by Kylie Parker
She laughs and pushes my face away. “Answer your phone, James, I’m not going anywhere.”
I laugh –at myself mostly. I’ve never been so infatuated with someone before. I locate my phone on the floor where my pants had dropped, and I answer it on the third ring as I am crawling back into bed with Sylvia. “Hello?”
“Mr. James Mont?” the voice on the other line is eerily soft spoken, but I don’t pick up on it right away.
“Yeah.” I say as I reach out and stroke Sylvia’s inner thigh. She giggles and tells me to knock it off while I’m on the phone.
“Mr. Mont, this is Dr. Lauders from the hospital.” He says, and I suddenly pick up on the uncomfortable tone. I remove my hand from Sylvia’s thigh and sit upright. I feel this pain in my chest that I can’t quite explain. Dr. Lauders has pretty much been Eddie’s primary physician ever since the assault, so I have gotten to know the man fairly well.
“Yes, um, hello?” my voice is scratchy.
“Mr. Mont,” the doctor’s voice becomes steadier. “I’m very sorry to be the one to inform you, but your brother-”
My voice cracks. I read it in his tone before the words even come out of his mouth. “What happened?” I snap, trying to hold myself together.
“He had a seizure,” the doctor says, “The seizure caused your brother to go into cardiac arrest.”
“What happened?” I say again –forcing the unwilling man to say the words I am already suspecting while at the same time praying that those words will not come out of his mouth. Praying that I am just assuming the worst.
“I’m so sorry.” He says, “But your brother is dead.”
Chapter Sixty-One
It’s an uncomfortably nice day outside. I would almost prefer rain. At least rain would be more fitting with what I am feeling right now. It’s warm, and the sun is peeking out through the clouds against a bright blue sky. It’s almost sickening. It’s like the weather is just taunting me –proving to me that the world is just going to keep turning and that everything is just going to keep moving on –that there will still be sunny days after today. Today we’re putting my brother, Eddie, in the ground. The funeral home is busy with people. I had to hire security to keep the damn press away.
Sylvia has been by my side all day. I keep noticing that she is checking her phone, so I know she has somewhere she is supposed to be. Her boss sounds like an asshole with the way she is always being called away even in moments like these. Normally I would say something like, “go on and go. It’s not a big deal. I understand,” but today I just need her. I need someone to stand by me.
Right now we are standing out in front of the funeral home. I needed some air. I had not realized how well loved Eddie had been by the local community. People are everywhere; the line to see Eddie and to see me to express condolences is out the door. As I’m standing on the stairs along the side of the building, the set of stairs where an enormous line is not at, I gaze out across the parking lot. There is a nice, gated fence around the property, and I can see news cameras trying to snap pictures of the unexpected crowd. They spot me, and soon they’re all pointed in my direction. My stomach churns, and I hold my hand up to keep them from snapping pictures of my red, puffy eyes. I grab sunglasses out of my pocket and throw them on. That’s the last thing I feel like dealing with –seeing pictures of my splotchy face all over the local news for the next week.
Sylvia hooks her arm with mine, “Come on,” she says and leads me back inside through a back door. I can vaguely hear her snapping off at one of my security guys to go and disperse the jackasses at the fence and to find out if any of them had managed to get a picture of me. “I’ll pay you fifty bucks to smash a camera,” I hear her hiss.
“James!” I hear a familiar voice call out as we are entering into the back of the building.
Kate, Eddie’s half-sister, has snuck away from the growing crowd. Her eyes are just as red as mine. I sensed something in her voice that snaps me out of my daze so that I can ask, “Is something wrong?” Of course something is wrong. What I mean is something more than our brother suddenly dying wrong.
She wipes her tears with some tissue, a line of her children following close behind her in their black attire that makes some of the younger ones look like creepy porcelain dolls. “Bobby’s locked himself in the bathroom,” she says, “I’m so sorry to ask you this, but do you think you can try to coax him out?”
It’s not like I have much of a choice. I’m not going to tell the woman no. Sylvia stays behind to chat with Kate while I head back to the bathrooms to locate Bobby. There are three pissed off looking men in suits wanting to get to the bathroom. I tell them to leave so that I can talk to Bobby privately. They grumble and head back to the main room. The bathrooms are on this private hall towards the back of the building. I knock on the door. “Go away,” Bobby says in this low voice.
“Bobby, it’s James,” I say, but he does not respond to me. He’s quiet. “Listen, kid,” I say, “today’s going to be over soon enough. I know it’s rough. It’s rough on me too, but you can’t just hideout in the bathroom the whole time. You’re freaking your mom out.” He is still quiet. I wait before I speak again. “I know you loved Eddie. I do too. And it’s hard to think that he’s gone, but-”
The door opens slowly. He stands halfway behind the door, and I can tell that he has been washing his face in the sink –trying to hide the fact that he had gotten choked up. I get it. He’s embarrassed that he can’t hack it; he is just a punk kid. I take off my sunglasses, showing off my red eyes, and I hand them to him. “Here, use these,” I say.
He takes the sunglasses, and once he has them on he’s willing to step out. He does not say anything; he just puts his hands in his pockets and walks with me back to his mom. Sylvia has this look on her face that is giving off a wave of anxiety. She has to leave. I know she does, but I just can’t bring myself to grant her that permission. I hear her phone vibrate again. She gives me this look, hoping that I will say something. No, I think to myself, if you have to go, you’re going to have to say it. I know she feels crazy guilty and needs me to tell her it’s okay, but I just can’t. “James,” she says finally before we head back to the viewing room, “I have to go.”
I’m angry and hurt, but it sounds like her boss is not giving her much of a choice. I can’t wait to meet this guy she works for –I’ll punch the asshole in his jaw. I tell her it’s okay and that I understand, but we both know I’m lying through my teeth to her. She kisses my cheek and leaves. I go with Kate back to the viewing room to stand by the casket along with some of Eddie’s other half-siblings. I had told Kate to let her siblings know that they were welcome to come stand with me at the funeral, and I am weirded out by the number of people who had shown up. Max is here, the brother with the crazy stutter. So is Tommy and his crazy egg scrambling psychopath wife. It’s kind of weird seeing Tommy in a suit. There is also handful of complete strangers claiming to be Eddie’s half-siblings and their children that I have not bothered introducing myself to. I do my best to not look at the casket as I stand by Kate and her kids. “I spoke to Nick on the phone this morning,” she says, referring to the youngest of Eddie’s other half-siblings. “He is devastated that he couldn’t be here, but I told him to stay in rehab.”
“Good,” I say, “He needs to.” I have not really thought much about Nick. I guess I had just been betting on Eddie getting better. Eddie was supposed to become Nick’s legal guardian; I had offered to take him in once he got out of rehab until Eddie could get back up on his feet, but that may become a more permanent arrangement now. I would do it in a heartbeat though –for Eddie.
I glance over at the casket –at this hallow shell that had once been my big brother, Eddie. It makes me sick to my stomach. I can’t handle it, and there are hundreds of more people in line waiting to see Eddie before we head to the cemetery. A part of me is almost angry at Sylvia for leaving me, but I know I shouldn’t be. It’s not her fault her boss is threatening to fir
e her. “James!” I hear my name, and I look up to see Éclair. She has a few tears in her eyes, and suddenly she is standing right in front of me wrapping her arms around my neck. “I’m so sorry, James. I’m so sorry,” she says. She touches my face and then kisses my cheek. She starts to head back down the line to go and wait before this large group of people has to commute to the cemetery, but I grab her wrist.
“Stay with me,” I say, and she does. She holds onto my arm. She also rides with me to the cemetery. Éclair continues to stand by my side as we put Eddie into the ground. She also stands with me as the crowd slowly departs. The next thing I know, Éclair and I are the only ones still standing around Eddie’s grave, the bright and cheery sky slowly turning into bright oranges and yellows and pinks to indicate the late evening.
Chapter Sixty-Two
I’m such a terrible person. It does not take much for me to go back to Éclair. It’s not like Sylvia wanted to leave me there by myself. Yet, here I am at Éclair’s home out in the suburbs in her pink and silver themed home. We are lying in bed, and she is giving me these sweet, gentle kisses while holding my face in her hands. My tight, itchy funeral attire has been removed, and I have stripped down to the pair of black, silk boxers I had been wearing underneath. She’s wearing a black bra and black underwear with little pink bows on her hips. Her ridiculously long, blonde hair flows down her back and side. She stares back at me with those weird but incredibly sexy purple eyes of hers.
We crawl under the pink, satin sheets. We are moving slower than the two of us normally do. Normally we are clawing and biting and a bit rough in the bedroom, but today is quite different. We are taking our time –enjoying the moment because as soon as it’s over I have to go back to worrying about Eddie, about the lawsuit, about Sylvia, Nick, the investigation, my suddenly failing company, and all the other things that are clouding my thoughts.
I roll her onto her back after removing her bra, and I crawl on top of her. I kiss her perfectly painted lips and then move down to her neck and chest and nipples. She moves her hands slowly across my chest and arms, a sad smile on her face that tells me she is really pitying me and what all I am dealing with right now. I suppose I could use a little bit of pity. I toss my boxers and her panties, taking my time to touch her with my fingers and just enjoy gazing down at her body for a moment before sliding up inside of her.
There is something unsettling about this moment. We had just left the cemetery, but I really need this distraction. I look into her eyes, and I think it makes her uncomfortable that I am acting like this with her. It’s almost romantic –something the two of us tend to avoid. “You know,” I say, my lips lingering around her left ear as I release a warm breath against her throat, ‘I really like those purple eyes of yours.” She blushes. She hates bringing attention to her eyes.
I don’t know what she’s complaining about. Alexandria Genesis, the cause of her violet colored eyes, seems to have a lot of perks. She doesn’t have any body hair –no leg shaving or bikini waxes for her thanks to this random mutation. Sylvia makes regular trips to get waxed to keep herself smooth –not that I would mind if she wanted to let a little hair down south grow, but she’s been doing that since I’ve known her. Éclair doesn’t get periods either because of the mutation –but she’s still fertile. No periods means no awkward moments in the bedroom for the two of us. Yet, she gets so flustered whenever someone mentions those pretty eyes of hers. My guess is she was probably picked on as a kid about them or something. I think they’re fucking gorgeous. “Stop it, James,” she says embarrassingly, turning her head to the side so that I won’t look her in the eye.
Grinning, I touch her under her chin, turning her head so she has to look right at me. “Come on, don’t be like that,” I say, pressing myself further into her when I speak, “you’re beautiful.”
Her face turns almost as pink as the sheets we’re wrapped in. I’m not sure what has gotten into me. The two of us don’t talk like that. I kiss her lips, and I swear I have her swooning. Éclair doesn’t swoon. I touch her hips with both of my hands and then slide them up –running along her hips and then gently squeezing her breasts before working them around her neck and holding her face. The brief body massage makes her moan, although the sound is slightly muffled from my lips. There is something different about us this time. It’s like we are more aware of one another. Our lips part, and I make eye contact with her again just as she is starting this loud, excited orgasm. “Oui! Oui!” She shivers. Her hands shake. “James, oh, James!"
I think I really like this side of Éclair –this version of us. I normally just hit her up for a booty call, which would normally consists of something wild and crazy. This is almost better in a way. Because I am me, I somehow find a way to ruin this moment. “Oh, God, I love you,” –what the fuck just came out of my mouth?
She gives me this deer in headlights kind of look just as I am cumming inside her. It’s not like I can stop mid-ejaculation. I roll off of her, and she almost immediately sits up, gripping the edge of the sheets and holding them to where she can keep herself covered. We’re quiet, uncomfortably quiet. What did I just do? She tucks some stray hairs behind her ear and looks away from me. She appears to be thinking about what she should do –what she should say. “Um…” She grumbles, “I… I have to get to the office… I have… work to, um, get done… paperwork…”
“Yeah, okay,” I say in this voice that I swear is not my own. It’s squeaky and full of anxiety. I hurry to locate my clothes and get dressed. I don’t look up and check her out while she is scrambling to get her underwear and dress pants on. What have I done? I don’t love Éclair –do I? And a small part of me still wonders if she is behind what happened to Eddie! How could I even sleep with her let alone tell her that I love her in a heat-of-the-moment kind of thing? What is wrong with me?
I awkwardly tell her goodbye after getting dressed and rush out the door, completely forgetting that I had rode with her. I start walking, not wanting to still be standing outside of her house when she leaves. I walk and walk and walk –putting a good distance between myself and Éclair’s home before calling my driver to come get me. I keep walking, not wanting Éclair to see me on the side of the road if she really is heading the office –that would just make me seem like an even bigger idiot. I’m pretty sure I have really messed things up this time.
Chapter Sixty-Three
My first long day at court was just awful. Only about half of the people suing me even showed up; the jackass lawyer presented evidence against me –trying to prove that the poisoning behind the supplements had been due to malpractice. As my lawyer, Lillian, pointed out, there was still an open investigation, so the lawsuit really should be postponed or thrown out completely. The judge, however, still decided that he wanted to have everything presented to him anyways before deciding whether or not to throw the case out the window. He is still pissed off about me missing mediation, so I suppose I had this coming.
After nearly five hours of listening to this other lawyer rattle off a bunch of pointless shit that has very little to do anything, the judge called it a day and has deemed that we will not be meeting again for another two weeks while he reviews the information that had been presented to him. Now Lillian, Syliva, and I are standing outside of the courthouse with our shoulders and backs tired from sitting around the courtroom all day. Sylvia has her arms around my arm, trying to be reassuring. She’s trying ridiculously hard to make up for bailing out in the middle of Eddie’s funeral. It’s not her fault, I know that. I wouldn’t have wanted her to get fired over me –a guy who can’t even commit enough to break things off with Éclair. A part of me wonders if I had told her I that I wouldn’t see Éclair anymore if she would have found a way to stay. I’m not sure, but I can’t bring myself to upset with her over it –especially since she is trying so hard to make it up to me by sitting around the damn courthouse all day.
Lillian stretches her back. “Well, I would say that went fairly well. You could tell
the judge sees right through this bogus lawsuit, so I wouldn’t worry too much.”
“It’s just a hassle, is all,” I say. I’m really not worried about the lawsuit. It’s just bad publicity is the problem. I’m talking to Lillian about a countersuit, but I don’t want to jump the gun too soon.
“I know,” Lillian sighs heavily. “This is probably the biggest bullshit case I’ve ever worked. If you had shown up for mediation, this shit would be behind us by now.”
“I know, I know,” I say. “I’m really sorry about that. Things have just been crazy lately.”
Lillian nods. “I can imagine. I’m sorry about Eddie. I’m not sure if I’ve told you that yet. Did you get my flowers?”
“Yeah. Thanks for those,” I say –although a part of me wants to punch anyone who gave flowers. They’re all over my apartment, and I don’t know what to do with that many fucking flowers.
“How is the assault… murder investigation coming?” Sylvia asks.
“The cops still have no idea who attacked Eddie,” Lillian says. “James, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but if they don’t find something soon, I’m worried the trail is going to go cold.”
I look up at her, and I’m sure she can feel the anxiety in my gaze. “You mean that they might not ever find out who did it?”
“The guy who did this just did not leave any sort of evidence behind. He knew what he was doing.” Lillian shook her head, sympathizing with me. I’m not her favorite person, I can tell, but she does care. She starts to say something else, but her phone starts going off. “Hold on,” she says and answers it.