Page 37 of Screw Christmas
“It won’t matter by then champ.”
“Your minute is up.” The other guard returned, his tone firm.
“Just think of that as some good advice. With your record and charges still to go to trial. If I were you, I’d just forget about her.” Turning from me, he patted the other officer on the shoulder and strode past him and out of sight.
Son of a bitch…I couldn’t let him win. He didn’t deserve her. Maybe I didn’t deserve her either, but she was the one she wanted. Loved? I wasn’t sure about that part yet, but we were getting there. Happily-ever-after was in our future, I could feel it with every fiber of my being.
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Chapter 18
Dylan
Here I was a couple weeks into living in New York and back to square one, with a duffle bag over my shoulder and on the subway trying to figure out what I should do next. From what I could tell Aaron had done a good job at removing every article of clothing and every possession from Maya’s house. That made sense, considering he needed me wiped clean from Maya’s thoughts. If she thought of me, she might start to remember what we had.
I was of the mind to go straight to Maya’s and confront the situation head-on, a younger me would have done just that. To hell with the consequences. But the older—and hopefully wiser—me knew that wasn’t the move to make. I couldn’t win her back that way especially if seeing me didn’t trigger any memories. And I certainly couldn’t help her remember if I was in jail.
Scrolling through my phone, I settled on Maya’s phone number and hit the call button. I’d tried her while in jail and all I got was her machine. Maybe I could have better luck now that I was free. It may not be smart to go to her place in case Aaron was there, but there was nothing that kept me from calling her and requesting her to meet up. I just wished I knew what kind of bullshit he’d been feeding her. He had several days to work her and if she didn’t remember any of the time with me since Christmas Eve, I may have an uphill climb ahead of me.
The call went straight to voicemail.
He wouldn’t have taken her phone from her, would he? Cutting off all contact with me? He must have or deleted the selfies of the two of us together that I knew she had on her phone. Sadly, the selfies we did have were all on her phone. Dammit. Why didn’t I get copies?
I hoped she was okay. The bastard had refused to tell me anything of any consequence the couple of times I’d spoken to him. Leaving me with another layer of stress.
Ultimately, I chose a hotel close to her building, but outside the distance restriction set out by the restraining order. The closer I was to her, the easier it would be to get things resolved.
After checking in, I made my way to my room and was unpacking my duffle bag when my phone rang. There was a surge of hope that raced through me. It was her. God, I hoped it was.
Grabbing the phone, I didn’t even look at who the caller was, simply pressing the talk button and answering with hope it was her evident in my tone. My mood sank slightly hearing my agent’s voice on the other end. I didn’t have to wonder why she was calling—being in jail over the last few days, I’d surely missed my chance at the callback and lost my big opportunity.
~*~ TT ~*~
Maya
I’d hunted and searched. There wasn’t a single inch of the apartment that I didn’t check, and my phone was still nowhere to be found. This didn’t make sense. How could a phone just disappear? I kept that thing with me at all times and prided myself on my organizational skills, I doubted that part of my personality had changed over the past year.
My mother had gone back to her hotel for the night and Aaron was due back any minute now. As I searched, I tried to come up with an excuse as to why he shouldn’t stay over the night. Last night had been…awkward. I just didn’t feel the closeness that I felt I should, and I spent the night on one side of the bed and him the other. There had been a moment at some point in the night where he’d begun to stroke my arm, no doubt attempting to rouse me for sex. I did remember that was one of his moves—if you could even call it that—in the past. He was certainly attractive, but something felt wrong with the idea of being with him. I needed to dig deeper. I’d tried calling my partner Travis, but he wasn’t answering, and Aaron had informed me he was on vacation with his family so I hadn’t left a message. What I needed to know could wait for a few more days until I got back to work.
Frustrated that I came up empty on the phone front, I flopped back onto the sofa. Seeing an opportunity to get some loving, Buster meowed and jumped up onto the sofa and crawled into my lap, immediately beginning to purr.
“Now you I know I can trust.” A faint smile touched the corners of my lips as I began to stroke his satiny fur. My hand immediately stopped stroking him and I stared off into space, my gaze landing on the cupboards across the room. Why would I say that? Why would Buster be the only one I could trust? My mother was here, and Aaron was due to arrive any moment. I could trust them—right? Was that my subconscious trying to tell me something, or just a random musing?
Keys jingled on the other side of the door and the door opened, revealing Aaron still dressed in his NYPD uniform. “Hey baby, how have you been feeling today? How was your visit with your mother? Is she still here?” He craned his neck to survey the living room as he began to strip out of his jacket and gear.
“No, she left a while ago. She wanted to do a little sight-seeing and I just wasn’t up to it, so I told her to go have some fun since it’s a relatively nice day today. She came all this way and she should get to have some fun and make the most of the visit.”
“True, but she’s here for you.”
“I’m fine. I can handle myself.”
Crossing the room, he leaned into me and gave me a kiss though I pulled away before he could make it more than a simple peck. “You need to stop thinking you’re Wonder Woman and take some help once and a while.”
“I would if I needed it, but I don’t.”
He tsked at me as he made his way into the kitchen. “Oh, and by the way the captain said he doesn’t want you back for at least two weeks. You haven’t taken a vacation in years and have paid vacation days banked. He said to tell you if you try to come into work you’ll be cuffed and escorted back home.”
I didn’t doubt he’d do as he threatened. “I was hoping going back would jog my memory, you know?”
