Into the Light

You wanna taste this again Lex? Every finger has been in my cunt. Come and get it, baby.

I hated that word, it screamed ‘whore’. I clenched my cell, the grip so forceful I could feel it dig into the palm of my hand. The fucking bitch, who did she think she was and how on earth did she get in?!

The elevator was irritatingly slow and the moment the doors opened I ran up to the main bedroom. Roxy lay on my bed with a smug look on her face as BJ was consoling Charlotte. I knew at that moment there was no getting through to Charlotte. The pain was impossible to ignore, her eyes glassy and her posture sunken. BJ holding onto her was questioning my trust, but right now I didn’t have a leg to stand on. The damage of my colorful past was sitting on my bed.

Charlotte walked away without saying a word. I pulled her to me, needing her so desperately, looking for a sign, any sign that she wasn’t leaving me. She could barely look me in the eye, but she said the words that calmed me: she wasn’t leaving me. I breathed a huge sigh of relief until she mentioned Julian.

It ripped through me, the blades slicing me slowly. The cuts were deep, they were starting to bleed. Inside I was screaming, the pain so unbearable and the heat; the burning sensation was crawling throughout my skin until finally the doors closed behind her and I was left with nothing.

All that turned into rage as I stomped back to the room. Without any words, I un-handcuffed Roxy and dragged her off the bed. She kicked and screamed, calling me all the names under the sun, but I didn’t care. I pushed her into the elevator and pressed the button to the lobby. When the doors opened everyone turned to look as I pulled her arm and pushed her out of the building and onto the street. Standing there, barely dressed, she cursed my name loud enough that across the street people turned, but I simply walked away.

I rode the elevator back upstairs. The first thing I needed to do was change my security code and call a locksmith, but suddenly I stopped, realizing that this place held nothing for me. This wasn’t my home, that’s why I was so reluctant to come back. This place was a reminder of how I was institutionalized for seven years. How I was drowning in my own mistakes without a lifejacket to save me.

I pulled my cell out and called Kate, briefly explaining what happened. She wasn’t surprised and also gave me a lecture on my past behavior. Normally she wouldn’t have had the balls to say shit like that to me, but more so in this moment I needed a friend rather than an employee. I gave her instructions to put the penthouse on the market; I was saying goodbye to another piece of my past.

My vision was blurred as I heard a noise; I had mixed several drinks trying to erase the memory of Julian fucking my Charlotte in what was our home in New York. I closed my eyes. I could suddenly feel her beside me as she sat down. The silence fell over the room and she was quick to break it. She sounded cold, her tone stiff. I had grown accustomed to this trait as it was her defensive lawyer voice. Somewhere in the middle of her words she slowly slipped and the true C

harlotte revealed herself by telling this lame story about college. The corners of my mouth curled involuntarily, my shoulders moving as I struggled to hold in small fits of laughter that were bubbling to the surface. Here I was thinking that Charlotte was some sex demon with a sordid past, just to be reminded that it was so far from the truth. Her double groping session at a drunken frat party was her closest encounter to a ménage a trois. It was laughable, but somewhere in my insane reasoning the images found their way back and I blurted out the pain she caused me.

She didn’t deny it; did I honestly believe she was telling lies? And so it was done. Parts of our past were brought to the surface once again and no matter what happened, no matter what we said, every part of me still wanted every part of her.

London turned out to be a blessing and a curse. The whole Roxy thing did put a massive dampener on the end leg of our so-called honeymoon. The positive was that I was able to restructure the London office which meant I would no longer need to be here. After a shit load of promotions I was back to being a red-blooded American.

Life in New York was busy with Kate and myself running the office. Our staff count was larger than London and business was booming. I managed to keep my hours down, wanting to spend as much alone time as possible with Charlotte before the baby came. We were still living in her apartment much to my annoyance, however, I was only tolerating this because bigger things were on the horizon. Call me a chicken or whatever the hell you want, but I was scared of broaching the subject with Charlotte about a possible move to the west coast. It had been in the pipeline for a few years, but I had recently been approached by a head exec of one of the top production companies in LA looking for an investor.

“Yay, Kate’s here. She had better have brought that Chinese take-out or you’re toast, Edwards.” Charlotte made her way to the front door. Instead of their usual hug, Kate bent down and rubbed Charlotte’s belly. With Charlotte in her second trimester now her belly was bulging and her tits were fucking amazing. By far the best part of pregnancy.

“So, what are we celebrating?” Charlotte asked Kate.

Kate looked at me, surprised I hadn’t mentioned anything. “Well, I’ve been promoted.”

Charlotte looked at me “Congratulations! To what?”

Here we go…

“Director of the New York office.” Kate paused, her eyes warning me that now was the time to spill the beans.

“But wait a minute, then what would Lex do?”

“I would be busy with other projects, on the west coast…” I waited bravely for the ball to drop.

“I’m a little confused here so please pass me the last eggroll so I can get this right.” Kate handed her the last eggroll, which she munched on. “When you say ‘west coast’ do you mean us or you?”

“Us, Charlotte. I wanted to speak to you about this earlier but the deal was only sealed this afternoon. Dreamteam Studios needed an investor and I’ve wanted to get into production for a long time. They are located in LA.”

“So we would need to move to LA? And when?” she asked calmly.

“Yes, we would need to move to LA and probably after the baby is born. Look, Charlotte, I know it’s a lot to take in, your practice is here and so are your friends…it’s just…” She interrupted me.

“It is a lot to take in and I wish you would have spoken to me about it when it first came up. Yes, I would miss my friends, and as for my practice, well, Nikki and I were looking at expanding anyway.”

I did a double take “Wait, you mean you want to go?”

“It’ll be nice to start fresh and New York is too crowded to raise a baby. I just have one condition,” she requested.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Oh, not a condition for you, but for Kate.” Charlotte smiled.