NaNoWriMo: Day 16

While Buckley was gone, Brad decided that it was time to be straightforward and honest with Stella.

“Stella, do you want to make out?” he asked drunkenly.

Stella’s eyes grew wide. “What?”

“Look, I like you a lot. I’ve been sending you all kinds of signals all year. I’ve been there for you when you needed me. The least you could do is want to make out.”

Stella was astounded. Was he serious?

“I thought you were my friend!”

“I am. But I’d like to be more than a friend. I’d like to be your boyfriend.”

“And this is your way of asking me out?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Oh you have got to be kidding me.”

“What?”
            “This is not how you go about telling a girl you like her, Brad.”

“But Buckley said,”

“Buckley said, did he? What did Buckley say?

“Buckley said that girls like a guy who is straightforward. I was trying to be straightforward.”

Stella had to laugh at Brad’s cluelessness.

“I don’t think this is what he meant.”

“So, is there any chance for me?”

“Look Brad, I’m not looking for a relationship right now.”

“Buckley said you might say that. I wonder how he knew.”

Stella smiled. “Buckley used to know me pretty well.

“You two must have been pretty close.”

“We were.”

With that, Brad wandered off to talk with Rhodes and Leland and Stella rejoined Lottie and Paige. She wondered what Buckley had been thinking, telling Brad to come on to her like that? Didn’t he understand – just because she couldn’t be with him did not mean she was ever going to be with anyone else. No. She didn’t think she could ever feel about anyone the way she felt about Buckley and so she had already made plans to live a life of fabulous spinsterdom. She live and die alone and love Buckley as long as she lived.

            Selena insisted that she rode along with Buckley so that he would know what kind of beer to buy. This was a fair assertion since Buckley didn’t drink, but the truth was that she had grown annoyed with Rhodes for the evening and she wanted to spend some time with this man that made her blood boil. The mere thought of Buckley made Selena believe she had options outside of Herlin Hall. Since meeting him she had often fantasized about running off with him to wherever it was he came from down south and starting a new life with him. It wouldn’t be as luxe and glamourous as the life she led with Rhodes but she wasn’t really leading that life with Rhodes anyway.

            She had asked him again today why he hadn’t asked her to marry him. He didn’t have a good reason. His sister’s engagement announcement had been like a dagger in her chest when she’d heard. Selena had been with Rhodes for so long it felt like they should be married. She was ready. She wanted to have kids. She wanted to have some rights at Cypress Estates instead of having to always defer to Miss Emery.

            But then again, she did enjoy her single life. She was in between. She was neither single nor married. If she were brave and if she were wise she would leave Rhodes, she would forget about Buckley, and strike out on her own. But she had grown comfortable with the status quo and change was scary.

            So instead she sought to have an affair that would make her feel alive again for a moment. What she didn’t know what that she was barking up the wrong tree. Buckley had pledged himself to celibacy as he was unable to have Stella and he was in no way going to give that up for a one night stand with his boss’s girlfriend.

            Selena didn’t know that though, and even if she did, it wouldn’t have stopped her from trying. As they approached Herlin Hall she prayed that Miss Emery and Father Donovan were already gone from the house. It was late, and she was in luck. The house was empty and dark.

            She went into the kitchen to grab a few things for the bonfire – marshmallows and the like – while Buckley made a sweep of the perimeter – shotgun in hand – just in case the gator had decided to make a surprise appearance.

            When Buckley reappeared in the kitchen, Selena was sitting on the island counter top, sipping on a glass of champagne and eating a marshmallow.

“What are you doing? We need to get back.”

“I never really liked beer. You want a sip?” she asked, holding out the glass.

“No. Bring it with you, I guess.”

“Aw c’mon. You might love it.”

“I don’t drink,” he said definitively.

Selena ducked her head down and looked up at Buckley through her eyelashes. “You’re going to have to make me come.” She said.

Buckley thought she was just drunk and being difficult, and he knew that they had been gone more than long enough to arise suspicions so he did what needed to be done. He picked her up with one arm, threw her over one shoulder, grabbed the marshmallows and champagne with the other hand, and headed toward the truck. Buckley did not have time for her games. He was keenly aware of what she was trying to do and he was not at all interested in what she was selling.

As he walked her to the truck she kicked and flailed and screamed, but her heart wasn’t really in it. In truth, she was enjoying being manhandled by this giant of a man. She just wondered why he wasn’t interested in her.

He tossed her into the truck and buckled her in then got into the passenger seat and started the engine. After they were driving back toward the cabbage field, he looked over at her and asked her very calmly, “Selena, what were you doing back there?”

She looked down at her lap and quietly replied, “I was trying to seduce you.”

“Well you were doing a lousy job of it. Why?”

“Because I’m bored with Rhodes I guess. He’s been kind of a cad.”

Buckley knew this to be true. He had seen Rhodes carrying on with other women.
“So leave him. Don’t get even with him. And don’t drag me into it. I’ve got enough problems without you two bickering over me.”

Selena began to cry. “Why am I not good enough?”

“Not good enough for who?”
“For anyone. For you. For Rhodes.”

“You are good enough – maybe you just haven’t found the right man who loves you the way you need to be loved.”

“What do you mean?”

“You need to find a man who looks at you like you are the only woman in the room.”

“You look at Stella like that.”

“She is the only woman in the room as far as I’m concerned.”

“What happened with you two?”

“It’s complicated. I don’t even really understand.”

“You still love her so much though.”

“Love is a hard thing. When you really love someone, you don’t just stop.”

Selena thought about what Buckley said. If what he said was true then she had never really loved Rhodes because there were times when she didn’t feel like she loved him at all. She wondered if she had ever loved anyone at all – or been loved for that matter. She was nearly 30 years old and had been playing at love for all that time. She wondered if Rhodes would be devastated if she found the courage to leave? He seemed to find it so easy to banish her – why should he miss her once she was really gone? He could finally get up to all his mischief with his other women in earnest. She knew one thing for certain: no one would be happier to see her go than Miss Emery.

Locke found the bonfire, Rhodes, and all of his friends absolutely delightful. Lenora on the other hand was rethinking her entire idea of moving back to Florida. She was missing New York in the worst way and could not wait to be on the first flight out of the state. She felt that the trip home had been a disaster and she wondered over and over what she could have been thinking. She was not a country girl; she never had been. This was not where she belonged. As she forced herself to drink beer after beer to simply dull herself to her surroundings she dreamed of the posh places she could have gone in New York if she’d been there that night.

She could be at Cipriani’s at that very moment, sipping on a Bellini and laughing with her girlfriends. She would miss them terribly, if she were to leave New York. She sat looking at the fire and began to question what her motives for wanting to move back to Florida had really been. Raising children did factor into, but maybe she wanted to be near her mother again.

Maybe her mother would be interested in moving to New York instead? She was getting on in years and Lenora was honestly concerned that Rhodes was not going to attend to the old lady in the ways that she needed. He was too busy with the farm and too preoccupied with his party lifestyle.  Lenora often wondered what would have happened if he hadn’t been forced to take over the farm when he did – how might he have spent his youth? He gave off the illusion of being responsible, but Lenora was not so convinced.

She imagined that he would have blown through his monthly stipend in the clubs in New York every month and not done any studying whatsoever. Lenora knew that he was resentful of her life, but she thought that things had worked out for the best for him given his temperament and humors. But what did she know?

With Selena gone, Rhodes had spent the evening cozying up to Lottie just out of  the prying eyes of her friends. Lottie was a carefree spirit with a wild streak and she would have thought nothing of having an affair with an older millionaire farmer. Rhodes was cure enough after all with something of a Clark Gable look about him. With Lottie’s interest in film, she could use a sugar daddy, and with Rhodes low self-esteem, he could use a pretty young mistress, so long as he could keep it from Selena. And Lottie was pretty, with short curly auburn hair and big green eyes, she had the air of a flapper about her. This was a startling contrast to Selena’s long blonde hair and tan features.

Lottie and Rhodes were far from the fire when Buckley and Selena returned with the beer. Lottie was wise enough to insist on protection and so they were not in coitus, but Rhodes really wanted them to be. Instead, he would have to settle for the talents of her mouth rather than those of her body.

           

The party went on well into the night. When Buckley left the party, the fire was still blazing, but he couldn’t deal with the drunken reverie any more. He took Stella and Paige back to Herlin Hall with him at around 3 AM and they all went to sleep.

At around 5 AM the rest of the party stumbled in to Herlin Hall.

At 6 AM Buckley awoke to the smell of smoke.

To begin with he thought it must be the clothes he was wearing last night, but as he became more and more alert he realized that something was on fire.

He went to wake up Rhodes who was sleeping with Lottie and Selena on the couch.

“Rhodes – Rhodes! Wake up!”

“What’s up Buckley?”

“Rhodes, did you all put out the fire?”

“Course we did. What are we, stupid?”

“Then what’s burning?”

“Dunno. If you’re so worried about it go have a look.”

That’s exactly what Buckley did. He got the keys and got in the truck to go find the source of the smoke that he could see on the horizon. Thankfully, it wasn’t coming from the direction of the bonfire – it was coming from the direction of the swamp.

There was no way that the embers from the fire could have traveled that far on the wind – was there? It was at least a mile. When Buckley pulled up to where the smoke was coming from he could see that the swamp was smoldering with a low level of fire on its surface and it was slowly spreading toward Herlin Hall. Buckley wondered and hoped that the gator was in there. The fire would at least solve one of his problems. Buckley got back into the truck and rushed back to Herlin Hall to wake everyone up. He called the fire department but by the time they got there the wind had whipped the fire into a mighty blaze.

“How did this happen?” Rhodes asked as he watched the swamp burn it’s way toward Herlin Hall.
            “I don’t know.” Buckley replied. “There’s no way that any embers could have traveled that far, I don’t think. Lightning maybe?”

“God’s punishing me. But for what?”

Lottie had already began to film everything. She was going to have a documentary the likes of which the UWF film department had never seen.

Selena stood as she watched the firefighters trying to fend off the flames that were creeping closer and closer to Herlin Hall and she began to second guess her decision to leave Rhodes.

Rhodes looked at Selena and realized that he loved her. He really loved her. He wondered why he had been so cruel to her. Here he was about to lose his house and maybe his whole world, but she was there beside him and she was safe and that seemed like the only thing that really mattered. This was the woman he wanted to wake up with every day. He thought back to the early days in her apartment and remembered how much happier he had been dancing in that tiny room than he’d ever been at any of the parties he’d ever thrown at Herlin Hall. How had he gotten so far from himself?

He turned to Selena, as his property burned behind him and took her hand in his.

“I love you.” he said.

She was taken aback. He hadn’t actually said the words in a really long time. She had forgotten what they sounded like coming from his lips.

“I-love you too, Rhodes.” She held him to her chest and stroked his hair. “It’s going to be alright. It’s just stuff. It’s just a house.”

“I know. I have the most important thing right here,” he said hugging her waist.

Selena was astounded. Lottie who was filming this was disgusted as she saw her hopes of being Rhodes’ mistress going up in smoke.

Buckley was happy to see that maybe Selena and Rhodes were going to work things out.

The swamp fire burned and smoldered for weeks and while it threatened to burn down Herlin Hall, it never made good on the threat. During this time, no one saw the gator and it was assumed that it had been killed in the fire. Stella and her friends returned to UWF with their footage and Lorena and Locke returned to New York. Buckley decided to stay on at Cypress Estates as pest control manager and most importantly, Rhodes and Selena got engaged.

Selena was still not certain that being Mrs. Shield was what she wanted, but it was better than being the easily replaced girlfriend. She liked the idea of having security, and she hoped that she could still work and be something of an independent woman after the vows were exchanged. Thankfully, her overwhelming attraction to Buckley had waned after their conversation the night of the bonfire.

Miss Emery was less than thrilled about Rhodes’ choice of brides, but she could do nothing about it, so instead she was going to try to insert herself into every aspect of the wedding planning. Selena’s mother was out of the picture, so Miss Emery was essentially taking on the role of mother of the bride as well as mother of the groom. She was more than a little resentful that she would be paying for two weddings in one year, but while Lorena’s wedding would be a lavish and opulent affair, Rhodes and Selena wanted a simple and elegant event. Selena could have wanted to have a courthouse wedding and Miss Emery would have been resentful. Selena was doing her best to let it all roll off her back though. She would soon be the lady of Cypress Estates and the fact that she was about to be usurped was surely what had Miss Emery’s feathers in a ruffle.