by J A Fielding
“Hey Octavia. Long time,” Steven said coolly.
“I know but you can’t blame me. The ‘Run With It’ tour has really taken it out of me,” she said.
He smiled and then nodded.
“Well, I have to say, the world tour has treated you well. You have a tan I’m envious of,” Steven said just as Ezra got off the phone and smiled at Steven.
“My man,” he said before he gave him one of those gangster hugs from the Ebony movies. “How long has it been?” he asked when he pulled away.
“Last year’s Sportsman Of The Year Awards,” Steven said.
“Oh yeah. I never saw you at this year’s gig,” Ezra said.
“That’s because I was busy making sure I married this one,” he smiled as he draped an arm around Julie’s shoulders. “Ezra, Octavia. Meet my wife, Julie Miller-Davenport,” he said.
“Oh she is definitely worth not attending the SOYA,” Ezra said.
Julie felt herself blush.
“So you are the woman who got the man I wanted,” Octavia said with a smile.
“Hey!” Ezra said looking at her.
“Honey, I love you but Steven is British,” Octavia said matter-of-factly.
“Apparently, your accent is all that a man needs to get a woman to jump in bed with him,” Ezra said in a mock British accent.
Steven looked at him and smiled. “That’s actually pretty good,” he said.
Ezra smiled and shrugged.
“Well, you got the one I wanted so…I guess we’re fair and square,” Julie said. Now it was Steven’s turn.
“Hey!” he said.
Julie smiled and shrugged. Octavia looked at Steven.
“I like her,” she said. “And fancy meeting you here,” she said as she looked around.
“Yeah, we thought we would make this our spot until you guys arrived with your goons,” Steven said. Ezra shook his head.
“Yeah, we flew commercial. Someone must have leaked the fact that we were coming here because the guys followed us from the airport. It was crazy,” he said.
“What happened to your jet?” Steven asked.
“Someone decided to let Hannah Montana borrow it for the weekend but the weekend turned into the month,” Octavia said.
“Wait, you gave your jet to Miley Cyrus?” Julie asked wide eyed.
Octavia rolled her eyes. “If only. It is some model turned singer from Milan…” she started before Ezra pulled her close.
“She doesn’t like the model turned singer, huh?” Steven asked.
Ezra smiled and nodded.
“So maybe we can hook up later for lunch or something. I’m sure we can work something out to shake the goons,” he said.
Julie raised an eyebrow. “How?” she asked.
“You learn a thing or two when this is the daily melee you go through,” Octavia said with a smile.
Julie smiled and nodded just as the valet came around with their rental car.
“This is us. I’ll call you,” Steven said giving Ezra one of those man hugs.
“It was nice to meet you, Julie,” Ezra said kissing Julie’s cheek making her melt on the inside.
“Yeah, you are a doll,” Octavia said before they both disappeared behind the elevator doors. Julie looked at Steven as they walked to the car.
“You know Ezra Myer?” she asked in an excited whisper. He nodded. “How?”
“Sold him a couple of houses in Malibu…and another one in Maine,” he said holding the door open for her.
“Meg will never believe this…shit. I didn’t even take a picture,” she said as Steven got in the driver’s seat.
“Relax. I have a feeling we will be seeing him again…really soon,” he said.
Julie smiled. Normally, she would have hated the idea of meeting up with two random people on her honeymoon but for God’s sake, that was Octavia Channing and Ezra Myer! She had a smile on her face all through the forty minute drive to the rocky side of the island. When they finally got there, Julie suddenly understood why Steven had insisted on banging around clothes. They were going rock climbing. Julie was ecstatic. She looked at him excitedly and giggled.
“I know it’s not a real rock mountain…it’s a simple…” Steven started but Julie shook her head.
“Who cares? I get to climb a grand ledge!” she said excitedly as they walked towards a ledge.
Steven raised an eyebrow. “You know until now, I hadn’t really considered it grand but now you say it, I am not so sure we should be doing this,” he said.
“Are you kidding me?” Julie shook her head. “This is amazing!” she said as they stood at the foot of the ledge. “I want to go right at it right fucking now!” she added.
“Maybe cool it with the curse words?” he asked as one of the attendants walked towards them.
“Hello and welcome to the Kauai Ledge. I am your safety instructor Akamai Paradis,” he said.
“Hey, I’m Steven. This is my wife Julie,” Steven said as they shook hands.
“Nice to meet you. When can I go up this thing?” Julie asked excitedly.
“Well, we need to get you into a harness first,” he smiled as they walked to one of the sheds on site.
Julie nodded and looked at Steven who leaned in.
“I would be offended if I didn’t know how much you loved rocks,” he said in a whisper. She looked at him and smiled. Akamai handed them both helmets and harnesses.
“Do tell me if you need any help,” he said.
Steven nodded. “Just to make sure we get it right,” he said.
Julie let out a cynical laugh.
“Amateur,” she said in a whisper loud enough to be heard by both of them. Akamai laughed.
“Your wife is clearly more adventurous than you,” Akamai laughed.
She smiled and nodded.
“Actually she is more everything than me,” Steven said as Julie put on her harness and helmet. She was done in no time actually. Steven raised an eyebrow and looked at her. “You really are eager, aren’t you?” he asked.
“Yeah. Today I meet the other thing I love more…a little less than you,” she said.
“Hm, good save there,” he said as Akamai pulled the last latch.
“All set. Can we go now?” he suggested. Steven took her hand as they walked out to the foot of the hill. He could feel how nervous she was by the way she was holding on tight. She looked at him and he smiled at her.
“Whoa, are you nervous?” Steven asked as he looked at her.
She smiled and nodded.
“A little,” she said in a small voice.
“Why? This is your thing,” he said.
“Well, true but I have never climbed a ledge before…it’s very different from rocks,” she said as she looked at the seemingly flat surface.
“So we are breaking your ledge-inity today?” he asked. She frowned and shook her head. “What? Too soon?” he asked. She nodded. He took a long deep breath and rubbed her shoulders.
“Look, this is me and your zip line. I run this, as the rappers in your country say,” he said. She looked at him and shook her head.
“Then why can’t we just take a bloody zip line?” she asked.
“Well two reasons. One, I was stuck on one side of a ravine a bit too long for comfort and two…well, I can’t really think of two. But we can do the zip line thing tomorrow,” he said. She frowned and shook her head. “Wait, I already thought of two. I have climbed mountains since I was a boy. This is a piece of cake,” he said.
She shook her head and finally shrugged.
“Fine. Then you go first,” she said.
“It would be more fun if we went together,” he said. Akamai nodded.
“You really want to have the experience together,” Akamai nodded.
Julie rolled her eyes.
“Fine, let’s do this then,” she said as the service workers got busy fastening the ropes to their harnesses. She looked at him and smiled as they got started. At first, she thought it lo
oked really hard before she started off but as she went on, she found herself going faster than Steven. She was almost at the top when she turned to her side to look at Steven but he wasn’t there. She looked down and that was when she saw him. “Oh my God! Steven!” she yelled as she looked at Steven who looked like he was struggling to get his footing again. “Steven!” she yelled as she began getting herself down the ledge until she was parallel to him. “Baby! Are you okay?” she called out as she looked at him.
“I’m fine…just…trying…trying…to…get…my…damn…footing,” he struggled to say as he swung himself towards the ledge. “You go, baby. I’ll be okay!” he yelled amidst his struggles. She looked at him and then looked down. She didn’t want to say it but the whole time she was looking at the ground she was trying to figure out if he would survive the fall. He was almost halfway up the ledge and he would most probably not walk away unscathed. A broken limb and/or a fractured rib was a very big possibility.
“Mrs. Davenport…please go on down! We got this,” one of the service people who were in between two large boulders called out.
“Great. That is the only help Steven has?” she muttered under her breath as she lowered herself. She was still cursing when she finally got back on the ground. Akamai ran towards her and helped her get the ropes off. “What happened? Is he okay up there?” she asked in a worried voice.
Akamai smiled and nodded. “Don’t worry Mrs. Davenport. Everything is going to be okay,” he said.
She rolled her eyes and raised her hands.
“Everything is going to be okay? How? He is hanging from a ledge at a height that would definitely have me hiring a private nurse,” she said.
“The bad news is that the harness has a problem but the good news is that all he has to do is pull himself to the gap where those two are and that shouldn’t be a problem,” he said pointing to the gap between the boulders. “The way the ledge was constructed ensures…” he was still talking when Julie put her hand up stopping him mid-sentence.
“Wait, did you say constructed? So this is not something that was here since time…you know,” she said. He shook his head. “Oh man,” she said as she loosened the helmet. She was not sure whether that news made her feel better or worse.
“Don’t worry. We got the best engineers to design that piece of art,” Akamai said.
She took a long deep breath and shook her head.
“So, what if he doesn’t get his footing again?” she asked. Akamai shook his head and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
“Don’t worry yourself for nothing. Everything will be just fine,” he said as he put on his earpiece and began talking Hawaiian to the two service guys who were trying to help out Steven. Even though she was trying not to be so worried, she could not stop herself from freaking out. Nothing was more important to her at that very moment except knowing that Steven was okay. She needed to talk to someone. She needed to calm down, perhaps after venting. She reached for her phone and dialed Meg. Right about now, she was the one person she could rely on to calm her down. But the phone was just ringing and ringing….and ringing.
*****
“Can you believe this? Ezra Myer?” Meg asked as she looked at her phone screen. Ellis kissed her shoulder and then looked over at her phone screen. She had just seen a blog post where her best friend and Steven were pictured with the one guy she and Julie had a crush on ever since they were kids.
“What is the big deal about this guy anyway?” Ellis asked.
“What’s the big deal? It’s like you guys seeing someone you know next to…Beyoncé or Shakira,” she scoffed.
“I’ve met Beyoncé so that wouldn’t be a big deal but Shakira…that would make me jealous,” he frowned.
Meg looked at her and her eyes grew wide.
“Wait, you’ve met Beyoncé?” she asked surprised.
“Yeah. We’ve done a number of few charitable dinners with her…oh, she personally invited us to the BET awards once. That was nice,” he said.
“Us? Who’s us?” she asked
“Steven and I,” he answered as if what he was saying was the most normal thing in the world.
She shook her head and put her phone down.
“Wait, Steven has personally met the Carters? First family of hip hop and R’n’B?” she asked surprised. Ellis smiled and nodded.
“I officially hate him. Do you know how many concerts I would have gone to and for free no less?” she asked looking at him. “I would probably be married to some big shot producer or better,” she said, a faraway look in her eyes.
“Then I would have never met you. And that would have made me very sad,” he said before he pulled her back down on the bed.
She smiled and kissed him softly.
“You guys meet everyone I consider a celebrity and treat it like it’s no big deal,” she said.
“I have an invite to this year’s MTV Video Music Awards and I don’t have a date,” he said. She hit him playfully on the shoulder but the delivery was harder than she had intended. “Ouch,” he said.
“Shut up!” she said. “Really?”
“Yes, really.”
“Oh my God. How can I ever thank you?” she squealed as she hugged him.
“I can think of one way,” he smiled as his cock pressed hard against her. She smiled just as her phone began ringing. “Don’t get that,” he said in a low voice.
“It could be important,” she said in between kisses.
“Really?” he asked. “Who would be calling you now?” he asked as he kissed her neck. She moaned softly and raised her hips. “Good choice,” he answered as he claimed her lips one more time.
Chapter 6
Julie’s heart was beating a million miles per minute as she looked at Steven who was now literally just hanging on for dear life-or so it seemed to her. Akamai had already tried to reassure her that it was not that serious and that he could easily get someone up there to get Steven down but Julie wasn’t hearing any of it. All she wanted to do was go back to the hotel. She’d had enough of this ledge. To her, it did not look like Steven was okay at all. Fine, this was not the first time he had been up a rock but this was most definitely the first time Julie was seeing him and so far, she was not enjoying this. Her heart almost skipped a beat when she saw him try to grab onto one of the rocks but slip.
“Please God…not like this…you can’t take him. Not now…please not like this,” she found herself praying. Her hands were clasped together under her chin and even though it was a bit windy, she was sweating. Probably because of all the worrying.
“It looks like he got his footing now,” Akamai said but Julie was not listening. She looked on as Steven managed to climb back up to a steady position before he rested between two big boulders where two other service climbers were. Julie took a deep breath and closed her eyes thanking her lucky stars that he’d made it. “Would you like to…” Akamai started before she shook her head.
“I just want to go home right now, Akamai,” she said as she blinked back a tear. “I just want to go back home,” she added as she rested her weight on her knees breathing hard and fast. Akamai knew what was happening. He had seen this happen before.
“Mrs. Davenport. I would suggest that you take long deep breaths,” he said as he held her shoulder and helped her up. She tried pulling away from him but he was stronger than he looked. “Please, you could hyperventilate if you keep breathing like that,” he added. Julie nodded and began taking long deep breaths. She could almost feel the relief washing over her. Her lungs no longer felt clogged and the air around her was almost cleaner. “Here, have some water,” he said handing her a bottle of water. She grabbed it and opened the bottle top with trembling hands before she took one long sip. She looked up and saw that Steven was already on his way down. She took off her helmet and harness just as Steven touched down before she ran to him and wrapped her arms around him, sobbing into his shoulder.
“Hey…whoa. I’m right here. I’m okay,”
he said as he stroked her back. But she was uncomfortable. He pulled away from her and gently wiped off her tears using his thumbs. He looked into her eyes and smile. “Hey, I’m okay,” he said in a soothing voice. She nodded and sniffed back another tear.
“I…I…” she tried talking but she couldn’t. A fresh flow of tears rolled down her cheeks.
“Maybe we should just head back, huh?” Steven asked as he wiped off her tears again. She forced out a smile and nodded. Steven looked at Akamai and shrugged. “I’m sorry man…” he started before Akamai shook his head.
“No, Mr. Davenport. I am sorry. I will personally get to the bottom of this,” he said before Steven walked to the car. “Ahem, Mr. Davenport…” Akamai tried calling out but he was already getting into the car. “Guess I will get the gear from the hotel or something,” he said as he watched the car speeding off.
*****
The drive back to the hotel was fine at first but all hell broke loose when Steven laughed off the whole incident. He could tell by the way Julie looked at him that she was not impressed by that particular remark. He looked at her and wondered if that was one of those times that he should just shut the fuck up. As they rode in the elevator, he held her hand and looked at her.
“Would you stop being so tense? This was a mishap. It happens,” he said.
“I know but…” she started saying but he leaned and kissed her softly.
“I’m fine. We’re fine. This was no big deal,” he said. Julie looked at him and gave him one of those ‘what did you just say’ looks before she pulled her hand away. “Babe…” Steven said but that was it. He had already burnt his bridge.
“That was fucking dangerous, and you are saying it’s no big deal?” Julie asked surprised. The two were back in their suite and Julie had never felt angrier. She had just told Steven that, that day was the scariest day of her life. But Steven’s answer had simply driven her over the edge.
