The Things You Did For Me

Chapter 18: CARRY ON

Within a week Norma and Dylan had become accustomed to the motel life, but money was running low. Norma had yet to find a job—or a place to watch Dylan while she went to said job. She sighed, feeding her son the last of the applesauce she had stocked in the mini fridge. She had been seeing that guy, Sam, on and off since she met him. He seemed nice. He even offered to take Norma and Dylan in when she mentioned her husband had kicked her out of the apartment. Maybe this was her chance to start over. Still, she was a little apprehensive about moving in with a man she'd known for just a week. She had a son to take care of...but then again living out of a motel room didn't seem like the best option for her son anyway.

"Come home," Alex told her during their weekly phone call.

"How? I don't have a car. I don't even have enough money to pay for a bus ticket." She often wondered how her life had turned out this way. She considered herself a generally good person but for some reason chaos seemed to surround. She couldn't stop the tide from pulling her in.

"I'll come down and get you." He wasn't going to take no for an answer. He'd had enough of men altering her course in life for the worse.

"Your wife will worry about you," she conceded, glancing over at her son who sat content playing with the model car Alex had sent.

Alex laughed haughtily, throwing his uniform into the growing heap of dirty laundry on the bedroom floor. He'd purposely begun to do things to annoy his wife. Leaving the toilet seat up and dirty clothes piles were just a few of the many things that annoyed his young bride. Part of him was proud of himself, but the other half knew it was wrong of him to act like such a jerk. "I'm beginning to feel like I've made a terrible mistake," he mumbled into the phone after some time.

Norma's heart sunk a little when his words finally registered. "What are you talking about?"

"I don't love my wife," he admitted aloud. "She's actually kind of annoying."

She tried to hide the smirk forming on her face despite the fact that he couldn't see her. "Oh," she managed to choke out. "Did you tell her that?"

"No. I've just been leaving a mess all of the house and hoping she gets the message."

"Alex," she chided.

He could feel the eye roll. He hated when he knew she was right. "What? I don't want to hurt her feelings."

She scoffed, flopping down on the bed. "Because acting like an asshole is better? Why don't use just file for a divorce?"

Alex sighed and began to unpack the last box of clothes. "She moved here from Portland to be with me."

"It's only a few hours away. It's not like she moved to a whole other state," she noted peevishly. They could both feel a change in the room after that. An uncomfortable tension set in.

"Yeah," Alex let out, combing his fingers through his hair. The sound of a car door shutting penetrated the silence, startling him a bit. He got up and glanced at the window to find his wife making her way up the driveway. "Look, I've gotta go. Beth just pulled up. I sent you some money. It should get you through the next week or two. I'll call you later, okay?"

"Alex," Beth called out.

"I'm in the bedroom," he yelled back, throwing the phone on the bed to continue stuffing his shirts into the drawers of the dresser.

It didn't take long for her to get to the doorway, or for her to scold him on leaving his clothes all over the bedroom floor. "I thought I asked you to pick these up," she complained, picking up a plaid flannel and watching as a small box fell from the pocket. They were both silent for a moment until she picked it up, her eyes glancing to meet his as she opened it. A grin began to creep across her face. It was the first time he'd seen her smile in a long time.

"It's not for you," he muttered before he could think better of it.

The smile fell from her face as she furrowed her brow. "Well, who else would it be for?"

Alex closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. His worst fear was coming to the surface. "That's not what I meant," he assured her. "I don't want you to have it."

But Alex never really was good with words...or with women. She slammed the box shut and threw it at him, storming out of the house for the night.

After a horrible six months, she finally left him. He wasn't at all surprised when he found the divorce papers lying on the kitchen table along with her key to the house. In a way, he was glad she'd left. It wasn't fair to her when he knew he could never completely love her. Besides it meant he was now free to make a trip down to Phoenix without feeling guilty about it.

He was a little shocked when Norma told him she'd moved in with a man. He wasn't completely surprised because what man wouldn't want to be with her. Still, Alex wasn't too sure how he felt about some random guy taking in Norma and her son. He knew they needed a better place to stay and someone to support them, but he couldn't help but fear the worst.

Things had been picking up at work. The team was finally starting to zero in on the sheriff and his dealing in the drug trade. It was when Alex discovered Bob's involvement that he decided it was a good idea to take a few days off for a trip to Phoenix.

He didn't know what to say when his former friend's name popped up on the list of his father's accomplices. He wanted to call Bob—to assure himself of his friend's innocence—but deep down he knew the truth. Over the past six months that Alex had been back, he began to see the difference in Bob. He saw the way Bob treated the women at his "hunting" club. Bob had become a new man the second he signed the deed for the Arcanum Club.

The saddest part was that Bob expected Alex to conform to his ways. He even invited him to his "parties". Of course, Alex went the first time he was invited. He didn't expect anything other than a mild social gathering...he was mistaken. But Bob was relentless with his party invites. He wanted Alex to join his side; Alex always declined. He wasn't that kind of guy. So he requested his vacation days and packed up the car to head to Arizona.