CHAPTER 18
Remy
I had spent another sleepless night thinking of Danica and wondering what had driven her away from me. Now that Fred had found out the truth about her father, I found it hard to believe that it had been something to do with him... yet at the same time, I felt as if it really did have something to do with him. Why couldn't she talk to me about this stuff? Why couldn't she simply tell me about it? I was a man who solved problems, a man who came up with creative, outside-the-box solutions, and I knew that if she just opened up to me, I would be able to solve whatever problem was dogging her right now.
That was the problem though, of course... How could I get her to open up to me about this stuff if I couldn't even find her?
I decided to try to find her again. I called up Carly.
“Carly, I'm not going to be coming in this morning,” I said to her.
“Really? But Remy, you've got that important meeting with Rockenheim scheduled for ten. You can't afford to miss that!”
“Call his PA, reschedule the meeting.”
“You know what Rockenheim is like, Remy – if you don’t have that meeting with him this morning, there probably won't be another meeting. And you'll lose out on almost 300,000 dollars of profit.”
“I don't care,” I said. “I have important personal things to take care of. I'll make it back on another deal with someone else. I always do. And it's not as if I'm hurting for money right now anyway. There will be more deals and more profits in the future, but some things are more important than that – and I'll be damned if I let them slip through my fingers for the sake of a little money.”
“Um, all right, if you're sure about it.”
“Trust me, I'm sure about it. Cancel the meeting. I'll see you in the afternoon.”
“All right, will do. See you later.”
I sighed – it was a big deal I was going to miss out on, but as I had just told her, there would be more deals in the future, and at this stage of my life, I had made plenty of money anyway; I could retire now and live off my investments if I really wanted to. But none of that mattered to me now as much as Danica did. I had to find her, and I had to get to the bottom of all of this.
I'm going to find you, Danica. I'm going to find you, and I'm going to help you...
The first place I went was the dance studio, again. The manager was outside, putting a poster on the window.
“Hi,” I said to her. “You're the manager here, right?”
“I am,” she replied. “How can I help you?”
“I'm looking for Danica,” I said. “It's quite urgent. Do you have any idea where I can find her?”
“I can give you her cellphone number if that would help?”
I shook my head. “I already have that, and her phone is off most of the time.”
“Well, she was just here a few minutes ago, but I'm afraid you missed her. She isn't working here today, but she'll be in tomorrow if you can wait that long.”
“All right, thanks,” I said. “I'll come back here tomorrow if I don't find her.”
“Pity about her father,” she said with a sigh. “Such a shame.”
I thought that was quite strange; how did this woman know about that? Still, I didn't have time to stay and talk.
“Yes, it is a pity,” I replied. “Anyway, thanks. I'll come back tomorrow if I don't succeed in finding her.”
The next place I planned to head was the restaurant, because if Danica wasn't working here, then there was at least a good chance that she would be working at the restaurant. I drove over there and parked nearby, and then got out and started walking toward the entrance. As I got closer, I saw a rough-looking character, a bald man in a leather jacket with tattoos on his hands and the sides of his neck, step out of the alley behind the restaurant. He was walking in my direction, and as he saw me, a strange look of recognition came across his face and he smiled, almost mockingly as he approached me.
“Well, look who it is,” he sneered. “Pretty-boy Remington.”
I stopped and looked at him with a confused expression on my face. “Do I know you?”
He chuckled. “No, you don't, but maybe one day you will, pretty-boy. Look at you, in your designer suit, strutting around like you're better than everyone else. Ha! You don't fool me, asshole.”
“Watch your mouth,” I snarled, my anger rising at this lowlife's attitude.
“Ooh, or what? What are you gonna do?”
“Teach you a lesson you won't soon forget. Now take a hike, whoever the hell you are.”
He opened his jacket and revealed a pistol, and then closed it and glared at me with naked aggression glowing in his eyes. “You should learn to speak to other people with a little more respect, Richie Rich. Don't piss me off... That's a warning, a very sincere warning.”
He bashed his shoulder into me as he walked past, and then he strode off, not looking back.
What the hell had that been about? Who was that guy?
Suddenly, I saw someone a lot more familiar emerging from the same alley that he had just come out of. She saw me, too, and froze in her tracks.
“Danica!” I exclaimed, both surprised and overjoyed to finally see her.
She, however, looked... I don't know, guilty, ashamed, depressed... Maybe all three. Whatever it was, something was definitely wrong, and that unpleasant character was involved in some way, I just knew it.
“Hey, Remy,” she said uneasily. “I'm sorry that I haven't returned your calls or messages.”
“That's all right. I know that something's wrong, and I'm here to tell you that I can help you. I want to help you. Please, I just know that I can help you with whatever it is that's going wrong right now. Just tell me what's wrong, just let me in, and I promise I can help you.”
She sighed and looked away, and it seemed as if she was about to burst into tears. Then, however, a harder look came across her face. Was it resolve? Determination? Anger? Maybe all three? I couldn't quite tell.
“I'm sorry, Remy, it's just… it's some pretty intense family stuff, all right? And I can't talk about it, I just can't. But everything has been taken care of anyway. You don't need to worry about it, and you certainly don't need to get dragged into all of this, I promise you. It's a mess. You're better off not having me in your life... And I promise you, if you get involved, you'll suffer.”
“I don't care. I don't care what it is,” I countered. “I'll help you with it. Just let me help you. Please, Danica, just let me help you.”
She shook her head. She really looked like she was doing everything she could to hold back the tears now.
“I'm sorry, Remy, I really am. You're a great guy. Hell, you're the best guy I've ever dated. But things have changed in my life and now I'm going to be ridiculously busy. I'm not going to have any free time, not for the foreseeable future, I’m afraid.”
“What about your dancing?” I asked.
“What about it? I'll always do it. But for now, I guess I'll just have to, um, I'll just have to put it off for a little while... Again. One day I'll get back to it, but dancing is a luxury I can't afford to even think about right now. As is a relationship.”
Those last four words hit me like a kick to the gut.
“Wait, what do you mean?” I asked.
“I can't see you anymore. I just can't. Please, don't push me on this. Just let me go. This is difficult enough already, and now you're making it even worse. Just let me go and forget about me. Go find yourself a nice girl who doesn't come from a shitty home and who doesn't have a million issues to deal with.”
“I only want you, Dani. That's the truth, that's the whole truth. There's nobody else on this planet that I want. Only you.”
Tears were now flowing down her cheeks, and I could feel them stinging at the corners of my own eyes, too.
She stepped up to me and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, and then stepped away.
“Thank you for the good times we had, Remy. I'll never forget them,” she said, her voice cracking. “But this is goodbye, okay? It's a final goodbye. Don't make it any harder than it already is.”
And with that, she strode away, leaving me alone.