Chapter Nine
“Slow down…you’re not making any sense. Take a few deep breaths and maybe I might be able to make sense of what you’re saying.” Adam was awakened from a deep sleep on the couch after watching a cheesy old movie on television.
The scream sounded ungodly and he bolted to a sitting position to see Blake on the balcony howling at the moon. It wasn’t the first time he had seen him in a state of unrestrained emotion. This was his way of dealing with what had been building up inside. It was supposedly cathartic and would release the pent-up frustration.
“They shouldn’t have… they did… I wished I’d done something.” Blake wanted to intervene on her behalf, but had restrained himself out of misplaced loyalty and respect for the woman he had gotten to know.
“Who are they and what did they do to get you so fired up? I thought that you were on a date with Yvette. Don’t tell me she shot you down at the end the night again. I’m sure it was a blow to your ego, but you will get over it. She has hometown values and we have to take all of that into consideration.” Blake was wearing a pair of black boxer shorts, while still trying to connect the dots of what had transpired during the evening.
“They fucking ambushed her and I did nothing. I stood there listening to them rake her over the coals. She didn’t deserve the verbal abuse. It was unconscionable especially when it was coming from her… her…mother of all people.” Blake was trying to compose himself, but it wasn’t easy when his anger was getting the best of him.
“I’m starting to understand, but maybe you should start at the beginning. I came in a little late to the conversation. I need what most people would call context to make an informed judgment.” He was trying to be articulate, but Adam felt like he had just stepped into a soap opera.
“I don’t understand what they thought they were going to accomplish. I was appalled by the hurtful words her mother was spewing in her face.” Blake had never witnessed anything like it. It was deplorable and made him grateful for the family he had.
“Could it be that her mother doesn’t approve of her decision to walk away from her marriage?” Adam knew how to read between the lines better than anyone. It was a gift and a curse at the same time. She didn’t know what he meant by ‘they.’
“Our mother would have never said anything like that. It didn’t matter what we did wrong. We’ve had our fair share of differences over the years. Family is the benchmark of society, but you wouldn’t know it from how she treated Yvette.” Blake was usually more composed.
“This is highly unusual. It’s usually me going off the handle over nothing. You’re the one that has to talk me down from the ledge. I can’t say I like this reversal of fortune. I’m going to try to put it into perspective for you.” Adam could tell Blake was unresponsive staring blankly into the night, but he was going to have to try and get through to him.
“I am puzzled by how any mother could rationalize disowning her own child. I’m sure in her mind there was precedent, but the woman she spoke of didn’t remind me of the woman we have gotten to know.” Blake couldn’t bear to hear her cry and should have barged in to take her into his arms.
“Tell me that she didn’t allow her to kick her when she was down.” Adam had his hand on his brother’s shoulder in a reassuring gesture of brotherly love.
“You would have been proud of her. She showed them no mercy and gave them something to think about. She actually picked up a cleaver and used it to defend her honor. Her ex-husband didn’t even know what hit him until it was too late. You should have heard him backpedaling like mad to find an exit.” He thought about what she had gone through and he finally realized he was in love with her.
It was like a slap in the face. He could still feel the metaphorical sting and it left him powerless to resist. He was at her mercy and would have given anything to take away her pain.
“Wait… I thought it was just her mother. You left out some interesting tidbits of information from this conversation.” He didn’t like the sound of this.
He had this knee-jerk reaction to run downstairs and grab her ex-husband by the scruff of his neck.
“It was her mother, her ex-husband, and his mother ganging up on her. She held her own like a lion tamer with a whip in her hand. She held back the snarling jaws of contempt coming from all three of them. It touched me and terrified me at the same time to see her having to resort to those extreme measures to be heard.” Blake hadn’t taken off his jacket and decided at that exact moment to go and comfort her.
“It sounds like she finally got some things off of her chest. The divorce left her drained. She had to find out who she was without his influence in her life. She’s always going to have her mother’s voice in the back of her head. It’s the nature of the beast when it comes to the bond a mother and daughter have.” Adam had been watching way too many talk shows and he was verbally repeating everything he had heard from Dr. Phil.
“I’ve never heard you speak with such compassion and understanding. Could it be you have finally gotten over this phase of being all about yourself? Say it isn’t so. How am I going to recognize you without hearing your selfish display of arrogance?” He was poking fun at his brother and enjoying a little bit of levity.
“I’ve always been a sensitive soul underneath it all. Nobody wanted to dig down deep enough to find the human being with a beating heart of gold. The only one who has been able to peel back the layers like an onion is Yvette. It would be a good idea for us to let her know we are always there for her. She might require a shoulder to lean on.” Adam felt it was his responsibility to protect her from anything causing her pain.
He thought about the letters and how disturbing they had become over the past few months. The black petals of a rose inside an envelope written in bold indelible red ink had him puzzled. The only thing saving him from sleepless nights was thinking about Yvette. He hadn’t even talked to his brother about the possibility of danger lurking in the shadows.
“I don’t believe it… it can’t be possible after all these years for us to finally agree on something.” Blake could easily see the balcony below him and was waiting to see her lean over the railing to get a breath of fresh air. She never appeared.
“We can’t always be at odds. We are brothers and sometimes we may not act like it, but we always have each other’s back. I might tease you, but I hope you know it’s only in a brotherly jest. I don’t mean any harm. I would never want to hurt your feelings on purpose.” Adam wanted a life with Yvette, but he suspected this sentiment was shared by Blake.
No woman had ever made him feel like he was walking around on eggshells trying to find the right words. It was always easy, but with her, he had to take a moment to compose his thoughts before saying anything.
“You have always pushed me to be my best and I have never fallen. I’m going crazy thinking about what Yvette is going through. She can change her clothes and change her name, but she can’t change her family. She doesn’t need somebody to come to her rescue. She’s more than capable of fighting her own battles.” Blake knew something was bothering Adam, but felt it wasn’t his place to fix what was wrong.
He did see an amazing change come over him and it was due to Yvette being part of both their lives.
She made them want to be better men and treat her with the kindness she deserved. They had placed her on a pedestal praising her virtues and giving her a sympathetic ear to speak candidly about her feelings.
Blake could smell the barbecue meat on his brother’s breath. They were amazingly healthy but had a few vices they couldn’t bear to let go. Meat was unhealthy, but sometimes the craving was too much to ignore. Add bacon and they were asking for a heart attack,
“It kills me to know this isn’t something I can fix for her. I can be there holding her hand, but ultimately it’s her decision what she wants to do about her family. The only thing I care about is her happiness. I would die a little inside if she felt it was necessary to leave this new life she has built from the ground up.” Blake went back inside and found the bar with a bottle of cognac calling his name.
“Life is about changes and we know from experience nothing stays the same. We all have our stories unfolding one chapter at a time. People have the tendency to judge a book by its cover without turning the pages to see what is inside.” Adam was once again resorting to platitudes and things he had heard from those therapists on TV with multi-million-dollar deals.
“I’m not sure I like this side of you. It’s a little scary to think that you can change your ways. I’ve always been under the belief a leopard can’t change its spots. I guess they never thought of you when they came up with that saying.” Blake drank the snifter of cognac, letting the liquor burn down his throat.
“Go easy on that; you know what happens when you let the liquor do the talking for you. Some people become happy drunks, but you become angry looking to lash out at the first person you see. It’s usually me and I have the scars to prove it.” Adam remembered the way Blake lost it completely after a girl he had fancied told him she wanted to be friends.
He had to duck a barrage of glasses at the witching hour of 3:00 AM. One of the glasses had hit him in the face, landing Adam in the emergency room with twelve stitches. He had somehow managed to keep himself from retaliating and making things worse.
Adam couldn’t say the same thing for the girls who had been the unfortunate recipient of his kind of hit-and-run affection. They were left stunned and completely bewildered by his inability to commit to anything longer than one night.
“I don’t know how many times I have to apologize. I have limited my intake of alcohol to one glass during social occasions. I don’t have a problem. I can police myself without you peering over my shoulder with concern.” The one drink was enough to make him see things clearly without the rose-colored glasses of anger clouding his judgment.
“We can’t just stand here and do nothing. We both want to be there for her. It’s the first time we have ever been interested in the same woman in the same way. We can’t fight this, and she deserves to know the truth.” Watching those talk shows had opened up his mind to more than his selfish needs.
“Adam, we haven’t spoken of the elephant in the room. We both know it’s there. We both feel deeply for her. Let’s go down and see her before we change our mind.” Blake slammed down the glass, but thankfully, not hard enough to make it explode in his hands.
“I’m not going to repeat this, but I do want you to be happy. We might be putting her on the spot, but we need to know where her head is at.” Adam felt like there was an anvil on his chest, restricting his breathing.
“We should probably give her room to breathe. It would be best for us to talk to her tomorrow when she is feeling better.” Blake was already going out the door not bothering to look back to see if Adam were going to join him.
Adam could’ve stayed behind, but he was determined to make his play for the girl. This was the first time he didn’t know what the outcome was going to be when they confronted her.