Read Good Morning Heartache Online
Authors: Audrey Dacey
Good Morning Heartache (11 page)
There was more to the story
though. More reasons many considered her cynical when she knew that she was
just being realistic. “I pined for a while. I was angry and bitter—I still am
in some parts of my life.” Alexis thought about her failure to write that
morning, and every morning before that for seven years. “I sent him a bill for
the hundreds of thousands of dollars in non-refundable deposits at one point. I
didn’t care about the money. Neither did my parents. In fact they were happy to
pay if he stayed away from me for good.” She cupped her hand next to her mouth
and whispered, “They never really like him. If he’d asked my father for my
hand, my father would have refused. They thought I was too good for him, but I
didn’t believe them.”
“It turns out that you are,
though,” Ryan said before taking a long draw off his soda. “What do they think
of your current endeavors to save the world from the myth of love?”
Alexis took a deep breath
through her nose and clenched her teeth. She tried to push away the sting that
was building in the corners of her eyes. This was stupid. She was over it; she
had been for years, but talking about it was never easy.
“Eight months after Frank
broke off the engagement, my parents were driving home from a benefit and slid
on some black ice. They hit a tree at 50 miles per hour. So, they don’t know
how I live my life. But I have it on good authority that my extended family
thinks I am a harlot.”
“I’m sorry.”
Alexis was unable to read
his face. There were none of the tell-tale signs of how he was reacting to her
life story, but she got the sense that he was sorry but didn’t pity her.
She waved her hand
dismissively at him. “Whatever. I’m mostly over it. It woke me out of the
stupor that I had been in since Frank left. I realized life sucks unless you
have fun. I live a life of few commitments. I only have one major commitment
and that is to my sister. We’re eleven years apart, and I am her guardian for a
few more months. Most of the time, she is at a boarding school, but she’s
staying with me for the summer, which is why you may notice a slight twitch in
my eye. It’s not easy to live with a seventeen-year-old.”
Ryan placed his arms on the
table and looked into Alexis’s eyes. “Sounds like a tough life for a rich girl.”
Alexis had never considered her life tough. It was what it was. Even if it
wasn’t what she planned or wanted.
“My life is pretty simple,
and it will be even simpler when Riley turns eighteen and becomes responsible
for herself. I have more money than I could ever use. I give big chunks to
charities every year, but my broker keeps me filthy rich anyway. So, I go out,
have sex, and enjoy myself more than one should. You should try it sometime.”
Ryan kneaded his eyebrows
together in concern. “Why don’t you get a job? Work can get your mind off such
things.”
Alexis couldn’t help but
laugh. “First of all, I don’t really consider these things most of the time.
It’s not something that my mind is on unless someone reminds me.” She crossed
her arms under her breasts, jokingly glaring at Ryan, and leaned back in her
chair, realizing she had been sitting up straight for the entirety of her
story. “Secondly, it doesn’t work for me. As hard as I try, I just can’t do it.”
“Work?”
She shifted her gaze to the
floor. “Write. And beyond that I don’t have much of a skill set that wouldn’t
lead to some form of prostitution.” Not being able to write was the one shame
in her life, and she couldn’t face his concerned stare, especially when it was
the only thing that really concerned her.
“Why not?”
The muscles tensed in her
arms, through her back and down her legs. Her gaze shot up to the ice blue
eyes. “I blame Frank for that. The final I was working on when I read the email
was for my senior creative writing course. I deleted everything I had and
started over. I wrote for hours and then emailed it to my teacher without
reading it. Despite the typos, I got an A and a ‘this is the best thing you’ve
ever written.’ She sent a copyedited version to a friend of hers, and it was published
in a freshman comp textbook. But it was like a wish from a genie that had a
catch: I haven’t written anything since that day. It was my passion, and Frank
took it from me, and I will never forgive him for that.”
Alexis realized that she had
raised her voice and was talking too much for someone who was supposedly trying
to help someone else work on their conversational skills. She took a long sip
of her room-temperature tea to wet the back of her throat and waited.
“Sounds like a problem.”
Ryan looked at his watch. “I probably work too much. Speaking of which, I need
to get going. Construction starts early, and I need to make sure I am showered
and breakfasted before the guys get to the house. I’m glad we talked, Alexis.”
With that he grabbed the trays on the table, kissed her on the forehead, dumped
the trash in a colorful bin, and exited through a set of glass doors.
Alexis was stunned. The wet
spot on her forehead burned through her skin. How could he just leave? She just
gave him everything she had, and he gave her nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Untappable was emotionally
plugged.
Maybe he wasn’t as bad as
she thought.
Riley sat on the chaise in
the living room, staring out the window and waiting for Jimmy to arrive. He was
already an hour late, and she was starting to get worried that something was
wrong. She kneaded her hands anxiously. He has a bad habit of being late, she
reminded herself. Time was “a restraint placed on society by the man” that he
wouldn’t take part in. It was part of his charm, sort of. She loved that he
didn’t have a care in the world other than her and his music.
Things were going great with
Jimmy. Better than great. He listened to her, went the places she liked without
complaint, and snuck her into bars to see him play. His touch sent a rush
through her that brought every cell in her body to life, and his kiss was
delicious. She licked her lips and remembered the kiss they shared the night
before.
It was everything she
imagined love to be: a whirlwind of fun, aching, and need. Jimmy didn’t know it
yet, but she was going to give herself to him completely. She just had to find
the right moment.
The clunking of the junky
Daewoo brought Riley’s thoughts back to the present, and she jumped out of the
seat and ran to the door. She waited for him to ring the bell and waited
several seconds before opening it.
When he saw her, he smiled.
Riley was trying to look nonchalant, but he could melt her with that smile. All
of the hairs on her arms rose off her skin.
“Hey, babe,” he said and
kissed her on the cheek as she let him pass her into the house.
“Hey,” she called after like
she didn’t care that much, but she shivered a bit to try to suppress the
prickles that were dancing across her skin. It was okay to love him, but she
had learned quickly that acting liked she cared was not okay.
“Were you waiting long?” He
eyes scanned the room carefully before his gaze settled on her.
“Nah. Practically forgot you
were coming. I was just listening to some music.” She shrugged and turned away.
Riley slowly led him to the
great room as he continued to examine the walls, furniture, and paintings like
they were encrusted with diamonds. “This is a nice house.”
“It’s alright. You should
have seen the one I grew up in. It was epic.”
“Better than this?” he
asked, placing a hand on the small of her back.
Riley felt the warmth of his
hand through her thin tank top and kept herself from shuddering this time. “Way
better. It was at least three times bigger, and it had a pool. This place only
has a gross pond in the back.”
“Oh my God,” he said without
exclamation, “I just realized something.”
“What?” Riley asked, hoping
this wasn’t the moment she had been dreading since their first date. She was
sure he was going to say they were all wrong for each other and he needed
someone more mature and sophisticated.
This was unbelievable. Riley
was sure she couldn’t live without Jimmy. He was her everything. Life had
sucked until he showed up her last day at school. Sure, it hadn’t been long,
but after their first date, she knew they were meant to be together.
But Jimmy did something
completely unexpected. He dropped to one knee.
“I don’t have a ring or
anything because I just realized you are my other half. The ying to my yang. The
flower to my pollen. And I was wondering if you would marry me?”
Riley took a step backward
to prevent herself from falling. “Seriously?”
“I would never joke about
something like that. Please marry me.”
For the first time she could
remember, Riley felt happy. It spread like warm syrup through her body, and she
couldn’t fight the smile that was pulling at the corners of her lips.
“Of course I’ll marry you.”
She dropped to her knees, wrapped her arms around Jimmy’s neck, and kissed him
hard.
When Alexis arrived home,
she saw a familiar package on her doorstep. Richard had left her flowers again.
She walked out of the garage, and as she pulled her cell phone out of her
purse, grabbed them off the front porch.
“Worcester County Sheriff’s
Office. How may I direct your call?”
Alexis took a deep breath
and tried not to scream at the woman on the other end of the line. “I need to
file a report.”
“Is it an emergency?”
Alexis looked at the flowers
and sighed. “No.”
“One moment please.”
The Muzak clicked on. One moment
my ass. She’d be lucky to talk to someone in the next twenty minutes.
She read the card. “Ingratitude,
more strong than traitors' arms, /Quite vanquish'd him: then burst his mighty
heart.” This time it was Shakespeare doing the talking. Poor Caesar, Alexis
thought sardonically, he never did anything wrong.
Time to make some mulch.
The second Alexis opened the
door to the house, she knew something was wrong. The lights were too dim, and
it smelt strange—a sickly combination of heavy musk and sweat. She set the
flowers down on a coffee table. She looked at her cell phone and began punching
numbers hoping to get the operator back on the line, but the God-awful music
continued. If that idiot was in her house, she was going to have him hauled out
in handcuffs, and not the fuzzy kind. If she was raped while on the hold with
the Sheriff’s Office, she was going to have somebody’s job and a whole lot more
money to donate to the charity of her choice.
Rummaging through her large
purse, her hand found the cool plastic of her pink Taser. She pulled it out and
pulled back the safety, turning on the laser and the LED. It was illegal for
her to have it and a pain to have delivered, but it was turning out to be a
very wise investment. She only hoped he would give her an excuse to use it. It
would make her night. $1000 fine be damned.
She looked down to untangle
her heels from a pair of jeans that were on the hallway floor.
“Hello?” she called when she
reached the end of the hallway. Soft music played in the background. So soft
that she couldn’t discern what was being sung or who was singing it.
“Sheriff’s Office. This is…”
a voice came over the speaker of Alexis’s cell phone.
Alexis lifted it to her ear,
“Hold on. I think there’s someone in my house.”
“Ma’am. Do you need me…”
Alexis let her hand drop to her side as she slowly entered the room.
Alexis ran to the light
switch and turned on as many lights as she could from that spot. A shrill
scream echoed through the living room, and two heads appeared over the back of
the love seat quickly followed by the nude body of a young man, who was
probably in his early twenties.
“Ma’am. Ma’am. Are you okay?”
Alexis lifted the phone to
her ear again. “I’m fine.” Alexis pointed her stun gun at the figure, who was
now covering himself with a throw pillow she’d have to replace. Tomorrow.
“Who are you? Why are you
naked in my house?”
The other head turned around
revealing a sexed up Riley. Her hair was parted in every direction, her face
was red, lips were swollen, and she had the dark red beginnings of hickeys on
her neck.
“You ruin everything!” she
shrieked.
At least Alexis didn’t ruin
a perfectly good loveseat and throw pillows. Among other things. She’d have to
replace the whole room; the ick-factor was just too high. Maybe Riley was more
like Alexis than she thought. Maybe Alexis was more like Caitlyn than she
thought.
“I’m sorry. Officer, but my
sister was having sex on my couch, and I thought my stalker was in my house. If
it’s any consolation to you—because I know it is to me—I’ve ruined everything.
Would you please put me on hold again, so that I can sort this before I file my
report?”
The line was silent for a
moment before the officer cleared his throat, “Um… Sure.”
Click.
Muzak.
“Who is he?” Alexis waved
the stun gun at the pillow-clad man.
The young man with short,
spiky blue-black hair and a smile held the pillow with one hand and reached his
other out. He moved forward a bit, shuffling along the wood floor like a
penguin. “Hi, I’m Jimmy Black.”
Alexis lowered the Taser,
but there was no way she was going to shake his hand.
“Jimmy, I’m going to go
upstairs, put my stuff down, and file a police report. I’ll be at least ten
minutes. I recommend you take that time to get dressed and wash your hands. I
recognize you could probably do a lot with ten minutes, but there’s a chance
I’ll interrupt you again. And do we really want that?”