Shall We Dance?

Chapter 22 - Morning Talks

MADISON

The exhaustion of managing the earlier events helped me to sleep deeply for a few hours. Maurice freaked out when I called to tell him Cadence was on her way home. He wanted to know every detail and the reason for Ale's behavior but I had no answers. Hopefully I will find out more later.

Cadence left to the airport at five in the morning. Before heading there, I helped her to pack since the encounter with Ale left her distracted.

"I hope he is okay," she said while waiting for the taxi. "I should have stuffed him with coffee to sober him up. This isn't a usual behavior for him."

"Honestly, I don't think it would have helped. Let's hope he is taking time to cool off," I said.

"What did I do to him besides rejecting a forced kiss? It can't be the reason why he's so mad and disappointed. Mae, I'm fucking nice all the time and it keeps getting me in trouble. Even with Ethan, I was always nice and patient even though he's an asshole, but Ale..."

Listening to Cadence curse and looking so upset and worried confirmed to me that Alejandro Sawyer is more important to her than she realizes.

"Do you have feelings for Ale?"

Cadence paced the lobby and rubbed her face.

"I do, Madison. I tell myself I don't, because after Ethan, I don't know if I'm ready for a new relationship. Ale is sweet, kind and is interested in me as a person. He has a silly sense of humor and enjoys the simple things. It breaks my heart that he thinks he lacks intelligence and puts himself down so often. I only want to protect him from my ex. I'm leaving to sort my head and to decide whether I want to take the risk of Ethan finding out."

My sister is brave for being honest with herself and taking this decision. At that moment, I felt like packing my stuff and following her to also sort how I feel about Fer.

A knock on the door interrupts my recent memories. It's a bit past eight in the morning according to the clock on the night table. I hold my robe tighter and look through the peephole, Fer stands outside.

"I was expecting Alejandro, not you," I say the moment I open the door.

Fer has a cut on his cheek I'm sure he didn't have yesterday.

"Can we talk? Please..." He whispers as he looks both ways in the hallway.

I move aside to let him in. "Do you want coffee? It's probably crap, but I guess you don't want to go downstairs for a proper one."

Fer sits on the desk chair and shakes his head. I take place on the bed edge in front of him and wait in silence for him to speak. He pushes his thick glasses over the bridge of his nose while he stares at the carpet. His lip is swollen and he has a dark mark under his left eye.

"What happened to you?" I break the stillness and place my hand on his arm, making him flinch.

Fer finally looks at me and lets out a deep breath.

"Ale returned to our room completely wasted. I know he came here before that and things didn't go well. We got into an argument and he smashed a glass tumbler next to my head on the wall. The living room area of our suite is a disaster zone right now. I'm not here to excuse his behavior, that is up to him, but I need answers."

"Answers is what I need."

"Everything that we've gone through has left Ale and myself with post-traumatic stress disorder. When he's under extreme stress, he goes into fight mode, and he attacked me because he would never put a hand on Cadence. When he saw me taking my heart medication it sobered him enough to tell me what happened."