Athena's Daughter (28 page)

Athena rose from the bed, showered and
dressed. After leaving the bottle of aspirin and a glass of water
on the nightstand next to Derek, she made her way into the kitchen
and started the coffee. A glance out the pass-through revealed
strewn clothing, an empty wine bottle on its side, sofa pillows
littering the floor, and a light glowing on the stereo receiver
that hadn’t been turned off. All of it highlighted by the cheery
sunlight flooding through the French doors. It looked like the
common room of a frat house at Memphis State the morning after the
Tigers football team won a championship game.

The breakfast nook was no better with the
plastic yellow placemats littering the floor, and chairs askew. She
still had trouble believing they’d really had sex on the kitchen
table, but she had a clear memory of lying supine, impaled on
Derek’s erection as he stared down at her with smoldering eyes.

What the hell was in that wine, anyway?

Sighing, Athena went into the den and turned
off the stereo, and put the couch back together, blushing a little
when she remembered the activities that dislodged the cushions in
the first place. She picked up the wine bottle, and feeling a
little foolish, held the top to her nose and sniffed. No
overwhelming scent of opiates or other mind-altering substances
were evident, just the slightly sour odor of fermentation. Okay; so
maybe the wine was only partly to blame for the debauchery that
took place the night before.

Gathering up the glasses, she carried them
and the bottle to the kitchen, and then returned to the den to pick
up their clothes. Everything was in plain sight with the exception
of her panties, and she had to conduct a search before she located
them five feet behind the chair where Derek had been sitting. Well,
that first time they were both in a bit of a hurry.

Her feet dragged a bit as she entered the
bedroom with the armload of clothes, but Derek was still snoring
away. She deposited her clothing in the laundry hamper in her
closet, and folded Derek’s neatly before placing them on the
bathroom counter next to the sink. Maybe he’d find them there with
no trouble.

Athena was working on her second cup of
coffee when the distant flush of the toilet heralded the fact that
Derek was awake. Heart pounding, she curled up a little tighter
into the corner of the couch and waited for him to make an
appearance.

After a few moments, he shuffled into the
kitchen, and her spirits dropped a little when she observed that he
had buttoned his shirt. Face creased with misery, he went straight
for the coffee and poured a cup before glancing around.

“I’m in here.” Remembering the gong-like
intensity of her whisper during her early morning experience, she
was careful to keep her voice low. It still made him jump, and he
brought his hand to his head with a grimace of pain. After a sip of
coffee, he glanced out into the den in her general direction.

“Good morning,” he muttered, and his eyes
immediately skittered away again. Athena’s spirits drooped even
lower. When he headed for the breakfast nook she spoke up
again.

“I wouldn’t sit there. I haven’t had a chance
to wipe down the table yet.”

For a moment he stood frowning down at the
furniture in question, as though trying to make sense of her words.
It was obvious when his memory circuits fired by the way his eyes
widened. She noted the faint flush on his cheeks when he sent a
nervous glance her way.

“Oh. Right,” he murmured, backing away from
the table. He made his way into the den, negotiating the step down
with the care of a hip replacement patient, and sat in the chair
he’d occupied the night before.

“How’s your head?” she asked.

He took a sip of coffee and frowned into the
cup. “I have high hopes that it might return to normal by next
week. Thanks for the aspirin, by the way.”

“No problem.”

An uncomfortable silence fell between them,
and a rising sense of disappointment threatened to overwhelm her.
She noted the way he refused to meet her eyes, his stiff posture
and the stern, almost forbidding set of his face. Some of that
might be attributed to his hangover, but his actions were not those
of a man who held fond memories of the things they did to each
other the night before.

Just when she thought she couldn’t bear it
another minute, Derek got to his feet and went back into the
kitchen. The sound of running water came to her ears as he rinsed
out his coffee cup, followed in short order by the soft slap of his
feet on the tiles.

He re-entered the den, but went straight to
the French doors. Turning halfway toward where she sat, he took a
deep breath.

“I’m going to go shower and soak my head for
a while.”

“Okay,” she replied, her voice thin with
strain. “See you later.”

“Yeah.”

The closing of the door behind him had a
sound of finality that sent a bolt of pain into Athena’s
midsection. She curled into herself protectively and tried to
stifle the sob that rose in her throat. Well, she had her answer
now, and knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that making a move was a
huge mistake.

It was a mistake she’d never make again.

Having a Friday afternoon off work was a
novelty, and Athena skipped out the back door of the store with a
light heart, like a kid let out of school early. She didn’t know
what made Rondall decide to spend some time at work, but she wasn’t
going to look a gift horse in the mouth. There was still so much to
do at the house; she was more than a little tired of having things
in disarray, and looked forward to doing some organizing and
straightening. If Derek would keep Elizabeth at the guest house it
would help a lot.

But when she arrived home, Derek made an
excuse and ducked out the back door. Elizabeth didn’t protest;
since her return from Nashville Monday afternoon she had been
giving her father the wounded silent treatment to punish him for
his impending work commitments, and tended to avoid him as much as
she could. This behavior wasn’t helping the situation between her
parents, either, and the tension in the household was growing more
crushing every day.

After spending the previous Friday night
screwing each other’s brains out, Derek and Athena had barely
spoken except to exchange information about their daughter.
Athena’s last hope that something might come of their night of
passion was squashed when Derek actually apologized for what
happened. At least, she thought he did. He rambled on in a very
confused manner about being drunk and not in control. She was quite
sure he’d uttered the word ‘sorry,’ and that was all she needed to
hear. In a quiet voice she agreed with whatever it was he said, and
that was that.

So she wasn’t disappointed when he went back
to his guest house, but she was disappointed he left Elizabeth with
her. Elizabeth, however, showed no inclination to get in her
mother’s way, and stated she was going to her room to play with
Barbies.

“Are you sure, munchkin?” Now that her
daughter wasn’t going to be underfoot, Athena felt the urge to have
her there. “I’m going to be rearranging stuff in the cabinets in
the den, and there are some old pictures in there I think you might
like.”

“Nope.” Elizabeth skipped toward the stairs.
“Uncle Donnie and Aunt Aimee got me some new Barbie clothes when I
was in Nashbill, and I want to play dress up with my talking
P.J.”

“Okay, then. Have fun.” If Elizabeth was
going to play with the P.J. doll she’d gotten for her birthday in
May, Athena was more than happy to have her keep it in her room. If
she heard that thing say, “Wow, you’re the grooviest!” one more
time, she was going to snip the string at the back of its neck. And
then strangle the doll with it.

Alone at last, Athena settled in front of the
cabinet containing her high school yearbooks, the box of England
memorabilia, and an assortment of stuff that was crammed in when
she couldn’t take time to put it away properly. She began by
pulling everything out and sorting it into piles. Once it was
organized, she put it all back in a much more tidy fashion. There!
Now she could look into the cabinet and see what it contained
instead of getting irritated by a big mess.

She closed the cabinet doors and turned to
the P.F. Flyers box she’d set aside. She wanted to have copies made
of all the photos, and she planned to start with the ones of her
with Derek. Elizabeth might be acting indifferent to him now, but
Athena knew that when Derek left, her little girl would be bereft.
She hoped the pictures might help when the time came.

Arming herself with a pen and extra
envelopes, Athena settled onto the couch and started going through
the stack of photos. As she’d thought, it took a while since she
labeled each one on the back, and spent some time laughing and even
crying a little over them. The images transported her back to that
magical summer and the people she’d met and loved.

There was Vanessa with her shaggy black hair
and mischievous eyes. Did she ever become a painter the way she
planned? A snap of the exterior of Apple Records brought a snicker
at the memory of singing to Paul McCartney, and a twinge at the
thought that The Beatles were no more.

The majority of pictures were of Wolf, and
these she lingered longest over. There were live shots from the
shows they’d played, but most of them were candids, and these were
the ones that made her cry. She had spent seven years refusing to
let herself remember any of it, but the images in her hand brought
back every silly joke, every amazing concert, each hasty meal, and
all the love they’d shared. And speaking of love…

The tears fell hot and fast as she looked at
all the pictures of Derek and the ones of the two of them together.
They had loved each other so much, and that love was so prevalent
in the pictures that it hit her like a physical punch. She would
never try to excuse her actions in regard to Elizabeth, but she
still couldn’t believe that Derek didn’t love her any more since
he’d loved her so completely at one time. There was no way she
could not love him.

She accepted that now, and knew she would
love Derek Marshall for the rest of her life. Sure, it sounded
sappy and melodramatic, but it wasn’t. It’s just the way things
were. A firm believer in soul mates, Athena knew she’d found hers
in Derek, but if he refused to believe or accept it then there was
nothing she could do about it.

Wiping tears from her face, she sorted the
photos into different envelopes; one for general photos, another
for pictures for Elizabeth, and one more for herself. In the last
one went the photos she found most personal, including the one Andi
had found of that kiss. Maybe someday she’d be able to look at them
again.

Once that chore was out of the way, she
attacked the rest of the box. When she went through the flyers for
the shows Wolf played that summer, she was glad to see she had
multiple copies of each one. Good. She could give a copy of each
flyer to Derek the way she’d planned, and still have one for a
keepsake.

It was only when she was putting the bits and
pieces back into the box that she found the plastic baggie
containing her “engagement ring.” Trapped between two boarding
passes, it fell into her lap like it was demanding attention.
Swallowing heavily, she picked it up and looked at it for a long
time. She’d cried over the pictures, but the sorrow she felt
holding the ring went too deep for tears. Finally, she sighed and
put it in the envelope with the pictures she’d set aside for
Elizabeth. One day she’d give it to her daughter when she was old
enough to understand.

The sound of the door opening caught her
attention, and she looked up as Derek entered the room. The
trepidation she felt at seeing him vanished when she took a good
look at him. He was as dressed up as she’d ever seen him – a royal
blue silk shirt that made his eyes even more extraordinary than
usual, tight black jeans, boots, and a denim vest that hung open
over the shirt. A thin black leather necklace rested just above his
collarbone, calling attention to the tempting lines of his neck,
and as he pushed his hair back with his right hand she caught sight
of a wide silver ring on his index finger.

She spoke before she could stop herself.
“Well, you look nice.”

“Thank you.” He stepped forward, hands
tugging at his vest. “I wanted to let you know…What are those?”

Athena followed the direction of his gaze,
and saw he was looking at the flyers.

“Oh, yeah. They’re flyers from some of the
shows Wolf played the…the summer we met.” She picked them up and
handed the stack to him. “I thought you might like to have
them.”

“These are super,” he exclaimed with a smile
that grew wider as he flipped through the papers. “I didn’t know
you saved these.”

“I didn’t either. They were in the basement
at my folks’ house.” While his attention was diverted, she slipped
the envelope containing her personal pictures under the cushion of
the couch.

“Thank you, Athena.” He looked up with a
small frown. “Don’t you want them?”

“I have some,” she explained. “I had at least
two of each of them.”

“That’s good.” His eyes narrowed as he took
in the things spread across the coffee table. “Are those
pictures?”

“Mm-hm.” She sat still as he picked up the
larger envelope. His laughter echoed through the room as he went
through the photos it contained. “Do you have copies of these,
too?”

“Not yet. But I’m planning to have some made.
I take it you want a set?”

“If it’s not too much trouble,” he said,
oddly formal. He put down the envelope, and picked up the one with
Elizabeth’s pictures. “What are these?”

She shifted on the couch, uncomfortable.
“Those are for Elizabeth.”