"Oh that's nice. Well, you have a merry Christmas Tory."
"You too Mellenda. Thanks. I hope things get better for you with your boyfriend."
"I doubt it Tor, but it's nice of you to say so."
By the time Tory had finished using the toilet and exited the stall, practically being shoved aside by a weary looking young mother, two little boys in tow, Mellenda was gone. She washed her hands and left the bathroom, getting back to the lobby in time to see Mellenda throwing her arms around Tony.
Tony gave her an apologetic look over the other girl's shoulder. When Tory reached them, she heard Mellenda saying "Oh Anthony, it's so good to see you. I didn't know you had family up here."
"I don't." He turned to Tory. "My girlfriend does."
"Oh, Tory. I'm sorry. I didn't know you two were dating. I keep screwing everything up today."
"It's okay Mellenda."
Had it been anyone from school besides Mellenda, who had at least always been friendly, it wouldn't have been. But the girl was obviously having a bad day. Why did she need to make it worse she thought?
"Well, I guess I'll let you two get to your movie." Mellenda still looked uncomfortable.
Giving her a smile that she hoped would put her at ease Tory said "Do you want to come with us? I mean, if you're not busy."
"Thanks Tory, but I'd better get out of here. Enrique took off a while ago, so if I don't want him to leave without me I'd better see if I can find him."
"Do you need a ride somewhere Lin?" Tony said.
Ugh, now that bothered her she thought, Tony calling her 'Lin’. 'Lin’ sounded a bit too familiar for Tory's tastes.
"No Anthony. He wouldn't really leave me here. I'm sure he's wandering around the other side of the mall. We had such a terrible fight. I'd better find him before he gets any angrier, thinking I left HIM. You two have a merry Christmas."
She gave them a wave and took off out of the movie theatre.
"So," Tory said as they walked back to the section of the theatre that was showing their movie. "How do you know Mellenda? Or ‘Lin’ as you call her."
"Chill, Tory. Stick that green eyed monster back in your pocket. We went out a couple times. Nothing serious."
"Did you have sex with her?"
“Tory, it doesn’t matter whether or not I had sex with Mellenda. I love you. No other woman has meant a damn thing to me since I met you.”
“So you did have sex with her.”
Tony gave her a warning look. “Chill baby. I don’t have any weed to calm you down.” He smiled to let her know he was teasing.
“Ha ha Tony. Let’s just go see this stupid movie.”
"Tor, are you okay?"
"Of course Anthony."
He gave her a funny look, but she threw him back a tight smile, following him into the crowded theatre. They managed to find a seat on the aisle so at least they weren't trapped on both sides by mothers with screaming kids. She didn't know why, but it seemed like Tony was the only male in the whole theatre over 18. Fathers didn't seem to exist in the crowded mall theatre on the day before Christmas.
The movie was pretty stupid, and there were so many people that it seemed to take forever for them to get out of the theater.
"Let's get out of here," she said when they'd made it safely out of the theatre. "If I ever see this many people again toting around screaming children I swear I'll go crazy."
He laughed. "So it'd be a good idea to wait on kids?"
"Are you kidding me? Maybe you'll be able to convince me to have kids when I'm thirty, but I highly doubt it."
"You would make a really hot mother." He put an arm around her as they headed towards the door.
“Shut up Tony.”
"Baby, baby baby." He put his arms around her when they had reached the car. "I think you need to get laid."
"I don't need to get laid. I need you to stop talking about Mellenda like she's a goddess."
"Oh Tor.” He buried his head in her hair. "I'm an asshole aren't I?"
"Yes you are. Teasing me about getting laid."
"What if I wasn't teasing? What if you took so long in the mall that I rented us a room for the next four nights at that little motel across the street?"
"You didn't. Besides, you couldn't possibly afford it."
"It was pretty cheap. It's kind of a dump. I told the dude that we were on our honeymoon, but with it being the holidays we might not be using the room all the time with all the family stuff. He was fine with it as long as he got his money."
He pulled a key attached to a faded plastic keychain out of his pocket, giving her a triumphant smile.
"What if I'm too mad at you to have sex with you?"
"Oh darlin’, it's all the better then. I have ways to make you want me even when you are pissed. I love it when you've got that fire in your eyes."
"You said four nights. We're still staying at Lindsey's right?"
"Of course. No way in hell are you going to mention our room to your stepdad. We've got tonight. Well, we'll use the room for a couple hours, and then head back to your mom's before they get home. We might get a chance to sneak off tomorrow. I think I like you much better when you're not sexually frustrated."
"I like me much better too."
She gave him a kiss, getting into the passenger side of the car for the drive to the motel.
Once they had pulled into the parking lot of the rundown motel, they got out of the car and she followed him to their room. She stood back as he opened the door, looking at the room as he flipped on the light. There was a queen size bed with a faded comforter, a small nightstand with a telephone sitting on it, a dresser with an old TV that had bad reception, and a tiny bathroom with a shower stall.
At least the towels in the bathroom looked clean she thought, and they still smelled of bleach.
"So what do you think?" He shut the door and smacked the top of the TV to see if he could get the picture to come in better.
"I think that whatever you paid for this place was too much."
"It's not that bad Tor. At least it's clean. The sheets smell like laundry detergent and not piss."
"You are so nasty Tony."
"C'mere baby and I'll show you how nasty I can be." He motioned for her to join him on the bed.
They spent the next hour engaged in blissful foreplay that led to urgent can't take it anymore sex, followed by a short nap. Then they showered together to conserve water. It was a good thing they did because the hot water ran out pretty quickly.
When she was dressed again and feeling ever so much better Tory said "I'm hungry. Let's stop and get something to eat on the way home."
"Are you sure you're not pregnant? You seem to be awfully hungry all of a sudden."
"I'm a growing girl. Shut up about pregnant or I'll wait to get pregnant until science has figured out a way for the man to carry the child."
"Good luck with that one."
He turned the thermostat up enough so that it would at least kick on every once in a while while they were gone, flipped the light switch off and turned the lock on the door as they left the room.
"So are we gonna end up back at the mall food court so we can afford to eat dinner?" Tony said, as they got back in the car, Tory in the driver's seat once again.
"As you can see by our luxurious accommodations, the further you get out this way, the lower the tax bracket. There's a really good Italian restaurant a few miles up the road. Let's hope that they're still open."
"Sounds good to me."
The open light was still on when they reached the restaurant and the place was pretty crowded. They were seated at a small booth in the back and both ended up ordering the lasagna, though Tony ordered the large plate where Tory ordered the small. They left just over an hour later both stuffed.
Tory didn't really want to go back to her mother's house but there wasn't much else for them to do this late on Christmas Eve. The only places that were going to be open after the next couple hours would
be the convenience stores that never closed.
"So I guess it’s back to Lindsey and Langston's then, huh?" She sighed as she pulled out into traffic.
"Guess so. We should be able to find something to watch on TV huh?"
"But you're not going to let me cuddle with you on the couch. You'll still be too afraid of Langston coming after you with a butcher knife to let me touch you again."
"Didn't I let you touch me enough in the motel room?"
She stuck her tongue out at him. “Will you at least hold my hand?"
"I think I could probably manage that if you manage not to get your girl cooties on me."
She rolled her eyes at him for paying back her grade school gesture with a grade school comment; and drove slowly towards her mother's house, taking the longest route possible.
Langston's car was still gone and she was glad not to have to deal with her mother or stepfather. If she was really lucky she thought Langston and Lindsey would get home late again tonight.
They went in the house, settling on the couch. Tory left Tony in control of the remote.
"Damn," he said after he'd scanned the whole onscreen program guide twice. "All these channels and still nothing decent to watch. And you wonder why I don't have cable."
"I think its satellite."
"Same difference. Think they'd mind if we got a pay per view? It's the only thing that I could find remotely worth watching."
"Like they'd notice if their bill was a few dollars higher. And I sure as hell don't give a shit. Go ahead."
"I'll pay them back for it."
"Langston would probably laugh in your face if you tried to give him five bucks for a stupid movie. Don't worry about it."
He pushed the button on the remote to order the movie. When it dialed out he got a funny look on his face. "I thought you said they didn't have a home phone."
"I didn't know they still did. I thought they got rid of it. Why?"
"You didn't bother to try the home phone when you called your mom."
"Oh geese Tony." She was irritated. "We got here in one piece didn't we? And it's not like she bothered to call me back after I left that message now did she? Have you not noticed the way my mother acts? She barely said hello when we got here and has she said a word to me since then? She didn't care enough to tell Langston your name, if she remembered it with her alcohol fogged brain. I promise you that I'll be civil to my stepfather while we're here. He at least sort of deserves it, besides the fact that he threatened to chop your penis off, and that he mentioned setting me up with some loser right in front of you, like I was supposed to dump you right then and there because I was so hot to go out with some loser rich kid who I'd probably never see again."
"I don't think he meant it that way when he mentioned wanting to set you up with that guy. He was trying to be helpful."
"No, he was trying to pawn me off on someone so they could busy themselves getting drunk like usual. Quit defending him. He threatened you and you still defend him. Don't be like my dad forever defending my mother after all that she's done to ruin my family."
"C'mon baby. Let's watch the movie. No more arguing. This one's supposed to be really good. You should like it. People die in it."
She had to laugh because she'd once told him that she didn't like to read a fiction book that nobody died in. He put his arm around her and kissed the top of her head. She was surprised when he kept his arm around her, but she loved him for it.
The movie was pretty good she had to admit. She stood up and stretched when it had ended; yawning though it was still early. "We may as well head to bed. We've got a long day of torture ahead of us tomorrow."
"It'll only be torture if you insist on making it that way Tor."
"Bleh." She followed him up the stairs. "You are an optimist to a fault aren't you Tony? I used to be one too. That was a long time ago though, before my mother crumpled up the mother's day card I spent hours making for her in kindergarten and threw it in the trash. Don’t tell me Lindsey's not a bitch and that it's not going to be hell spending the day with her and her husband of the moment. You see if you can still look on Lindsey's bright side when she takes everything that you care about and crushes it in her hand. The one not holding the drink and the cigarette of course."
"You're what I care about baby. It sure as hell looks like she's done a number on you hasn't she?"
They stood in the hall outside his bedroom door. "I don't want to talk about my mother anymore." She sighed. "Let's go to bed. But of course we can't go to bed together, even if we don't have sex. I might get pregnant if you lay beside me fully clothed."
"You can at least understand where they're coming from right? Even if I loved my daughter's boyfriend I'm not sure if I'd be okay with them sleeping together under my roof. Call it parental blinders. If they can't see their kid doing it in front of them it can't be happening."
"Whatever. Goodnight Tony. I love you. Hey, you think I should sleep with nothing but my locket on tonight?" She gave him a smile.
"You wait until we get back home to do that darlin'." He groaned.
"Spoilsport."
"Old spoilsport wants to keep his penis attached to his body Tony."
"Night Tony." She gave him a kiss.
"Goodnight Tor. I love you baby. Thanks for a nice day today. I had fun."
"Me too. Just gotta survive tomorrow."
"You'll be fine."
"Yeah, yeah. Well, I'd better go to my lonely room."
"Yep." He leaned against the door and watched her walk away.
"You don't need to take a shower in the morning since you took two today. No running into you in the hall in the morning half naked okay?"
"And you don’t make any detours down to use my bathroom, in case I forgot to put a shirt on okay?"
"That doesn't seem like a very fair deal to me."
"Sweet dreams baby."
"You too Tony. But make sure I'm the only one in them." He laughed. "Seriously. Or I'll come into your room and watch you sleep. I'll know and drag you back to the motel for some more forget other women exist sex."
"Hush Tory. What if your parents came in when you were talking like that?"
"Then Langston would know you respected him enough to screw me somewhere else.” She blew him a kiss and then shut her bedroom door behind her.
Tory had a hard time falling asleep, and even when she did fall asleep she kept waking up. It didn't help when she'd fallen asleep for the third time only to be awakened rather rudely to the sound of Lindsey and Langston arguing loudly. She rolled over, and glanced at her clock and saw it was seven minutes after three in the morning. Had they just gotten home she wondered? Or had they gotten home, gotten even more drunk and then decided to start arguing loudly enough to wake up the whole damn neighborhood?
She couldn't catch most of what they were saying even as loud as they were, but the one word that came out loud and clear was divorce. And then she heard prenup. Langston threatening Lindsey with the prenup she wondered? But then she heard prenup again from Lindsey this time and it was loud enough to catch the whole sentence.
"Fuck you and your prenup.”
Then she heard the sound of glass shattering; then the front door opening and then slamming shut and finally the revving of an expensive engine. Damn, what if Lindsey was hurt Tory thought? A guy who would threaten to cut his stepdaughter's boyfriend's penis off might not be above smacking his bitch of a soon to be ex-wife around, right?
Ugh she really should get up and check on her mother, much as she hated to she thought. But by the time she got to the stairs Tony was already down in the living room. And it was Langston who was bleeding.
She sat down at the head of the stairs and listened as Tony talked to Langston.
"You all right sir?" He turned on another lamp and stepped around the broken glass.
It looked like Lindsey had thrown an ashtray at him. Besides glass on the floor she could now see ashes and cigarette butts littering the normall
y spotless carpet.
"I'm all right Anthony. It's worse than it looks. Head wounds tend to bleed a lot."
Geese the bitch had thrown the ashtray at his head she thought? That was low even for Lindsey.
"Let me get you a towel. You're ruining your shirt."
"It's already ruined, but thank you." Langston held his fancy dress shirt to his head.
"You mind if I ask what happened?" Tony stepped back into the room with a wet towel and a broom and dustpan to take care of the mess.
"It's always the same thing with that woman." Langston sat down on the couch. "We go out somewhere nice with important people, and I end up trying to get her to leave graciously before she can ruin everything by embarrassing us all with drunken antics. She takes offense, gets mad as a hatter. Chain smoking the whole way back in my car so that it always stinks, and by the time we get here she's so mad she's apt to kill me if she doesn't go up to bed and pass out. This time I'd had enough. This time she did blow it. Now, I'm not hurting for money, but what she did tonight was mess with her daughter's future. I've tucked money away for Tory to go to college for years, since I first married Lindsey. Tory's a smart girl. She deserves to go to the best school, but college is expensive. And what Lindsey did tonight was blow a deal that could have made sure we were taken care of for years and made sure that Tory could go to whatever school she chose and not have to worry about the cost. With the way that Lindsey spends money, even a billionaire could end up broke after a few years and I'm not a billionaire. Sometimes dealing with Lindsey is like dealing with a child. Tantrums; if things don't go her way she won't talk to you for days or she'll do like she did tonight and get physical. That's not the first thing she's thrown at me and not the biggest either. Luckily it was the first time she's hit me, but there's a first time for everything right?" Langston let out a harsh laugh.
"I'm sorry."
"Nothing to be sorry about son, it's not your fault my wife's a bitch. Or should I say soon to be ex-wife? I love that woman more than life itself, would lay down in front of a bus to keep a hair on her pretty head from getting harmed; but she done messed up good tonight. Even if I didn't suspect she's been sleeping around which I'm positive she has been now, has to have another fish on her line, to tell me to fuck the prenup which was my stupid way of trying to keep her around for a while. . . Yeah, she's got someone waiting in the wings. I hope his bank account's bigger than mine. I'm gonna be paying off credit cards for the next five years. But that girl up there, she's taken care of. It was supposed to be a surprise, but I traded out my BMW for a car for her to take to college. She might not have the money to go Ivy League because of her mother's little fiasco tonight, but she'll damn well have the money to go to her choice of more moderately priced schools. And it's all wrapped up so that her mother can't get her greedy hands on it and believe me, that bitch would. She's got a beautiful, smart daughter and she takes it all for granted. If that was my daughter up there, I'd tell her I loved her. I'd tell her I was happy to see her. I'd tell her how sorry I was that we had business meetings at this time of year and that I wasn't able to spend more time with her. But did she say a word to her? No, and she never does. In the time that I've been married to Lindsey has she told Tory that she loved her? No, not once. I can see how much it hurts her. I know she thinks of me as nothing more than some guy that her mother is married to, but Tory deserves better. I'm sure you agree."
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