by Emma Vikes
Leo had told me all about his new business. Before, all Leo could ever tell me was how much he wanted to travel around the world and take thousands of pictures of the places he would be in and how much he also wanted to be in the wild and take pictures of animals in close proximity. I remembered I told him that was dangerous and he had looked at me with a small smirk on his face and how he had leaned closer to me to tell that danger was where great photos waited for him.
“Ellie?”
I snapped back to reality, the memory slowly dissipating from my mind. “Hi, yea, I’m still here. Is there anything I can help you with?”
There was a pause on the other line. “Nah. I think I can handle it. I’ll see you at home?”
Home. To be honest, having him around the house for almost a month made it seem and feel like we were a small family. “Actually, Max and I will be having dinner with Red err, Jared. And he’ll be staying with us for a week.”
I should’ve discussed this with Leo this morning. Well, I considered discussing it with him but then again, I was reminded that it was my house and Leo was well, I wasn’t sure what he was at the moment because we weren’t official. I didn’t want to make it official so that was on me because if one day Leo just woke up and got tired of the setup and he left just like that then I didn’t have the right to feel the heartbreak that I’m bound to if that happened. Because it was already something I’d anticipated.
Again, there was that pause. “I guess I’ll just come home to the penthouse. Everett missed me anyways.”
He was trying to sound like it didn’t bother him but I could hear it in his voice and to be honest, no matter how much I tried to make sure that the walls around my heart were Leo-proof, I still felt bad. I wanted to invite him to dinner with us and have him meet Red, but then I knew what would happen. Red would be completely pissed at me if he found out that we were back together because Red was the only one who knew the entire deal with me and Leo, and he was the one who had witnessed how broken I was when Leo had left. The last thing I needed was a fight between two special men in my life.
“I’m sorry,” I blurted out, unable to stop myself because I felt really bad.
Leo let out a small laugh. “Don’t miss me too much, okay?”
I bit my lip, trying to stop myself from smiling but the butterflies in my stomach were going crazy. “Don’t be stupid, you know I won’t even miss you.”
Elsa, my secretary, popped her head through the door and a wide smile was on her face. I raised an eyebrow in question. “Someone’s here to see you Miss Black.”
She opened the door fully and behind her was a lanky male figure. His curly brown hair rested on his shoulders and his pale blue eyes- almost gray- were glinting with delight. He had the biggest smile on his face and he immediately opened his arms wide and I squealed in excitement, jumping out of my seat and dropping my phone on the ground, launching myself into Jared’s arms.
I closed my eyes and inhaled the familiar scent of citrus and soap as he wrapped his arms around me, hugging me tightly. Jared became my best friend after Megan and her family moved out of our neighbourhood and Jared and his family lived in the house that Megan’s family used to stay at. He teased me a lot and annoyed the hell out of me but was one of the constant people in my life. He stayed in Irving for college while I moved into a different city and he was still in Irving when I came back, heartbroken and pregnant with Max. When my family turned their back on me, he and Megan were the ones who helped me with all the crap I had to go through.
When we pulled away, Elsa was looking at us with wide eyes and then she turned to me and shook her head in amusement. “Alright, you win the most beautiful award. All the boys lined up for you, you are insanely gorgeous.”
Jared cocked his head to the side and playfully narrowed his eyes at me. “You haven’t been in Irving for half a year and you already have guys lining up for you? Jesus, Elle, how many guys do I have to interview to make sure that heart of yours is safe?”
Behind him, Elsa squealed slightly. “Oh there’s only just one guy...”
My eyes widened and signalled her to stop just as Jared turned to look at her and she stared at me, confused for a moment before getting the message and shrugging. “And I’m sure Miss Black will tell you all about him!”
Jared turned back to me with a raised eyebrow, his head cocked to the side and his eyes dancing with amusement. “What happened to passion before emotion? Career over love? Max over any boy that came into your life?”
I rolled my eyes and remained cool. The last thing I needed was for Jared to find out that the guy that Elsa meant was Leo Hudson, and Jared knew every little bit of detail about Leo. At that time that I suffered the heartbreak, Megan had been too busy juggling her responsibilities so Jared was the one left to piece together the broken pieces of my heart.
“You just got here, Red, and you’ll be here for a week. We have a lot of time to discuss that.”
Just as I made my way back to my desk, I noticed my phone on the floor. The call with Leo had ended and he kept on calling me over and over again. I bit my lip, quickly picked up my phone and sent him a text that Jared was here and that I’ll get back to him later. I felt bad that it seemed as if I was hiding Leo but I really needed just a little bit of time to collect myself before telling him about Leo. My phone buzzed, indicating Leo’s reply.
Can I call you later tonight? I’ll miss talking to you until you fall asleep beside me. )’:
There was a sad face on the end and I tried to bite back a smile, the butterflies fluttering again. Leo was cute when he wanted to be and he really knew that acting cute worked its charm on me. In front of me, Jared cleared his throat. “Is that him?”
I quickly texted a response and then hid my phone in the drawer. The last thing I wanted was for Jared to grab my phone from my hands and see that I was texting Leo. “It was Patrick. He just sent me a meme.”
Jared smiled and it was the kind of smile that would make other girls’ heart flip but mine. To be honest, Jared was good-looking and there were many co-workers and classmates that asked me why I never went out with him but I could never really see him in that way. Sometimes I would think it over, because had it been Jared all along then maybe I wouldn’t have to go through all the crap I went through with love. But you can’t really dictate who your heart wanted.
And my heart wanted Leo Hudson, then and now.
“I’m really happy that you’re in really good terms with them now.”
“Minus my Dad from the them,” I said quietly, fixing my things because work was nearly done.
Jared knocked his knuckles on my hardwood desk forcing my attention on him. There was worry in his eyes. “Have you met up with him yet?”
I flashed him a tight-lipped smile as I grabbed my bag and then proceeded to go out of my office. Elsa called out a goodbye as Jared and I made our way to the elevator. Max’s school would be over within 30 minutes and I needed to be there soon. “We have to pick up Max from school. I don’t want to be late in doing so.”
Jared grabbed my wrist just as I punched in the elevator. “Elle, you haven’t answered my question.”
I swallowed. The meeting with my Dad two weeks ago still made me feel a pang of pain in my heart. I knew my father was capable of many things but I didn’t think that he would humiliate me in front of his colleagues and some of mine. The elevator doors opened and we both stepped inside. I faced Jared, meeting his pale blue eyes.
“Yes, Red. He came to my house a few days after Max and I arrived here in Irving and then called me to meet him for early dinner alongside his colleagues and some of mine and in front of those people, he called me out for being such a disappointment.”
His eyes softened as he reached his hand to touch my face gently. “Why didn’t you call me?”
Images of that night flashed in my mind. I came straight home after buying beer and Leo arrived shortly after, trying his best to comfort me. I remembered intending to call Ja
red but also not wanting to bother him with my life’s woes again. And then when Leo arrived, I just forgot about contacting Jared.
“Booze helped that night,” I answered with a small smile, leaving the fact that Leo also did too. We picked up his things that he had left at the lobby, we both got into my car and Jared diverted the topic, knowing that it was making me uncomfortable having to discuss it. We arrived at Max’s school a few minutes later, just shy before their bell rang for dismissal.
Max shot out of the big doors of his school, launching himself in Jared’s arms without hesitation, squealing in delight. He grew up used to having Jared around and to be honest, he wasn’t used to male company aside from Jared’s. Max even took some time adjusting with Patrick and Patrick was his biological uncle. Aside from Jared, Leo was the only one that Max didn’t seem to have trouble being around.
On our way home, Max wouldn’t shut up. He told Jared that he was playing basketball now and was getting good at it. I was parking my car in the driveway at that time. “Basketball? How’d you finally get into that?”
I chewed on my bottom lip, fearing that Jared might know that Leo was back in my life. Max, completely unaware, grinned at Jared brightly. “Leo taught me!....He’s really...good! He’s...the best. In fact, he...was supposed to...pick me up. Did something happen, Mom?”
I pursed my lips when I felt Jared’s gaze on me. I turned to focus on Max and shrugged lightly. “Yes, he called. Something urgent just came up. Why don’t you go take a shower and change and we’ll have dinner out? I’ll help Jared settle in the guest room.”
Handing Max the keys to the house, he bolted out of the car, unlocked the front door and rushed inside. Jared and I were still in the car and I could feel the tension slowly suffocating me. “By any means, did your son mean Leo Hudson?”
I blinked and chewed on my bottom lip, gripping the steering wheel tightly despite the fact that we were parked. “He’s changed, Red.”
Jared scoffed and shook his head in disbelief. “Is Irving really that small for you to run into that guy again?”
“We met at the wedding. Apparently he’s the younger brother of Megan’s husband.”
When I turned to look at Jared, he was staring at me with so much disappointment in his eyes. “And then what? You two were in an environment filled with love and you thought that maybe you could rekindle that stupid romance you once had with him? Even after he left you the way he did?”
I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. I always knew that Jared hated Leo for what he had done to me but the anger in Jared’s voice was so palpable that I could feel it up to the core of my bones. I heard him open the door of the car. I followed him out, knowing that we couldn’t let this conversation hang no matter how angry Jared was right now.
“He’s been so good, Red. He’s helped me so much since we got to Irving. He volunteered to take care of Max in the mornings so I wouldn’t have to bring him to a day-care center and he’s been so good to Max.”
“So are you telling me that you didn’t only open your doors to Leo Hudson but also your legs too? Because you sound like a dumb teenage girl, Elle!”
I slapped him and this time, I could feel my own anger rising. “That was too much, Jared.”
He turned away and let out a deep breath and then he looked down on his shoes. “I was there, Eleanor. You were so close to killing yourself because of him. If it wasn’t because of Max in your womb, you would’ve.”
I was curled in a fetal position on the floor, arms wrapped tightly on my knees that I’d brought close to my chest. The tears wouldn’t stop no matter how badly and desperately I tried to do so and my chest felt so constricted that I could barely breathe. There was only one possible way I could think of ending the pain that I was in right now and the idea and thought of it was so tempting.
The scissors were right there. I could just plunge it to my neck right at this moment.
Slowly, I crawled to the drawer where I knew it was just as the door flew open and a male figure came in. “Elle?”
I stopped crawling and looked up, into pale blue eyes that almost looked gray, that almost looked like his. Jared crouched down and then pulled me in his arms as I struggled, repeating over and over again that I wanted the pain to end, that it was killing me.
“Eleanor, please, please, for the baby, Eleanor, please.”
I choked another sob as my hands flew to my stomach where another life was beginning to form, a reminder of the heartbreak that I was suffering.
“Does he know?”
My eyes felt misty with unshed tears as I looked at Jared. Leo didn’t know and neither did Max. “No.”
Jared let out a shaky breath and I could see the livid anger in his eyes. “Then why did you take him back?”
The answer to his question was obvious but I knew that he wanted to hear it come from me and not just simply be an assumption on my part. “He changed, Jared.”
I couldn’t really say it because there was still this tiny part of me that believed that Leo was going to leave one day and I needed to be prepared for that so I wouldn’t fall apart. Jared’s eyebrows furrowed as he stared at me. All he could do was stare at me and it was as if he lost all words that he could tell me.
“What assurance do you have that he isn’t going to leave you this time?”
“I don’t,” I whispered, wiping away the traitorous tears, “I just realized at some point that what I feel whenever I’m with him is worth it.”
“Isn’t that stupid?”
“Isn’t that what love is all about?”
CHAPTER 14
Leo
The real-estate broker I hired agreed to meet up with me for dinner. I reserved a table for us in a semi-fancy restaurant since discussing this in a diner or café wasn’t a suitable setting given that this was a serious and private matter and I wasn’t in the mood to be a part of a rowdy crowd after my conversation with Maddock.
The offer he made still hung at the back of my mind and a part of me desperately tried to erase it but I kept on catching myself considering it. I was a part of his team for six years, going about in the Amazon, discovering and photographing things. And then it expanded to other areas of the world. I used to dream about travelling the entire globe and taking pictures of everything that the world had to offer, even the parts that some people couldn’t find beautiful if merely seen by the human eye.
Then there was his offer about the gallery. Voluntary sponsors. It was the very thing that I needed to run the business smoothly. I had money set aside to use as a capital but having sponsors that trusted me enough to actually pull the business off, was a completely different thing.
“Mr. Hudson.”
I looked up and met the eyes of my real-estate broker. She was in her mid-40, tall and lean, blonde hair tied neatly in a ponytail and her face caked with makeup. She was the same person I contacted for the penthouse and considering that was a transaction that went smoothly, I didn’t hesitate on hiring her for this job. But it seemed that this one wasn’t as going as smoothly as our previous transaction.
I motioned for her to take a seat on the empty chair across from me. I waved a waiter over and ordered quickly, already knowing what I wanted after checking the menu ten minutes ago. She skimmed the menu for three minutes and gave her order to the waiter. After the waiter left the two of us alone, I cleared my throat.
“I’ll skip the pleasantries, Miss Jones,” I said, leaning on the table and looking at her. “What the hell happened?”
Celine Jones pursed her lips, reached her hands to her ponytail and then tightened it. I’d noticed her doing this a bunch of times. “The seller called me early this morning, Mr. Hudson. The bank had notified her of the down-payment you made but I only found out this morning that the property was conjugal between her and her now estranged husband. He found out about the transaction.”
“And he put it on hold?” I asked incredulously, disbelief filling my veins.
Celine sighed, he
r lips in a thin line as she nodded in affirmation. “The husband wants the payment made full. He won’t sign unless you pay it in full, Leo.”
I blinked, staring at her just as our food arrived. The waiter poured me a glass of wine and I downed it in a minute. Breathing hard, I willed myself to keep my anger in check. “That can’t be possible, Celine. I had an agreement with the wife.”
“Verbal. Nothing has been signed.”
Closing my eyes in dismay, I willed the growing anger at the pit of my stomach to simmer down. The last thing I needed was to be angry in a public place. “Then what are we going to do?”
“He gave you a month to pay the entirety of it, Leo. We can drop this and look for another place-,”
“I don’t want another place, Celine. This is the location I’m looking for.”
Celine nodded her head curtly, reaching to her ponytail and tightening it again. She ate a few bites of her food, thinking of what she was going to say next. “Then you better think of a way to settle this matter, Leo. It’s either you pay or you figure out a way to convince the husband of the staggered payment you initially proposed.”
For the rest of the dinner, we thought of ways on how we could settle the matter with the sellers. We finished our dinner without having any idea of how we could possibly handle the situation. As I drove home, Maddock’s offer echoed in my mind, the tempting proposition, even more tempting now given my current situation.
Maybe if I do the gallery, I could have some people buy my photos and then maybe I could earn enough and if I don’t, I could get a loan...
Before I knew it, I was slowing the car down at Eleanor’s driveway. It was still early. I had early dinner with Celine to discuss the matter right after meeting with Maddock. My mind was a complete mess and it was instinct that brought me to Eleanor’s door. She was my safe place and all I wanted was to feel her arms wrapped around me. I didn’t even care if she uttered words of comfort or not. All I wanted was to be beside her.