Dianna’s fork dropped next, only hers was on purpose. “Please tell me you’re joking. You made that mistake once. You’re really not that dumb.”
“Mother, may I speak to you in private?”
“Why, Cory? I can’t believe you went and got another girl knocked up. What is wrong with you? Do you really think she’s not after your money?”
“Mom, that’s enough.”
“Is it? Am I the only one who sees what’s going on here? You think this…this picture taker isn’t after your money, our money?”
The sound of Cory’s chair sliding across the floor mirrored the angry tone. “That’s it, we’re leaving. Let’s go, Lex.”
“Cory, please sit back down,” Alexis pleaded. She didn’t want him to leave his family like this, being angry and full of rage.
“Let’s go, Alexis,” Cory ordered in a domineering tone. He picked Riki up from her chair and slid Alexis’s chair out. Alexis followed while waiting for his mother or father to trace his steps and stop him. They didn’t. The conversation trailing behind them was full of anger and resentment. Not one of them came after him. The only person who cared was Ellen.
“Don’t you dare leave without saying goodbye,” she ordered to Cory while taking Riki from his arms. “I love you so much. I’ll come and see you before you leave, okay?”
“Me go home amarrow day.”
Cory took Riki from her and stomped down the steps.
Ellen turned and hugged Alexis. “I’m sorry things turned out this way. I’ll come and eat breakfast with you before you leave tomorrow.”
“Thanks, Ellen. I’m a little shocked by all of this.”
“I’m sure you are. That’s the Bakers for you. You got the best one.”
“Alexis!” Cory called from the car after placing Riki in her seat.
“I’ll see you later.”
“Goodbye, Alexis.”
Cory opened her door with a clenched jaw. Alexis looked up to him without a word.
“I am sorry. I’m not mad at you,” he assured her. Alexis smiled and he closed her door, still sporting the compressed jaw. The ride back to the hotel was tense. Alexis engaged in conversation with Riki and Cory drove. The anger on his face was evident and Alexis hated it. She wished they would have invited Ellen out to eat and avoided meeting his family altogether. She was sure they wouldn’t be doing that again anytime soon. She reached over and placed her hand on his arm and he pulled it away.
“Don’t. We’re leaving as soon as I sign the papers in the morning.”
“Okay.”
“Me see a Big Bird.”
“You did? Did he sing a song?”
“Him did sing a song to a grouchy man.”
“A grouchy man?” Alexis questioned. Her eyes locked with Cory’s briefly as she learned about the show Riki had seen with Ellen.
“Him wivs in a twashcan.”
Alexis didn’t know what to say to make it better. She’d never met anyone like his family. Folks back home wouldn’t have treated their worst enemy the way they treated their own son. And they let him leave! That was the part she didn’t understand. Like it was no big deal that they weren’t going to see him again before he left. She couldn’t understand it and she wasn’t even going to try.
Cory pulled to the front of the hotel, and in an instant, valet was at his door. Alexis didn’t wait for him to come around and open her door. She stood in front of Riki’s door when Cory met her on the other side.
“Are you done being mad?”
Cory tried to walk away and retrieve Riki. “Alexis,” he said in warning. He just needed a minute. His family sucked and he hated the way they treated her and Riki. Not one of them acknowledged her and his sister didn’t even speak to Alexis. Why did he even try? Why did he think they would welcome either one of them with opened arms?
“Cory, look at me.”
Cory looked down and their eyes locked briefly.
“Me can get out, too?” Riki questioned from the back seat. Alexis and Cory immediately smiled.
Cory kissed Alexis’s forehead. “Yes, I’m done being mad. Let’s go change. I want to take you down the road here to a really good Italian restaurant. Alexis breathed a sigh of relief. Thank God. She really didn’t want to spend their last night in the city with him sulking over something he had no control over.
Changed into warmer clothes, the three of them strolled hand in hand down the sidewalk, all wearing jeans and Brady County Dragon’s hoodies.
“I’m sorry my parents weren’t as welcoming with you as yours were with me.”
“I’m sure you were switched at birth, but don’t worry about it. You’re right. They live here and we live there, but I would be by your side if and when you want to come back.”
“That might be a while. I was thinking maybe we would drive over to the hospital after this so that I can say hi to a few co-workers.”
“You can go. Riki and I’ll hang out in the room.”
“I kind of wanted to show both of you off.”
“I feel so out of place here. I don’t belong in Chicago.”
“You ready to go home?”
Alexis’s eyes followed a tall, skinny man, wearing shiny, purple leggings with a black and white striped fur coat. His head was covered with a black fuzzy hat and he wore bright red lips. “Yes, I am more than ready to get back to normal,” Alexis assured him. What the hell was that?
Cory laughed. “We’ll leave right after we go to the condo in the morning.” That made Alexis very happy. She missed Mr. Dog, her family, and Bernie. The saying about taking the girl out of the country was true. There would be no taking the country out of the girl, not this girl. Alexis would have never lived in a place like that. She needed the wide-open spaces, the smell of country air, and a few less people.
Cory was right about the restaurant. It was delicious, but that may have been because Alexis was starving, too. They hadn’t even finished their salads at his parents’ before the theatrics sent them packing. Riki filled up on bread and then wouldn’t eat real food, but made room for ice cream. The lasagna was delicious, but they didn’t come close to eating it all. Too bad they couldn’t save it for later. Alexis wanted to, but Cory made them go to his old hospital. She didn’t want to. She wanted to take Riki back to the room for a nap, or maybe she wanted the nap. Alexis unwillingly went along. It seemed to be important to him and she didn’t want to upset him. He’d had enough of that for one day.
Cory hailed a cab just as a light rain started to fall. He pointed to different places, showing her his old stomping grounds, a nightclub, a bistro shop with amazing gyros, the private school he attended as a boy, and baseball field where he was once the team captain.
Alexis couldn’t believe the size of the hospital. The Canterville clinic would fit inside ten times over. It was ginormous.
“Me have a dwank.”
Cory held Riki up to the third water fountain and Alexis questioned their destination.
“Where are we going?”
“To the trauma center. That’s my floor, or was.”
No sooner had the elevator doors opened, someone recognized him. “Doc Baker. How the hell are you, man?” The older doctor shook his hand and bumped shoulders with him while his smile broadened.
“Hey, Jack. I’m doing amazing. How about yourself?”
“Same old, same old. Trying to save a life. I heard you’re into family practice now. What the hell brought that on?”
“I just needed a change.”
“Yeah, they shut the daycare down after that. Did you know that?”
“I didn’t,” Cory admitted and then changed the subject. “You remember Riki, and this is my girlfriend Alexis.”
Alexis gave a fake smile as her mind soaked in the introduction. She tried to be polite and put on a happy face, but she struggled. She was out of her element here and she knew it.
“It’s very nice to meet you. Cory here always did get the hotties.”
?
??Really, Jack?” Cory warned.
The older-than-Cory doctor threw his head back and gut laughed. “How long you in town for? We should get together.”
“Maybe next time. We’re heading back in the morning.”
The next twenty minutes was spent the exact same way. Cory introduced her to his friends as his girlfriend, always acknowledging Riki, and telling everyone about the new baby. Alexis stood just behind Cory, arguing with Riki that she didn’t need another dwank when he stopped behind a nurses’ station in the middle of the floor. The laughter was followed by the familiar face, popping around the corner. Her eyes held Alexis’s with some sort of envious revulsion. What the hell? She spoke to a nurse, giving orders for an x-ray while her eyes bored into Alexis’s.
The acquainted face strolled to Cory and Alexis could see the stiff posture. She stood behind him and picked up Riki, reaching her arms into the air.
“Me wegs tired.”
“Camille, you remember my fiancée, Alexis.”
“Fiancée? You haven’t even been gone four months yet. Are you serious, Cory?”
Alexis reminded the lovely female that she was standing there by clearing her throat and shifting Riki on her hip. Immediate anger surged every part of her body.
“I’m sorry. I am just a little shocked. It’s nice to see you again.”
Alexis smiled without a word. There was nothing she could say at the moment that wouldn’t make her sound like a bitch. Fiancée? What the hell was that all about? Camille asked about his practice, all while standing closer than she needed to. Her badge with her beautiful face to the right of her name secured the fact that she, too, was a doctor. Camille Giovani MD. Dr. Giovani ignored the page three times while she engaged in medical talk with Cory, talk that Alexis found to be a foreign language to her. She didn’t even bother to understand. She was still hearing the fiancée introduction as it played over and over in her mind.
“I better get this. You’re numbers still the same, right?” she asked as her eyes shifted to the loudspeaker again, hearing the page for the fourth time.
“Glad she’s not my doctor,” Alexis said with a frown.
Cory looked over to her with curved eyebrows. “Excuse me?”
“Nothing, can we go?”
“Yes, I just want to pop in and say hi to the head nurse here. It’ll only take a minute.”
“You go, Riki and I’ll head down.”
“You okay?”
Alexis replied as she walked away with Riki. “Yup.”
“I’ll meet you at the main entrance, where we came in. You okay to find it?”
“Yup.”
Alexis took Riki to pee and then helped her get another drink before heading out the revolving doors. They had to do that again, too. Riki was fascinated with the massive doors going around and around while people entered and exited between the glass walls. Riki walked on a brick wall, holding fake flowers while they waited for another thirty minutes for Cory. Alexis fumed from the inside out while she waited, knowing Cory was held up with Dr. Giovani. She should have never come. She and Riki should have stayed in Cedar Springs and let him do this. She didn’t belong there and she didn’t want to be there anymore. She wanted to go home.
“Ready?” he finally asked when he strolled through the circular doors without a care in the world.
Alexis lifted Riki from the wall while Cory waved an arm for the passing cabs. “Yes,” she replied and then whistled with two fingers between her teeth.
“Damn, Lex. I can’t even do that.”
“Do it again,” Riki requested.
“Not now, not in the car,” she replied to Riki and ignored Cory.
Alexis fastened the seatbelt around Riki in the middle and turned her attention to the sirens and lights, moving closer and closer.
Cory moved a hand over Riki’s head and to Alexis’s shoulder. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, I’m fine.” Alexis tilted her head from side to side, stretching her neck, trying to ease the tension.
“No, you’re not, let me have it,” he joked as he tried to save the day. He didn’t want their last night to be like this. She was pissed and he could tell. He took the hint and let it go when she moved his hand from her with her own. She didn’t even look at him, not once. Alexis either talked to Riki or looked out the window for the entire ride back to the hotel.
As soon as they were back in the room, Alexis took her phone and opened the door to the balcony. “I’m going to call Bernie. Riki needs a bath.”
Cory tried to stop her. “Lex.”
“Don’t, Cory. Go bathe Riki.” She pulled away from his grasp and walked out to the cool Chicago air. She wouldn’t be staying out there long.
Bernie answered on the first ring. “Oh my God. I thought you traded me for the windy city. I didn’t think you were ever going to call.”
“Hey, Bernie, how’s everything going?”
“Everything is the same here, how’s Chicago?”
“I’ll be glad to get back home.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, and everything. Yesterday was awesome, Cory took me out sightseeing all day, bought me a new dress for dinner, the most beautiful necklace you’ve ever seen, and then he took me to this restaurant a hundred and three stories high. Our table overlooked the Chicago nightlife and it was amazing. We danced and came back to our room and had mind blowing sex all night.”
“It sounds wonderful. Okay, so what’s up?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know I can tell when something is bothering you. You called me because you needed to talk, so just tell me what’s going on.”
“I don’t know, Bernie. Cory is so different here. I would have never looked at him twice had I met him here. His family are horrible people, like I’m fine with never seeing them again. His nanny, Ellen is amazing and I love her, but my God, Bernie, his parents are, I don’t even know what word to use for them. They’re awful.”
“And you’re mad at him for that?”
“No, not that. That’s not his fault. He made Riki and me go to the hospital with him to see some of his old friends, and pretty much all of them were women that he had slept with.”
“How do you know?”
“You could just tell. We ran into this one chick last night at dinner and I knew there was something there, but he didn’t want to talk about her. She’s a doctor at the hospital where he worked.”
“Yeah, so?”
“He introduced me to everyone here as his girlfriend except for her. To her, I was his fiancée, and she wasn’t happy about that news at all. Why would he do that, Bernie? Why would he want her to think that I was his fiancée?”
“Probably because he wants you to be his fiancée, Lex.”
“But everyone else that he has introduced me to, I was his girlfriend, except for the hot doctor.”
“I would say that you’re reading more into it than you should be. Maybe you’re just hormonally jealous.”
Alexis took a deep breath. “You’re probably right.”
“When are you coming home?”
“Tomorrow!” That was said with great relief. She couldn’t wait to be home.
“Things always look better in the morning, Lex. You know what your dad would say.”
“Yes. I do, and in time…this too shall pass. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“Text me when you get on the road.”
“Okay, love you, bye.”
“Love you, bye.”
Alexis stepped back inside and heard Riki laughing from the tub. She quietly grabbed her camera from her bag and scribbled a note.
Went for a walk.
The evening air was cool, but at least the rain had stopped. Bright lights blurred from the wet streets and Alexis caught the beauty of it with her camera. She caught lots of shots she would have never attained in Cedar Springs. Homeless people, a broken needle in a nearby alley next to a fifth of whiskey, buildings and lights, taxi cabs,
and buses, everything she saw she snapped a photo. Mostly to show Paige and Bernie.
She took photos going down one side of the sidewalk and then turned around when she reached the via-dock crossing the Chicago River. Cory was probably already beside himself and she knew she’d probably better head back. That didn’t stop her from taking her time and getting more shots. She may not have wanted to live there, but she would be lying if she said she wasn’t intrigued.
An hour and ten minutes later, Alexis opened the door.
“Did I not tell you yesterday that I didn’t want you walking around this city by yourself?” That was the first thing out of Cory’s mouth, and it instantly pissed her off.
“First of all, I have a father. Thank you very much, and second, we’re not doing this in front of Riki. I’m going to take a bath.”
“You can’t do that, Alexis, not here.”
“Oh, I’m sure you don’t have to worry about that.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know exactly what it means. I’m going to sit in a tub of hot water.” Alexis walked away and closed the door. She leaned against the sink and looked through the photos she’d taken on her walk while the tub filled with water and fancy hotel bubbles, jasmine maybe. Some of the shots were magazine worthy and she couldn’t wait to show Paige.
No sooner had she sank to the relaxing smell of flowers and soft water, Cory was in her face. He closed the lid on the toilet seat and straddled it without a word. The frustrated breath was audible, but she didn’t look at him, not until after a few minutes of silence that is.
“What, Cory?”
“I am just trying to figure you out.”
“Figure me out? You’re trying to figure me out? Maybe you should look in the mirror. I’m the same person here that I am back home.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I think you know what it means.”
“Are we talking about Camille?”
“Who the hell is Camille, Cory? And why the hell would you take me there to begin with?”
“If it was that big of a deal, why did you go?”
“Because you didn’t give me much of a choice. I tried to get you to let me stay here with Riki, remember? Did you just want to introduce me to all the nurses and doctors there that you fucked? Is that why you took me there, Cory? Because, if it is, I am not that impressed.”