Authors: Danielle Fox
As the cold air struck my face, the effects of my alcohol consumption seemed to dawn on me all at once. My hand reached out to clutch onto the wall beside me to steady my swaying body. I looked down at the ground to check if the pavement was in fact swirling beneath my feet or if was actually my eyes. Before I could force my vision to focus on an unmoving object, I saw the ground coming towards my face at alarming speed. Of course, it wasn’t the ground that was moving upwards, it was my face moving rapidly downwards.
Samantha caught my arm and pulled, stumbling herself as she tried desperately to steady me. Then those recognisable strong hands were on me, one either side of my waist before I was pulled into Julian’s tight embrace. The smell of his aftershave – or deodorant, or body spray, I had no idea which – struck my only remaining fully functional sense. He smelled incredible. So fresh, so alluring.
“Come on, I’m taking you two home.” Julian’s stern words snapped me out of my reverie.
“We can get home ourselves, thank you.” Samantha snapped, her tone clipped.
“It doesn’t look to me like you can. It wasn’t a question, Samantha.”
“Don’t take your shitty tone with me, Julian! You didn’t care too much about her this morning, did you?”
Julian released his tight grasp on me but still held a single arm firmly around my waist as he pulled my body against his side. I could hear the present conversation and I knew I should speak for myself, but the truth was that my brain simply couldn’t form any sensible words. My head spun and their faces were distorted in my hazed vision as I tried to make sense of their heated exchange.
“Trust me, Samantha, I care and I’m taking her home,” Julian spoke through his strained jaw.
“Trust you? Hah, that’s a good one, the last time I did that I found my best friend crumpled in a corner of your flat in fucking pieces, so don’t tell me to trust you! She’s
my
friend,
I
am taking her home. Leave her alone!” I could just about make out Samantha’s widened eyes and flaming red cheeks as she shouted.
“Not much of a fucking friend are you, letting her get into this state!” Julian hissed. I felt his fist clench against my side as his breathing quickened.
“How dare you? Emily does whatever she wants to do! I am not her dictator! Besides, I think you can thank yourself for the state she’s in. You broke her heart, Julian, not me!”
Samantha grabbed my arm and pulled me out of Julian’s embrace. I had expected Julian to fight it, but he didn’t. His arms simply dropped to his sides as he muttered something under his breath.
As we walked away from him, or stumbled in my case, I glanced back and saw him staring back at me, his eyes pleading with mine, his expression revealing nothing but pure agony. I turned away as his head dropped and he closed his eyes, squeezing them together, tightly.
A loud thumping attacked my head as I peeled my eyes open. I squinted and closed my eyes again as the light seeped in. With a loud groan, I rolled over to face Maia who was sitting beside me, flicking through the pages of her book.
“Good morning, beautiful.” I squeezed her leg ever so gently.
“Morning, Mummy. Time to get up,” she replied, her angelic face lit up by her wide smile.
I rolled over to retrieve my phone from the bedside table. 7:34a.m and three messages received. I felt the muscles in my stomach quench as I tapped on the message icon. All three were from Julian.
‘Emily, I’m sorry about tonight. Please give me a chance to explain over dinner tomorrow night. Julian x’
‘Emily, please?’
‘Shout at me. Scream at me but please don’t ignore me. Unless of course you are asleep, which I sincerely hope you are! I need to explain about Natalie. I won’t have you believe that I was with her tonight. So, dinner tomorrow?’
My stomach clenched and twisted as I read his messages, intensifying my current nauseous state. He cared enough to send me three messages and invite me out for dinner to explain, that must count for something, right? I felt an almost painful stretching of my dry lips and realised quickly that I was smiling ridiculously at my phone screen. I quickly forced the smile away, trying to remember why I was supposed to be so angry with him. With a deep sigh, I pressed reply.
‘You don’t owe me an explanation. I had no right to interfere. I’m sorry. Goodbye, Julian. X’
I wrapped Adrian’s dressing gown tightly around myself and slipped my phone into the pocket, releasing it just before it burst to life. I startled at the noise evading the quiet room. I hadn’t been expecting my message tone so soon.
‘Good morning. How is your head? Please don’t tell me goodbye, Emily. Let me explain.’
I frowned at the words on the screen in front of me. What did that mean? It was he who had already told me goodbye.
‘I’m simply returning your own goodbye, Julian. And you have nothing to explain, it’s none of my business. My head has seen better days, thank you.’
His reply was almost instant – within seconds of my phone returning to my pocket, well, Adrian’s pocket.
‘I have a lot to explain, I wish to make my life your business. I need you to understand why I left yesterday and I would very much like your forgiveness. I need to see you, Emily. Please? Will you join me for dinner tonight?’
I blinked rapidly as his words touched me. He wanted my forgiveness. Did this mean he no longer wanted goodbyes? My heart stuttered as I considered that possibility.
As the next beginning of vibration started in my hand, I instinctively tapped the screen with my thumb and was horrified when I noticed my mistake. The vibration wasn’t a message as I had expected, it was a phone call. From Julian. Shit! I couldn’t speak to him! But I had already answered the call and I heard his voice call my name from the other end of the line. With a shaking hand, I raised my phone slowly to my ear, inhaling deeply.
“Hello?” I asked, as if I was unaware of whom the voice belonged to.
“Good morning, Emily.”
“Um...hi.” My voice sounded horrible, husky and almost masculine, heavy with the evidence of sleep – and dehydration.
“Is this a bad time?”
“No, now is fine. What do you want?”
“I want you to let me explain everything. I know I don’t deserve even a minute of your time, Emily, but please just give me an hour. Tonight. I’ll take you to dinner.”
“I can’t go out for dinner with you, Julian.”
I heard his deep intake of breath and listened as he released it slowly.
“So that’s it? You won’t talk to me? Is that just while you’re still angry at me or is that forever?”
“No, I can’t go to dinner with you because I have Maia. That is assuming that you weren’t planning on dining at McDonalds.” Julian laughed loudly at my words. “What’s funny?” I asked, my nerves evident in my weak voice.
“Nothing. Sorry. I’m relieved that you aren’t turning me away. Um... If you wish to dine at McDonalds that can certainly be arranged, or I can cook for you both at my place. That way Maia can sleep when she’s ready and we can talk.”
“Um...okay.”
“Okay, McDonalds? Or okay, my place?” I could hear the amusement in his tone.
“Okay, your place. If that isn’t too much trouble for you.”
“Emily, nothing I ever do for you will be too much trouble. Do you understand that?” Now his tone was serious, sincere.
“Not particularly, Julian, but you can explain later.”
“Great, I’ll pick you up at, say, five? Will you be home or will you still be at Adrian’s?”
“Five is great. And I’ll be home. How did you know I was at Adrian’s?”
“Please forgive me for that, I had to be sure you got home safely last night. I couldn’t simply watch you walk away.”
So he had followed me? I rolled my eyes and exhaled noisily. “See you at five, Julian.”
“Looking forward to it.”
The day seemed to drag on longer than any other day I could remember. I had gradually recovered from my hangover over the course of the day but the morning was not an enjoyable experience. Now I was reminded of why I didn’t drink much and why I chose to stay home rather than rolling in during the early hours of the morning. I couldn’t remember ever feeling so tired. The tiredness would be fine as a teenager but as a mother, it wasn’t as if I could just pop back to bed for an hour. As five o’ clock dawned I was sincerely grateful for the bottle of sports drink that Adrian had popped into my bag before I left his apartment.
When my doorbell rang and I spotted Julian’s Bentley outside the window, I felt refreshed and slightly more energetic although nothing would kill the burning of my eyes, only sleep. My stomach knotted as I reached for the door latch. Taking a deep breath, I opened it slowly. The smile that greeted me nearly knocked me off my feet. Wow! This man was so beautiful. Every inch of his face beamed perfectly at me, making my knees feel slightly weak.
“Hi,” I greeted him. “Come in.” I stood aside and held the door open, encouraging him inside.
“Thank you,” he said as he began to move toward the open door. “And hi yourself. You’re looking very lovely, Miss Braxton.”
My cheeks flushed crimson as I looked down as if checking for myself how I looked, although I already knew how I looked. I had borrowed yet another of Samantha’s dresses. A sleek, satin black pencil dress with a sweetheart neck line. With its lack of sleeves – or straps even – I had felt a little too exposed so I had chosen a small, nude-coloured, short-sleeved jacket to cover my shoulders and added a thin nude belt around my middle to compliment it. Finished off with Samantha’s nude, patented high stiletto shoes, I was confident that I looked good. Well, as good as I was capable of looking.
As he passed me he paused briefly, flashing me his dazzling smile once more as his slightly narrowed eyes scanned down the length of my entire body then moved back up to meet mine again. My heart pounded and my breath hitched in my throat in response. He leaned closer to me, slowly, and when I didn’t object he pressed his lips gently against my cheek, inhaling deeply as he did so.
“You are truly stunning, Miss Braxton,” he breathed as he straightened himself.
“Thank you, Mr Scott,” I replied, blushing deeply no doubt. “You don’t look too bad yourself.”
Of course that was an absolute, bare-faced lie. He looked incredible. He was impeccably dressed in a crisp, brilliant white dress shirt complete with a cool blue tie. His dark grey suit looked fantastic on him and certainly did plenty of favours to certain parts of his anatomy. As I closed the door behind him, I glanced over my shoulder just as he was removing his jacket. With his shirt tucked neatly into his trousers there was nothing to obstruct the view of his perfectly shaped backside! I felt the familiar heat spreading through my cheeks once more as he turned to face me, hoping he hadn’t noticed the level of my line of sight.
“Why are you blushing, Miss Braxton?” he smirked.
“Nothing,” I stammered as I felt the burning of my cheeks increase dramatically. Shit, that didn’t actually make any sense! “Um... I mean... I’m not blushing.”
Julian grinned at me, his eyes wicked with some private thought and then Maia came bouncing into the hallway just at the right moment to save me from my embarrassment.
“Hello, gorgeous girl.” Julian beamed at Maia. “Are you hungry?” he asked, crouching down so that he was at her height.
“Yes,” Maia replied, smiling widely at Julian.
“How about you and Mummy come to my house and I’ll make you some dinner? What’s your favourite?” Julian tucked a loose strand of her hair gently behind her ear as he spoke.
“Sketty bobnaise. But with long worm stuff, not the twisty things,” Maia replied with her eyes full of excitement.
Julian’s face beamed as his mouth turned up in amusement at Maia’s description of spaghetti bolognaise. “Then sketty bobnaise it is! Complete with long worm stuff,” he chuckled.
Julian made the spaghetti bolognaise from scratch with his own fair hands after politely dismissing his housekeeper, Maria, for the evening. I wasn’t sure Maia would eat it, after all she was used to the kind that came in a jar, but even after Julian’s concern of her being hungry and so insisting on feeding her fruit and yoghurt whilst dinner was cooking, she ate the whole plate before telling him that his dinner was much yummier than Mummy’s. And she was right, it was delicious. I was very impressed. I hadn’t pictured Julian as the type who cooked a meal, let alone on insisting that he make the task much more difficult than it needed to be by dismissing the Dolmio jar in his cupboard.
By 8pm, Maia was fast asleep on the sofa whilst cartoons continued to play on the TV.
“I’d better take Maia to bed,” I said as I rose from my seat at the breakfast bar. Julian looked nervously at me. His eyes scanned mine before wandering down to the floor.
“Would you mind if I carried her to bed?” he asked, his eyes unable to hold contact with mine.
“Of course not,” I smiled.
I placed my hand against his perfectly shaven cheek and encouraged him to look at me. My first glass of wine had clearly given me slightly more courage than I usually possessed. “You don’t need to feel nervous with me, Julian.”
“I don’t want you to think that I am trying to come between the two of you. I would never do that. I’d just like to show you that I welcome the both of you and that I think very highly of your daughter. And yourself, of course.”
“I know that. Let’s get her to bed; I do believe you wanted to do some explaining.”
The muscles in my stomach twisted as I wondered briefly what I was possibly going to hear tonight. A small furrow appeared between his brows as he listened to my words, then he turned and went to Maia. He lifted her gently and cradled her tiny body against his broad chest as he carried her into the guest room. He laid her on the bed and tucked the duvet snugly around her before kissing her gently on her forehead. Tears welled in my eyes as I watched him. Somehow his small show of affection towards my daughter filled me with emotions, happiness being the most prominent.
“She really is a little angel,” Julian whispered as he stood, still looking at Maia. “She’s a real credit to you, Emily.”