“You’re not going to believe me when I tell you, but you have to because it’s all true. Okay?”
Pierce nodded. “Okay.”
I took a deep breath and plunged in. “Roman is a vampire,” I began, and I felt Pierce tense around me. Did he believe that easily? Dear, God, what had I done?
I told Pierce everything starting with the beer catastrophe and I didn’t stop until I got to what happened last night. By the time I finished my story, we were on separate sides of the room. I was sitting on his bed, my legs crossed beneath me, my arms wrapped around me, and he was pacing the floor along the far wall. He hadn’t said much the whole time and I was afraid of what he might be thinking. This was my least favorite part about arguing with him. He never had anything to say. He took it all in and processed it, but never had anything to say to me. I hated it. I wanted him to yell or cuss or hit me, something, but he never showed any emotion. What was worse, he put up those emotional walls so I couldn’t read him.
“He killed her.” I felt the tears starting again, but I had to finish this now. Not later. “He killed her because she was unfaithful. I have the same connection with him that she had.”
Pierce stopped pacing to look at me. Something inside me died at how emotionless he was. I knew he would see the fear on my face. I knew he would sense how scared I was. And I knew he wouldn’t care. He wouldn’t come to me to comfort because he was angry. I’d betrayed him in a roundabout way, and I was the bad guy here. Not Roman.
“LeKrista, I...” Pierce’s voice faded for a moment and I almost started crying again at the use of my real name. He never called me that. Never. Unless we were on the verge of a break up. “I don’t know what to say. I know you’re scared, and you should be, but you got yourself into this position. I’ll protect you to the best of my ability...”
I waited for the “but”. It didn’t come and I relaxed a little. I nodded at him. “I’ll go,” I said. “I’m sorry. I never meant...I wasn’t cheating on you.”
Pierce smiled then. It didn’t quite reach his eyes, but his eyes weren’t completely dead either. “I know you weren’t. I’m not mad. Just disappointed.”
I shook my head. Just perfect. Who wants to have their boyfriend disappointed in them? “I love you, Pierce.”
“I know, StaciDoll. I love you too.”
“I’ll go, if you want.”
Pierce nodded and I felt my heart break a little more. “I think that might be a good idea for now. I’ll call you, okay?”
I nodded because I couldn’t make any words come out. As I stood, the tears came and I pressed my hands to my eyes. “I’m so sorry,” I sobbed. “I didn’t mean to.”
Pierce wrapped his arms around me and held me tighter than I expected. “I know you didn’t, baby, but it happened.”
If he said he needed some space, I thought my heart would explode.
Please, don’t say it. Please.
I thought of Roman and hoped I was projecting everything I was feeling in that moment.
Do you see?! Do you see what you’ve done?! Damn you to hell!
Pierce let me go and I turned and left before I lost my nerve. My heart was so broken I never thought I would be able to put the pieces back together. Gable drove me home, but I don’t remember the drive. I don’t really remember anything.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Two Weeks Later
A knock sounded at my door. I closed my eyes and curled up tighter in hopes they would think I was still asleep and leave me alone.
“Kris?” My aunt whispered. “LeKrista, are you still asleep?”
“I was,” I lied. “What’s up?”
“Eddy is on the phone for you.”
I uncurled from my ball, sat up, and swung my legs over the edge of the bed with little resistance. “Tell him I’ll just be a moment.”
My aunt left and I stretched until all the blood drained from my head and I thought I might pass out. I slipped a t-shirt over my nakedness and ran my fingers through my hair to try and tame it a little so my family wouldn’t be privy to my bed-head. It was getting long, hitting just between my shoulder blades. I pulled it over my shoulder and gave my best “just-woke-up-vixen” look. That’s what Pierce called it.
My aunt and uncle sat at the breakfast nook having their morning coffee.
“Hello?” I said into the phone, all the sleepiness gone.
“Good morning, LeKrista.”
“What’s up, Eddy?”
“Three of my girls called out and I need you to help with a wedding.”
I thought about getting smart, but chose to keep it to myself because he sounded desperate. “Yeah, sure. You need me right away?”
“Please.”
He was being extra polite and it made me laugh. “Alright. Do I have time to get a shower?”
“That’s fine. I’ll just expect you in forty-five minutes.”
“I’ll see you in a little bit.” As I hung up, the phone rang. I made a quizzical face at it and answered. “Hello?”
“Hey, StaciDoll.”
I forgot to breathe for a second. I hadn’t heard his voice in two weeks and it was like hearing it for the first time. “Pierce?” I whispered, afraid I was hallucinating.
“Yeah, babe. It’s me.”
“I...um...why didn’t you call my cell?” I asked.
Pierce chuckled and my heart fluttered. “I did. You didn’t answer.”
“Oh.”
“What you are doing today?”
“I just got called in to work.”
“To deliver?” He sounded annoyed.
“No, three of Eddy’s women called in today.”
“Poor Eddy.” But he didn’t sound sad about it in the least.
“I’ll probably do some delivering as well since so many people called in. I’ll bet it was the Blonde Twins. And maybe the Hawaiian.”
Pierce chuckled. “You want to get lunch?”
“Yeah. I do.”
“Good. I’ll call you.”
I smiled. The day was looking up. I hung up the phone and jumped in the shower. Ten minutes later I was dripping wet and clean. I slipped into a pair of black skinny jeans, a black blouse, and a pair of knee-high boots. I smiled at myself in the mirror. With my hair hanging around my shoulders, I didn’t look too bad, but I didn’t have time for makeup. Just as well.
I said goodbye to my family and headed down to the basement where I kept my car. My sad little Honda Civic was totaled when Lucretious threw it into the quarry lake. Roman sent me a new one - a silver Honda Accord. It was the only contact I’d had with him or any of his women in two weeks. I was keeping the car.
I made it to work with about two and a half minutes to spare. When I walked in the door, Eddy looked genuinely relieved to see me. His piercing green-yellow eyes lit up and he offered me something of a relieved smile. He dressed like he was ready for the runway every day of his life. Today he was wearing dark-wash jeans tucked into leather boots and a leather jacket that just hit his waistband. Underneath was a navy blue button-up silk shirt. A speck of gold glittered in his right ear. He was actually quite attractive, until he opened his mouth and started telling me what a loser I was.
“LeKrista, god I'm glad to see you. I have eighteen red rose centerpieces I have to have delivered in two hours and they look like-"
“Edgar!” The super model stuck her head out of the back room. She was a pretty, tall redhead who covered up her adorable freckles with makeup and didn’t actually work in the shop. I wish I had some freckles of my own. I don’t like that she hides hers.
Eddy shot me a helpless look before he hurried off to the back. I heard them mumble softly to each other before they closed the door.
I found the arrangements and knew exactly what word Eddy was going to use. Someone had thrown them together, six roses in this vase, twenty-one in that vase. Some had baby's breath and fern while some had one or the other or none or a poor substitute. And there weren’t even eighteen of them.
/> “I need the order form,” I told him when he came back. “Who was supposed to make these?”
He shook his head and shrugged. Something crazy was going on if Eddy didn’t even know what was happening in his own shop. He handed me the order sheet from his back pocket.
“Just get me straight,” he said. “Just get these...” He sighed heavily and walked away. He was without words on this particular situation and that meant he was stressed.
I looked over the order sheet. I needed eighteen thirty inch saucer pedestal vases with a dozen red roses, each with baby’s breath and twigs, no ferns. And, swimming in each vase was supposed to be a beta fish. Not one of the arrangements I was looking at had a fish in it.
“Eddy!” I called and the man came running.
“What? What now?”
“Where are the fish?”
“What?”
“Fish! There’s supposed to be a beta in each one of these arrangements.”
Eddy looked dumbly at me for a moment before he let out a string of expletives that just happened to be really funny. I turned away so he wouldn’t see me smile.
“Are you laughing? How could you possibly be laughing?” Eddy was livid.
“You have to admit, it’s kind of funny. Someone’s screwed you over really well. Can you send Amanda to buy eighteen betas while I work on these?”
Eddy nodded and called the supermodel from the back. Her protégée was with her, but I couldn’t remember her name.
“They have to be blue,” I called as they reached the door. Amanda rolled her eyes like it was my fault and left.
“Ignore her for now." It was probably the nicest thing Eddy had ever said to me. “Do we have the rest of what we need for these?”
“I think so. I’ll check.”
“Okay. I have another order to work on. Let me know if you need anything.”
I spent the next hour on the arrangements; clipping, trimming, pruning, fluffing, tucking, tying and feeding the fish that eventually arrived. When Amanda got back she smelled like margaritas. I looked over at Eddy. He was working on an arrangement of unnatural hot pink calla lilies.
“That’s interesting,” I said, trying to make light conversation. Eddy looked up at me and frowned.
“You don’t like it?” His voice held such condemnation that, if I didn’t already deal with it on a regular basis, I would have said something nice to fix it. As it was, I just shrugged and went back to working on my last arrangement.
“I don’t like pink.”
I guess that was enough for him, because Eddy went back to his piece without another word until he had to stop so we could deliver the arrangements. It was awkward, the two of us riding in the van alone. There was nothing really to say except to comment occasionally on the stupidity of the other drivers on the road or to hope that the sunshiny weather didn’t turn dismal and gray. Not that I’d mind, but Eddy seemed to, so I went along with it. The mood was almost pleasant. The bride loved her fish arrangements, and it was a good thing too. We rode back to the shop in silence and Eddy let me leave right away.
“Hey, Eddy, um, I’m not trying to have a moment or anything. I know you don’t like me much, but I just wanted to thank you for calling me. I really need the hours.”
“Yeah. See you later.”
I wasn’t really expecting anything, but I got an almost smirk. The corner of his mouth rose ever so slightly and, even in that simple movement, his face changed and he became an entirely different person.
It was hard not to feel light hearted as I left, but I didn’t let myself read too much into it. I’d just saved the man’s bacon. He owed me a little gratitude.
Pierce and I rescheduled for dinner and I met him at a greasy spoon where we’d caught breakfast a few times before. Pierce liked greasy spoons because they had good food and I was inclined to agree, provided the spoons weren’t actually greasy and nothing else was either.
We both ordered hamburgers and Pierce added an extra hotdog on the side and extra fries to his order.
“How’ve you been, babe?” Pierce asked before he bit into his hotdog. I took a moment to answer, taking a bite of my burger and sipping my soda.
“You know. Bored, broke, and bored. You?”
Pierce smiled. “Gable and I went out of town on some family business. Been kind of busy.”
I nodded.
Well, isn’t that just lovely for you. I bet you didn’t even consider that-
“You were on my mind, though,” he said and I knew I was blushing.
“Oh.” I took another bite of my burger and chewed slowly. I really didn’t know how to act. I wanted to be happy that Pierce was back after our two week hiatus, but at the same time, I couldn’t just let it go that he’d disappeared for two weeks without any sort of contact. Granted, it was my fault, but...
“What?” Pierce asked, giving me the perfect segue.
I shook my head. “I just want to enjoy this, Pierce, please. I don’t want to be angry right now.”
“I can understand that.”
“How’s Petrice?” I asked. Surely someone would have called me if she’d had the baby.
“Very pregnant.” I guess I looked relieved, because his next words were, “Staci, do you really think we would have let that girl have her baby without calling you?”
I looked down at my plate and fiddled with a fry, because I didn’t know what to say. I honestly didn’t know. Pierce hadn’t wanted anything to do with me for the last two weeks, so why would he, or his brother for that matter, bother to call me just because Petrice was having her baby?
“Staci, babe, I’m not mad at you.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to do this right now, Pierce. Please?”
“Okay. That’s fine. What are you doing today?”
“I don’t have any plans.”
“You want to go to a movie or something?”
I shook my head without looking up. “No, I think I’m going to go home.” I looked up then and saw with dismay, that wall go up behind his eyes. I’d hurt him, both intentionally and not, and that hurt me, but I wasn’t about to jump back into the fire before I knew what was really going on between us. I knew that my feelings toward him hadn’t changed, but I needed to know what he was thinking and feeling and I wasn’t ready to deal with it just yet.
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly. Pierce just shook his head.
“You’re good.”
I lost my appetite after that, and I guess he did too, because we both asked for takeout boxes for our barely touched burgers and fries. He’d already downed the hotdog before we got into the heavy stuff.
I watched Pierce while we waited for our takeout boxes. He’d been good enough to put his cell away while we were talking, but now that we weren’t talking anymore I guess he had business to handle.
“What kind of family business- Ow!” I almost screamed. The waitress came back with our boxes, and tripped over her own feet. When she stuck her hand out to catch herself on the table, her hand slipped and her ancient-looking ruby ring dug so deep into my arm I thought she’d scrape bone with it. Thorns twisted around the ring and the ruby and it was no wonder it stabbed so deep.
“Oh my god!” the girl exclaimed. “I am so sorry!”
The wound on my arm was bleeding freely. Actually, gushing was a better word for it and blood poured down my arm and onto the table and floor.
“Good god!” I exclaimed without thinking. “What was on the end of that thing? An ice pick?!”
She shoved some napkins into my hand with a sobbing, “Here,” before she disappeared into the bathroom.
“Damn,” I exclaimed under my breath. Pierce stood next to me holding the napkins to my arm to try and staunch the blood flow, but it didn’t seem to do much good. Whatever she’d done, she’d nicked me good.
“Do you want to wait and see if it stops or do you want to go?”
“We can go,” I said, looking down at my ruined burger. “Oh, god. I’m gonn
a be sick.”
Pierce jumped out of the way as I dashed for the bathroom. I barely made it to the toilet before I lost what little bit of food I’d eaten and then the dry heaves started. I couldn’t get the image out of my head of my burger drenched in blood. By the time I stopped retching my stomach, throat, and head hurt and my eyes were teary. I heard sniffling from one of the other stalls.
“Hey, I’m not mad at you,” I said and I spit into the toilet to get rid of the throw up taste. “It just hurt and I said the first thing that came to mind.”
“Will you need stitches?” the meek voice asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe. It doesn’t want to stop bleeding.” The napkins were soaked. I flushed them and went to the sink, hoping some cold water might help it clot. All it really did was sting like hell. I let the water run over it for a few minutes before I washed my hands, rinsed my mouth, and got some paper towels to dry myself off.
“Stace?” Pierce called through a crack in the door. “You alright?”
“Yeah. It’s still bleeding.” I walked out of the bathroom with the paper towels pressed to my arm. “Should I go to the hospital?”
“Do you want to go to the hospital?”
“No.”
No. I really just want you to hold me.
But I wouldn’t say that out loud. Not yet.
I didn’t want to look. I tried not to, but curiosity won out and I shot a glance over to our table. My plate was gone. A boy with a mop was cleaning the spot on the floor like he was trying to pry away the tiles.
“The manager’s Italian,” Pierce whispered in my ear. “He threw a fit and said we didn’t have to pay for the meal. I think he was trying to keep us from pressing charges or suing.”
“I’m not going to sue,” I whispered back. “It was an accident.”
“Well, let’s get out of here before he figures that out.”
I nodded. After a few more profuse apologies from the owner, who normally spoke perfect English but couldn’t seem to find a single English word now, we ducked out the side door and went to our cars. I was still bleeding pretty badly, but we’d gotten some tape so I’d be able to drive without holding the towels to my arm.
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