by Eydie Maggio
Elise couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She waited years to hear those words from him. She cried so many nights wanting him to come back to her. And now, here he was.
Elise opened the door slowly. Tears continued to fall down her face but the tightness in her chest instantly left. “I’m sorry, but there can never be us again.” Elise shook her head as she felt the healing continue. “I love him, Rixby. He is everything that I want. I don’t have those feelings for you, and I haven’t had them for a while.”
Rixby grabbed Elise’s arms, “Look me in the eye and tell me you didn’t feel anything last night when I kissed you. If you can tell me that you felt absolutely nothing, I’ll walk out of your life once and for all. You will never see me again.”
Elise took a second to think about it. She looked Rixby right in the eye, and shook her head, “No, I didn’t.” The tears that fell were tears of relief. She was finally able to let him go for good. Elise put her head in her hands and cried. She felt Rixby pull her to him and wrap his arms around her. Elise kept her hands on her face, as she continued to cry.
“Elise! What’s going on?”
Her head shot out of her hands as Trey stood there shock at the sight he saw. He threw down the flowers, coffee, and bag he was holding. He pulled Rixby off Elise and punched him hard, sending Rixby to the ground with a thud. He was literally knocked out on the floor.
Elise’s eyes were wide as her hand covered her mouth.
Trey turned and looked at Elise heartbroken. “I thought you loved me.” Suddenly a cold look crossed Trey’s face. He turned around and started heading towards the elevators. Elise ran after him.
“Trey, please wait. I can’t imagine how this looks, but it’s not what you think.” Elise held his arm and pleaded with him as the elevator doors opened.
He shrugged out of her grip on his arm, “Elise, obviously you need to figure some shit out.” Trey stepped into the elevator and hit the button to close the door. Elise stood there and watched as the doors closed between them, and Trey wouldn’t even look up at her. Once the elevator started moving down, Elise dropped to her knees and bawled into her hands.
She was right all along – this pain was so much worse than Rixby.
Chapter 21
2 days later …
Trey was sitting in his office in D.C. letting his work consume him. He had a long day of meetings which distracted him temporarily from the hurt he was feeling over Elise. And as if the memory wasn’t a reminder enough, his knuckles were busted up from punching the douchebag. They throbbed constantly and were a reminder of something he wished he could forget. Elise didn’t call, text, or email him over the last two days which was a sign that it was over between them.
The best days of his life were completely eradicated by the worst five minutes of his life. His chest ached badly with the absence of Elise. But, he couldn’t believe that one minute she was in love with him, and the next she was in the arms of another man. He felt so betrayed. When it came to her old flame, he could never compete. He owned a part of Elise that no one else could, and if Trey couldn’t have all of her, he didn’t want any of her.
It was getting late in the day, and his assistant buzzed his office, “Mr. Watts, you have a visitor.”
“Who is it, Maggie?” He didn’t feel like having visitors at the moment.
“Rixby Storm, sir.”
Trey’s blood boiled. So the bastard was stopping by to brag. Why the hell not? His day couldn’t get any worse.
“Send him in, Maggie.”
Trey just sat back and smiled as the bastard walked into his office with a nice purple bruise on his jaw. Seeing that did make him feel a little better.
“First my New York office, now my D.C. one. Would you like the address to my private office in McLean, while you’re at it?”
“I’ll be quick, Watts.” He didn’t even sit down. “I wanted to apologize for our first meeting, and for what I did to Elise on the red carpet Friday.”
“Then tell her.” Trey wasn’t interested in any apologies.
“I’m telling you because you won. She is madly in love with you. She said that you were everything that she wanted, and there could never be an “us” again. I told her that if she felt nothing from that kiss on Friday night, I would leave her alone and never bother her again. She said she felt nothing. So, I’m honoring the promise I made, that’s why I’m telling you.”
“Then why were you hugging her when I arrived at her apartment Saturday morning?” Trey could stand the thought of Rixby’s hands on her.
“She was crying like she was relieved, or something. I just felt like she needed to be held, as a friend. She made it very clear that I wasn’t welcomed there and threatened to call the cops. Most of the conversation was through a closed door, but I guess she wanted to tell me face to face that it was over for good. So, like I said before, I apologize for everything. I just want her to be happy, even if it’s not with me. That’s all I came to say.” Rixby turned around to leave his office, “One last thing, don’t fuck it up.” He left Trey’s office seconds later.
Trey was afraid he already fucked it all up. He went into panic mode. Elise ran after him to explain, and he didn’t even let her speak. Hell, he didn’t even look at her. He started calling Elise’s cell phone which went straight to voicemail. Her apartment phone in New York was disconnected which was odd, and the one in Virginia wasn’t picking up. He called Jeremy next.
“Hello.”
“Hi Jeremy, this is Trey Watts. Have you seen or spoken to Elise today?” Trey hoped Jeremy had some news.
“No. I thought she was with you. I have been trying to call her all day to see why she put her New York apartment up for sale.”
“She did?” Trey was shocked.
“Yes, her assistant hired a realtor a couple of days ago. Elise emailed her asking her to take care of the realtor, moving all of her things into storage, and disconnecting all utilities.” Trey didn’t like the sound of that.
“Has her assistant heard from her today?”
“No. Like I said, we thought she was with you. Is something wrong?” This wasn’t good.
“Yes. I messed up. I need to talk to her.”
“I have no problems putting a hit out on you too if you hurt her!” Jeremy was serious.
“Well call your assassin, because I fucked up. Can you please help me Jeremy?”
“What do you want?”
“Can you call Martie to see if she’s spoken to Elise or if she knows where Elise is?”
“Give me one minute. And just so you know, I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing this for Elise. Ashley and I went through this with her already, and it wasn’t pretty. Damn you, Trey. I thought you were different.” Jeremy spoke with such disappointment, but Trey deserved it.
Trey deserved everything that he was getting from Jeremy, and knew that he would need to mend his relationship with Jeremy if Elise took him back. He was willing to do anything. He heard Jeremy hit some buttons and a phone started ringing. He must have been using his desk phone and had it on speaker.
“Good afternoon, Jeremy. When are you coming over for breakfast again?”
“Hi Martie! You know I’m watching my girlish figure and your food is way too good. It’s my kryptonite.”
Martie was laughing, which sounded just like Elise’s laugh. Trey’s palms were sweating, and his heart was racing. He needed to find her. He needed to apologize and beg her for forgiveness.
“Anyway Martie, have you seen Elise or spoken to her today?”
“Not spoken to her, but I received a text message earlier. She said she was going to be busy for the next couple of days with the buyout, but if I needed her, all I had to do was text her. Is everything ok?”
“Oh, yes. I was just making sure she let you know that she was busy. Well, sorry to make it short but I need to finish up a few thing before I leave for the day. I’ll see you soon, Martie. Love you! Bye!”
He heard Jeremy
lift and replace the handset on his desk phone. “I don’t know what you did to her, but for her to lie to Martie like that is unheard of. The meeting with the lawyers to do the paperwork isn’t until Friday afternoon and there isn’t anything that Elise needs to do. So, I’ll worry about finding Elise, and you just stay the hell away from her.”
“I can’t do that. I need to find her and make it right. I love her, Jeremy.”
“And she loves you, but she loved Rixby, too and look at how that ended. Leave her alone, Trey. I’m warning you!” With those words, Jeremy hung up on Trey.
He got up from behind his desk and started pacing around his office. He was a fool. He left without the whole story, and he may pay for that mistake for the rest of his life. He grabbed a crystal paper weight from off of his desk and threw it across his office, shattering it.
Seconds later, Ronald rushed into his office with gun drawn. “Sir, are you ok?”
“No!” Trey ran his hands through his hair continuing to pace around his office.
“Sir, is this about Ms. DePaul?” Ronald saw the shape Trey was in when he asked him to drive back to Virginia on Saturday.
“Yes! I can’t find her. She disconnected her phone in New York and is selling her apartment there. She’s not picking up any of her other phones, and her mom and best friend haven’t heard from her besides one text message which was a lie about what she would be doing for the next couple of days. I don’t know what to do.”
Ronald walked out of Trey’s office and grabbed his laptop bag that was behind Maggie’s desk. He pulled out the laptop and booted it up. Ronald clicked on a folder on his desktop and started writing down numbers. He then opened a program and plugged the numbers that he wrote down into the database. “Sir, I’m showing that the GPS of her Porsche is still active at her Palladium townhome, her cell phone is off or dead so I can’t get a read off of it, but let me check her credit card usage.”
“What is all this stuff? Is all that information on Elise?” Trey was confused.
Ronald looked up at Trey with guilt, “Yes, sir. Your safety and the safety of your father is of the utmost importance. We have dossiers on everyone that gets close to the family.”
“So do you think you can find her?” Trey felt like he had some hope.
“I’m pulling up her credit card and banking transactions from the last two days. Yesterday afternoon, her credit card was used to make a $1700 purchase at the Vineyard which is a wine and spirits vendor close to her Palladium home. And, it looks like she also used it to make a purchase on British Airways earlier this morning.”
The Vineyard was where Trey bought the champagne for the breakfast with Martie. “Do you think she left the country?”
“Let me check with another division, and I’ll see if she is on any flight manifest. Give me a moment, Mr. Watts.” Ronald reached into his pocket and retrieved his cell phone where he made a call.
Trey was stupefied that they had all this information on Elise … the GPS on her Porsche, cell phone records, and credit card transactions.
“Sir, she’s listed on a flight leaving out of Dulles tomorrow morning. She’s going back to France.” Ronald was waiting for the next move.
“Let’s see if she’s at her Virginia townhome. Will you drive me over?” Trey needed to find her before she left for France.
“Yes, sir.”
Twenty minutes later, they were at the Palladium, and Ronald was flashing his credentials to the building manager who gave him a key to Elise’s townhome. They rode the elevator up to the seventh floor. Trey was shaking from all the adrenaline in his system. He needed to find her and make it all right again. When the elevator doors opened, Trey rounded the corner in the direction of her townhome. He knocked on the door and yelled out to Elise, but there was no answer. He wasn’t taking any chances. He motioned for the key, which Ronald handed to him.
He opened the door and saw the top of Elise’s head from her laying on the sofa that was perpendicular to the door in the living room. He also saw a half empty bottle of 1800 which explains the $1700 purchase at the Vineyard, two Kleenex boxes with tons of balled up white tissues surrounding it, and her iPod on the coffee table with headphones connected to it, which Elise was wearing. He could vaguely hear music pumping through the headphones. There was no way that she heard him knocking or calling for that matter.
As he approached her, he saw that Elise was wearing an oversized NYU sweatshirt that was hanging off of her shoulder with small white cotton shorts. He noticed she was lying on top of his tuxedo jacket from Friday night, which must have been wrapped around her shoulders at one point. She also had a navy tie wrapped around her hand. It was his tie that he left in her car the day that he picked her up from the airport. The last thing he noticed was the note that he left her Saturday morning. She was holding it to her chest.
He felt like shit. The reason she was laying around like that was because of him. He hurt her – badly.
Trey slowly approached the sofa so he wouldn’t startle her. As he got closer he noticed that she was passed out. He quickly checked to make sure she was breathing, which she was. He knelt down in front of her on the couch and swept some loose strands of her hair away from her face and pulled the headphones off of her ears. She opened her eyes which were swollen and pink, obviously from the crying. He pressed pause on her iPod which stopped the music from blaring through her headphones. When she processed everything that was happening, she whispered his name.
Trey slid his arm underneath her and pulled her close to him. She grabbed onto his shirt and buried her head into his neck. She started crying which quickly escalated to bawling. She breathed in deeply and continued with her sobbing as Trey just held her. He caused all this pain and was disgusted with himself. “I’m so sorry, Elise. I love you so much, and I’m just so sorry.”
He repeated those words over and over again keeping Elise close to him. Her sobs eventually slowed down, and her grip on him loosened. When he came into her apartment, she was passed out so he knew she had to be exhausted from the tequila, all the crying, or a combination of both. He lifted her off of the sofa and carried her into her bedroom. When he placed her on the bed, she balled up and buried her face into her pillow. He grabbed a blanket she had draped over the back of a chair in her bedroom and covered her with it.
He had all intentions of staying there tonight to make sure she was ok, but after everything he had done to her, he wanted her permission.
“Elise, I want to stay here and take care of you tonight. Is that ok?” Her back was turned to him so he couldn’t see her face. She nodded her head yes, but didn’t say anything.
He took his cell phone out of his pocket and text messaged Jeremy letting him know that Elise was at her Virginia townhome. He was worried earlier, so he knew Jeremy would be, too.
Trey took off his jacket, tie, belt, socks, and shoes, and he untucked his shirt before he got into her bed. He sat on the opposite side of the bed that Elise was laying on, resting his back against the headboard. He ran his fingers through her hair. Her eyes were open, but vacant. He laid down facing her continuing to run his hand over her head.
She wasn’t looking at him, she was looking through him. His tie was still wrapped around her hand, and in that hand, was his note. He decided that he would try to talk to her.
“Have you eaten today?”
Elise shook her head slightly.
“Would you like something to eat? I can cook something or order some take out.”
Elise shook her head again.
“Is there anything that I can do?”
She shook her head once more.
Trey hated seeing her like this. He took a deep breath and decided to pour his heart out to her. “I love you, Elise. I want you to know that. And, I know I fucked up so badly. I don’t know if you will ever forgive me, but I want to make sure that you know that what I feel for you is real. I have been hollow for the last two days without you.”
Elise’s eyes wa
tered and tears slowly poured from them. She finally spoke by uttering one word, “Why?” Her voice was barely audible and sounded strained.
“Why, what?”
“Why am I so easy to throw away?” Elise was now looking at him, not through him, as tears continued to fall.
That question hurt Trey deep inside. She felt like he threw her away, which were the exact words she used to describe what Rixby did to her. “Elise, please don’t feel that way.” Trey didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know how to fix what he had broken.
“My dad, Rixby, my company, and now you. No matter how hard I try, I just end up being thrown away. I wish I knew what was wrong with me so I can fix it.” Elise’s chin trembled as more tears poured from her eyes.
Trey felt a stabbing sensation in his chest. The pain he felt was the pain that he saw in Elise’s eyes. He reached over to her hand that was wrapped in his tie. He placed his hand on top of it and looked into Elise’s eyes, “You are so precious to me, and I cannot express how disgusted I am with myself for making you feel this way. There is nothing easy about the absence of you in my life. It’s the most painful experience that I have ever had, and it was all my fault. There is nothing wrong with you, and there is nothing to fix. I am so sorry that I made you feel that way, Elise.”
“I tried to tell you,” Elise whispered.
“And I didn’t listen. Not your fault.” Trey slid her hand across the bed and brought her fingers to his lips. He closed his eyes and kissed them softly cherishing any contact that Elise was allowing him. “All I can say is I’m sorry, and I love you so much.”
She moved her hand from under his and ran it down his face. Trey opened his eyes and saw that the pain in her eyes had subsided. They were still very sad, but there was less pain. “I can’t believe you’re here,” Elise barely murmured.
He grabbed the note that was on the bed and placed it on the nightstand. He carefully unwrapped his tie from Elise’s hand and placed it next to the note. He kissed her fingers again as he ran his hand along the length of her arm. By the time his hand reached her shoulder, Elise pulled her hand back and sat up. She wiped her tears with the cuff of her sweatshirt.