by Sherie Keys
Her mother gasped. "Honey! That's horrible! I am so sorry. So do you need some money? Are you going to find another job there?"
Brandy wiped some tears from her eyes and cheeks. "No, Mom, what I really need is to come home. I need a place to go."
She began to cry, feeling safe in the company of her mother on the phone, like she could open up everything in her and let all of it out without any fear or worry about what might come of it.
Brandy's mother was silent for a moment and then spoke in a soft and kind voice. "Of course honey, you can always come here. You know that. Anytime. We love having you around."
"Mom," Brandy continued. "There's something else."
Her mom moaned. "Oh no... How could there be anything else? You've got so much going on right now."
"Mom, I'm pregnant."
There was silence on the other end of the line. Brandy felt like every single second that ticked by was going to last an eternity.
"You are? Well that's... that's a surprise. Are you alright? Are you doing alright?" she asked. Brandy knew that she meant was she physically okay.
"I'm doing okay, except I'm sick all the time. This morning sickness is the worst,” she confided.
Her mother agreed. "That it is. I can't believe this. You're going to be a mom and I'm going to be a grandma." She could hear the little smile in her mother's voice. "What about the father of the baby? What does he say about it?"
Brandy sighed. "He doesn't know. I haven't told him. I don't really think he's going to be in the picture much, Mom. I wish he was, but I just don't think he will be."
"Well, that's no matter. That may or may not change in time. What we need to focus on right now is taking care of you and making sure that you are alright. So you have left school, you lost your job and you're pregnant. Is there anything else going on that you want to tell me about?" She sounded like she was dreading that there might be something else.
Brandy almost laughed a little. "Gosh, it sounds horrible when you say it like that. No, there's nothing else going on. That's all there is for now," she said with a sigh.
"Well, that's enough for anybody. More than enough. So you pack your things and you come on home. Don't worry about your father, I'll tell him everything and then you won't have to. Just let me know when you'll be here. You have a key, come anytime."
Her mother spoke gently to her. "We're glad to help you, baby. We're glad to do anything we can for you, always. That's what family does."
Brandy smiled for the first time in a long time. "Thank you, Mom. I love you," she said gratefully.
"Of course, honey. I love you, too,” her mother replied.
They made their goodbyes and hung up and Brandy felt a little better and somewhat relieved. There was at least one stronghold in her life that she could count on and rely upon when storms tossed her lifeboat upon the big waves.
Looking around her home again, she realized that there was no point in staying there any longer than she had to. She sighed heavily and picked up her phone to call Alice.
Alice answered after several rings and it was obvious that she had been sleeping.
"What's wrong?" she asked in a muffled tone.
"I need you to come over to the apartment when you get up today,” Brandy said with a quiet voice.
"You mean later today, right? Because it is the middle of the night right now. Or do you mean now?" She mumbled in her half sleep.
"I mean later today," Brandy said, almost laughing at her friend. "I'll be here all day, just come over when you can please."
"I will." Alice managed to get out. Then she hung up the phone and Brandy sighed and pulled on her coat. She would need to go out for boxes. She spent a few hours that morning getting boxes from businesses around the area, and then she went home to pack everything she owned.
Later in the morning, Alice knocked on the door and brought coffee and donuts with her. When she walked in and saw all of the boxes, and Brandy filling them with a sad face, Alice was shocked.
"What in the world is going on with you?"
"I'm packing,” Brandy said with a sigh.
"I can see that! Why are you packing? What's going on?" Alice asked and then held her hand up as if to stop Brandy from speaking. "Wait, did you tell me about this when you called me in the middle of the night and I just forgot?"
Brandy smiled a little. "No, we didn't talk about it. I just asked you to come over."
Alice helped Brandy up from the floor and hugged her, and then handed her a cup of coffee and her donuts.
"So then explain to me, please, why you are packing,” Alice said as she took a big bite out of her pastry.
Brandy sighed. "Well, Veronica, she is the wife, she called the spa and lodged a complaint against me there. I went in yesterday morning to talk to Hannah, and Hannah fired me. I guess Veronica told her everything."
Alice stared and her mouth fell open in surprise. "She fired you?!"
Brandy nodded. "She fired me. Not only did she fire me, but she also got a hold of all of the other spas in the city where I might want a job and she told them what I had done so they might save themselves the trouble and misfortune of hiring me."
Alice's face went dark and she frowned angrily. "She can't do that! Take her to court! Sue her! How could she do that? You're going to have a baby! What kind of monster does that to a single mother?" Alice went on a rampage.
Brandy sighed and held her hands out to calm her friend. "I'm not going to take her to court. Even if I did, think about how long that would take. I don't have any time. I barely have enough to get me by right now until the end of the month, and then I'll be in real trouble. I have to take care of things now."
Alice grumbled. "Well, taking care of things now and suing her for money later isn't going to hurt you. In fact, that may help you with the baby later on."
Brandy sighed and shook her head. "I'm not going to sue her. This is all my fault anyway. If I hadn't taken Kyle up on his offer, none of this would have happened. I'd still be working, I'd still be in school, and the biggest problem on my mind would probably be my grades." She shook her head. "Gah! If I had only known how easy I had it when those were my problems!"
Alice shook her head. "No, your problems were bigger than that. Remember the eviction notice and the academic suspension? Your problems now are much worse, but they were still considerable when you took what's-his-face up on his offer. You did it because you needed the money, so don't be hard on yourself about that.
“Granted, you probably should have found another way to make the money, but you did what you could do at the time. You live, you learn, and now... now, I guess you move. You just deal with each thing as it comes along, rather than all of them at once."
Alice popped the last of her donut into her mouth and swallowed her coffee. Then she looked at Brandy and pointed in the air to punctuate her next statement. "I'll say this, too. I have seen you make it through a lot of trials and tribulations, and you are easily one of the strongest, most determined women I know. You'll make it back from this.
It's hard now, but someday you are going to look back on this as a major turning point in your life and things are going to be alright for you again in the future. You'll see. That little baby you are carrying will be the love of your life and when you see it, everything will be worth it. Everything will work out."
Brandy shook her head. "Alice, I'm so thankful for you. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have you around. You're such a good friend to me; you're always there for me, and it means the world to me."
Alice grinned and hugged her tightly. "Well, we better get going on this packing. So, where are you moving? Did you find a cheaper place?"
"No, I'm not staying in the city. I'm moving back in with my parents."
Alice blinked. "Your parents... but they're in Boston! You're moving back to Boston?" Alice cried out with a sad pout.
"I have to. I can't stay here. I can't afford it. Look at my life here, Alice. It's a wreck. Nothi
ng is going right for me. I have no job, in a month I will have no place to live, and I have a baby on the way. I don't really have a choice. I have to go where I can get my feet back underneath me and make a life for myself again." Brandy sighed and looked at her friend imploringly, hoping she would understand and support her as she always seemed to do.
She did. Alice sighed with resignation and looked back at Brandy. "I know, I know. You have to do it. I get it. I don't like it at all, but I get it. I just wish it was different. I wish you could stay here and that things would work out alright. I don't want you to go. I'm going to miss you so much! What on earth am I going to do without you?" she asked sadly.
"You don't have to always be without me. You can come up to see me in Boston and I can come down here to see you once in a while, too. On weekends and holidays and things like that. It's not that far. Four hours on the highway, or you could take a train," she offered with a small smile.
"It won't be the same,” Alice said mournfully.
"No, it won't be the same." Brandy echoed her sentiment.
Alice looked around the room. "Well, we'd better get busy."
They packed everything up and had it done before the afternoon. Luckily, Brandy had been focused on school and not settling in to her apartment so much, so she didn't have all that much to pack. She gave the bigger furniture items to Alice, and Alice said she would sell some of them and give the money to Brandy. They packed Brandy's car full of boxes and then they cleaned the apartment thoroughly.
"Stay one night with me before you go. Let's go have some fun. You need a night off," Alice told her. "We'll get Chinese take-out and we'll watch movies and have fun. What do you say?"
Brandy grinned. "I'd say that sounds like the best night I've had in a long time. Let's do it."
They headed over to Alice's and had a fun night together, enjoying each other's company and cherishing the precious time they had left together, knowing that it would be a long time before they were able to share that kind of time with one another again.
Chapter9
Kyle sat at his desk staring straight ahead, lost in thought. The phone rang and he was startled by it, so deep in thought was he until he heard the sound. He glanced down and saw that it was Veronica, and he ignored the call. She had been giving him more attention than she had in years, just in the last week, and it was irritating him to no end. He was married to her and at one time, he had loved her, but now he found that they had nothing to talk about, no common ground, and no interest in one another. Their hollow shell of a marriage meant little if anything to him.
Her sudden interest in him did not elicit his interest back in her, instead it pushed him further away because he did not trust her and he did not trust whatever secret motivation she had behind her newfound desires to be with him and talk to him.
She tried to seduce him in his bedroom that night earlier in the week, and he had turned her down flat and sent her away from him. Then she tried again to seduce him several times in various ways. She'd come to his office unexpectedly and it had been awkward at best between them. He'd had to ask her to leave. She tried to be close to him at mealtimes in their home, and she had even gone so far as to ask him to go out with her for dinner and a charity event one night.
He was able to turn her down for legitimate reasons; he had buried himself in work trying to keep Brandy from his mind and heart, trying to focus on anything else but her, and in doing so, he'd managed to fill up more of his schedule, which became a good excuse to bow out of time with his wife.
He gave it some thought and he was beginning to wonder why he had stayed so long in a loveless and cold marriage. There wasn't much point in it.
Brandy was constantly entering his thoughts, unbidden, and unwanted. He tried to get over her. He could not keep her from his heart and mind, no matter what he did or how hard he tried to do it.
She was always there, and whether it was memories of times they had shared or thoughts wondering about where she was and how she was doing, she was constantly with him. He realized, as he sat there getting no work done at all and not being able to focus on anything but her, that there was no getting around it.
He had to try to see her again. He hesitated only a moment and picked up the phone, thinking that he would call the spa and make an appointment to see her. Then he thought that she might have told the staff there that she wouldn't take any appointments from him, so after some more consideration, he decided to just go down to the salon and try to talk to her in person. Perhaps he could get a massage while he was there.
An hour later he walked through the door of the spa and the perky young blonde at the desk who always gushed and grinned when she saw him come in, stood up and greeted him with her usual exuberance and bounce.
"Well! Mr. Jamison! It's been a little while since you were in. I'm so glad to see you back with us again. Can I do anything for you?" she asked hopefully, batting her eyes at him.
He smiled a little and shook his head. "Yes, actually, I'm looking for Brandy Keller. Is she here? Could I speak with her please?" he asked, as butterflies danced wildly in his stomach. He prayed internally that she was there and that she would see him.
He missed her so much that he ached for her, and it felt like every moment away from her was an eternity. Being back at the spa where they had met, where she had first let him touch her and where they had been so intimate so often, it was almost like being with her again, and it made him need her more, like a magnet pulling him toward her further and faster.
The bouncy secretary sighed and her face fell. "She doesn't work here anymore,” she told him dejectedly. "I can get you in with one of our other massage techs if you like. We do have some openings today, and you are one of our best customers, so I'm glad to fit you in.”
She looked down and scanned the schedule on the tablet in front of her. “Let’s see," she said, “we can get you in with Laura in about fifteen minutes. You could wait in our guest area, or I can take you back to the steam room or sauna where you can relax until she's ready for you. What do you think? Would that be alright?" she asked, brightening back up as if she had solved a serious crisis.
Kyle stared at her. "What do you mean, Brandy doesn't work here anymore?" he asked as everything in him came to a sudden halt.
The girl looked around nervously and shrugged slightly. "Well... the owner let her go. She doesn't work here anymore. She had her last day and she's gone now."
Kyle's gaze was locked on the girl, and it was obvious that his intense scrutiny was intimidating to her.
"The owner let her go? Do you mean to tell me that she was fired from this place?" he asked, feeling anxiety and anger rising up in him.
The girl nodded. "Yes. She was fired."
Kyle laid his hand flat on the desk and looked hard at the girl. "I'd like to see the owner immediately,” he stated firmly.
The girl held her hand up helplessly and looked off to the side. "Well, she's not really available right now, she told me that she isn't to be disturbed for the next hour, so she's not-"
He cut her off. "This is important. I need to see her now. Right now. Please tell her I'm here and let her know that this is urgent." He looked hard at her and she nodded nervously and picked up her phone, glancing up at Kyle occasionally and speaking low but audibly into the receiver.
"Yes ma'am.... I know... I understand. Yes, and I told him that, but... yes." She was quiet a moment. "It's Kyle Jamison," she continued. There was a silence and Kyle watched her like a hawk.
"Okay. I will. Thank you," she said finally and hung up, looking back up at Kyle with a small smile on her face; one that did not reach her eyes and show genuine care.
"She says that she will be out in a moment and you may wait in the waiting room here if you like." She gestured to the area behind him where several thickly padded chairs were arranged around tropical plants and a small waterfall.
He nodded and walked over, sitting in one of the seats and breathing deeply. She had be
en fired. The very idea of it was infuriating to him. He would never have known if he hadn't tried to come down, and that thought was enormously unsettling to him. She had big things going on and he knew nothing at all about them. It made him uneasy and hugely worried about her.
He knew that her funds had been tight before their arrangement, and now that they weren't seeing each other any longer, he knew that she would be struggling again, and even more so now that she had been let go from the spa.
Kyle stood up impatiently and began to pace slowly as his mind went over and over what was going on. A few minutes later, a tall, thin, gray haired woman came out from an office behind the reception desk and she walked up to him and gave him a cold, stern look.
"Mr. Jamison, I will see you in my office now," she told him curtly.
He frowned, wondering why she had any reason to treat him that way. No one ever treated him that way and he found it an affront for her to do it. He followed her back and entered her office. She closed the door behind him and offered him a seat.
