Free Fall (21 page)

"I should have known," Nina said furiously, ready to disconnect the call.

"Wait! Don’t hang up. I called you for a reason and I think you might wanna know that reason. It might be in your best interest, so-to-speak."

"If you called to warn me about her, you’re a little late."

"Tell me about it! You’re not the only one that bitch has messed with. She screwed me up good, okay? It’s like she had some kind of spell over me. I ain’t no pillar of society but I feel bad about what I did, okay?"

"What did you do?" Nina said. "What’s your name?"

"Look, I can’t tell you my name. I did some shit, but I’m not going to get in trouble for it because of her. But, I need to tell you that she set him up."

"Set him up?" Nina repeated. "You mean Joseph? How? What do you mean?"

"In Vegas. She roofied him. I got the stuff for her and she bribed one of her friends to put it in his drink."

Nina felt her stomach drop and roll. "You mean he was drugged?"

"Yep and nothing happened."

"But," Nina struggled to make sense of this. "He told me that he was drunk but that something
did
happen. He told me all about it."

"He did? Get out! That boy's got some balls! No, nothing happened. Michelle, the skank, she tried but all she did was roll around on the bed with him while he was passed out, man. Karen told me the whole story. He probably dreamed that something happened and the next day she told him some lies about it. That drug can really do some crazy shit to your head, but I’m telling ya, nothing happened."

"What did she drug him with?" Nina asked, her heart beating wildly.

"Rohypnol," Louis said.

"You mean GHB?" Nina winced with sympathy for Joseph.

"No, GHB ain’t the same thing. Rohypnol is a sedative, kind of hypnotizes you. I should have told you right away. You know Karen gave me your number because she wanted me to pull another prank on you. Watch out for her. And do me a favor? Don’t let her know someone told you. She’ll know it was me and I want to keep as far away from her as possible."

"I won’t," Nina promised. "Thank you so much for telling me, this changes everything."

"Like I said, I feel bad about the whole thing. It’s the least I can do. And it’s a little bit of payback from me to her. Take care, now." He hung up.

Karen! Nina thought viciously. With trembling fingers, she pressed call next to Joseph's name.

"Nina?" Joseph answered on the first ring.

At the sound of his voice, Nina started crying. "Joseph."

"Nina! What’s wrong, baby? Are you all right? What’s going on?"

Nina took a deep breath and asked the first question that came to her mind.

"Are you with Karen?"

"What? No, I’m not with Karen. I gave her the restraining order right after you left. Tell me what’s happening. Are you okay?"

"She tricked us, Joseph. Karen set you up in Las Vegas. She did send that girl to your room and she put something in your drink, but you didn’t do anything." She explained the conversation she'd had with the man on the phone. "You just imagined it. Oh, Joseph, I’m so sorry!"

There was silence, and then Joseph said, "That psycho bitch! I knew there was something wrong about that night. I'm calling the police!"

"I don’t think we could prove it happened. It's been so long, there's no evidence now."

"There's Michelle Paige!" Joseph said. "Jesus! Karen must have been in the room while I was unconscious! I'll kill her!"

"Joseph, let's calm down for a minute," Nina said. "Michelle would never admit she committed a crime. Even if there were witnesses that saw her go into your hotel room, there were no witnesses
inside
the room. There are no drugs in your system now. It's been months since it happened. There is no way to prove it."

He mulled it over. "You're right," he said. "But she's finished in this town. I'll make sure of it."

"I should have known it was her. I am so sorry I doubted you. I should have stayed and worked things out. All this time apart… I'm sorry!"

"Nina, you couldn’t have known, honey! I didn't even think of it. I was so busy feeling horrible about it that it didn't occur to me that I could have been drugged. I'm the one that should have known! It's my body! And you did what anyone would have done in that situation."

"I suppose you're right. But, you know what? She really didn't get away with it, did she? That is, if you were to come to me now, then she didn't accomplish what she set out to do."

"I'll be on the next flight out," he said.

"Oh, thank God!" Nina said.

"And, Nina? I am so sorry you had to go through all this. I feel responsible. From now on, there's nothing that will keep us apart, you understand?"

"I love you, Joseph. I've never stopped loving you. I miss you so much!"

"I love you, too. You don't even know the half of it, baby. You're all I think about. I thought I lost you."

"You haven’t."

"I'll be there this evening. I can't wait to see you!"

"Um yeah," Nina hesitated. "I have to warn you that I look a little different."

"Different how? Did you gain fifty pounds?"

"You shithead!" Nina said, easily falling back into their usual rapport. "No, I didn’t gain fifty pounds." She considered giving him her news, but didn’t want to do it over the phone. She wanted to observe his reaction in person. "Just get your ass up here."

"Did you cut your hair? Please, tell me you didn’t shave your head."

"No. I still have my hair," Nina laughed. "You’ll see when you get here."

"The suspense! Okay, I'll see you soon, babe."

Before Joseph left for the airport he made a call to his agent and told him everything that Karen had done.

Peter was horrified at the news. "She's obviously mentally ill, Joseph. What can I do to help?"

"I want you to quietly put the word out. Tell everyone not to deal with her. Tell everyone to watch out for her."

"Of course. This is my area of expertise. Me and my assistant will call everyone we can think of. By this time tomorrow her name will be synonymous with the Black Death. This will guarantee that she will be dropped from the show, and from my client list."

"I don't want her to know why it's happening. Could you keep her on for awhile and pretend you know nothing about it?"

"Of course, she won't know a thing from me."

"Thanks for doing this, Peter. And thanks for believing me."

"I've known you for a lot of years, my friend. You've been nothing but reliable and trustworthy. I'm actually grateful to you for telling me this. I will not tolerate people messing with my clients, even if it's another client. I’ll get back to you soon, take care."

"Thanks again, Peter."

Nina changed into an empire cut maternity dress in a soft cream color with a matching brown shrug. Her hair had grown like crazy and hung halfway down her back in shining waves. Her face was a little fuller, but her complexion was a translucent peach that went well with her dark brown hair and green eyes. She looked for the tenth time in the full length mirror on the back of the bathroom door and then moved through the apartment, from the bathroom to the bedroom to the kitchen, double checking that everything was clean and in order. She finally sat down in the front room. She wished she'd insisted on picking Joseph up at the airport. She couldn't sit still. Waiting was killing her. She turned off the TV and listened for noises outside her door. Her ears pricked at every creak and groan in the building. She thought about plastering herself to the peephole but was so wound up she thought she'd probably hit the ceiling if she saw Joseph appear in it.

When the knock came she did jump. She hadn’t heard any footsteps. Did he tiptoe down the hall? She walked to the door and stood in front of it for a moment to collect herself. She tried on a smile, but couldn’t hold it, so she just opened the door.

There was Joseph. A smile on his handsome face. In his eyes was that look that always evoked such strong emotions inside her. Delighted anticipation. His eyes came to rest on her belly and Nina could see his mind working, calculating.

"What?" he said.

"Yes," she said.

He kneeled at her feet, rested his cheek on her stomach and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Why didn’t you tell me?"

"I was going to tell you. I was getting ready to call you."

Joseph stood up and held her face in his hands. "When?"

"January thirty first." Nina's eyes welled up and Joseph kissed the tears off of each cheek. Then he pressed his lips against hers. She breathed in the scent of his skin and savored the warmth of his mouth on hers.

"Let’s sit down." Nina had heard about pregnant women being extra stimulated when it came to sex but thus far had had no opportunity to put the theory into practice. At the moment she felt an almost animalistic desire to jump on Joseph right then and there. Her clothes felt tight and her breathing became shallow. She grabbed his hand and instead of leading him to the living room she led him down the short hall toward the bedroom.

"Where we going?" He laughed softly.

"I think we should lie down."

Joseph didn’t argue and they lay down on their sides facing each other. Joseph put his hand under the fabric of her dress and stroked the mound of her pregnancy.

"You’re so beautiful," he whispered.

"I’m keeping it," Nina said.

"I want us to keep it. I’m so glad, Nina." Joseph slid his hand between her thighs and Nina rolled on her back as his smooth, cool hands caressed her sore and swollen legs.

"You don’t know how good that feels."

"Have you had any morning sickness?"

"Only a couple of times. I’m healthy as a horse. No problems whatsoever." Nina groaned as he moved further up to touch the juncture between her legs. She took his hand and pressed it against her.

"Could you…" She was unable to finish the sentence because he started doing exactly what she wanted him to do.

"Does that feel good too?" Joseph murmured, and cut off any answer by covering her mouth with his.

A short time later Joseph asked, "Is it a boy?"

"It’s going to be a surprise."

"What if I want to know what it is before-hand?"

"Too bad. I’ve already decided that part, but you will be consulted from here on out if that’s what you want."

"Of course that’s what I want. I want to do this together. This is the greatest feeling I’ve ever had. So incredible!" He circled her stomach with the palm of his hand. "I can't describe it. I feel humbled and excited at the same time. In just one day life has changed drastically. Could it get any better than this?"

"Well, I think I have a buyer for the apartment."

"You’re going to sell the apartment? How’d you manage that?"

"A guy saw it over a year ago and said he wanted it. He’s coming to look at it again tomorrow."

"Will you come live with me?"

"I’d like to get a house here. Could we have two homes? One here and one in LA?"

"We can have whatever your heart desires. You know I’m taping episodes for the new show? We’ll have to spend part of the time in LA. So, it makes sense." Joseph said. He bent her knee and gently pushed her over onto her side.

"We’ll be one of those couples who do that long-distance-the-job-is-more-important-than-the-relationship thing that hardly ever works out," Nina said softly and shivered as he kissed the back of her neck. He ran his hand up the back of her dress and tugged at her panties.

"No we won’t," Joseph said. "We’ll be different. You're just going to have to get over your fear of flying."

"Not until after the baby is born," Nina promised.

ELEVEN

THEY
were in the middle of taping the tenth episode in the series. For months since she had received the restraining order Karen had not spoken to Joseph and it was driving her insane. He was gone most of the time on city locations and when he was on the set he ignored her whenever she was in earshot. He avoided eye contact and in meetings Joseph looked right through her and past her as if she wasn’t there.

"Hey, Karen?" Karla said. "You know that thing where people ask you a question and then they don’t listen for the answer, but sit there all self-absorbed in their own little world?"

Karen looked at her sister. Karla had showed up at her door three months before with nothing but a backpack and an announcement that she needed a place to stay so that she could regroup. At first Karen thought that she would stay a few days, maybe a week. But the week had turned into months with no promise from Karla that she would leave anytime soon. Every time she suggested it, Karla said sarcastically that everyone would be shocked if she kicked her poor sister out when she was in need. Karen knew a threat when she heard one. She was being blackmailed.

After three previous stints in treatment it seemed that the fourth time was the charm. Karla had completed a week of detox and thirty days of in-patient treatment. Unlike the previous times, Karla got clean without methadone. She was a new woman, feisty and full of bite. Karen preferred the junkie version of Karla to this clear-headed person who had taken over her house and her life. Karla seemed to be able to read her mind and she felt stifled in her company.