Mikey looked her direction. With pleasure and surprise, he called, “Miss Carrie!”
The attractive woman Carrie had had more than one parent-teacher conference with stepped out of the house behind him.
This was worse than she could have dreamed. If running away could have helped the situation, she would have achieved a world record. Carrie dared a looked at Rick. Confusion was written on his face. Why, oh, why hadn’t she told him? Because she didn’t want to extinguish his happiness. It was more like she didn’t want to destroy hers.
“No buddy. This is Cathie, my girlfriend,” Rick said.
His girlfriend. She liked the sound of that. Her heart clenched. But that might be the last time he ever said it. Anguish filled her. Fear held her speechless.
Mikey acted as if he hadn’t heard Rick. “Look Mom, it’s Miss Carrie.”
Melissa wore a stricken expression as she looked at her, then Rick and back again. There was an uncomfortable silence for a few moments before Rick said in a deadly soft voice, “What’s going on here?”
Carrie forced a smile. “Hi, Mikey. I’m surprised to see you too.” Terrified to look at Rick, she squared her shoulders and turned. “It’s what I was trying to tell you. Cathie is my twin sister.”
His look bore into her. Disbelief, disappointment then fury settled on his face.
“I’m sorry.” She took a step toward him, said softly while giving him a pleading look, “I tried to tell you.”
He said something under his breath.
Melissa cleared her throat. “Why don’t you two go inside and talk?”
“Mom, is Uncle Rick mad at Miss Carrie?” Mikey asked in a high voice.
Melissa patted her son’s shoulder. “Why don’t you go help your father with the hamburgers? Rick, take Carrie into the kitchen.” Her tone said she’d expect nothing but compliance.
Rick seemed to come out of a daze. He stalked through the open door. Carrie followed more slowly, her feet heavy with dread. Inside, he turned to face her taking a wide leg stance and crossing his arms over his chest. Everything about him said he’d already closed himself off from her.
He looked like a man who would demand answers and accept nothing but the truth. His eyes were dark but not with passion. Instead there was a flash of fury in them. The situation wasn’t going to get better. He’d been blindsided and he wasn’t taking it well. She couldn’t blame him.
“Was this some kind of game?” he snarled.
Carrie hated the pain on his face. Worse was she couldn't do anything about it.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on? Why’ve you been lying to me?”
She reached toward him. He jerked back. “Don’t touch me.” Her heart shattered into tiny pieces.
“It’s nothing like you’re thinking. I did try to tell you.”
“How would you know what I’m thinking. I don’t even know you.”
Carrie swallowed hard. Her chest tightened. Pain crawled into her throat. “You do know me. I didn’t mean to hurt you. Neither did Cathie.”
Rick made a sound of disbelief.
“You invited Cathie out and she got an offer from a guy she’s liked for a long time to go away for the weekend. She was worried you might get her in trouble with her boss if she backed out at the last minute. She begged me to take her place.” Carrie spoke so fast she almost ran out of breath. “I didn’t want to do it. At first. But Brian had accused me of being boring. I thought maybe it would be a chance to live at little outside my comfort zone. So many times I wanted to tell you. I even tried on the way here. It’s what I wanted to talk to you about when Mike walked up. Everything that happen between us was me.” She pointed to her chest. “Me! Only the name was wrong. Please try to understand.”
He huffed then spat, “You made a fool of me.”
“That wasn’t my intention. When we agreed on one night together I thought, what difference would it make? We weren’t going to see each other again. Then you showed up at my place, you didn’t give me time to think just swept your way in. When you ask me to go with you to see Mr. Herbert I knew I couldn’t continue lying to you. But I couldn’t say anything without talking to Cathie first. She wouldn’t return my calls. I finally reached her. I told her I was going to tell you no matter what. You have to believe me,” she pleaded, her eyes filling with moisture.
“You could've been honest with me days ago, instead of letting me think you were someone you’re not. You know how I feel about lying.”
Carrie didn’t have a response. He was right. She was losing him. It wasn’t until that moment she realized she wanted him—forever. “I do. And I hated that the most. But I’m not really like that. I’d never purposely hurt you.”
“That’s hard to believe. Your excuse is that you were protecting your sister from something you weren’t even sure would happen. That was more important than me.” He shoved his hands into his pockets.
“It wasn’t just that. It was exciting to be with you and I didn’t want to lose that any sooner than I had to. All I did was let you call me by the wrong name. You do know not everyone is like your mother or your ex-fiancée. Some of us aren’t out to get something from you or just focused on ourselves.”
“Well, you could have fooled me. In fact, you did,” he snarled.
That statement hurt like a slap. “Please forgive me. I was only doing my sister a favor.” Carrie stepped toward him but the narrow look he gave stopped her. She would have gone down on her knees and begged if she’d thought it would made a difference.
“And what an idiot you made out of me. I couldn’t figure out why you didn’t answer when I called the first time, or you dressed nothing like you, your sister, does. So little makeup. I’m willing to bet Cathie cares nothing about old houses or architecture.”
“She doesn’t,” Carrie couldn’t look at him.
He shook his head, his lip drawn into a thin line. “And to think I started to care for you. To trust you.”
A sob escape her. “You can trust me.”
“Based on what? The fact you’ve been lying to me. Why should I ever believe a thing you say again?”
“People make mistakes. I made one for my sister’s sake. I’ll never do something like this again.”
“I’m sure the next guy who comes along will appreciate that, but I won’t take that chance. It’s time we go.” He didn’t wait until she agreed before he headed toward the door.
“I had to think of my sister,” she called to his back.
He came to an abrupt stop and faced her. “Really? The last time I saw Cathie she was a grown woman. My guess is she can take care of herself. Take responsible for her own decisions.” With that he went out the door.
Left with no choice, she followed him.
Mike, Melissa and Mikey’s eyes were all fixed on them as they exited.
“I’m sorry we can’t stay,” Rick announced in a little too loud voice.
“Miss Carrie, you can’t go! I wanted to show you my room,” Mikey whined.
Carrie went down on her heels in front of him. “Maybe next time, hon. I’ll see you in school on Monday.” She glanced at Rick who was already making his way to the side of the house. “Bye.”
“Aw, come on Rick. At least stay for supper,” Mike said.
“No thanks. I’ve lost my appetite. I’ll talk to you late
r,” Rick called not waiting for Carrie to catch up with him.
She put her hands out, palms up. “I’m sorry about this. Sorry, I hurt him. Sorry, I ruined your evening.”
“Don’t worry about us. Just try to get him to listen. He’s a good guy.” Melissa gave her a quick hug.
Carrie jogged after Rick. He was already in the car with it running by the time she climbed in.
“Don’t say a word. Not one word,” he snapped.
It was the longest, most miserable ride Carrie had ever experienced. Rick refused to look at her. His jaw was clamped shut and his hands held the steering wheel in a white knuckled grip. She’d never seen anyone so furious. She forced herself not to cry.
In front of her apartment building, he pulled to the curb and reached in the back seat for her bag and handed it to her.
She didn’t immediately get out. “Please, won’t you come in and let’s talk.”
He only glared at her.
She had to get through to him. “I’m sorry you found out the way you did. In front of your friends. I didn’t mean for it to happen that way. I did try to tell you. I did.”
Rick didn’t acknowledge her. She slowly climbed out of the car. With the door still open she said, “First, I didn’t want to hurt Cathie, then you, then me, then it got all mixed up. It was all wrong but yet it was so right between us. The only thing different about me is my name. Please forgive me. I’ll never misled you or anyone else ever again.”
“I didn’t even know your name when we were making love!” he barked still not looking at her.
She brushed a tear from her cheek. “That’s true. But you know the important stuff about me better than anyone else in the world.”
“Goodbye, Cathie. Carrie. Whoever you are.”
She waited until he looked at her. He finally did. She hated what she saw in his eyes. The deep hurt, disappointment, anger. There was no spark of forgiveness she’d hoped for. With misery circling each word she said, “It almost killed me when you called out my sister’s name when we made love the first time.”
Rick leaned across the console and took her handle pulling the door closed. “Well, you don’t have to worry about that happening again.”