Chapter Seventeen
The whole week Juliette waited to clear the misunderstandings between Xavion and her but he didn't return from Montreal. When the weekend arrived, she hurried to Angela's house to attend her wedding. The hairdresser and makeup artists were due to arrive any minute. Angela took her and baby Daniel to her room.
Juliette took a drowsy Daniel and gently rocked him to sleep. She placed him in his cot and sat beside him, neatly folding his washed clothes. Angela walked in and expressed some of her milk for Daniel in case he woke up. The hairdresser and makeup artist arrived. They set to work on Angela. The bridal party would get ready in another room as baby Daniel wasn't well and had gone to sleep after a long time.
Angela introduced Juliette to her dad's cousin sister and her two teenage daughters, Gabriella and Estella. Then she introduced aunt Sandra with whom she was staying. Juliette didn't know the rest of their relatives. She changed a sleeping Daniel's diaper and brought his baby bag nearly to be carried to the chapel as Angela's aunt specified. After everyone was ready, Juliette picked up a sleeping Daniel and Arnold's wife Clara carried the baby bag and they all left for the church where the wedding ceremony was to be held.
When the bridal procession started, she walked with baby Daniel who was awake and looking around. She could feel Xavion's gaze upon her from the altar where he stood with Damian as his best man. He looked very dashing in a navy blue tuxedo and off-white silk dress shirt. He might have arrived yesterday night to today morning just for the wedding. She wanted to run and hug him tight. She missed him so much.
The wedding ceremony started and she passed Daniel to Angela's aunt for a feed. After the ceremony, she again took Daniel to the photoshoot.
When everyone left for the reception party, she went with Gabriella, Estella, their mom. Angela and Daniel had left with Damian. Xavion and Angela's brothers and dad. Angela had to feed Daniel and they went into a room at Damian's house where the party was being held in his backyard. She didn't at all get a chance to talk to Xavion. Daniel was running a fever and Juliette stayed with him throughout as Angela had to go to her reception party.
When the party was over, she drove home disappointed.
The next day, Xavion did not come to his office which was very strange. The whole day Juliette waited but he didn't arrive. She went home dejectedly and started her monotonous daily routine.
Angela called her at dinner time. She was in a state of panic. "Jules, you need to go to Xavion's house and check up on him immediately. Damian and I are away from Austin, in Florida. Last week Xavion's maternal grandmother died and he was in Montreal for her last rites. He had just come back for the wedding. Today's his parents' death anniversary. The whole day he spent at his parent's grave. Now when Damian called him, he heard crashing sounds and a slurring Xavion talking about the benefit of drugs. Please, Juliette, he's all alone, he'll do something to himself," said Angela, sobbing.
"I'll go just now," she said. They disconnected the call and Juliette climbed into her car and drove to Xavion's house.
She ran up the pavement and rang his bell. She could hear the crashing sound of glass breaking and Xavion yelling. Distraught with worry, she pressed the doorbell again. Xavion opened the door shouting, "Go away, I don't want anyone."
Juliette's eyes went round with horror at a very disheveled Xavion with his clothes torn, walking in a disorientated state towards his bar. As she went inside, she gasped with panic. The whole floor was strewn with shattered glass from the wine glasses and bottles he might have smashed.
"Xavi, that's enough baby," she said, gently taking the glass from his hands.
"Julie, Julie, you've come? You know my mom and dad died," he said his voice breaking.
"Hush, yes, I know, " she said, drawing his head to her chest as she stood between his legs while he sat on a barstool. He sobbed like a baby into her bosom, wetting her dress.
Juliette held him as he cried like a baby. Her heart was breaking at his grief but he needed to release the pent-up grief. They stayed like that for a long time till Xavion's tears died down and his shoulders dropped. It seemed like he was losing his consciousness.
"Xavi, let's go to bed," she said, gently.
"Stay with me, please," he mumbled on the verge of losing consciousness.
"Yes, I will," she consoled and he closed his eyes.
Juliette got up and tried to drag him to the nearest bedroom but failed. She somehow staggered and brought him to the bedroom nearest to the bar and he fell on the bed, fast asleep.
Juliette heaved a sigh of relief. She opened his shoes. Thankfully his feet were intact because of his shoes. She opened his shirt buttons and his belt and let him sleep peacefully.
Getting up, she went back to the living room to clean up the mess. It took her an hour to clean up the huge area. Returning to the room where Xavion was sleeping, she decided to check his closet for a shirt so that she could change out of her soiled clothes and wash them before he woke up.
She opened the closet and gasped at all the flimsy, tiny dresses of a girl her age, only she didn't wear such exposing clothes. Whose could it be? She picked up a few and her eyes widened as she recognized one of the tee shirts. It was Candice's. Juliette saw her wearing it. So this was Candice's room when she lived in this house.
Juliette checked the drawers in her closet. They were filled with scarves, cheap bracelets, and hair accessories. Going back to the room, she opened the bedside drawer. She knew it was wrong to snoop around but she couldn't help herself. She needed evidence to prove that the photographs were real or fake.
The first drawer stored packets of condoms, opened as well as unopened. The second one had Xavion's underwear, boxer shorts, and clothes as they smelled like him. She recognized his tee shirts.
So he visited her here to fu*k each other! The third drawer stored photographs, plenty of them, a whole bunch actually. She recognized a few of them that Candice had sent her. Checking the photographs, she realized that this was the room in the background of those photographs.
She studied the photographs minutely. In some photographs, the man looked exactly like Xavion from the back. He even wore Xavion's clothes. It was actually Xavion, there wasn't any doubt about it.
There was one picture amongst them with Xavion's front view. He was wearing the same clothes as the man in the other pictures. Xavion's eyes were closed and Candice was hugging him and smiling at the camera. Her naked body wrapped around Xavion's.
A sob escaped Juliette. She knew that it was a harsh reality. Xavion was involved with her physically. It was nearly 3 o'clock in the morning. She hadn't slept a wink. Her tears dried on her cheeks as she placed a Tylenol and water near Xavion's bedside.
She made a light breakfast for him and wrote a note.
Xavion
Do have the Tylenol and lots of water to take care of your hangover. I've made chicken soup for you for breakfast.
Juliette
She left the note below on his nightstand and quietly left his house with a heavy heart which was constricted by unshed tears. She was ready to talk to him and clear all misunderstandings. Now she knew that there were no misunderstandings. They were together for a brief period.
She avoided Xavion the next few days and left the office in a hurry. Her term end exams were just over when she received a phone call from Jaden that her dad wasn't well and she needed to return home for a few days.
She took leave at her office and went home to Travis Springs. Her dad had a mild heart attack and she was busy running to and from the hospital for the next ten days.
Her fourth year had started at the university and since she couldn't understand how long she would stay at Travis Springs, she spoke to the administrative staff and shifted to online classes from Travis Springs.
Her dad was released from the hospital in fifteen days but he needed bed rest and she couldn't return back to her internship. Gordon Spencer was considerate enough to let her continue working online.
Juliette didn't see Xavion after that night. She heard that he had left for Montreal the next day. He had some inheritance issues with the money that his grandmother left him. When he returned and when he appeared for his own university exams she didn't know.
She dedicatedly submitted the work that Gordon Spencer sent her and attended her university classes too.
Six months passed and she took care of her father and nursed him back to health. The doctors informed them that a second stroke might be fatal for her dad.
She returned to Austin and appeared for her fourth-year midterm exams. She released her apartment and packed her stuff to return to Travis Springs.
For the next six months, she continued living at Travis Springs. She didn't go out anywhere. Her online classes, work that Gordon sent her, and her dad and siblings were her only companions.
When the fourth term-end exams started she traveled to Austin and back at Travis Springs. Her exams ended and her last and final year at the university started. She had to attend more studio classes which meant more travel to Austin.
Xavion had come to her house to see her dad once but she was at Jayson's house for the day updating him about their dad's condition. She heard from Jade that Xavion had waited for her for two hours and then left. She was relieved. She didn't want to meet him. She couldn't forget the photographs that she saw at his house, especially the one with his face towards the camera and Candice's naked body wrapped around him.
The memory of it pained her. She thought that she was special to him. Maybe he liked her a little more than Candice but she loved him with all her heart and soul. She had treasured herself only for him. If he couldn't control his urges and jump at any girl who threw herself at him, then he didn't deserve her.
Gordon one day sent her an email and summoned her to the office. Juliette was worried and decided to visit him the next day. She called him up and informed him that she would meet him the next day.
"I'm perfectly fine now Jules. You can join your office. It's been a year and you'll lose your internship this way," said her dad.
"Yes dad, I'll talk to Gordon and join back," she said and her dad smiled.
So the next day she went to meet Gordon dreading what he would say to her.
"Ms. Meyers, how's your dad now? It's been a year that you've been working from home," he said gently.
"Dad's fine sir. Thank you. I can join back now," she told him.
"Fine then. You will start today then?" He asked.
"Yes sir," she said and went to her cubicle to start her work.
She would stay in her dad's house and commute to work daily. She would however continue with her online classes.
The day ended and she went to the elevator only to bump into Daisy.
"I was coming for you. Mr. Alexander's summoned you, now," she said with a serious face.
"Alright, " she said and followed Daisy to Xavion's chamber.
God knows what was in store for her. It had been a year that she last saw him. Maybe he had forgotten her and moved on ahead. Maybe he realized that they weren't meant for each other, after all.