Chapter Twenty - Strangetown
Content warning: This story contains mature themes and is not suitable for minors. For this chapter, sexual references, references to violence and pixelated blood.
Ajay’s Bar and Grill, Strangetown
Ajay couldn’t help but grin when Lola came through the door, “you’re here,” he said excitedly taking her hands in his.
In a few hours Ajay’s Bar and Grill would open its doors for the first time. Ajay had been surprised by the success of his first venture and had begun considering serving bar meals when the opportunity to move to a larger site became available. Lola had encouraged him not only to make the move but instead of simply serving bar meals, utilising the space as a restaurant.
“Of course I’m here,” she replied. Sometimes her boyfriend could be so odd; there were times he acted as if he didn’t quite believe she was there, as if he expected her to suddenly disappear. She wondered if he knew just how much she loved him, and how hard it would be for her ever to leave his side.
“What do you think,” he asked eagerly. It was the first time she had seen the finished venue.
“I don’t know yet,” she laughed, “I haven’t had a chance to look!”
Ajay returned her laugh and lead her further inside as he explained the set up, “so this space usually holds another couple of tables but for the opening we’re going to have platters of appetizers and entrées from the menu for people to help themselves to.”
“What about drinks?” Lola queried.
“There’ll be complimentary wine and soft drink, but I’ll have someone working the bar in case anyone really wants something else enough they want to pay for it.”
Lola couldn’t help but be excited for her boyfriend and his new business, “did you end up hiring the chef you really wanted?”
“Yes. He used to run a bakery with his mother in Bluewater Village but when his mother went into a retirement home the business was closed. He does keep on hitting on the waitresses but he’s very talented,” Ajay told her.
“I’ll make sure to find someone to represent you when you have a sexual harassment case on your hands,” Lola replied wryly.
“I knew I could rely on you,” he replied with a smile.
“I do my best.”
“You didn’t tell me what you think of the interior,” he reminded her.
“I really like it,” she replied honestly. “It has a bit of a western vibe to it actually, I feel like you should be an outlaw on the run or something.”
Lola may have been speaking in jest, but the truth was Ajay was an outlaw on the run. He’d argued with himself constantly about whether he should tell her the truth, he knew he didn’t deserve the happiness she brought into his life, he reminded himself of that daily. But at some point he had stopped focusing on what he would miss out on without his beautiful, gentle Lola in his life and began to fear what unhappiness the truth would bring to her.
Yet if he was ever going to tell her, wasn’t this the moment? He loved her enough to want to be truly honest with her but he also loved her too much to ever intentionally hurt her. It wasn’t exactly as if he could ask her if she wanted to hear the truth.
Her voice pulled him from his thoughts, “Ajay, you look a million miles away. Are you okay?”
He paused, “if I was an outlaw on the run would you want to know?” he finally asked, his heart beating so wildly in his chest he could hear it.
Lola couldn’t help but be perplexed by her boyfriends’ odd question, but the sincerity on Ajay’s face told her he really wanted an answer to the question.
And the truth was, even though as a lawyer she would demand the truth, as a person, she wouldn’t want to hear anything that could destroy what she and Ajay had. It wasn’t any secret she and her sister had had to cope with feeling unaccepted and unwanted for nearly all their lives. But Ajay not only treated her like she was his entire world, but respected her and her opinions and treated her as an equal. And she couldn’t help but be thrilled every time she saw him and his eyes would light up as if she was bringing light to what had been a dark dark life.
As she thought about the joy Ajay had brought to her she couldn’t help but smile broadly. “No,” she told him, “I wouldn’t.”
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“Since Nervous is looking after Luke, we should head Downtown after this. You desperately need my help to get laid,” Lazlo told his brother.
Pascal sighed, “I don’t suppose you could focus your attention on your own love life,” he asked dryly.
“At least I’ve had one to speak of. It’s getting serious dear brother, your last sexual experience didn’t even happen on this planet.”
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“Okay, what’s wrong,” Kent asked Bianca as they approached the restaurant.
“It just doesn’t feel right to be attending a restaurant opening while we leave our son behind,” Bianca explained, not even surprised Kent had noticed how uneasy she was.
“It’s not like we’ve left him alone Bianca. He’s being looked after by Jessica, who not only has both our mobile numbers but is just across the road,” Kent reminded her.
“Maybe I’m just not ready to leave him yet,” she suggested.
Kent considered his best friend carefully. He knew she adored every moment she spent with their son, even if he was screaming to be let out of his crib or playing in the toilet, but he couldn’t help feel there was another reason behind her distress.
He was about to argue that not only was she ready but that they deserved a night out together, after all it was the first time they had been since their son had been born, when the answer occurred to him. It was also really the first time they had been out since the night their son was conceived.
“No,” he said gently, “I think you’re thinking about the time we went out and everything we knew was taken from us.”
Bianca was silent for a moment and offered Kent a weak smile, “I wasn’t on purpose.”
“I know,” he assured her, “but we left that all far behind us remember? I don’t want to live in the past, and definitely not that past, and I’m pretty sure you don’t want to either.”
“How is it you always know what to say?”
Kent smiled broadly, “I’m just that good.”
Bianca put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes, “I think we better go in before your ego gets so big your head won’t fit through the door.”
Kent laughed and followed her inside.
They were greeted at the door by the proprietor who introduced himself as Ajay. Kent returned the handshake, “I’m Kent Capp.”
Kent thought he saw the man before him pause in concentration for a moment but it quickly passed as Ajay turned towards Bianca, “and are you Mrs Capp?” he asked politely.
“No, we’re just friends,” she explained, “my name’s Bianca, Bianca Monty.”
Their host suddenly paled before mumbling what sounded like an apology before leaving so fast that Kent couldn’t help but watch him with suspicion. Bianca on the other hand looked on bemused, “maybe he has a fear of single women.”
Kent, who was focused on Ajay’s hurried retreat, only hummed in reply.
“Well I hope it’s that and not me!” she joked.
Before Kent could respond, Lazlo, who had heard the remark turned towards her, “on behalf of the straight male population, I would like to assure you, it couldn’t possibly be you.”
Bianca almost blushed, “um, thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he said with a smile, “I’m Lazlo and this is my brother Pascal. I’m afraid he only got the brains of the family, whereas I was lucky enough to get the brains and the looks.”
“He didn’t inherit any decorum though unfortunately,” Pascal advised.
Kent and Bianca introduced themselves and soon the four were engrossed so deeply in conversation with each other that they had forgotten Ajay’s odd behaviour.
Ajay’s girlfriend on the other hand hadn’t, and after several minutes had passed, excused herself from her conversation to find him.
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Ajay struggled to get his erratic heartbeat and breathing under control as he fought the panic that coursed through him. The name Capp had seemed familiar to him but it was the name Monty that absolutely haunted him. He wished he could say it was only a response to his guilt for what he’d done, and for the images that haunted him the very worse, but truthfully, he knew it wasn’t.
This was his body responding to what it perceived as a direct threat. The woman who had just walked into his place of business was the ‘maybe eight’ of the last orders he had ever taken. She was the person who would be pushing the police to continue an investigation. She was the person who could cause his past to come to light. She was the person that would cause him to lose Lola.
It had only been mere hours ago that he had asked his girlfriend today if she would want to know if he was ‘an outlaw on the run’. Then it hadn’t occurred to him that it might be someone else that told her; he had felt security believing the only other party involved was the very same who had ordered the killings in the first place.
So caught up in his own thoughts he hadn’t even heard Lola approach, it was only her gentle touch that brought his mind to the present. “You ran out of there so fast, are you okay?” she asked.
He turned around and faced his girlfriend, after a moment’s silence he spoke, “today you said you wouldn’t want to hear if I had a past. Did you really mean that?”
So caught up with her concern for her boyfriend, Lola ignored the nagging unease she felt. She reasoned she had never had any reason to doubt him before, and that although his behaviour was disconcerting, she trusted him. And it made her heart ache to see the man she loved appear so uncertain. “Ajay, when do I ever say things I don’t mean?” she asked. “I love you, now. Isn’t that what’s important?”
“Your right,” he agreed as he took her hands in his. “It is the now that’s important. And believe me when I tell you I want to be with you now, and every day from now.”
“I want that too,” Lola told him, “more than anything.”
“Then marry me Lola. I know this isn’t exactly the most romantic wedding proposal but I don’t just want the rest of my life to be with you, I need it to be.”
Her answer gave him peace he had thought he would never feel again.