17. Apocalyptic Heart
17
APOCALYPTIC HEART
CHELSEA
Now I knew what I’d look like if the zombie apocalypse ever occurred. “This is amazing. Great job!” I complimented the hair and makeup artist. I hardly recognized myself, between the makeup and fake blood covering every inch of my skin and hands, and the streaks of black and silver they painted into my hair.
When Sophie and Maisy were also all made up, we took photos together. Complete with clothes we got from a salvation shop that we dirtied up and ripped to shreds, we were ready for our roles tonight.
“I can’t believe how perfect our costumes turned out. Sophie, thanks so much for getting us into this,” I said.
“Of course. I score an entry into the city’s largest ball for a good cause and you think I’m not taking my two besties with me?” She cackled, already trying out a zombie-like laugh that sounded more like a witch .
The annual Zombie Ball was all we heard about for the past week as soon as Sophie came home from classes and told us about it. Through her friends in the drama club, she found out they needed zombie extras to walk around the ball and interact with the guests, pose for photos, and provide flavor for the event. This wasn’t on my bucket list, but I added dressing as a zombie as an addendum at the bottom.
We mingled at the enormous ball held at the Waterfront, where a thousand guests were expected.
“This is wild,” Sophie shouted above the music. “There’s food, alcohol, dancing with a live band, and a silent auction of expensive art. It’s all for a good cause.”
She pointed to a huge sign reading, “Zombie Ball: New York’s Halloween Bash to Fight Lung Cancer.” I skimmed the rest of the sign and when I got to the bottom, I noticed the fine print. A little important detail that might have been nice to know. The Buchanan Energy Group and Buchanan Family sponsored the event.
My hand flew to my mouth. Rex had mentioned nothing about this, and surely it’d be an important event to him since his father passed away from this horrible disease. I looked all around me, but with the masses of people dressed in costumes, there was no way I’d find him if he was here. I resorted to texting him.
Chelsea: Are you at the Zombie Ball? I am.
I thought I’d mentioned to Rex that I’d be working here with the girls, but maybe I hadn’t. It’d been a busy week for both of us and we’d had little time to get together or talk, other than a few texts here and there. After only a handful of dates, I felt like I was ready for more, but sometimes there still seemed to be a distance between us. We might go a few days without chatting, then suddenly he’d want to talk and get together—wait.
Was I just a booty call for him?
I shook off the question. No, it couldn’t be. Not with the way Rex looked into my eyes, held me in bed, and talked about things each time after we had sex. And the way he took care of me after I got drunk that one night, taking me to his apartment and admitting how special I must be since he allowed me there.
Okay, so things were casual between us, but my heart started believing there could be something more growing and only one direction we were headed.
We looked over the art pieces up for auction. A painting of the Eiffel Tower in Paris in particular caught my eyes. While Sophie and Maisy chatted about their party strategy for mingling as zombies, I waited for a return text from Rex that never came.
Suddenly, a woman carrying a walkie talkie in one hand and a tablet in the other rushed up to us. “Ladies, we need zombies over where the photographer’s setup to pose with the guests. Right over there, go on. Hurry.” She pointed with the antenna of the radio.
We all shrugged and rushed to the platform where the photo opportunities took place. For over an hour, under the hot lights, we must have greeted hundreds of guests and posed until our facial muscles spasmed from all the smiles.
We took turns taking breaks, so Sophie and Maisy left briefly for the bathroom and to scrounge up food and drinks for us. I waited for the next couple in line for photos to step forward when a deep voice I knew well hit my eardrums.
Rex appeared with a woman on his arm for the photo. My jaw hit the floor when I recognized the woman from the party out at the Hamptons. I’d never be able to pull off her all-black leather skin tight ensemble on her perfectly tall model-like figure. With a tail and black ears poking out of her big blonde hair, she dressed up as a cat woman.
He wasn’t really in costume, but wore a sharp black suit with a black t-shirt underneath. Handsome as ever, with his hair slicked back, his blue eyes crinkled in the corners when he laughed at something the woman said.
What was this? Had he been stepping out on me the entire time? I had no one to blame, though. It wasn’t like we’d ever talked about dating exclusively. But the apocalypse going on in my heart was fierce.
The photographer snapped his fingers at me, taking me out of the trance of devastation. “Hello-o. Zombie number three—” that was me. “Could you step into the photo frame, please?”
The photographer’s assistant posed us all with the blonde woman standing in front of Rex, her back to his chest, his hand at her elbow and his other at her hip. And me? I was posed at her side with my arms in the air, my hands like claws, looking like I’d attack and eat her any minute. Little did they know, my claws really were out, ready to gouge her eyes and to pounce on Rex, the dark-suited bastard .
I should run far away from him, protect my heart, and forget this madness. I never wanted a relationship anyway, only to enjoy the city and work on the opportunity with the deli. But for some reason, Rex crashed into my life unexpectedly.
I froze to the spot, my eyes never straying from him. The photographer snapped a few photos, the flash bulbs burning the memory of his hand gripping her hip into my skull. “Okay, now, Mr. Buchanan, get a little closer to your date,” he said. “How about you two face each other? Squeeze in, that’s it. Now put your arms around her. Good, and look into each other’s eyes.”
As they settled into the new pose, a lump formed in my throat at the sight of them together and his eyes on her. A sound came out of me I didn’t recognize, a shriek or cry or something guttural and painful emanating from my heart.
Rex’s eyes shifted to mine and locked there. His forehead furrowed. “Chelsea?”
I backed up, shaking my head, unbelieving this horrible moment, but tripped over one of the photographers’ lights. It crashed to the ground, and I jumped out of the way, narrowly missing the sparks from the broken bulb that set the nearby curtain of the stage on fire.
Flames sprouted quickly and women screamed, people ran, and someone yelled “Fire!” Amid the chaos, I couldn’t move, until Rex abandoned his date and grabbed me by the elbow, leading me away from it all.
I was too blinded with rage, embarrassment, and heartache to resist. Alarms blared, and he led me through the service doors, through the kitchen, and out to an alley behind the building. Sirens of fire engines approached, and it wasn’t until he grabbed both my arms, with my back against the brick exterior wall of the building, that I came to my senses.
“Chelsea? Are you okay?” He sort of shook me, leaning down to my eye level, his stare intense, like he was trying to assess the damage he’d done to me. But how could he read into me with the anger flashing through my eyes?
“Let me go. I’m fine.” I yelled and yanked out of his grasp. “Why don’t you go check on your other girlfriend? Or the dozen other women you string along inside, for all I know, you…you playboy.”
I never mastered the art of arguing with someone, preferring to kill them with kindness instead, but this…with him? Kindness wouldn’t do.
“You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. Marlena is a family friend. My mother puts on this event. Marlena’s mother helps her with it, and they asked that I bring her here.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were going to be here with her?”
“Frankly, it’d been a busy week, and I wasn’t even planning to attend, but pressure from my mom… Shit. You don’t know my mother, but she’s a pain in my ass sometimes.”
“But the way the photographer was posing you, so—so intimately.”
“You’re right. I should have kept her at arm’s length, but I just wanted to get the photo op done, make a quick appearance for Mom’s sake, and get the hell out of here. I planned to call you after to see if we could get together tonight.”
He paced away, scrubbing a hand through his hair. “Jeez. And now, the entire event is up in flames.”
My heart sank and tears welled up. I dabbed at them to keep from ruining my makeup. “Because of me.”
He glared at me as his phone rang in his pocket, and he took it out. “Shit. It’s Mom. Hello?” He stepped to the side to talk. I brought out my phone and texted Maisy.
Chelsea: Are you two okay?
Maisy: Yes, we’re outside in front of the building. Where are you?
I had no idea where I was. Stuck somewhere between wanting to fix this with Rex, and wanting to run away, all the way back to Holly Creek.
Chelsea: I’m with Rex. I’ll be home later.
He finished his call, tucked his phone into his pocket. With his back to me, he sighed heavily with his hands on his hips. “Mom needs me inside to help assess the damage. The sprinkler system finally turned on and demolished all the decorations, the band instruments, thousands of dollars in damages to the hotel. Several people helped carryout the artwork before it got ruined, but the fundraiser is over.”
“It’s all my fault. I ruined this for you and your family, and it was supposed to be in your father’s honor. I swear I’ll pay back every penny?—”
“Hey, hey. Stop.” He rushed back to me and placed his hands on my shoulders. “It’s only money and we always pay for event insurance. Besides, no one will know it was you.”
I sputtered, crying, dabbing at my tears again. “You knew who I was, even under all this makeup.”
“It was your beguiling green eyes. I’m pretty sure I would find you anywhere in a crowded room, no matter what you were wearing.”
My heart surged back to life. “You were easy to pick out, with no costume.”
“I had a costume.” He pulled out a black mask from his jacket pocket and held it up to his eyes.
A chuckle rumbled in my chest, even though I didn’t much feel like smiling yet. “A bat man? Actually, it suits you, being a billionaire and all. And I guess you were a hero saving me from the fire…and protecting me from being named the one responsible for all of this mess.”
“I’m partly responsible, too, because I suck at relationships and being a boyfriend. If I were better at it, I’d have brought you with me tonight, and said screw off to Mom about Marlena.”
“Wait. Could you rewind a little? Boyfriend? Relationship?” My eyebrows arched at him.
“Uh, yeah. I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that. Look, it’s going to be a long night with Mom dealing with this. So, tell you what. Come over to my place tomorrow night, and I’ll cook us dinner.”
“You cook?”
“I can heat things up in the kitchen.” The corner of his mouth lifted.
“Hm. This I have to see. I’ll bring dessert. Or…I can cook us breakfast the next morning.” My coy smile was back, ready to be with Rex again, ready to forget this entire ordeal and put this night behind us.
“How about both?”
“Hm. Tough negotiator,” I quipped. A strange look crossed his face I hadn’t noticed before.
“Yeah, um, so I’ll send my driver to pick you up about seven. Okay?”
I nodded, and he brought me into his chest for a hug. “I really am sorry, Rex.”
“Me, too.” His hand threaded through my hair, pulling gently back so my head lifted to him. And finally, our lips reunited in soft, sweet kisses. I wanted more, but knew for tonight, this had to be enough.
When he pulled away, I reached up and removed my makeup smudges from his lips and chin. “For the record, I’ve never been a fan of Halloween, and tonight just solidified that once and for all,” I chuckled. “Christmas is my favorite holiday, and it’ll be here before we know it. What?”
His face scrunched up at what I said. “It’s just…Christmas hasn’t been my favorite time of year for a while.” His phone broke into the conversation before he could expand upon that.
He peeked at the caller id and sighed. “It’s Mom again. I have to go. Will you be okay to get home?”
“Yes, I’ll catch up with Maisy and Sophie.”
“Okay. See you tomorrow night, at seven.” He pecked the top of my head and rushed off, leaving me to worry about the bomb he just dropped.
What was happening right now? My…boyfriend…hated Christmas? Coming from Holly Creek, where everything revolved around the beloved holiday, that just wouldn’t do. Sounded like I needed to write a new bucket list for Rex with all the things to make him love Christmas again.