Wes leaned in and kissed my cheek, a move that shocked and pleased me. “I’m glad you want to. It’s been years, and I think he’s ready for another commitment, but it’ll be a pain he never escapes.”
I jumped up, ran across the hall to Arch’s apartment, and rapped my knuckles on his door. No answer. “Arch,” I called. “Open up!” With still no answer, I knocked harder, closed-fist. “Come on, Arch! I need to talk to you.”
Just as I gave up and turned to my apartment, dejected, he answered. I whirled around to Arch glaring at me from his entry. He left the door open as he turned back into his apartment. I took it as my cue to enter.
The catchy theme song from a classic video game filled the air as Arch grabbed his controller, jumping on turtles and shooting fire at moving plants, as he staunchly refused to look at me.
“Hey.” Once I was inside, I had no idea how to bring up the subject.
He rolled his eyes at my attempt to make conversation while ignoring the greater issue at hand.
I scrambled for something to say. I didn’t know how to bring up Penny. I pointed to his paintings, abstract and alluring. “Your artwork is intriguing. Is it by anyone I’d know?”
“The artist only goes by Coleman. He’s unknown, but I love him. I buy everything of his I can find.”
“Oh.” I couldn’t come up with anything else to put off what I needed to say, so I blurted out, “I didn’t come over here to talk about your decorations.”
“You don’t say?” he said in mock surprise. He paused his game and turned on the couch to face me. “What do you want, Ellie?”
“I want to apologize. Wes told me about Penny.”
The color drained out of Arch’s face. “He shouldn’t have.”
“Maybe not. But, I understand why you got upset. And I’m sorry I came down hard on you. Knowing what you’ve been through, I don’t blame you at all for panicking.” I wanted to hug and comfort him.
“I didn’t panic.” His gaze shifted to his couch, and he began to pick absently at a string.
“You were pretty anxious by the time you got to my apartment.” To say the least.
“I was worried. Don’t I have a right to be concerned for a friend? Would you have gotten mad if it had been Todd upset?”
“Todd and I have been friends—family—for a whole lotta years. He’s earned the right to know where I am at any given moment.” I sat down on the couch beside him. “And, Arch, I’m not saying we won’t get to that point. We might, whether it’s as friends or something more.” I touched his hand so he’d look at me. “But, right now, we aren’t there. However, now I know what you’ve been through, I can definitely make allowances. I’ll be more aware of my phone and check it more often.”
“I’ll never not love her.” He caught my gaze and held it. His expression and tone of voice was defiant. He expected me to argue.
“I’d never expect you to stop, no matter what happens between the two of us. Any woman worth building a relationship with would never ask you to stop caring for Penny.” I took his hand. “I like you, Arch. I’m pretty sure you like me. I won’t ask you to talk about Penny. You don’t ever have to, but if you’d like to, I’m here to listen. Again, I’m sorry I got upset earlier. I didn’t know.”
“I’ve never talked about her to anyone but people who knew her. No other woman in my life has ever even heard her name.” He squeezed my hand as he pondered the situation. “I guess I’m glad you know. I don’t know if I’ll want to talk, but I’m relieved it’s not something I have to go through recounting it myself. One day I’ll tell you, in my own words.”
I smiled; glad he made peace with me knowing. “I made dinner for Wes and me. Would you please come join us?”
“I don’t want to intrude.”
“I already talked to him about it, and it would be no intrusion. Please, come over.”
“What’re we having?” He narrowed his eyes, my answer the deciding factor if he’d eat at home or at my place.
“Salad, lasagna, and garlic bread.”
His eyes lit up. He jumped up and pulled me by our still-joined hands toward the food at my place. “I love lasagna. It’s my favorite.”
Chapter Nine
Dinner was a hit. They loved the lasagna enough to call Gray over to eat with us. His first bite, accompanied with a long moan, made me feel like a million bucks.
Wes finished last and ate more than anyone else. Even Gray beat him after getting a late start. When he ate his last bite, he leaned back as far as his chair would allow and sighed. “Ellie, if you keep cooking for us, we’ll all have to spend more time in the gym.”
“Hey! Not true. I don’t cook like this all the time. Since you three came into my life, I’ve eaten fattier foods in larger volumes than I have in years.” I stood and started clearing the dishes. “You three will cause me to gain weight!”
“You look great from where I’m standing.” Gray’s words were smooth, and I blushed.
“Stop, you’re going to give me a big head.” I walked into the kitchen to escape the compliment lingering in the air. The three men were dead silent. Curiosity got the better of me, and I peeked out. They were determinedly looking away from each other. Each one appeared to be fighting off laughter. “What’s with you guys?” The humor of the situation flew over my head.
The roar of laughter that met my question left me confused. I opted not to push it anymore and chalked it up to the inside jokes of a long-term friendship. The only guy I’d ever known who wasn’t confusing was Todd, but he was more feminine than I was.
Once the laughter died down a bit, I continued clearing the table. Gray took the plates from my hands. “You cooked a wonderful dinner, Hermosa. Let us do the cleanup.”
“Stop. The host cleans, that’s how it is. We are still in the South, aren’t we?”
“Hush.” Arch chided me. “That’s not how we work. Our families all had the same rule: The cook doesn’t clean. You cooked, we clean.”
Three sets of eyes stared me down until I relinquished the plates. “Okay, okay!” I laughed. “You win. Enjoy the chores. Rubber gloves and dish soap are under the sink if you need to hand wash anything. Dishwasher detergent is in the cabinet above the dishwasher. Good luck figuring out where all my clean dishes go.”
I didn’t mind them poking around in my kitchen. There was nothing in there to be embarrassed about.
My favorite gossip magazine waited on my coffee table, woefully ignored. I plopped down on my comfy sofa to engross myself in mindless drivel. Satan jumped up beside me, purring. The magazine held little appeal, however, compared to the conversation and laughter coming from my kitchen.
“Dude, have you ever done dishes before? You can’t put those in the dishwasher.” Arch’s deep voice penetrated the silence in the living room.
Gray did something nonverbal because I heard a snort before he replied, “Shut up. Dishwasher commercials are misleading. It’s unlikely anything except the worst baked-on food needs to be pre-washed.”
The sound of the cabinets opening and closing covered up Wes’s response, but I soon heard Arch again. “I can’t believe we ate all of the lasagna. I feel bad. What if she wanted leftovers?”
It sounded like Gray threw the dishes in the sink, if the loud splash and Wes’s subsequent yelp were any indication. “Nah, this was supposed to be a date. You two are intruders.”
“Are you mad? She said she cleared it with you first.” Arch’s voice sounded a bit hesitant as if he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer.
Wes laughed. “Not at all, I’m messing with you. I’m saying she probably made this meal with the intention of having leftovers all week since it was originally the two of us.”
He nailed it. I had, in fact, looked forward to not cooking dinner, even if only for a few days. Finals week quickly approached, and any extra time I could get in studying was valuable. There was silence for a few moments with only the sounds of feet shuffling. Satan began to knead his paws on
my lap.
The guys worked in companionable silence. My mind wandered and soon I imagined what it would be like to be in a serious relationship with each of the hunky guys. I searched for pros and cons with each, but I couldn’t get past the pros. Of course, there was the obvious con. I was attracted to all three of them.
“Why don’t we make her a casserole and bring it to her in the morning. That way, if she wants leftovers, she’ll have some.” Gray’s hushed voice brought me out of my musings. They were trying to stay quiet and surprise me, but sound carried in my apartment.
“Great idea.” I barely heard Arch’s muffled voice. “We need to find out if she likes Mexican. We can make her tortilla casserole.”
Gray sounded offended. “C’mon, man. That’s not Mexican food. It’s what Americans think is Mexican food.”
Wes replied defensively. “It’s still good.”
Gray sighed. “Yeah… It is.”
The dishwasher turned on, and I lost track of the conversation. I couldn’t wait to see what casserole concoction they came up with and how they surprised me with it.
When the dishes were done and the kitchen spick and span, the guys came out, and I got a hug from each of them. Hugging them in front of each other was awkward, especially when Wes kissed me on the cheek again. Once I waved them out the door, I washed my face, brushed my teeth, and got into bed with a goofy smile on my face.
The next morning, as I heated a bagel, a knock rang through my apartment. There was a definite spring in my step as I ran across the living room. I’d already practiced my surprised face for when they dropped off the casserole.
I jerked open the door to find my stepbrother standing in the hall. “I have got to start checking my security system!” I almost shouted at him.
“We need to talk, Ellie. Can I come in?” His thin voice pleaded.
“No.” There was nothing to say to him.
“Come on, Ellie. I want to talk to you. We can figure something out and settle this fiasco without any more messiness in court.”
Mitch was apologetic and weak. He’d always appeared weak. Weak chin, receding hairline. He was twenty-four and balding. I hoped he lost all his hair by thirty—but only on top. I sighed. “Fine. Come in, but make it quick. I need to get to class.” He walked past me smelling of the same overpriced cologne he wore in high school. The stench made me want to gag.
He’d been horrible to me growing up, but it was all underhanded and sneaky. Passive-aggressive horribleness. He’d never done anything bold, and physically, I should be safe enough to allow him in my home.
I let him in. Closing us up in the apartment together made me uncomfortable. I didn’t like being alone with him. “What do you want, Mitch?”
He walked past my couch to gaze out the window. Satan jumped off the couch as Mitch passed, growling and hissing. He hid under my dining table.
Gathering his words first, Mitch responded a moment later. I tried to keep my mind from straying to my past.
“Give it up, Ellie. I know you. You can’t keep this up.” His tone flipped from apologetic to domineering.
“What’re you talking about?” I didn’t want to know.
“The company. You can’t handle running a huge publishing company! You don’t know the first thing about being a CEO.”
I immediately bristled. He had no right to come into my home and speak to me in that manner. “Get out. I don’t have to listen to this crap.” I’d lost all familial ties to him and had no reason to put up with his gall.
“I’m not leaving until I talk some sense into you. We were connected as kids. I know you always felt it.” He tried to placate me, the fool. The only connection we had as kids was his obsession with putting me down and making me feel like a fat, frumpy fool.
“Connected how? You’re crazy.” I moved toward my cell phone. I wanted to be able to call Arch if Mitch’s words grew any more insane.
“You can’t tell me you didn’t feel the connection. You’re lying if you say it.” His breath came more rapidly. I’d never seen him so openly agitated.
“I’m going to need you to give me a little more information. You treated me like a dog for the time we lived under the same roof. How were we connected?” Perhaps he considered breaking my things and leering at my friends a connection?
“Ellie.” Mitch’s voice started to sound whiny. “It was a forbidden love. We dared not explore it. But now, our parents aren’t married anymore! We don’t have anything holding us back.” My brain refused to work. Once the word love came out of his mouth, I went into shock and denial.
My eyes couldn’t have opened wider if an optometrist used his special tools to do it. My mouth gaped open; I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Forbidden? Love?”
“You were attracted to me. At first, I wasn’t attracted to you, but your grace—poise—I was drawn to you. And knowing you returned my affections… I used to ache for you if I brought home a date. I didn’t want you to imagine I cared any less for you because I was keeping up pretenses. But we’re free now, Ellie. Free!” I didn’t process nearly everything he said. As his voice rose in pitch, it reminded me of prepubescent Mitch, ripping pages out of my favorite books—books my mother gave me—and leaving them under my covers.
My mouth wouldn’t form words. He took it as permission to continue. “I can get my mom to give me the company if you give up your claim.” He moved away from the window to stand between the entryway and me. I regretted walking away from my only exit. He cut off my escape route.
My emotions bounced from irritation to anger to panic, but mostly anger. After I tried for years to separate myself from him, I was angry he was still a stressor in my life. I was irritated I’d allowed him to come between the door and me. And I was panicked because I didn’t know what he was capable of if he believed the insanity coming out of his mouth. “Then we can get married, and you can help. You can plan the events and host dinner parties. Like my mom did for your dad. It’ll be the ideal arrangement. And our children would be perfect, Ellie, think about it!” He’d gone off the deep end.
The mention of children—and what I’d have to do with him to get those children—shook me out of my stupor. “Children?” I asked, incredulous. “Married? Dinner parties? Oh. My. God!” By the time the second ‘god’ left my lips, I was shrieking. “Get out of my house, you sicko!”
“Ellie, what’s wrong with you?” He definitely crossed into the land of whining.
“What’s wrong with me?” My voice, quiet and deep, dropped its shriek. Danger ran through my veins. He had to leave my presence before I lost it and ended up in jail. “What’s wrong with you? I never had forbidden feelings for you, you perverted weasel.”
“Why are you being hurtful about our love? We were kids. There’s nothing perverted about how kids feel, they can’t help their growing emotions and attractions.” He inched toward me.
“Hurtful? I’m being hurtful?” My eyes darted around the room, trying to find an escape.
“Why do you keep repeating everything I say?” His voice turned superior.
“Because I can’t believe the words coming out of your mouth! Who are you? You can’t be the boy I grew up with. You were horrible to me!” Images flashed through my mind. Years of verbal abuse and bullying. Taunts about everything from my hair to my weight. The barrage of hate Todd also endured on his visits. This was all compounded by the actions of his group of so-called cool friends, who blindly imitated their leader.
“That was a ruse! You had to have known. I kept up pretenses so no one would figure out our true feelings.” He pleaded with me to understand his side. The only side I could understand was he’d gone completely insane.
“Mitch, get out! Get out! Get out!” With each repetition, my voice rose in pitch until I screamed at him, and I didn’t care.
“I’m not leaving, Ellie! You must admit you care for me. I can’t leave until you admit it!” Now, Mitch screamed at me.
“I hate you. With
a burning passion, I hate you. I never thought I could hate anyone until I met you and your family. And now, I hate you more because you’re stark, raving insane, and you won’t get the hell out of my apartment!” My eyes darted, searching for a way around him. He was too close.
He started walking toward me again. His eyes were crazed, and I could see sweat beading on his overly large forehead. “Don’t come any closer, you...you…” I searched for another appropriate word. “Pervert!”
“My patience wears thin, sister.” He grew angrier, which scared me to death. He was unpredictable, totally off his rocker, nothing like the boy I knew. “Stop calling me crazy. I didn’t imagine our flirtations. I didn’t invent you staring at me across the room, lust in your eyes. You were a little young to have steamy thoughts about me, but since we didn’t act on them, there was no harm.”
I had no words for the idiocy spewing out of his mouth. “Those weren’t lustful thoughts. They were murderous, they were angry.” He started toward me again. I put my hands in front of me in the universal stop gesture. “Don’t come any closer, Mitch, I mean it!”
He rushed at me and put his arms around my waist before I could flinch. He pushed me against the half wall separating the kitchen from the living room. “You can’t deny me, Ellie. We’re meant to be. Our future will be perfect together.” His fervent attempts to kiss my neck broke his words apart.
Screams ripped from my throat the moment he touched me. I tried to fight him off, but I’d never gotten any real self-defense training. I always meant to. And though I owned a gun for home protection, it was all the way across the room.
I managed to get my knee into his groin, putting him on the ground, but not before he touched me in too many places. I slid along the wall to get around him and ran for the exit.
I screamed my way across the room, mostly incoherent sentences about Mitch’s insanity. When I opened the door, I found Arch in the hall, panic on his face. I ran straight into his arms and instantly calmed in his safe embrace.
Falling For Them Volume 2: Reverse Harem Collection Page 45
