The Color of a Memory (The Color of Heaven Series) (5 page)

I wondered if I should get a dog.

Or maybe a roommate was what I needed—but with my luck, I’d end up with Jennifer Jason Leigh from
Single White Female
.

I rolled over to face the TV and hoped everything would feel less sinister in the morning.

Chapter Ten

Two days later, Alex moved back into his own apartment—a slightly rundown, third-floor flat not far from the fire station. He said he was tired of living out of his suitcase at his parents’ house and wanted to be among his own things. I suspected, however, that what he really wanted was privacy, so that we wouldn’t have to make out in the back seat of his old Buick anymore.

With this I was completely on board, because let’s face it—he was the most attractive man I’d ever dated. I was falling so hard and fast, I felt like I should strap on a parachute.

Alex and I continued to see each other in the afternoons. Usually I picked him up at his apartment and brought him to my house so we could work on my Mustang. We also went out for lunch a few times and took in a matinee.

The following week, however, my work schedule switched back to days, and that’s when my world began to spin in unexpected circles.

* * *

It was raining buckets when I finished a day shift and walked out of the hospital. I didn’t have an umbrella, so I pulled my coat over my head and dashed across the parking lot to my car.

Alex and I had made plans for dinner and I was supposed to pick him up at 6:00, but I suspected he was bored to tears stuck in his apartment all day, so I decided to surprise him and go straight there from the hospital.

Traffic was slow because of the rain and my windshield wiper was acting up again, leaving wide smears of water directly in my line of vision. I considered pulling over and flicking the blade, but didn’t want to get soaked, so I continued on.

Turning onto Alex’s street, I slowed down to look for a parking spot along the curb, but my stomach dropped when I saw, parked out front, a familiar little lime-green convertible.

What the hell was Melanie doing there at three-thirty in the afternoon? Alex had assured me more than once that it was over between them.

There were no empty parking spaces on the street, and even if there were, I wouldn’t have taken it—because the last thing I wanted to do was knock on Alex’s door and find a beautiful supermodel lounging on his sofa.

As I drove away, the rain pounded harder against my windshield.

“You’re such an idiot,” I said to myself, remembering that first day in the ER when Alex took off his shirt to impress me.

My instincts had told me that he was a player. Maybe I should have trusted them.

* * *

By the time I arrived home, I was spitting mad. Mad at Alex for playing me, and mad at myself for becoming so ridiculously infatuated that I believed our relationship was actually going somewhere.

I’d always been a proud and independent person, and the last thing I wanted to do was fall apart over a guy, so as soon as I walked through the door and removed my coat, I pulled out my cell phone and texted him a message:

Hi Alex. I don’t think this is going to work out. I can’t come for dinner tonight. Sorry.

Before I had a chance to think it through or craft a gentler message, I impulsively pressed send and tossed the phone onto the kitchen counter.

“There!” I shouted at the touch screen. “How do you like
them
apples!”

The phone immediately vibrated back at me with an incoming call.

“Oh, crap,” I whispered, and picked it up. I swiped the screen to answer it. “Hello?”

“Hi,” Alex said. There was a gentleness in his tone. He spoke to me carefully, as if I stood on a tenth-floor window ledge. “I just got your text.”

I shut my eyes and scrunched my nose. Maybe I’d been a bit too trigger happy sending that message.

“Yeah, well…” I sat down at the kitchen table. “I’m sorry to break our date like that…in a text. I should have called to do it.”

“To do
what
exactly?” he asked. “I’m confused. You said you didn’t think it was going to work out. Are you breaking up with me?”

“Breaking up…” My eyebrows lifted. “I think…maybe that’s overstating it a bit. That implies we’re actually a couple, and I don’t think we were quite there.”

Otherwise he wouldn’t have invited his
other
girlfriend over to keep him entertained on a rainy afternoon.

Alex was quiet for a long moment.

“I thought we were,” he finally said. “I don’t understand, Audrey. I’m disappointed. I was looking forward to seeing you tonight.”

“I’m sure you’ll get over it,” I harshly replied, wondering if Melanie was still there and he was talking to me from behind his bathroom door.

Playing us both.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Something must have happened because you don’t sound like yourself.”

I stood and paced around the kitchen while sparks of heat flashed through my body. “Okay then. If you really want to know… I came by your place earlier today and saw whose car was parked out front.”

My explanation was met with complete silence.

“Did you hear what I said?” I asked.

“Yeah, I heard you,” he replied, “but it’s not what you think. Why don’t you come over here so we can talk about it? Let me explain.”

All those clichéd responses made me want to laugh bitterly into the phone, but I couldn’t because I was overcome by a sudden melancholy. I’d had such high hopes for this relationship. I’d been wildly attracted to Alex from the get-go and I honestly believed we were falling in love.

“I don’t think so,” I replied—because I didn’t want to prolong the agony. I may have been heartbroken, but I still had my dignity.

“Then let’s talk about it
now
,” he suggested. “I didn’t invite Melanie over. She just showed up at my door in tears and I had no choice. I had to invite her in. She was a mess.”

Part of me wanted desperately to hear more, but another part was afraid to listen. I didn’t know if I could trust him.

I didn’t say anything in reply, but he nevertheless soldiered on. “She doesn’t want it to be over and she came over here begging me for another chance. I felt bad, but I told her we were done. I spent almost two hours trying to convince her that she was going to be okay and that she’d find someone else. It was exhausting. Then as soon as she left, I got your text.”

I went into the living room and sank down onto the sofa. “Did you tell her about me?” I asked.

“Of course,” he replied. Then he paused. “I never saw anyone cry like that. She sobbed and begged and pleaded. It was rough.”

I covered my eyes with a hand. “I’m sorry for sending the text. I was angry.”

He didn’t say anything for a minute or two. “I suppose it must have looked pretty bad when you saw her car parked out front, but I just couldn’t bring myself to slam the door in her face.”

“You’re a nice person,” I said with a sigh. “Compassionate.” It was a quality I admired.

“Does that mean we’re still on for dinner?” he carefully asked. “And I warn you, if you say no…I might show up at
your
house in tears, begging and pleading.”

After a long pause, I smiled. “I’ll come by in an hour. We can talk more about everything tonight.”

“Good,” he replied. “I’ll see you then.”

I ended the call and flopped back onto the sofa, more relieved than I cared to admit that we would still be having dinner that night.

My relief was to be short-lived, however, because something else was about to happen. I didn’t know it then, but all of this was the beginning of a nightmare that would take quite a bit of time to resolve.

Chapter Eleven

Over dinner that night, Alex explained everything that happened with Melanie that afternoon, and he also held nothing back about their intense six-month relationship.

From very early on, he had recognized she wasn’t completely stable. She was jealous and often shouted, ranted and threw things—but he continued to date her, admitting that he was attracted to her physically. She had a way of smiling and making up for everything with a pouty look and a seductive flip of her hair.

“It was a good learning experience,” he said as we lingered over coffee, “because I won’t make that mistake again. Now I know what I want.”

“And what’s that?” I asked.

“I want to marry a girl with a good head on her shoulders. Smart and sensible. Someone who will be a good mother. Someone rational and kind.”

The fact that he would even
mention
wanting marriage someday caught me off guard, and my heart melted.

“All good qualities,” I replied, setting down my coffee mug. “But don’t forget integrity. When it comes to marriage, fidelity is key. That’s what my dad always used to say.”

Alex leaned back in his chair and stared at me across the table for a long moment. “I’m glad you didn’t dump me today.”

“I’m glad, too,” I softly replied as my heart pounded with excitement. Then Alex paid the bill and we left.

* * *

Alex invited me up to his apartment, but I didn’t stay long because I had to work at seven the next morning. When it was time to go, I had to tear myself away from him on the sofa. Then I kissed him for another ten minutes at the door before I headed home.

As I drove through the city, I listened to the hit parade on the radio, tapped my fingers on the steering wheel and felt positively euphoric. When I pulled into my driveway, however, my blissful mood veered sharply downward and anxiety spiked in my veins.

It looked like a bomb had gone off in my yard.

This time I couldn’t blame it on the raccoons. Clearly, someone had ripped open the garbage bags around the side of the house and spread everything all over the grass. Dirty tissues, wrappers and rotten food items were strewn from one corner to the other. The bins were over on their sides on the front walk.

I shut off the car engine and sat motionless, staring, then reached for my phone and called Alex to tell him what happened before I dialed the police.

Chapter Twelve

To make a long story short, the cops put two and two together and paid a visit to Melanie the following morning to question her about the garbage on my lawn and my suspicious open window a week earlier. Naturally she denied any knowledge of those things.

The officers filed a report regardless, but it didn’t end there. Later that day, as I walked out of the hospital after work, I spotted her from a distance in the glare of the sun. She was leaning against the driver’s side door of my Mustang, filing her fingernails.

I stopped and moved behind a pillar at the entrance. Digging into my purse, I called Alex.

“Hey there,” he said.

“Hi, it’s me,” I replied. “You’re not going to believe this. I just got off work and Melanie is here. She’s waiting by my car. What should I do? Should I go talk to her or call the cops?”

He let out a groan. “Oh God, Audrey, I’m so sorry. You shouldn’t have to deal with this. It’s my fault.”

“No, it’s not. You can’t help that she’s a nutcase. What do you think she wants?”

He sighed with resignation. “She probably wants to talk to you about the cops coming over to her place this morning.”

“Maybe she wants to apologize,” I suggested optimistically.

“Not likely. Listen, don’t believe anything she says, all right? She might lie to you about me.”

“What would she say?”

“I don’t know…that I invited her over yesterday. Or that we kissed.”

I peered out from behind the pillar to watch her. “
Did
you kiss?”

He hesitated, and my stomach turned over with dread. “I kissed her on the cheek a few times,” he replied. “I was trying to comfort her, to get her to stop crying.”

I didn’t want to doubt his rendition, but there was still a part of me that wasn’t sure.

Either way, I had to walk to my car eventually.

“I’m going to see what she wants,” I firmly said, starting off toward the parking lot. “I’ll call you later.”

She must have sensed my approach because when I was still a fair distance away, she looked up, pushed away from my vehicle and shoved the emery board into her brown leather purse.

As I drew near, her gaze narrowed and I braced myself for an uncomfortable confrontation.

Chapter Thirteen

“What are you doing here, Melanie?” I asked, stopping in front of the grill of my Mustang. The sunlight reflected off the shiny steel and nearly blinded me.

“Waiting for you,” she replied.

“Why?”

“Because there’s something we need to talk about.”

Arranging my keys between each of my fingers, I gripped them tightly and said, “What would that be?”