Blackbird (20 page)

              Billie strode in, seeming to be in a panic but looking as perfectly coiffed as she always did. Chelle wondered how she did it. She was about to speak to Robert but stopped short when she noticed Chelle on the couch. Their eyes locked and Billie stared her down as she spoke to Robert with an icy cold vibe. “What’s she doing here? Never mind. I already know. I don’t need to hear all the details.”

              “Billie, what are
you
doing here?” Robert said.

              “I ran into Paul and he told me you injured your arm pretty badly. He was surprised I didn’t know. I guess you didn’t tell him we broke up.”

              “No. Not yet.”

              “Well…I just came by to see if you were ok.” Chelle wasn’t sure but she thought she heard a hint of tears in Billie’s voice. It took her by surprise. She never thought of Billie having any emotion other than snobbish anger. She turned back toward the door, but stopped upon seeming to realize something. “Where’s your car?”

              It was still in the parking garage at the hospital. Greg had very rightly suggested leaving it there for now, lest someone recognize it. They might not have had a great shot of Chelle or Robert, but some of the cameras had spotted the make and model of the car. “It’s…downtown. Broke down. Had to leave it there.”

              Billie narrowed her well done up eyes at him, cocking a perfectly maintained brow. “Is that so? How did you get home?”

              “Paul dropped me.” That part at least wasn’t a lie.

              “I see,” was all she said before turning.

              “Look, Billie,” Robert said his voice a whisper now as she stood with her back to him, hand poised on the knob to make her exit. “I’m sorry things didn’t work out.”

              “Ha. I can’t imagine why. Looks like you’re sitting pretty. Good luck with
that
, Robert.” Billie threw her head back in Chelle’s direction as she said it. “At least with me you knew I wasn’t after your money. Have fun.”

              Billie slammed the door on her way out and Robert turned back to Chelle, looking very uncomfortable. “I’m sorry you had to see that.”

              Chelle’s head was so full of worry over the day’s events that she completely missed Billie’s insinuations up until she’d uttered the last few words before leaving. “She thinks that we’re together?”

              “It would seem that way.”

              “You have to tell her we’re not. I don’t need to give that woman an excuse to hate me any more than she already does.”

              Robert strode back to the couch, retrieving his glass and downing the shot. “What Billie thinks about you or me or anything at all doesn’t matter from this point forward. She’s not in charge of the bar, she’s not in charge of my life and she’s not in charge of my house.” He seemed to be making all these declarations to himself as opposed to stating them all for Chelle to hear. “Ah, Jesus,” he said, remembering something.

              “What?”

              “The house. I closed a deal on this house she wanted. It’s mine now and I’m stuck with it. Fuck.”

              “You bought a house?”

              “Yeah. Big monstrosity on the Northwest Arm. Four and a half million dollars…Jesus Murphy.”

              Chelle couldn’t help but snort at Robert’s predicament. Having been effectively homeless for the last ten years she just couldn’t muster any sympathy. “Yeah. That sounds awful.”

              Robert stopped cold realizing who he was talking to. “Sorry,” he said. “It’s just going to be a pain in the ass to resell it. Billie comes from money and this was an extravagant house. It’ll sell eventually but probably not for a while. Now I have that one
and
this one.”

              “She comes from money? You don’t?”

              “I come from comfortable, Billie comes from
money
. Big money. As in ‘Winter’s Car Dealership.’ Ever hear of them?”

              Everyone in Halifax had. “Of course. She’s one of those is she?”

              “Yup. One of those.” Robert poured yet another glass and realized the bottle was getting close to the empty point. He offered another to Chelle, who declined. “Fuck. What a mess. Anyway, listen to me. I’m sitting here throwing myself a pity party over a breakup and you’ve got much bigger problems. I’m being a big baby. I’m sorry.”

              “No worries. Breakups suck no matter what.”

              “They do indeed.” He looked at her intently. “Have you had many yourself?”

              She’d never had any. Chelle hadn’t let anyone get close enough to her to get to the point of a break up. The closest thing she’d ever had to a boyfriend was Darcy Jones in junior high. They dated for two weeks and then she’d made the mistake of sleeping with him. He promptly bragged to all his friends about it. Chelle had been humiliated and it wasn’t long after that, that she’d been kicked out of the house. “One or two,” she said.

              “Well, I don’t have to tell you then I guess. You hungry?”

              “Yes,” she said, thankful for the change of subject.

              Robert picked up the phone and said, “Pizza?”

              “Lots of pizza.”

              “Pizza o’plenty. Followed by more drinks. I feel like getting shitfaced.”

              “What the hell,” she said snatching up the container that contained the last of the scotch. “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

              Robert sat up in bed just long enough to open his eyes and close them again. Then he put the pillow over his head and tried to go back to sleep. He spent a glorious five minutes between waking and unconsciousness before the doorbell rang. He swore under his breath. It was 8:30 a.m. and he and Chelle hadn’t gone to bed until two. By that time both were so drunk they could barely stand. He had managed to show her to the guest room, before stumbling into his own room and passing out. The night before was mostly a blur, but what he did remember was good.

              They ate and talked, mostly about nothing, both of them needing to just be sort of mindless after everything. He remembered her smile, her laugh. In the last few days he had gone from thinking she was kind of cute, to pretty, to beautiful.

              He got his bearings and stumbled to the door to check it, discovering Greg on the other side. He opened the door. “Greg,” he said yawning. “What?”

              Greg didn’t wait to be invited in. He walked straight into the kitchen with a tray of coffee and a bag that smelled like doughnuts. If he was going to burst in Robert was thankful he at least had the common sense to bring breakfast. Greg sat the tray down and handed Robert an extra-large, popping the tab open for him as he did. “Where’s Blackbird? Is she sleeping? Does she sleep?”

              Robert rolled his eyes. “She has a name, and I’m not sure she wants you calling her that. Yeah, she’s still asleep. We were up really late.”

              A slow smile spread across Greg’s face. “Oh yeah…I see how it is. Careful she doesn’t hurt you bro. And don’t let Billie find out.”

              He had to break the news to his family and now was as good a time as any. “Billie and I broke up.”

              “Seriously? Wow. What happened?”

              “I don’t know. Things happened. It just didn’t work out.”

              “So are you gonna date Blackbird now?” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “Dude, what is she like in bed?”

              Robert put his coffee cup down harder than he intended, spilling a little out of the top. “I didn’t sleep with her. You’re a pig, man.”

              “I say what all men think but don’t have the balls to say. If that makes me a pig, well, oink oink. But seriously if you are gonna sleep with her be fucking careful.”

              Robert raised his eyebrows in question. “Dude, I saw this movie once. These girls they looked totally normal except for they had teeth.” Robert still didn’t understand and shook his head. “You know…
down there
. You don’t want her to bite your dick off.”

              Robert took a doughnut out of the bag and rubbed his forehead. “Greg, not that I don’t enjoy all of these colorful scenarios that come from your twisted mind but what on earth are you doing here?”

              “A few things. First, I brought back your car. You’re welcome. Secondly, I need you and our new friend to come with me this morning. Michael and I have called in every favor we had and have been up all night. We’ve put something together that might help her.”

              “What is it?”

              “You’ll see.”

              “Greg you had better not have told anyone. She wants to keep it quiet.”

              “I guess you guys haven’t turned on the TV since you got home but quiet is anything but what this story is. And no, we haven’t said anything to anyone, but what we
have
done is put a bunch of things together that will help us understand her.”

              “And what if I don’t want to be understood?”

              Both of them jumped when Chelle spoke up. Greg froze for a moment, then regained his composure and handed her the cup of coffee. “You drink coffee Bla… Chelle?”

              Chelle took the cup. Robert stood between them, embarrassed, trying to think of something to say. Greg was the first to speak up after a long pause. “It’s totally up to you. But it would seem to me that you don’t entirely know what’s going on yourself. I mean, correct me if I’m wrong but you seem as confused as everyone else.”

              Robert had to admire the quick turnaround. A moment ago Greg sounded like a hippy asshole. Now he sounded like a qualified scientist. Although he reasoned he shouldn’t be surprised because Greg was actually a lot of both. “More,” Chelle admitted.

              “It’s totally up to you of course, but if you want those answers Michael and I might be able to help you get them.”

              Robert said, “Chelle, you don’t have to.”

              He could see the look on her face. One of confusion and curiosity mixed together. She wanted to, and yet he could see, she was scared. Hell, he was scared too. Some things might be better left alone. In her situation he had no idea what decision he’d make. “Ok,” she said finally. “I’ll come see what you have. Do you think there’s any chance you could help me get rid of it? Whatever this is?”

              Greg registered a look of disappointment but quickly wiped it off his face. “We’ll, if that’s what you want the first step is to find out how and why this happens to you. Shutting it off altogether would come after that. If you still wanted to.”

              “I definitely want to. I just want to be normal.”

              Robert felt a sadness for her when he heard those words. Normal? Something told him that any hope of this woman ever being what she would consider normal was a distant and remote possibility. He could see Greg felt it too. “We’ll do whatever we can for you,” he said. Robert knew his brother and he was willing to say whatever he had to say to get her to go with him. He wanted into her DNA.

              “Great,” she said. “Let’s go.”

***

              Greg fumbled with the keys and opened the door excitedly to the warehouse entrance. “We rented this a while ago because we were gonna store equipment here until we could get our own lab going. That’s what Michael and I do. We’re research biologists. We didn’t expect to get things up and running this fast though. We’re pretty excited.”

              Chelle could feel his enthusiasm and wasn’t sure if she liked it or not. On the one hand if they could help her that would be a positive. But on the other, she didn’t know Robert’s brothers. In fact, she really didn’t know Robert that well.

              As the door opened they were greeted by the glow of fluorescents and the steady gentle hum of what sounded like multiple appliances. Robert and Chelle both stood with their mouths gaping open, not prepared for what they saw. “Greg, there has to be hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment here.”

              “Try closer to a million,” Michael said, joining them.

              Robert was stunned. “How the hell did you manage this?”

              “We had a few favors coming. We’ve been doing research for a pharmaceutical company on the side. It hasn’t exactly been above board if you know what I’m saying. They are lending us this, in part, so that we don’t spill the beans on them.”