by Lauren Wood
“So, who's the guy?”
“Why are you so sure that it's a guy, Christina?”
“Because I know you Bonnie and there's always a guy. This time it must've been pretty intense because I don't think I've ever seen you like this before. I got your messages, but you know half of it didn't make sense.”
“I guess not. I wasn't thinking very clearly. It was just all pouring out of me.”
“Ah, so this time you love him.”
“I think so. I don't even know want to say about all of it really. It all just happened so fast and maybe it was an illusion. I shouldn't feel this excited about it, right? We haven't even known each other that long.”
“Time really doesn't have much to do with it. I find love to be quite fast. It's like a lightning strike, and you spend the rest of the time trying to get over it.”
“How are you? I don't want to talk about me the whole time. I haven't seen you in forever.”
She waved me off and told me that we would talk about her later. “I'm here for a few days, so I'm sure that you can hear about all my wedded-bliss later. For now, I want to know what is going on with you. Let's get some wine and you can tell me all about it.”
I had to smile in response because I literally couldn't think of anything better, than to tell my best friend everything that was going on. She knew me the best and even though I didn't want to hear about how I got obsessive with guys very quickly and I was always being finicky, she gave me good advice. She knew me and that's why it was so accurate. Christina would help me to see it another way. I was hoping she would find a way for me to take him back.
I told Christina everything. Everything that I could think of and even a little extra that I hadn’t figured out yet. I still did not know why Steven was so sure that Doug had done something with the attack on him. I still wasn't sure who had done it to him.
“Well, that all sounds like a blast. Do you ever have normal trouble?”
“It was. You should have seen how messed up he was. I guess it was then that I realized how much I cared about him.”
“And then a week and a half later, you’re breaking up with him?”
“I never said it was simple. I just know that I want to be with him. But Doug is in the middle of it now. You don't think Doug would do something like that, do you?”
Christina told me that she didn't know. She did say that a person was never truly known.
“He could have very well done something like that. He loves you and I'm sure that he wants you back. Maybe he thought that he could get rid of Steven and things would work out so that the two of you were back together.”
“No, it's nothing like that. Steven had me thinking about it like that for a moment. But I don't even think that Doug knows enough about Steven to even make that happen.”
“Doug has money and he can be determined. He very well could have done this.”
I shut my mouth, fighting off the words that threatened to spill out of it. I couldn’t believe what she was saying, even though I could see her point. She was talking just like Steven, and it made me wonder if I was wrong. It was the first time that I doubted everything.
“And who is this Jesse guy you keep talking about?”
“He was just somebody that I used to know in high school. He is the principal at my kids’ school now. Real nice guy.”
“And you said that he wanted to be with you as well?”
I agreed, then she kind of made a whistling sound.
“You really have been busy since you got here, haven't you?”
“Jesse is different. Jesse is harmless. He is one of those guys that is always a good friend, but you can never really think of them any other way.”
Christina agreed, like she had been in that situation before.
“Does he know that you're just friends with him?”
“I guess. He wanted to go out a couple of weeks ago and we did go do something, but it definitely wasn't a date. There's nothing between us and I would think that he would know that.”
“Does he know that you were with Steven?”
I didn't even really think about it, because it was Jesse. Jesse was a good guy and all, but he wasn't someone that I worried about all that much. Not in that way. I didn't think of Jesse romantically, so why would I think of it?
“Maybe you need to look into Jesse as well?”
“Look into him in what way?”
“Look into him in the way that maybe he is the culprit. You keep blaming it on Doug, but you seem to skip over this Jesse guy. Why couldn't it be him?”
I told her that I wasn't sure and to be honest, I really didn't have a reason why. All I knew for certain was it hadn't even crossed my mind.
“I don't know, Christina. I guess it could be Jesse, but it is hard to think that way. If you met this guy...”
I was being silly, acting like he wasn’t capable of something like that. Then again, I didn't think that Steven was the type of guy that would go to another man's office and throw shit around either. Maybe all three of them were capable of things that I didn't even understand. I was starting to feel naive and wondering if I was wrong about everything.
“Now you have me paranoid, Christina.”
“I'm sorry Bonnie, but in this circumstance, maybe you need to be. Steven is right. You guys need to find out who did that to him, because it might just be the first attack. If you really care about Steven, you either have to stay away from him completely or find out who did this.”
I already knew the answer of which one I wanted to do. Of course, I wanted to figure it out. I had to. Christina was right. I did care about Steven, and I didn't want anything else to happen to him. I wanted him enough that I knew I was going to have to figure it out. I was selfish and I needed to be back in his arms. It was the only time that everything felt okay in the world.
“You don’t know how much I’ve missed you, Christina. You get me thinking straight every time.”
“It looks like I came just in time. You are really making a mess of things here and I thought this was going to be your re-do?”
I had not a shred of guilt or regret that she knew everything. Me and Christina have been through a lot together and we were very close. What would I do without her?
I may have just made one of the worst mistakes of my life and stuck to it, if she wouldn't have been there to coax me back on the right path. I’d gotten lost somewhere along the line.
26
Steven
“Jesse, it’s good to see you. You’re just the person I was wanting to see.”
Jesse turned around and he had a worried look on his face. I wanted to ask him what was going on. I had a couple of questions to ask him and every time I tried to get him alone, he made an excuse and another person was added.
It was almost noon before I finally asked him if he would go out to lunch with me.
“I can’t make it, Steven. I have a lot of work to do here.”
“I saw you next door last night, Jesse. I really need your help.”
He wasn’t sure if he wanted to, but I wasn’t going to take no for an answer. I didn’t want to. He was talking to Bonnie and I didn’t know what it was about, but Bonnie told me how she felt about him. I didn’t look at him as competition anymore. All of my focus was on Doug. I was just so sure that he was the culprit. I had to prove it somehow, though I still wasn’t sure how I was going to do that. I was hoping that Jesse would be able to help me.
“What do you need my help with?”
“Bonnie.”
He scoffed. “I can’t help you there. Bonnie is confusing and I have no idea how I could help you.”
“I was wondering what you guys talked about. Did she say anything about me?”
“We didn’t talk about you at all Steven, sorry.”
I sighed and knew that even if I was the whole conversation, he wasn’t going to tell me. I was still seen as competition.
“Would you tell me if you had?”
&nb
sp; “No.”
Well, at least he was honest.
“You don’t think I should be talking to her?”
“She broke up with you and I heard about why. You should know better than to jump into it between the two of them. Doug is her ex-husband and the kids’ father. He is off limits.”
“Not if he had me jumped. I am going to take care of whoever did that and she shouldn’t be upset about that. I am just defending myself.”
Jesse shrugged like he didn’t care after a moment. His initial reaction was a little different.
“I wouldn’t worry about it, Steve. She’s on to the next one and it’s me. I am not going to make it easier for you to get back with Bonnie. I want her and you need to back off. You’re making her life harder and if you really cared about her, you would let her go.”
He was adamant on that part, but I don’t know if I was or not. I wanted to believe that we could work it out somehow, but he wasn’t going to help me. I had forgotten that he was the one that filled her head with lies. I should have known better, but I was desperate. I was wrong to think that he was going to help me. I knew better.
I left Jesse to it. I wanted us to go back to normal, to be friends again, but I don’t think it was going to happen, not with Bonnie around. I wanted her, he wanted her, and it was always going to be something between us. The only way for it to work was for one of us to get her and the other to get over it.
I wouldn’t get over it, if Bonnie decided that she wanted Jesse. I don’t know if I would be okay with that decision. It would be hard to respect such a decision, knowing that I would have been the loser. I don’t think I would have been all that open to such a thing happening.
The school’s extra wing was almost done, and I was excited for the unveiling. There would be press and I wasn’t worried about that, but it had turned out well and I was proud of it. I was also proud that I’d done it for free. I wanted to give back, now that I had so much, and this was one of the first projects that I really felt proud of. I worked my butt off to make it happen and now I was ready for the world to see it. None of that was going to go smoothly, if me and the principle of the school were on the outs over a girl.
I was so wrapped up in everything that was going on with Bonnie and the attacks that I hadn’t had time to really enjoy the fruit of my labor. I was hoping that things would soon be different. Once I found out who had attacked me, took care of them and got Bonnie back in my arms, then I could worry about work. Right now, all the rest of it wasn’t all that important.
When I got back to the house, I got a call from a detective that I’d paid a ridiculous about of money for. I was hopeful that Darryl had made it worth my while and I waited for him to tell me what I wanted to hear.
“Give me some good news, Daryl. I don't think I can take any more indecision. Have you figured out who it was?”
I had become a little wishy-washy talking to Jesse and then dealing with Doug. While I knew that it was one of the two, I was leaning hard toward Doug. I just really didn't think that Jesse had it in him.
“Well, I looked into Doug Templeton like you asked me to and I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, that he wasn't the one that did it. His alibi is rock solid, and I've even talked to the people that gave a statement to the police. They didn't make it up.”
“Are you sure about that?”
I had been so certain of Doug being the one that had me attacked. It was just the way that he had reacted to me, that made me feel that way. It had been a gut feeling, that I hadn't been able to let go of.
“Yeah, I'm sure. He is not your guy.”
“So, it's Jesse then?”
I felt anger rise up in me because Jesse had been my friend for longer than he had been my enemy. Or was it really because I loved Bonnie so much that everything had changed between us and I’d been blind to it the whole time? I wanted to think that I knew him, but obviously that wasn't the case.
“Yeah, that's the one. It was actually some old football players that he went to high school together with.”
“Yeah, I went to the same high school. They were pretty much douches back then too.”
“Now things have changed for you, Steven. Don't forget that. Your life is completely different, and they don't have anything to lose. You do.”
I think he was trying to warn me against revenge, but he was speaking on deaf ears. No matter what I told Daryll on the phone or anyone for that matter, I was certainly going to handle this myself. I wasn't going to go to the police. They had already had enough time to fix this and instead, they had come up with nothing. In the same amount of time, one person had figured it all out.
“So just tell me the one thing I really need to know, Daryl. I need a confession or some kind of proof. I'm not saying that I'm going to go to the cops, but I am saying that if I need to, I want the proof to back me up.”
“I have a few things that will take care of it. It wasn’t really a confession, but more of a drunken boast. All I had to do was give him a few drinks and he was singing before long. I can tell you Steven, he hasn’t done anything like that before. He would’ve been arrested if he had. He can’t hold anything in.”
“I feel lucky that they decided to try it on me.”
“It really could have been way worse. Those guys were huge.”
I thanked him for his help, and he asked me if I wanted him to take care of it. I didn't, because this was something that I wanted to do personally. He had personally damaged not just myself, but Bonnie’s faith in me as well.
“No Daryll, you've already done more than enough. You just saved my ass and you don't even know it.”
27
Bonnie
Steven was standing at the door and I was a bit surprised to see him there. We had broken up a couple of weeks prior and now I was doing my best to keep my distance, because Doug was trying to make everything more difficult. He was talking about going back to court now and that was the last place that I wanted to go.
“What's up, Steven?”
“I was hoping that we could have a talk. I know that the kids are at their dad’s, so I was hoping that me and you could work some things out.”
I told him that I wasn't quite sure if that was going to be able to happen. It wasn't like I didn't know we had to have this conversation, but it still wasn't the time. I wasn't even mad about what he did at Doug’s anymore. I could understand it, but Doug wasn't letting it go and we needed to let my ex-husband chill out a little bit, before we started anything else.
I invited him in, because he was right. The kids were gone and maybe it would be easier on both of us, if we had this conversation now, instead of putting it off any longer. Putting it off, obviously wasn't helping anything.
Steven had a different feel to him, a different vibe. He seemed like he was in a good mood and that was different than the last few times I saw him. When I asked him why he was in such a good mood, he just kind of shrugged his shoulders. I didn’t know why he was being elusive.
“I don't know. I finally got to the bottom of our mystery. I thought you might want to hear about it.”
“Our mystery?”
“You know, the men that jumped me outside. The whole reason that we broke up.”
I agreed, because even though he was simplifying it to the extreme, I guess that was true. We probably would still be together if he hadn't got jumped and then started accusing people that I knew. He made it like I brought that on him and I knew that wasn't true. Or at least I thought I did.
“Yeah, so what did you find out?”
“That I was wrong about Doug.”
“See, I told you. I knew he wasn’t capable of something like that.”
That was a hopeful and I wished I could take it back. He had this smug look on his face now and I had a feeling that he wasn't quite done yet.
“Well I was wrong about Doug, but I wasn't wrong about the fact that it was somebody that knew you. The only reason that I was attacked was because
we were getting close. The other guy wanted to take me out of the equation, so that he could have you all to himself.”
“Wait, that doesn't make sense. If you said that it wasn't Doug, then how does this have anything to do with me? I thought that you were blaming Doug because he was my ex-husband.”
“Yes, that's exactly what I thought because I figured that it had to be him. He was the one that was most invested in you and like you said, he was trying to get back with you. It all just seemed to make sense and it looked like everything was pointing towards him.”
He was kind of dangling it over my head and it was starting to bother me. I just wanted to know what the hell he was talking about, and the way he was handling it I didn't know if I was ever going to find out.
“So, if it wasn't Doug, then who was it?”
“It was another man that wanted you as well, but didn't think that they would have you if I was around to sidetrack you.”
“Another man? Who are you talking about?”
He didn't even answer me though, because it all just started to hit me. Why didn't I see it before? I had actually brought up Jesse as an option, but it had been pushed away so quickly. Jesse wouldn't do something like that. He was too weak, too docile.
“It's Jesse, isn't it?”
“Yeah, a good friend that he is. Do you know that I've known him for years, and I can't even imagine that he would do something like this?”
“Are you sure that it's him?”
“Yeah, I ordered somebody to look into it and paid a pretty penny for it, but they got me an answer. And they got proof, as well as a confession.”
“So, what are you going to do?”
“I don’t think there is anything to be done. Jesse is very aware that I know what happened and he is going to stay quite far away from me I would imagine. He is going to stay away from you as well.”
I literally didn't know what to say. I was kind of gob smacked, if I was honest. “You know I just got back into town, and we've never even been together. Why in the world would he go to such lengths? I just don't understand it.”
