by Alice Cooper
“I catch myself sometimes looking in the mirror and I’m not sure who I’m looking at any more. I need this confirmation to know that what I’m doing is right for me. I can’t get caught up into the trap of material things. That will only hurt us in the long run. I want you to keep your phone on and let me be a fly on the wall to your conversation with him. I don’t see how he will drop his guard, but I’ve learned never to underestimate you. There’s no pressure and even if you were to say no to my request, I would not hold it against you.” Mandy was terrified of learning the truth, but she didn’t want to wear blinders anymore. The wedding was no more than a couple of days away and the rehearsal dinner in the next couple of hours was going to bring a lot of their friends and family together for the first time.
Lynn had marveled at the estate and walked around in something of a trancelike fog. She was sure that Mandy had thought she was taken aback by the opulence of the home that Bailey had bought for his family. This place had seven bedrooms and five bathrooms, not to mention a game room and a six car garage. Unbeknownst to Mandy, her shock and dismay was only enhanced by her surroundings. She was dealing with a whole lot more than some green streak of jealousy down her back. “I’ve lost so much time with Bailey. Our afternoon delight had only reminded me of what I left behind. I’ve never been one to confront my demons. I should have told him that I didn’t want him to go back, but I just didn’t have the right words. I was hoping that he would tell me that he wouldn’t leave without me, but that was not how everything played out.
“Please do this for me, Lynn and I will never ask for anything else from you in your lifetime. I know this is going above and beyond the call of duty of my maid of honor.” They hugged and Mandy felt like she was coming back home.. Somehow, she had convinced Kenneth to leave the cushy comfort of his New York condominium in the sky.
“I’ll do this under protest and on the condition that this won’t ruin our friendship. I’m either going to make you smile or destroy your reason for living. I can’t predict how this is going to go and what you told me of those photos doesn’t exactly instill me with any kind of confidence.” “Not only do I have to worry about yet another unplanned pregnancy, but I also have to throw a monkey wrench into my best friend’s wedding.” Lynn patted Mandy’s hand and then got up and walked down the stairs with a dark and gloomy cloud over her head.
She wasn’t even watching where she was going and she bumped into what felt like a brick wall. She stumbled backward and grabbed onto the first thing that she could find to prevent herself from falling. It was almost a desperate need in the back of her mind. She was thinking of the safety of the child. It was still early, but she was older now and there were more risks when it came to having a child.
Bailey reached out to her and wrapped his hands around her waist. He had noticed that she had grabbed onto the side of the door. She had turned white like that of a ghost. “I didn’t think that I would find you here. When my sister said that she needed to fit the bridesmaids and her maid of honor with their dresses, I assumed that it was going to be in some kind of boutique in the city. I hope this doesn’t make anything more awkward between us. You’ve made your feelings abundantly clear by not answering any of my texts.” Bailey had come here at the bequest of the bride intended. He felt there was something wrong about Kenneth, but maybe he was only projecting his own thoughts about what happened between himself and Lynn.
“I really don’t have time to talk about this.” Lynn moved underneath his arm, smelling his cologne and almost ready to succumb to the man. She mistakenly thought that the other day would finally close that chapter, but it had only opened a sequel to what they had together. She’d already been hurt enough in the past and going down that road again was only asking to repeat old mistakes. “I knew that it was a mistake to go to his hotel room, but I don’t think that I regret one moment of it. The only thing that I hate is this wall between us. There’s no way that I could possibly be friends with him and wish him well in his future endeavors.” Lynn walked downstairs and found the boys play acting.
Kenneth spied the concern on Lynn’s face and was immediately worried that something had happened. He excused himself from an obvious men’s gathering of testosterone. He cornered Lynn in a nearby room. It had a ping-pong table and a couple of old life sized Atari games. “You obviously have something on your mind. If this concerns my wedding, then I deserve to know.”
“I don’t want to cause problems where there isn’t any, but I have to ask you about your intentions. Is there any dark secrets keeping you from making a long lasting commitment to my friend? Do you have any skeletons in your closet or unnecessary baggage that needs to be checked? I can see in your eyes that you have something you need to tell me. There’s no better time than right now.” Lynn raised her hand and put it reassuringly on his shoulder. At first, she thought that she was losing her edge, but then his eyes cast down and his shoulders relaxed just a little bit too much. “This is it and I just hope Mandy is ready for this. I know the signs and these questions made him feel guilty about something. It’s just a matter of drawing it out of him.”
“I know that I love her, but I don’t know if I can contend with one woman for the rest of my life. I’m probably just having cold feet, but an ex girlfriend has been sniffing around lately. I couldn’t help myself and I thought that the ball and chain around my ankle was going to trap me for the rest of my life.” Kenneth really didn’t understand why he was saying any of this, but it fell right to get it off his chest. “I’m sure that others have gone through the same thing, but this girl really knows how to push my buttons. I found myself having dinner with her and old memories began to surface. I think she knew that I was at my weakest point and decided to go for broke.”
“What exactly did you do? Was it as simple as a kiss or did it get out of hand?” “I don’t really want to know the answer, but this is something that my sister from another mother needed to know before walking down the aisle. I don’t want her to get caught in something that is not going to last. It would kill her and I would have to be there to pick up the pieces.”
“I really don’t know how to say this, except to just say it. I lost myself for one moment, as she went down on me underneath the table. I tried to stop her, but she’s not an easy woman to deny. That was three weeks ago and I’m ashamed to say that I’ve been with her at least five more times. The first two were the same with her giving me a blow job for old time sake, but then things escalated.” Mandy came in and slapped him across the face, so hard that he actually felt that he deserved it. He had nothing to say and knew from the stinging sensation that she had heard every single word. This had been a web of deceit and it had come back to haunt him.
Chapter 8
The rehearsal dinner was canceled and Lynn went back home to cuddle with Timothy inside his special fort that he had made with all the cushions from the couch and a chair. They were having a wonderful time, even though Lynn was thinking about what her friend was currently going through. It was going to hurt for quite some time, but as far as she knew the wedding was still on.
“You have such an innocence about you, Timmy. I know that I can’t ask you this, but I’m praying to god that you keep it for as long as possible. You have such a gift for seeing things with bright and impressionable eyes. The world is going to try to extinguish that flame of goodness from you and I don’t want you to let it.” I want to keep him sheltered from the ugliness of the real world. I can only do that so long, before I will have to pull him away from my apron strings. I will need to set my little bird free to make his own mistakes. I can only hope that I have given him the right advice, so that he can fall and then stand back up on his own 2 feet.” There was an incessant knocking on the door. At first, she ignored it, but it got considerably louder and she was worried that the neighbors were going to call the cops.
Opening the door, she came face to face with an irate piece of her past. Bailey was not smiling and the scowl on his face
told her that there was going to be hell to pay.
“How dare you do that to your best friend and think you did her a favor. They aren’t even married yet and what he does, until the day he says I do can still be forgiven. I’ve tried to talk to my sister, but she shut me out. I blame you and she told me what you did for her. You might have thought you were doing the right thing, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.” Bailey had felt a little despondent and had decided to take the edge off with a few drinks at a local tavern. After that, his anger had been considerably heavier on his chest and he needed to unload on someone.
“It’s not my fault that all men are dogs and can’t be trusted around something that is familiar. You of all people can attest that old loves can come back at the most inopportune time. I only did what my friend asked of me and nothing more and nothing less. For you to come over here and berate me and stand there in judgment is not fair. This is not our problem and they need to deal with these issues before they go any further. If it’s a simple mistake, then I’m sure Mandy will see it that way and give him a second chance to redeem himself. It’s entirely up to them to work this out and we should not interfere unless asked.” “I know that I shouldn’t verbally abuse him, but seeing him is bringing back that fresh wound. It still festers, but I also have this need aching inside me to grab him and to throw him down onto the floor.” She had gotten so carried away that she didn’t even realize that her son was no more than a few feet from where they were standing.
“There’s no reason to get defensive. I just think that you should have thought about what you were going to do before you did it. You must have known that it would end badly. My sister has a tendency to ruin a good thing. You should have known that and it’s not like you’ve been apart that long. You are right about past loves getting underneath someone’s skin and you’ve certainly done that for me. After what we did the other day, I can’t seem to shake the image of you smiling in a post orgasmic glow of ecstasy. I wish that I could take it all back, but there’s no way that I can. The only thing I can do is hope that we can move on.” He was about to turn and go back to the taxi idling at the curb with its meter running, but then he stopped.
Lynn had no idea why he had gotten caught off guard, until she turned herself and found Timmy standing there with a Popsicle stuck in his mouth. It was his favorite of a cherry variety. He looked, so sweet and innocent. “I’m hoping that he’s not going to ask. It’s not exactly the proudest moment of my life. I love him and I would never want to be without him, but this is only going to cause more problems than it’s worth. I need to stop him from saying anything and to shut him down before he learns the truth.”
“This is Timothy and he’s on his way to bed. Make sure to brush your teeth and be ready when Judith comes to pick you up tomorrow.” Lynn stared down her little boy, until he threw up his hands in defeat and stomped away in his Scooby Doo P J’s. When he disappeared, she turned and saw the look of astonishment in Bailey’s eyes.
“How… old…is he?” He was doing the math in his head and the relative age of the child matched up to what he thought was true. “Who is the father?” He was a man of few words and even the words that he did get out were few and far between. He saw the kid’s eyes and they were remarkably like his own. It felt like he was looking at a younger version of himself and that terrified him down to his very core. Was it possible that she had his child and didn’t even have the courtesy of telling him about it.
“He’s five years old and his father was in the military before he was gunned down in the line of duty. His mother is Judith. I know what you’re thinking and it’s not true. I did not have your child and if I had, don’t you think that I would have told you? I’m only babysitting for a few extra dollars and my job isn’t exactly as glamorous as I made it out to be. I do work for a successful businessman in the media, but I only write obituaries. I didn’t get out of my own way and found myself stagnant and stuck in quicksand in this very town.” “I can’t put the genie back in the bottle. I said what I had to say to protect Timothy and myself from any kind of reprisal from a man that has too much money than brains. I won’t risk him trying to take him away from me even in a knee jerk reaction to become a father.”
“I’m sorry that I jumped to conclusions. I think I’m going to go while my foot is currently dislodged from my mouth.” He barely got two steps out of the house, before the door made a resounding slam. He cringed to think about what it would mean if they had a child together. At first, he would be angry, but something told him deep down that it would be the crowning achievement of his life. He could not in good conscience let her story hold any water without finding some concrete proof.
Lynn was sitting against the door in the fetal position with her hands wrapped around her knees. She felt like such a heel for taking away the truth. She had always been a big proponent for letting the chips fall where they may. Unfortunately, she was not one to take her own advice and sometimes she could be her own worst enemy. “It’s too late for us and there’s no way that we can recapture the past. What we did in the hotel room was something I will always remember, but it’s only a memory. I can’t possibly begin to believe that there is a future, when he has obviously been playing the field literally and figuratively.” Her dream of becoming famous had been extinguished by the light of a little boy. She began to think that maybe she had allowed Timothy to be the excuse not to reach for the stars.
Bailey was lamenting over seeing the child, slapping his forehead and making the taxi driver very uncomfortable. “Get it out of your head and she wouldn’t lie about something like this. I have to know for sure and there’s a friend of my father’s that could look into it on my behalf. I just don’t know if I want to know the truth. I won’t be able to rest and I’ll always have that lingering doubt in the back of my mind.” He called the friend of his father’s and had the ball rolling before he even arrived back home.
Lynn arrived at the estate the next morning ready to help the bride get ready for the big day. Instead, she found both Mandy and Bailey putting up a united front. They were standing there with their arms crossed defiantly and making her feel like she had just walked into some trap. “I’m not sure what this is, but I don’t need some kind of interference or whatever this is called.” “The look on their faces tells me that they’re not very happy with me. I don’t know exactly what changed from the moment that he left my house last night to this moment in time.”
“I’m going to leave the two of you to discuss things in private. The wedding is not gonna happen and late last night, Kenneth and I eloped to Las Vegas. We decided to avoid all the hoopla. I do hope that you understand.” Mandy’s voice was chilled and the icy reception to her friend was due to what her brother had told her early this morning.
He waited until his sister was driving away and then he confronted his ex love with the truth. “Timothy is mine and there’s no point in denying it. I had an independent investigator look into it and it didn’t take them long to find out that Timothy was yours. I only had to put two and two together and now I want you to finally clear the air once and for all.” He wasn’t expecting the tears or the outburst, as she ran upstairs with him in hot pursuit.
She slammed the door in his face and ran to the bathroom. She couldn’t believe the day had come and then he was standing there looking still angry, but with a softness in his eyes. “I’m sorry. It was not my intention to leave you out of it. I did reach out, but at the last second I pulled my hand back from the phone. I saw you on television and I saw how you were with the ladies. You were still young and you needed time to find yourself. I just didn’t think it was right for me to take that away from you.” She couldn’t look at him and the awkward silence only made it that much more difficult to talk to him about this.
She saw movement beside her. She turned to see that he was reaching into the trash can. He lifted the box with her home pregnancy test and the stick that was pretty damn clear about what was going to
follow.
Bailey stared at it in disbelief and then turned to Lynn with his finger pointing at the stick and then back at her. It was obvious from the stunned expression on Lynn’s face that this was something she was going to keep away from him again. “Timothy is mine and now you’re pregnant again. I either have the strongest swimmers known to man, or our love is the secret ingredient to all of this.” He should have been angry, but instead he was through the roof.
He lifted her into his arms and carried her out to the bedroom. Dropping her on the mattress, he hastily stripped off his shirt and showed her his obvious strength.
“I want you in my life and this isn’t going to happen, Bailey, unless I have some assurances.” She was slipping off her jeans with her panties following suit. They were sopping wet.
“We are going to be a family and you did make some mistakes, but I can forgive them. I’ve never wanted anybody as much as I’ve wanted you, Lynn. The other women meant nothing and they were pale reminders of what we had.” He was going for his pants, but she had grabbed his belt and tore it off of him in a flourish.
She struggled to remain calm, but this was like a dream that she never wanted to wake up from. She pulled insistently to get his pants and underwear down to his ankles. His manhood was jutting out with the same stiffness that she had witnessed the other day. She looked up into his eyes and then she sucked him deep, until it was touching the back of her throat. “I know that I’m opening myself up for heartbreak, but I can’t help myself. He has always had a hold on me and even thousands of miles away, I was pretty much powerless by just the sight of him on television. Having him right in front of me and knowing that he feels the same way is something that I’m not going to let go so easily this time.” She bobbed her head and had him shaking at the knees from the obvious pleasure.
