One Hundred Eleven

It was nearly six o’clock when they finally got the song under their belt.  If Obie, Hugh and Bobby wondered why Richie was in a piss-poor mood, they didn’t dare mention it to his face.  It made more sense to simply follow Jon’s lead and pretend nothing was wrong, while demanding no more than necessary from the guitarist.

He ran his hand through his hair, keeping to himself while the other guys filtered out of the studio – only offering a silent wave of his hand in parting.  The song had gone well enough, he thought.  Snarling the lyric ‘no apologies’ had proven to be mildly cathartic, and he wasn’t nearly as insufferable now as when he’d begun the session.  It didn’t mean he was feeling sociable though.

Or that he’d been struck with any epiphanies on how to work through the situation with Allegra.  Everything was still a muddled mess in his head, and Richie was unsure how to clarify it.

“How ya doin?”  Jon asked after the last of them had trailed out, and the two of them found themselves alone.

“I’m not in prick mode anymore, but I’m still not happy or sure what to do,” he disclosed with complete honesty.  “All I know is that I don’t have any more to say to her now than I did this afternoon.  Not yet.”

“So what are you going to do about this evening then?  If you’re having dinner with us up at the house, she’s going to be there.  Can you deal with that?”

“No, actually, I can’t.”  Richie dragged a weary hand across his nape, hoping to relieve some of the tension in the rock-hard muscles there.  Until he had time to sit and consider everything that had happened, he wasn’t ready for the next encounter.  “I think I’ll go see Ma and maybe take her out for dinner.”

Jon nodded in approval.  “That’s probably a good idea.  I’m hoping Allegra got some sleep today.  If she did and you get a chance to get your head cleared, then you two can work out whatever needs to be taken care of.”  He squeezed his best friend’s shoulder reassuringly.  “You’re a good man, Sambora.  I love ya and I’ll be right here for ya.  Okay?”

Richie’s clapped down on top of Jon’s and tipped his chin sideways to look at the younger man.  “Why didn’t she tell me, Jon?”

“Why didn’t she tell anybody?  Damned if I know.”

“She told Lemma,” he mumbled.  It was bad enough that she’d run away and hidden life-altering information, but then the first one to know had STILL been someone besides him.  So sue him if he was a little fuckin’ bitter.

“Dude, listen to me,” he hooked his foot under the leg of a nearby stool, dragging it close enough to sit with Richie.  “I think you’re making more out of that than there is.  Dave said you didn’t want to go after her until Monday, but he had a bad feeling in his gut.  He made a couple of phone calls and found out she wasn’t out on flood assistance and got even more worried, so he started trying to find the most logical place to look for her – to bring her back to YOU.”

“If that’s the case, then why didn’t he let me in on it?  I could’ve gone myself.”

“Because you would’ve told him to mind his own fuckin’ business.”

Jon had a point there.  Richie had believed his plan was the best course of action and wouldn’t have appreciated the interference.  But shouldn’t he at LEAST have been consulted?

“He didn’t want to see either one of you hurting, and he put a stop to it as soon as he could.  And ya know… you’re not the only one who could be pissed here.”  He pointed his finger at Richie’s face with a disapproving scowl.  “You didn’t breathe a damn word to ME about anything being out of whack.  Here you were yesterday spouting this ‘she’s gotta do what she’s gotta do’ bullshit, and I’m thinking everything’s just hunky-fuckin’-dory, like a dumbass.”

Richie knew that had been a mistake when it happened, but he just didn’t have the energy to tackle it at the time.  Jon’s soft side often got swallowed by his fiery temper, and that temper was what he’d been envisioning when he left his friend out of the loop. 

“I’m sorry.  In the past I wouldn’t have hesitated to tell you about my woman problems, but it’s touchy territory with her.  She’s your family, and you’ve got an obligation to her.  I wasn’t sure exactly what was going on, and didn’t know which one of us you would blame for her running.”

Jon’s look of disbelief spoke volumes.  “Richie, you’re MORE than family, and you know it.  You don’t suddenly get bumped down the food chain in my life because the girl you’re dating is my cousin.  Don’t get me wrong – I love her and want you to do right by her, but I’ve always told you when you weren’t doing right by a woman – ANY woman.  Didn’t matter who it was.  That’s not gonna change.”

“And do you think I’m not doing right by her now?”

“I have all the confidence in the world that you’ll do not what’s right, but what’s right for the two of you.  What she did may be hard to get past, there’s no doubt.  You’re the only one that knows if you can.”

♪♥♪

David returned home to find Lexi at the kitchen table with her computer, shopping online and reading through Twitter posts, as she often did.  She’d told him on more than one occasion that she got a kick out of the Lemma girls clamoring for him to ‘let the Joker out’ at the shows.  It didn’t mean that she wanted him to do it, but she thought it was funny that they were so fanatical about it.

“Hey beautiful,” he greeted her with a smile.  Bending, he kissed the side of her neck, giving a little nibble on her earlobe before he produced a huge bouquet of roses from behind his back with a flourish.  Not red ones, either.  Too cliché.  No these were Sterling roses in a beautiful shade of lavender, as unique and special as their recipient.

  

I’ll just keep that little bit of commentary to myself.  There is such a thing as overkill.

Lexi accepted the roses warily, looking suspiciously at him from the corner of her eye.  “This many roses means you screwed up big time.  Do I want to know?”

“You already know,” he assured her with a laugh, pulling a chair out to join her.  “But I would like to talk.  Are you too busy for me to interrupt?”

“No.”  She was torn between curiosity and apprehension as she placed the roses on the table and carefully closed the laptop, giving him her undivided attention.

Leaning forward on his elbows, he regarded her earnestly.  “I owe you a huge apology and explanation, baby.  This mess with Legs has obviously taken a toll on us, and I want to make it right.”

“And how are you going to do that?”

“You know a little bit about her, but I want to give you the full background.” 

Lexi obviously knew that Allegra had been a sister, and that she’d been beaten and raped, but that was the extent of her familiarity with Allegra’s story.

“You know she was a nun – sister, whatever – and I’m sure it makes sense in your head, but the reality of it is hard to comprehend until you see it up close and personal.  Lex, she was in a convent for TWENTY YEARS, mostly protected from the outside world.  I don’t think I really understood what that meant until she looked at an iPhone and computer like she’d never seen them before – because she hadn’t.  She asked about TAPES of the band’s music.”

“I remember that from Hawaii.  You thought it was hilarious.”

“It was.  And you know how I wanted to teach her about digital music?”  Receiving her nod of agreement, he continued.  “Before I did that, I kind of thought she was… slow.  To be pitied.  But when I finally got the chance to show her iTunes and the computer, she showed an incredible aptitude for it.  I’m ashamed to say that her intelligence amazed me.  It drove home the fact that she was ridiculously innocent and sheltered, and brought out my protective instincts.”

“Okay, I can see that, but how did we go from iTunes to the obsession you developed?”

He proceeded to tell her all the details of Felix’s attack, the episode that landed him in the floor at the Soul foundation, coercing Allegra into counseling and the threatening phone call from Felix.

“I wasn’t even aware of it at the time, but can’t you see that all of that was like crack to my protectiveness?  It grew out of control.  In my mind, as long as I could be in contact with her, I knew she was okay.  That meant I was texting or calling as often as I could get away with, and it gave me the peace I was looking for.  Then, last week, she disappeared.”

“Disappeared?  You told me she left intentionally.”

“She did,” he agreed.  “Maybe intentionally disappeared is a better way to put it.  She told her work she was going to be with Rich, she told Rich and the band she was going to go away for work, but then also left him a note saying that she was thinking of breaking it off with him.  It all sent up red flags for me, but Richie was content to wait it out a while.  I just couldn’t.   So you know I went after her this morning.”

“I assume you brought her back?”

“I did, and I found out why she left.”  David leaned in closer and grasped Lexi’s hand.  “Lex… Felix had been AT the convent.  He knew where she was.  If I hadn’t gone, we don’t know what might’ve happened.”  Clouds crossed through his eyes before brightening again.  “But on a good note, before I left the studio this evening, Jon told me he’d got an anonymous call pinning Felix’s whereabouts though.  We’re waiting to see what comes of it.”

“I hope they catch him so she can have some peace again.” Lexi’s face was troubled and she shook her head in sympathy before asking, “So why did she leave?”

With a sigh, he explained about the pregnancy and the uncertainty surrounding the parentage.  Following that up with Richie’s anger at the whole situation, he could see that Lexi was starting to thaw, her compassionate nature moving to the forefront.  He’d known that she wouldn’t be able to hold a grudge toward Legs after knowing everything she’d endured.  His fiancée was a total pushover when it came to the well-being of others, and he’d been banking that her kindheartedness would pave the way to his forgiveness.

“And that’s why I’ve been a neglectful ass toward you.  Please believe me when I say I’m sorry.”  He rose, pulling her up to stand in front of him.  With a soft kiss on her parted lips, he slipped his arms around her, drawing her into an intimate embrace.  “Even if you can’t forgive me, can you at least understand?  I love you, Lex.  I haven’t been the best at showing it lately, but there’s no one that can take your place in my life.  You’re the Harley Quinn to my Joker.”

Lexi flipped her long blonde tresses over her shoulder with a sigh.  “Understood and forgiven.”

“Really?” He reared his head back to look at her disbelievingly.  “Really, really?”

Laughing, she tucked his curls behind his ears, just because he hated it.  “Yes really, really.  All you had to do was talk to me, David.  You hadn’t lost your sexual appetite, so I wasn’t worried about you falling in love with her.  I was more upset that you weren’t letting me in.”

His face split wide in a grin.  Jon had evidently dropped his horseshoe, because David was officially the luckiest man alive. 

“So…” He waggled his eyebrows at her, before scooping her up off her feet.  “Does this mean you’re willing to let ME in YOU?” 

Her whispered reply made him grin and he lengthened his strides, hurrying their trip to the bedroom.

♪♥♪

Jon was right, Richie thought as he pulled into his mother’s driveway.  He WAS the only one who would know if he would be able to get past how she handled this.  The tricky thing was finding that answer deep within himself. 

He swiped the bangs out of his eyes, thinking that he needed a haircut as he rang the bell.  Haircuts were always a nightmare.  He looked like a schmuck every time he got one, and wasn’t happy with it until it was almost too long again.  It was so much easier to be twenty-something and just let it grow down his back.  Getting old sucked.

“Well, hello sweetheart,” his mother welcomed him with a wide smile, retreating into the foyer so that he could enter the house.  “What a nice surprise.  I was just sitting down to some minestrone soup.  Would you like some?”

Bending over to kiss her cheek, he returned the smile.  “And here I was coming to take you out for a nice dinner.  That’s what I get for not calling ahead, huh?”

“That’s a sweet thought,” she said, leading him to the kitchen, where a delicious aroma was emanating from a small, simmering pot.  “But I was really looking forward to the minestrone.  Besides, you look exhausted.  Sit down and I’ll fix you a bowl.”

He dutifully did as he was told, remembering all the times throughout his life that he’d sought his mother’s counsel at the kitchen table.  He’d bought her this house several years ago, so it wasn’t always THIS table, but the setting was no less comfortable and familiar.

“That sounds great, Ma.”

The drive over here had given him some interrupted time to reflect on the situation and try to decide what he wanted from this visit with his mother.  It didn’t feel right to tell her that Allegra was pregnant, and he didn’t plan on sharing that information just yet.  It wasn’t the real problem anyway.

As he’d told Allegra, they had to figure out what was going to happen with their relationship before they could start putting a baby into the equation.

His mother set the soup before him and bustled about the kitchen, pulling hot bread from the oven and pouring them both glasses of iced tea before finally seating herself beside him at the table.  Draping a napkin over her lap, she sipped from her glass, and then asked, “How is Allegra?”

The soup made its way down his throat, tasting exactly the way he’d remembered.  The world’s finest cuisine in the best five-star restaurant in the world couldn’t beat his Ma’s home cooking.  “The minestrone is delicious, as always,” he complimented, temporarily avoiding the question.

“Thank you, dear.”  She studied him carefully, making no move to try it for herself.  His mother had a sixth sense about when things weren’t right in his world, and his turning up unannounced had probably done nothing to quell that feeling.

Placing his spoon down, he clasped his hands together, elbows resting on the table.  “Ma, I need some advice.”

“Oh?  What kind of advice?”

How could he be vague, yet specific enough to solicit useful guidance?

“Allegra and I have hit a bit of a rough spot,” he began haltingly.  “She did something that she says was in my best interest without consulting me, even though the outcome affects us both in a huge way.  Before this happened, I had planned to ask her to marry me, but now I don’t know.”

He was grateful that she let the marriage comment pass by for the time being, instead focusing on his problem.   Joan Sambora was an insightful woman, and she didn’t mince words.  She got to the heart of the matter with only a few pointed queries.

“Did she do it to be malicious?”

“No.”  He knew that for a fact.  It wasn’t her nature.  She just thought she knew better than the rest of the world.

“Do you think she would do it again?”

“Knowing how angry it made me, no, I don’t think so.”

“Well, son, then there are really only one or two questions you have to ask yourself,” his wise mother determined. 

Holding up her index finger, she elaborated. “The first one is do you still love her?  If the answer is no, you’re finished.  I don’t think that’s the case though, or you wouldn’t be here.  So in that event…” She held up a second finger.  “You ask yourself the second question.  Now, don’t answer it right away.  Make sure you think about it carefully.  Will you promise me that you’ll do that?”

“Of course.” 

Nodding in satisfaction, she posed the sixty-four thousand dollar question.  “Is what she did horrible enough to throw away the rest of your lives together?”