Echoes In The Well

 Jay walks into the dinning room looking around at the empty setting then spots Alex sitting in her usual place sipping on her usual glass of whine.
"Is it just you and me?" He says taking his place at the opposite end. Alex looks over the brim of her glass takes a sip then sets it methodically down on the table and smiles at him.
"You act as if your were expecting someone else besides me to be here." Jay scowls at her as he reaches for his napkin.
"Don't start please, it's been a very long day and for a change I'd like a quiet dinner." He gripes reaching for his fork and stabbing at his steak. Alex looks around the table and chuckles.
"Well you got your wish!" Jay glares at her a moment the look of consternation on his face causing her to smothers another laugh.
"Where's Lesley? She left work earlier without a word to anyone.You heard from her?" Alex reaches for her glass then leans back in her chair.
"She went to New York. She said she needed a couple of days to clear her head" Jay's head snaps up stopping in mid chew.
"What happened?" Alex shrugs.
"Oh I don't know, Wellington Swift moved back to town, her brother moved out. She needed some time to herself."
"Good maybe it will help get her mind back in the game. We have a meeting coming up and I need her on her "A" game."  He grumbles continuing to shovel food in his mouth.
"Of course we wouldn't want anything to get in the way of that." She smirks saluting him with her glass sips it then continues.
"Jake and Toni are working late. At least that's what they said. Personally I think just like Clay they don't want to be here either" Jay scowls at her tossing his fork down on the plate his eyes narrowed.
"Clay left out of here cause he thinks with his cock!"  Alex snorts placing her glass back on the table.
"Maybe if you tell yourself that often enough even you might believe it." She reaches for the bottle of wine talking as she fills her glass.
"Do you ever hear a thing anyone says to you or do you only hear yourself?" She picks up her glass and sips it then sits back in her chair.
"Your son told you again for the last time that he can't stand your meddling and he's been saying it since he was twelve years old!" Jay curls his lip into a disgusted grin then snorts.
"About the same time he took up with that VanDorn witch!" Alex looks at him and laughs.
"That's when you first noticed her! If you had been paying attention you'd know your son has been in love with that girl since his first day of the forth grade. Maybe if you treated us like people instead of show pieces you'd know that."
Jay just glares at her biting back his response deciding it was better to let her just go on her drunken tirade and get it over with.
"What the hell happened to you Jay? I mean you were always a shark when it came to business and I always accepted that about you.Funny, it used to be one of the things I admired about you." A reminiscent smile on her lips as she leans her head against the back of the chair.
"But, when you came home you were about your family. You'd come through the door one of the kids would scream "Daddies home!" and they'd coming running from wherever they were. Jumping all over you. It used to be my favorite time of the day. She swirls the glass her voice sounding distant as she spoke as she recalled the moments over the past.
"It was slow at first a ball game here a recital there then you stopped caring altogether." She looks over at Jay his lips taunt his face red with suppressed fury.
"I cared! I still do!  Everything I do Is for all of you!" He snaps his voice full of venom his eyes boring into hers. She glares back at him he eyes unflinching.
"Oh, excuse me," She holds up her glass and bows her head.
"You do care, you just care more about how we all look to outsiders and what that outward appearance can get you but then that's all you really ever cared about isn't it? How you look to other people and having Henry back in town with his family, happy successful people taking a walk down memory lane again made you feel like a real fool. It just ate at you didn't it?"
"I think the wine is blurring your memory" Jay growls pushing his chair back and walking to the server.
"You may have a point I forgot to mention it was about the same time the Van Dorns came back to town" Alex watches as Jay's back stiffens knowing she had him right where she wanted him.
"Yeah, Henry had some big contract with some company in Japan with dreams of saving his father's mill and you went on a mission to crush it. What was that really about Jay? Were you still angry that you ran back to your whore the night before our wedding and she rejected you! I would have loved to see the look on your face when you found out you and your best friend were fucking the same slut and she chose him?" She laughs uproariously. Jay wields back towards her his eyes wide with shock.
"Jay," She sighs clucking her tongue and shaking her head.
"Don't look so shocked darling. I've known about you and her since the day you picked her up in front of the high school you remember? You drove her home then spent the summer chasing her. Then the night before we our wedding you told your father you weren't going through with the wedding you ran off to I assume profess your undying love run off into the sunset? Well I was outside the study. I heard you so I followed you. Surprisingly it wasn't hard at all to hear you all shouting through the open window."
"You knew all of that and you still..."  His voice trails off as he stares at her his expression incredulous his eyes wide.
"Of course I knew! The entire town knew!" She shrieks.
"You sure as hell didn't care how you looked then did you?" Her voice a low growl as she pushes out of the chair sending it clattering to the floor.
"And you still went through with it? Why?" His voice a hoarse whisper he stares at her confused.
"It should be obvious but you have never been good with the obvious." Jay's phone rings breaking the moment between them. He reaches in his pocket pulls it out quickly checking the number Joe Jordan from the capital hopefully with good news.
"I have to take this" He throws his hand up his eyes pleading.
"It will only take me a second."
"Of course you do." She chokes out holding back her unshed tears. She drains the remaining wine from her glass and storms from the room. Jay watches her a moment vacillating between taking the call as the phone rings again, then once more or going after her. Alex leans against the post at the bottom of the staircase her emotions raw, hoping. Her heart breaking as his voice bellows into the phone tears stream down her cheeks as she runs up the steps to their room slamming the door behind her.

"Harbinger Falls" Copyright 2014