Auctioned to Him

by Charlotte Byrd

  I nod. Something about her presence makes the pain not so acute anymore. I still feel it, but it’s no longer like a knife through my chest. Suddenly, I feel a little numb to it.

  “And all this time, I was fearing him. Terrified of seeing him again,” I say calmly. “And now, all I want is just one more moment with him.”

  Cynthia puts her arm around me, and we stay in bed for the rest of the day.

  * * *

  A couple of days later, things calm down a bit. The pain and the heartbreak aren’t as intense. It doesn’t mean that my world isn’t full of regrets of all the things that I should’ve done or could’ve done that night on the beach. It just means that I’m able to go back to work and cut flowers. I’m able to answer the phone and explain our services to customers. I’m able to arrange bouquets and even design a few new ones.

  Being back in my shop puts me a little bit at ease. The splashes of greens and colors swaddle me as if I’m wrapped in a tight blanket. Everything’s going to be okay, eventually, they whisper to me. It might not be as you planned, it might be without Logan, but you will find love again.

  Cynthia walks in with two coffees and a big smile. Her positivity has really played a big role in bringing me around these last few days. After I gained some control over my senses, I realized that I probably shouldn’t have told her about Logan working for the CIA, but Director Truman never did explicitly tell me that I’m supposed to keep his identity a secret. Besides, someone was supposed to contact me for a debrief over what happened, but no one has yet.

  If they do contact me, then I’ll tell them that Cynthia knows, I decide, and that I didn’t think it was a big deal to tell her, because he’s dead.

  The thought of Logan being dead sends shivers up my spine. Instead of breaking down, I bury my face in the daffodils that I’m holding in my hand and try to think of something else. Something more pleasant and not so hopeless.

  The door to the shop opens.

  “Well, hello, there!” the woman says. I can’t make out her face because she’s flooded with light from the outside, but I recognize that West Texas accent anywhere.

  “Hi Dolly!” I say with a newfound pep. I’m not faking. I’m actually happy to see her.

  Cynthia looks up as Dolly comes closer. She’s dressed in a white Chanel suit, which has undoubtedly been tailored to accentuate some of her most prominent features.

  “Oh, wow, are you Dolly Monroe? The Dolly Monroe?”

  “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” Dolly extends her right hand. Cynthia’s eyes focus for a second on a ten-carat diamond ring. I nudge her out of her trance.

  “It’s such a pleasure to meet you,” Cynthia says. Dolly smiles. “I’m not sure if you know, but I’m the one who got the gift certificate for your services for Avery.”

  “Oh no, I had no idea. Well, isn’t that swell?” Dolly asks. “So, this is your shop? It’s very cozy in here.”

  I smile. She’s being nice, but I know that cozy is just a euphemism for tiny. A bit too small, actually.

  She walks around the shop as if she owns the place. Some people I’m sure find her arrogant and full of herself, but I love her confidence. I know that she’s coming from a good place.

  “I love your designs,” she says, holding up one of my bouquets in front of her. “I wish the woman I hired to do my niece’s wedding had half the talent you have.”

  “Thank you,” I say. “I really appreciate you saying that.”

  “Can I get you anything? Coffee? Tea?” I ask. “We don’t make it here, but there’s a coffee shop right outside.”

  “Oh no, there’s no need. I’m fine.”

  She explores the shop a little more, carefully examining the flowers and the bouquets. I get the feeling that she isn’t just dropping by. I wait for her to talk about what actually brought her here.

  “You have a beautiful place here, Avery,” Dolly finally says. “I’m going to get all of my flowers from you in the future.”

  “Oh wow, thank you,” I say, but she continues before I even finish.

  “But I’m also here to talk to you about something else.”

  Here it goes. I take a deep breath. Logan.

  “We are all wondering about Logan,” she says, carefully choosing each individual word.

  “We?” I ask.

  “Mainly, Liam, Kora and I. We haven’t heard from him for a while. Not since the wedding.”

  I nod. I don’t know what to say.

  “Have you heard from him? Kora said that you left the wedding without saying goodbye. Did something happen?”

  Dolly’s face has an earnest, eager expression on her face. She isn’t accusing me of anything. She’s just interested in finding Logan.

  “I thought he was just not staying in touch with me. But then Kora called and we realized that none of us have heard from him since the wedding. Not even Marilyn.”

  “Who’s Marilyn?” Cynthia asks.

  “His housekeeper.”

  I nod. Take another deep breath. I had hoped that Director Truman would notify the family members, but I guess he didn’t bother. I don’t know what else to tell her, but the truth. I can’t just string her along, making her believe that everything’s fine when he’s really missing. And not just missing. Dead.

  “I’m not sure if I should be telling you this,” I start. “But I think you deserve to know.”

  I tell her everything.

  Chapter 29 - Avery

  Later that afternoon, after a very much distraught Dolly finally leaves, Cynthia also takes off. She has some errands to run and I’m left all alone to close up.

  “Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” Cynthia asks one last time. This is my first time alone here since I got back from Tulum. I nod, trying to be brave.

  “I’m going to be fine.”

  “I don’t believe you,” she says. “But fine. If this is what you want, then I’ll go.”

  “This is what I want. Thanks.”

  The shop is eerie at closing time. The buckets of flowers cast long shadows and make me feel uneasy. I’m not really afraid of anything. Logan is no longer after me. He’s not a murderer, after all. But still, I have a strange premonition that something bad is going to happen.

  For a second, I think that maybe I should text Cynthia and ask her to come back. I did have a hard day. Telling Dolly the truth has been one of the hardest things yet. The expression on her face. The sadness. The tears. All these things made my own feelings so difficult to keep at bay. And then, there are the regrets. One really major one. Logan told me that he loved me. And I didn’t say it back. I was afraid. I wasn’t sure if I loved him, but now looking back, I know that I did. I still do.

  No, I say to myself. It’s not a good idea to ask Cynthia to come back. Then she’ll never leave me alone again. I need to be able to be here on my own and now is as good of a time as ever to start this process.

  I cash out the register, count the money and put it in the safe. I make a mental note to drop all the money off at the bank tomorrow morning before work. Don’t forget, I say to myself. I sweep the shop and toss away random pieces of paper that were left out on the counters. When I get home, I’m going to pour myself a big glass of wine, climb into bed and watch Netflix. I need a new show to binge-watch. I haven’t seen Mad Men yet, maybe that’s a good one to start with. Yes! That’s exactly what I’ll do.

  Lost in my daydream of what’s going to happen this evening, I don’t hear the front door open. I continue to sweep all the leaves and stems into one pile in the middle of the shop. And then I feel a presence. Somewhere behind me. Shivers run down my spine, and my body gets covered in goosebumps. I know who it is without turning around.

  “Hello Avery,” he says slowly. Be strong. Be strong, I say to myself over and over like a mantra.

  “What are you doing here, Cal?” I ask in the most authoritative voice that I can conjure up.

  “I came to see you. Have you heard my messages?”
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  He had called a few times in the last couple of days, but I put them out of my mind. I didn’t even listen to them.

  “Yes,” I lie. “You can’t be here, Cal. The restraining order is still in effect.”

  Slowly, I inch my way back to the counter. I try to think where I had left my gun. It must still be in my purse. I don’t think I’ve ever taken it out. But it’s still not loaded! And I’ve only tried to load it a couple of times. I’m not sure I could do it on the fly. There’s always bluffing. Truman believed you. And he’s a CIA agent. Cal will have to believe you. I just have to get to my purse.

  “I know. I’m very sorry about that,” Cal whispers. Every inch that he gets closer to the front counter, Cal makes up by taking one big step closer to me.

  “Where are you going Avery?” he asks, running his fingers over my arm. My skin feels like it turns into reptilian skin at his touch. I can’t stand it.

  “Cal, you can’t be here,” I turn to face him, shrugging his hands off me. “You need to leave.”

  “I don’t want to, Avery.”

  I sense something different about him. He looks more menacing than before. Determined even. I smell alcohol on his breath. When I feel like I’m close enough, I reach for my purse, which is behind the counter. But it’s too far away. Cal puts his hands on both of my shoulders and pushes my arms around his neck.

  “Let go of me!” I say and push him away. He wobbles away and then reaches into the front pocket of his jacket.

  “It’s time that we stop playing games, Avery,” Cal says, pulling out a handgun. I freeze. My eyes focus on the size of the gun – it’s much bigger than mine. And I’m pretty certain that it’s loaded. My heart starts to beat a mile a minute. I take one deep breath after another, trying to calm myself down. Think, I say to myself.

  “What do you want, Cal?” I ask. Think. Think. But nothing comes to mind.

  “I want you to come with me,” he waves the gun toward the front door. I shake my head, no.

  “Do you not see this gun, Avery?” Cal says louder. “Let’s go.”

  I shake my head no, again. I remember what I heard a detective say on Dateline once. Never get into a car even if the perpetrator is waving a gun at you. It’s much harder for anyone to find you once you get into the car.

  “If you’re going to shoot me, then you can do it here. I’m not going to get into any car with you.”

  Cal narrows his eyes.

  “Why do you have to make everything so difficult, Avery? Don’t you know that if you had just forgiven me for doing that and not gone to the cops everything would have been fine? But no, you have to be independent. You want to know another word for an independent woman that’s much more applicable? Difficult. And you want to know another one? Bitch.”

  My mind races as he babbles on, trying to come up with some sort of plan. I can grab the gun out of my purse and bluff him. But if he shoots me…I can’t very well shoot him back. I can try to make a run for it out of the front door, but he will most likely catch me. And I’ll be that much closer to his car. Then it hits me. I should dial 911 and hope that they can figure out what’s going on. In the meantime, I need to get him to continue talking. After I call 911, I can try to hit him with something.

  “I’m not difficult, Cal. We just aren’t right for each other. Why can’t you see that?”

  Questions always start him up on tirades, and this one is no different. As he goes into all the reasons as to why we are right for each other, I inch my way toward the back of the counter, reach into my purse and search around for my phone with my fingers. I turn it on. Slide off the lock screen. Click the button for making calls, which is in the lower left hand corner. Okay. Now, which one is the keypad? I try to remember what the screen looks like while maintaining eye contact with Cal so that he doesn’t get suspicious. The fourth one over, I decide and press it. With one click glance, I look at my phone and then back at him. Yes! I’m on the right screen. Now, all I have to do is dial the right numbers. There are three across and four down. I carefully count until I reach the number 9. I quickly click the number 1 twice. The green send button is at the bottom of the screen. I press it and wait.

  Cal continues to babble. I nod and agree with everything he says.

  “911, what is your emergency?” I faintly hear someone say on the line.

  “So you see what I mean, Avery?” Cal asks.

  “Yes, I do Cal. And I agree with you. Just please put down the gun,” I say as loudly as I can without drawing suspicion from him.

  “Ma’am. Where are you?” the faint voice from phone asks. Please, don’t hear it, I pray. Please, please, Cal. Don’t hear the voice.

  “Cal, I still don’t understand why you’re here. Waving a gun in my face. In my floral shop. In Topanga Canyon,” I say. I debate whether I should say the name of my place and that it’s on Topanga Boulevard, but I decide that it might draw too much attention from him. I’m the only floral shop here, hopefully they can find it. “You’re going to be in trouble, Cal. You can’t be here threatening me with a gun, asking me to go into your car with you. I have a restraining order against you.”

  “Someone’s on their way, ma’am,” the woman says.

  Okay, now for the other part of the plan. I have to get that gun out of his hand somehow. What can I knock him out with?

  Cal starts talking again. About how unfair I was in getting a restraining order against him. His keeps putting his hand down and holding up his elbow with the other for support.

  “Cal, why don’t you put that gun down?” I ask. “It’s getting heavy holding it like that? Isn’t it?”

  “No!” He extends the gun toward me in defiance. Just at that moment, I grab the heavy three-hole punch from behind the counter and hit his hand with it. The gun comes flying out and lands on the other side of the shop.

  He grabs his hand and winces in pain. I hit him with the hole-punch upside the head. He falls to the floor. I run to the other side of the shop to get the gun, but it’s missing. It’s not anywhere on the floor. It must’ve hit the wall and landed somewhere among the flowers. We keep all uncut flowers in big round metal vases. I search behind all the vases, but I still can’t find the gun. What the hell is going on? How could it just disappear?

  Thump.

  I crash to the floor. It takes me a second to figure out what’s going on. Cal pulled my ankles from under me and I fell straight to the ground. Another second later, he’s on top of me. Blood from his head is dripping onto my face. He presses his body onto mine. I can’t move. He has gained even more weight since the last time I saw him. I try to push him back, but he pins my arms behind me. He presses his lips onto mine. My stomach turns from the iron taste of his blood. When he pulls away from me, I spit into his face. He just laughs.

  Finally, I break one of my legs free from under him. The other one moves over to the center of his body. I force my knee in between his legs and knee him as hard as I can in the balls. He winces in pain. I push him away, get up and get away, but he grabs me and pulls me back. Suddenly, he’s on top of me again. This time, he has his hands around my throat. I can’t breathe. His face gets more and more blurry. A few seconds later, the whole world starts to fade away.

  Then he releases his hands. I struggle to breathe.

  “I’m going to keep doing this, Avery. Over and over again. Until you agree to come with me like a good girl.”

  I barely hear him. I manage to catch some air in my lungs. Blood starts to flow through me again. Suddenly, I feel something that’s digging into my front jean pocket. A pen!

  Cal is lying on top of me and leaning to one side of me. Luckily, it’s not the side with the pen.

  “Well, what do you say?” Cal says showing me one of his hands. Threatening me with them again, but I don’t even process the threat. Instead, I focus all of my mental energies in getting that pen out of my pocket. It’s facing cap down. I knock the cap off and pull the pen out, hiding it in my hand.

  �
�Fuck you,” I say, wrapping my hand firmly around the pen. He pounces toward my neck again, grabbing it in both hands, but before he gets the chance to squeeze, I stick the pen into his neck. Blood squirts in all directions.

  “You bitch!” Cal yells out and grabs at the pen. When he pulls it out, I get covered in a waterfall of blood. I close my eyes. When I open them again, Cal is off me. I pull myself up to my feet and rub my eyes. Someone is punching him in the stomach and the face. The man, whose shadow looks familiar, gets behind Cal and puts his head in a headlock. He twists it and Cal falls to the floor.

  Somewhere in the distance, I hear sirens. The cops are finally here. When the man turns around, I take one look at his face and my legs refuse to hold me up anymore. I slide back down to the ground.

  * * *

  When I open my eyes again, paramedics are crowding around me.

  “She’s conscious!” one of them yells out. Suddenly, Logan appears above me.

  “What are you…?” I try to ask. My voice is raspy. I cough and sit up.

  “Careful,” one of the paramedics advises me.

  “I’m okay,” I say to them. “Really.”

  “Where is the bleeding coming from?” Someone asks, checking me for holes.

  “This isn’t my blood,” I say. “It’s Cal’s.”

  They don’t believe me. They feel me up and down before they are satisfied.

  One of the police officers pulls Logan away from me to ask him some questions. Another one talks to me. After the paramedics wrap me in a warm, grey blanket and give me a bottle of water to drink, I tell them what happened. Every single detail of what had happened this afternoon is burned into my mind. I’m pretty certain that it’s going to stay there forever.

  An hour later, one of the detectives brings me a cup of tea and I drink it, sitting on the stoop outside the shop. Since I refused to go to the hospital, the second ambulance leaves empty. The first one left almost immediately with Cal, who is apparently not dead but in critical condition. When he left, he was losing a lot of blood (thanks to me), and his neck was probably broken (thanks to Logan).