Mia Like Crazy

by Cordoba, Nina

  Chapter Twenty-one

  I got up, showered and dressed. For the first time in over six months, I had to figure out what I was going to eat for breakfast. I decided to go to Meridith’s favorite diner, since it was close to the address where our meeting was to take place.

  I knew the baby needed food, even if I didn’t want any myself, so I forced myself to chew and swallow one bite after another. While I ate, I practiced answers to the possible questions Vaughn’s old friend—Robert Mason—might ask. I tried to anticipate every possible query and response as though I were preparing for a trial.

  The appointment was at ten, so at nine-thirty, I stood up on shaky legs, paid the bill and walked the two blocks to the Mason Building. As I turned the corner, I saw Drew’s car sitting directly in front of the door and my heart jumped. I kept walking, making myself breathe in and out slowly. I had to stick to my plan now.

  It was all I had.

  As I neared the front of the building, the car door opened and Drew quickly closed the distance between us. I was surprised to see him wearing the golden brown, pull-over sweater and brown slacks I’d bought him for Christmas.

  I’d known he’d look great in them. The colors brought out a warmth in his hair and eyes that wasn’t apparent in his usual black and white.

  I had the urge to throw my arms around him and press my cheek to that soft sweater so I could feel his heart beating underneath. But I tore my eyes away from him and focused on the building entrance.

  “You should have called me. I would have picked you up.”

  “I needed the exercise,” I answered without breaking stride.

  “I want to talk to you.” He fell into step beside me. “Something’s happened I need to tell you about.”

  “We have an appointment.”

  “I thought you didn’t care about money anymore.”

  I thought about the baby growing inside me. “I was in love. I was being naïve.” The fact that I used the past tense when I talked about loving him was a lie, but a brief change in his expression told me he’d noticed.

  I reached for the handle of the glass door, but Drew put one hand above my head and stopped it from opening. I looked up at him angrily, but when our eyes met, his dark gaze was peering into me.

  Determined, but soft.

  All the air was sucked from my lungs and I was immobile. I let myself imagine how he might look at me if he knew about the baby.

  The baby. I needed this money for the baby. I glanced up to where one of his hands was holding the door shut.

  “If we’re gonna get you your money,” he said calmly. “We’d better make it look good.” He held out his other hand and I placed mine lightly in it.

  As we stood in the elevator, he forcibly laced his fingers through mine. I tolerated it, but kept my eyes straight ahead, knowing he was staring at me the whole time, willing me to look up at him.

  The elevator stopped at the top floor and we stepped off a few feet away from a receptionist’s desk, where an attractive young blonde asked us to wait and directed us to the couch. When we sat down, I tried to remove my hand from Drew’s iron grip, but he wouldn’t let go.

  Finally, the receptionist ushered us into an office. As I glanced around, I was glad I had worn my ultra-conservative gray suit and low heels. Robert Mason was obviously old school.

  The office was huge and masculine and cold. The only bright spot was the balcony, which could be seen through a glass door.

  The well-dressed, heavy-set man behind the desk, didn’t even look up as we entered. I watched his long jowls waggle as he scribbled on a legal pad.

  The receptionist motioned toward the two chairs facing him and we sat down. “Mr. Mason?” the young woman said tentatively. “Mr. and Mrs. Larson are here.”

  The man looked up from his work. “Oh,” he said. He looked at Drew, then, turned his attention to me and appeared taken aback. He turned back to Drew. “Drew Larson?”

  “Yes,” Drew answered, “and this is my wife Mia.”

  Mason turned to me again. As his eyes swept over me, my stomach clenched and a terrible sensation crawled up my arms—the one I’d experienced many times growing up.

  “This is your wife?” Mason asked with obvious surprise in his voice. “Well, then we don’t have to go any further. She’s not acceptable.”

  The feeling had been dead on. I looked at Drew. I could see he was confused and angry, and already fighting for control.

  “What?” His voice was strained.

  “I knew your father for many years. This is not the sort of woman he would want to be the mother of his grandchildren.”

  “Are you nuts?” Drew’s voice was much louder now. “She’s smart, educated, gorgeous—are you blind?”

  “Be that as it may, she obviously doesn’t have the right background to marry into the Vaughn family.”

  This confirmed what I had suspected from his first look. It wouldn’t have mattered what I wore or how I answered his questions. I was too dark to be a Vaughn.

  I felt like the little project girl in hand-me-down clothes again, and the humiliation spread through me from head to toe. But the feeling was quickly replaced by anger when I realized Drew was about to lose his inheritance because of this man…and because of me.

  Drew started out of his chair, but I jumped up and began speaking first. “You can’t do this to Drew. He deserves something after everything he’s gone through.” At the unsympathetic look on Mason’s face, desperate tears sprang into my eyes and I became more frantic. “I’ll sign anything you want. I’ll relinquish all rights to the money—Herbert Vaughn owes him!” I was leaning over the desk. “You all owe him!”

  “Look, Miss,” Mason said patronizingly. “Herbert Vaughn left this decision to me because he knew I would carry out his wishes—”

  “And all those years, when you were friends, did you help him carry out those wishes? Did you help him ignore his son and abuse his daughter? What kind of person could you possibly be, if you were such a good friend? They took everything away from Drew when he was a little boy and you don’t have the right to do it to him again.”

  Tears flowed freely down my cheeks, and I didn’t care who saw me crying. I just couldn’t stand to be the reason Drew didn’t get the closure he so badly needed.

  “Don’t you understand? He deserves something. He deserves something!” I screamed.

  I felt Drew’s arm around me. As I turned toward him, he looked genuinely concerned. “Mia, It’s okay. I’ll take care of this.”

  He escorted me through the door and led me to the couch in the waiting area. He turned to the receptionist, “Could you get her some water?” He strode back into Mason’s office alone.

  “I’ll go get you something to drink,” the receptionist said, as she hurried out of the room.

  I sat dazed for several seconds. Drew was going to lose ninety million dollars because he chose me, and the reason it was happening was the one thing I couldn’t change or control, no matter what I had done in the past or what I would accomplish in the future.

  As I swiped at my cheeks with the back of my hand, I wondered what he was doing in Mason’s office.

  I stood and walked quietly over to the half-open door. Mason wasn’t behind his desk anymore, but I could hear Drew’s voice.

  “You stupid, bigoted old creep!”

  I stepped forward until I saw that he had a fearful, sweating Mason on the balcony. He was holding him by the front of his shirt collar with one hand, and their faces were mere centimeters apart. “I don’t give a rat’s ass about the money,” Drew continued. “You can keep it, but I want you to understand that you’ve just made the biggest mistake of your life.”

  “Okay,” Mason babbled. “Okay.”

  “No, it’s not okay, because you’ve insulted the most beautiful, perfect person who has ever come into my life.”

  I knew that a truly perfect person would step in and save this man from the terror Drew was inflicting, but I was s
ure Drew wouldn’t hurt him, and he certainly deserved to vent his anger, under the circumstances.

  “You’re not good enough to lick the bottom of her shoes. She’s too good for me, you, and both of my dead fathers put together. Do you understand that?” When he forced Mason backward one more step, the man began to shake all over.

  “Yes…yes. I understand,” he stammered.

  They were almost against the railing. “Have you had this railing checked recently?” Drew’s voice had become very casual. “You know, I’ve heard of people leaning against them and falling right off.”

  “Please…”

  “You’ve heard about me, haven’t you? You know I don’t just let people get away with insulting me, and that goes for my wife, too.” Drew was taking his time, and the sweat was pouring down Mason’s puffy pink face. “But you’re a really old guy and you’re going to be dead soon anyway, so I’m going to give you one chance—”

  “Th-thank you.” Mason sounded genuinely grateful.

  “You’re gonna wipe yourself down, go out there to my wife, and apologize…and say something nice,” Drew continued. “If I like what you say, and you sound sincere, you can just go on with your pathetic, short life.”

  “Okay…thank you…okay,” Mason said as Drew loosened the grip on his collar.

  Mason started to relax, but Drew tightened his fist once more, causing the man’s cheeks to turn bright red.

  “And one more thing,” Drew added. “If you ever run into my wife anywhere else, at any time, with or without me, you’d better kiss her ass like she’s your rich grandma, or I’ll come into your bedroom at night and slit your throat.” He removed his hand from Mason’s collar and smoothed the front of his shirt.

  I stepped out into the waiting area, just as the nervous receptionist returned with a Styrofoam cup full of water.

  “I’m sorry it took so long,” she said. “The cooler was empty and I had to go down to the next floor.”

  “Thank you.” I sipped the water and wondered if it was wrong of me to derive such satisfaction from what Drew had done.

  In that moment, Mason had represented all the people who had made me feel like less of a human for the first eighteen years of my life. And Drew was the first person who ever stood up for me. That was always my job.

  Drew and Mason came out of the office. Drew looked expectantly at the other man and Mason began nervously. “I’m very sorry to have insulted you, Mrs. Larson. You’re really a lovely woman.” He looked at Drew for approval.

  Drew took my hand. “Come on, let’s get out of here.” We left without another word to Mason.

  When we got out of the building, I came to my senses and remembered Drew and I weren’t together anymore. I pulled my hand out of his.

  “Get in the car, Mia,” he ordered.

  “No. I’m not getting in that car.”

  He opened the passenger-side door. “I need to talk to you.”

  “There’s no point to it now, anyway,” I replied. “Maybe if you find someone else, you can get another chance at the money.”

  Drew raked a hand through his hair and looked away. Then he focused that deadly serious gaze on me. “Is that really what this has been about for you?” he asked. “The money? Because that’s not what it was about for me.”

  I wanted to reach out and touch him and reassure him it had never been about the money for me. But, instead, I shoved my hands in my coat pockets to avoid temptation. “It doesn’t matter what it was about. It didn’t change anything for us. You made your priorities clear yesterday.”

  “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Something has changed. What difference is it going to make if you give me a few more minutes of your time?”

  I had a baby to think about. I had to do what was best. “I’m not getting in that car with you.”

  Then, Drew repeated the question he’d been asking me since we first met, except this time it was more like a challenge. “Are you afraid of me, Mia?” He tilted his head and raised his eyebrows.

  “Yes, I’m afraid of you!” My hands came out of my pockets, and I didn’t care that they were waving around as I spoke. “I’m afraid we’ll go back to the apartment and I’ll forgive you, just like always. I’m afraid you don’t really want to make a better life with me. You just want someone to control and feed who will enable you in your weird little hermit lifestyle. You made it clear last night. You want to be exactly who everyone thinks you are. You’re not that person, Drew, but if that’s what you’re striving for, what chance do we have?”

  He acted as though he hadn’t heard me. He placed a hand on top of the open car door and looked at me expectantly. I didn’t budge. He bent down and lifted me into his arms before I realized his intention.

  I saw a concerned-looking security guard a few yards away, but I didn’t dare scream because I didn’t want Drew to get roughed up again.

  As he set me gently in the passenger seat of his car, he mumbled something about how I really was putting on weight, but stepped away before I could do him any bodily damage.

  Once he was behind the wheel, I demanded to know where we were going.

  “Nowhere in particular,” he answered. “We’re just going to drive and talk.”

  “Why do we need to drive? We can talk anywhere.”

  He took in a deep breath and blew it out loudly. “Because, since I met you, I’ve always been sure that one day I would say or do the wrong thing and you’d walk out of my life. It finally happened last night—maybe some kind of self-fulfilling prophecy—but this could be my last chance to be with you, and I don’t want you to leave before I’ve said everything I need to say.” He started the car and pulled away from the curb.

  “In other words, you think it’s highly unlikely I’ll jump out of a moving car.”

  “Yeah…” He seemed to be gathering his thoughts. “First thing is, I’m sorry for what I’ve put you through for the last six months, and I’m really sorry about that old creep in there. If I’d had any idea you’d be treated like that—” His jaw tightened along with his grip on the steering wheel.

  “It’s okay. Well, it’s not okay, but I’m okay. I’m sorry I kept you from getting the money.”

  “No, Mia, that’s just it. I don’t care about the money. When Mason said what he said, I didn’t even think about losing the money. All I thought about was how he was treating you.”

  As I gazed at his profile, I remembered the things he said to Mason about me and knew he meant them. “But you’ll care, eventually,” I insisted. “It’s a lot of money to lose.”

  He shook his head. “No. I mean, money is nice to have. It makes things easier in some ways, but last night, after you left, I went to bed and had this dream about dreams.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It’s what I’ve wanted to tell you since I woke up at five o’clock this morning. I sat in front of that building for two hours before you came.” He glanced over at me and I truly did see something different in his eyes. “You know how I told you I didn’t remember any hopes or dreams from when I was a kid?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, last night, I had this dream, but it was more like I was remembering—I know what they were.”

  I was hooked. “Can you tell me?”

  “That’s why I kidnapped you!” he said triumphantly as he hit the steering wheel with one hand. “Okay, in no particular order—I always wanted a dog, but my dad said he didn’t need another mouth to feed. I wanted to learn to play the guitar… Oh, when I grew up I was going to be an artist…and I always hoped my dad would disappear off the face of the earth—hey, since he’s dead, that one’s sort of already come true!” He delivered the last sentence with totally inappropriate glee considering the subject matter. “And I wanted to go on a vacation to a beach with palm trees and huts, like on Gilligan’s Island. And there were some more I can’t think of right now, but none of them involved being really rich.”

  I finally began to grasp the
direction he might be going with this. I was afraid to say anything for fear he might lose all this stream-of-consciousness optimism. I noticed we were at the park. Drew stopped the car in a little parking area, in front of the pond.

  “But the dream I had last was the best because it was a new one and you were in it. You and I were sitting on that bench right there.” He pointed at the wooden bench where we had fed the ducks. “It was spring or summer, and the sun was brighter than I’ve ever seen it before. Kids were all around, flying kites and playing chase, and we were laughing and holding hands… But the best part was that I wasn’t worried about who was watching or what people were saying or doing. I was just enjoying being with you.

  “And then I called out a name—I haven’t remembered what it was yet—and this big dog came running over.” He smiled a beautiful, boyish smile at the memory. “That’s all I can remember, now, except—did I tell you, in the dream, I was wearing a red plaid shirt?” He laughed at his own words.

  I laughed with him as I tried to imagine him in red plaid. “What do you think this all means?”

  “Well, don’t run out and buy me a plaid shirt because it may have just been in there to make a point.”

  He paused, then tilted his head and leaned toward me as though he wanted our talk to be more personal. I’d never seen this mannerism before, yet I felt it might be more natural to the real Drew than his usual stiff ways.

  Something really had happened to him. I reached out and placed my hand on his to encourage him to continue.

  “One time, Dr. Schultz and I were having this conversation about change,” he said. “We’d been talking about you and me, and I asked her if she thought it was possible for a person to change, and could a person come along and change you—that kind of stuff… Anyway, she said she didn’t believe another person could change you, but sometimes people come into our lives who make us want to change and make us believe it’s possible. She said it’s not so difficult when you’re really sure you want to do it. You decide, and then just do one thing different and then the next. Do you know what I mean?”