CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX
You look to me like a place I know
But I don’t remember times this good
Walk down roads, kicking cans, and making plans like we used to
You’ve heard my stories a thousand times
But you still laugh at every single joke
Don’t need a reason to call me any time that you want to
And we laugh a little when we feel like crying
If you cry a little, I don’t mind
Making it up as we go along
Three chords and the truth, we can make a song
We don’t need much, ‘cause we’re here tonight
It could be the Best Of Times
You’ve got places you want to go
And I’ve got things I need to leave behind
So then I light fires, and kick the tires, on roads like we used to
And we laugh a little when we feel like crying
If you cry a little, I don’t mind
Making it up as we go along
Three chords and the truth, we can make a song
We don’t need much, ‘cause we’re here tonight
It could be the Best Of Times
MEL
Mel stood next to Taylor outside of the mystery hotel, in the eerily empty parking lot, as they waited for Isaac. "Tay, what was in those pictures?"
"It doesn't matter," he said. "All that matters is that they don't exist anymore."
"Were they that bad?"
Tay sighed. "Uh, they could have been worse, I guess. Apparently you made out with the gypsy queen and--well, I'm pretty sure neither one of us had sex--with anyone else, I mean."
Mel raised her eyebrows at him. "You're sure?"
"Pretty sure."
Mel let out a breath.
"Mel, I love you."
Mel smiled, her heart warming. "Aww, I love you, too--"
"But NOBODY finds out about this," he continued.
Her face fell. Of course she agreed but she had been enjoying the moment. "Definitely."
"Not even Drew or Jason--"
"--or Ike or Zac--"
"--Nobody. We keep this between me and you. Deal?"
"Deal." Mel was silent for a moment and then she said to him, "Are you mad?"
Tay looked at her as if she had gone crazy. "Mad? At what?"
"That I made out with that woman."
He laughed in disbelief. "I don't know how you expect me to be mad at something I don't even remember witnessing."
"Are you freaked out?"
"Well, yeah, of course I'm freaked out. Aren't you?"
The truth was, Mel wasn't sure. She was more curious than anything. She didn't feel hung over and she wasn't sore in any weird places. She didn't FEEL violated...but the fact that drugs were involved was what DID freak her out and she wasn't sure why, seeing as she didn't remember if she took any or not. "Tay, I think that woman spiked our drinks last night."
"What do you mean?"
"That woman, last night. At the party. The last thing I remember is talking to her."
His eyes widened in shock. "That was the same woman?!"
"Couldn't you tell?"
"She singled us out..."
"I think so."
"Should we be flattered?"
Mel searched the ground beneath her for an answer. "I don't know..."
Tay had slid an arm around her waist and kissed her forehead when Ike pulled up in his rental. As Tay got in the front and Mel got in the back, Ike said, "I want you to know, I went through hell getting a rental car JUST for this occasion. Why not just call a cab?"
Tay sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Not really in the mood to deal with any strangers right now."
As Ike drove out of the hotel parking lot he asked, "So how did you guys end up here anyway?"
Mel glanced anxiously at Tay, awaiting his answer.
"And who were those people you left with?" Ike continued.
"Uh, just some friends," Tay lied. "We went to another party and didn't feel well enough to go back to our hotel in LA so we just stayed...here..."
"And yet you claim you didn't know where you were?"
"We weren't well enough to be coherent but apparently we were well enough to know how to operate a credit card," Tay retorted, lying once more.
"Damn, sorry I asked," Ike muttered. Then he spoke up. "You look like hell. Both of you do. We'll go in the side door of the hotel so you don't have to take the walk of shame out in broad daylight in the middle of downtown LA."
"Gee, thanks," Tay muttered.
___________________________________________
An hour later, back in their own hotel room, Mel sat in the middle of the bed, Indian-style, as she rifled through the clutch she carried the night before. She had showered and her wet hair soaked her back through her t-shirt but she didn't care. What she looked like or how she was dressed was the absolute least of her worries. She was starving but even that didn't phase her at the moment.
Taylor walked out of the bathroom in a towel but she barely paid attention. She lifted the stolen sim cards from the clutch. "So what are we doing with these?"
He walked over to her and held his hand out. "Give them here."
Obediently, and without question, she dropped them into his open hand. Mel didn't know what had gotten into her lately but she found herself becoming more submissive to him. It seemed to work for them. Maybe that had been part of their relationship trouble in the past. Maybe she spent more time fighting him and objecting to him than she did just allowing them to be themselves. They were both naturally competitive and maybe back then they were too young to realize that they didn't need to compete with each other. Maybe it was now, at thirty years old, that they were both realizing what it really took to make their relationship
work. Mel couldn't remember the last time they had screamed at each other.
Closing his fist around the small cards, Taylor walked back into the bathroom and Mel heard the toilet flush. She had to admit, she felt relieved at the sound. Minutes later, Tay walked back out in jeans and a t-shirt and sat on the edge of the bed.
"Do you feel better now?" Mel asked.
"Do you?"
"I don't really know what to think. I'm not sure if I should be scared or not."
"Me either."
"Do you think the idea of the media finding out is worse, or the fact that we don't know who we did what with?"
He looked at her and sighed. "Well I'm pretty sure we managed to dodge the media by a fucking thread. The other part...yeah, it kinda weirds me out."
"You know, I don't even know why we're still stressing over it. It happened, it's done, we should just let it go."
"I agree. Hey, you wanna postpone our flight until tomorrow?"
Mel looked at him, puzzled. "You don't want to go home?"
He smiled listlessly. "I don't really feel like going through the hustle and bustle of airports and stuff today. Why don't we just hang out in the room tonight, chill out, order in, watch a movie, and just let this shit
wash over us. We can catch a flight out in the morning."
"We're gonna laugh about this in the morning," Mel said, a small smile finding its way across her lips.
"Yeah, you're probably right."
"I need to eat."
"What do you want?"
"I would eat dirt right now."
The both of them laughed and he tossed the room service book on the bed toward Mel. As she flipped through the small menu, her mouth salivating at any and all of the choices available, there was a knock at their door.
Taylor let his brothers and their wives into the room and they sat in various places. Zac looked at the two of them and very frankly said, "Okay, spill it."
Without skipping a beat, Tay and Mel began speaking at once. Lying through their teeth, they spoke of an imaginary party they were invited to and managed to lose track of the mystery couple they were allegedly seen leaving the premier with. They claimed they figured they must have been too wasted to go back to their own
hotel so they supposed they decided to stay at the one they were in. Tay and Mel had never been on the same wavelength as much as they were at that moment. Even if they had wanted to talk about it, hours later, neither one of them could still recollect any of the lost time they had encountered.
"It was weird," Tay said. "Yanno, like those alien movies when the people can't account for lost time because they've been abducted and stuff?"
"It could have been an abduction," Zac said, matter-of-factly. "Were either of you probed or anything? Find any foreign objects in any orifices that shouldn't have been there?"
Tay responded by throwing a pillow across the room at Zac's face.
Isaac checked his cell phone. "Our flight leaves in two hours. We should probably get going. You guys better hurry."
"Uh, we're not coming," Mel said. "We're gonna hang here another night."
Ike's eyes widened in shock. "So after all that crap you guys just went through and you're gonna stay HERE another night?"
Mel laughed. "Trust me, I am not even in the MOOD to set foot outside that door for the rest of the day."
"It's cool," Tay said. "Let's, uh, let's not make this into a bigger deal than it is. We just need a few hours to chill out, that's all."
Ike looked from Mel to Tay. "Okay..." he said, sounding unconvinced. He was acting like a typical big brother. Mel had to appreciate him for that.
___________________________________________________
Several hours later, Mel and Taylor took relaxing seriously. They sat, stretched out, against the pillows on the hotel bed, his arm wrapped around her shoulders, her curled up beside him. Both of them had their heads in
their phones.
Mel was about to comment on how sad their current scene was when her phone vibrated in her hand. Drew was calling. "So did you see the news today?" Drew asked.
Mel's heart raced at this question. "Uh, no, I haven't seen any news today..."
Upon hearing this, Tay had dropped his own phone in his lap to concentrate on Mel's conversation. 'What happened with that couple you left the premier with last night?"
Mel began to sweat, searching for an answer. For some reason, telling the truth just didn't seem right. And besides, she and Tay had made a pact--tell no one. Especially since the truth was, they had no earthly idea who the couple even was, even now. "Um, they invited us to a party in Beverly Hills. We went, lost track of them. Ended up just staying at that hotel. Why?"
"Do you even know who they are?"
"No..."
"Apparently they're one of the most well-known swinger couples in LA. Like, they host parties and shit. I mean, parties attended by celebrities and millionaires and shit."
Mel's eyes widened as she put Drew on speaker phone and looked up at Tay, mouthing to him silently, "Listen!"
Drew continued, oblivious. "Their names are Marci and Darren Zabweke and they got arrested this morning. I saw their mug shots and immediately recognized them as the couple you guys left with last night. I was calling to see if you were okay."
"Uh, yeah, we're fine," Mel said. "What did they get arrested for?"
"Because they're morons. They reported their cell phones as stolen and in the process were busted for significant amounts of cocaine in their hotel room."
Mel chuckled nervously. "Cocaine, huh? Yeah, wow, that is stupid...did they find anything else? The cops, I mean. I mean anything besides cocaine? Are they dusting for prints and stuff?"
"Um, I don't think so..." Drew responded, suspiciously. "Pretty sure it was cut and dry, found cocaine, arrested them. Not sure why they would need to dust for prints..."
Mel's eyes searched the room, looking for her next response. "Uh, well some cops just like to be extremely thorough. So did they say if they knew who stole their phones? Why would their phones get stolen and not
their drugs?"
"Maybe getting rid of incriminating evidence," Drew said dryly.
Mel's heart pounded and the look on Tay's face matched how she felt. She was sure Drew suspected something was going on but she wasn't going to even dare take the bait.
The conversation then shifted to the premier and how they were immediately jetting off to Ireland for another premier there. Drew couldn't talk long due to another dress fitting and packing for their flight that was leaving early the next morning.
After Mel hung up with Drew, she and Tay looked at each other. "She DID single us out," Tay said.
"I wonder why? There were bajillions of couples there last night..."
"I guess we'll never know." Then he scoffed. And then he chuckled. "Arrested for drugs, huh? That's karma for you."
Mel smiled. "It IS kinda funny, isn't it?"
"A little, yeah."
"See? I told you so. We're laughing about it."
He smiled, reaching with his other arm to pull her closer to him. "Yeah, yeah..."
Mel wasn't sure at what point they had drifted off to sleep.
____________________________________________________
When we were young Stories were told
That I would kiss you sweet-like
People said there was a connection between us
Now that we're older Stories are told
Of how I hold you tight
Whenever I see those people
I tell them they were right
Stories will be told
From when our children are young
Until they're old
About our endless love
We must have had a blessing from above
Stories will be told until we're old
Stories will be told until the end of time
Until the sun won't rise
Oh let me tell you mine, let me tell you mine
It all started on 77th Street
When we were just thirteen
I had no cares at all
Until I saw you in the corner of my eye
It changed my views
It changed my whole life
Stories will be told
From when our children are young
Until they're old
About our endless love
We must have had a blessing from above
You look to me like a place I know
But I don’t remember times this good
Walk down roads, kicking cans, and making plans like we used to
You’ve heard my stories a thousand times
But you still laugh at every single joke
Don’t need a reason to call me any time that you want to
And we laugh a little when we feel like crying
If you cry a little, I don’t mind
Making it up as we go along
Three chords and the truth, we can make a song
We don’t need much, ‘cause we’re here tonight
It could be the Best Of Times
You’ve got places you want to go
And I’ve got things I need to leave behind
So then I light fires, and kick the tires, on roads like we used to
And we laugh a little when we feel like crying
If you cry a little, I don’t mind
Making it up as we go along
Three chords and the truth, we can make a song
We don’t need much, ‘cause we’re here tonight
It could be the Best Of Times
MEL
Mel stood next to Taylor outside of the mystery hotel, in the eerily empty parking lot, as they waited for Isaac. "Tay, what was in those pictures?"
"It doesn't matter," he said. "All that matters is that they don't exist anymore."
"Were they that bad?"
Tay sighed. "Uh, they could have been worse, I guess. Apparently you made out with the gypsy queen and--well, I'm pretty sure neither one of us had sex--with anyone else, I mean."
Mel raised her eyebrows at him. "You're sure?"
"Pretty sure."
Mel let out a breath.
"Mel, I love you."
Mel smiled, her heart warming. "Aww, I love you, too--"
"But NOBODY finds out about this," he continued.
Her face fell. Of course she agreed but she had been enjoying the moment. "Definitely."
"Not even Drew or Jason--"
"--or Ike or Zac--"
"--Nobody. We keep this between me and you. Deal?"
"Deal." Mel was silent for a moment and then she said to him, "Are you mad?"
Tay looked at her as if she had gone crazy. "Mad? At what?"
"That I made out with that woman."
He laughed in disbelief. "I don't know how you expect me to be mad at something I don't even remember witnessing."
"Are you freaked out?"
"Well, yeah, of course I'm freaked out. Aren't you?"
The truth was, Mel wasn't sure. She was more curious than anything. She didn't feel hung over and she wasn't sore in any weird places. She didn't FEEL violated...but the fact that drugs were involved was what DID freak her out and she wasn't sure why, seeing as she didn't remember if she took any or not. "Tay, I think that woman spiked our drinks last night."
"What do you mean?"
"That woman, last night. At the party. The last thing I remember is talking to her."
His eyes widened in shock. "That was the same woman?!"
"Couldn't you tell?"
"She singled us out..."
"I think so."
"Should we be flattered?"
Mel searched the ground beneath her for an answer. "I don't know..."
Tay had slid an arm around her waist and kissed her forehead when Ike pulled up in his rental. As Tay got in the front and Mel got in the back, Ike said, "I want you to know, I went through hell getting a rental car JUST for this occasion. Why not just call a cab?"
Tay sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Not really in the mood to deal with any strangers right now."
As Ike drove out of the hotel parking lot he asked, "So how did you guys end up here anyway?"
Mel glanced anxiously at Tay, awaiting his answer.
"And who were those people you left with?" Ike continued.
"Uh, just some friends," Tay lied. "We went to another party and didn't feel well enough to go back to our hotel in LA so we just stayed...here..."
"And yet you claim you didn't know where you were?"
"We weren't well enough to be coherent but apparently we were well enough to know how to operate a credit card," Tay retorted, lying once more.
"Damn, sorry I asked," Ike muttered. Then he spoke up. "You look like hell. Both of you do. We'll go in the side door of the hotel so you don't have to take the walk of shame out in broad daylight in the middle of downtown LA."
"Gee, thanks," Tay muttered.
___________________________________________
An hour later, back in their own hotel room, Mel sat in the middle of the bed, Indian-style, as she rifled through the clutch she carried the night before. She had showered and her wet hair soaked her back through her t-shirt but she didn't care. What she looked like or how she was dressed was the absolute least of her worries. She was starving but even that didn't phase her at the moment.
Taylor walked out of the bathroom in a towel but she barely paid attention. She lifted the stolen sim cards from the clutch. "So what are we doing with these?"
He walked over to her and held his hand out. "Give them here."
Obediently, and without question, she dropped them into his open hand. Mel didn't know what had gotten into her lately but she found herself becoming more submissive to him. It seemed to work for them. Maybe that had been part of their relationship trouble in the past. Maybe she spent more time fighting him and objecting to him than she did just allowing them to be themselves. They were both naturally competitive and maybe back then they were too young to realize that they didn't need to compete with each other. Maybe it was now, at thirty years old, that they were both realizing what it really took to make their relationship
work. Mel couldn't remember the last time they had screamed at each other.
Closing his fist around the small cards, Taylor walked back into the bathroom and Mel heard the toilet flush. She had to admit, she felt relieved at the sound. Minutes later, Tay walked back out in jeans and a t-shirt and sat on the edge of the bed.
"Do you feel better now?" Mel asked.
"Do you?"
"I don't really know what to think. I'm not sure if I should be scared or not."
"Me either."
"Do you think the idea of the media finding out is worse, or the fact that we don't know who we did what with?"
He looked at her and sighed. "Well I'm pretty sure we managed to dodge the media by a fucking thread. The other part...yeah, it kinda weirds me out."
"You know, I don't even know why we're still stressing over it. It happened, it's done, we should just let it go."
"I agree. Hey, you wanna postpone our flight until tomorrow?"
Mel looked at him, puzzled. "You don't want to go home?"
He smiled listlessly. "I don't really feel like going through the hustle and bustle of airports and stuff today. Why don't we just hang out in the room tonight, chill out, order in, watch a movie, and just let this shit
wash over us. We can catch a flight out in the morning."
"We're gonna laugh about this in the morning," Mel said, a small smile finding its way across her lips.
"Yeah, you're probably right."
"I need to eat."
"What do you want?"
"I would eat dirt right now."
The both of them laughed and he tossed the room service book on the bed toward Mel. As she flipped through the small menu, her mouth salivating at any and all of the choices available, there was a knock at their door.
Taylor let his brothers and their wives into the room and they sat in various places. Zac looked at the two of them and very frankly said, "Okay, spill it."
Without skipping a beat, Tay and Mel began speaking at once. Lying through their teeth, they spoke of an imaginary party they were invited to and managed to lose track of the mystery couple they were allegedly seen leaving the premier with. They claimed they figured they must have been too wasted to go back to their own
hotel so they supposed they decided to stay at the one they were in. Tay and Mel had never been on the same wavelength as much as they were at that moment. Even if they had wanted to talk about it, hours later, neither one of them could still recollect any of the lost time they had encountered.
"It was weird," Tay said. "Yanno, like those alien movies when the people can't account for lost time because they've been abducted and stuff?"
"It could have been an abduction," Zac said, matter-of-factly. "Were either of you probed or anything? Find any foreign objects in any orifices that shouldn't have been there?"
Tay responded by throwing a pillow across the room at Zac's face.
Isaac checked his cell phone. "Our flight leaves in two hours. We should probably get going. You guys better hurry."
"Uh, we're not coming," Mel said. "We're gonna hang here another night."
Ike's eyes widened in shock. "So after all that crap you guys just went through and you're gonna stay HERE another night?"
Mel laughed. "Trust me, I am not even in the MOOD to set foot outside that door for the rest of the day."
"It's cool," Tay said. "Let's, uh, let's not make this into a bigger deal than it is. We just need a few hours to chill out, that's all."
Ike looked from Mel to Tay. "Okay..." he said, sounding unconvinced. He was acting like a typical big brother. Mel had to appreciate him for that.
___________________________________________________
Several hours later, Mel and Taylor took relaxing seriously. They sat, stretched out, against the pillows on the hotel bed, his arm wrapped around her shoulders, her curled up beside him. Both of them had their heads in
their phones.
Mel was about to comment on how sad their current scene was when her phone vibrated in her hand. Drew was calling. "So did you see the news today?" Drew asked.
Mel's heart raced at this question. "Uh, no, I haven't seen any news today..."
Upon hearing this, Tay had dropped his own phone in his lap to concentrate on Mel's conversation. 'What happened with that couple you left the premier with last night?"
Mel began to sweat, searching for an answer. For some reason, telling the truth just didn't seem right. And besides, she and Tay had made a pact--tell no one. Especially since the truth was, they had no earthly idea who the couple even was, even now. "Um, they invited us to a party in Beverly Hills. We went, lost track of them. Ended up just staying at that hotel. Why?"
"Do you even know who they are?"
"No..."
"Apparently they're one of the most well-known swinger couples in LA. Like, they host parties and shit. I mean, parties attended by celebrities and millionaires and shit."
Mel's eyes widened as she put Drew on speaker phone and looked up at Tay, mouthing to him silently, "Listen!"
Drew continued, oblivious. "Their names are Marci and Darren Zabweke and they got arrested this morning. I saw their mug shots and immediately recognized them as the couple you guys left with last night. I was calling to see if you were okay."
"Uh, yeah, we're fine," Mel said. "What did they get arrested for?"
"Because they're morons. They reported their cell phones as stolen and in the process were busted for significant amounts of cocaine in their hotel room."
Mel chuckled nervously. "Cocaine, huh? Yeah, wow, that is stupid...did they find anything else? The cops, I mean. I mean anything besides cocaine? Are they dusting for prints and stuff?"
"Um, I don't think so..." Drew responded, suspiciously. "Pretty sure it was cut and dry, found cocaine, arrested them. Not sure why they would need to dust for prints..."
Mel's eyes searched the room, looking for her next response. "Uh, well some cops just like to be extremely thorough. So did they say if they knew who stole their phones? Why would their phones get stolen and not
their drugs?"
"Maybe getting rid of incriminating evidence," Drew said dryly.
Mel's heart pounded and the look on Tay's face matched how she felt. She was sure Drew suspected something was going on but she wasn't going to even dare take the bait.
The conversation then shifted to the premier and how they were immediately jetting off to Ireland for another premier there. Drew couldn't talk long due to another dress fitting and packing for their flight that was leaving early the next morning.
After Mel hung up with Drew, she and Tay looked at each other. "She DID single us out," Tay said.
"I wonder why? There were bajillions of couples there last night..."
"I guess we'll never know." Then he scoffed. And then he chuckled. "Arrested for drugs, huh? That's karma for you."
Mel smiled. "It IS kinda funny, isn't it?"
"A little, yeah."
"See? I told you so. We're laughing about it."
He smiled, reaching with his other arm to pull her closer to him. "Yeah, yeah..."
Mel wasn't sure at what point they had drifted off to sleep.
____________________________________________________
When we were young Stories were told
That I would kiss you sweet-like
People said there was a connection between us
Now that we're older Stories are told
Of how I hold you tight
Whenever I see those people
I tell them they were right
Stories will be told
From when our children are young
Until they're old
About our endless love
We must have had a blessing from above
Stories will be told until we're old
Stories will be told until the end of time
Until the sun won't rise
Oh let me tell you mine, let me tell you mine
It all started on 77th Street
When we were just thirteen
I had no cares at all
Until I saw you in the corner of my eye
It changed my views
It changed my whole life
Stories will be told
From when our children are young
Until they're old
About our endless love
We must have had a blessing from above