What You Do To Me (Unexpected Love) (47 page)

             
Alex leaned in and kissed me, “This is why I love you.” I smiled back at him.

             
“
Okay, kiddos,
I’m heading out.
Alex,
I’ll fly back to California with you and we can figure things out from there.” Sam stood to
leave, so
I walked with her to the door and gave her a big hug. “Have a safe flight back and I’ll
come for
a
visit,
if you don’t mind. I could use some R & R.”

             
“I would love it,
and
so would the girls. You need to experience a fresh water
beach;
you’ll never feel the same about the ocean.”

             
Sam leaned in and whispered in my ear. “I’m so glad you guys talked last night and I really enjoyed hearing Alex admit out loud how he feels
about
you. I tried getting him to say it for weeks.”

             
I smiled and responded, “
Well,
I love him too and
I
finally admitted it
out loud
to him and now to you.” Sam pulled back with a fake shocked expression on her face. We both started
laughing
as she left the room.

             
“Oh boy, you
will have your hands full if Sam and Abby
keep that up.” Steve was looking at Alex. Alex didn’t respond, but winked at me. “Actually, I’m happy for you, but be
prepared,
Abby,
he’s
a sore
loser. So
be careful when you play
board games or cards. If he doesn’
t
win,
he will pout worse th
a
n your girls.”

             
Alex started to laugh, “Hey, don’t tell her all my
faults;
she may reconsider.”

             
“I haven’t even started on your faults yet, but I’d be more th
a
n happy to start.” Steve looked away from Alex and turned to me. “I have a lot I can and will tell you
about
, but right
now,
I don’t want to scare you off. I’ll spoon feed you so you don’t get overwhelmed, but are still hungry for more.” We all started
laughing
.

             
“I am looking forward to it, but I’m hard to scare.” I looked at Alex and winked at him this time. “Do you guys have everything figured out yet? I can go for a run and give you some time to talk about what
you’re
going to do.
Actually,
I need to go for a run. I’ll go change and give you some time.” I
stood
up to head to the
bedroom to change. Alex followed me and sa
t on the bed as I grab
bed
my bag.

             
“I appreciate all of this.” I looked at him a bit confused. “I didn’t want to help Johnny, not after DC and after last night. I’ve punched him twice this tour and it’s two more times
than
the last tour.”

             
I walked over to Alex. “I’m not doing anything, you need to do this.
He’s
a part of you and even if you are pissed at
him,
you need to help him. He isn’t in a good place right now and he’s not the same person you knew. I would be disappointed if you didn’t help him.” I kissed his forehead. “Now get out so I can change.”

             
Alex stood to leave and took a step towards the door. He stopped and turned back to
me,
reached out and
hugged me close
. “I love
you.
You
have no reason to care about him
or
what happens to
him,
e
specially after last
night,
and yet you still do.” Alex leaned in and kissed me.

             
“Don’t make me out to be Mother Theresa. I’ll be honest; I don’t care about him or what happens to him. I care about you and what will happen to you if you don’t help him.” I
gave
him a quick peck and
pushed
him towards the door.
After Alex left,
I
changed
into my running clothes and when I
walked
out into the main area of the
room;
Alex and Steve
were
talking to someone who
was
on
speakerphone
. I blew Alex a kiss and
headed
out the door.

             
When I got down to the main
lobby,
I head
ed
to the concierge desk to see if they had a map of the area so I could plan my run. The man at the desk had a map of some running trails near the
hotel,
so I decided to walk
to the Riverfront Park Trails and start the
3-mile
loop before crossing over to the
4-mile
loop. I had my iPod on, but
I
didn’t pay much attention to the
music.
I was lost in thought. Alex and I said the words, but we never did figure out where we
would
go from
t
here. I
knew
he
understood that
I
couldn’t
move
,
with school starting in less
than
a month, but I
didn’t
know if he
understood
I would
never move to California
and
I
couldn’t
see him being happy in a small town. I
didn’t
know if love would
be enough to get us through that point of the relationship. A long distance relationship
was
fine for now, but how long
would
we be able to make it work. I
hated
bringing it up
now,
because he
had
so much to deal with already.

             
I was
so lost in thought that I had no clue where I was at on the trail. I didn’t even know if I had crossed the
footbridge
to the other side o
r if I stayed on the same trail
to start another loop. 
I decided
just
to keep running and I would eventually come out somewhere. I remained focused on my run, but
I
was slowing down and getting tired. I was over 9 miles and that was more th
a
n I had run most the summer. I finally came
out,
found the
footbridge
and crossed back. Once I hit 10
miles,
I decided to end my
run, just walk the rest of the trail,
and
then
back to the hotel.

             
When I
came out of the trail into
the
park,
I was grabbed and thrown up against a tree. My right
headphone
fell out of my ear. My right cheek was pushed up against the tree. I was pinned by a forearm to the back of my neck and the body weight
was
against my back. I felt hot breath close to my ear.

             
“You fucking bitch,” I immediately recognized the voice as Johnny’s. “It’s bad enough
you’re
ruining Alex’s life by making him give
everything
up, but now
you’re
fucking with
my life
.” I tried to use my hands to push myself from the tree, but I couldn’t budge and where his hands were, I couldn’t reach them. The more I
struggled,
the harder he pinned me to the tree. “
Listen,
bitch, you need to tell Alex you are over. You will be
anyway.
It
is just a matter of time, so just end this shit now.” He leaned in closer and I could smell his breath, which smelled of cigarettes, whiskey and
stale
beer. I still couldn’t find my voice. Johnny grabbed me and whipped me around. He placed his forearm to my throat and his leg in between mine. My hands reached
up,
trying to scratch
him, but this only made him
madder
a
nd he
backhanded
me on the right
side of my face.
“Do you honestly think you and your little family can make him happy? I know him and
I tell that
you
can’t.
He’s
only going to cheat like he has on everyone else, but you probably don’t
care,
because you only want him for his c
ash and to support you and your
brats.” I couldn’t speak,
because
his forearm was crushing my throat,
and I
could feel the tears running down my face.

             
I heard someone yelling at us. A
man, who was
walking his
dog,
was asking me
if
everything was
okay
, but I couldn’t
answer,
even if I wanted too. Johnny released his grip a
bit,
as he was telling the man to get lost, but he released it enough and the man distracted
him,
giving me a chance to knee him hard between the legs and to shove him down. I took off towards the hotel in a panic. When I got outside, I saw Steve getting into a car. When he saw
me,
he immediately stopped and
ran
over to me.

             
“Holy hell, what happened to
you?
” His eyes were searching me, but
he focused
on the mark that Johnny left on my face. “Abby, are you
okay
?” He reached over and threw an arm around my
shoulder, taking
me to a bench outside
beside
the valet booth.

             
All I could manage to say was, “
Johnny.
” At
first,
Steve didn’t say anything, but I could see the anger in his eyes.

             
“
Damn it
,
he’s
unstable. Look, you can’t tell
Alex.
Well
, you can, but if he knows Johnny
did this to
you,
he won’t get him the help he needs and we will never have a shot
at
being a band again. It’s your choice, but Johnny isn’t right and he isn’t like this, I swear to you.” I
could
see the pleading in his
eyes.
I
understood
where he
was
coming from with
his
request.

             
“I don’t know if I can lie to him. He needs to help, but it feels wrong.” I
knew
that this lie would be protecting him, but lying
was
lying in my
book,
whether you
were
protecting someone or not.

             
“This is up to you. If you want to press charges, I’ll support that too.” I shook my head no, because I didn’t
want
to press charges. It would be all over the news
that the girl Alex was seeing was pressing assault charges
against
his band member.
Right now,
I didn’t know what to do
, but that was not an option
. “Where did you see him
last?
I need to find him so he doesn’t do anything else stupid.”

             
“
In the park on
the path leaving the running trails.” I pointed in the direction.
I was no longer crying, but my face stung and hurt like hell. I
had
never been hit in the face before. I
didn’t
know if
I’d
ever been hit
before,
period.

             
“Will you be a
ll
right or should I take you up to the room?”