Love's Crazy Twists (19 page)

              “Wow!  The Bellevue? Talk about your all out night!  That is so awesome.”

              “Yeah, so anyway, we went inside and got a small table for two right in front of their stage.  It was karaoke night, and Tyler loves karaoke, so he had to have a good seat.  He even asked me if I wanted to sing.  And I was like, have you ever heard me sing?  You don’t want to.

              So we’re sitting there having drinks and listening to people singing.  Some good, some bad...really bad!  Then out of no where, they call Tyler’s name and he goes up on stage and says, ‘I’m singing this for the most beautiful woman in the place.  My date for tonight, Miss Jennifer Weber.’  Then he began singing ‘Wonderful Tonight’ by Eric Clapton.  He has such a beautiful voice, too.  It was the most romantic thing I’ve ever encountered. Or so I thought”

              “Well, what happened next?”  Julie asked.

              “He took me by the hand and led me out of the barroom.  Once in the hallway, he pulled me to him and kissed me.  So soft and gentle and...I can’t even describe it.  I think that I am falling in love!  Really and truly.  He is so amazing.  I can’t even believe it.  Then he walked me down the hall and he opened the door to the most exquisite room that I have ever been in.  There was a bottle of champagne chilling on ice beside the in-room hot tub, there were floral scented candles all over the room and the smell was so fresh.  There was a king size bed in the middle of the far wall with a mirrored ceiling.  The room was decorated in soft blues and greens with wildflowers on the bedspreads.  Tyler then took me over to the bed and began kissing me again, and then he laid me down on the bed.  I wanted him so badly, but he stopped and got up.  He reached down beside the bed, picked up a package and handed it to me.”

              “You mean to tell me, that after all that other romantic stuff he got you a gift, too?”

              “That’s what I’m saying.  But it wasn’t just any gift either.  It was the sexiest piece of l lingerie ever!  And, yeah, I know what it sounds like.  A typical guy, ‘if I give her lingerie, I’ll get lucky.’  But it wasn’t like that at all.  It wasn’t a red or black trashy piece like you might suspect from a typical guy.  It was lavender and sexy, and nowhere being trashy.  And it fit like a dream.  I put it on in bathroom and then showed him, he loved it.  We made sweet, passionate love all night long.  It was awesome!  I still can’t believe how good he made me feel.”

              “That is so great, Jen!”  Julie exclaimed as she reached out and hugged her friend.  Then she pulled back and tried her best to look as serious as she could and asked, “You
are
using protection,   aren’t you?”

              “Oh, Julie, don’t give me that tone of voice.  Yes, I’m using protection, Mother!”  She laughed.  “I’m so happy.  I know it’s only been a short amount of time, but I really do think I am falling in love.”

              Jen’s pager went off and she excused herself to use the phone and make a call.  When she walked back into the room, she said that it was Tyler and he had a surprise for her and that she was to go meet him right away.  Then she left.

              Julie was alone again, and she was beginning to miss Shane even more after hearing her friend’s story about Tyler.  She began to wonder when he was going to call her.  She desperately needed to hear his voice and tell him that she loved him and that she missed him so much.  She needed to hear him tell her that he loved her, too.

              As she sat on the couch reading a magazine about ‘what guys really want’ she realized that she was very sleepy.  Her eyes were drooping and she almost nodded off.  So she put the magazine down and went to sleep.  She began to dream...

             
She was on a beach, again.  It was the same place as in the last one.  This time she wasn’t alone.  She was sitting on a blanket sun bathing with Shane.  Beside her was a small child of only about 2 years old.  The little child looked up at Julie and said, “Mommy, can we go swimming?”  Julie got up and took the child by the hand and said, “Get Daddy to come along.”  The child ran over to Shane and said, “Come on Daddy!  Let’s go swimming!”  Shane got up and went to Julie and the child.  They both took one of the child’s hands and swung the toddler back and forth as they walked to the water’s edge.

              “Julie!  Julie!”  Someone was shouting from the distance, and Julie spun around to see who it was.  And to her surprise it was Matt.

              Shane looked at Julie, “What is he doing here?  Did you invite him?”

              “No, why would I invite him?”

              “I dunno.  I just thought that since you did sleep with him right after we did the first time, and then you got pregnant, maybe you are still wondering if this child isn’t his.”

              For the first time, Julie really looked at the small child that was clinging to her and noticed that the child did look like Matt!  And nothing at all like Shane.

              “Julie!  Julie wait!”  Matt ran up to them and took the child in his arms and spun them around.  “It’s OK...Daddy’s really here now, Little One.”  He said and kissed the top of the child’s head.  “Daddy’s here.”

              “Matt!  What the hell are you talking about?  This isn’t your child. This child belongs to Shane and me.  Take your hands off our baby!”  Julie yelled.

              Matt put the child down and turned to Julie.  “Think what you’d like to think.  But look at the evidence.  There’s no denying it...just look.”  He said pointing to the toddler that was clinging to Julie’s leg.

              “Matt, just stop it!  You know that it isn’t possible.  Why can’t you just let me go and get on with your life?  I am happy now.  I am happy.”

              She turned back to Shane and found that he was gone.  The child was gone too.  Then she looked back to Matt.  He didn’t look the same as before.  He looked sad and rundown.  he wasn’t clean shaven, and his hair was tousled.  He looked as if he had been drinking, and out all night long.

              “Julie, Baby...look what I’ve become without you.  I need you so much.  I love you and I don’t care how many times you’ve slept with Shane.  I want you back.”  He looked like he was sinking down into the surf, he was reaching to Julie, “Save me.  Save me, please.  I love you.”

              “Matt, I don’t love you anymore, I love Shane.  Can’t you accept that?  I am finally happy again.  I am happy.  Happy.  Happy.”  She looked at Matt who was sinking even further, and her own voice echoed.

              ‘Happy...happy...happy...happy...happy...”  With each echo he sank even further until he was gone.  Julie spun around and around looking for any signs of Shane or the small child.  Spinning slowly at first then faster and faster until...
she woke up in a cold sweat.

              “Why do I keep having there weird dreams about Shane and Matt?”  She said aloud.  “It’s crazy.”

              She got up to go to the bathroom and noticed that she had slept most of the afternoon and into the evening.  It was already 6:30pm.  Just as she sat down on the toilet the phone started ringing.  “Great!  I can’t get it now!” she yelled.  She tried to hurry up and get finished before it stopped ringing.  She got up and ran out into the kitchen with her pants halfway down her legs, just in time to hear the  answering machine beep.  She had missed it.  So she pushed the button to see if they had left a message and this is what she heard:

              “Hey, Baby!  It was just me, I was calling to check in, to see how you were making out without me, and to tell you that I love you very, very much.  Oh, yeah, and I have a really big surprise for you when I get there.  I guess you must be out having a good time with me.” He chuckled. “I’m just kidding.  I love you, Baby.  I’ll try you again later.  I love you, bye.”  And then he hung up.

              ‘Why did I have to miss it?’  She wondered.  ‘I really wanted to talk to him.’

Julie jumped up, startled, her heart racing.  Knock!  Knock!  Someone was at the door.

              “Who could that be?”  She said to herself.  “It’s nearly 2a.m.!”  She staggered to the door and peeped out the window.  It was Matt! And he wasn’t alone.  The state police were escorting him.  She opened the door.  “Can I help you, Officers?”  She asked.

              “We’re sorry to bother you, Ma’am, are you Julie Boyd?”  The older officer asked her.

              “Yes, I am.  What’s going on here?”  She asked.

              “Well, your fiance here, was on a drinking rampage, and he tried to fight the bartender at The Stomping Ground.  He was being unusually obnoxious and loud.  He was rude and downright filthy.  So he was asked to leave and he got violent towards the bartender and a few of the men down there tried to escort him out.  When that didn’t work, they called us.”  He shook his head.  “So here he is...where do you want him?”

              “I’m sorry officer.  That is not my fiance, he is not my anything anymore.  I don’t want him anywhere near here.”  She looked past the other officer to Matt, he was a mess.  His eye was blackened and his mouth had dried blood on it.  She was disgusted by the look of him.  “I’m sorry that he wasted your time by having you bring him here...we broke up about a month ago and frankly, I don’t really want anything to do with him.”

              “OK, sorry to have bothered you Ma’am.  We’ll take him back to the station.”

              With that, they took Matt back to the police car and drove away.

              Julie went back to her bedroom and lay back down.  But she didn’t feel like going to sleep.  She was beginning to feel bad for Matt.  She couldn’t understand how he could do something like that.  When they were together, she knew that he would get violent towards her, but she never noticed him trying to fight bartenders or other men.

              Then she began thinking about Charity, the bartender at The Stomping Ground.  She wondered if Jeff had been there with her.  He probably was, he was always there with her.  He was her ‘bouncer’ as well as her boyfriend.

              How safe Charity must feel whenever Jeff is around.  Julie imagined that Charity felt the exact same way that she herself felt when she was with Shane, whether they were out eating dinner or is she were lying in his strong arms.

              As Julie had all of these thoughts running circles round her head, she finally drifted off to sleep.

              She woke with a great urgency and jumped out of bed and raced to the bathroom.  She had to pee so badly.  When she got back into her bedroom she noticed that it was already 7am.  Yet it was still too early for her to get up, so she decided to lay back down.  As she lay there she began thinking about Shane.  ‘I wish he would get home, I miss him so much.  I don’t know how I ever got along without him in my life.’  Then she remembered he has been in her life for a long time...as her friend.  Then she rephrased her thought. ‘How did I ever get along without having him in my bed.’  She drifted back to sleep.

              It was 10am when Julie finally got out of bed.  She went to the kitchen and got a glass of juice and sat down on the couch.  She finished her orange juice and started to feel nauseous.  The longer she sat there the worse the feeling became until it got so bad that she had to run to the bathroom and throw up.

              “Oh great!  I must be getting the flu.”  She said out loud as she flushed the toilet and headed back out to the couch.

              The bank would be calling within the next few weeks to tell her that the renovations were finished and she could go back to work.  Shane should be home within a few days.  She didn’t want to be sick for the night that her lover got home, finally.

              She flipped through the channels and didn’t find much on the television set and the strangest thing happened, she found herself crying at commercials.  Especially the ones where the guy tells you   it’s only fifty cents a day to sponsor a child and the ones with the mothers and daughters talking about douches!  It made her want to call her mother.

              She went to the bedroom to get the cordless phone and dialed the number.

              “Hello.  You have reached the Boyd’s, we can’t come to the phone right now but if you leave your number and a brief message, we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. BEEP.”

              “Mom, hi, it’s Julie.  I was getting a little homesick to talk to you, so I thought I’d call.  Call me back when you get a chance, I thought that maybe you could come over for  lunch or something.  Love ya.  Bye.”  Then she hung up.

              A little while later there was a knock at the door and when Julie opened it she saw her mother smiling at her.  “Hi, Honey!  How are you?”  Her mother said as she threw her  arms around Julie’s neck and hugged her.  “I thought that I’d stop by and see how you were doing.”  She paused and looked at her daughter for the first time now, “So?  How are you?”  She asked.

              “I’m good.  Did you get my message?”

              “No, what message?”  She asked, her eyes widening.

              “Oh, it wasn’t anything bad.  I just called you a little while ago and left you a message. I thought that we could get together for lunch or something.”

              “That was a nice thought.  I was thinking about you all morning so I just thought I’d drop in and surprise you.”