FATED (28 page)

My excitement was hard to contain as I sat cuddled up with Bella, watching another one of the movies she had on her list for the day. There was no way I could share what had happened to me today; normally I would have shared that sort of thing with her. But it would have been cruel to this evening.

Alex was still in the apartment with us. He was on his phone dealing with some business calls. My eyes never left him as he wandered around from room to room; he had changed into grey sweat pants and a fitted black T-shirt. More than once I found my eyes ogling him as he had a habit, when concentrating, of tucking one hand just inside the low waistband of his sweatpants. This moved the bloody things down further; knowing he was commando underneath was doing my head in.

When did I ever get so lucky?

Thirty-Nine

‘Are you sure about this?’ I questioned Bella as Alex removed her case from the bac
k of the car. ‘I mean really sure?’

‘I am... I just need to get home for a few days. I am going to have a chat with Yasmin, my mum and dad. They need to know before this thing blows up.’ She shook her head from side to side, ‘I can’t believe we only got a few weeks together.’ She hugged me to her now.

‘Me neither... but we’ll get together soon... Yes?’

‘Of course we will... enjoy yourself with Alex and live a little... eh?’ She stared into my eyes.

‘I’ll try,’ I smiled back at her.

Alex opened the door.

‘Ok?’ He questioned, manipulating his huge frame to fit in the doorway.

Neither of us answered, but I offered him a grimace. We slowly walked Bella into the departures at JFK airport, made sure she got to the right check in desk and then we left. I couldn’t hug her again otherwise I knew she would break down. I hated the thought of her flying all the way home by herself. It was one thing doing it when you have something to look forward to, but the thought of explaining her story to her parents must have been terrifying. They weren’t bad parents, but I knew just how upset they were going to be.

With an audible sigh I clambered back into the car and proceeded to buckle up my belt. Just as I clicked it into position, Alex’s hand came over mine and squeezed gently, offering his support.

‘She’ll be OK... You know that... right?’

‘Yeah... my bestie... she’s strong. I just hope she’s strong enough... Have you spoken to Nathan again?’

‘Today?’ He questioned.

‘Uh huh.’

‘No, but I will... he asked me to keep him updated on how Bella was. I’ll phone him and let him know she’s gone home for a while.’

We settled back into the comfy seats and I watched as Alex masterfully weaved his way in and out of the airport traffic. Apparently it didn’t matter what time of day, day of the week, or week of the year, this airport was always congested.

Reaching down I turned up the music playing, it was one of my favourites.
Stay-Sam Smith.

Obviously feeling the atmosphere and listening to the poignant words as Sam sung his heart out, Alex reached across and took hold of my hand again, pulling it over and onto his leg. As he drove he caressed my fingers and sung along with the words. The feeling that had been in the car earlier lifted and my heart began to soar once more.

Alex stayed for a couple of hours with me. But as always business called and he had to pop out to the office. There was no way I was going to start to become the needy girlfriend, well anymore than I had already been. The life of a busy CEO, I assumed.

To keep my mind occupied I went across to his apartment, after all I had thought to myself, it wasn’t really that I wanted to sniff his cologne again, no it was all really about using his gym.

Who the hell was I kidding?

After I had run for about five miles, done several sets of sit ups and leg raises, and even used the exercise bike for about thirty minutes, a level of boredom and tiredness was beginning to creep in. The TV was on and I had music playing but I couldn’t shift the feeling of tedium. I had no physio to do and no one to have a laugh with, the apartments were eerily quiet. I had never really spent too much time in Alex’s apartment before and after a quick nose around I had decided to go back to my own. I could at least cook him a decent dinner to come home to. He had said he would only be gone a few hours at the most. That certainly seemed like an excellent plan and it would give me something to do. Making my way through the apartment, I was suddenly aware of voices in the hallway. The soundproofing was such that I couldn’t make out if they were male or female. Being ever the nosy cow, I quickened my step towards the door and pulled it open fast.

I met the gaze of two women about to enter the apartment to the left of Alex’s. One of them was an older lady, in her early fifties I would perceive and the other was a lot younger, probably just older than me. The younger woman had her back to me as she was attempting to gain entry to the apartment. They were beautifully dressed in long winter coats and boots, all very fashionable; it was very evident they came from money. I took in quickly that they had a small suitcase each with them and that they were obviously going to be staying a couple of nights. My face broke out into a wide welcoming smile. Although I wasn’t particularly good about meeting new people, it was quite clear that these ladies had to be Alex’s family; otherwise they wouldn’t have been here in the first place. Rubbing my sweaty, work-out hands down the front of my leggings, I stepped my running shoes forward in haste, they squeaked on the polished marble.  I wanted to make a good impression; I knew most of Alex’s family meant a lot to him.

‘Hello, I’m Frankie,’ I offered my now non-sweaty hand towards the younger lady, she looked the less intimidating and it seemed the best place to start.

‘Hi,’ she smiled back, although her face had a curious struggle occurring on it. She was trying to work out who I was. She did at least shake my hand briefly. I wasn’t left with it hanging in the air.

‘Good afternoon,’ I heard from the woman next to her. I made my gaze leave the younger lady and focus on the face of the older woman. ‘I am Margaret Blackmore and this is my stepdaughter Ruby.’

Of course! It had to be Alex’s Mum. She had the same eye colouring as Nathan. Still, Blackmore?

‘And you are?’ She questioned, her look sweeping over me in the space of a second. I could see that she was less than impressed with what she had found lacking.

This already didn’t feel like it was going well. I found my insides switching into panic mode; I was starting to regret my hastiness.

Oh God, not now...please don’t let me.. Not now.

It was too late, no sooner had that thought left my brain, I felt myself intake a huge breath, just gearing my body up towards my oncoming spout of nonsensical words, which I was going to release due to my embarrassment.

‘I’m Frankie.’ Stupidly I offered the older woman my hand to shake. She just looked at it intently. This had made my face boiling hot with a level of blush that threatened to engulf the whole of my upper body.

‘Yes, I believe you have already offered that small snippet of information... But who are you and why were you leaving my son’s apartment?’

‘Oh, I’m over from England. I’m Nathan’s physio... I was just using the gym in Alex’s apartment...as you can see by my state of dress.’ I could see they had no idea Alex had a girlfriend. There was no way I was going to drop it in to the already stilted conversation. I had enough experience with my own family to know it wouldn’t be a good idea. I knew he wasn’t close to his mother, but I really felt he would have told Ruby about me?

‘Oh Yes,’ Ruby’s face broke into a smile now. I started to feel a sense of relief coming over me, ‘Yes, Nathan has told me all about you and the wonders you’ve done with his leg... You must be excellent at your job? He’s not normally known for appreciating doctors or anything along those lines, is he, Margaret?’

‘No, none of my children, especially James, generally appreciate any of those things.’ She had manipulated her face in a frown now.

‘I’m sorry Alex is at work at the moment. He did say he would be back in a few hours. Was he expecting you?’ I felt nerves creeping over me now. His mother was obviously a hard woman to gauge, but being good at reading faces, probably because my own always showed everything I felt, I could see that she thought I was probably sleeping with one of her sons. She was giving me a look of total condescension.

‘He didn’t know we were coming down to the city. I know he is always so busy. We thought we would surprise him and do a bit of shopping while we were here, didn’t we, Margaret?’ Ruby seemed friendlier, now I had given an explanation for my presence.

‘Yes, we have come down to do some shopping... we have a lot to buy.’ I watched as Alex’s mother’s hand had dramatically appeared in front of me, by the removal of one of her leather gloves. I watched as she gently skirted over the top of the small but very apparent baby bump Ruby happened to be wearing along with her designer clothes. It had been previously hidden by her long coat

‘Oh how lovely! Congratulations... how exciting for you.’

I watched as Ruby ran her hand lovingly over and over her bump. ‘Yes, we’re really happy, thank you for your congratulations.’

Alex’s mother laughed now, she had relaxed slightly. Probably the most a woman like her would ever relax. In the background I had just made out the start of machinery whirring. It signalled the penthouse lift, starting to make its way up. I knew it was Alex; my whole body was on edge. It was the sort of edge that only his physical presence created within me.

‘We have so much to buy, it’s so very exciting. Ruby we must make sure he puts a diamond on that finger of yours this weekend... now mustn’t we?’

I smiled at Ruby, she looked a little hesitant at this request, and I could imagine it must be bloody hard living with such a strong dominant character like her stepmother. I had known it well, all be it for a short time.

‘We’ll see, Margaret, he may be too busy this weekend to get an engagement ring. You know how busy his work keeps him.’ I watched her silently raise her eyebrows and then quickly put her face back together.

‘You have been engaged a week now, Ruby and some things need to be done in the correct way, even if others haven’t been.’ I was starting to feel a little uncomfortable now, perhaps it was the whole over sharing of Mrs. Blackmore’s 
really still Blackmore?
very evident disgust that Ruby was pregnant before being married.

Oh dear!

Finally the doors of the lift opened. I didn’t turn my head to look at Alex; I didn’t want to give anything away to his mother. Not until he’d had the chance to tell her about us, on his own terms. I could feel him now behind me. I gave him a silly wave with my hand behind my back. I heard the lift door close.

‘There you are, Alex.’ I watched as Ruby smiled at the sight of him and they both moved their feet to look around me.

‘We were just telling Frankie here, how you need to make sure your fiancée has a ring on her finger before we go back home this weekend.’ His mother’s face never turned from mine. I knew she was just checking out my response, ‘We don’t want anyone outside of the family getting the wrong idea, do we?’

Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick I could almost feel the time passing.

I had heard the words she had spoken. It was like I was going in slow motion as my brain filtered through them one word at a time. Each word that I replayed over in my head felt like a knife stabbing into my heart. I had stopped breathing. I knew I had to move, but my whole body felt so heavy. I needed desperately to get away from these people, and quickly. My brain was running on overtime and a feeling of sickness was rising up from my stomach. I knew one thing and one thing only. Whatever happened, I would make myself walk away from here and to my door without showing my feelings. I would not break down; I would not make a scene.

None of these people deserved my feelings, not any of them, not any single one of them.