Fiction: A Stranger in A Bar part 5
Here is the next chapter...
Title: A Stranger In A Bar
Chapter: 5
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Ashlee typed his name into the search engine quickly before she lost her nerve or came up with one of the millions of reasons she shouldn’t and let her finger hover over the enter button on her laptop. Shayne had been consuming her thoughts more and more this past weekend since their conversation in the park. Part of her wondered if it was her mind’s way of exorcising the images of Beth and Coop, and really just her ex in general, from her thoughts. She dropped her head down, closing her eyes and pushed back from her desk. Ashlee had been doing so well. Coop had only entered her brain about forty percent of the time. That was a freaking miracle compared to before she met Shayne. Before Shayne she was obsessing about her ex at least seventy percent of the time. The other thirty percent was divided between sleep, Doris, Daisy’s drama of the week (aka: get her the hell away from Grady), her video blog and work.
She had her whole day mapped around his or what she thought Coop’s day would be like. She would think hard about where she thought he would be so that she could avoid that place at that time. Ashlee looked back at her computer; the curser was blinking in the search box next to Shayne’s name. It frustrated her that so much about him was a mystery and yet he kept managing to find out things about her. It wouldn’t surprise her if the next time they ran into each other, and she knew they would run into each other again, he knew about her stint in Juvenile Hall. She smiled briefly to herself, ‘Well that would certainly shatter his idea that I’m innocent and pure.’ Ashlee gnawed at her bottom lip, ‘Although my run-ins with the wrong side of the law didn’t stop Coop from thinking about me as an innocent soul.’
She let out a groan of annoyance. Her phone buzzed in her purse under her desk. She looked up to the heavens thankful for the distraction from her own circling thoughts. She dug through the bag and found the small metal object. Daisy’s name filled the screen; Ashlee debated if she should let the call go to voice mail. Shaking her head, she pressed the connect button. “Hello,” she answered.
“Hey Ashlee,” Daisy sounded cheerful which instantly put her on edge. Whenever she was cheerful it usually had to do with Grady. Ashlee frowned deeply. “I was wondering if you would like to meet for lunch. I’m going crazy here and need to get out of the house for a bit. Marina is acting slightly more psycho than normal.”
Despite herself, Ashlee grinned at that. Marina has been a little off balance lately. For some reason, Marina was convinced Mallet was going to leave her for Dinah. Ashlee couldn’t say the thoughts were completely unfounded, anyone that knew Mallet and Dinah’s history would be concerned, but the more she stressed about it, the more everyone around her wanted to smack her upside the head. Or at least that’s what Daisy wanted to do. She sat back down at her desk and erased Shayne’s name from her search engine box. “Yeah,” she nodded to herself. “Meeting for lunch sounds like a great idea. Where do you want to go?”
“Um,” Daisy paused. “How about we go to Company?” Ashlee opened her mouth to tell her that was a bad idea. Coop/Beth kiss number two that she witnessed was near there and she was still having trouble getting over that. Ever since that day she has stayed as far away from the restaurant as possible. The last thing she wanted was to run into them again. Even if his family wasn’t exactly jumping for joy over their relationship the chance was still high that Beth and Coop could be there together. The silence wasn’t lost on Daisy and she sighed. “He won’t be there. He had a student/teacher conference at school. And Beth isn’t really welcome right now, so I doubt she will be there either.”
“Okay,” she dragged the word out way past its two syllables. “When do you want to meet up?” A knock sounded at her office door and she turned toward the panel. “Come in,” she called out.
“In about an hour,” Daisy answered her question.
“Sounds like a plan,” Ashlee turned her head so that her shoulder was supporting the phone and her hands were free to do some actual work. “I’ll meet you there in an hour. Okay, see you then, bye.” The door to her office opened as she finished her conversation with Daisy and Cory looked at her briefly. Ashlee opened her mouth to say something to him. The tension between them was awkward at best and really sad at its worse. Cory averted his eyes from hers, a clear sign that he wasn’t in the mood to hear her apologize for the millionth time about how she broke up with him. He dropped a file on her desk and walked out of the space as fast as he could. She closed her eyes. She really hadn’t meant to hurt him. Rubbing her forehead, Ashlee sighed. ‘Yeah, I’m really innocent.’
//\\
Shayne swung the hammer onto the nail with more force than was necessary to drive it into the board. His father was desperate to get him out of the house and Shayne jumped at the chance to do something physical. He needed to unleash all the anger and pain he has been carrying around with him. His dad has been walking on eggshells whenever they were in the same room. Shayne stood up straight and put the hammer down. Memories of the night before slammed into him like a punch to the gut. It was another night of nightmares. Another night of waking up in a cold sweat and not knowing where he was. Another night of fighting the grief and anger over his past. Another night of screams ringing in his head.
He pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and searched for the picture that was hidden deep in one of the slips. Shayne sighed, finding the sickness that he always felt when he looked at this photo rise in his chest. The woman in the snapshot looked so happy. Marie looked like she had the world by a string. She had a life that most people have only dreamed of. A husband and a young son that made her life complete. Charles smiled toothless at the camera. He was only six months when this picture was taken.
So much happiness reflected in their eyes. So much love and it was destroyed because of him. He shoved the picture back in his wallet and the wallet back in his pocket. He walked over to where his thermos was filled with hot coffee. Pulling his leather gloves off with his teeth, he picked up the ugly green container. He unscrewed the top and filled it up with the steaming liquid. Shayne held the cup up to his lips and looked out the half finished wall of the building Lewis Construction was putting up.
His family’s business has been slow. His father tried to keep that from him, but the worry lines around his mouth and eyes were hard to ignore. Josh spent long hours holed up in his office trying to come up with work and money so that he wouldn’t have to fire any of his employees. That stress, plus the added strain of his mother’s cancer coming back and Shayne’s own issues has aged his father right in front of him. He hated that he caused that kind of pain. Shayne was getting used to it, but it still bugged him.
He has thought about just leaving. Disappearing again and letting his family get their bearings back without him. He thought about it, but always stopped before anything was put into action. He stopped because he wanted to be around his family. He needed that connection right now. He needed them and he was selfish enough to stay even as damaged as he is. Shayne drained the cup of coffee and looked down at the concrete between his steel toed boots. He also wanted to see Ashlee again.
The side of his mouth pulled up in a half smile. She hasn’t been too far from his thoughts in the past couple days since he saw her last. He even went as far as to ask his father and other people in his family about her. The other half of Shayne’s mouth came up in a grin. It was amazing how much stuff the people in this town knew about Ashlee Wolfe. He found out that she shot Alan, the day he married her mother. That she spent time in prison with his niece. She threw an election to stop her mother from taking over as mayor. And almost went back to prison for that crime.
He shook his head in wonder. She was right about him. He had misjudged her completely that first night they met. Ashlee wasn’t as innocent as he originally thought, but somehow she still seemed unmarred to him. Putting the cup back on the thermos, he walked back to the board he was nailing together and pulled another nail from his work belt. Ashlee still felt completely clean of sin. Shayne wished he could feel the same about himself.
Shayne wiped a cool line of sweat from his brow. He did feel like that with her though. It was like with her the bad part of him, the part of him that was black from the past went dormant. Ashlee was able to bring out the Shayne he was before all hell broke loose around him. When she was under him in the snow, kissing him senseless, throwing snowballs at his head, fighting with him… during those times he felt like there was still life left inside of him. He felt alive.
He spent the next couple of minutes finishing up the framing of the wall. He was so lost in his thoughts about Ashlee and what he wanted, but couldn’t have with her, he never heard his brother walk up behind him. “Shayne,” Dylan called.
Shayne spun around and pushing the hammer into the work belt, so that it hung at his side. “Yeah,” he wiped his brow again. “What’s up?”
“What’s up?” Dylan smiled. “It’s lunch time. Actually it’s past lunch time. Haven’t you noticed everyone else left?” Shayne looked around him and realized that his older brother was telling the truth. They were the only two left on the job site. “I’m going to head to Company for a Buzz burger then go see mom. I was wondering if you wanted to come with me.”
“Yeah,” Shayne nodded. “Taking a break sounds like a good idea. And I’ve wanted to see mom.” He pulled his knitted cap lower on his head to block the wind that was hitting the back of his neck. It amazed him how he hadn’t felt the cold until now. “Have you seen her recently?”
“Have you,” Dylan asked, rubbing his hands together to generate some needed warmth. Shayne looked away. “I didn’t think you had.”
Shayne paced in front of Dylan, anxiety racing, rushing through his veins. “Don’t start in on me, Dylan. I don’t need my older brother trying to figure me out.” His mind flashed to Ashlee. “I have enough people trying to do that already.”
Dylan nodded, “Okay. I won’t say anything to you about it.”
“Thank you,” Shayne breathed in relief.
“Right now,” Dylan continued talking over him. “But Shayne this family isn’t going to let you bury yourself in work forever. Eventually you are going to have to deal with whatever it is that is tearing you up inside.” He held Shayne shoulder and squeezed. “You can tell us anything.”
Shayne nodded. Dylan slapped him on the back and they walked toward his brother’s truck. Shayne climbed in after he removed the work belt from his hips. He looked out the window as Dylan drove through Springfield. His brother’s words mixed with Ashlee’s in his head.
//\\
Ashlee poked her salad with her fork and rested her head in her upturned hand. She fought against the sigh that was dying to escape. She should have known that the lunch with Daisy would end up being about Grady. Wasn’t all their conversations like that? She tuned out her friend as she tried to convince Ashlee that she was wrong about Grady. ‘He loves me. He is only misunderstood. Grady is really a wonderful guy once you get to know him. Once you get to know the real him.’ Ashlee could have this conversation without Daisy now.
It’s always the same. She stabbed a tomato on her plate and thought, ‘Grady is to misunderstood what a cobra is to friendly. I think I’d take my chances with the cobra before Grady.’ Ashlee dropped her arm down and laid her fork on the plate. She really loved Daisy’s friendship, but damn she was sick of this constant me, me, me crap. Daisy hasn’t even asked her about her break up with Cory yet.
Did she even know that Ashlee was going through some stuff as well? She felt some anger build at her friend’s lack of caring. When was the time that they talked about Ashlee? She frowned, that made her sound horrible. Daisy needed a sounding board and that’s what she was. It’s just she could use a sounding board too. She could use someone to talk with about Shayne. Ashlee sat up straighter in her chair. Daisy was related to him!
“Um,” Ashlee interrupted Daisy’s Grady is great monologue. Her friend looked at her in surprise. “I was wondering if you could tell me about Shayne. Your other half uncle. By the way you are related to everyone it seems.”
“Tell me about it,” Daisy muttered. She took a sip of her tea before continuing. “Why do you want to know about him?”
Ashlee shrugged. “I’ve just ran into him a couple of times and wanted to know what he was like.” She held her glass of water in one hand and twirled the straw with the other. “He is interesting to me and I haven’t heard much about him from anyone.” She paused. “Is he like the black sheep of the family or something?”
“No,” her friend sighed. “I think I have that covered. Shayne and I weren’t real close. The last time he was in town I was busy with the Spaulding’s. That’s when my adopted dad was married to…” Daisy stopped and looked at Ashlee, fear written in her friend’s brown eyes.
“He was married to Beth,” Ashlee finished. “You can say her name. I might not be able to handle seeing her and thinking about her and Coop makes me a little sick, but she was a part of your life. You can’t block that out to be a good friend to me.”
“I’m just sorry that Coop is being so,” Daisy blew out a breath. “Anyway, Shayne… um, I know that he dated Marina for a while. I think that was his first love.”
“Really,” Ashlee nearly spit her drink out.
“Yeah,” she nodded. “They were pretty into each other. In fact he nearly died saving her from an ex boyfriend that ended up being a serial killer.” At this Ashlee did spit her drink out. “Crazy, huh,” Daisy shook her head and Ashlee silently agreed. “He left a couple of years ago and went to Iraq.” Her eyebrows came together and her brown eyes narrowed. “I think something happened over there. Josh went to find him a couple of months ago because he disappeared. It was really bad, I guess. At one point Reva and Josh thought he was dead.”
Ashlee sobered. “That explains a lot,” she muttered to herself.
“What?” Daisy asked.
“Nothing,” she shook her head and smiled tightly at her friend. “I just think that is horrible. It sounds like he has been through a lot.”
Daisy looked past Ashlee and nodded. “His ears must have been burning because there he is now.”
Ashlee turned in her seat and their eyes connected. She raised her hand slightly and waved. He smiled at her and waved back. Ashlee felt like her heart was about to pound out of her chest.
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