The Secrets That We Keep (11 page)

“Maybe I should ask her for her number,” he says, turning his head to look for her before looking back at me with a smirk.

“Please, she’s like twelve.”

Lucas laughs and leans back in his chair. “I just wanted to see how you would react is all.”

“Whatever Lucas, let’s just get down to it. You said we were going to meet up so we can talk, so let’s talk. And not about twelve year old, bitchy waitresses either.”

He leans forward and his face is suddenly serious
. “Ask me whatever you want, Annabella.”

“Okay. Where have you been all these years?”

“I’ve been in the city mostly. Just working.”

“Why did you leave me without giving me a reason why, withou
t ever checking up on me?” I know asking these questions aren’t real important to what was going on in my life. I’ve just always wanted to know, and if he’s willing to answer, you better believe I’m gonna ask.

He sighs and looks
down at the table before meeting my gaze again. “I told you. It was what was best.”

“Best for
who? You? It wasn’t what I would have chosen to happen. We were happy and you couldn’t have picked a worse time, you know?”

“I know and I’m sorry. I just…it was what needed
to happen. That’s all,” he says somberly.

“Yeah, that doesn’t
help, so thanks for nothing. Anyway, do you know my husband?”

He sits
back, obviously shocked I had asked that question. “No. How would I know your husband?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know, just thought I’d ask. So you have no idea what he looks like? I mean, if you follow me around
, maybe you’ve seen him too.”

He narrows his eyes at me. “Stop saying that. I’m not some crazy stalker following you around all the time. And no, I’ve never seen your husband and I’d prefer to keep it that way.”

I didn’t question why he didn’t want to see him, but I had a feeling he wasn’t lying to me. If he knows Julian, he doesn’t know him as my husband.

“What kind of work do you do?”

“I guess you could say I’m in the security business.”

“Security?
What kind of security?”

“Oh, you know, just making sure everybody is nice
and safe. Security.” He shrugs his shoulders like I was just supposed to know.

“
Okaaaay,” I drag out and look at him skeptically.

“My
turn,” he says with a smile on his face.

“Uh, I didn’t know this was a quid pro quo kind of deal.”

“Well, it is. So now it’s your turn to be interrogated.”

“Fine,” I huff.

“How long have you been married?”

“Three years.”

“Are you happy?”

“What kind of question is that?” I
cry out a little too loudly.

“An easy one,” he says with a lift of his right shoulder.

“Yes. Yes, of course I’m happy.”

He observes me for a little while before he continues with his barrage of questions.

“Do you have any kids?”

“No.”

“Do you want them?”

“Maybe.”

Luckily, right as I’m getting too uncomfortable with the line of questioning, the waitress comes out with our food. She doesn’t say anything to me or to Lucas this time.

“I think you scared her,” he says with laugh.

I just shrugged and dug into my food. We sat in silence for several minutes before he spoke up again.

“So, do you still suck at bowling?”

I look up from my plate to see him looking at me, trying and failing to hide his smile.

“I’ll have you know that I have graduated from the bumpers and can bowl up to a
hundred now.”

He let
s out a deep laugh that causes everybody around us to turn and look. “Well, at least you don’t use the bumpers anymore.”

We
continue to eat and make small conversation about things that aren’t really important. It feels nice to talk to someone who knows so much about me. It’s nice to reminisce.

The afternoon went by pretty fast and before I knew it, it was already three o’clock.

“Well, as much as I enjoyed the conversation and the food, this lunch was supposed to be about me getting some answers, and you didn’t help me with those at all,” I say to him.

“What do you mean? I answered your questions.”

“Well, you don’t admit to following me. I still don’t know what it is you do for a living really. You could be a bouncer, or you could sell security alarms. I don’t know why you dumped me all those years ago except that it was what was “best” and I don’t know. I just still feel confused.”

“What are you confused about?”

“I just am.” I let out a long sigh. I question whether I should tell him that I saw him talking to my husband last night at the restaurant. I wonder what he’d say, but I was a little worried about what I might find out.

“
Annabella, I want you to be careful okay? There are some fucked up people out in the world and if you are sure that people were following you, then I want you to stay alert. Stay in groups of people, stay with your friends or…husband. Just be careful okay?”

I nod my head in response.

“Well,” he says, looking at his watch, “I gotta get out of here. It was nice seeing you.”

“Will I see you again?” I ask, not really sure why.

He gives me a sad smile. “I don’t know. I shouldn’t be talking to you now, I just couldn’t help myself. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Before I can respond, he gets up from the table. “I’ll take care of the check inside. Drive safely.” And then he walks away.

I sit there for a few minutes before I remember.
Drive safely.
He said that last night on the phone and I hadn’t told him I was driving. I wanted to know where he had been when he called me last night. I run into the restaurant to see if he’s still inside but I don’t see him. He’s already gone.

Chapter Sixteen

I
’m upstairs in my room getting ready for the evening while Julian is downstairs sulking because of course, the one night I decide to go out is the same night he decides he wants to be home at a normal time. I wasn’t about to cancel my plans though, so he’d just have to see what it was like to be home all night by himself.

It’s 8:00pm when my cell phone starts ringing, right as I’m putting my heels on. I hobble over to the phone with one heel on and one off.

“Hello?”

“Hey.”

“What’s up Jade? Don’t tell me you’re bailing.”

“No
no, of course not. I’m just not going to be able to meet up to go to the bar first. Me and Jackson are gonna be having dinner. So I’ll meet you two at the club.”

“Okay, as long as you show up! And have fun with Jackson,” I say in a sing song voice.

“Oh I will,” she says with a laugh. “I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Okay, bye.”

I hang up and put my other shoe on, spray some perfume, and gather my lip gloss, phone, compact and two Excedrin into my clutch. I curl a few more pieces of hair and try to have them placed just right. When I walk downstairs I can see Julian sitting on the couch flipping through the channels.

When he hears my heels click on the floor he turns
around and does a double take.

“You look nice,” he says while his eyes move from my feet to my head.
“Probably too nice.”

“Why too nice?”

He lets out a growl. “I don’t want to have to hurt anybody Bella. You’re gonna have the boys falling all over you.”

“Well, luckily for you, I don’t want any boys,” I say as I turn to walk to the kitchen. I hear him let out a string of Spanish
cuss words. He must have seen the lacey part of my leggings. I smile to myself.

“Maybe I should go with you.
Just to keep an eye on things.”

“Yeah right.
This is a girl’s night. You are not coming along.”

“Bella, you said yourself t
hat someone was following you. If you go out like that, they may decide to snatch you up.”

“That’s not funny, and I don’t think anybody is going to snatch me up. I’ll be with the girls the whole night. I’ll be fine. Maybe nobody was following me after all. Could have
just been a coincidence.”

He doesn’t say anything for a while.
“Yeah, maybe. Just be careful though, okay? Text me when you get there and throughout the night so I know you’re okay.”

I walk over to him and give him a kiss but he pulls me down onto his lap so that I’m straddling him. He kisses me feverishly and rubs his hands over my ass and then up my back and into my hair. He continues to plunge his tongue into my mouth and I can feel myself starting to get excited. I pull away slowly and lo
ok into his warm caramel eyes.

“I’ve just missed you,” he says with a smirk. “I know I’ve been working a lot lately, and I promise to make a better effort to be home earlier.”

I lean in and give him a quick peck on the lips and pull myself off of him.

“I’ve missed you too, a lot, and I’d love
for you to be home more often. But I think you were just trying to get me to stay here. Tricking me with sex,” I say while playfully scowling at him.

“Hey, a man can try,” he says with a laugh.

“Now I have to fix my lipstick. You’re lucky I enjoyed that.”

He laughs
at me again. “Good. Remember I have more of that, and maybe a little extra when you come home.”

“That’s definitely something to look forward to. I love you babe, I’ll text you when I get to Michelle’s
,” I say as I walk to the door.

“I love you too. B
e safe.”

Driving into the city, I ca
n’t help but think back to how normal Julian was acting before I left. He was actually home for one, and that was good, but he also wanted to be affectionate with me and apologized for working so much lately. He did say he would work on being home more often. I wonder then if maybe I was just being ridiculous and nothing was going on with him. He may just be busy with work. I can understand that. I know he loves me and I love him, so maybe we could get back on track. That’s what I’m hoping for, anyway.

As I approach Michelle’s front door, it swings open and Michelle is standing there with
an I’m-gonna-kill-somebody look on her face.

“Nice to see you too,” I say playfully.

“Ugh, let’s go. I am two seconds from snapping his neck,” she says with a jerk of her thumb in the direction of her house.

“That bad, huh?”

She just rolls her eyes in response. “Come in real quick, I have to grab my purse.”

I stand just inside the door waiting for her to come back. Right as she’s walking back into the room
, fiddling with her phone, her husband Dylan walks in from the other side.

“Hey
Annabella,” he says with a quick look in my direction and then back to his wife.

“Hey Dylan, how are you?” I never had a problem with Dylan. He always seems nice and polite. Michelle seems to complain about him a lot though, and we never know what goes on behind closed doors
. But I don’t judge.

“Pretty good, I guess,” he replies, his eyes still on his wife who seems to be texting somebody.

“That’s good,” I say with a nod and then turn my attention to Michelle. “You ready?”

“I thou
ght you said you were texting Annabella, who are you texting now since she’s right here?” Dylan asks accusingly.

Michelle looks up and gives him a
dirty look. “I’m texting Jade. Geez, will you get off my back?”

Well, this is getting awkward fast.

“Come on Anna, let’s get out of here,” she says as she walks towards me. “Dylan, I’ll be back later.”

I turn to look at Dylan and he looks livid. I give him a little wave
. “Bye, Dylan.”

He looks at me and gives me a tight smile and a tiny nod.

“Holy shit, what are you guys fighting about? That was tense!” I say to Michelle as we make our way to the cab that’s waiting for us. She must have called them already.

“What weren’t we fighting about is an easier question. He’s alwa
ys on my case about something. It’s pissing me off.”

I decide it’
s best to change the subject. “So, what did Jade say?” I ask.

“Oh, I wasn’t talking to Jade,” she says and looks at me with a devious smile.

“So who were you talking to?”

“Oh, just a friend
you’ll meet later.”

I eye her dubiously but before I can question her further, she rambles on.

“You look hot by the way! Damn, I should be a stylist,” she says, looking me up and down, before I climb into the cab.

I laugh as I slide across the backseat. “
Thanks. You look hot too. I’m still mad they didn’t have those shoes in my size,” I say with a pout.

“Please, like you don’t have enough shoes already.”

“You can never have enough shoes,” I say dramatically.

Michelle and I continue to laugh and talk on the ride over to the bar.
I haven’t known Michelle as long as I’ve known Jade, but I like her. She’s blunt, honest, and a little crass. It’s always fun to joke around with her.

When we arrive at the bar, I toss some money to the cab driver and Michelle says she’ll pay for our first round of drinks.

The bar is a nice little place with dim lights and a DJ playing some music. It’s not too busy right now, so we have no problem finding a couple of seats at the bar. We choose to sit towards the end where we can people watch.

“Hi ladies, what can I get you?” the bartender asks, shamelessly checking us both out without ever making eye contact with us.

“Sweetie, I’m up here, thank you,” Michelle says in a soft voice, like she was talking to a child.

He looks up at us both, his face turning red with embarrassment. He clears his throat before speaking. “Sorry about that. What would you like?”

Michelle and I laugh and give him our orders.

“Long Islan
d Iced Tea please, and can I have some grenadine in it?” I ask.

He nods and starts gathering the liquor and looks to Michelle, waiting for her order.

“Uhh, let me get the same thing, but also get us two strawberry lemon drop shots.”

“Shots already?”
I squeal. “Let’s not get fucked up too fast,” I say, mostly because I know how Michelle can get and I don’t want to babysit her all night.

“Relax, we’ll take the shots and then sip on our Long Island’s until we leave to go to the club.”

The bartender places our drinks in front of us and we stuff a few dollars into his tip jar. He smiles at us before walking to go help some other customers.

Michelle lets out a grunt. “Too bad he’s a baby. He sure is cute.”

I laugh. “Yeah, he has a baby face, but he has to be at least twenty one.”

“He couldn’t handle all this,” Michelle says as she runs her hands over her body.
Michelle is pretty petite, but somehow she has enormous boobs. With those things out, nobody will be able to make eye contact with her.

I let out a loud laugh that causes the bartender to look back in our direction and wink.

I decide to ask Michelle about the guys she spoke with the last time she was out, and see if she remembers them asking about me and what all they said exactly.

“Hey. So remember when we all went out a little while back but I left early and you and Jade stayed at the club?”

Michelle lets out a long groan. “Oh yeah, I got pretty wasted that night.”

“Do you remember talking to a couple of guys that night?”

“I’m sure I talked to more than a couple, Anna. I was drunk and you know I get chatty.”

“I know. But Jade said these guys were kind of creepy and kept asking about me and if I was coming back and some other shit about us all hanging out. Do you remember any of that?”

She takes a sip of her drink and nods. “Yeah, I thought they just wanted us all to have some gross sex orgy or something.”

“Do you remember what they look like?”

She turns and looks at me suspiciously. “What’s up with all the questions?”

“I just, I don’t know. I think some guys were following me the other day and then Jade told me about this so I was just trying to see if they were the same guys.”

Michelle stares at me, almost in horror. “Oh my God, Anna! That’s scary.” She looks around the bar before continuing. “I kind of remember them asking me if you were married, if you were going to be coming back, and asked if you lived in the city.”

“What did you say?” I ask
.

“I said you were married and you weren’t coming back so they were stuck with me and
I…” she looks at me like she’s scared to continue her sentence.

“What Michelle? What did you say?”

“I might have told them where you live.”

“What
!” I screech.

“Not like your address or anything, but I told them you lived in Highland. I’m sorry!”

I take a deep breath and try to calm my racing heart. These guys Michelle talked to may not be the people who were following me.

“I don’t think the
y would be that type though, Anna. They seemed nice to me. I mean, they wanted to get laid, but I don’t think they wanted to kidnap anybody.”

“Maybe you’re right.”

“Okay, let’s go have some fun! Finish your drink and let’s get outta here.”

I nod and finish my drink but can’t shake the feeling of unease that settles over me. Maybe I just need to drink more. Yeah. That’s it.

***

While Michelle and I are in the cab, I remember that I was supposed to text Julian so I pull my phone out of my purse but see that I’ve already missed a couple texts from him. Oops.

Julian:
You make it yet?

Julian:
Annabella? Are you alright?

Me:
Hey, sorry. I’m fine; we’re in the cab now on our way to the club. Love you.

Julian:
Okay, good. Please don’t forget to check in with me. You had me worried. Which club are you going to?

Me:
We’ll be at The Underground, why?

Julian:
Just want to be aware of where you are, just in case. It’s my job, Annabella. Sorry if I seem intrusive. Be safe okay? I love you.

Me:
I love you. Text soon.

I drop the phone back in my purse and realize Michelle is on the phone talking to Jade.

“Yeah, bitch! We’re on our way there right now, so hurry up!” Michelle had ended up taking another shot before we left the bar and was on her way to getting drunk.