Bangs Shut
1553 Words
Minnie
One week later I’m dating Graham Tyson.
He asked me to be his girlfriend on a getaway garden in ………..
Or at least that’s what the tabloids say.
It is strange how the same media that publicized my breakup and ridiculed me in front of virtually anyone who had access to the internet are the same people idolizing me once again immediately Graham and my relationship was announced.
Fake relationship, that is.
Now once again I am the talk of the show, the fame coming from allegedly dating a top billionaire in New York.
I don’t care about any of it. Not when my ‘boyfriend’ in question is still dangling a piece of blackmail over my head.
Since that unfateful day at the Tysons mansion, he hasn’t bothered to seek me out again or call me, and the only indication that I didn’t dream everything that happened as some sort of sick post-breakup nightmare is the announcement of our relationship.
Not like I’m complaining anyway. If our encounter that day taught me anything about Graham Tyson, it is to stay away from a man like him for as long as possible.
In the safety of my own apartment, an average sized space I acquired after college before Danny asked me to move I with him, I think back on that day, looking for any loopholes I could have said to change the way things are now.
My copies of the contract sit in a file on my bed and I haven’t had the courage to pry it open and stare back at my own signature mocking the s**t out of me.
I messed up. Big Time.
Even I know that.
The doorbell pinging pierces through the haze of my thoughts and I spring up from the couch and yank the door open.
Danny Tyson stands before me in his full glory.
Blond hair, blue eyes, a physique that had me melting for years.
I haven’t seen him in over a month. We lost track of each other after the breakup and nothing could have prepared me for meeting him again.
He looks aggravated, drawn, eyes like a sack on his face.
I want to hug him despite everything, pull the i***t to me and reassure him that whatever has him worked out, we’ll fix it.
But instead I say, “What the heck do you want?”
He stumbles like I just struck him hard on his face. “What do you mean?”
“I mean get the –”
But he is already pushing past me, stepping into my living room like it is a second norm for him.
“What is this I’m hearing?”
“There’s a lot to hear these days,” I shoot back.
“About you,” he closes his eyes, “about Graham.”
He pries open his eyes as though it takes an extra amount of energy to do just that and studies my face.
“You should be saying something.”
“What exactly do you want me to sa—”
“That it’s a mistake!” he yells to my face, “that so—somehow the blogs got it wrong. Say it, Minnie! Say it! Say you have some kind of explanation for this.”
I shake my head.
“Please, just say it. Please Minnie, please.”
I’ve always given to Danny whatever Danny wanted in the past. It’s hard to say no to him. Hard to rid myself of the joy that comes with giving into his wants.
Now is no different. Even though he has hurt me in a thousand ways, shattered my heart into broken tiny pieces, some foolish part of me just want to give into him and end his agony.
But I push against it. “I can't tell you that.”
“Why?”
I let the question hang before answering. “You know why.”
He slumps into a couch as though his bones have lost the ability to keep him upright and holds his head between his hand, his elbow weighing on his knees.
“f**k, Minnie, fuckk!” he aggravates, “It’s Graham for god’s sake! Graham!”
“I know,” I joke even though my throat is constricting with unshed emotions, “I’m dating the man, remember?”
He glares at me, “You know how much I hate him. You know what he has done to the Tysons.”
“I don’t care about that, just like you didn’t care when you slept with Isabel behind my back!”
“Oh don’t switch this around, Minnie, you know I’ll never –”
Before I can say anything he springs to his feet, realization striking his handsome features as he makes for me, “You did it because of me right? You did it as some sort of revenge.”
I school my features, “What?”
“You knew I hated him. You knew Graham was the one person I’d kill if you ever so much as—” he stops himself just in time, “This is revenge, Minnie, just admit it!”
“You must think so highly of yourself to come into a conclusion like that, Danny,” I spit, “You really believe I’ll sleep with a guy just to get revenge on you?”
The color drains from his face, “Yo-you-re f-f-ucking?”
I flip him off, “Trust me, you’re not worth the effort.”
He yanks my elbow as I make to turn, “Please Minnie, please,” in a second he drops to his knees, his hand going around my waist, pulling me closer, “Minnie, you can’t.”
“Dann—”
“Not with Graham,” he says to the flat panes of my stomach, “not with anyone else.”
I feel the dampness of his tears soak my shirt and the tug in my heart deepens.
“Minnie, it doesn’t have to be this way,” he pleads pulling me closer, “it’s me and you, remember? Against the world.”
I feel it again, the need to give into what he wants. To take away the pain of the man I love.
How hard would it be to give in? To tell him it is all a game, spun by the uncle he hates so much? To tell him I got caught in this game too? The contract still sits on my bed and I could just show it to him.
Graham’s voice floats too my mind on a phantom wind;
“One more thing, if word of this leak out to any soul, pray I don’t find out because that equates to a breach and you know the consequences.”
Oh lawd, how can I get out of this?
I wipe away my tears and push him away, summoning every courage I have left in me to not succumb again and again to my love for the man in front of me.
“You were screwing my best friend!” I yell at his face, “for seven years, you were screwing her behind my back,” the tears that I’ve been holding back spills, “don’t you get it?”
He remains on the floor, “Minnie it was –”
“You don’t get to be this person. You don’t get to play the victim, Danny, I’m the victim here. Me!”
“It was supposed to work out, don’t you see?”
“How!?”
“I can never,” he starts, breaking up as more tears stain his face, “I can never stop loving you, Minnie. Ever.”
“Then why did you do it?”
“I had to, can't you see?”
“You were cheating before you ‘had’ to, dickhead.”
“But it was supposed to work out. I never planned on letting go of you.”
The words drop like a ton of bricks on my chest.
“I never planned on letting you go.”
No, he planned on riding me along with her. He planned for –
“You planned for me to be your mistress.”
Saying the words out loud I see it now. I see the strategy, the plan.
His plan. To have the both of us at the same time.
Who am I kidding? He always had the both of us, but the only difference now is he wanted us to switch roles this time with her in the spotlight and me in the shadows.
“Don’t make it sound like it’s the worst idea ever. On the bright side, we get to be toget—”
“Get out,” I say quietly, somehow managing to sound calm and cold regardless of the storm raging within me.
“Minnie—”
“Get the hell out, Danny.”
“Just hear me o—”
“GET OUT!!!”
He springs to his feet at the thundering sound of my voice and makes for the door.
“Minnie one last time, I have to ask you —”
I bang the door on his pleading face.
And with that, the door I always held open for Danny in my heart bangs shut.
- Writer
