Maybe Baby Lite (24 page)

“
No, silly. You were just
kind of hanging out with me in my bathroom once Ray delivered me
there. Then you told Ray you felt like you were going to be sick,
and insisted you wanted to puke in Trey’s toilet, so he carried you
down here I guess.”

Oh God, I don't want
to
hear any more!

“
Do you realize how angry
Trey is with me right now?”

“
Why should he be angry
with you, Tylar?” Gina sounded pissed. “You don’t remember what you
told me last night, do you?”

“
I don’t remember a lot of
things about last night.”

“
Let me fill you in. You
told me that it'd been Trey on the phone with you when I walked in
your room yesterday, and that he told you he was working on the
case all weekend. You told me that you heard the voice of a blond
slut in the background telling him that it was time they left for
their dinner reservation. I’m not sure how you knew that she was
blond. You know, all blonds are not sluts, Tylar.”

I didn’t say anything. I
hadn’t realized that I’d confided all of that to her. I wondered
what else I might have confided.

“
Hey,” she said elbowing
me, “That's supposed to be a joke. I’m blond. You calling all
blonds whores, get it?”

“
I’m sorry, Gina. I’m just
thinking about that phone call."

“
Listen Tylar,” she said,
taking hold of my hands. “I know that we just met a week ago, not
even, but I like you. I've got to tell you something that only a
friend would tell another friend.”

Oh no, what was it? Did
she know something about Trey that she hadn’t told me up to this
point?

“
I don’t see Trey as
committing to anything or anyone. I know that I don’t know him well
in recent years, but I can tell you from what I remember, he's a
loner. For him to be engaged that one time was a real shocker to me
and everyone else. When that ended so badly, I can’t think he'd
ever risk it again. I mean fucking him is one thing, but keep your
heart out of it, okay?"

I nodded afraid to speak
with the lump in my throat. Gina hadn’t really told me anything I
wasn’t already starting to believe myself. I mean of course she was
right. Only we hadn't even fucked so why the hell did he care what
I did?

“
I know you're right,
Gina. I just have to figure out where I go from here. I can’t
continue to work here with him being so close, you know? It'd be
hard for me to keep my distance."

“
I know,” she said. “We’ll
figure something out.”

We watched a couple more
episodes of “I Love Lucy,” which helped bring me out of my funk. I
glanced over at the clock, surprised to see it was already 4:30 in
the afternoon.

“
Let’s get out of here,” I
said.

“
I’m good with that, but
where are we going to go, and how will we get there?”

“
Not a problem,” I smiled,
getting up from the bed and walking over to Trey’s dresser. I
reached on top and grabbed his set of keys to the Lamborghini.
“We’ve got wheels.”

“
You do realize your hair
is still wrapped up in a towel?” Gina pointed out. We
laughed.

“
I'll be dressed and ready
in 15 minutes, how about you?”

“
I'll be dressed and ready
in 14 minutes, Ms. Preston, see you downstairs!”

I ripped the towel off of
my head and headed into Trey’s bathroom, eventually getting a comb
through my hair. I pulled it up into a high, skinny ponytail,
brushed my teeth and then applied tinted lip-gloss.

Back in my room, I dressed
in a pair of my new low-slung red shorts and a white half-tee. I
grabbed a pair of flip-flops. I'd no clue where my purse was,
hoping that my cell phone was still in it. Heading downstairs, Gina
was in the entry hall ready and waiting.

“
Your purse is on the hall
table there,” she said, nodding her head in that
direction.

“
Well some good news for a
change,” I remarked. I dangled the Lamborghini key chain at her and
grinned. “Let’s go!”

We were giggling the whole
way across the side yard to the five-car garage. I pressed a couple
of different buttons on the remote hanging on the key chain and
eventually a garage door opened. There was Trey’s shiny black
sports car. Gina had brought some of my CDs from my room so we’d
had some good music for our adventure. I pressed another button and
the doors unlocked.

“
Wow,” Gina exclaimed,
“check it out, sweet black rims on this baby!”

She grabbed a couple of
black baseball caps that were hanging on a hook in the garage. They
had the Lamborghini logo on the front. She tossed one over to
me.

“
Here, let’s put these on
because that convertible top is coming down.”

We slid into the car; I
was in the driver’s seat.

“
Uh oh,” I
exclaimed.

“
What uh oh?”

“
I can’t drive a manual
transmission,” I wailed.

“
It’s the standard H-box
six speed,” she responded, as if there was nothing to
it.

“
You can drive this then?”
I asked.

“
Hell yes, this thing is
like zero to 60 in what, four seconds?”

“
Less, three point two,” I
corrected her.

We both got out and
switched places. “Fasten your seat belts,” Gina instructed, “and
prepare for takeoff.” She fired the car up, pushing the button to
put the convertible top down. Gina backed the car out carefully
onto the concrete drive. She shifted into first gear, and gave it
plenty of gas.

“
And we’re off!” she
hollered, the wind catching our breath.

The day was beautiful for
a drive, sunny and clear. She pulled the car out onto the two-lane
highway, and sped off towards Bristol. It felt so invigorating to
be out on the open highway, in a car that everyone gawked at, that
rode like a dream. The controls were all on the steering wheel.
Gina quickly found the one for the stereo system and hit the CD
button. Instantly classical music blasted from the
speakers.

“
What the fuck is this?”
Gina asked. She pressed another button from ‘mission control’ and
the CD ejected. She read the title aloud, “Debussy’s Greatest Hits
conducted by English Chamber Orchestra”? I don’t think so,” she
laughed, pitching the CD out of the convertible.

“
What are you doing?” I
shrieked. “That’s Trey’s. Now I’m going to have to replace
it!”

“
Let non-girlfriend
Charlotte replace it,” she said. “It’s a given he didn’t buy it to
seduce you now did he? I could be wrong, but I can’t see you
getting into all of the vampirey music shit.”

“
Vampirey's not a word!” I
retorted. “You do see the irony in what you just said having gotten
a Vampire’s Kiss pierced on your freakin’ neck, right?”

Gina laughed
good-naturedly. “My girl's back, yes and in fighting form! Now
let’s see about putting a CD in there that we can relate to, okay?”
I nodded and sorted through the stack of CDs. In the meantime, Gina
opened up the Lamborghini full throttle. I was so distracted that I
didn’t see the black stretch limo that passed us going in the
opposite direction.

“
How about Pink? You sort
of remind me of her.”

“
Yeah?” Gina asked,
obviously flattered. “You know I’ve heard that.”

“
You kind of have an
attitude like hers, too.”

“
I’ve heard that said as
well.”

I placed the CD into the
tray, and it automatically slid back into the player. In a couple
of seconds, Pink’s song, “Fuckin’ Perfect” was playing. I loved
this song, a rare side of Pink. Gina pulled off the road into a
Dairy Queen.

“
Really?” I
asked.

“
I’m in the mood for a
slushie,” she said. “How about you? My treat.”

“
Sure, blueberry,” I
replied.

“
Got it.”

She left the car running
while she went to the order window, coming back with two giant
slushies, blueberry for me, root beer for her. We sat in the car,
slurping our slushies, reflecting. Gina hadn’t mentioned Ian at all
since yesterday. I knew she was still pissed and had turned her
cell phone off for that reason. She probably wanted him to worry
about what she was doing. I knew she was thinking about him when
she got quiet like this.

Gina played with the
controls on the steering wheel and skipped tracks to “So
What.”

“
Oh, I
love
this one!” she exclaimed and
started singing along. She surprisingly had a really good voice.
Coupled with her resemblance to Pink and us being in this car, it
was conceivable someone could mistake her for Pink. But who could I
be…maybe her agent?

I looked over at Gina
thinking how much fun it would be to pull something like that off,
but she was singing away, using her cup as a giant microphone. I
joined in with her on the chorus. She seemed to be getting her
frustration out, which I was glad about. I was also feeling more
liberated and less depressed. I was glad we'd done this.

Singing away with the
stereo blasting, neither of us heard the black stretch limo pull up
beside the passenger side of the Lamborghini. Gina noticed it
before I did when she suddenly stopped singing, leaving me to do
the chorus solo. I followed her gaze, still singing away as I
turned to see the limo. The tinted window in the back seat slowly
lowered and I was greeted by those incredibly blue and incredibly
angry eyes.

Oh shit!

“
Ladies,” Trey greeted us
in his smooth silky voice, “There's been a slight change of plans.
I'll drive Tylar back to the house. Gina, you can make yourself
comfortable in the limo, which will be right behind us.”

There was definitely an
edge to his voice that neither of us challenged. The limo driver
got out, opening the door for Trey. Gina was already scooting out
of the Lamborghini, giving me a look that said, “Good luck, it's
been nice knowing you.”

Trey slid into the driver
seat, electronically adjusting it to accommodate his height. The
driver closed the limo door after Gina was settled inside. I was
afraid to look at Trey. I smoothed the ball cap down; trying to
lower the bill enough to shield me from the glare I knew I was
getting at this very moment. Someone had to say
something.

“
Trey,” I started to
speak, humbly, “I know—”

“
Not a word, Tylar,” he
breathed, having difficulty containing his anger. “I’m too pissed
off at the moment. I don’t want to risk saying anything to you that
I'll regret later. For now, please stay quiet and put your seat
belt on.”

I scrambled to comply. The
drive back to the manor was extremely long despite the speed at
which Trey was driving. I crouched as much as I could in a
two-seater car away from him, but I could feel his anger burning
through me. He'd every right to be. I'd abused his generosity and
over-stepped boundaries by taking his expensive sports car out
without asking. He'd never forgive me, I knew that. Maybe it was
best having things like this between us. It'd make it much simpler
leaving. As soon as he pulled into the garage, I opened my door,
anxious to put some distance between us.

“
Hold it there!” he
ordered. I jumped, startled by his unsuppressed anger now that we
were back on his turf. “I want you to go inside and go up to your
room. As soon as I calm down, I'll be up and we'll be having a
discussion. Understood?”

I nodded, hating the fact
that he was treating me like a child. I spotted the limo with Gina
inside winding up the drive. I was humiliated on all fronts. The
omnipresent Thatcher was there to open the door as I bolted in and
up the stairs like a child waiting for the paddle. I slammed the
door to “my room” immediately grabbing the suitcase out of the
closet and throwing it wide open on the bed. I opened all of the
dresser drawers, tossing the contents onto the bed until each
drawer was emptied. There was a soft knock on my door. I knew he
couldn't have calmed down already.

“
Come in,” I
said.

The door opened and Gina
peered in the room, tentatively. Seeing that I was alone, she came
in, closing the door behind her.

“
How pissed is he?” she
asked.

“
Oh, he is
monumentally
pissed! Let
me put it this way, he needs time to calm down just so that he can
get to pissed!”

“
What should I do? Should
I go?” Gina asked.

“
Don’t you dare leave me,
Gina!”

“
I don’t want to Ty, but
clearly he doesn't want me here.”

“
Gina, please?” I begged.
“Just do this. Go to your room and get your stuff packed and ready.
I've a feeling I’m about to be banished back to my cottage. That's
if I still have a job. You know I can’t stay in that cottage by
myself. Please, you can’t leave until I know where I’m
going.”

“
Calm down, okay? You’ve
got it. I’ll start packing my shit. You come get me when you know
what you’re going to do, okay?”