Chapter 40
Women can complicate your life
Copyright @ calibeachgirl
All rights reserved, 2010
This is dedicated to my sweet Rachel...
*
Sayomi....
Bobbi's cousin, Rachel, was so refreshing with her enthusiasm for life. Constantly watching out the window and asking questions as we drove back to the North Beach estate, she was bringing a bright light into what had been a somewhat strange and somber week.
As much as we were extremely grateful to Alessa for giving us an exciting opportunity to make the state a safer, better place to live, her outlook on life had been depressing for me. I understood her reasons for feeling so poorly; she would have been married by this Christmas to her Jim. There was something going on between her, Maria, Philip and Michael. I just knew it. What IT exactly was, I hadn't figured out yet but the looks all four were giving each other was puzzling. There was concern, confusion, love and lust.
It was none of my business but as usual, I wouldn't let things rest until I had it all figured out. That quality worked well within the confines of the emergency room but when with people... It became a major distraction.
We arrived at the estate and some of Alessa's Malibu men came out to help with what they thought was going to be many bags. When there weren't, they still stood around looking at our two new guests. I saw that they were completely captivated by Rachel's beauty and two almost rushed to take her bag into the house.
Another, more mature man, walked quietly to Sophia and gently kissed her on the cheek, saying 'Welcome to Hawaii, beautiful." I don't know how she felt, just then, but he had completely ignored her scars even though she had called attention to them when she put her hand up just after he kissed her.
He offered her his arm; she looked around as if to see if anyone was smirking I guess, and seeing nothing like that, she took it and walked in with him.
I was very confused. I had been SO sure. How could I have been so wrong?
Bobby....
As soon as my cousin and her companion had been placed in our rooms, I went to my office and finished the final preparations for tomorrow's flight over the drug fields. By the end of tomorrow, every single marijuana bush growing in the Hana area should be dead, withered by the crazy bio-engineered agent specifically designed to eradicate the weed.
With that finished, I went to get something to eat. Every day since the California people arrived, we've been eating... over-eating. Nightly luaus, afternoon cookouts, it was crazy and I had to cut back before I did myself some lasting harm.
Taking only two beef ribs, some coleslaw and a cup of fruit medley, I sat down with Philip, for once not shadowing Alessa around.
I nodded to him. "Not with Alessa?"
"She's with Michael." His dead tone worried me... I didn't know if it was pained or... Holy shit!
"Oh?" I watched his face. If the head of security wasn't happy, then neither was I. I took a bite from the rib and washed it down with some Coors. I waited... he was just dying to say something and would get around to it as soon as he could get his head around it. I just had to wait... wait... wait.
"You're married. How's that working out?"
"All our troubles had to do with her bitchy aunts. They didn't want her to succeed at anything. They had this damn needy, narcissistic personality. It's a long story, not a nice one. But, we're doing fine now that we've moved here away from them. Remember that old Japanese couple here yesterday? Those were her parents. Nice people."
He looked around, seeing if anyone was close enough to hear us. "How do you know you made a mistake? A big mistake?" A big 'end of the world' mistake?
"What do you mean?"
"Can we go somewhere else? I don't want to talk about it here."
"Yeah, sure," and I sadly threw my ribs, slaw and fruit into a nearby trash can and took my beer with me as we walked to the beach.
We were quite a way down the beach, at least a half-mile by my reckoning when he sat down on the sand. I joined him although these weren't the pants I would have worn if I knew I was going to sit on the beach.
"How much do you know about Alessa and me?"
"Well..." Ah, crap. Where was this conversation going? There's been so much drama here since the arrival of these Californians...
"I know that you're head of security at Malibu. I know that you're Alessa's personal guardian." I hesitated but he looked like he wanted the whole truth. If someone else said it, then it would seem 'more' true than if it was just in his own mind.
"I think that you and Alessa are lovers. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I've seen how you've looked at her ever since you've arrived; you looked like you were outside a candy store with no money.
"I know that something happened last night because you, she, Maria and Michael are all acting differently than you were before Christmas."
He had his knees drawn up to his chest, his arms around his legs. He put his head down on them, looking as distraught as anyone I've ever seen. I thought he was going to cry. Ah, Jesus, what the hell happened last night?
Philip stared out to sea for a long time.
"I slept with Maria last night."
"Uhhh huh..." What WAS I going to say? Jesus Christ, I could see the canyon opening beneath me.
"I slept with Alessa the night before."
"Oh..." The canyon got deeper and wider.
"It was their idea." I fell in.
"Alessa slept with Michael last night." I was falling faster.
"That sucks... how do..." I tried to look at him without looking at him. Philip had me worried. HE carried a gun... well, so did I, for that matter, but I had no desire to get into a shootout with him. I also didn't want to have somebody get murdered...
"She told me she liked it." Liked it? Liked it with whom? Philip... or... Michael? Falling faster....
"Maria told me she liked it." Ah, God, I could see the ground rushing up to kill me.
"I know I agreed to do it, they both told me that it would be their choice, one or the other..." I could reach out and touch the ground, it was so close.
"Or, both at the same time." OH, FUCK ME! I crashed and burned... bad. It hurt.
It was my turn to stare at the water. What could I say about that... to him? Was he looking for advice, for confirmation, for acceptance? I had no clue...
We sat there forever and I knew that Sayomi was probably wondering where I was. I'm sure that Alessa or Maria was wondering where he was unless they were both with Michael?
Women can complicate a man's life. If a man has even a little interest in a woman, there rises the jealousy, the territoriality that is ingrained in us. What was he thinking? What WAS he thinking? Jesus, what was HE THINKING???
"How?"
"It was the craziest thing. Jim asked... no, he told me to take care of her, especially if something ever happened to him. I've been with her ever since day one at Malibu. Every day, hours at a time, especially after...
"Anyway, what do you THINK happened? She's a funny, smart, exotic woman and I fell in love with her. I didn't know those two were already..."
There was a silence.
"...sleeping with each other. How the hell was I supposed to know? Damn, I was so fucking stupid and I'm supposed to be the head of security and I couldn't even see something so damned obvious right in front of me.
"I thought I had a chance, especially when she returned my affection for her. She let me put my arm around her, she kissed me, we walked alone... well, almost alone, you know what I mean.