Ginger
Destiny
Carolyn
Kate
Shannon
POM
Eve
Monica
Carrie
AvalonRose
confusedfool
Thank you so much for the support!!
Chapter 12
Tess rang the door bell to the Parker mansion with a massive smile on her face. She couldn’t believe how well last night had gone. She honestly thought she would be bored to tears but it was quite the opposite.
She also enjoyed the book Kyle had given her and she made a promise to herself to read it every night before bed. She wasn’t quite sure why the poems in the book had touched her so much but she was determined to read it all before returning to the next poetry night.
She was pulled out of her thoughts as the front door opened, revealing the butler.
“Good morning Miss Harding” greeted the butler.
“Good morning Edward and how are you this morning?” said Tess smiling.
“Oh I am fine thank you Miss and you?”
“Great! Is Liz in?”
“Of course, I believe she is up in her room” said Edward stepping to one side to allow Tess to enter.
“Thank you” said Tess as she walked towards the stairs.
As she reached Liz’s room she started to get all excited. She couldn’t believe the conversation Max had with Kyle last night. Oh Liz was going to love this!
“Liz?” shouted Tess as she knocked and walked through Liz’s bedroom door.
“In here!” came the shout from Liz's huge walk in closet right next to the door.
“What are you doing in there?” asked Tess as she walked toward the closet door.
“I’m trying on a new outfit!”
“Of course you are!” smirked Tess. “What else would she be doing?”
Tess started pacing the room, waiting for Liz to re-emerge from the walk in closet. She just wanted to tell her what happened last night. She had been pacing for what felt like ten minutes so she decided to go ahead and talk.
“Look I know I should have rushed right over here last night to tell you this but I was having so much fun …”
Tess’s mind started to wander back to last night and she was really surprised that she had enjoyed the date. She was used to spending time with men who would take her to fancy restaurants and give her expensive gifts, not ‘average joe’ types like Kyle … but last night just seemed more special.
For one he was not trying to get into her pants every five minutes and secondly she truly knew that he wasn’t after her for her money because he didn’t have a clue who she was or who her father was until last night. Plus the fact he thought she was smart enough to read one of the books.
Tess was so deep in her thoughts that she hadn’t noticed that Liz had stepped out of the walk in closet.
Liz stood there watching Tess pace back and forth waiting for some sort of reaction on her new outfit. When she realised that Tess wasn’t going to snap out of what ever sort of daydream she was having she cleared her throat.
*Cough*
Tess jumped and spun around to look at Liz.
“Oh Liz I’m so sorry I just …” Tess stopped when she looked at the new outfit Liz was wearing.
Now Tess has seen Liz in just about every piece of clothing she owned, very revealing party dresses and dental floss bikini’s but the business suit she now stood in was just too much for Tess to handle. Plus she had her hair tied up in an, oh so serious, bun!
Liz waited for Tess’s opinion on her new outfit but all she saw was Tess’s mouth opening and closing like she was a fish. Getting frustrated with the silence she asked … “Well what do you think?”
Liz watched as Tess started to snigger which then turned into outright laughter. She was laughing so hard that she had tears running down her face and was bending at the waist, clutching her stomach.
“What the hell is so funny?” Liz fumed.
“I'm sorry, I’m sorry!” gasped Tess as she tried to stand up straight, wiping tears from her face "But that outfit makes you look like Ms. Poindexter...our old math teacher from boarding school!" Tess goes back to laughing.
"I so do NOT look like her!" Liz said getting more furious by the second.
“Look I’m trying to go for the sophisticated lady look in order to get Max’s attention. My other strategy didn’t work so I am going to try this. I will behave myself in front of him and wow him with my smarts. That should snare him into my web!” said Liz.
“Oh but listen you don’t have to do all of this” said Tess waving her hand up and down at Liz’s attire.
“What? Why?”
“Well Max was at this thing I went to last night and he started telling….”
Tess was interrupted by a knock on the bedroom door.
“Liz are you in there?”
“Ohh shit it's Max!” whispered Liz.
Liz started to push Tess towards the walk in closet when she heard the door knob starting to turn. She turned to a nearby window, opened it and started to push Tess towards it.
“What the hell....are you nuts! You live two stories up! I'm not going out there!” whispered Tess fiercely.
Liz silently pointed to the door which was slowly opening and then pushed Tess out onto the window ledge and tried to shut the window but it just wouldn’t budge.
“Ohhh shit it’s stuck again!” Liz fumed, as she grabbed the window sash with both hands and with all her weight tried to get it to shut, but the darn thing wouldn’t budge! When Max opened the door and stepped into the room she quickly stopped her yanking and tried to look very professional like, as she stood by the window.
“Oh hi Liz, didn’t you hear me knock?” Max asked giving a strange look towards Liz.
“I … er … I was getting some fresh air!” said Liz pointing to the opened window.
“Well I just wanted to talk to you about …”
“Listen Max I know I have been a total pain in the ass lately but I won’t be any longer I promise you. Let’s just get down to business shall we?” Liz said in her best business tone.
“Oh … erm … okay … er … yeah let’s get down to business.”
Now Max was thrown by what Liz had just said. All morning he had Kyle’s advice running through his head about wasting time on what ifs. He was going to grab Liz and kiss her senseless so she knew just how much she had affected him but now he wasn’t so sure he should do that. She seemed a little cold and standoffish today. He was so confused right now because Liz was giving him mixed signals.
Liz noticed that Max was carrying a pile of books and papers in his arms.
“Oh how rude of me. Why don’t you put those on the desk over there” said Liz pointing to her large writing desk.
“Oh great, thanks” Max said as he walked up to the desk and placed everything on it.
“Okay so what’s on the schedule for the rest of the week?” asked Liz.
“Well we have to produce these documents for Jeff, I mean your father, today.”
“Right well let’s get on with it then.”
Liz pulled up a chair right next to Max but was careful not to touch any part of his body. He had his back to her as he typed out the documents on the laptop so Liz quietly leaned over and with her finger lifted the cover of one of the nearby books...that was on the desk.
She started to read one of the lines, her lips mouthed the words as she read and her head nodded as she was trying to implant what she’d just read into her brain.
“Liz?” said Max turning towards her.
Liz quickly closed the book and started looking out of the window, pretending she was daydreaming.
“Liz?”
“Oh sorry Max I zoned out for a minute. I’m really sorry about that.”
“That’s alright Liz. I asked you to pass me the figures please.”
“Oh, yeah, right, the figures, here you go!” said Liz with a smile, passing the papers he requested.
“Erm ... so Max, read any good books lately?”
Max turned around from the laptop and gave Liz another strange look.
“I mean have you ever read Steinbeck?”
Max looks at Liz in surprise “Well actually yes I have!”
“Finally we have something in common” thought Max.
“Well I think she’s just wonderful!” Liz said pleased with herself that she finally had something to discuss, on an intellectual level, with Max.
Max’s face creased in confusion.
“Uh don’t you mean him, Liz? John Steinbeck is a man.”
Liz’s cheeks turned bright red because she felt totally stupid.
“Uh yeah that’s what I meant! It was just a stupid slip of the tongue. I was reading a book that was written by a female author this morning.”
“Well so much for impressing him with my reading skills!” thought Liz.
“Oh okay then” said Max as he turned back towards the laptop and started to type again, shaking his head.
“Phew, I think he just might have bought that!”
Meanwhile out on the window ledge ………………………………
Tess was holding on to the gargoyle statue, above her head, for dear life. She only had about a ten inch foot hold and when your wearing heals it’s pretty hard to balance on such a small space.
She was listening intensely to the conversation going on inside the bedroom and groaned when Liz offered Max to work at her desk.
“Jeeze, you would think she would get him out of there considering I am out here on the fucking ledge!” she whispered to herself.
Just as she said that, a pigeon started to fly around her head and then landed on the ledge next to her.
“Shoo, get out of here”
The bird didn't move.
"I said get out of here you diseased carrying..." Tess stomped her foot at the bird.
Dodging her foot the pigeon flew up and landed on the head of the gargoyle that Tess was currently holding on too. The bird was just a few inches from her head. It was looking down at her, with its head cocked to the side.
Tess stared at the bird and with a cold voice she said …
“If you poop on me I swear I'll kill you myself and have you turned into a hat.”
The bird flew off as if he understood what Tess had said and she sighed with relief.
*BANG*
“Did you hear something, Liz?” Max asked as he got up and started walking towards the window.
Liz jumped up, ran past Max and slammed the window shut.
“NO! Uh I mean no, I didn’t hear a thing.”
“Liz you’re acting really strange today, are you alright?”
“I’m fine!” croaked Liz as she saw her friend fall.
Tess watched with a smile on her face as the bird flew away.
*BANG*
Tess jumped at the noise of the window being slammed shut and grabbed her poor little heart with both of her hands and then realised her mistake.
She started to feel her foot slipping and waved her hands around frantically, trying to get her balance. She made one final grab for the gargoyle and missed, when her foot slipped.
“Ohhh SHIT!” shouted Tess as she fell off the ledge.
Max couldn’t understand why Liz hadn’t made one of her usual moves towards him. Oh he had heard what she’d said earlier but he just assumed it was another one of her games. Well this time he was going to take control.
He walked up to Liz who still had her back against the window and positioned himself right in front of her. He marvelled at the way the sun shone through her hair creating a sort of glowing effect. She just looked beautiful.
With the advice Kyle gave him last night, ringing in his ears, he decided to go in for the kill. He cupped her face and inched closer to her, never taking his eyes of her luscious lips. He was so close to her that he could feel her warm pants of breath on his lips and then …
“Hold on I’ll be right back!” said Liz, much to Max’s shock, as she rushed out of the room to go and check on her friend.
Liz ran down the stairs at lightening speed, ran through the living room and out of the glass sliding doors. She ran around the side of the house to find Tess missing.
“Oh my god, where can she be?” asked Liz looking around the grounds of the estate.
Lucky for Tess, or as lucky as a person can get when they fall two stories, there was a huge pile of leaves and grass shavings that the gardeners had piled up. Tess landed right in the middle of it and it broke her fall. She came out of the pile, leaves stuck all in her hair and her dress coated in grass shavings. She also had some of the gross stuff in her mouth and started spitting it out.
She glared up at the now closed window and headed towards the fountain so she could clean herself up.
Liz looked at the pile of grass and leaves she noticed the other day, except this time it had a massive hole in the middle. As Liz looked up she could see her bedroom window and realised that Tess might have just survived the fall without breaking anything … well that’s what she hoped anyway.
Oh Tess was going to be mighty pissed with her right now!
“Where could she be?” wondered Liz.
As Tess made her way towards the fountain she happened to walk past two of the gardeners that were tending to the garden.
“Don’t say anything!” said Tess through gritted teeth.
The gardeners just shook their heads and carried on tending to the garden.
Max just stood there, still shocked that Liz had bolted out on him. He was so confused and frustrated that he didn’t know what the hell she wanted anymore so he decided to go after her.
When he finally got outside he saw Liz running towards the back of the estate and decided to follow her.
Liz finally reached the fountain and found Tess cleaning herself up
“Are you ok?” asked Liz nervously.
“I just fell two stories into a grass pile....of course I'm NOT okay!”
“I’m soooooooo sorry Tess, really I am.”
“Well you can just…”
“LIZ!” shouted Max as he was about to turn the corner.
“Shit Tess I’m so sorry!” said Liz a she pushed Tess into the massive fountain.
“What the fu… ahhhh!” Tess screamed as she flipped backwards over the huge stone wall of the fountain and came splashing down in the icy cold water.
Liz sat down in front of Tess just as Max came storming towards her. She could hear Tess coughing and spluttering so as soon as Max was in front of her she pushed Tess’s head under the water.
Max started pacing out his anger whilst trying to talk some sense in to Liz.
“Over the last couple of weeks you’ve done nothing BUT attack me. So when I finally submit to your advances you run off like a scared little girl. I mean I don’t know what you want anymore Liz!” shouted Max.
Each time Max spun away from Liz she let Tess up for some air but each time Max turned back towards Liz she pushed Tess back under again so he couldn’t see her head.
“Look Max I’m getting slightly cold can we please go inside to discuss this” begged Liz.
“Go inside, GO INSIDE, she says. We WERE inside just two minutes ago, until she came running out here like the hounds of hell were after her or something! What do I do? Yep, like a moron I chase after her and I am now standing here trying to pour my heart out to her! Oh and NOW she suddenly wants to go back inside!” he said more to himself than Liz.
“You know what I’ve had enough of your games!” said Max spinning on his heels and storming off back toward the house.
When Liz saw that he had turned the corner and was out of sight she reached down and helped haul Tess over the huge stone wall of the fountain.
Once again ANOTHER one of Tess’s high dollar dresses was ruined, plus the water was freezing and she had one of those green long reeds hanging down in front of her nose. She stood their shaking with the cold and glared at Liz.
“Tess I am SO sorry about that … I’ve got to …” said Liz pointing towards the direction that Max had gone.
“Go, just go” Tess sighed.
Liz ran off towards the direction Max had gone in leaving Tess standing by the fountain.
Tess started to blow the reed out of her face … she tried several times but the green slimy thing wouldn’t move. Snarling Tess reached up to yank the offending item off her face and threw it onto the ground.
“Liz had better be glad that I love her so much … otherwise I would never put up with this kind of shit!”
Tess made her way towards the mansion wanting to dry off before she even thought about getting in to her car.
Once again she passed the gardeners and this time they had a smile on their faces, as they took in the drowned rat look she was currently displaying.
“Laugh and I will have you fired!” snapped Tess.
The gardeners looked at Tess with shock on their faces she had never, ever spoken to them like that before. They just shrugged their shoulders and carried on working.
“Great now I’ve turned into the bitch from hell!” muttered Tess to herself.
Tess managed to sneak into the house and dry off, without anyone seeing her, before getting back into her car and driving home.
TBC …………………………………………………………………………