by Ali Parker
"Sounds good. Will you be here tonight?"
"No, I'm going to take my things now. I'm leaving early. Something came up at the office."
"Did you reschedule your flight?"
"No, but I'll text my assistant and have her do it." She shrugged and filled up her mug with coffee. Lisa walked to the table and gave her father a quick hug. "Tell the beast that I said happy birthday."
Lisa turned and walked toward the foyer, her father's sound of disapproval nothing compared to the one she usually got for simply breathing from her mom. To get out of town without having to see the woman again would be a huge success. She hoisted her bag onto her shoulder and walked out in the early morning summer day. The heat was a bit much, but she wouldn't be out in it long, so no big deal.
"Where you headed, Miss Lisa?" Fredrick moved toward her from the small seat he reclined on the front porch in.
"I need to stop by that bakery just up the street. The one with the sinful chocolate donuts."
"I know the one well." He patted his stomach and smiled.
"Then I need a lift to Kari's house. You remember where her mother lives? In that tiny white house in the Bronx?"
"I do. Come on and I'll take you. Need me to pick you up later tonight?"
"I'll catch a cab from there to the airport."
"Nonsense. Just text me about thirty minutes before you go and I'll come get you."
"You sure?"
"That or I'll be a monkey's uncle."
She chuckled and got into the car, pressing her hand against the door to keep him from shutting it. "I haven't met your family, Fred. Anything is possible."
***
She waved over her shoulder toward Fredrick before walking slowly up the dilapidated steps of Ms. Martin's house. Marc's truck wasn't in the driveway, which was a good sign. Disappointment tried to rear its ugly head, but she shoved it back.
He wanted to be overtly dominant and try to teach her, HER, a lesson... he could find someone else to fuck with.
She reached up and knocked on the front door, a bit of white paint chipping off to land on the ground before her. How Kari's mom didn't make more money as a nurse was shocking. The cost of living in New York was outrageous, but the condition of her house plus the location was disturbing. The door opened and an older version of Kari reached out to pull Lisa into a hug.
"There you are. Marc texted this morning that he wasn't sure you were coming over."
"I wasn't sure I was either, but Kari wanted you to have these." Lisa lifted the small bag as Ms. Martin squealed with excitement and moved back into the house.
"Well, you're here now, so come on in."
"Is Marc here?" Lisa looked around as she moved into the small two room house. She set her bag down on the floor by the door. Joining Kari's mom at the kitchen table, Lisa reclined back and propped her feet on another chair close by.
"No. He said he wasn't feeling well. Not sure what's been up with that boy lately." She opened the bag and pulled out several of the small pastries, adverting her eyes from Lisa. "You want one?"
"No ma'am, I'm good."
"You don't look good. What's wrong with you? I'm used to seeing you filled with pee and vinegar."
"It's piss and vinegar."
"Good grief." Ms. Martin rolled her eyes, laughing softly as Lisa joined her.
"I think I'm in love and I don't want to be. It hurts all the time." Lisa touched her chest, rubbing softly above her left breast. "How can the organ that pumps blood around your body physically hurt when you can't be with the person that steals your thoughts, your breath?"
The older woman reached over and touched Lisa's arm, her face softening. Kari had a great relationship with her mom and Lisa coveted it. Her mom would laugh her out of the room should she try to have a serious conversation with her about anything.
"Because you're human. We were made to be in relationships with each other. Love is a part of who we are. It's a gift from God himself." Ms. Martin smiled and lifted a scone to her mouth, taking a small bite.
"I hate it. I'm good with lust, but love... ehhh." Lisa took another drink of her coffee before setting it down and reaching for a piece of the scone.
"Who is he? Tell me about him."
"He's this guy that I met and he's not even really my type. I mean he's crazy hot and has this body that..." Lisa stopped, looking up and laughing at the look on Kari's mother's face. She knew that the woman knew her secrets, but decided to play along. "Anyway, he's gorgeous and smart, sweet and funny, but we connected too well when we met. I decided, or really, we decided that not getting to know each other was best."
"Why on earth was that the decision you two made?"
"Because his life is very different from mine. There's an age gap between us and he's living his life here in New York. Neither one of us would be willing to give up all we've built and created to be close to each other. It's just not fair. Surely there is someone else, like someone in Maine that could make me feel as good as he does just by looking my way." She sighed loudly, brushing her hand over the top of her head and tugging hard at her ponytail. "He drives me crazy though."
"Does he feel the same?"
"I guess. I don't know. He was a total ass yesterday about the situation, which helps in some ways. I'm getting on a plane this evening and pretending that he doesn't exist."
"Do you think that's going to work?"
"Fuck no." She shrugged as Ms. Martin flinched. "Sorry. I'll try and watch my language."
"Don't bother. Just spill your heart, sweetie. I hate love too, but that's just because it's not part of my life anymore. It's the most powerful emotion we have. You need to reconsider how to deal with it."
"I guess, just not sure who that makes me. I've always run hard and fast from the idea of having to belong to anyone. I had a shitty childhood thanks to my overbearing mother and my pussified father." Lisa shook her head. "Sorry..."
"Stop apologizing. Marc curses like a sailor too. I've just learned to ignore it and pray for him all the more."
"You going to pray for me later?" Lisa's lip lifted in a soft smile.
"With sack cloth and ashes like in the Old Testament. You both need extra prayers." She laughed and got up, moving to the kitchen, which wasn't more than a stone's throw from the table.
"Because of our potty mouths?"
"Because you sound like you have the same illness."
"Explain." Lisa turned her chair to face the pretty woman as she started to cut up potatoes in the small kitchen.
"Marc hasn't been himself in a few months. He's usually so funny and full of life. He mopes around here every Sunday, his best friend Jackson calling last week to see if something was really wrong. He's just been so depressed. I'm going to talk to him about going to the doctor soon."
"He's probably in love. It's a disease." Lisa shrugged, the news hitting her harder than she wanted to admit. She stood up, tears threatening to give her disposition away. "I'm going to wash up. I’ll help you cook."
"I would love that. Just down the hall on the left. You can't miss it." Kari's mom chuckled as Lisa walked away quickly. She barely reached the bathroom before the first soft sob slipped from her lips. She hadn't cried more than ten times in her life, the last few months being nine of them.
Sitting down on the closed toilet she reached for a towel hanging over the top of the shower and pressed her face to it as another sob left her. The smell of Marc's body wash filled her senses, a groan leaving her. She needed to get home - now. Distance would make the heart grow cold and Michael Carrington would help, no doubt. She would just throw herself into a relationship with him.
Surely Ms. Martin would understand when she jetted out of there like her ass was on fire. Life was too short to be tied to one person and wait for them to either cheat on you like Kari's ex had, or peter out and give up, much like her own father.
She walked from the bathroom, wiping at her face as the sound of Marc's voice reached her.
"Lisa'
s here? Oh good. I need to apologize to her."
Chapter 9
"No, no need to apologize. It was my fault. You were in the right." Lisa moved into the living area.
Marc turned to face her, his eyebrow lifting.
The tight black leather jacket that rested over his white t-shirt caught her attention first. Surely he didn't. He extended a large red bag toward her.
"I got you something." He didn't seem at all like himself. It looked as if life had pulled the plug on his joy and forced him to watch it die.
"I don't need anything. I have everything I want back home." She shrugged and moved past him to sit down at the table. "Ms. Martin, do you need help with lunch?"
"Hmmm? Oh no. Just take a load off. We'll eat in about twenty minutes. What time is your flight?"
"It's at five today." Lisa shrugged, not sure what time the flight was. Trisha had yet to get back to her, but she would spend the night at the airport if it meant running hard and fast from her feelings.
"Five? I thought you were staying until tomorrow." Marc moved into her line of sight, sitting down in front of her and leaning toward her.
She pulled her legs back, shrugging casually. "Things change. People change. Lessons are taught and learning gleamed. Leaves the student with a decision to make. I'm simply making mine."
"What are you two fussing about?" Ms. Martin moved in behind Marc as the color drained from his face. He took a long breath, his eyes never leaving her.
Lisa shifted her gaze up to Kari's mom, smiling as sweetly as she could. "Nothing, just acting like brother and sister. You know, Kari's little baby brother has become like one to me too. I didn't have siblings. It's nice."
Ms. Martin pulled Marc's head up and smiled down at him, kissing his forehead once. "He is a cute little guy, isn't he?"
"Mom, really?" He pulled from her and turned back to Lisa, pinning her with a hard stare.
Sadly enough, the anger in it made her pulse jump. If it weren't for his silly need to dominate her in the elevator, the sex would have been classified as fucking hot. He knew how to bring her to heights of ecstasy that she hadn't experienced before. She was on the edge of orgasm when he let himself go, but she held back, not wanting to give him the pleasure of knowing how much power he had over her.
It was uncomfortable and suffocating.
What if he wanted to make things right between them? To move to Maine and start a life with her?
Fairy tale bull shit.
"You think of me like a little brother?"
"I do now." She smiled sardonically and turned to face the table, reaching for another scone and licking at the icing on her fingers.
"You would throw away what's happening between us simply because you're scared of it?" he leaned over and whispered harshly.
She turned her head toward him, her eyes narrowing. "You had no right to fuck me like that yesterday. You took a gift I gave you and bastardized it."
"I wanted you to know that I..."
She reached out and slapped him, hard. "Don't you dare say it. Don't. I don't need a lesson in lust versus love. I don't need to know that what I came here to find out is real and true. You don't own me and you'll not be controlling me like you did yesterday. Your point was proven. Get the fuck outta my life, Marc Martin."
"Done." He stood and walked to the kitchen, Kari's mom whistling some silly sounding tune.
Lisa swallowed the hot lump in her throat and tapped her fingers on the table before her. She would not cry. She would sooner sell her soul to the devil than let on how much his words, his actions, hurt. She came to find out if he loved her like she loved him.
And it would seem that he did... but he didn't want to just as much as she didn't.
He dropped the bag beside her and opened the front door, looking over his shoulder as she looked over hers. A sad smile brushed across his face as he nodded.
"I think the lesson I've learned is just as much if not more difficult to swallow than the one I taught you. It's all here... waiting and ready, Lisa. Funny thing is, me not wanting to give into it was a fucking joke. I tripped over myself the first night we met. Too bad you didn't." He closed the door, the sound jarring.
She pressed her forehead to her hands and let out a long sob, her heart breaking at the truth. Nothing was ever easy, but maybe it wasn't meant to be.
"I'm sorry," she mumbled toward Kari's mom as the older woman rubbed her back.
"It's okay, baby. When you both grow up a little it will all work out."
"I don't know."
"I do. The most powerful emotion given to mankind will have its way. Go home and heal and when it becomes unbearable to live without him, come back and take what's rightfully yours."
Lisa snuggled into the warm hug of Kari's mom and let her heart breathe for the first time ever.
Love wasn't for the weak, and it most certainly wasn't for her.
Chapter 10
"I just can't believe she left. I'm seriously in shock." Marc turned to Drayer, his best friend for the last twelve years. There isn't much the two of them hadn't been through together.
"I'm shocked as fuck that you care. Since when does Marc Martin care about one girl?" Drayer laughed and leaned back in his chair, his eyebrow lifting as he almost lost his balance.
Marc reached out and steadied the chair before his friend busted his butt in the middle of the pub they inhabited every Monday afternoon for happy hour. It was a ritual to get there an hour before the rest of the frat house and just chill together. Summer school wasn't part of the plan that year, but failing Trigonometry put a spin on those plans fast.
"I know. That's the part I can't seem to get past. Why her?"
"Is she hot?"
"Wicked hot. I don't think I've seen a woman turn more heads, but it's not just about how good she looks. She oozes confidence and authority. Lisa has this fiery red hair that feels like silk under my fingers and that look in her eyes..." Marc groaned loudly, dropping his head back and sliding his fingers along his face. He was fucked. So fucked.
"You'll get over her, dude. We're in New York. Tons of chicks have that look around here. It's make it or break it." Drayer nodded toward the door, his short brown hair curling on the top. He needed a haircut or he would soon look like a member of a boy band. "Check her out. She's exactly what you're talking about, right?"
Marc sat up and turned to watch the door. A tall blond had graced the place, her business suit far too fitted not to beckon the attention it was worn to gleam. Her features were cover-model worthy, but she was all wrong.
"She's all right and I guess she's got some of what I'm talking about, but see how she's creasing her eyebrows?"
"Yeah... it's hot."
"No, it's not. Looks like she's got to shit or something."
Drayer laughed loudly, the sound causing Marc's lip to lift. He turned and shook his head. "It's not the same. Not even close."
"Then go after this Lisa chick."
"She's Kari's best friend. I'm surprised you haven't seen her before."
"You said you just met her not too long ago." Drayer reached over and popped Marc in the chest.
"Oh, right. Feels like I've known her forever."
"So... where is she? Where did she run off to?"
Marc stood and stretched as the doors to the pub opened and a few more of their friends piled in. He glanced over his shoulder at Dray and shook his head. "Maine. No more talking about her. I don't want anyone in my shit. Got it?"
"My lips are sealed."
Marc forced a fake smile on his mouth and extended his hand to a few of his frat brothers, welcoming them to the Monday beer fest before making his way back to his seat.
"Hey, I invited the Kappa Mu Theta sisters to come join us. They just got their freshmen recruits and man..." Chris, a sophomore brother sucked air in through his clenched teeth.
"Good looking?" Marc asked, reaching for his beer and wishing like hell he would have just told them he was ill. It wouldn't be too
far from the truth. Lisa left last night to head back to Maine and he hadn't slept a wink. Every freaking second that he had to himself that day was filled with the memory of bending her over in the elevator, taking her in the dressing room, climbing up her trellis.
A smile lifted his lips at the thought and the guys around him started rough housing each other. The new freshmen girls were always pretty. It was innocence that sat on them. The bastards around him just wanted to deflower a handful of them. He took another long drink, finishing the beer and standing.
"I'm getting another. You guys wan...” He didn't even get the rest out before the sound of their orders caused a ruckus. The older patrons in the bar glanced toward the group and just shook their heads as Marc waved them off.
"Fuck. Okay... I'll just get a few pitchers." He moved away from the group of guys that had joined them, Dray yelling that he wanted a Corona to himself as Marc turned. He waved behind him to let his buddy know that he got the order.
It was good that Lisa was gone. Her pull on him was painful. He wanted something more with her and where he had assumed that she would too, she didn't. She was in her mid-twenties. Didn't women start to look at settling down and sleeping next to one guy around that time?
He chuckled at the thought. Lisa wasn't at all like other women. She was a tiger, a bitch, a hot piece of ass that he couldn't shake. He looked up at the pretty college-aged bartender and smiled.
"I need to get like, um..." He looked over his shoulder and counted the number of guys as the girl spoke up.
"Probably four pitchers to start. What do you want?"
He turned back to her and slipped his arms up on the bar. He needed to get back into the gym to keep his body as hard as it was. It had been a long weekend of being with Lisa and then suffering her departure. He felt like shit and probably looked like it too.
"I don't care, just make them all domestic. Those guys won't even taste what they’re drinking. I'll be back up here before I get comfortable, I'm sure."
"You the leader of the pack?"
