Author's Notes: Hiya everyone! Thank you to everyone who reviews. And now I'll admit. Yes, I didn't update last week because I got my copy of 'Factotum' in the mail. I love MONSTER BLOOD TATTOO soooo much. I'm finished now. So, here's another chapter for your pleasure. Enjoy.
Rose Red: Model 85001
Chapter Seven
Van took the empty picnic supplies out of the chopper and put them in the cab of his truck. It was late and the sun had just dipped behind the mountains. A mystical twilight hung in the air as the first stars came into view. The air felt so clean. The world felt so fresh.
Today had been a great day. He had his first flight of the season. The couple he took over the ice fields had booked another flight at the end of the season when they were planning to spend a night at the house. They had even taken several copies of his newly-printed brochures to give to a few of their friends and everything was coming out roses … Except for the one thing that should have been a rose – Hitomi.
Van hadn't been sitting right since he heard that little tidbit of information about Hitomi's former owner. He hadn't even considered that she might remember anything about him, even if such a person existed. Now he felt suddenly outclassed and outranked and he didn't even know who the guy was. He didn't have it in him to ask Hitomi.
He leaned against the door of his truck and pulled out his phone. He knew there was a message waiting for him, but he hadn't had time to look at it while he was with his passengers, so he opened it now.
Some photographer wanted to scout out the area to find a perfect spot for a photo shoot. Van wrote his availability and sent it back. It was one more piece of evidence that things were really starting to pick up, so why did he feel so dead and blank inside?
He sighed. He didn't know how Dilandau did it.
Actually, the last time Van had been in town, he stopped in to see the old drunk and asked him.
Dilandau had been lounging in the stained recliner in his front room. Celena was working in the café and Merle was shirking work, so he was alone. Van never liked Dilandau. He was thirty-eight, which meant that he was a teenager when he became a father. Sometimes it was still like that in those small towns. Merle's mother had been a local girl and had died in the hospital. The townspeople said that she died of exhaustion. They said Dilandau had worked her to death. They said he didn't care that she died. Van wasn't so sure about that. Dilandau originally had brown hair, but it became white when his shot-gun-wedding wife died.
Now he half sat, half laid in his recliner, sucking on a beer and watching boxing on T.V. He hadn't shaved in days and his white stubble made him look even older. He barely glanced at Van as he came in.
Van took a seat on the couch behind Dilandau and waited for the old man to tell him to get out. At least, that was what he thought Dilandau would do. Maybe Dilandau would be a trifle less hostile since it was well known that Van had a girl living with him out at his place, because then Van couldn't be caught poaching either his daughter or his wife.
Van wasn't sure how much time passed before Dilandau abruptly turned off the T.V. and without turning around, asked, "You want something?"
It was hard for Van to describe exactly how uncomfortable he felt, but Dilandau was the only person he could think of to ask, so he plowed ahead, even though he thought he was stupid. "How did you ask your wife to marry you?"
Dilandau snorted and emptied his beer bottle. "I never really asked a woman to marry me. The first one came begging after I knocked her up and the second one just said it like it was a fact. Like, 'You're with me, you marry me'. She was funny. Like, 'It doesn't cost you anything'."
Wearily, Van shook his head and left. He shouldn't have expected anything more eloquent or useful from Dilandau.
The trouble was that Van wanted to move to the next level with Hitomi. After all that time, he really wanted to be with her, but how? How could he approach her and convince her of his sincerity? He couldn't just go up to her and say, "You! Me! Now a couple!" like a caveman and haul her off to his room over his shoulder. Instead, what he was faced with was worse. No matter what he did, or how awkward and stupid he was, or even if she didn't like him even a little bit, she wouldn't refuse him. The bracelet around her wrist guaranteed it.
He wanted to set her free and ask her out for real, but that wasn't possible either. If he set her free right then, there was immediate backlash. For starters, he needed her to help him earn the money to pay back her debt. If he didn't get it, he really would be in trouble and right now, he didn't have the money. The second problem was that she would probably turn around and sell herself again. She'd already done it twice, so what would stop her from doing it a second time? He couldn't let her sell herself again.
He was planning to ask Dilandau how he managed to fumble through that tunnel with Celena, but it didn't seem like Dilandau did anything special. Well, Van didn't want to go about it the same way as Dilandau, because it didn't seem to him that Dilandau's relationship with Celena was anything special. Following in his footsteps was a dumb idea.
As he moved the helicopter back into the hanger, he wondered about himself. Why were his feelings for her suddenly so real? What was it? Was it the time she shaved her head? It might have been. For a woman to take that kind of amputation so lifelessly seemed impossible, like something serious must have been wrong with her. She needed him to help her. He wanted to help her. Was it the way she acted during the renovations? At first, she was a brat, but slowly, she got tougher and more into it. He enjoyed her at all the stages of her growth. Now she seemed like a completely different person.
When he came out of the hanger, he saw her through the window, working in the kitchen. Something was steaming in a pot and her cheeks were rosy as she stirred and added things to the boil. He watched her as she washed her hands and took things from the fridge.
How could he not love her?
As it happened, Van didn't get a chance to tell Hitomi how he felt before their biggest customer arrived. It wasn't that there weren't chances. Van just let them slip through his fingers before he acted.
Like on the night he arrived home after his first flight. He snuck up behind her in the kitchen and put his hands over her eyes from behind. She screamed slightly and put her hands to his. He had a single moment when he thought of kissing the back of her neck, but he just stood frozen for the second that the opportunity was there and before he knew it, she was laughing and turning around to face him. Then he thought of kissing her mouth, but she was already shaking her head and moving back towards her boiling pot.
After that, Van couldn't stop thinking about her neck. That was one thing for a woman with her hair cut short. A man could always see her neck.
He chewed on his bread while they ate dinner together, but never felt full. Not with Hitomi there.
She was setting the table in neat little fashions that she had read about online and chatting happily about how pretty they were compared to the ritzy ones she had seen in her past life.
The next opportunity was the next time he helped her out of the chopper. He had her hand in his and then once her feet touched the ground, he let her go. She walked beside him with her hands in her pockets and he could have cursed. All he wanted to do was hold her hand. That wasn't even very demanding and he didn't have the guts to hang onto it.
The third screw up may have been the worst. He was at the city airfield picking up the photographer and he just gave her a quick call before his passenger's plane touched down.
"Call me again after you finish your tour, so that I'll know when to start cooking," Hitomi said on the other end of the line.
"Okay," Van said. "I love you. Bye."
He hadn't meant to say it. It was just sort of automatic while he was talking to her. He didn't even realize he had said it until he heard a tiny little scream on the other end.
"What did you just say?" Hitomi squeaked.
Van put an awkward hand to his forehead. Yeah, what had he just said? "What was it?" he asked mindlessly.
"What?" Hitomi balked, like she couldn't believe that he didn't know full-well what he said. "You just said that you loved me."
For a second, Van was speechless. He didn't know how he had managed to say it either. Now there were only two things to do, either he could deny it, or he could make a joke of it. The idea that he could lower his voice and say it seriously didn't even enter into his head. Instead, he opted to make a joke out of it. "Of course I love you, Baby," he said with over-ripe warmth.
"Huh?"
He wasn't sure if he was making a good go of this or not. "You're my Rose-girl - the girl who wears my bracelet. Right, my Rosy-posy-girl?" Van flinched. He shouldn't have mentioned the bracelet. And to add to it, his tone was bad.
He heard her sigh and swallow. "Yours to command," she replied somewhat icily. "Remember to give me a call. Bye."
She hung up and Van wanted to die. He banged his forehead on the door of his chopper.
"Excuse me, are you Mr. Van Fanel?" someone behind him said.
Van turned around to see a well-dressed man bearing a runt in tow who was carrying his bags. He had a long face and navy coloured hair.
"Sorry," Van said, righting himself and taking off his sunglasses. "You don't have to speak so formally to me. I'm Van and I'll be your pilot."
"Great. I'm Gaddes. Can I lose this guy or do we need him to haul my stuff?"
"If you want him, we can have him and if you don't, he can go. If we're going to do a three day tour we can accommodate both of you … at … our … inn." Van slowed his words before stopping. If he had to give beds to both the photographer and his man, then Hitomi would have to sleep …
"You can go," Gaddess promptly dismissed, speaking to his lackey. "You can have the time off and I'll meet you back here when I'm finished scoping the wilds."
The non-descript guy ducked his head appreciatively and disappeared down the airstrip.
Well, Van sighed inwardly, that dream didn't last long.
Van helped Gaddes into the available front seat and then stowed the man's luggage.
"Ready?" Van asked, getting into place.
When Hitomi first saw Gaddes, she thought she was in serious trouble. She had to cook for a man who looked like that? Crap! He was probably used to eating really exotic amazing things like pickled eel and deviled oyster. She had nothing like that. Ever since it became illegal to eat beef, the possible meals that could be achieved locally had seriously bombed. She made grilled acorn squash with parmesan cheese and garlic bread. Luckily, the man seemed satisfied and ate with relish.
"Very good," he said like he truly appreciated her efforts. He sat back in his chair and admired the room Van and Hitomi had worked so hard to bring up to speed. "I've always wanted to film in this part of the world, but every time I made enquiries as to how I could explore this place, I was always told I would have to live in a tent or a trailer. I guess those people didn't know about this place, and I don't know why not."
"This is the first year we've offered accommodations," Van said easily.
Hitomi thought that Van was just the right amount of friendly to this photographer. He was neither too eager to please him nor too inattentive.
"Do you think you could put up with a spoiled model and two of his staff?" Gaddes asked.
Van turned to Gaddes from smiling at Hitomi. "Hmm?"
"If I find a good location, I'll need to put up at least four other people; my model (a brat if ever there was one) his makeup artist, his stylist, and my assistant. Do you think you would be able to find beds for all of them?"
"Right now, we've only got two rooms available. The room you're staying in and our tower."
"And there's nothing else nearby?"
"Not really."
"It doesn't matter where me and my assistant sleep. We could sleep with foamalate mattresses in here if we have to, but the girls and the princess … ahem … I mean, prince will need actual beds. Is that possible?"
Van pursed his lips. "Perhaps. Are you that positive that you'll be able to find a location?"
"Yes, but aren't you even a little bit curious as to who my model is when I so openly defame him?"
Van and Hitomi laughed in slightly hysterical unison. "We're not too curious about the celebrity scene," Van said.
Hitomi nodded. "Yeah, we're way too busy."
Gaddes smiled. "You know, I think in all my travels, you two are the one of the happiest couples I have ever met."
Both of them abruptly stopped laughing.
Gaddes looked quickly between them. "You're not brother and sister, are you?"
Van glanced at her and Hitomi held her breath. It wasn't her place to answer now. She stayed silent while he said, "No. It's just that we're not exactly in that kind of relationship."
"Well, that's too bad." Then to shift the conversation back to the photo shoot, he pulled out his phone and brought up a picture.
A picture of an extremely handsome blond man came up. The picture was an advertisement for men's shoes. It was a black and white photo with the model standing ramrod straight with his long hair flowing down to his waist.
Hitomi blinked.
"That's right. It's Allen Schezar," Gaddes said gloatingly.
Then she fell on the floor.
Author's Notes: Once again - thanks to everyone who reviews and visits the forum. I'll see y'all there.