THE ICE QUEEN OF ORANGE COUNTY

-1-

She stood there in her mother's cold fortress of solitude nestled in the cheery smiles and laughter filled "sunshine state."

"Someone, gag me please!" she muttered to herself, even though some of the staff and construction workers milling about the house heard her. "Close the curtains" she ordered one of the maids.

"We need the light to conduct our job properly" one of the construction workers spoke up.

The woman turned around to face the worker. "I believe the light bulb was invented to aid with such dilemmas" the woman coldly replied as she eyed the worker up and down. He was pretty hot with his blonde hair and blue eyes, not to mention stupid enough to be taken advantage of.

"We had to turn down the electricity because of the hazards involved with construction."

"I believe you are being paid enough to work around something like that."

"Look, lady..."

The woman looked at her watch before interrupting him. "Look, boy..." she said as a sheepish smile crossed her face "I have guests arriving here in two hours for a memorial service for my mother which I do not want to hold, but needless to say must if I am going to keep up the false pretense that I actually gave a damn about her and get my hands on the money that I need to pay you and the rest of you degenerate lot because she stupidly decided to sign a contract with you neanderthals; so before you begin working on this room, how about you finish with one of the rooms on the other side of the house and pick up where you have failed to begin in this room after this mockery of a memorial service for a woman who has hopefully, although I shouldn't get my hopes up since her entire body was made out of plastic, is rotting in her grave as we speak."

The workers looked at her in shock and she arched an eyebrow over her dark sunglasses in response and she unnecessarily smoothed down the black dress that clung to her body and took off her large hat. "What? Cat got your tongue, boy?"

"Our boss told us to take care of this room" he stated simply, suddenly feeling like he was in over his head.

"Do you really think I give a damn about what your inane manager or supervisor told you? Your pay check for all of this is coming from me; therefore, do as I tell you. You should consider me to be your boss!" she spat. "As for you..." she said to the head maid "I want you to make sure that this room is set up exactly as I told you. I'm going upstairs and I'll be down in one and a half hours. I do not want to be interrupted. Oh, and if this room isn't set up like I told you, I can and will replace you in five seconds flat."

With that, the woman started ascending the stairs and locked herself in the room she occupied when she arrived the night before.

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"Hey, Aaron! What's up?" the man asked his son as he and other workers returned from where he told them to begin working for the day. He felt unsettled by the angry, shocked, and somewhat puzzled look on his son's face.

"Nothing, dad."

"That doesn't sound too convincing. Why aren't you guys doing what I told you to do?" he asked all of his workers who looked at Aaron to respond. "Any of you guys can answer me you know."

"This lady tore into Aaron..." one of the workers started and Aaron watched as his father's eyes widened.

"She told us that she needs that room today and that we should work on one of the other rooms instead." Aaron said before the worker could finish what he was about to say.

"Bruce, what did she do?" the man asked the worker who first spoke up.

"Called him boy after he called her lady and then called us all degenerates and said that she needed the room for the day and that she was paying us so we should listen to her and go work on something else."

The man clenched his fists. He had made an arrangement with the owner of this house before all he started working on renovations. He told her that she wasn't going to order around, let alone put down, any of his workers or his son. If she did, he told her it would be over and she could figure out what to do from there. He felt the blood rushing through his veins as he turned around and headed towards the living room.

"Where is she?" he asked one of the maids who had grown accustomed to seeing his face and knew who he was.

"Upstairs" she said nonchalantly. "Wait, sir, she said she didn't want to be interrupted." The maid had a panicked expression on her face and the man could tell that she was scared out of her mind.

"You can always count on her to have a bad day and scare the shit out of everyone around. Don't worry... I won't let her know that you told me." he said to the maid as he climbed up the stairs.

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"I really love these conference calls." The woman stated enthusiastically. She managed to shower but felt like she couldn't remove the stench of death from her presence. That's why she called her children, she needed to feel alive.

She sat in front of her armoire vanity set clad in a red silk robe as she brushed her hair and did her makeup.

"Mom, are you sure you don't want us to be there? We can just hop on the jet and be there and come back in no time."

"It isn't worth it, honey."

"Are you sure mom? We're kind of worried about you. We know how much you hate Newport."

"When did children start looking out for their parents? Stop worrying about me. I should be worrying about you. How are the two of you doing all alone in New York?"

"We're fine mom."

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The man fumed as he spotted the shut door at the end of the hallway and made out the muffled sounds of the woman's voice. He squared his shoulders, tightened his jaw and clenched his fists as though he were preparing himself for the fight of his life.

As soon as he reached the door, he knocked on it. There was no reply.

He knocked again, only this time harder. There was still no response.

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To say that she was simply inconvenienced, upset, irritated, or angry would be grave understatements. She was fuming. Who ever this insufferable man was, he was making her blood boil. The time she spent talking with her children, one of the only things that brought any semblance of joy to her life, was cut short because of his pounding on her bedroom door and yelling. She couldn't help but wonder if her mother had become a ludicrous mad woman in the final years of her life, seeing as how she had enabled the help to have the notion that they were free to gallivant through the house, do as they please, and shout at her.

She had told that stupid maid that she didn't want to be disturbed.

She slammed her brush down on the armoire before making her way to the door with a huff.

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He could feel the blood rushing through his veins and his skin turning redder with each second that passed. He wondered if he should just stop the work and leave the bitch to figure out what to do all by herself. Even if he did do that though, there was no way in hell he was going to let the old hag get away with putting down his son. He was going to give her a piece of his mind.

At this point he was pounding on her door and shouting her name.

"I've got to talk to you. Who do you think you are? I warned you about this! I told you that if you were rude to any of my workers, you'd have to find someone else to do these renovations! Open this door right now or I swear I'll break it down, Townsend!" he yelled at the top of his lungs.

He nearly fell over when the woman threw the door open.

"It's not Townsend, you degenerate bumbling hound!" he heard the voice of another woman, one he wasn't expecting, speak. "It's..." she began before he looked up at her and felt like he had been hit by a ton of bricks.

He suddenly forgot why he had been pounding on her door not even a minute ago as his blue eyes locked with her fiery hazel orbs. He finally understood what the term 'blast from the past' meant as he was suddenly transported back to another lifetime. Even though it had only been fifteen years since he had last seen her, it felt like it had been centuries.

She looked the same, only her hair was darker and longer than he remembered. He suddenly remembered how happy he was back then, how in love they were, what it felt like to kiss her, to have her look up at him with her loving gaze, and as his eyes roamed her body in her red silken robe that fell mid-thigh, he couldn't help but remember what it was like to have their bodies fused together in the most heated and passionate experiences of his life.

He was pulled out of his reverie when he noticed her pulling her robe closer to her body as she stared at him with narrowed and speculative eyes. He didn't know what to say, which was why he ended up uttering the only word that was running through his mind as his eyes met those of the love of his life once again.

"Taylor..."

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I've been lurking on this site for a while now and writing a bunch of stories at the same time. I figured it was about time that I actually posted something.

Feel free to let me know what you think.