Chapter 1- Shake It Out
Adam puts the fork down on the table, wiping his mouth with the napkin before speaking to Linda. "The frittata really hit the spot before the main course. Thanks again for inviting me over" he tells her while she smiles and nods at his compliments. Greg, her husband, walks in and takes off the apron. "I'm almost done in there. I hope you're packed already so you can enjoy dinner without having to rush home." he asks. Adam nods and the older of the two men retreats back into the kitchen. He looks over at Linda. "You must be happy to have a man that cooks" he jokes with her. "Yes he's got other qualities, but his cooking is the best thing about him" she laughs as her husband comes back in with a tray containing the steaming bowl of spaghetti with meatballs and three plates. "Ouch. That's my best quality?" he winks at her and Adam shakes his head. "Oh please lets' stop it there before I find out things about my co-worker I didn't need to know"
Greg was the first person he talked to and really became good friends with out here in Chicago when the project he was working on, now for two years, required him to move. On his one year living out in the United States and in the windy city, Adam had found he and his wife were the most welcoming bunch and their silly fights warmed his heart.
"So when is your flight leaving? Tonight?" Greg takes a seat across from Adam on the patio table. Adam puts down his drink and clears his throat. "No. Tuesday morning actually. I moved it back to take care of a last minute thing that came up, but I am all packed and ready to get this over with really. The faster I'm back here, the better" he exclaimed. Linda stared at him curiously before talking. "But Toronto is your home, isn't it? Your family must be happy to have you out there again. Last time I checked, you haven't been out there in six months."
"Now Linda, let's not pester Adam." Greg came into the conversation. "He has a reason for staying here. How is Maxine by the way? You guys seemed very happy at the quarterly dinner that we had."
"I haven't heard from Maxine in three days, to be honest." Adam told them. She was a great girl and everything he was looking for in someone trying to have a good time with, but farther than that he didn't think he wanted to take it of she wasn't willing to. "Oh. Well at least you will get away from work for a week so you can catch up with everyone over there" Linda tried to put a positive spin on it.
"I'm just going to stay in my hotel most of the time, waiting for the wedding rehearsal dinner and then the wedding to come so I can be here earlier than expected." He told them, seeing the wheels spinning in Greg's head before the older gentleman spilled with words of wisdom and observation. "Why are you in such a hurry to get back here? The offices are running smooth with the plans and you haven't taken a sick day or vacation day in months. I would think you would want to relax, but you seem to be running or hiding from something"
Adam smiles a bit before taking another sip from his glass. "Well, doctor…" he exaggerates. "I'm not trying to stay too long. I am not hiding. I just know that I would rather not see some people over there that put a sour taste in my mouth is all"
"It's a girl, isn't it?" Greg finally says. Adam exhales. "Yes."
"Oh a girl? Really? Is she coming to the wedding then?" Linda squeals a little loudly. "Yes, she should be there. I know she wouldn't miss it so she will be there." Adam starts to gather food from the large bowl and tries to put it on to his plates when Linda stops him and starts to serve the table, Greg sitting across from him with his elbow in the table and his chin in his hand. "She must have been something special for you to not want to be there for your brother or for you to do as little as possible with the wedding. Tell me, Adam. Why haven't you ever mentioned your life over there? I mean you do mention your family every now and again, but you? You remain a mystery, an enigma. Why is that?"
"I take it you minored in psychology, Greg?" Adam jokes. "It's not like that. Yes I used to talk more about my family than I do now, but things change. I changed." "Are you sure?" Greg challenges. Adam glares at him for a few seconds before letting out a breath he had held in too long. "The person, the woman I have been trying to avoid is the one woman I can never forget. Her names is Fiona. Fiona Coyne. She is married now, different last name, but for me she will always be Fiona Coyne, Princess Fiona."
"When did she get married?"
"More than two years or so ago. She might be celebrating her 3 years. I'm not completely sure any more"
"Was that the last time you saw her?"
"No. I saw her after that"
"Was the first time six months ago?"
"No. Two years ago. A month after her wedding"
He closes the front door and walks down the steps towards his car, all the while knowing that she was outside watering her flowers on the front lawn. His peripheral vision showed her body coming over closer to where their houses split. "Adam" she called him, but he acted like he didn't hear her. "Adam!" she raised her voice, but he again acted like his phone was the most interesting thing in the world to him right now. It wasn't until he felt the cold water make contact with his back did he acknowledge her. "Damn it, Nora!" he turned, his anger rising for a moment before he composed himself and pulled the wet shirt off his back. He swung it at her, but she dodged it.
"What do you want? Now I have to go get another shirt" He told her as she walked across the small barrier they had. "You've been ignoring me or trying to go out of your way to avoid me every chance you get" Nora shot back, Adam not meeting her eyes. "I've been busy with work" he was not lying. He had a small part in a project coming in from the states and he really needed to see if this was the opening he had been waiting for to expand in this company.
"Bullshit. Ever since…" she looked around. "…since we slept together, I've been a plague to you. You're avoiding me and I know why"
"I was drunk that night" he looked straight into her eyes. "Oh? And the next night? You seemed pretty sober then" she equaled his intensity before he broke their contest. "It shouldn't have happened. It was a one time thing and I should have known better then to have it happen again. I will admit" he caressed her arm. "I had fun the second night. That night I remember." She rolled her eyes and smiled at him. "Maybe we could?" he challenged. "I'm not another one of those girls you fuck just to forget her, Adam"
He pulled his hand back. "I have to get a shirt. It's not fare that one of us is shirtless"he teased. He started to walk away and head again to his house. "She must have been special to you" she yelled to him, stopping him. "This Fiona girl? You said her name that night. You called me Fiona. I'm guessing that it's her?" he walked back up to her. "You know nothing!" he said through his gritted teeth, the anger showing. "I-I know she's beautiful, eyes very blue and very pretty dark curled hair" she said. His face relaxed. "How? How do you know what she looks like? Did Eli-"
"She stopped by yesterday night. When you were out, inside god knows who. I saw her about to knock, but walked away. I spooked her, but before she left, she told me to tell you something" she looked for any reaction on his face. She got nothing and continued. "She said to tell you to meet her at the hotel? That you'd know which one she was talking about?" she kept on saying things, but Adam had tuned her out when he picked up his shirt where he had thrown it at her. He saw nothing and heard silence. He put his shirt back on, his back making contact with the cold wet spot, but his body did not register anything. The only thing he knew was that he was going somewhere, a dark part that he had hoped had closed in this damn month.
He didn't not feel the drive or the tires come to a halt under him. All he knew now was that he was in front of the receptionist, in the same hotel she had stayed. "Sir?" she said to him, Adam shaking away the shock. "Huh? Oh! Yes, yes. I uhh was looking for someone. Fiona Coyne."Adam taking a wild guess with her last name, hoping she had put her room under her old last name instead of her married name. It was a few second of the keys clicking when he got an answer. "Sorry sir, I have no one by that name here." He tapped the counter for a minute, thinking of something else. "Is there something under Adam Torres?" He asked her. The keys continued their sound. "Yes. Can I see some ID please? To verify you're the other person assigned to the room" she took his driver's license and checked it for a second before giving it back to him, at the same time handing over the room key card. "It's room 1212. The elevators are through your right on the last hall. Those are the ones that will take you up to the right floor" he thanked her and took her instructions, pressing the elevator button marked with the twelve. Its was a short ride; He got out and started his search of the rooms.
He stood outside the room assigned to him. He took a deep breath before he slid the key card into place and twisted the handle. He walked inside and close the door behind him.
It's not the usual room he would think Fiona would be in. It has no extra room that separates the bed and no living room. Not like last time. Get that out of your head his mind tells him. He doesn't trust himself at this moment, but he still calls for her. "Fiona" he says to the empty room once. He doesn't have to say it again when she shows up, exiting the bathroom, her hair wet. She drops the towel she was using to dry her hair on the bed. They stand a few steps away from each other. "Adam"she exhales. "I'm guessing your neighbor-"
"Yeah. She gave me the message" rushes out of him. He sees the ban on her left ring finger. The engagement ring gone. He looks at her. Her eyes have no glow anymore. The dark rings underneath her eyes make her seem older now, but he ignores all that for the moment. "Why did you come to my house?" he asks her. "It's been a month since" he can't finish.
"I missed you"
He snorts. "Wow. Where was this Fiona a month or so ago?" he says to her. "I'm not happy, Adam"
"Well what do you want me to do about it?" he mimics her low pitch, sadden voice. "I didn't want to disappoint my parents" she gives him the answer to the unasked question. "Your parents? You mean your mom, the woman that was ok with me?" She shakes her head. "So your dad? That's who this was about? This marriage? The guy that has been out of the picture for half your life? You got him to dictate who'd you marry? Is that it? It's that what you're telling me?!" he didn't mean for his voice to raise with every sentence, but the true reason, he expected, hurt more now than not knowing. "You don't know! Social standings call for me to marry-"
"What? Someone who can live up to daddies name? To his high society?!"
"I hate being married" she tells him. "There is no joy in my life, it's become a routine every day. I hate it. I hate it all!" she sits on the bed, frustrated for the pressure to live up to a name. He decides to let her sit by herself. "Why come back here?" he asks "You made it perfectly clear that you would get married and I made it clear I was walking away"
"And yet here we are" she tells him, gesturing around the room. "You look well" she says, looking at him, Adam catching the reflection of the broken eyes he knows she's also looking at. "I umm I don't know what I'm doing here. I never I" "Adam"she stops him
"If I could take one thing back, it would be what I did that day"
"And yet you married him!"
"Because it was requested of me by my father!"
"Your father is a piece of shit for allowing his daughter to be sold to the highest bidder!"
"I'm not a whore, Adam!"
"You might as well be one since you get paid like one!"
"All my life has been planned out for me and I changed it as much as I could, but there where some things I was not allowed to do! You think Declan wanted to go to Yale? No! That was dad's stopping ground and it was put into Declan to go to that school. Me? I was always the odd child out when it came to my father. I tried my best and if this one thing made him happy, then I was going to do it! You might call me a whore, but I did what was best"
"Spoken like a common whore"
The sting of her slap echoed in his ear, the ringing stopped and he looked back at her, seeing that she was not done as more slaps came hard and brutal. He stopped her and saw her chest move with every deep breath. He put his hand on her cheek. Her hand finds his face, playing with the small peach fuzz that he had from not shaving. Her warm palm feels like fire on his icy face while the rest of it burns from her slaps. His finger brushes her lower lip, her eyes immediately close. Her eyes open and he sees what he had not seen in her dead eyes when he first got there; Desire.
It all feels like seconds. He kisses her lightly before he feels her hunger, her moans escaping her lips with every contact their tongues make. He feels her fall down on the bed as he goes along with her, his body pinned between her thighs. His hands undo the knot on her bath robe and he touches her silk skin, his fingertips missing the sensation of her. His hand finds the top of her panties and works its way inside of them, the dampness coating her small patch of hair, his fingers light play with her lips. She moans into his mouth, her hips rocking into his hand. Their kisses become long. He stops their tongue play, their lips still touching. "God you're wet" he whispers to her as he gently plays with her clit, his thumb circulating it, wetting it as his fingers find themselves inside of her. Her breath hitches as her nails start to push his shirt out of the way and crawl through his back. Her left hand brushes by his hair as he keeps his movement.
In that moment, without warning, he stops. He retreats to a corner of the room, his whole body shaking up. She's married, he repeats to himself. Even though she is not happy with it, she made her choice. She must live with it. He opens the door and walks out, never seeing how fast Fiona got out of bed and ties her bath robe again. "Adam" she calls down the hall, but he is already inside the elevator when she is running towards it. He presses the button for the main lobby, out of breath and thinking he must be out of his mind as well.