Chapter 108 Apology Not Accepted
THEODORE
After the two-hour meeting with our best client, I left the conference room in a hotel downtown that had been booked for us and headed toward the lobby. I checked the time on my watch. Lunch break was over. I hoped Alice remembered to grab something to eat.
I hadn't realized that the meeting would take so long.
"Theo?"
I went fucking still to the point where my anger didn't even let me take a proper breath. That voice. That fucking voice.
What was he doing here?
I turned on my heel and saw Todd standing a few feet behind me. He had his hands deep in his pockets.
"Could we talk?"
"Talk?" I whirled around. I stepped closer to him and saw that he still had some discoloration on his cheekbone from the punch I gave him. "What do you think? I spoke to your representative, didn't I? I don't want to be anywhere near you."
"Look, I messed up, alright?" he proclaimed calmly. "I misjudged the situation and got in way over my head. Until I read that article, I didn’t think you were serious about her.”
“I told you many times that I was.”
“Yeah, but, you know…That’s who we are, Theo. There were never any hard feelings involved. We’ve always shared.”
I bristled and he raised his hands. “Alright. Fair enough. I don’t want to start a fight. Like I said—I misjudged the situation completely and I’m sorry about that, alright? I’m really sorry.”
“What’s done is done, Todd. I don’t have to accept your apology, not when you’ve been harassing the love of my life—”
“It won’t happen again,” he claimed. “I’m just as stubborn and insistent as you are, and that’s what made me go up to her all the time and make those offers. But I get it now. You’re together. And I should mention that I have a lot of respect for Alice.”
“Ah. Is that so?”
“Yeah.” He dared to take a few steps toward me. “I never got to fuck her. She’s become as saintly to me as my own mother.”
“You pig.”
“I mean it. I’m sorry.” He raised his hands in mock surrender. “You won, Theo. Congratulations.”
He extended one of his hands and I just stared at it.
“Come on,” he smiled. “I’m putting myself in a vulnerable spot here. I know you can imagine how hard this is for me. Plus, it’s my birthday.”
“I didn’t know shit aged.”
Todd laughed, but I stepped back and added, “I can’t talk to you, Todd. But we can do business. Know that if you go anywhere near her—”
“Relax. I won’t.” After a second thought, he added, “Not with the wrong intentions anyway. Besides, I have someone else.”
He stared at me for a few long beats and I did the same. “Am I supposed to ask you who it is?”
“You could.”
“I won’t.”
“It’s Carmella.”
Was I really surprised? “Of course.”
“She was mine first. I don’t know if you remember that little face.”
“Good for you, Todd.”
“Do you wish us all the best?” he asked, cocking his head to the side. “Do you forgive me for stealing your girl, old pal?”
After our interaction, I returned to the office. Maybe I had been a little unnecessary with Todd, but I didn’t think so. Not really. I was still too mad to see things clearly and accept any kind of apology from him. He’d messed with Alice, and I’d never felt as protective of someone as I did with her.
Alice was my everything. I couldn’t live with the fact that she was upset or hurt, or even sad. Maybe that was why I detested her parents so much.
They took advantage of her kindness and never even thanked her for it. Two grown adults truly believed that taking it easy was their right simply because they had kids to take care of them, or in their case, a daughter. Oh, they wanted everything done for them. They gave her the gift of life, so she had to kill herself to provide for them.
It was pathetic.
If anything, they owed her, not the other way around. I truly believed that giving birth was a selfish act no matter how you put it. At the end of the day, it involved bringing someone into the world to experience loss, suffering, and pain. Fuck the good shit. Going through a period of suffering, which almost every human went through, didn’t mean that good would automatically come after it. Some people led trashy lives from the minute they sucked air into their lungs. Sometimes, the good never came.
What then?
How could they sit on their asses and truly believe that it was her duty to care for them? Dammit, who took care of her? How could they guilt-trip her into doing everything for them when they themselves hadn’t been exemplary parents?
It was messed up. Through and through.
I reached the office and did my best to force that thought to the back of my mind. As I’d said before, I wouldn’t intervene. Sooner or later, Alice would see them for who they were. I knew she would. There was only so much shit someone could take.
Plus, she did it for her brother. Rory was a great guy. He didn’t deserve to suffer because his parents were two piles of shit.
I stopped by her office before going into mine, just to see if she’d eaten something. I knew she was insistent on not being touchy when we were in the office, but that didn’t mean we had to act like strangers, right?
I rapped my knuckles on the door and she breathily told me to come in.
I opened the door and noticed right away that something was off.
“What is it?” When she didn’t answer me right away, I walked further into the office and closed the door behind me. “Alice, what’s wrong? Talk to me.”
She stood up and I took her hands in mine. I didn’t take my eyes off her face. Alice was clearly shaken.
“Alice.”
She licked her lips. “I have to tell you something, but you have to promise not to freak out. I have an idea.”