Blushing Violet (15 page)

“Come right over,” Bethany said in a stern voice. “The guest bedroom is yours tonight. I’m going out to get emergency ice cream and chocolate.”

“Thanks,” Violet croaked out. She hung up and started her car again, her body shaking with rage and sorrow as she wished with all her heart that she had never met Carlos and Morgan.

Chapter Twelve

Violet trudged into work, moving in a haze of pain and heartbreak. Two weeks had passed since that awful day at her parents’ house and instead of feeling better, each day was worse than the one before. Even her dog had gotten tired of her crying herself to sleep and had started bunking down for the night in the living room instead of her bed.

Bethany looked up from the front desk and sighed. “Well, at least today you remembered to brush your hair.”

With a grunt Violet put her bag down and leaned her hip against the counter. “Is my first appointment here yet?”

Bethany nodded and lowered her voice. “Vi, you’re fifteen minutes late. I’m covering for you as much as I can, but people are starting to notice and they don’t believe me when I say you’re in the bathroom. Mr. Volun is getting pissed at both of us.”

She would have thought it was impossible to feel any worse than she did, but the knowledge that she was putting Bethany’s job in jeopardy added a fresh layer of guilt to her aching heart. “I’m so sorry, Bethany. I promise I’ll—”

Bethany held her hand up. “Just go take care of your client. We’ll talk later.”

Blinking back tears, Violet gathered up her bag and hustled to her room at the back of the spa. She passed Jason where Wendy had him cornered by the drinking fountain. His jaw muscles bulged as he tried to make it past the pushy blonde. The situation stroked the almost constant anger inside of Violet to a boil and she whacked Wendy as she passed with her bag, forcing her to move away from Jason. The wannabe home wrecker gasped with outrage and even Jason looked surprised. She might have hit Wendy a little harder with her bag than she intended, but damn that bitch for trying to manipulate Jason into bed.

Wendy’s protests cut off as Violet closed the door to her room with a solid click and turned to set her bag on the long table that held candles and the stereo. It took more energy than she had to plaster a smile on her face as she turned and said, “Nice to meet you, my name is Violet…” The greeting died on her lips as she saw Dr. Paolo, Carlos’ dad, sitting on her massage table with his legs dangling over the edge.

All the breath left her body in a rush and she said in a strangled voice, “What are you doing here?”

Dr. Paolo looked her up and down before he sighed and shook his head. “I know you and my idiot son had a falling-out.” He ignored her growl and continued. “But the reason I’m here is not about him.”

She gathered up her bag with shaking hands and swallowed back her nausea. In his face she could see the echoes of Carlos’ bone structure and it hurt like a scab being ripped off a raw wound. “I’m sorry, I’ll get someone else to massage you. I can’t be here with you.”

He moved surprisingly quickly for a man in his sixties as he placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, holding her in place as firmly as if he had shackled her. “Please, forget for a moment that we have any association besides a professional one. I promise you, on my honor, that I will not mention
he who shall not be named
.”

An unexpected laugh jerked from her lips at his obvious reference and she rather liked thinking of Car—
he who shall not be named
like that. Picturing him as an evil wizard bent on her destruction appealed to her newly discovered melodramatic side. “You have five minutes.”

He nodded and at once stepped away. “I would like you to come work for me.”

She stared at him and tried to process his words with her sleep-deprived brain. “Excuse me?”

His gaze, so like Car—
he who shall not be named—
held nothing but seriousness. “In the geriatric ward. I’d like you to come work for me.”

“But I’m not a nurse. I have no idea what
he who shall not be named
told you, but I have no formal medical training outside of massage and a few semesters of physical therapy.”

He nodded and clasped his hands in front of him. “That is true, but I want you to use your skills in massage and physical therapy.” He paced her small room, a ball of energy in the form of an older Italian man. “I tried to get the healing touch program extended to my department, but it will take a good year or more to get it set up. Most of my patients don’t have that kind of time. They are old, they are dying, and some of them are terribly lonely. They need someone to touch them, to give them the simple joy of human contact aside from holding their arm to take their blood pressure.”

She leaned back against the wall, overwhelmed by his presence. “I wouldn’t know where to start.”

He stopped pacing and faced her. “I do. All I need is for you to work with me and my staff. We’ll start out slow, with one or two patients and go from there. If things go well we should be able to hire some assistants to work beneath you in a month or so.” He took a step closer, his hands flying through the air as he talked. “Think about it. I would hire you as a trained massage therapist. You would start out at $39,000 a year and get full hospital benefits, insurance, a dental plan and a 401k. Tell me they are doing the same for you here.”

The picture he painted sounded amazing and terrifying at the same time. “I don’t know if I could do it. What if I messed up? What if I hurt someone? I’ve worked with some elderly patients in the spa, but someone who is dying… I don’t know if I could handle it.”

“Those are all fair concerns and I would be happy to address them with you.” He fished around in his back pocket and pulled out his worn black leather wallet. As he opened it, a picture of Carlos with his mother flashed before her eyes and her stomach tightened into a sour knot. He pulled out a cream business card and pressed it into her limp hand. “Violet, I’m not asking you to work for me because of…him. I’m asking you because everyone that I’ve talked with at the Children’s Hospital does nothing but sing your praises. The staff and the children adore you and you could still visit and work with them if you choose.”

Tears flooded her eyes and she stared at the ceiling while blinking them back. “This is a really weird situation to be in.”

He sighed and quickly patted her shoulder before stepping back. “I know, and I wish I knew what happened between you and
he who shall not be named
, but he won’t tell me anything other than he was a colossal asshole who should be taken out back and shot. If it makes you feel any better, he’s miserable.”

Actually, that did make her feel better in a very perverse way. “I’ll think about it.”

He beamed at her and her heart thumped as he once again reminded her of Carlos. “Fantastic. You have my card, call me at anytime of the day or night. Well, maybe not night, I don’t need Mrs. Romano thinking I’ve decided to shack up with a young lady on the side. She may look sweet, but that woman has a mean right hook.”

Violet slid the card into her pocket as Dr. Paolo moved past her to the door. He gave her one last look. “Please, think about it. I trust my gut and it is telling me loud and clear that we need you.”

She stared at the door as it closed behind him and turned his words over in her mind. Trusting her gut was something that she used to believe in, until her gut led her heart and soul into being butchered by those two men.

They had tried to contact her, but after changing her phone numbers, refusing to answer the door, and finally calling the police when they both yelled from her front porch that they weren’t leaving until she talked to them they finally took the hint. Bethany coming out with a butcher knife and threatening to cut their balls off might have helped. Thank God Bethany was there, because if she hadn’t been Violet may have broken down and let them in.

She missed them terribly and hated herself for being so weak.

Possibilities spun through her thoughts as she traced her hand over the pocket of her pants where she had slipped the card. Her gaze wandered over the room that felt more like a cage with every second that passed. It was small, familiar, and non-threatening, but still felt like a cage. She knew her way around the spa and could spend the rest of her life here, fading slowly into the background until she became as much of a fixture of the place as a potted plant.

With that dreary picture in mind, she grabbed her bag and went out to talk with Bethany and tell her about the surprising job offer and to get her advice. Her heart actually sped up a bit as she realized she was really considering it, really thinking about trying something foreign and new. It was as if the terrible pain of her breakup had burned away a layer of her softness and left steel in its place.

She was almost to the receptionist’s desk when a loud man’s voice said, “Stop right there!”

Startled, she whirled around just as Mr. Volun strode across the black-and-white marble floor. His jowls wobbled and his pudgy neck was florid above the expensive polo shirt that stretched over the girth of his stomach. At his side, Wendy sniffed and rubbed her cheek.

Mr. Volun shook his finger in her face, the obnoxious diamond on his pinky ring flashing in the light. “Ms. Bishop, did you strike Wendy?”

“What?” She gaped at him then glared at Wendy. “I did not!”

Wendy sniffed louder and stepped behind Mr. Volun as if she were afraid. “Please don’t make her mad,” she said in a wounded little-girl voice. “I don’t want her to come after me again when you’re not around.”

Heels clicked across the floor and Bethany came up behind Mr. Volun and Wendy with a cup of coffee in her hand and froze. “Mr. Volun, here is your coffee, sir.”

He put a beefy arm around Wendy’s shoulders, patting her back gently. “Give it to Wendy. She needs it after this crazy woman attacked her.”

“I did not!” Violet curled her hands into fists and struggled to remain calm. Unfortunately, what little patience she had flew out the window when Wendy gave her a nasty smirk that Mr. Volun didn’t see. “That bitch was trying to get into Jason’s pants and I might have bumped into her, accidently, to help him escape her Botox claws, but I did not hit her.”

Wendy wailed and Mr. Volun pulled her into his arms, whispering sickly sweet nonsense words to her while she cried and rubbed her breasts against his chest. Behind their backs, Bethany gave her a sad look and Violet had a startling moment of clarity. No wonder Jason had never said anything to Mr. Volun about Wendy, she was his mistress. There was no mistaking the way he touched her in such a familiar fashion while she practically humped him in her “grief”.

“You apologize right now!” Mr. Volun thundered. Wendy peeked up from his arms and gave Violet a spiteful smile.

A rushing, white noise filled Violet’s ears as she stared at Wendy, all the hatred and pain from the past two weeks gathering into a red-hot ball in her chest. As Wendy mouthed the words “stupid bitch” and Mr. Volun ranted and raved, that ball exploded.

Instead of the tidal wave of rage that she expected, she felt strangely peaceful and wondered if this was how convicts felt when they walked death row to their execution. Taking a deep breath, she lifted her chin and said in a very loud and clear voice, “Fuck you, I quit.”

Bethany stared at her and made frantic pleading gestures. Even Mr. Volun stopped ranting and gawked at her in equal shock. “What did you say to me you little—”

Violet whipped up her hand, extended her middle finger and gave him the bird with all the grace of a ballerina. “Fuck you,” she turned the bird on Wendy, “fuck you,” she returned it back to Mr. Volun again, “and double fuck you for taking the word of a whore who gives new meaning to the term happy ending for her clients. I hope you wear two condoms because that pussy has seen more action than the bumper cars at Disney World.”

Wendy’s screech of outrage was the only warning Violet had before the blonde launched herself at her. Obviously, Wendy hadn’t grown up fighting with her siblings like Violet had. She swung at Violet and grazed her chin, then Violet swung and hit Wendy full on in the face. Wendy’s head snapped back hard enough for the weave of her extensions to show as her nose crunched beneath Violet’s fist.

Wendy collapsed to the ground, howling and holding her nose as blood leaked between her fingers. Mr. Volun stared at her in horror and turned pale.

“Help me!” Wendy screamed between her fingers and Mr. Volun made a gagging sound, then stumbled over to the wall and threw up in great heaves.

They had quite an audience now, and a groan of disgust rose from the crowd at the sound of Mr. Volun’s heaving. Bethany and the other employees stared at her with such an awed expression that for a moment Violet felt like a rock star. That moment quickly passed as the smell of Mr. Volun’s vomit reached her and she gagged.

With a final look around the spa where she had spent the last four years of her life, putting up with more shit than anyone should ever have to for a few dollars more than minimum wage, she hitched her bag on her shoulder and strode out the door, ready to kick the ass of anyone who got in her way.

Chapter Thirteen

Violet leaned across the light pine-wood desk of her tiny office at Harper University Hospital and shook Jason’s hand. “Welcome to ‘A Touch of Love’. We’re so glad you decided to join us.”

Jason beamed at her, practically vibrating with happiness. He reminded her of Adam when she treated him to his own small pizza once a month. In fact, if Jason had a tail it would be wagging at light speed.

“Violet, I don’t know how to thank you enough. I couldn’t stand working in that place for another minute. And now that I work across the street from my wife, we can spend more time together.” He pumped her hand up and down as he talked, and she briefly worried that he might dislocate her arm. Dr. Paolo must have felt the same way because he rescued her by handing her some paperwork.

“You earned your position here, Jason. When I spoke with Mrs. Delfin, she told me that you had been working on her after I left and that you did a wonderful job.”

He blushed and shrugged his wide shoulders. “My grandparents raised me and my grandpa had a really bad case of arthritis. He’s why I became a massage therapist in the first place. I like helping relieve people’s pain. It makes me feel good inside.”

“Not to mention that your lovely wife brought me over some delicious
lumpia
. I haven’t had that since I was over in the Philippines back in the 80s.” Dr. Paolo took the empty seat next to Jason and grabbed the squeeze ball that Violet kept at the edge of her desk. He was so full of energy that even when sitting he had to do something with his hands. She had discovered this after he constantly rearranged the small framed photos of her family and Adam that she kept on her desk. When she had strategically placed a squeeze ball in their place one day, Dr. Paolo had given her a sheepish grin and grabbed the ball instead of her pictures.

Jason grinned at him. “Wait until she hears that I got the job. You guys are going to be up to your ears in her home cooking.” He leaned forward on his elbows and held Violet’s gaze. “Really, thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me…killer.”

She narrowed her eyes at him and just barely resisted the urge to stick out her tongue. After she broke Wendy’s nose, Bethany had been calling her “killer” or Vicious Violet in a wrestling announcer’s voice. She wished she could hire Bethany too, but unfortunately Bethany was trained as a makeup artist and that just didn’t fit into the program.

Dr. Paolo gave the ball a good squeeze and crossed his legs. “For the first month you’ll be working together with Violet, then we’ll start to give you your own personal patients to work on.” He gestured to the large envelope on the table. “We’re still working on putting our official welcome packet together, but Violet has some articles for you to read and a bunch of forms you’ll need to fill out for HR.”

Jason nodded and grabbed the packet, holding it to his chest. His blue eyes sparkled as he grabbed Dr. Paolo’s hand and pumped it up and down, squeeze ball and all. “I won’t let you down.”

Dr. Paolo gently extracted his hand while Violet stifled a giggle. “Before I forget.” He fished around in the pocket of his white coat and pulled out a folded sheet of paper and handed it to Jason. “Next week we are having a charity event at the Detroit Institute of Arts. I’m sure your wife has mentioned it, but I wanted to extend my personal invitation. I would like it if you and your wife would attend. It’s important that the muckity mucks put a face with our program when they dig into their pockets.”

“Aren’t you a muckity muck?” Violet asked in an innocent voice and gave Dr. Paolo wide eyes when he gave her a mock glare.

“I’ll expect you to be there as well, schmoozing away with Jason to anyone who will stand still long enough to listen.”

“What?” She dithered with the jellybeans on her desk in a bowl shaped like a dog bone. “I think I’m busy that night.”

Jason cocked his head and examined her. “He didn’t even say what night it is.”

She gave him a nasty look but Jason only smiled back pleasantly. With his good looks and goofy personality it was easy to forget how annoyingly smart he could be. “I’m booked every night next week.”

“Doing what?” Dr. Paolo asked with a barely suppressed smile.

“Roller Derby.”

Jason snorted. “After the way you laid Wendy out on her ass I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Dr. Paolo stopped kneading the squeeze ball. “She did what?”

Jason looked expectantly at her, then shrugged and said, “Violet flipped—”

“Fine, I’ll go!” she yelled over Jason and he shut up with a smug grin. “You’re such an asshole.”

The squeeze ball made a soft thump as it landed back on her desk. Dr. Paolo stood and stretched. “I need to get back to my rounds, so I’ll leave you in Violet’s capable hands. And Violet, I expect you at that fundraiser.”

* * * * *

Violet and Bethany strolled up the marble steps of the Detroit Institute of Art. An early warm spell kept the evening temperature in the 50s, and after having spent the last three months in below-zero wind chills it felt like being on the beach. They followed the glittering throng of people into the bronze-and-glass front doors. Once inside, they both stopped and stared at the massive crowd filling the foyer. The two-story entrance was flanked on either side by fantastic murals depicting the industrial revolution. Tables were set up on one side of the room, each representing a different department of the hospital complex.

“Wow,” Bethany said in a soft voice as she tugged at the blue silk wrap that draped over her naturally tanned shoulders.

“Yeah,” Violet echoed in the same stunned tone and smoothed the black cashmere halter dress, the same one that she had worn on her first date with Carlos. When picking out something to wear for the evening she had almost gone with something different, but decided to wear this dress instead. In an extra act of useless defiance she also wore the jewelry Carlos gave her.

Dr. Paolo had assured her that Carlos wouldn’t be here, he was on a photo shoot somewhere, but Violet couldn’t help but wish he was. A glimpse of a man with blond curly hair going into a room to the left deeper inside the building made her heart stop. For a moment she swore it was Morgan, but that was also impossible. Last time she heard from Morgan was when he had left her a message on her answering machine saying that he was going out of state for a month, and hoped she would talk to him when he got back.

Bethany snapped her out of her melancholy thoughts by tugging her forward. “Let’s go find us some hot doctors.”

Violet shook her head and grinned. Bethany was certainly dressed for the hunt, the blue silk dress clung to her petite frame and her dark hair lay in carefully tousled curls across her back. “There certainly are a lot of them here.”

A handsome African-American man in an impeccable tux strolled by and Bethany made a low sound of approval. “I wonder if he has a twin brother.”

Violet elbowed her and Bethany grinned. “What? You know how jealous I am of you and your—” She stopped and flushed beneath her makeup. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. I’m over them.” Bethany stared at her in disbelief and Violet lifted her chin. “Really. I am.”

“Mmm hmm,” Bethany replied and tried to stand on her tiptoes to see over the crowd. “I wonder what’s going on back there?”

Violet craned her neck to see, but all she could make out was a mass of bodies waiting to get into one of the rooms toward the back, the same one she had seen the blond man go into. “Want to find out?”

Bethany led her through the crowd and stopped in surprise before they got more than a few steps. “Hey, isn’t that your sister, Penny? And her hubby Brad?”

Violet followed her line of sight and found Penny beaming and making her way through the crowd toward them with Brad at her heels, apologizing as his wife bulldozed a path through the throng of people. Penny wore a sparkly lilac dress and had her hair pulled back in a French twist. “What the hell are they doing here?”

Before she could open her mouth, Penny crushed her into a hug and dragged her away from Bethany and Brad, pulling them against the edge of the mural. “I’m so glad I found you! Why haven’t you returned my calls?”

Violet shrugged uncomfortably. “I’ve been busy.”

“For a month and a half?” Penny sighed and gave her hand a squeeze. “I owe you an apology. It’s my fault you and Morgan broke up, he’s not gay. Brad lied to me.”

“What?” She looked over Penny’s shoulder at Brad who was talking to Bethany.

“Remember how I said I saw Morgan and Carlos holding hands? Well Brad knew that I was interested in Morgan, so he got them to pretend to be gay to throw me off the trail so he could make a play for my heart.” She laughed and shook her head. “What a manipulative bastard, but I love him anyway.”

Violet searched Penny’s face, trying to decide how much she should, how much she could, tell her. “Penny, I know Morgan and Carlos aren’t gay.”

“Oh, I know that too. I talked to Morgan and apologized to him.”

The floor dropped out beneath Violet’s feet. “You did what?”

“When you wouldn’t talk to me, I looked up Morgan in the phone book and called him. He told me the real reason you broke up with him…and Carlos.”

Heat flooded Violet’s cheeks until she thought she would pass out.

Penny actually giggled at her expression. “Violet, it’s not that big of a deal. It’s not like you were dating aliens or something. Well, to Dad it will probably be a big deal, but he’ll mellow out. Maybe Mom can slip him some of her meds.” Her laughter faded away, replaced by sympathy. “They were super-huge bastards for lying to you.”

“I-I don’t want to talk about it right now, ’kay? You know how we look when we cry our makeup off.”

“Like scared albino rabbits.” Penny licked her lips in a nervous gesture. “Look, I know I’ve been a real asshole lately and I’m really sorry.” She swallowed and pressed her hand to her stomach. For a moment Violet was afraid she was going to be sick, but the smile that Penny gave her was incandescent with joy. “Brad and I have been trying to have a baby for three years. I’ve been on intensive hormone therapy and it made me a crazy woman. Like constant PMS…poor Brad. Anyway, last time I saw you I was all jacked up on hormone injections that made me even more crazy than usual before the IVF. We had just returned from the doctor and he had told us that they managed to fertilize two eggs, but the chances weren’t very good.”

“Penny, why didn’t you tell me?”

Penny shrugged and gave Violet’s hand a squeeze. “I didn’t want Mom to know. You two are so close and I really didn’t want to have to face her disappointment if it didn’t work. You know how bad she wants grandbabies. I couldn’t bear to tell her that we’d been trying so hard for so long with no success.”

Violet understood perfectly what Penny was talking about. “Thank you for telling me.”

Penny chewed on her lower lip and leaned closer. “Can you keep a secret?”

Hope blossomed in Violet’s heart as she smiled at Penny. “Yeah.”

“Don’t tell Mom, but I’m pregnant!”

Violet realized she was screaming and jumping up and down only after she noticed people were staring at her with bemused expressions. Regaining control of her emotions, she grabbed Penny into a huge hug as Brad joined them.

“I take it you told her?” Brad asked and gently brushed his hand over Penny’s still flat belly.

“Not all of it, but she does know that she’ll be an aunt.”

Bethany peeked from behind Brad’s back and beamed. “Congratulations!”

“Thank you,” Penny said and snuggled into Brad’s side.

Violet felt a pang of jealousy and tried to swallow it. This was not the time for a self-absorbed pity party. “I’m so happy for you both. And don’t worry, when Mom tells me I’ll act surprised.”

Penny toyed with the edge of Brad’s jacket. “You need to go see the exhibit in the second room past the foyer on the left.”

Puzzled by the abrupt change in conversation, still reeling from Penny’s revelations, she pursed her lips and said, “Okay.”

Brad gave Bethany a significant look and Bethany grabbed her arm, pulling her through the crowd like a little curly-haired, determined bull. Violet tried to jerk her arm away. “What is going on?”

“An apology,” was all Bethany would say.

As they neared the crowd waiting to get into the room, Violet tugged her shawl over her shoulders as people turned and stared at her as she passed and whispers filled their wake. She glanced down to make sure one of the straps to her halter hadn’t snapped and her boobs were hanging out. Nope, both girls were still in place and the jade-and-pearl necklace gleamed against her skin.

“Pardon me, coming through,” Bethany called out in a loud voice and elbowed her way through the line of women in evening gowns and the men in tuxedos.

A young man in a tux blocked their way as they neared the front of the line. “Ma’am, I’m sorry but you’ll—” He stopped and stared at Violet. “Oh, I didn’t realize it was you. Come this way please.” The smile he gave her was definitely flirty and Violet flushed beneath its heat.

Confused and getting irritated that everyone but her seemed to know what was going on, she walked into the doorway of the small gallery and stopped dead in her tracks.