A Beautiful New Life (14 page)

He hesitated next to her.
“Um…if you aren’t doing anything.
I mean if you’re busy.” He cleared his throat. “Would you like to grab a bite to eat?”  He had asked her out before and she always had an excuse. This time though she wondered if it was time to find out more about him. From her
pause,
he must have sensed the pending rejection so he quickly added. “I mean like as friends not a date or anything.”

“Yeah, that would be great. I’m starving.”
S
he wished she had not shown so much enthusiasm as he burst into a
smile, which
made him look even creepier.

“But just a quick bite; I have some things to do this afternoon.” She was not sure what
information
she was going to get out of this lunch but something was pushing her on. They walked the short distance to Mike’s burgers. He offered to pay for her meal but she insisted she needed to work on her money skills. He bought the excuse and did not push the issue.

They shared some small talk about the weather and work and she found out he had been the manager at the dorm for seven years. He told her he pretty much knows everyone here as
everyone
had passed through the dorm at one time
or another
. This confused Megan
,
she could not imagine why everyone in town would want to live in the dorm or why they would have to. She decided to test the waters and find out how much he knew about the surrounding area. It might aid her in her apartment hunting.

“So everyone started in the dorms?
That’s
interesting. How long can you stay in the dorm?”

“Oh for you…as long as you want.” He laughed at an attempt to cover his true feelings. “No, seriously most stay an average of a year. Some leave sooner if they meet someone and they want to settle down together. Then they would buy a house. Some leave for an apartment so they can come and go and have visitors until late into the night.

“Well I haven’t met someone and I’m not really a party animal.” She growled which made him laugh.

“I wouldn’t mind a garden though. I remember visiting a garden once that had a variety of fruit trees and rosebushes and flowers of every kind.” She paused at that memory
, wondering
now if that had been a memory from her past. She pushed it aside for now.

“Anyway, where would one find something like that?”

“You aren’t moving out yet? You need to have money and you barely started working.”

“No but if I wanted to visit a place like that where would I go? I mean you have been here seven years; you must know everything about
this town.
” This was the ticket
;
he sparkled at the compliment.

“Oh well there is
Karney
Park housing.
It’s
more for families with young kids. Benchmark Acr
es is for the athletic type but what you are looking for is probably
Garden Park Estates. As the name may suggest there’s a lot of gardens and such.”

“Where’s that one located?”

“Just east of town; you would head toward the water tower, which is east.
That’s
another thing most people don’t know; what landmarks to look for to know
what direction you’re heading
. The water tower is east of town and the mountains are to the south. Not that you can see it but there is a river to the west. I have never been too far north so I don’t know what’s up there.
”

Megan was holding onto every word; she wanted to venture out but did not want to get lost in the process.
H
is run of information soon dried up as he started talking about managing the dorm. She soon found herself fighting off yawn after yawn.

“I’m so sorry it was an early day today and I’m beat.” The day had gotten away from them as he shared valuable information with her and some not so valuable information. Now it was later than she had wanted and did not know if she would make it out to look at apartments. She failed to stifle yet another yawn.

“No I’m sorry I love my job and when I get someone who’ll listen I can go on and on.”

She did not
consider
her daydreaming
as
listening but she got some information out of him
;
so she was okay with the
small price
she had
to pay. They walked back to the dorm. She bid him a good evening and ran up the stairs. She slowed as she reached her room, unlocked the door
and entered
. She stifled the scream that was about to escape her lips when she realized who the figure was in her room.

She charged at him. “You scared the hell out of me. What are you doing here? How did you get in?”

“Why so many questions?”
He grabbed her by the waist and before she could say
anymore,
he
quieted
her as he placed his lips on hers. He kissed her passionately, slowly caressing her back and moving his hands to her breasts. “I missed you so much.” He ripped off her shirt, picked her up and put her on her bed.

The energy Mark had drained from her was back with the fiery force of
Michael
’s passion. She had not realized how much she had missed him and yet something deep down was telling her this was wrong and she
teared
up at the thought.

He rolled
off
her. “Hey, hey what’s wrong? Did I hurt you? The sound of his voice, a sound she always welcomed, made her burst into tears. He lay there holding her, letting her cry. When she seemed to quiet he spoke.

“Hey what’s wrong?”

“I don’t know. I was thinking about how much I had missed you and then…I don’t know.” She started to cry again. “This isn’t right, I shouldn’t be here. I feel like
I’m
betraying someone
or
something.
I’m
sorry.
It’s
been a long week. I just spent three boring hours with Mark. I’m just being foolish.”

He knew that it was possible that she was not being foolish but he did not want to lose what he had as selfish as he knew it was; the best way to keep her safe was to keep her close.

“Do you want me to leave?” He tried to hide the disappointment in his voice.

“No, no I want you to stay. Just hold me.” She snuggled close to him feeling his heart beat against her cheek and she fell asleep.

She opened her eyes, lying still trying to remember where she was. Something did not feel right. She closed her eyes and visualized where she thought she should be. She was home in bed.
No, that was not right; she was in her room at the resort. She took a deep breath and tried to remember the room but she could not.
S
he remembers jumping like a child on the king sized bed. She was not on a king sized bed; in fact
,
she was not on a bed at all. She stretched out her hand and could only feel a cold floor. Had she passed out in her room? No, the floor
in her room had carpet
. She opened her eyes again and looked around
the room
. She was in a small dimly lit concrete room that was no more than four feet wide and maybe eight feet long. She had b
een lying on the cold bare floor; the blankets she vaguely remembers reaching for did not exist.
She sat up to have a better look around, her head pounding. The gray sweat pants and t-shirt were tight and uncomfortable.

“What the hell is going on
here
?” She asked herself. A sickening feeling
was
settling deep within
the pit of her stomach
. She wished her head would explode already to take the pressure off that was pushing on her skull. She reached up to hold her pulsating head. With each brush of her hand, she wished her hair to be there. Her heart was beating faster.
Why
had they shaved her
head?
She tried to understand what was going on.

“It’s a bad dream that’s all.” She said it aloud hoping to wake herself up from this nightmare. When that did not work
,
she shouted.

“Wake up, wake up!”

“WAKE UP!” Megan shouted
al
oud.

“Megan, wake up.” Michael shook her awake. “Megan, it’s just a dream.”

She grabbed a hold of him and held tight. “I don’t know where I was. It was cold, the room was like a prison cell and someone had cut all my hair off.” She reached up now and rubbed her short patchy hair. Her hair never grew in right since he
r accident, so
she kept it short and
wore
a wig.

“It was just a dream. You are safe here with me.” Michael held her tighter, trying to calm her. He did not let go until her shaking had stopped and she appeared to be sleeping again. He rolled over and wondered how long it would take before it all came back.

Chapter
Thirteen

The sun was shining
in the winder as
she stirred
awake
. Where was she? She closed her eyes trying to remember. The smell of coffee intrigued her and she forced her eyes open and sat up.

“Well good morning sleeping beauty.
Did you sleep well?” Michael stood above her holding a tray of food.

“Hey,” Megan sat up and looked around
the room
. Now she remembered it was her first morning in her new apartment.
Michael
had stopped by with dinner and a
fall
bouquet of flowers the night before and stayed her first night with her.

“Well this is nice, breakfast in bed. Where did you get the food?” She had not had a chance to go shopping for groceries. It took them all day to move what little furniture she had been able to collect. Mark had some issues with her moving out. He tried telling her she had to give notice but Michael told her that was not true. He was not
loosing
anything by her moving out
,
so notice was not necessary. He even followed her to her new
apartment, which
is why Michael insisted on spending the night. Not that he had to insist. The pace of their relationship was picking up. Megan
had vowed the day she got the results of her sleep study that she was not holding off on starting a
new life and the more she spent time with Michael the less she thought of what her other life may have been.
She
pushed away any doubts or bad feelings she felt. Michael was her new life if he would have her.

“I went to the store and picked up a few things and threw it all together.” He seemed impressed with himself.

“Really?”
Megan took a closer look.
He had burned the
toast and she thinks there were eggs somewhere on the plate. “It…um…well it looks great.” She smiled and they both burst into laughter.

He pulled the tray of food away. “Let’s go out and grab a bite; my treat.” She threw on some clothes and they walked the sort distance to Patsy’s Diner. After
breakfast,
they stopped at the store and Megan grabbed some food to cook dinner for that night.

“I’ll show you how it is done so pay attention and maybe you’ll learn something.”

“Really you can learn to cook. I just didn’t think that was possible so I never asked.” He pulled her close to him.

“You need to learn so you can cook me breakfast in bed, the right way next time.” She snuggled into his chest.

“Well excuse me, I would’ve eaten it. I didn’t realize I was cooking for a princess.” He kissed her tenderly. They reached the register and she paid for her items. They walked out hand-in-hand each one carrying a bag and headed back to her apartment. As she reached her
door,
she pulled out her key and dropped the bag she was carrying. Before
Michael
could reach for
it,
a blonde little boy ran up and grabbed the bag.

“Excuse me miss, you dropped your bag.” His sweet voice rang out.

Megan froze
. S
he could not speak. She just kept looking at him. She wanted to reach out and pull him tight to her.

Michael
stepped in, “Thanks little man. That was kind of you.”

“You’re welcome sir.” His sweet voice responded as he skipped away.

“
Here
give me the key
.
” He took the key from Megan, unlocked the door and guided her in
to the room
.

“Are you okay?” His voice was full of concern
and f
ear.

“Yes.
T
hat boy
,
h
e reminded me of someone. Did I have a child?” She was getting excited at the thought then sank into the couch.