by J. P. Comeau
It was usually sunny in Miami Beach, but it felt even brighter today. Before I had met Margo, the only woman I had ever been that obsessed with was Amber. After that relationship had ended, I never thought that I’d feel that way about another woman. But no matter what I did, something kept pulling me back to Margo. I had never been the type of guy who bangs on a door, demanding the woman open up, but I had no control over this relationship.
My emotions ran the show.
As soon as I took a left after leaving her building on foot, Ginger came around the corner and nearly crashed right into me.
You have got to be kidding me!
Her eyes widened farther than I had ever seen before, and her slightly tanned face was getting darker with every passing second. I had to come up with a lie about why I was at Margo’s apartment complex, but I couldn’t formulate anything believable in the seconds before Ginger spoke. It wasn’t long before her hands at her sides turned into fists, and just as I was about to open my mouth, she tore right into me.
“I knew it, Chase Bowers! I knew you couldn’t stay away from Margo!”
“No,” I said while putting my hands up in defense, “please hear me out before—”
“Absolutely not! I don’t want to listen to anything you have to say to me, you idiot! Even after I made it clear that you two cannot date each other, here you are, walking away after you probably just had sex!”
I exhaled deeply while running my hands through my hair, feeling defenseless and stumped. Obviously, I was coming from Margo’s apartment—who else would I be there to see? I contemplated telling her that Margo had left something in my car, but nothing got past my sister.
So, I decided to be honest with her.
“First of all, what two consenting adults do behind closed—”
“Consenting my ass, Chase! I know how you are with women. I’ve seen it firsthand. You picked up on her innocence the second you laid eyes on her, didn’t you?”
What the hell are you talking about?
“Ginger, no! For crying out loud, I’m not some predator—”
“Stop lying to me, Chase. You might be a good man on some level, but as I said to you over lunch, you are not the man for Margo! She’s my best friend, and I know what the hell I’m talking about! I’ve seen the way you’ve treated other women.”
“Okay, yes, I’ve been a bit of a playboy in the past, but I’ve changed! Seriously, Ginger. I’m a grown man!”
She let out a disgusted sigh.
“Maybe things really are different between you and Margo, as opposed to other women. But you two aren’t a good match. The flame between you two will inevitably fade, and when everything falls apart, I’ll be the one to clean up the mess!”
I rolled my eyes at her, desperate to get through her hard head. “Oh, get off of your high horse, Ginger! Not once have I ever needed you to clean up my mess, and none of this is about you.”
“Oh please, Chase. You’ve cried on my shoulders far too many times, and quite frankly, I’m tired of it being drenched with your tears! I’m not doing this anymore! I’m not a trained therapist, you know!” She was delusional.
I snickered directly into her face. “Not once have I ever cried on your shoulder, Ginger! Perhaps you’re forgetting who you’re dealing with. I’m Chase Bowers, a billionaire tech titan who can do just fine standing on his own two feet. Crying on your shoulder, my ass!”
Ginger folded her arms while glaring at me, and I caught the faintest glimmer of a smile. “Perhaps you’ve forgotten about all of those three o’clock in the morning phone calls, right after Amber up and walked out on you. You remember those calls, right Chase? The nights when you couldn’t sleep because the bed was cold and empty, and you knew she was with another man. Isn’t that right, Chase?”
Ginger knew what she was doing. She knew Amber was an incredibly sore subject for me.
“Excuse me?”
She snickered in such a way that I wanted to scream. “Don’t act so stupid, Chase. How many times did I tell you that Amber would leave you for her high school sweetheart? And yet you refused to break-up with her, even going so far as to let her move in! It’s your own damn fault that she married him too. And I’m sure you’ve seen their honeymoon photos on Instagram.”
Now it was my hands that were forming fists at my side. “You just sunk to a new low, Ginger. You know damn well that mentioning Amber is off-limits!”
“Off-limits? You want to talk about off-limits? Then stay the hell away from Margo before it’s too late, or I guarantee that we’ll have another Amber situation on our hands. But guess what, Chase? I won’t be answering your three o’clock phone calls. Not from you and not from Margo. Because I am done!”
I started to pace back and forth, ignoring the stares from people getting out of their cars. Thankfully, the parking lot wasn’t too full, though.
“So what are you saying, Ginger? Are you actually saying that if I choose to keep dating Margo that you’re going to break-off all communications with me? Just shut your own damn brother out of your life?”
She didn’t answer my question, though. Ginger just leaned up against the building, staring at me as her faint smile started to widen.
“Going forward, dear sister, don’t you ever bring up Amber’s name again. That was a completely different situation than what I currently have with Margo.”
“Oh please, Chase. You haven’t changed that much. I know exactly how all of this will unfold too. You just can’t see it yet. It’s no different than Amber.”
All I could do was stand there, in front of my sister, wondering what to say next. She wasn’t wrong about those late-night phone calls after Amber had left me, but things were much different this time around. The connection between us was unlike anything I had ever experienced. I couldn’t go to sleep without thinking about Margo, let alone focus on anything related to work.
“You have it all wrong, Ginger. Amber is in the past, and going forward, I forbid you from bringing up her name. Do you understand me? Don’t you ever mention Amber again, much less in reference to Margo!”
Once again, she snickered at me, right as the wind blew her hair, causing it to cover part of her face. For several minutes, all I could see were her angry eyes piercing into mine.
“Apparently, it needs to be brought up because here we are again Chase. We’re right back to square one, except this time you’re doing it with my best friend. So if you think that I’ve sunk to a new low, take a look in the mirror.”
Ginger and I’d had numerous fights over the years, as siblings often do, but nothing was nearly as intense as this one. I had never seen her so angry and defiant before. She had always been a drama queen, but this was a side that had never reared its ugly head until that moment.
When I refused to speak, Ginger stepped a little bit closer and cleared her throat.
“I meant every word of what I said, Chase. If you continue to see Margo, then don’t come crying to me when everything ends. I just can’t believe I actually thought you two could stay away from each other. Do you realize how foolish you’ve made me look?”
“For the millionth time, Ginger, this isn’t about you! Why are you such a self-centered little brat? Stop acting as though the world revolves around you. All that you’re doing is hurting your best friend with this nonsense and me! You’re a grown-ass woman who, hello, is about to earn her MBA! Do you really think this is acceptable behavior for someone your age?”
She rolled her eyes while throwing her hands into the air toward me.
“You’re one to talk, Chase. Just admit that you’re scratching an itch with Margo, and eventually, it’ll end. Look me in the eyes and tell me I’m wrong, Chase. Now.”
I’d had enough.
I flung my hands up into the air, leaned into her face, and screamed, “Fine! You want me to stop seeing Margo? Is that what you want?”
Ginger’s smug smile filled me with rage. “Yes, that’s exactly what I want.”
&nbs
p; I leaned even closer to her face before screaming this time. “Well, you don't get to dictate that about my life or your best friend's!”
Ginger’s mouth dropped, shocked at my refusal to stop dating Margo. She looked as though I’d slapped her, and I knew there was no coming back from what I had just done. There was nothing that I could possibly say to fix our relationship—as brother and sister—at that point, and I genuinely didn’t care.
As she stood there on the sidewalk, realizing she was defeated, I stormed past her and made my way home. All I wanted to do was call Margo. I needed to hear her voice again, even though I had just left her apartment. After everything I had gone through in my life—my businesses, a failed relationship with Amber, outgrowing my playboy ways—nothing had felt more right than being with Margo. There was no way in hell I was giving it up because Ginger had a hair up her ass and couldn’t stand not being the center of attention.
Margo was everything that I had ever wanted in a romantic partner. Or dare I say, soulmate. And nothing could get in my way. In fact, just knowing Ginger was so against us being together made me want to be with Margo even more. So she could throw all of the temper tantrums she wished to about us, but come hell or high water, my sister wouldn’t keep me from that amazing woman.
15
Margo
Five Weeks Later
As soon as my last client of the day paid, I did a half-ass job of cleaning up my workstation and then made a beeline for the bathroom. It had taken everything inside of me not to pass out while applying my client’s makeup. With my face just a few inches away from hers, I hoped she didn’t hear my stomach gurgling as I had applied a second coat of mascara.
The past week at the spa had been a complete nightmare. Every day I woke up with a headache and stomach cramps, and the only thing that took care of it was sleeping. I had almost called in sick to work that morning too. I woke up with what I could only describe as a migraine, took some pain pills on an empty stomach, and then did the bare minimum to make myself appear presentable.
Everyone at the spa kept staring at me.
A few of the other girls at work asked if I was feeling okay, to which I simply nodded. The less noise for me, the better. Even the clicking of high heels on the floor felt like nails hammered into my head, and any smell made me nauseous. I sipped on ginger ale throughout the day, hoping it would make it feel better, but that only gave me the hiccups between unladylike belching.
I had no idea what I was doing in the bathroom. I just needed to be alone for a few minutes to try to figure out what was wrong with me and take a breather from the bustle of the spa. Thankfully, it was a one-stall bathroom, so nobody would walk in and see me hovering over the sink. I splashed some cold water onto my face, hoping to help with the headache, but it did absolutely nothing. After drinking several small cups of water, I made my way out of the bathroom and decided to hit up the pharmacy. There had to be some type of over-the-counter medication I could take to at least help with my stomach.
The traffic in Miami Beach was bumper-to-bumper, and the only relief I found was leaning back while driving with my arms straight forward. Everyone around me was honking their horns, which amplified my pounding head and threatening stomach. I wanted to scream at them to shut up, but that would only add to the noise and irritate me more.
By the time I pulled into the parking lot, the pharmacy was closed.
Why aren’t they twenty-four hours like everywhere else?
I whipped out my cellphone and called Guadalupe at home, who answered on the first ring.
“Hello, darling! How was work today?”
“Everything went well with the clients, but I've been sick all week.”
“Oh no,” she cried into the phone. “What’s wrong with you?”
I rubbed my stomach with my left hand while talking into the speakerphone. “I’ve had a headache and stomach cramps all week, and the only thing that helps is sleep. But obviously, I can’t sleep all day, and now the pharmacy is closed. I’ll do anything to feel better at this point!”
“Come to my house, dear. I have something that’ll make you feel better.”
By the time I pulled into Guadalupe’s driveway, all I wanted to do was lay down and fall asleep. She opened the front door as soon as my heels hit her steps and greeted me with her usual warm hug.
“Thank you,” I said while making my way into her home. She hadn’t even done anything, but just being around her made me feel cared for.
Pineapple knick-knacks, paintings of the ocean, and several religious statues decorated the quaint space. She guided me over to her oversized white couch, which I gladly let myself sink into.
“Just wait right here,” she said while placing a pillow behind my neck, “and I’ll be back.”
When Guadalupe returned less than a minute later, she carried a cup of hot herbal tea on a saucer. I took it from her and sipped it slowly, praying the herbs would make my aches and pains go away.
“I hope this helps, Guadalupe.”
She ran one hand through my hair while rubbing my thigh with the other. “You poor thing. I wish you had said something to me sooner. Maybe we could have had one of the other ladies help you out at the spa.”
“That’s all right,” I said, blowing on the tea. “I can’t afford to call in sick, and I wouldn’t want to put that on the other girls anyway.”
“I don’t want you thinking that way, dear. We are one big family down at the spa. Are you enjoying life in a big city? It must be very different from where you grew up.”
“I love it here, Guadalupe. And I’m surprised by how friendly everyone is in Miami Beach. It must be the constant sunshine.”
She kept running her hand through my hair while smiling. “Life in a big city is simply more fast-paced, and how can anyone be upset when the sun is always shining?” Guadalupe paused for a few moments, during which time the only sound was of me sipping the delicious herbal tea. “Now, what is his name and how long have you been dating him?”
The antique teacup and saucer just about fell out of my hand. “Um, what are you talking about?”
Guadalupe kissed my forehead as I drank the rest of the tea, eager to get all of the herbs inside of my body. “This guy you’re dating. I want to know all about him.”
I set the teacup and saucer onto her coffee table, wondering how she knew about Chase and me. But then I remembered that nothing got past Guadalupe. “Well, his name is Chase Bowers, and we’ve been dating for a little over a month now. He’s in the technology industry, although I’ve heard people refer to him as a ‘tech titan.’ Whatever that means. Anyway, we met at a wedding a little over a month ago and, well, he’s amazing. I’ve never had these feelings for another guy.”
Guadalupe’s eyes started to widen, and I knew what her next words would be. “Is he alto, oscuro y guapo, Margo? Oh, please tell me he is, darling!”
As the herbal tea started to take care of both my stomach and head, I giggled while nodding at her. “Yes, Guadalupe. He’s very much the tall, dark, and handsome type.”
She nearly jumped off the couch while clapping her hands together, which made me laugh even harder. Guadalupe loved to live vicariously through her female employees. “Oh, this is wonderful! You know, Margo, you always keep a tall, dark, and handsome man! Now, I have some ideas for the wedding. Since we’re in Miami Beach, you’ll probably want to go with a beach theme. And you have the perfect body for a strapless wedding dress! Oh, I can bake the cake for it too! Did I tell you that I used to make wedding cakes?”
I couldn’t listen to her get excited about Chase anymore, though. “No, you didn’t, but our relationship isn’t as great as you might think, Guadalupe.” She leaned back on the couch, clutched her bosom, and gasped. “A few weeks ago, after Chase left my apartment, he ran into Ginger on the sidewalk.”
“Wait, you mean our receptionist, Ginger?”
I nodded while rubbing my stomach. “Yes. Chase is Ginger’s older brother. Anyway, Gi
nger hasn’t wanted us to be together ever since we met at the wedding, where he went as her date. And I overheard them yelling at each other on the sidewalk, right outside of my window.”
“Oh no,” Guadalupe said while continuing to clutch her bosom. “That’s awful! What did they say, Margo?”
“Ginger laid into him, screaming that she wasn’t going to be there to pick up the pieces when our relationship ended. She said something about his ex-girlfriend, Amber, and how Chase called Ginger crying at three in the morning after Amber left him. It tore me up inside to hear them screaming at each other like that.”
She went back to running her hand through my hair. “Siblings have argued over worse things in life, Margo. You have to follow your intuition, even if it means upsetting Ginger. She’s a sweet young lady, but she should want to see her brother and best friend together.”
I let out a massive sigh before telling her the worst part. “Chase actually said to her, ‘Fine! You want me to stop seeing Margo? Is that what you want?’”
“Oh, no! And what did Ginger say back?”
Tears started to run down my face. “She said, ‘Yes, that’s exactly what I want.’”
I was sobbing uncontrollably at that point, and Guadalupe leaned forward to kiss me on my forehead.
“Darling, Ginger is wrong in this case. You can’t let her dictate what either of you do. What did he say back to her?”
I just shook my head while crying into my hands. “I couldn’t keep listening to them, Guadalupe, so I slammed my window shut. But you heard what he asked her. Just hearing him say those words turned me into an emotional wreck!”
After crying for several minutes, I finally composed myself enough to look her in the face. She took my hand and rubbed it, and I was so thankful to have someone like her in my life.
