Hat Trick

by Morris Fenris

  “Was is the term you’re looking for.”

  Seraphina knew she was acting irrationally. He had not even showed the slightest interest in the Brandi woman so she had no reason to feel insecure but she still did. The green monster within her showed its ugly little head just a bit.

  “How many Brandis did you have before?”

  Cole looked uncomfortable at the question and scratched his head, unsure how to answer. “You don’t want to know the answer to that. Besides, let the past stay in the past. Right now, I have eyes only for you.”

  He did not date because women tended to get clingy fast and most of them wanted more – they were after his money and name. No one really cared to get to know him for who he was until Seraphina. Seraphina was sweet like that. She shied away from presents and fancy places and enjoyed the simpler things in life even while she was with him. Just as women used him for his money, he used them for his pleasure and then discarded them once he grew bored. It was something he was not proud of and he did not wish to reveal that to Seraphina. The tabloids had quite a few stories but they did not know half of it.

  Placated, Seraphina let him treat her to a quick lunch and then had him return her to her job.

  “I missed work the other day because I was busy crying over a stupid mistake. I can’t afford to keep missing work on a regular basis. I really need the money right now.”

  Cole felt a sharp pang at her first comment and then frowned as he processed the rest of her sentence.

  “I didn’t know you were having money problems.”

  “I wasn’t. I just need the extra cash to fund a charity back home,” Seraphina said evasively.

  “What charity?” Cole felt a hint of suspicion enter his mind but he quickly dismissed it. Seraphina was not like the others.

  “For the orphans. The local orphanage is running low on supplies there and despite the small donations that people there make, it’s not enough. They have taken in too many children and if they don’t get funds soon, they will have to shut down.” Tears formed in Seraphina’s eyes and she quickly looked away. “I donated my entire month’s salary but it’s not enough.”

  Cole felt deep respect for the woman standing in front of him. He’d had Ethan do a bit of background checking on her the first time she had contacted him. Seraphina Claire made monthly small donations to various charities around the state and a few outside. She was so selfless. He had never known anyone quite like her other than his mother. His mother dug out charities from hidden rocks and helped them out. May St. John would love Seraphina if she ever met her.

  “I’ll help.”

  “What? No.” Seraphina’s brown eyes widened. “I didn’t tell you because I knew you would say that.”

  “You don’t want me to help?” he asked, perplexed.

  “No.”

  “Why not?” He felt indignant at her calm replies. He could not see why him helping out would be such a problem for her.

  “You’re just giving away money because you have so much of it. I can’t let you do that. It’s okay if I have to work double time to give them the money, but I want it to go sincerely to them,” she explained, staring at the wall behind him.

  “You think I don’t care?” he asked in a deadly calm voice.

  “I didn’t say that,” she protested, still refusing to look at him.

  “Seraphina… Look at me.” For good measure, he added, “please?”

  Brown eyes clashed with his stormy grey ones. “You implied it. But I care. I care a lot. I was nearly made an orphan and I know a little about the pain they go through. So I’ll be giving the money because I genuinely want to help. I donate to a lot of charities, Seraphina. But that doesn’t mean that once I do it, I forget about them. I remember each and every one of them and I do follow-ups on them. I make sure every penny of my money goes to the right place.”

  Pride swelled in Seraphina’s chest as she stared adoringly at the amazing man. She knew he cared but she still did not want him to donate just to get her out of a situation. She also did not want him to think that she was like the others, exploiting him for his money even though it would be going to a right place.

  “Thank you,” she said softly. Her lips quirked up as her eyes shone brightly.

  He leaned forward and stole a quick kiss. “You’re still going to work twice as hard, aren’t you?”

  She nodded. Just because he would make a donation did not mean she would change her mind. Her share of the money was still going to go to them. The more money they had, they more they would improve and the better the children would fare.

  “My little saint,” he murmured against her lips.

  “I’m not…”

  “You are too. Shh… Don’t talk. Just let me enjoy this.” He took her mouth softly, showing her just how much he appreciated her and just as the level of heat started to build, he broke away. “You have to get back to work. I shouldn’t be distracting you.”

  Seraphina almost groaned aloud. She forget all about her working twice as hard and just wanted him to distract her. Him distracting her felt really good. The rush of cool air as he stepped back and gave her space brought her out of the stupor. She could not help but grin back at the mischievous look in his eyes as he bid her goodbye and got into his car. The man had done it on purpose knowing she would be thinking about him all day now. She did not seem to mind it much, though.

  The next day he texted her to meet him at the coffee place nearest to her workplace during her break. Glad to have the opportunity to see him as well as take a break, she made a run for it when the hour came. Just as she rounded the corner, her mobile phone pinged.

  Cole: Sorry, stuck in a meeting. Can’t make it. Maybe later? :(

  Seraphina: Looking forward to later! ;)

  She felt disappointed. She had been looking forward to seeing him after the long hours of being stuck at the computer editing photos and polishing her article for a magazine. Just as well, she thought as she kept going. It would be nice to grab something to eat since she had not packed lunch. Just as she was about to push open the door, she caught a glimpse in the window and froze.

  Her heart stuttered frantically in her chest the second she realized who the two people talking in the window were. She made a sound like that of a wounded animal and turned around heading blindly into the street when a car horn honked too close. Suddenly she found herself airborne and then landed on something hard and warm.

  “Seraphina! Are you alright?” Cole asked frantically as he ran his hands over her body looking for any damage that might have occurred.

  Too choked up and shocked to talk, she pushed him away and unsteadily stood up. “Get away from me.”

  Cole’s face paled as he saw the look of resignation on her face. “Wait… I can explain.”

  Her near accident had drawn a crowd around them and among them stood Brandi who watched the pair like a hawk. Seraphim swallowed the bile that rose up and started to walk away when Cole grabbed her arm.

  “Let go,” she said through gritted teeth. She needed to get as far away as she could from him before she did or said something awful.

  “Please,” he pleaded. “It’s not what you think.”

  Had it been someone else, she would have laughed. They all said that when they got caught. Did they think women were so stupid that they could not string events together? Why had she believed him the first time? Of course. She was in love with him. She was blind to any faults of his that might have been showing. Sobs wracked her body as she found privacy and the pain started.

  “What’s wrong?” May St. John asked, staring at her son with concern. He’d been acting oddly ever since they’d sat down for lunch. She threw Antony a nervous glance. “Cole?”

  Cole jerked his head up and found his mother and Antony staring at him in consternation. “What happened?”

  “That’s what we were asking you,” Antony said, putting down his fork.

  “Wha--... Nothing happened.” Cole frowned and ca
ught another of his mother’s nervous glances directed towards Antony. “Is everything okay with you two?”

  “Of course. Why?” May asked, alarmed.

  Cole shook his head. “Good. That’s all that matters.”

  “Sweetie,” May placed her hand on Cole’s. “You’ve been frowning ever since you came here. What’s going on? Is it us? I thought you were okay with that. That’s why we waited until we thought you’d be okay with it. You don’t have to fear hurting our feelings… Just tell us, please?”

  “I-I… No, mom!” Cole rushed to explain. “I don’t have a problem with you guys. I swear. I couldn’t be happier for you. And it’s about time, too! I don’t why you waited so long to do this…” He suddenly trailed off and his eyes widened. “You waited for me?!”

  May swallowed and looked at Antony for support. He jumped in immediately. “You were always so possessive of her and didn’t take kindly to any little attention I showed right from the beginning. We didn’t know how you would take it if we got married so we decided to wait until you warmed up to the idea of us…”

  Cole could not believe that the two most important people in his life had put a major event in their lives on hold just because of him for so many years. It was true that he had not always favoured Antony but any boy at that age would have viewed a male in his single mother’s life as a potential threat. Also, at the time he and his mother were still recovering from the sudden death of his father.

  However, as time passed he was grateful for having Antony in his life. He eventually saw him as a father figure even though he never used the term to his face. Regret filled him for being the cause of another misunderstanding that had probably hindered the couple’s life. Twenty years was a long time to wait to get married.

  He stood up from the table and pulled his mother into a hug. “I’m sorry, mom. I had no idea that you felt that way,” he mumbled, feeling once again like a small boy who had done something wrong and was being reprimanded for it. “Maybe at first, I wasn’t warm to the idea of you two, but I gradually grew fond of Antony. I mean, he was always there for you and me. How could I be against that?”

  May hugged her son tightly and rubbed the top of his head comfortingly. “We’re not blaming you, sweetie. As long as we have each other and you, we are happy. That’s all that matters. We didn’t need to get legally married to be happy, because we are married in our hearts. It’s just a formality now, you know?” She grinned at him, pleased to see the look of doubt vanish from his face.

  “Do you have a date for the wedding?” Antony asked as he cleared the table.

  The mention of a date brought Seraphina’s name to his mind and his heart twisted painfully. He had not heard from her since the day outside the café. He’d been calling her continuously but it always went straight to voicemail. He went by her apartment but her roommate always shut the door in his face with a deadly look. It had been two weeks of slow torture – a first for him.

  His mother steered him outside and gave him a look that demanded answers. Sighing, he told her everything – from the accidental bump-in at the psychic’s to the last day he saw Seraphina.

  “Oh, Cole!” his mother said sadly as he finished with a woebegone expression on his face. “Why are you men so thick sometimes?”

  He did not have an answer to that.

  “You really like her?”

  He nodded.

  “Would you be willing to scale a mountain for her just to retrieve some dirt?”

  That was a rather odd question but he found himself giving a positive reply rather fiercely.

  May clapped her hands. “This girl…Seraphina, what a beautiful name by the way… I can’t wait to meet her! She believes in this psychic, yes?”

  “Yes. She had a rather different view of the world, mom. I think it’s more beautiful from her side.”

  She nodded sagely. And then turned away to wipe a stray tear.

  “Mom!”

  “I’m happy,” she smiled up at him. “You seem to have found a woman that makes you yearn, finally.”

  Cole mumbled under his breath and stared at the grass beneath their feet. He did not know whether it was love he was feeling or guilt at having caused Seraphina pain, however unintentionally. He thought about a future with her and surprisingly did not find himself alarmed at the prospect. He had never been in a relationship before, so he did not know what it entailed for him but he was willing to figure it out with her if she forgave him for his stupidity.

  “Fix things soon. I want to meet her before the wedding!” his mother told him just as he was leaving. “Promise me you’ll fix this.”

  He would fix things. Even if it meant him believing in things he had never believed in before. He could do at least that much for a woman who brought energy into his life once more.

  Seraphina stared listlessly at the photos from her camera roll. They were not good. She had never done such bad work before. She resisted the urge to bang her head against the desk. At this time, any type of pain would be good because she was getting tired of feeling so numb. During the first week, she had hurt so much that everything opened her floodgates. Blaming the constant redness of her eyes and nose on a sudden cold, she managed to get through work. But her head was not in the game.

  She felt awful about the way she had behaved with her best friend who had only been looking out for her. When Seraphina showed up at the apartment that night wearing a makeup-streaked face and the fancy dress, Carli had not said a word. Instead, she had pulled her into a tight hug and gotten her out of the dress before supplying her with a bucket of ice cream and her favorite TV show. Carli had kept her company the second time as well – through all the crying on the bathroom floor, the getting drunk and throwing darts at Cole’s face. She even prevented her from calling him to tell him that she hated his guts. That would have been contradictory since Seraphina had fallen too hard for him and now it hurt. Too much.

  It was like she was gasping for air and every time she tried to take a gulp of fresh breath, it burned. She painfully realized why they called it a broken heart. It was the most agonizing thing anyone in the world could suffer from. She wished it to end during the nights when she lay alone in her cold, empty bed and sharp pain twisted her heart.

  Worse was her broken belief in the universe. The psychic was wrong. There was no happily-ever-after for her. She was doomed to die of a broken heart. All her beliefs about true happiness and joy in the moments of life crashed to the ground when she walked out on Cole. She had gone through worse things in life before but having held the happiness in her hand and then having it snatched away seemed like the worst.

  She hoped against hope that it was only a nightmare. That she would wake up to find everything in her world still intact. She was disappointed every time. The nightmare was quite real and she had no idea how she was going to recover from it.

  ♥●●♥

  * * *

  Chapter 11

  Ethan stared at his boss and friend in frustration. Ever since he’d messed up things with Seraphina, Cole spent his days getting drunk or getting crazy ideas. He was worried about which would kill him first: the ideas or the alcohol?

  “What do you think of parachuting into the savannah?” Cole asked him without turning around from his desk.

  “It’s a crappy idea,” Ethan said bluntly.

  “You said that about all my ideas,” Cole huffed.

  “Because they were all crappy.”

  “You don’t know how to live.” Cole twirled the pen between his fingers before striking against something on the paper in front of him. “Life should be lived on the edge or it is no fun.”

  Ethan snorted but did not say anything.

  “Do you have something to say? Then please say it.”

  “I have nothing to say, sir,” Ethan added the last part with a note of derision.

  A dark eyebrow lifted up. “Your tone says you have something to say, Ethan. Just spit it out.”

  “You’
re an idiot.”

  “I concur. But why?”

  “You need to get your head out of your ass and do something about your woman instead of moping around.”

  Cole bristled and threw his friend a glare that would have wilted any other person. “I’m not moping around.”

  “The gentleman doth protest too much.”

  “I can’t fix things with the threat of a police case over my head.”

  “Really?” Ethan said sarcastically.

  “She won’t talk to me. How do you fix things with someone who won’t listen to you?”

  “Excuses…excuses.”

  Controlling the urge to throw something at Ethan’s head, he turned away once again to stare at the list of ideas. In the time he’d been away from Seraphina he had come up with numerous crazy ideas to distract himself and bring back the lost pulse from his life.

  Ethan was right. The man always turned out to be right. It was quite an annoying habit of his since their college years. That was where they had met and that was the beginning of a legendary friendship. Ethan came from an impoverished background and did not fit among the elite students. He had gotten into the system through merit just as Cole had. At first, they ignored each other on sight but one day Cole found the other students bullying Ethan in the locker room. If there was one thing Cole could not stand, it was bullies. After putting all of them in their places, Cole took Ethan under his wing. Since then they were inseparable. Gradually, Ethan developed a stronger attitude, one that was not punctuated by insecurity and self-loathing.

  They both graduated from the same classes but while Cole had a keen interest in business, Ethan’s interests lie elsewhere. Cole watched his friend struggle to make a living as an artist and then finally abandon it to join the army. He had returned a changed man – more hardened from his term serving in war-infested areas.

  When a crisis had struck and Cole had gotten caught in the middle, Ethan was there to help him this time. He was then offered a job at Cole’s company as his bodyguard and as someone who would be remotely in charge of all other aspects of security. He had accepted it only after he was certain that Cole actually believed in his abilities and was not doing it because he was a friend.