The Gamble by Kristen Ashley
“You okay?”
“Great, just going to take a shower.”
There was a hesitation then, “All right.”
I waited for Mindy to come back, say something more, knock again, for Charlie to invade my mind.
When nothing happened, I took a shower.
* * * * *
Feeling the need to be prepared for what came next, I not only took a shower, I did my hair and makeup too. Then I dressed in jeans and a thin, violet, boat neck sweater that had a wide dip at the top of the back and a tie across my shoulders holding the sides together.
Dressed and ready to face my next ordeal, I wound my way down Max’s stairs and saw Mindy sitting at his computer. All buoyant, skip-dancing Mindy gone, what happened the night before had worn her innate cheerfulness clean away.
Last night she’d cried all the way to Max’s house then she’d pulled herself together when we walked in then she starting crying again when Max got me some ice for my eye.
“Go upstairs, honey,” Max had whispered while he held the ice to my eye. “Get ready for bed, lie down, keep the ice on as much as you can. I’ve got Mindy and I’ll be up soon.”
Considering the situation, I hadn’t argued about him “having Mindy” or, more importantly, meeting me in bed. Firstly, since Mindy was sleeping on the couch, there was nowhere else for either Max or I to bed down. Secondly, I knew Mindy needed Max just then and me arguing about sleeping arrangements would delay her getting him. Therefore, I did as I was told, lying in bed and listening to their murmuring until I fell asleep.
Now I knew, even with all that crying last night, watching her despondently clicking on Max’s computer, she was having a very prolonged “bad moment” and I had to do what I could to make it go away.
She tipped her head back to give me a small smile but that too looked dead. Then she turned back to the computer screen.
I walked up to her, hesitated because it seemed we’d known each other an age with all that had gone on but we didn’t know each other all that well then I went for it and gently pulled her hair over her shoulder.
“I have to check my e-mail, darling, then make a couple of calls. If you want to get a shower, after I’m done, I’ll give you a facial,” I offered, drawing her long, curly, soft hair through my palm again and down her back.
She twisted her neck to look at me. “A facial?”
“Yes, I do an at home facial every weekend. Brought all my stuff with me. It’s fantastic. Your skin will never feel so good.” I put my hand to her cheek and said, “Promise.”
“Are you okay?” she whispered, her voice trembling with emotion or fear or both.
“I’m fine,” I lied because I… was… not.
“Max sounded –”
“He’s fine.”
She shook her head and my hand dropped away.
“He sounded pissed,” she told me and she was right, except it was a significant understatement. “Never heard him like that, seen his face like that. Even when he was fighting Damon last night he was in control.”
I pressed my lips together, uncertain how to proceed. Then I decided on honesty.
“You know what happened to you a few weeks ago?”
Her eyes got wide then her mouth got tight then she swallowed before she nodded.
“One day, sweetheart, you’re going to have to tell a good man what happened to you and, on your behalf, he’s going to get like Max did earlier.”
I watched her shiver, actually watched her shiver, before she whispered, “You’ve been raped too?”
I shook my head quickly and said, “Beaten.”
“Oh Nina.” She was still whispering but now tears were in her eyes and I bent at the waist, got close and put my hand back to her face.
“We girls, we’re tough, darling. Soft on the outside but, deep down, we’re tough. Doesn’t feel like it now but none of this is going to beat you.”
She was trembling, also visibly, but she said, “Okay.”
“I promise.”
“Okay.”
“Go get a shower, sweetheart, use my stuff.” When she hesitated, I continued, “Showers work miracles.” I ran my knuckles along her cheek and smiled before I finished, “And facials are even better.”
She nodded and repeated, “Okay.”
I pulled away and she got up and walked to the stairs as I sat down at the computer.
“Neens?” she called, giving me a new nickname that I instantly liked.
I looked to see she was halfway up the stairs, standing in a curve and looking down at me.
“Yes, my lovely?” I answered.
“You told Max about… what happened to you?”
“Sorry, it was bad timing. It just happened.”
“I’m glad,” she said. “I’m glad you trusted him with that and I’m glad that’s why he was the way he was because he scared me but it doesn’t scare me now that he was that way for you.”
It was me who was now shivering.
I ignored this and said, “You need anything to wear, just dig in my suitcase.”
“We left all your shopping bags in my car,” she reminded me then muttered, “bummer,” then walked up the stairs.
I turned to the computer and as the shower went on I held my breath and checked my e-mail.
Nothing from Niles.
Drat.
I looked up the stairs, I could hear the noise of the shower but it was significantly muted and I suspected I heard it because I was listening. Max built a quality house.
I leaned forward and pulled my phone out of my back pocket. Then I called Niles. Then I held my breath while it rang.
Then I got voicemail.
“Niles?” I said into the phone after I heard the beep. “This is Nina. I called because I thought we could talk. We need to… finalize things.” God, I was such an idiot. “I’ll call back later.”
Then I touched the screen to end the call. Then I called my mother.
“Oh my God!” she said instead of hello. “I thought you’d never phone.”
“Hi Mom.”
“Get let out of Max Prison?” she asked, her tone amused as I shut down my e-mail and headed across the house to the coffee.
“I wasn’t in Max Prison.”
“He sounds interesting.” Her tone now sounded nosy.
I changed the subject and informed her, “I just called Niles.”
She was quiet a moment then asked, “And?”
“Voicemail, I left a message.”
“Did you check your e-mail?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“Nothing.”
“That boy,” she muttered.
“It’s okay, we’ll have dinner or something when I get home, talk it through, finish it up like two adults.”
“Yes, it would be novel for you two to actually speak to each other in the same room while you break off an engagement. Not talk via e-mail and voicemail.”
“Mom.”
“Neenee, I’m just glad you’ve made your decision and you’re moving on. And… speaking of moving on –”
While we were talking, I’d hit the coffeepot and poured myself a cup. I put the milk back and closed the fridge cutting her off, “Mom –”
“Honey, spill.”
I grabbed my mug, leaned a hip against the counter, took a sip and stated, “I don’t want to talk about Max.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want to think about Max.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t know what to think about him.”
“Okay, you tell me all about Max and I’ll tell you what to think about him.”
“Mom.”
“Nina.”
“Mom,” I said more firmly.
“Nina.” She beat my firm by a mile. “Listen to me, let me explain something to you. You’re my daughter, I love you. I learned a long time ago that I had to let you make your own decisions, your own mistakes and then sit back and
I looked out Max’s windows at the vista and I took another sip of coffee.
My mother didn’t open herself up to looking for another man after my father. When she’d found out about three weeks after she had me that he’d cheated on her and then he left her for the other woman then left the other woman and left the country, my mother had been devastated.
And bitter.
He’d been the love of her life, she’d adored him and his betrayal had destroyed her.
It wasn’t until six years ago that she met Steve. Steve, who for the first year she saw all the time but insisted he was her “friend”. Then she gave in and for the next two years she called him her “companion”. Now she called him her husband and she’d never been happier, not ever that I could remember.
“You don’t even know him,” I said softly into the phone, staring at the mountains.
“I know he has an amazing voice.”
Max had an amazing everything pretty much or at least as far as I could tell.
“Yes, well, he does have that.”
“And I know he’s got good enough manners to answer the dratted phone when your mother calls.”
“Mom –”
Her voice got gentle when she finished, “And I know he talks real quiet when he thinks you’re sleeping.”
My stomach melted and my eyes drifted closed.
“Mom,” I whispered.
“Honey, life has enough obstacles planned for you, stop putting up your own and just live it.”
I opened my eyes and blurted for no reason whatsoever, “He built his own house.”
“What?”
“With his own hands.”
“Really?”
“On land his father gave him, land his father always wanted to build on but he died before he could do it so Max did.”
“Wow,” she whispered.
“I know,” I whispered back.
“Are you there now?”
“Yes.”
“Is it nice?”
“Oh yes.”
“Where’s he?”
“Taking care of some business in town.”
“So the place you rented is just sitting there?”
“No, I rented his place. There was a mess up with the reservation, I arrived and he was home but I had a really bad flu and Max took care of me while I was sick and… well… then I just –”
She interrupted me and asked, “You found this on the internet?”
“Yes.”
“Give me the website,” she demanded.
“Sorry?”
“The website, Neenee Bean, I want to see photos.”
I tried to decide if I wanted my mother to see photos of Max’s A-Frame.
Then I decided I wanted my mother to see photos of Max’s A-Frame.
I gave her the website but warned, “The photos aren’t that good. The place is better.”
“Oh hogwash, the photos are always better.”
“Trust me, Mom,” I looked from the view through the house, “they don’t do it justice.” Then I cried, “Oh! And Jimmy Cotton lives in town and Max and I were out on his land, Cotton ran into us and took our picture.”
“You’re kidding!” she screeched, excited since she took me to my first Cotton exhibition at The Met and she loved his work nearly as much as me.
“I’m not!”
“You have to send me the picture. Send it to Steve’s e-mail.”
Mom didn’t do the internet or e-mail or at least she told everyone in a superior way that she didn’t do the internet or e-mail. That said, she was on Steve’s e-mail all the time if the many jokes and lessons on “sisterhood” and heartwarming stories she forwarded were any indication.
I tried to decide if I wanted my mother to see Cotton’s photo of Max and me.
Then I decided I wanted my mother to see Cotton’s photo of Max and me.
“I’ll e-mail it in awhile.”
“Wonderful.”
I heard the door upstairs open and I said, “Mindy’s out of the shower, I have to go.”
“Mindy?”
“Max’s best friend’s little sister. She’s having some… um… difficulties and Max is helping her out. I promised her a facial, I’ve got to go.”
“Okay, honey.”
“Love you, Mom.”
I heard the taps of fingers on a keyboard in the background over the phone and she said distractedly, “Love you too… erm, what’s the town you’re in called?”
“Gnaw Bone.”
A pause then, “Gnaw Bone?”
I laughed. “Why do you think I chose it? I had to stay in a place called Gnaw Bone.”
“I love it!” she cried.
She’d love it more if she saw the shops.
“Neens?” Mindy called. “Do you want to do the facial upstairs or down there?”
“Upstairs!” I called back then said to Mom, “Now I really have to go.”
“Love you, sweetie.”
“Love you, bye.”
I touched the screen to end the call and yelled to Mindy, “We’ll need a towel and washcloth!”
“Got it!” she yelled back.
“Do you want another cup of coffee?”
“Yeah, if you don’t mind!”
“Okay!”
Then I put my phone on the counter, poured Mindy a cup of coffee and prayed that facials could induce skip-dancing in recently raped, brokenhearted, twenty-four year old girls and, I figured, I had my work cut out for me.
* * * * *
“What’s your Mom like?” Mindy asked, it was post-facial and she was sitting in the rocking chair that she pulled up next to the roll top while I fiddled with the card reader I’d brought. I was sending my mother the Cotton picture of Max and me as well as the photo of Max I surreptitiously took.
“She’s a nut,” I answered.
“Like you?”
Surprised, I turned my head to look at her and stated, “I’m not a nut.”
“You spent, like, a gazillion dollars on clothes and all sorts of shit yesterday and then ate more pizza than any girl I’ve ever met and then you laughed until you nearly fell off your bar stool about, I don’t know, a gazillion times and then you got right in Damon’s face and no one, except someone as big as Max, gets right in Damon’s face, not even Arlene and Arlene’s ornery,” she replied then, having stated her case, she summed up, “You’re a nut.”
“Well, I’m on vacation,” I replied haughtily, haughty and vacation being my only two defenses and seeing the attachment had loaded on Mom’s e-mail I hit send.
“You’re not on vacation, you’re a nut,” Mindy said and I could swear I heard a smile in her voice so I looked at her and saw there was a smile on her face.
Maybe it was the facial that did it but I was thinking it was more me being a nut. I didn’t care. Either way, I was relieved.
“Then I guess I’m a nut,” I said, scanning my inbox to see if Niles had written, he hadn’t, so I shut it down.
“Goodie!” Mindy cried while I was clicking the computer to turn it off, she jumped out of her chair and ran to the window. “Max’s home for lunch. Brill!”
My heart skipped and my belly fluttered at the thought of Max being home for lunch.
“Shit!” Mindy hissed suddenly and ran back toward me.
Then I watched in shock as she threw herself bodily on the floor on my side of the couch, she curled up so she was as small as her tall body could be and she reached out a hand to me as if she was in a foxhole, I was standing outside it and bullets were flying.
“Hurry, get down here, maybe she won’t see us!” she was still hissing.
My eyes went to the windows as I saw a fancy, shining, bl
“Who?”
“Kami!” Mindy whispered loudly. “Hurry!”
My eyes went to Mindy. “Kami? Max’s sister?”
“Yes. She’s scary. Hurry, before she sees you.”
With sudden intense curiosity, I looked back to the window to see a woman getting out of the SUV. She closed the door, turned and then looked up at the house.
“But –”
“Neens, get down here!”
Too late.
Kami looked into the house, did a quick sweep and stopped, her face pointed in my direction and I was pretty certain she saw me.
“She saw me.”
“Damn!”
I stood. “Get up, lovely, she’s Max’s sister. How scary could she be?”
My point was not that Max wasn’t scary. He was, very scary but he was scary in a lot of different ways for a lot different reasons, scary in a way women couldn’t be. Though I didn’t share this with Mindy.
I was watching Max’s sister walk up the steps as her eyes stayed locked on me. She had Max’s hair, longer, the waves no less attractive. But she didn’t have his height and she was carrying at least fifty (maybe more) extra pounds than her frame found comfortable. She also looked like she was in a bad mood.
“She looks like she’s in a bad mood,” I muttered, trying not to let my lips move.
“Great,” Mindy muttered back.
I walked to the door as Kami walked through.
“Hi,” I said.
“Hey Kami,” Mindy said from behind me and Kami started when Mindy spoke then her eyes narrowed on a spot behind me and I figured that Mindy just righted herself.
“Mindy,” Kami said severely then her eyes, not clear gray but dark brown and not rimmed with fantastic lashes but makeup-less and nowhere near as spectacular as her brother’s, came to me. “You must be Nina.”
I smiled and stopped in front of her. “Word travels fast, I’m learning.”
“You are English, like they say,” Kami noted and she noted this like she would note, “You are a demon-from-hell, like they say.”
I felt my neck start to get tight. “Well, sort of –”
She cut me off, looking around. “Is Max here?”
“No, he’s in town,” Mindy offered, coming to stand by me.
I tried to get things on the right track and lifted my hand. “You’re Kami, Max’s sister.”
She stared at my hand then at me then she sighed in a harassed way, took my hand, hers remained limp as a dead fish and she replied, “Yeah,” she dropped my hand and looked at Mindy. “When’s Max gonna be back?”