Park Avenue Player

by Ward, Penelope

  The door handle jingled at about nine forty-five, and my blood started to pump with fury. Over the last few hours, I’d calmed down, but the anxiousness came barreling back with a vengeance. I stood in the living room and waited.

  Hollis walked in, saw me, and quickly diverted his gaze. The bastard couldn’t even look me in the eyes. “Sorry I’m so late.”

  I waited until he walked into the kitchen to put his wallet and keys in the bowl on the counter, like he always did. Then I followed.

  He glanced over at me, and his eyes quickly read my face. “Is everything okay?”

  “No.”

  For a second, he seemed genuinely concerned. “Where’s Hailey?”

  I took a step toward him. “She’s fine. Downstairs with Kelsie. Her mother said she could sleep over.”

  His brows furrowed. “Okay. So what’s the problem?”

  I took two steps more toward him. “You.”

  “Me? What the hell did I do? I just walked in.”

  I closed the distance between us and jabbed my finger into his chest with each word. “You. Didn’t. Have. A. God. Damn. Meeting.”

  There was always the possibility that he could’ve had a dinner meeting his assistant didn’t know about. But any small doubt I had about the game he was playing flew out the window when I saw the guilt written all over his face.

  He looked away. “What are you talking about?”

  I pushed up on my tippy toes and looked into his eyes. “You knew I had a date tonight. There was no meeting. You just wanted to ruin my night like I ruined yours.”

  He tugged at his tie and walked around me, striding toward his bedroom.

  I followed in hot pursuit. He wasn’t getting off that damn easy. “How old are you? I ruined your date unintentionally because I forgot my phone. And you go and do this on purpose?”

  “Go home, Elodie.”

  His attitude made me even more irate. He wasn’t even going to apologize. Did he think I would turn around and walk out the door, feeling like our score was settled now? Not a fucking chance.

  Hollis walked to his dresser, pulled the tie from around his neck, and started to unbutton the cuff of his shirt.

  “I’m not going anywhere! You owe me a damn apology.”

  He struggled to undo his cuff, and after ten seconds of trying to open the button, he yanked, and the cufflink went flying across the room. He stared down at his wrist for a minute, and I watched as his chest heaved up and down. When he finally looked at me, there was so much anger in his eyes.

  “What would you like me to apologize for, Elodie?”

  “For ruining my date!”

  His jaw flexed, and he took a step toward me. I backed up. My heart raced out of control.

  “An apology would mean I’m sorry it happened. And I’m not. Not in the fucking least.”

  My eyes widened. “You are such an asshole.”

  He kept walking toward me, and I kept taking steps back. “What does that say about you? You must like assholes, Elodie.”

  “Screw you. I don’t like you at all!”

  “No?” His voice turned eerily calm. “So you don’t like me, but yet you want to fuck me.”

  “I don’t want to fuck you. Go to hell, Hollis!”

  He laughed bitterly. “I’m already there. Apparently, hell is a place where the devil is a woman with an attitude that would send any normal man running the other way.”

  “You owe me an apology!”

  He closed the distance between us, causing my back to hit the wall behind me.

  Hollis ducked down so we were at eye level and spoke with his nose inches from mine. “Let’s see. What do I owe you an apology for? Jerking off to your panties? Or maybe coming so hard in the shower to visions of your face that I can barely see straight afterward? Or could it be wanting to beat the crap out of every asshole guy named Benito in the city of New York? Which is it, Elodie? Will one big, fat apology do?”

  There had been very few times in my life that I’d been left speechless, but right now I had no idea how to respond. My jaw hung open, and my heart felt like it might come through the wall of my chest.

  Hollis’s eyes dipped to my lips, and I felt my knees go weak.

  He growled. “Fuck this.”

  Before I could register what was happening, he wrapped his big hands around my face, tilted my head, and planted his lips over mine. It took a few heartbeats for the shock to wear off. But when it did, all hell broke loose.

  My hands threaded into his hair, and I yanked as hard as I could. He growled and responded by grabbing the backs of my thighs and lifting me, guiding my legs to wrap around his waist. His firm chest pushed against mine, and if it hadn’t felt so incredibly good, it might have concerned me how rough we were getting. Hollis ground his hips between my parted legs, and I could feel how hard and hot he was. Oh God.

  We didn’t kiss—that would be too tame of a word to describe what was raging between us. We assaulted each other with our mouths. He bit down on my bottom lip until I tasted metal seeping onto our joined tongues. I dug my nails into his neck so hard I pierced the skin. My clit was throbbing; tomorrow it would be bruised from the way he grinded against it. Neither one of us could get enough. We wanted rougher, faster, harder, more.

  I distantly registered that my back had left the safety of the wall behind it. We fell onto the bed together, limbs crashing and bodies colliding. The anger we’d both had five minutes ago hadn’t dissipated one bit—it had just redirected to this.

  Abruptly, Hollis tore his mouth from mine and stumbled to his feet. I panted, gulping mouthfuls of air, and lifted my hand to cover my swollen lips. Was he stopping? I was about to scream bloody murder if he thought he could leave me here gasping and drenched like this.

  But then I realized why he’d jumped up so fast. I must’ve missed the first warning sounds.

  “Uncle Hollis? Are you here?”

  ***

  Shit!

  Not wanting Hailey to see me all disheveled, I ran to Hollis’s master bathroom and closed the door. It seemed like the most sensible thing to do with no time to think.

  I placed my ear on the door and listened to their conversation.

  “Why do you have lipstick all over your face?”

  I cringed. Shit.

  Hollis played dumb. “I do?”

  “Yeah. Look in the mirror.”

  “Wow. You’re right,” he said. “What are you doing home?”

  “Kelsie threw up, so her mom thought it was best if I didn’t spend the night. She walked me upstairs, and I used my key.”

  “Ah. Okay. Well...that was probably the right decision.”

  “So, why do you have lipstick on your face?”

  Figures she wouldn’t drop it. How the heck was he going to get around this? Moreover, how the heck was I going to escape this bathroom?

  Hollis finally answered, “It’s a long story I’d rather not get into, okay? I don’t owe you an explanation for everything.”

  “Hmmm. Okay. Whatever.”

  I chuckled to myself.

  Hailey was definitely skeptical, although I doubted she suspected this had anything to do with me.

  “It’s late. Why don’t you go to your room, try to get some sleep.”

  “Okay. ’Night, Uncle Hollis.”

  “Goodnight, sweetheart.”

  There was a long moment of silence. I assumed he was waiting for Hailey to fully disappear. In the distance, I could hear the door to her bedroom shut. Hailey had a habit of always slamming her door, and this time was no different.

  The bathroom door opened, and I got a look at Hollis’s face. He did have my lipstick smeared all over his mouth. His hair was a wild mess, too. Not to mention, his erection was still straining against his pants. He looked totally hot and fuckable. I wondered if he would have been inside of me right now had Hailey not come home.

  Speaking of which, my panties were soaked. Clearly my body had been preparing for something big.


  His eyes landed on my bruised lips as he said, “We have to sneak you out.”

  I nodded and walked out of the bathroom.

  Tiptoeing across the floor and through the foyer, I made my way to the door. He followed me out to the hall and closed the door behind him.

  He spoke quietly. “That was really close. She almost walked in on us.”

  “Well, she didn’t, thankfully.”

  Hollis looked pained. “I shouldn’t have attacked you like that.”

  “No need to apologize. I quite liked it, actually.”

  He ran his hand through his already-messed-up hair. “Look...clearly I’m confused. My feelings for you are carnal, and sometimes they feel…uncontrollable. That doesn’t change the fact that it shouldn’t have happened. That was a close call, but I’m thankful it stopped us from making a mistake we can’t take back.”

  That pissed me off.

  “So, you would’ve slept with me and then called it a mistake? What would’ve happened, Hollis? You would’ve gotten your fill, gotten to experience the thrill of sex with me, and then told me it could never happen again? You were going to fuck me.”

  “I don’t know what would have happened. Clearly, I’m not thinking with my brain.”

  That’s for sure. “Do me a favor, Hollis. Stay out of my life, okay? It’s one thing if you don’t think it’s a good idea for us to be anything more than business associates. But if that’s the case, don’t manipulate things—like you did making me late for my date tonight. That’s not fair. You can’t have it both ways.”

  Hollis neither confirmed nor denied intentionally ruining my date with Benito.

  He simply said, “I won’t interfere in your life.”

  “Thank you.”

  Then he let me walk away without stopping me. I wished he had. I wanted him to prove me wrong, to admit he had feelings for me, that he was so jealous of the prospect of me dating someone else that he couldn’t help but interfere.

  But instead, in typical Hollis fashion, he closed up, once again making me feel like I was the crazy one for believing there could ever be something between us.

  ***

  Sometimes Bree had trouble sleeping and stayed up late. I wondered if she’d be up for a visit tonight. So I texted her, and she responded that I should come over. She told me to use my key to let myself in.

  She was sitting on the couch when I entered her house. She looked like she’d lost more weight. The fact that she’d stopped the experimental treatments was starting to show. I didn’t like this one bit.

  She coughed. “What happened tonight?”

  I spent the next several minutes making myself a cup of tea and telling Bree the whole story of my humiliating encounter with Hollis and the near-miss of Hailey finding us.

  “So, wow. He definitely likes you.”

  “Did you not hear anything I just told you? He used the whole experience to reiterate what a mistake it would be if we ever crossed the line. It was like he felt Hailey’s arrival was a warning of danger from God.”

  She shook her head. “He’s just scared, Elodie. It’s so clear to me. He obviously has feelings for you that go beyond the physical if he went through the bother of sabotaging your date. He just hasn’t admitted it to himself, let alone you.”

  “See, I don’t see it that way. He’s egotistical. It’s not so much that he wants me for himself. He just wanted to get me back for walking in on his date. He was angry and frustrated at my calling him out on his behavior, and that led to the lapse in sanity that was our make-out session. It’s rare that we’re ever alone, and I honestly think for him, it was just sexual.”

  “I don’t know if I believe that.” Bree covered her mouth as she coughed again.

  “Are you okay? Can I get you some water?”

  She held out her hand. “I’m fine.” Yet she continued to hack.

  My friend was such a trooper. I hated that she had to live with that horrible disease. I poured her some water anyway and handed it to her.

  “Okay,” I said, examining her face to make sure she was good before continuing to vent. “The worst part is, I had to cancel a date with a perfectly good man who does want to spend time with me.”

  “How did the guy take it? What’s his name again?”

  “Benito. I told him I had no choice, that my boss never came home to relieve me. Hopefully, he doesn’t think I’m making it up.”

  “I’m sure he’ll jump at the chance for a rain check this weekend. But honestly, be careful how fast you move with anyone else. I still feel like things with Hollis could change. He seems extremely weak when it comes to you, and I would hate for him to come around, only to find you with someone else.”

  “Well, that would be his problem.”

  “Except that I think it’s Hollis you really want. I don’t think you’d even be pursuing the online dating thing if it weren’t to escape your feelings for him.”

  She was right. And that sucked.

  “It doesn’t matter what I felt for him...and I say felt in the past tense because after what he pulled tonight, I’m more determined than ever to get over it.”

  I looked for more logical excuses to push past my feelings for him.

  “And you know what else? He’s a workaholic. I’m looking for a family man, someone who’d put me and my child first. Even though he was forced to take Hailey in, Hollis isn’t naturally that type of guy. It’s becoming more obvious by the second that he’s all wrong for me.”

  Chapter 24

  * * *

  Hollis – 7 years ago

  Anna and I were getting ready to go out to dinner when I decided to bring up something that had been on my mind.

  “I’ve been thinking more and more about starting my own company,” I said as I helped put her necklace on.

  She turned around to face me. “Really?”

  “Yeah.” I straightened her gold charm. “I realized working at the firm will eventually end up burning me out. I’m making great money now, but I don’t want to do these sixteen-hour days forever—not if we’re gonna have a family someday. I need more flexibility, need to have my nights and weekends back. I need to start planning for that.”

  She adjusted my collar. “Well, I can’t complain about the prospect of you having more free time. As of right now, you’re married to your job.”

  “I don’t want to be married to my job—I want to be married to you.” I leaned in and kissed her before rubbing her shoulders. “I was actually considering asking Addison to be my partner. What do you think?”

  “Wow.” Anna stared off to ponder that. “Actually, I think you guys would be great together—if you don’t kill each other.”

  “We may bust each other’s balls, but I trust her. And she’s smart as a whip. She’s probably the only person I could imagine going into business with.”

  “I think you’d make a great team.”

  I was thrilled and relieved that Anna was on board with this. “Then let’s do it.”

  Leaning in to give her another kiss, I heard something that gave me pause.

  “Anna’s home!”

  Our attention turned to the bird Anna had brought here the other day. He sat in his cage in the corner of the room.

  “Did he just say ‘Anna’s home?’” I asked.

  Then he did it again.

  “Anna’s home!”

  She laughed. “I didn’t even realize he knew my name.”

  Something occurred to me. “The other day when you walked in after your shopping trip, I looked at him and said, ‘Anna’s home.’ It must have stuck.”

  Anna volunteered at a bird sanctuary and for some reason had decided to bring this particular bird home to live with us. Since he was from Australia, she thought it would be funny to name him after the Aussie actor Hugh Jackman. But he didn’t look like a Hugh to me, so we called him Huey for short. I wasn’t too keen on living with this thing, having to clean its cage and whatnot, but she’d insisted. I couldn’t fight
it.

  We were headed out the door when he did it again.

  “Anna’s home!”

  She laughed. “That’s going to drive you crazy, isn’t it?”

  “Nah. I’ll never get tired of hearing your name, even if it does come out of that annoying little guy.”

  ***

  A few weeks later, Addison met Anna and me to look at a rental office space for the firm we planned to start. Addison had taken me up on the offer to partner together, and the future was looking bright.

  A realtor took us to a space downtown that was small, but perfect for what we had in mind. The price was right, and we couldn’t find one reason not to take it.

  The agent clapped her hands together. “What do you say? Shall we head back to my office and draw up the papers?”

  Addison and I looked at each other before she nodded, giving me the go ahead to say, “We’ll take it.”

  Anna stood on her tippy toes to hug me. “Congratulations! This is so exciting.”

  “After we do the paperwork, shall we go celebrate?” Addison asked.

  “That sounds like a great idea, but we’ll have to take a rain check. Anna and I have to go to the hospital tonight. Adam’s mother called me today. Apparently, he was readmitted.”

  Her excitement faded. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.”

  I let out a deep sigh. “Believe me, so am I.”

  ***

  Adam looked worse than I’d ever seen him as I wheeled him into the lounge to start a game. We sometimes played in his room, other times out here for a change of scenery. I tried not to ask him too many questions about his health because I didn’t want to alarm him by seeming overly concerned. Based on his gaunt appearance, though, it was obvious enough that he wasn’t doing well.

  When Anna excused herself to go to the ladies’ room, Adam shocked me by saying, “Hollis, stop the game for a minute.”

  I immediately put down my controller and muted the volume. “What’s up?”

  Nothing could have prepared me for what he said next.