JC made Tiny wait until Laurie had disappeared
through the doors of the airport before instructing him to drive to the gate
where he was to pick up Alexandria. He
actually felt that he would prefer facing a hungry lion rather than his wife. Not that there was much difference.
In addition to not wanting to see Alexandria, his
conscience was nagging at him for not telling Laurie that he would have company
this weekend. He thought he had a good
reason for not mentioning it – he didn’t want to spoil the remainder of their
time together.
“There she is,” Tiny commented. “I’ll go and help her with her luggage.”
Luggage? JC looked out the window of the SUV. It looked like Alexandria had packed enough
to clothe a small army. He just prayed
that his luck would hold out and that Alexandria would be leaving on Sunday
like she promised.
The back door opened and she slid into the seat
beside JC with a scowl on her face.
Tiny just shook his head and closed the door behind her and went to load
the luggage into the vehicle.
“You couldn’t have borrowed the hotel’s limo to
pick me up?” She huffed. “You know I
hate riding in these…” she gestured around the inside of the vehicle. “Things.”
“Because believe it or not Dria, I don’t have
control over who uses the limousine’s that belong to the hotel. You don’t have to drive and the Suburban has
working air conditioning, so just quit your bitching.”
Alexandria spent the entire ride to the hotel with
her arms folded across her chest and her head turned toward the window. Tiny exchanged a sympathetic look with JC in
the rearview mirror.
They arrived at the hotel with little fanfare and
Alexandria immediately stalked over to the elevator with JC behind her while
Tiny got help with her luggage. Chris and
Michelle were talking to Justin in the hallway when they walked by to get to
JC’s room. Michelle’s eyebrows shot up
and Chris immediately placed his hand over her mouth and watched as the couple
disappeared behind his door.
“What the hell is she doing here?” Michelle burst
out when Chris removed his hand.
“She looks like she’s put on some weight,” Justin
noted.
“She would never let that happen.” Michelle said
darkly. “She’s too into herself to even
think about eating.”
Silence fell over the three of them as they heard
yelling come from behind JC’s door.
Chris looked at his watch.
“That’s got to be some kind of a new record… they
haven’t even been in there for a minute yet.”
Michelle shook her head. “I’m going back to our room.
Are you coming?”
“No, I’m going to stay out here and listen to the
free entertainment for a while.” He grinned and grabbed Michelle’s arm as she
started to walk away. “Where’s my
kiss?”
“You don’t get one,” she grinned and he pulled her
closer.
“Please?” He asked, his eyes wide and innocent
looking.
Michelle placed her free hand on his cheek and gave
him a light kiss. “There. If you want more, you have to come back to
the room.”
“I’ll keep that under advisement.” He smirked and
watched her go into their room.
**********
Michelle’s cell phone rang the minute she walked
into her room and she dove for her purse.
She answered it on the last ring before it clicked over to her
voicemail.
“Hello?”
“Michelle?
How come you’re out of breath?” Laurie laughed. “I didn’t interrupt anything, did I?”
“No, I had to find my phone and I caught it on the
last ring. Chris is out in the hallway
talking to Justin.” She got comfortable in one of the overstuffed chairs. “How was the flight?”
“It was long… I hated it because I knew what was
waiting for me on this end.”
“Aww honey, I’m sorry… have you kicked him out
yet?”
“You’re so mean,” Laurie laughed and then got
serious. She lowered her voice. “I don’t know if I can do this, Shelle. Craig has been so nice to me since he picked
me up at the airport. He brought me an
armful of flowers – every kind you could imagine – and he even made dinner when
we got home. Lasagna. From scratch. Can you believe it?”
Michelle bit her lip to keep from saying
anything. She knew Laurie was fighting
a battle with her heart and she didn’t want to make it worse.
“I do want to be with Josh though,” Laurie
whispered. “And I will tell Craig. It’s just a matter of when.”
“Well I wish you the best, because the sooner you
tell him, the sooner you can come back and the sooner Alexandria can go home.”
There was a shocked silence.
“A-Alexandria’s… there?”
“Umm… Alexandria who?”
“Michelle.”
She cringed.
“I’m sorry Laur, I thought you knew.
JC came back with her from the airport.”
Laurie closed her eyes. She felt tears prick at the back of her lids. Her lungs suddenly constricted and it was
difficult to breathe.
“Laurie?
Are you there? I’m sorry really,
I…”
“He took me to the airport,” she said quietly. “He never takes me to the airport.”
“I’m sure he meant to tell you…”
“Yes,” Laurie said sadly. “It slipped his mind, I daresay.
I need to go…”
“Ok.
Listen… if you need to talk or anything, just call me. Anytime, day or night.”
“Thanks.” Laurie’s voice cracked. “Bye.”
Michelle felt
rage course through her veins as she put her phone away. She stormed across the hallway to JC’s room
and didn’t realize that she had forgot her keycard. She knocked on his door.
Hard.
“JC!” She yelled.
“Get your scrawny lil ass out here!”
Justin and Chris were in the same spot and Justin
snickered. Chris just watched with
interest. JC appeared at his door, his
face flushed with anger from his argument with Alexandria.
“What?”
“My room.
Now.”
“Ooo,” Justin whispered to Chris. “Your woman is getting kinky.”
Chris elbowed him in the ribs.
Michelle reached for the door to open it and
groaned. She walked up to Chris. “Can I use your keycard please? I left mine in the room.”
He pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to
her. “What’s going on?”
“I’ll explain later.” She kissed his cheek and
walked back to unlock the door. “In.”
JC meekly followed her instructions and the door
closed behind them.
“Thank God you got me out of there when you did… I
was ready to kill her.”
“Well by all means, don’t let me stop you. You can come back when you’re done.” She
couldn’t help but laugh.
JC gave her a look that told her it wasn’t going to
happen. Then he found a comfortable
chair to sit in. “So, what’s up?”
She walked up to him and placed one hand on either
side of him. “Would you like to tell me
why you didn’t tell Laurie that
Alexandria was coming for a visit this weekend? And don’t even think about telling me that it was a surprise
because you came back from the airport with her after you dropped off Laurie.”
“Umm…”
“She obviously got home all right, I was just
talking to her. She was telling me how
Craig had an armful of flowers when he picked her up at the airport and how
they ate homemade Lasagna when they got home.”
“Wait, back up.” JC interrupted. “You told Laurie that Alexandria is here?”
“Don’t you dare even think of blaming this on me,”
she hissed. “I had just mentioned that
the sooner she talks to Craig, the sooner she could come back and the sooner
Alexandria could go home. Now why
didn’t YOU tell her JC?”
“Because I didn’t want to ruin our time together.”
He said defiantly. “I wanted her to be
happy while she was with me.”
“And because of that, she’s now miserable. She thinks the only reason you took her to
the airport was because you had to pick Alexandria up.”
JC lowered his head. “Actually…”
She closed her eyes and counted to ten. “I can’t believe you.”
“Michelle…”
She opened her eyes. “Laurie LOVES you. I
don’t know why, but she does. Do you
realize how much harder it’s going to be for her to ask Craig for a divorce
knowing that your WIFE is here?”
“She decided?” His head snapped up.
“Yeah. A
few days ago… fancy that, huh? She
flies out to LA to ask her husband for a divorce and you invite your wife as soon
as she’s made the plans.”
“It wasn’t like that… Alexandria invited herself
out. I’ve been putting her off for
weeks so that I could spend time with Laurie.
I couldn’t say no without arousing more suspicion. Do you think I actually want her here?”
Michelle just looked at him.
“I don’t. I
hate that she’s here. Maybe I should
have told Laurie, but I thought my reasons for not telling her were pretty
good.”
“You need to talk to her.”
“Can I use the phone in here?”
“Yeah.”
Michelle grabbed both keycards and left the room to
give JC some privacy. Chris, Justin and
Joey jumped back when the door opened.
“How much did you hear?” She glared at them.
“Umm…” Chris looked guilty. “Most of it… your voice tends to carry when
you get mad.”
“You’re all rotten.” She laughed and gave Chris his
keycard.
**********
JC dialed Laurie’s numbers with an unsteady
hand. Craig answered the phone. Shit.
“May I speak to Laurie please?” He asked as calmly
as he could.
“Can I tell her who’s calling?”
“It’s Chris.”
“I’m sorry, who?”
“Chris… I’m her boss at FuMan Skeeto.”
“Oh yes… just a moment please.” Craig placed the
call on hold and walked to the living room where Laurie was checking her
email. “Sweetheart, it’s for you. It’s Chris.” He kissed the top of her head and walked away.
Laurie reached for the phone. “Hi Chris… I’m surprised to hear from you so
soon.”
“It’s not Chris,” JC said quickly. “I didn’t know who else I should say I was.”
Laurie bit her lip and felt fresh tears. “I can’t talk right now, Josh.”
“Laurie please.
I know you know that Alexandria is here and I’m sorry that I didn’t tell
you. I wanted our last few days
together to be as problem free as possible.”
She looked up when she heard a noise. Craig had reappeared and was standing in the
doorway.
“That’s a great idea Chris. I’ll make a note of that and see what
information I can find.”
JC got the hint.
“I love you.”
“Ok. Bye
Chris.”