Reunion Romance

by J. L. Ryan

  She ran down the stairs and jumped into her arms, they hugged for what felt like an eternity. “I…I don’t understand.” She pulled away and he saw that she was just as emotional. She glanced toward him and then back at Marisa. “Who is the guy?”

  “ This is my boss, Jeffrey Bradley.”

  He shook her hand, “Hello, Hillary. Nice to meet you.”

  “ Likewise,” she smiled.

  “ Tell me everything that you have been up to,” Hillary said, grabbing onto Marisa’s arm and carrying her away into another room. He didn’t know if he should follow or give them space.

  “ Would you like some coffee, Jeffrey?” Her mother asked him.

  He smiled, “No thank you.”

  She nodded, “Make yourself at home,” she then walked away. He awkwardly hung out in the foyer, leaning against the banister. He knew that Hillary and Marisa would want their space and he didn’t want to be an intruder.

  ***

  “ Girl, you didn’t tell me what a fine piece of specimen you were working for,” Hillary spoke, as they took a seat on the couch.

  Marisa rolled her eyes, “He’s not bad.”

  “ Not bad?” Hillary shook her head, “You are either blind or in denial.”

  Marisa knew that she definitely wasn’t blind. She shrugged, trying to forget about it. “Tell me about you. Did I see something on your left hand?”

  Hillary laughed, “If I would have known you were going to be here then I would have hidden it from you.” She produced her hand and Marisa stared down at the shiny ring. “I’m engaged.”

  “ Mom said you had news, but I had no idea.”

  “ It just kind of happened. I met him two months ago when I was getting my car worked on. We instantly had a connection and then he asked me to marry him. We haven’t even had sex…he wants to wait. Can you believe that?”

  Marisa slowly shook her head, knowing that she was already one step ahead of that with Jeffrey. “I am happy for you.”

  “ Thank you,” she replied, staring down at her ring. Her eyes got big, “Maybe you could get one of these things if you make nice with the lawyer.” She winked at her and Marisa playfully hit her on the arm. “Ouch,” she laughed.

  Marisa looked around the living room, “Speaking of…I wonder where he is.”

  “ You know Mom. She’s probably talking his ear off.”

  “ I hope not,” Marisa replied, feeling scared. She laughed, thinking of the things her mother could tell him about her.

  She started to get up, but Hillary reached out for her hand, pulling her back down. She looked at her and she smiled. “He’ll be fine. I want to hear everything that has been going on with you.”

  Marisa told her the things that she felt she could, conveniently leaving out the fact that she was technically homeless. About an hour later, her mother was calling them in the kitchen for lunch. They headed out of the living room, where she saw Jeffrey standing at the banister. She caught his eyes and started to laugh. “What are you doing? You could have come in.”

  He smiled, “I figured you wanted some alone time. I thought about sitting out in the car.”

  She rolled her eyes, “Not necessary.”

  “ I didn’t know what deep secrets you were going to share and I thought if you wanted to talk about me…it would be easier while I wasn’t around.” He was smiling to show that he was teasing, but she blushed. She hoped that he didn’t hear anything. “Did you?”

  “ Did I what?” she asked.

  “ Did you talk about me?” He asked with a wink.

  She looked away from him, searching for what she could say to him, then decided that she would play along. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” She winked, brushing past him and heading toward the kitchen. She was suddenly feeling pretty good about their relationship and wanted the easiness to continue.

  ***

  Marisa didn’t want the day to end. Her time with the family was going so well. She looked at Jeffrey as they were saying their goodbyes. He seemed to fit into the family and it was like they were a true couple. “Goodbye, Hillary.” I hugged her tightly. “I’ll be back soon.”

  She nodded, then turned to Jeffrey and shook his hand. “It was nice meeting you, Hillary.” He then turned to her mother and shook her hand. “Thank you for being so hospitable.”

  “ You are welcome back anytime.”

  He nodded, “I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you.” Marisa wondered if they would ever have another reason to bring him back to Pennsylvania.

  “ Goodbye, Mom,” she hugged her mom. “I love you!”

  “ I love you, too.” When she parted, she saw that there were tears in her eyes. She brushed away her own and then turned to Jeffrey.

  They headed to the front door.

  He held the door open for her as she exited the house. She waved as they got to the car. Once inside, she felt the tears take over. She looked at him and he reached out and grabbed her hand. “Are you alright?” He asked.

  She nodded, but she still felt the heaviness in her heart. “This meant a lot to me. You have no idea how much.”

  “ I meant it, Marisa. I am glad I was able to do this.” She turned back to the window and waved to them, as he pulled away. As the house faded from her view, she let out a sigh. “I better stop and get gas, before we get too far down the road. She silently nodded, as she leaned back in the seat and just let him drive. A few minutes later he was turning into a gas station. When he stopped the car, he turned to her. “Marissa…” he started.

  “ Yes?” she asked, giving him her attention.

  “ There’s something I have been wanting to do.” He leaned in and landed a kiss on her lips. His tongue swooped in, gently massaging her tongue. When he pulled away, she just stared at him. “Now, I’m going to get gas,” he said, getting out of the car and leaving her there to think about his lips.

  What the hell? She thought. She didn’t know what it meant, only that her lips were on fire and her heart was racing.

  She watched him getting gas and he was looking away from the car. She shook her head, trying to regain her senses. When he got back in the car, she didn’t know if she should look at him or look away. She saw the smile on his lips, causing her to look at him. “What was that?” she asked, still stunned.

  “ What? I just wanted to do it. Is it a crime?”

  She covered her eyes and slowly tried to forget the moment, but she couldn’t. She didn’t want a casual fling…a simple kiss here to just confuse her even more. She wanted the real thing and something that was lasting. “Don’t do that again.” She spoke, feeling a

  sense of nausea in her stomach.

  “ Marisa…I…” he began, but she didn’t want to hear excuses.

  “ Jeffrey, don’t do that again. Understand?”

  He slowly nodded, “Loud and clear.” He pulled out of the gas station and headed back to Columbus. She didn’t care what he thought, but she was not going to be the person that screwed someone to get ahead in life. She deserved better than that.

  ***

  Jeffrey had hoped things would lighten up between them on the airplane. However, he was left to kick himself for kissing her like that. He didn’t mean for it to upset her the way that it did. When she walked to her car in the airport parking lot, she didn’t even allow him to walk with her. It was like nothing they had been through meant anything.

  As he worked on Monday, he had hoped that she would need to talk to him about work stuff, but she never came to him. He had thought about calling her into his office and lying about needing her help with something, but he knew that would come across as wrong. He left the office and found himself heading in the opposite direction of his car. He went into the bar to where he ordered a beer.

  He didn’t drink much, but he knew that he needed something to take off the edge. He slowly drank the beer and thought about the way the previous day ended. As he thought about it, he found his mind drifting to her scent, the way her body felt against his
, the way her breath felt against his skin, and the way that he felt when he was with her.

  He took a drink of his beer and reached for his phone. He searched for her cellphone number and then called it. It was a recording that came on. “We’re sorry, the number you are trying to reach has been disconnected or changed.” He disconnected the call and frowned, dialing it again and receiving the same message.

  He put his phone away and took another drink, before throwing a tip of the tip jar and leaving the bar.

  He knew that he needed to tell her the truth, but he wouldn’t be able to reach her if her number had changed. As he was walking back to his car, his eyes looked up and he saw Marisa and a man entering a hotel. Her arm was linked through his and they were laughing. He paused, staring up at the hotel. It all made sense…Marisa was seeing someone else.

  ***

  Marisa was getting good at avoiding him. She knew that the key was to not make eye contact and so far it was working. However, when she came back from lunch and found a note that there was a meeting with Troy Houser, she knew that that was coming to an end. At two o’clock, she headed to the boardroom. He looked up, as she entered. Then he looked back down at the notes.

  “ Am I just taking notes?” She asked, sitting down in a chair.

  “ That would be fine,” he mumbled. It appeared that they were both avoiding each other. She flipped her notebook open to the page after her previous notes. “If you have anything to add, you can throw it in.”

  She gawked at him, unsure what to say. “Well, the last time we even really talked about this case was that night I showed you the picture. That was about a week ago. Any new developments?”

  He shrugged, “Just wing it.” The way he was being casual, surprised her. She couldn’t believe she upset him that much.

  She nodded, looking down at her notebook. When Troy walked into the room, she felt nervous. She tried to smile as he took a seat. “Mr. Houser, thank you for coming back in. We have a couple of questions. For starters, can you explain this?” He pushed the picture in front of Troy.

  He looked at it and then looked up. “Yeah, that’s my ex and her boyfriend. That was taken while we were still married. Marisa watched Jeffrey as he grabbed a marker and walked over to the picture, circling the spot where he was standing. “What about this?”

  Troy looked down at the picture and his face turned red. “Uh…”

  “ You were spying on her yourself, you found her with this guy, and you became jealous. Is this all correct?”

  “ No…” he argued.

  Jeffrey chuckled, then looked back his way. “You weren’t jealous?”

  “ I was jealous, but this has nothing to do with why I’m here.”

  “ Is that so?” Jeffrey asked, “The way I see it is you hired a PI. Then you realized that you didn’t trust the PI’s work, so you went on a hunt. You came across her and her lover at the same time that the PI did. You grew jealous, instantly filed for divorce and would have completely been satisfied with letting it go. However, you discovered that she was going to marry the guy she cheated on you with. So, that angered you and you vowed to do anything you could to make sure that she paid. How close am I?”

  He looked between Marisa and Jeffrey. Marisa couldn’t believe how much information he was throwing out there about Troy. “I am not on trial,” he argued.

  Marisa glanced at him, “Did she abuse the children?” She asked, softly. “Or, did you?”

  She saw Jeffrey looking at her, but she didn’t turn away from Troy’s glare. “What?” He asked, but Marisa saw that he was not denying it.

  Jeffrey turned to him, “Did you?”

  Troy’s mouth dropped open, but he did not deny the accusations. “I’m apparently going to need a lawyer.” He spoke, looking at Jeffrey.

  “ You are and you won’t find one here.” He nodded, standing up and walking out of the office. Jeffrey reached for his phone and dialed a number. “Hey, Troy Houser is about to walk out of the building. Detain him and call the cops. I’ll be out in a minute.” He disconnected the call. Jeffrey turned to Marisa, as she was standing up. She started to move past him, “How did you know?” He asked.

  “ I lived it, remember?” She shrugged, “It’s all the same.” She left the boardroom and headed back to her office. She closed her door and watched through the window as Jeffrey walked to the security station. She started to cry, feeling the pain from the years of abuse and knowing exactly what his kids had gone through.

  ***

  Jeffrey waited until he knew that Marisa was leaving. He followed her out of the building and watched as she entered the hotel. He knew that it wasn’t any of his business. If she was having sex with ten different men, he wouldn’t be able to say anything. Although, that didn’t stop him from heading to the hotel. He entered cautiously and saw her get into the elevator. He watched as the numbers went up, stopping on floor three.

  He got in the other elevator and pushed the button to floor three. He prayed that when the door opened, he wasn’t greeted by her. When the door opened, he peeked outside and saw her putting a key into the lock.

  He held back, waiting for her to go in. He didn’t know what he would say to her, but he knew that he was interested to confront her. He walked up to the door and knocked lightly. It wasn’t long, before she was opening the door. She stared at him, “How did you know I would be here?”

  “ I saw you yesterday come into the hotel and today I

  followed you.”

  “ Followed me?” She asked, anger taking over.

  “ I’m not proud of it, Marisa, but I was a little surprised. I know that I have no right to be jealous, but—“

  “ Jealous?” She asked, frowning.

  “ Yes…jealous. I know that I don’t have any right to be jealous that you are having sex with someone else. I don’t own any right to you.

  We aren’t dating, but I do have strong feelings for you and I was going to tell you that yesterday if I could have gotten ahold of you. Your phone has been disconnected and then I saw you with the guy yesterday….” He heard the sound of laughter, so he stopped talking. She was laughing so hard that she had to go back into the room and sink down on the bed. “What’s so fun?”

  “ You’re jealous…”

  He rolled his eyes. He should have known that would be the only thing she would focus on. “Move past that and listen to the rest.”

  “ You have it all wrong, Jeffrey. You have no idea just how much.”

  “ Really, then explain it to me.” The words came out brash and he regretted that.

  Her face turned red and she stood up from the bed. “I don’t owe you an explanation. Like you said…I can sleep with anyone I want.” She crossed her arms, as if to wager him.

  “ I know you can.” He glanced around the room, noticing the boxes lying around the room. He looked at her. “I shouldn’t have come.” He stepped back, as her eyes wandered down to the boxes and then looked back at him.

  “ Aren’t you going to question the boxes?”

  “ You don’t have to tell me anything,” he said, reaching for the door.

  “ Jeffrey, you didn’t get ahold of my cellphone, because I cancelled it. The guy you saw is my best friend, Chad. He’s been the only friend that I have had and that has supported me.” He felt a pang of guilt hit him. “Those boxes are here because I have been living here. I was evicted from my apartment exactly a week after I got this job.”

  “ Marisa, I had no idea.” He spoke, thinking back to when she asked for an advance and he shot her down. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “ Pride, stupidity, because I didn’t want to play the sympathy card.”

  “ You should have told me,” he spoke, softly.

  She nodded, “In hindsight…maybe I should have, but it’s over and done with and hopefully in a couple of weeks I will be back on my feet…thanks to you and your job.”

  His hand fell from the door handle and he moved closer to her. “I’m s
orry that you have had to go through this.”

  She moved in closer to him, “It hasn’t all been bad.”

  He brushed her hair behind her shoulder and moved in closer to her, bringing his lips to hers. He would move slowly, if she would just give him the chance. He parted from the kiss and rested his head against hers, “I’m sorry Marisa that I just wasn’t honest with you,” he whispered, feeling her breath against his skin.

  “ I have strong feelings for you, too,” she admitted. She closed her eyes, as they stood with their heads together and his hands caressing her neck. “Make love to me,” she spoke, opening her eyes.