Somewhere in His Arms (19 page)

             
Lucy shook her head. “Do you remember anything about that night?” she blurted in a vain attempt to forget Rudy. She sorely wished she’d kept her mouth shut. Alec merely blinked in surprise at the bold question, then his mouth curved upwards at a particular memory while his blue eyes swept over her with such heat that her mouth fell open in shock. She could feel herself turning every shade of red on the color wheel and jerked her sweater closed. “Oh, my God!” she muttered in abject shame, wanting to crawl under the table.

             
“You asked,” he told her simply, ignoring her distress. “And…you?”

             
Lucy hung her head and nodded, wishing a giant sinkhole would open beneath her and swallow her whole. “I-I’m sorry,” she muttered miserably.

             
“So am I,” he said softly.

             
There was nothing more to say until finally the waitress brought their breakfast and put them both out of their misery. Lucy tucked eagerly into her oatmeal, while Alec heavily buttered and jellied his wheat toast. He downed his coffee in several fiery gulps, wincing all the while at the horrid stuff. He would have liked a proper fry-up, but his doctor suspected he was developing an ulcer, and firmly advised against anything resembling food.              

             
Lucy could feel his eyes on her as she ate and decided it was now or never. She hurriedly sipped her tea and ate her toast while her husband looked on with amusement. When she was finished, she pushed the bowl away and tidied her area. Now she was ready. “Well...?”

             
“Well, what?” he repeated, slightly irritated as he looked at the bill.

             
“You didn’t drag me here just to sample their toast, did you?”

             
He exhaled loudly. “No. No, I didn’t.”

             
“Well?”

             
“Well...” he said again. He reached up and rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly feeling like an old man.

             
Lucy wanted to get the whole thing over with. ‘We’re not
really
married, are we?” she asked foolishly, hoping against hope that someone would tell her it was all a joke.

             
She glanced up at him to find him staring at her with odd look on his face. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper and pushed it towards her. She didn’t have to look at it to see that it was the marriage license but she did anyway. There, in glorious black and white, were the printed words declaring that in the eyes of the state of Nevada, they were lawful man and wife. Below this proclamation were their signatures. She recognized her sloppy cursive and then Alec’s own neat script.

             
They
were
married. Now what?

             
“What do you want to do?” she asked cautiously.

             
He didn’t answer. Lucy waited for what seemed like an eternity and then he said,               “Rudy told me he’d take care of it.” 
Take care of what?
The Botox epidemic or a certain teenage pop star’s failed attempt at manhood? What? She was suspended in a state of disbelief that he could be so cavalier about it: about
her and
about their
baby.

             
She reached up with a trembling hand and brushed an errant lock of hair away from her face. “Take care of
what
?” she asked innocently.

             
“Rudy knows someone who deals with this sort of thing.”

             
“What
sort
of thing?”

             
“This,” he gestured towards Lucy and then himself. “You know---”

             
“No, I don’t know,” she answered sweetly. “Why don’t you explain it to me?”

             
“Rudy said he knows some guy downtown who deals with these sorts of marriages.”

             
Lucy rested her elbows on the table, folded her hands beneath her chin, and looked at him as if butter wouldn’t melt. “And do we have that “sort” of marriage?”

             
“Yeah,” he said, with a careless shrug. “I guess so. What else would you call it?”

             
Lucy smiled at him for the first time that day. He smiled back, relieved that she was taking this so well. They would get a quickie annulment, he’d assist her with the baby if need be, and everything would go back to normal. “I’m so glad you’re being sensible about all this,” he blathered on in a rush. “I was afraid you wouldn’t understand.”

             
“Oh, I understand,” she purred and stood up. “Would you excuse me? I have to go to the restroom or as you call it...the ‘loo,’ ” He laughed as he sat back and waited. This was going better than he’d thought. Perhaps after he’d sorted everything out....

             
Alec didn’t get to finish his pleasant thought as something very cold and very wet was suddenly poured over his head. He sat choking and spitting out the remnants of a soy shake and stared up at Lucy who was standing over him in a magnificent rage. “Oh, I understand,” she spat. “When they removed your cast, they removed your spine as well!” With that she spun on her heel and stormed out, leaving him to the amused laughter of everyone fortunate enough to witness his humiliation at the hands of his petite wife.

             
He stood up, sheepishly swiping at himself with a napkin, and fumbled with his wallet as he struggled to pull out the exact amount and a tip for the waitress. Alec stumbled after Lucy, who by now, was marching up Beverly Boulevard towards the crosswalk. “Lucy!” he shouted breathlessly. “Wait!”

             
Lucy punched the walk button angrily and waited for Mr. Wonderful to catch up with her. “I have nothing to say to you,” she hissed.

             
“Dammit, woman!” he gasped.
“What
do you want from me?”

             
“Nothing!” she shouted, on the verge of tears and crossed her arms over her chest. “I just wondered what you thought about the baby, that’s all!” The signal flashed green, and she stomped away, determined to get as far away from him as possible.             

             
Alec hastened after her, wondering what the hell had gotten into her. He knew pregnant women were hormonal, but this was ridiculous. “Will you
stop?”
he shouted after her. “At least let me drive you back.”

             
“No, thank you!” she gritted through clenched teeth. “I’d rather crawl!”

             
“That can be arranged!” he snapped. “And it’s not a baby,” he sneered. “It’s a fetus!”

             
She closed her eyes. She couldn’t believe what he’d just said to her. It
was
a baby. A life they created in a moment of drunken passion had been diminished to something that could be aborted. Erased. Something in Lucy snapped and she whirled around and marched right up to her feckless husband.

             
She stood in front of him, tears of rage welling in her eyes. “Say that again,” she said quietly.

             
“God, Lucy,” he sputtered, horrified at his outburst. “I-I didn’t mean---”

             
Lucy cut him off as she recoiled her arm and let fly with all the rage and all the hurt that had been building up inside. A small fist shot into his hard abs, making him laugh at her sorry attempt at violence. And then...he wasn’t laughing anymore. It was sort of when he was just a wee lad climbing the tree in his grandfather’s garden, he’d fallen from a branch that looked sturdy enough, and fallen flat on his belly. It hadn’t hurt at first; knocked the wind out of him before he’d gotten that nauseatingly painful sensation in the pit of his stomach that felt like he was being disemboweled. He’d had to lie quietly before he felt like he’d live again. That’s how he felt... right... about...

             
His breath suddenly vacated his body as the spot where her little fist had landed woke up and sent a message to every muscle in the nearby vicinity to kill him...
NOW!
Alec gasped and clutched his side and had to bend over just to eke enough air to keep from passing out. “W-Where’d you learn to hit… like that?” he wheezed once he could form a coherent sentence.

             
“Nursing school!”
she spat, and stood back shaking the hand that was probably sprained. “Well,” she shouted at him, “say something!”

             
He glanced up at his wife who was sobbing openly now. Alec wanted to tell her, but he couldn’t. He could only hold up a hand to placate her while he caught his breath. “What...can...I say?” he gasped. “It’s really... not a good time right... now,” he said, once his breath had steadied. He discovered too late that it was the wrong thing to say, especially to Lucy who didn’t want to hear his excuses.

             
“Not a good time?”
she shrieked. “Not a good time? When will it be a good time, Alec?” she screamed again, oblivious to the crowd they were drawing. “Maybe it will be a good time when the baby is barreling through my vagina! Or maybe it will be a good time when they’re ripping my uterus apart to drag the fetus out!  “How ‘bout then, Alec?”

             
“Lucy, I know---”

             
“Stow it, English!” she snapped. “You don’t know shit! You don’t know what it’s like waking up at three in the morning with blood on the sheets and being terrified that I’m going to lose the baby!” She took a deep breath and continued in a voice fraught with anguish. “You don’t know what it’s like being so damned tired that I have to physically drag myself out of bed each morning. You don’t know what it’s like being tired and sick and afraid and wanting someone to be there!” Her nose was bleeding now, but she didn’t care. “And you should be
there
, Alec!” she sobbed brokenly. “You should be there!”

             
“That’s it, honey!” a woman shouted from the crowd surrounding them. “Give him what for!”

             
Alec stood in shock. He hadn’t known it was this bad for her. Hell, maybe he did and just didn’t care, simply content to bury himself in his own problems. He’d been so wrapped up in finding Gavin and making everyone else happy, he hadn’t been able to see that
Lucy
was the one who needed him most. Her broken sobs stabbed at his heart, and she was bleeding so badly that it looked like she’d been the one who’d been hit. He rushed to her aid, but she turned away and into the crowd who parted like the Red Sea for her.

             
They didn’t part so easily for him and he had to shove and fight his way past them and after his wife. He caught up to her and reached for her arm.

             
“Get your grubby hands off me!” she screamed and shook him off. “Leave me alone!” She gasped and doubled over, suddenly wracked by a sharp pain deep inside.

             
Alec panicked and reached for her again. “What is it?” he asked fearfully. “Is it the baby?”

             
Lucy shoved him away. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” she sneered as she tried to figure out what was going on.  “Solve all your problems if I lost it!”

             
“I would never---” he began, but she cut him off.

             
“Yes, you would!” she told him angrily when she felt it safe to stand upright again. “Don’t worry, English,” Lucy said bitterly, “the
fetus
and I will make our own way!” She backed away from him shouting all the while, “I’m more than capable of looking after this baby by myself! We don’t need you!” she finished and rammed two cotton balls up her nose as she strode down the sidewalk towards something she’d noticed earlier. She could only hope they wouldn’t mind.

             
Alec stood undecided for a moment. Should he go after her or wait till she ended up in hospital? He chose the former. “Lucy,” he called after her. “Wait...let me explain!”

             
Lucy wasn’t listening as she timidly approached the two women bikers. “H-Hello,” she ventured shyly, “I was wondering if you could help me.”

             
The two blondes had parked their bikes while they waited for their friends to catch up. One defied the stereotypical biker babe garb of hell for leather and was dressed in a simple uniform of T-shirt and torn jeans. She looked about fortyish with badly bleached and streaked hair. The other was total biker babe all the way with leather-studded jacket, miniskirt, fishnets, and an awesome Mohawk dyed every color of the rainbow. Even Lucy was impressed.

             
They regarded her with a mixture of sympathy and pity. “What’s the matter, honey,” the Mohawk purred in a Carolina drawl, “is he giving you trouble?”

             
“Yes!” Lucy nodded, and reached up to pull the cotton out of her nose. “Can you give me a ride?”