FOREVER MINE (15 page)

Charlie drives like a maniac back to Brody’s house.  She is blowing through yellow lights and going over the speed limit.  If she gets pulled over now, she isn’t stopping.  She pulls up in front of the house, throws the car into park, and jumps free of the seat.  Running over the lawn she stops dead in her tracks.  There is a moving truck in the driveway.

Just as soon as she notices the truck, two men carry out the kitchen table.  They carefully place the table inside the truck.  The bed from Brody’s room is already loaded up, and the dresser that matches.  She walks over to the truck and sees it’s full of various pieces of furniture, “Excuse me, what are you doing with all of this furniture?”

“Charlie?  Oh, god I should’ve known you’d be here the second I left.”

Charlie turns, and Steph is coming across the yard with a big box in her arms.  She is dressed in a spaghetti strap pink tank with matching shorts that say pink across her ass. 
“
Yay
, its Steph everybody!”
  Charlie says overly sweet throwing in hand clapping for extra flare.

“You’re an ass.  Did Brody invite you over as soon as I left? Are you still playing mind games with him?  It’s sick, you know, the way you treat him.  You lead him on and then play the best friend card.   Aren’t you tired of ruining things for Brody?  He has waited around for you to make up your mind whether you want him or you don’t.  Everytime it starts to get anywhere serious with him and another woman, you reel him back in, pretending to need something from him.”

“I do not.”  Charlie can’t believe she is saying these things to her.  “I left him alone when you moved in here.  He is my best friend, my family, what do you want me to do?”

“You don’t want me to answer that truthfully.  I can’t even stand to look at you.  If you died tomorrow, it wouldn’t hurt my feelings, and I would be there to pick up the pieces for poor Brody.”  She smiles like the Devil himself while enjoying the possibility.

“Wow, Steph, I always knew you were a bitch, but I never saw the crazy before.”  Charlie turns and walks toward the house.

“Where do you think you’re going, Brody’s not home to run and tattle to.”

“I know I’m going to my room.”

“What?!
You’re staying here?”

“Yep, since Sunday; he waited until the day
after
you left to invite me over.”  She turns and walks into the house and trots up the stairs.  She opens her door walks into her room and plops on the bed.  “God, I hate her.” Charlie says to herself.  “I never liked her.  She’s spoiled, and whiney, and mean.”  Charlie remembers the first time she met her.

“Hey, I’m Charlie, and this is Mike.

“Hey Mike, Charlie, nice to meet you.”

It’s November 2008, five years earlier, and almost the end of Charlie and Michael.  It’s Saturday night and everyone wants to see a movie.  So far, no one can decide on which one.  Steph wants to see Twilight at 10:15, Mike wants to see Transporter 3 at 10:20, and Brody and I want to see the new James Bond movie; Quantum of Solace, at 10 or 10:30.  It doesn’t matter what time, as long as we see it.

It’s kind of our thing.  When he first moved here I made a really lame joke about the way he introduced himself and it took on a life if it’s own.  When one of us is extremely depressed, we turn it into a Bond marathon.  When we have nothing to do, we turn to a Bond marathon.  I like the newer ones with Daniel Craig; He likes the Sean Connery, Bond.

While everyone goes over times, Charlie turns to Brody and sticks out her hand.  She smiles and says, “Harrison, Brody Harrison.”

Brody barks a laugh and takes her hand, spinning her in a circle, like they’re dancing. 
“Very funny.
  Do you know how intimidated I was when you started laughing?  I thought I was going to die.” He is still holding her hand.

“Yeah you were so serious then.  It didn’t take long for you to lighten up.  Then you didn’t take anything serious, except when my mom would chase you with the wooden spoon.”

“I hated that spoon.  She used to whack me good with it, too.”

“You deserved it.  Don’t play innocent.  Sometimes, I miss her so much it hurts.”  Brody grabs me and pulls me into a huge hug.  He kisses the top of my head.  “She would be so proud of the man you turned out to be.  Tell me again, what she looked like the morning of her accident.”

Sighing Brody starts to talk, “I brought in her newspaper like I did every morning, and we sat at the kitchen table and drank coffee.  She had her dark hair all pinned up pretty on the top of her head with little pieces hanging around her face, like you do sometimes.  She had on a long yellow sun dress; that brought out her blue-green eyes, and had a little white short sleeved sweater over it, you remember how she was always cold?  She wore a little make up and lip gloss.  She looked stunning.”  Brody has to stop for a second to swallow; she was a wonderful woman who became a surrogate mom to him.  “She really liked the man she was going on the date with.  It was their 6 month anniversary.”  He laughs lightly before continuing.  “She smiled continuously, the entire time I was there for my visit.  She wanted me to tell you she misses you every day and loves you so much.”

Charlie still in Brody’s arms, while he retells her mother’s last day on Earth, starts to cry.  Not a lot, just silent tears to mourn the mother that meant so much to them both.  She didn’t get to see her mom too much after she moved away with Michael.  She mourns the life she misses and the man who is holding her.  They don’t see each other very much anymore, either.   Michael doesn’t like it, and now he has Steph.

Speaking of Steph, she is watching them have their moment with hatred in her eyes.  They weren’t speaking very loud so she probably doesn’t even know what they’re talking about.  She backs away from Brody and nods her head in Steph’s direction.

Brody walks over to her and rubs up and down her arms.  They whisper back and forth.  Michael walks over and grabs her arm and pulls her into the shadows.  “What was that little display all about?”

“I’m sorry; I just started to miss my mom.  Brody was the son she couldn’t have.  You know how close they were.  I used to tease her and say she liked him more than me.”

“Do not ever let him touch you, ever.”  He squeezes my arm,
hard
.  “Do you understand?  You are an embarrassment to me.  You throw yourself over and over at anyone who will give you attention.”

“I’m sorry.”  I will say anything as long as he lets my arm go.  If he squeezes any harder I think he’ll break it.

“Hey you guys ready?  I think we are going to see Twilight.  If you want you can see your movie and we’ll meet up later.”  Brody is looking at us weird.  He sees Mike’s hand on my arm and his jaw starts to jump. 
“Everything ok?”

Michael lets go, “Yeah, great.  I was just reminding Char, that it’s rude to bring up memories in front of your new girlfriend.  We are just meeting her and tonight should be about getting to know her better, not listen to the two of you tell war stories.”

“Sorry, Stephanie, I was being rude and selfish.”

“Thank you.  Please call me Steph, I hate Stephanie.”

They were together for one month that night, it would take another 3 ½ years for Steph to move in with Brody, but they would live together for 1 ½ years.  It took a long time For Brody to stay with her exclusively.  He liked to be with other women.  As soon as she moved in, he stopped seeing other women, and it was just her.  She was patient enough to wait for him. 

They made Steph happy and went to see Twilight.  Charlie didn’t hate it but it wasn’t great either.  The guys hated it and decided Steph is not allowed to pick movies anymore.  Everyone, except Charlie, was having fun.  She was pouting.  I hate Stephanie, why?  She is high maintenance.  She is snotty, and can be rude to people that are around her.  She does this hair flip thing that is driving me crazy.  I want to rip it out.

“Oh, my God, all this time.
  I never realized it.  I have loved him forever.”  Charlie is lying in bed.  “Well now what?” Charlie hears her phone go off like she has a voicemail.  Taking it out of her back pocket, she hits the tape-recorder app and enters her password.

“Hey, it’s me, just letting you know I made it.  The plane didn’t crash. 
Just kidding.
  I have training this evening from 5-10, so I won’t be able to call until late.  I hope you’re ok.  Please call me; just leave me a message, so I can hear your voice.  I miss you.  See you tomorrow, good night, I love you.”

Just hearing his voice is enough to lift her spirits.  She forgets being thrown out of her apartment, the picture by the dumpster, and Steph being a bitch.  She forgets long enough to call him back and fill her voice with the love she feels for him.

His phone goes straight to voicemail.  “Hey, I just got your message.  I’m glad you arrived safe and sound.  I had an eventful day, which I will fill you in about when you come home.  Patrick is a very nice man.  Thank you for picking him to be my babysitter.  I am sitting in my room, laying on my bed thinking about you.  I didn’t know I could miss you so much after, what is it, 10 hours?” Laughing she continues “Maybe it’s just because I know you are not going to be here tonight.  Well, I guess I will talk to you later.  I don’t care how late it is, please call me.  I love you.  I can’t stop thinking about your goodbye this morning.  Miss you.”  She kisses into the phone and hangs up.  Feeling a little self conscience she covers her eyes and shakes her head.

Michael finishes another day at his worthless fucking job.  He hates that place and the people he works with.  They are so stupid.  A monkey could be taught their job and they act like it is so hard. 
Idiots.

He is sitting in his car looking at the pictures from the camera he installed into Charlie’s pc at work.  He has live video feed and a tiny camera he can take still shots with; and they both come directly to a laptop he carries with him.  He prints out a few pictures.  One is of her and a co worker talking, another is her thinking of something that has her a little flushed and she is biting her lip.  He imagines it because of something he said to her. 

It is time for her to go home, what is taking her so long to leave?  Half an hour later she exits the building, goes to her car and drives.  He follows, like he does every day, to her old apartment?  She isn’t supposed to come here.  He waits to see what is going to happen.

Charlie gets out of the car and walks inside.  The door closes behind her so he waits some more.  He still has his keys so he can get in after she is settled, if he wants to.

A big man goes in the door about five minute after she does.  He looks familiar but Michael can’t place his face.  An hour goes by finally he can’t take it anymore; he goes into his apartment and watches from across the street.

Charlie and the big guy are packing up boxes and laughing.  They look like old friends.  “I don’t remember him.”  Michael continues to watch and the he gets a permanent marker and writes on the picture of her and her friend from work.  He looks to make sure they are still busy and walks outside.

Outside, he crosses the street and puts the picture where she can see it.  Charlie is a creature of habit.  That is what makes her such an easy target.  After 10 years Michael knows her routines like they are his.  She will empty out the fridge if she won’t be home for a couple days.  Then she will go to the dumpster to throw away the bag.  That is when she will see the picture.

He goes back inside to watch from the safety of his home.  Sitting down he watches but takes out his phone and dials a stored number.  It rings while he waits.  A husky female voice answers, “Yes?”

“I am waiting for news from you.  Has the target arrived?”

“Yes.
Just arrived.
  I am going to be seeing him in our training session in about an hour.”

“Good.  You know what you need to do.  Call me as soon as you’re finished.”  Then he hangs up.  Opening his laptop he books a 2am flight to Chicago.  He pays using a fake identity.  He has a couple of identities.  Each fake person; has a fake life, with fake debt, and fake job.  He has social security cards and birth certificates for each one also.  He knows just the right amount of the wrong people.  And he can pay, too.

The big guy comes out puts a box in Charlie’s car and heads inside.  A little while later he brings out box number two.  He and Charlie have a discussion on the street she stomps down the alley he walks slowly giving her some space, and hallelujah, she finds the picture.

Laughing Michael takes his time as he gets into his car and drives to Brody’s neighborhood.  He knows she will beat him but that’s ok, he has a lot to get ready for tonight.  He leaves his glasses on and his fake paunch, he can’t get sloppy now, it’s so close to being ready.  He whistles as he drives.  He loves when a plan starts to come together.