The Reynolds/Bradshaw Connection - Chapter 11: Mending Fences
The Reynolds/Bradshaw Connection
Muchos gracias, mi amigo. *Announcer Voice* This chapter's thank you to Keaira has been brought to you by the Spanish Language.
So you all think Chastity’s the one with the plan, right? Maybe someone’s behind the scenes, pulling the strings. Or maybe not…I guess we’ll find out sooner or later.
Just a note, the first POV is a couple days before any other parts.
Opening lyrics come from Foo Fighters’ Up In Arms; end lyrics belong to Keane’s We Might As Well Be Strangers
Chapter 11: Mending Fences
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Together now I don't know how this love could end
My lonely heart, it falls apart again for you to mend
I was the one who left you
Always coming back I cannot forget you girl
Now I am up in arms again
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Chastity’s POV
Stopping my car and parking it at the edge of the forest, I got out, quickly scanned the area for any witnesses or cops, and walked to the trunk. I opened it and reveled in the smell. Corleone was still alive, but his blood saturated the walls and the bottom of the trunk. The smell of blood was always a sign of victory to me, and I had, along the years, taken quite a liking to it.
I picked up the body of my former boss, a body that was getting weaker every second, and grabbed a sheet that I had stored in my car to support him and ensure that no blood would end up on the road. I shut the trunk and walked to the left of my car and into the forest. Passing trees, bushes, and other various shrubberies, I must have walked about a quarter of a mile before I found a suitable trench to lay him in. It was just big enough to conceal him from the immediate eyesight of anyone wandering through. I deposited his body in the trench, making sure that I took his wallet before doing so. Walking back to my car, I wished that I could return to the scene of the crime and bask in the stench that would signify his rotting death in a couple days. Once back to my car I walked to the right side, opened the door, got in and released the parking brake.
Driving on the empty country roads in this area of Barcelona, my mind wandered to thinking about just how much power I had now inherited. Now all I needed to do was mend fences with my father, and I would be the most powerful woman in the crime world, I thought with an insidious smile. Just about a mile from the place where I dumped Corleone, I passed the only vehicle on the road, a nondescript, white van vastly exceeding the speed limit. Damn fool, I thought, at least try not to kill anyone…
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Amy’s POV
On the plane back to Spain, a hundred different thoughts were getting all tangled in my brain. First, even though Lucy may have been drugged, it didn’t change the fact that she had slept with Chastity, and the hurt that I still experienced from that was an ever-present feeling, it wouldn’t simply go away. The hurt and the agony I experienced that night kept gnawing away at my heart, at my soul, and although the revelation that Lucy was drugged had alleviated a bit of that pain, a significant portion of my soul had already been devoured.
Then there was the most important of them all, the thought, which among all, always appeared front and center. It was the question of whether I really wanted Lucy back. It certainly was a possibility, but she had damaged me emotionally. She had lied, she had stripped me of the trust I had in her, and she had killed something inside of me. I was going back to Barcelona not necessarily to get back together, but to decide whether I wanted to get back together. From what Lucy had said, I had plenty of time to make that decision.
The other problem that presented itself tore me in two. Part of me realized that I needed my space, which was one of the reasons that I ran off to America. I needed to think about things, deliberate, and come to a conclusion by myself. At the same time, however, seeing Lucy, I realized that for me to make my decision, I needed her around, which was the deciding factor in moving back to Barcelona.
Lucy had meant everything to me. She was my reason for waking up each morning, the reason every time a smile came to my face, and the reason I said a prayer of thanksgiving each night. Lucy had been my light, my world; she was mine, and I was hers. Then, suddenly I wasn’t hers anymore, or at least that was how it had seemed. Suddenly, she was so distant, she started lying and making excuses. Even as I considered the notion that maybe she was lying to protect me, I couldn’t help but question whether she was trying to protect me, or trying to protect herself with the lies. Was it my fault for the untruthfulness that had existed in the relationship? I had been truthful always with Lucy, but how would I have reacted if she’d been truthful with me? I wasn’t quite sure; she may have been right with her assessment that I would have overreacted.
Then again, it was Lucy who had been untruthful, and I wouldn’t be having these thoughts if she hadn’t lied in the first place. She had been the one to spark the entire problem, and therefore this was all her fault, wasn’t it? Well, perhaps that judgment was a bit too harsh. I was sure that I wasn’t blameless. Plus, it would take an even effort to work this out of the muck.
All in all, I was utterly confused. Working things out was going to take some time and effort, but I was prepared to attempt to do so. I just hoped that Lucy truly realized that we weren’t still a couple, at least for the time being. The next couple of days would be interesting, to say the least. Checking up on Chastity, attempting to make up with Lucy, this was going to be one hell of a week.
Passengers, please turn off all electrical devices, return to your seats and buckle your seatbelts. We will be descending shortly. Thank you for riding Continental Airlines.
I glanced around the coach area, where my seat was located. I had talked to a couple of people on the plane, and they had been incredibly pleasant and easy to talk to about baseball. I must admit, I was a fan of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Baseball was the only sport I was interested in, and I liked the Angels mostly because their name was utterly confusing. They hailed from both Los Angeles and Anaheim at the same time…how was that possible? Anyway, I couldn’t figure out what Lucy was talking about. This had been one of the best plane rides I’d ever been on.
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Lucy’s POV
Waiting at the airport for Amy’s flight to arrive, I was wondering how to deal with the dilemma I had created for myself. I had pushed Amy away once before, and there was no way I would do that again. No, this time, I would be there for Amy, at all times. If she felt badly, I’d cheer her up, if she felt happy, I’d share it with her, if she felt angry, I’d help her cool down. Slowly, I was realizing that if I had pushed her away by not being around, then I’d have to rectify that situation.
How was I to start though? I had never been in this situation. It had been either dump or be dumped in my relationships before, and I had never had any regrets. I’d never have to deal with a problem as pervasive as this. Honestly, I didn’t have a clue on how I was to regain her trust. Perhaps being romantic would be a big start. Moonlight waltzes, walks by the beach, you know, the whole shebang.
Then, if and when I had my problems straightened out with Amy, how was I to deal with Chastity? She had tried to take away everything that had ever meant anything to me, and for that I could never forgive her. What was she up to, though? I couldn’t possibly believe that she had worked together this whole elaborate scheme just to return to a romantic relationship with me. That wasn’t like Chastity at all. Chastity was manipulative, not on a Corleone level, but she used people to get what she wanted. Somehow, I knew that all this was tied into something much bigger, but I had absolutely no clue what that could be.
As I was sitting on the airport’s bench, my phone played my ring tone, one of my favorite songs, A Little Respect, by Erasure. It was Amy.
“Hi Amy,” I greeted.
“Hi Lucy, we’re here. Meet me at Gate 14, I just have to grab my luggage, and then I’m good to go.”
“Sure thing, walking there now. It’s good to have you back in Barcelona.”
“It feels good to be back, too. I’ll be waiting for you,” Amy said, and then hung up.
I was at Gate 12 now, and I was facing gate 10 and 8, so I turned around and headed towards Gate 14. By the time I got there, Amy was already walking back with her luggage. I opened my arms and hugged her. “Amy, I know you’re tired of hearing this, but I can’t say this enough. I’m sorry for everything.”
“I know, I know,” Amy repeated as she returned the hug. We stood there, looking like two old friends for a couple minutes, neither one of us wanting to let go of the other. Finally, the embrace ended, and I let go of the hug, keeping one arm around the small of her back.
“Let’s get you home,” I said, taking one of her two suitcases as she offered it. We walked out of the airport to our car, the pink car that I had gotten her as an anniversary gift. I thought it was a nice touch. I popped open the trunk with my wireless car-controller thingy and put the suitcase I carried into the trunk. Then I took Amy’s and flung that one into the trunk as well. Closing the trunk, I stayed at the back of the car. “Do you want to drive, or should I?” I asked.
“You can drive,” Amy said, nonchalantly. No point in arguing. I didn’t mind, and at this point, everything she asked for she would get if it made her happy. I walked around the right side of the car and got in the drivers seat as she sat in the passenger’s seat to the left. I thought I had gotten used to European cars, but being back in the states had reacquainted me with the driver’s seat on the left of the car…the Europeans were just odd, with their driver’s seats on the right, and their metric system.
The drive home was extremely quiet. I wanted to say something, but nothing came to mind, and Amy looked deeply lost in thought anyway. With a great deal of sad reminiscence, I remembered the days when no one could shut us up. The days when Amy Bradshaw and I were inseparable, two parts of the same whole. Now we were two completely different parts. I hoped we could rectify that, and soon.
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Chastity’s POV
Back in my hotel room, my cell phone buzzed in my pocket. Looking at the caller ID, it was the airport’s phone, the one that I had programmed into my phone. I pressed the button to answer the call.
“Hello, June? Any news?” I asked. June, the same woman I had been in contact with before, as Mrs. Bradshaw, had promised to tell me if Amy came back to Spain. I had contacted her about that after dealing with Corleone. His prophetic words kept haunting me. What if Lucy and Amy were actually to renew their relationship?
“Yes Mrs. Bradshaw. A plane left L.A. this morning at around 10 AM. Your daughter should be back in Spain by now.”
“Thank you, June. I know you’re not supposed to be doing this, but I’m so grateful,” I feigned emotion, fully engrossed in my part as Mrs. Bradshaw.
“Don’t worry about it. As I said, I can’t stand to see family fight. Whatever I can do to help you I will, Mrs. Bradshaw.”
“Thank you, I mean it. Is there anything I can do?” I asked.
“Just don’t say anything to my bosses,” June whispered, barely audible on the phone.
“Thank you, and goodbye.”
“Goodbye Mrs. Bradshaw.”
Damn, Corleone had been right after all, even in death he persisted in annoying me. There was only one reason Amy could be back in Barcelona. She and Lucy must have gotten back together. That was the only possible explanation. Looked like there would potentially have to be two more casualties. Well, only if Lucy wouldn’t listen to my offer, and if that wasn’t the case, there would only have to be one casualty.
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Lucy’s POV
Throughout the course of the night, Amy and I had attempted to talk on a wide range of topics, but every conversation we tried to strike up just was not working. I would bring up something and she would mumble half a response and that would be it, or vice versa. I guess the reason that really stung was because of our penchant for conversations that we used to have, no one could ever shut us up. It was depressing to look at where we were right now; it was like we were strangers.
It was getting late, and I was lying on the couch while Amy was sitting on the loveseat as we watched TV, well I mostly watched her. We’d decided to watch a movie and Amy had picked Moulin Rouge; the movie wasn’t exactly my first choice, but whatever Amy wanted, Amy got, right? Even something as simple as this brought back some stinging memories. Before the crashing of our relationship, we were inseparable. We would sit together on the couch, in each other’s arms, occasionally sharing a bowl of popcorn. Usually we spent more time just watching each other rather than what was on the TV. Often we’d miss a vital part of a show and wouldn’t even care about it because we had each other, well that and TIVO. What ever happened to that? I wondered, even as I knew the answer - I had really screwed up.
“Amy, have you ever realized how good looking Nicole Kidman is?” I tried to jumpstart a conversation, but as I said the words, I was already kicking myself in the head - starting a conversation about another woman was probably not that good of an idea right now.
“Yeah, she’s hot,” mumbled Amy. “Hmm…” I saw her turn her head to look at me, “you seem to have a thing for redheads now days.” Then she turned her attention back to the TV. I furrowed my brows and inwardly thought, with annoyance, how unnecessary her comment had been. We were getting nowhere so I decided to call it a night. With any luck, tomorrow would bring better results.
“I’m going upstairs,” I said as I stood and stretched. I walked over to Amy and leaned over, Amy ducked her head as if she was trying to see the TV and I was in her way. “Goodnight Amy,” I said as I kissed her on the top of the head. I wanted to kiss her lips, it had been our normal routine for so long, but now it wasn’t even an option anymore. I felt lost, and confused, and it all stung as everything we normally did was now off-limit. There wasn’t one singular item that was the same as it used to be. Everything now had changed. I walked up the stairs, entered my room and got undressed to take a quick shower.
Grabbing a towel and hanging it on the rack outside the shower, I hopped in and turned the water on cold, it was exactly what I needed right now. I didn’t want to take a hot shower at all, it would have reminded me too much of the showers Amy and I used to take together. In many ways the coldness of the water mirrored our relationship, I realized, as I stood there with the water chilling my skin, that what was once hot, had now grown cold.
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Amy’s POV
I had been in Barcelona for a couple days, and nothing between Lucy and I seemed to be progressing. In fact, it seemed to be deteriorating. Maybe I hadn’t made it entirely clear that I had needed my space, because she didn’t seem entirely too keen to give it to me. Instead, Lucy had been all over me, virtually not leaving my side. It was starting to get old fast.
Even with Lucy hanging on so tight, conversation between us was increasingly sparse. Once we could talk about the graphite in a pencil and have an engaging and exciting conversation. We couldn’t possibly run out of things to say to each other. Now, however, we were having trouble thinking of anything at all to talk about. There was one topic, however, that was constantly brought up, almost to the point of exhaustion - Chastity.
In fact, we were in the car heading towards the hotel that Lucy had stayed at. This was not a place that I really looked forward to seeing too much. There were too many bad memories there, even though I had only been to the hotel once.
Pulling up in the parking lot, we got out of the car and headed towards El Hotel Nacional Español de Barcelona’s doors. I don’t know what Lucy expected to find here. I didn’t know what she thought she could prove simply by going to the hotel, and if I still weren’t trying to mend what was beginning to seem like a hopeless situation I wouldn’t have been there with her.
Walking up to the hotel side-by-side, I felt Lucy attempt to hold my hand. Part of me wanted to hold hers as well, if only out of habit. When we were truly a couple, we would hold hands everywhere we went. Now, it just didn’t seem appropriate as I retracted my hand from Lucy’s. I looked over at her, and thought that I could see a pained expression for just a second before it vanished. I hoped that I wasn’t hurting her. The one thing I didn’t want to do was hurt her as she had hurt me.
We entered the building and saw a familiar face at the desk reading a book. “Hi Amy,” I said. The receptionist didn’t even look up. She just kept going about her business. Lucy and I walked up to the front desk. “Amy,” I tried to get her attention. Still she didn’t respond.
Lucy snapped her fingers rather rudely, I thought, above Amy’s head, and suddenly she snapped to attention. “Huh, what? Can I help you?” Amy asked.
“Do you know why she wasn’t responding to her name, Amy?” Lucy turned to me and asked.
“No, why?”
“Look at the nametag,” Lucy said, as the receptionist looked flabbergasted. I glanced down at it, her nametag didn’t say Amy, it now read Lauren. “So what’s your real name?” Lucy asked, turning her attention back to the receptionist.
“Umm…Lauren,” the receptionist said through a nervous, forced, half-laugh.
“Then why the hell were you wearing a nametag that said Amy about a week ago?” Lucy asked, clearly pissed off.
“I…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes you do, and I’m only going to ask nicely once. You give me an answer I don’t like, and you’ll have to deal with the consequences,” Lucy said menacingly. I rolled my eyes. Sure, this seemed fishy, but Lucy was being just as psychotic as Max, and in a public place no less!
“I told you…” Lauren began, but was interrupted as Lucy’s hands snared out and quickly grabbed Lauren’s vest’s lapel. Lucy pulled Lauren to her, almost choking the poor girl, until their faces were literally an inch from each other’s.
“Now listen here. Either you tell me what you’re doing, or…”
“Lucy!” I interrupted her, whispering. The manager was walking down the hall, and was just about in the line of sight to see the spectacle Lucy was making of herself. We would be thrown out of the hotel before we could get any answers at all.
Without missing a beat, Lucy shifted her hands to the collar of Lauren’s button down shirt, as if straightening it out.. The manager, now able to see Lauren and Lucy stopped in his tracks. “Lauren, is there a problem here?”
“No sir,” Lauren said, abashedly. “These are a couple of my friends. Lucy here is just straightening my collar for me. That’s all.” I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself; Lucy was just too good at this.
“Alright. Call me if anything happens,” the manager said, “and don’t do TOO much socializing, you’re still on the clock.”
“Not a problem, sir,” Lauren replied as the manager began to walk away. As soon as Lucy could tell that the manager would not see her, she resumed her threatening hold on Lauren.
“So, how do you know my name?” Lucy asked.
“She said it,” Lauren said, gasping for air. “You’re choking me. You want answers, let me go.”
“No,” Lucy disagreed.
“Let her go, Lucy,” I said, and reluctantly Lucy let go, leaving a panting Lauren falling back to her seat.
“Okay, all I know was that I was asked to call a woman when this girl here,” she pointed at me, “entered the building and then when she left crying.”
“What did this woman sound like?” Lucy asked.
“She had a French accent,” replied Lauren. Okay, maybe Lucy was right. Perhaps Chastity was planning the whole event. I mean, yes, it was odd that anyone with a French accent besides her would have asked Lauren to spot me coming. Also, who would have known a reaction to an event that no one knew would happen. I made a mental note to apologize to Lucy.
“Thanks for your help,” Lucy said, still threateningly, “if you hear back from this person, let me know at this number.” Lucy wrote down our house phone number on a piece of paper and handed it to Lauren. “If I find that you do one more thing for this person and you don’t tell us. So help me God…”
“I’ll call you,” Lauren promised.
“Good,” Lucy said, turning to me. “I think we’ve learned everything we will here. Let’s hit the road.”
“Okay, Lucy,” I responded as Lucy walked towards the door. I turned to Lauren. “Sorry about that, she can be a bit rough sometimes,” I apologized as I followed Lucy to the door.
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Lucy’s POV
The morning after we went to the hotel, I woke up to Amy’s excited voice.
“Oh my God, Lucy, this is SO beautiful!” Amy exclaimed from the guest room. The night before, I had bought the perfect roses and set them on the dresser in that room. Perfect roses for my perfect woman. I could tell that we were starting to drift off even further, and I had to put an end to that.
“I’m glad you like them!” I called, walking into Amy’s room. “I’ve got a little something romantic planned for tonight, so I thought I’d start off the day by getting you some flowers. Look, I know it seems that we’re still headed in different directions, but I want to change that. Whatever directions you choose to go in, I want to be there right beside you. I’ll be here for you, always,” I promised. “Amy, I love you, and even if it takes forever for us to figure this out, I’ll always be here. I don’t know about you, but I for one know that nothing could ever possibly be as meaningful as what we had, and what we could have again.”
“Lucy,” Amy said, a tear forming in the corner of her eye. “I feel the same way. No one’s ever made me feel the way you do. I want to work things out with you so badly that it’s killing me. But there’s still that little piece of me that’s missing, and if I can’t give all of you to me, I can’t give you any. It’s not fair to you.”
At those words my insides warmed. I wanted to give myself to Amy too, and I wanted all of her. As I kept telling myself, there was no length of time that I wouldn’t wait for her. If I had to wait a year, I would, five years, okay, forever, well…yes, but…let’s hope it was sooner rather than later.
The rest of the day we sat and talked, just like we used to before all of this mess. We talked about anything and everything. Once again, we could have talked about a doorknob and turned it into an interesting conversation. On a personal level, the roses really must have sparked a big turnaround. At around four we started getting ready for dinner. I was cooking…this would be interesting.
I set the table with a nice, new red tablecloth, three candlesticks, one taller than the other two that flanked it, and flower petals were scattered. I wanted to create a truly romantic atmosphere for the night. I had instructed Amy not to come downstairs until I was ready, so I had about an hour to do everything. I took a glance over at the prize food I had bought late yesterday evening. This is going to be interesting, I thought, as I looked at the live lobsters crawling around inside the mesh bag.
Now, I’m not a good cook, by any stretch of the imagination, but I figured that I should be able to cook the little buggers. I mean, it was just dropping them into boiling water, right? Well, no sooner than I made my attempt to drop the first lobster into the pot did I get my answer. I figured that I shouldn’t drop the rubber band holding the claw together into the water, so I pulled off the rubber band, and in the process nearly lost a finger as the free claw started thrashing wildly.
I don’t consider myself a sadistic person, really, but hearing the lobster seemingly scream and watching the lobster stop it’s thrashing after I dropped it in the water brought a joy to me that I just could not contain. “Yes! Take that!” I exclaimed, smiling maniacally. Lucy, you’ve gone off the deep end. It’s just a lobster, calm down, I told myself.
The rest of the preparations went smoothly. I made sure not to remove the other rubber bands from the claws. Cooking the asparagus and overcooking the spinach-artichoke dip that was Amy’s favorite, I finished my preparations and set the table with the Ciabatta bread, the appetizers and the lobster. I lit the candles and said a prayer before calling upstairs to Amy.
As Amy responded and came downstairs, her jaw dropped open. “Oh…my…Lucy Reynolds, you made all of this?” Amy asked, walking over to the table.
“Yes, I did, like it?” I asked, pulling out a chair for her.
“Like it? What kind of a question is that? Just look at the table, candles, flower petals, you really went all out, didn’t you?” Amy laughed, “And you even knew that I would eat lobster! This is amazing! Thank you.”
Ah, the benefits of my memory. Being in the crime business, one needed a good memory along with good reflexes to kick in whenever something unexpected occurred. So, even though I had only seen Amy order shrimp once, I knew that she would eat seafood. She wasn’t a complete vegan, she did eat some shellfish.
The dinner went incredibly smoothly, with only one criticism by Amy about the overcooked, chewy spinach and artichoke dip, which I graciously accepted. Otherwise, I was shocked…I had actually cooked a decent meal. The meal was incredibly romantic, and the candles had really set the mood. I felt, for the first time since Amy came back to Barcelona, that we actually had a good shot at repairing this thing.
After dinner Amy and I sat on the couch, talking things over. “Lucy, that was one of the best meals of my life. Thank you,” she said, putting her hand over mine.
“Amy, I made that dinner for you to prove that…well…” the words were so easy, but at the moment, I was a bit aroused, with her hand on mine. I definitely was leading her.
“That…you…still…”Amy continued as she leaned her head closer to mine. I did the same, and braced for the glorious impact. This would be the moment I was waiting for - the moment where all the wrong that I’d done her would be absolved. I closed my eyes, and waited…and waited…and waited. I opened my eyes. Amy was sitting glumly in her chair and had her eyes turned downwards, looking at the floor.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Well…I don’t know…I’m still not sure…” Amy replied truthfully. “That whole dinner was done to get me back in your bed, wasn’t it?”
“No! Not at all!” I retorted angrily, furrowing my brow “The thought never crossed my mind. I was doing something nice for you, I thought you’d like it!”
“I do like it, Lucy, a lot…”
“Yeah, but it was all because I wanted to sleep with you, am I right?” I asked mockingly, as I stormed upstairs, the romantic mood killed.
So much for progress, it seemed like we were back to square one. Sure, the thought had crossed my mind, but that was not the reason at all for the dinner. I loved this girl, but she could be so stubborn sometimes. I had absolutely no clue how to rectify things if she kept thinking that every attempt I made was made so that I could bed her. It was as if she didn’t know me anymore. Perhaps the relationship was doomed to fail, after all.
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I don't know your face no more
Or feel your touch that I adore
I don't know your face no more
It's just a place I'm looking for
We might as well be strangers in another town
We might as well be living in a different world
I don't know your thoughts these days
We're strangers in an empty space
I don't understand your heart
It's easier to be apart
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~Dan
Next Chapter - ( Chapter 12: Fixing a Hole (Where the Rain Gets In) )
Muchos gracias, mi amigo. *Announcer Voice* This chapter's thank you to Keaira has been brought to you by the Spanish Language.
So you all think Chastity’s the one with the plan, right? Maybe someone’s behind the scenes, pulling the strings. Or maybe not…I guess we’ll find out sooner or later.
Just a note, the first POV is a couple days before any other parts.
Opening lyrics come from Foo Fighters’ Up In Arms; end lyrics belong to Keane’s We Might As Well Be Strangers
Chapter 11: Mending Fences
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Together now I don't know how this love could end
My lonely heart, it falls apart again for you to mend
I was the one who left you
Always coming back I cannot forget you girl
Now I am up in arms again
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Chastity’s POV
Stopping my car and parking it at the edge of the forest, I got out, quickly scanned the area for any witnesses or cops, and walked to the trunk. I opened it and reveled in the smell. Corleone was still alive, but his blood saturated the walls and the bottom of the trunk. The smell of blood was always a sign of victory to me, and I had, along the years, taken quite a liking to it.
I picked up the body of my former boss, a body that was getting weaker every second, and grabbed a sheet that I had stored in my car to support him and ensure that no blood would end up on the road. I shut the trunk and walked to the left of my car and into the forest. Passing trees, bushes, and other various shrubberies, I must have walked about a quarter of a mile before I found a suitable trench to lay him in. It was just big enough to conceal him from the immediate eyesight of anyone wandering through. I deposited his body in the trench, making sure that I took his wallet before doing so. Walking back to my car, I wished that I could return to the scene of the crime and bask in the stench that would signify his rotting death in a couple days. Once back to my car I walked to the right side, opened the door, got in and released the parking brake.
Driving on the empty country roads in this area of Barcelona, my mind wandered to thinking about just how much power I had now inherited. Now all I needed to do was mend fences with my father, and I would be the most powerful woman in the crime world, I thought with an insidious smile. Just about a mile from the place where I dumped Corleone, I passed the only vehicle on the road, a nondescript, white van vastly exceeding the speed limit. Damn fool, I thought, at least try not to kill anyone…
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Amy’s POV
On the plane back to Spain, a hundred different thoughts were getting all tangled in my brain. First, even though Lucy may have been drugged, it didn’t change the fact that she had slept with Chastity, and the hurt that I still experienced from that was an ever-present feeling, it wouldn’t simply go away. The hurt and the agony I experienced that night kept gnawing away at my heart, at my soul, and although the revelation that Lucy was drugged had alleviated a bit of that pain, a significant portion of my soul had already been devoured.
Then there was the most important of them all, the thought, which among all, always appeared front and center. It was the question of whether I really wanted Lucy back. It certainly was a possibility, but she had damaged me emotionally. She had lied, she had stripped me of the trust I had in her, and she had killed something inside of me. I was going back to Barcelona not necessarily to get back together, but to decide whether I wanted to get back together. From what Lucy had said, I had plenty of time to make that decision.
The other problem that presented itself tore me in two. Part of me realized that I needed my space, which was one of the reasons that I ran off to America. I needed to think about things, deliberate, and come to a conclusion by myself. At the same time, however, seeing Lucy, I realized that for me to make my decision, I needed her around, which was the deciding factor in moving back to Barcelona.
Lucy had meant everything to me. She was my reason for waking up each morning, the reason every time a smile came to my face, and the reason I said a prayer of thanksgiving each night. Lucy had been my light, my world; she was mine, and I was hers. Then, suddenly I wasn’t hers anymore, or at least that was how it had seemed. Suddenly, she was so distant, she started lying and making excuses. Even as I considered the notion that maybe she was lying to protect me, I couldn’t help but question whether she was trying to protect me, or trying to protect herself with the lies. Was it my fault for the untruthfulness that had existed in the relationship? I had been truthful always with Lucy, but how would I have reacted if she’d been truthful with me? I wasn’t quite sure; she may have been right with her assessment that I would have overreacted.
Then again, it was Lucy who had been untruthful, and I wouldn’t be having these thoughts if she hadn’t lied in the first place. She had been the one to spark the entire problem, and therefore this was all her fault, wasn’t it? Well, perhaps that judgment was a bit too harsh. I was sure that I wasn’t blameless. Plus, it would take an even effort to work this out of the muck.
All in all, I was utterly confused. Working things out was going to take some time and effort, but I was prepared to attempt to do so. I just hoped that Lucy truly realized that we weren’t still a couple, at least for the time being. The next couple of days would be interesting, to say the least. Checking up on Chastity, attempting to make up with Lucy, this was going to be one hell of a week.
Passengers, please turn off all electrical devices, return to your seats and buckle your seatbelts. We will be descending shortly. Thank you for riding Continental Airlines.
I glanced around the coach area, where my seat was located. I had talked to a couple of people on the plane, and they had been incredibly pleasant and easy to talk to about baseball. I must admit, I was a fan of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Baseball was the only sport I was interested in, and I liked the Angels mostly because their name was utterly confusing. They hailed from both Los Angeles and Anaheim at the same time…how was that possible? Anyway, I couldn’t figure out what Lucy was talking about. This had been one of the best plane rides I’d ever been on.
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Lucy’s POV
Waiting at the airport for Amy’s flight to arrive, I was wondering how to deal with the dilemma I had created for myself. I had pushed Amy away once before, and there was no way I would do that again. No, this time, I would be there for Amy, at all times. If she felt badly, I’d cheer her up, if she felt happy, I’d share it with her, if she felt angry, I’d help her cool down. Slowly, I was realizing that if I had pushed her away by not being around, then I’d have to rectify that situation.
How was I to start though? I had never been in this situation. It had been either dump or be dumped in my relationships before, and I had never had any regrets. I’d never have to deal with a problem as pervasive as this. Honestly, I didn’t have a clue on how I was to regain her trust. Perhaps being romantic would be a big start. Moonlight waltzes, walks by the beach, you know, the whole shebang.
Then, if and when I had my problems straightened out with Amy, how was I to deal with Chastity? She had tried to take away everything that had ever meant anything to me, and for that I could never forgive her. What was she up to, though? I couldn’t possibly believe that she had worked together this whole elaborate scheme just to return to a romantic relationship with me. That wasn’t like Chastity at all. Chastity was manipulative, not on a Corleone level, but she used people to get what she wanted. Somehow, I knew that all this was tied into something much bigger, but I had absolutely no clue what that could be.
As I was sitting on the airport’s bench, my phone played my ring tone, one of my favorite songs, A Little Respect, by Erasure. It was Amy.
“Hi Amy,” I greeted.
“Hi Lucy, we’re here. Meet me at Gate 14, I just have to grab my luggage, and then I’m good to go.”
“Sure thing, walking there now. It’s good to have you back in Barcelona.”
“It feels good to be back, too. I’ll be waiting for you,” Amy said, and then hung up.
I was at Gate 12 now, and I was facing gate 10 and 8, so I turned around and headed towards Gate 14. By the time I got there, Amy was already walking back with her luggage. I opened my arms and hugged her. “Amy, I know you’re tired of hearing this, but I can’t say this enough. I’m sorry for everything.”
“I know, I know,” Amy repeated as she returned the hug. We stood there, looking like two old friends for a couple minutes, neither one of us wanting to let go of the other. Finally, the embrace ended, and I let go of the hug, keeping one arm around the small of her back.
“Let’s get you home,” I said, taking one of her two suitcases as she offered it. We walked out of the airport to our car, the pink car that I had gotten her as an anniversary gift. I thought it was a nice touch. I popped open the trunk with my wireless car-controller thingy and put the suitcase I carried into the trunk. Then I took Amy’s and flung that one into the trunk as well. Closing the trunk, I stayed at the back of the car. “Do you want to drive, or should I?” I asked.
“You can drive,” Amy said, nonchalantly. No point in arguing. I didn’t mind, and at this point, everything she asked for she would get if it made her happy. I walked around the right side of the car and got in the drivers seat as she sat in the passenger’s seat to the left. I thought I had gotten used to European cars, but being back in the states had reacquainted me with the driver’s seat on the left of the car…the Europeans were just odd, with their driver’s seats on the right, and their metric system.
The drive home was extremely quiet. I wanted to say something, but nothing came to mind, and Amy looked deeply lost in thought anyway. With a great deal of sad reminiscence, I remembered the days when no one could shut us up. The days when Amy Bradshaw and I were inseparable, two parts of the same whole. Now we were two completely different parts. I hoped we could rectify that, and soon.
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Chastity’s POV
Back in my hotel room, my cell phone buzzed in my pocket. Looking at the caller ID, it was the airport’s phone, the one that I had programmed into my phone. I pressed the button to answer the call.
“Hello, June? Any news?” I asked. June, the same woman I had been in contact with before, as Mrs. Bradshaw, had promised to tell me if Amy came back to Spain. I had contacted her about that after dealing with Corleone. His prophetic words kept haunting me. What if Lucy and Amy were actually to renew their relationship?
“Yes Mrs. Bradshaw. A plane left L.A. this morning at around 10 AM. Your daughter should be back in Spain by now.”
“Thank you, June. I know you’re not supposed to be doing this, but I’m so grateful,” I feigned emotion, fully engrossed in my part as Mrs. Bradshaw.
“Don’t worry about it. As I said, I can’t stand to see family fight. Whatever I can do to help you I will, Mrs. Bradshaw.”
“Thank you, I mean it. Is there anything I can do?” I asked.
“Just don’t say anything to my bosses,” June whispered, barely audible on the phone.
“Thank you, and goodbye.”
“Goodbye Mrs. Bradshaw.”
Damn, Corleone had been right after all, even in death he persisted in annoying me. There was only one reason Amy could be back in Barcelona. She and Lucy must have gotten back together. That was the only possible explanation. Looked like there would potentially have to be two more casualties. Well, only if Lucy wouldn’t listen to my offer, and if that wasn’t the case, there would only have to be one casualty.
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Lucy’s POV
Throughout the course of the night, Amy and I had attempted to talk on a wide range of topics, but every conversation we tried to strike up just was not working. I would bring up something and she would mumble half a response and that would be it, or vice versa. I guess the reason that really stung was because of our penchant for conversations that we used to have, no one could ever shut us up. It was depressing to look at where we were right now; it was like we were strangers.
It was getting late, and I was lying on the couch while Amy was sitting on the loveseat as we watched TV, well I mostly watched her. We’d decided to watch a movie and Amy had picked Moulin Rouge; the movie wasn’t exactly my first choice, but whatever Amy wanted, Amy got, right? Even something as simple as this brought back some stinging memories. Before the crashing of our relationship, we were inseparable. We would sit together on the couch, in each other’s arms, occasionally sharing a bowl of popcorn. Usually we spent more time just watching each other rather than what was on the TV. Often we’d miss a vital part of a show and wouldn’t even care about it because we had each other, well that and TIVO. What ever happened to that? I wondered, even as I knew the answer - I had really screwed up.
“Amy, have you ever realized how good looking Nicole Kidman is?” I tried to jumpstart a conversation, but as I said the words, I was already kicking myself in the head - starting a conversation about another woman was probably not that good of an idea right now.
“Yeah, she’s hot,” mumbled Amy. “Hmm…” I saw her turn her head to look at me, “you seem to have a thing for redheads now days.” Then she turned her attention back to the TV. I furrowed my brows and inwardly thought, with annoyance, how unnecessary her comment had been. We were getting nowhere so I decided to call it a night. With any luck, tomorrow would bring better results.
“I’m going upstairs,” I said as I stood and stretched. I walked over to Amy and leaned over, Amy ducked her head as if she was trying to see the TV and I was in her way. “Goodnight Amy,” I said as I kissed her on the top of the head. I wanted to kiss her lips, it had been our normal routine for so long, but now it wasn’t even an option anymore. I felt lost, and confused, and it all stung as everything we normally did was now off-limit. There wasn’t one singular item that was the same as it used to be. Everything now had changed. I walked up the stairs, entered my room and got undressed to take a quick shower.
Grabbing a towel and hanging it on the rack outside the shower, I hopped in and turned the water on cold, it was exactly what I needed right now. I didn’t want to take a hot shower at all, it would have reminded me too much of the showers Amy and I used to take together. In many ways the coldness of the water mirrored our relationship, I realized, as I stood there with the water chilling my skin, that what was once hot, had now grown cold.
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Amy’s POV
I had been in Barcelona for a couple days, and nothing between Lucy and I seemed to be progressing. In fact, it seemed to be deteriorating. Maybe I hadn’t made it entirely clear that I had needed my space, because she didn’t seem entirely too keen to give it to me. Instead, Lucy had been all over me, virtually not leaving my side. It was starting to get old fast.
Even with Lucy hanging on so tight, conversation between us was increasingly sparse. Once we could talk about the graphite in a pencil and have an engaging and exciting conversation. We couldn’t possibly run out of things to say to each other. Now, however, we were having trouble thinking of anything at all to talk about. There was one topic, however, that was constantly brought up, almost to the point of exhaustion - Chastity.
In fact, we were in the car heading towards the hotel that Lucy had stayed at. This was not a place that I really looked forward to seeing too much. There were too many bad memories there, even though I had only been to the hotel once.
Pulling up in the parking lot, we got out of the car and headed towards El Hotel Nacional Español de Barcelona’s doors. I don’t know what Lucy expected to find here. I didn’t know what she thought she could prove simply by going to the hotel, and if I still weren’t trying to mend what was beginning to seem like a hopeless situation I wouldn’t have been there with her.
Walking up to the hotel side-by-side, I felt Lucy attempt to hold my hand. Part of me wanted to hold hers as well, if only out of habit. When we were truly a couple, we would hold hands everywhere we went. Now, it just didn’t seem appropriate as I retracted my hand from Lucy’s. I looked over at her, and thought that I could see a pained expression for just a second before it vanished. I hoped that I wasn’t hurting her. The one thing I didn’t want to do was hurt her as she had hurt me.
We entered the building and saw a familiar face at the desk reading a book. “Hi Amy,” I said. The receptionist didn’t even look up. She just kept going about her business. Lucy and I walked up to the front desk. “Amy,” I tried to get her attention. Still she didn’t respond.
Lucy snapped her fingers rather rudely, I thought, above Amy’s head, and suddenly she snapped to attention. “Huh, what? Can I help you?” Amy asked.
“Do you know why she wasn’t responding to her name, Amy?” Lucy turned to me and asked.
“No, why?”
“Look at the nametag,” Lucy said, as the receptionist looked flabbergasted. I glanced down at it, her nametag didn’t say Amy, it now read Lauren. “So what’s your real name?” Lucy asked, turning her attention back to the receptionist.
“Umm…Lauren,” the receptionist said through a nervous, forced, half-laugh.
“Then why the hell were you wearing a nametag that said Amy about a week ago?” Lucy asked, clearly pissed off.
“I…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes you do, and I’m only going to ask nicely once. You give me an answer I don’t like, and you’ll have to deal with the consequences,” Lucy said menacingly. I rolled my eyes. Sure, this seemed fishy, but Lucy was being just as psychotic as Max, and in a public place no less!
“I told you…” Lauren began, but was interrupted as Lucy’s hands snared out and quickly grabbed Lauren’s vest’s lapel. Lucy pulled Lauren to her, almost choking the poor girl, until their faces were literally an inch from each other’s.
“Now listen here. Either you tell me what you’re doing, or…”
“Lucy!” I interrupted her, whispering. The manager was walking down the hall, and was just about in the line of sight to see the spectacle Lucy was making of herself. We would be thrown out of the hotel before we could get any answers at all.
Without missing a beat, Lucy shifted her hands to the collar of Lauren’s button down shirt, as if straightening it out.. The manager, now able to see Lauren and Lucy stopped in his tracks. “Lauren, is there a problem here?”
“No sir,” Lauren said, abashedly. “These are a couple of my friends. Lucy here is just straightening my collar for me. That’s all.” I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself; Lucy was just too good at this.
“Alright. Call me if anything happens,” the manager said, “and don’t do TOO much socializing, you’re still on the clock.”
“Not a problem, sir,” Lauren replied as the manager began to walk away. As soon as Lucy could tell that the manager would not see her, she resumed her threatening hold on Lauren.
“So, how do you know my name?” Lucy asked.
“She said it,” Lauren said, gasping for air. “You’re choking me. You want answers, let me go.”
“No,” Lucy disagreed.
“Let her go, Lucy,” I said, and reluctantly Lucy let go, leaving a panting Lauren falling back to her seat.
“Okay, all I know was that I was asked to call a woman when this girl here,” she pointed at me, “entered the building and then when she left crying.”
“What did this woman sound like?” Lucy asked.
“She had a French accent,” replied Lauren. Okay, maybe Lucy was right. Perhaps Chastity was planning the whole event. I mean, yes, it was odd that anyone with a French accent besides her would have asked Lauren to spot me coming. Also, who would have known a reaction to an event that no one knew would happen. I made a mental note to apologize to Lucy.
“Thanks for your help,” Lucy said, still threateningly, “if you hear back from this person, let me know at this number.” Lucy wrote down our house phone number on a piece of paper and handed it to Lauren. “If I find that you do one more thing for this person and you don’t tell us. So help me God…”
“I’ll call you,” Lauren promised.
“Good,” Lucy said, turning to me. “I think we’ve learned everything we will here. Let’s hit the road.”
“Okay, Lucy,” I responded as Lucy walked towards the door. I turned to Lauren. “Sorry about that, she can be a bit rough sometimes,” I apologized as I followed Lucy to the door.
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Lucy’s POV
The morning after we went to the hotel, I woke up to Amy’s excited voice.
“Oh my God, Lucy, this is SO beautiful!” Amy exclaimed from the guest room. The night before, I had bought the perfect roses and set them on the dresser in that room. Perfect roses for my perfect woman. I could tell that we were starting to drift off even further, and I had to put an end to that.
“I’m glad you like them!” I called, walking into Amy’s room. “I’ve got a little something romantic planned for tonight, so I thought I’d start off the day by getting you some flowers. Look, I know it seems that we’re still headed in different directions, but I want to change that. Whatever directions you choose to go in, I want to be there right beside you. I’ll be here for you, always,” I promised. “Amy, I love you, and even if it takes forever for us to figure this out, I’ll always be here. I don’t know about you, but I for one know that nothing could ever possibly be as meaningful as what we had, and what we could have again.”
“Lucy,” Amy said, a tear forming in the corner of her eye. “I feel the same way. No one’s ever made me feel the way you do. I want to work things out with you so badly that it’s killing me. But there’s still that little piece of me that’s missing, and if I can’t give all of you to me, I can’t give you any. It’s not fair to you.”
At those words my insides warmed. I wanted to give myself to Amy too, and I wanted all of her. As I kept telling myself, there was no length of time that I wouldn’t wait for her. If I had to wait a year, I would, five years, okay, forever, well…yes, but…let’s hope it was sooner rather than later.
The rest of the day we sat and talked, just like we used to before all of this mess. We talked about anything and everything. Once again, we could have talked about a doorknob and turned it into an interesting conversation. On a personal level, the roses really must have sparked a big turnaround. At around four we started getting ready for dinner. I was cooking…this would be interesting.
I set the table with a nice, new red tablecloth, three candlesticks, one taller than the other two that flanked it, and flower petals were scattered. I wanted to create a truly romantic atmosphere for the night. I had instructed Amy not to come downstairs until I was ready, so I had about an hour to do everything. I took a glance over at the prize food I had bought late yesterday evening. This is going to be interesting, I thought, as I looked at the live lobsters crawling around inside the mesh bag.
Now, I’m not a good cook, by any stretch of the imagination, but I figured that I should be able to cook the little buggers. I mean, it was just dropping them into boiling water, right? Well, no sooner than I made my attempt to drop the first lobster into the pot did I get my answer. I figured that I shouldn’t drop the rubber band holding the claw together into the water, so I pulled off the rubber band, and in the process nearly lost a finger as the free claw started thrashing wildly.
I don’t consider myself a sadistic person, really, but hearing the lobster seemingly scream and watching the lobster stop it’s thrashing after I dropped it in the water brought a joy to me that I just could not contain. “Yes! Take that!” I exclaimed, smiling maniacally. Lucy, you’ve gone off the deep end. It’s just a lobster, calm down, I told myself.
The rest of the preparations went smoothly. I made sure not to remove the other rubber bands from the claws. Cooking the asparagus and overcooking the spinach-artichoke dip that was Amy’s favorite, I finished my preparations and set the table with the Ciabatta bread, the appetizers and the lobster. I lit the candles and said a prayer before calling upstairs to Amy.
As Amy responded and came downstairs, her jaw dropped open. “Oh…my…Lucy Reynolds, you made all of this?” Amy asked, walking over to the table.
“Yes, I did, like it?” I asked, pulling out a chair for her.
“Like it? What kind of a question is that? Just look at the table, candles, flower petals, you really went all out, didn’t you?” Amy laughed, “And you even knew that I would eat lobster! This is amazing! Thank you.”
Ah, the benefits of my memory. Being in the crime business, one needed a good memory along with good reflexes to kick in whenever something unexpected occurred. So, even though I had only seen Amy order shrimp once, I knew that she would eat seafood. She wasn’t a complete vegan, she did eat some shellfish.
The dinner went incredibly smoothly, with only one criticism by Amy about the overcooked, chewy spinach and artichoke dip, which I graciously accepted. Otherwise, I was shocked…I had actually cooked a decent meal. The meal was incredibly romantic, and the candles had really set the mood. I felt, for the first time since Amy came back to Barcelona, that we actually had a good shot at repairing this thing.
After dinner Amy and I sat on the couch, talking things over. “Lucy, that was one of the best meals of my life. Thank you,” she said, putting her hand over mine.
“Amy, I made that dinner for you to prove that…well…” the words were so easy, but at the moment, I was a bit aroused, with her hand on mine. I definitely was leading her.
“That…you…still…”Amy continued as she leaned her head closer to mine. I did the same, and braced for the glorious impact. This would be the moment I was waiting for - the moment where all the wrong that I’d done her would be absolved. I closed my eyes, and waited…and waited…and waited. I opened my eyes. Amy was sitting glumly in her chair and had her eyes turned downwards, looking at the floor.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Well…I don’t know…I’m still not sure…” Amy replied truthfully. “That whole dinner was done to get me back in your bed, wasn’t it?”
“No! Not at all!” I retorted angrily, furrowing my brow “The thought never crossed my mind. I was doing something nice for you, I thought you’d like it!”
“I do like it, Lucy, a lot…”
“Yeah, but it was all because I wanted to sleep with you, am I right?” I asked mockingly, as I stormed upstairs, the romantic mood killed.
So much for progress, it seemed like we were back to square one. Sure, the thought had crossed my mind, but that was not the reason at all for the dinner. I loved this girl, but she could be so stubborn sometimes. I had absolutely no clue how to rectify things if she kept thinking that every attempt I made was made so that I could bed her. It was as if she didn’t know me anymore. Perhaps the relationship was doomed to fail, after all.
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I don't know your face no more
Or feel your touch that I adore
I don't know your face no more
It's just a place I'm looking for
We might as well be strangers in another town
We might as well be living in a different world
I don't know your thoughts these days
We're strangers in an empty space
I don't understand your heart
It's easier to be apart
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~Dan
Next Chapter - ( Chapter 12: Fixing a Hole (Where the Rain Gets In) )