I’ve Got You

“That’s perfectly fine with me,” Cameron replied, as he ordered the drinks, based on what they were drinking. “What’s your names?”

“Kiara,” the blonde said. Cameron examined her, noting the distinctively boyish look, with her short hair, and the perchance for a button-sleeved top and jean shorts. The friend stuck with a yellow spotted short dress, revealing a scandalous amount of leg, and her hair draped to the bottom of her spine.

“Faye,” The other woman said.

“I’m Cameron,” he replied, giving them both again charming smiles, whilst wondering if Kiara was straight or not, judging by the hard, unfeminine glint in her expression.

Kiara narrowed her eyes, a bulb of realization lighting up in her brain.

“You seem like you’ve heard of me,” Cameron said, casual.

“Cameron Lovell?”

“Yes?”

“Yeah. I think you slept with one of my friends,” Kiara said. “One night stand. Jara. Two months ago. You remember her? She had a few choice words to say about you.”

The drinks arrived. Cameron’s friendly expression vanished. “Perhaps I better go elsewhere? If my presence offends you.”

“Oh no.” Kiara said sweetly. “Cameron. Please stick around. The friend who is coming, I think she’ll like to see you. A lot.”

Faye gaped incredulously at Kiara and Cameron, clearly not understanding the hostile tension.

“If I’m waiting for this Jara, I think it’s best I go then. So I don’t cause distress to her. I don’t want drama.” Cameron made to stand up. Kiara stood up with him.

“Look, sorry. It’s not Jara who is coming. I was just being a little bi*ch because I’ve had to be dealing with her sobbing for a few weeks. I know you’re not having a good time of things yourself. I promise you, it’ll be worth waiting.”

Cameron halted like a rabbit caught in headlights. The attempt at a hasty retreat to avoid potential drama vanished at Kiara’s sudden pronouncement.

“How do you know what I’ve been going through?”

Kiara smiled. “Friend of a friend. Look, here she is.”

Turning his head to look, Cameron saw none other than Vaneese stride through the entrance, clad in a long dress and tasseled feet. Her blue handbag swung at her hip. Upon spotting Kiara and Faye, she waved. Kiara enthusiastically pointed at Cameron. A cold sweat broke over his skin. Vaneese’s eyebrows rose.

“Make sure he doesn’t get away,” she said.

“I am,” Kiara assured her.

Terror slivered through Cameron. Although he had never been left in a room alone with Vaneese before, he knew perfectly well what she was like, and that regarding her sister, she became a fire-breathing dragon capable of annihilating you in a single puff. However, despite his shrieking urge to flee, he also knew, dimly, that this might be his last chance to find some kind of reconciliation with Aleshia. With the weariness of a near-drowned man, he flopped back into the seat. Vaneese ordered a drink for herself, and dragged a chair over to their table, expression furrowed in calculation.

“You look like you’re about to sh*t your pants,” the thirty-six year old remarked. “I’m not that scary. I certainly wasn’t expecting to see you so soon, here.”

“I had no idea you liked this bar,” Cameron confessed. “In all the years I’ve been here, I’ve never once spotted you.”

“I’ve been coming here for the last few months. My sister introduced me to it. I believe you were the one who helped her find it.” Vaneese – who had harder, less prone to smiling features than her sister, ditched the formalities and confronted Cameron directly.

“What’s this conversation going to be about?” Cameron folded his arms, staring back dispassionately. “I didn’t come out here to be bludgeoned by what someone else did.”

Again, the poisonous words leaped to his tongue. He couldn’t help it, couldn’t suppress that bitterness and pride within.

“Oh, I’m here to help you,” Vaneese replied, jabbing a finger at him. “Strict intervention. Well, I was here to have a good night out with my friends, but you take priority, right now.”

Puzzled, Cameron took the bait. Either he walked away or he didn’t. Either he sorted things out, or left perpetually confused and regretful. “Alright. I’ll listen to what you have to say. I warn you, though, I’m feeling mad. Really fu*king mad for what has happened.”

“I know.” Vaneese gave a small flick of her wrist. “I don’t blame you. My sister is a complete idiot.”

Cameron blinked astonishment. He had been expecting Vaneese to flog him with reasons why Aleshia did what she did, and admonish him at the same time. He didn’t anticipate this. “What?”

“You heard me. My sister’s an idiot. I love her to bits, and I support her choices, but she fu*ked up with you.”

Kiara slurped on her drink, with Faye still boggling in that vapid way of hers. Kiara leaned over to whisper into her ear, updating Faye on the situation. The rage inside Cameron dwindled in the face of Vaneese’s admission, like a popped balloon. The pride that reared its monstrous head quietened into a low growl.

“I wondered if it was my fault. Something I did,” he said, eventually. “I didn’t understand.”

“My sister was having a mid-life crisis, you could say. It was like this. She liked you. But it happened fast – when she was barely weeks out of a damaging relationship. She wanted to believe you – but her former partners betrayed her trust. Peter, fu*ker that he was, truly did a number to her brain. Bigger than you realize.”

Cameron slowly nodded, digesting the information. “I heard about Peter, yes. I even saw some of the text messages.”

“Thank fu*k she deleted them,” Vaneese said fervently.

“She deleted?” Cameron scratched his chin, puzzled. “Didn’t she say she was planning to let him have a chance with the… baby?”

Vaneese shrugged. “Yeah. I guess you weren’t around for that part. Yes, she deleted him, same day she decided to have her little meltdown. Babbled a lot of confusing things at me. How she didn’t want to see you turn into Peter, or trap you in a sh*tty relationship, and see you betray her, and wanted to keep the good memories and sort out her sh*t without just latching onto the next available person. Basically, a lot of bullsh*t excuses to try and justify the fact she was running away from you.” The formidable woman tried out Kiara’s drink, savoring the taste. “She was too damn scared to be happy.”

A long silence pervaded, though it came pleasantly, without tension. Vaneese kept the half-smile on her lips. She saw appreciatively that Cameron seriously processed the words, clamping down his urges to argue, to rage.

The realtor sighed and aggressively drank his gin, emptying it in two gulps. “I hated that she blanked me out. I thought… we reached a kind of understanding. I told her about how I lacked responsibility, how I just… drifted through my life, screwing and working and following my dad’s footsteps. Then I felt. Something. You know. Something powerful for that woman. I considered things I never did. Was preparing myself to find a way to introduce her to my family. Then. She vanished.”