Upside Down (21 page)

“Oh, I’m glad you’ve worked things out, sweetie.”

“I wouldn’t say that, Bob, but we’ll get there!” I chuckled. “Is mom there?’

“Yes, she is. Let me put you through
. You take care, now, you hear me? No more crazy stunts with that devilish machine you call a car.” his voice sounded throaty as if he had problems swallowing. Then, I heard my mom’s voice on the other side of the line.

“Carol, dear.
It’s so good to hear you. How have you been?”

So, my mother chose to ignore the elephant in the room. I liked that.

“Busy, but, fine. And you?”

“I’m great. You father has decided to give the docto
rs the benefit of the doubt. He has accepted the surgery.”

“That’s great news, mom.
When is it going to be?”

“In a couple of months.
By the way, your birthday is coming up. Have you made any plans yet?”

“No,” suddenly I didn’t like the turn the conversation had taken.

I didn’t like birthday parties. As a child, I didn’t have much fun celebrating my birthday surrounded by paid employees. Regardless of Iris’s and Bob’s efforts to make the parties as nice as they could. There was always something missing. Better yet, there were some people missing. Apparently, these people wanted to make up for lost time and I wasn’t sure I liked the idea.

“Good. Your father and I want to throw you a party. After all, turning thirty is a big deal, don’t you think?”

“Mom, it’s no big deal. At all. I mean, I don’t care for birthday parties, anyway.”

“Nonsense.
It’s a great opportunity to celebrate life!”

At that point in my life, that was the most difficult part – celebrating
it. but I couldn’t tell my mother that.

“Besides, it’ll be fun meeting old friends, don’t you think?”

Things were getting even worse. Who was she talking about? My only friend from my childhood was living in London.

“Who exactly are these old friends, mom?”

“Oh, you know! Your father’s old business associates, some clients and some suppliers.”

“Mom, that means around a hundred people. No way! I won’t argue with you about having the party because
I know you will do it anyway. But, I’ll turn around and come back home if I get there and see more than twenty people. You know I mean it.”

“Yes, honey. I do.
I promise it will be a nice, intimate dinner for twenty people. I’ll have it here, then. Who do you want me to call?”

I had a very short list of four names. Half of them I was sure wouldn’t show up while the other two were a mystery. It all depended on how things would turn out in the following weeks.

“I’ll send you the names and contacts. Is that OK?”

“That is perfect, Carol.”

We chatted about other details regarding the party for a while.

“Thank you, sweetie. It means a lot for your father and I to throw this party. With the surgery and all, he’s fragile and it’ll be a chance to have a good time and forget his worries.”

“Wow, I hadn’t thought of that, mom. I thought you were trying to make-up for lost time.”

“Well, there’s that, too. Although, we know, one dinner can’t make years of heartache disappear, it
can be a start, right?” the anxiety in her voice was poignant. If they were so eager to try, giving in was the least I could do.

“Sure, mom. Talk to you soon.”

“Bye, honey.”

* * * *

Facing the weekend alone wasn’t easy. Late Saturday night, I was on the couch, reading a book and realized I had read the same paragraph for the fifth time. I also had no idea what the story was about although I was supposed to be reading page two hundred and forty six of a very steamy bestseller. When I admitted to myself I couldn’t remember the main characters’ names, I gave up pretending to read it and got my phone.

“Hey, Carol. What’s up?”

Mark sounded positively wasted.

“Are you drunk? Where are you?”

“I’m at this nice little bar near your house. It was too hot inside I decided to take a walk, you know. But I’m not drunk.”

“Hot? What do you mean? It’s mid-
November, Mark.”

“I don’t know, Carol. I felt stifled and went out for some air. I walked around
, ended up in front of your place. I knew I shouldn’t go up so I saw this little bar across the street and went in. Here I am, now.”

“When was that?”

“Oh, a couple of hours ago.”

“I’m coming down.”

“Don’t worry…”

I hung up
, put a pair of jeans on, grabbed my keys and took the elevator down. I was in the bar less than five minutes later. He was sitting at the counter, staring at a glass of a golden liquid that looked like whiskey. I had never seen him drinking anything stronger than wine and it was the first time I saw Mark drunk. And he was as drunk as he could be without passing out.

I was worried. Mark hated alcoholics in general. He had once told me that he didn’t like getting drunk even before the
horrible car accident he was in. The one the drunk truck driver had caused, which almost got Mark killed and had busted his knee. I was afraid our time-out had brought this on. I had fought the urge to drink half of my own cellar throughout most of the day. I had drunk a bottle, though.

I sat beside him and didn’t say anything. He didn’t register my presence. He was staring at
the cell phone in his hand. I put my hand on his arm and he took forever to look up at me. His eyes were blank and unfocused. My mouth went dry and bile filled my stomach, threatening to go up my throat. I swallowed hard to keep it down. I hated to see him like that knowing I caused his pain, in the first place.

“Mark, honey. Come with me. You’ve had enough.”

“Hey, gorgeous. That’s you!” His words were slurred. “How did you get here so fast? You were on the phone a second ago.”

He handed me his phone. I got it, got his wallet from the counter
, stood up and put both in my back pockets.

“Please, come
, sweetie. I’ll take you home.”

He stood up but staggered.
I held him and we almost tumbled together to the floor. I regained my balance, put an arm around his waist and his arm around my shoulders. I had thought about getting a taxi and taking him to his place but changed my mind. It would be much easier to take him to my apartment. If we could make it across the street, of course.

“Do you need a hand, madam?” one of the bartenders offered. “He’s been in here
, drinking, for over three hours. Non-stop. He’s in very poor shape.”

“Thank you, but I’ve got
this.”

“I missed you, gorgeous,” w
e had taken two steps away from the counter and towards the exit when Mark pulled my top up and cupped my breast. I was mortified because I hadn’t had time to put a bra on.

I swatted his hand
away and pulled my top down. My face was on fire but I looked at the nice bartender begging for his help. He was beside Mark in a flash.

“Come on, buddy. Leave the nice lady alone
, now,” he grabbed Mark’s free arm and threw it around his own neck. “She’s got a great rack but I don’t think she wants the public to know that, right?” he winked at me and I mouthed ‘thank you’.

Mark mumbled a lot of nonsense on the way to my apartment. It was hard to hear most of it but some things
stood out.

“You know I’d do anything for you, Carol. Anything.”

“Yes, I know that.”

We were crossing the street when he realized Peter, that was the name on the bartender’s vest, was carrying him, too.

“Is this the guy, huh? Is this the one who’s fucking you behind my back?”

Mark tried do take a swing at Peter but his fist hit the air, a good foot away from his face.
I grabbed his hand and told him off.

“Stop it! Peter is helping us. He works at the bar and probably had to listen to you whining the whole night through. Enough!”

“Yes, Madam. I love it when you play rough, Madam.”

I kept looking ahead as we waited for the elevator and Mark mumbled some more. I was too ashamed to look at Peter. Once inside,
Mark turned to me and tried to kiss me. I pulled away.

“Are you angry at me, Madam? Are you going to spank
me? Please, do it! Grab my ba..”

I covered his mouth with my hand.

“Please, Mark, shut up! Or I swear to God I
will
gag you.”

“
Oh, goody!”

I rolled my eyes and heard Peter laughing.

“I’m sorry. I can’t help it. He is funny.”

Despite myself, I had to laugh, too. I saw Peter’s point.
Mark and I made a very dysfunctional but rather funny couple. Still, my face was red and I could hardly look at the bartender by the time I opened my front door. He helped me settle Mark on the couch.

“
Thank you so much, Peter. I’m so sorry for all your trouble. And I’m so sorry for all that garbage you heard on the way here, too,” I blushed and looked back at Mark to avoid his eyes.

“Hey, no big deal. You wouldn’t believe what I have to listen to in
this line of work, madam,” there was the charming wink and the beautiful smile again. Peter was a handsome man and his sunny disposition put me at ease.

“Please, call me Carol,” I corrected him. “Nevertheless, it was a great thing you did
helping me bring Mark up. How can I repay you? Would you be offended if I gave you money?”

“Don’t worry about that, Carol. It’s not every day that I can help a gorgeous damsel in distress
,” the wink flashed again but for some reason I knew he was not hitting on me. His next words confirmed that. “And since your boyfriend chose to talk about such intimate stuff, I feel close to you, guys. So, forgive my meddling in your business but that one is a keeper, girl! His green eyes are to die for, am I right?”

I laughed and had to nod at his perfect assessment.

“Yes, you’re right. He’s a dream.”

“Plus, he talked about you all the while he sat on that bar stool. I really feel like I know you
and Mark.”

“What did he say to you?”

“Don’t worry. No specifics. Well, not until we carried him here, at least.”

“Oh, my!” I blushed again and Peter chuckled.

“You know, it’s a bartender’s job to listen to the clients’ crap. Although, in Mark’s case, it was a very nice conversation. You should give the guy a break. He’s head over hills in love with you. That’s something you don’t see very often.”

I sighed and looked back at Mark snoring on my couch. He was a sweet guy.

“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll thread carefully. I don’t want to hurt him more than I already have.”

“I’ve got to go, now. Will you two be O
K?”

“Yes, don’t worry. He’ll probably sleep until morning.”

“Just keep an eye on him in case he gets sick and needs to throw up. We don’t want him choking or anything.”

“I haven’t thought of that. Thank you.”

“My pleasure,” I walked him to my front door. “Come by the bar some time. I’d love to hear from you, guys, again.”

“Thanks. Goodbye.”

“Bye.”

I closed the door behind Peter and went back to the living room. I sat on the armchair opposite the couch and prepared myself to watch over Mark’s sleep.
I had to be sure nothing bad would happen to him.

He woke up in the middle of the night feeling sick. I helped him to the bathroom then
convinced him to take a shower and go to bed. I lay beside him but didn’t sleep. At least, not until the sun came up. By then, it was obvious he was going to be fine and I allowed myself to rest for a while.

I woke up startled when I felt Mark getting up. I sat on the bed and checked the alarm clock. It was almost nine o’clock.

“I’m sorry, Carol. I’ll get my things and get out of here in a second.”

“What are you talking about?” I rubbed my eyes to help focus my sleepy stare. “Wh
at are you apologizing for? Getting drunk? Passing out on the couch? Or throwing your guts up in the bathroom?”

His face got so red it seemed to glow. I felt sorry for him.

“Hey, I didn’t mean to embarrass you. It was a stupid joke. I’m sorry, Mark. Come back to bed. You look awful.”

“I feel awful, thank you very much,” he sat down beside me. “I don’t remember half of what happened last night and I hate this feeling. I was apologizing for sleeping here. I know you don’t like it.”

“Honey, we’re well past that phase, don’t you think? Besides, I wouldn’t qualify what you did as ‘sleeping’. It was more like dying and coming back to life, huh?”

“Well, the pounding in my head
says you’re right,” he squinted his eyes and covered them with a hand.