Heart's a Mess Ch. 01

The stuffy looking valet accepted the keys to Michael's car and handed them a ticket to pick up the vehicle when they decided to leave. As they walked into the atrium, the soothing jazz added to the ambiance of the low lit hallway where Gail's Aunt Janice was directing the guests into the ceremony space. She looked a little bored until she saw Gail and Michael walking toward her. Aunt Janice was one of the few people in Gail's family who actually supported her decision to become a teacher. She beamed at them and Gail remembered to hold Michael's hand. She honestly felt bad about lying to Aunt Janice, but what needed to be done, had to be done.

"Gail! Girlie, come here lemme see you! You look so beautiful in that dress. Your parents just passed through here asking if you arrived yet," she chattered pulling Gail away from Michael and crushing her to her very large chest like she used to when Gail was just a little girl.

"Thanks Aunty J." Gail gasped, wrapping her arms around the taller Indian woman's waist in greeting.

"Who's your friend, G?" Aunt Janice looked Michael up and down. He shifted uncomfortably.

"Oh. This is my...b...boyfriend Michael. Michael this is my Aunt Janice." She stepped away from her aunt.

"Pleasure to meet you Miss Janice." He politely nodded in her direction.

"He's a cutie, Gail. Where have you been hiding him?" Aunt Janice looked at her niece slyly.

"Um." Gail looked up at Michael, at a loss for words at her old Aunt's blatant flirting.

"We met at work." He smiled down at Gail and recaptured her hand.

"Well, you two have fun. The ceremony is at the end of that hallway. You can't miss it." She winked at them before turning to a few arriving guests.

"Sorry. I forgot about Aunt Janice." Gail apologized once they were out of earshot.

"It's fine. Interacting with your extended family is hilarious, kitty-kat. I'm hoping they believe you long enough. You're a terrible liar by the way." He kissed her forehead and bit back a smile when she made a face.

"Why don't you give me a kiss Felicity?" He emphasized her first name knowing it would contort her beautiful features in annoyance again. He stopped suddenly, amused as she tried in vain to lead him.

"I said that I want a kiss, kitty-kat. You went through all this trouble to make sure people thought we were a couple, some PDA shouldn't be a problem." He beckoned her closer with a finger. She approached him and leaned into him.

"You're dead, Becker." She murmured before pressing her lips against his. His lips were soft and cool against hers and she let her arms rest on his chest as his fingers brushed her lower back. Nothing. There were no sparks, she just felt uncomfortable that the boredom she felt was so unlike the light in the dark brown eyes above her.

"Happy?" She moved away from him and watched as he looked at something over her shoulder.

"Oh! Uncle Charles. I'm so sorry." She blushed for real.

"The ceremony is starting soon. You should be in your seats not making out like a couple of randy teenagers," he interrupted dismissively before pushing past them to the double doors decorated in green and yellow ribbon.

"Well, that was a warm welcome." Michael tried to joke.

"It's only the beginning." Gail sighed before moving away from him and walking ahead.

~*~

By the time the ceremony was over, Gail was ready to burst into tears. It wasn't that she wasn't happy for her cousin and his beautiful wife Lorraine, but it was the scathing looks thrown in her direction without so much as a "Hi" or "Hello" when the looker passed her that made tears ready to push themselves out of her eyes and make a mockery of the hour it took to apply her makeup. When her cousin Bethany asked to change seats after finding out that Gail was at her table, Gail decided that she'd had enough.

"You've got some nerve acting like I have the plague, Bethany. I didn't even do anything wrong!" She yelled, ready to slug the girl in her face.

"I don't associate myself with the company of failures. You're the one who decided that they wanted to settle for less and become a teacher."

"You better watch your tone with me, bitch. I'm not in the mood for you and your attitude. What are you again, a housewife? I'll still be making more than you by the end of my first year. If it weren't for teachers, you lot of stuck up fakes wouldn't have those fancy degrees, now would you?"

"Gail, I think that's enough." Her grandmother stood slowly, her deep brown eyes flashing angrily.

"No, Gran, it isn't. I'm done with this stupid family and their stupid traditions. You can hate me if you want, but don't expect to see my face around these parts anymore." She clutched the back of her mother's chair.

"Gail, please stay? For the sake of Geoffrey and Lorraine, please?" Her mother begged, resting a hand on Gail's.

"As much as it makes me happy to see my favorite cousin get married today, it isn't enough, mom. I can't do this with them anymore. I'm out. Peace. I'll see you and daddy next weekend." Gail leaned down to press a kiss to her mother's cheek, hug her father, and flip off Bethany before she and Michael left.

~*~

The loud rumble of thunder that greeted them as they waited for the valet to being their car around only angered her more. Michael stayed quiet as he watched her hold back from crying. This was a Gail he hadn't seen since the midterm of freshman year when someone stole her very expensive Constitutional Law textbook while she went to the bathroom at the library.

"Someone stole my text book, Mike. I need you to help me find it." She'd begged with tears glistening in the corners of her eyes.

"Sure." He got up, upset because he knew she spent all of her hard-earned money on the overpriced book, he knew she was in trouble.

They eventually hunted down the textbook-napper and found out it was just a case of mistaken identity: the other student thought that it was her book on the large study table since it was still relatively close to her things and took it. He watched with joy as she clutched the book to her chest with relief. As he looked at her now, he remembered how fragile she looked, as if the slightest breeze would blow her away.

~*~

Then it started raining. Not just a light drizzle, but as the valet jumped out of the car and held open the passenger door for her, it seemed like nature itself cried the tears that Gail held in. The silence was uncomfortable as Michael pulled away from the curb and drove off towards her apartment building.

"Can we go somewhere else? I mean go back to my place, change and then leave?" She asked suddenly.

"Um, yeah sure we can." Michael looked at her warily, taking in the puffy circles around her eyes and her runny black mascara.

"Are your cousins still in New Jersey? Or have they gone back to New York already?" she asked, looking over at him.

"What? You're crying, Gail," Michael said, concerned. The inside of the car was relatively quiet and he never heard so much as a sniffle.

"Yeah, I was. I'm not sad though. Honestly Mike, I'm relieved. I couldn't stand that constant pressure from them. The only people that mattered from the start: my parents and my siblings, Aunt Jan and Geoffrey and Lorraine, they're the only family I need." She smiled at him and wiped her nose with the back of her hand.

"You're the strangest girl I've ever met, I swear." He laughed and shook his head, his mind at ease that she wasn't in pain.

"Yeah. But anyway, are they still in town? They seem to party pretty hard, and I'm in the mood to celebrate my newfound freedom." She reached up and unclipped her hair from its stiff bun at the top of her head. Gail sighed as her hair fell, wet from the rain against the back of her neck and the tops of her shoulders.

"Most likely. My cousin Valentin just moved from Germany, his dad wanted him to be more international and help expand their company back home. They got some orders in the US when my dad had that big dinner party for some of his clients back in November and they were admiring his furniture." He shook his head. "They were acting like Jesus himself came down from heaven and made the table and chairs." He laughed and was rewarded with a giggle from his passenger.

"The same uncle that made that jewelry box your dad gave me for my birthday? I understand. That thing was a work of art." She sighed, thinking about the beautiful wood and metal box shaped like a cat, of course inscribed with her name and date of birth in beautiful gold paint.

"You too, Gail? The man is certifiably insane. It takes away from the genius that everyone else seems to see." He shook his head as he pulled into her guest parking spot.

"But that should only add to it. I think he's brilliant at what he does." She grabbed his umbrella from the glove compartment and ran out into the rain.

They walked into the foyer of her building and said a quick hello to the guard at the front desk. The building had belonged to an old high school that was gutted and made into apartments. Gail saved up all her money from working as a secretary in Michael's father's firm to afford the place, and wasn't disappointed. She sacrificed a few guilty pleasures to hold onto the ideal piece of real estate. She and Michael took the short elevator ride up to her apartment and she sighed as she kicked her shoes off.

"Call them, and find out where they are so we can meet them there." She waved a hand at Michael as she disappeared into her bedroom to change. She heard his rough sounding German and tuned it out as she rummaged through her closet. Knowing Peter and Erik, they were probably holed up in some European-owned establishment, drinking pitchers of Beck's and throwing back shots as if they were water. She always had fun with them and Michael when he invited her on their weekend adventures in search of exotic women and beer.

Peter and Eric were his mother's nephews. They were tall, blonde haired brown eyed twins who acted like giant children instead of the twenty-eight years old that they actually were. They ran a few bars back in Brooklyn, but spent most of their time in Jersey City with Michael. As she thought of how they teased Michael that his little friend could hold more liquor than he could, she threw on a pair of skinny jeans and a light green cardigan on her large bed and proceeded to rummage through the pile of shoes hidden under it.

"Gaiiilll!" She heard Michael call from the living room.

"What?!"

"They're at some hookah lounge somewhere that some Egyptian guy they know—"

"Sure. I'm down for whatever." She sat back long enough to call back before looking for a pair of shoes.

"I'm going home to change and stuff. Do you want me to wait for you and then we can both go, or do you want me to go and we'll meet up there?" He asked startling her as his voice came from her doorway.

He laughed as she hit her head on the bed above her and swore. "Wait for me. I know what I'm going to wear. I can always do my hair and makeup in your other bathroom." She pulled out two matching sandals and threw them behind her.

"Unzip me?" She asked turning her back to him.

"Sure. So are we going to pregame? It's a weekend and I'm not sure how much this place is charging for their drinks."

"Yeah. Um..." She bit her lip as she shimmied out of the dress and grabbed her jeans.

"I think that maybe we should do both you know?" She wiggled into the skintight material doing a little hop to get it over her wide hips and butt.

"Right." Michael licked his lips and looked away briefly.

"Hand me my sweater would you?" She asked, zipping and buttoning herself up. "Thanks."

"Are you ready?" He sighed, flopping onto her bed.

"Oh my god, get off of my bed with your wet clothes, I don't need my mother thinking I'm keeping another animal around. She can barely stand my cat and you smell like a wet dog." She laughed as her head appeared from the neck hole in her thin sweater.

He smiled weakly as her quickly drying hair then beautiful dark eyes and finally her soft, pouty lips came into view on top of her long elegant neck. She squinted at him and he willed his heart to beat a little slower, hoping his face wasn't flushed with his desire for her.

Michael wouldn't call himself a womanizer, but he definitely hadn't been a one woman man many times. He felt that, in his youth, he didn't have to tie himself to one woman until he was good and ready. On a side note, he figured he could get all the experience he needed to be the perfect lover for the woman who he ended up with eventually. Looking at Gail now, as she got ready again for them to go out, he felt his heart skip a beat then speed up. He wanted to say it was just a sexual reaction to her beautiful body, but he knew that what he started to feel was way beyond just physical. He knew too much about her to just want her body. He knew that she was a little anal retentive and she loved all animals...and that she had the biggest heart out of anyone he knew: she went out of her way to be a better person.

"Earth to Mikey..." He shook himself as Gail's voice snapped him out of his daydream. "I'm ready to go. Let's head out." She suggested, walking to the door of her room and looking back at him.