Personal Possessions (12 page)

I heard the buzz of my
phone, “Mr. McHale…” It was Lana. I was just about to ask her about
my reservation when she spoke again, “Mr. McHale, you have a phone
call.”

“Take a message,
Lana.”

“She said you would want
to take this call.”

She? My interest was
piqued, it could be anyone on the other end. A pissed off lover,
pissed off employee…I really didn’t want to deal with pissed off
attitudes right now.

“She
did, huh? Who is it?”

“Yes, it’s a Lauren
Edwards.”

I dropped my guard a bit.
I don’t remember sleeping with a Lauren. Hell, I don’t think I even
know a Lauren Edwards.

“
Just take a message, I
will call her back.” I went to grab a file off of the small
conference table that was in the corner of my office. As I was
heading back to my desk, I heard my phone buzz again.

“Ummm, sir?” It was Lana
again, this time her voice sounded strange.

“Yes, Lana,” I made my
voice stern so she’d know she was disturbing me, what didn’t she
understand about take a fucking message.

“She said she will
continue calling until you take this call.”

It had to be a pissed off
lover if she was going to continue to call, and she was really mad.
My mind began to wander through the endless amount of women that I
knew here and in Boston, no woman named Lauren came to
mind.

“Lauren Edwards you say?”
I asked just to be sure I had the correct name.

“Yes sir. She says her
name is, Lauren Abbott Edwards”

I stopped everything,
unable to believe what I was hearing. Never in my life would I ever
think I would hear that name mentioned to me again, and yet, here
she was calling me. She must have tracked me down, and that was not
an easy task.
“Mother Fucker!” I shouted.
“Ummm, sir… do you want me to put the call through?” Lana asked,
voice shaky, as though I was going to demand the death penalty if
she asked me again.

“Do this, keep her on hold
for thirty seconds, and then put that bitch through to
me.”

Lana, knew not to respond
to that, I just heard the click of the phone as she disconnected
the call. Reigning in my temper and taking some deep breaths, I had
to keep calm. Just because she caught me off guard didn’t mean that
I wasn’t going to maintain composure.

This was me. Trevor
McHale- Mr. Composure himself.

The phone started up
again. I let it buzz a couple of times, as I continued breathing to
calm down. I didn’t want to threaten her with death right away, I
was curious to find out why she was calling me. But I had a feeling
that was a battle I was not going to win easily, because as I
pulled in each slow breath, my temper continued rising.

I sat down at my desk, and
picked up the phone. This was not going to be a joyous phone
call.

“This is Tre-,” I barely
got my name of out my mouth.

“Trevor McHale. I know who
you are,” She said in a confident intense voice.

“Well, well if this isn’t
a blast from my past,” I retorted. I was in the mood to play a
game, but the problem was, she had no idea who she was up against.
I was the player who wrote the player’s manual.

“We need to meet,” She
demanded.

“And why is that?” I
wanted her to think she was in charge of this conversation, so that
I could get what I needed out of her. Information. If I disagreed,
that would begin a war. A war that right now, I needed to be fully
stocked with ammunition before going out on the battle
field.

“I think I’ve seen enough
of you in my life. Honestly, I really don’t think, for your sake,
that it’s a good idea to meet with me,” I countered honestly back
to her, and meant every word. I had never hit a woman before, but I
would make an exception for this bitch.

“I wasn’t the one who sent
the pictures,” This statement made my mind go blank. I had been led
to believe for the past fifteen years that those pictures were made
to be a flawless set up for me, by her. Obviously it worked, since
Bear is now married to the woman who should have been my
wife.

“I’m listening,” I said
hoping that she would just come out and want to clear her
conscience.

“No, uh huh. I’m an
attorney, Mr. McHale, I’m not one to fall for bullshit and you’re
not going to demand shit from me over the phone. You want
information on what happened and what’s still happening, we will
meet, face to face. Unlike you, I didn’t move far from the nest.
I’m here in Atlanta, so, I’m letting you know what I have the ball
is now in your court. I have your email address. I will email you
my contact information. If and when you are ever in Atlanta, look
me up and we can sit and chat… about old times.”

I sat down in my chair,
and ran my hand briskly over my face. I did not want to stay longer
than I needed to in Atlanta, at least I wasn’t going to Richland.
So, I made a decision.

“Well, Counselor Edwards,
it looks like it’s your lucky day. I’m going to be flying into
Atlanta airport tomorrow morning,” I said with a fake smile on my
face, and contempt lacing my voice.

“Oh no, Mr. McHale, you’re
wrong about that. It looks like it’s
your
lucky day. I expect to hear
from you as soon as you land.”

Her threats were nothing
to me, when I got her face to face and found out what I was dealing
with, she’d be eating her shit out of her own
hand.

“We meet where I say, you
got it?”

“Talk to you tomorrow,
McHale.” She concluded, followed with the click of the phone.
Immediately, I hung up the phone and picked it right back
up.

Looking at my watch it was
ten after one. “Shit,” I snapped. I was late for my meeting with
Sam. Snatching my jacket off the back of my chair, and walking past
Lana and Sara they both were staring intently at the computer
screen. As I briskly walked past, I informed them that I would be
in Sam Fordham’s office.

I saw his door open, so I
just continued in. His face buried in his work as always.
“Sorry I am late. I had a phone call that I needed to take,” I
apologized as I sat down.

“Have you had lunch?” He
asked, never taking his eyes off of the monitor.

“No, I’m fine. This
shouldn’t really take long. I just wanted to let you know that I’ve
had a change of plans. I’ll be leaving for Atlanta tomorrow. Did
you receive any new numbers from your man down there?”

As he began filing through
the paperwork on his desk, I let my eyes wander around his office.
Pictures of his wife and him stared at me from the cabinet that was
behind him. His wife was a bitch. I had met her last December at
the office Christmas party and the persona that she exuded made it
quite noticeable.

She traipsed around the
offices as though she owned the company and she was the one footing
the bill. Unfortunately, I found out at the end of the night, that
was not the case. The way he would talk about her, I think she was
fucking around on him, how he couldn’t see it, I had no clue, but
it wasn’t my place to say anything. She was with Sam because he
made an impressive six figure income, and she had a full-time job
as a personal shopper - her own personal shopper.

He handed me a report as
my eyes came back to him. These numbers were not even close to what
I agreed to from the purchaser. I was asking low as it was, I
wasn’t going any lower.

“You know this is a
bullshit number, and I’m not accepting it, right?”

Sam didn’t have to answer
me he knew I wouldn’t accept that number. That was more than likely
why it was buried underneath all that paperwork.

“You send that back to
them, and tell them that if they don’t want to be in breech, they
better stop trying to change their offer. I’ll end up making more
off of them suing them than I would on this deal, that’s for damn
sure!”

Sam laughed, “Want me to
start the paperwork?”

He hated that I was just
basically giving this away. Not one to take lightly to throwing
away money, he griped constantly, but it wasn’t his money to worry
about. While he was my CFO, it was still my money and my company
for Christ’s sake. I made the final decision here.

Smiling a smug grin, half
to show him that what he said didn’t really matter and that it was
better just to agree with my decision, half just me being a
smartass.

“
Thanks, Sam,” I said as I
began to stand back up. “I’ll leave early in the morning. If you
need anything, you know how to get a hold of me.”

“I don’t expect there to
be any problems. As a matter of fact, this place seems to run
better when you’re gone,” he taunted as wicked smile graced his
face. Letting a laugh out, I turned and strode out the door leaving
him to his work.

***

I sent a quick text to
Lauren, letting her know the address to the café where we would be
meeting after I landed and got the rental car. The location was a
block away from my hotel, my home turf. I was still questioning her
motives concerning this little get-together, and couldn’t
comprehend why, after all this time she needed to clear her
conscience. I had a feeling that anything coming out of her mouth
would be shit.

Sitting in the parking lot
of the coffee house I stopped at, I looked out onto the hills that
were before me. Mountains that were lined with the greenery that I
had grown up with, possibly the very trees that I looked at when I
was a kid. Remembering the smell of the pine that laid on the
breeze, as I walked down the dirt road that led from my
granddaddy’s main house, to the farm. It was almost a bittersweet
sensation that overcame me. I hated being here. Yet, I had never
missed it more than when it was right in front of me.

“Curt, where’s Bear, man?”
I yawned as I walked up to the side of his truck to jump
in.

“Said he had shit to do
real quick, Bubba’s meetin’ us at the drop off.”

The ’drop off’ was where
the main road out of town met Main Street. Our town was so small,
the school bus would drop off at this point. Then all of us would
have to walk home, which ended up not being far at all. That’s why
we called it the ’drop-off;”

“At four-thirty in the
mornin’?” I asked, looking at my watch. This was not like Bear.
Usually, he was the one waiting on us, yelling, “Hurry the fuck up,
them deer ain’t gonna be out there all day!”

It was our junior year of
high school, and we’d decided to do the boy’s hunting weekend up in
the mountains at my parent’s cabin. We lived for this shit. Any
reason to be able to shoot at an animal that stepped in front of my
muzzle, was a fun ass time to me. I threw my duffle in the back of
the truck along with my shotgun case.

Curt was quiet, but that
was kinda normal for him. He was so laid back he barely talked as
it was but he also wasn’t a morning person, by nine he would be
awake enough to talk and start his day. I asked Curt if we could
stop and grab a cup of coffee on our way and of course, he was
agreeable to that idea.

We met Bear at the drop
off, picked him up and continued our way up to the cabin. It was
fall, and the mornings were cold. The sun was just peeking over the
side of the ledge, and you could smell the wood burning from
fireplaces for warmth. Up on the mountain, people survived on the
land and used stoves and fireplaces to warm their homes. I didn’t
mind, I always loved the smell of it.

I noticed Bear wasn’t as
talkative as he normally was.

“What’s up, Bear?” I
asked, concerned.

He didn’t answer, just
stared straight ahead. Maybe he was sleeping with his eyes open. I
shook him this time, causing him to jump.

“Dude, what the fuck?” He
snapped at me.

“Shit Bear, if you’re
gonna sleep, close your damn eyes. You look fuckin’ dead,” I
laughed - he didn’t.

“Sorry. Just have shit on
my mind,” he said as he turned back towards the road. I sat back in
the seat, waiting to hear if he would share. He didn’t.

Eventually, we made it to
the cabin and got situated. It was close to seven-thirty, so we
decided to go out in the woods for a bit..

I sat alone, in a bush
blind watching for anything to move. I let Bear borrow mine since
he forgot his. I could see Curt’s blind a ways from me, but all
three of us were in close enough contact that we used
walkie-talkies to communicate.

“I have one comin’ my
way,” I whispered over the walkie.

We always kept in constant
contact, but this time, Bear wasn’t doin much talking. Either he
was in that blind sleeping or nothing was headed his
way.

“He’s headed right for
me,” I informed them, “I think I’m gonna have a shot!” I tried not
to yell but my adrenaline was pumping the closer he got to me. I
picked up my binoculars and caught glimpse of him. I was counting
out loud to myself, “…five… six… seven…eight…nine.” He was a big
bitch, coming in a nine pointer. “He’s getting closer. I’m going
for the shot,” I said.

By this time, my heart was
pumping so fast; I couldn’t hear anything but my breaths coming in
to the rhythm of my heartbeat. I put the rifle’s sight up to my
eyes, and focused in on that huge buck.