Exquisite (37 page)

"Excuse me? This is my place
in case you’ve forgotten." he said on a deathly whisper.

She didn't back down however, she
moved in close and asked. "Have you?"

He blinked at her and tried to
focus, the alcohol was swirling through his head and his eyes kept losing
focus. "Have I what?"

"Forgotten that this is your
place? You look horrible."

Mason's mouth snapped shut and he
stood. "Fuck you."

He watched as she tossed her hair back
over her shoulder and reached out to take
his
glass of scotch, she
downed it in a quick gulp then placed the glass back and sneered up at him.

"I'm sorry, that option is no
longer available to you
Casanova
."

She might as well have just said ,
asshole. "What the hell are you doing here?" he demanded.

"I'm here with work. I was
about to leave when Wendy begged me to rid you of the fungus growing to your
arm." she paused and looked him over again in a way that said she didn't
find one thing about him appealing.

"Do yourself a favor Langley,
go home and take a shower. Shave, cut your hair and pretend to be the man you
use to be. At least for the people around you."

He moved in closer infuriated by
her. After all, knowing she was telling him the truth and hearing it, were two
totally different things.

"Where do you get off telling
me what to do?" he hissed leaning down at her. "What right do you
have?"

She didn't budge, she tilted her
head up and glared at him and said softly, "None. But there are at least
three women who care about you and give a shit about what happens to you. So
pull yourself together."

He narrowed his eyes and breathed
in her familiar vanilla scent. "Wendy and Rachel will love me no matter
what."
and that left the third, did she mean herself?

"So that means it's ok to
disappoint them?"

He shook his pounding head and
whispered, "You disappointed me."

Lena swallowed and nodded, "I
know Mason. Don't do the same thing to them."

He flinched and watched as she
turned and motioned for Shelly, who was standing very quietly behind her,
watching everything with narrowed eyes. He glanced at her and she shook her
head almost as though she were disappointed,
whatever
, he thought then
called after Lena. "Don't do me any favors."

Lena stopped and looked over her
shoulder at him, "I didn't do this for you." and with that she left.

T
he first month passed by slowly. Lena wasn’t sure
how she functioned day after day when her heart no longer seemed to work. Her
days were long, and her nights seemed longer.

After that night at
Exquisite
,
Lena had made a conscious decision to avoid Mason and anyone or thing to do
with him. That was the only way she saw herself dealing with the finality of
their relationship. Shelly had been great, she wouldn’t talk about Mason, ask
about him or suggest anything even remotely related to him.

Lena continued to go down to visit
Carly daily, and she found that her sister was in fact the best person to
confide in. Every day she confessed how much it hurt to wake up and make
herself go to work and be social with her colleagues, pretending she was doing
fine.
Fine
, that was such a loose and misused word, and each day she
found herself looking at the corner store to see if there was a picture of
Mason on any of the stands, and when she realized she was doing it she got
pissed off and walked into work in a foul mood.

It was Friday night and it was a
week before Christmas and her parents were coming down to spend Christmas Eve
with her. She was sitting on her couch trying to watch the TV but her mind kept
wandering. Over and over she’d asked herself if she’d done the right thing.
Should
she have told him about his mother and her condition, even after Catherine had
asked her not to?
It was such a messed up situation there didn’t seem to be
any kind of right answer she could decide upon.

What did it matter now anyway?
He never wanted to see her again. He’d made that abundantly clear when she’d
gone to drop the key off to his condo and the doorman had called up and Mason
had told her to leave it down there and he’d pick it up. If that didn’t scream,
I don’t want to see you, she didn’t know what did. She felt her eyes starting
to fall closed when there was a loud knock on the door. Startled she sat up and
looked at the time, 10.43pm. Standing she made her way over and looked through
the peephole. There standing on her porch in a long black trench coat was
Mason. He had his hands stuffed in his pockets and a burgundy scarf wrapped
around his neck. The snow was falling down behind him and he stood there
looking over at her small window. He raised his hand about to knock again when
Lena took deep breath and opened it.

She looked tired. That was the
first thing he noticed when she pulled the door open. Lena stood in front of him
in grey sweat pants and a black long sleeve fleece. Her hair was pulled up into
a top notch bun and her feet had black socks on them. His eyes met hers and she
stood silently holding the door.

“Hello Lena.”

She moved from one foot to the other
then stepped back deciding on what she wanted to do. “Hi. Come inside you must
be freezing.”

He brushed past her and caught the
familiar vanilla scent clinging to her. He heard the door shut and turned to
face her. She was standing with her back against it and her hand on the door
knob, she looked wary but curious. He moved to the opposite wall and leaned
against it looking her over.

“You look tired.” It wasn’t what he
meant to say but it just came out.

“It’s nearly 11pm. I was half
asleep on the couch.” she defended lifting her chin slightly.

“Do you mind if I take my coat
off?” he asked starting to feel particularly hot.

She shook her head her eyes running
over him as he did. He knew he looked better than he had the last time she’d
seen him. Since then he’d shaved, cut his hair and pretty much started up a
regular grooming routine again. He was, however, still drinking more than he
should. He draped the coat over the back of her couch then resumed his spot
against her wall. The space between them seemed to stretch for miles and he
never thought there would ever be a time where there was such an uncomfortable
silence between the two of them.

“What are you doing here Mason?”
she paused then added, “You made it pretty clear you never wanted to speak to me
again.”

He winced and nodded, “I know. I’m
sorry if I hurt you.”

“
If
?” she asked in disbelief
then she seemed to mellow, “Well it doesn’t matter because I hurt you first.”

He looked right at her then,
locking eyes with her and said honestly, “Yes you did.”

She didn’t flinch she just stood
there, rigid against the door gripping the handle like it was a life line. She
swallowed and stated bluntly. “I don’t know what else you want from me.” she
bit her bottom lip and continued, “I’ve said I’m sorry. I gave you back your
key. I’ve stayed the hell away from you. What else Mason? What do you want?”

He stood tall and moved toward her.
He stopped when there were a few inches between them. He didn’t reach out,
didn’t touch her, but he looked down and shook his head.

“Nothing. I don’t want anything
from you.”

Sucking back a deep breath Lena
felt the tears well in her eyes. She’d promised herself she would
not
cry in front of him. She blinked quickly trying to keep them back and tried to
turn her sorrow into anger.
How could he be so cruel?

“Why are you being so mean?” she
paused and watched him tilt his head to the side as if he didn’t understand.

“I get it Mason. I know you don’t
want anything to do with me, it was pretty obvious when you told the doorman to
take my key. Did you really need to come here to tell me you no longer want
anything
to do with me?”

He shook his head and she watched
his mouth flatten. “I suppose I said that wrong then. What I meant was, I don’t
need you to do anything else. I know you’re sorry. I understand you feel
terrible. I know you weren’t trying to be malicious with what you did.”

Lena let out a shuddering breath
and raised her eyes to his. She still had a death grip on the handle and he was
standing still as a statue in front of her.

“Then why are you here?”

She watched him swallow then turn
and walk back to lean against the wall, and she noticed for the first time how
different he looked since the last time she’d seen him. He was starting to
resemble the old Mason, except the eyes were still too cold and the expression
on his face had lost it’s usual warmth. He had, however, shaved and cut his
hair and was wearing jeans and a grey charcoal sweater with that burgundy scarf
now draped around his neck, hanging down on each side.

He crossed his arms over his chest
and spoke steadily. “We finally read mom’s Will yesterday.”

Lena literally stopped breathing
for a minute then made herself take a deep breath wondering where this was
heading. She remained silent waiting for him to continue.

“You were in it.”

Lena finally let go off the door
knob and raised one hand to the side of her face and the other to cover her
mouth, which had fallen open. “I don’t understand.”

Mason’s eyes focused on hers and
seemed to pin her to the door. “She left you a portion of Precious Petals.”

Feeling her eyes widen Lena
couldn’t breathe. She felt as though she was starting to hyperventilate.

“Are you ok?”

She heard him ask through the
ringing in her ears. Leaning down resting her butt on the door and putting her
hands on her knees she dropped her head between her legs and tried to focus on
breathing.
Why would Catherine do this? What did she know about running a
flower shop? Plus she wasn’t even part of the family and she definitely never
would be now.
This was a nightmare. When she finally had her breathing
under control she straightened back up and her questions must have been in her
eyes because Mason answered them.

“I don’t know why she did it. All I
know is she did.”

Nodding Lena tried to think of what
to say. “Well. I’ll give it to you or to Rachel. Surely I can give it back to
you?”

She watched him shake his head.
“Nope part of the clause is that you’ll help run and overlook the store for a
full year and then if you choose to sell or give it to us after that you may,
however, you’ll still be given seven standard sized sunflowers per week for the
rest of your life.”

“Oh my God.” Lena said slowly, now
holding her chest. Blinking over at him she shook her head, “I’m sorry I had no
idea she’d done that.”

He pushed up and off the wall and
grabbed his coat. He shrugged it on and made his way toward her, presumably to
go out the door in which he came.

“I know. None of us saw it coming.
Except her.”

He reached into his pocket and
pulled out a sealed envelope. It had her name written in cursive on the front.
“We all got one, even you.”

Lena reached out to take it and
when she gripped it he spoke softly, “I wanted to rip this up
and
I
wanted to read it, but none of it compared to how badly I wanted to use it as an
excuse to see you.”

Her eyes flicked up to his and she
could see he was trying to decide whether to continue or leave it at that.

He let go of the envelope and
whispered softly, “I want to forgive you Lena. Every day I try. I just can’t
right now.”

Lena felt a tear slide down her
cheek but she refused to wipe it away. He stepped back and she moved away from
the door clutching the letter. He opened it and stepped outside. Turning in the
snow he looked up at her on the porch and she thought he was the most beautiful
thing she’d ever seen.

“My new number is on the bottom of
the envelope.”

Lena nodded and watched him walk
away wishing there was something, anything she could do to make him stay.

C
hristmas had come and gone. Lena’s parents had
come down to visit on Christmas Eve and it’d gone well. It was the first
Christmas in years where Lena had been able to discuss anything relating to her
sister. The only ache in her heart this time around was caused by a six-foot
three-man, who was still not speaking to her. Her mother had asked about Mason
but she hadn’t known what to say, so instead she’d told her about Catherine,
cried and hugged her. Somehow she couldn’t bring herself to tell her that she’d
known all along that Mason’s mother was sick. She couldn’t bear the judgment
that would cross her mother’s face as it had Mason’s.

Lena had just got back from her run
and was sitting down taking her shoes off when she looked across to the desk by
the window. Sitting on top of the mail was the envelope Mason had given her.
Lena had procrastinated for the last few days on what could be in that letter
but she still hadn’t had the guts to open it. Sighing, she kicked off her shoes
and leaned back on the couch. Rubbing her eyes she tried to imagine what
Catherine had possibly wanted to say to her. She
knew
she took first
place when it came to putting things off, but this was something she knew she
had to do.

Lena decided she was going to go
down to visit Catherine and she would take the letter with her. Standing up she
padded into her bedroom to get her coat, she looked over to the dresser where
the picture of Carly sat. She remembered the night Mason had first asked her
about Carly, Lena had not been very receptive, and if she was being honest she
now found herself in a similar situation. Mason was hurting, she knew the grief
he was suffering was so deep that it was hard to crawl out of, and she also
knew that she hadn’t helped the issue. No matter which way she looked at it
there wasn’t any other way she could have handled it. Either way, whether she’d
told him or the fact that she had not, someone would’ve been hurt or
disappointed. In the end, she’d chosen to go with her professional opinion, but
unfortunately Mason didn’t want to hear that. She grabbed a coat and walked
back out to the living room. Picking up the envelope she stuffed her feet into
her boots and made her way out the door. It was time to go and talk to an old
friend.