Alex didn’t kiss like Jonah or Daniel, or even Jake, although my memory of that night with Jake when I attempted suicide was a little fuzzy. Alex’s kiss was insistent, demanding. He wanted all of me and he wanted me now. And I wanted him too.
He pulled my shirt over my head, and I let him.
Then he laid down on top of me and I could feel his erection through his jeans. But I didn’t pull away. Instead, I hooked my leg over his, pulling him closer.
I was still wearing my bra, but the material was thin. Alex teased my breast through the gauzy fabric, and I let him. Then he pushed the fabric aside and sucked on my nipple, and I let him do that too.
His style was rougher than I was used to. There was no finesse, just naked desire. But it didn’t deter me. If anything, it made me want him more.
Then my cell phone, which was sitting on the coffee table, buzzed. We both ignored it as Alex unzipped his jeans. It buzzed again while I wriggled out of my pants. And it kept buzzing until eventually I could no longer ignore it.
“I’m sorry,” I said, pushing Alex off me. We were both still wearing our underwear, but I doubted we would be for long. “I have to answer this.” Then I sat upright and reached for my phone. It was MJ’s name on the caller ID.
“Hey, MJ, what’s up?” I said, trying to sound normal and not all like someone who was about to have sex with his uncle.
“It’s Aunt Maddy.” He sounded out of breath, as if he’d just come home from a run. “Something’s wrong.”
I jumped up from the couch. “What’s wrong? Is she okay?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I can’t understand what she’s saying and she’s kind of walking funny.”
I started pacing the living room. “Is she drunk?”
“I didn’t see her drink nothing with dinner,” he said. “Just water.”
“Put her on the phone. Let me talk to her.” I noticed Alex pulled his jeans back up and I reached for my pants too.
I recognized my aunt’s voice, but her words were slurred and I couldn’t understand what she was saying. I yelled MJ’s name until he took the phone back.
“See what I mean,” he said.
“Get the landline and call nine-one-one right now.”
“But—”
“Just do it!” I screamed.
I heard the 911 operator ask him what was his emergency.
“Tell her you’re home with your aunt and she’s having some kind of medical issue. Tell them they need to send an ambulance.”
I coached him through the rest of the 911 operator’s questions then told him I’d call him back and hung up. I needed to call my mother.
“What can I do?” Alex, now fully clothed, asked.
He’d heard everything so I didn’t need to explain. “Nothing,” I said as I tapped on my mother’s number.
Alex handed me my shirt, which I pulled over my head while I listened to the phone ring, willing my mother to pick up. When she didn’t, I left her a voicemail telling her it was urgent and to call me back right away. Then I turned to Alex. “I have to go home. Let Igor know I won’t be in tomorrow. Tell him I had a family emergency.”
“Sure,” he said.
I ran to my bedroom for my shoes and purse. When I came back into the hallway, Alex was waiting for me with his keys in his hand. “I’ll drive.”
“You don’t need—”
“You’re not going alone, Grace. I’m coming with you.”
I was glad Alex had insisted on driving. It left me free to bounce back and forth between calls with my mother and MJ. When the ambulance arrived at my aunt’s house, I insisted MJ stay home with Sofia. I told him I would go directly to the hospital, and I’d call him as soon as I knew anything.
When Alex and I arrived at the emergency room, the doctor informed us my aunt had suffered a stroke but she was in stable condition.
“She received treatment quickly,” the doctor said. “That’s the good news. We have no reason to think she won’t make a full recovery, but it’ll take time. Is there anyone at home who can care for her?”
“Yes,” I said. My mom and I would figure something out.
“Good,” the doctor said. “They’re admitting her now. Once she’s in a room, you can go up and see her.”
I thanked the doctor and collapsed onto the hard plastic chair in the waiting room. Alex sat with me until the nurse allowed me to go upstairs to my aunt’s room. Alex offered to accompany me, but I declined. “Will you stay at my aunt’s house tonight? I don’t like leaving MJ and Sofia there by themselves and someone needs to make sure they get to school in the morning.”
“Sure,” he said. “Whatever you need.”
“Thanks,” I replied and headed to the elevators.
When I walked into my aunt’s hospital room I was taken aback. Obviously, I knew she’d had a stroke, but the reality of it didn’t hit me until I saw her. In my mind, she was the aunt of my youth who I used to ride bikes with and who would stay up late with me and let me watch R-rated movies. The person in the hospital bed hooked up to beeping monitors was an old woman I didn’t recognize. I announced my presence and squeezed her hand, but my aunt didn’t move. The nurse told me she was sedated, but I could stay if I wanted. I spent the night fitfully dozing in the chair next to her bed.
In the morning I called Alex and asked if he would be willing to pick up my mother from the airport. She was flying in from San Francisco on an early flight. He agreed and brought her directly to the hospital.
I wasn’t sure how much my aunt had told my mother about Alex, but since my mother was preoccupied with my aunt’s medical condition, she didn’t ask me any questions about him. That day would come though. I was sure of it.
The doctors kept my aunt in the hospital for five days. They could’ve discharged her to a rehabilitation center since it was covered by her insurance, but she didn’t want to go. She wanted to come home. Since she couldn’t manage the stairs yet, we converted the dining room into a bedroom for her and used the living room for her at-home therapy. My mother slept in my aunt’s bedroom, and if Alex spent the night in Santa Veneta, which he did a few times, he stayed at my house in the Hills.
Igor had been understanding at first and had even sent flowers to my aunt’s hospital room. But by week two he wanted to know when I’d be back in LA. He still insisted we conduct all business in-person.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” I cried. It was just me and my mother at the kitchen table. My aunt and the kids were all asleep.
“Go back to work,” she said. “I’ll take care of Maddy.”
As far as my mother knew, Igor was a legitimate client and, at the moment, the only one I had. “What about the kids?” I said. They still had two more weeks of school.
“Sofia’s very sweet,” my mom said, “but I’m not sure I can take care of her and Maddy at the same time. Does MJ have his driver’s license yet? Maybe he could help.”
I shook my head. My dad had taught me to drive when I was sixteen, but we hadn’t even gotten MJ his learner’s permit yet. “Before all this happened, Alex and I were talking about bringing the kids down to LA for the summer.” Although I’d been so preoccupied with my aunt’s recovery I hadn’t actually made any plans.
“I think that’s a good idea. They’ll be bored at home with us all summer.”
“Alex still needs to clear it with Maria first. He’s driving up tomorrow. I’ll talk to him about it then.”
My mom reached for her mug and stood up. “You want coffee?” she asked, walking towards my aunt’s old drip coffeemaker. “It’s decaf.”
“There is no point in drinking decaffeinated coffee.” We’d had this friendly argument before.
“We’ll see if you still feel that way when you’re my age.” My mother refilled her mug and joined me at the table again. We sat together in silence, the only sound in the room the ticking of the kitschy wall clock, until my mom said, “Do you ever plan on telling me what’s going on with you and Alex?”
I kept my eyes focused on my water glass. “There’s nothing to tell. He’s MJ and Sofia’s uncle. You know that.”
“And you spend half the week living together in LA, but you sleep in separate bedrooms.”
She had obviously discussed this with my aunt. “Yes.”
“Yes? That’s it? No explanation?”
I sighed. “It’s not that I don’t want to explain.” That was a lie. The last thing I wanted to do was tell my mother that my new client was actually a Russian crime boss responsible for the murder of her son-in-law and granddaughter, but I was only working for him because I was a confidential informant for the FBI. “It’s just better if you don’t know.” That was true.
“Better for who?”
“All of you. Aunt Maddy and the kids don’t know either, and Alex and I want to keep it that way.”
“Alex and I want to keep it that way?” she parroted back.
I didn’t respond.
“Honestly, Grace, do you really expect me to believe you two are just roommates who sleep in separate bedrooms?”
“We do sleep in separate bedrooms!”
“I’m not blind, Grace. I see the way he looks at you.”
“How does he look at me?”
“Well, not like someone who’s sleeping in a separate bedroom!”
I thought back to the night of his birthday, which felt like months ago instead of only ten days, and sighed. “I swear to you, Mom, Alex and I have never slept together. The only reason we’re living together is because I didn’t want to have to commute from Santa Veneta to LA. That’s why I spend half the week there and half the week here.” Surely Aunt Maddy had told her that too.
“And you couldn’t just rent your own apartment in LA? You have to stay with Alex?”
I sighed. “It’s complicated. We’re working on a project together. But I can’t tell you about it, so don’t ask.”
“Right,” my mother said. “The secret project.”
I wondered again how much my aunt had told her. “Yes, Mom, it’s confidential. But you’ll be happy to know, I actually do have a plan.”
My mother huffed. “And since when does anything ever go according to plan.”