He stepped over to shake my father’s hand, and all my father could do was completely snub his politeness, and instead, he looked at him as though he was something he’s just stepped in at the local park.
“What are you doing here anyway?” I ask him, while waving my arms around in the air. If I don’t do something with them, I might be half tempted to pick up any random object and throw it across the room at him.
I never speak to my father like this, I’ve never disrespected him before, but everything’s getting way too hard to deal with as of late. Everything that has happened lately has been like a rollercoaster ride, but it’s like one of the ones you do actually want to get off of, with the intention of never boarding it again in your life.
“Don’t be changing the subject, Alex,” he responds dryly, “the first thing you should have done was contact the police and informed them of his whereabouts.”
“No! I would never do that because he hasn’t done anything wrong!” I shout at him, not believing my father could actually be this narrow-minded.
Shaking his head and unfolding his arms, he stands up from my desk chair and reaches into his pocket, “Fine, well if you don’t,” he says, while tapping a few keys into his cell phone, before looking up at me and continuing to speak, “then I will.”
“No, please, you just need to listen—“
“Sorry to interrupt but you have a visitor,” Alyssa says, while poking her head around my bedroom door.
Letting out a deep sigh, I’m about to head over to see who it is, but Alyssa begins to shake her head at me and instead points over to my father, “Not you, Alex, your father.”
My father has a visitor? I wasn’t even expecting to see him here so who the …? Shit no, not the cops. Un-fucking-believable!
My blood reaches boiling point when I realize that this was the one and only reason why he came all the way over to Seattle. I’m guessing Detective Bitch called and told him about my relationship with Brandon.
I need to make sure that Brandon’s okay and plead with them not to take him away. Away from me.
Striding over to my doorway, I practically barge Alyssa out of my way as I head through to the living area, stilling when I see Brandon casually sitting up at the breakfast bar, though standing as soon as he sees me approaching him.
“Hey, hey come here,” he says softly, “are you okay? Did you manage to sort things out with him?” holding me, with his hands placed on my shoulders, his eyes are searching my face as concern filters into them.
“The cops, are they here yet?” I ask, glancing around the room, but all my eyes land on is a woman standing over by the main door, looking extremely nervous, “Who is—?”
Brandon tries to gain my attention, grabbing my chin between his thumb and index finger as he turns me back to face him, “What are you talking about?” he looks almost terrified, “are they coming?” his eyebrows are knitted tightly together, and the brightness that was visible in his eyes is beginning to fade.
“You must be Alexis,” the woman from over by the door says, stepping forward and throwing me a small smile, “I’ve heard so much about you.”
“Alex,” my father enters the room. Flickering my eyes between my father and the woman, I wait for him to formally introduce is. “We were in the neighborhood, this is why we didn’t call or make any plans in advance,” he clears his throat as he goes to stand beside her.
I watch as they glance at each other for a split second, and see small smiles appearing over both of their faces, before they direct their attention back over on me.
“I’m Diana,” she introduces herself, “I live next door to your father.”
“Okay,” I say, feeling confused as to why my father would just be in the neighborhood in the first place, least of all with one of his neighbors.
Diana. Her name rings and bell, and that’s when I remember. My father mentioned her when Neil and I went to stay last weekend. She’s the neighbor who was helping him take some of my mom’s belongings to the charity stores, while he went ahead with his vacation.
Reaching out for Brandon’s hand, he takes a hold of mine and squeezes it, hard, “We need to go,” I tell him, knowing that it’s only a matter of time before the cops show up.
“Alexis, beautiful,” he tugs on my hand to stop me from walking away, and when I look to see what’s going on, he stands closely in front of me. “I have a feeling that your father was here for something else, besides what’s going on with the cops.”
I really have no idea what Brandon’s talking about, until I see them both over his right shoulder.
The way they are towards each other. The way my father is looking at her, and she at him. It can’t be. No, that’s completely absurd, there’s absolutely no way on this earth that he would even contemplate it.
No.
No way.
Shaking my head as I feel the tears prickling into my eyes, Brandon clutches hold of my cheeks with his hands, “Hey, come on, I know this must be …”
Shrugging him off of me, I see the sadness in his eyes and a deflated look crossing over his face, “No,” I say sternly, stepping around him before walking right over to them.
“No, no … you can’t dad, I won’t, I can’t …” he can’t move on, he just can’t. There’s no way he could be over my mom so fast, no fucking way!
“Please, Alex, calm down so we can—“ my father’s voice is quiet, and I notice the worry etching over his face as he places his hands out in front of him, as though he’s trying to calm me down.
“It’s time, that’s what you told me, that’s what you said!” I scream at him, the anger and upset entering my voice. “My mom’s things … What? You shipped them out so you could move hers in?”
I feel Brandon placing his arms around my waist, and watch as my father speaks quietly with Diana, seeing her nod as though in understanding before she goes to take a seat over on one of the couches.
My father gives me a pitying look, taking his eye contact away from me as he walks through to the kitchen, with his hands placed on either sides of his hips.
“Let’s go and talk,” Brandon whispers softly in my ear, and that’s when I feel him removing his hands from around my waist.
Following him into my room, he kisses me softly on the lips, before I throw myself back on my bed. Coming over to join me, he lays down and rests his chin in his hands as he leans over me, watching me and listening intently as I describe to him everything I’m thinking and feeling about this whole thing.
“It’s too soon …” I whisper, feeling a tear sliding down the side of my face. “My mom hasn’t been gone that long … How could he get over her so quickly or even think about being with somebody else?”
When I fix my eyes on him, he looks as sad as I’m feeling, “Brandon?” sitting up and mirroring his position, facing him as we lay on our sides and opposite one another, I see him slowly closing his eyes, his face slightly twisting. “What? What is it?”
“Beautiful, for once, I can’t agree with you on this one,” he answers, his voice laced with what sounds like regret, hurt, and pain. “I’m sorry.”
Sitting himself up and turning his whole body away from me, he hangs his legs over the side of the bed and places his head in his hand as his shoulders slouch low, “You think that what he’s doing is acceptable?”
“Alexis, how would you feel if those words, those exact same things were said to me about you? What if I’d have listened if someone had told me it was too soon to move on from Holly, and too soon to fall in love again?”
“What?”
Lifting his head and turning to face me, gripping my hands in his, he continues to speak, “Your mom died not so long after Holly did … I moved on, I moved on and found love again, I found love and happiness with you, Alexis,” he explains, his voice sounding hoarse, “don’t you think your father deserves to find someone? It doesn’t mean he’ll forget your mother, he wouldn’t, I know he wouldn’t, but at the same time, he des
erves happiness too, just like we all do.”
Wow. I accused my father of being narrow-minded, but when he puts it like that, I can see how totally out of order I’m being about it all.
“You worry about your father being all alone in Salem, I know you do, you’ve mentioned this to me once before,” he adds, stroking my face with the back of his hand as we gain eye contact again. Staring deep into my eyes, I can see that this is affecting him too. “What if it doesn’t have to be like that? What if you don’t have to worry about him because you know he has someone, someone with a kind heart who is more than willing to make him happy and take care of him when you’re not around?”
Hearing someone clearing their throat, I glance over to my door and see my father standing there. He has tears in his eyes and I notice him mouthing what looks to be the word ‘thank you’ over to Brandon.
Brandon squeezes my knee gently, before standing and walking over to the door, “I’ll … I’ll give you guys some privacy,” he says, throwing a small, sympathetic smile over at me before attempting to walk passed my father.
A feeling of dread fills my stomach when I see my father blocking Brandon’s exit. Not again, I don’t think I could cope with seeing them both at each other’s throats.
“Mr. Harper … or you can call me Paul,” my dad says, this time, holding his hand out to Brandon. “It appears I may have completely misjudged you young man.”
“It’s very nice to meet you, sir,” Brandon accepts my father’s hand, introduction, and way of apology, before throwing a wink over his shoulder and heading out of the room.
***
My father and I spent a lot of time talking, and I suppose I’m okay with him seeing someone. It’ll be hard and she will never replace my mom, but as my father told me, she didn’t decide to date him just so she could try and take my mom’s place or adopt a stubborn young woman. I guess I can see his point.
That’s all we managed to discuss before his work cell sounded out, and so I’m still not completely sure what his thoughts and feelings are towards Brandon. If the way they interacted before Brandon gave us some privacy is anything to go by, I don’t think it would do any harm in trying to explain everything to him again, with the hope that he’ll understand.
“You really should have said you’d be in town, Mr. Harper,” Alyssa tells my father as she comes over to join us around the coffee table. “You could have stayed at my father’s hotel. Alex can vouch how amazing the penthouse suite is!”
Of all the things to fall out from her mouth, she had to, didn’t she? She had to bring me into this conversation.
“Why would my daughter be staying in a hotel when she has adequate accommodation right here?” my father questions, bringing his attention over on me with a quizzical look in his eyes. “… Oh.”
Feeling as my cheeks begin to heat up, I avoid his gaze and when I go to throw an evil glare at Alyssa, I see her smiling and winking over at me. She loves to embarrass me, I swear she does.
“Rats!” Ryan exclaims, jumping up onto his feet with his eyes opened wide. “Lots of ‘em! They were everywhere and—“
“Rats, of course,” my father humors him, and when I look to Diana, who is sitting right by my father, I see that she’s throwing me a sympathetic smile.
She doesn’t seem so bad, I mean, she’s friendly enough, “So how did you and Brandon meet?” Oh shit, like this couldn’t get any worse! “I bet it was romantic.”
Yeah, it was really romantic.
I fooled around late at night, in a public place, with a guy I’d only just met and didn’t even catch his name before he left … Yeah, I don’t think I’ll answer with that explanation somehow.
“It was the best day of my life,” Brandon answers, and I’m sure my heart just melted at what he just said. Everyone glances over to him, smiling, but he shrugs as he sits forward in his seat. “No, it was, seriously. The um… the Seattle Slayers beat the Chicago Cats by one point. It was incredible!” he bursts out laughing, and when I gaze around everyone, they seem to find him highly amusing too, even my father is laughing from Brandon’s remark.
Winking over at me, I smile back at him. My father then clears his throat, and when I turn to face him, I see that he’s getting onto his feet and leaning over, whispering something into Brandon’s ear.
I have no idea what he just said to him, but I see Brandon’s face all of a sudden turning deadly serious.
“Well, we had better make a move,” my father informs us, as both he and Diana make their way over to the main door.
Grabbing their jackets from the coat hooks, I watch as my father helps Diana into hers, before we say our goodbyes.
“Dad, I need to talk to you about something,” I tell him, anxiety evident in my tone.
“Tell me you’re not pregnant!” he blurts out, and his outburst shocks me so much that I feel my eyes widening and my mouth becoming dry. “Brandon!”
“No way!” Brandon laughs out at my father’s expression as he comes over to stand beside me. “I have no intention of becoming a father, at least, not until I’m way into my thirties, I assure you.”
My father breathes out a huge sigh in relief, and the deep shade of red his whole face had turned just a couple of seconds ago, begins to fade, “Well thank heavens for that!”
Nudging me with his elbow, Brandon smiles down at me before I go to kiss my father goodbye, “So dad, about—“
“We’ll talk tomorrow,” he interrupts me, kissing me lightly on both cheeks before summoning Brandon to join both him and Diana in the hallway.
When I go to ask again, Brandon kisses me on the forehead, tells me he’ll be back in a little while, and then follows my father out of the dorm.
***
I’ve been pacing the living area for just over two hours.
It has been two freaking hours since Brandon left with my father, and I’ve neither seen nor heard from him since. Chewing on my nails, I’m beginning to feel really anxious.
“Your dad is a pretty cool guy,” Ryan says as he peeks over the back of the couch. “I think he totally bought the rat issue.”
“Why do you think he’s taking so long?” I ask him, checking my watch and seeing that it’s a little before four o’clock. “Surely he would have been back by—“
The main door swings open, and I feel all the panic instantly floating away from my body as I head over to find out where he has been.
“Hey guys,” Neil greets us, carrying his guitar over his left shoulder as he makes his way to his room. “Before I forget, Ryan, please, if you and Alyssa intend on making that amount of noise so late in the night, could you please fucking sound proof your rooms or something? I was awake half the night with the biggest and hardest boner!” he laughs, shakes his head, and as he’s about to proceed into his room, Ryan sits up with a puzzled expression over his face.
“Nah-ah, do not be blaming us for last night,” he says, grinning and pointing over towards me, “It’s that one over there you wanna be saying this to. Alyssa and I had a rest night last night, although I have to agree, it made me feel pretty fucking horny too!”
They heard us? Well … me? I feel the embarrassment creeping over me when Neil’s eyes dart over in my direction, “It was you?” he sounds shocked by this information.
“Brandon stayed over last night,” I say shyly, looking away from the both of them. I hadn’t realized that I’d made so much noise that they were able to hear us, although it was pretty amazing. He was amazing.
“He did? But I thought that he left and—“
Neil’s stops talking when the main door swings open again, and this time, it’s the person I’ve been waiting for, “Where have you been?” I ask, desperate to know what my father had to say to him, that he couldn’t with me being present too.
I notice a smile playing over his lips as he heads straight towards me, before scooping me up and placing what feels like a million kisses all over me. My nose, my forehead, my jaw, my lips, my neck �
�
“You guys go and get a room,” Ryan calls over, “and I’ll get my earplugs!” he laughs as he stands, before making his way over to Alyssa’s room.
“Brandon?” I ask him again, noticing that he’s wearing a warm smile over his lips and aiming it right at me, but the smile doesn’t seem to be quite reaching his dim lit eyes.
“Alexis … we need to talk,” his voice is strained and his tone low.
Why is it that whenever anyone speaks those four little words, it doesn’t feel as though it could be anything but bad news that you’re about to hear?
Walking straight by me and over to my room, I glance over to where Neil’s standing and notice the look of confusion and concern flitting over his face.
“Like I’ve said before, Alex,” he says, obviously noticing the worry over my own face from what Brandon just said, “everything will work out just the way it should, you’ll see.”
Smiling and waving a small wave at him as I head towards my room, I figure he’s right. If something is meant to be, then it will happen, even if it takes forever to get it.
13.
The Cabin
“I need to leave town for a little while,” Brandon tells me, with slight hesitation entering his tone as he sits himself down on the edge of my bed and studies me, most likely for my reaction.
Closing my eyes and feeling my stomach knotting tightly for what feels like the thousandth time today already, I feel a rush of disappointment coursing through me.
Tears are stinging in my eyes, and so I turn around so he can no longer see me, “For how long?” I ask, my voice shaky even though I’m trying my hardest not to show my sadness to him.
I know this is something he has to do, so I need to just focus on the ending, rather than the here and now. He promised me forever, and I know we’ll have that one day, somehow.
“Until this whole mess gets sorted out,” his voice is soft, and I can feel him standing close behind me now. “It could only be for a few days, or it might take a little while longer …”
Misplaced Trust (Misjudged) Page 11
