For Better or Cursed. Mary Leo
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picked up the phone, ready to call her father—of all people—just as Rudy Bellafini appeared in her open doorway. He looked completely helpless and miserable while leaning on his crutches. He crumpled himself into the black chair next to the door and sat down, letting out a long, pathetic moan.
3
“YOU LOOK BEAUTIFUL , Cate. Time’s been on your side, dude.” He gave her the once-over, like he was sizing her up for some TV reality show and he was the latest bachelor. “I don’t see a ring on your finger. I thought for sure you’d be married with five kids.”
Cate raised an eyebrow. “And I thought for sure you’d be on your fifth wife.”
“Not likely.”
They stared at each other for a moment. This was not a good beginning, Cate thought.
Rudy continued, “Okay. We should get started right away. You’ll need to cancel all your appointments for the next few weeks. Maybe longer. I need you to concentrate on me. I’m in pretty bad shape, here, and I can’t afford to be down for too much longer. I’ll pay whatever you want, just so I know that I’ll have your undivided attention. Whatever you need in the way of equipment, you got it. Just let me know what it is. This whole thing has to be kept a secret or, believe me, your life will turn into a nightmare, as well as mine. Here are my medical records, dude.” With some effort he tossed the large manila envelope on her desk.
She was a dude now? Cate didn’t know how to respond to dude.
He continued, “I think that about covers it. Dude, I’m really hurting, but that room I was in is way too small.” He took a breath and pushed himself up from his chair with an obvious grimace of pain on his face. “You have anything bigger?”
Cate was actually dumbstruck by the burst of orders that he’d flung in her direction. She couldn’t react properly to the magnitude of his arrogance. She didn’t quite know how to respond to her new charter, so she sat back in her chair and watched as he hobbled out of the office apparently expecting her to follow, but she didn’t.
She waited for the shock of him to wear off. Perhaps then she would actually be able to think.
“Hel-lo. Anybody in there? Which door do I go through?”
Her brain finally came around as he reappeared in the doorway. “The front door, dude. And don’t let it hit you on the way out,” she said, flashing a sarcastic grin.
For a brief moment she had considered shuffling him off to one of the other therapists who worked for her, but she couldn’t justify dumping his snotty self on anybody.
“Don’t kid around, Cate. I’m in a lot of pain here. The sooner we get started the sooner I can get my life back.”
“You can get back to your life right now,” she said. “Don’t let me get in your way.”
“What’s wrong with you? Didn’t you hear my offer?”
“I heard it, but I’m not for sale.”
“I’m not buying you. I’m buying your services.”
“I am my services, and as long as these two hands are attached to my two arms, I’m not for sale.”
Rudy hobbled back into the office and sat down again, gently. His breathing had increased, and he looked unsettled, but his arrogance had defined the moment. If she could physically kick him out of her office and onto the street and watch him hit the pavement with a thud, she would at least feel as though they were once and for all even.
But she couldn’t.
He was taller than she had remembered, and maturity had thickened his body. Not that he was fat, he had merely turned into a man, with deep-brown eyes, darker than she remembered, and thick black hair, blacker than she remembered. It’s not that she hadn’t seen him on TV and on magazine covers, or cereal boxes over the years, but to see him up close again was just different. He actually looked even more handsome in person, and that bad-boy arrogance she thought was just for the media was actually real.
Too bad.
“Look, I know I’m vulnerable right now, and you can hold out for any amount of money you want, but I have my limits.”
“I don’t want your money.”
He chuckled. “Of course you do. Everybody does, but I’ve gotten used to the greed factor.”
“I think you need to leave now.”
“Come on, Cate. It’s me, Rudy.” His determination didn’t waver. “What? You’re still mad about what happened seven years ago?”
“Ten. It was ten years ago. And do you honestly think I gave you a second thought?”
“Good, then why won’t you treat me? Isn’t there some kind of law about therapists and patients? Some kind of code you people live by? How can you turn me away?”
“I don’t know. How can I? I must have rocks for brains. Or maybe I just don’t like you and your full-of-yourself self.”
“Excuse me?”
“There is no excuse. Please leave, which is something you’re good at.”
He didn’t say anything. He just stared at her with a look of confusion on his face.
She stood up.
He stood, albeit slowly.
“I’m sorry you feel this way, Cate. I could have used your magic touch.”
His words brought back the memory of the night he proposed, which only made her more angry.
“What a crock! That line’s stale. Don’t you have a new one?”
“I never should have come back here. I knew you’d be like this. You never could just accept things.”
“Accept things! So, I should have just accepted the fact that you walked out on me?” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“Like I had a choice? It was my once-in-a-lifetime chance. You wouldn’t have come with me.”
Her anger welled up with his words. “You never asked.”
“Asked you to do what? Give up your scholarship to UCLA and come follow me around to some training camp? Yeah, that would’ve worked out. Not likely.” His face softened and he took a step toward her. “Cate, I—”
“Just go,” she said, her voice shaking. “This debate is far too stressful, and I’ve been working on calm. I’m sure you can get all the therapy you need back in Rudyworld.”
“Yeah. Well, if you change your mind, I’ll be over at my parents’ old brownstone. I’m going to hang around for a while. Get it fixed up. Feel free to drop by anytime.”
He hobbled out of her office while she stood waiting to hear the front door on the Wellness Center close so she could sit down and scream.
THE BROWNSTONE where Rudy had spent his teenage years with his mom and dad had all but been deserted. His parents, Betty and Sam, now lived in Florida, complements of Rudy, and journeyed back to Chicago only when they had to, which in the past five years had been only once, when old man Barcio died. Tony Barcio had been their landlord and good friend. Rudy had bought the place as soon as it came on the market. He really didn’t know why he bought it, but at the time it had seemed like the right thing to do for his mom and dad, or maybe just for himself.
Now as he sat alone in the empty house, he wondered what the hell he was doing. Why had he persisted in returning to his old neighborhood?
There were some pictures hanging on the walls. Pictures of his mom and dad in Florida, a couple aunts and uncles, a picture of himself wearing his gold medals, but there was one picture that really threw him a curve ball. It was a picture of his cousin, Pete.
Rudy