Blake knocked on the door to the apartment directly under hers. A dark haired man answered the door. "Hi. My name is Blake Montgomery," she stuttered out, obviously overpowered by his good looks.
"Hello, Blake Montgomery; my name is Adrian Connor. What can I do for you?" She mumbled about she and Jen living upstairs and that his music was a tad too loud. Adrian said that he did not think that anyone lived in the apartment above him. Then, he asked her in for a drink.
Yes, you heard right -- Adrian Connor. Adrian is the middle child of Linda and Nicolas Connor. Totally hot by any woman's standard, yet totally unavailable; although, Blake had no way of knowing that when her new neighbor made her heart skip a beat and butterflies tickle her inside. Adrian was trying to make a go of it on his own without his family's money. He loved his mother very much, but being the black sheep of his family, his father was always disapproving of anything he did. Adrian had his work cut out for him, but for now, he was content to share some wine with Blake and get to know his new neighbor.*****Both Tyler and Cody donated blood at the hospital for Crystal, and both of them were incompatible with Crystal's blood. All they could do was sit with her and hold her hands, while she lay unconscious in her hospital bed. Within mere moments, the somber mood in the room was broken with the entrance of a nurse bearing news. Someone had come to the hospital and donated enough blood to help Crystal, and the blood was a match. The two men watched as Dr. Gladstone and the nurse attached the clear vinyl pouches of life to Crystal's IV. Almost immediately, they could see a difference in Crystal's condition.
Tyler and Cody wanted to meet and thank the mysterious donor, but he had already left the hospital by the time the nurse came with the blood. They asked for his name and telephone number, but the nurse said that the donor wished to remain anonymous. This was a strange, but not uncommon, hospital occurrence.
Once the transfusion was complete, Crystal opened her eyes, looked at her husband, and smiled.
*****Linda Connor arrived at Crystal's hospital room in time to watch Crystal and her husband kiss after the transfusion. Cody greeter her in the hall and filled her in on the news, the irony of which was not lost on Cody. This thought made him giggle as he held the door open for Linda. She brought a large flower arrangement and sat in on the nightstand by the bed. She put her hands on Tyler's shoulders and told him that she was glad that all went well. They discussed the mysterious donor, and Tyler asked her how she knew that Crystal was in the hospital. Linda showed him the newspaper with Crystal's picture on the front page. Cody added that it was a good thing there was an article in teh paper, because that was probably how the mysterious donor found out about Crystal.
Linda wished them all well and left for work. As she rounded the corner and slipped out of sight, Nick peered out from the storage closet and walked to Crystal's room. He did not open the door. Instead, he looked in the window. Crystal saw him, and they exchanged heated glances.
*****Blake stepped inside Adrian's apartment. It was an exact copy of her and Jen's apartment upstairs, and it was decorated quite spartanly. A single painting hung in the living room. There was minimal furniture, but there was still enough floor Blake to be comfortable. Adrian poured two glasses of wine and they sat on the sofa, talked, and played some music.
There was a knock on the door. Adrian answered, still holding his glass of wine. A beautiful blonde in her early 20s stood there looking very angry and tapping her foot.
"Excuse me, but your music is too loud. I live upstairs, and it's rattling the entire floor. Could you please turn it down?"
"Jen? Jen, is that you?" Blake asked from inside the apartment. Blake appeared standing behind the young man in the doorway. Blake introduced Adrian to Jen, and Adrian asked her in to join them. Jen explained that both she and Blake had lots of unpacking to do, but the offer was nice. "We'll have to make it some other night," Jen uttered politely, yet firmly. Adrian closed the door, and Blake could not take her eyes off of it.
"So, you meant to tell me that while I was up there -- cleaning and unpacking -- you were downstairs drinking wine with the cute neighbor?"
"Exactly!" Blake retorted.
"Way to go girl!" Jen shouted and high-fived her roommate. Tehy made dinner and watched a movie. Later that night, Blake fell asleep with visions of Adrian runner through her head. Needless to say, she slept well.
*****Nick broke the stare with Crystal, turned to leave, and smacked right into a nurse carrying a tray of food bound for Crystal's room. The nurse dropped the tray with a loud bang. A curious Cody came into the corridor and saw Nick standing there with his shirt covered in lime-flavored gelatin. "What are you doing here?" He asked, laughing.
"I read about Mrs. McMannis in the paper, and I wanted to come by and see how my wife's friend was doing. I have a right to be concerned," Nick replied with what he thought was an appropriate level of detached concern.
"There's no room here for YOUR type of concern!" Cody bellowed.
Tyler appeared in the doorway and asked the two of them to keep it down. "She's in a very delicate state now. I think you should leave." Tyler sounded both exhausted and annoyed. Nick conceded and left, and Cody joined Tyler back in Crystal's room. She had fallen asleep. Dr. Gladstone checked on Crystal, and told Tyler and Cody to go home and get some rest.
*****Nick stood outside his front door for a good two minutes dreading teh inevitable conversation with his wife. The solid white painted, scalloped steel door stared back at him with its chrome peephole, daring him to enter. When his resolve had been set, he showed teh door who was boss and flicked the lever that opened the latch on the handle. The door fell open on the hinges, and Linda was standing there with a disgusted look on her face. "What the hell, woman!" She managed the upper hand of surprise against her husband. "Where you just camped out by the door waiting for me to get home?"
"Shut up." Linda spoke calmly, despite her boiling anger beneath the surface. "Why didn't you just tell me? Christ, she's my friend! Why do you even care about her? Couldn't you have told me without making me read it in the
fucking paper!" She punctuated her last sentence by hitter her husband with the exact "fucking paper" to which she was referring.
*****Quinn sat down in his standard hotel room that smelled of both bleach and cigarette smoke and flipped through the paper. He grabbed the scissors and cut out the article about Crystal, put it in an envelope, and addressed it to Alabama.
*****Throughout the night, Dr. Gladstone looked in on Crystal. He kept tabs on her, and he even began to wonder why Nick Connor had been there earlier that afternoon. Thomas Gladstone moved to Nolan only the year before. He knew that Nick was a lawyer who was often called away on business to San Diego -- which meant that he must be a fairly good lawyer. He also knew that his wife, Linda, was the anchorwoman for the evening news at Channel 4. But he could not figure out how they knew Crystal. He speculated that they must be neighbors or something, and went about his rounds.
*****Blake woke up at quarter to eight and went for her daily three-mile run. On the way out the door, she bumped into Adrian (literally), and the two of them decided to run together. They stopped at the convenience store that marked the mile-and-a-half point where they would turn around and run back to the apartment. Adrian decided that he needed to use the restroom, so Blake bought a blue-raspberry squishy, and waited on the bench outside.
*****Jennifer woke up from a very, very nice dream at around eight-fifteen. She made some breakfast, which consisted of toast, eggs, cereal, and juice, and took a shower. She got dressed and headed for the hospital. While she was driving, she passed the convenience store and saw Adrian sitting on the bench outside and waved at him. He just gave her a concerned look and raised his hand. If Jen hadn't already been late for work, she would have stopped to talk to him.
When she arrived at the hospital, Jen checked in with Dr. Gladstone, whom she met during her first week of work. Thomas told her about Crystal, and explained that she was the most exciting thing to happen at University Hospital for quite some time, especially when nick showed up and argued with Cody. Jen checked in with her head nurse, then sat down and played checkers with Irene, who insisted on yelling at Jen to "Hurry up!"
Linda stopped by the hospital long before Cody and Tyler ever showed up that morning. Crystal was asleep, but Linda stayed and talked with her anyway, all the while stroking her hair. There was a kind of dialogue between the two that no one could decipher by just being in the room. Linda talked to Crystal, and Crystal answered, unfortunately, Linda could not hear her.
"I don't know how to do about Nick, Crys. He doesn't seem to care any more. He goes to work and defends people he's never met before, but he doesn't even have tim to have a conversation with me," Linda explained.
I understand why, Crystal answered in her dream mind.
I know Nick. He's not the type to share what's bothering him. You should let him be."I can feel him slipping away," Linda continued. "Last week, I told him that I was seeing another man, and he said 'That's nice, dear' and kissed me on the forehead. ON THE FOREHEAD, that's like a punch in the gut."
If I knew what Nick had done, I would
punch him in the gut. You should just give up on him, Linda. You can do better. I think that Dr. Gladstone is available; why don't you ask him out?"I realize that he's had a tough case he's been working on in San Diego these past months," Linda went on, oblivious to Crystal's half of the conversation. "But that's not an excuse for him to treat me like shit. I think that if I can just hang in there, things will get better soon."
Don't count on it honey, Crystal warned.
"Just like I know that things will get better for you soon, too." With that, Linda kissed her friend and left.
*****Adrian went back into the convenience store and asked the clerk if she had seen Blake. She said that Blake had been sitting on the bench while he was in the restroom. Then, she looked out again and she was gone.
"Maybe she got paged and had to leave. Or, maybe she thought that I left ahead of her so that I would beat her back home," he told himself as he started running back. "I bet when I get back to Maplethorpe, Blake will be sitting on the porch waiting for me with a big glass of lemonade." As he ran, he kept trying to convince himself that Blake would be there, but when he got there, she wasn't. He went inside and knocked on her door, where he found a note...
Jen--
I've gone to visit my parents in San Diego. My grandmother is very ill and Mother fears that she may not have much time left. Don't expect me to call, but keep us in your thoughts.
Always,
Blake
Adrian considered this a rather odd place for a very personal note, so he slipped it under the door.
*****At the hospital, Jen ran into Tyler and Cody. When Tyler went in to see his wive, Cody asked Jen out for drinks when she got off from work. Jena accepted and told him to come back to the hospital and pick her up at 7pm. when Jen rounded the corner, to continue on her rounds, Nick propped his head out of the closet. He saw Cody, walked up behind him, and tapped him on his shoulder. When Cody turned around, Nick clocked him: punched him square in the left eye. Cody buckled but not before he punched Nick right in the gut. The pair of punches erupted into a brawl between the two men. Luckily, Jen was still nearby and ran back to stop it. She asked Nick to leave, and he did, but not before he gave his parting remarks, like a haunting Gypsy curse, he yelled, "You shouldn't even be allowed near her, Weber! You will pay for what you've done!"
Cody tried to utter a clever rebuttal, but his face hurt too much. All he could produce was a meek grunt of disgust. Luckily for him, he was injured in the hospital. Jen got a nurse to check him out, and she asked him if they were still on for drinks that night. Cody nodded a tired yes.
*****Cody was standing at the main door to the hospital when Jen staggered out at quarter past seven. She apologized, and then Cody drove her Scully's for a drink. Over drinks, Jen asked Cody about the incident between him and Mr. Connor. Cody said that he had done some things in his past of which he was no very proud, but that Nick Connor was a hundred times worse. Cody expressed his sympathy for Linda and said that someone should buy her a clue. Jen asked if his past involved Crystal McMannis. Because of the amount of bourbon that was poured into Cody's system, he admitted that he and Nick were fighting about Crystal. "ever since last summer we fight over Crystal. Tyler doesn't have a clue. And I pray to God that he never gets one."
Jen made it home all right; although, she was feeling her drinks quite happily. She opened the door marked "4G" with her key and stepped inside. On the floor she found a note. She read it, put it back on the floor, and sat on the couch. Sometime during the next twenty minutes, she fell over and asleep.
It's Writing Wednesday! And that means another new installment of Maplethorpe Ridge. Below is your map to follow along, in case you're behind.
Okay, so I think first off is my MAJOR project. It started out on a whim years ago. I picked up some paper and a pen and said to myself, "Today, Ephram, you're going to start writing a novel." Knowing how I get and how bad my ADD gets, I didn't expect a novel to actually come from any of this "spare time writing." What happened was amazing. I became drawn into this world that I had created and obsessed with the people that lived there. This was my creation, and I loved it. So, instead of it falling by the wayside after a few attempts at writing something, I actually had a living, breathing universe. There were characters that enchanted me and stories that I wanted to tell. And over the course of the next few years, a novel emerged -- Maplethorpe Ridge.
