Echoes in the Bayou (36 page)

 
"You're losing your edge Steve, your falling
apart." Magnus told him that night. They were in his hotel room having a
drink. Magnus went on to tell him that he was well aware of the fact that he
was using and that he would be canceling the rest of the book tour. He
continued by telling Steve that he would not be renewing his contract with him
either. When Steve objected, Magnus told him that he was finished, burnt out,
and that he wanted to go home. Home to Louisiana where he planned on getting
some much needed rest and then he was going to see Ava and ask her if she'd
take him back.

"I
can write in Vermont just as easily as I can in Louisiana," he told
him.  Steve said not a word but excused himself
to go to the bathroom and by the time he came out, his actions were more than
indicative of someone who'd just sniffed cocaine. "What the hell are you
doing? I'm trying to talk to you!" Magnus was angry now "Get the hell
out of my room man, don’t bring that shit in here. What the hell is wrong with
you?"

 
Steve looked around; he had begun to get paranoid.
"Why are you saying this Magnus? Why is everybody out to get me? He
sniffed.

"No
one is out to get you Steve, you just need help.
"

When he
didn’t respond, Magnus had no choice but to ask him once again to
leave his room. "We'll talk tomorrow man, I gotta
get some rest," Steve casually said and walked out of the room. Only he
didn’t go to his room, he went downstairs to the bar, he needed a drink.

He knew
that he fucked up, Magnus had told him that he was canceling the rest of the
tour and that meant that he was going to have to call and cancel the remaining
book signings.

"It's
all that bitches fault," he mumbled to himself.
"She took my Kelly away from me and now she's taking away my meal
ticket. To hell with that bitch. It's time that I get my Kelly back and teach
that bitch a lesson," he said and finished gulping down his drink.

Things
were getting out of hand and he knew that it would be up to him to regain
control. Not once did he consider his "habit" as being a part of the
problem no, his problem was Ava and only Ava. With her out of the picture he'd
not only be able to get back together with his ex-wife but he'd also be able to
get Magnus back on track.
Back on track and
making me lots of money,
Steve thought to
himself
.

The next
morning, Magnus didn’t bother with waiting for Steve to make the necessary
calls canceling the book tour, he'd made them himself. He booked a flight back
home to Louisiana and left the hotel. Had he bothered to check in on Steve he
would have found out that he had checked out hours earlier and was already on
his way back home to New Orleans.

The
plantation seemed dead, that was the only way word that he could find to
describe the place. It stood dreary, sad, unattended and looked just plain
miserable. "You look just how I feel," he spoke to the old house as
if it were an old friend. The doors mumbled and moaned as he opened them and
stepped inside. There was packing to be done and affairs to get in order.
During his flight he'd made up his mind to put the place up for sale, as is.

There was
no reason for him to hold on to the place because he was hoping to start a new
life with Ava. He could not wait to see her, see the look on her face when he
walked up to her. He wondered how she would react; he'd thought about calling
her and telling her that she should expect him within the next couple of weeks
but decided against it. Deep down he knew that she still loved him and he hoped
that she meant it and that she would wait. He imagined the male suitors calling
on her and the thought instantly made him jealous.

He
remembered whispering in her ear that he'd never love another and he meant it,
he only hoped that she felt the same. He laughed at himself when he pictured he
and Ava shoveling snow together and having snow ball fights.  The thought
alone made him feel like a kid again.
I was a
fool to even let you go in the first place Ava. Okay second stupid mistake,
three strikes and you're out Magnus,
he
told himself as he began packing up Ava's things.

 After
making several phone calls, Steve was excited when he found out that he could
make a connection in Vermont. There was after all, no way that he'd be able to
do what he needed to do without using a bit of coke. That was important. He could
book his flight into Burlington now and once he arrived there, a contact would
meet him at the airport and from there they would hook him up. "Won't be
long before things go back to the way they were," he slurred.

 
His world was crumbling down around him, not only had
his wife divorced him but Magnus had taken it upon himself to cancel the rest
of the book tour. Not only would there be hell to pay from the stores and fans
but a cancelled book tour meant that his paychecks would start dwindling. Magnus
had up and decided that he wanted to live the simple life with Ava; he no
longer wanted all the celebrity and stature that a bestselling author should
get.

Steve
suddenly felt as i
f Ava was the sole proprietor
of all of his problems and the only way he was going to get rid of those
problems was if he got rid of the proprietor, once and for all.

"I
think our dresses have arrived," said Kelly as she signed for the
delivery. "Along with the glassware that I purchased on eBay a few weeks
ago." She handed Ava the box of dresses while she excitedly opened the
large box full of antique glassware. Kelly seemed to know all about the
antique glassware and Ava was surprised. Before the online auction had started,
Kelly had told her that the Hocking Glass Co. produced "Mayfair"
glassware, also called
Open Rose,
between 1931-37.

 
Sterling and Ava stared at her in disbelief while she
told them all about the glassware.

"The
yellow antique "Mayfair" cookie jar alone," she told them,
"is worth more than $850."
  She
knew how to identify the authentic antique by its base. "Glass cookie jars
produced at that time were made with a slightly raised circular rim on the
jar's base and the newer reproductions are perfectly smooth on the bottom."

 
"Well, bid away then," Ava smiled at them
both.

She was
amazed at how it all seemed to be coming together
,
the baby was doing fine and she had managed to get her blood pressure down too.
Her two employees had turned out to be antique enthusiasts like herself, which
made her job a hell of a lot easier. She didn’t have to take the time to
explain certain pieces and what they were worth, both Kelly and Sterling
already knew. In fact, there were some instances where they seemed to know more
than she did and that was okay because she was never one to avoid learning
about something new. "This is my dream job," she told them.
"Every day I learn something new, so every day is a blessing."

To save
time, she and Kelly had ordered dresses online for the upcoming Chamber of
Commerce annual dinner. It was being held the first Saturday in April and It
was an event that Ava had never heard of. But the closer the date approached,
the more the townspeople were abuzz about it. She'd been invited as the
Chamber's newest member and she was quite proud of that fact.

 
She and Kelly had already made their hair appointments
too. Sterling had told them that it was the small town's social event of the
season so they had better book early. Ava had been thinking of doing something
different to her hair, and this would be the perfect time to do it, she'd told
her friends. Kelly was to be Adrian's date as he was a member of the chamber.
Anthony ran his computer repair business out of he and Sterling's home and was
inducted into the chamber several years ago. They would all be attending
together.

Even
though she was slowly starting to move on, there were times when she found
herself still thinking about Magnus. She wondered where he was, but most
importantly she hoped that he was alright. When she was alone she would check
and see if he'd maybe tweeted about something interesting during his trip
abroad or if he'd posted a status but both accounts had been inactive.

"Your
daddy must be having the time of his life," she rubbed her belly
.

"Ava,
there's going to come a time when you going to have to tell him that he's got a
child." Sterling and Kelly said when they sat her down one night. She'd
told them that she'd been debating whether or not to tell him about the baby,
but the both of them had objected to that. "Think of how you would feel if
your mom never told you that you had a daddy or who he was," they pleaded
with her.

She knew
that they were right, she and Magnus had briefly discussed their love of
children and she had gotten the impression that he couldn’t wait to be a
father. "Now here I am about to give birth to
his baby and he's out there having the time of his life. I just don’t know if I
want him to have to stop his life and come running back to me. I mean he wants
fulfillment, but I don't know that being with me and the baby would be
fulfillment enough for him."

"Do
you really think that Magnus wouldn’t drop everything in order to be with you
and the baby?" Kelly asked.

"That's
just it, I k
now he would but the question is
would he be happy living this kind of life? Magnus went from the limelight of
being a highly paid executive to living in solitude out on the plantation. Now
that he's back in the limelight so to speak, I'm not sure whether or not he
wants to give it all up for me, for us," she said and gently patted her
belly.

"
Listen to me, I'm talking as if I know for sure that
he still loves me and I know no such thing. So before I go off on a further
tangent let's leave it at this, when I tell him and I promise that I will, if
he doesn’t want to be with me I'll accept that. But I hope and pray that he
will want to be involved in his child's life because if he doesn’t, it will be
a very lonely life for him."

"Indeed,"
Sterling said and hugged her
.

At the
moment, she simply wanted to be able to get through the rest of her pregnancy
without having to worry about when, where and how she was going to tell Magnus
that he was a father. She had decided that it'd be best to wait until after the
baby was born before she told him anything.
No
sense in trying to get in contact with him now
, she thought to herself.
It's
quite obvious that he's not ready to be found.  Because if he was, he
wouldn’t be making it so difficult for me to get in touch with him now would
he?
She asked herself.
He's missed so much already
, she sighed. She was thinking of how even though
Sterling and Kelly had gone with her to most of her obgyn appointments, she'd
wanted the father of her baby by her side. She had so very badly wanted him to
share in the joy of becoming a parent but it seemed as if he had other plans.

She had
not wanted to harp on it too much but she couldn’t help it, she had wanted him
there to see the very first sonogram. She imagined him lying next to her in bed
at night holding his hand gently over her tummy feeling for the baby's kick.
She wondered if he ever thought about her while he was alone or having a
private moment to himself. "Why is it so damn hard to stop thinking about
him?"

Chapter
Twenty Six

It was
Tuesday, the first week of April and Magnus had managed to pack up all of he
and Ava's belongings, put the plantation up for sale and book his flight to
Vermont; he would be leaving Saturday morning.

"Son
I think this is the best decision you've made in a long time," his mother
said. And he agreed. "I don’t know why I let her go alone in the first
place, I really don’t," he said and ran his fingers through his hair. His
mom let out a soft chuckle, ever
since he was a
teenager, whenever something was troubling him; he ran his fingers through his
hair.

"Son,
you're worrying for nothing. And you already know the answer to that question.
You said that she didn’t want to go back to the plantation, that she nee
ded some space, time to spread her wings and follow her
dreams. You understood that and you let her go so that she could do just that.
Now why you elected to go on that book tour with that no good scheming agent of
yours is beyond me," his mother scolded him.

He
couldn’t help but smile, ever since he'd hired Steve to be his agent, Magnus
found that he was the only one who'd liked the guy. But he had to admit, had
they not been friends first, he would have thou
ght
twice about signing with him. It was as simple as that, and yes Steve did have
a conniving side to him but he'd told Magnus that it was only when he was
conducting business. It's a eat or be eaten world out there and I don’t know
about you buddy but I'd much rather be doing the eating and I like to eat well
my friend," Steve had told him one night shortly after he'd taken him on
as his agent.