Red Rose: Model 85001

Chapter Eight

Van stood at the bottom of the stairs to the tower and gazed up the middle of the upward spiral. He couldn't help noticing the discoloured cracked paint. Hitomi was right. They did need to continue their renovation upstairs. He rolled his left shoulder and chuckled slightly. Even if the stair well didn't look its best, it was nothing compared to the distress the drywall was in in his own room.

He could hear Hitomi up in the tower. She was making the regular little creaking noises that she made padding around her room as she got ready for bed. Van wanted to climb those stairs and talk to her. And he didn't want to. His brain was rapidly formulating reasons to let the forthcoming conversation slide. One; he should wait until Gaddes left. Two; it didn't matter who owned her before. Three; hearing her story probably wouldn't change anything.

He was being stupid.

Van uncrossed his arms and started up the steps. When he got to the door, he didn't hesitate, but knocked a crisp little knock. He couldn't run away from this. Whatever he felt, he needed to know what the situation was before the guy got here.

Hitomi called for him to come in.

He opened the door and saw her. She had just emerged from the bathroom. She was folding a black towel and wearing a pair of oversized men's pajamas. Well, oversized on her. He recognized the pair. It was a set of his he had given her weeks ago that he told her were okay to tear into rags.

He was about to say something about it, when he realized that she was wearing something he had worn for years. And suddenly he was happy that she hadn't thrown them away.

"Can I close the door?" he asked wearily.

Hitomi nodded and sat down on the corner of the bed.

Van took a deep breath and said, "I take it you know this Allen Schezar guy? He was your former owner?"

She nodded again and knotted the towel she was holding.

"Uh-huh. Care to tell me anything more about it than that?"

Hitomi bit her lip. "How much do you want to know?"

That was really the question, wasn't it? Van frowned and took the towel from her hands, so that he would have something to knot to relieve the tension. "As much as possible."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Why not? He's coming here, isn't he? I'd like to be prepared." He was getting impatient.

"I've known him since I was fifteen," she explained, her voice dry. "My family lived in a cottage on Allen's family's property. My father and brother were hired to help care for their trees. My father worked for his father, and Allen had long since moved out, but he was around from time to time."

"During that time," Van cut in. "What was your relationship with him?"

"I didn't have one," Hitomi shrugged. "He was the son of the house and I was less than a servant. I had a crush on him," Hitomi grudgingly admitted.

"So, how did it happen that he asked to buy you?"

"It was seven years later. It was pathetic, but I was still trying to catch his eye when I was twenty-two. Then one day, I did. He knew I liked him. It seemed that he knew I'd liked him for years and within two days of dating, he asked to buy me for nine months."

"He was that taken with you?" Van asked, completely astonished. "And offer you that kind of money?"

"It seemed too good to be true, which was why I made him raise the price so many times. Other than that, all I remember is being so lovesick over him I was sometimes literally ill. In the end, I couldn't refuse him."

Van didn't say anything at first. He could only deduct that since she didn't remember hardly anything since that moment that she must still be harbouring those feelings of love for Allen.

"And I don't have any idea what happened that made me want to forget that time with him," Hitomi continued. "From the bank statements, it's clear that our arrangement didn't go beyond the nine months. That's all I know."

"And that you still love him," Van said, betraying not even an ounce of what he felt.

Hitomi looked up quickly at his accusation. "I guess I do."

"Well, I'd like to make it clear that any request he makes of you beyond what is expected of a hostess will be looked down on by me. I don't want to catch you holding his hand or even lingering by his table when you bring him food. Other than a polite greeting, I want you to forget that you even know him. Do you think you'll be able to do that?"

Hitomi shook her head miserably. "You don't know what he's like. He'll probably insist that I stay by his side the whole time and because he's so rich and powerful and the whole focus of their visit here – you'll probably be forced to bend over and comply with anything he wants."

"Like Hell I will!" Van fairly shouted. "Why should I have to do that? You think one spoiled pretty boy can hurt this business I've built up? Even if this place isn't as successful as I hope this year – the worst thing that could happen is that I would—"

"Have your knees broken?" Hitomi supplied.

He scowled at her.

"Look, if things went really badly, you could always rent me out to get the twenty thousand dollars to pay my debt off. That would be the fairest thing. After all, it's not your debt," Hitomi said stiffly. She had been wracking her brains for weeks, trying to figure out how she could help Van pay that debt if they didn't make enough money during the summer and renting herself out was the only thing she could think of.

For a second, Van looked like he was going to strangle her with the towel he was knotting. "You think I'd do that to you?"

Hitomi dropped her shoulders. "Well, what do you suggest?" she asked limply. "I don't want anything painful to happen to you."

Van moved his lips into the most unpleasant sneer. "Did you happen to have a renter in mind?"

"What?"

"Well," Van went on, his voice as searing as liquid metal. "Since Allen Schezar is coming here, are you suggesting that I rent you out to him during his stay? He opens his wallet big for you. Are you thinking that you could make three days worth twenty-thousand dollars?"

Hitomi stared at Van incredulously.

"I guess you couldn't make it worth his while without touching him!" Van spat, flinging the door open and storming down the stairs.

He heard Hitomi come after him, but he didn't stop. He went straight to his room and slammed the door behind him. Then he locked it and raked his hair with his hands.

"Van! Wait! I didn't mean it like that!" he heard Hitomi scream on the other side of the door.

Van had only been behaving like a lovesick teenager for about two minutes and even though he would have liked to continue, he took a deep breath and opened the door. Standing in the hallway, Hitomi's cheeks looked red with embarrassment and her eyes wide with pleading. Van didn't forgive her for what she said just because she looked sorry or because she was wearing his old pajamas. Her comment meant that he didn't mean anything to her. He was embarrassed by his feelings for her. Not to mention how humiliated he was for reacting so passionately.

To make himself seem somewhat more sensible after his flare of temper, he said to her levelly, "I'm not renting you out."

She nodded and wrung her fingers together.

"I don't care what you did for that Schezar guy in the past; you're not doing it again. Got it?"

She bit her lip, and Van supposed that the slight motion of her head meant that she was agreeing with him. "I wasn't thinking of that," she finally said quietly. "I was thinking that maybe I could get a job in town, and …"

"There aren't any jobs in town."

"But Celena always looks so tired at the café."

Van crossed his arms and tried to ebb his frustration. "Even if I got you a job there, the pay for the rest of the year would be less than what we need. There's no point."

Hitomi sighed and her shoulders fell.

"No, Hitomi. It's no good," Van said, sparing one hand to touch her arm briefly. "Don't worry about the debt. I'll figure it out somehow."

Then he sent her to bed, but that didn't make him feel any better. At this point, nothing could make him feel better.

Hitomi sat in the café in town and watched Celena. She was trying to clean out a soft ice cream machine and watching her was making Hitomi feel exhausted to the bone. The café was empty except for the two of them and the sound of Celena's squeaking scrubbing tools.

Hitomi was taking a break sponsored by Van. He didn't usually leave her in the café to rest while he loaded supplies, but that was how things were rolling since the night she mentioned to him that he ought to rent her out. Hitomi didn't mean it the way he imagined. He clearly hadn't read his Sleeping Beauty handbook. If he had, he'd know that her bracelet would give out an electric shock intended to fry both her and the man touching her if the guy left his hand on her for an extended period of time – anything longer than two minutes. She explained it to Van in the morning. However, to her disappointment, it didn't seem to make him feel any better.

She didn't know what to make of that. Van was nice to her, but in the end, he'd still forked up the cash for her and she still wore the bracelet. She couldn't go to Allen even if he wanted her. Right now, she was wearing a scrap of blue silk left over from the curtains she'd made for the kitchen over her bracelet from Sleeping Beauty Inc. There was no point in regretting being with Van instead of Allen. She had no idea what drove her back into slavery. Regret was unthinkable.

Suddenly, Hitomi got the urge to talk to Celena. After all, she was the only person Hitomi could talk to who might understand her feelings. "So, Merle doesn't even know that you were bought?" Hitomi asked, scooping up her remaining salsa with her last chip.

Celena tilted her head and didn't answer.

Hitomi looked back at her and didn't do anything to press her other than leave her ears open. Waiting for Celena to respond was better than sitting around wishing she was free to belong to Allen again.

When Celena finally did speak, her answer surprised Hitomi. "To be honest, I'm not really interested in keeping it a secret from her. You see, this isn't the first time I've sold myself and it really isn't the first time I've lost days and weeks and months and years in cryostasis. If she doesn't know already – I don't care to bother with keeping the secret. It's never come up in conversation."

Hitomi nodded and picked a piece of melted cheese off her empty nacho plate.

"Why? Do you care if it becomes public knowledge that you're a Sleeping Beauty model?"

"No," Hitomi answered breezily. "But Van seems to care."

A weary whisper of a smile spread itself across her face. "I guess he would care."

"Van says you're in your thirties. Are you really?"

Celena blew a strand of her hair out of her eyes. "In a very real way, I'm only in my early thirties, but if you go by the calendar on the wall, I'm actually in my late fifties."

Hitomi's jaw dropped.

"How is that possible?"

"My last husband, owner, whatever he was, liked to put me in cryostasis whenever he was about to do something I wasn't going to like. He was always dipping his fingers into something dirty and since he couldn't stop my disapproval, no matter how many times he punished me, he found it easier just to remove me from the situation until he had had his fun or made his money. Then when he came to get me, I hadn't aged a day and I wasn't angry because I didn't know what he'd done. Whatever it was, it was always water under the bridge by the time he unfroze me. He used to leave me in cryostasis for years on end sometimes. He's dead now. God rest his soul. And I didn't waste my best years on him."

Hitomi was speechless.

But Celena went on. "I'll never forget the last time he came to get me. He'd aged – terribly and failed. It was his brother who had been paying to keep me in cryostasis for the past three years and he wouldn't pay anymore, so my darling husband had to come unfreeze me."

Hitomi suddenly wanted to know. "Then you remember a lot about him?"

The smiled disappeared. She nodded and left the spot by the counter that was her perch. She came over to Hitomi's table and took a seat. "I should know. I was married to him for twenty-six years, but I spent around sixteen of those years frozen."

"Does the memory make you unhappy?" Hitomi asked, observing Celena's lifeless expression.

The other woman raked the skin on her face from her temple to her jawline with her fingernails. "It's over and the memory of it is like a life that wasn't mine. You should know how lucky you are to have been bought by Van. He's a good man."

Hitomi was about to agree, when Merle suddenly burst in through the door. "Oh, it's you," she said haughtily when she saw Hitomi. Then she slid behind the bar and retrieved her phone from under the counter.

"I've told you a hundred times. Don't leave here without that," Celena said crossly to Merle. "Dil hates it when he can't get you on the phone."

Merle smirked and said casually, "I'll remember next time."

It was clearly a lie.

"Has she already told you the good news?" Merle yelled to Celena across the café.

"There's good news?" Celena asked, perking up slightly. "Are you and Van getting married?"

"As if!" Merle shrieked before Hitomi could answer for herself. "No! Van said he's getting a celebrity to tour the ice fields in his chopper. Guess who?" Merle pressed a few buttons on her phone and within seconds projected a glamour shot of Allen Schezar on the wall of the café.

Hitomi ducked her head. Even looking at him was difficult - painful. How had she let him slip through her fingers? That night when she promised to sell herself to him, she had promised herself that their time together would never end. She would make him fall in love with her. How had it gone wrong?

Even in the midst of her discomfort, Hitomi couldn't help noticing Celena's reaction to the picture. She didn't look the least bit impressed. She actually raised her eyebrow and let out a half-laugh that seemed to die in her throat. Then she got up and wiped her hands on her clothes like she was trying to brush off disgust that just wouldn't come off.

Author's Notes: Thanks to everyone who reads and reviews and visits the forum and comments. Next week, we'll get into the nitty gritty for this story. I've done all my prep work. You can access my forum by clicking on my profile, my forums, and going to Shivering Wings. Sorry, I've exceeded my limit for forums I can put in the Escaflowne section, so you have to access it this way.

I posted on my profile what I plan to do with my story 'Dragon's Moon'. I plan to re-release it on fictionpress when I'm finished writing this story. It has been edited extensively and it is exquisite. Please look forward to it. Love is all around the world tonight.