by Carys Jones
‘See you in a few days pumpkin, be good,’ he told her fondly.
‘Football!’ Meegan cheekily reminded him. Aiden couldn’t help but admire the toddler’s tenacity.
‘Where are you going?’ Isla followed Aiden into the kitchen and he paused at the front door, his hand upon the handle, ready to leave.
‘Does it matter?’ Aiden asked her.
‘Yes, of course it does,’ Isla responded, hurt.
‘I’m going to Chicago,’ Aiden told her, his voice empty of emotion, as though she were a ticket collector asking his destination.
Isla’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open in shock. She went to speak and then couldn’t.
Aiden moved to open the door but Isla pushed against it.
‘Chicago?’ she uttered, suddenly finding her voice.
‘Yes,’ Aiden confirmed.
‘To see her?’ Isla’s cheeks reddened as she said the words.
‘Yes, to see Brandy.’
‘What? Why?’ Isla blurted, still resting some of her weight against the front door, desperate to stop her husband leaving.
‘Because she deserves to know what’s happened.’ Aiden told her earnestly. ‘And I fear you may still sell the story to the press so she needs to be forewarned.’
‘Aid, I won’t, I swear.’
‘I don’t trust you.’ Aiden sighed sadly.
‘Please don’t go to her,’ Isla trembled as she spoke, looking up at her husband with desperation in her eyes.
‘Why not?’ Aiden challenged.
‘We made vows. We have a daughter.’ Isla pushed herself against him, wrapping her arms around him.
‘If Samuel Fern can forgive his wife for having another man’s baby then why can’t we get past this?’ she asked.
It sickened Aiden that she would use the situation with the Fern family for her own gain when the wounds over the paternity issue were still raw. He pushed her aside and headed out through the door, to his car. Using his hands-free kit he called a local airline company as he drove.
‘I need the first flight out to Chicago,’ he told them.
From the doorway, Isla stared after him, frozen in shock. As his car turned the corner, she fell down weeping, not caring if the neighbours saw, she was too consumed by guilt and grief.
But Aiden didn’t see, as he drove away he didn’t look back.
*
It was raining heavily in Chicago and had been all day. The sky lay thick and dense over the city, the colour of dirty dishwater. The weather reflected Brandy’s mood as she leant against the glass window in her apartment and watched the droplets of water land upon it and then slide slowly down.
She was sat cross-legged on the wooden floor, her forehead leaning against the cool window pane. A steaming mug of hot chocolate was nearby which she had to sip intermittently to stop herself from shivering. Yet she knew it wasn’t the cold which made her shiver, it was something much deeper, something which had been marked on her soul.
Pressing her palm upon the pane, Brandy sighed and the tears on her face ran down in small rivulets like the raindrops outside.
*
Outside the airport it was chaos as people haphazardly avoided the rain and crammed themselves in to the nearest available cab. Aiden pushed past people who were waiting, not caring about his lack of manners, and hauled himself in to an approaching cab before the driver had even had chance to fully apply the brakes.
‘Look, pal, everyone here is in a hurry,’ the driver turned and told him sharply.
‘I’m sorry but this is an emergency,’ Aiden gasped, trying to catch his breath.
‘Sure,’ the driver rolled his eyes in boredom.
‘I’ll pay you double,’ Aiden offered.
This appealed to the driver and his mood immediately improved.
‘Where to?’ he asked, his voice now pleasant and amenable.
‘There’s an old hotel near the centre of town,’ Aiden began but the driver was already nodding knowingly.
‘Yeah, I know the place.’
The cab moved forward and began to weave its way out of the airport. Aiden tried to gather his thoughts and control the rising sense of panic within him. He felt giddy with excitement yet paralysed by terror all at the same time. It was like being back in junior high and having your first kiss. It all felt so new and wonderful but more than anything it felt right.
*
The sound of the telephone ringing made Brandy jump, pulling her away from her melancholy and forcing her thoughts to the present. For a moment she just listened to the incessant ringing, hoping whoever was calling would just grow tired and leave her alone. But on the tenth ring she realized that wasn’t happening.
Groaning, Brandy pulled herself up off the floor and headed over to the vintage-style telephone which resided on the kitchen counter in her open-plan apartment. In keeping with its style, the telephone had a curled cord connecting the handset to the main phone which meant she had to remain by the counter for each conversation. She’d considered buying something cordless and more modern but she couldn’t part with her current phone. She loved how retro it looked, as though it could have belonged in a movie star’s home in the 1920s.
Brandy loved the romanticism of items like that and her new home was slowly becoming a shrine to a by-gone era. The traditions of the past, the old etiquette between men and women, all appealed to Brandy’s wholesome sensibilities. Within the city she saw and heard more and more about people’s questionable sexual exploits which just made her further retreat into her vintage idealized world.
‘Hello,’ she almost sung the word as her voice was so soft and her accent so thick.
‘Brandy?’ she instantly recognized the male caller on the other end of the line and froze. A shot of adrenalin ignited within her spine, spreading out through her veins and making her entire body tingle with surprised delight.
‘Aiden?’ she could hardly believe it was him.
‘Brandy, can you come and meet me, at your hotel, by the piano?’ Aiden spoke with urgency.
‘What?’ Brandy struggled to make sense of what he was saying. ‘You’re in the city?’ she asked, bemused.
‘Yes, I am.’ There was a silence between them, in which Aiden breathed heavily into the phone, it sounded as though he had been running.
‘I have to see you,’ he whispered.
His voice, echoing so softly, so close to Brandy’s ear made her toes curl in delight but she pushed the girlish reaction away.
‘It’s raining,’ she stated, glancing briefly back to the window where the rain still continued to pour down on to the streets of Chicago in torrents.
‘So you won’t come?’ Aiden sounded beyond disappointed.
‘No, I’ll come,’ Brandy quickly corrected him. ‘But it’s raining cats and dogs out there! Whatever reason you have to lure me out on such a terrible night had better be a damn good one!’
At the other end of the line Aiden smiled to himself at her sassiness.
‘Trust me,’ he told her, ‘it will be worth braving the rain.’
‘I’ll be the judge of that,’ Brandy quipped before hanging up the phone.
Surrounded by the emptiness of her apartment, the only sound the soft patter of rainfall, Brandy stared questioningly at the telephone, wondering if the conversation had really just occurred or had she imaged it.
She feared briefly that it wasn’t real. That if she went out in the rain to her hotel, to her safe place, that Aiden wouldn’t be there. And then she would be soaked, out on the streets of the city with her safe place ruined.
It was risking a lot. Brandy didn’t want to be that foolish girl who went running out in to the rain after nothing more than a phone call from the man she loved.
But that was it. She loved Aiden. Nothing else really mattered. Refusing to dwell on her reservations a moment longer, Brandy pulled on her trench coat and dashed out of her apartment, in her haste forgetting to take an umbrella.
Aiden
stood nervously by the white piano where he had previously heard Brandy play. His luggage was upstairs in a hotel room he had booked on his arrival. Not surprisingly, there had been vacancies.
He was still wet from his brief run from the cab to the hotel lobby, his hair slick to his head and his suit darkened by the rain. He’d considered changing, taking a hot shower and smartening himself up. But that would take time and he didn’t want to waste another second in the city without Brandy.
Aiden began to pace the piano, checking his watch almost constantly. It had been twenty minutes since he had called Brandy, what if she wasn’t going to turn up? Would he call again or perhaps even go to her apartment? He knew that if she didn’t show, he’d refuse to take the hint. He had to see her, had to tell her.
Just as Aiden began to seriously consider the prospect that Brandy wouldn’t arrive, the doors to the old dining room creaked open and Brandy nervously entered the room.
She was soaked to the bone. Her blonde hair was matted against her head and her coat dripped onto the carpeted floor. Her skin seemed paler than usual as she shivered within her wet clothes. Yet she looked breathtakingly perfect.
Aiden instinctively ran to her. He held her in his arms and, without thinking, letting his heart and his impulses guide him he lifted his hands so they were cupping her face and pulled him towards her and kissed her.
Her lips were soft and her breath was warm as they kissed passionately. In that shared moment, the world ceased to exist and there was only the two of them, and that kiss. Aiden kissed her long and hard, not wanting to let go, not wanting it to end. It felt like his first kiss and his future last kiss all rolled in to one, as though this would be the only kiss that ever mattered in his life.
When at last they did part they were both panting heavily.
Brandy looked up at Aiden, a shy smile pulling on her ruby lips. The rain had caused her mascara to run and create a macabre set of spider legs around her eyes, but she still looked beautiful, it made her seem even more fragile, even more pure.
‘Why did you come back?’ she whispered. Aiden was still holding her head in his hands and he gazed deep into her eyes. Looking down at her felt like coming home and it pained Aiden that he had managed to ignore his feelings for so long. It burnt him to think that he could deny his heart its true desires, even though it had only ever been to protect others.
‘I came back for you,’ Aiden told her, stroking her cheek. ‘I came back because I love you.’
Brandy began to weep slightly at this, her tears were warm as they fell down upon Aiden’s hand.
‘I thought I’d never hear you say that,’ she admitted.
‘Well, I’m here, and I’m saying it.’ Aiden told her confidently. ‘I love you.’
They kissed again, this time for twice as long. But when they parted Brandy began to shiver, her teeth chattering in her delicate head.
‘I’m so cold.’
Aiden wrapped her up in his arms, feeling her body tremble up against him.
‘I’ve booked a room here, if you want you can go up and have a bath and get dry and warm,’ he offered kindly but Brandy pulled away from him, her face contorting with repulsion.
‘You booked a room?’ she asked him accusingly. ‘What did you think would happen?’
‘No, no, not like that,’ Aiden reassured her. ‘I just needed a place to stay and this place…felt right.’
He pulled her back to him and she rested her head upon his chest.
‘Are you still married?’ she asked, her voice small.
‘Yes.’ He felt Brandy tense at this and squeezed her tighter.
‘But I won’t be for much longer,’ he told her.
Brandy looked up at him, her face hopeful yet reserved.
‘You’re leaving your wife?’ she queried in disbelief.
‘Yes.’ Aiden nodded.
‘But what about your daughter?’
‘I don’t love my wife; I don’t think I ever truly did. I love you, Brandy. It’s time I started being fair to everyone in my life. That way, my wife can move on and find someone who really does love her, she deserves that.’ Aiden surprised himself with how calmly he spoke about it, how the feeling had been lingering for so long that to hear it said aloud felt perfectly normal.
‘And then we will be together?’
‘Yes, we will be together.’ Aiden squeezed her tightly, not wanting to ever have to let her go.
‘Does she know?’ Brandy asked, her voice muffled slightly as it was said in to his chest.
‘Huh?’
‘Does your wife know that you’re leaving her?’ Brandy pulled away so he could hear her more clearly.
‘No, she doesn’t,’ Aiden admitted guiltily.
‘Well, we can’t truly be together until she does,’ Brandy sighed. ‘It’s just not right.’
Aiden stroked Brandy’s head, her hair still wet to the touch.
‘How did I ever find someone as wonderful as you?’ he asked both her and the universe together.
‘You were just lucky, I guess,’ Brandy joked in her endearing drawl.
‘Yes, I was.’ Aiden held her tight; he could feel her heart beating against him.
‘So what happens now?’ Brandy asked, still shivering.
‘There’s so much to sort out, so much to say. I’d need to explain to my daughter, I’m not sure she’d even understand. I’ll go back to Avalon tomorrow and start divorce proceedings with my wife and then I’ll move here, to be with you, if you like.’ The irony that Aiden would be returning to the city he had been so eager to leave wasn’t lost on him.
‘I’d love that,’ Brandy admitted, locking her arms around Aiden. ‘I’d love that more than anything.’
‘But you need to go get dry, and I respect that you don’t want to do that in my hotel room.’ Aiden smiled kindly. ‘Though I do kind of wish you’d change your mind,’ he added, smirking cheekily.
‘All good things come to those who wait!’ Brandy laughed, playfully nudging his shoulder.
‘I’d wait forever for you,’ he told her earnestly, willing his mind to capture this moment in its entirety because he knew it was one he’d want to replay for the rest of his life.
‘Luckily for you, you don’t have to,’ Brandy smiled. ‘In less than a week you’ll be back here and we can properly be together.’
‘I’ve loved you since that first moment I saw you in the prison. I dread to think what would have happened if…’
‘Let’s not think about it,’ Brandy held Aiden’s hands in her own and pulled them close together.
‘For now, all that matters is our future.’ She smiled.
‘Our future,’ Aiden echoed, loving that the future was now something they could share. He kissed Brandy again, loving how she tasted, knowing that nothing had ever tasted so sweet in his entire life.
Adrenaline surged through Aiden’s body as he drove the usual route from the airport to his home. It stopped his bones aching with the inevitable fatigue which they were storing up from all the travelling.
But soon the travelling would be over, soon so many things would be over and Aiden could start his life afresh, anew, with the woman he loved. The thought excited him so much that he couldn’t help but laugh and smile to himself as he drove. He must have looked like a madman to anyone glancing over at his car.
He hoped Meegan would understand. He feared her judgement over everything more than anyone else’s. He didn’t want her to grow up and resent him, blaming him for ripping her family in two. He hoped she would grow up and understand his decision and respect him for following his heart, allowing Isla to also be set free to find love.
In Aiden’s mind it was all very idealized. He was setting Isla free to find a man who would love her as he loved Brandy. He knew the reality would be far less idyllic. He anticipated screaming, shouting, maybe even a few plates being hurled in his general direction. But Aiden knew he could withstand whatever Isla sent his way. His love for Brandy made him f
eel invincible, like he was high on love, the most potent of all drugs, and nothing could bring him back down.
Aiden’s car weaved effortlessly along the freeway, the other vehicles maintaining a decent pace. It felt like fate was guiding him back home without any delays, clearing the path for his future.
It would be strange to live back in the city, Aiden knew that, but the thought of it also felt oddly right, as though it was within the city he had belonged all the time.
Flipping on the radio, the usual melodic malaise of a country song filled the car, the soft twang now irritating Aiden’s ears. He groaned and flipped the switch for something more suited to his new-found state of mind. He settled on some 80s rock and smiled with satisfaction.
Aiden was still wearing a smile as he pulled up onto the drive of his Avalon home, though his body prickled with an uneasy sense of anticipation. He paused for a moment, bracing himself, knowing that once he passed through the front door he would be having one of the most uncomfortable conversations of his entire adult life.
His plan was to be quick and swift; deliver the news to Isla, trying to be as amicable as possible. Being a lawyer, he knew first-hand just how messy divorce proceedings could get and he wanted to spare both Isla and himself any unnecessary stress. The biggest issue would be Meegan’s custody.
The thought of not seeing his daughter every day broke his heart. He hadn’t considered how it would feel to only be a weekend father, to not be there on her first day of school. His mind suddenly flashed a montage of all the key moments in Meegan’s life he could potentially be denying himself.
Meegan meant everything to Aiden. That would never change. But he consoled himself with the fact that he’d be a better father to her if he was happy. He’d stayed with Isla for so long only because of his little girl. It was wrong to continue along that path for any longer. Meegan would only ultimately resent him for using her as an excuse to stick around ,which was exactly how Isla felt towards her own father. So surely his wife, more than anyone else, would understand and support his decision? Aiden hoped so.
*
The house was unusually cold and Aiden shivered as he stepped inside. Outside it was cloudy but the air was still, as if waiting for something. He placed his briefcase down by the front door and looked around for Isla and Meegan. They were nowhere to be seen.
