After Henry had told everything, it had been a bit of a mess. Ok, well that was an understatement. It turned out Arianne knew her husband had been cheating on her. A good friend of hers from Rafferty’s company had heard he had been with his secretary and told Arianne.
Rafferty's face had been priceless when he found out. He had denied everything and accused Henry of trying to ruin his ‘perfect’ marriage. I had snorted at that. He called a perfect marriage based on lies? Talk about deluded.
April had been horrified that her father would have hurt her to keep his secret and now wouldn’t go anywhere near Rafferty, while Arianne had decided she needed some time to think, and had gone up to her bedroom. Steve had said he was going to make sure she was OK, which had made Rafferty turn into a red-faced bull. He ended up driving off somewhere. I had hoped he ended driving off a cliff somewhere.
He had ended up coming back home at three in the morning when we had all been asleep. I remembered how I had woken up – a loud high pitched scream had woke me from my deep slumber. The bed I was sleeping on had shifted and I had realised it was Henry, jumping out of bed and bolting out of the room. I had followed and heard Henry yelling, calling his father a bastard. As I rushed into the room, I saw a beautiful sight: Henry had just socked his father in the nose. Sweet payback.
Rafferty had come back home and Arianne had told him she wanted a divorce, making Rafferty turn into more than just a red-faced bull. Plus, he had been drunk and alcohol always makes things worse. People don't think straight, get depressed, high or aggresive and end up doing something they regret. That was why I never touched alcohol.
Rafferty had punched her in the jaw and that had been when Steve and Henry burst into the room. Steve had comforted a whimpering Arianne while Henry was letting out all of his anger onto his father.
Henry had called the cops to take Rafferty to the station after he had blacked out. The next day, Arianne and Henry had paid a visit to the station to give their statements and take a photo of Arianne’s bruise as evidence of domestic violence. The rest of the day we just spent hanging out at home eating ice cream and watching movies, which was April's idea. Even Henry and Steve participated, although they felt like complete idiots. Henry had said to live life, aka party all night, and not to stay at home watching chick flicks like girls. Well who could blame us? We were girls.
Right now it was Friday morning, the day we were flying out to Curacao for Henry’s filming and the day Rafferty and Arianne were supposed to be celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary. Not much of a celebration when the husband is in jail and the wife wants a divorce. I really couldn't believe we were leaving though. It had been such a short stay!
“I can’t believe you get a holiday while I’m stuck at UCLA.” April grumbled as she gave me a hug.
“It’s not exactly a holiday,” Henry said wryly. “For me it’s work.”
She stuck her tongue out at him and then went to give him a hug too. Steve and Arianne then came into view, standing in the doorframe on the other side of the foyer. While April and Henry joked around about something, I tuned into Steve and Arianne’s conversation, feeling a bit shameful that I was eavesdropping.
“Have fun Steve,” Arianne said softly, her smile highlighting the small dimple in her cheek.
“Bye Arianne,” Steve said, giving her a smile too. “And remember, don’t stress yourself out. You have a habit of doing that.”
Arianne’s lips twitched. “Well I seem to remember you being absolutely lazy, so you should make sure you’re working hard. Remember how you practically made me write half of your English essay for you? In junior year?”
What? They knew each other since freakin’ junior year?! I strained my ears for more, while pretending to be laughing along with April calling her brother a pig.
“I’ve grown up now,” Steve defended.
“I know,” Arianne said softly looking down at her hands. Then she looked back up and ruffled Steve’s hair. I didn’t dare believe what was seeing. Both were smiling at each other as if they had some sort of secret and their eyes were twinkling …
There was no doubt the way they were looking at each other was love.
* * *
Kicking back, I made a mental note to buy a private jet one day if I ever become rich enough. They were so cool. I was relaxing back on the built in white couch with my feet on the small green table in front of me. Henry’s private jet had two rooms and I was in the more relaxing one. Henry was sitting across from me and eating some grapes, while Steve was in the other room, most likely on his beloved laptop.
“I want grapes too,” I said with my eyes closed and head rested against the leather of the couch.
“Alright,” Henry answered.
“HEY!” Oh my god! He chucked at grape at my face! I felt it roll of my face and onto the carpet.
“You said you wanted grapes, so I gave one to you," Henry explained with a small snicker.
I rolled my eyes. What an idiot. “I meant pass the bowl, not chuck a grape.”
“Oh c’mon! Chucking grapes is fun! I do it all the time.” Henry took hold of another grape and aimed it at my face again. I dodged it quickly but it still hit my hair.
“Stop it!”
“Make me.”
Oh I’ll make you. Grabbing the bowl of strawberries in front of me, I expertly aimed one at Henry’s nose.
“Hey!”
I laughed at Henry’s incredulous expression. “That’s what you get for being such a jerk, peanut.”
“Oh you’re going to get it,” Henry threatened. He stood up with a wicked grin on his face. My eyes widened. What was he going to do? Suspicious, I stood up and backed away. Henry still stalked forward, looking like a crazy animal after his prey. I couldn’t even get past him to the door which led to the other room where Steve was! I was trapped.
“AHH!” Henry suddenly yelled, leaping at me. I screamed as he tackled me onto the couch, tickling my sides endlessly. Crap. I was done for.
“OH MY GOD! ST-STOP!”
His rough hands poking and tickling my sides was absolute torture. I hated being a person who was ticklish. “Please,” I gasped out weakly. "What-would-J-Jesus do?!" You know those times when you laugh so hard that you can't talk or breathe? Yeah, this was one of those times.
Then Henry stopped. Finally! I caught up with my breathing and looked up at Henry to glare at him. My eyes widened when I realised his face had been closer than I thought. If I moved just an inch forward, his lips would touch mine.
Oh my god. Why was I thinking abut his lips?
His golden brown eyes looked shocked too, like he hadn’t been expecting to be this close to me. I saw his eyes darken into what seemed like … lust. Like as if he was noticing me for the first time.
But was it? I haven’t had much boy experience to tell, but it looked like it from romantic movies I’ve watched.
Henry then bolted off me, faster than I thought possible. I was breathless and confused. That was weird. I sat up carefully and watched as Henry sat back down on the couch, his eyes flickering to me. I studiously ignored him but after a while, I was becoming irritated at his averted gazes.
“What?” I asked, as he looked at me for the hundredth time.
“Nothing.”
Nice answer, buddy. I sighed and decided to escape the silence by paying a visit to Steve. He owed me an explanation too, about his relationship with Arianne. Hopping up from the couch, I strode over to the small door which led to the other room. I could feel Henry’s stare on my back which made me shiver slightly.
Steve was sitting forward and typing on his laptop, frowning a bit. He looked up when I came in. “Hello Lainie,” he greeted.
“Hi,” I said, sitting down across from him. I leaned forward, resting my arms on the cherry wood table. “So … what are you up to?”
“Just confirming our rooms …”
“Huh?” I asked, confused.
“The hotel we’re staying at,” Steve explained. “I’m confirming our suites. Of course, you have to share with Henry again … I’m sorry if it bothers you. If word got out Henry and his fiancée don’t sleep in the same room …”
I gave him a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry. I’m pretty sure there will be a couch this time. Oh by the way, what hotel are we staying in?”
Steve clicked something on his laptop and spun it around to face me. “We are staying here,” he said, pointing to the screen. I took the laptop from him. We were staying at the Royal Crystal. What a name. I handed it back to him after I had scrolled through the pictures.
“That’s a nice hotel,” I commented.
“Five stars.”
I then heard a strange ‘bing’ noise from Steve’s laptop. He smiled widely and eagerly began reading something. Probably an email.
“What was that?” I asked.
He looked up at me. “An email,” he answered. Bingo. “It’s from Arianne. She says she’s doing well. April and her went shopping today to get their minds off things … they visited Rafferty at the station … and the divorce papers aren’t drawn up yet which is a shame … but generally they’re doing good.”
I was going to say ‘that’s good to hear’ but the witty side got the better of me. “Yes it is a bit of a shame isn’t it?”
Steve frowned. “What’s a shame?”
“That the divorce papers aren’t drawn up yet.”
A look of understanding crossed his face. “Oh! Yes it is.”
“Yes … such a shame for you especially,” I said in a bit of a nonchalant voice.
He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “What do you mean?” He asked, a bit suspicious. Oh and he had a right to be suspicious.
“Well you know with you being in love with her and all …” I said. I felt like those evil manipulating girls in the dramas who threatened to tell the mega secret of the main character. Well, it was kind of true, except I wasn’t going to tell anyone.
“You’re deluded Lainie,” Steve said, his eyes darting away from mine.
I raised my eyebrows. “I’m sure I’m not,” I replied. I leaned forward with a slight smile on my face. “Now spill. Have you really known her since junior year?”
He studied me for a few seconds then sighed loudly. “Fine. Arianne moved into my high school in junior year and became one of the most popular girls in the school.”
“How did you meet … or whatever?”
“Well … we shared the same English class and she was, of course, very smart. The stupid teacher arranged a seating plan and she ended up next to me. She used to try and be friendly to be but … I was a bit of an ass and ignored her. Anyway, I was really bad at English – I just wasn’t interested. So the teacher asked if Arianne would help tutor me in English since she was the smartest.”
“Oooh how did that go hmm?” I asked. I was so interested in Steve’s love life.
He pursed his lips. “She was very annoyed of me because I wouldn’t put any effort in. But then after a while, we started to become friends … and I realised in senior year that I liked her.”
I smiled. It was so weird to think my uncle Steve actually fancied someone. “What happened then? How’d she end up with that jerk?” I was, of course, referring to Rafferty.
He looked down. “That had been the worse years of my life.”
“What?”
“Well, Arianne and I both ended up at the same college and around about … second year, we finally confessed our feelings for each other. But when I met her family, they were displeased. I wasn’t some rich guy and her family was from a good background. They told Arianne to dump me, because she had an arranged marriage to Rafferty, the heir of Parker Corporations.”
I inhaled a sharp gasp. What was with rich people and arranged marriages? It seemed like when you were rich, you had an unhappy life. “Did she dump you …?”
Steve snorted. “Obviously. She didn’t want to disobey her parents and she didn’t want her family’s reputation ruined.”
The way he spoke made him seem bitter about the whole thing. It must’ve been hard for him to watch the girl you love go off and marry a jerk. No wonder he hasn’t been interested in any woman. It was because he was still hung up over Arianne.