by Mia Darien
She wanted to chase after him, but her cell began ringing and she knew that it could only be work-related.
“Hello.”
“Hey, Kamry. This is Suzy. I wanted to tell you that Ms. Maybelle has taken a turn for the worse and we have called in hospice. Her grandson is here with her now and he wanted you to be called. Ms. Maybelle had been talking with him about you.”
“How bad is she?” Kamry asked.
“She won’t be with us by tomorrow, we’re afraid.”
“I’m on my way.” Kamry ended the call and began a steady jog home. She showered, changed, and headed to Ms. Maybelle.
The minute she walked into her room, she saw how bad she was. Suzy was there and she had the familiar bottle of MSIR—morphine sulfate instant release. She knew they usually only used that particular medication when the end was near, because just a few drops of medication under the tongue and it would get into the system. It was used when the person was unable to swallow anymore or when the pain was too severe, because it would get into their system faster than swallowing medication.
“Hey, Kamry,” Suzy whispered.
The man sitting in a chair with his back to the door stood, turned, and smiled. Damn, if the circumstances were different. He was tall. Six foot, athletic build. Short, dark hair that looked like he had just gotten straight out of bed and ran his fingers through it. Dark brown eyes that were lit with attraction, with a tan complexion and long legs. He was wearing a white t-shirt that had some kind of black shape on the front and dark embellished jeans. He was a walking, talking GQ model and there was something very familiar about him. He was definitely Hispanic. That had to be it, Kamry decided. Jose was Hispanic, so maybe she was relating the two of them because of that.
He walked towards her, still smiling. He held his hand out. “I’m Garret, it is so nice to finally meet you. Grammy has talked about you every day for the last four months. She really loved you. I believe her words were, ‘you have to meet her, Garret, she is the tea to my cup and she could make your cup runneth over too’.” He smiled. “You know Gram. She’s always looking for the happily ever after. It was never her fault, though. A hopeless romantic to the bone.”
Kamry laughed. “Yes, she is. Nice to meet you as well.” She shook his hand, feeling a bit of a shock as their hands touched. It was something she had only read about, but had never felt anything like it before. It was like electricity tickling her hand and moving up through her arm then down her entire body. One word was all she could think of: amazing.
She took a deep breath and then let go, walking towards Ms. Maybelle. It took her a moment to gather her wits before she could say a word or even ask a question that made any kind of sense. “Has she been awake today at all?”
“No. Unfortunately, she hasn’t,” Garret answered, sitting back down and taking Ms. Maybelle’s hand in his. “She has been like this all day. I came as soon as I could. They called me last night and I was here in, like, thirty minutes or so. I was hoping that it was just a spell or maybe another mini stroke. Since her big stroke, she has had several of those. It’s not though. Is it?”
Kamry wasn’t a nurse or doctor, but she could tell Ms. Maybelle was going to be visiting Heaven soon. Kamry gently checked her eyes, noticing they were glazed over, and her color was pale. She gently raised the blanket’s footing, noticing that Ms. Maybelle’s heels were purplish. Not a good sign at all. “No, I’m sorry.”
He nodded.
Suzy knocked quietly on the door before coming in with another chair. “I thought you might need this. The kitchen is preparing a tray with coffee and stuff, you know the routine. If you need anything else, just let me know.”
“Thanks, Suzy.”
“Yes, thank you.” Garret didn’t take his eyes from his grandmother’s hand.
They sat quietly for a few moments before Garret spoke. “So, I know this is kind of weird, but all this silence is killing me. Can we talk about something, maybe take my mind off of what I am soon to see?”
“Sure. What would you like to talk about?”
“Well, tell me about yourself. Are you married? Kids?”
Kamry stiffened, taking a breath and beginning to rub her hands on her knees. “Um, no and no.” She silently thanked God for no children. Not that she didn’t want children, she just didn’t want any children with Steven. “How about you?”
“No and no.” He chuckled. “I work a lot and my life, well, it’s kind of crazy and a lot of women are just in it for money or bragging rights.”
Her curiosity shot through the roof, but at the same time, he hadn’t actually said what it was he did for a living, so maybe he didn’t want her to know exactly what it was. “That’s too bad.”
“Yeah. So, I can tell by your accent you aren’t from NYC.”
This time it was Kamry that chuckled. “Nope. I’m a SEMO girl.”
“A what?”
She smiled. “Southeast Missouri.”
“That’s it. That midwestern/southern accent combined. But it’s nice. It’s different. I like different.” He looked up and they locked eyes. For an inkling of a second, the world stood still. Then Ms. Maybelle’s SPO2 monitor beeped and brought Kamry back to reality. Both Kamry and Garret started. Ms. Maybelle’s heart rate was dropping. Kamry stood and silenced the machine.
“Do you want to keep this on? I can shut it off and let the nurses know.”
“Yes, please. It’s bad enough watching, but I think hearing it will be worse.” Garret reached up and wiped a single tear from his cheek.
Kamry sat with Garret for several hours before Ms. Maybelle took her last breath. For the first time in a long time, she wrapped a man in her arms and held him while he let the tears fall.
When the funeral home arrived and left with Ms. Maybelle, Garret walked Kamry to her car. “Can I have your number? I would like to let you know about the arrangements.”
“Absolutely.” She reached into her car and grabbed a business card, scribbling her personal cell on it. “Call me any time, even if you just need to talk.”
“Thank you.”
She watched him walk away. She didn’t know where his parents were because Ms. Maybelle had never talked about her children. Kamry assumed it was something along the lines of hard feelings or maybe they had already gone to Heaven, because Garret hadn’t called anyone from when Ms. Maybelle had passed.
Kamry finished her day at work with a sadness in her heart. She had known that Ms. Maybelle was going down because she had been growing tired with therapy, but had insisted on continuing. It wasn’t going to be the same without her there, though.
She turned into the gym parking lot. After entering and changing her clothes, she did her warm up. Usually Jose didn’t show up until after she was finished working the bags over, but today, he didn’t show at all. She worked through the routine they had been working on. She was proud of herself for being able to do the things she was doing now and she owed it all to Jose.
She owed a lot to him. She would have to invite him to dinner or something to thank him. She knew it wasn’t much, but something told her that Jose enjoyed the smaller things in life and that no amount of money would mean as much as a good dinner.
When she was finished, she started worrying about him, but grabbed her bags and went to leave. A poster that she hadn’t really paid attention before, which hung next to the exit, caught her attention for reasons unknown to her.
She smiled, raising her brows. It was Jose, Jose Cortez, and apparently he had just won middleweight champion belt in MMA. He looked completely overcome with joy. Next to the poster was an article about him. She began reading it, and noticed words like had, was, and past, and wondered why the article was written in the past tense. Maybe it was because he was no longer fighting, she thought. She read through his entire career and then reached a sentence that stunned her.
“Jose ‘Hope’ Cortez was at the top of the MMA world before his life was taken tragically in a head-on collision.”
“What?” That couldn’t be right. Something was wrong with the article. Panic began to fill her when she realized he wasn’t there today and she looked at the date of the article, which was five years old.
Her hand clamped over her mouth. “No way.”
She kept reading and then learned that he had a brother that continued to fight and was also making his way up to the top: Garret Maybelle.
Her blood seemed to drain from her body. That explained why he looked so familiar, as reading that put all the puzzle pieces together. He did favor Jose. How was this possible? How was Jose training her?
How?
How?
How?
Kamry didn’t return to the gym for the next few days. She did go to Ms. Maybelle’s funeral after receiving several phone calls she didn’t answer. Garret had left a voicemail with the details. She paid her condolences at the service, but nothing more. He had asked her out for coffee after, but she turned him down, using the excuse that she had work to get back to.
Really, she just wanted to get back to her apartment and try to wrap her mind around what was happening. It didn’t make any sense to her. For the past few days, she still couldn’t figure it out. How could he be dead? Why was he training her? How had she met him, Ms. Maybelle, and then Garret?
If she ever wanted to tell someone, to see if their brain could make sense out of it, they would assume she had lost it and needed a straitjacket. Nope, that wasn’t an option either, but calling Garret back and taking him up on his coffee offer was.
She reached for her cell and quickly dialed his number. Three rings later, he answered.
“I was afraid I would never hear from you again.”
“I’m sorry about that. There’s been a lot going on. Do you want to meet up, maybe have that coffee today?”
“That’s a nice surprise. Absolutely. Do you have a place in mind?”
“Do you know where Jay’s is?”
“Do I ever. They have the best cinnamon rolls in NYC. Meet you there in an hour?”
“An hour it is.”
She hung up and quickly changed her clothes. She opted for casual and comfortable: embellished Silver jeans with an AC/DC black t-shirt and her ever-faithful, black flip flops. She may have lived in NYC now, but country was forever in her blood.
She reached the cafe about fifteen minutes early. She found a table and ordered her favorite cup of coffee, black. She would have ordered his, but she really didn’t know what he would take in his coffee. She knew he would order a cinnamon roll, but assumed he would want it warm.
The minute she heard the bell of the door, her body began to tingle. The hair on her arms began moving with the beat of something… She didn’t know what the beat belonged to, but she did know they were in perfect rhythm with something. She looked up and sure enough, he was walking towards her table. He smiled that smile that would make any woman stop and stare at him. The man was walking perfection when it came to looks.
But what she liked the most was his eyes. They were full of mystery and sexy and yet so warm and inviting. Knowing what she knew now, she had seen those eyes long before she met Garret. They were Jose’s eyes.
Garret sat at the table and used his hand to gesture for the waitress. “I’m glad you called. I seriously thought I had seen the last of you. I was a bit disappointed.”
Kamry smiled. “I’m sorry. Things are…complicated. I lead a very private life and there are things in my past that I don’t want to exactly talk about in detail and to this day, I run from. I didn’t kill anyone or harm anyone or break any law. It’s just…complicated.”
“I like complicated as well. It’s a puzzle. I enjoy them too.”
This time, Kamry smiled. She didn’t know why, or what for, but she had this soothing feeling coming over her like a warm blanket on a chilled night. She liked it.
“So…I’m so terribly bad at this. I don’t even know what to say.”
Garret laughed. “That makes two of us then.”
They both laughed. “How about something that piqued my curiosity?”
He raised his eyebrows, giving her a devilish grin. “I do enjoy piqued curiosity almost as much as I enjoy puzzles and complications. Tell me, what has yours piqued?”
She looked into his eyes, seeing the humor and hidden meaning behind his words. They normally would have bothered her, but there was just something about him that made it easy to let the guard down that she had built up and made permanent with every bit of cement she could find.
“You’re pretty easygoing, aren’t you?” she asked.
“Kamry, is that what has your mind asking questions over and over again or is that something that just popped in the wonderful brain of yours? And, yes, I am really easygoing. I’m laid back. I’m not one for drama or stirring a pot that doesn’t need stirring. I don’t like arguments and I haven’t even raised my voice in…well, outside my work, in a very long time.”
“Um…no. That wasn’t the question I wanted to ask. You fight, don’t you?”
She watched his shoulders square a bit. She could tell he wasn’t upset for her knowing, but something else. “I do.”
“Does it bother you that I know?”
“No. Of course not. How did you find out?”
“It’s the funniest story, really. I work out at this gym and there was a poster of Jose there. I read the story about him and then saw your name.”
“You work out at a gym that specializes in MMA style fighting?”
“Yes. It’s close to where I live and I was pretty much left alone until…well…” She laughed. “That’s even a funnier story and you probably wouldn’t believe me.”
“He came to you, didn’t he?”
Kamry’s eyes grew wide. “How did you know?”
He let out a sigh. “I still see him and talk to him and train with him. It’s amazing. I don’t know how it happens or why it happens, but I can’t wait for him to come back to me each time he leaves.”
“Oh my God! I seriously thought I was going crazy for a bit.”
“Wait. Is that why you called me? Because you found out I fight in MMA and that Jose fought and please tell me you’re not like the others.”
“Of course not. I met your grandmother long before meeting you. I began training long before meeting you. I met him only because I didn’t know what the hell I was doing with the bag I was trying to kick but was really kicking me back harder than I was delivering. I’m not like them. I saw the poster, and that’s why I was so standoffish at the funeral and didn’t answer your calls. I was freaked out. That’s all.” She really hoped he believed her, because it was the truth and she liked how easy it was explaining things to him. Had it been Steven, she would have been laid out on the floor by now.
“Kamry, I believe you. You just can’t imagine how many are only after that.”
“Oh, I do actually. Wait, no. I mean, I can imagine. I watched Rocky, like, a billion times and I can see how everyone acts. Not Adrian of course, she was awesome. But you know, the fans.”
“I love that movie. They are all my favorites. Actually, anything with Stallone in it is on my favorite list.”
“Mine too. I love him. I even loved it when him and Dolly were singing together.”
“That’s funny. I have every single one of his movies.”
“Wow. I have a few, but not all of them. Maybe one day.”
“Would you like to come to my place sometime? Have a Stallone marathon and eat extra butter popcorn with cheese sprinkled on top?”
“Well, I could watch all of his movies at home because I could just order them on demand, but since you added the popcorn and cheese, count me in.”
They both began laughing and for the next several hours, they sat there, getting to know each other and planning when their movie marathon was going to happen. When the streets began lighting up with something besides the sun, Kamry sighed. It was definitely time to be getting home.
They both said their good
byes, after Kamry refused to allow him to walk her home several times. She watched him get into a cab and then she waved. She hadn’t felt this good in a long time. She was finally comfortable with a man close to her again. Well, a man that she liked and was attracted to, anyways.
* * *
Kamry lay in bed thinking about Garret and how they had so much in common. It had been two hours since she had watched him get into that cab and she was still thinking about him. There was just so much about him, but what she loved most was how easy she felt sitting there and talking, laughing and sharing stories. It had been great.
She had learned that Garret had a masters degree in English lit. That he had once wanted to go into publishing because he enjoyed reading so many books. She had asked his favorite genre and he just smiled and said he didn’t have one. He loved them all. He even admitted to reading romances as well.
His favorite movies were of course action stories, but again, he would watch anything that had a good story to it.
His favorite color was blue, same as hers. He loved all music but enjoyed opera most, which surprised her. Just thinking about him made the hair on body come to life again, while the little butterflies in her stomach began to wake up. She smiled remembering the first time they had touched. It had been innocent, but the pull and electrical vibe she had felt was the most wonderful thing she had ever experienced.
Kamry heard someone knocking quietly on the door. She ran her fingers through her hair and walked to the door with Garret still on her mind. When she opened it, the air in her lungs was sucked from her. The smile and look in Steven’s eyes were filled with dangerous intent.
Stupid, Kamry, she thought. She should have looked through the peep hole. She had been so caught up thinking about her date…coffee meeting with Garret that she didn’t even think about it.
She quickly tried to close the door, but he used his large frame to stop it. With one hand, he gripped her throat, shutting off her airway and smiling the entire time. He threw her backwards once inside, shutting the door slowly and locking it.
“You are one tough bitch to track down,” he said.
