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“Marcus, you are my hero,” I say in a loud and excited voice. My phone rings from my purse on the floor. Pulling it out, I see it’s Charlie calling. My dear sweet friend who is so shy and possibly the opposite of me. From the first day we met I’ve never met a girl more my soulmate then her and I know whenever I can’t talk to Marcus, she’s always got my back.
“Hello, Charlie Brown.”
“Lyla! Thank you for finally answering your phone! I’ve been so worried. Marcus ran out of here so fast you’d think a woman was chasing him.” She laughs. Clearly, Marcus called her and told her what’s up or she wouldn’t be joking.
“That would have been funny to watch, had that actually been the reason he left.” I sigh.
“He called and told me everything last night. I’m so sorry, Lyla. I can’t believe this is all happening. It’s not fair. You didn’t do anything wrong,” Charlie says in her quiet little voice.
“I know that, and you and M know that, but the United States government is still undecided. Luckily, it does seem like I might have a detective on my side, so hopefully I can still escape to Cali like Marcus was just telling me he agreed to. Apparently, I’m going to be Marcus’ bitch, but if he can save me from this shitshow, I’ll be his wingman for the rest of his boner-filled days. I will single-handedly fill his pussy calendar with more ladies than even he will know what to do with.” I laugh as I see Marcus smirk and shake his head at me. Charlie’s laughing hard through the phone.
“Hey, don’t pee your pants now, Charlie. And don’t worry about me. I’m finally coming back home, and it’ll be a great fresh start. I’m innocent and I know Detective Graves will prove it and everything will be fine.”
“I know, Wonder Woman; I can’t wait to see you,” Charlie says in a low, sad tone.
“Me too, boo. I’ll call you when we land. I heard we are flying out of here at four p.m. but have no idea of an arrival time,” I say, looking at Marcus.
“Around nine, but tell her my car is at the airport, so we don’t need a ride.”
“I heard him, Lyla. No worries. I’ll bring breakfast by his place tomorrow. I love you both; please be safe.”
“Okay. Love you. Bye,” I reply
“Bye”
As her call ends my phone’s screen goes back to home and shows I’ve missed exactly seventy-eight calls and over a hundred text messages. Time to get a new phone number, I think.
“Eat up. We got shit to do, kid,” Marcus says, then stuffs his face with a bacon. A newspaper sits on the edge of the cart, and I grab it, mindlessly shoving my own breakfast in my mouth. It feels like days of my life have disappeared seeing the date. I left for work at ten forty-five a.m. Wednesday morning. That was three days ago, and now everything is different. I drop my fork to the table as soon as I see my own photo on the bottom of the front page.
“Are you fucking kidding me right now,” I whisper to myself, but Marcus looks over with an arched brow and ketchup on his cheek. I laugh a little despite my rising worry over the Chicago Post. He grabs it from my hands before I can start to read the article.
“You really don’t need to be reading that shit. Let’s talk about something totally different. Did you master that sauce you were perfecting?”
“The caviar sauces. Yeah, I did. It was a hit. Not that it matters now,” I say with a wink. “I appreciate everything you’re trying to do, Marcus, really, but I don’t even know how to do small talk right now. I loved cooking but if that paper says anything at all about what’s going on right now, I’m ruined from ever being a high-profile chef again; hell, I may never be hired as a chef again. In any sense,” I say out loud, just now realizing how truly fucked I am.
“I know but reading the hate won’t help either. You are an amazing chef. The best in the entire world, so I know you’ll get back the reputation that’s hurting right now and be better than ever. We just have to wait it out and start over.”
I roll my eyes at his pep talk not ready to consider ever having that life back.
“So how is Harmony doing?” I ask changing the subject.
“Great. Little genius in her own right. Excelling in everything she sets her mind too but that’s no surprise with a mom like Grace.”
“That’s true there’s no way she got any smarts from your dumb ass.”
His face is comical as he looks at me in disbelief.
“Okay, joking aside, I’m glad I could be here to bust you out of jail and bring you home. It’s not the same without you, and I know Charlie would agree. I can’t imagine how you’re feeling, but I know you’re stubborn as shit and you’ll get your game back. Now finish your damn burger so I can take you shopping ’cause until further notice, your ass ain't got no clothes. Graves said when he can, he’ll help arrange for some of your things to be shipped.”
“Some of my things. Except anything of value. Yeah, he told me that too.” I say softly, looking at the ground so he can’t see how utterly embarrassed I am. “I’ll just jump in the shower and then follow your lead in all this. I’m so grateful, Marcus. This is super hard for me to accept, but I’m really lucky to have you.”
“Hey, don’t make this mushy. You loaned me a substantial amount of money just last year. In which you have not allowed me to start paying back yet, so I see this is the perfect time to start.”
I don’t look at him. The money I gave him was not an investment or a loan, and it doesn’t make this feel any better.
“Come on, babe, it’ll be fun. You can torture me with all the girly shit you want.”
I nod, then walk into his open arms for a hug and head for the shower.
The hot water pelts my skin and I love it. It’s so hot it hurts but at least it’s a pain I can control. My emotions have been mostly anger. It’s hard to see Marcus and not feel like a failure. He had to come save me like some poor little helpless girl that I have fought my entire life not to be. I thought I had it all. Top of my food game, celebrities and socialites eating out of the palm of my hand…not literally but still awesome.
Now I’m starting all over from scratch. Find a new passion. Ha, what a joke. I’ll now be settling for any job that will hire me and live out the rest of my lonely days with lots of cats. Fuck, I hate cats. Come to think of it, I’ll actually be less lonely with Marcus and Charlie around. As devastated as I am at the moment, I’m kind of excited to go back to Cali. Get a tan, maybe get a new hobby. Get laid. Bahahahaha the thought makes me laugh because I’ve never been the kind of girl to just go hook up with a stranger. The one time I let it happen was a low point in my life when I tried to say goodbye to my mom, and she wouldn’t meet me. I had felt lonely but hated every minute of being with the guy. It’s been longer than I would ever admit since I’ve action been with anyone, but I’ve been nonstop busy for the last six years, and the one date I did manage to go out on, the douchebag got so drunk he threw up all over my lap as he tried to lift my skirt in the back of the taxi he insisted we share so he could safely see me home. So yeah, not a fan of dating, but I really do not want to end up a hateful, lonely old hag who doesn’t even like cats.
As we makeour way to our seats on American Airlines, I glance out the window of my first-class seat and wait for Marcus to join me. Outside its almost pitch black, just a few red, blue and gold lights scattered across the hill and twinkling on the tarmac. Since we’re catching another red eye, we are both exhausted and not looking forward to the drive from Los Angeles to San Diego.
“I’ll check in with Cole again when we’re almost home. Don’t worry he won’t bother you. He’s a great guy, we’ve become close over this last year, you’ll like him. His office is at our place but since he’s in real estate he’s always out on a job site. I’ll be in the studio all day every day and home late but feel free to come see us anytime. Charlie lives there in a small one bedroom which I would offer to you too if we weren’t currently still building more around hers.”
“No worries. I’m grateful for everything Marcus.”
But as simple as my answer is my mind drifts to Cole. A stranger I’ll have to live with. I know Marcus says he’s cool so I try to focus on that and not think of all the strange men my mother used to bring home. I’m a quiet person, always have been. I have very few friends, but I keep them close in a inner circle and have no plans of letting in anyone else.
