“I’ll be sure.” Ellen accepted the kiss on the cheek from Andrea. “Thanks.”
“See you tomorrow.” Andrea took one more look at Ellen then walked from the bedroom.
Knowing it was time to slip back into a pair of shorts and a tee shirt, Ellen reached her hands to her hair to feel for the pins that Jenny had placed in her hair. As her arms rose, she heard Andrea saying ‘Hi, Frank’. Ellen’s arms dropped. “Frank?” She closed her eyes and jumped back when the single knock at the door startled her.
“El.” Frank walked in, and the moment he saw her turn to look at him, Frank’s heart dropped. “Oh my God.”
“Frank,” Ellen spoke nervously, “what are you doing here?”
“I uh ... I took a walk. Dean is spending time ... God, El, you’re beautiful.”
Ellen’s head dropped in a blush. “Frank.”
Frank walked up to her. “Look at you.” His hand reached out and touched lightly to her face.
Ellen closed her eyes and tiled her head unconsciously into his touch. She caught herself and her head sprang up. “But this isn’t me.” She turned from him. “I have to get out of this, Frank. Oh I hate this dress up stuff.” Her hands rose to her hair again. “So you left Dean alone?”
“Yep. Fifteen-minute test. I figured I’d come here and bother you.”
“Care to help. I have a million hairpins in this hair.”
“Sure.” Frank walked up behind her. His huge hands dug in her hair along with Ellen’s hands, pulling out pins and setting them on the dresser. “This reminds me of the time you had your hair pulled up for that dinner. Remember?” Frank dropped some pins. He separated her hair. “I’ll do this.” He removed her hands. “I swore we dug pins from your hair for fifteen minutes.”
“I remember that, not to mention all the hair spray.”
“This feels soft though.” Frank tried to run his fingers through her hair and they got stuck. He laughed. “Maybe not. What did you do? Tease you hair?”
“Andrea did.”
“Last pin.” He handed it to her then reached around for the brush. “You or me?”
“I can do it. Thanks.” Ellen smiled. “Step back.” She bent over flinging her hair forward and brushed it, talking to Frank’s boots, “Thanks for your help.”
“No problem. I needed to waste fifteen minutes, which with walking time included, is almost up. You’ll see him soon though. I’m sending him down here to try walking alone again. He did good today, El. Made it home all by himself.”
“I heard it took him forever.”
“But at least he made it.” He watched Ellen straighten up and fling her hair back as she stood. It was full and Frank shrieked in a joke at her.
“Frank.” She hit him lightly with the brush then brushed her hair flat. She turned her back to him. “Could you undo the zipper for me?”
“Sure.” Frank hesitated in his reach then grabbed the zipper, pulling it down slowly, looking at her bare back as he exposed it. He swallowed and separated the open garment. “All ... I have to go.” He stepped back quickly.
“Frank?”
“Fifteen minutes is up, El. Dean will panic.” He opened the door. “I’ll see you.”
“Frank?” Ellen was at a loss when Frank darted out.
Frank paused on the top step before going down. He looked back at the partially opened bedroom door, wanting so badly to go back in there, but he couldn’t. The best thing for him at that moment was to go home. He hurried down the steps. As he reached for the front door, it opened, and Henry walked in.
“Frank?” Henry said on his entrance. “How come you’re here?”
“Eating up time. Dean’s home alone for the first time with the kids. Trial thing. You know.”
“You leaving?”
“Yeah, El’s upstairs. Uh, Henry, don’t go up there.”
“Why?” Henry asked, afraid of the answer.
“She has her wedding dress on. Bad luck.” Frank laughed then turned somber. “Even though I know and you know this will be as real as it is right now, it’s still … still hard to see her getting ready to marry someone else. You got her, legally married or not. Sometimes that just sucks. And I feel bad because I always think you don’t deserve it. But I guess that’s just me.”
“Frank.”
“I’ll see you, Henry.” Frank tapped once on the edge of the door then pulled it closed as he left.
Henry closed his eyes tightly and leaned in toward that closed door. “I’m sorry,” he spoke softly, laying his palm flush against it. “It isn’t you. I don’t deserve it.” He stayed there for a minute like that, thinking about the look on his friend’s face. As he turned from the door, he saw Ellen standing on the next to last step. “El.”
“Attached to that door, Henry?” she asked, then walked all the way down. “Look at my fluffy hair. They had me teased and pulled up, fussed over. How was your day?”
“Good.” Henry kept a quiet demeanor.
Ellen was a little surprised and her face showed it. “What’s wrong?”
“El, we have to talk.”
“What’s going on?”
“I can’t … I can’t do this, El. Any of this.”
Ellen squinted her eyes. “I’m sorry. I guess I was getting caught up in a wedding I never had. Forgetting it wasn’t real.” She stood. “I’ll talk to Frank, get him to cause a scene and …”
“No, I’ll just take the heat and call it off.”
“Henry, what’s going on?” Ellen asked.
“All this. The wedding. Us. How we got married and …”
“You’re upset because this isn’t real.”
“I’m upset because I don’t deserve any of it.”
Ellen forced a smile. “What are you talking about?”
“I haven’t been honest with you. I haven’t been.” Henry spoke nearly in a whisper, “Before we continue on with this friendship, living here half the time, fake wedding … there’s something you need to know.”
“Do I want to know this?”
“You need to know this.” Henry reached back and closed the bedroom door.
<><><><>
“Man,” Frank commented when Dean walked in. “You just went over there. Didn’t they want you either? Or didn’t you go?”
“I went.” Dean shut the door. “Frank ...”
“What did they do? Kick you out?” Frank laughed.
“You can say that, Frank.” Dean walked farther into the house. “Henry’s calling off the wedding.”
“No he’s not. I was just there.” Frank snickered. “Dean, you lost your sight not your mind. I just came back from there, right before you left. Remember? It’s been like what ... two fuckin minutes?”
“No, Frank. When I got there, Ellen was storming out. I knocked, asked Henry. He wouldn’t let me in. All he said was he called off the wedding.”
“Wow.” Frank placed his hands on his hips and dropped his head. “This is and isn’t a shock.” Frank paused, fluttering his lips. “Do you know why? I mean, why call off something that isn’t real? Unless they planned to tell us it wasn’t real when it actually was.”
“Would they do that again?”
“It’s Ellen.”
“True, but ...” Dean breathed out heavily. “Something does not feel right.”
“Nope. It don’t.” Frank walked over and sat on the couch. “But I’m not getting involved in that. A deal is a deal. I’m just gonna hang out with you.”
“Do you think that’s the best option?”
“Dean, whether you or I like it or not. This is not our concern.”
“You’re enjoying this aren’t you?”
“Trouble in paradise?”
“Yes.”
Frank smiled. “Absolutely.”
<><><><>
The invitations to the wedding. They sat on the table and Henry supposed Ellen was going to show him. But then he told her. Ellen ended up showing him the invitations another way ...
&nb
sp; “You needed to tell me ...” She ripped up the three invitations. “…before this!” She tossed the pieces harshly at him. They sprayed like rain into his face then onto the floor. “It doesn’t matter what you say, Henry, nothing, nothing is gonna make up for the hurt your cowardliness just caused me.” She brushed harshly by him, smacking her shoulder into Henry as she passed him, flung open the door, and ran out.
Now Henry’s fingers trembled as he sat at the dining room table. So sad, his fingers worked on piecing back together the ripped up wedding invitations. Diligently and with such determination, he tore small strips of tape and carefully rebuilt the invitations to what they were. There was no reason for it, maybe it was symbolic for him vowing to try to put together what he tore between him and Ellen.
The clicking of the front door handle went through Henry like a shock. The last he spoke to Frank, he hadn’t found Ellen, yet when Henry looked up, Ellen was walking into his home. “El.” He stood, dropping the invitation to the table and racing to the door. “Where have you been?”
“Not here.” She walked to the steps.
“El, can we talk? Please can we talk?”
“No,” she said somberly and began to walk up the steps.
Henry followed her, determined to speak with her. “El, listen I’ve been ...”
“Henry.” Ellen spun to him when she reached the top step. “I’m not in the mood to talk.” She walked to their bedroom.
“You can’t go to bed mad at me, El.”
“Mad? No, Henry, I’m not mad.” Ellen walked around to the bottom of the bed and reached under it. She pulled out a duffel bag.
“What are you doing?”
“I no longer live here, Henry.”
“No, El.” He pulled the bag from her. “You live here.”
“I’m leaving.”
“You can’t do that.”
“Did you think I’d stay? Did you?” Ellen flung open the closet. “You hid the truth from me.”
“I was afraid to talk to you. I was afraid of this.”
“Guess what, Henry, your fears have come true.”
“No.” Henry pulled her from the closet. “I won’t let you do this. We need to resolve this matter.”
Ellen laughed. “Resolve? Do you actually think there can be a resolve? I walked around Beginnings like an idiot, professing that I had no idea how Nick was conceived. You … you backed it right up.” Her hands flew about. “Do you know how stupid that feels? When all along, you knew. You knew exactly how and when I got pregnant with Nick.”
“I told you I was scared.”
“I thought you knew me.”
“I do.”
“Apparently not, Henry. Because if you would have just told me the next day when I asked if anything happened between us …” She stepped to Henry. “I asked you if anything happened. You said no. If you would have said yes. Told me the truth, it wouldn’t have been an issue.”
“Then, why is it an issue now!”
“Because you lied to me. You didn’t just lie to me then, you did it all the way up until now. You lied about Nick. You had a chance then, too. Why aren’t you getting this?”
“Is the Nick paternity why you are so mad?”
Ellen blasted, “What! No! It’s everything. The lies, everything.”
“At least I told you, Ellen. Give me credit for that.”
“Oh my God. In what reality does that make it OK?” Ellen walked to her drawers and grabbed clothes. “Now I have to live in the old reality and keep pretending I haven’t a clue how Nick came about. Because if I say I do, then I look like a bigger liar than everyone thinks I am. If I tell the truth, you’ll be ousted as a rapist.”
As she turned, Henry grabbed her arm. “Rapist? How dare you throw that word at me? I told you I didn’t know. You remembered kissing me.”
“I was drunk, Henry.”
“You kept kissing me.”
“I blacked out.”
“But you responded when we started having sex.”
“And that makes it okay?”
“Yes.”
“Fuck you!” Ellen grabbed her bag, swung it outward, smacking Henry in her exit of the bedroom.
“We have a son.”
“Apparently that was a huge mistake.”
“El, listen to me.” He chased her down the stairs. “I didn’t tell you. I was wrong. I’m sorry. I am so sorry for lying to you. But how was I supposed to know. You responded, you reacted when we …”
“Stop.” Ellen held out her hand. “Did you know how drunk I was?”
“Yes.” Henry lowered his head.
“Then you should have never taken advantage of me.”
“No one takes advantage of you.”
Ellen stared him down. Her eyes glaring, then she grabbed for the door.
“I guess you’re gonna go tell everyone now.”
Ellen turned back around. “No. No I’m not. I’ll make up an excuse about the wedding, about us, whatever. Because I am so embarrassed by it all. But I swear to God, Henry, if you ever imply that I let you take advantage of me. If you ever imply that you weren’t wrong and I was. If you ever imply that again. I’m going straight to Dean with the truth.”
“Dean?” Henry nearly laughed. “Not Frank.”
“Dean. Frank will just beat your ass. Throw you out. Dean will kill you.” She opened the door. “And you’ll never see it coming.”
CHAPTER NINE
JULY 29
Barely daylight and barely awake, Robbie found himself having to think and recount what had happened the night before. He sat up, propping his pillow behind his back against the headboard and straightening the sheet across his waist. He folded his hands, tapping fingers together. He wasn’t drinking heavily the night before. He remembered that. One drink, that was it and he went to bed early. His thoughts were interrupted when the snooze alarm went off on his alarm for the fourth time. Quickly he reached his hand over and shut it off. He lifted the covers, looking down under them at himself. He wasn’t naked. He was wearing shorts. It was just as he remembered the night before. He wouldn’t have given any thought to the previous evening at all. Until he hit the snooze for the third time and heard the slight moan next to him in bed.
Did he accidently put something in his own drink? Perhaps he had a brain tumor. Because he missed the fact on how Ellen ended up in bed with him.
He looked at the time knowing he had to get out of bed, and figuring so did Ellen, he decided to wake her.
“El,” he called out to her, looking down as she curled close to the other side of the bed. He could see she wore a tee shirt and Robbie wanted so badly to lift the covers to see if that was all she wore. “El,” he called out again.
Ellen grumbled something and lifted her head. Her hair flopped all over her face. She plopped over on her back.
Robbie smiled. “El, do you need to get up?”
“What time is it?” She groaned.
“Six thirty.”
Ellen whined, “My poor head.” She lifted herself to her elbows then rolled onto her side, removing her hair from her eyes. “I can’t even lift my head.”
Robbie grinned. “Considering you smell like Josephine after a long night at the hall. I’d say you were drunk.”
“Oh, God, did I drink.”
“Hey, El. How exactly did you ...” One knock, one firm knock and Robbie looked to his bedroom door.
“Robert,” Joe called and opened the door walking in. “Time to get ... Oh Jesus Christ.” Quickly Joe retreated and left, shutting the door with a loud bang.
Ellen sat up all the way. “What was all that about?”
Robbie shrugged. “Don’t know.”
“Why would Joe ... oh shit!” Ellen flung the covers from herself jumping out of bed. “He saw us in bed.”
“Yeah, so.”
Robbie got out of bed too. “You’re wearing shorts.”
“Of course I’m wearing shorts.” Ellen looked for her shoes.
&n
bsp; “El, did we have sex last night?”
“No!” Ellen answered sharply. “Where are my shoes? Oh I know Joe is just gonna yell at me. My head.” She grabbed her forehead. “Why would you think we had sex?”
“Because you were in my bed. I don’t remember how you got there. Last I recall I was alone. Now, I’m thinking I have a brain tumor or I drank more than I thought ...”
“Robbie.” She sat on the bed. “The reason you don’t remember is because when I got into bed last night, you were crashed. I ended up here because I couldn’t get into Dean’s. I knew his house was empty, but it was also locked. I couldn’t go to Frank’s because it’s crowded enough there. So I came here. But when I snuck in, Katie was sleeping on the couch and Denny was on the floor. I guess Andrea had an emergency.” Ellen stood up.
“No, Andrea is sick. She came down with something last night.” Robbie shrugged. “I don’t know what but we watched the kids for her then I went to bed. Is that why you were in my bed?”
“Yeah. You have a double bed. There was room and I remembered you are not a bed hog so I slept here.”
“Hey, El, can I tell everyone I woke up in bed with you?”
“No,” she said annoyed, walking to the door. “It’s bad enough Joe thinks we slept together. How I’m getting out of that one, I don’t know.” She opened the bedroom door.
“El.” Robbie waited for her to stop. “Can I at least tell Henry?”
Ellen was silent. “Yeah, go on. You can tell Henry but that’s it.” Waving her hand and knowing she had to be going, Ellen left.
<><><><>
Over the railing of the lookout tower Frank leaned his body into his elbows that rested on the thick wooden beam. He took the tower watch while Steve took a break. Frank never minded it much doing that. There was something really peaceful about the view that was seen from the tower, not that Frank would share that feeling with anyone. Watching out into the wilderness, where barely an animal moved, Frank smoked his cigarette, thinking back to the night before.
Ellen was in the Social Hall when he found her, one of three people there. Forrest sat with Josephine at the bar, and Ellen sat at a table using two chairs, one for her body and the other for her extended legs. Her head was back and her hair looked longer than it was as she rested her side against the table and her hand played blindly with her drink.
Blink of an Eye: Beginnings Series Book 8 Page 21
