by Roxie Odell
When he heard the pounding on the door, Thomas calmly looked up from his desk. He made a face but remained rather unimpressed by her annoyance, even as she stormed into the trailer and beat her palms down on his desk. When she launched into her rant, he just sat there and calmly and quietly listened.
“You insisted, Thomas. You freakin’ insisted on being in my life, made me fall for you, and…” Choking up, she had to pause.
He waited, just staring at her and steepling his fingers under his chin.
“Then you just blew me out of the water,” she continued, biting back tears. She was utterly frustrated with herself, because she had so much to say and couldn’t seem to bring herself to say it. Stupid emotions! All the drama with Thomas had driven her to drink, robbed her of far more than that idiot in the metro ever would have, and nearly finished her off. Now, it was even stealing the words right out of her mouth, and she just stood there, silent and pissed.
“I wasn’t much happier about, uh…what I did than you were,” he replied softly.
“Don’t you mean who you did?” she sniped.
“You know what I mean,” he said.
“So that’s supposed to make it all better?” She shook her head. All the anger from today and the past burned together. “It wasn’t just the woman, although I get sick to my stomach every time I think about you with her. I won’t even begin to suggest that I understand you completely, Thomas, because I don’t, but I know you just can’t handle being emotionally challenged. You were horrible to me when you heard about your father’s death. You didn’t even have the balls to tell me you couldn’t talk about it. Or why. After everything we’d been—we’d meant...” she trailed off, not sure what she was trying to say or how to say it.
“I did ask you to leave,” he defended.
“Really? That’s your comeback? That was supposed to solve things? Telling me to get the fuck out, after you invited me—no, insisted that I stay? You treated me like a pest, like I had no right to be there, even after you asked me to move in. You treated me like a stray dog you just grew tired of and wanted to kick back out to the street!” she practically screamed.
“We’ve been through all this.” He ran his hand through his hair. “There’s no sense in rehashing it.”
“You’re one to tell me about sense,” she snapped. “No sense in rehashing it? Do you get how you made me feel? What you did to me?”
“Have you been drinking, Cheri?” he interrogated, arching a brow at her as if he expected and dared her to lie.
At that point, Cheri exploded. “Don’t put this all on me! It’s not all about my drinking.” She was furious.
A security guard rushed into the trailer, his eyes wide and his hand on his holstered gun. “Everything all right in here, boss? I heard yellin’…”
“It’s okay, Bill, but stick around,” said Thomas coolly.
Cheri’s face scrunched up and she stared at Thomas in disbelief, as if he’d sunken to an all-time low. “You’ve got an armed guard on me now, Thomas? Nice,” she spat.
“I told you what I would do if you got hammered again,” he said.
“I didn’t get hammered, you ass,” she retorted. “That’s just it. You left this morning and took my purse and car keys with you. I thought we were good, but you still had some jack-off follow me. I’d barely sat down in that place before some uppity bitch was serving me with legal papers. As far as I know, these aren’t even legit!” she screamed, waving the subpoena in his face.
“Surely you can figure that out, right? I mean, you did work in a law office before you—”
“You’re just so cool, aren’t you? So freaking full of yourself,” she interrupted. “You know, whatever! If you intend to sue me, go on and get it over with. You’re nothing but a bully, an antagonizer who likes to stir shit up, cause unnecessary drama,” she hissed. “Honestly, I’d love nothing better than to tell a roomful of people what a controlling, heartless, arrogant motherfucker you are!”
“Is that what you really want, Cheri?” he asked, a tinge of hurt and shock in his eyes, as if no one had ever dared to say such things about him before. “Are you really looking for a courtroom fight?”
“Is it what you want?” she countered. “To look foolish? The judge will laugh at you and dismiss the case, if he isn’t tempted to hit you over the head with his gavel first, just for wasting his time and being a colossal prick.”
He slapped his hand down on the desk near hers and looked her straight in the eye, furious and red-faced. “I guess we’ll just have to find out, won’t we?”
“You have been nothing but heartache and headaches since I met you,” she said bitterly. “I know what this is, Thomas. It’s all part of your game, another wild scheme to control me.”
“Take it any way you want,” he said.
Cheri picked up a cup of pens and pencils and threw it at him, and one particularly sharp pencil lodged itself in the fabric of his pants, dangerously close to puncturing his manhood.
The guard lunged for her, and Thomas didn’t interfere as the guard drew her hands behind her back and cuffed her. “We can’t have that in here, little lady,” he said as she struggled and spat a series of four-letter words at him that would have made a sailor blush.
Thomas waited for a moment for her to calm down, then leaned close to her face. “Cheri, you aren’t stupid. Use your head. Let me guide you until you get on your feet again.”
“No thank you,” she said curtly, trying to salvage some shred of pride in the extraordinarily humiliating position she was in.
“We agree this is all my fault, correct?” he said dryly, his eyebrow arched.
“Yes!”
“Well, if that’s true, I owe it to you to make amends, right?”
She stared at him and wanted to punch him and kiss him at the same time. Damn him for being so…him, she thought. If he was a homely man, short, overweight, or bald, without that perfect symmetry of his unforgettable facial features, the stuff of romantic paperback covers, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. She was crippled by the fact that he was beyond beautiful, tall and perfectly muscled.
Not only that, but Thomas was the owner of very successful construction company, hired for jobs all over the nation’s capital to remodel and repair everything from high-end residential to commercial buildings, even restorations on historic sites. He was the boss, yet he also was willing to get down in the trenches with his crew of both men and women. While they’d never really discussed his wealth, Cheri knew he had it. When she snooped through his desk while alone in his house, she found a whole pile of high-limit credit cards. The ones she ran up weren’t even previously used, so she was sure he had lines of credit she couldn’t even imagine.
Despite his success, he looked like an everyman. His work attire consisted of humble t-shirts and jeans, even the occasional cut-offs. He wore his hair in a longish, shaggy, carefree style and traveled in either a very large black pickup or on the Harley-Davidson she had grown to love. There was something so wondrous and dreamy about riding on the back of that motorcycle with her arms around the most passionate man she knew she would ever meet in her lifetime.
“Go on and let her loose, Bill,” said Thomas.
“You sure, boss? Looks like you got a wild one here.”
Cheri looked at Thomas with venom in her eyes and crazily donkey-kicked behind her, pummeling the security guard’s shins.
“On second thought,” said Thomas, “maybe it’s better this way.”
“I think you’re right,” the guard said, pulling the keys away.
“This is false imprisonment!” protested Cheri.
Once again, Thomas leaned close to her. “You physically assaulted me in my office. It’s perfectly legal for my security personnel to detain you if necessary to stop further assault and battery.”
“What do you plan to do with me, Thomas? You can’t keep me handcuffed forever.”
“Well, for now, I’m taking you home,” he s
aid. “I don’t want anyone to get hurt,” he said, peering down at the small hole the pencil had made in his pants.
“Oh? You didn’t seem to mind hurting me before,” she jabbed. “You’re pyscho. One moment you want to help, the next you’re horrible, then you want to fix things, then you want me arrested. You’re impossible!”
“So are you, Cheri!” he yelled. He inhaled a long breath and lowered his voice. “Stop acting like this.”
“Like what? You want me tied up, don’t you? Plan on screwing me this way, too, Thomas?” She was pushing it, and even she knew she’d gone to far.
“Knock it off,” he said, on the brink of losing his temper. “I’ll take you home, and then I’ll see you in court. If you insist, we can part ways after that.”
In all the ways she imagined that the two of them would split, which they’d done for a while on more than one occasion, she had not considered it would be after a court battle. She quickly thought up another snide remark and started to blurt it, but he cut her off before she made a sound.
“I don’t wanna hear it,” he said, holding up his hand. He then took the key from the guard. “As much as I like the idea of you wearing these,” he mocked, “I’m going to take them off now. Do you think you can behave?”
“Sure, Thomas. I’ll be a perfect little angel,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“Good, because I’d really hate to add assault and battery to the lawsuit.” With that, he removed the handcuffs but held her hands together as if they were cuffed, and walked her to his truck.
I’d like to show you battery, mister, she seethed as he led her across the pavement.
Chapter 5
On the way to her house, in the thick silence, Cheri made the decision to stop drinking. Not for Thomas, but for herself. He had been pressuring her to stop seeking solace in the bottle, and circumstances led her to seek relief, but suddenly, she just came to the conclusion that it was time to stop. It was different from all the other resolutions she’d made, because she meant it this time. I’m done being humiliated, by him or anyone else—least of all by my own dumb behavior, she thought as she stared out the window.
Thomas didn’t walk her to the door, but waited in the truck as she safely made her way inside. She thought about cleaning house, but once she was inside and had her privacy again, she couldn’t stop the tears from falling. She was like a pressure cooker ready to pop, and she had to let it all out, all the months and months of insecurity and passion, fun and total rage. Almost daily, she’d been drinking herself into a bad place, and that had numbed her and kept her from feeling all the emotions that suddenly overwhelmed her as soon as she closed her door behind her.
Cheri sobbed for a good couple hours, then crashed into a deep but short nap. When she awoke, to keep her mind off the fact she couldn’t possibly go back to sleep, she thumbed through her mail that had piled up for weeks and weeks. She’d lost track of much while she was on her bender, not the least of which was how much time had lapsed. In her mind, she was sure it had only been a month, maybe a bit longer, but the dates on the mail and on her computer confirmed that many more days than that were drowned in her drunken stupor. It wasn’t until that moment that she realized Thomas’s accusations of her spending months in the hotel were not just an exaggeration after all. It was embarrassing that she had been drinking that long. How could I be so out of touch?
The late-notices and even a couple shut-offs were many, so she began to write checks. It was not something she was used to, not the reality she thought she’d have to square away. While she was not a wealthy person to any degree, she always kept the utilities paid, and now she was in danger of the lights being shut off. She did the math many times to make sure there wasn’t some kind of mistake, double-checking that she didn’t simply forget to mark a payment she’d paid under the influence. She even reviewed every debit card transaction, right down to the few purchases of whisky she’d made at a mini-mart here or there. Her stomach nearly buckled when she saw that she had so little left of the retirement savings she’d once been sitting on. She was relatively safe, but so much was gone. By the time she brought her utilities and mortgage current, her security blanket was nearly completely unraveled.
Then, for her own peace of mind and just to see if Thomas’s figure was correct, she checked the rates for the Four Seasons and calculated the fare from the time she checked in to the last day she was there. After taxes, his estimation was almost completely accurate, based on what she spent for more than two months and some change. The bar there was expensive; for the cost of just one drink she could have bought a whole bottle elsewhere. She had blown through a substantial chunk of her money and his. As she thought about it, she also realized that, for the entire time she’d been there, oblivious to his spying, he’d been watching her, just letting her get away with it. He could have stopped her anytime by putting a freeze on the charge cards she’d pilfered, but instead, he just left her enough rope to hang herself with, all while he put back her house together because she’d stupidly hired a contractor he’d warned her to stay away from. He even stocked my fridge before he brought me home, she pondered, feeling a moment of clarity even fuller than the one she felt on the way home that night.
“That’s it. I get it. I’m done,” she muttered, getting up from her desk. She was sure that when she woke in the morning, there would be no struggle as to whether she’d find herself with a drink in her hand by the end of the day. “Captain Morgan,” she mused, “we’re gonna have to break up. Don’t worry, though. It’s me, not you.”
She grabbed her keys and purse, the items Thomas had finally given back to her, ready to drive right over to his house and confess to him that she was ready to give up. Still, as much as she needed to share her decision with someone, her body tensed at the very thought of going near his place. Her stomach sickened, as if she’d been poisoned, and she decided that it was too late to go over anyway.
Thinking a shower might take her mind off things, she stripped down and quickly washed her body and hair, then slipped into some more comfortable clothes. As hard as she tried, she couldn’t get the thought of him out of her head. She wasn’t sure if it was want, need, habit, or a combination of all three, but something compelled her to pick up her phone and write a quick text to him: “You win. I quit.”
Hopeful that the unburdening would allow her to relax, she wrapped her hair in a towel and sat down in front of her laptop. She wanted to feel sleepy but didn’t, so she pulled up her résumé to make some revisions, now that she had an end date for her last job. One foot in front of the other, she coached herself, eager to dig her way out of the mess she’d made of her life. It was not easy to resist the impulse to send her former boss an email to try to explain herself, but she was sure that would do no good anyway.
She was neck-deep in résumé edits when she heard a knock at the door. Since it was so late, she approached it hesitantly. She was pretty sure it was Thomas on the other side, but considering there was usually little traffic around her place at that late hour, it was still a bit startling.
She opened the door, surprised that he stood there. That it wasn’t a dream. She wanted to be angry with him, except the hurt and embarrassment from her actions burned more than his actions that day.
Thomas regarded her with a haunted look, an expression of yearning and need that Cheri reciprocated. She was so battered that she needed the healing and restoration she knew his touch would bring; no one had ever made her feel as good as Thomas did. He had the uncanny ability to jolt her whole body to life, as if his touch was a hydro-blast, a pulse that washed through her body and pushed out all the bad stuff till she felt clean, whole, and renewed.
They had both done regrettable things while they were drinking, and Cheri knew if she wanted a pass he probably deserved one, too. Nevertheless, she wasn’t ready to be the bigger person, even if he was standing there like some damn Greek god, in that perfect physical form of his, about to give to her like she was the on
ly woman in the world.
“I’m sorry… for everything.” He stepped over the threshold of her house and hesitated a moment, as if unsure she would let him in.
“We both fucked up.” She reached for him, unable to stop herself.
His lips on her caused her body to tense up and tingle, rippling with a pleasure so sweet, so sugared, that she was wet in an instant. Her nipples stood at attention as he swept her up in his powerful arms and danced up the stairs to her bedroom. She was filled with a little burst of gratitude that she made her bed that morning, simply because Thomas always kept his house immaculate and organized. In so many ways, they were the living proof that opposites attracted.
As they were about to immerse themselves in the kind of magic that only they could make together, there were no words, even if they knew there would have to be eventually. The bright white glow of the streetlights spilled through Cheri’s windows, illuminating the room just enough that the two of them looked like sensual shadows. Thomas stood back from her after he laid her down on the mattress, and they both removed their clothes without ever taking their eyes off one another.
Cheri had lost a lot of weight during her season of self-abuse; in fact, she was much thinner and wirier than when they were last together. Before her mind cleared, she thought she liked that, but alone and naked with Thomas she couldn’t help but feel self-conscious about it.
Thomas, on the other hand, looked as amazing as ever, scrumptiously cut thanks to his heavy-duty construction work and extraordinarily responsible diet. He was perfect and statuesque in every way, as if chiseled out of fine marble, but he moved with all the grace and precision of a prowling jungle cat. He gracefully stalked back over to Cheri, until his body was above hers and he was looking down upon her, filling her whole world. She had missed that face and the way he looked at her, as if she really was the only woman in the universe for him. More than anything, it pained her that she had seen him give that same face away to another woman, and being in a drunken, grieving stupor was no excuse.
