A Sudden Engagement (Love: Lost & Found)

by Helen Styles

  Chuck came back into the room and she straightened her body flat on her back. He pulled a stripped polo shirt over his head, and smiled at her ruefully. He took one of the chairs from the table and turned it backwards as he straddled it. Avery well remembered him doing that very movement. He did it when he was ready to ‘talk seriously’ about something. Usually something he didn’t like that she was doing.

  “What do you want, Chuck?” her voice came out shaky and hoarse.

  “You, babe. It’s that simple.”

  Another tear leaked from Avery’s eye and Chuck leaned forward to wipe it away. She flinched and tried to turn her head.

  “That’s no way to act, Avery.” He said in a low voice. “The way I see it, we just need to start over. We need to start over in a new place.” He watched her for a moment and stood, twirling the chair back around. “Head hurt?”

  Avery nodded weakly and followed him with her eyes to the bathroom. She could hear the water running and he reemerged with a plastic cup of water and something cupped in his hand. He set them on the bedside table and began untying one of her hands. He propped her up and dropped two white pills in her hand and handed her the water.

  She looked at the pills warily.

  “Don’t worry, it’s just Tylenol.” After she had taken the pills he took the empty cup from her and tossed it in the trash. “Hungry?”

  Avery shrugged her shoulders. She was tried to appear calm, but her mind was racing attempting to formulate some kind of plan for escape.

  Chuck pushed her back down and secured her arm once more to the headboard. He set a small bag on the bed and pulled a roll of duct tape from the inside of it. Tearing a piece of it loose he came towards her. Avery turned her head from side to side but he was able to place it over her mouth. She snorted through her nose in frustration.

  “I can’t have you screaming your sweet little head off while I go get breakfast.”

  Without another word he left the room.

  When Joel returned to the Brick Oven it was almost one o’clock.

  “Well?” Joanne asked as he sat at the counter.

  “They can’t do an official report until she’s missing at least twenty four hours.”

  “That’s a load of crap!”

  Joel nodded in agreement. “A cop did take the information I knew about Chuck, just in case. It’s not an official statement though.”

  Joanne smacked the dishtowel she was wiping the counter with on the edge of the counter. “Well, I can tell them a thing or two about that man!”

  “Like what?”

  “He’s a complete poser! Trying to act like he was just this ordinary guy, all the while he’s fooling around in this double life!” Joanne eyed him shrewdly. “Did she ever tell you that he hit her?”

  Joel’s head shot up. “No!”

  “Mmmhmm. Sure did. Want to know why?” She didn’t wait for Joel to respond. “The first time was because she accidently broke the T.V. remote, and the other time because she was bucked up to him over that stripper.”

  “My God.”

  “He’s a sick man, Joel. Did she tell you he came in here the other day?”

  He looked at her hard and shook his head. “No.”

  “It was the day she came back to work. He sat right there in your normal spot.”

  Joel ran a hand over his face. “What happened?”

  “Nothing. He just stared at her. Mr. Trevor put her on break, and I had Janet take the table.”

  Joel spread his hands out. “Why would she keep that from me?”

  “I don’t know.” She sighed. “Maybe she didn’t want to upset you.”

  Mr. Trevor walked out of the kitchen. “Any word?”

  Joel shook his head.

  “Joanne, get Joel whatever he wants to eat or drink. It’s on me today.”

  Joanne looked at her boss with wide eyes. “Alright.” She knew a subtle change had started coming over him in recent days, but she didn’t realize it went to this extreme.

  “Thanks, Mr. Trevor…”

  “Just call me Larry. This Mr. Trevor stuff is getting on my nerves too.” He offered the two of them a half smile and hurried back into the kitchen, looking younger than ever.

  “Wow.” Was all Joanne could say.

  A man in a business suit walked in at that moment and Joanne greeted him halfheartedly. He walked up to Joel and squeezed his shoulder. The similarities in their builds and features struck Joanne the very moment the man said, “Joel?”

  Joel turned his pale face. “Dad? What are you doing here?”

  The man took off an identical trench coat to the one Joel wore. He tossed it over the stool beside Joel. “I’m not going to let you go through this alone.”

  Joel swallowed several times and indicated Joanne with his hand. “Joanne this is my father, Walter Benjamin. Dad this is Joanne, she’s…she’s Avery’s…matron of honor.” He finished in a whisper. Joanne had to turn away as a fat tear slipped from Joel’s eye.

  Avery wanted to throw the Styrofoam container of eggs and toast at Chuck’s head, but with only one arm free it would be difficult. He had pilfered her bacon, but it didn’t matter, she didn’t want the food anyway.

  “So,” he said through a full mouth. “I called your mother.”

  “Why?”

  “I wanted to be the one to tell her we’re back together.”

  “Back together? Did you tell her you kidnapped me and have me tied to a bed?”

  “Avery, I may have kidnapped you, but it’s only to prove to you how much I love you. I know you saw my new tattoo. You will always be my heart”

  Avery rolled her eyes and looked away.

  “I want you to understand that we are meant to be together!”

  “You’re crazy.” She whispered.

  He stopped eating and stared blankly at her. “Love makes us do crazy things.”

  Avery slid her eyes back to his face and was startled to see the calmness there. It was as if he were a robot of some sort. He’s gone.

  “Don’t worry, once we are to our new place, you’ll be happy, and you’ll forget all about that other guy. I had a fling, and now you’ve had a fling; it’s ok.”

  “It’s not a fling!” she yelled. “We’re engaged, Chuck!”

  He stood swiftly, scattering his food over the floor with the movement. The slap was quick and hard. Avery felt the room spin.

  “DON’T EVER SAY THAT AGAIN!” he screamed.

  Avery could feel a hand print forming on her cheek. Tears spilled from her eyes as she looked up at him in fear.

  The rage in his face changed in an instant, as he sat on the edge of the bed and tried to touch her face. “Baby, I’m sorry. You can’t make me mad like that, you know this. I would never hurt you!” he said and grabbed her face in both of his meaty hands. “You know that, right?”

  Avery stared at him and didn’t know what to do. She did know that this man must remain calm if she had any hope of escape. With a desperate silent prayer, she smiled painfully and nodded her head.

  The calm façade returned and he sat back grinning at her. “That’s my girl.”

  Avery watched with despair as the light began to fade from the room. She knew the rules; the police wouldn’t even begin looking for her until tomorrow. Chuck had been gone for over an hour, and the duct tape on her mouth was beginning to itch. He had promised dinner when he came back, but she didn’t know how she was going to eat. He had only let her off the bed once to use the bathroom, and had insisted she leave the door open while she went. It was humiliating. She had to think of a plan. He had actually allowed her to be retied in a sitting position and she assessed everything available that could be used as a weapon. The lamp and chairs for sure, if she could get to them. She sighed aloud and thought about Joel. What was he going through right now?

  Joel and his father contacted the management company for Avery’s building. After thirty minutes of heated discussion, they finally agreed that a maintenance man would m
eet them there and unlock the door. They had insisted it was against protocol, but after Joel had insisted that Avery’s neighbor knew exactly who he was, and after Joel’s father had insisted he would get an attorney, they had relented.

  Joel and Walter stood on the landing explaining the situation to a tearful Mrs. Barrimore when the maintenance man arrived. He looked to be about Mrs. Barrimore’s age and walked up the steps with a stooped back. After he opened the door for them, he waited in the hall with Mrs. Barrimore.

  “Now you can’t take anything with you!” he warned from the door.

  Walter turned around and gave him a stern look. “Sir, we aren’t thieves!”

  Joel bent to scratch Otis on the head. “What happened, boy?” The cat seemed agitated and hungry. He was looking for food when Mrs. Barrimore stepped into the apartment.

  “I can care for him until she comes home,” she said as she folded and unfolded a tissue in her hand, “unless, of course, you want to take him home with you.”

  The maintenance man stuck his head through the door. “I said you can’t take anything!”

  “Oh for goodness sake, Frank, it’s a cat! Someone has to feed him!”

  The only response the man gave was a grunt as she took the cat from Joel and walked him to her apartment.

  “Well, son, go ahead and look around.”

  Joel checked the door to see if it had been kicked in, but everything seemed to be intact. Nothing seemed out of place in the apartment. He stood with his arms outstretched. “I just don’t know.”

  “The lights were left on.” His father commented.

  Joel nodded and turned as a cell phone began to ring. He followed the sound into the bedroom and found it lying on the bed. The caller ID read “Mom”. Before his father could stop him Joel answered.

  “Hello?”

  “Chuck?” A woman’s voice said.

  “No, this is Joel.”

  There was a pause. “You’re the one she was seeing for a while?”

  Anger rose in Joel’s throat like bile. “I am the one she’s seeing.”

  He heard a match strike and she inhaled sharply. “Look, honey, I received a call from Chuck this morning, and he said they were back together. She’s with him now so just get over it!”

  The color drained from his face, and he could feel his hands shaking. “Mam, did he say where they were?”

  “I wouldn’t tell you if he had! You need to just…”

  “You don’t understand what’s happening!” Joel interrupted with a yell. Mrs. Barrimore had returned and was staring into the apartment with Frank the maintenance man. Joel’s father kept his eyes on his son. “Avery has been missing all day! She had a shift that she missed at work. I proposed to her over the weekend, and she accepted! Chuck has fooled you! He’s been practically stalking her for a month!”

  “I hardly think…”

  “Look lady, if you know where they are you need to tell me now! Otherwise you’re an accessory to your own daughter’s kidnapping!”

  Joel could hear movement and the heavy breathing of Avery’s mother. “He said they were going away to start over. He said I would see them soon.”

  “Your caller ID. It will have the number he called you from, give it to me.”

  “I don’t need the ID for that! He called me last night from Avery’s phone.”

  “What?” Joel looked frantically at his father. “What time?”

  “It had to have been 12:30 or 1:00 a.m.”

  Joel ran a hand through his hair. “Ok. I’m going to take Avery’s phone. I’ll call you in a little while, after I speak to the police again.”

  “I really didn’t know.” She said quietly.

  Joel didn’t care. All he wanted was to find Avery. “If he contacts you again, act like you don’t know anything, and call Avery’s phone right away. See if you can get him to tell you where he is.”

  “Well, I do have his number.”

  Joel could have strangled her at that point. “Give me the number, please.” He said through clenched teeth. He hastily wrote the number on a napkin from the table.

  When Joel hung up he told them what was happening as he looked in his wallet for the business card that Officer Butler had given him. Frank and Mrs. Barrimore had curiously stepped into the apartment.

  “What can I do, dear?” Mrs. Barrimore asked

  “Just take good care of Otis. That will mean so much to Avery.”

  She nodded and walked quietly back to her apartment.

  Joel punched in the number to the police department, praying that he would still be there. A flood of relief washed over him when he was connected to the man’s desk. He told him the condensed version of what had happened.

  “You shouldn’t have had the maintenance man open the apartment.”

  Joel flung one arm outward. “Did I break the law?”

  “Technically, no, but…”

  “So, can his phone number help find him?”

  “Yes and no. We can try to triangulate his position. Look, give me the number and come to the station now.”

  Avery smiled at Chuck when he returned with the food. He wobbled slightly, and she could smell alcohol on his breath as he kissed her cheek. She didn’t flinch as his lips grazed her skin, but she could feel her skin crawl.

  “Honey,” she said sweetly, “can we sit at the table together?”

  Chuck eyed her warily. “Why can’t you eat on the bed?”

  Avery swallowed and kept her face calm. “You can’t keep me tied up forever. You have to trust me sometime.”

  “I don’t know.” He said slowly.

  “We could start over right now.”

  “Do you mean that?”

  “Yes. What did you bring us for dinner?”

  He smiled and showed her the bags. He had gone to McDonalds. Some things never change.

  “I brought you you’re favorite.”

  Chuck always assumed his favorites were hers too, so she went out on a limb with her guess. “Big Mac?”

  Bingo. She thought as his smile deepened. “I bet you thought I’d forgotten.”

  “No, I never doubted you.” Avery knew this was a dangerous game she was playing. Chuck began untying her ankles, and his hands lingered a little too long on her bare skin of her ankles. He looked up at her with hard eyes, and he began to move his body onto the bed. Avery felt sheer panic. His cell phone began to ring at that moment, and she exhaled slowly through her mouth as he got off the bed to answer it.

  “Hello? HELLO?” He shrugged and hung up the phone. “Wrong number I guess.” Moving purposefully towards the bed, he gave her an evil grin. “Now where were we?”

  “Food!” Avery said with a nervous laugh. “I’m starving, can we eat?”

  The look of disappointment was unmistakable, but he started untying her wrists anyway. “I guess we have plenty of time for desert.”

  Avery laughed weakly. “Yeah, we do.”

  Chuck led her to one of the chairs by the window dragging one of the nylon cords with him. He held the chair out for her and began tying one of her hands to the chair.

  She sighed and looked up at him. “It’s really not necessary, Chuck.”

  “It’s necessary for as long as I say it is.” He kissed her on top of the head and grabbed the bags from the dresser. When he took his seat across from her, and she looked down at the cord securing her to the chair, all of her plans seemed to disappear. She needed both of her hands and all of her strength to pull this off.

  “I bought you a milkshake.”

  “Chocolate?” she asked distractedly. When he didn’t answer right away, she looked into his serious face. “Oh, I forgot, strawberry is my favorite.”

  His grin returned and he bit into his burger. They ate in silence for a few minutes. A few minutes were all it took for Chuck. He had eaten his entire Big Mac in four bites. He noticed Avery just picking at hers.

  “Would you like it?” she asked.

  “Why don’t you want
it?”

  “I’m not as hungry as I thought, but I definitely want to finish my shake and fries.”

  It seemed to satisfy him and he finished her burger quickly with a large belch. Always the gentleman. Avery thought with a grimace. She knew she needed to buy more time. Chuck would expect to sleep with her, and that was the very last thing she wanted. The dark way he was looking at her with hooded eyes confirmed it for her.

  “Do you think I could take a shower?”

  “What for?”

  Avery shrugged delicately and tried to smile bashfully while looking at the table. “I just thought it would be nice to freshen up.”

  Chuck sat in silence and then wagged a finger at her. “Oh I get it!” He stood and untied her hand. “Ok. I’ll give you five minutes.”

  “Five? You know me better than that!”

  “Ten then. And Avery,” he said pulling her roughly towards his face, “don’t try anything funny, understand?” He was gripping her by the tops of her arms and he pulled her closer. She could feel her feet beginning to leave the carpet, only the very tips of her toes were still touching. When she didn’t answer, he shook her hard enough that her head snapped back and her teeth rattled. “Understand?”

  She nodded quickly, and he lowered her back onto the floor. He followed her to the bathroom sink and mirror area, which was outside the actual bathroom like all other motels. Avery looked at her pale reflection and gently touched the red hand print that he had left on her face. Her eyes met his in the mirror. He was watching her the way a predatory animal looks at a meal. She gave him another weak smile and disappeared inside the bathroom shutting the door behind her. He tried to open it again, but she had locked it too quickly for him.

  “Avery, you open this door right now!” he barked out.

  “I can’t go anywhere, Chuck. Why are you still so worried?”

  Silence was her answer and she heard his hand slide across the wood of the door. “Ten minutes, Avery. If you aren’t done, I’m breaking the door down.

  She turned on the water and sat on the edge of the tub looking around the bathroom. There was nothing for her to use as a weapon. She began to cry silently until she looked at the towel rack and the toilet paper. She carefully pulled the toilet paper off of the dispenser and saw that it was the old fashioned plastic kind with the moveable spring to get the roll on and off the dispenser. She set the toilet paper on the floor and tried to pull the two plastic pieces apart. They came apart relatively easily and she was able to expose the coiled spring from within. She worked it until she was able to bend it enough that she had made a kind of sturdy point with the end. She knew it wasn’t much of a weapon, but hoped the surprise of it would be enough to buy her some time. Standing she grabbed onto the towel rack and pulled with all of her strength. It wasn’t enough to pull it free. She tried over and over again, but it was no use. The crude little weapon she had made would have to be enough.