Chapter 28---Here's the latest installment of this cross-fiction. Hope you enjoy it and thanks for reading and the feedback.
Matt couldn't quite forget Maurice's words of warning that Chris might be ready to make a move on C.J. if he weren't careful. He supposed that was the ex-astronaut's way of telling him to get his act together and make his intentions known to the mother of his child or risk losing him to what Shelli called, the babe magnet. He knew the flowers were a nice start, clearly catching her off balance but what next? Frustration threatened to fill him because if anyone knew the fastest way to get a woman on his good side, that was him. He had been selected as one of People Magazine's best looking men alive, in the tycoon category. C.J. had teased him mercilessly about it and even had the picture blown up and framed to hang in the lobby of his penthouse suite office.
He had tried to take it down and hide it in the closet but the next morning, up it had been on the wall again. Oh C.J. never admitted to doing it and his attempts to interview other witnesses like Chris and Roy had born little fruit. But thinking back, he remembered that she had often poked fun at his playboy style not in a malicious way but always with affection in her voice. He had laughed it off back then but now it pained him that she had viewed him that way, as someone who had been playing the field of beautiful women which could never include someone like her.
"So what do you think?"
Matt looked behind him and saw Chris standing there dressed in work pants and a paint stained shirt, polishing off the look with a bandana tied around his head.
"About what?"
"That picture."
Matt looked in front of him and realized that he had been staring at a photo without really seeing it. It appeared to be an antique piano coming apart while suspended in air.
"It looks…like a piano flying through the air," Matt said.
Chris nodded.
"That's what most people say," he said, "but it's actually a work of art, the fluidity of its relationship with time and space defining it."
Matt just took his word for it, not knowing much about this type of art. He just knew if Murray saw what Chris had done to this piano, it would have made him weep.
"I heard about that," he said, "That was from Maggie's house…the one that burned down."
Chris nodded again.
"I was in such an artistic funk at the time," he said, "But what happened to Maggie, it just rejuvenated me. Got the old muse jump started again."
"Really…"
"Oh yeah," Chris said, "Although originally it was supposed to be a cow…"
That horrified Matt. Sure he enjoyed great barbecue, who didn't, but to subject a cow to the forces of gravity like that. Chris must have read his expression.
"I didn't fling the cow after all," he said, "Monty Python had done it and you don't mess with his vision."
Matt just looked at him, not believing his ears. So this was the man that attracted so many women to Cicely to meet him? Matt couldn't believe it. Chris' style would never fly where he was from, a world of cowboys, wide open ranches and the cowboy code. But if he were the kind of man that C.J. liked…
"We had a good time the other night," Chris said.
Matt looked at him but Chris still looked at the photograph of the piano.
"She did say something about enjoying herself."
Chris smiled at that.
"She's a very nice woman, earthy and I can see the attraction that she holds for me," he said, "but she's already drawn to someone else."
Matt paused, did he hear the man right?
"Did she tell you this?"
"She didn't have to tell me much," Chris said, "She's in love with the father of her baby, anyone can see that."
Matt should have known that given that she had told him that.
"She's waiting for him to reciprocate," Chris continued, "to tell her that he feels the same way."
"I don't think it's that simple," Matt admitted, "I think she's worried that she'll turn around one day and I'll be gone."
Chris smiled.
"Well you died," he said, "right in front of her. That's got to have some cosmic type of effect on her psyche. Something like that might take some time to get over."
Matt knew that he had hurt her deeply by first his departure and then his deception. He knew that if she had done the same thing to him, he would have tried to understand but he would have struggled to do so like she did.
"I think women when they're getting ready to give birth enter into a nesting phase…"
"Say what again," Matt asked.
"What I mean is that they want a safe, secure place for themselves and their child," Chris said, "I think that's why she came to Cicely when she thought you were…dead."
That made sense to Matt. Truth be told, she couldn't have picked a better spot than this remote corner of the world, away from the danger that had surrounded her then and away from painful memories. The townspeople had embraced her and accepted her as one of their own and by extension her unborn child. They had been friendly enough to him but he felt the undercurrent of expectation that he was to do right by her or they would keep nudging him in that direction until he did.
C.J. made a dent in her bottle of pickles pretty quickly. They tasted much better when she dipped them in some maple syrup she had on a little plate. She had asked for it, with her meal and Dave had looked at her funny and even Hollings had stopped by but Shelli had rescued her from the inquisitive men, explaining to them about how pickles and maple syrup actually went well together. Like sauerkraut and ice cream had worked for her, which had Hollings shaking his head and telling Dave The Story for the tenth time.
She had sat down and ate a pickle dipped in the syrup.
"Not bad," she said, "I don't know if I would bottle it up and sell it but for cravings, you could do much worse."
"I don't know what hit me," C.J. said, "but I stayed up late and all I could think about were these little pickles."
Shelli nodded.
"I know the feeling," she said, "but next week it will be something else."
"Ed's nearly done with the final cut on his movie," C.J. said, "It's really looking good."
"That's great," Shelli said, "So is Maurice going to give it final approval?"
"That's what we're waiting for," C.J. said, "But Maurice was busy meeting with Houston this morning about some restaurant he bought in L.A."
"Oh Maurice has businesses everywhere," Shelli said, "Including restaurants. He was hoping to start a franchise of barbecue places at one time."
"Well Houston loves barbecue so he might be willing to invest," C.J. said, "He's got to get Murray to look at Maurice's figures. He's the acting president of the corporation."
"Better watch out," Shelli warned, "Maurice is a pretty slick businessman."
"Houston's no slouch either," C.J. said, "Though he's not as actively involved anymore."
"So he was a business big shot before he became a detective," Shelli asked.
"Yes," C.J. answered, "I went to work for him and worked my way up the ladder to be vice-president. Then he funneled all of the profits to a charitable foundation and had left the day to day operations to his board."
"Wow," Shelli said. "It sounds like something you'd read in a magazine."
"Houston picked up his business smarts from his father who was an oilman," C.J. said, "but he never was content to be an office executive delegating. He always wanted to make the decisions himself."
"What did you do?"
C.J. smiled.
"I was his legal eagle as he used to call me," she said, "Harvard grad, clerked in criminal law but when I graduated, I wanted to work in his company."
"And he hired you right out of school," Shelli said, "Awesome."
C.J. chuckled.
"At first I was a bit overwhelmed when I went to my first board meeting just to observe," she said, "But I got over it."
Indeed she had by opening her mouth to provide her two cents about 10 minutes into the meeting and all of these older businessmen had looked at her as if seeing her for the first time and Matt, well he had just smiled and encouraged her to keep speaking her mind. She thought he had been practicing good business sense. After all, he had paid quite a pretty sum for her Harvard education but after time, she had realized that he had valued her insights into his business operations and she had wound up helping him in running it. His decision to make her the second highest ranking employee in Houston Enterprises had shaken up his board. She worked doubly hard to prove that the risk he had taken would prove golden.
She could remember the earliest days they had begun their professional relationship but couldn't trace back to the moment when she had first fallen in love with him. But thinking back, she realized after she believed that he had been dead, that she had harbored those feelings for years. Hiding them back in the recesses of her mind, because she didn't see a man who could be serious about one woman. And by the time he had become involved in relationships that were more serious, she figured that he would never have those feelings about her so she had moved on with her life.
Then life had tossed her a curveball out of the blue and here she was, thousands of miles away from L.A. and well, pregnant.
"Hi Matt," Shelli said suddenly.
C.J. looked up at him not even aware that he had walked into the Brick. He saw her pickles and choice of dip and raised a brow.
"Is that what I think it is?"
She looked up at him a bit sheepishly.
"I was hungry and I couldn't think of anything else last night," she said, "It really tastes very good."
He looked at her food warily.
"I'll take your word for it," he said, "But I'm buying you dinner later on."
"You don't have to," she protested.
"I know I don't have to," he said, "but I want to spend that time with you."
She looked at him and nodded but then she picked up a pickle and wagged him with it.
"As long as you leave my cravings alone," she said, "and don't make fun of them."
He nodded.
"Fair enough," he said, "as long as we can discuss your…non-culinary ones."
She flushed a bit and looked away.
"Houston…"
"I'm not going to pretend that night we shared together didn't happen," he said, then looked at her, "I think it's a little difficult to do at this point."
She had to smile at his reasoning.
"I'm not trying to forget," she said, "I can't. It's my body that's changing every day."
"You look more beautiful every day," he said, "Pregnancy certainly agrees with you."
"I feel really good," she said, "Much better than I did in the first months. I lived on crackers and broth."
He closed his eyes when he imagined her going through this all alone when he should have been with her. But a way to change the past into how it should have unfolded hadn't been invented at this point. Besides, what mattered was that they had reunited and he had no intention of leaving her again.
"But you're eating much better now," he said, "even if your tastes are somewhat a bit off the beaten path."
She chuckled.
"I know the whole pickles thing is cliché," she said, "but darn if they don't taste good and the syrup just adds to it."
"Like I said, I'll take your word for it," he said, "as long as Cicely's stocked in pickles."
"The little bitty ones," she corrected.
"Okay, I can call Murray and get a shipment of them on the next plane to Anchorage," he said, "and then Maggie can pick them up there…"
"Houston, it's okay," she said, "Besides by the time they arrive, my tastes might change."
"We could overnight them," he continued, "I'll call Fed Ex."
She shook her head at him, so determined to make sure she had what she needed. But all she really wanted was him. To see her as he had that night before everything had so irrevocably changed.
"You're here and that's all that matters," she said.
"So how's the film going," he asked.
"It's nearly done," C.J. said, "but Ed's got to meet with Maurice to see if he's going to make any changes."
"Yeah well I met with Maurice on that restaurant project," Matt said, "But all he wanted to do was ask about you."
"Really," she said, "Well he did try to hit on me that first day I met with him."
"He didn't really mention that part," Matt said, "but he did mention Chris."
"Chris, he's been really nice since I arrived here," C.J. said, "but we're just friends."
"That's what he told me when I ran into him," Matt said, "In between talking about his conversion of Maggie's piano into some form of performance art."
C.J. smiled having heard the story herself.
"Chris, he just reminds me that there's still a part of me that's the same woman I always have been," she said, "and that's hard to remember when your body's changing so much."
"C.J…."
She shook her head.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm happier about this baby than you could know," she said, "But I'm still that woman who fell in love with you."
He reached over to stroke her face.
"I think I remember her very well," he said, "She walked in the motel room and took my breath away."
She chuckled.
"Hardly, we were hiding out from just about everyone."
"We kept ourselves pretty busy as I remember," he said.
That they had, she knew, but still despite all they had shared together in a few precious hours, something had been missing.
"You told me you would never leave me…"
Her voice sounded wistful and her eyes grew guarded. He stroked her hair off of her face.
"I know," he said, "and I'm going to prove it to you if you just give me a chance."
She tilted her head at him.
"Are you sure you're up to that?"
He nodded, never more sure of anything in his life. And she watched him, wanting so much to believe him.