218. Lillian

Warning: coarse language

 Bridgeport, present day

“I don’t know what to tell you, Cameron, but there’s nothing wrong with Hawk,” Lillian announced when he came downstairs wrapped in nothing but a towel.He knew he was dressed inappropriately, but he’d just stepped inside the shower when he heard his home phone go off.  Thinking it was Michaela, he’d immediately run downstairs to answer it, evidently he wasn’t fast enough, the phone had stopped ringing.

“Maybe you should take him in and run some tests. I really think he’s sick,” Cameron insisted as he crouched to the floor to give Hawk a hug. The puppy returned his affection by slobbering kisses all over his face before he bounded off to sit by the door.

“Or maybe he’s just missing Michaela,” the vet suggested.Cameron blushed bright red then. It made sense and he felt like an idiot for not considering that possibility first before he called the vet.

Since Michaela left, all Hawk did was sit by the door and whine himself to sleep, his appetite had withered, and keeping him engaged was getting harder each day.

“What do we do? How do we fix this? Can you give him something?”“I’m afraid, like with you, time is the only healer for heartache. Give him time to get used to her absence.”“It’s been over a month, how much more time does he need?” Cameron growled.“How much more time do you need?” The vet asked evenly. If it was any other person Cameron would have found the question inappropriate. But he’d known Lillian for a while now, she was Lilo’s vet since she was a puppy, and he considered her a friend…With benefits.  At least she used to be. Now he didn’t want anyone’s benefits but Michaela’s.

“I’m fine,” Cameron replied as he sat down at the piano.“I suppose some would consider barhopping and drinking yourself to a stupor fine.”“Are you keeping tabs on me?” He rounded on her with an angry glint in his eyes.“No, but the tabloids are, and I must admit your drunken stunts are sending their sales skyrocketing. If it’s not bar brawls, it’s some shit with strippers. I wonder how Michaela feels about it all.”“That was a lie. I didn’t fuck that stripper!” He was referring to an article in Dirt linking him to some stripper named Josie (or something like that), working at Love Lace. He met her once when he got roped in by Mark and Stanley late one night after a recording session of their latest album.

“That’s not what the tabloids said,” Lillian reminded him.“I know what the damn tabloids said, but I didn’t fuck her.” Cameron insisted. Sure he may have been stoned and drunk out of his head that night, but he clearly remembered brushing her off. Not before the paps had snapped a picture of her gyrating all over his lap though.“The pictures they printed spoke volumes, you looked just about ready to fuck her right there, and if Michaela saw it…” Lillian’s words trailed off, leaving the rest to his imagination.Yes, he knew if Mickey saw the article, there’d be hell to pay. But, “She doesn’t read tabloids,” he told Lillian halfheartedly. Like him, and the rest of the band, she always made it a point to avoid all the trash written about them in gossip columns.“So that’s why you do it, because she doesn’t read tabloids and she won’t hear about your shit?”“Whose side are you on?” Cameron demanded, “I thought you hate Mickey.”

“I hate all rich brats. But you love her. And I care about you. Pull yourself together.” With that Lillian grabbed her medical bag and approached the door. Hawk whined unhappily at the intrusion, but he rose from the floor to let her through.“Oh, someone called while you were in the shower. She hung up without leaving a message though.” Lillian called over her shoulder just before she banged the door shut.“And you tell me this now?” He screamed after her.

He knew it was Michaela. It had to be. She was the only one who called his home phone. And he figured she’d probably jumped to the wrong conclusion when she heard Lillian’s voice. Since she left, the temptation to reach out to her was always there, and miraculously he resisted it, mainly because he didn’t want to seem clingy and needy.“Fuck that shit,” he decided now as he grabbed the phone from the wall and called her. He had to fix this little misunderstanding before it escalated into something they both couldn’t come back from.

Of course Michaela rejected his calls out right; he knew a rejection tone when he heard one.

He raced upstairs to get his cell phone, and he cussed when he saw he had three missed calls and they were all from Michaela. He wasn't surprised he’d missed her calls though; his phone was on silent mode.His text message to her was brief and to the point. “It’s not what you think, please pick up the phone, I love you.”Her response was prompt. “Whatever!”

“Whatever?” He barked as he kicked one of his running shoes. It landed on the bed next to Lilo.

She gave him a quizzical look before she took the shoe in her mouth and merrily ran downstairs, no doubt to share her treat with Hawk.

“Take the other one too, why don’t you?” He yelled at her retreating tail, he really didn’t have the energy to wrestle the shoe from her. Getting through to Mickey was his priority. Of course Leigh chose that moment to show up for her Tai Chi lessons, he heard the doorbell downstairs.He quickly threw on a pair of sweats and a vest before he went to get the door.

“Hey, hey.”  Leigh greeted him with a wide smile on her face. And Cameron knew there and then it was going to be a long session; she was obviously in a chatty mood, and he wasn’t.“Hi,” he gave her a brief hug before he ushered her inside.

Initially, when Krisis approached him he was hesitant about the lessons. Like him, he didn’t want to give Leigh bruises, but she'd convinced him she wasn’t made of glass, and she didn’t break easily. And over the weeks she’d proven just how right she was.

He was very pleased with her progress on the defense side, but when it came to meditation she was still struggling, her mind was constantly on the go, making it hard for her to achieve complete meditative focus and tune out everything around her.

He was especially hard on her today, after the rough morning he’d had with Lillian and Mickey.

But Leigh took it all in her stride, counteracting all his high kicks and punches with precision and stealth.

During meditation, Leigh’s focus was surprisingly much better than his, and after a while she suggested they should take a break, or better yet call it a day.

“I’m the teacher, and you’re the student, I decide when we’ve had enough.” He glared at her.Leigh just smiled at him. “No, Cam. Your mind is not in it today. Do you want to talk about it?”Cameron shook his head.“Okay,” Leigh shrugged and turned to collect her things from the floor.

But just as she was about to head for the front door, he decided to come clean. “Mickey called.”Leigh’s eyes lit up then, and a slow smile spread across her face. “That’s good news right?”“Yeah, I guess.”“Then why do you look so glum?”

“Because Lillian answered the phone and now Mickey’s rejecting my calls, I sent her a text, and guess what her reply was?” He paused briefly to scowl at Leigh. Without waiting for her response, he carried on. “‘Whatever!’ That’s all she said. What the hell does it even mean?”

“It means she thinks you’re bullshitting her.” Leigh, an expert at deciphering girl code, explained as she took a seat at the dining table.“But I’m not bullshitting her.” Cameron held out his hands in an open gesture to show her he was telling the truth.“I know that, but Mickey doesn’t. And it’s your job to convince her.”“How do I do that when she doesn’t even want to answer my calls? I don’t even know where she is! Lilo and Hawk are pining for her. She needs to come home. This has been going on long enough!”“It’s not up to us, Cam,” Leigh reminded him.

Cameron went to the kitchen and began clearing up last night’s dishes piled high in the sink.He’d already poured her a plasma juice when he suddenly remembered he should have asked first what she wanted to drink.“It’s okay, I'll have that,” Leigh assured him when she saw the perplexed look in his eye.

She took a long sip from her glass and made a face. She’d drunk the stuff when she was pregnant with the triplets. She was a little disappointed to discover it still tasted like shit even now that she’s a vampire. But then again, she could just be biased; nothing would ever give her the rush she felt when she fed from Krisis.

“Thank you,” Cameron’s voice pulled her away from the glass.Leigh frowned at him, “for what?”“For the lessons. I know I didn’t want to at first, but Krisis was right, it’s what I needed to keep my mind off Mickey. ”

“I’m glad I served as a good punching bag for your heartache,” Leigh replied with a grin, and Cameron just gawked at her.“Cam, you’re staring,” she admonished him as she covered her mouth with her hand, feeling self-conscious.“It’s just so weird, seeing you with fangs and glowing eyes.” Cameron explained.

“I know what you mean, it’s just as weird for me too,” Leigh laughed then. It was infectious, and Cameron found himself drawn in. At that moment he could see why Krisis was so crazy about her; she was such an easy person to be with, down to earth and lovable too.

“Damn, that’s the time already?” Leigh cried when she looked at her cellphone. “I’d love to stay and work on Operation Mickey with you, but I really have to go, we have this thing with the lawyers to finalize Lily’s adoption.”

“It’s cool, go ahead; see you tomorrow?”“You bet!” Leigh pecked him on the cheek quickly before she made a dash for the door…