Life After Love: Part 12

MARLEY

During summer, the days were longer. In Texas, they went on forever. I was up to my last errand of the day, before heading back home to change for Freddy's birthday picnic. I'd been planning it all week despite my heavy work load and I expected everything to go off without a hitch. I sent the invitations via mass text and most of the people I invited had secured their RSVP's except for two. I already knew Danny and Serena were going, but they hadn't RSVP'd yet and I felt as if they purposely do it just to tick me off.

The perfectionist in me parked outside of Serena's office building. I knew she was here because she had mentioned she'd had a bit of a mishap with one of her projects and needed to do some damage control. I hadn't expected her to be back at work so soon after having the twins, but knowing her, she needed to get out of that house. Danny had mentioned the twins had been keeping them up at night lately, which was no doubt causing a bit of strain on the new parents.

Jesse had taken most of the work load for Danny until they found some extra hands at the shop, and I suspected Danny was gaining more stress from that as well. I had no idea how he was doing it all, but I hoped he was hanging in there.

As I got off on the fifth floor of the building, I bumped into a stranger and turned to apologize, but immediately stopped when I noticed it was Aaron Cartegena. The six-foot-two broody man with cropped short dark hair, sleepy eyes and perfectly groomed eyebrows practically loomed over my five-foot-three frame. I hadn't seen him or his twin brother Tony in years and I wondered if it was just a coincidence that he was here, or if he and Serena were talking again. There were other small businesses operating in this building which wouldn't make it that much of a surprise if he were here to speak to them. I just found it odd he was leaving the same floor Serena's office was in. Either way, my southern manners forced a smile out of me and he nodded in return.

"Long time," he spoke nonchalantly, sending me a short smile before pushing the elevator button. That's when I noticed the wedding band on his finger. Oh boy. I really hoped the conclusions I was jumping into head first wasn't actually happening. If it was, there was a shit storm coming, waiting to destroy everything in its path.

"Definitely. How've you been?" I inquired politely, while he seemed a bit distracted by whatever was on his mind.

"What? Oh, I've been great. And yourself?" he phrased as he shook himself out of his daze and straightened his tie. I'd heard he had become a wealthy architect from the grape vine and I wondered if that was the reason for his visit here. Serena was technically in the neighboring business and maybe they had developed a business relationship. Still, if Danny knew about this, I could just imagine how furious he must be. They had never gotten along in high school. It could've been due to the fact that they'd been in rival street gangs as kids, and were naturally born enemies. It definitely didn't help matters when Serena had dated Aaron out of spite, while her and Danny were in the middle of the kind of war neither side would win. They'd both been stubborn and angry, and were too much alike to actually enjoy each other. The only thing that had changed was the fact that they were now married, with twins.

It was sort of inspiring actually. If those two hotheads could make it through all that, who's to say the rest of us couldn't?

"Same," I revealed as the elevator doors opened and Aaron nodded towards me again, stepping into the elevator.

"My brother says hello by the way," he alleged with a smirk, as he watched me blush at the mention of Tony's name while the elevator doors closed. I'd always had a crush on him, but never actually acted on it at the time. I was starting to feel a bit claustrophobic running into the ghosts of my past within a year's time.

Shaking the memories out of my thoughts, I marched my way down the corridor towards Serena's office. I knocked on her door and she buzzed me in when she picked her head up from her computer and noticed me.

"Don't you have a party to be obsessing over?" Serena teased, a smirk on her face as she chewed on a pen, while she typed something into her computer. I placed my purse down onto the empty chair beside mine and settled happily into the air-conditioned office.

"Oh, you mean the party you and Danny haven't RSVP'd to? I swear, ya'll are lucky you're my friends," I declared, as I began to look around her office. I've been here several times but I'd never seen it this bare before.

"Are you moving to a different location?"

"Yeah. I decided I should work from home until the twins are old enough to go to school. My lease is up anyway," my best friend explained, and I nodded, biting my lower lip, wondering if I should bother mentioning Aaron.

"Spit it out, dude," she uttered, reading my expression as she kept chewing on her pen, still typing away.

"I ran into Aaron by the elevators," I mentioned, and watched her expression carefully for any signs that there was anything beyond business going on between them. When she sat back in her leather office chair, and cocked her head to the side without saying a word, I could practically feel the shit storm growing with intensity.

"Should I bother explaining myself? Or are you just going to take Daniel's side?" she argued, a defensive tone in her voice as she closed her lap top.

"I'm not taking anyone's side. I just think you're stirring shit up when you don't need to," I asserted, and I could already tell this was going to turn into an argument I wasn't going to win. We'd had very few arguments during our decade long friendship, but when they popped up, Serena usually got her way. Not this time. This time she was in the wrong and I hoped she understood that deep down in that stubborn heart of hers.

"What time is Freddy's party again?" she changed the subject, which she often did when she was done with the conversation, while I held back from rolling my eyes at her.

"Seven."

"We'll be there," she claimed, opening her lap top back up, avoiding any type of eye contact with me as I got up to grab my purse and headed for the door.

"You took Danny back, despite knowing how he is. It's about time you stop punishing him for it," I advised to deaf ears apparently, and felt my heart swell with dread as I exited my best friend's office, and prayed nothing would result in murder when the day was done.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I should've been having fun. I should've been mingling and laughing, drinking and smiling. It was Freddy's birthday after all, and he was a year shy away from thirty now. It was time to finish making the mistakes we all needed to make during our twenties, just to sort through it all and figure out what needed instead of wanted in our thirties. For example, I wanted Michael. But needed Freddy. Serena wanted to play with fire. She needed a swift kick in the ass to see the error of her ways.

I glanced around the crowd full of friends and family, all having a great time, except for Serena and Danny, who sat near an oak tree, away from the rest of the party, each with a twin in their arms as they completely avoided any eye contact with each other.

"Leave them alone, Marley. They're adults now who can fix their own shit." Michael's warning brought my attention towards him as he popped an entire cupcake into his mouth, and I handed him a napkin to wipe off the excess frosting from his chin.

"Did you know Aaron was back in town?" I asked him, and saw his eyebrows hike up at the random question.

"No. Why?"

"No reason," I lied, taking another cupcake away from him, smirking when he began to pout as I continued, "You're going to get a stomach ache from eating so many sweets." I cautioned, swiping away the leftover crumbs off his lips.

"I'm a man. I can handle a few cupcakes. So, Aaron's back, huh? Does Daniel know? Does Freddy?" Michael inquired and while I wasn't so sure talking to Michael about this was the best idea, I had no one else to turn to. Michael is and will always be Daniel's ride or die. They'd taken care of each other as kids and not much had changed over the years, despite the break we had all taken from each other. If Daniel were to, God forbid, get into a fight with Aaron over whatever was happening with him and Serena, Michael wouldn't be too far behind, ready to swing. Freddy as well. Which is what I'd really like to avoid. None of them could afford to lose everything they've worked so hard to get up until now.

"I don't know," I paused, and lowered my gaze as I sighed and turned towards the now arguing couple under the oak tree, "When did we start keeping secrets again?" I wondered out loud and tried to relax as Michael pulled me into his arms and held me close, placing a kiss at my temple.

"Look at it this way, maybe they'll finally see why it'll never work out between them." he argued cynically and I pulled away so I could look at him.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I'm just saying, it shouldn't be that hard to love someone."

"What if they just love each other in a way no one else can understand?" I addressed defensively, and he shook his head, looking away as he licked his lips.

"Love is love, baby. People make it complicated," Michael finished, turning to fish for another cupcake, as my gaze trailed towards the birthday boy, who's eyes hadn't left me since the moment I stepped into his party, despite having his arm around his date.