Our Hearts Entwined

by Lilliana Anderson

  Now everything was ruined.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “Here I found it,” Cayd said as he placed the small camera he had discovered hidden in Mia’s bookcase, on the bench top. “Are you ok?” he asked quietly moving to stand next to Mia as she washed the spiked container of artificial sweetener down the sink, the white powder swirling around in a tiny whirlpool before finally disappearing down the drain.

  Nodding, Mia shut the tap off before turning to face him, the concern on his face enough to make her nod turn into a truthful head shake. “Oh Cayd, I am so far away from ok that I don’t know what I am,” she told him. “And my hair’s red! That dye was meant for Louise – not me,” she cried, tears falling from her eyes as hopelessness swept over her like a dark veil.

  “Your hair’s beautiful Mia,” he whispered, taking her in his arms and hugging her against his chest as she sobbed.

  Louise and Josh stayed sitting in the lounge area, attempting to look as though they weren’t trying to watch what was unfolding in the kitchen.

  “Do you know what’s going on with them?” Josh whispered, before wondering why he was bothering to use his voice at all.

  “Not really,” Louise said quietly, not wanting to be heard either. “I saw them having a bit of a moment yesterday and now this. Do you think we should go?”

  “I think so,” he agreed, standing and holding his hand out for Louise to take. Clearing his throat he announced to Mia and Cayd that they were going to leave, causing them to suddenly release each other guiltily, as though hugging someone in comfort was the most intimate thing you could be caught doing.

  “Thank you both for your help” Mia said and signed. “I can’t tell you how glad I am that this is out in the open now.”

  “Me too Mia, this conspiracy has been driving me nuts! Louise replied.

  “You and me both,” Mia returned, attempting a laugh as she hugged her best friend, before hugging Josh and thanking him again for his role in outing Natalie.

  As he opened the door, Josh could see Eric walking back up the stairs. Exchanging a knowing glance with Louise, he reached behind them and quickly shut the door, not wanting Eric to walk in to the flat and see how close Mia and Cayd had become. He needed some time to calm down properly before he spoke to Mia again.

  “She needs some time mate,” Josh said with his hand held out in front of him, gesturing for Eric to stand down.

  “I need to talk to her,” he insisted.

  “Let us take you home Eric,” Louise offered. “You can still talk tomorrow. It’s been an emotional day.”

  “She’s in there with him isn’t she?” he asked.

  “Everything is different now Eric,” Louise attempted to explain.

  “What’s going on with them?” Eric asked. “I have a right to know.”

  “No you don’t mate. Not anymore.” Josh told him.

  “What?” Eric said incredulously. “I’m the bad guy now?”

  “No Eric, you’re not the bad guy – you’re just not the guy anymore. I don’t think you two can come back from this,” Louise pointed out.

  Eric made a move to push past them. He didn’t want to wait until tomorrow, but Josh blocked his way.

  “You can punch me too Eric but I’m not letting you in there,” he said, sounding much braver than he felt.

  “Whatever, let’s just go,” Eric conceded, turning on the stair case and making his way ahead of them to Josh’s car.

  The moment they’d arrived back home, Eric went straight to his room and shut the door, spending the rest of the day sitting in there brooding about his situation. He was angry at himself for ignoring his gut feeling that something was going on – how could he have such strong feelings for someone capable of such deceit? And what does it say about him that he chose to ignore it? It was a complete disaster, and he didn’t know how to fix it.

  ***

  “Would you like me to go as well?” Cayd asked after the others had left.

  Mia’s brow furrowed as she shook her head slightly. “I don’t know Cayd, this has been one very strange week and my emotions are all over the place. I want you to stay but I’m worried that if you do, then something regrettable will happen between us. I know that I’m incredibly attracted to you but I also know that now is not the time to be starting anything. Especially after what’s just happened. Technically, I’m still dating Eric…I need to sort all of that out in my mind before I even consider anything…more,” she explained, meeting his eyes as he watched her intently.

  “Mia, when I said I wanted to talk after this was over, I didn’t mean today. I meant when it’s all over – when you’ve sorted out your relationship with Eric. When you’ve sorted out what’s happened between you and Natalie. I’m willing to wait, and I’m willing to stand by and help you.” He stepped towards her and touched her face with the back of his fingers, causing her to close her eyes as the want her body gave out around him bounced around inside of her, daring her to take a risk with him.

  Brushing gently down the side of her face, he leant forward, pressing his lips to her cheek. “I’ll go, but call me if you need anything ok?”

  Mia nodded, unable to find any words to speak, her full energy was being spent keeping her hands by her sides so she didn’t grab onto him in a repeat performance of the night before.

  As Cayd reached the door, he turned to speak once more. “I’m going to send a locksmith to change the locks – just to be safe.”

  “Ok,” she whispered as she watched him slip out the door. The moment it clicked shut, she rushed toward it and slid the chain in place – something she’d never felt the need to do before now.

  As she looked around her flat, the feeling that it wasn’t really hers anymore still niggled in her mind. She felt as if everything had changed for her.

  Too exhausted to think on it any further, she headed to her bedroom and crawled into bed, hoping that when she woke up it would be a month ago, and this would all be some horribly vivid dream.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  A loud banging noise startled Mia from her sleep. A quick check of the clock revealed that it was just after 10pm.

  “What in the world?” Mia said to herself as the banging continued, demanding that she open her door.

  Shuffling into the living area, she startled herself momentarily when she passed a mirror and saw a woman with red hair – not recognising it as herself. When she reached the door she did a quick check of the peephole, seeing Eric through the glass.

  The door pushed open a touch, catching on the chain. “Mia!” he called out through the gap.

  “I’m right here,” she said quietly. Pushing the door closed so she could unhook the chain and let him in.

  “Why was the door chained?” he asked, pocketing his keys as he stepped inside.

  “I’ve been drugged repeatedly Eric,” she said by way of explanation.

  “Of course,” he said, looking at his hands sheepishly. “I’m so sorry this has happened to you Mia. I’m sorry that it’s happened to us. Do you think we could talk? Are we alone? That Cayd guy isn’t here is he?”

  With a roll of her eyes, Mia assured him that they were alone. “Is that why you came? To make sure I wasn’t sleeping with Cayd? That’s a bit rich don’t you think? You’ve just spend a month sleeping with my sister.” Mia pointed out.

  Reaching a hand up, he scratched at the back of his head, he seemed nervous to Mia, truthfully she was nervous too. As much as she knew that they needed to talk, she kind of didn’t want to do it, she didn’t know how she felt about him anymore.

  “I’m sorry,” he told her. “I really just came here to talk. Can we?”

  “Of course we can,” she said, stepping to the side to let him through and re-chaining the door. “Take a seat,” she told him, heading to her kitchen. “Would you like a drink?”

  “I could probably do with a whole bottle of vodka right now, but a coffee will do,” he told her, as he moved to the kitchen table and
took a seat.

  “Vodka it is,” Mia said, sliding the bottle out of the freezer and searching her fridge for a mixer. “I only have vanilla coke to put it with, is that cool?”

  “That’s fine,” Eric said as he looked around Mia’s flat. “I didn’t realise how long it had been since I’d spent the weekend here.”

  “And you didn’t find that strange?” she asked as she took out two glasses from her cupboard and poured their drinks.

  Shaking his head, Eric let out a whoosh of breath. “I don’t know.”

  “‘I don’t know’ means you don’t want to answer Eric,” she said as she placed the two glasses on the table and took the seat next to him.

  “Fine – I found it strange, ok? I admit that I wondered why we were spending so much time at my place when we would be on our own here.”

  “What else did you wonder?” she pushed, wanting him to admit that he knew Natalie wasn’t her and chose to ignore it.

  He closed his eyes, blowing out his breath as regret twisted his stomach. “Don’t make me say it Mi, I already feel so bad,” he pleaded, taking his drink in hand and taking a large gulp that almost emptied half the glass.

  “I need you to say it Eric. I need you to say that you knew, or you at least suspected… didn’t you?”

  Eric’s nod was almost imperceptible. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, “I am so so sorry.”

  Closing her eyes, Mia let out a long calming breath as she thought. “Eric, I have to be honest with you. I feel so hurt by you in all of this. Out of everybody, I would at least expect you to question things – I thought I at least meant that much to you. I thought you loved me enough to see the truth. Because she doesn’t even act like me, does she Eric? She’s different.”

  Eric took another large gulp, draining his glass and nodded. “She is.”

  “And obviously you liked that, or you would have called her out at some point – you would have at least questioned the change.”

  Eric wiped his hand over his face as he thought. He didn’t know what to say to her. How could he tell her that when he and Natalie kissed, it was as if he’d been sleeping and finally woken up? He noticed the change almost immediately, but the connection between them was so great that there was no way he was going to question it. Truthfully, he had spent the last month, holding his breath and hoping that this ‘new Mia’ wasn’t some kind of dream.

  “I don’t know what to say to you Mia. You seemed different, and yeah, I liked it – it was…new, I guess. I didn’t want to question it, because I didn’t want it to end. I’m sorry Mia, I really am.”

  “Do you love her?”

  “I thought she was you, so yeah I loved her. But now… I don’t know how I feel.”

  “Do you know how you feel about me?”

  “Oh Mia,” he said, reaching over to her and cupping her face in his hands. “I will always love you. You’ve been my girl for such a long time.”

  Mia’s heart contracted in her chest and she closed her eyes against the pain of it in an attempt to keep her emotions in check. “You’re not in love with me though… are you?” she asked in a whisper as a silent tear traced its way down her cheek.

  Eric wiped it away, and leaning in, he pressed his lips gently against Mia’s feeling none of the excitement he’d felt when his lips met Natalie’s. “I don’t know,” he whispered, resting his forehead against hers.

  Mia’s tears started to fall freely now as she turned in her chair and slid her arms around Eric’s neck as he pulled her against him in an embrace. This was an embrace filled with the hurt and regret they both felt over the whole situation. They both knew that their relationship was over, and if they were honest, it had been over for a long time. Comfort and routine had kept them together for far longer than they should have been.

  They hugged for a long time, the minutes ticking away as they clung to the last moment they had as a couple before they said goodbye.

  “I hate that this has happened to us,” Mia whispered as they moved apart.

  “Me too, Mi, but we can’t go back, can we?”

  “No Eric. We can’t fix this. I could never be with you again knowing that you spent a month with her. I just don’t have that much forgiveness in me.”

  “I’m sorry Mia, if I could go back, I would. Believe me – I feel cheated too.”

  “Eric, you don’t seem to be grasping this situation properly here. You’re the one who spent a month sleeping with my twin. I understand that she claimed to be me, but of your own admission – you knew something was different. I just spent a month passed out. I was drugged Eric, I had my relationship stolen from me and my life completely invaded. She came into my house and went through my things. She even wore my clothes Eric. She took so much from me.

  “I understand that you’re hurting too, Eric, really I do. But, I just don’t see how you got cheated. You got fucked by a new woman and I got fucked over. They’re two very different things.”

  Eric’s brow creased, as he dropped his head, staring into his now empty glass. What more could he say? Natalie had come into their lives and changed everything and he felt like an arse for not asking the questions he should have.

  “I need this to be over,” Mia whispered, another tear escaping her eye and hovering there, clinging to those threatening to spill with it. Reaching over, Eric again wiped it away, his thumb smoothing the side of her face as he studied the woman he had been a part of for so long.

  “Then we’re over Mia,” he stated. “I’m so sorry. I really am, so incredibly sorry.”

  They sat staring at each other for a while, fully absorbing their end before Eric stood up, planted a kiss on the top of her head and left the flat, dropping his key on the entry table on his way out.

  “Good bye Eric,” Mia whispered, her tears spilling out in jagged patterns down her cheeks.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “So you’re actually working today?” Cherry asked Cayd, albeit a little sarcastically, as he stepped into the reception area on Monday morning. This was the first time she had laid eyes on him since he saw the emergency client last week.

  Cayd’s mouth turned up on one side, his eyes expressing a tiredness that came from days without sleeping properly. He was dressed appropriately for work but he had at least a day’s worth of stubble on his face and hair wasn’t as styled as it usually was.

  “Tough weekend?” she asked as she finished taking in his appearance.

  “You could say that,” he murmured, taking a pile of mail off her desk and leafing through it.

  “I told you it was a bad idea to get involved with that girl,” she told him as she moved towards the kitchenette and started to make them both a cup of coffee.

  “I’m not involved with her,” he pointed out, taking the milk from the bar fridge and pouring it into both mugs as she stirred the hot water through.

  “Cayd, you obviously have this rescuers complex or something. No one gets involved with a girl as messed up as that one without it.”

  “She’s not messed up. Stop trying to shrink me, last I checked I was the one with the credentials here – not you,” Cayd pointed out bluntly.

  Cherry’s left eye narrowed slightly at his tone causing him to try and explain himself, “I’m sorry, that was out of line – I’m not trying to rescue her Cherry. I saw a girl who had no one to rely on – I wanted to help her.”

  “You’re attracted to her though, and a person going through that much shit is not in the right place to be starting a relationship – it would be a disaster!”

  Cayd took a sip of his coffee as Cherry continued to eye him, waiting for his response. When it didn’t come, she continued on.

  “Don’t you dare try to deny it. I have known you for long enough to read your reactions to people and when that girl walked in here with all that glorious blonde hair you just about blew in your pants.”

  “Cherry,” Cayd warned, “Can we just drop this please?”

  “No, we can’t.”

/>   “Alright, fine, I’m into her ok? I think she is the most beautiful creature I have ever laid eyes on. There’s something about her that draws me to her – I don’t know what it is. It keeps me up at night, it’s torturing me. I know this is no time to start a relationship with her. I know it’s stupid to pursue her. When I found out she didn’t need psychiatric help, I was ecstatic and selfishly so – I knew she had a boyfriend but I didn’t care, and I still don’t care and do you know why? Because I know that she’s drawn to me too and if I’m patient enough, she’ll come to me.”

  “That sounds like a big bag of crazy to me. I hope you know what you’re doing,”

  “I don’t know what I’m doing Cherry – I don’t have a fucking clue.”

  ***

  When Eric exited the bathroom that morning, he was wearing a pair of black cotton boxer shorts and was still towel drying his hair. Glancing toward the kitchen, he was met with the watchful eyes of both Josh and Louise, who were sitting at the breakfast bar eating toast and drinking coffee.

  “Did you talk to Mia last night?” Louise asked straight away, desperate to know if that’s where he went when he stormed out the night before.

  Eric paused in the doorway of his room without looking back, and knowing a small amount of sign language, he turned slightly and signed, yes, it’s over, before stepping through and closing the door quietly behind him.

  “What did he say? It’s over?” Josh asked, looking at her.

  “Yes, they broke up,” Louise told him, pressing her lips together as her heart sank slightly. She had known that Mia and Eric weren’t right for each other for a long time. But she loved them both and felt sad that it was all over for them, even though she knew it was for the best.

  Josh gave her a look that said ‘Well we knew that was going to happen anyway,’ before turning back to his breakfast. Admittedly, he was worried about Eric, he hadn’t said much since they’d brought him home from Mia’s after he found out about Natalie. The guy seemed crushed and Josh didn’t think it was over his breakup with Mia, it seemed that he was more upset that he was deceived, he had been so happy this past month and to find out that the woman he was falling for wasn’t who she said she was, was obviously a massive blow.