Chapter 34: An Ex

PM

Josh and Louise were back by the time we returned. They were sitting in the living room, but they couldn’t have been further apart without having been in separate rooms.

“Hey guys,” I said as we entered the living room. Louise looked up at me, her face a mess of tears, and Josh just grunted.

I raised my eyebrow to her, and she grimaced.

“Josh?” I asked.

“We’re done,” he said. “I’ve moved my stuff out of our room and into the spare. If that’s not okay then I’ll look into moving back into the dorms on Monday.”

“Josh no!” Louise cried. “Please, talk to me.”

All I was getting from Josh was a storm of disjointed thoughts and emotions. The thoughts were the lion’s share, but not the sum total. His aura was involved too. It wasn’t merely reacting to the present moment. It was reacting to the memories of their trip. He couldn’t let them go.

On Louise’s parents: shallow. Greedy. Sneaky. Liars. Pimps. Gold-diggers. The colors were so bitter I could practically taste them, and they were infused with that awful combination of heat and ice that can easily tip either way in a heartbeat. I honestly couldn’t tell if Josh would, at any moment, explode into a rage, or get up and walk out of the house, never to be heard from again.

On the trip itself: humiliating. Trap. Planned? Did she know? Abusive. Evil. Should’ve left sooner. Should’ve left them all. I got a flash of Josh leaving ‘early,’ more as a sentiment than as coherent details. There’d been a bus station. He’d slept there for a while. The memories of its griminess blended together rather perfectly with the ugliness of what had come before.

On a fellow named Keenan, whom I quickly gathered was some kind of rival: Preppy bitch. Fuckface. Punch his face. Trust fund bitch. Daddy’s money, not his. Spoiled. Behind my back? Behind hers? Talked to her parents?

It came as no surprise that he was an object of particular obsession. The thoughts only got worse, and, as they began to link up to his thoughts of Louise, I discovered the source of the ice.

Liar. Traitor. Cheater. Drunk whore. Gold-digger? Him, really? Fuck her. Fuck him. Fuck parents. All deserve each other.

Without even really thinking about, I sent the storm through the connection to Mary, Amanda, and Jules. I spared Ness; I knew it wasn’t fair to treat her differently, but I didn’t regret doing so just then.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Jules sent back. “That’s an IKEA box from hell, right there. Unpacking and assembly both required. Do you even want to? Maybe you should call the bomb squad.”

I suppose I made my choice. After about thirty seconds of stormy silence, I followed up one questioning word with another.

“Louise?”

She knew that I’d gotten something from Josh. I honestly wasn’t surprised. She didn’t bother with a story. She cut to the heart of it.

“I didn’t sleep with him,” she said in a quiet voice. “Josh won’t believe me.”

“Prove it!” snapped Josh. “Show Caleb or the girls all your memories and then I’ll believe you.”

“What happened?” asked Amanda. Her power flared, and I was astounded at how ineffective it was. Josh, in particular, was so full of rage and hurt, Amanda’s power seemed to bounce off him. Mary added her power, which seemed to help, albeit slightly.

Reluctantly, Josh began the tale. “Monday night we got invited to Louise’s parents’ for the remainder of the holiday,” he said, making a visible effort to remain calm. “I was surprised. I’d always got the impression that they didn’t like me, so when they called and asked us to go over, I was happy.

“When we got there, HE was there.”

I looked at Louise.

“Keenan,” she explained. “An ex. We went out for about eight months before I started at PSU. He was boring and I used coming here as a reason to end it. He chased me for a little while, sent flowers and stuff, but then seemed to get the message. Then about a month ago, I heard from him. Stuff started arriving again.”

“And you never said anything!” Josh snapped. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“BECAUSE IT MEANT NOTHING!” she yelled at him. “HE meant nothing. I figured if I ignored him, he would stop again, like he did last time.”

“We never saw anything arriving,” said Mary.

“He sent it to the dorms,” said Louise. “He didn’t know we moved out.”

“And you hid it,” said Josh.

“I threw it all away!” rebutted Louise.

“You should have told me,” said Josh. “Why would you hide that from me?”

“Because I know how much of a little boy you can be!” Louise snapped. “I knew that this was how you would react.”

“I’m ‘reacting’ to you keeping secrets when we’re supposed to be a couple,” Josh said. “You think I would’ve ‘reacted’ like this if you’d been honest? Really? And you’re calling me out for being the immature one?”

There was a moment’s pause while they glared at each other.

“What happened then?” I prompted. “After you got to Louise’s parents’?”

“You could’ve just not gotten involved, dude,” Jules sent. I sent her back a defeated sigh. She was right and she was wrong. I just couldn’t help myself.

“Five days of hell is what happened,” said Josh. “Five days of being constantly put down, getting sneered at and insulted by that preppy trust fund bitch.” He looked at Louise. “You may think I’m stupid, but I received the message from him and your parents loud and clear. He’s rich, and I’m not. He moves in all the glittering social circles while I grub around on the floor, not even worthy to scrabble in the dirt under his shoes. I should have left. I should have walked out as soon as I saw him there, and found out who he was.”

“Then why didn’t you?” asked Louise.

“Because I thought that if I did, I would lose you,” he said more quietly. “I couldn’t leave you with him. I knew my imagination would be telling me that you and he were...”

“Why didn’t you both leave?” I asked Louise.

“I wanted to,” Louise said. “My father forbade it. Since he pays all my living expenses, I didn’t have a choice. I’m on a partial scholarship. My tuition and books are covered, but I wouldn’t be able to stay if he didn’t pay my rent and other stuff.”

“Okay,” said Amanda. “But that was all Keenan and her parents. What did Louise do?”

“You mean apart from hiding the fact that her ex was back in touch?” he asked sarcastically. “Because obviously that doesn’t color what happened afterwards at all, right? Totally separate issue.”

Amanda just looked at him, and he sighed. “Saturday,” he began, “her parents threw a party. They invited a load of people I didn’t know: family friends, Louise’s’ high school friends, and some relatives. As usual, I was ignored. They were introducing Keenan as her boyfriend. In fact, one time I’m certain I heard her mother say fiancé. I was shunted to the side-lines. Louise and I got separated. For three hours I couldn’t find her. I looked everywhere, and then she turned up with HIM hanging off her arm with a look on his face I recognized.

“When I asked Louise where she had been, he implied that they had been off having sex somewhere. I lost it. I was so close to planting my fist into his smug face, but I managed to restrain myself. I knew that all that would achieve would be to get me arrested. I got my stuff together and left.

“We drove there in Louise’s car, so I just walked to the bus stop. There were no more buses, so I slept on the bench there, and then caught the first bus this morning. It took me six hours to get home.”

I looked at Louise, who was sitting, staring at Josh, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I didn’t sleep with him,” she repeated in that same quiet, wounded, vulnerable voice. I honestly couldn’t tell if she was putting it on or not. I didn’t want to believe she was lying.

“Prove it!” snapped Josh.

“I shouldn’t have to prove anything!” she cried. “You should trust me. I trusted you. All the time we’ve been together. You said you weren’t sleeping with anyone else; did I ask you for proof? Did I ask you to get tested again? You told me that you had not had sex with anyone else, and I believed you. Why can’t you believe me?”

“Because you fucking hid shit from me,” Josh spat, “about him, specifically! And then there he was! And I saw how you were with him! You were all over the trust fund creep. You were hanging off of his arm like your life depended on it. If you didn’t sleep with him, then how did he know? How did he know that he was bigger than me? Is that something that passes for polite conversation with the rich these days?”

“I didn’t tell him,” she insisted, more tears starting down her face, “but you know girls talk. I told my sister how big he was, and I might have mentioned that you were not quite as big. She obviously told him.”

“Well, you’re welcome to him,” he snarled. “And his big ... bank account.”

“Josh please,” she said, “listen to me. I didn’t have any choice but to stay. They threatened to stop paying my expenses. I wouldn’t have been able to afford to stay at school.”

“Why did you disappear off with him last night, then?” he asked. “Was that for money too?”

That was a low blow in my opinion, and Louise looked stunned. “You think I...” she began, “ ... for money?”

Her eyes flamed and she stood up. “FUCK YOU, JOSH STEELE!” she screamed at him “If that’s what you think of me, then maybe it is best that you move all your stuff out. You wouldn’t want to catch anything being in the same room as a WHORE!”

She stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind her. I heard their bedroom door slam mere seconds later.

Josh watched her go with a look of anguish on his face.

I looked at my girls, and they looked back.

“Do something,” sent Amanda.

“Like what?” I asked.

“Find out if she slept with him, and if not, show Josh,” she replied.

I frowned. Then Mary cut in.

“Don’t you dare,” she sent. “If she said that she didn’t, then he should trust her. Having Caleb read her mind for the ‘truth’ would show that he didn’t. It would also be an abuse of power.”

I looked at Jules. She shrugged. She’d had the situation pegged immediately, and I could tell she was struggling not to send an ‘I told you so.’

“You must have picked up something from her,” sent Amanda. “Josh was a firehose. What’s she thinking?”

“Nothing,” I sent. “At least not out loud. She’s policing her thoughts carefully.”

I felt irritation from Jules through the connection. She seemed about to send something cutting, but then she caught herself.

“Amanda, I love you,” was what she sent instead, “but it’s not about the sex. It’s about the perceived lies. When Josh shares with you, Louise is secure in the knowledge he will always go back to her, and vice versa. This Keenan is trying to steal Louise away from Josh, and if Josh’s opinion of him is even halfway true, he’s also a gaping asshole. Even Louise didn’t seem that thrilled with him at first, from what I saw. On top of that, apparently her parents are all mixed up in it. That’s super fucked up. It’s not ‘just’ a fuck, and Louise definitely knew that too.

“But we do not have get involved in this,” she finished. “We can make the other choice, and let them either work this out on their own, or not.”

“We have to help them,” sent Amanda.

Mary didn’t look convinced, but she didn’t send anything to me through the bond. If there were private conversations happening, I couldn’t tell.

Louise came out of her room and re-entered the living room.

“Josh?” she said. Her anger had obviously abated. “Please, talk to me. You know I love you, but if we have to take the equivalent of a polygraph every time there is the least suspicion between us, then where will we be? There has to be trust between us, or we have nothing. I promise you: I didn’t sleep with Keenan. He tried to kiss me at the party, and I pushed him off. Both he and my parents were trying to ply me with drinks. I think they all thought if they got me drunk enough, then I would end up in bed with him, and that would be the end of you and me.

“Don’t let them win. If we break up over this, then everyone loses; no matter what, I will never even speak to Keenan again. If I could find a way of getting out from under my parents’ control, I would do that too. But I can’t. I’m dependent on them for my living expenses while I’m at college.”

“Josh,” I asked him softly. “Do you really think that Louise had sex with Keenan?”

He looked at me, then long and hard at his girlfriend. Eventually he shook his head. “No,” he said.

I listened to his thoughts, and he really wanted to believe her. There were niggling doubts though.

“But I’m not an idiot,” he said. “Her parents are going to keep up the pressure. How long will it be before it does happen? This was a warning shot. They won’t stop until I’m out of the picture and he is in. Every holiday they’ll make her go home, and there he will be. If I’m even invited, I’ll spend the whole time being belittled and ridiculed, until I snap and do something I shouldn’t. It’s a war of attrition, and I can’t win.”

“That’s where you are wrong,” I said. “We have just over a year of college left. After that, she is free and clear. They won’t control her anymore. You love her, right?”

He nodded.

“So, isn’t she worth fighting for?”

He looked up at her, and she down at him. They both looked lost and alone.

“Do I have to Compel you both to make up?” I asked, prodding them gently. Both of them knew I would never do such a thing.

“Lou?” he said, tears starting to flow from his eyes. She went to him, throwing her arms around him, and they held each other while they both cried.

I felt Amanda’s power begin to steal over the room: love and forgiveness. That time, it managed to penetrate. I looked at her and smiled. She just couldn’t help herself. She grinned at me, unashamed, and increased the intensity.

I went into the kitchen and snagged beers for us all. I handed the girls one each and handed two to Louise and Josh.

I noted that Josh opened one, and then handed it to Louise before opening the other.

“So,” said Louise. “What do we do now?”

“Well,” I said, “first thing, Josh gets his stuff out of the spare room and puts it back where it belongs. Next time your parents invite you home, tell them that you are too busy. If they come here, then they will be welcomed to stay, but certain ex-boyfriends will definitely not be.”

“But they will stop paying my expenses,” she said.

“So?” I asked. “How much rent and food did we charge Rachel?”

“But...”

“You think we would do that for a complete stranger, and not take care of someone we loved?”

“What about my car...”

“It’s a year,” I interrupted her. “I can and will pay your car insurance off for the year if I must. If you’re not paying for that, rent, or food, then your expenses will be minimal.”

“I could get an evening job,” she said, thinking out loud. “That should cover my incidental expenses.”

“Or you could work for Caleb,” said Mary. “He needs a secretary. The pay isn’t great, and the boss gets cranky from time to time. He’s also a bit of a lech, so you have to watch yourself, but it pays two fifty a week under the table.” She sniggered at that double entendre.

I raised my eyebrow at Mary. Two hundred and fifty dollars a week would be a third of my earnings from my hypnotherapy business, and since I would be paying it ‘cash in hand,’ I couldn’t claim it against tax. I would be making almost no money at all. But then I remembered why I was doing the hypnotherapy in the first place. It wasn’t to make money; it was to practice my Compulsion. I still had all my other sources of income. Given my success rate, I was also fairly certain I could increase my fees. Mary had been suggesting it for some time.

Louise looked at me. “You need a secretary?” she asked. “Why?”

“Because he’s sucks at time management,” Mary interjected. “Believe me, you will earn your money if you take this on.”

“My thoughts,” I said, “are that this is a fallback. My suspicion is that your parents will threaten to withdraw their support, but won’t do so. If they do, then you have a parachute. We will take care of you, I promise. I am hoping, though, that when you stand up to them, they will back off. They may withhold a couple of months just to try and break your determination, but once they see you are not moving, they’ll come around. After all, they won’t want to lose their daughter, which they are very likely to do if they follow through with their threat.”

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

I opened it to find two police officers standing on the porch. I could see our HOA neighbour peering through his window, watching.

“Hi,” I said. “Can I help you?”

“We had a report of a disturbance,” said one of the officers. “Someone heard screams coming from your house?”

“Let me guess,” I said. “The report came from a Tim Pritchard?”

“We are not at liberty to say,” said one officer, but I could ‘hear’ that I was spot on.

“Two of my housemates got into a bit of an argument,” I explained. “There were raised voices. It’s all over now. We’re sorry for any disturbance. It won’t happen again.”

“What was the altercation about?” asked one of the officers. At this point, Louise came to the door. Josh standing behind her.

“My boyfriend thought I fucked my ex,” she said.

“Ma’am, would you step out here for a moment?” one of the officers said. Louise looked at me, and I nodded.

She stepped out onto the porch, and he took her off to one side. I knew what he was asking her. He wanted to make sure she was okay, and that she hadn’t been hurt. After a couple of minutes, she came back. The officer looked at his colleague and nodded.

“I know that things get a little heated sometimes,” he said. “Try and keep the noise down.”

“We will,” I said. “Thanks.”

They turned and walked back to their car. I saw that Pritchard was still watching through his window. We all went back inside.

“That was the opening salvo,” I said. “The sooner we get those cameras operational the better.”

“I ordered the drives,” said Jules. “They should be here tomorrow. Provided there’s no surprises, the system should be up and running tomorrow evening. I checked the feed from all the cameras. They are all good - state of the art, with full night vision capability. Nothing will get past those suckers.”

“Opening salvo for what?” asked Josh, and I filled him in about the HOA, Pritchard, and also about Alan and Anne.

“I’m expecting more reports to the police,” I said.

“Can’t you just...” began Louise and then looked guilty. “No, you can’t.”

“Are you two good now?” I asked, looking at the pair of them.

Louise looked at Josh, and he at her. She went and sat next to him, taking his hand. “We will be,” she said. “Josh, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Keenan contacting me. I honestly thought he would just give up if I ignored him. If you want me to, I’ll let Caleb or one of the girls show you my memories.”

I watched Louise’s aura carefully while she spoke. She may have been able to police her thoughts, but I was certain that she had no idea how to affect her aura. Either she was being honest with him, or she was betting that he would not dare to ask to see the memories. It was, potentially, a masterful piece of manipulation. Her aura showed that she was totally relaxed, with no fear at all. Again, that could easily have meant that she was being honest, or that she was certain, given her knowledge of her boyfriend, that he wouldn’t ask.

Josh shook his head. “No,” he said, although I could see he desperately wanted to know for sure. “You’re right. I need to trust you, or we have nothing. You say nothing happened with him, so nothing happened.”

“Fuck it,” I thought. I wanted to know for certain, and I had no reason not to - if you discounted all the moral, legal, and ethical ones. I looked, and I saw the truth.

“Let’s leave things with your parents as they are for now,” I said. “There’s no reason to poke a sleeping bear. Wait until they make the next demand before putting your foot down.”

Louise nodded. “Makes sense. The next holiday is the summer one in any case. What are you guys doing?”

“Ness and her parents are going to be coming down to move Ness in,” I said. “After that, I don’t know. We might go back up and stay with them for a few weeks.”

Louise sighed.

“You never know,” said Jules, smiling. “If you make a good impression while they are down here, they may invite you two up too.”

Louise’s eyes lit up. “Really?” she asked. Jules nodded.

I yawned. “Well,” I said. “I have training in the morning, so I’m going to bed.”

Louise came and gave me a hug. “Thanks Caleb,” she said. “I don’t know what we would do without you.”

“You’d be fine,” I said, “as long as you had each other.”

I showered and got into bed. As I lay there, my thoughts turned to Ness.

“Good night my beautiful girl,” I sent to softly through the connection.

“Good night, my knight in shining armour,” she returned sleepily.

My training with Kevin the next morning picked up where we had left off. It was like I had never been away. It was a sparring day.

“I like the fact that you use all your skills,” he said. “Not only your karate, but wrestling as well. As you said at the beginning, you are not trying to win competitions. Some of the things you do would be illegal in that case. But you are trying to win the fight. Perhaps once we perfect your Nidan level, we should look at other fighting styles.”

“Such as?” I asked.

“Have you ever heard of Krav Maga?” he asked.

I nodded. “It’s the martial art that the Israeli military use, isn’t it?”

“Correct,” he said. “Unlike most of the ‘traditional’ martial arts, it doesn’t have centuries of history. In fact, it’s a combination of a number of other fighting styles, including karate, boxing, Aikido, judo and wrestling. It is, by its own definition, a mixed martial art.

“You still need to practice the mental discipline, and for that I think Aikido is probably the best choice as one of the ‘internal’ martial arts. You will hear lots of discussion about that. Bruce Lee had no time for Aikido – he classified it ‘exercises for old people’ - but when it comes to mental discipline, I believe it is one of the better ones. So, what we will do when I am happy with your Nidan, is we will alternate. One day we will examine Aikido, and the next Krav Maga.”

I smiled at him. “And will you ever be happy with my Nidan?” I asked him.

He laughed. “I already am,” he said, “but I know you still can improve. The question is, Caleb, are you happy with it?”

I thought about that through our next bout. I should have been paying more attention to the fight, because he kicked my ass.

I got my schedule from Mary as we sat at breakfast. Louise looked on, interested, as Mary went through the details of my day.

“I am raising your rates for new clients,” Mary said. “Everyone else is charging between ninety and one hundred and fifty dollars an hour for hypnotherapy.”

“What are you raising it to?” I asked.

“For PSU students it’s going up to seventy,” she said. “For everyone else it’s doubling. One hundred dollars per session.”

I goggled at her. “One hundred?” I asked. “Nobody will pay that.”

“On the contrary,” she said. “I have a waiting list of forty clients who are willing to pay that. I have already been asked if there is a way to pay extra and become a priority.”

“Forty?” I asked incredulously. “How am I going to get to see all those?”

“One at a time,” she said, smirking at me. “Today, though, you have your ethics class first thing, then a couple of follow-up weight loss sessions before lunch.” She went on to describe the rest of my day.

“My only concern,” she finished, “is that the Dean of PSU is not going to be happy with a lot of non-students coming onto campus for consultations. I seriously think you should look into finding somewhere off campus to see people.”

“An office?” I asked. “I can’t afford that.”

“I know,” she nodded. “We’ll have to think about it and see what we can come up with.”

I got my things together.

“Don’t forget to go hand those essays in before you go to lunch,” Mary said. “I’ll send you a text to remind you.”

“Yes, Mother,” I said to her in a bored teen voice. She swatted me on the ass as I walked past her. I had started travelling in separately; it gave me more flexibility with my schedule. If I had to leave early or late, it didn’t impact on the girls. They travelled in Amanda’s car.

On my way home from PSU, I called in at the supermarket and made sure I had everything for that night, for when Jeevan and Meena came over.

I was limited for time, but I wanted to show Meena that I could cook. I was going to start with a risotto, then follow up with a gnocchi puttanesca. Of course, there would be garlic bread; what Italian meal is complete without that?

I also decided I would make a lasagne to give people the choice. There were going to be eight of us for dinner, so there was quite a lot to do. I knew I wouldn’t have time to make a dessert, so I bought some tiramisu and some profiteroles. I hoped everyone would find something they liked.

I arrived home and went into the kitchen to start.

The doorbell rang, and I looked up from my prep to see Louise go to answer it.

“Miss Louise Brown?” A man was at the door, holding a huge bouquet of red roses.

“Sorry,” said Louise. “There’s nobody here by that name.”

The delivery man looked at his device and then at the number on the door.

“This is the right address,” he said. “Are you sure there’s nobody here by that name?”

“Sorry,” she said. “They must have the address wrong.”

“Okay then,” said the delivery man. “Sorry to have bothered you.”

He turned around and walked back to his van. Placing the flowers in the back, he got in, and after a few moments drove off. Louise closed the door slowly.

“So, Miss Brown,” I asked from the kitchen, “care to tell me what that was all about?”

“My parents must have given Keenan our address,” she said. “He’s done this before. He bombards me with flowers and gifts and stupid poetry. He thinks it will make a difference.”

“Any chance he could turn up here?” I asked.

“It’s not beyond the realm of possibility,” she said. Her phone rang. “It’s my mother. I’ll bet the flower shop called him to tell him, and he called her.”

She declined the call. “Oops,” she said with a small smile, “my battery is dead.” She turned her phone off.

I sighed. I wasn’t looking forward to when I’d get dragged directly in between Louise and her parents. I already knew I would; no good deed went unpunished.

There was another knock on the door. Louise sighed and went to answer it again. This time it was a package for Jules. Louise accepted it and took it to her. Jules came into the kitchen a few minutes later.

“The drives are here,” she said. “I’ll go up and install them; they are plug-and-play, so that should take less than half an hour. Then the system needs to format and initialise. By later tonight our security system should be up and running.” She grinned at me. I smiled back. I loved how excited she got. It was almost childlike, which made all the jargon pouring out of her sound even cuter.

Dinner was just about ready when Jeevan and Meena rang the doorbell. Louise, once again on door duty, let them in. She took them into the living room, where the other girls were watching television. A few moments later, Meena came into the kitchen.