Which Way the Wind Blows

Chapter 19

Chris came home late on Friday, exhausted but feeling good that the campaign he and Monique had been working on all week had been so well received by their clients. The executives had loved all of the ideas they’d offered … even the way-out ones Joe stuck into some of the sketches. He and Joe had gone out for a bite after the meeting wrapped, meeting Joe’s boyfriend, Kee at small Mexican restaurant. It was the first time Chris met the guy, but he liked him instantly. Joe had an easygoing personality, really laidback and casual. Kee seemed to be a bundle of emotion and excitement, and Chris found himself laughing for most of the evening at his snide remarks and observations. Kee was a food photographer and worked with some very interesting people. He delighted Chris and Joe with the story of his arch nemesis, someone named Adriana, getting fired from Gourmet’s production staff earlier that day. She was escorted from the building out the back door, something Kee found hilarious and fitting for some reason.

It was now well past midnight and he figured needed to be quiet when he entered his apartment. Victoria had likely gone to bed to be fresh and ready for her big luncheon the next day. It had taken her over a month to arrange it all. Plus they still had a few more boxes to pack before they moved on Sunday. And something told him the move wasn’t soon enough for his ex. Warren either ignored him or glared at him whenever they managed to meet each other in the hallway, and it left him wondering where the sweet guy he used to date had gone. Though he supposed it was just one more thing he could attribute to himself and his old lifestyle. At any rate, he’d apologized to Warren, which was the least he could do and said he’d leave the building, and after Sunday he would have fulfilled that promise as well. If nothing else, at least he could give his ex that peace of mind.

He quietly opened the front door of the building and slipped through, closing the big heavy door behind him. A quiet giggle caught his attention before he could make it to the staircase and he glanced over to its source. There was Warren in front of his apartment door with a small brunette in his arms. He was licking a path from the man’s neck to his earlobe before he looked up and caught Chris’ eye. Giving his ex a wicked smirk he used his teeth to catch the lobe and nip at it, causing the same giggle.

“Enjoying the show?” Warren asked.

The guy in his arms gave Chris a cursory glance then prodded Warren into repeating the action on his other ear. The dark haired man obliged. Chris felt sick in the pit of his stomach as he stood still in shock. Was there anything left of the man Warren used to be? He wasn’t sure anymore. Shaking his head he walked to the stairs.

“What, you’re not turned on by this, Chris?” Warren sneered, bringing him to another temporary halt.

“Not really, no.”

“Why not? You used to watch pornos all the time with kinky stuff like this. Three-ways, guys watching other guys …”

Chris shook his head again. “Is that what you want then?” he asked, looking back over at Warren sadly. “To turn back time to when I was a prick?”

“You think you’re not one now?” Warren turned to him leaving the man he had been playing with standing by the door.

“I don’t know what I am now. But I do know that even back when I watched that shit, it was fantasy. I don’t think I ever suggested we act on it.”

“But I bet you thought it.”

Chris regarded the man coolly. He was beginning to feel less guilty and more annoyed with Warren the longer he lived near him. And it was tainting the memory of the guy he’d been with for six years. While he agreed he was the one to ruin the relationship, Warren was the one who controlled how he acted and what he did now. And Chris was tired of taking the blame for behavior like this.

“Actually no,” he replied. “I never had impulse to share you like that. Whatever we did was private.”

“But you shared yourself!” Warren spat back. “With her!” He pointed to the ceiling indicating the apartment above. Chris and Victoria’s apartment.

“You’re right,” the blonde sighed. “I was an asshole and I did cheat on you with her.” Warren gave him a smug superior look, so Chris added, “But you don’t have to become the prick I was in retaliation, Warren. The one you’ll be hurting the most will be you.”

“Fuck you!” Warren exploded. “I never wanted to become like you!”

“Then why have you?”

Chris didn’t give him a chance to reply. He stalked quickly up the stairs before his ex reduced him to tears again.

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Victoria stacked the bags of pretzels on top of the big plastic container of mixed lettuce in the cardboard box and sighed. That was everything she would need for the luncheon. She moaned softly as she stretched out her back, stiff from sitting in the same position for a long period of time. But it had been worth the time, as she’d finished with typing up the meeting materials. Now all she had to do was get them printed on her way to the Y. Then she would set up the room before she went back to office supply store and picked them up. The day should go smoothly, if all went according to plan. She shouldered her large bag with the meeting papers inside of it before she picked up the box and headed out.

She took the stairs carefully so that she didn’t drop anything, breathing in relief when her toe reached the bottom step. Suddenly she was knocked from behind and pushed out of the way as Mindy jerked the front door open.

“So sorry,” she sneered in a sickeningly sweet voice. She glared down at her triumphantly looking anything but sorry and making no move to help her.

Victoria looked around her at the salad that had spilled out all over the floor. One of the bags of pretzels had fallen under her and she knew they were crushed beyond recognition. She felt like crying right then. After all the work she’d done to get ready, this mean girl had thrown most of it off in two cruel seconds. And to top it all off, she thought she might have twisted her ankle. It throbbed beneath her as well. Chris apparently heard the commotion and ran down the stairs.

“You okay, Vic?”

“Oh, she’s fine!” Mindy hissed.

“Was I talking to you?” the blonde asked her coldly, clearly having had enough of both Warren and his sister. “No, I don’t believe I was!” He turned back to Victoria and helped her up.

“It’s all ruined!” she whimpered at him. “And I don’t have time to get more if I want to go to the print shop!”

“Don’t worry about it! I’ll help you!”

“You don’t have to,” she sniffled rotating her foot to make sure it was okay. It still throbbed a bit but she found she could put her weight on it. “You’ve been stressed out all week at work.”

“That project’s in now, so everything’s fine,” he assured her, picking up lettuce pieces and pretzel crumbs and throwing them into the box. Mindy watched them but they both ignored her. “Look, I’ll drop you off at Kinko’s and then I’ll run into the supermarket across the street and get more salad and pretzels, okay?”

“Uh, hello,” Mindy grunted.

“Fuck off!” Chris growled at her as he helped Victoria out the door.

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Chris helped Victoria hobble into the Y later on leaving her at one of the tables to collate her meeting material and staple them. Then he started to set up the food. The deli had delivered the platters of sandwiches, so all he really had to do was divide the pretzels into separate bowls for each table and put the salad into a huge plastic bowl already set out near the sandwich platters. There were other volunteers arriving to help set the tables up, so Victoria thanked him and sent him away after that, but not before he overrode her refusal on picking her up when the event was done.

When he was gone she got up and hobbled over to the door so that she could greet people on their way in. The women she was arranging the event for began to show up and shyly thanked her as they accepted their information packets and looked for a table. Most of the speakers were already in the room and some started approaching the tables when women sat down. Victoria smiled at one of the volunteers before turning back to the door and smiling brightly ready to hand the next person an information packet when she scowled at Mindy.

“What are you doing here?” she asked in a clipped tone.

“I followed you to see where you were going.”

“Why?”

“Why not?” Mindy sneered.

“Because this is none of your business,” Victoria replied. “Now, please leave.”

“The Y is open to the public,” Mindy countered.

“But this event is not,” Elaine said coming from behind Victoria to stand between her and Mindy. “If you’re not a volunteer or a woman on welfare looking for career advice, then I’m afraid we can’t let you in.” She gave the girl her coldest scathing look. “Sorry.”

Mindy scowled at her but Elaine turned away. She looked over Victoria’s flushed face then glanced down at her leg. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, why?”

“You’re bleeding.”

Victoria shot Mindy a frown before replying. “I had a … mishap on the way over.”

“I’ll bet.”

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Mindy walked back to her apartment still confused as to why Victoria was at some charity event. It wasn’t like she cared one way or the other. It was just puzzling. Though now she did feel kind of bad that she’d tripped her and made her spill some of the food she was bringing. Whatever her deal with Victoria was, she shouldn’t make other people suffer because of it.

“Hey,” Warren yawned sleepily from the kitchen table where he sat eating a bowl of cereal.

“Hey, yourself. Did your friend from last night leave?”

“David left before I came in,” he said. “He was only doing me a favor to get back at Chris.”

“Did it work?”

Warren shrugged and chewed his cereal thoughtfully.

“Well he was pretty pissed at me this morning,” Mindy added.

“What’d you do?” he asked around a mouthful.

“Tripped Cruella on her way out again.” She couldn’t escape the nagging guilt she was now feeling over it though. “It was probably really bad timing.”

“Why?”

“Well she was pretty upset and when he came out to see what was wrong he immediately helped her get herself together and offered to get replacement stuff for her.”

“Stuff?”

"Looked like she was carrying food somewhere,” Mindy lifted a shoulder carelessly. "I thought it was a party she was going to but when I followed her it turned out to be some charity thing.”

“Oh, Mindy,” Warren sighed.

“What?”

“She did a lot of charity work in Seattle, too. She was one of the few rich that actually cared about the people she was trying to help. I’m sure she organized the thing herself too.”

“Why do you care about them?”

“I didn’t say I did.”

“Sounds like you do.”

“Yeah, well, just because I don’t want them living here doesn’t mean I advocate pulling shit like that.” He pointed his spoon at her. “You’re better than that.”

“And what about you?” she countered.

Hesat back in his chair and groaned. “Point taken. How about we apologize to them tomorrow?”

“When? You have your usual brunch with the boys at 10 and I won’t be back until the afternoon.”

“Oh right. You’re staying with Calvin tonight.”

“Don’t say it like that,” she smirked.

“Whatever. So then tomorrow afternoon?”

“Okay,” she sighed. “Tomorrow afternoon.”

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Chris spent his time while he waited to pick up Victoria packing up the remainder of their things. He’d asked the movers to come at 11 the next morning. The sooner they got put of this place, the better, he’d decided resolutely.