C'mon and Love Me

"No, I couldn't. I..."

From behind, Mrs. Dryer chided, "You'll march upstairs and lay down. I won't have you driving home tired; now scoot!"

"You heard the boss," Mr. Dryer said with a grin.

"Okay, okay. You win. I'll crash here tonight."

She patted my cheek and said, "Good boy."

*****

I woke to the sun shining in the window and groaned. I didn't understand why they had the bed positioned as such to get the direct sunlight as it rose in the morning.

Something shifted in the bed, and I saw Mallory snuggle into my chest. I wondered if they knew she wandered off at some point in the night. Man, that kid could snore.

I heard a noise and looked at the door. Nikki stood there with her phone pointed at me. I assumed she took a picture.

"We sent her up ten minutes ago to get you for breakfast. She failed miserably," Nikki smiled.

I looked at the sleeping Mallory and back to Nikki, "Should I wake her?"

Nikki nodded affirmatively.

I gently shook Mallory, but she didn't wake. I tickled her, and that woke her. "Stop tickling, Unckie Dwake."

"We're going to miss breakfast, duckie."

"Oh! I was supposed to wake you up. I forgot."

I laughed and tickled her some more. "Come on, duckie. Let's see what grandma made us, hm?"

"I'll take her down, Drake. Why don't you freshen up and brush your teeth?"

"That bad?"

She smiled, "Smelled your morning breath all the way over here."

"Funny girl."

She shrugged and spun away with Mallory leading her down the stairs.

I looked at myself in the mirror and gave myself a pep talk to stay calm, stay focused, and stay her friend.

The same glimmer of hope I had when she broke up with Jack in high school stirred inside me again. I fought every urge to take her into my arms and beg her to let me protect her for the rest of her life. I bottled up every desire to drop to a knee and ask her to marry me in front of her parents and child. I couldn't let her break my heart again.

I knew she didn't do anything directly to crush my soul, yet it was the reality of my life. The golden ring was inches away from my fingers and I was too nice to step forward and take it. After initially blaming myself, I understood that if she felt the same as I did, she wouldn't have gone out with Mike in the first place all those years ago. She would have run into my arms, and we would have lived happily ever after.

She didn't. She ran into his arms. Her choice was made, and it wasn't me.

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't going to rub it in her face or say I told you so. She didn't deserve him treating her like shit. I hoped she was happy, I really did. Who wouldn't want the love of their life to be happy?

"Drake, you in here?"

"Yes, sir. Sorry, I was lost in thought for a minute there."

"Come on down to breakfast. My darling wife won't let us start eating until you've come down. I kept telling her you're not a guest here anymore, but she keeps wanting to play the happy host."

I laughed and patted his shoulder, "She must have made her world famous stuffed French Toast."

"You betcha! Now let's go eat before I start gnawing at my fingers."

We sat at the table and Mallory was pouting at me.

"What's with the lip, duckie?" I pushed her lips into a smile, and she giggled. "That's better."

"How come I didn't get a present, Unckie Dwake?"

"Mallory!" Mrs. Dryer scolded. "You don't get a present just because you see Uncle Drake."

"Nuh, uh," Mallory shook her head.

I smiled and said, "Duckie, look here." I held out my closed fist. "I have a present inside for you. Go ahead and open it."

Mrs. Dryer shook her head and Mr. Dryer smiled approvingly.

Mallory's eyes lit up and she took my hand, trying as hard as she could to pry open my closed fingers with her little hands.

Finally, I opened my empty fist, and she said, "Where is it?"

"Right there. It's a tickle maker."

She looked at my empty hand for a moment and then it clicked in her mind, "No!" she shrieked, and I began tickling her sides.

Everyone around the table were smiling and laughing, except Nikki. I felt bad that she was having a rough time.

"Excuse me," she said, and left the room.

Mrs. Dryer frowned and apologized, "It's going to be hard on her for a long while yet."

I nodded agreement and let Mallory get back to her French toast.

*****

"Hey," I said peeking into Nikki's bedroom after breakfast. She was sitting on her bed while Mallory napped. "I'm taking off, I just wanted to say goodbye."

She walked over and kissed my cheek, "Thank you for being my friend, double D."

"Always will be," I said as I turned and walked down the stairs.

I saw her parents sitting in the lounge and stopped in to say goodbye.

"She appreciates you more than you know, Drake," Mrs. Dryer said when she hugged me.

I smiled and said, "I know how much she appreciates me. I'm good."

Mr. Dryer smirked and said, "Where there's smoke, there's fire, you know."

I shrugged my shoulders and said, "Yeah, but it isn't the smoke that burns you. See you at the office."

I needed to get out of there. My hand hurt and I wanted to take a pill, but I didn't want them to make me stay any longer.

When I got home and sat in my recliner, I let out a deep sigh when my phone dinged with a text from Nikki.

I'll be over at six with the casserole my mother is making for you.

As I was struggling to produce an excuse to stop her from coming over, she sent another.

I know you're trying to think of a reason to say no. Mom says don't even try.

I wanted to scream, but my cat jumped in my lap looking for attention. He rubbed his cheek on the splint as it debated telling Nikki I was too tired for company.

Fine

I tossed the phone onto the coffee table and used my free hand to pet my needy cat. I thought about when Mallory named him. She was barely two at the time, and was talking few words with her ubiquitous issues with the letter R.

The smile on her face, when my then six weeks old kitten climbed on her lap, was something I'll never forget. She looked at her and said, "Hi, Peppa."

I still don't know if she was calling her Pepper, or Peppa, but that was her new name. I say new name because I'd already named her Snowball. She was a fluffy white little thing, with a patch of black by her tail.

Nikki laughed, and said, "You know she thinks she's her cat now?"

I laughed and said, "I have primary custody, though. She can have liberal visitation rights."

We laughed together, and every time I went to play chess with Mr. Dryer and Mallory would be there, I brought Peppa along.

My reverie was broken by my doorbell ringing. To my utter amazement, there were two policemen standing at my door.

"Hello, officers. How can I help you?"

"Mr. Dreyfuss, we need to bring you into the station. Mr. Jameson is pressing charges for your attack on him yesterday."

I couldn't believe that bastard Mike was pushing the issue.

"Officer, did you happen to ask the other officers that were on the scene when I was attacked by Mike. My one punch was in self defense and the other officers, who witnessed it, agreed."

He sighed, "Look, we know it's a shitty charge, but we have to do it. You're never going to get convicted but the district attorney that signed off on it is a friend of the guy's dad, as is our chief. We're going to book you and let you go on your own recognizance, so it won't be anything more than a couple of hours inconvenience. Hell, if you want to sue the guy, I'll testify that this is all a sham."

"Jesus Christ," I complained. "Let me get my phone."

I walked into the house and the officer followed closely. I grabbed my phone and called Mr. Dryer.

"Drake, don't try to..."

"Sir, sorry to cut you off, but I need your help. I need an attorney. I'm being arrested for punching that asshole yesterday."

"What?" he shouted. "I'll come and bail you out. Don't worry..."

"Wait, sir. They're going to let me go on my bond, so I don't need bail. I just need a lawyer to sue the shit out of his father for wielding influence to make this happen."

"I'm on it, Drake. Count on it."

"Okay, officer. Can I drive down, or do you have to cuff me and all that?"

"No, come with us, but I'm not going to cuff you."

I nodded and grabbed my keys.

*****

The cops were cool, and I was treated with minimal hassle. As I was being escorted out, I passed the hall that led to the chief's office. The door was open.

"May I?" I asked. The officer smirked and nodded.

I knocked on the door and said, "Excuse me, Chief?"

"What?" he grumbled.

"I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to sue the shit out of you for wrongful arrest. You can tell your pal Jameson I'm gonna sue him and the DA too."

"Fuck off!" he growled.

"Okay. Just make sure you're ready for the news trucks. I always wanted to be on TV."

I could swear he paled. I hoped so. I was going to have a lot of fun with them.

I walked out to the lobby where the officer was going to have me wait as he pulled his car around, but Nikki and Mallory were looking at the display of badges on the wall.

"Drake," she shrieked and rushed to me. "Are you okay? They didn't hurt you did they?" she rubbed my cheek as she inspected me for brutality."

I laughed. "I'm fine." I looked at the officer, "Thanks, but I have a ride."

He nodded and went back to the restricted area.

"Unckie Dwake, Gamma says you can't say no," Mallory exclaimed out of nowhere.

I looked at Nikki.

She shrugged, "Mom said to bring you home for dinner. Mallory must have heard her say to not take no for an answer."

I picked Mallory up and walked towards the exit. "Why does grandma keep wanting to feed me, duckie?"

She shrugged, "Maybe she thinks you hung-wee."

I laughed, "Maybe."

We got to the Dryer house, and I was immediately met by Mr. Dryer.

"Drake, Davis is on it. Since this is because of Nikki, I'm going to pay for whatever he charges. It's ridiculous and I hope you want to sue the pants off the lot of them."

"Absolutely," I said. "There should be body cam footage from the whole altercation. It will clearly show him pushing me and me hitting back in self-defense. I only threw one punch."

"I'm sorry, Drake. It's all my fault," Nikki lamented.

"Nah. It's Mike's fault and I'm going to open a world of hurt on him for harassing me with this crap. You just worry about your own situation and getting through your divorce."

"Come on, Drake," Mrs. Dryer demanded. "I made a rib roast today. You can take the casserole home with you."

"You're going to make me eat a rib roast? Oh! The humanity."

We all laughed and dug in the delicious roast.

*****

I sat in Mr. Dryer's office and sipped the Scotch he handed me.

"Drake, I want you here for this call," he said as he closed and locked the door to the room. I wondered whom he was going to call, when he dialed the number on his desk phone.

The person answered, "John, I don't want to hear it. I have to protect my son."

Mr. Dryer said, "Listen to me, Jameson. The divorce was going to be bad enough, but you had an innocent person arrested in Drake. You've opened Pandora's box now and I'm going to shove my lawyer's foot so far up your ass, you'll taste the leather."

"Whoa! John. He hit Mike and he needs to pay for that."

"Mike pushed him first, and..."

"What?" he yelled. "That's not what Mike said."

"Well, dumb ass, the cops were there and witnessed the whole thing. You screwed up messing with my employee..."

"Employee? Mike said it was the guy Nikki was screwing."

"Oh, Jameson, you're in deep shit and don't have any idea of what you've done. Drake isn't having an affair with my daughter. He was just there to get her stuff. I was playing chess with him when she called for me to come get her. He works in my accounting department. He's a bean counter for Christ's sake."

He smiled and winked at me. I smiled and wagged a finger at him.

"Damn it, John. This is a mess. The cops were there when Mike got hit?"

"Ten feet behind him."

"I'm going to kill that kid. John, call your dogs off. I'll get this straightened out. Tell your employee..."

"Not gonna happen. My guy was dragged out of his apartment and taken to jail like a common street thug. You better hope the cops didn't treat him too roughly because I'm already mad and you don't want to see me pissed."

"Let me call you back."

He hung up and Mr. Dryer laughed. "It's going to be so much fun dragging him down a peg. I can't believe he took his kid's word for what happened. To accuse Nikki of having an affair with you is mind-boggling."

I threw back the last of the drink and said, "Yeah, it's silly."

I think he caught the undertones behind my words because he frowned.

"Jesus, Drake. We all know how you feel about her. We can see it in your eyes. You can try to hide it all you want, but you can't hide the love in your eyes. If only she hadn't hooked up with that asshole."

"If only," I agreed. "I'm getting tired, sir. I'll see you at the office tomorrow, okay? Thanks for dinner and for sending Nikki to get me."

"How are you getting home? Let me get Nikki..."

"I ordered an UBER five minutes ago. It's almost here," I said as I looked at my phone.

*****

I was in my office the next morning when Davis the lawyer called. He was almost giddy. It turned out; they didn't talk to the officers who were at the scene of my "fight" before issuing the arrest warrant based solely on Mike's complaint. The DA went ballistic on the chief who went off on the officers who arrested me. He found out they knew the fight was witnessed by two of his officers and they considered it self-defense at the scene. The arresting officers knew the Jameson family and didn't like how they threw their influence around. I wasn't the first person to feel the power of the Jameson family wealth.

Suffice it to say the charges against me were dropped. Davis asked if I was treated well by the police, and I told him I was. I think he was hoping for another lawsuit to line his wallet.

Later in the day, Mr. Jameson showed up at my office with a check for one-hundred thousand dollars and an apology.

"Mr. Dreyfuss, forgive my--exuberance--in what happened with the police. I was able to confirm that my son lied to me, and I apologize. Please accept this check and I hope this can put an end to the bad situation."

I was about to tell him to get bent but was interrupted by my phone ringing. It was Davis the lawyer.

"Drake, I've been told Mr. Jameson will be visiting you personally this afternoon."

"Yeah, he's sitting in front of me."

"What did he offer you?" Davis asked.

"One-hundred."

"Take it. I won't charge you for my services or take a cut of it as a favor to John. I didn't do all that much anyway."

"You're sure?" I asked. I never considered how much I could get.

"Absolutely. It's probably close to what I could have got you anyway and then I'd have taken a chunk."

"Okay. Thanks, Davis."

"You're welcome. Oh! Don't sign anything. Don't let him make that offer contingent upon non-disclosure or anything else."

"Got it."

I hung up and looked at Mr. Jameson.

"Okay." I put the check in my jacket pocket, and he pulled a stack of papers out of his bag.

"Good, this is a standard NDA..."

"No, you can put that away. I'm not signing a non-disclosure agreement. You can either walk out of here with your check and I sue you, the DA, and the police, or you walk out of here and leave the check."

I saw the redness flush up his neck to his cheeks.

"Why are you being such a hard ass? Nothing terrible happened to you."

I laughed, "Because your son is an asshole, and you wielded your power like an axe to get me arrested for no reason. That pissed me off."

"I know Mike is a fuck up," he sighed. "I tried to raise the kid right, but his mother spoiled him. Just keep in mind that I'm trying to make this right instead of costing you thousands in court costs trying to sue me."

Suddenly, I had an idea.

"Let me see that NDA."

He handed it to me, and I read through it. It was pretty light and only addressed the fight and the resulting arrest.

I said, "I tell you what. I'm impressed that you came down here yourself to handle this yourself. It shows that you have some integrity. I'll take your offer and sign the NDA if you go easy on Nikki in the divorce. She doesn't need a fight to get rid of your asshole kid."

He sat back and eyed me carefully.

"What do you care?" He finally asked.

"I was friends with Nikki in high school. We've never been interested in each other romantically; I just don't want to see her suffer."

Okay, so I lied.

He smirked. "Sure. They have a pre-nup anyway. I'll make sure they follow the letter of it and Mike doesn't fuck anything else up."

I signed the form and handed it to him. "Jenny will notarize that on your way out."

He nodded and said, "Drake, I trust that this ends everything. My friends don't want any more trouble out of this situation."

"I'll call the dogs off the chief and the DA. I'll calm Mr. Dryer down as well. Although, he was looking forward to the fight."

He laughed. "Yeah, John and I go way back. I think it was his turn for a win in one of our battles."

He turned and walked out. I called Mr. Dryer.

"Hey, Drake. Davis already called. I hope you tore up the check."

I laughed, "No, I took it, but I made him agree to leave Nikki alone and let the divorce happen quickly."

"No way? Is he going to do it?"

"He said he would, and I believed him. I think he's sick of Mike's crap and wants all of this to go away quickly as well."

"My God! I'll believe it when I see it. Nikki is going to be thrilled."

"She can't know I did this. I don't want any more appreciation thrown at me. I just want everything to go back to the way it was before."

"Son, you know..."

"Sir, I don't want her to know. I don't ask you for anything, so please do this for me."

"Alright, Drake, alright. You win. It will be our secret. I think you're making a mistake, but I'll keep my mouth shut."

*****

Three weeks later, I walked out of my doctor's office flexing my stiff fingers. The splint was off, and it felt great. I realized early that one takes for granted the things we need two hands for. Don't let me get started on the pain in the butt showers were.

When I walked into my office, Nikki was sitting behind my desk.

"What's going on, double D?"

So, I was double D again?

"Hi, Nikki. What can I do for you this morning?"

"You can stop avoiding me, for starters."

I laughed and sat in one of the chairs in front of my desk.

"I'm not avoiding you, Nikki."

The truth was, I was absolutely avoiding her. My old feelings were pushing their way to the forefront, and I couldn't get hurt again.

"Well, Dad's not happy you haven't been over to play chess. He paced around the house like a lonely puppy last Saturday."

"I was busy Saturday. Everything was harder having only one usable hand."

She looked at my hand and smiled, "You got the splint off."

I waved with my newly naked had.

"I still feel horrible that happened. I'm so sorry."

"Don't be," I said, dismissively. "I only wish the cops weren't there so I could get another couple of shots in."

"You didn't like him, did you?" she asked and dropped her chin to her chest.

"He was okay. I never thought he treated you well enough though."

"He never hit me."

I laughed. "I know that, Nix. Jesus, if he laid a hand on you, he'd be dead."

She looked at me oddly, then smiled and stood.

"I better let you get to work. We can't have Daddy firing you."

I stood and accepted her hug.

"Drake, I do love you."

"I know, Nikki. Best friends forever, right?"

She broke the hug and looked me in the eye, "You'll never be rid of me."