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ROGUE
CHAPTER ONE
PART TWO
Suddenly the band started to play a familiar tune, and she could no
longer think straight. The memory of Tommy
suddenly hit her like a ton of bricks. It
was her wedding song. She began to think
about her own wedding, and how happy she had been on that day. Sadness overcame
her, and she could no longer remain in that room.
Rebecca wanted to leave before breaking down completely. She did not want to go to her hotel room, but
rather to go to the home that she shared with her husband. This meant that she had to tell Jeff the news
of her intended exit, knowing that he was not going to be happy about the
change.
“But I thought that…” he reasoned.
“I…I can’t stay, Jeff. I’m
sorry. I just don’t feel well,” she
said.
“I don’t understand. I thought
that tonight we were…”
“I don’t need you to put pressure on me right now Jeff…I’m really
sorry,” she snapped, and then she walked out of the Omega room as quickly as
possible before finally breaking down into tears in the elevator.
Finally on the seventh floor, she ran into her room, grabbed her overnight
bag, which was still packed, and left the room.
Rebecca knew what Jeff had expected for that night. The plan was for him to stop by her room, or for
her to visit him. She knew that she was abandoning him but did
not care. She just wasn’t ready for their
first night together, and would explain it to him, somehow. Maybe he would understand.
When the elevator door opened, Rebecca could see that Alexi was
already in it. For a split second, she
considered letting it go down without her to avoid an awkward conversation. But she really wanted to get out of that hotel
and decided to bite the bullet.
Alexi could see that she was upset and had an overnight bag intending
to leave.
“Where are you going?” He asked.
“I have to leave,” she sniffed.
“Why? What did he do?”
“Who?”
“Jeff.”
“This has nothing to do with Jeff,” she said. “I just don’t feel well.”
“Why don’t you just go stay in your hotel room?”
“I just want to go home and sleep in my own bed, alright?” she
snapped. “Why is this any of your
business?”
“You do not need to take my head off.
I am just curious.”
“What are you doing here, anyway?
I thought you left.”
“I live here on the twentieth floor. I left the wedding, got changed
into comfortable clothes, and now I’m going to Kelly’s Pub,” he explained. “Then
I will…”
“I really don’t care about your plans,” she interrupted with sarcasm.
“Well…you are one who asked,” he pointed out. Then he looked her over closely. “You look like you are too upset to drive. Why is Jeff not taking you home?”
“And leave his daughter’s wedding?”
“Oh yeah, right,” he said as the elevator door opened to the lobby
floor. “How are you getting home?”
It was at that moment that Rebecca realized that she had driven Jeff’s
car to the reception, and she had no ride home. “I don’t know…I’ll just get a
car to take me.”
“I will take care of it.”
“You don’t have to…”
“I insist. I have a friend that
I use all the time. He is trustworthy
and will get you there safely,” Alexi said as he dialed the phone.
“But…”
He raised his hand to stop her from talking because his call
connected. “Yeah Jerry. Are you available to take a friend of mine
to…”
He looked to Rebecca for an answer.
“Longwood,” Rebecca said.
“Longwood? Can you take her
there? Ok, great…. No, it is not what
you think...No, no, not this one...It is a different situation entirely. Yes, of course…precious cargo. Yes, put it on
my tab... okay...yeah... Talk to you soon,” Alexi said, then hung up the
phone. “He is right around the corner
and will be at the front door in two minutes.”
“How much do I owe you?” she asked.
“You do not owe me anything,” he said, as they walked across the lobby
and stopped in the middle.
A woman approached, walking towards Alexi,
“Hey, Alex. Are you going to
Kelly’s?” the mature woman asked in a sultry voice. She looked like she was in her late thirties to
mid-forties.
“Yeah, I will be there in a few minutes, Violet,” Alex replied.
“I’ll see you there,” Violet said, as she ran her finger down his arm
and kept going, making him spin around to watch her from behind.
Another woman approached him from the other side. She looked a little younger than the first. Early thirties.
“Are you going to be at Kelly’s?” the woman asked.
“Yeah, soon. I just have
something to take care of, Clarissa.”
“See you there!” Clarissa said with a kiss on his cheek and a
suggestive smile.
“Who were they?” Rebecca asked, once the women were out of sight.
“They are friends.”
“Were they precious cargo too?”
“Huh?” he asked.
“You know what I mean. Your latest
conquests? Something like that? How will you choose?”
“Who said that I have to choose?”
“Ugh,” she said, while rolling her eyes, and then headed for the front
door.
“Wait…that is not what I meant,” Alexi said, while following close
behind.
“It’s none of my business what you do, or who you do it with,” she
said, as a black SUV pulled up. “Is this
him?”
“Yes, this is Jerry.”
“Good,” she said.
Jerry emerged from the vehicle
to collect her suitcase and put it in the trunk as Alexi opened the door to help
her into the back seat.
“Do you want me to ride with you?” he suddenly asked.
“To my house?” Rebecca asked with befuddlement. “What do you think this is?”
“No…I mean…to your house. Not
in your house,” Alexi assured her. “I
was not…trying to…”
“Good, because you would have been disappointed.”
“Hey…listen…I am just trying to…be a nice guy, here. I apologize if you are offended. It was not my intention to…If you do not need
me to go with you, that is fine with me.”
“I appreciate that you arranged for the ride, but I don’t need you to
ride with me. I’m perfectly fine traveling
by myself. I am not some poor,
defenseless woman who needs a man to protect me. I was alone for eight years.”
“I wonder why,” he snarked, which made her give him a dirty look.
“Don’t you have plans with your two women, anyway?”
She said the word “plans” in an
aggressive way as if he were doing something wrong.
“Yes, I do,” he said. “If you do not need me, then…good.
“I don’t need you,” Rebecca replied.
“Okay,” Alexi said, with great relief as he closed the door.
As the car drove away, Alexi shook his head. Whatever possessed him to volunteer to escort
her home? What just happened? Had he
lost his mind?
Why was she angry at him?
On the ride home, Rebecca finally let out the remaining tears that she
had been holding back. She wondered if
it would ever be possible to move on without the love of her life.
