Echoes in the Bayou (22 page)

"Yes,
that was one visit I wouldn’t wish for ever again," she sighed
.

"Now
zip me up lover.
"

Magnus
gave her a boyish frown, although she looked absolutely gorgeous in her Ralph
Lauren pink str
apless dinner dress, he'd much
rather see her out of it.

"Everything's
all ready," he whispered in her ear and slipped his hands underneath
the short dress.

"
What's say we have some fun before our guests
arrive?" He said. He was running his hands around her round butt and it
felt good. She let out a soft moan before coming to her senses.

Sh
e playfully slapped his hand away. "Magnus
DuPonte, you keep your hands where I can see them and zip me up." She
couldn’t help but laugh. Had they not been expecting their guests at any
minute, she would have gladly obliged.

Magnus
felt completely helpless as he tried hard to converse with their dinner guests.
It wasn't because he was at a loss for words, it was because Ava was by his
side and whenever she was near, all of the thoughts in his mind that did not
pertain to her seemed to fly right out the window. Even his agent Steve
remarked at how quiet he was. "Are you sure you're feeling alright?"
Steve asked him.

"Oh
I am feeling fine, just fi
ne," Magnus
replied. He wore a puerile grin on his face as he stared at Ava.

"Ohhh,
enough said Magnus, enough said," his agen
t
winked and patted him on the back. 

When
Steve an
d his wife Kelly arrived they were
surprised to find that Magnus was no longer alone.

 
 "She's beautiful Magnus and so down to
earth. Where did you meet her?" Asked Kelly. The moment she met Ava, she
felt warmth that she found quite surprising, especially given the fact that
Jeanette had been the exact opposite, very standoffish.

Magnus
managed to overcome his nervousness long enough to tell the couple all about
how he and Ava met. He did however, leave out the supernatural part, he knew
that
his agent wouldn’t mind hearing it but his
wife Kelly might get frightened.

"So
you're still thinking of selling the old place?" Steve asked as Ava walked
into the room carrying a tray of after dinner drinks.

"Actually
no, I've changed my min
d," he said smiling
at Ava.

"I
bet you had something to do with that," Kelly grinned at Ava
.

"I
might have," she grinned. "Hey Ava, how about
we grab our drinks and you give me a tour? Leave these guys to their
business," Kelly asked.

"Sure
thing
," said Ava and led her towards the
sitting room.

While
Magnus and his agent talked about his new novel and publishing dates, Ava
showed Kelly around the massive house. Ava silently prayed that nothing out of
the ordinary would happen while their guests were visiting. She liked Kelly and
could see herself spending time with her as friends. There was naturalness
about her that she liked; she didn’t seem pretentious at all. Kelly felt the
same way and invited her and Magnus to stay over at their place in New Orleans
for the upcoming weekend.

 
"I think I can speak for Magnus too when I say,
we'd like that very much," Ava smiled broadly at her new friend. It felt
nice to have someone to talk to besides Magnus and Sinta. She loved talking to
them both but she missed the camaraderie of a true girlfriend, she thought
she'd have it forever in Melanie.
We all
know how that turned out,
she thought to
herself. 

"
Great, we've got plenty of room and this time we'll show
you the real New Orleans. Sounds like you only got a taste of it when you were
there the last time," she frowned.

"Well
here’s to not running into an
ymore ex's,"
she held up her glass and clinked it with Ava's.

"Parting
in such sweet sorrow," Steve grinned and kissed Ava's hand. He was sorry
to have to go, not only was he Magnus's agent but the two had become close
friends. Steve was happy that his wife too had seemed to make a new friend.
Ever since they moved to New Orleans from New York, she'd found it difficult to
make friends. "It's like a different world here Steve," she'd told
him shortly after they'd moved there. "I know it's a better opportunity
for you but being here and not being able to make friends makes me feel so
isolated."

"I
know baby, but you'll make fri
ends, you'll
see," he'd reassured her and almost four years later she finally had.

"I
can't wait for the weekend," Kelly kissed her husband on the cheek and
thanked him for bringing her
.

Chapter Sixteen

"That
was a wonderful evening." Magnus sat and watched as Ava straightened up
the dining room.

"Now
come and sit with me out on the porch," he held out his hand.

Once
he was seated in one of the oversized rocking chairs, he grabbed her by the
waist and p
ulled her onto his lap. Ava let out a
giggle as she nuzzled up against his neck.

"Ava
I mean
it tonight was wonderful and I have you
to thank for making it so."

"It
was wonderful," she grinned. "I made a new friend and got us invited
to New Orleans for th
e weekend."

"I
promise this time we will enjoy it to its full capacity," he said to her.

"I
know we will," she took his hand in hers an
d
they interlocked fingers.

"Ava,
I'm sure you're well aware of the fact that none of this would have happe
ned without you. I mean my book is coming along great
thanks to you and this place well, having you here makes it feel more and more
like home each and every day so I thank you for that."

She felt
him tense up. "Magnus are you dumping me?" She asked. She w
as sitting up now but still on his lap.

"I
am doing nothing of the kind," he said rather quickly. "But there are
some things about me that you need to know about," he said. He was all
seriousness now.

"Ava,
you know that I used to be in the
oil business
right?" He questioned her.

When she
nodded her head, he continued. "Well I didn’t just work for my father, I
worked with him and well… let's put it this way, I was a very shrewd business
man. I mean it was dog
eat dog world and still
is but I did some things that I'm not too proud of."

"Like
what?" She asked, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer
.

He took a
cleansing breath before continuing. "Ava, when I started my job in the
corporate world I was fresh out of college and I thought I knew it all. I mean
here I was this young guy, working side by side with my dad, making close to
six figures. I had my own place, a couple of cars, and not to mention plenty of
girlfriends," he said.

"Okay…"
Ava whispered
.

"What
I'm about to tel
l you has nothing to do with
women, I'm just trying to get you to understand the kind of life I had. Well
anyway, let me get to the point. The life I had wasn’t as easy and simple as I
thought it would be. All of a sudden I felt like I was being thrusted into this
world of nothing but chaos, there were far too many meetings and power lunches.
Presentations and reports, I mean I had never been around so many greedy, power
hungry people in my entire life and I started to like it. I liked having that
feeling of power; I wanted to impress everyone you know? Especially my parents
so I kept it up as best I could until things started to get too crazy. I
couldn’t deal with the insanity of it all, day after day, night after night. So
on a rare night of freedom, a friend takes me out to a night club and he could
tell I was tired, but I was more than tired, I was exhausted and I was
stressed.

 
I had the kind of stress that makes you not want to
eat, sleep or do much of anything else. So this friend asks me if I want to do
a hit of coke; just to take the edge of he said. Hey one hit won't hurt you,
well one year later I was in rehab trying to kick the habit. And I did kick it;
my parents, close friends, and Steve and Kelly were very supportive. Especially
Steve considering that he was the one who offered it to me in the first place.
It was while I was in rehab that I realized that I wanted to become a writer.
And here I am today, thirty three years old, clean and sober and with a
beautiful woman sitting in my lap, life is good Ava.

"Magnus,
Steve is the one who offered it to you and you still allowed him to be your
agent?" She asked confused. "Are you sure that was the right
choice?"

Magnus
nodded his head. "I know, I know, you're not supposed to
have that kind of bad influence in your life when you
are recovering but it wasn’t until after I got out of rehab that I signed a
contract with Steve, he was the only one I trusted and at the time he had been
up visiting from New York.

 
He went back a few weeks after we went out and by that
time I was getting my own supply. So you see, Steve wasn’t supplying me,
someone else was."

"I
understand that Magnus, but he still was the one who introduced you to
it," she tried to reason with him
.

"You
're right Ava, he was but It was my choice to continue
and It was my choice alone. I can't blame anyone but myself," he said.

"Magnus,
you had a drug problem and you beat it, did you
really think that I wouldn’t understand?" She asked. She wasn’t the least
bit worried though, she could see that he'd beat his addiction and by the way
his  life was going, he hit it out of the park.

"
I knew you'd understand Ava, I'm not a perfect man, I
never have been and never will. But I want you to know that I am no longer
addicted, I've been clean for five years now and I won't ever go back to that
life."

 
"I'm not perfect either Magnus; no one is and I
appreciate you telling me that about your life, it's in the past, and that is
where we should leave it. I like that you told me about it though, but I'm a
bit curious as to why you're telling me now," she said as she shifted in
his lap.

It's now
or neve
r
,
he told himself.  "Ava I wanted to tell you about my past because I
want my future to include you. I love you Ava Montgomery."

 
The words hit her like no other, she wasn’t expecting
to hear them so soon
. Alright
, she told herself, maybe she was. She could tell by
the way he made love to her that he was falling for her and how he came after
her the night of the party.

Magnu
s was unsure of what her silence meant. "Ava,
please say something," he said and kept his arms wrapped around her, he
just couldn’t let go.

 
Ava turned to him and smiled, she cupped his face in
her hands. "Magnus do you realize what you just said?" She asked. Too
eager to wait for a reply she went on, "Magnus you just told me that you
love me. Now correct me if I'm wrong but doesn’t that mean that part of the
curse is broken?" She asked emphatically.

"To
tell you the truth I hadn’t really thought about it," he sai
d.

"I've
been too busy wondering what your response
was
going to be." He looked at her inquiringly.

Ava
tossed her head back and laughed, she knew that she was taking a chance on him
. Isn't he doing the same thing?
She asked herself.  "Magnus, a life without
chances is a life not worth living," she whispered in his ear. "I love
you too," she said.

"How
do you do that?"
He asked of her remark.
"It's like you know what I'm thinking."

"It's
a gift," she said and kissed him passionately on the lips
.

"Phew,
now that that's over we can talk about the curse," he said dramatically wiping
his brow.

"Well," said Ava. "I
remember you telling me that Jeanette told you that you were incapable of
loving her and then I thought about what Sinta told us about the curse.
But since you just told me that you loved me,"
she said with a gleam in her eye. "The first thing that I could think of
was that the curse was slowly being lifted. I mean maybe that’s why we've had
no more manifestations since the séance." Her eyes were hopeful and her
body was making him hard.