Colorado Game
By Androgene
Chapter 37
I actually winced, when I saw the shiner Ross had given Kyle, the next day. His entire right eye-socket looked bruised but it didn’t hurt, he said. Well, not much.
That whole day I tried to gather enough courage to call Ross, to try and talk to him about all of this. I desperately wanted to talk to him, explain why, because he’d promised me, just a few weeks ago, that we could talk about anything. So why couldn’t we talk about this? But when I finally did muster the guts to pick up the phone and called him, he didn’t pick up, and the call went straight to voicemail. So I tried his office next, but Janice told me he wasn’t in.
We talked a little, catching up on stuff and I told her a little, but not all, about the fight.
“Right. Well, if you’re responsible for this, you damn well make it up, okay?” she said, snickering. “It’s not only you who has to deal with it. He’s been snapping at everybody all morning. Even Andrew steered clear of him today. We all breathed a sigh of relief when he left, about an hour ago.”
I promised her that I’d talk to him and hung up. It was 4pm then. How the hell was I going to talk to him if he didn’t pick up his phone? I messaged him three times, each time asking him to call me but he hadn’t reacted to any of them by the time I left Warner Gaming to go home.
I ate a little and I was about to try another round of messaging, when the phone rang. It was Sofia and I braced myself mentally for an argument. But to my surprise, she acted completely normal.
She asked me how I was, what I’d been doing lately, and then she unwittingly disclosed a piece of information she assumed I already knew but which, in fact, took me by complete surprise.
“Oh, by the way, I’m still expecting you for the family dinner in Saturday. There’s no reason for you not to come, just because Ross is abroad. So I’ll see you Saturday evening, eight sharp, alright?”
Abroad?
I just muttered something that sounded affirmative and she hung up.
Abroad? The only use of that word, in the Forester family, was when they referred to Charles Forester, Ross’s father, who lived in London. Ross was on his way over there?
**********
He didn’t call me that night. By the time he landed in London, it would be early morning here, I learned from the American Airlines website. There hadn’t been that many flights to London, his options were somewhat limited. A call to the airport told me that one Mr. R.N. Forester had checked in at 4:15pm at Denver International, on an AA flight to LAX, where he’d arrive at 5:30pm. From there, he‘d take the non-stop overnight flight to London.
So the next day I called Warner Gaming, and said that I wasn’t going to show up that day, and that I’d stay home to work. I wouldn’t be able to get some work done anyway; I had hardly slept a wink. The waiting game started around 6am, the time that Ross’s flight would touch down at Heathrow and by noon, when he still hadn’t called, I thought I’d go mad. Why didn’t he call?!
**********
It was 8pm when the phone finally rang, and Ross’s voice sounded in my ear. In my mind, I’d gone over so many scenarios of what went wrong, what could go wrong and what could happen.
I’m usually not the doom and gloom guy, but this situation was one I’d never handled before; I loved the person I was having the argument with.
“Hi,” he said, his voice sounding somewhat timid.
“Hi. How’s your father doing?” I asked, equally timid. I definitely didn’t want to piss him off by immediately tearing into him.
“He’s fine… Mark, I’m sorry. I forgot to tell you that I was leaving for London. I was going to tell you that night, that I’d leave for London but…because of our argument I forgot and by the time I visited Kyle, I lost it. I figured I could use the time to calm down… Anyway, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” I replied, sighing. “Are you still angry with me?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Would you prefer it if I still was?”
“Yes. I wish you’d be here and scream at me. I can work with that. You leaving without a word, making me worried sick…even Janice didn’t know where you were.”
“I know, and I apologized for it. It was kinda last moment, so I called her during my stopover in LA. I told her not to tell you anything, that I’d call you myself. Mark…it’s 3am here, I didn’t call to fight.”
“And you couldn’t call me any sooner? Like, oh…say…when you landed, to let me know at least that you were okay? Why call now?”
“Because I miss you, and I wanted to hear your voice. I went to bed at midnight, waiting for the time so you’d be home from work. I didn’t sleep a wink since I left.”
Damn it. Just when I was about to blow up, he goes saying crap like that.
“During the flight over, I wanted to call. I wore out my credit card, constantly using it, dialing and thinking the better of it, because I knew you’d be upset. I figured you’d find out where I was soon enough, and I won’t deny that I wanted you to worry, to get back at you. Petty, I know…”
“Ross, can we try and have a normal conversation about all of this?” I asked, sitting down on the couch.
“Yes,” he said, “we can. It’s just…when it comes to Kyle, and you, I… ”
I waited for him to continue when he was silent for a long time.
“I trust you. I want you to know that. And if you insist on being friends with him, then there’s little I can do to stop you. So I’ll have to accept it, if I don’t want to lose you.”
“You wouldn’t lose me,” I said, smiling. “Yes, I’d like to be friends with him. I think he’s changed, a lot. I believe that he’s not who he once was, but I won’t ask you to try and see that; I just want you to accept that I want to make up my own mind about who I choose as friends. But if you’re making me choose… Ross, I don’t want to choose between the guy I love, and a guy who will never be more than a friend. I need you to trust me on that one. But if you are still going to make me choose…”
“Then…?” he asked slowly.
“Then I’ll do as you ask.”
“And resent me for it, for the rest of my life?” he answered dryly.
”Pretty safe assumption, yes,” I said, grinning. “Seriously… I wouldn’t like it but I’d do it. You’re more important than he whose name shall not be mentioned.”
“Then… I’m asking. I’m sorry, Mark, but I can’t help it; I’m jealous as all hell. I wish I weren’t, but the thought of you and him working together…” His voice trailed and I could hear him swallow. “I can’t stand it. Not him.”
“Okay,” I said softly, swallowing myself. He had the right to ask me that. “I’m not liking you very much right now…”
“I know. I accept that, but I’m not sorry I asked. You’re mine.”
He sounded so possessive that I expected rage or fury to surge up, but none came. Instead, I felt something entirely different; if love could be measured in depth, mine deepened, and not just a little, either! Yes. I was his. And he was mine.
“Mark?”
“Still here, and remarkably calm at that,” I said, grinning. “Actually, I’d give just about anything if you were here right now. So are you gonna come home?”
He softly chuckled, blowing out a relieved sigh.
“Soon. I have to wrap up some stuff here. I did come here for a reason, you know. There are some business transactions I have to be here for.”
“Can’t you just take that stuff with you and come home? Like…now? Buy the plane if you have to,” I said, trying not to make it sound whiney, barely managing it. “I really wanna make it up to you.” I said that last with my best seducing voice and he softly groaned.
“Stop that.”
I smiled, satisfied. It didn’t hurt for him to know what he was missing.
“Stop what?” I answered, innocently.
“That. You know damn well what I mean.”
“I have no idea. Shouldn’t you go back to sleep, since it’s so late over there? You go to sleep, and I promise I’ll go to bed early. Take a shower first, of course, and then slip between the cool sheets with nothing…”
“Yes you can stop now, thanks,” he roughly interrupted, “Great, now I can’t sleep.”
“Awww, what is it? Did something…um…come up?” I asked, smiling inwardly.
When he threateningly growled I laughed out loud.
“That’s low…even for you. I thought you didn’t go for this kind of thing?”
“What kind of thing?” I answered, almost choking. This was fun, actually.
“Getting me excited over the phone, that’s what,” he replied, his voice deepening.
“Right, I think I’ll hang up now, and go take that shower.”
“Don’t you dare hang up now, Mister! You finish what you started.”
I couldn’t believe it but I actually thought about it. I bit my lower lip, thinking.
“How?” I finally asked.
“Tell me what you’re wearing, and I’ll tell you what that does to me.”
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