Intimate Persuasions (18 page)

“Do you have any rooms available?”

“Are you all right, Miss?”

It was then that Ann saw her reflection in the window. She looked worse than hell. There were mascara streaks staining her face. Her eyes were beyond puffy and swollen. She actually looked like she’d been punched in the eyes.

“I’m fine. Thank you though. Do you, have a room I mean?”

“Sure. Ah, do you need to talk to someone? I could get my wife. She’s in the back fixing us supper.”

Ann smiled at the sweet man and his kindness. “No, thank you really. I just want a bed and a hot bath. And maybe some dinner. Are there any restaurants around here?”

He shook his head. “Do you like spaghetti and meatballs?”

“Yes, actually I do.”

He reached up and handed her a pen and a paper. “Fill this out. We’ll need to see an ID and a credit card, but you can pay cash if you want when you check out.” He leaned closer to her and whispered, even though there was no one else in the room. “The wife gets a little pissed when people leave without paying. So we started taking down card numbers.”

She nodded. “I understand.”

“Okay well, you fill all that out and I’ll be right back.” He disappeared into the backroom.

Ann filled out the registration card and hesitated when it asked for her address. It made her sad. She just went to the bank yesterday and ordered some checks with Quinn’s address on them. She told herself she was being silly, but she had a bad feeling that she was jinxing herself.

Ann had just dotted the last I and crossed the last T when the sweet old man came back out from the back room. She couldn’t contain her grin when she saw the food he was holding. And following behind him was a lady much larger than him. It almost shocked her for a moment. He was probably only 5 feet tops and she was easily 5 1/2 feet and had packed on a few pounds more than her husband over the years.

“Is this her? Oh my dear, look at you. You just look dreadful.”

The man nudged his wife. “That’s not making her feel better.”

“Of course. I’m sorry dear. Is it a man? Is that what has upset you so?”

“I told you she said she doesn’t want to talk about it,” he told his wife.

“It’s fine, and thank you for the food. I assume that’s for me.”

“Indeed. Listen I’m Marilyn Bates and this here is my husband. No—” He quickly interrupted her.

“Let’s just leave her be,” He told her, giving her an evil eye.

Marilyn rolled her eyes. “Oh for heaven’s sake. Would you get over it already? It’s not that big of a deal.”

Ann was curious. “What’s not that big of deal?”

“His name,” she said, “It’s Norman, Norman Bates.”

Ann couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing. “Norman Bates? Are you serious?”

He nodded up at her. “I’m afraid so. If you notice the sign outside just says Motel. We thought The Bates Motel would be bad for business.”

Ann kept laughing. “Oh my God. I can imagine the people in the city and county office when you applied for your business license.” She laughed harder.

Her laughter was contagious because now they were all laughing. In a funny voice Ann continued, “So, Mr. Bates, it says here you would like to run a roadside motel. Will that be with or without the dead bodies?”

Their laughter continued into the night as she ended up staying and eating dinner with the fun couple. She went to her room to wash up first, but had gone right back to join them for one of the best spaghetti and meatball dinners she had ever eaten.

It was now 8 o’clock. She knew Quinn would be at the Roadhouse. It would be safe to go back and get her things now without having to hear anymore of his hurtful words, but she didn’t want to go back yet. The Bates’ had given her directions to get back to the main highway, so she could go whenever she wanted to. The only problem was that all she really wanted was Quinn. Despite everything he had said and how much he had hurt her, she still loved him. And she knew it wasn’t going to be easy getting over him. Actually, if she was completely honest with herself, she knew she wouldn’t ever be able to get over him. She would love him forever.

Ann tuned on the water to the bathtub when she realized that she didn’t even have a cell phone. That, of course, made her realize that she had absolutely no one to call. No one to reassure that she was all right and safe. She knew Derek would probably be worried about her. But she didn’t really care. She was furious with him for meddling in something that he swore to keep a secret. Sure, it was Quinn that had actually hurt her. But if Derek hadn’t have stuck his stupid nose in their business she would still be there right now.

So what if he didn’t love her.
She could be happy without his love, as long as she had him. She shook her head as she dipped her body slowly into the bath. That wasn’t true and she knew it. She did love Quinn, but she needed his love, too. That’s what all her nervousness had been about. She needed him, all of him. All or nothing.

Like it matters now
, she thought. It was over, he didn’t love her and that was that. She laid her head back against the tub and closed her eyes, wishing she could change it from happening. A stray lonely tear slid down her cheek. She already missed him so much.
Oh Quinn, I love you.

* * * *

Quinn paced the living room. He hated that he wasn’t out there helping Derek look for her. But he couldn’t take the chance that she would come home and he wasn’t there. He could leave a note. But there was no way that he could possibly put down on paper the turmoil that he was experiencing right now. She was out there somewhere, pregnant, hurting, and probably crying her eyes out and it was all his fault. And he knew it. The phone finally rang and he jumped for it.

“Hello, Annie?”

Derek sighed on the other end. “No bro, sorry. It’s me. I was just checking in. Any word yet?”

“No, damn it. Where could she be?”

Derek knew that Quinn was aware he didn’t have the answers. But the whole situation was just so frustrating. He had already apologized to Quinn earlier for causing all of this. But Quinn wouldn’t let him take the blame.

Quinn hated what had happened. He knew that if he had only listened to Derek, or if he had only trusted Ann, then none of this would have happened. And he knew that was the worst part about it.

“Derek, did you check the hotel?”

 
“Yeah. I don’t know where else to look man, I’m sorry. I haven’t seen her car and no one’s seen her either.”

Quinn fought the knot in his stomach. What if she was really gone? Like for good. “Derek, you said you two have talked, that you’re friends right?”

“Yeah, why? What are you thinking?”

Quinn could barely say the words, scared that saying them would make them true. “You don’t think she left for good do you? I mean, she’ll be back right?”

Derek listened to his brother’s tortured voice. The truth was that about an hour ago Derek had wondered the exact same thing. But he didn’t want to worry Quinn anymore than he already was. “Her clothes are there, she left with nothing but her purse. Where could she go?” But as soon as Derek said it, he knew he shouldn’t have.

“She’s been working, she has no bills. She’s saved up money. Oh God.” Quinn sat down on the couch in his living room. “What if she really left me?”

Derek hated to hear the pain in his brother’s voice. “You can’t think like that, Quinn. She’ll be back. She loves you.”

Quinn hoped to hell that he was right. But he knew there was a chance, and a big one, that she wouldn’t be back. He had seen to that by treating her so badly and using the words he did, just to hurt her. “Just keep looking. Please.”

“Sure man, call me if you hear from her, okay?” Derek hung up and turned his truck around, preparing to make another run around town.

Quinn set his phone down. He was numb. He kept replaying their argument earlier. He remembered, just like she was standing before him, the pain in her eyes. The pleading in her voice when she tried to explain things to him. When she had tried to tell him that she loved him. That she couldn’t help it, because it just was.

“Oh God.” He loved her and he hurt her. He could almost hear her gut wrenching cries echoing through the house. He caused her such pain. How could he have done that to her? And the baby. Dear God, the baby. She was pregnant. She shouldn’t be upset.

“Please come home, Annie.” He said aloud to no one but an empty room. “Please, just come home.”

* * * *

Ann got out of the tub and dried herself off. Marilyn had been kind enough to lend her one of her night shirts. It was huge on her, but the cotton was soft and felt soothing against her now clean skin. She applied lotion from the little mini bottle that the hotel provided and ran the tiny black comb, also provided by the hotel, through her hair. It took forever to finally get it all combed and tangle free, but finally she was ready for bed.

She wondered how she could even think to sleep in a bed without Quinn ever again. She loved the warmth of his body as he held her close. And when he would make love to her, it was so amazing. She wished she was with him now. She wished this horrible day had never happened. But what she really wished was that he would love her, just as she did him.

Lying in bed, she curled on her side. Instinctively, almost out of habit she reached her hand over to lay it on Quinn’s chest. It was a habit that she had become accustomed to every night. She saw the phone and willed it to ring. Wishing upon every star in the sky that Quinn would call and tell her it had all been a lie. That he didn’t mean those things and that he loved her.

She closed her eyes and tried to keep the tears at bay. “I love you, Quinn.” She whispered the words before she drifted off to sleep.

* * * *

Quinn awoke to the smell of coffee brewing in is kitchen. He jumped from the couch and ran into the kitchen. His anticipation quickly turned to disappointment, because he only saw Derek standing there.

“Sorry, man. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

Quinn stalked over to the cabinet that held the coffee mugs. “You shouldn’t have let me sleep at all.”

Derek shook his head. “What can you do? All you can do now is wait.”

“I want to be awake if she comes home. I don’t want her to think I’m sleeping like a baby when she’s been off somewhere hurting,” Quinn pointed out.

Derek nodded his agreement. “Listen, I need your keys to the Roadhouse. A couple of your employees called last night. They need their paychecks.”

“Oh shit.” Quinn turned to face him. “I forgot. Yesterday was payday. I was so upset by, well by what I thought, and I just totally forgot about them. Damn!”

“Don’t worry about it, man. Love does crazy things to people. Just give me your keys and I’ll take care of them.”

Quinn grabbed the Roadhouse keys off of the kitchen hook and tossed them Derek’s way. “Thanks. Look, give them something a little extra. Their job isn’t easy with the clientele we get, the least I could do is pay them on time.”

“Sure, I’ll throw in a couple of dinners at the restaurant, too.” And Derek walked out, leaving Quinn alone.

Quinn sat there and drank his coffee. He glanced over and saw his Stetson on the hook behind the door. Ann loved it when he wore that hat. He would wear it every day, every minute, every second if she would just come back. He would do anything to make up to her what he did. The things he said he could never take back. But he would apologize until the day that he died for hurting her.

And their baby
. He never thought much about having children. But knowing that she was carrying his was causing this ache in his chest. It was a good ache. Like an ache that embraces you and holds on so tightly while it loves you senseless. He took a couple more swigs of his coffee and headed back to the bedroom. He needed a shower and a shave. He couldn’t look like hell when she came home. Because she had to come home, the alternative was something he could not fathom.

* * * *

Ann woke up with a killer headache, which she expected from all of the tears. It still sucked because on top of losing the man that she loved, having to go to the home that she was sharing with him and move out, now she had to deal with the onset of a migraine.

She got dressed in yesterday’s clothes and picked up the room the best she could. Marilyn and Norman had been so nice and generous she couldn’t bear the idea of her leaving them a mess to clean up. She closed the door and headed to the lobby to check out. But when she got there, the door was locked. She was about to knock when she looked up and saw a note taped to the inside window:

Dearest Ann,

We’re not here to see you off. Which means we

aren’t there to collect your room fee either, OOPS!

I guess we goofed.

Seriously though, dear. You are a sweetheart and

it is obvious that you needed a safe and quiet

place to be alone with your thoughts last night, so

I hope you found that here.

Take care of yourself and don’t take no crap from