Chapter 33
The sun was barely peeking out from beyond the horizon when Edward pulled up to Eva’s house. He shut the car off and turned toward her but didn’t say anything. He liked watching her reaction to him.
She smiled and looked down at her hands clasped in her lap. “This is usually what they like to call the walk of shame. But, only if the girl was walking home alone after a casual and unplanned sexual encounter… and this was just a one night stand with a guy who the girl wasn’t really interested in. Okay, this is nothing like that.” Her smile grew.
“You are rambling again.”
She nodded, “I know. I’m sorry. I tend to do that from time to….”
He grabbed her and pulled her to him, kissing her and not letting go. “I’m going to make it right,” he said, his forehead to hers. “I promise. Trust me?”
She nodded again. “I trust you.”
“Are you going to be able to make it to your classes today?”
“Yes. I am so wide awake and high on life right now, nothing can bring me down.”
“Good.” He gave her one last quick kiss then waved his hand toward the door. “Get going. I will talk to you later today.”
She smiled back at him when she got out of the car and waited for him to drive away before she went inside.
Edward had a plan and it wasn’t going to be a pleasant one. He drove back to his flat, cleaned up and got some good food into his stomach before implementing what he had planned in his head.
Walking out the door with his pistol concealed in the back pocket of his bag, he pulled his phone and pulled up Gracie’s name.
Where are you?
Less than a minute later she responded.
I’m just finishing up my geography class
Where is that?
Dysons Perrins Building
He got into his car and peeled out toward the university campus. A few minutes later his phone sounded again. He looked at the text from Gracie.
I guess our little talk last night did some good. Can’t wait to see you. I am in the Beckit room
He wanted to respond. He wanted to tell her this wasn’t going to be a social call but he didn’t want her to expect what he was about to throw at her.
He pulled into a nearby parking area and grabbed his bag. Locking the car and slinging his bag over his shoulder after checking the security of his pistol in the back pocket, he b-lined it for the Dysons Perrins building.
Peering into the Beckit room, it appeared empty from the hallway, but when he walked inside he spun around when he heard the door close behind him. Gracie stood there with her hand on the door and a smile on her face.
“I knew you would come to your senses,” she said walking toward him.
“Hang on,” he said holding his hand up at her. “I just need to talk to you.”
“I don’t want to talk. It has been too long since I have felt your arms around me.”
“You’ve never felt my arms….” He stopped himself in midsentence. Arguing with her was pointless, plus he wanted to keep things light until he was ready. “Can we sit? Please?”
“Of course!” She waited for him to sit and eagerly sat at the desk closest to him.
He got up and moved to another desk a few rows away before saying anything more. He leaned against and put his bag at his feet. “Can I ask you something?” he cocked his head and smiled trying to keep his tone light.
“Anything.” She looked at him wide eyed, as though he was about to hand her the world and it was at that moment when he saw the same psychotic look he saw in the woman who put his best friend, Joseph, in the hospital.
“Did we… make plans? Did I really stand you up the other night?”
“Oh, gosh no.” She snickered and waved her hand. “I made that up.”
“Why? Why would you do that? You make a complete spectacle out of us both in that restaurant.”
“I had to get your attention somehow. Seems like every time I tried to see you or make plans with you, something always came up or you had to go or something. I was tired of waiting. I was tired of being put on hold so I took matters into my own hands. It worked because here you are,” she beamed. “We are never going to get to know each other better if you keep avoiding me and traipsing around with tramps like that little Eva whore.”
Edward clenched his jaw but took a breath to keep control.
She leaned toward him without getting up and whispered “We both know you can do better than her.”
“How do you know Eva?” he asked, concentrating on her every word.
“I had to get to know who she was when I found out she was in your life. I can’t be having someone like that threatening our relationship.”
When she stood up, Edward reached down and grabbed his bag without thinking. Gracie looked at the bag and then at him.
“Whatcha got there?”
“Gum,” he blurted out. He clumsily opened one of the pockets and pretended to look for it. “My mouth is dry. Do you want some?”
“Not of gum,” she said with a sly tone as she sashayed closer to him.
“Listen, Gracie I think we need to talk.” He got up and turned away, putting a few more desks between them.
“I thought that was what we were doing. Know what I think?”
“What, Gracie? What do you think?”
“I think you talk too much.”
“And you only hear what you want to hear.”
She stopped walking toward him and furrowed her eyebrows.
“I need you to listen to me. When I came here, I was not looking for a relationship. I only needed a friend and I found that in you. I wasn’t looking for anything more.”
“Yeah, that’s what you said before. But when I saw you with that bitch at the park I knew you were over your last girlfriend and ready to move on.”
“You aren’t listening.” He felt an anger fester deep within him. “I don’t want a relationship with you.” He pronounced each word as if it were its own entity.
“I understand,” she said putting her head down.
“You do?”
“Yes. You just need some coaxing. I’m good at that.”
“No! Damn it!”
Gracie jumped and looked at him, scared and unsure. “Did I do something to anger you?”
“You won’t listen to what I am telling you!”
“I just want to be close to you. Is that a crime? I can’t stop thinking about you, Edward.”
“There is no place for you in my… wait. What did you just call me?”
“What?”
“Did you just call me Edward?”
“Yes.”
“No one calls me that.”
“No? Sorry,” she said with a grin.
He shook his head, angry that his plan was backfiring on him. “Okay, fine. Do you want the truth?”
“It’s all I have ever wanted.”
“I don’t want you in my life. Do you understand? Not as a friend, not as someone I know and certainly not as my girlfriend or anything intimate. I have no feelings for you. I never did and I never will.”
Her facial expression disappeared and he thought she might cry, but he didn’t back down.
“I came here, to this university, for Eva. She is the sole reason I am here. Nothing is going to change that.”
He watched her carefully, his hand gripping his bag and his mind mentally ready to grab his gun if he needed to.
Gracie kept her head down as if contemplating and absorbing the harsh reality Edward had dealt her. When she picked her head up and looked at him, she smiled and sat down in the closest seat to where she stood.
“I’m… I’m sorry, Gracie. I didn’t want to be so harsh but I felt I had to. It doesn’t seem like you are listening to me when I tell you I just want to be friends.”
Gracie nodded. “I know. I have a difficult time keeping reality and my own thoughts separate.”
“Okay. So, you are good?”
She nodded.
“Again, I’m sorry for the harshness. I have to get going. I’m glad we had this talk.” He quickly walked a wide circle around her and walked for the door when she stopped him just before he got to it.
“Eddie?”
He stopped and turned around. “Yes?”
“Why?
“Why what?”
She was walking toward him and didn’t finish her thought until she was by the door.
“Why are you just like every man in my life?”
“I don’t understand.”
“You used me, just like everyone else does! And it hurts. It hurts bad.”
He inched toward the door, keeping his hand on the door knob and his other hand tightly on his bag.
“I never used you, Gracie.”
“No? You think I like giving blow jobs to fat fucking security guards to help keep you out of jail?” Her tone grew harsh and her anger was apparent on her face.
He tried opening the door but she threw herself against it, slamming it closed.
“I kept you out of jail so we could be together. But you knew that, didn’t you? You used me to stay out of jail then threw me aside so you could be with that slut!”
She slapped his face so fast he never saw it coming but his anger had been festering and he stopped holding back. He grabbed her by her throat and slammed her into the door, pushing his body against hers to keep her pinned securely.
“This what you want?” he sneered. He didn’t squeeze her throat hard enough to choke her, but she acted as though he was trying to kill her.
She grabbed at his hand, coughing and whispering for help until he put his face an inch from hers.
“Leave. Me. Alone. You got that?” he growled. “I will hurt you.”
As fast as she slapped him the first time, she stopped coughing and choking and reached up, digging her nails into the side of his face and ripped her hand down his cheek. He let go of her and grabbed his face.
Gracie pushed away from the door and flung it open. “You are going to wish you never met me,” she sneered. “I have some serious pull around here and I will be sure you pay for what you have done.”
“I’m not scared of your empty threats. I don’t need this job and I don’t plan on ever coming back. I have more than enough to take care of myself.”
“I know,” she said, cocking her head.
He grabbed her wrist and pulled her closer. “Don’t fucking threaten me. I have the power to have you killed before you even have your threats completed in your fucking head,” he said, squeezing her wrist. “Don’t. Fuck. With. Me.”
He held her there a few moments longer before pushing her back and walking out. When he looked back at her, the vindictive look on her face kept the worry in his mind from leaving. He knew he probably just signed his death papers but he had planned on getting Eva out of there and never looking back, before anything more happened.