Collecting Scars (11 page)

“Well, you're not getting invited as mum's nurse.”

“What am I being invited as?” Asha ventured.

“As my girlfriend,” Xavier smiled, then quickly turned away to put his helmet on.

Asha did the same, smirking to herself, little fluttery butterfly feelings squirming in her stomach. Xavier thought of her as his girlfriend? It had been a good many years since she had a 'boyfriend'. 

***

Asha was bored. It was Saturday night. Xavier had to work and Joanie had gone out already. She had planned a quiet night in, but after the day she had with Xavier, her mind would not rest. On a whim, she shot Gemma a text.

Asha; Hey Gem, what are you up to?

Gemma; not much Ash, how was your picnic was Mr X?

Asha; Awesome, as always ha-ha. Hey, I'm bored, do you want to go out? I was thinking maybe we could head down the club and I can perve on X while he's working. What do you say?

Gemma; Sounds good to me, be there in 30 k

Asha; Awesome, see ya soon x

An hour later they walked into the club, feeling excited to see Xavier again so soon, she was sure he would feel the same.  As they approached the bar Xavier spotted them, his eyes lit up taking   Asha in, quickly darting to Gemma, then back to her again. His grin widened and so did hers.

“Well hello ladies, I didn’t expect to see you tonight,” he winked at Asha.

“Oh well, you know how it is, I was bored and stuff.”

“She couldn't stay away from you,” Gemma interjected with a giggle.

Asha blushed and Xavier laughed.

“Well, in that case, I better get you both a drink then huh?”

Chapter 14

Xavier

XAVIER WAS FEELING UNSURE ABOUT his day spent with Asha. The conversation had been heavy and the 'L' word had been thrown around. He really liked Asha a lot, he even thought he may be falling in love with her, but she kept her feelings so guarded, he knew he had to tread carefully as not to push her away.

He was excited and relieved when she came into the bar with her friend Gemma. He liked Gemma, she was a sweet, cheeky girl.  She reminded him of Maddie in many ways. With the crazy things she would blurt out, embarrassing Asha-- Asha was always so cute when she was embarrassed. He loved the way she would blush and stammer.

It was Saturday night and they had a local cover band playing that did the rounds of the bars in the area. The girls sat at the bar for most of the night. They got up and danced a few times. It had been a much better night for him at work than usual, spending time with his girl. Just having her around made him feel calm and relaxed. Happier than he had felt in many years.

Around eleven o'clock Gemma said her good-nights and he was quick to offer Asha a lift home with him when he finished work at midnight.

Since that first night they had spent together, he had stayed with her a few nights a week. Her house felt like home. Better than his place. Since he had bought the club, he was there most of the time, so he had set up a little apartment for himself in the back. More like a bedsit really. It had a bathroom and a bedroom. Nowhere to cook. If he wanted coffee and toast in the morning, he would head into the club kitchen. All other meals he either ate at the club, picked up take-aways or dropped in on his mum. Mum was always happy to feed him.

He loved his mum, dad, too. But he knew his father was a bit of a brute. He always had been. As a young teen, he tried to protect his mum a few times and always copped a beating for it. Then his mum would berate him afterwards for getting involved. So as much as he hated the way his father was, his mum loved the man and accepted that he beat on her from time to time. Xavier knew it was wrong, but what was he to do about it?

Maddie had been daddy’s girl. He never hit her, as far as Xavier knew.

***

Riding back to Asha's house with her arms wrapped tightly around his waist, he could not think of a happier place he could possibly be. Life had not been this good in many years. Maybe even since he had lost Maddie.

There had been plenty of girls in and out of his life, there was rarely a shortage of them at the club. He was not a pig, he would never take advantage of a drunk girl and employees were off limits too. He had certainly learned his lesson the hard way there. Just recently in fact.

Emma had been more than happy to be his date when he had an event to attend. She had been working for him for several months. Nice girl, but young, in her early twenties. When he'd taken her home that night and she invited him in, he knew he should not have stayed. Next morning, he had excused himself to head back to the club. He explained to her, whilst he thought she was a lovely girl and that he had a great night, that he did not feel it was right to have a 'relationship' with an employee.

Some things in life you wish you could take back, but life does not let you have re-dos. Emma had chased him ever since. She took every opportunity to touch him as she passed him at the bar or in the office. Brushing past him, when she had plenty of space. Dropping the odd suggestive comment here and there.

Now things were starting to get more serious with Asha, it was really making him feel uncomfortable. He had tried explaining to her that he was serious about Asha, but she was not letting it go. What was it with girls?

***

He and Asha spent an amazing night together, eventually falling off to sleep in the early hours of Sunday morning. As often happened, he was woken by Asha crying out in her sleep. She had told him, she sometimes had nightmares.

He had nightmares himself in the first six months after losing Maddie. He would wake up in a cold sweat, after having dreamt that he fought off an attacker and rescued her, only to wake and find it was not true. Maddie was still gone.

Around ten the next morning he was awoken by a knocking on the front door. He looked over to Asha who was sleeping peacefully. It made his heart swell to see her in a happy dream-like state.

Fishing around beside the bed, he retrieved his boxers and went to answer the door. Being Sunday morning, it was probably the Duncans. He knew they did not 'approve' of his staying in their daughter's house. If only they knew the men that Joanie brought home on a regular basis, they would probably drag her back home and lock her up in her bedroom.

Being an older house, it had a long hallway with the bedrooms, toward the back. Joanie's bedroom was on the left as he walked down the hall. Her door was closed. No doubt she was probably still asleep. So he would have to deal with her parents alone.

As he swung the door in towards himself, he stepped back in surprise. The Duncans were not on the doorstep as he expected, instead a young hippy looking man, complete with shoulder-length dreadlocks and tattooed arms poking out from under his colourful tie-dyed hoodie. Xavier thought he was in a time-warp, maybe he was still dreaming. Until the man in front of him spoke.

“Oh hey man,” he even sounded like a hippy. “Is this where Asha lives?

Xavier was unimpressed a man showing up at the door looking for Asha, who was he an ex-boyfriend perhaps?

“Maybe, who wants to know?” he huffed out.

Before the man at the door had a chance to reply, he heard a high-pitched squeal and turned to see Asha sprinting down the long hallway in a pair of short silk pyjama shorts with his t-shirt, hanging loosely over the top. When she reached the door she threw herself into the man's arms, wrapping herself tightly around him. Xavier felt a huge stab of jealousy. That was an emotion he was unfamiliar with.

Asha pulled back and put both her palms to the man's face, the smile on her face was amazing, he wished it were for him.

“What are you doing here? I didn't know you were coming,” she gushed.

“Wanted to come and see you Asha-girl.”

'Asha-girl' who is this guy? Xavier stepped closer, drawing himself up to his full height, puffing his chest out. This was his girl, who did this clown think he was?

“You're looking so good,” she grabbed his locks in her hands. “Haven’t had a haircut yet I see,” she giggled.

Xavier cleared his throat, clearly Asha and hippy boy had forgotten he was in their presence.

“Oh sorry Xave,” Asha quickly moved to his side and wrapped her arm around his waist. That was better. Show this hippy who she belonged too.

“This is my baby brother Patrick. Patrick, this is my...um,” she looked up at him, clearly unsure how to introduce him. “Boyfriend,” she blurted out quickly, “Xavier.”

Xavier felt a wave of relief rush through his body, it was only her brother. Asha had talked about her brother. She had not mentioned he looked like a dope-smoking reject from the seventies, but at least now he understood her excitement at seeing him.

Xavier and Patrick exchanged manly nods and shook hands, before he excused himself, offering to go start the coffee machine and leaving the siblings to get reacquainted.

In the kitchen alone, Xavier's head spun like a top. Asha had referred to him as her boyfriend. He guessed that made it official now. It was always weird territory to navigate, especially as people got older. In school, if he wanted a girlfriend, he would ask a girl to be his girlfriend. As an adult, it did not really work the same way. Stupid rules, he thought to himself shaking his head.  But now, he had a girlfriend and he was taking her home tonight to have dinner with his parents and he had been jealous just now, of her brother. It was already all over for him, he was gone for.

Chapter 15

ASHA HAD SPENT THE DAY catching up with Patrick. Gosh, she had missed him so much. She hadn't even realised how much, until the very moment she saw him again.

Xavier was picking her up soon to go to his parent's house for dinner and she was getting nervous. He had not stayed long this morning. Especially once Frank and Mary had arrived. She knew he and Frank did not get along. Then again, she couldn't imagine anyone getting along with Frank. Obviously, his wife liked him, even that was surprising.

She felt awful leaving Patrick on his first night in town, but Joanie had promised to look after him. Asha was not so keen on that idea and had given Patrick a lecture before about keeping his dick in his pants around her housemate. The last thing she needed was awkwardness between her housemate and her brother. They were both adults, they could do what they liked, but she knew that would make things weird.

Riding out to Xavier's parent's house, she kept running over in her head how his dad had been with her in her office that day. Whilst she adored Mrs Arnold, she had felt odd with her husband ever since then. Not that he had given her any more reason too. He had been on his best behaviour since that incident.

Socialising outside of work with patients didn’t feel right. However, she knew her professional boundaries and was quite happy not to step outside of them.

They rode for some time, Asha had not realised the Arnolds lived so far out of the city. Through the foothills, the roads were windy and there was lots of vegetation on the side of the roads. Horses grazed in nearby paddocks, the area was, what she thought was referred to as semi-rural.

Asha had grown up in the suburbs and then moved to the city as a teen. Having never held a license she rarely ventured out of built up areas. It was very pretty.

It was late afternoon and the air around them was turning cold. At least she had Xavier to wrap her body around to keep warm. Eventually, Xavier slowed and turned into a tree-lined gravel driveway. The house was not visible from the street. When they reached it, Asha was amazed to see a beautiful old stone cottage. It had verandas all around and she could even see smoke billowing from a chimney above the roof. The family car, a green Commodore, was parked at the side of the house. Vines grew up over the sides of the carport and along the top of the veranda. Asha was sure she had never seen anything quite so lovely in her life.

“Wow!” she exclaimed to Xavier as she climbed off the bike and removed her helmet. “This place is gorgeous, did you really grow up here?”

“Sure did,” Xavier beamed with pride.

“I didn't think places like this even existed outside the movies,” Asha shook her head, looking towards the house with a huge grin.

“You need to get out more,” Xavier laughed, then held his hand out to her. “C'mon, let's get you inside before you freeze.”

That she had to agree was a very good idea. As they approached the front door, it swung open and there stood Mrs Arnold, looking ever the fifties housewife, complete with an apron tied around her middle. She wished, not for the first time that her own mum could have been more like Annie Arnold. No wonder Xavier had turned out so charming.

“Asha,” the older woman smiled a beautiful warm smile and welcomed her in with open arms, then pulled back and hugged her son.

“Come on in, it's freezing out here. Hugh has the fire blazing, you'll be warm in here in no time.”

She turned her glare to Xavier, “I can't believe you made her come out here on that thing, in this cold,” she scolded, referring to his motorbike.

“It's okay Mrs Arnold,” Asha soothed.

“See she likes it,” Xavier chuckled and his mother shook her head in disbelief.

Once in the house, Mr Arnold greeted them both, Asha with a hug and Xavier with a handshake.

Asha had not known him to be so friendly with her, but she had to remind herself she was there as Xavier's girlfriend, not as their nurse.

Mrs Arnold retreated to the kitchen and Xavier offered to show her around the house where he had grown up. His bedroom was now used as a storage space, Maddie's bedroom door was closed and spoken about only in hushed tones. No one was to enter that space. She saw photos hanging on the wall of Xavier and Maddie as children growing up. The photos showed Xavier with white-blonde hair as a youngster, gradually darkening as he grew up to what it was now. Still blond, but more a dark, dirty blonde. Maddie, however, had gorgeous long blonde flowing locks. Much like Asha's own hair, but hers was dark. This was the first time she had seen a photo of Maddie. She was a pretty girl, with a friendly face and those same beautiful green eyes that Xavier shared with his dad. A similar smile to Xavier's too.