Элла Франк - Exquisite

“What are you doing here Mason?” she paused then added, “You made it pretty clear you never wanted to speak to me again.”

He winced and nodded, “I know. I’m sorry if I hurt you.”

“If?” she asked in disbelief then she seemed to mellow, “Well it doesn’t matter because I hurt you first.”

He looked right at her then, locking eyes with her and said honestly, “Yes you did.”

She didn’t flinch she just stood there, rigid against the door gripping the handle like it was a life line. She swallowed and stated bluntly. “I don’t know what else you want from me.” she bit her bottom lip and continued, “I’ve said I’m sorry. I gave you back your key. I’ve stayed the hell away from you. What else Mason? What do you want?”

He stood tall and moved toward her. He stopped when there were a few inches between them. He didn’t reach out, didn’t touch her, but he looked down and shook his head.

“Nothing. I don’t want anything from you.”

Sucking back a deep breath Lena felt the tears well in her eyes. She’d promised herself she would not cry in front of him. She blinked quickly trying to keep them back and tried to turn her sorrow into anger. How could he be so cruel?

“Why are you being so mean?” she paused and watched him tilt his head to the side as if he didn’t understand.

“I get it Mason. I know you don’t want anything to do with me, it was pretty obvious when you told the doorman to take my key. Did you really need to come here to tell me you no longer want anything to do with me?”

He shook his head and she watched his mouth flatten. “I suppose I said that wrong then. What I meant was, I don’t need you to do anything else. I know you’re sorry. I understand you feel terrible. I know you weren’t trying to be malicious with what you did.”

Lena let out a shuddering breath and raised her eyes to his. She still had a death grip on the handle and he was standing still as a statue in front of her.

“Then why are you here?”

She watched him swallow then turn and walk back to lean against the wall, and she noticed for the first time how different he looked since the last time she’d seen him. He was starting to resemble the old Mason, except the eyes were still too cold and the expression on his face had lost it’s usual warmth. He had, however, shaved and cut his hair and was wearing jeans and a grey charcoal sweater with that burgundy scarf now draped around his neck, hanging down on each side.

He crossed his arms over his chest and spoke steadily. “We finally read mom’s Will yesterday.”

Lena literally stopped breathing for a minute then made herself take a deep breath wondering where this was heading. She remained silent waiting for him to continue.

“You were in it.”

Lena finally let go off the door knob and raised one hand to the side of her face and the other to cover her mouth, which had fallen open. “I don’t understand.”

Mason’s eyes focused on hers and seemed to pin her to the door. “She left you a portion of Precious Petals.”

Feeling her eyes widen Lena couldn’t breathe. She felt as though she was starting to hyperventilate.

“Are you ok?”

She heard him ask through the ringing in her ears. Leaning down resting her butt on the door and putting her hands on her knees she dropped her head between her legs and tried to focus on breathing. Why would Catherine do this? What did she know about running a flower shop? Plus she wasn’t even part of the family and she definitely never would be now. This was a nightmare. When she finally had her breathing under control she straightened back up and her questions must have been in her eyes because Mason answered them.

“I don’t know why she did it. All I know is she did.”

Nodding Lena tried to think of what to say. “Well. I’ll give it to you or to Rachel. Surely I can give it back to you?”

She watched him shake his head. “Nope part of the clause is that you’ll help run and overlook the store for a full year and then if you choose to sell or give it to us after that you may, however, you’ll still be given seven standard sized sunflowers per week for the rest of your life.”

“Oh my God.” Lena said slowly, now holding her chest. Blinking over at him she shook her head, “I’m sorry I had no idea she’d done that.”

He pushed up and off the wall and grabbed his coat. He shrugged it on and made his way toward her, presumably to go out the door in which he came.

“I know. None of us saw it coming. Except her.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a sealed envelope. It had her name written in cursive on the front. “We all got one, even you.”

Lena reached out to take it and when she gripped it he spoke softly, “I wanted to rip this up and I wanted to read it, but none of it compared to how badly I wanted to use it as an excuse to see you.”

Her eyes flicked up to his and she could see he was trying to decide whether to continue or leave it at that.

He let go of the envelope and whispered softly, “I want to forgive you Lena. Every day I try. I just can’t right now.”

Lena felt a tear slide down her cheek but she refused to wipe it away. He stepped back and she moved away from the door clutching the letter. He opened it and stepped outside. Turning in the snow he looked up at her on the porch and she thought he was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.

“My new number is on the bottom of the envelope.”

Lena nodded and watched him walk away wishing there was something, anything she could do to make him stay.

Christmas had come and gone. Lena’s parents had come down to visit on Christmas Eve and it’d gone well. It was the first Christmas in years where Lena had been able to discuss anything relating to her sister. The only ache in her heart this time around was caused by a six-foot three-man, who was still not speaking to her. Her mother had asked about Mason but she hadn’t known what to say, so instead she’d told her about Catherine, cried and hugged her. Somehow she couldn’t bring herself to tell her that she’d known all along that Mason’s mother was sick. She couldn’t bear the judgment that would cross her mother’s face as it had Mason’s.

Lena had just got back from her run and was sitting down taking her shoes off when she looked across to the desk by the window. Sitting on top of the mail was the envelope Mason had given her. Lena had procrastinated for the last few days on what could be in that letter but she still hadn’t had the guts to open it. Sighing, she kicked off her shoes and leaned back on the couch. Rubbing her eyes she tried to imagine what Catherine had possibly wanted to say to her. She knew she took first place when it came to putting things off, but this was something she knew she had to do.

Lena decided she was going to go down to visit Catherine and she would take the letter with her. Standing up she padded into her bedroom to get her coat, she looked over to the dresser where the picture of Carly sat. She remembered the night Mason had first asked her about Carly, Lena had not been very receptive, and if she was being honest she now found herself in a similar situation. Mason was hurting, she knew the grief he was suffering was so deep that it was hard to crawl out of, and she also knew that she hadn’t helped the issue. No matter which way she looked at it there wasn’t any other way she could have handled it. Either way, whether she’d told him or the fact that she had not, someone would’ve been hurt or disappointed. In the end, she’d chosen to go with her professional opinion, but unfortunately Mason didn’t want to hear that. She grabbed a coat and walked back out to the living room. Picking up the envelope she stuffed her feet into her boots and made her way out the door. It was time to go and talk to an old friend.

Mason’s head hurt. He was lying in bed and the sun was beaming through the window hitting him right in the eye. Last night had been rough, he’d gone down to the local nightclub and had a few too many Scotch on the rocks. This had become a ritual for him. He found it difficult to sleep at night, nightmares seem to plague him where he got a phone call and some strange man told them his mother had died. So yeah, drinking himself to sleep seemed like a much better idea. Until the morning that is.

His head was throbbing his mouth tasted horrible and quite honestly he felt miserable. He hadn’t shown up at Exquisite three nights this week and he knew Rachel was going to kick his ass, not to mention what Wendy would do. Mason knew he’d been slacking, he had no excuse and honestly he didn’t care, it seemed like the last two months of his life had gone to shit real quick. He didn’t really see a way out. There was no way he could bring back his mother, there was no way he could forget the pain of betrayal, and he was starting to think there was no way he would ever be able to forget her. He should know he’d tried. No matter how much liquor he drank or how many women he looked at, all he thought about was Lena.

He’d tried over and over to tell himself that what she’d done had not been done maliciously but no matter which way he looked at it the fact that she’d known something was wrong, killed him. Sitting up he ran a hand through his hair and groaned as his stomach lurched. Yawning he stood and stretched his arms above his head and that’s when he heard the knock. He walked to the door slowly and the knocks sounded again.

“Alright alright I’m coming.” he grumbled as he moved toward the door quicker.