Forever With You

by Laurelin Paige

  I frowned dismissively. Then I remembered how I'd acted that one, using a slightly different voice for one of the "brothers."

  "I think they were relatively easy to fool." I began chuckling now. "Why would two brothers have two different accents?"

  "Right? I don't think I've ever laughed harder."

  "That was fun, wasn't it?" I'd never really labeled it as such. Or, I hadn't in a long time, too absorbed in the guilt and shame to remember that I had enjoyed myself. Had enjoyed the plotting and the playing and the companionship of that time, when I'd felt little else. I’d forgotten that even then, when I’d thought myself lost in the darkness, I was still capable of silliness, the kinds of pranks anyone might play.

  It felt good to remember that, to recognize that I hadn't been completely hollow, that those years together hadn't been all wasted.

  "And did the Pascals think it was fun?" Alayna's question cut through the moment, reminding me that my thrills had a cost.

  I sobered quickly. "No, I'm sure they did not."

  "She's burped," Alayna announced flatly, delivering Cleo to her mother. Celia took the baby then left the room to return her to the nanny.

  Alayna took her place next to me once again, saying nothing as she resumed work on her spreadsheet.

  I considered her carefully, irritation pinching just under my skin. She deserved her spite—I did understand that. But this was jealousy, and that I begrudged her. What right did she have to be jealous? Didn't she understand that any joy I had found in that time of cold, dark nothingness was shallow compared to the depth of happiness I'd found with her? Didn't she realize that I had barely been alive back then? Didn't she understand that my life began with her?

  She had nothing to envy. She was my everything. Every moment I had lived without her was cold and empty in comparison.

  "Hudson, I forgot to show you that I had this ready," Celia said returning to the table with a paper in hand. She slid it across the table so Alayna and I could both see it. It was a diagram of a room, a proposed seating arrangement. With tiny circles around larger circles to indicate designated seats, names labeled next to each one.

  "I hope you find that suitable for Chandler and Genevieve's engagement party. I tried to be thoughtful about where I placed you. As you can see, I didn't put you in the back, though I did appreciate the suggestion."

  I could feel my balance start to shift, feel the tray of china in my arms begin to slip from my grasp.

  "Hudson suggested a seating arrangement for the party?" Alayna asked, her tone slightly confused, but underneath, a realization.

  She wasn't dumb. She'd never been dumb. She was the smartest woman I knew.

  "Yes," Celia answered before I could gather myself enough to intervene. "He called me right after they got engaged, concerned about any unnecessary tension between, well, us. He requested that he be allowed to approve the seating arrangement."

  Alayna turned her attention slowly toward me, her eyes brimming, her expression full of pain and betrayal. "You thought I couldn't handle it." It wasn't a question. It wasn't even quite an accusation. It was a bitter acceptance of the painful truth.

  "Alayna… precious…" I was wordless, stammering. I couldn't deny it—I had done it. For her good—to protect her. Always, to protect her.

  She didn’t understand.

  She snatched her purse from the floor and stuffed her laptop inside then pushed away from the table with a mumbled, "Excuse me. I have to go."

  "Give us a minute," I muttered to Celia as I jumped up to follow my wife. I threw a glare over my shoulder though, making sure Celia felt it, because there was every chance that she'd meant to stir up this drama, that it hadn't been an ignorant misstep. Finding out which wasn't the most immediate priority on my agenda.

  Alayna was outside in the hall when I caught up to her. "This isn't what it looks like. You can't let this get to you."

  "Can't I?" she lashed back. "Isn't that exactly what you expected I would do in Celia's presence?"

  Annoyance coursed through my body. "Oh, for Pete's sake. That isn't fair. You were obsessing. I was trying to make it better for you."

  "Awesome. Seems to be working really well, doesn't it?" Her anger radiated off her in spikes like barbed wire.

  I tried a different tactic. "Look," I said gently. "I understand. It's tense in there. It's difficult to trust Celia —"

  She cut me off. "This has nothing to do with Celia right now, Hudson. Don't you get it? This is so classic. You don't even see how you manipulate people. You're the one making me crazy! Look at yourself in the mirror.”

  I was acting on little sleep. My emotions were tangled and stretched, my bandwidth thin. “You’ve overdramatizing this. As usual. This is why I didn’t want you working on this with me.”

  “That’s bullshit. That’s an excuse so that you don’t have to face the fact that you broke my trust—not in the past, Hudson, but now.” An angry tear escaped, and she wiped it away quickly with the back of her hand.

  It made my stomach twist, the guilt roiling around, and instead of taking the time to step back and acknowledge that, I lashed out. “I am not going to take responsibility for your overactive mind.”

  Shit. It was a low blow. Something I didn’t even mean. I took responsibility for all of her—she belonged to me. That was my job. A job at which I was failing miserably.

  She looked as though I’d knocked the wind out of her. It took a couple of breaths before she could spit out her next words. “Typical. Not taking responsibility. Have you stopped to think for a second that might be exactly why we’re in the predicament we’re in at the moment?”

  She’d cut deep with that one, stabbing me exactly where she knew it would hurt. It was the one problem with letting someone see every part of you—they knew how to best wound you with your own worst truths.

  But I knew her too. “That’s enough. Go home. Better yet, go to work. You need something to keep your mind busy while I try to save our family. Why don’t you go fixate on The Sky Launch?”

  I turned back toward Celia’s hotel room door and hit the buzzer, refusing to let myself look back at Alayna. Refusing to let myself believe that I’d acted in any way except in her best interest.

  Refusing to admit that I’d done anything wrong at all.

  17

  Alayna

  "...and the woman raised her arms above her head, her wrists bound together, remember. Then she dropped them really fast and, like, sort of shot her elbows to the side, and broke through the binding." Gwen used her arms to demonstrate as she spoke. "There was, probably three layers of duct tape around her wrists too. It was freaking amazing."

  Her rapt audience of one, Liesl, leaned against the bar and stared at Gwen with wide eyes. "No way. Nothing breaks through that stuff."

  "Way," Gwen insisted. "It didn't even look like it took any effort. That's how easy it was."

  "This changes my vision on everything. I really thought that standard duct tape was the impenetrable fix-all. Maybe I do need to call a handyman about that pipe in my kitchen."

  I chewed on my lip, my mind wandering from the discussion of Gwen and JC's night at the Open Door, the sex party they had attended the previous Saturday. I meant to listen, but I had other things distracting me. I'd come straight to The Sky Launch after having left Celia's hotel more than an hour before, and I was still fuming.

  Stupid Hudson.

  And stupid Celia.

  Or maybe it was stupid me.

  Maybe I was blowing everything out of proportion. It was so hard to tell. We'd been tense around each other, Hudson and I, both of us so worked up and anxious about this stranger out in the world, threatening to hurt us, engaging with our child. It was only natural for us to be jumping down each other's throats. It would be easier to dismiss his shitty comments and his shitty behavior if Celia hadn't been involved.

  Especially when Hudson started acting like she was human.

  But then, I supposed, why wouldn't he?
She'd even seemed human to me at times this morning. She'd been cordial and helpful and, with her baby, she'd been just a regular mother.

  But she was a woman who had done terrible things to people. Not just me, but the people whose names I’d entered into my spreadsheet. She'd scammed them and hurt them and thought it was all just for fun. Who could do things like that and not be a terrible person?

  The answer, of course, was Hudson.

  Hudson had done those things with her and I knew he wasn't terrible. But he'd changed.

  Why was it so impossible to believe that Celia could change too? If there could be two versions of him, why not two versions of her?

  There were certainly two versions of me.

  And, worst of all, Hudson couldn't tell when I was one Alayna versus the other. That was the piece that had truly gutted me. He was so willing to give Celia the benefit of the doubt, and yet I didn’t deserve it? Would he always treat me like I was that crazy, fragile woman, even when I was strong?

  Would I always be paying for my past?

  I guessed Hudson was paying for his past, too. We all were, and it sucked.

  "Wait,” Liesl said sharply, grabbing my attention. “You said she broke through the binding—was that before or after the guy fucked her?"

  "Oh, definitely after. They were playing out some sort of attack fantasy. He had tape over her mouth too—you know, so she couldn't scream."

  "Damn. That's so hot." Liesl threw her blue streaked hair over one shoulder and fanned herself. "It was hot, right? Or was it too rapey to be hot?"

  "It was definitely hot. And rapey. Which sounds really bad, when I say it that way. But she asked for it." Gwen thought another moment. "That sounds just as bad. It was consensual."

  "Consensual rape," Liesl nodded. "I get it."

  I rolled my eyes. "There is no such thing as consensual rape. It's called rape play."

  "Someone’s sure in a testy mood. Gwen's talking about the best night of her life over here. Lighten up."

  I glared at Liesl. "And it seems she thought the highlight of the night was when a woman burst through duct tape." I moved my focus to Gwen. "If that's really the best thing you got out of the sex party, it was either the lamest sex party on earth or you already know everything."

  Gwen raised her chin proudly. "I do know a lot, thank you. And it wasn't the highlight. It's just the only thing that's suitable for discussion at work in front of everyone. And it was supercool." She scowled. "Liesl's right—you do need to lighten up."

  I took a deep breath in and let it out audibly. "I'm sorry. I'm in a bad mood. I didn't mean to take it out on you two."

  Gwen crossed to me and knocked my shoulder with hers. "Understandable. And you are forgiven." I'd told her all about my morning when I'd first arrived. "Honestly, I don't know how we’re all not in a bad mood. This job fair is insane."

  I looked out at the dance floor where the fair she was speaking of was taking place. Several of the larger nightclubs in the city had gathered together to jointly host the third annual search for nightclub employees. It was our turn to provide the space, so the main floor had been transformed into a sea of unemployed. Gwen had assigned another manager to collect resumes and make contacts on our behalf down on the floor. Even watching the whole affair was exhausting. A record number of people had shown up, and the room buzzed with chaos.

  "Hey," Liesl said, leaning across the bar to get a better look. "Is that David?"

  I followed her gaze. "David who? David Lindt? Who used to work here?" I perked up at the thought of seeing an old friend, even one I had parted with on awkward terms.

  "It is!" Liesl exclaimed. "David," she yelled through the noise. "Hey, David!"

  At the sound of his name, David turned toward the bar, straightening his tie as he did. He saw Liesl first, then scanned his eyes across Gwen and landed on me, looking surprised when he did.

  He headed toward us, and we rounded the bar to greet him. Well, Gwen and I rounded the bar—Liesl just climbed over. Which was why she was the first one to him. She jumped on him, wrapping her legs around his waist, giving him a big embrace.

  I hung back while he finished saying hello to the other two. I felt a strange, nervous giddiness at seeing him. The last time we'd really spoken to each other had been at my wedding. That had been awkward too, as I recalled. Wasn't it always that way with people you'd once been intimate with? We had never slept together, and we'd never actually been in a relationship, but I had had his dick in my mouth on a couple of occasions. That definitely made things weird forever after.

  Plus, before he’d left The Sky Launch, he pronounced that he had feelings for me. By then I was in so far over my head with Hudson I could barely breathe.

  Poor David hadn't stood a chance.

  We had parted as friends, the kind that politely say they’ll always be there for each other, but only see one another once in six years. So I felt out of my groove, wondering if we'd pick up where we left off, two people who'd worked well together and gotten along great, or if too much time had passed for that.

  "Laynie," was all he said when he stepped away from Gwen and addressed me.

  "Hi," I said brushing a piece of hair behind my ear that didn't need smoothing.

  We both moved then to give each other a hug, clumsily leaning the same direction, then ungracefully going the other direction at the same time. Finally we worked it out, and I found myself in David's big bear hug of an embrace.

  He'd always been a good hugger—I remembered that now. And it always felt good to get a hug from someone you thought fondly of.

  I especially found enjoyment knowing that Hudson would be pissed off. He'd always been jealous of David—ridiculously so—and after the shitty way he’d treated me that morning, he deserved this embrace.

  Though, I did feel differently when I imagined Hudson hugging Celia. Enough differently that I was the one to end the embrace with David.

  "What are you —?” I started to say, but he spoke at the same time. "I thought you were on maternity leave."

  "I am.” I corrected myself. “I was.” Wasn’t I? Because there I was at The Sky Launch, none of my plans to expand a secret. "I don't know anymore."

  I felt mildly ashamed that he'd kept up on my life better than I'd kept up on his. But I’d had three kids, and he was still single and carefree. Probably.

  David grimaced at my confusing response. "Hudson doesn't want you working, or what?"

  Something else I had forgotten, how suspicious David had always been of the way Hudson treated me. It was unfair, but it also wasn’t anything I felt this was the time to get into. I ran my hand through my hair, trying to think of the best way to respond.

  "He… actually..." I'd only come into The Sky Launch today because of Hudson. But even though I was pouting and hiding out here for the day, I did want to get back onto the investigation, wanted to see the threats end before I truly came back to work. I wouldn’t be able to focus on my job otherwise. "It's complicated," I finally said. "But what about you? Are you here for the job fair?"

  He smoothed his jacket. "Can you think of any other reason I would be in a suit?"

  "What about Adora?" If he was leaving Hudson's Atlantic City nightclub, I wondered if he'd told Hudson yet.

  David gave me a funny look. "You don't know about the closing?"

  I thought back to any conversations I’d had recently with my husband about his satellite businesses. There weren’t many. It wasn’t a piece of his company that he dealt with frequently enough to ask my advice over the dinner table. Although perhaps there had been a passing mention.

  "I think I heard something about remodeling. Are you saying the club closed for good?" Maybe they were doing a more drastic overhaul than I'd originally been aware of.

  "All I know is I no longer have a job," David said with a shrug.

  A new wave of frustration rolled through me. "Oh my god, Hudson. Did he even consider that people would be out of a job when he decided to remode
l?" The question was more to myself than for anyone else. He should have known better. "You want me to talk to him?"

  "No, please don't." David stuck his hands in his pockets and rolled back on the heels of his feet. "Nightlife there isn't like it is here anyway. It's a dead zone. Atlantic City is not the place it used to be. I want to get back to the real city. I want my old life back."

  An idea struck, and I reached out to grab Gwen's hand and tug her closer to us, pulling her into the conversation.

  "I know! You should come back here! Don't you think, Gwen? It would be perfect to have another experienced manager like David when we get the expansion going." I turned to David. "Would that be weird? Being back here. Working under me."

  David smirked. "I think I quite enjoy working under you, Laynie."

  I rolled my eyes, but chuckled. I'd forgotten he was a guy with a twelve-year-old's sense of humor.

  Gwen, however, frowned at the joke. She was such a prude—not like Leisl, who had returned to polishing glassware before the evening’s service began. No wonder the most exciting part of Gwen’s sex party was the cleanup.

  "I'll put in my resume," he said. "But tell me about this expansion. Is The Sky Launch opening another location?"

  I opened my mouth to start telling him about my idea when I remembered that I had my laptop up in the office. "Let me show you! I have a PowerPoint presentation upstairs. Do you have the time?"

  He laughed, shaking his head. "A PowerPoint presentation. Course you do. And, yeah. I have a little time."

  "I'm coming with," Gwen announced then stared at Leisl until she looked up.

  It took Liesl a few minutes to realize that there had to be a manager still on the floor. And that she was bottom of the totem pole when it came to seniority. "Oh. I'll stay and keep doing my job. Enjoy your PowerPoint."

  "Thank you, Liesl," Gwen said, leading the way to the office.

  I turned to follow, but first lifted my head up to the bubble room where my bodyguard of the day was camped out. I gave him a wave and pointed up with my thumb so he knew where I was headed. He nodded in return.