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Underestimated Too by Woodruff, Jettie (20)

Chapter 20

 

 

I spent the next couple weeks with Alicia, trying to get them ready to move into Callaway’s estate. Celeste had men working in the kitchen, redoing the ugly tile, having new carpet laid in the baby’s and Vincent’s room, new carpet in the master and living room, and having a wall knocked out to open up the dining room to the living room. Alicia wasn’t happy about any of it. She was fine with it the way it was, but like me, she did what Celeste wanted.

“Alicia, how can I get a copy of Michael’s death certificate?” I asked, holding the tiny baby while she painted pink trees. Nicholas played with an unused paintbrush, banging it on the paint pan Alicia had given him. He could care less about the diaper-bag full of toys. He had something new.

“What do you mean? Doesn’t Drew have that someplace?” she asked, not turning to look at me while meticulously outlining the pink with a darker pink on a branch.

“I can’t ask him. You should know that by now.”

“What do you want it for?”

“I found a key to a deposit box. That’s where I went when Drew called you that day. They wouldn’t give me access without identification.”

“What do you think is in the box? Why not just give the key to Drew and tell him?”

“I don’t know. I want to see it before he does. I think he forgot about it.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because he was here a couple weeks ago, tearing the office apart, looking for a key.”

“He was? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t know it was important, and I didn’t know you had it. You should probably just give it to him.”

“I can’t now. He’d be furious because I didn’t tell him.”

“Tell him you found it today, cleaning or something.”

“No, just don’t say anything to Celeste about it. I’ll wait. I need to get in his office, do some investigating.”

“Like that’s going to happen. You’re watched in every room of your house. You can’t even get out of the man’s sight.”

“He just worries about, uh, Nicky,” I said, pulling the bristles from Nicholas’s mouth for the tenth time. He squealed, kicked his little legs, and resumed the drumming to the tin pan. “This house is full of cameras too, by the way,” I reminded Alicia.

“Oh no, it’s not. I had them all taken out except for the ones needed for security.”

“Drew just worries, it’s who he is.”

“He does more than that.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. It’s none of my business and my wifey has already warned me to keep my big mouth shut. It’s your life.”

“You think he controls me too much,” I stated more than asked.

“No. I think he’s a dictator.”

“He is not. I make my own decisions,” I argued, telling a complete lie.

“Sure you do. Just like the other night when I wanted to help you set up a Facebook page. I thought he was going to have heart failure.”

“Why do I need that? I didn’t want that anyway.”

“Because everyone has a Facebook account. Because you should be posting baby pics of Nicholas growing up and bragging your ass off at how cute he is. Because it’s a social networking site. You know how many book recommendations you can get from there?”

“You give me plenty of those. Have you finished reading Plentiful yet?” I asked changing the subject.

“No, Celeste had other things on her mind last night. I didn’t read and don’t tell me. I’ll finish it tonight. Did it have a happy ever after?”

“I’m not telling you, but the killer is going to surprise the hell out of you.”

***

“Happy Birthday to you,” I softly sang to my big boy, happily waiting for someone to come and get him out of his crib. Pulling himself up by the rail, he bounced up and down, happy to see me.  

“He can’t be one yet,” Drew protested, wrapping his arms around me and taking Nicky from his crib. I’m not sure how this baby thing works. Maybe it was a male bonding thing. I don’t know, but when I entered the room I got a happy smile, which by the way I loved, I just didn’t understand it. Drew walked into the room and got a crazy excited baby that couldn’t get to his daddy fast enough. I was the one that did everything for him. I spent the hours playing and reading with him while his daddy stayed locked in his office with Celeste, graphs, charts, conference calls, and figures. Why didn’t I get that response?

Squeezing from between my two boys, I picked up Nicky’s new outfit. “Drew, look isn’t this adorable?”

“Um, no. What’s that for?”

“His party on Saturday. What do you think it’s for, and what do you mean no?” I pouted. I loved his new outfit.

“It looks like something a gay baby would wear. Powder blue? Really, Morgan? He’s not wearing that.”

“Yes, he is. How can you not love this?”

I smiled at my hands-on husband, tossing Nicholas in the air and dropping him to the changing table for a diaper change. “Gay baby? You’re so stupid sometimes. He’s wearing this for his party.”

“Oh, no, I’m not, Mommy,” Drew said, coming after me with a squealing Nicholas. He laughed loudly, screeching with excitement as Drew tossed him to me. “I’ll get him something while I’m out of town.”

“Out of town? You never told me you were going out of town,” I accused, taking Nicky only to have him turn and reach for his daddy again. What the hell?

“That’s because Celeste just called. We have to go to New York to finish up with the transfer.”

“We’re not seeing Deidra today? When are you going to be home? We have the birthday party Saturday.”

“Yes, we’re seeing Deidra. I’m leaving right after that, and I will be home Saturday morning. Don’t worry. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

“I don’t want you to leave,” I whined.

“I’m leaving so I don’t have to leave anymore. After this we won’t have to go back to New York.”

“I don’t want to see Deidra today. Let’s cancel,” I tried. Drew and I had been doing great and had the most amazing sex before getting out of bed. I didn’t want to ruin that. It seemed like one of us always left her office pissed off.

“Get ready, we’re going,” Drew dictated.

***

“Okay, so we’re half way into the marriage. Drew pretty much mostly works and only talks to you when he wants sex? Is that correct?” Deidra asked me.

“Yep, that pretty much sums it up.”

“And Drew, it was only you and Morgan at this point? No more Skyler or Valerie?”

“Well, sort of. I mean no more Valerie. I did see Skyler one more time.”

I shot Drew a dirty look. Three years of being at his beck and call and he was still fucking Skyler.

“Tell me about that.”

“Yeah, Drew. Tell us about that,” I smartly mimicked.

“I guess that’s when I knew I didn’t want Skyler. I wanted Morgan,” Drew began, walking towards the window.

Oh boy. This was going to be good. He walked to the window when he was about to talk about something and couldn’t look at me.

“I was watching Morgan on the camera read a recipe with her finger on the page from California one evening when my phone rang,” Drew began his habitual narration. “I hadn’t talked to Skyler in months, maybe even a year. I answered my phone, sitting up and smiling at Morgan when she made a funny face tasting the batter, she’d obviously left out an important ingredient,” Drew explained, smiling back at me.

I smiled too, surprised that I amused him with my cooking endeavors. I actually remember that day. He was gone for over a week that time, and I knew he was in Los Angeles. I was making chocolate chip cookies.

“I was pleasant to her, asking Skyler, ‘Hi, how are you?’

‘I’m doing well. I just got off the phone with Jena. She told me you were in Los Angeles.’

‘Yes, been here for almost nine days now, leading daily negotiations for this store here,’ I replied, wondering where she was going with this. It was kind of random for her to just call. I’d seen her around a few times over the past year, but we barely spoke. It was best that way. I seemed to always go home and take it out on Morgan when I talked to her.

‘I’m in LA too. Meet me,’ she requested.

I looked back to Morgan, stirring chocolate chips into the bowl that I was now sure were cookies. I hadn’t been with anyone but Morgan in almost two years. I wasn’t really sure I needed to. Jesus. What was I thinking? Of course I needed to. ‘Okay, where?’ I replied. We set up a neutral location at a place she’d recommended to eat.

I smiled, entering the restaurant, and seeing Skyler in red. She did that for me, I was sure. Her lips didn’t feel the way I’d remembered when she stood on the tips of her toes and kissed me. It felt, awkward kissing her, foreign, not Morgan’s lips maybe? I don’t know, it was just different.”

Good, stupid little tramp.

“We sat at a dark corner table and discussed our lives and what we’d been doing.

She looked disappointed when I told her that I was still married and Callaway was doing well. She had been living in France for the past couple years, almost got married, she explained with a sad smile. ‘Seems like somebody else always wants my man,’ she stated, sipping her wine.

I wasn’t really sure how to respond. I felt bad for her and didn’t want her to feel rejected or second best, but Morgan didn’t really choose me. Morgan would have never chosen me.”

You got that right.

“I couldn’t believe I was saying to Skyler, ‘Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re beautiful, some lucky guy is going to come along and sweep you clean off your feet. You watch.’ I was actually okay with that. 

‘But it’s never going to be you, is it, Drew?’

Looking down, I circled my water glass with my finger. ‘I don’t know, Sky.’ I didn’t know. I didn’t know what the hell was happening to me. Something was transpiring, leaving me with an uneasy feeling that I didn’t know how to deal with. I had never felt it before the last few months, and I was fighting with myself more and more to get a handle on it.

‘Can I stay with you tonight?’ Skyler asked, placing her and over mine.

‘Yes,’ I answered.”

Dumb hussy.

“Excusing myself, I told Skyler, ‘You can pour us a glass of wine.’ I didn’t really need to go to the bathroom. I needed to see Morgan. It was crazy. I had Skyler in my room, miles from home, miles from Callaway, and I was thinking about Morgan. I opened my laptop and instantly smiled seeing her laying on the sofa, book on her chest. I snickered when I watched her sit up, shake her hands anxiously, and bite on the end of her bright pink nail. Why she read those books was beyond me? She always seemed so on edge when reading them.

‘You okay in there?’ Skyler called.

‘Yes. Coming,’ I called back, closing the laptop.

The entire night was somewhat of an awkward mess. Everything I did, every body part I touched, I was comparing to Morgan. Morgan’s nipples were smaller. They matched her small soft breasts. Skyler’s were firmer, bigger and the implants caused her nipples to stretch. Morgan’s hip bones stuck out more, digging into my waist when I fucked her. Skyler’s tongue danced in rhythm with mine. Morgan didn’t really kiss me back. What the hell was I doing? My dick was inside of beautiful Skyler, and I was thinking about Morgan. I moved the guilty thoughts to the back of my mind. They were absurd. I wasn’t really cheating on Morgan. I didn’t love her. I loved Skyler. Didn’t I? It wasn’t really cheating, not when you were forced to marry your wife. Was it? Why the hell did I even care? I wasn’t that type of man. I could fuck anyone I wanted. But I didn’t. It was only Morgan, she was always enough. I was surely losing my mind. Why the hell couldn’t I get Morgan out of my thoughts? She didn’t belong there. She’d never belonged there. It was always Skyler. Skyler was right for me. She came from the same walk of life, money, power, looks, not that Morgan wasn’t beautiful, Jesus, why did I keep thinking about Morgan?”

I couldn’t help the boasting going on as my heart did a happy dance, knowing Drew was thinking about me, obsessing over me, and choosing me over Skyler.

“Closing my eyes, I tried to focus my attention on Skyler beneath me. My beautiful Skyler was in my bed, long wavy haired Skyler, with legs of an angel, eyes soft as cotton, delicate lips, curvy, but thin. Oh, my god, I was describing Skyler with Morgan’s picture implanted on my mind. Pumping harder in and out of Skyler, I centered my thoughts on the sex, putting more effort in it than it should have been. That lasted about as long as it took me to think about Skyler’s arid pussy which led me to think about other things. Morgan was always wet for me, maybe she didn’t hate me as much as she let on.”

“She did,” I assured him. I didn’t mean to interrupt or say it out loud. It just fell out of my mouth.

Drew snorted with a half-smile and continued, “I left Skyler sleeping in my hotel bed around midnight. Turning my laptop right to Morgan’s bed, panic struck briefly while I switched views from room to room, finding her curled into a little ball on her bathroom floor. I observed her, wondering what the hell she was doing and then watched her jump up and heave into the toilet. She was sick. I felt like a real shit. She was home sick, and I was in LA screwing someone else. Wait. I didn’t care about that. Drew Kelley didn’t do empathy. I was so fucked up.  I waited for her to finish before dialing her. She moaned, dragging herself from the floor and plopping sideways across her bed.  

‘Hello,’ she moaned.

‘Are you sick?’

She didn’t even try to hide the eye roll. ‘Yes, can I talk to you tomorrow?’

‘What’s wrong with you?’

‘I don’t know, Drew, stomach flu, I presume.’

‘Do you need a doctor?’

‘No, I just need to sleep. Can I please talk to you tomorrow?’ she begged.

‘Yeah, yeah, if you need anything you have my number, right?’

The fuck you expression didn’t go unnoticed. ‘Yes, I have your number. Bye.’

‘Night, Morgan,’ I quietly spoke to myself.”

My god. Drew had a photographic memory. He described our conversation as if it was yesterday.

“I continued to watch Morgan sleep, still dressed in black slacks and a satin blouse. She stayed on top her covers, running to the bathroom two more times within the hour. Finally settling down, coiled in a tight little ball with her arms hugging her waist, she seemed to be resting.”

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