CHAPTER 47 Unexpected Guest
May 14, 2012
The doorbell rang, and I rushed to get the door. I was expecting CJ and David for lunch. Becca agreed to give me the rest of the day off so I could attend mass for the anniversary of my mother’s death, as I usually did every year.
“Hi!” I said in a high-pitched voice when I opened the door.
“Hey, gorgeous.” CJ went in for a hug as David and Aaron carried on an energetic conversation behind him. I’d invited Aaron over for lunch, too, so he could catch up with David since they rarely saw each other. “Oh! My! God!” CJ marveled at the thousands of white flowers that decorated my foyer and trailed deeper into my apartment.
“You sounded just like Janice.” I giggled. Nina had gotten me hooked on Friends and even left me her DVD set as a thank-you gift when she moved out of the apartment to move in with Liam.
He laughed and slapped my arm with the back of his hand. After easing out of the laugh, he said, “William, right?
I nodded. “He sends them every year on this date.”
“Ugh. We must protect him at all costs.” CJ removed his light jacket and folded it over one of the foyer chairs. “David?”
“Sorry.” David abruptly stopped his conversation with Aaron and greeted me with a tight hug. “Thank you for inviting us over, Miss Murphy.”
“You’re always welcome.” David called me Billie now, but he tossed in a “Miss Murphy” here and there as a pet name, for old time’s sake, he once said. I liked it.
“Hey,” I said to Aaron as he stepped in holding two manila envelopes.
“Miss Murphy.” He dipped his chin once and placed the legal-sized envelopes on the foyer table. I eyed them with curiosity. “We’ll discuss these after lunch.” He tapped the envelopes once, and I did my best to forget about them, or my curiosity would make me peek at the contents while Aaron wasn’t looking.
“Look around and maybe learn a thing or two?” CJ told David, waving his hands around the flower-filled foyer.
The three of them followed me to the dining room, where I had the table set and an Italian takeout spread waiting for us on my prettiest serving dishes. Spaghetti and meatballs, linguine alla carbonara, funghi risotto, burrata salad, and focaccia.
“Suddenly, you’re a fan of flowers?” David retorted to CJ’s remark, casually taking off his white doctor’s coat and draping it over the backrest of his chair.
“It’s not about the flowers,” CJ complained as I walked to the kitchen to grab us a bottle of red wine. “It’s about the thoughtfulness behind the gesture.”
I overheard their playful bickering while I uncorked the wine. When I returned, Aaron was observing them with amused curiosity. “Wine?” I offered. CJ and Aaron accepted, but David declined.
After we were done eating, I brought dessert to the table, consisting of two big, rectangular slices of tiramisu. We devoured them in two seconds.
“Isn’t it William’s birthday today, too?” CJ asked, licking his lips and resting his hands on his full belly.
“It is.” I smiled, though I doubted it came across as entirely genuine. “He’s wrapping up in Prague this week and will be back next Sunday. So, we’ll celebrate once he returns.” I couldn’t shake the disappointment of spending our birthdays apart this year, but with his break in June and July, we planned to make the most of it before he embarked on the Haldor Stormbreaker press tour in August.
The sequel would begin filming in January, right after the holidays, since the movie needed to be shot in various snowy locations in the Scandinavian region. And then he would be gone for five more months and I wouldn’t see him for sure until the Cannes Film Festival for the screening and presentation of Savages.
I sighed.
“Speaking of William,” Aaron said, standing up and walking toward the foyer to retrieve the manila envelopes. He returned and placed them in front of me. CJ leaned in with curiosity.
“We need to get going,” David interrupted. “It’s almost 3:00 p.m., and I need to be back at the office on time since I’m taking over the consultation for the rest of the day.”
“But I want to see what’s inside the envelopes,” CJ whined, and I chuckled.
“It’s not anything you’ll be able to see, anyway,” Aaron replied. “Not even her. She just needs to sign the papers.”
“What?” I shrieked, unwilling to touch the envelopes until Aaron gave me more details. “William sent these?”
“He said signing them would be your birthday gift to him.” Aaron shrugged. But I already had his gift ready, and I had told him so when I talked to him earlier to wish him a happy birthday.
“Christopher,” David urged. “Let’s give them some privacy. Let’s go.” He threw on this white coat and leaned down to hug me.
“It’s fine,” I insisted, hugging CJ next as they both thanked me for lunch. “Really.”
“It’ll only take two seconds,” Aaron said.
“But what if I don’t sign them?” I hated contracts, especially if I had to sign them blindly. The last time I did that, it got Caleb killed. Authorizing the order of protection against Thomas provoked him into spiraling even more out of control until it inevitably led to that horrible day where I almost lost William, too.
“If it makes you feel any better,” Aaron said. “I read the paperwork since I needed to make sure it wasn’t anything sketchy. And it all looks good. Great, actually. I’d sign them.” He pulled out a pen from his inner jacket pocket. “And no, your dad doesn’t know anything about this.”
“And I can’t look at any of it?” I asked again, as if my insistence would magically alter the conditions set by William and Aaron would let me take a look at the contents. But this was more than a leap of faith; this was a plunge of faith. And contracts were my kryptonite. It reminded me of all the ones my dad had imposed on me.
“Sign the goddamn papers!” CJ exclaimed. “It’s William. Of course, it’s something amazing. Look around.” He waved at the flowers surrounding us.
Deep down, I knew not signing them wasn’t an option. I trusted William with every fiber of my being. However, dealing with my relentless curiosity was a challenging task. It was more about how it reminded me of previous experiences and wanting to know for the sake of knowing rather than reflecting a lack of trust.
“Give me.” I pressed my elbow on the table and cupped my forehead while I extended my hand to accept the pen. Aaron handed it to me and pulled out the first document, enough to give me space to sign without revealing anything else. After signing both sets, I slumped back in my chair.
CJ squealed, and David hauled him toward the front door, yelling, “Thanks again, Billie!”, followed by CJ’s, “Let me know what you signed up for once you find out!”
“Will do! Let’s do this more often!”
They shouted something indistinct back and shut the door.
Aaron grabbed the envelopes and stood. “This is for you.” And in true Marry Poppins fashion, he pulled out a smaller envelope from his inner jacket pocket and handed it to me. It had Guillermina written in William’s handwriting. “I’ll mail these back to William’s lawyers.”
I let out a nervous chuckle and crossed my arms at my chest as I followed Aaron out. When I slid the door open, Aaron’s phone vibrated. He stared at the screen, then at me, then at the screen again.
“Mr. Murphy,” he said after taking the call. My eyes widened. I hadn’t heard my dad’s voice in almost 18 months, so it felt weird to know he was on the other side of the line. “Yes, she’s home … Certainly, sir.” Aaron slid his phone back into his pocket. “His car is parked outside. He’s coming up to see you.”
I forced my lungs to expand past my rising panic. What does he want? And today of all days. Maybe he had bad news to share with me, because I couldn’t understand what else would make him show up unannounced like this when we hadn’t been in contact for ages. I wasn’t mentally prepared to see and talk to him, and the three minutes it would take him to come up weren’t enough.
“It’s best if I get going.” Aaron glanced behind his shoulder for a quick second. “But text me when you’re ready to leave. And thank you for lunch.”
“Of course,” I said. “And I will. Thank you.”
Aaron left through the stairs, and I closed the door and locked all three bolts, as if that would delay my dad’s imminent approach. I leaned against it, my weight pressing into the solid surface, keeping me balanced. William’s small envelope was still in my hand, so I pulled out the note to read it before my dad arrived.
Guille,
Thank you for signing your soul away to me for the entire duration of this life and all the ones that come after it. It’s the only option I had to ensure I’d find you in every single one of them.
W.S.
Letting my head rest back against the door, I looked up at the ceiling and grinned. What did I just sign? This was one of William’s teasing ways of telling me he wouldn’t tell me what I’d gotten myself into. But I would do my best to coax it out of him when he returned.
My dad’s knock on my door startled me. For a second, I had forgotten he was coming up to see me. It was as if William’s letter had sucked me in and warped time, and I’d been spat out back into reality.
I counted to five before turning around and opening the door. I didn’t even have to pretend to look surprised. My reaction to seeing him after all this time was genuine, and I didn’t know what to do or say other than a plain, “Hey, Dad.”
“Hey, kiddo.”