by Ashlee Price
“You can’t do this, Maya. I don’t ask much of you as a wife. All I ask you to do is go to one thing a week. You already ditched me on the charity thing. Don’t do this tonight.”
He sounded like he was rattled, and although I wanted to ask him what was wrong, I knew that I wasn’t going to get more than some rude answer. He wasn’t in the mood to tell me what was going on. He hadn’t been for a long time. That part of our marriage was over, and now it was on to the deceptions. It was the part that I liked the least.
“I just can’t go. I feel horrible and I just can’t do it. Tell them that I’m sick, whatever you want to tell them, but I’m not coming.”
“So the discussion is over?”
“Yes, it is. I’m sorry, Tyler, but I just can’t do it tonight. I’ll be there next week like the good little wife that you want me to be. Tonight I’m just going to take care of me.”
He snorted on the other end of the line. I wasn’t stupid enough to ask him what he meant by that. I knew that it didn’t matter anyways. He was always a little upset with me. Today was going to be no different. I had plans to see Dylan, and while I’d known what tonight was, I’d made them anyways. I was ready to get on with my life, and that didn’t include another stuffy dinner with the parents that he’d turned into.
“I can’t believe you’re doing this. I ask so little of you.”
His words were grating on my nerves, and I could see the look on his face without even being there. I knew that his face would be red and he would have a sneer on his lips. That was hard to forget. He was disgusted with me, and I was becoming disgusted with the whole situation. I’d asked myself more than once how in the world I’d gotten myself into this mess. How had a marriage that was so promising in the beginning turned into this?
“I’ll see you when I get home. We have a lot to talk about.”
“I don’t know if I’m going to be home tonight.”
“Figures.”
I didn’t ask him what he meant by that either, because I didn’t really care what the answer was. He was upset that I wasn’t going to go with him and he was going to lash out. It was far from original, and his was nothing that I hadn’t seen before. This was my husband’s MO, and I didn’t even bat an eyelash when he hung up on me.
Taking a deep breath, I called Dylan and asked him what time he wanted me to meet him. I was still a little shaken from the conversation with Tyler. I wasn’t sure why, but I felt like I’d crossed a line with him. I was going to start picking me more. I wasn’t going to do what he wanted me to do, not like I had before. Today was a new day, and the first person I wanted to see was Dylan. He loved me and I knew that I was always going to feel loved with him. It had been a long time since I’d felt that way in my marriage.
“Maya, I’m glad it was you that called.”
“Are you having a bad day?” He sounded rushed.
“No, just a long one that’s already getting better now that I’m talking to you.”
“You’re so sweet.”
“This isn’t bad news, is it?”
I kind of giggled a little and told him that it wasn’t. “Why?”
“Because I just can’t take any more bad news right now.”
“Well, I was just calling to see how the night was shaping up. We were going to meet to go out to dinner, remember?”
“I haven’t forgotten, Maya. How could I? I’ve been looking forward to it all day.”
“We saw each other yesterday.”
“I know. I just want to see you every day, wake up to you every morning.”
He was going down a road I knew well, and I had to stop him. It wasn’t the time for this. I had to get ready, and I knew that he was busy as well.
“Just give me a time and I’ll go get ready.”
“Give me thirty minutes and then meet me here if you want.”
“Okay, Dylan. I’ll see you soon.”
“I can’t wait, Maya.”
***
“Okay, you’re making me nervous, Dylan. What are you doing down there?”
“I want to ask you something, but I want to make sure that I do it the proper way.”
I shook my head and told him again to get up. We’d shared a bottle of wine and I was convinced that he was just drunk. He didn’t know what he was doing. How could he?
“I’m going to ask you, Maya, before I lose my nerve.”
Covering my face, I looked away and then down at the man in front of me. What in the world was he doing?
“Maya, you know that I love you, right?”
I nodded and told him that I did. I knew that he loved me, even if it manifested itself in this way. “Yes, I know that you love me, so can you please get up now?”
“Why are you so intent on stopping what I’m going to say?”
Because I was already married and I was still under the impression that Dylan had had a little too much to drink.
“I just don’t want you to say anything that you’ll regret tomorrow.”
“If I don’t ask you, I’m going to regret it for the rest of my life.”
“Dylan…”
“Marry me, Maya. You know what I’m going to ask, and it’s the only thing that I can think about. Marry me and make me the happiest man in this world. I’ll cherish the very ground that you walk on. You’ll never have to wonder if I care or where I am. I’m yours, Maya, so why can’t we make it official?”
He looked up at me with the most endearing look that I could imagine. His green eyes held such hope that I didn’t have the heart to bring up the reality of it all. All I could think to do was answer in the way that I wanted to. The devil was in the details, but I didn’t want to think about that tonight.
“Yes, Dylan. I’ll marry you.”
He crushed me in his embrace and I felt tears springing to my eyes. What had I just agreed to?
Chapter 2 – Tyler
I couldn’t believe that Maya was going to ditz out on me. She’d been acting stranger and stranger, and although I knew why, I still wasn’t able to confront her. I didn’t even know what I would say. It wasn’t like I could be outraged or anything like that. I wasn’t even mad at her. In truth, I was kind of happy for her in a way. At least one of us could be happy. Ivy was a distraction, but she didn’t hold a candle to happiness.
Going into Camilla’s, I knew that there was only one woman who could make me even think about happiness. Camilla had become more to me than I would have imagined. I wasn’t sure where it was going to lead, but the way she’d felt in my arms the last time I’d seen her was enough to make me wonder if I could do more. I didn’t have to know the future, but I wanted to know that she was going to be in it.
Thinking of everything that was going on, I tried to push it all away and spend my time thinking about nothing but Camilla. I wasn’t going to think about what I was going to say to my parents and how I was going to explain it all away.
“Excuse me, buddy.”
I looked up to see a grungy man that I’d apparently almost run into. I didn’t know how I’d done that, as I was far away from him, but just out of courtesy I apologized anyways. I wasn’t thinking about where I was going. I was thinking about Camilla, and hoping that she would be able to help me forget about everything else for a time.
The meeting was a little more awkward than the last one. I knew that it was going to be different after the kiss, but there was something definitely off about her. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but when I asked her what was going on, she stiffened right up, shaking her head that she was fine. I didn’t know what to say or do. I felt deflated when it was time for me to go. Had one kiss changed everything so drastically? Should I apologize for doing it? I didn’t want to, but I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to get a choice one way or the other.
“I’m sorry if my kiss made you feel uncomfortable, Camilla. That was not what I wanted, not at all.”
“Please, let’s not speak of this again.”
“I don’t w
ant to pretend like it didn’t happen.”
“Well, you need to, Tyler. You’re my patient and I’m your doctor. That’s as far as it goes.”
“What about Zane?”
She stopped me and shook her head like I shouldn’t be saying anything. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but my attention was piqued.
“How about I walk you to the door?”
It was a strange request, but I didn’t really think about that as I told her that would be fine. For some reason, I was under the assumption that she wanted to appease me because I was upset that our kiss had meant nothing. It was only when I had said goodbye to her and was walking out of the building that I realized that she’d wanted to talk to me. I didn’t know why she didn’t feel safe talking in her office, but once I realized what was going on, it was too late.
I turned to walk back in, sure that she was giving me some kind of sign that I was too stupid to see. It wasn’t that there was anything that I could do, but maybe there was something that I wasn’t seeing. I wanted to think that it was a sign that she just wanted to keep the session separate from the talk of what came next with us.
I liked the sound of us. I was almost to the side of the building when I saw a shadow behind me. It was the man from before. Instead of saying anything, I moved to get some money out of my pocket. I was going to have to say something to Camilla about the man. He wasn’t going to be good for business, outside of her place begging her patients for money. But I just wanted him to go away so that I could listen to what the doctor was trying to tell me.
“Here, pal. This is all that I’ve got on me right now. It’s enough to get you a decent meal and a bed for the night.”
I finally looked up when the man didn’t take the money. He had a strange look in his pale blue eyes, and I knew then that he wasn’t there for money. I realized that the man wasn’t homeless, even though he was trying to look that way. His coat and shoes were of too fine of a quality for him to be what he was trying to project. Nothing about the man in front of me made any sense at all, and he was getting closer.
“Hey, buddy, that’s all I got.”
“I don’t want your money, Tyler.”
How did he know my name?
“Do I know you from somewhere?”
The man shook his head, and it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. This was not a chance meeting. “What do you want?”
“How about that watch? It will buy me a few more nights in a hotel than that bill will.”
I looked to the watch that he was talking about. It was the one my father had given me after I’d made my first million. It had been a proud day. One of the only days that I thought the old man was actually happy that I was his son.
“I can’t do that. Why don’t you take the money and I’ll be on my way?”
He shook his head that it wasn’t going to happen like that. The sinking feeling was back in my mind and heart. I knew that something bad was about to happen.
“Who are you?”
He just smiled at me, and before I could put my hands up in defense, I saw the shiny reflection of something metallic in his hand. I knew what it was subconsciously, way before my mind was able to tell me what I was seeing. The man had a gun, and it was pointing at me.
“You messed with the wrong person, Tyler Hudson.”
As the gun went off, I felt an instant heat in my chest and waited for the pain to take over. The man’s eyes never showed an ounce of remorse, and before everything went black, I had to ask myself what it was over. I was a businessman, and I’d made my fair share of enemies through the years. This wasn’t a coincidence, but I had no idea who I’d messed with. I remember hoping that I would wake up and be able to find out. What if this was my last moment?
Chapter 3 – Camilla
I was getting off work for the day when I saw the lights flashing outside of the building. It had been a long and confusing day, but I shouldn’t have been so out of it that catastrophe could happen outside of my workplace without my noticing it.
“What is going on here?”
“Get back, ma’am.”
I tried to talk to the paramedic, but he brushed me off. Just then I realized who they were carting off on the stretcher. What had happened to Tyler? There was blood everywhere, and I wasn’t going to be put off by the EMT anymore.
“This is one of my patients! What happened to him?”
The young, overweight man finally really looked and me and then motioned to Tyler. “He was shot on the side of the building. A passerby saw him bleeding out in the street and called us. Lucky that they did or I don’t know if this man would still be alive.”
It was too much information to process. The EMT asked me if I wanted to go with him. I hadn’t known it was an option, and it might have looked wrong, but I didn’t care. I was torn up about how I’d talked to him during our session. The idea that it would be the last time I talked to him occurred to me then, and I would have done anything to have another chance. I would say something better, tell him what his kiss and arms around me had actually meant to me.
“Yes, I’ll ride with you if I can.”
“Come on, then. We need to get him to the hospital right now. He’s losing a lot of blood, and I don’t know how much longer he can hold out.”
He didn’t have to say anything else. I was climbing into the back of the van. I crouched down next to him as the man worked. I finally had to move away, but I hated the fact that I had to let go of his hand. It was like my lifeline to him, to knowing that he was going to be okay. I couldn’t imagine a scenario that ended any differently. It was the first time I’d prayed since I was a kid. I’d never wanted anything more than how badly I wanted Tyler to just be okay.
My phone rang several times. Finally I had to answer it, just to get it to stop ringing.
“Why didn’t you answer?”
“I’m a little busy right now, Zane. You’re just going to have to wait on our meeting.”
“You know what happens if you don’t do what I want.”
I was too frustrated to deal with him, and at the moment I didn’t care about my career. I didn’t care that I was being blackmailed. All I had energy to worry about was the fact that Tyler was bleeding out in front of me. That was all that I was concerned with, and before I could get any more abuse from Zane, I hung up the phone and turned it off. I had enough to worry about without having to worry about him as well.
While the call shook me up a little bit, I didn’t let it bother me too much. I would worry about Zane later. Everything that I’d been feeling for Tyler was coming to a head, and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do if something happened to him. It reminded me of how dangerous the city was becoming and how uncertain life was in general.
“Is he going to be okay?”
The young EMT just kind of shook his head like he wasn’t sure one way or another. I wanted to shake him and make him give me details, but I knew that I couldn’t. “Just do what you can to help him. He’s important to a lot of people.” I didn’t say out loud that he was important to me and the very thought of being without him made it hard to breathe.
***
“Doc?”
I looked over at Tyler and was more than a little surprised to see his dark blue eyes looking back at me. I had wondered if I would ever see those eyes again. I wanted to cry, and as my vision blurred and I rubbed away the moisture, I knew that I wasn’t even able to stop myself. I was just so happy to see that he was okay.
“What’s the matter, Doc?”
He tried to get up and I stopped him. “Don’t get up. You’re going to rip the stitches. If having money wasn’t enough, I hear that a lot of women like scars. They are going to think that you’re bad ass.”
Tyler moved his head to the side and looked at me kind of strangely. “You know, I think that’s the first time that I’ve ever heard you curse, Doc.”
I kind of shrugged, not caring if I sounded like a sailor or not. There was nothing that
I cared about more than making sure that Tyler was going to be okay. I’d gone through a whole range of emotions during the several hours that he was in surgery, but now I was able to relax. “Let me call the nurse to make sure that everything is okay.”
“I wake up to you beside me. To me, that’s better than okay.”
I sighed and leaned over his body to push the call button. I didn’t care how good he was feeling, they had just taken a bullet out of his chest. There was no answer on his wife’s cell. I’d been trying to call her for hours, but she never answered, so I was the one that had to talk to the doctor when he was finished with surgery. It had all depended on if he woke up and how coherent he was. They hadn’t given any promises, but Tyler was strong and he was going to pull through it.
“Why did you do that?”
“Because you were shot, Tyler, and I want to make sure that you’re okay. You can’t be moving around. There was a lot of damage and the doctor said that you were going to need some time to let it heal. If you don’t, you can hurt yourself worse.”
He kind of scoffed at me, and again I had to push him gently back down to the bed.
“I know that you aren’t going to believe me, so I’ll let the doctor tell you the same thing if it makes you feel any better.”
The nurse wasn’t in the room but a minute before she was confirming what I’d already told him. Tyler was still cynical, but the doctor wasn’t far behind the nurse.
“Well, it’s good to see you up.”
“I’m not up. I want to get up, but I’m being told that I can’t.”
“You sustained some serious injuries, Mr. Hudson. You don’t want to mess up what took me hours to put back together, do you?”
Tyler shook his head and put it down a little like he was being properly admonished. I’d never seen him like that before, and once the nurse gave him something for the pain it wasn’t long before he was out again. The excitement had my heart racing, but when he was back to sleep, I was able to breathe again. The doctor told me that he was going to rest through the night. I told him I would be back in the morning.
