VANCE (4 page)

“It got too much for Mom,” I say, feeling hollow inside. “She had a heart attack and died. After that, I had a kind of breakdown and had to go into hospital again. In a way it was a good thing. I somehow managed to rebuild everything that Dominic had destroyed. When I got out of hospital, Mom’s sister, Aunt Shelley moved in with me and I got my job at the Cherry Tree. Now I’m trying to move on as best I can.”

I finish, and cast a nervous glance at Vance. He seems deep in thought. “That’s quite a story,” he says at last. “You’re an amazing person, Holly.”

His praise touches my heart, and I melt to goo. I expected him to close down after he found out about my breakdown, like most other people do. They would be sympathetic of course, but people would generally keep their distance after they found out. It was as if they thought mental illness was infectious. Vance, though, is not reacting that way at all.

“I’m not that amazing,” I say wryly. “If I was stronger I would never have let Dominic do all those things to me. It is all my fault.”

Without warning, Vance reaches over and wraps his hand around mine. “Don’t ever say that,” he says emphatically. His lustrous blue eyes spear me with their intensity. “You’re so brave, and don’t forget it. I would have never survived what you have.”

“You must be much tougher than me to survive in a slum,” I say. “I’m just very lucky to have survived, I guess.”

“More than lucky,” he says. “You have a strength I don’t have or ever will.”

“I doubt that, look at the way you handled that creep.”

“Physical strength is nothing,” Vance says mournfully.
 
“It’s what’s inside that counts, and I’ve been a coward for a very long time.”
 

In that moment, his sadness overwhelms me. I want to hold him, soothe his inner pain and make him happy. He is still looking at me, and it feels like my need is silently communicated to him. Without a word, he leaned closer to me. My heart is beating madly as his lips brush against mine.

“We can’t,” I say in a broken voice, pulling away.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “I didn’t mean to,” he pauses, suddenly looking like a confused little boy. “No, I did mean to. There’s something going on here, we both know it. I felt it when I met you this morning.”

“We can’t,” I repeat, steadying my nerves. “You have a wife, it’s not right.”

“My wife,” Vance says bitterly. “She doesn’t care what I do, as long as I’m around to carry out her orders.”

I look at him curiously. “I’m not going to let you cheat on her with me,” I say firmly. “Dominic did it to me, and I won’t do it to anyone else.”

“She doesn’t care,” Vance says. “She cheats on me all the time.”

“You’re married,” I retort. “It’s a commitment, no matter what. I’m sorry, Vance, but I can’t get my heart broken again. Let’s just pretend this didn’t happen.”

“No,” he says firmly. “I’m not walking away from this. Not now.” His eyes are steeled with resolve.

He gets to his feet, and takes my hand again. I look up at him, now completely baffled.

“Come on,” he says, his easy going charm returning to the fore. “There are some things you need to know about my wife.”

Chapter 5

Still confused, but unwilling to part company with him, I let Vance drive me back to the Cherry Tree. Bobby is covering the reception desk, and his eyes goggle in surprise as we enter.
 
I offer him a weak smile as I follow Vance, completely at a loss as to how I am going to explain this. Vance doesn’t seem bothered. He marches with purpose to the elevator, and I follow him.

We go up to where his and Estelle’s room is, and he puts his key card in the door. He puts a finger to his lips, instructing me that I should be quiet, and then gently opens the door.
 

The room is in darkness, but I can hear heavy breathing, and the murmurs of a woman. Vance flicks the light switch, and a few heartbeats later the room is drenched in light. I let out a startled cry as my brain takes in the scene.

Estelle is in bed, naked, and on top of her is Harvey, the hotel manager and my boss!

“Vance,” Estelle exclaims. She looks baffled as she takes me in.

Harvey, staring at us like a deer caught in the headlights, clambers off Estelle and pulls the sheets up to his chin. “Vance,” he repeats, “Holly! What are you doing here?”

“Vance, don’t get mad,” Estelle says. “It just happened, it was a mistake.”

“There’s no need for the performance, Estelle,” Vance drawls. He heads over to the half open closet opposite the bed, and to my surprise takes out a high-tech camera on a tripod. “It’s all been recorded Harvey.
 
This little baby has night-vision too. I will make an interesting movie for your wife to watch.”

Harvey opens and closes his mouth like a fish, before his shock turns to anger. “You were filming me! You bitch!”

“Shut up,” Estelle spits. She glares straight at me. “Vance, what the hell is
 
going on?”

“Holly, I told you that I grew up in the Ukraine,” Vance says conversationally. “It was a hard childhood, and I almost didn’t make it. In fact, I was a hopeless drug addict by the time I was fourteen. I certainly would have died if a kindly lady by the name of Estelle hadn’t come along and saved me from a life of poverty.”

I stare at him and then at Estelle, and then back at him. “Vance, what is this all about?”

“Well, as you can imagine I was overjoyed that this wonderful lady had come and saved me. She cleaned me up, got me off drugs and introduced me to a life of luxury,” Vance carries on conversationally, “but I later found out there was a price for my redemption. I was expected to carry out certain duties. Estelle educated me, trained me in certain techniques, like how to handle creeps like the one at the bar, and we embarked on an exciting life travelling across Europe, swindling rich idiots and parting them from their money. Estelle’s really good at it and she taught me everything she knows. When I was old enough, she took me into her bed too, and taught me a lot of other stuff.”

“Swindling,” Harvey repeats. Something seemed to click inside his head. “What the hell is this?”

“This is where our friend Harvey comes into the story,” Vance says. “You see Holly, I told you we were in the antiques business. Well, that’s true, after a fashion. Harvey here is also a bit of an antiques expert.
 
This hotel is full of fascinating curiosities you know. Most of them are worthless junk, except for a certain bronze statuette. Of course Walden who owns the hotel and the statuette doesn’t know that, but Harvey does, don’t you Harvey? He decided to take it for himself and try and sell it, and that’s where Estelle and me come in. We came here to buy it, only Estelle had other ideas.”

“I’m not listening to any more of this,” huffs Harvey. Still wrapped in the sheet, he tries to reach out and grab his discarded underwear from the floor. They are too far away though, and he seems unwilling to expose himself to us, so he stays where he is.

“Don’t take it too hard, Harvey, if you’ll excuse the pun. You’re not the first,” Vance says. “You see, the plan was that Estelle would invite you up to our room to discuss terms and to . . . make you comfortable, while I went to your house to find and steal the statuette. If I couldn’t find it, I’d come back and ‘accidentally’ catch you with my wife, therefore putting you in a compromising situation. We filmed it too, so we had more leverage in getting the statuette from you. We’ve done it plenty of times in the past, and it’s worked every time.”

Estelle, still lying in bed, gives Vance an unreadable look. She says something under her breath in a language I don’t understand. It sounded like Russian, and I don’t think it was very complimentary.

Vance turns to me, and smiles. “I’m sorry for all the dramatics, Holly, but as you value honesty so much I decided to make sure you knew the whole story about me. I think you and me could be very good together, but not while I lead this kind of life.”

“I, I can’t believe what’s happening,” I stammer.
 
“Why would you do this?
 
We’ve only just met!”

“I’m not expecting you to declare your undying love to me,” Vance replies smoothly. “Not yet anyway. But I’d be really honoured if you’d let me take you out for another coffee sometime, or to the movies. Then we could go from there.”

I stare at him, unable to comprehend what is happening. Then, very slowly a new realisation dawns. I see the possibility of a new life opening up before me, and for the first time in a long time, hope burns in my chest. I look up at him and smile.
 
“Okay” I say, “It’s a date.”

Chapter 6

“Vance! Can you help me for a minute?” I call out as I leaf through the colour catalogue.

A few moments later, I hear him enter the office. He comes up to me and kisses my neck. It sends warm syrup down my spine. “What’s wrong, beautiful?”

“Quit with the charm,” I say playfully. “I need help with this.”

He crouches down next to the desk so he is level with my office chair, and stays there as obedient as a guard dog. I move the catalogue toward him.

“What colour do you think would go better in the lobby?” I ask, pointing at the page where the catalogue was open, “Sun Yellow or Umber Reddish?”

He scrunches his face up in thought, in the cute way he always does. After several moments of silent deliberation, he irons out his expression and grins at me. “I think whatever you decide will be the best choice.”

I sigh, and sink back in my chair. “We’re supposed to be working on this together, remember? This is a joint venture.”

He leans forward and nuzzles my ear. “There wasn’t much call for interior design in the slum I grew up in,” he whispers. “I leave matters of taste to the experts. There’s only one joint venture I’m interested in, my love.”

I giggle as he starts nibbling my ear, and slap him gently on his broad chest. “Is that all you ever think about? Come on, I need you to engage the brain in your head as well as the one in your pants.
 

“You hurt me, madam,” Vance exclaims, slumping his head down. “To think, I gave up a life of luxury to endure the cruel torments of a heartless she-devil!”

“Go and carry on with getting everything ready for tonight,” I say, pretending to be weary of him. “Go now, or you’ll really see what a heartless she-devil I truly am.”

Nimble as a gymnast, Vance jumps to his feet and salutes. “Right away, ma’am.”

As I watch him leave, I think back to that fateful night when we had first got to know each other. That had been six months ago, and I still can’t believe how much life has changed for me. It all still seems like a mad dream. After I’d discovered Vance was a confidence artist, I’d been both shocked and fascinated. My head had told me to get as far away from him as possible, but my heart longed for him in a way it had never longed for anyone since Dominic.

After his shock revelation, Estelle had gone wild. She started shouting and swearing, while I was left forgotten, an awkward bystander. Harvey managed to retrieve his clothes and scuttle away, but not before Vance warned him that the film of him and Estelle would get to back to his wife, and could well end up on the internet if he tried to cause trouble. Harvey meekly complied and promised that he would behave himself. After a while, Estelle calmed down and got dressed, and then she and Vance had a long conversation in what I assumed was Ukrainian. They seemed to reach some kind of agreement, and Estelle started packing. Vance took me downstairs and drove me home, again apologising for what had happened.

I was still baffled, and had no idea what to do next. When I went back into work in the morning, Estelle had left town and Vance had checked into a motel a few miles away. He left me the details though and his number, with a message to call him if I still wanted to go on that date.

For three days I agonised over whether to call him or not. Was this just another con, the way he’d set up Harvey? Or was he genuinely interested in me? Eventually, my feelings won out and I called him. We went for a coffee, and then after that date went well, we went to see a movie and then a third date was dinner. He acted like a perfect gentleman, and I found my barriers slowly begin to erode.

He explained that he and Estelle had reached an amicable arrangement. The scam with the statuette was ruined, but Estelle didn’t hold a grudge. She agreed that they could go their separate ways, and she paid Vance a sizeable share of the profits they had made during their partnership. Then she had disappeared to find someone else to help her run her cons. I was uncomfortable that Vance was living off illicit money, but he assured me that he was going to go straight. He wanted a new life now, and if I wanted to share it I was very welcome. I kept my distance initially, fearful of taking such a big step.

Harvey too decided to move on. Now that he had been exposed, he decided to take a job in Seattle, and he and his unsuspecting wife moved away. As the second most experienced member of staff, Mr Walden offered me the job of manager.

I’d finally got what I’d always dreamed about, but I felt strangely empty. My ideal career was finally mine, but I realised without Vance in my life it meant nothing.

Getting to my feet, I leave the office and step out into the hotel reception. Jules is on the desk in her newly promoted role, and chatting pleasantly to some guests who are just checking in. I nod and she smiles back. She is very happy in her new role. I look around the newly refurbished space, pleased with the changes I’ve made, and looking forward to seeing the outcome of the rest of the facelift the Cherry Tree is going through.