Dancing in the Gray

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Dancing in the Gray Page 22

by Eydie Maggio


  “Wow. So let me see if I got all this.” Elise’s eyes were blinking rapidly as she processed the information. “So Rixby confronted you at your office before he did all that shit on the red carpet.”

  “Right.”

  “Then Monday he comes by and apologizes and says that you won me, right?”

  Trey nodded his head. “That’s correct.”

  “So, you tried to find me and you couldn’t. So you called Jeremy, who I heard threatened to put a hit out on you, and he couldn’t find me.”

  “Right, again. Jeremy is really upset with me.”

  Elise held her hand up in front of him telling him to pause, “We’ll get to that in a second.”

  She paused for a few seconds, “So lastly, Ronald had a magic way of pulling up information on me, including my credit card transactions which led you to me here and also let you know that I purchased a ticket to France. Does that sum it up?”

  “Ronald will appreciate the fact that you think he’s magical, but yes, I guess it does.” Trey held his breath waiting for her response.

  “You really went through all that trouble to find me?”

  Trey slowly nodded his head, “Yes, and I would have done more if I didn’t find you.”

  Elise shrugged her shoulders and was shaking her head. “Trey, I don’t even know what to say right now.”

  “Are you angry with me?”

  “No, not at all. I’m touched that you went through all that trouble. I’m pissed at Rixby and thankful at the same time.” Trey furrowed his brows at that comment, but Elise wasn’t having any of that. “Don’t start with the Rixby shit! I wasn’t up to be won in the first place. I was all yours. I’m thankful that his pompous ass was humbled enough to apologize to you and not to me. Jerk! Plus, you wouldn’t have come for me if he wouldn’t have gone to your office to apologize.”

  “That’s not true, Elise. I can’t describe how empty I felt. I realized quickly, without Rixby’s appearance on Monday, that I needed you.”

  “I’m still confused on how my information is out there for Ronald to just look up, and I’m embarrassed that I thought running was a solution.” Elise rubbed her hands over her face again.

  “Don’t stress about the Ronald stuff because I didn’t even know any of that existed until Monday. I was just desperate to find you and Ronald saw the condition I was in. It seems like it’s just a security measure the team initiates when someone gets close to my dad or his immediate family. Trust me, I was shocked when I knew there was a file on you. But if it makes you feel better, that’s all the information that I have wanted to tell you since the rollercoaster started on Friday. It’s all out there.”

  “Ok, but I have a few questions of my own. What happened with the bitch from the news show this morning? Jeremy was going to let me drive down to the station and kick her ass before my mom called and saved the day, which I am so sorry about.”

  “Martie was hilarious, and she was completely right! Sherri was aggressive, but Paul stepped in and made the set change happen.”

  “What did she tell you when you went to commercial break? Before the set change?”

  Trey didn’t want to answer that question because he knew it would cause Elise to fly off the handle. But, he didn’t want secrets. “She asked me to show her all the things you did to get me off the market.”

  Elise tilted her head to the side, and with a moderate tone in her voice she uttered one word, “Really.” She had a small grin on her face as she got up from the island. She headed over to the back counter where her purse was and retrieved the keys to her car. She picked up her purse and put it on her shoulder and started to walk out of the kitchen.

  Trey panicked. He got up from the island and ran after Elise who was storming out of his house bare foot. “Elise, where are you going?” He ran in front of her and stopped her in the foyer. “I’m sorry, Elise. Please don’t leave.”

  “Trey, don’t apologize. I’ll be back.” She gave him a forced smile and tried to step around him, but Trey moved in front of her.

  “Don’t run, Elise. Please!” He was holding her arms.

  Elise’s face softened and a sweet smile crossed her face. “I’m not running. I swear.” She was shaking her head. She placed her hand on Trey’s face then rose up onto her toes and gave him a sweet kiss on his lips. “I’ll be right back.”

  Trey knew she wasn’t angry at him, but didn’t understand what was happening. “Please tell where you’re going.”

  In the calmest, sweetest voice, Elise spoke, “I’m just going to the television station to find out where this bitch lives so I can kick her ass. I promise I’ll be back soon. And, could you take the empanadas out of the oven in fifteen minutes?”

  Trey couldn’t help but laugh. She might have well said that she was going to the store to get a gallon of milk, she was that nonchalant. “Elise, you can’t be serious.”

  “Oh yes I am!” She tried to walk past Trey one more time, but he stepped in front of her again.

  This time, Trey was stern with her realizing she may actually be serious. “You are not going to find that woman.”

  Elise squinted her eyes at him, “Why the hell not?”

  “Because she’s not worth it!”

  “BUT YOU ARE!” Elise’s voice echoed in the foyer. Trey looked down at Elise with her semi wet hair and bare feet in amazement of this woman. “Ok! So I’m a little jealous and kinda crazy at the moment. Meet Psycho Elise.” Elise rolled her eyes and smiled up at Trey. He turned her around and led her back into the kitchen keeping his hands on her shoulders.

  “You have no reason to be jealous, you know that right?” That woman couldn’t hold a candle to Elise.

  “I think so, but I just wanted to strangle her when I saw her hands all over you! And, in hindsight, I guess if I really wanted to kick her ass, I should probably put on some shoes, and a bra.”

  Trey tried not to laugh as he stood back and watched Elise continue her hissy fit. She was quite cute.

  “But, you know what pisses me off about this whole situation is that she did all that shit on camera. I mean, it’s one thing to hit on you backstage or in private…,” Elise turned around and faced Trey waving her index finger in the air, “….not that I’m ok with her hitting on my man at all, but it’s another to treat you like a sex toy on television. It’s no newsflash that your gorgeous, anyone with one semi-working eye could see that, but there is a great man with great values, beliefs, and ideas to improve the state under all that gorgeousness. She objectified you, and that’s what I’m really pissed about.”

  “As long as you understand that you have absolutely nothing to worry about where I’m concerned, that’s all I care about. Fuck Sherri! She made herself look like an ass on television, and after we got through the set change we were able to hit a few topics that I wanted to talk about with the viewer questions.” Trey walked up to Elise and took her face in his hands. “But, I appreciate your concern and love that you are so supportive.” Elise’s beautiful eyes were looking up at him coyly before his lips landed on hers.

  Maybe Trey shouldn’t have liked that Elise was willing to get into a physical altercation over him, but he did. He wanted her to care about him as deeply as he cared for her. What Elise was prepared to do was equivalent to what Trey actually did to Rixby. He wasn’t proud of that moment, but he understood how she felt when she had to witness someone else invading on her territory.

  She dropped her purse back on the countertop and went into his refrigerator and pulled out two Argentinian beers. She opened the top cabinet near the refrigerator, then the one next to it. It looked like she was looking for glasses. “One cabinet over, I have pilsners.”

  Elise turned around and smiled, “Thanks.” She retrieved the glasses from the cabinet and poured the beers into each glass, placing one in front of Trey.

  “So I’m your man?” Trey smiled behind his glass as he took a sip.

  “You better be! I was about to go throw down with s
ome bitch over you – wearing no bra and no shoes!” Elise’s hands were on her hips, and she was wearing a small mischievous smile.

  Trey nearly spit the beer in his mouth all over the counter. “Yes, I’m your man! So are you mine?” Trey lifted his eyebrows waiting for her answer.

  “Duh! Since the moment we met.” Elise bit her bottom lip and smiled, causing a warm sensation to crawl through Trey’s chest.

  She turned her attention back to the empanadas while Trey helped her cut Valencia’s for an orange salad. She was also roasting bell peppers for the chorizo she was cooking. She was serving the sausage over homemade Melba toast and topping it with sautéed roasted red bell peppers.

  Once the food was done, they both prepared their plates and sat at the table in the kitchen. The meal was fabulous and Elise wasn’t lying when she said she knew how to cook. “So where did you learn how to cook all this?”

  “Jeremy and I were in Argentina for a couple fashion shows, and we had this great meal at a local designer’s home. His cook allowed me to help prepare the meal with her, so this is one of my five star dishes I cook when I’m trying to impress someone.” Elise threw Trey a wink before she sipped on her Araucana Rojiza Fuert beer.

  “Even though you don’t need to impress me, this meal was very impressive. I really enjoyed it.”

  Elise put her hand on his, “I was hoping you weren’t mad that I had Maggie cancel the French caterer.” Elise got up from the table and started to clear their plates.

  “With the ticket that you bought, I thought you wanted to be back in France, so I wanted to bring France to you.” Trey picked up the rest of the dishes and followed Elise to the sink.

  “Trey…” Elise tilted her head to the side and her beautiful face was looking up at him, “you are such an amazing man,” Elise wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face into his chest holding him tightly.

  Trey laced his hands into her hair and held her to his chest. “You make me want to be amazing.” He closed his eyes and kissed the top of her head. “I’d like to show you the rest of the house, if you’d like?”

  “Absolutely.” Elise tilted her head back to look up at him, “I love you so much, Trey.”

  He hugged her tightly to his chest and said, “You can’t imagine how happy that makes me.”

  “I know the feeling. I have it ever time you’ve told me.”

  Trey took Elise’s hand and walked her up a staircase to the second floor of the house. That was where Trey’s master was located and a few other bedrooms. They walked past a guest bedroom that had two twin beds in it. One bed had a Barbie comforter, and the other bed had a camouflage comforter. Elise stopped in her tracks and looked up at him with wide eyes, “This room is for my niece and nephew when my sister and her family stay up here with me.” He immediately saw the relief wash over her face.

  Elise smiled as she walked into the room and headed to the Barbie Dream Home that was at the foot of his niece, Amelie’s, bed. “I always wanted one of these growing up.” Elise ran her fingers over the top of the toy house.

  Trey could only imagine what it was like for Elise growing up. His parents didn’t give them everything they wanted, but they didn’t go without. He was watching her face as she looked over all the Barbie dolls that were in a basket next to the toy house. The only way Trey could define it was sadness wrapped in joy.

  Elise walked over and picked up the picture that was on the nightstand that separated the two beds. It was one of Trey with the kids at his father’s most recent Inauguration. “Look at her beautiful curly hair.” Elise looked up from the picture smiling, tilting the frame in Trey’s direction. “What’s her name?”

  “Amelie. She looks just like Sophia, except for the green eyes. Those come from her dad.”

  “And who is this little handsome man?”

  “J.J. He looks just like Jake, my brother-in-law. He will outgrow his older sister in just a few months.” Trey walked over to the dresser and picked up Sophia’s family picture and handed it to Elise. “That’s the whole family.”

  Elise smiled as she looked over the picture. “Your sister is beautiful.”

  “She is. She has a mouth like a sailor, though.” Trey and Will had a bet that Sophia’s kid’s first word would be a four letter one. They both lost when both of the kid’s first words were “Daddy.” Sophia definitely kept it clean around the kids.

  “I love how you have this room especially for them. They must love it when they come here.” Elise was looking at a stuffed alligator that was on J.J.’s bed.

  “I love it when they’re here. Sophia cried when she saw what we did with this room. Jessie, Will’s wife, helped me. They spent a lot of time up here at the end of dad’s last campaign, so I wanted them to feel like they had their own space instead of them staying at hotels or with Will and Jessie at Mom and Dad’s home.”

  “Wow, Trey. You are an awesome brother and uncle. Your family is very lucky.”

  “I would really love for you to meet them.” Trey was leaning against the threshold of the door.

  She smiled and nodded her head, “I would like that, too.” Elise put the family picture back on top of the dresser. “Show me the rest of the house?”

  Trey extended out his hand to her which Elise grabbed and held close to her. He showed her the rest of the second floor which included 4 other guest bedrooms and his master suite and bathroom.

  Trey’s master suite had a sitting room with a fire place that had two beautiful wingback chairs angled in front of it. There was also a small desk that was in the corner of the sitting room. On each side of the desk were bookshelves that were filled different leather bound books. In the sitting room, there were French doors that opened into the bedroom. Trey had a king sized bed at the center of the room. To the left were another set of French doors that led out to a balcony.

  “So this is my bedroom. I like to hang out here on the balcony when I get a chance.”

  Elise opened the French doors and stepped outside onto the balcony. “What a beautiful view! Is that a coy pond?” Elise pointed down to the area off to the side of the balcony.

  “Yes. The previous owners had it and I decided to keep it. I fell in love with the outdoor space that surrounded the home. I wanted to look out to the large back yard and still have privacy. That’s why I had so many Serbian spruces planted along the property line.” Trey was standing behind Elise pointing to the edge of the property

  Elise looked up over her shoulder at him, “It’s amazing.”

  Trey liked that Elise appreciated his home. “No, what’s amazing is my closet.”

  Elise whipped her head around and headed back into the bedroom. He knew she would love it because his mother and sister flipped when they saw it. The previous owner turned two guest bedrooms into two separate his and hers luxury closets. Trey pointed out the door that led to the hallway that separated the two closets. “Mine’s on the right.”

  Elise opened the door and her jaw dropped. “This is freaking awesome!” She walked around the center unit which was six feet by six feet and had a granite countertop. The unit contained drawers all around it where he stored his ties, socks, underwear, watches, etc. The three walls of his closet were filled with his suits and other clothes. The fourth wall was ceiling to floor shoes. Elise walked out of his closet and opened the door to the other one. “It’s completely empty?”

  “Yes, I just figured one day I’d have someone to share all this with.” Elise turned and stared at Trey with a perplexed look. “What?”

  “Well, not to digress too much, but it amazes me that you had such strong convictions about not being in a relationship when we met, but clearly you had aspirations.” Elise waved her hand behind her into the closet.

  “I knew sooner or later I wanted to eventually share my life with somebody and have a family.” Trey swallowed hard before he spoke, “And, now I’m hoping for sooner, rather than later.”

  Chapter 25

  Elise woke up in u
nfamiliar surroundings. She was in Trey’s master bedroom. When she looked at the clock, it said 10:45 am. Trey had left long ago for work and left Elise all alone in his house. She fought her initial instinct which was to run around the house and open every drawer, cabinet, closet, and open piece of mail to find out more about Trey. But, he did tell her to make herself at home last night after the tour of the house ended in Trey’s bedroom, so she was planning on continuing the tour on her own.

  Once they found themselves in Trey’s room, it was very hard to leave it. He told her he was ready to share his life with someone which was surprisingly exciting for Elise. She loved him, and she liked the fact that he was open to the idea of forever. He wanted to introduce her to his family soon, and even though the thought of that scared her a little, she wanted to be absorbed into his world.

  Elise crawled out of his bed and headed downstairs to the kitchen for bottle of water. She took a couple of sips of water then headed over to the other side of the house to see the rest. Beyond the formal sitting room in the front of the house, there was an office. It had wooden walls and floors with all leather furniture. There was a huge desk with papers neatly stacked on top of it, as well as a desktop and a docking station for a laptop. A pair of reading glasses similar to the ones he was wearing on the airplane the day they met sat next to his computer.

  There were bookshelves lining the walls similar to the ones in his bedroom, but also tons of pictures of him with his family. There were also awards and plaques for his philanthropy spanning from AIDS research to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Her hottie was a humanitarian.

  Elise looked down at his desk calendar and saw notes jotted all over it. The previous Friday was circled and he had the words “Elise’s Award Banquet” written across it. The Friday that was coming up in a few days had the words “Elise buyout NY – time off” written across it. Elise smiled as she ran her finger over the note. He was planning on taking the day off on the day of her buyout, no doubt for some sort of support. She just shook her head while wearing the cheesiest grin on her face. Was there an end to the amazement of this man? She hoped to God not.

 

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