Thirty - Eight - Kholton

“I want granddaughters with balls of steel.”

 

 

 

This is not how it happens in the movies.

At least not in the handful of chick-flicks I’ve been forced to watch at one time or another.

At the denouement of all those movies, it’s never the chick who chases the douchebag after he screws her over. It’s always, always the other way around.

An over-the-top chase, dramatic music, cheesy dialog. Some poor sap begging “please don’t get on that plane”, or “please don’t take that job”, or “please give me another chance”.

I should’ve known. Serena Bentley is not a romance. She’s a thriller. A psychological thriller. She gives zero shits about rules, conventions, or orthodoxy. She’s her own defiant universe. And that’s precisely why I’m currently pressed up against these bathroom tiles, holding my breath.

It’s been a week since the lies came to light, and she’s been on the hunt for me ever since. But I’ve been ten steps ahead, dodging her at every turn.

Until today, when she showed up at Naan’s, five minutes after I arrived.

I know she visits Naan twice a week, but knowing she already made her two visits for the week, I wrongly calculated that it was safe.

This never happens to me. When I go ghost, I’m gone, never to be glimpsed by your eyes again. For one, I don’t use real names, I rent temporary homes, and I lie about every single thing, no matter how insignificant.

With Serena, however, the situation was a bit…unique. Unprofessional.

I broke the rules with her and invited her into parts of my life I shouldn’t have. I was never fake with her. I was one hundred percent myself around her the entire time. I blurred the lines. And now I’m working overtime to stay ghosted.

Until I’m ready to be found.

When she knocked on Naan’s door, I had no choice but to hide in the shower.

After about fifteen minutes of listening to their muffled gabbling, I hear her ask to use the bathroom.

Pressing myself harder against the tiles, I wonder briefly if this cherry blossom shower curtain has any secret powers like Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak.

Her presence is forceful, a vortex, willing my soul to hers.

Three minutes slip by and I hear neither the toilet nor the sink. With no visual, I can’t tell what the hell she’s doing in here and I don’t want to chance peeking around this noisy ass shower curtain.

A few seconds later, I hear a series of beeps. She’s texting someone.

In the next moment, my phone vibrates in my back pocket. Shit.

She’s texting me. Her calls are blocked, but her messages still come through. She texts me every day. I’m not sure if she knows I’m seeing her texts or if it just makes her feel better.

I hear a sharp sound. A hiccup? A sob?

Then, footsteps. Coming toward the shower. Shit. Did she hear my phone vibrate?

I feel her weight on the other side of the shower curtain.

This is it. She’s found me before I’m ready to be found. Plans foiled once again. This is what happens when you fall for your mark.

A loud crash echoes outside the bathroom, followed by Naan’s bellow for Serena’s help. My first instinct is to rip aside the curtain and rush to her aid, but I know Naan. Whatever happened out there, she did it on purpose to lure Serena out.

And it works. Serena runs out of the bathroom to her aid and I let out a whoosh of breath.

At this point, I’m not sure whether I should fear for my life, or for my heart.

“You can come out now, coward!” Naan yells some fifteen minutes later. “She’s gone.”

I groan.

This is not how it was to be. Brian and Natalie were supposed to return the bracelet and Serena was never supposed to find out.

But, goddamn Virginia and Angus.

I could murder those two. A perfectly good plan gone to shit because of them.

Their showing up caused Aaron Bentley to beef up security. Camouflage security on the outside, protecting the security on the inside. Insane. One would think the man is a Kingpin or something.

Once he did that, returning the brooch became a virtually impossible feat. We tried, not once, but three times, and failed. The guards weren’t as lax as before. Angus and Virginia had them all on edge.  

Retreat and regroup, we decided. We thought we had time.

We didn’t.

When Serena received that call from her father, I knew it was over.

Naan shakes her head at me from her armchair as I exit the bathroom. “You’re such a pussy.” As usual, she doesn’t mince words. “I don’t understand why you are hiding when she obviously loves you.”

“No. She doesn’t.” I grab a bottled water from her fridge. “She thinks she’s entitled to me. There’s a difference.”

“You are blind, boy.” She scoffs. “That girl is crazy in love with you.”

Naan believes that only because she doesn’t know Serena like I do.

Serena is determined, driven, motivated and defiant. She goes after what she wants and she doesn’t stop until she gets it and has command over it. She wants to be in control. And what I’d done with her was make her think she was in control, knowing she got off on it. Also, because it’s hot as fuck.

She thinks because she came after me and won me that she’s entitled to me. That she owns me.

What she’s yet to realize is that I made her think she was chasing me. I made her think she was winning me. It’s what I do. Or at least, used to do. ‘Cause I’m done being that man.

The entire time, I was pulling the strings. Reeling her in. So if she thinks this is going to flow the way she wants it to, she’s got another thing coming.

She could huff and puff and blow the city down, but she won’t find me until I know for sure that she loves me with her heart and not her will.

I tolerated her bullshit before for the sake of the job. But the game is over. Serena Bentley is going to be my wife or nothing at all.

Naan erupts into a fit of violent coughs. I’m by her chair in two seconds, rubbing her back. “You been feeling okay?”

“I’m fine.” She waves me off. “It’s just a little cold.”

“Did you see Dr. Burke this week?”

“Don’t worry about me, coward.” She picks up her lukewarm black tea from the coffee table and takes a sip. “Just promise me you won’t let her get away. I like her. She reminds me of myself. Shameless, unapologetic, and has balls of steel.”

I fight back a smile. Serena truly is all of those things and more. Of course Naan likes her.

“Promise me, Collin,” Naan demands, glaring at me through eyes as silver as mine. “I want granddaughters with balls of steel.”

I laugh, still rubbing her back. “You’ll get your granddaughters with balls of steel, Naan. I promise.”

 

 

As I exit the doors of Naan’s building, my phone buzzes.

I get it out and glance down at the screen. California. The private hospital my family uses, to be specific. The same one that told me I wasn’t a match to donate my kidney.

My heart sinks in on itself. This is it. This is ‘The Call’.

He’s gone.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Kholton! How are you? It’s Dr. Ellis.”

My tense shoulders sag a little, relieved. He’s too chipper to be calling with news of death. “I’m fine, Dr. Ellis. Thanks for asking. To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?”

“Well, I’m calling to apologize, actually,” he begins. “Regarding your father’s transplant, it appears there’s been some errors with the test you did. The nurse was new—but I won’t insult you with excuses. I know you’re back in New York, but might you be able to fly down here and re-do the test?”

When I don’t reply, he goes on, “We just want to make sure we’re not erroneously ruling you out as a match. This just might be the answer to your family’s pray—”

I hang up the phone.

Fuck.