
“Yes, I'm just finalizing the holiday schedule and confirming you'll be working Christmas Day as usual.”
“Christmas Day?”
“Yes, you remember Christmas Day, Grace. Every year, December 25th, without fail.”
“Er, no, Miss Poole, I'm doing the traditional Christmas Day this holiday so I'm not free.”
“You're not?”
Now let me just freeze frame. You know and I know that was a lie. I don't know why I said it.
Whether it was to wipe that grin off Miss Poole's face or if I genuinely believed that this year I could have a normal Christmas, I don't know.
She looked at me like I was a freak, turned to walk away, and then came back.
“This leaves me in a very awkward situation, Grace,” she said. “Everyone has a family and everyone wants to be with them on the holidays. The schedule goes crazy and I'm left pulling my hair out trying to arrange cover. A hotel like this can't run itself.”
“I know, Miss Poole, but I've worked every Christmas since I’ve been here and this year I've got family commitments, I'm sorry.” The lies just poured out.
She went to walk away and then returned once more.
“Incidentally,” she screwed up her eyes real tight like she was trying to thread a needle. “Since when did you acquire a family?”
“It's my boyfriend's family.”
She raised an eyebrow, expecting me to justify what I was saying.
“My fiancé actually.”
That needle still wasn't threaded.
“His mother is a devout Catholic and she insists on midnight mass and everyone around the table for the Christmas.” I lifted my hands to show how helpless I was in the situation. Luckily, the wonderful Mr. Iglesias, who moved into one of the suites every holiday while
visiting family, came to reception.
“Ahh! La Bonita, Grace. Buenos tardes.” His cheeks were round and his smile was so warm.
“Mr. Iglesias, you out for your afternoon stroll?” I asked, taking his room key from him.
I always had time for Mr. Iglesias and he always had time for me. He called me La Princesa Negrita, The Black Princess. It had a ring to it. We'd been friends six years. He wore a brown fedora and a thick, beige wool coat with a cherry-colored scarf tucked in at the neck. He carried a walking stick too, but he always seemed to walk fine to me.