Chapter 17: Her Name is Lea
The difference between my own and Stephanie’s arrival time must’ve been only a few seconds, leaving me with little to do except ask Lea to stay in her room. She fortunately complied as I walked to answer the door, knowing full well who stood on the other side of it. I felt my palms sweat as I began to reach for the doorknob and with one slow turn of it, the door clicked open.
“Oh Marshall! Long time no see, sweetie!” Stephanie exclaimed as she kissed me on the cheek and gave me friendly hug. I did not even reply to her actions since I was still in shock as to how she managed to keep smiling at me whilst her betrayal in our relationship was plastered in practically dozens of magazine covers.
“Look there’s a reason why I let you-
“Ooh Marsh, where is she?! I want to see her!” Stephanie interrupted. She looked like a child asking her parents to buy her a new toy as she jumped up and down, waiting to meet the little girl that I’ve “spent so much time with” according to a number of televised stations.
“Listen, this wasn’t the reason why I wanted to talk.” I said while attempting to raise my voice.
She waved down my comments and walked past me, looking all around for Lea.
“Oh little girl, where are youu?” She sang as she began to enter my kitchen. After inspecting there for a bit, only to come empty-handed, she skipped back and jumped right in front of me, maybe an inch away from touching my nose.
“Hey, what’s her name anyway?” Stephanie asked curiously.
I sighed heavily as my hands moved her back a couple of inches from my face.
“Her name is Lea.” I replied, feeling my anger begin to rise. “Look, she isn’t what I wanted to talk to you about!”
“Come on sweetie, can’t I meet her first before you go on blabbering on about something?” she replied while still looking around for Lea.
I felt my teeth grind in frustration. She wasn’t taking anything seriously, and it felt like I had lost any authority I used to have in the relationship.
“No! Stop ignoring what I’m saying, listen!” I snarled, taking a grip on her arm. She stared back at me for moment in surprise but only a couple of seconds after her face changed once again.
Stephanie’s eyelids slumped down and took a much more serious mood. Her voice became deeper and quieter, unlike its usual squeaky and cheery tone.
“What is it then that you wanna talk about, huh?” She shot back, with a slow crossing of her arms. I knew she was no longer playing games and I felt a lump grow in my throat. With a heavy gulp and brief slicking back of my hair, I too turned on my more “serious face”.
“You don’t know?” I replied coldly. I carefully watched her movements to see if I could detect her next words from just her body language. Being able to predict emotions and uncertainty in people from just how they stood or talked was a skill that took quite a while to master, but having it was something you could not put a price on. Her hips swayed lightly as she finally took a few steps to my right and said:
“If it’s about how we haven’t gone out in a while, I’m sorry okay? I’ve just been very busy and-
“No, that’s not it…” I interrupted as my feet inched closer to her.
Stephanie’s icy blue eyes connected with my own and we continued staring at one another for a moment until I took a magazine off of my nearby counter and slammed it on the table next to us.
“That…” I announced with my arms crossed. “…is what I wanted to talk to you about.”
She took a second to look down at the magazines and shortly there after, a laugh erupted from within Stephanie.
“That?!” She pointed while laughing. “Come on honey, that’s what seriously got you all worked up?” Her hand took a hold of my face and forced me to continue looking at her.
“Is that real or isn’t it?!” I shouted as my hand swiped hers off.
“Well, why not? If the public believes it is and we make a profit off of it, then why should it matter?” She retorted.
I couldn’t believe what I had just heard. She had become just another person caught up in their own money obsession.
“W-what?” I spat back in disbelief.
“Do you have any idea how much money those stupid freaking tabloids paid me to create all these ‘scandalous relationships’ with other actors and shit just so they could have something to put on their covers?!” She exclaimed.
She was paid… to act out a relationship with other wealthy individuals so that magazines could have something to give to the public? I felt my heart sink below my stomach.
With another step closer to her “Are you saying… that our relationship… was just something you could make a profit from?!” I shouted, on the verge of tears. I couldn’t understand why, but I was beginning to lose control of my emotions.
“Not really… But I think it might be best to stop things for now. Look, we had a good run, right?” Stephanie chuckled at her comment with light hit to my shoulder. I continued to stare back at her in utter shock at what was coming out of her mouth. Just before I didn’t think things could get any worse, I heard a tiny pair of feet stepping quietly on the hard wood floor and approaching the two of us. Stephanie took her gaze off of me and gasped when she saw Lea.
“Oh my god; hi there cutie!” She exclaimed, running up to the little girl.
“Get away from her…” I hissed.
“Hi, I’m Stephanie, what’s your name?” She asked Lea, who held a heavy frown on her face. After a moment of silence, Stephanie turned to me.
“Um… Marshall, why’s she not talking? Is she like, retarded or something?”
I ran to both of them fuming. “I said get away from her…” My stare remained on the woman I once considered to be a decent human being.
Stephanie rose to her feet. “Whatever… God, Frank doesn’t pay me enough for this…” She muttered as she began to head for the entrance.
After hearing those words, I felt a nerve snap inside me. So Frank was in on it as well…
“What did you say?!” I shouted in my rage. I no longer had control over myself; just a flowing river of anger and fury enveloped me. My body began to walk to Stephanie but just as I felt my fist clench, I saw Lea take a hold of Stephanie’s pant leg.
“No! Mean!” She told Stephanie as her tiny hand flailed the material about.
“Oh, so you can talk, huh?” She chuckled.
My whole being remained frozen as I saw little Lea defending me! My anger immediately dissipated and was replaced with heavy tears.
“This isn’t worth it anymore…” She sighed. “I’ll tell Frank we broke up…” Stephanie muttered just before closing the door on her way out.
A tear ran down my face as I finally realized I was alone once again. Just like every other before her, another relationship broken. I dragged myself over to little Lea; she too was crying.
“I-I’m so sorry.” I choked out through my sobs. I wrapped my arms around her tiny body as she buried her face on my chest. My hand gently caressed her hair as tears continued streaming from our eyes.
“No kye, daddy… No kye…” She whimpered.
“It’s okay, everything will be alright…” I softly told her.
We remained comforting one another at the foot of the entrance until I finally saw that Lea was sleeping. I brought myself back up with the child safely in my arms. I quietly opened her door and tucked her in her bed.
“I love you, baby girl.” I whispered to Lea just before kissing her forehead. I noticed her pacifier was on the edge of the changing table as I quietly took it and placed it in her mouth. I wiped any old tears from my face and closed the room’s entrance.
“Stephanie was never real to begin with… I guess relationships just aren’t for me then, huh?” My mind contemplated. A chuckle managed to escape me out of this entire ordeal, knowing that the prime and original reason why I looked into adoption was because I never had any luck in dating! My watch read only 3:25PM, yet it felt much later than that.
After all that had happened in such a short amount of time, my body was left extremely exhausted and crashed onto the bed in front of me. The soft cushioning of it and the pillows became a safe haven as I released a long overdue sigh and entered a deep sleep.
I was awakened by Toby and Amber’s joyful cheering from a successful day of shopping.
“Yo, Marsh we’re home!” The giant lug announced.
“Don’t worry; I kept Toby from spending too much on your card Marshall!” Amber added happily as she mumbled something else to Toby and the both of them commenced laughing.
It was going to be interesting trying to explain to them everything that happened in their absence.
