Personal Possessions, page 12
He approached the receptionist desk and announced my arrival, but we didn’t have to wait long, as I could see out of the corner of my eye, a man approaching us.
“Mr. McHale, I presume,” I heard come from his mouth.
I turned to face him, quickly walking my way. He was a bigger man. Solid, not as tall as me but he was tall. I presumed this was Loren Stevens. I had never met him in person but simply talked to him on the phone.
“Loren Stevens. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.” He said as he pushed his hand out to greet me. I reached out my hand as well.
“Loren - pleasure is mine. Are you ready to get down to business?”
He chuckled.
“Absolutely. Are you ready to sign your life away?”
“If it means I’m adding to my bank account, by all means, show me the dotted line,” I said as I faked a small laugh.
I was usually not one to joke when it came to business, but I had learned that it was sometimes necessary to break the ice, once and a while with people who seemed anxious or nervous about our appointments and Loren Stevens - well, he was a fuckin’ basket case.
Kip had found out that this deal was going to be the one that made Stevens a partner here, so he looked like he needed a shot or two…shit, maybe even the bottle.
What this meant for our plan, Stevens wasn’t going to be an issue, he was going to be so far up my ass, he wouldn’t notice anything.
“Stevens,” Kip’s voice made me turn to face him and begin the introductions.
“Ah…yes, Mr. Stevens, this is my assistant, Kip. Kip…Loren Stevens.”
“Nice to meet you, Stevens. Can you point me in the direction of your restroom,” Kip asked just as we had planned it.
“Sure, you just follow this hall…”
I stopped listening and focused on what I needed to focus on, getting in that conference room and coming into contact with Elle. I quickly looked at my watch to give him a clue as to our next step and he took it hook, line and sinker.
“Let me show you to the conference room, Mr. McHale.” Loren pushed his hand out to lead me in the direction of the meeting. My heart was beating a thousand miles a minute, not from anxiousness of the buyout but because of the thought of seeing Elle look me in the eyes after seventeen years.
Hearing her respond to my questions and comments would mean that she was there, in front of me. Looking into my eyes. I wanted that, as much as I needed to take my next breath.
I walked in and headed for my usual spot at the head of the table and had a seat. I kept my thoughts on what this meeting was going to entail but it was difficult. Having dreamt of this day for so long, it was not an easy task.
“Would you like some coffee-“
That was all I heard come out of Steven’s mouth when she walked in. She stopped right in her tracks. Elle’s eyes locked on mine and I could see, she knew exactly who I was. I was not a memory in her mind, I was a fantasy.
The way her face showed all her emotions, I smiled inside. This was what I was hoping for. All the sudden her mouth gaped open. I noticed panic was settling on her, which turned to the worst scenario that I had prepared for.
No. Don’t go there, Elle - stay with me, babe. I kept repeating this in my mind, hoping she could mentally hear my thoughts. My face showed nothing of what I was thinking or feeling, I was just there.
“Elleny, I would like to introduce you to Mr. Trevor McHale of the Mac-Gentry Firm, Mr. McHale, this is Elleny Harper-Jackson, my assistant.”
Hearing the introduction that Stevens was going through, I swallowed and stuck out my hand, “Mrs. Jackson, I believe the pleasure is all mine,” My eyes were glued to hers. God, how I missed looking into those eyes. What I could see in those eyes told a story, a myriad of tales that all had the same happy ending.
Memories that placed us in a lake, fighting over who loved each other more. Sitting in the back of my truck, looking up at the stars... All these old feelings I could get lost in, were in her eyes. Transported to another world that contained only her and I, and we were content, totally sated from each other.
Her voice brought me out of my thoughts and back to a reality with her standing right in front of me, it took everything in me not to lean over and kiss her so fucking hard she couldn’t breathe.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Mr. McHale. Please, call me Elle.”
Oh fuck, I was dying inside. Like I wouldn’t call her anything else…I gave her that name. I had to tell myself to take a breath. This was so much harder than I thought it would be.
Elle held out her hand for me to take and I was literally shaking, I don’t know if she could see it but I was quivering out of desire for this woman. I grabbed her hand and felt something I hadn’t felt in seventeen years, emotion.
I felt as though the hole in my chest was mended; I was actually smiling inside. A slight vibration passed from her hand over to mine, I don’t know if she felt it but I sure as shit did. With the vibration was a peace that transpired and I knew that I had to have this feeling every day for the rest of my life. She was the creator of this peace.
MINE.
She was going to be mine, and this time anyone who tried to take her away from me was not going to like what he was up against.
“Elle, you alright? You look pale. Like you’ve seen a ghost.” Stevens’ voice brought me back to the meeting and as I looked at Elle, it was like the life had been sucked out of her. Her face was as white as a sheet. Elle yanked back her hand from me, I didn’t realize it but I must’ve had a grasp on it a bit too tight. She put her hand to her head.
“Actually Lor … ummm, Mr. Stevens, I’m not feeling so good, I think I’m going to take a minute in the powder room. If you gentlemen will excuse me. Mr. Stevens, everything you need is right there. I will send Ginger in to help you with the presentation.”
As she walked out of the conference room, Kip was coming in. I looked at him, he nodded once which meant that what he needed to do was accomplished. I took a breath and clasped my hands together and announced, “Well, I think I have a life to sign away.”
We finished the meeting in no time. Actually, I sat there as Loren went over all he had to go over, while I thought over that handshake and those eyes that pierced straight through my soul. I couldn’t get them out of my head.
How many times had I laid looking down into them, they held my entirety. My past, present, and now they held my future. The future she now was a part of.
“Now if you will open your folders to page three…” Steven’s voice was now prominent over my thoughts, which was my signal.
“Thank you, Stevens. We will be in touch.” I closed my folder, and began packing up my other paperwork. I looked over at Kip and noticed he was doing the same. Looking over at Loren, he looked like a deer in headlights.
“Don’t worry. I just need to look over a couple of things before I put my John Hancock on these. You know, you can never be too careful.” I grabbed my briefcase and started to the door, Kip right on my ass.
”But…but…Mr. McHale… gentlemen, we can’t prolong this transaction any longer, the board of director’s at Richland Manufacturing wants to close this deal as soon as possible,” Stevens stuttered.
“We understand that, Mr. Stevens,” Kip advised Stevens, which made it look real good since I hadn’t heard him say a word all fuckin’ morning.
I began walking in the opposite direction of the elevators, and headed for Elle’s desk where I saw her sitting, acting as if she was actually working. I stopped right in front of her desk, this conversation was going to include her, might as well let her know about it now.
““I’ll tell you what, Stevens. I know that you and…” I turned to look at Elle again. Jesus, I couldn’t keep my eyes off of her. Her hair had just a touch of gray, telling me she was not the eighteen year old girl she once was. She was a woman now, beautiful and elegant.
I was a selfish bastard and I was damn proud of it. Really, I didn’t give a fuck what anyone thought or what anyone had to say about it. She was going to be mine.
”Miss…I’m sorry. Miss, what was your name again?”
I could see that she was faking a smile, in fact her face was saying, “Fuck off,” to me, but I couldn’t help but smile a true smile.
“Mrs. Barker-Jackson, Mr. McHale. My name is Elleny Barker-Jackson.”
I could not wait to hear her say my name. Mr. McHale was my father, I was TJ to her and the sound of that rolling off of her tongue was a fantasy to me.
“Ah, yes that’s right, again, my apologies. Loren, I know that you and Mrs. Barker-Jackson have worked long hours on this arrangement, let’s you and I make a little deal. Strictly off the record, of course. You give me forty-eight hours to go over this contract and on Thursday, Ms. Barker-Jackson can meet me in my hotel’s restaurant, twelve-thirty, where she can pick up these contracts signed and agreed to, no stipulations.”
I looked over at Kip who was standing there practically in DT overload, jonesing for a cigarette where I saw him nod once in his approval. Hell, he didn’t even know what he was saying yes to, I just told him to follow along.
I looked over at Stevens, who was breathing heavily, more than likely demanding his subconscious to calm the fuck down. As I looked over at Elle, I could see pure terror written all over her face.
I could tell that she was not up for this option “Mr. McHale, I don’t think-”
“You’ve got yourself a deal, McHale,” Out of nowhere Stevens chimes in.
All six of our eyes pasted to him. I was literally rolling in hysterics on the inside at what the hell this meeting had turned into out here, in a lobby, by a secretary’s desk. The other half of me is in hysterics just because I haven’t laughed in so long, I missed the way it felt.
“Mr. Stevens, I’m sorry but I think that this is highly unethical-” she tried again.
“Elle, we will discuss this at a more suitable time,” Loren scolded.
They can say whatever they want to; they weren’t going to turn this opportunity down. I was willing to pay exactly what they were asking, I just wasn’t going to let them know that. This was about me getting my time in with Elle. I would’ve paid whatever I had to just so I could get it.
“Gentlemen, I want to thank you for coming in and I look forward to receiving that information Thursday afternoon.”
I shook Loren’s hand, as my eyes looked back over at Elle. My eyes were apparently working on their own here, and obviously, it was being noticed by her.
“Until Thursday, Elle. Loren, it is always a pleasure.”
“Mr. McHale,” was her only response.
Kip and I walked to the elevators, and I waited until they closed to start my discussion. Loren standing there until they closed.
“You get it?”
Kip pulled out his cell. He had downloaded her entire address book from her cell to his own. I wasn’t sure if I needed those numbers or not, but I felt better having them.
“Awesome, anything else?”
“I got her email addresses too. I will email those to you when we get out to the car so that you can have them.”
“Brilliant.”
We rode the rest of the way in silence. I was lost in my world of Elle, and knowing Kip, he was in his world of cigarettes and whisky.
Just about that time, my cell rang. I was expecting it to be the office but when I looked down I saw who I was not wanting to explain shit to as of yet. I guess I didn’t have a choice.
“Hello.”
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing, McHale?” Rachel’s voice sounded concerned but to mask that she exposed her anger.
“Rach, so nice to hear from you.” I didn’t want to get into this with her right now, not in front of Kip and all of Richland. I just wanted to let her know that all was well, and she had nothing to worry about.
“Don’t bullshit me Trev. What. The. Fuck!”
I took a deep breath, and let it out.
“I’m getting her back, Rach. I can’t keep doing this. I see her everywhere, in my dreams, in visions, even while I’m fuckin’ other girls. Rach, she consumes me.”
It was quiet for a moment. “Ok first that was way too much info. You could’ve left the fuckin’ other skanks out, but my only question I have for you is - what the fuck took you so long?”
I smiled. A smile I hadn’t felt on my face in seventeen years. A smirk that made me realize that right there, in that building held the answer to healing who I was, who I had become and there was no way in hell I wasn’t going to fight and win back what was rightfully mine. Make everything that I had planned for us seventeen years ago a reality.
Chapter 10
It was evening, I had decided to go grab something for dinner and eat in, mentally exhausted from today’s events. Around eight, I jumped in the shower and headed to bed to catch up on some CNN. Shortly after laying my head down comfortably on the pillow, my cell phone started buzzing.
“This had better be important,” I challenged whoever it was calling my phone.
“Your buddy looks like he’s working a second job over here at Toppers, you wanna come check it out?” It was Kip and he was following Bear, I sprang up, adrenaline pumping.
“I’ll be there in ten - stay with ’em.”
I told Kip I’d be there in ten, I was there in eight. Jumping in his rental, we sat there watching on the side of the building four men and a woman meeting.
It was dark, but there was a light on the back of the alleyway which shown a trace of light right where the five of them were standing. Recognizing Bear instantly, he was bigger than he was in high school and when I say bigger, I don’t mean muscles. He looked as if he added an additional thirty pounds to his already stocky build.
All of the sudden, one of the men, a tall lengthy guy who I didn’t recognize grabbed the woman. Holding her as one of the other men began hitting her. One fist to the stomach, another to the face. It took the other two men to hold Bear off from attacking. Her cries and screams echoed in the alley, as she begged them to stop.
I went for the door handle, because I really didn’t give a shit who you were, no woman deserved to be treated like that. Kip grabbed a hold of me, halting my movement.
“Stop. Don’t you even fuckin’ think about going up there. Don’t do this, Trevor. I know why you’re doing what you’re doing, and if you go up there - you will blow everything! That person that is sacred to you and you know exactly who I’m talking about, will be dust in the wind if you go up there!”
He wasn’t asking me, he was ordering me not to go over there.
I stopped right where I was, not because he insisted I didn’t do it, but because he called me Trevor. He never called me by my first name, he always called me by my last. Kip was concerned and for that, I turned back around to watch how this all played out.
When I saw another man come out from the shadows, dressed to the ‘T’, the men dropped the woman to the ground. His suit had to cost as much as mine. He was not tall by any means, short in fact. His build was stocky, almost matching Bear’s build, but this guy was thinner. You could tell he was not one that got his hands dirty, he was either a manager or owner of the bar.
He went up to Bear, stopping to stand in front of him. Bear straightened up and puffed out his chest, like he wanted to show he wasn’t afraid of him. The man took his hat off, holding it out for one of the men to take it. Once one of them grabbed it, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a knife.
“What the fuck, Kip.”
I just knew we were going to witness a murder happen right before our eyes. The man in the alley flipped the knife open, rubbing it up the side of Bear’s face. The light catching on the metal blade of the knife.
Kip looking through binoculars, began narrating to me what was happening.
“You know that man?” He asked.
“Not that I can see,” I answered truthfully.
Suddenly, the man punched Bear once straight to the ribs. The men that were holding Bear, let him fall to the ground. After giving him a good beating, they began walking away. Not to the back of the club, but to the front.
“That’s it boys, come to the light,” Kip said in a Carol-Anne-Poltergeist impression.
As soon as they walked into the light my mouth dropped open. “Well I’ll be goddamned!”
Kip dropped his binoculars and turned towards me. “You know them?”
Tearing my eyes from the guys I looked at Kip, “Fedora, that’s Earnest. Earnest Ray.” I looked back out to the street, and just shook my head. “The other guy is Bear’s brother, Bubba Jackson.”
“Well, I’ll be dipped in shit and rolled in bread crumbs”
I couldn’t believe some of the sayings this man came up with. It was like he was King Redneck. “Fuckin’ really, Kip?”
My eyes went back over to Bear, who was now crawling over to the woman who didn’t seem to be moving at all. He picked her up and cradled her head. I couldn’t hear him talking, but could see by his actions, that he loved her.
His hand was brushing her hair up off of her face. I was fuming inside. I wanted to know what the fuck was going on and why. I went to get out of the car, and I heard Kip take a breath.
“Don’t go, never know if those men will come back.” Kip pleaded.” I have to go and at least talk to him.”
Kip took another breath, and I opened the door to head over across the street. It was really dark out now and I was wearing black, I didn’t think anyone was out to even wonder who I was.
Bear’s back was to me which made my arrival into this situation even better. He must’ve heard my shoes crunching on the loose asphalt, because his head flipped around as he flew up as fast as someone with broken ribs could.
If this didn’t feel like déjà vu, I don’t know what would. Here we were face to face, seventeen years later.
“Well - well, the prodigal son returns,” Bear stated as he wiped the blood from his cheek. I looked at him, and could still sense the envy and wariness all over him.
