Where Would I Be Without You (17 page)

I took a deep breath and replied.  "I guess I feel like I am nothing but constant drama.  I wanted to sulk this one out on my own for a bit.  Not have you worry about me for a change.  Seeing as soon as the twins arrive, you will have enough to handle with them instead of always bailing my emotional mess out.  It wasn't so bad, you know, not calling you and crying.  Besides, the two pounder bag of M&M's helped, along with aunt Heather."

"Let me guess.  You ate all the blue ones first."  She snickered.

"You know it girl."  I taunted.

"Well, next time, don't leave me out if you need me.  A shoulder to cry on is what we do for each other.  Maybe because everything seems to fall in your court lately, you might have forgotten about all the times you've been there for me, when I needed someone."

She had a point.  I guess, I just felt like my drama was on red alert, while that may be true, it wasn't long ago that Marion's was just as crazy.

Marion spoke up and said something that made me think even harder about my role in my family.  "Hey.  How many times have you been there for your dad, you know when he is drunk?  How many times have you sobered him up and made him presentable before
your mom got home from work?  Then there is Bethany.  Sure, she is book smart, but fashion and street smart; she is not.  How many times have you been there to help her with that?  Huh?"  She laughed as I got out a mumbled 'I guess'.

"Now.  Your
aunt Heather, sweet, dear, party hardy let the good times rolls still stuck in the eighties' aunt Heather?  How many times have you bailed her out of a situation?  When my dear, it should be the other way around.  Although, I don't recall you ever landing in jail or naked in a city pool at midnight.  She's crazy.  Not to mention the fact, that you have been your mom's emotional punching bag.  She has turned to you whenever things aren't right with her life and tried to focus on yours with nit picking at you.  Really, did you think you are all that messed up?  Because you are the most dependable, lovable, sweet woman, I know.  Not to mention, you are smoking hot.  I know you don't think you are sometimes, but you don't always see what other people see.  And yes, where would Wally Woo be without you?  He is the lamest production manager or boss in general that I have ever worked for, when I worked there, but he is loveable, and you do make him look like an excellent boss.  Without you, he would probably be back on the production line."

I let all of that sink in.  I spit out my hair that I was chewing on at the same time I was knocking a number two pencil against
a filing cabinet.  I looked up at the fluorescent light in the supply cabinet and bit the side of my lip, and then I smiled.  "Thanks."  It was a soft-spoken sincere word, and I knew what she said had some merit.

"
The babies are hungry and I am coming to get you for lunch.  I need a cheeseburger or pizza; I don't care which.  These babies do not agree on cravings, and my prenatal yoga class left me hungry.  You need a lunch break, and babies need to eat."

I laughed
out loud, which caused an older female coworker that was happening by to open the supply closet door quickly, perhaps thinking something else was going on in here.  I waved innocently, and held up my cell phone and mouthed the words, 'personal call'.  She closed the door and walked away.

By the time Marion made it to my office cubicle, I was feeling a whole lot better.  As soon as she stood before me, I
stood up and hugged her.  When I pulled back, I smiled with a twinkle in my eye.  "Let me log off."  I turned to my computer and clicked a few keys, then I grabbed my purse, and we walked out of my work to a fresh summer's day, and I took a deep breath in.  I felt so much better, now that I had decided to share my sorrow with my best friend.  I needed to enjoy our lunch talking about the babies and new summer fashion.  I wasn't going to let work woes or Mason crowd my brain with worry.  Whatever happens will happen.  I just needed a break from all of that for now.

Chapter Thirteen

It's too bad that when things start to look better, a black billowy cloud rushes in looking like a bull with horns and breathing steam.  Just when I was ok with life going back to how it was before Steve, before Mason
, and knowing that I had a lot to look forward to, with or without my sexy man, things got a little dicey.

Turning back into the parking lot at work, as I was
cruising at a slow speed looking for an empty spot up close, I witnessed something I never thought I would ever witness.  Or maybe I did, but I kind of forgot about HER!

There on the front walk of my work, right in front of the doors that opened into the
office, and the entire row of cubicle offices that house my fellow employees, was Steve's wife.  Standing next to her was Mason.  Standing between her and our receptionist was our male security officer with the big belly.  There seemed to be shouting between the two women, Steve's wife and the company receptionist.  The security guard was breaking a sweat in the hot summer day, and Mason looked confused.  Then as I watched Steve's wife pushed Mason with her hands to his chest, her mouth screaming something, that is when I did something really... stupid.  I hit the gas instead of the breaks as I had been coasting through the parking lot watching all this, and I hit the president's brand new Silver Range Rover.

The sound of the smack of my tiny red two door used car against the Presidents Range Rover was loud.  The dent in his car was minimal.  Although I might get fired over ramming a
brand-new car.  Nobody with a new car wants to deal with this.  Better to just fire the imp who did it.  My red used-car lot special deal of a car had its front-end bashed up and a jacked up hood with steam coming out of the front of my car.  I was pretty sure I wouldn't need to worry about repairing the leaky radiator that had just decided to start leaking on me this morning.  I was going to need to replace the whole car and most likely without a job or a possible let's make up boyfriend.  Mason obviously now knew the real story behind Steve, not the skirted view that I gave him.

Just as I was trying to focus on the look of Mason's face, I realized that something wet was oozing down my
forehead, and my vision was fading out as if the unfocused button was being hit repeatedly, causing everything in front of me to get fuzzier by the second.

I heard voices.  I was sure of it.  One of them was
Masons, but I wasn't too sure what he was saying.  I felt hands touch me, but my head pounded.  Then the next thing I remembered thinking was, thank God Marion decided to drive her own car to the restaurant.

Coming to, was eventful.  Some strange man's face was in mine asking me if I could hear him.  He knew my name, but I didn't
remember getting flat on my back and meeting this guy.  I would have done a head slap to my head if I could but my arm didn't want to go up.  Then I remembered; I had pulled an Amber Jones really stupid stunt.  It was all coming back to me.  The vision of my coworkers battling Steve's wife, mixed with Mason hearing all about his girlfriend, well on hold girlfriend, dating a married man.  That was the one main fact I left out when I told him about Steve.  I had mentioned he had a girlfriend, but not a wife.  That had been too embarrassing of a fact.

Just a minute after the ER staff claimed me to be stabilized and that a young gentleman was waiting to see me, I was ecstatic.  Perhaps Mason wasn't so mad at me after all.

I watched a very worried Mason slowly move my ER curtain aside and a weak smile crawl across his face.  It was in his eyes, those beautiful sultry eyes, that I saw the care and concern that wrapped me up in happiness.  If he didn't care or was mad, he wouldn't be here.  "Hey."  He spoke out with a hoarse voice than he cleared it.  "Mind if I come in."

I let a smile creep onto my face.  "Please."  I got out with a very groggy voice.  I went to reach for my
water, and he rushed over to where it was at, held it up, and put the straw towards my mouth.  I took a sip as I let my hands wrap around his.  It felt nice to touch him, even if it was just a small gesture.

As soon as I stopped drinking my water, he set the cup back off to the side, pulled a small chair up next to the bed and held my hand while staring at me. 
Finally, he got off his chest what had him so worried.

"Hey.  That was scary today.  I'm glad they said it was only a light concussion.  You ok?"  His eyes held the look of a man
who wasn't sure where he stood.

"If you call hitting the gas instead of the brak
e because you are wigging out that your boyfriend just found out that you accidentally dated a man who has a wife.  Yup.  That's scary alright."  I joked.

I felt his hand tighten on mine as he looked down at it then his eyes came back to mine.  "I'm glad to hear I am still your boyfriend."

"You are if you want to deal with the fun likes of me and my sometimes crazy life."  I teased.

"Everybody has a crazy life from time to time.  I guess maybe I should share in a little about mine later when I am taking care of you
, so that you might understand why my family was so weird on Sunday.  I'm just glad you'll let me be your boyfriend.  And by the way, 6D got her eviction notice.  That was why she was trying to break into my apartment, to pay her rent by, well...  Any ways, I was totally shocked to see her there.  However, I guess since you didn't see my face or my reaction you wouldn't know.  Just know this, I suck at communications sometimes.  Looking back, if I had explained it all better than we would not have been in this mess that I feel partially to blame."

I let out an
awkward laugh.  It felt good to know naked boobs 6D was not in the picture any more or to begin with.  I had to put a little more faith in people, but that is hard.  Sometimes I would rather jump to conclusion with a defensive anger instead of listening.  It felt good to know that Mason could overlook that, so I teased to lighten the mood.  "Well, you are a man and men don't ask for directions."

We both started to laugh.

Mason spoke up first to break the smiles and laughter between us.  "Hey.  I grabbed your purse before the tow truck took your car away.  I called Marion, but that was it.  She told me not to call anyone else.  I think she was going to head straight here after her baby checkup.  I guess she went there after her lunch.  I didn't tell her too much, only that your ex-boyfriends wife thought, you and him were back together, and taking off somewhere.  So, what I have to say next would explain why I feel guilty."

I gave him a taken back look and frowned.  "What could you possibly feel guilty about?  You didn't know about her."

"Well.  See.  This woman was knocking on your door rapidly yelling for you that she needed to talk.  I happened to be at Ms. Handly's; her sink was clogged.  I think she does that on purpose."  We both laughed at that because we both knew it was true.

He started up again with a story that I would never have expected.  "So I came out and asked her if I could
help, and she told me that she had something she had to tell you.  Any ways, the woman confused me into telling her that you worked at the Crawly plant.  Then when she mumbled under her breath as she walked away about 'I'm going to kill that bitch for running off with my husband again', well I freaked.  I yelled after her to stop, but she took off running.  Then it was a race to your work, where I might add that, your receptionist is like a pit bull.  She had security called and escorting the yelling lunatic out of the office building, just as I pulled up.  Well, you probably just pulled into the lot as all the commotion went to a level higher.  Crazy huh?  Sorry I didn't know."

He pulled my hand to his lips and kissed it.  Then his eyes looked at me with sorrow.

I didn't want him to feel guilty for something that had nothing to do with him.  "I'm sorry.  I should have told you the complete truth.  My previous boyfriend who ruined my family birthday party, wasn't dating another woman who came in chasing him down but a wife.  I felt awful, and she has every right to be mad.  However, believe me when I tell you that I have not, and let me emphasize not, gotten back with her husband.  That goes against all my beliefs.  I feel bad enough as it is that he is married.  I wonder if Steve is up to his old bag of tricks but this time he left her?"

"Who cares?  The cops gave her a
ticket, and I got a few words in myself.  Mad or not, she has no reason to threaten you or your receptionists for not telling her where you were.  Maybe the cops convinced her to stay away; I know I made some kind of impact when I defended you."

"Thanks."  I mumbled in awe.

"For what?"  He seemed unsure.

"For defending me.  It may not seem like much to you but to me, it means a lot.  I thought when you didn't defend me at your family brunch that you were unsure of there being an us."

He stood up to kiss me on the lips, and it caused a soft moan out of me.  "Head hurts, huh?"  He questioned.

"Throbs
, is more like it.  I think they skimped on the pain meds if you ask me."  I smiled weakly.

"Well don't worry.  I know a trick or two to relieve the pain."  He said it in such a sultry voice that I was already thinking getting better could be half the fun.
  Then he added something that made my heart soar.  "About my family, my father is going through a tough time right now.  My mom says it's manopause, like women get menopause.  I just know the two of us are getting on each other's nerves, and I don't want that.  There is a bit of history about me and my crazy mistakes that gets my dad to think I can't make any good decisions.  So on Sunday, you caught the brunt of his anger towards me.  He feels really bad and wants to make it up to you.  I guess we were all shocked at his behavior and just felt you were doing good holding your own.  I felt if I said anything it would ruin the whole day.  If I could have gone back, I would have done a lot different that day.  For one, I would not have sat silent in the car while you were obviously mad.  Sometimes when I am mad, I just shut down."  He let out an awkward laugh, so I joked.