Chapter 18 - Impulsive Decision
I hadn't realized just how damn far the country club was from any form of civilization, and now I looked like a complete moron, walking along a narrow windy road in a dress and heels. I wondered if Harris was still stuck at the party being cornered by my family and threatened with various lawsuits for defamation of character and who knows what else. I wouldn't put it past them.
I looked back toward the country club as a I approached a godsend of a bus stop. No sign of the Corvette. Screw him.
Right when I arrived back at my apartment after a very complicated bus trip, I noticed my answering machine was blinking. I scoffed. Probably Thaddeus, trying to explain away the fact that I had been completely and utterly humiliated in front of people who would never let me live it down.
"April," the voice said. My younger sister Angie. Huh. I had no idea she even knew my number, because she sure as hell had never called it before. Why the hell was she calling? Surely her engagement party would be going on until late tonight at the country club. "It's Angie." No shit. "I'm so sorry about what happened today. We weren't trying to hurt your feelings. We were just in such a silly mood; we didn't realize you weren't really up for it."
I rolled my eyes, my finger paused over the erase message button. Yeah, right, asshole. Just when I figured she was done talking, her voice again returned, this time much more hesitantly.
"Uh, I also wanted to just let you know that your, uh, boyfriend, asked a lot of questions about our family's finances after you left. He went on and on and we were all really uncomfortable. I don't know how long you've been together, but he just seems a bit too obsessed with how much money we have. I really didn't want to tell you this, but maybe it'll save you problems down the line. Sorry, April. I do hope you can still come to my wedding."
I listened to the recording again, frowning so deeply that I felt like my face could crack. Why the hell would Thaddeus have stuck around and chatted for a while longer after he'd gotten my two sisters and brother-in-law to the point of rage, and after I'd left practically in tears? Was he really that stupid?
Well, based on his past reputation at the Metropolitan Police Academy, he did have a stupid streak. And a greedy one. And a mean one. And an arrogant one. But would he really have questioned them like that after I'd left? Would he really do that to me, after all that humiliation?
But really, we had only been together for two weeks. This was hardly a relationship at all, really. Just some sex and mutual bitching about being alienated and misunderstood. We hadn't even had a proper date, like a restaurant or movie or some schmaltzy activity.
It must have been true; why else would Angie do such a thing? She was probably still at the engagement party, for God's sake! I could just imagine my sister asking my mother for my number, and then going off into some empty room of the country club to make the call. I couldn't hear any music or talking, which made the call that much more dramatic at this moment. I sighed with disappointment. Harris had apparently been using me to either soften his name at the academy – look, someone is actually sleeping with Harris! – or to nose his way into our complicated Carnegie trust fund.
What was I going to do now? The fact that my family thought it was hilarious for me to even consider being a cop made me feel totally determined to prove them wrong. However, there was the issue of Thaddeus Harris using me, most likely for money I wasn't even sure that I'd ever get. I wanted to punch him in the face. Not only had he humiliated me on what could have been a great, proud day for me, but he'd apparently made it obvious to my family that I was no more than a very famous (and rich) last name to him. At the very least, things would be awkward if I went back to the academy.
However, I was in the right this time. Unlike the times I had wanted to quit the academy before and nearly did, this time I was completely in the right. Harris was the bad guy here and I would be letting others know that; that was for sure. I couldn't wait to see the look on his face when I refused his orders or ignored him in front of the other cadets. Hopefully he was smart enough to figure out why.
I was going to finish it. I was going to graduate from that damn police academy, not only to prove my family wrong but to stick it to Harris as well. I was already going into week 5, so I was more than a third done. I wasn't going to be some otherwise worthless Carnegie trust fund baby; I was going to push myself through this academy and get a decent job.
I listened to the answering machine one last time and promptly left my apartment for the police academy, even though I knew it'd be empty on a Saturday night. However, if I stayed in my apartment to think about what had just happened to me, I'd never go back on Monday.
"Why didn't you answer my calls?" the gravelly voice grunted to me. "I tried callin' you all day Sunday."
My eyes darted back and forth to the open space around me, the relative lack of cadets at the moment on the obstacle course at the police academy. I'd been completely avoiding him so far on this hot and sunny Monday, barely acknowledging him since we'd begun early morning drills. Not only had I not made eye contact with him, but I had gritted my teeth with jaw firmly shut all the while, hoping that I appeared pissed off. Just thinking about Saturday and what he'd done made me clench my fists as I ran, the adrenaline making me run faster than usual. Even so, now Harris was suddenly running alongside me as we approached the tire obstacle section.
"You deaf?" he growled, voice louder. I could feel his hot breath on my face as he turned his head to look at me, not paying attention to the tires ahead.
Swiftly I diverted myself around the tires at the last second, but he was too slow to react. With a loud oof he fell down heavily onto the tires, his chin thwacking the edge of the tire as he completely laid himself out.
"Ugh, my goddamn arm!" I heard him yowl, realizing that he'd still had the bullet wound in his arm and that putting his entire body weight on it must have sucked. A wave of pity surged up, but I willed myself not to stop and to keep running.
"Get off me, fat ass!" he yelled again, as presumably someone tripped and fell on him. Probably Fenster. I didn't even bother to look back.
"What the hell is up, girl?" Mullers hissed at me as I met her stride, most likely noticing the stark difference in my and Harris's relationship. "Are you two already over?"
"Yep," I said. She seemed taken aback. Guess she didn't expect such a curt, casual reply.
"What happened?"
"It's a long story," I said, swerving to avoid the rope-climbing obstacle. She and I quickly matched pace again after it. "Honestly, I don't know how I'm gonna get through these next 10 weeks or so," I said, hoping to change the subject. "It's gonna be awkward as hell."
"Sad that a grown man can't keep a relationship for what, 3 weeks?" she said in a tsking voice. Surely she was judging me as well for the shortness. Ah well. At least she knew better than to make it seem that way.
"Yep, it sure is," I replied, wondering if he would catch up again and listen in. I was going to try my hardest not to divulge every last detail of these last couple of weeks. It would be tough for me, because if I started to do so, I'm sure I'd have an interested group of cadets always around me asking questions. I might even appear to be popular for a while, a feeling that I could imagine would be quite addicting.
I didn't even have to start spilling the beans to get people to run alongside me. Soon, Stiner was on my other side on the course, having apparently been somewhere behind Harris and me when he'd fallen.
"You do realize your boyfriend fell, don't you?" she said, having not heard Mullers and I talking just moments earlier.
"I don't have a boyfriend," I spat back quickly.
"But isn't Lieutenant Harr—"
"Already over," I interrupted.
"Wow," she said. "That wasn't very long."
"Nope."
"Did the commandant or Callahan say something to end it—"
"No," I replied. "It's all his fault. Really though."
"Huh. Well, if you're even a bit mad at him, you would have gotten a kick out of watching two people trip and fall over him. He's still lying back there," she said with a snicker.
"Still?" I replied, raising my eyebrows. "He's lamer than I realized."
I hoped that his hurt arm was not being crushed under a cadet pile, but then pulled myself away from those thoughts. He deserved what he was getting… right?
