Chapter 13
Two o’clock in the morning and she’d been staring at the ceiling since putting Ernie back in bed for the third time.
Now that he was sound asleep, she could hear every creak and settle of this massive house.
Erys left a few hours after dinner to do something artist-related but she was only half listening when he talked.
That was something she did on purpose. Listening to the cadence and timbre of his voice in its annoyingly soothing nature meant taking in every syllable like it were air.
She’d done that before. She’d fallen before and that led her down a path that nearly killed her.
She couldn’t afford the fall or what would happen to her again if the walls she’d built around her crumbled.
For Remedy, it was already traumatizing enough that she was so low.
She was never supposed to be in a position to depend on someone else.
So she stared at the ceiling, thinking about her run in with Eden.
The hours where she was restless, she looked Eden up.
Modeling agency, fashion consultant, brand strategist, wife and mother, a girl from Trae Way who’d built herself a beautiful life.
One that didn’t come without the hardships of its own.
She paused the deep dive into Eden’s life because it brought back too many things she buried within herself. Too many missed opportunities. Too many blessings robbed from her. Too much darkness.
“Guess sleep won’t be happening for me,” she muttered into the darkness while throwing the covers off of her and swinging her legs over the bed.
On her feet, she led them out the room and down the hall.
The coolness of the floor alerted her brain more than she needed it to.
In true fashion, she peeked in on Ernie.
Sound asleep, snoring like he hadn’t given everyone a run for their money during the day.
Away from his room, down the stairs and her body needing something to tire her out.
Remedy found herself in the kitchen wiping down surfaces, sweeping floors and mapping out Ernie’s seventy-seventh birthday.
She’d need Desi for the main request he’d made.
Mid-jot, the chime of the garage door opening and closing caught her attention. Maybe if she ignored him, he wouldn’t find something to say to her. That was the hope that never made it past her thoughts.
Erys roamed into the kitchen flicking the switch to the lights on. Remedy groaned and squinted against the sudden brightness.
“Damn, my bad. Didn’t know you were in here,” he said before turning them off.
“It’s cool, I’ll go back upstairs,” she replied, wiggling off of the bar stool.
“Pops was up and down?” he asked.
She nodded. “Since you left. Looking for you, looking for Cherie. Trying to figure out where he is. I hadn’t slept so I’ve just been…up.”
“I get that,” Erys said, moving to his hidden cabinet above the stove. “Night cap?”
“It’s like two in the morning.”
“Three forty five actually,” he corrected, throwing a nod to the patio. “Come on.”
Remedy bit the inside of her cheek wanting the sting of it to tell her brain to tell her feet no.
But they followed him anyway. The dusk of Waynesville midspring air was always her favorite thing to feel.
During a part of her life she tried to erase from her memory, she woke up early just to feel this.
Around the far side of the pool, under the cabana, Remedy had a full view of a set of lights that came with stark reminders. She repositioned herself, fighting her eyes as they watched Erys open a bottle of whiskey.
“Need a chaser?” he queried.
Remedy shook her head no.
“Never thought I’d see the day where you were quiet. You good?” he asked, this time with those intense set of eyes on her.
Remedy pulled in a soft inhale and then pushed it out. The pieces of pinned hair coming out of her silk wrap from hours of tossing and turning. She pushed them back under her wrap before answering.
“Outside of my mind on a constant loop of the bullshit, I’m fine.” Erys poured her drink before pouring his own. “Don’t treat me like a little girl, Erys. Those two should be equal.”
Remedy studied the dimple pierce his cheek as he laughed softly.
It was a beautiful smile. She could see that with her glasses AWOL.
She could see all of him, blurry vision or not.
White tee stretched across his chest. Dog tags hanging around like his neck like he was still property.
Seemed like they were both holding onto something.
“There she goes,” he commented, making sure her glass looked like his. “You won’t finish that but knock yourself out.”
Remedy rolled her eyes, took the glass and slightly lifted it in the air. “Thanks…for everything. I didn’t say that earlier. I don’t want you to think I’m a complete bitch.”
“Nah, I just think you’re half of one,” he quipped, sitting back. “And don’t mention it. You’re good.”
“Well good for you, I think you’re still one hundred percent an asshole,” she returned.
“I can accept that. I got to admit, all of this was a shock to my system. I’ve been in this space of orders and organization for almost two decades and you two…fucked all of that up for me,” Erys shared before taking a sip.
“Mainly Ernie. I successfully ignored him for about six months. And then I just couldn’t.
I used to wake up to him sitting on my steps, shotgun in his hand.
Then the wandering. So six months later, he’s been the best disruption to my system,” Remedy shared, taking a sip of her own then wincing. “Damn.”
“Can’t turn back now. You refused the chaser,” he said with a chuckle.
“Just used to the watered down liquor at the club,” she replied, taking another sip.
“You don’t want more than being Ernie’s friend?” he asked.
Remedy swayed her head as she drew her legging-covered legs up to her chest. “No. I had more before and that didn’t really turn out well for me.”
“Gonna tell me?” Erys mused. “Words this time, not that head shaking.”
Remedy rolled her eyes again. “You’re annoying, you know that?”
“You are too. We’re even.”
“No, I’m not going to tell you. It’s boring. I’m boring. Tell me about your mother,” Remedy commented, turning this around on him.
“From what she told me and from what I saw. She was running from something but whatever it was, whatever she held, she dressed it up so beautiful. She worked hard, she loved me the only way she knew how. As a grown man, I’m realizing I needed – need.
I need more than that. This house is so fucking big and so fucking quiet. ”
Remedy watched him talk like it was poetry in motion. Art she wasn’t good enough to touch. Art she shouldn’t have snuck into the gallery to see up close and personal. “More like from your parents. Life?”
“Both. I’ve hated that nigga for a long time and every second I’m in his space, I’m seeing how wrong I was.
Then there’s the fact I isolated myself for so long that forming meaningful relationships – developmental relationships – I probably missed out on the lessons I needed to make me less this,” Erys said, motioning to himself.
“Cold, frigid, assholish,” Remedy rambled off.
“Any more adjectives, Mouth?” he asked, looking at her full on.
Remedy took a long sip. “There’s so many more, Franklin. Would you like to hear them? Brute. Rude. Intrusive. Aloof. Emotionless. Arrogant…need more or is my point made?”
“Nah, give me what you got,” he said, refreshing his glass. “I might have some of my own.”
“Like?”
“Possessive. Stubborn as all fuck. Mean. Petty. A beautiful mystery that I can’t figure the fuck out and it’s really the most agitating thing,” he spoke, his eyes locked on hers.
Remedy’s breath hitched slightly and her eyes fluttered. She needed to ward him off or untangle herself. Something. “Hm, I can’t say the same.”
“No?”
She swayed her head and looked away and stared at the northside of the lake for a long moment. His eyes were still baring into her, intensifying the heat from the liquor. “Why’d you build this big ass house if it was just you? Or am I wrong to assume you’ve been alone all your life.”
“You’re not wrong. I built this for my mom.
This is what she wanted. I thought I had time for her to see her dream.
We used to dream and shit. I built it and immediately was hit with the reality.
Her last months, she was trying to marry me off,” he spoke with a bitter laugh.
“Had me taking her to ridiculous shit. Women throwing themselves at me.”
“Oh, don’t act like you didn’t like that,” Remedy commented. “All men like that.”
“You like men all in your face?” he countered.
“Hate it actually. With everything in me,” she replied. “But we’re talking about you.”
“I don’t like it. Can’t stand it. I’m a hunter. I see my target and I go after it and I don’t stop until I get it.”
“Mmm,” Remedy groaned with her face scrunched. “You’re the type to throw it away after you get it, huh?”
“Nah, I find a way to keep hunting, keep stalking, keep it going.”
“Your tone tells me you got a target. Why you here talking to me and not out there getting what you want?” Remedy quizzed.
“I’m looking at it,” Erys shared with full confidence. Those five words zapped the wind out her sails. “Don’t get quiet now. What’s your come back to that?”
Remedy pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, blinked to regulate herself and then answered. “No come back, just truth. You don’t want me. I’m just resistant to you. I’m not something to have and there’s not much I can give you. So, yeah. Thanks for the drink.”
She downed the remaining contents of her drink, placed the glass down and started to the house. Erys caught her hand and pulled her back. Down on his lap, the feel of his erection, the closeness of his mouth near hers. The heat.