INSTALLMENT 40
Alicia Salgado's Apartment:
Alicia paces back and forth in her apartment. Her mind is filled with
images of her boyfriend kissing another woman. For weeks, she kept
telling herself she was being paranoid about Stephen and his "friendship"
with Melinda. How wrong she was, she thinks bitterly, and determines
her next move.
Opening her closet door, she moves the rows of clothes over to
the side where a large collage of pictures leans against the wall. Her
eyes are focused on the collage and she carefully removes it from the closet.
She places the collage on her bed and stares at it. Her anger builds as
she looks over the photos of all of the men who've done her wrong. She
reluctantly pulls out her purse looking for Stephen's picture. She takes it out
and places it on the collage then removes a black marker.
"Just another man whose screwed me over." She fumes. She
takes the marker and draws a huge black X across his face.
Gazing at the collage she notices Thomas' picture. Renewed rage
bubbles up as well as memories of her late brother. She's been too
soft. She came to town to make Thomas miserable for entering her families
life. If she hadn't been dating Stephen during the past few weeks, she would
have continued making his life miserable.
"Thank you Stephen for betraying me. Now I realize my true purpose
for being in Hope Falls. It pains me that you turned out like all the other
men in my life but seeing you with Melinda renews my purpose. I will
inflict misery on those around me who deserve it." Alicia laughs and draws
an X across Thomas' face.
The doorbell rings breaking her thought process. Hurriedly, she places the
collage back in the closet and takes a deep breath before heading for the door.
Alicia opens the door and is surprised to see Wally . "What are you doing here?"
"We had a tutoring session. Remember?" Wally remarks and holds up
his backpack.
"Yes, Yes, come in. I totally forgot." Alicia motions Wally into
her apartment.
Closing the door behind them, she gazes at him as he walks towards her sofa
and smiles at what she sees.
O'leary's
Thomas makes his way into O'leary's relieved to be out of the office for
lunch. Finding a table in the back of the restaurant, he sits down away from
the busy crowd to enjoy lunch by himself and quickly orders coffee. Just then,
his cell phone starts to vibrate and he notices Jonathan's number on the caller ID.
Taking a deep breath, he decides to face the music and answers his cell phone.
"Hello Jonathan. How are you?" Thomas asks quietly.
"Considering I was stood up at Bandera's a few nights ago , not too bad."
Jonathan replies.
Thomas realizes he's in deep with Jonathan, "I'm so sorry about dinner. I
had to work late and it was short notice."
"I understand having to work late. What I don't understand is why you
didn't see fit to call and let me know. I was at the restaurant for over an
hour until it dawned on me that you weren't coming."
Thomas tries to come up with a suitable response to Jonathan's
statement. He takes a sip of coffee that the waiter has just set in front of
him and sits back in his chair.
"I know I should have called you but I was so busy that I completely
forgot." Thomas then pauses for a second, "I'll make it up to you, I
promise."
Jonathan sighs on the other end of the phone, "Thomas, I have to be
honest with you. I enjoy hanging out with you but I get the distinct feeling
that you're holding back. Perhaps, you aren't ready to move beyond
friendship and I want you to be honest. If not to me, then at least to
yourself."
"What are you talking about? I told you I had to work late and it was
short notice." Thomas explains.
"We've been playing this game with each other for months now. I
understood when you came to town that you were getting over what
happened to Luis." Jonathan stops for a second, "I was hoping you were
making progress with that but I guess I'm wrong. When you pulled away
from me at the gallery, it should have dawned on me that you aren't ready
for anything more then friendship."
"So because I didn't want to mix business with pleasure, you assume I'm
not ready for a relationship?" Thomas demands.
"No, that isn't why I don't think you're ready for a relationship. You
tense up when I touch you, you get defensive when I flirt with you, and you
cancel dinner dates. You know this isn't the only time you've done that. I
think we should just be friends, it's obviously what you want."
Thomas can't believe what's hearing, though deep down he isn't
surprised. "Listen, give me another chance. I promise I'll be different."
Jonathan sighs, vowing to himself that this is the best thing for both of
them, "Thomas, I think you need to talk to someone. I thought I was
enough but now I know you need the help of a professional. Before I
change my mind, I have to get back to work at the gallery. I'll call you
later."
Before Thomas can say anything else, he hears his cell phone
disconnect. Sitting in his chair, he decides that perhaps Jonathan is correct
and he needs to talk to a professional. Looking through his wallet, he
notices a business card with Dr. Jackson Alfaro's name on it. Perhaps he can
help him make peace with the past.
Hope Falls University
Nina makes her way to a table in the student union to do some studying.
Setting up her laptop, she prepares to start writing her first research paper
of the semester. With excitement, she looks over her the assignment and
realizes how weird she is.
Focusing back on her laptop, she clicks open her desktop and waits for
the computer to load. She looks up and her excitement
fades away. Standing in her view is Henry and he's smiling at her.
"It must be my lucky day." Nina snarks, trying to focus her attention on
her laptop.
"Sorry to disappoint you but I wasn't looking for you." Henry replies,
sarcasm dripping in his voice. "Since we have that out of the way, I was
wondering if I could join you. Don't worry it's just as a friend."
"Go right ahead, it's a free country." Nina replies, removing her backpack
from the table. He sits down across from her, backpack in hand.
"What brings you to lovely Hope Falls University today?"
"Oh, I didn't tell you?" Henry asks, noticing Nina's quizzical look. "I
transfered from Northwestern to Hope Falls University. Fortunately, my
father knows people or I wouldn't have been able to register for fall classes."
"Why did you do that? Did you go through all the girls at Northwestern
already?" Nina asks innocently.
"Good one. No, the dean and I had a difference of opinion. He wanted
me to attend class and I needed to sleep off my nights out at the bars."
Nina rolls her eyes, "My parents made me transfer here. I guess so they
could keep a eye on me." Henry replies.
"Listen, I wanted to ask if you've heard from Katie lately?" Nina asks,
trying to change the subject.
"Given that you two are best friends, you would hear from her before I would.
Did you guys have a fight or something over little ole me?" Henry cracks with a
cocky grin.
Nina rolls her eyes, "Dream on. I haven't talked to her in over a week. I
went to her house to see her but she was acting weird. If I didn't know
better, I would say she's still bummed about breaking up with you."
"No, I haven't heard from her. As you can imagine, I would be the last
person she would want to see. What do Melinda and Wally say?" Henry
asks, growing serious all of a sudden.
"They're as clueless as I am over what's wrong with her. They just
assume it's because you dumped her. So don't be surprised if they hunt
you down." Nina replies.
"I'll keep that in mind." Henry replies, He pauses and looks at several
people pointing towards him. "Gosh, I can't seem to escape the spotlight.
No matter where I go, people just notice me."
Nina follows Henry's gaze and notices that people are whispering and
pointing at their table. She knows they aren't doing anything to call
attention to themselves. Turning around, she motions for one of her
classmates, Trevor, to come to her table.
"Trevor, why is everyone pointing at us?"
Trevor thinks for a second then grins, "They aren't pointing at you. They're pointing
at him." He motions towards Henry. "I guess people want to know how
it feels dating a semi-nude model. Here, let me show you."
Trevor types a web address on Nina's laptop and sits back waiting for it
to load. After about a minute, images of Katie start to download onto the
site called Angel's Goodies.
"Anyway, I'm late for my class but I hope that answers your question."
Trevor reponds before walking away.
Both Nina and Henry stare at the laptop with their mouth's open.
Falmont Enterprise:
Elizabeth stands outside of her father's office door trying to gather the
strength to enter. Reheasing how to admit her mistake in hiring Nico has
been knawing at her for days. She has to follow through or else her
declaration of independence from Nico was for naught.
Finally gathering enough strength, she slowly opens George's office
door. Stepping into his office, she tries to tell herself that she isn't going to
see the principal but nothings works.
"Elizabeth, what a surprise. Have a seat." George invites.
"Are you sure I'm not interrupting anything important, Dad?" Elizabeth asks,
staying by his office door in case he's too busy.
"Nothing is more important than my children. Please have a seat."
George clicks on his screensaver. "What can I do for my
favorite child?"
Elizabeth edges her way to the chair facing him and sits down slowly.
"I wanted to talk to you about Nico." Elizabeth says simply, unable to find
the words to followup that statement.
"What about him? Are you having problems with him?" George asks,
unable to resist throwing in his two cents. "If it were me, I would have fired
his ass a long time ago. He's costing this company more money then he's
bringing in right now. His expense report alone can feed a third world
nation!"
"I figured you would say that." Elizabeth spits out. This conversation
wasn't going the way she hoped.
"Elizabeth, you hired him and you need to be the one to fire him."
George replies. "This is one of the many things someone in charge goes
through. If you want me to treat you like an executive, you need to act
like it. You can't always run to me when you're scared to do something."
"Dad, I did try to talk to him about his expense report but to no avail. I'm
at my wit's end with him."
"Elizabeth, you need to take care of this yourself. Prove to me that I
was right about your potential to take over my company." George
responds, "If you can't do this, then maybe I've been wrong all these years."
Elizabeth gulps, "What do you mean by that?"
"Maybe you aren't ready to follow in my footsteps. If you're afraid you
disappointed me because of Nico, then don't be. I can't tell you how many
mistakes I made when I starting out after college. The trick is learning from
your mistakes and making sure not to repeat them." George pauses, "The
moment I met Nico, I knew it was going to be a disaster. However, you
were the one to hire him and I knew you needed to see for yourself that
hiring him was a mistake."
"Dad, I'll do what needs to be done. I'm sorry I disappointed you."
Elizabeth states, getting out of her chair to hug her father.
"I'm not disappointed in you. I'm just confused over why it took you so
long to come to the same conclusion as I have about Nico." George
wonders, taking a seat at his desk, "Is there anything you want to tell me?"
Elizabeth shakes her head "No, I'll take care of it." She then
heads out of her father's office feeling like a complete failure.
Alicia Salgado's Apartment
"So what subject do you need help with now?" Alicia asks, sitting down
next to Wally on the sofa. "The semester just started two weeks ago."
Wally takes out his trigonometry book and sets it down on the coffee
table in front of him. He looks over at Alicia, indicating he's just given her
the answer.
Alicia laughs, "I'm a tutor, not a miracle worker. I can recommend one
of the math tutors in the student center to help you out." Alicia offers,
looking to find the name but realizes her purse is still in her bedroom.
"No, that's OK. I guess my sister Melinda can help me out with it later."
Wally replies, putting the textbook back in his backpack. "I just wanted to
come over and see you."
Alicia perks up, "I'm flattered that a guy pretended to need tutoring just
to see me. You know you're always welcome to come over. Academic
or otherwise."
"I'll keep that in mind. Not to change the subject but are you alright?"
Wally asks, staring intently into her eyes. "It seems like you were in the
middle of something when I came over."
"No, just lamenting the sad state of men." Alicia replies, looking
over at Wally, "No offense but sometimes men drive me crazy."
Wally nods and smiles, "This is true. Of course, I haven't had the
opportunity to join in on that. You do recall my lack of luck with women."
"I'm going to tell you something right now that might make you feel
better. I was the same way to guys when I was in college. If I could do it
over, I would go for someone like you." Alicia admits, then remembers
something, "Did you mention you had a sister named Melinda?"
"Yes, I do. She's a bartender down at O'leary's." Wally replies, before
looking through his backpack. "I've mentioned her to you before."
"I guess you have, it just didn't register with me." Alicia replies, thinking to
herself that she's found the perfect way to make Melinda miserable for
tempting Stephen, "By the way, I know how you feel about me."
"You do? Is it that obvious?" Wally asks, embarrassed.
Alicia laughs then kisses him, "Yes, but that's part of what makes you
so irresistible to me. You're still a sweet, thoughtful person. Please don't
lose that as you get older.
Wally is taken aback by this, "Hey, aren't you dating someone?"
"Let's just say the reason I'm distracted is because he betrayed me.
I know this because I saw him locking lips with another woman in the
parking lot." Alicia replies with bitterness, "However, I know you would
never do that to anyone you were involved with, would you?"
Wally nods his agreement before he receives another kiss from Alicia.
This time he responds to her with passionate kisses of his own. The
intense heat begins to build between the two and he lifts her off the sofa
and into his arms.
They continue kissing as he carries her to the bedroom. Throwing caution
to the wind, he lays her on the bed and begins to work his magic fingers up
her body. When he reaches the base of her neck, he starts
to unbutton her blouse, amazed at how natural this is coming to him.
Before he can fully undress her, she rolls on top of him ready to take control.
She starts to pull his shirt over his head and places sensual kisses up and down
his bare chest. She marvels at how nicely this is all working out for her.
