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The fact that it was the woman he suddenly couldn’t imagine being without made it even more heartbreaking. Xavier went back to his bike and started it up, the weight of the machine a mirror to his own feelings. If she wanted to never speak to him again, fine. He would grant her wish. After, that was, he found out why.
He had to know how he’d failed, how he’d lost her. If he didn’t at least know that, he just knew that this feeling would tear him up inside.
What about him wasn’t good enough for her?
“You have a good day today, all right?” John said before kissing her.
Aimee was pressed against his chest as he held her in his arms. When she smiled up at him, it was the same smile she had for the last few years. He didn’t care if it was genuine or not, he just wanted her to smile. If she wasn’t feeling happy, he wanted her to at least pretend for him. To John, that’s how a person showed they cared. “Quit being such a downer all the time,” he’d say.
So she smiled, and he smiled back. After another small kiss, he turned her around and gave her a slap on the ass as she went up the steps to the café. The slap jiggled her butt and unsettled her on the inside. She hated it when he did that. It wasn’t done for a joke, it was a claiming of property.
Aimee looked over her shoulder and smiled at him again before going back into the café. The moment she crossed that threshold and knew he was gone, she deflated.
After her date with Xavier, John showed up on her doorstep that night asking a dozen questions. Where was she? Where had she gone? He’d messaged her, stopped by her house, the café, and she was nowhere to be found. Was she avoiding him? Xavier was nice, but John was terrifying.
She had to quickly make up excuses as to where she’d went off to, and had to take the next day off just so she could spend the afternoon with him. It was depressing to be shoved back into the life in the heat and the dust after such a glittering evening with someone that treated her like a princess, but she had to accept it. This was reality. This was her reality. She’d probably end up marrying John simply for the fact that she was too scared not to.
If she left, he’d just find her. Left. The word made her laugh bitterly on the inside. She’d never get a chance to leave again. She worked her shift and after a few hours got the shock of her life.
The sound of a motorcycle.
Was that him? Why was he here? If John saw, she didn’t know what he’d do. It was hard enough to convince him nothing was going on, but she knew he’d be hanging around town waiting for her to get off work. He was watching her and she couldn’t risk anything setting him off. The front door of the cage was a large pane of glass in a wooden frame. As Xavier came up the steps, she saw his helmeted head first, then step by step, the rest of him came into view.
It was like a mix between a horror movie and a romance. She was filled with such happiness at seeing him, knowing he existed, but at the same time she knew that his very presence meant a lot of very bad things for her if John were to find out. There wasn’t a choice to be made, she had to get rid of him.
Xavier bumped open the door with his hip as he removed his helmet. When he saw her, she saw the light brighten in his face, but he did his best to keep it controlled.
“What are you doing here?” she asked him pointedly.
“I called.”
“I didn’t answer.” It wasn’t a lie. John had taken her phone. Fortunately, she foresaw such a thing taking place, and deleted Xavier’s contact information before it happened.
“I don’t get it,” Xavier said. “I thought we had a good time.”
“We did. We did have a good time, and then the good time was over. Did. Now it’s a new time, and you need to go.”
“Go.” Xavier looked totally thrown off. She could see him trying to find something to say, but she caught him off guard. “What did I do wrong?” Then, all at once, his face twisted. All of the pain and sadness took on a far more angry tone. “You know what, forget it. Have fun in your little town.”
Aimee died inside. When he turned and stormed from the café, she wanted to call out to him, to say his name and have him come back.
She wanted to feel his arms again, and smell his skin. Her lips remained sealed. They had to. She had to. What he offered her was a fantasy, a dreamland. A place she didn’t belong. This was all she was worth and she couldn’t let herself believe otherwise. She’d just be setting herself up for disappointment and anguish.
That didn’t make it hurt any less.
Xavier walked into the bank of Aimee’s tiny little town wearing his full business attire. He put on the suit, the shoes worth more than the bank clerk’s year salary, the cufflinks worth an inheritance.
He was done pretending. After a few days of research, Xavier uncovered that the entire core of the town was the bank. Control that, and he controlled the town. So he walked in with every intention of owning said bank. He could’ve called. He could’ve sent in his small army of lawyers and accountants to explain to the little people exactly why and how they could do nothing to stop him.
This he wanted to do himself. He wanted to experience the joy of winning.
After, once he owned the bank, he would sell the town off piece by piece to the highest bidder. A small outpost of a place like this, he could think of a dozen corporations that would kill to get in on the desolation market. This far out from competitors, they could do whatever they wanted. It was like the Wild West.
Then, as Aimee’s little nothing town disappeared, she would know how much she’d hurt him. The meeting went the same as a hundred others. There was blubbering, phone calls to lawyers, research, but in the end they knew they didn’t have a choice. There were no options. All of the grasping at straws they were doing now had already been foreseen by Xavier, and he’d taken every precaution against anything going awry. Business was his territory, and he was ruler of the plane.
He walked out of the bank satisfied. The first step in a new venture taken. He eyed the café as he left and wondered if Aimee worked today, if she was watching. Let her watch. Let her watch as her entire world fell around her. He stepped into the limo parked on the street and headed back to the city feeling well satisfied with himself.
It took every ounce of self-control and not a small amount of alcohol to keep out the small voice in his head saying this was wrong. He didn’t even remember the night passing.
