Chapter 39

 

Between Lovers

Chapter 39

© Lizzie 2003-present

 

Alexandria looked at the tiny kitten in the box and back at Jacob as he drove down the street. Alexandria closed the door and walked back to the Family room. She walked to Noel and handed her the box, “This was delivered for you.”

Noel looked at the kitten, smiled and looked at Alexandria, “That’s not for me.” She said, “That’s a Lexi gift. You know I can’t take Lexi gifts.”

“Well can you at least keep her until I come back from Upstate?”

“Now that I can do.” Noel said, “She’ll be nice and warm here.”

Alexandria turned and went back to Trevor who was still unwrapping his things, “Have you thought about going with me Upstate?”

“I’ll go.” He said, “When you do want to leave?”

“Do you mind if we leave tonight?”

“What about your sister?” Trevor asked

“She’ll come up with Granny tomorrow.”

“Okay.” Trevor said. He looked at Alexandria, “Are you okay?” Alexandria shook her head no, “Do you want to leave now?” She nodded her head yes, “Okay, let’s go.” He gathered their gifts and they walked out of the family room, down the hall to the kitchen and out the side door they entered in earlier in the day.

Trevor unlocked his car, opened the door for Alexandria and closed it when she got in. He opened the back door, put the gifts in and walked around to the driver’s side, got in and bagged out of the opened garage then headed back to their apartment. Once they got back to the apartment, they packed a few things and then left again.

Two hours later they arrived at the Coles’ residence. The front of the property was enclosed by a large iron gate with an equally large C on the middle of both sides of the gate. Beyond the gates was a large castle like house. The lower widows of the house were lit, as if welcoming those who had access beyond the gates.

Alexandria pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, dialed a number and the gates slowly opened inward. Trevor looked over at her and for a split second, as she talked on the phone in a hushed voice, he felt the need to be with her. When the gates were fully opened she ended the call and keeping her eyes in front of her she spoke to Trevor, “Go to the end of the driveway and turn left.” She said, “It seems Granny knew we were coming and she called ahead.”

Trevor nodded his head and followed the directions that were given to him. He parked the car, turned off the engine and headlights. “Is it okay to park here?”

“Yeah, this is where I usually park.” Alexandria said. She turned and looked at Trevor, “Our rooms are on the second floor. I’m going to go around to the back and let the grounds keeper know we’re here.”

“Okay, I’ll wait right here.”

“It’s too cold.” She said. She reached in her bag and pulled out a key ring, “The key with the purple band on it is the front door.” She handed the keys to him, “The stairs are right in the front when you walk in and the rooms are at the top of the stairs.”

“Had everything planned out didn’t you?” Trevor said with a small smile

Alexandria smiled, opened the door and got out, “Exactly.” She closed the car door and walked around the front of the house and disappeared into the darkness.

Fifteen minutes later Alexandria was walking up the stairs with a tray of food. She walked down the hall and noticed the handwritten notes on the front of the bedroom doors. Lexi was on the first door, on the second door was Lexi’s guest and on the third door was Shia. Alexandria knocked on the door that was for her guest and heard a muffled come in. She opened the door and walked in, “I see you found the rooms.”

“It wasn’t hard to miss.” Trevor said with a smile, “What do you have there?”

“Food.” She said, “I was starved so I made a little something. You want some?”

“I’m okay.” Trevor said

“Okay, well, I need to call Granny and let her know we got in okay.” She said, “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Trevor smiled, “Goodnight.” Alexandria walked out of the room, closed the door behind her and walked to her room.

+*+December 26^th+*+

            The next morning, Alexandria was up early. She pulled on her warm clothes, walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. She saw that her Granddaddy had already began the coffee and was probably out on his way to do his work…whatever that was since he had long since retired from any sort of actual work.

            Alexandria opened the refrigerator and looked in. It was bare but she knew there would be food in a couple of hours. She closed the door, walked out of the kitchen and into the large library at the front of the house. She walked to the desk, pulled out some blank papers and a pen and walked back up the stairs to her room.

            Alexandria sat on the bed, her journal next to her, and she began to write the customary letter that she would leave at her mother’s grave. Once she got in the flow of things, she would stop and ball up the paper, toss it to the side, and start all over. She did this for a couple of hours before finally giving up and pulling her journal to her lap. She turned to a fresh page, dated the page and began her entry.

 

December 26

 

Tomorrow is the seven-year anniversary of the death of my mother. For the last three days or so, I've been talking to my younger sister telling her as much as I could remember about our mom and showing her pictures. Tomorrow we go to the cemetery where she is buried and do what I do every year: flowers, clean up the spot where her plaque is and then just tell her all that I've been through since the last time I was there. -sighs- and believe me, a lot has gone on.

I don't know how much I'll be able to go through without breaking down and I don't want to freak out my sister. She's never gone with me before and the last time she was at a cemetery was when she was six and that was for our mother burial. A thirteen-year-old can begin to understand the concept of death, but death and loosing that one person that means so much to you is hard to grasp at any age.

I've balled up paper after paper trying to get down exactly what I want to say and how I want to say it, but it never comes out right. There's so much swirling around in my head that if I even attempted to sit and write I'd more than likely be able to fill up a spiral notebook - cover to cover, and still need more paper. It could be that I'm long winded and that what could be said in a quick paragraph, so to speak, makes the President's State of the Union Address more appealing to actually sit and listen to.

But no matter, no one has to listen to me go on and on about how much my life sucked since she's been gone, but not all of it has been bad. There have been some remarkable moments in my life and I will hold those close to my heart and cherish them with all of my very being. I've formed many new friendships, and embarked on new journeys.

 

Later on tonight I’m going to take Trevor to one of my favorite spots here. There’s this little, well it’s actually quite large and my Granddaddy has a hole in the middle of it…he likes fishing, or that’s what he calls it. He just sits there and listens to everything. That’s really a great place to be quite and think.

 

I had another dream last night. But it was different than my other dreams. It started out the same, but half way through, something else appeared, something that calmed me greatly. I don’t know where the sudden rush of calmness came from, but I do know that I’ve felt it before…twice to be exact. Once while Trevor hugged me after Jacob and I broke up and the other was when…well on my way up here with Trevor.

 

I need to talk to Theca, but she won’t be back in town until the beginning of the year.

 

            Alexandria closed her journal and placed it back to her side. She picked up another sheet of paper, took a deep breath and started writing again. She didn’t finish writing until she heard her sister’s laugh coming from the downstairs kitchen.

            Alexandria put her papers down, stood up from the bed, walked out of her room and down the stairs to the kitchen where she saw her Grandparents, Trevor and Shia sitting around the table eating cookies.

            “Why does everyone eat without me?” she said walking to the table and sitting next to her Grandfather.

            “I thought you were gone to the pond.” Her grandfather Benjamin said

            Alexandria shook her head, “Later…after I eat.”

            “There’s food in the oven for you and Trevor.” her Grandmother, Shirley said

            Alexandria stood up again, walked to the over, opened the door and pulled out the still warm breakfast. She turned and looked a Trevor, “Join me upstairs?”

            Trevor nodded his head, walked to her, took the plates and followed Alexandria out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

            “He’s a quite one, that Trevor is.” Benjamin said, “It’s about time Lexi had a respectable boyfriend.”

            “Dear, that’s not her boyfriend.” Shirley said patting Benjamin’s arm, “He’s just a friend who is helping her out.”

            “Well, he clearly likes her.” Benjamin said as he stood up, “Shia, care to join your ol’ granddad as he runs a few errands?”

            “Sure Granddaddy.” Shia said as she finished the last cookie on her plate.

+*+

            Upstairs in Trevor’s room, Alexandria and Trevor sat on the bed and ate the food that was made for them.

“I had a nice conversation with your grandfather earlier.” Trevor said

“Oh?” Alexandria said looking up from her plate, “About what?”

“Your family, your sisters, but mostly about your father.”

Alexandria nodded her head, “Granddaddy hasn’t been too pleased with my father for a while.”

“I gathered as much.” Trevor said, “Does it have something to do with why you and your sisters don’t get on with him?”

Alexandria sighed a bit, “Partially. But mostly because he was never around and when he was he abused us.” Trevor’s eyes went wide, “Not physically or anything like that, but emotionally.” she picked at the eggs on her plate with her fork. “And then there was the fact that he called me a liar every chance he got.”

Trevor studied Alexandria’s face for a moment before he carefully asked his next question, “What do you mean he called you a liar?”

“About a year or so after my mother died, I was at camp and I was raped,” she began in a soft voice. She looked a Trevor briefly before looking at the bed between them, “I called and told my dad but he believed the camp workers, who were the sons of one of his childhood friends, over me.” She looked at Trevor again, “Then there was the time he said it was my fault that he lost the largest job his company ever had.”

“The Xavier Montombo account, right?”

“How did you know?” Alexandria asked

“Xavier’s father pulled the contract from your father and brought it to my father.” Trevor said softly, “But it wasn’t that big of a job.”

“Wait, Wayne Corp is your outfit?” she asked in amazement

Trevor nodded his head, “Michael Wayne is my father.”

Alexandria laughed, “Small world…I applied for the Senior Accountant job a couple years ago and never heard back.”

“I’m sorry, my mom was responsible for doing a lot of the hiring back then.” Trevor said, “But my father found someone else to do that job.”

“Never mix family with powerful business.” Alexandria said

“It only causes problems.” Trevor added and they laughed

“That’s why I don’t work with or for my father.”

“And I guess that’s why I’m out here.” Trevor said, “My father got tired of me asking for my own outfit and he gave me this one.”

Alexandria moved the plates from in front of them and she turned to face Trevor, “That night that my father was in your apartment and you were talking…what were you talking about?”

“Truthfully?” he asked and she nodded her head, “He asked me to keep an eye on you…should Jacob ever try anything.”

“Then why didn’t you come after me yesterday?”

“Santa told me not to.” Trevor said

“Come again?” Alexandria asked

“I was going to come after you and Santa told me not to.”

“Do you always listen to Santa Claus?”

“I do when he’s my boss…” Alexandria’s eyes went wide, “Yup, your father was playing Santa.”

“That son of a b***h.” Alexandria said standing up. She shook her head and stood up, “He told Jacob where I was going to be and…” she shook her head again

Trevor looked at her and tilted his head, “What?”

“Jacob was at the house last night. I don’t know if he was trying to make amends or just making sure I was okay.”

“Well, what happened?”

“Got me a kitten, got me that necklace that I opened and he says there are two other gifts in my dance bag.”

Trevor nodded his head, “Do you still have feelings for him?”

Alexandria shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know.” she said, “He was the first guy I’ve been with in over a year, then he hurts me worse than Xavier ever could have.” she pushed some hair from her eyes, “And to top it off, I think I’m beginning to have feelings for someone else.”

Trevor looked up at Alexandria, “How would you feel about a trip to the pond?”

Alexandria looked at Trevor, “Granddaddy told you about it?” Trevor nodded his head, “I was going to ask you if you wanted to go.”

“Well, I’m up to it, if you are.” he said with a smile

“Let me put something warmed on and I’ll meet you downstairs.” she said as she stood and began to walk from the room.

“Alex?” Trevor asked. She turned and looked at him, “Not all guys are like Jacob and Xavier.”

Alexandria smiled and nodded her head, “I know.” she walked out of the room and into her room. Trevor stood up, walked to the tray of plates and took them down to the kitchen where Shirley was beginning on dinner.

“Oh just put those in the sink and I’ll wash them up.” Shirley said. She looked at Trevor, “Are you and Lexi going to the pond?”

“Yeah. She’s changing right now.”

“You should put something warmer on.” Shirley said as she cut up some carrots, “There’s fresh snow out so it’s a bit nippy.”

“Thanks for the heads up.” Trevor said as he walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs to his room.