CHAPTER 20: Not all dreams come true
1745 Words
ODESSA
“Liam?” I open the door to let him in.
I have been staying at the Ferguson beach house with Tommy while in L.A because though he is not ready to talk, I am not giving up but still giving him space to cool down.
“Tommy mentioned you’d be home today.” He bends to the side to pick up a box. “I thought I’d bring your stuff. I’ll have the rest sent to your apartment.”
“What?” I watch him put the box on the table by the foyer as I close the large door.
“Olivia needs to start moving in,” Liam still can’t keep eye contact. “It’s time.”
“Time for what?” I urge but he looks at the box like it’s an answer.
I open it to find all my knickknacks from our relationship. From Mr. Pigs to music sheet binders I left at his first L.A apartment, pictures from our college years are in here too, even stuff I gave him as gifts.
“It should be all in there,” he says as I go through the box.
“So this is our relationship?” I pick up the silver ’my gf is allergic to peanuts’ bracelet he used to wear to match mine. “Two years fit in one box.”
I doubt that.
“Says a lot about us doesn’t it?” He watches me lift the show tickets he made me sign once I turned professional.
“No.” I put everything back and close the box. “It is not all in here because you can’t fit our life together in some box Liam.”
“It’s not fair on Olivia,” his voice deepens.
“Olivia? I helped you pick that house. I was there when you started renovating.” I remind him, “we slept on the floor for two days before your bed came. Now you expect me to let some girl just reap my handwork?”
Has he met me?
“She is my fiancée Odessa and it’s my house,” hearing him call her that stings like it is new information.
“And I am your girlfriend Liam.” I point at my chest. “I don’t recall agreeing to terminate the relationship.”
“Do you even hear yourself?” His face contorts, “you sound insane Odessa!” His voice rises as he points at his head.
“You have no idea how insane I can be,” my eyes darken but he clicks his tongue. “Do you have a dream Liam?” I soften.
“What?” His face contorts into an annoyed expression but I don’t care.
“It was to be a professional NBA player for a major league team before, then the Rookie of the Year award, you have achieved both. But do you have another dream beside making the hall of fame and winning a championship ring?”
“How did you—” His face softens.
“You forget I actually know you” the real him. “Now, do you have anything else you wish to accomplish outside of you career?”
“I do not think that is any of your business now,” Liam turns to the door.
“Mine is you,” I call and he stops. “I always thought music and family would be enough for me but you were all I thought about during lockdown. You, were the reason I kept going while I was in there.”
The reason I came back.
“Bullsh*t.” Liam faces me now suddenly angry. “I have never been your dream.”
True but things have changed now.
“That is the best part though. You were an unexpected curveball and now, I don’t see any of my dreams without you.”
“Stop it Odessa!” Liam yells aggressively but it doesn’t faze me, “your sh*t doesn’t work anymore. You have been gone too long.”
“No because I promised myself I would fight for you this time,” no matter how hard it was going to be. “Because you are my dream, Liam Griffith.”
Liam steps forward and watches my eyes for the first time since I have returned. He holds my shoulders and steps closer to my face, giving me the full experience of his Siberian Husky grey eyes.
“My dream is to have a son, for him to be happy and feel loved.” His voice is low, “I hope he gets my sports skills and eyes but his mother’s brain. I want a family Odessa, maybe a dog and eventually a little girl. I want normal, can you promise me that?”
“Liam,” I struggle in his hold when he tightens his grip around my biceps.
“You are the Dominaka princess remember? You have mob blood running through your veins. You have been stabbed, kidnapped, drugged and lord knows what else.” He moves closer to my face, “you have killed, harmed and your family is a bunch of criminals. Do you even know normal?”
“But we can create our own normal.” I suggest.
I am still pursing music and composing, he is still early in his career. All that is far away but we will make it work.
“No. There is only one normal Odessa and you will never give it to me because you have never had it. Your enemies alone are a liability,” he lets go of me “Let us just cut our losses.”
No.
“You are part of my dream” and we have come too far to give up now.
“Not all dreams come true Dominaka,” he looks at the box and sneers. “I will send whatever I find to New York, the locks and gate codes are changed so don’t bother coming by again.”
“I am not giving up on us Liam.” I repeat as he walks out on me for the second time. “I mean it. You are part of my dream now.”
I say to the door when it shuts but one look at the box again and the tears start. All I have been doing since coming to L.A is cry but that stops now because I achieve all my dreams.
Especially the impossible.
“Vecker?” Olivia stands up when I walk in, “you are—you are back.” She looks absolutely terrified.
Good.
“I am back.” I urge for her to sit down when I reach her table.
It was easy to find Olivia because she posts everything online and never bothers to switch off her location.
This is fortunate for me because I have been meaning to speak with her.
“This place has CCTV and I will press charges if you touch me,” she is trembling as I take the seat opposite to hers.
“Do you seriously think I’d attack you in public?” I find that amusing. “Relax, this isn’t prison. I am not going to shank you in front of everyone, I just want to talk.”
“Talk?” She tenses even more as she resumes her seat.
“Yes,” I pour myself a cup of tea. “You see Liv, we have a problem because it seems you are engaged to my boyfriend. I just want you to unblur some details for me.”
I am curious to know how she even showed up in his life again.
“Look, I am pregnant and I don’t want any trouble.” She pleads but I stop stirring when I hear that word.
“You are pregnant?” I drop the spoon because I can’t be holding anything that can be used to penetrate through skin.
“Yes, 3months. Didn’t Liam tell you?” She opens her bag to remove an ultrasound picture, “it happened in Paris and we were both so vulnerable…” I don’t hear the rest of her explanation because I am looking at the picture.
The burnt wedding invitation immediately gets replaced but the small dot in my hand, the one that is more permanent than a shotgun wedding.
I was wrong.
Liam didn’t even wait 3months. He moved on within a week and now there is a baby, literal proof of his immediate infidelity.
My dream is to have a son, his cruel words echo.
“I am so sorry.” Someone is dabbing the back of my hand when I come to be. “I can get you burn medication, it was really a mistake.”
I realize the waiter just tipped scorching hot tea over my left knuckles but I can’t feel a thing. Olivia sends her away to get the first aid as she continues to dab my now throbbing hand.
“Stop,” it doesn’t come out because my throat is swelling up.
What she is doing is pointless because I can’t feel the physical pain on my hand, the one in my chest is too overwhelming.
“Stop it!” I yell and Olivia freezes with true horror in her eyes. “I am fine.” I return the photo and stand, “congratulations on your baby Fisher.”
“Vecker,” Olivia holds my right wrist when I try to walk away. “I—I’m so—” she can’t even say it so I continue walking as I begin to feel the pain on my knuckles increase.
I am stumbling with confusion and my vision is blurred as I walk out of the vegan café she was in. I have no clear direction in sight as I feel bodies bump into me till a something hard and solid literally knocks me off my feet and sends my bags flying.
I fall back into the hard tar road as car horns and screams surround me.
I don’t dare fight it when my eyes drop because the pain increasing all over my body doesn’t come close to the one in my heart. I just got burned with tea, got hit but a moving car but nothing comes close to the pain of finding out that Oliva is pregnant.
Nothing.
- Writer
