34. Melissa
34
MELISSA
B ridget and Kyle lived in an upscale neighborhood halfway between Morehead City and his car dealership in Havelock. The development had one of those pretentious names. I wondered how Bridget felt about living in Royal Wexford Pointe.
The neighborhood sign at the entrance to the subdivision had palm trees and palmettos planted around it like it was Caesar’s Palace. The upkeep of those drama trees probably took up half of their monthly homeowner’s association fees.
Bridget and Kyle’s house wasn’t far from my apartment, which was good considering the moment Jason and I left the dinner party from hell, I was going to need hard liquor STAT.
I held my purse in my lap like it was a life preserver. I couldn’t let it out of my sight. Not even for the ride over. Neither Kyle nor Jase could catch wind of the contraband I was sneaking in.
One more week and Bridget’s living hell would be over.
Jason took slow turns through the just-below-gated community, dodging a group of windbreaker-clad power walkers .
A tipsy driver who had pineapple and gnome string lights decking out the roof of her golf cart swerved into our lane. She was cheered on by the raucous sixty-somethings packed in the back.
“You think Kingsley knows his neighbors are swingers?” Jason asked as he turned the radio down, checking house numbers as he crept down the street.
“He’s probably too busy to care,” I muttered. Spying Bridget’s car in a driveway, I pointed. “There. It’s that one.”
From the outside, the tidy two-story brick house was picture perfect. The picket fence was pristine. The two-car garage, neatly kept flower beds, and crisp American flag flying by the front door painted a perfect picture. But it was all lies. A pretty fa?ade that hid a vile reality.
A gilded cage.
Jason pulled in behind Kyle’s obnoxious-looking Range Rover. We had decided to take my car tonight. It wasn’t fancy, but it was definitely an upgrade from Jason’s truck, meaning it had air conditioning.
Jase and I were in a good place, but we weren’t in a “look at my thigh sweat print on vinyl seats” place. At least not when I was dressed up.
We were still in the place where he closed the door when he used the bathroom and waited until I was out of the room to rip a fart.
“Let’s get this over with,” I grumbled as Jason opened my door.
He picked up the bottle of wine out of my we had brought, and stole a peck on the lips. “Cheer up, buttercup. At least we don’t have to cook dinner tonight.”
That made me giggle. Not like I would have been the one making dinner anyway.
There had been one little mishap where I slightly seared an oven mitt when I left it on the stovetop. He had overreacted and avalanched the entire countertop with a fire extinguisher. It was barely on fire.
After we cleaned up and placed a sizable order from one of those food delivery apps, Jase banned me from the kitchen for life. The only things I was allowed to make were salads, sandwiches, and cereal.
Apparently, me and a stovetop were too risky. We compromised on the microwave.
But if he wanted to be the one to cook for us until the end of time, he was more than welcome to do so.
Jason took my hand in his as we walked up the drive. “This is going to be awkward as hell,” I whispered when he pushed the doorbell.
“Hey, you made it.” Bridget smiled and let us in as soon as the doorbell rang.
Jase let go of my hand long enough to give his sister a hug.
Bridget was wearing a cute black-and-white striped dress and Keds. Kristin would totally approve. I’d seen Bee in the dress before, which is why the fact that she was wearing a button up over it like a cardigan pissed me the fuck off.
The dress was short-sleeved. If she was wearing long sleeves in ninety-seven degree heat, it was because there were handprint bruises on her arms where Kyle had gotten rough with her.
Kyle appeared in the doorway behind her. He couldn’t see it, but the lock Bridget had on my eyes was unshakeable.
Don’t say a damn thing, she communicated with a thin, forced smile. Stick to the plan.
“Hey, man,” Jase grinned. “Thanks for having us over.
“My pleasure,” Kyle said, waving us in. “You guys come in and make yourselves at home, so we don’t let all the AC out.”
Jason handed Bee the bottle of wine I picked out and kissed her cheek. “I feel like I’ve barely seen you since I moved back. ”
“Well, you’ve been busy.” Bee smirked. “You know, looking for a house so you don’t have to crash on Mel’s couch, ” she teased in a fake baritone.
I pushed the notion that I was standing in the devil’s lair out of my mind and laughed. “Yeah, so much for the whole three-day-roommate thing.”
“You guys gonna make it permanent?” Kyle asked as he uncorked the wine. “Maybe it should have been you two who caught the bouquet and garter at that wedding instead of Brannan and my fiancé.” Venom dripped from his words. He was coiled like a rattlesnake, already agitated and ready to strike.
“Yeah,” Jason clipped, none the wiser.
Bridget let out an almost imperceptible sigh of relief. Probably thankful that Jason didn’t come to Chase’s defense.
It was shitty to talk about people who weren't there to defend themselves, but I had to pick my battles. Chase would be fine.
“Y’all are too cute,” Bridget said as she lifted the lid to her slow cooker and poked at the pot roast. “It was fun back in the day, but I like seeing everyone settle down.” She turned, tucking a loose tendril of blonde hair behind her ear. “I can’t believe Maddie and Luca are expecting. It seems like just yesterday they were bickering like cats and dogs.”
“Do you two want kids?” Kyle interjected.
“Yeah, we’ve talked about it. I’d love a big family. Growing up with Bee didn’t completely suck, and I think a bunch of kids running around would be pretty cool.” Jase looked down at me, adding, “Especially now that I’ve got my forever girl.”
I looked up at him and beamed because dammit—I couldn’t help myself. I pressed my cheek into his side as he slipped his arm around my waist.
Jason cracked jokes all the time about messing with my birth control pills or fucking me so hard he’d for sure put a baby in me. But it wasn’t horrifying like the sperm donor date from hell had been.
If I was honest, it was kind of a turn-on to hear him talk about getting me pregnant. It was so dirty. Primal, almost. Just the thought had me squeezing my thighs together.
I loved the way he was so upstanding when we were in public: an officer and a gentleman to a T. But when we were alone— oh my damn . That man could ravage me.
I wanted to grow old with him and still be so disgustingly in love that we grossed our kids out by mauling each other’s faces when we kissed. I wanted Jase to grab my ass when I was eighty and tell me I looked good enough to eat.
Kyle poured four glasses of red wine and dropped the empty bottle into the recycling bin. “I tried to get Bridget to get her IUD taken out so we could start trying since the wedding is right around the corner.” He huffed. “But apparently, her doctor can’t get her in for an appointment.” He scoffed as he turned back from the trash can and shook his head. “Ridiculous.”
Crass was more like it.
Bridget blushed and looked away. I wasn’t shy when it came to things like bodily functions and medical procedures, but it wasn’t exactly an appropriate dinner conversation.
Bridget took a steadying sip of wine and put her hand on my arm. “Why don’t we give the boys some time to get to know each other? I’ll give you the grand tour.”
I had to give it to her. She played the part of gracious hostess flawlessly. It was an impressive act, painting her and Kyle as a happy couple in love. That was, until she looked to Kyle for permission.
The fucker.
He gave her a slight tip of his chin, approving her request but also reminding her that it was just that: a request. He called the shots. Decided how long her leash got to be.
My purse was still on my shoulder, so Bridget looked at me and said, “Why don’t we start upstairs? That way, you can set your things down.”
I went to hand Jason my wine glass, but he was turning to follow us. “I’ll come with y’all.”
“Oh—” Bridget blurted out before clamming up. “Um?—”
“Baby,” I laughed, “I’m not gonna disappear on you. We’ll be back in a sec. You’d be bored out of your mind hearing us talk about window treatments and thread counts.”
Jason’s eyebrows drew in, and he cocked his head to the side, looking at me like I’d just recited Shakespeare in Pig Latin.
To be fair, I was pretty sure he knew I was the last person on earth who cared about things like window treatments.
Please don’t call my bluff.
“Don’t worry, bud,” Kyle said, clapping him on the shoulder good-naturedly. “Bridget will keep Melissa out of trouble.” The way he said it with poison laced in every word chilled me to the bone. Kyle pinned Bridget with a lifeless stare. His eyes were cold. Dead. “Won’t you, honey?”
“Of course,” she said with a sickly sweet smile. “Come on, Mel. Kyle’s aunt gave us the cutest scrapbook to fill up with honeymoon pictures. I’ve been dying to show it to you.”
I followed her up the stairs and around a corner to the master bedroom. She shut the door behind us and blew out a sharp breath.
“Oh my God,” she whispered on the exhale.
“Oh good, you’re still in there,” I hissed. “I was wondering what kind of Martha Stewart robot he had turned you into. You fucking hate scrapbooking.”
Bridget sat down on the bed and closed her eyes. “God, I wish I was Martha Stewart. I feel like I get possessed by the ghost of June Cleaver whenever we have people over. Martha would at least know how to use fitted sheets to make a rappelling harness and jailbreak this hell-hole. She could teach us how to make shanks and shivs out of anything. That woman went to prison and came out a badass.”
“You are a badass, which begs the question of why it’s taking you so long to throw the jailbird look behind you and kick his ass.”
“Sometimes staying inside the gilded cage is the safest option,” she muttered. “Did you bring the stuff?”
“Yeah.” I plopped my oversized purse on the bed and unzipped it.
Bridget padded into the master bathroom and came back with a bulk box of overnight pads. The super-size ones. With wings.
“Is it shark week for you or something? I thought Kyle said you had an IUD. Don’t those things usually take away your period?”
“Oh, it has,” Bridget said. “But Kyle doesn’t know that. Once a month, I fake getting a period for like ten days to avoid having sex with him. He’s so grossed out by menstruation that he doesn’t question it.”
I couldn’t even begin to process the web of lies she had woven to protect herself. It made me ill and angry all at the same time.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I pegged you as a tampon kind of girl. But you do you.”
“This is better than tampons,” she said. Bridget popped the seal on the box and showed me the contents. Inside, there were stacks of cash.
“Damn, girl,” I whispered. “How much?”
“Just shy of two thousand. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a lot. But it should cover a few nights at the Taylor Creek Inn and the deposit and first month’s rent on a shitty apartment.” She let out a slow breath. “I’ve been saving for a while. He controls the money with an iron fucking fist, so I get cash back whenever I stop for gas or groceries. My paycheck gets direct-deposited, and he takes all the tips I make at the bar to the bank himself. I skim what I can from those, but if I take too much, he gets suspicious.”
“You told me about him hitting you. Why didn’t you tell me about the money before now? We could have figured something out. Easily .”
“Do you honestly think I would have stayed this long if I had a way out before now? There are other factors, okay?”
The boys’ voices carried as they talked downstairs. A sobering reminder that we weren’t alone.
“We’ve gotta get this show on the road,” she mumbled. “Did you get the phone?”
I nodded and pulled the brick of a cell phone out of my bag. It was the old school kind that slid in half and had a full click-key keyboard. It was a downgrade from her smartphone, but she could call and text without Kyle being privy to the conversations happening. “It’s prepaid and ready to go. There should be enough minutes on it to last you until you can get settled somewhere. I charged it before we came over, but keep it off, so it doesn’t die. The charger’s in there, too.”
“Thank you. This is a lifesaver. Literally.” Bridget stuffed the phone and charging cord into the pad box. She grabbed a tube of fingernail glue that she brought in from the bathroom and added a dab under the box flap to seal it back up. Bridget made sure the box was sealed before storing it back in the cabinet under the sink. From the outside, it looked brand-new.
I had to admit, she was resourceful. Saving up without Kyle knowing. Stashing her cash in a pad box. Using nail glue to fix the seal. Jason would be proud. That was if he didn’t kill me and her for not telling him about the situation from the start .
“Is he still supposed to leave for the trip next week?” I asked as we put everything back in its place.
“Yeah. Everything’s still good to go. I’ll call you when I get home from work and start packing.” As if she looked in my eyes and saw my doubt that she would actually leave this time, she said, “It’s happening. No looking back.”
“I still think you should tell Jason. He’s your brother, Bee. He’s my boyfriend now, but the way he’s talking, we won’t be dating for long.”
“No. We’ve been over this. I’ll tell him when it all blows over,” she said as if it was just some simple breakup, not her literally running for her life from a dangerous, abusive psychopath.
The scariest part was that no one seemed to be suspicious. Kyle hid the monster within quite well, masking behind a friendly face and a car salesman smile. I didn’t know if it was Bridget’s pride or something else that made her keep it under wraps.
Hide the pain. Don’t let anyone see the bruises. Slap on a smile and pretend to be happy.
Whenever I tried to push her to do things my way—to tell other people and let them help, too—she away from me, and it always got worse.
We were close to the finish line, so I wasn’t going to argue. “My and Jase’s numbers are already in your new phone.” I reached out and squeezed her hand. “And whenever you’re ready to talk to him, I put Chase’s number in there, too.”
Bridget swallowed. “I can’t let myself think that far ahead.”
“I know.”
Heavy footsteps plodded up the stairs, and we both snapped to attention. Double-checking that we had hidden everything away, I gave her a reassuring smile. It was time to put the masks back on.
“There you are.” Jase smiled as he walked into the bedroom.
Kyle was on his heels .
“You two have a good chat?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Jase said. “I think he may have convinced me to trade in my truck.” The two men laughed like he had just cracked an inside joke. “What about y’all?”
“I was just giving Mel some advice on how to decorate whenever she moves out of her apartment,” Bee lied. “Her lease will be up soon, and I’m sure you two will want more space.” She clapped her hands together. “Well. Why don’t we head downstairs and eat some dinner? Y’all are probably are starving.”
“Sounds good to me, Bumble Bee.” Jase chuckled, throwing his arm around Bridget’s shoulders.
“Bumble Bee?” Kyle sneered. The disdain wasn’t even thinly veiled. It was on full fucking display.
“Yeah,” Bridget said in an agreeable tone meant to defuse. “Jase has called me that since we were kids. That’s why everyone calls me Bee.”
“When she was born, and our parents brought her home from the hospital, they had her in this little bumblebee onesie,” Jase said. “I was so excited and started telling everyone that I had a baby bumblebee for a sister.”
“Charming,” Kyle huffed. “I always figured it was because her name started with the letter ‘B.’”
“Nope.” Bridget smiled up at Jason and patted his chest. “It was all this guy. Unfortunately for me, it’s still going strong after thirty-something years.”
“I think it’s cute,” I chimed in. “Bee fits you.”
“Mrs. Kingsley will fit you even better,” Kyle clipped. “Why don’t you get to the kitchen and finish getting everything ready so we can eat?”