Unstuck (13 page)

“No, I’ll eat here,” he said sitting down next to me in the breakfast bar. I took a look at him and he was still on his workout clothes and looking a bit sweaty. “What were you talking about?”

Oh right! “Why isn’t this classified as a day off?” I asked looking at him while sipping on my shake.

“I want some of that too, Ms. Owens,” he said while looking at my banana shake.

“Don’t ignore my question,” I said looking at him straight in the eye.

“I am not. It’s not a day off because what the hell would I do if you were not around. Ms. Owens is leaving in about an hour as well as the rest of the staff,”

“So?” I asked shocked.

“I have nothing to do after my parents’ lunch. I will be here all alone and I’ll need to have dinner and shit like that. Besides, there’s a party planner coming to get things going for the Halloween party on Friday,” he smiled and I just shook my head. He wasn’t lying about being helpless when he is by himself.

“Fine, go get lunch over with and I’ll just pig out while watching movies,” I said shrugging.

“I don’t believe you’ll be able to accomplish that. You need to work,” he said but as soon as the plate with pancakes was placed in front of him he shut up and kept on eating.

“Challenge accepted,” I said still sipping on my shake and he just shook his head while chewing on his pancakes.

And I completed the challenge. Once Patrick was done with his breakfast I went directly to the TV room and made the most delicious and comfortable leather chair my semi permanent home for the day. I know I said they were horrible for sleeping but pigging out while watching a movie on this chairs was heaven. Patrick stopped by to say goodbye and recommend a couple of movies he thought I would enjoy. I could see right through him and knew he was stalling so he’d be late for lunch with his parents and therefore be able to bolt sooner, so I told him to just go. He didn’t say another word, just hung his head and left. I began with Alice in Wonderland, Tim Burton version, and then I was ready for lunch. Miranda had stuck her head in the room to say her goodbyes and to let me know there was cold pasta on the fridge so I had that for lunch in front of the TV while watching Never Been Kissed. I had seen that movie before but I enjoyed it and felt just right for cold pasta and some amazing snacks from the TV room snack bar. Remember those salty chocolate things Patrick liked? They were indeed chocolate covered pretzels and they were amazing. Needless to say, I indulged in several bags of those throughout the day.

“Challenge completed,” I heard Patrick before I felt him going for the pretzels I had on my lap.

“Shhh, I love this part,” It was the ending, my favorite part of the movie.

“It’s the ending, everyone knows how it ends,” he said while chewing on a pretzel.

“Shhh,” I shushed him and he let me enjoy the end.

“Really? What’s so important about the ending?” He asked. He was interested in the weirdest things.

“The kiss,” I said smiling while looking at him. He just stared and I assumed he expected an explanation, “It’s one of my favorite movie kisses of all time,” I shrugged.

“Really?” he took the remote and fast forwarded to the kiss scene, “I don’t see anything special,” he said pausing the movie mid kiss.

“It’s just…. The guy knows what he wants; he seems so sure of himself. He goes and gets what he wants. Not rough or anything.  Just confident, doesn’t even give her a chance to speak. He just kisses her. That’s romantic,” I said while looking at the screen.

“Wow…. How long ago was your last one night stand? You seem in serious need of another one,” He said and I threw the bag of pretzels at his face.

“Asshole,” I said laughing out loud, “But now that you mention it, I might just get me some at this Halloween party of yours.”

“Oh you just might, but please do come to me before, I don’t want you banging the type of guy that will become a stalker, or the kind of guy that will make you fall in love and leave you crying after a few days…,” He said, dead serious.

“Oh you care about me,” I said touched.

“That, and I don’t want you to be forced to move out and be left without assistant,” He smiled. “Asshole,” I said again “Besides, I am not the kind of girl that falls in love, with anyone,” “You never know, Lucinda,” he said still munching on the pretzels that were scattered around him after I had thrown them to his face.

“Yeah, you never do,” I shrugged, “when is this party planner of yours coming?” I asked trying to change the subject. I did know, I was not the kind of woman that fell in love, I was always working; work was good and this was my perfect job and I didn’t want to change that. Plus the feelings—they seemed a bit inconvenient. “Hmmm in about 30 minutes,” he said looking at his watch; I looked at the clock on the wall and it read 4:30 pm.

“Then we better clean up here,” we hurried up and then went to meet the planner in the living room. I felt like utter crap because here I was with a party planner dressed in a red suit, on a Sunday, and with Patrick that looked great because he always does and I was still in my Pj's and the infamous nest on my head. Oh! And let’s not forget the gorgeous fluffy pink slippers I was wearing.

“So, what do you expect of this party, Mr. Maynard?” Asked Tracy, the planner.

“Oh, I don’t know, what do you have in mind, Lucinda?” He looked at me and I just rolled my eyes.

“I don’t know, Patrick, it’s your party,” I shrugged. I was not planning this shit, I was not planning a party for my birthday, and I refused to do that.

“You’ll have to excuse my assistant, Tracy, she is a bit reluctant about the party,” he said looking at me with a mischievous smile. I wanted to smack him in the head. Tracy limited herself to raise an eyebrow.

“No, I’m not I just don’t know what kind of party you want,” I looked down and Patrick chuckled. Ass!

“Ok, Tracy, show us some ideas and we’ll go from there,” In the end we went with the haunted mansion theme, whatever that meant, and Tracy gave away amazing ideas for the food and drinks; everything would be Halloween themed. Even the food would be Halloweenized, which I thought was pretty awesome. She showed us some templates for the invites we,
she
, would be sending and Patrick made sure she reminded every guest that wearing a costume was a must. Patrick asked me to give her a list of his guests and a list of mine. I only had two really “Nick and Stacy,” I said smiling “What? Stacy?” he asked me really pissed.

“Yes, Stacy, she is my friend Patrick,” I said really serious. I knew this would piss him off but really, Stacy was the only girl I could talk to as a friend. We had gone out for lunch a couple of times and we’ve seen each other in two galas where I had to go, however, we talked on the phone quite often and I knew that she had been dating but I was not going to let Patrick know that. I enjoyed making him uncomfortable.

“Fine,” he said.

After that Tracy showed us a bunch of racks with Halloween costumes for us to choose. I had no idea what I wanted to dress up as so I took my time going through the racks.

“Can I try them on?” I asked taking a slutty nurse costume and making a face “Uh, I love that,” Said Patrick smiling.

“In your dreams, buddy, not dressing in a slutt- something costume,” I said putting the costume back in the rack.

“Yes, you can try them, so we can make adjustments if necessary,” said Tracy.

“Well, then, I am going to the library to try the costumes on,” I said to Patrick and he nodded, he had a look that I had not seen yet; it was mix between tenderness and being content, I figured he was glad I was going through with the party.

“Go, I’ll wait here.”

“You should try them on too, see if they fit, Mr. Maynard,” said Tracy as we both rolled the racks to the office.

“You don’t have the one I want, you’ll have to come back with it,” Said Patrick sitting down on the living room. He already had a costume in mind? He kept on surprising me, he was oblivious to the simplest things in life but he knew what he was going to be for Halloween. The 35 year old man acting as a 5 year old, yet again.

In the library I looked at several costumes that stood out for me. In the end I was torn between two of them. One of them was Alice in Wonderland and the other the Queen of hearts. Since I had just seen the movie both costumes spoke to me. None of them was slutty, and both of them were beautiful.

“I love them both,” I told Tracy looking at my reflection in the mirror wearing the Queen of Hearts.

“I know! They are beautiful, I am truly happy you went against the slutty variety,” she said smiling. “I hate those,” I said twirling around in the costume, its skirt was made of black and red tulle with a red tank top and definitely screamed queen when looking at it. The Alice costume was beautiful, the fabric resembled to a chess board in black and blue with the white cute apron over it, it had a black ribbon tie for the neck and it was worn with stripped black and white tights.

“Well, Alice seems to suit your sweet personality,” said Tracy and I laughed out loud.

“Oh, Tracy, I’m not sweet! But I guess I am going with Alice instead of the Queen of Hearts, it will be a great contrast,” I said smiling while checking out the shoes that I would wear.

“So what’s your costume?” I heard Brian ask on Wednesday as he sat on my desk.

“Not telling,” I said while looking at my computer screen.

“Yeah” Patrick said. “You are being very secretive about it,” He said while inspecting every single stationary item on my desk

“I’m not. He won’t reveal his, so I won’t reveal mine.”

“Oh, so it’s a Show me yours and I’ll show you mine kind of thing?” I finally looked up to him and smiled, “Yes, kind like that. What’s your costume?” I asked. “Not saying either,” he shook his head.

Six

By Friday Patrick’s house was a madhouse; lots of people running around placing tables and getting everything for the party. It was 7 am and from my window I could see some workers building a fake tomb in the garden.  Tracy was about to lose her mind since Patrick’s pregnant lady cravings were showing. “How about those green drinks they gave at the MET gala last year,”

“Hmm are we having my snacks?” “Tracy I really won’t do without the blue bubble gum that Brian has, not the blue bubble gum that they sell at the market, though,” Yeah, he was being specific even though he had said he had no idea what he envisioned for the party in the beginning. I sighed terrified of going to the house because I knew what would happen, someone, probably Patrick, would say happy birthday and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to accept that I was turning 30 that day; the party was exciting, though.

“Good Morning,” I said going into the kitchen and smiling at the perfect smell of my favorite breakfast dish: Blueberry Pancakes.

“Good Morning, Lucy. Would you like some breakfast?,” said Miranda not looking up from the stove.

“If by breakfast you mean eating whatever gives off that delicious smell, yes, by all means, give me some of that,” I said as I sat on a stool near the breakfast counter.

“Oh I forgot,” said Miranda finally looking at me “Mr. Maynard is waiting for you in the dining room, would you like a banana shake too,”

“YES,” I said with too much enthusiasm “I’ll take some coffee for him,” I prepared the coffee tray with the newspaper and went out to the dining room.

“Morning,” I said as I poured some coffee and gave him the paper, he just nodded. I took a seat in the chair next to him waiting for him to drink his coffee and come alive while I checked the day’s schedule; Patrick had decided to work only half the day so we could be ready for the party. I had to wonder what he was going to be dressed as because, really? How long can someone take to get ready for a Halloween party?

“Good Morning,” I finally heard him say and I smiled back at him in that moment Miranda came out and placed our breakfast in front of us.

“Thank you so much, Miranda,” I said while smelling the pancakes in front of me, she just nodded and left. She is such a professional when Patrick is around.

“I asked for these,” Patrick said while cutting his pancakes, “I think they are your favorite and I thought that you might want to have them today,” he just smiled; he asked for my favorite breakfast for my birthday. Shit. Feelings, I hate feelings.

“They are my favorite. Thank you, Patrick,” I said looking down at my hands because I didn’t want him to see that I had tears in my eyes. I didn’t know if the tears were happy tears because he had done this for me or because he had just reminded me that I was officially 30 years old.

“So, we are going to the office, work until lunch time and then come back,” he said mid chew and I saw this glow in his eyes, like a little boy ready to enjoy HIS own birthday party. “It’s going to be awesome,” he nodded and took a sip of his coffee. I just smiled and said “yes, it looks like it’s going to be awesome.”

I have no idea why we went to work at all since all we did from the moment we got there to get there, Patrick screamed to a couple of people, I, of course, had to fire an assistant in the 7
th
floor and then we were off to lunch with Brian.

“Happy Birthday, Lucy,” said Brian raising his wine glass and I just nodded. No one knew it was my birthday but him and it seemed that Patrick had told him that I didn’t want the world to know it was because no one mentioned it at the office.

“Happy Birthday, Lucinda,” said Patrick looking at me. Oh God! I begged he wasn’t about to give a big speech that would bring the damn feelings to the surface “May this be the first of many good birthdays to come,” Thank God. I just nodded again, I couldn’t move, and was quite speechless. What was I suppose to say? Thank you, I wish, I hate you? He was being a great friend and the fact that I was turning 30 was not his fault.

By 3 pm we were back in the house, it was stupid and gave me too much time to think. People were supposed to get there at 10 pm; I had 7 hours to do nothing. NOTHING. Maybe it was time for me to do nothing since that was not a concept I was familiar with. And so I did, I laid on the red couches on the pool house, that by then I was beginning to think as home, and stared at the ceiling. I don’t know how long I was like that, I could clearly hear all the people working in the garden and from time to time I would hear Tracy scream, she seemed very stressed. I was 30 and my life was not as horrible as I thought it would be when the moment came. I had a job that was demanding but it was also fun. I actually had fun doing my job and that was very different for me; I had friends but mostly I’d found people I could trust in and that gave me a sense of security that I never had before. Nick was a great friend but he was never home so sharing my everyday with him was difficult. The only area I was having difficulties was the feelings, I didn’t know how to handle them and it seemed that with closeness, friendship and fun came feelings. Feelings were an issue for me. That and sex, I was still sexless and it sucked.

My thoughts were completely interrupted by a knock on the door. I put my shoes on and was ready to go out there to put out whatever fire Tracy had encountered when, to my surprise, it wasn’t Tracy who was at my door, it was Patrick.

“Patrick,” I said opening the door and letting him in, of course he went directly to the couches and sprawled himself all over them. He had changed into more comfortable clothes.

“Lucinda, today is your birthday,” he said. “Yes, I know,” I said sitting next to him.

“And it’s unfair, to me, as your friend, to not being able to give you a hug,” he leaned close and gave me a hug that I accepted with humor because leave it to Patrick to make this about him.

“And also, I should be able to give you this,” He handed me an envelope and I just took it.

“What is it?” I said looking down at the white envelope in my hands. It’s not a check because it felt like there was more than that in there.

“Your birthday gift,” he said looking at me. Crap, crap, crap.

“Patrick I...”

“Lucinda, I won’t accept no as an answer,” he interrupted me, “like I said it’s not fair for me, as a friend, to not being able to give you a gift,”

“I don’t need a gift,” I said looking down. I wished I could say more, but all I did was stare at the blank envelope in my hands. I was afraid to open it; something told me that Patrick was very generous when it came to gifts.

“I know that, I need to tell you, somehow, that you are important to me, for me, for my life,” Crap. Why was he doing that? I felt something in my chest fighting to have some kind of release and I felt that the only way I could do that was through tears so, I let one or two of them go. “Don’t cry, Lucinda. You haven’t even opened it,” Said Patrick putting his arm around me.  I wiped one of the tears with my hand and took a deep breath, I was opening the envelope.

When I finally saw what was inside I felt like all the air was knocked out of me.

“What the fuck is this, Patrick?” I said.

“Thank you, Patrick, you are the best boss there is, I don’t know how to thank you,” he said still with his arm around me.

“No, really, what the fuck is this, Patrick,” I repeated myself.

“What does it look like, Lucinda, vacations, that is what that is,” he finally said. Yes, he gave me vacations, but not just any vacations; he gave me a 2 week, 2 person trip to Europe. All-inclusive. Shit. “Breathe, Lucinda,” he said while rubbing my back. I was officially hyperventilating. I was not comfortable with displays of affection, even if they came in tiny white envelopes. I needed a paper bag and of course, I was sure, Patrick had no idea what a paper bag was.

“Water?” he asked and I just nodded. I saw him walk into the kitchen and look around with a face that screamed “lost puppy.” I guess he just kind of gave up and took an orange juice carton from the fridge. “Here,” he opened it for me and kneeled in front of me putting both of his hands over mine on my knees. I drank the juice as if my life depended on that.

“Better?” he asked and I said yes in an almost impossible to listen whisper.

“Good,” he got up and sat on the couch next to me “Patrick, I can’t accept this,” I finally said looking at him, “Yes you can,” he smiled. I hated when he felt so sure of things, and full, I should say, of himself; it made me want to bitch slap him.

“No, I can’t. I don’t need vacations and you can’t live without me,” I wanted to appear as confident as he seemed.

“I can manage 2 weeks by myself.  Besides, you don’t need to take them immediately.” He crossed his legs and spread his arms on the back of the couch. Ugh! I seriously wanted to hurt him, “you could always wait until you can’t be near me anymore and run away to Europe to remind yourself that you can’t live without me either,” He smiled.

“Can we talk about this later?” I asked and he nodded.

“Later it is.” he got up from the couch and walked towards the door. “Get ready for the party, it’s going to be amazing,” he said closing the door. I just stood there… I knew I needed to get over my phobia to displays of affection, or any displays of affection like white envelopes with vacations or especial breakfasts due to birthdays. I blamed my parents for this particular phobia, the one to clowns and lady bugs might have other origins, although, in all honesty, they may be to blame as well.

Another knock on the door interrupted my insight; it was Tracy with a couple of girls in tow. “Make up,” she said smiling I had to smile at her she had worked so hard at everything I was not about to ruin everything by telling her that I was choosing to go make up free to a costume party.

A couple of girls did my makeup, hair and practically helped me to dress. The costume had been fitted and I was feeling excited, really excited, about this party for the first time: I looked awesome! My hair was made in long waves with only a black ribbon on top, it didn’t seem very glamorous but it had taken a lot of time; I had chosen what I thought were comfortable shoes: a pair of black wedges that tied around the ankle with a little black bow to the side. I was in love with the shoes and I was praying that I could keep them (I did). My make up was pretty natural, nothing over the top, I was Alice and Alice was a child she didn’t need black eye liner or red lips.

“Lucy, you look wonderful,” said Tracy admiring my outfit as I twirled in front of the mirror.

“Thank you so much, Tracy. I love it,” I smiled “Who is helping Patrick with his costume?” I asked as everyone was gathering the makeup and hair products.

“He doesn’t need help. There’s no makeup or anything,” “Oh, Tracy, he needs help with everything,” I said going down the stairs I could easily imagine Patrick not knowing how to put his costume on, whatever it was.

“Lucinda, he specifically told me not to let you help with anything,” she said grabbing me by the elbow

“Did he now?” I crossed my arms in the middle of the stairs trying to look annoyed. Who the hell did he think he was? First he gives me expensive gifts on m birthday and now he wasn’t allowing me help out.

“Yes, and you know exactly why,” said Tracy with a smile while she went down the stairs.

“Can I at least go out there already?” I asked and Tracy nodded opening the door of the pool house. “Thank you,”

I walked out and there was a HUGE tent on the garden I had no idea how many people were invited but the tent gave me an idea. There were spider webs and cages with candles on the inside everywhere it looked amazing the haunted house theme now seemed obvious. Of course tomb stones every two steps. There were no ghosts, witches, pumpkins or crap like that. This was genius! I loved it. I kept on walking by the tables where I could see all kinds of snacks in different shades of orange, purple and black. I had never seen something like that.

“Lucinda! You look fantastic,” I heard Miranda’s voice as soon as I entered the house.

“Thank you! Isn’t this costume the greatest?” Miranda just nodded while smiling “Have you seen Patrick’s?” I whispered looking up the stairs in case he’d hear me

“He asked the same about yours. My lips are sealed,” she said while walking away.

“Hello Lucinda,” I heard Patrick’s voice I turned around to found him right behind me.

“Oh My God! You didn’t… of course you did! I said laughing out loud while holding my stomach. There he was, Patrick standing in front of me dressed in what looked a very uncomfortable Iron Man costume. He was holding the helmet in one hand.

“You like?” he asked spinning around and giving a childish smile “I love it,” I walked towards him to give a closer look “Why not Tony Stark?” I asked looking at him “I AM Tony Stark every single day,” he smiled and I hit him in the shoulder “Ass,” I smiled. I did love the outfit although I didn’t know how he was going to last in that the whole night it seemed heavy and difficult to walk in.