The Morbid and Sultry Tales of Genevieve Clare (29 page)

We all kind of stood there, me with a giant piece of cake and an eco-friendly fork in my hands. Ahren was behind me to the side and Taylor began to examine the papers that Mr. Everly was holding.

I waited until they’d worked it out and finally, I laid the cake over his resting hands, fork between his fingers. “See you later, Mir. Share with Delilah. She’s stingy when it comes to the filling.”

****

We lay in bed. The wind had picked up, bringing with it what felt like an arctic chill. The dampness from the river seemed to settle in me, and I felt cold, constantly, but there was something else.

Ahren’s fingers drifted along my ribs. His touch was light, his body warm, but I shivered with a sudden chill all the same. He pulled the thick blankets over us.

“Maybe we should get you some pajamas, Gen.”

I liked to sleep naked with him, a habit he started and I adopted. I loved that I could reach over and help myself to him anytime I liked without the hindrance of clothing. “That doesn’t work for me,” I explained.

“What’s wrong, Gen?”

“I was going to ask you pretty much the same thing.”

I leaned on my elbow and watched the shadows cross his features, barely visible in the moonlight. He said nothing, and that silence turned into something that was starting to freak me out.

“Kinda scaring me. Are you having second thoughts?” That’s what I was wondering when we were at the funeral.

“Are you kidding me?” he asked.

“You’re off. Something’s off, and what’s worse, you’re not telling me something.”

He pulled me to lie on his chest, just over his shoulder. “I’ll feel better once we’re married. I think I just need to know we’re official before I can relax.”

“But—”

“It’s not about a piece of paper,” he cut me off. “Or being able to say you’re officially my wife. I just can’t shake this feeling. But you know, it’s probably this cold snap.”

Ahren seemed to know exactly what I was thinking and I was getting better at reading him as well. If I had to guess, he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. I guessed we’d always live with that. We’d forget about it, until something worried us again, then reality would remind us of the what-ifs. It was mostly unspoken, but it was there.

“Would you feel better if something did happen, then we could get it out of the way and have something to attribute that feeling to?”

He stared at me, or I was pretty sure he was. His head faced me, but the light was behind him.

“Did you have something in mind?” His tone was serious, almost on the verge of pissed-off.

“I have a confession.”

His entire body went still. He even stopped breathing.

“I killed the orchids in Delilah’s greenhouse.”

I had one job to do. One. Ahren had given me specific instructions. “I won’t be able to get there this week while I get everything ready for the office before our wedding. Can you give the white orchid…” Then he gave me a sheet of paper with how many drops of this and that. Then there was something I had to add, a product called potash, but by the end, I was so confused, I gave every plant a little drop from each bottle, a scoop of that pot stuff sprinkled on top, and a big drink of water.

I went back later in the week, yesterday, in fact, and the orchids, all of them, looked sick. I suppose, with orchids being a high-maintenance plant, killing them was understandable.

I went on to explain, “In fact, it smelled funny in the greenhouse.”

“In what way?” he asked.

“Like rotting flesh.” I replied.

And, with our passionate love making ten feet from a corpse, we should know.

Ahren’s body began shaking. Then he sat up, literally dropping me on the pillow. Oh shit. Oh fuck. Oh no, no no no. He was furious. I was just like Ned Flanders, when he killed Maude’s ficus. I was a murderer. A stone-cold killer of plant life.

Then he took a deep breath and let out the loudest, most powerful laugh I’d ever heard from him.

I sat up and threw my hand to my chest. “I thought you were pissed!” I half-snapped, half-giggled, only because his laughter was contagious.

“No, I think that probably ended my feeling that something wasn’t right in our world.”

And if I could have bottled that hopeful statement, I would have. We could have used it.

The nice people of Greer’s Rest were giving me a wide berth. In fact, if I had to guess, someone had told them to. I thought it might be Rocky looking out for me, careful of my delicate state and checking my emotional temperature. Of course, I would have liked Bryce to be there, and Delilah, and my parents. As I walked down Main Street though, all done up for Christmas, I had a thought. I would have liked to run it by Ahren first, but in the end, I decided it would be a nice surprise.

I flipped open my phone. “Jimmy?”

“Hey Gen-girl. The missus and me are really looking forward to tomorrow night.”

I really liked him. “Jimmy, think you can get a tux between now and then?” I asked.

“Well, I suppose. I didn’t know it was a formal event. I better tell the wife. She’s gonna want to—”

“Jimmy,” I spoke softly, not wanting to draw attention. “I wonder if you would like to give me away. The man who was going to do it recently passed away. He was old, so this isn’t like a drummer of Spinal Tap gig. You aren’t going to drop dead if you agree, I swear.”

He laughed into the phone, and after he’d composed himself enough, he said, “You know, it would be an absolute honor. You sure?”

“Jimmy, I am. If it’s cool with you. Somehow, it seems right that it worked out this way.”

“Something I should tell you, Gen-girl.” His tone changed to serious… his heart-to-heart tone.

I was certain he was going to tell me something about Ahren, something I would not like hearing. So I stopped him.

“Whatever it is, Jimmy, it’s okay. Whatever you know about Ahren that he may not have shared with me, I don’t want to know.”

Jimmy was Ahren’s cab driver, too. I always thought this must have been the work of our dearly-departed, pulling strings in the great beyond.

“No, Gen. It’s not that. It, uh…” He started to get choked up.

I knew that sound like I knew the sound of Ahren’s car keys when they dropped in the bowl by the front door.

“I’ve always wanted to do that…walk my daughter down the aisle.”

“I’m sure, when your son gets married one day, your future daughter-in-law will insist on a dance, at the very least. Listen, I’m going into The City tonight. If you’d like to meet for coffee, I’d risk a piece of pie for you. I think Ahren told you I’m pregnant. I’m afraid to eat anything I really love in case I get sick afterwards, then pie will be ruined forever. But I’d have that memory with you… It’d be worth it.” I smiled.

“I’m working the bridge tonight.”

Jimmy had mentioned this before, but I didn’t know what it meant. I knew he went through Marin and over the Golden Gate then turned around and came back again. I assumed he picked up commuters, so I never asked.

“All right. Well, if you get done early or something, give me a call. And if I see your cab on the bridge, I’ll be sure to honk twice and wave like a wild woman.”

“Right. I’ll have a tux for tomorrow night.”

“Jimmy, I—”

“It’s not about Ahren, honey. About me. Something I should’ve told you. Anyway, no big deal. The missus is going to be happy about this. She thinks the pie she made you kids a year ago had magical powers.”

“It totally did, Jimmy. It totally did.”

****

“Everything’s ready,” Rocky informed me.

I listened on the hands-free thingy Ahren had bought me. He didn’t want me to talk on the phone in any capacity while I drove, but if something happened and I needed it, he wanted me to have the technology at hand.

“Thanks, Rock.”

I was completely Zen about the fact I was getting married tomorrow, no stress at all. Everything was as it should be. Nothing was left until the last minute, and now, I had just finished telling Rock that Jimmy would walk me down the aisle. She was going to fashion an ascot for him to wear in the Clare tartan, which I thought was awesome.

“No biggie, five minute job,” she said.

But now we were heading into that territory of handling me with care and it was almost pissing me off.

“Gen, are you sure you’re okay?”

“If you keep asking me, I won’t be,” I replied patiently. “Anyway, listen, I’m about to get on the freeway. I need to hang-up so I can concentrate. Ahren worries.” I rolled my eyes, knowing, just by my tone, she probably knew.

“Right…uh, sorry to pester you.” Her words were filled with concern and a little bit of hurt.

“Hang on.” I pulled the car over and put my hazards on. “You are not pestering me, but I know you think I’m gonna freak out, or I’m delicate or something. But I’m not. I’m really not.” Before she could say anything else, I cut off further questions by telling her, “I’m sure, honey. Really.”

“Are you still driving?”

“I pulled over to talk to you.” The other line beeped. “I have another call though. Better go. See ya tomorrow?”

“Oh yeah. Not every day I get to wear a plaid maid of honor dress.” She laughed.

“It’s going to be awesome.” I smiled. “Bye.”

“Bye.”

Ahren calling.

“Baby,” he said, and I knew he was grinning into the phone.

“Beloved. Where are you?” I said through my own grin.

“Look across the street.” He was pulled over on the opposite side of the road.

I waved to him like a loon. “Did you go to Delilah’s?” I asked.

“Yeah, and I think I may have revived and saved seventy-five percent of the plants you tried to kill.” He chuckled.

“I guess I’ll have to mark ‘plant-killer’ off my skills list.”

He kept laughing. “I thought something was wrong with your car. Next week, that thing is going to charity. Trade cars with me. I’ll turn around and we’ll switch.”

“No, no, no. My dress is in the back. The old girl and I are going across the bridge and back. Our last hurrah.”

“Gen…” he tried to interrupt.

“It’s two hours. Think of it this way, driving a shitty car across a bridge pretty much cancels out that bridge falling into the ocean from an earthquake.”

He sighed, long and frustrated. “Call me when you cross the bridge. And call me again when you get to Gloria’s, and then call me again when you leave.”

“Sure you don’t want to just come with me?” I offered, though he knew I wanted to have this time to myself.

Neither one of us had wanted a bachelor or bachelorette party. We just decided we’d do our own thing during the day. We’d be together that night and share Mexican he was going to pick up from this awesome little dive in Santa Rosa.

“No, baby, it’s all right. Just indulge me by calling, okay?”

“Okay,” I agreed. “I love you, Ahren.”

“Me, too, Gen.”

****

Ahren

He’d called Rocky in a desperate attempt to feel Gen out and make sure she was okay. Surprisingly, Rocky was happy to participate. She said it was better to have the bride annoyed at the maid of honor rather than the groom. He told her he appreciated that, more than she would ever know, and left it in her hands.

No sooner had he and Gen ended their call when Rocky called him back.

“She’s fine. She has a surprise for you.”

“Thanks, Rochelle.”

“Anything for you guys, Ahren.”

God, maybe that was it. Maybe she was having twins. Maybe she’d booked a three-month cruise to Tahiti without telling him. Still, before he left the house for Delilah’s, and while the tents and chairs and tables were being set up for tomorrow, he went to her parents’ graves and asked that they watch over her.

The day before, he’d done the same with his parents, and now, an hour later, he sat at the back of St. Francis Catholic Church in Santa Rosa and waited for his phone to buzz with her calls. She’d already crossed the bridge and decided to walk around Golden Gate Park for a while. She was having a great day, and as soon as the sun went down, she was heading to Gloria’s, then home to him.

He was staring at the display on his cell before it even rang. “Hey,” he answered.

“Hey yourself. The coast seems clear. There are a few other flowers on the front steps. There’s a light on inside, so I wonder who’s been there. Anyway, I’ll call again soon. ‘K?”

“Yeah,” he said quietly.

“Where are you? You sound…quiet.”

“I’m sitting in the Catholic church across the street from El Serape.”

She sighed into the phone. “But, you’re not Catholic, Ahren.”

“Every little bit helps. Besides, I don’t really think God cares about where you pray.”

“Is it pretty?”

“Candles are lit everywhere, Gen. You should see it. There’s a huge nativity at the front of the church. People are kneeling, lighting their candles, going in to confess their horrible sins.” He laughed.

“I’ll call before I hit the bridge, okay?” she assured.

“Love you.”

“I love you, too.”

****

Genevieve

I wanted to leave a mini Christmas tree with baubles, but I finally decided on red roses with little crystals gleaming on bouncy, white-frosted wires. They were set in a box tied with snowflake ribbon and glittery silver tissue paper, and though small, it was absolutely gorgeous. I set the arrangement on the steps next to the others that had been left.