Chapter 3

Between Lovers

Chapter 3

© Lizzie 2003-present

 

            Jacob watched as Alexandria walked out of the office. Catherine shook her head and laughed, “I don’t think she’s your type Jake.”

            Jacob shook his head and looked at the woman in front of him, “What was that?”

            Catherine laughed more, “Nothing, let’s go talk about this house you want to buy.”

            “I think I may be having second thoughts about moving right now.” Jacob said walking into the office and sitting in the same chair that Alexandria occupied before.

            “You what?” Catherine asked, “Jake, we’ve been haggling over the price of the property for the last 6 months. I think we’re making some headway with the owner.”

            “Just hear me out Catty.” Jacob reasoned, “It’d just be me and all my pets. I don’t need all that space.”

            “What about your brother?” Catherine asked

            “I haven’t seen him in a couple weeks. He’s been spending so much time with his friend that I don’t think he would notice that we haven’t moved yet.”

            “I think you’re making a terrible mistake in staying at that apartment.” Catherine said again, “And really, what are you basing your decision to stay on? Hmm? Some woman you happened to see in an elevator who may or may not move into the same building?” Jacob didn’t say anything, “Trust me Jake, she’s definitely not your type.”

            Jacob raised an eyebrow, “You seem to know a lot about her…”

            Catherine shook her head, “Not telling you a thing about her.”

            “Oh come on.” he pleaded, “Just a tiny bit about her?”

            “Not a thing.” Catherine said again, “Alex is one of my best friends and better clients.”

            Jacob playfully gasped, “I thought I was your favorite client.”

            “Well, at the moment, you’re being a bit of a pain.” She said, “This is the last time I’m going to try and persuade you to continue working on the Nolan property.”

            Jacob sighed, “Look, Catty, you can still haggle with old man Nolan if you want. If he offers a good price for the property then snatch it up for me, but until then, I’m staying at the Commodore.”

            Catherine threw her hands up in defeat, “Okay, whatever you say.”

            Jacob looked at his watch, “I hate to cut our meeting short…”

            “I’m sure you do.” Catherine said with a small laugh, “I’ll call you if anything comes up with the Nolan property.”

            Jacob nodded his head, stood up, leaned over the desk and kissed Catherine’s cheek, “You’re a real doll.”

            Catherine shook her head and laughed, “You tell me that all the time. Stay out of trouble now.”

            “I’ll try.” Jacob said with a smirk and a wink. He began to walk out of Catherine’s office and paused turning around, “Are you sure you can’t tell me a little about…”

            “Not another word about Alexandria.” She said, “If you want to know about her you better have some damn good luck in trying to find her.”

            Jacob sighed dejectedly and walked out of the office. ‘If Catty won’t tell, maybe Greta will…’ Jacob thought to himself. He walked over to Greta’s desk and saw that she was trying to busy herself with the pile of property listings in front of her, “Oh Greta dear, may I ask a small favor of you?”

+*+

            Alexandria made her way to her car and got in. She sat behind the driver’s seat for a moment thinking about everything that she had to do for the day. She needed to go shopping for some personal items and then she needed to make the ever important call to her lawyer to see if there was any way that her father could claim the house as his own even though her mother left the house to her and her sisters in her will.

            ‘If mom were still alive I wouldn’t be going through all of this right now.’ Alexandria thought to herself, ‘If Brandy wasn’t such a…she’s my sister and I shouldn’t talk about her this way.’ She sighed once more before starting up her car and pulling out of the parking lot.

            Once in the flow of traffic, Alexandria was free to let her thoughts wander back to the night when her mother first got sick and everything changed.

+*+Flashback+*+

            Tina was pregnant with baby number four and she got sick one night after the family went out to dinner for her birthday. She went to the hospital and the doctors said she would be better soon. They continued saying that for three days. One night Tina got worse and she lost the baby and then a couple days after that she died. The entire family was at the hospital for Christmas hoping and praying that she would get better. But that never happened. On December twenty-eighth, Tina Bradshaw’s body was taken to the mortuary and on December twenty-ninth, she was buried on her family’s estate in Northern New York.

+*+End of Flashback+*+

            On December twenty-seventh it will be exactly seven years since Tina died. Every year for the last six years Alexandria made the trip from wherever she was to upstate New York and her mother’s family’s house and the little cemetery her mother was buried at. Alexandria had gone so many times alone and held up, but so much had gone on in the last year, especially in the last few months, that she didn’t think that she would be able to do it alone. She didn’t think that she was emotionally able to make the trip.

            Alexandria blinked her eyes a couple of times and looked at her surroundings. Throughout her driving, she found herself across the street from the park she went to as a child when her mother was still alive.

            ‘How the hell did I end up here?’ Alexandria asked as she pulled into the park’s parking lot. ‘Oh well, it doesn’t hurt to see how much the park has changed over the years.’ She parked the car, got out and pulled her jacket closer to her body.

Reviews

[Jamie Fantasy]

That was a very cute exchange between Catherine and Jacob. I'm starting to see where this is heading. I think it's sweet that he would give up a nice, big house just to see where things might go with her.

The flashback notifications are unnecessary. A flashback puts you in the present tense of a previous time but that part doesn't do that, it just recalls previous events. I would just take those notifications out and it will still flow perfectly.

I'm starting to get pulled into the story. Looking forward to more. :)