Alpha Feud BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance Series - Books 1 to 5

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

By the time Andrew came back, Eliza had managed to regain her cool. After Freddie’s arrival, she went through several stages of panic. The first stage was detachment and coldness; she acted as if her selective memory had erased the awful details of her past.

“Oh yes, Freddie, of course, I remember you. We sat together in Math,” she had said robotically.

Freddie looked at her oddly, but then his face softened as he realized that he might be ‘off the hook’. That stupid asshole thinks that I forgot all about it. At this point, she was already entering the following stage of panic, which was epitomized by a searing rage. Rage at him, rage at herself; she even felt angry toward Andrew just for not being there at that very moment. She began to feel angry and alone in the world. Tears welled up inside her eyes, but she had to control them.

“Please, help yourself to any snacks in the kitchen, and you can get started whenever you need. My boyfriend’s gone out to get some additional paint, but we have a few cans ready for you outside, so maybe you can get started with those.”

“Sure, thank you,” Freddie replied. He seemed not only a little slow, but also somehow braindead. She realized that the rumors must’ve been true, even though she had ignored them at the time, since she hadn’t wanted to think about Freddie in any context, even a negative one. During the last year of high school, Freddie had barely passed. In fact, it was a miracle that he had graduated at all. At the time, it had become known that Freddie’s ADD medication had driven him into some dark state of mind, which reflected badly on his behavior and grades. However, there were also the rumors; some kids were saying that Freddie had been taken off his medication, but because he had become addicted to it, he had sought after other drugs in replacement. Even though these rumors seemed believable right now, the kids at high school had found it difficult to believe this, since nobody else in their year had ever experimented with hard drugs, and therefore did not really understand how Freddie could’ve scored them. Now that Eliza evaluated Freddie’s beat-down appearance, using the context of possible d**g a***e, the rumors actually started making sense. She realized that they were most likely completely true.

This realization brought the third stage of panic, which was a manic embodiment of malicious joy. As a firm believer in the vindictive powers of karma, Eliza realized that at last, justice had been served! She excused herself, leaving the sad, dried-up d**g addict to attend to her household chores. She felt good about this, almost too good. By the time Eliza walked into her room, she was bouncing up and down.

She realized that she really wanted a drink. She reached for her bedside cabinet, where she kept a not-so-secret little bottle of whisky stashed. This was mostly meant for work-related fiascos or late-night-girl-drama phone calls from her friends, mostly Melissa.

At this particular moment, the tiny bottle seemed to have Eliza’s name written all over it.

She twisted the lid off rabidly and chugged the contents. At this moment, she started to enter the fourth panic stage: a flood of raw emotion. All the other stages mixed into one big ball of rage, numbness, sadness and happiness. She was angry that the person who had made her life miserable had the audacity to walk into her home and think that she had forgotten what he’d done to her. She was sad that she allowed him to make her feel this way, despite the fact that she was living such a happy and fulfilled life. She was happy that Andrew would be home any minute, and that they would kick this asshole out together, and that she could continue living her life while Freddie returned to his miserable teen-boy job at the movie theatre.

Andrew arrived twelve minutes and twenty tissues later, by which point the booze had hit Eliza and she was back to stage one; numbness. She was lying on the bed, staring up at the wall, where a framed photograph of her and Andrew hung. They were smiling, and Eliza tried to smile back at them, her mouth forming into a crooked half-smile but her eyes remaining cold.

“Hey there, sleepyhead,” he said with a soft laugh, kissing her on the forehead.

“Ummh...” she groaned, not wanting to speak yet.

“You ok? I saw the guy outside, he seems nice. A little weird though, if you know what I mean. I thought ponytails like that were reserved for rednecks in Hollywood films.”

“Yeah, he’s an oddball. I used to go to school with him,” Eliza said monotonously.

“Really? I didn’t know that.”

“Well neither did I, until he walked through our front door.”

“Are you sure you’re ok? He didn’t say anything that bothered you, did he? Because if he did, I can definitely get rid of him, give him like half a day’s pay.”

“No, he didn’t say anything. We used to get along in school for a while but then we kind of just stopped being friends. I guess it was just weird to see him, that’s all.”

Andrew perched on the edge of the bed and observed Eliza carefully. “Hmm... he sounds like a jerk. Anyone who would give up your friendship must be a total lunatic.”

Eliza smiled weakly.

“I’ll get rid of him,” Andrew said.

“It’s ok, he didn’t say anything to me. We can let him finish up,” Eliza said defensively. She wasn’t sure why she was suddenly acting so defensive. Freddie was clearly a source of a lot of psychological pain for her, but she didn’t seem capable of revealing that side of herself to Andrew. She had always been honest with him, but perhaps she just wasn’t ready to expose her deep-seated adolescent insecurities to her boyfriend. Maybe, deep down, she was afraid that if she spoke about the girl she used to be, Andrew might start to see her for that very girl; shy, lonely, unliked, unattractive. She had fought long and hard to reverse those traits and had succeeded in doing so. Eliza wasn’t ready to give up all that hard work, so she put on a brave face.

“We can tell him that we only needed him today, and maybe make up some excuse about my distant cousin who’s coming over to help us tomorrow. We can say he’s doing it for free or something,” she offered.

“Whatever you say,” Andrew agreed, smiling at her sudden ability to make up a slightly farfetched yet practically impenetrable alibi for firing their newly hired painter.

He stood up, looking around for a second, then shrugged his shoulders and plopped onto the bed. “You might be onto something with the going-back-to-bed thing. Maybe we can make this our Saturday tradition, too?”

Eliza laughed and swung her right leg over her boyfriend, pulling him close. They stayed in bed until the sun went down.

In the evening, Andrew walked downstairs to pay Freddie and explain to him that his services would no longer be needed, but it seemed that he had missed him by half an hour. He found a text message on his phone from Freddie, who explained that he was heading home and that he would be back tomorrow. Even though Andrew didn’t normally do this, he ended up having to fire Freddie via text message.

>>

As usual, Brienne called up on Sunday. Everyone seemed to have a favorite day of the week, and Brienne was a big fan of the Sabbath day. She was a proud mother and her kids meant the world to her, but just like any job came with a holiday, motherhood certainly required a little break once in a while. Sunday was Tom’s day with the kids, and therefore Brienne’s official day off. As a senior executive at Millstone Firearms, Tom was a very busy man, who rarely got to see his kids during his eleven-hour workdays. But on Sunday, he had all the time in the world. He would plan fun trips, which usually involved the zoo, but sometimes also go-carting, bowling or laser tag. Of course, Brienne had come along sometimes, but ever since her youngest child was born, she had been too exhausted to join in with Sunday fun times. Instead, she preferred to take it easy and call up her girlfriends.

Usually, Brienne was up early, and she would call Eliza around ten. They would meet for coffee either at Eliza’s place or at some café. Following Melissa’s suggestion, they agreed to venture out into Wakefield, a nearby town. Melissa usually didn’t come along on their Sunday meetups because she was either too hungover or visiting her mother. Ever since she met Theo, three days ago, Melissa had given up partying, and this particular Sunday she had dialed Eliza before the latter had even gotten out of bed. Apparently, Melissa wanted to discuss something pretty serious with the other two. They better not be getting married.

Eliza, Melissa and Brienne met up in the town and walked around for a little while until they found a cozy coffee shop to hang out in. It was a cold but sunny day, and it felt nice to walk around unfamiliar territory. Eliza used to see new and exciting places for work, but as of late these instances had become fewer and fewer.

When they got their table, Melissa was finally ready to talk to them about her big dilemma.

“So, as you probably already know, Theo and I have been seeing a lot of each other lately,” she began.

Brienne nodded eagerly. By the look of Brienne’s face, Eliza could tell that she wasn’t the only one who’d suspected that Melissa’s news would have something to do with a proposal. But unlike Brienne, this thought didn’t really excite Eliza, since she didn’t understand how it was possible to marry someone after knowing them for only four days. After all, Eliza and Andrew weren’t married and they’d had a relationship lasting over six years.

Melissa raised her eyebrow at Brienne’s over-amplified eagerness. “As I was saying...” she continued, “I know that I just met him, and it’s a little early, but I’ve decided that I want to...”

Without realizing it, Eliza uttered a high-pitched yelp.

Melissa c****d her head. “What is up with the two of you? What I was going to say was, I wanted to introduce Theo to my mother.”

“Oh, of course.” Eliza nodded.

“What did you think I meant?” Melissa inquired, head still c****d to one side.

“Nothing,” the other two muttered.

After pausing to think for a moment, the cogs began to turn in Brienne’s head. She had a knack for connecting the dots and figuring out situations before they were laid out to her explicitly. “So your dilemma is that you’re unsure whether your mother might flip out when she realizes that, not only are you getting serious with a man that you just met, but you’re also dating one of the only men in this town who hasn’t lived here for a bajillion years.”

Brienne paused for air and continued talking. “But, you think that the positives might outweigh the negatives, and that if your mother meets this man and sees how happy you are with him, she might begin to trust your judgment and, most importantly, she’ll finally realize that you’re a grown woman and not just her poor little daughter who’s been forced into premature adulthood due to the burden of looking after your sick mother.”

“That’s actually pretty accurate,” Melissa admitted.

Brienne held up her finger to signify that she wasn’t done yet. “There’s more to it than that. I can tell that this isn’t just about you. I think that you believe that this information might help your mother somehow in her recovery. But how...” Brienne paused to think for a second.

Melissa opened her mouth to answer the question, but Brienne put up her finger again.

“Unless... unless you believe that if your mother sees that you’re all grown up, she might be willing to move back into the house. Perhaps if she realizes that she’s no longer a burden, she might not feel so ashamed to live with you anymore.”

Melissa and Eliza looked at Brienne, blinking stupidly. The same thought was running through both of their minds; how does she do it?

“That and, there’s one more thing,” Melissa said, the corner of her mouth bending into a mysterious sideways smile. She seemed proud of the fact that Brienne hadn’t been able to unearth all of her secret schemes within the span of two minutes. “I’ve also asked Theo to move in with me, or ‘us’ if my mother agrees to move back in.”

Eliza couldn’t help smiling despite the prickling concern that this might have all been a bit too rushed. She had moved in with Andrew after less than a year of dating, but they had already become accustomed to being around one another almost every day, as well as most nights. Even though Theo seemed like the full package from the outside, how could Melissa tell whether he would be good to live with or not? He may be an exceptionally attractive person, but he was still a new person in her life, and everyone had at least some sort of irritating trait that revealed itself when you lived with them.

Melissa could sense the concern emanating from Eliza. “I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not as rushed as it sounds. He won’t be moving in just yet, since he and his brother have housing from the mining authorities anyhow. However, it can be really depressing to live in the mines if you have no other home to return to on the weekends. So that’s all that our arrangement concerns for the time being... weekends. Even then, Theo said that he and his brother sometimes have other things to attend to, so even the weekends aren’t set in stone. What I’m trying to say is, we’re going to be testing the waters. We’ll get to see whether we like living together, and maybe someday he’ll move in with me. And if he does, there will be two of us around to help mother when she needs it. Bless her, she still looks youthful as ever, but she’s starting to get to an older age. Even if she agrees to leave the mental ward and announces herself ‘cured’, she’ll still probably need some help with basic care. And I’m the only one she’s got.”

Eliza nodded in agreement. She understood that Melissa meant well, and that she kept her mother in mind with every decision she ever made. Objectively, this seemed like a really good plan, and Eliza admitted to herself that Theo seemed like a really decent guy. However, as she listened to Melissa talk to Brienne about Theo, she couldn’t help but remember the gut feeling that she’d had around the brothers. She remembered the way that Theo had brushed off Melissa’s question when she’d asked him where they would have their next family gathering. “That’s a secret,” he’d said, playfully. Eliza wondered how many times Theo would get away with answering questions in that way. How many secrets did their family have? And as for his brother Hayden...

Eliza’s thought was interrupted by the ringing of a phone. Instinctively, all three women reached for their pockets. It was Melissa’s phone, and judging by the smile on her face, it was Theo.

Melissa got up and left for a little while to chat on the phone. Immediately, Brienne spun around to face Eliza. “So, you’ve met this man twice then? What do you think?”

“I think he’s really nice. You saw him as well, didn’t you? That first time at the bar.”

“Yeah, but all I saw was the back of his head. How was the rest of him?”

“Bri, he’s almost too good looking. Like a male model after photoshop.”

“Sounds... a bit too cyborgy for my tastes but, nevertheless, dreamy.”

“He’s one dreamy cyborg,” Eliza agreed. She could tell that Brienne was trying to play mind games to unearth Eliza’s true thoughts about Theo, but she wasn’t about to give them up so easily.

Brienne wasn’t one to give up easily, so she pushed on. “Do you think he’s monogamous? I mean, there’s no chance that he has anyone on the side, right? Because that would be a primary concern that we should probably check out before we let him move in with her.”

Eliza laughed. “First of all, we can’t stop them from moving in together. And to answer your question, I obviously don’t know much about the guy, but he seems really into Melissa. Almost too into her.”

“What do you mean, too into her?” Brienne seemed to perk up again, her eyes darting around as if she were trying to decipher something.

“No, nothing. I think that he really likes her, that’s all.”

“Can you give me any more details?”

Eliza laughed again. Brienne wasn’t letting this go, so she figured she would give her something. “Just the way he looks at her is really intense, you know? The first night when we met him, Melissa was a little wasted. And when she was in that state, I think he let his guard down a little, and I caught him just full-on staring at her. It weirded me out a little, but probably only because he was a stranger at the time. I think I’ve done too many newscasts about attempted r***s and jailed perverts, so I guess I read into his look a little too much and just profiled it as ‘predatory’. But it’s really just desire, you know, l**t or whatever.”

“Riiight,” Brienne said, still evidently lost in thought. Eliza knew that Brienne would overanalyze the living daylights out of this, but she was glad that she’d distracted her friend for long enough. After all, Eliza had only shared a small fraction of her concerns. She made a promise to herself that she wouldn’t tell Bri about her hunch that Theo and Hayden were hiding something.

Brienne looked like she was about to ask another Theo-related question, when Melissa came back. Saved by the Mel, Eliza thought. Melissa was still holding the phone to her ear, but after ‘uhum’-ing a few times, she handed the phone over to Eliza.

Eliza hesitated. “Why does he want to speak to me?” she half-whispered, half-mouthed.

“It’s Hayden,” Melissa mouthed back, exaggeratedly.

Eliza sighed and snatched the phone from Melissa’s mouth. She was prepared to cut this conversation short. Who does he think he is, calling me when he knows that I have a boyfriend? Besides, Brienne was sitting right next to her, and she was married to Andrew’s best friend from work. Eliza figured that it would look suspicious if she left the table for the conversation, so she stayed put.

“Hi,” she said neutrally.

There was a shuffling sound on the other end. Then, she heard that caramel-laced voice. “Hi, Eliza, I was hoping I could talk to you for a second. Is this an ok time?”

“I’m not sure. I’m with my friends, as you probably know since you spoke to Melissa just now.”

“Right, of course, sorry to disturb you,” Hayden said, his voice remaining steady and light. “I was just hoping to chat with you, but I don’t have your number. I know it would’ve been sleazy if I just asked Melissa to give it to me, so I thought I’d ask you myself.”

Eliza made an effort to appear unfazed, since she could feel Brienne and Melissa looking at her contemplatively. “Sure, but why do you need it?”

Hayden chuckled on the other end. “Your friends are sitting right there, aren’t they?”

“That would be correct.”

“In that case, I won’t embarrass you any longer. I just wanted to call because, like I said, I didn’t want to be a sleaze ball. I can ask Theo to get your number for me from Melissa. Just say ‘yes’ if you’re ok with it and ‘no’ if you’re not, and I won’t bother you anymore.”