Uncorked (32 page)

He would miss the boat, at least
until he could have it replaced, which took time. Chella always seemed so happy
and carefree when they were on the boat, and they no longer had that escape.
They’d need to find Aaron Stewart’s accomplice soon. God alone knew what other
explosions or dangerous tricks he planned before his arrest, and this
additional person was just as unpredictable and dangerous as Aaron. His
thoughts were interrupted as Chella got up and walked toward him.

“Hey, how are you? How do you
feel?” he asked as she sat on his lap.

“A little better. My head still
aches a bit.”

“I saw your prescription. It’s
almost time to take your meds.”

“I know. I’m supposed to take
them with food,” she replied.

“I’ll get you some soup, and you
should get some more rest. Charlotte told me what happened. I should have
followed my instincts and taken you to the hospital yesterday. This could have
been much more serious.”

“I know. It was such a small
bump, I didn’t make anything of it until the doctor asked me.”

“I’m going to see to it that you
take it easy. You’re going to be in bed for the next couple of days.”

When Mitch walked
into his penthouse lobby a few
days later, he was surprised to see one of the twins waiting for him. He
stopped at the concierge to pick up his messages before heading up. The woman
at the desk told him his visitor had been there every day between three and
five for the last three days.

“Why are you here?” he asked as
he walked past her.

“Could we talk? Please?”

“Olivia?” he asked, uncertain of
which twin it was before him.

“Yes.”

“I just got in from out of town.”
He said, holding the elevator door open for her. “Come on up.”

“Thanks,” she replied, looking
somewhat relieved.

“Don’t worry, I won’t have you
arrested. Your sister just managed to push all the wrong buttons the last time
she was here.”

“She doesn’t know I’m here. She
won’t be coming.”

“Good,” he said, smiling at her.
“Because then I’d have to call the police.”

They reached the penthouse. Mitch
offered her a seat at the island, and handed her a drink.

“Why are you here?”

“A few reasons, one of which I
think you know.”

“Let’s get to the ones I don’t
know first.”

“I can’t speak for Simone, but
when I found out I had a brother, I always wanted to meet you. I wanted to
respect my father’s wishes. That’s why I didn’t come sooner.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you too,
Olivia,” he said with a smile.

“The other thing is… I wanted to
apologize for how things went the last time we were here. The situation could
have been handled very differently. I know Simone’s delivery isn’t always the
best, but she has good intentions.”

“Right. Olivia, let me put you
out of your misery. I’ve had some time to think about it, and I’m sure you know
I saw your father. I’ll get tested.”

“Really?” Olivia’s face
brightened.

“Yes, really. I wanted to get
settled from my trip first.”

He expected her to jump, scream,
or show some sort of excitement. Instead, she cried. “I don’t know how to thank
you.”

“You don’t have to thank me.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“I’m sure you’re dying to call
your sister and tell her.”

“I can’t right now. She’s on
duty.”

“What does she do?”

“She’s a nurse. Mitch, can I take
you to lunch or out for a drink or something?”

“That’s not necessary. You don’t
owe me anything. Don’t get too excited though. We’re not sure I’ll be a match,
and I don’t know if I can ever forgive your father or be able to see this
through to the end. I don’t want him in my life right now. I’m trying to take
one step at a time.”

“I understand, but I appreciate
your efforts.”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“How come it’s so easy for you to
see past what your father did?”

“It wasn’t, at least not for me,
anyway. When I first found out, I couldn’t believe that my dad could be capable
of doing something so horrible. He told us when we were thirteen. It took me
three years to be able to start trusting him. I couldn’t understand how the man
who was such a wonderful dad to me could do something so terrible.”

“I take it Simone did not see it
that way?”

“Not quite. It upset her for a
while, but not nearly as long as it took me. She said as much as she hated what
he did, he was sorry, and he always loved us unconditionally. While that might
have been true, I couldn’t compartmentalize it the way she did.”

“I don’t know that I can ever get
to that place. He hurt my mother. I would feel like I was betraying her.”

“But she forgave him.”

“I still don’t understand how she
did that. I have a daughter. I think I’d kill anyone who did that to her.”

“You have a daughter?”

“She’s five.”

“So you mean I’m an au—” she
started to reply with excitement then immediately stopped herself. “Mitch, do
you think we could ever have a normal brother-sister relationship?”

“I don’t know what a normal
brother-sister relationship is. I’ve always been an only child. I think I
understand what you’re asking, though. The truth is, I don’t know. I just never
imagined being faced with such a difficult and complicated situation my whole
life.”

She hung her head low after his
response.

“Olivia, this is going to take
time. I like you, please don’t take it personally. I’m trying to deal with this
situation the best way I can.”

“I’m sorry that my dad hurt you
and your mom,” she replied.

“Thanks for saying that. I’m
sorry too, but you didn’t do anything wrong,” said Mitch. “I appreciate you
coming and trying to clear the air. You’re very sweet. I’m going to see your
father’s doctor sometime this week. I’ll call you then.”

“Thank you for seeing me. You
have no idea how much this means to me.”

“You’re welcome.”

Fall had arrived
and the second phase of Chella’s
promotion began. Everything went as planned in the first half of the promotion,
and she was hoping that everything would follow suit for the second half.

Today, the ads would be filmed.
Soon, teens across America would be getting the biggest surprise of their lives
with this joint concert to be held on December twenty-sixth. All Chella had to
do was make sure they would be able to supply the demand at Christmas. The ads
were running, the venues had all been organized and the products were flying
off the shelves. The in-store promotions were equally successful.

The competition had tried to put
a dent in their sales but did not succeed. Board members were impressed with
the results of this campaign; sales had already covered all their costs. Chella
succeeded in securing a comfortable eighty percent of the market. If things
continued, they would be doing more serious damage to their competitors’
bottom-line.

Chella thought ahead to Mitch’s
birthday in a couple of weeks. There had been no incidents, attacks, accidents
or explosions, so Chella toyed with the idea of throwing Mitch a small surprise
birthday party. Would it be safe to have friends over? Would it be safe to have
his friends and family from Santa Monica visit? The only person who might be
able to advise her was Detective Carter. She would never want to put their
friends and family in danger. At the same time, living the life of a normal
person for the last few weeks had been fantastic for her and Mitch. She wanted
to share that with friends.

Even though things
had calmed down on the safety
front, Mitch did not drive his vehicle, despite the fact that it had been
replaced. He was still renting vehicles and occasionally would take a cab or
hire a driver to take him where he had to go. His intent was to mix things up
and not stick to any one routine, enabling him and Chella to enjoy their lives
as safely as possible. The police pulled two prints off the wreckage of his old
car, but they weren’t able to make a match. The perpetrator had yet to be
arrested.

Chella had never
planned a party for herself or
anyone else. Her parties had been limited to having Vicky and Kacy for pizza
and watching a movie on a Friday night.

She called Detective Carter, and
he put her mind at ease. He told her he’d be more than happy to send one of the
guards over on the night of the event if it would make her feel better.

Now she was faced with the task
of who to invite. Of course, the usual suspects were all on the list, but she
wondered about the twins, Emily and Liz. Emily because she was not certain
she’d ever want to risk putting her in harm’s way, and Liz because of the
obvious. After some thought, she decided she’d invite Liz. She didn’t want her
to accidentally find out about this from one of Mitch’s friends and cause
further distance between them. Chella hoped like hell she’d be on her best
behavior that night.

After much thought, she decided
against inviting Emily and the twins. If she were certain they were safe and
all was well, she would have, but putting Emily’s safety even in that slightest
bit of danger was not a chance Chella was willing to take. She was not sure if
Mitch was ready for the twins to meet his mom yet, and the fact that he wasn’t
on the best of terms with one of them was another reason she decided against
it. If they were going to meet Mitch’s family, Chella thought it should be on
his terms.

She sent out the invitations and
organized everything in preparation for the visiting guests. She got the
friendly calls out of the way then called the dreaded phone number. After a
terse exchange with Liz, Chella got the so-called invitation out of the way.
She had hoped that Liz would decline her invitation. No such luck. Liz would be
arriving on Saturday morning.

The day of
the party, Chella and Mitch went
out to lunch at a rooftop restaurant. They enjoyed drinks and conversation then
went over to La Jolla Cove for a walk on the beach.

“Today was perfect. Thank you,”
Mitch said as he enclosed Chella in his arms. They took in the ocean views.

“It was my pleasure. But it’s not
over yet. I cooked us dinner so we can eat when we get home.”

“That’s great, but right now all
I can think of is taking you home and getting you out of those clothes.”

She glanced at her watch, she
still had another forty-five minutes before they’d be expected home. All Mitch
had on his mind at this point was sex, so she’d have to do everything in her
power to preoccupy him for the next forty minutes.

“Let’s go home, it’s time to get
you into bed,” he said, attempting to walk away. Pulling him toward her she replied,
“Let’s stay a little longer. Let’s watch the sunset.”

“Trust me when I tell you a
sunset is the last thing on my mind. Let’s go...” He held her hand and yanked
her toward the car. She had to stop him or the surprise would be completely
ruined. She got into the passenger side of the car. Before he could start the
ignition, she climbed to his side, spanned him, and kissed him over and over
again. She took his hand, directing it under the long, white peasant skirt she
wore. “Someone’s horny,” he said, laughing. She let his hands roam over her
ass. The G-string she wore was so tiny she almost seemed completely bare. He
responded to her hot, urgent kisses ripping away the thin piece of fabric that
got in the way. He found her deep crevasses, and moved his fingers over her as
she sighed in sounds of sheer gratification, she was about to unbuckle his belt
when there was a knock on the driver’s-side door.

“Take it home people!” the police
officer shouted. “Go home.”

“Sorry,” they both chorused in
embarrassment.

Laughing, they drove away. The
only problem was that they’d be twenty minutes early to the condo. Her ringing
phone interrupted her thoughts. She glanced at the screen and was happy to see
Jade’s name appear.

“Hi Jade, what’s wrong? Please
tell me you were able to get the ads off in time?”

“Wanted to let you know that
everyone’s here.”

“Great! I’m so thankful you
handled this for me. It was great having the day off to spend with my
sweetheart for his birthday. We’re on our way home now after a great afternoon.”

“Good. We’ll be on the lookout.
Tell him happy birthday.”

“I will. I owe you one.”

Chella was relieved that they
were ready. “Jade said ‘Happy birthday.’ If it weren’t for her, I’d be at the
office right now.”

“Thanks, Sweetheart. As soon as
we get in, we should take a nice long bath and finish what we started before we
were interrupted,” he replied laughing.