May I: Anything But Sweetness

Eli and Ria had stepped into a rather large looking room; golden walls and ceiling; a large, but beautiful chandelier hung above in the middle, casting light fragments and making it appear as if they had just stepped into a palace-like-setting. 

“Pretty impressive.” Ria offered as she walked into the room, clearly in awe as she looked around. She paused when a gentleman with peppered black and white hair, blue eyes and dressed in a tuxedo, held her gaze before nodding.

A rather tall woman, blonde hair up in a tight bun; was standing next to him. She was wearing a sea green dress: v-neck, sleeveless, and stopped mid-length to her thigh. A white pearl necklace with matching earrings. Genuine smile on her lips, leaning over to talk with another woman with high cheek bones; black curly hair pulled up into a ponytail.  

Stepping up beside her, Eli had almost the same reaction as she did. “I’d say. I feel like we’ve just stepped into a palace, instead of a hotel.” Rubbing at his forehead, he noticed a man coming up towards them.

“Looks like we’ve got company.” She nodded over to the woman and her husband that she had noticed a few minutes prior. Touching his wife’s shoulder, the guy finished and walked over to them.

“Hi, my name is Matthew Walker. My wife, Lori and I are in tonight’s dance competition.” He gestured to his wife behind him and then held out his hand in a friendly greeting. “You and your husband been dancing long?”

Ria and Eli exchanged a glance, and they silently came to an agreement. “We just started about a year ago. “

“Actually, we were supposed to meet a friend here.” Ria chimed in, looking around again.

“Does your friend dance the competitions often?” He paused, “The reason why I ask is because my wife and I go to most every event, and we may be able to help you find him.” They turned around to see about a few hundred people now in the room.

“Yeah, we didn’t really ask.” Ria raised her brow, “Wow. That filled up fast.” Eli looked just as surprise, nodding in agreement.

“Yeah, really.”

“Biggest event of the year.”Chiming in, Michael threw his hand up in the air with a big smile on his face. Gesturing with his hand to his wife, she finished up talking to an older couple, who looked clearly fit and in love. She walked over with a formal smile on her face from the previous conversation. “Lori this is—”

“Kate Finnegan.” Ria offered her undercover name and shook her hand. Despite being one of the nicest couple, it wasn’t easy to lie.  

“Nice to meet you.” Lori offered politely, shaking her hand with a firm shake and returned it back to her side.

“Oh—Paul Finnegan.” He hesitated, testing out the last name on the tip of his tongue. Making a mental note to ask Ria about that later, he shook both of their hands; partially distracted as he kept an eye on the growing crowd of people.

Jacob Donovan was five-two, light sandy brown hair, but apparently had made a dramatic identity change, according to some of the neighbors that they had talked to earlier.

After giving their formal greetings, Michael continued. “I was just telling Kate and Paul about the dance competitions that we participate in each year.”

“About fifteen years ago, my husband and I were invited by some friends to go dancing—” Lori hesitated excitedly, “And we’ve been dancing ever since.” beaming brightly. They were totally oblivious what they were up to and Eli was sure that they wanted to keep it that way.

Michael smiled, turning back to Ria and Eli. ”You mentioned you were meeting your friend here.”

Eli rubbed at his chin briskly, putting his hand back by his side. “Yeah, his name is Jacob Donovan.”

“Jake.” Upon speaking his name, Lori brightened; her green eyes shone as she turned to face the other side of the room. “Brown spiky hair, glasses and a charming smile?”

“That would be him.” Eli chimed in, playing along. Ria smiled and nodded, exchanging a side-glance with him that they had gotten the information that needed.

“He was over at the judge’s table a few minutes ago—”

Michael turned and leaned over to his wife. “Charming smile?” At first, he could have been the works of a jealous husband, but upon further inspection, he was smiling at her. She hit his shoulder playfully and shook her head, turning back towards them to explain. “Michael likes to be a bit of a tease sometimes. It’s what I first noticed when we met thirty years ago.”

“Thirty, really?” Intrigued, Eli looked a bit surprised, exchanging another glance with Ria. “I never would have guessed.”

“Yeah—” Lori chimed in breathlessly. “Michael, isn’t that Giovanni?” She pointed out an older gentleman with black hair and dressed in a black dress coat and white shirt who was also spotted across the room, but near the far corner and away from the general crowd.

“Indeed it is.” He nodded, slightly distracted as he turned back to them. “Please excuse us.” Both Ria and Eli nodded back at them and they left, quickly crossing the room.

As soon as he was sure they were not within earshot, Eli muttered. “Well that was fun.” Ria nodded, scanning the room.

Squinting, she pointed out a man that had his back towards them and was going through something that was sitting on the table. “There.” With that, they began walking side by side; her heels echoing—despite all the continuing chatter.

---

Slowly, her eyes fluttered open.  Gillian noted the quietness. Her position on the couch was the same—except for the blanket that was now over her body. She went over the fact that she no longer had a headache: tried to remember why that was so.

The last thing she recalled was having an argument with Cal, who had shown up at her house unexpectedly. He had given her a glass of water and a few Tylenols, that she didn’t remember taking.

Listening to the silence, she heard slight movement in the kitchen and sat up. The noise startled her a bit. Was Cal still in her house? She groaned, wavering slightly at the dizziness she was feeling again; most likely from the fact that she had sat up a little too quickly.

Closing her eyes, she heard a cup rattling against a plate and opened them up to see Cal walking over; holding a cup of something steaming and a plate of toast.

“Good, you’re up.”Cal greeted, placing everything on the coffee table. “How are you feeling, love?”

How long had she been asleep?

 Gillian shrugged, placing the question in the back of her mind. She shot a glance towards the window. The sky was dark now and she remembered that when he had come, the sun had still been up. “I’ve been better.”

He nodded, but not happily. “I took the liberty of going through all your cabinets to find your thermometer.

 All of the cabinets?

A slight disbelief registered on her face, “You went through all my cabinets? Cal—you know my place like the back of your hand. You stayed here—”

“Once.” Clarifying, he sat on the edge of the coffee table. “I suggest you drink the tea and eat the toast.” She opened her mouth to say something, but he continued as he pushed the cup and plate towards the edge; signaling that he was serious. “And you’d better not say that you’re not hungry, because I’m not going to have you fainting again on my watch.”

On his watch? Just how long was he planning to stay here?

Slowly placing her legs over the edge of the couch, she reached over and took the cup into

hand. The action made her feel lightheaded, so she placed the cup on the arm of the couch to cool, with no intention of drinking. “I assume that there’s another option—because I know you, Cal. You have a way of just making your way in and doing it your way, but you crossed a line.”

“See, now that was the explanation that I was trying to tell you about earlier.” He gestured, leaning back on his hand slightly.

“When?” Gillian inquired in a low voice, swallowing harshly. By the way her eyes gleamed, he could tell that she was holding back a lot of emotion.

He gazed into the intensity of her stare, pursing his lips together. “After we worked on the experimental drug case, I got a call from Ava that must have been forwarded to my voicemail.”

“That was five months ago!” She seethed, a tear escaping down her cheek. “And you didn’t think at any time to tell me about this?”

“I didn’t think I had to” He countered, voice rising. “I called her back— told her that I shouldn’t be the one that she should be talking to in the first place.” They both paused to take a breath and cool down, and then he continued. “I told her that she should be talking to you, and you know what she told me? That she had your number sitting right on her lap, but she couldn’t get her fingers to press the numbers.”

Her expression mellowed slightly, some of the anger falling at his revelation. More confusion took place as she brushed some hair behind her ear. ”I could tell just by the tone of her voice that she felt quite nervous and tormented at seeing you again.”

Eyes flickering up to his, she read his expression. Her brows raised, lips relaxed in surprise. “She thought that I was angry at her for taking away Sophie.”

“For many different reasons, actually.” He clarified, leaning forward and taking a bite of her toast. “That being one of em’ ”

Gazing over at him, she looked half amused. ”I thought you said that I should eat the toast— in order to avoid another fainting spell. Not for you to eat it.”He was in the middle of taking another bite, when he looked back at her.

“I did.” He finished chewing, and then swallowed. “But then again—we both know that you weren’t going to eat it.”