Extraordinary Love

Chapter 33

Song: Unfaithful by Rihanna

Christopher

It was known that Chris was a bit of a momma's boy; that wasn't a secret.

He admired Joyce's continued strength and her heart and knew that she loved him above anything else in this world (besides the Lord of course). He was her angel and he basked gladly in the love she showed and showed plenty of it in return. As he turned to her often for advice, her opinion was very important to him and he wanted her to meet the new leading lady in his life, Aaliyah, as soon as possible.

He had set a dinner reservation for the three of them at a fancy upscale restaurant intended to impress and laid out his freshly steamed outfit on his bed before he left the house. It took him days to figure out what he even wanted to wear. Nothing seemed right for the occasion. By the time he circled all the way back around to a crisp button-down and some tailored slacks, he only had a couple of hours until he had to meet the ladies. He had one errand to run before he returned back home that evening to get ready. A driver was set to pick Joyce up from the airport and Aaliyah from her home as he ran to his gallery to lock up. His closer had to leave early for a family emergency and he knew he would be cutting it close tonight but it had to be done.

It would take all of thirty seconds to shut off the lights and lock the doors. Simple.

At least that was what he thought up until he rolled up in front of the gallery to see a body huddled on the step in front of the gallery. It wasn't a too uncommon sight-- it was New York City, of course--and there had been a time when he himself used that same stoop to sleep. Chris usually tried to be kind and got some food for the homeless that may have ended up passing by and uses his overhang for a night. He prepared himself to ask the individual if he could help them-- and then stopped in his tracks.

In a dress torn raggedly up her thigh, spaghetti straps hanging off her shoulder, hair disheveled and shoes kicked off to the side of her, he recognized the crying swollen face as Robyn's, though it was bruised differing shades of blue and purple and slightly bloody. A sickening wave of deja vu washed over him, making the bile rise up his throat.

She scrambled to her feet. "Chris, I-"

"Robyn, what- what are you doing here? What happened?" He stuttered, backing up trying to put as much physical space between them as possible.

"I didn't know where else to go-- I don't have anywhere else to go. Aaron, he was snorting some blow and asked why all of a sudden I was turning it down. I told him that I was pregnant. I just found out. I'm pretty far along already and didn't even know," she gave a soft smile that quickly disappeared from her face. "He was so angry. He has put his hands on me before but never that-- he beat me and shoved me around the room and kicked me. Screaming that I was cheating on him and had fucked everything up and that they wouldn't want some fat whale on their magazine covers. It had gotten pretty bad when we fought but I really thought he was going to fucking kill me. I hit him over the head with a lamp and left but I know he is going to come looking for me. I don't have anything; nothing except the clothes on my back. I need help, Chris. I need you to help me."

It was a lot to take in; a lot to process. He hadn't even had a proper conversation with her since he fled to this city to escape her and here she was showing up on his doorstep, literally. They ended horribly and here she was, still coming to him because she knew that he would help her. He couldn't fight his savior complex. His guilt would cloud his vision and he'd do anything to right his past wrongs, even if they made more. The past that he had run from had finally caught up to him.

"Ummm, here," he dug through the leather wallet in his pocket and pulled out all of his cash. "Take this, get a hotel and put it under my name." He placed it in her hand.

She didn't even look at it.

"Can you take me, please?" She asked, eyes wide.

Conflicted was an understatement. He wanted so much to just leave and return to his life with Aaliyah and properly introduce her to his mother. Robyn was extremely vulnerable in this state, though. She really needed to go to a hospital and be checked out but she doubted she would go. She was stubborn. He also didn't want to see her on the front page of the paper the next day having been found in a ditch if he left her. His conscious couldn't handle that.

So he drove her to the nearest hotel by the gallery, prepaying for a week-long stay under his name. He ignored the bizarre stares the two of them were getting from passerby's and the staff in the lobby. He wanted to disappear and become invisible. Robyn always had all eyes on her no matter what and pulled him into the spotlight too, whether he wanted to be or not.

He walked her up to the room to get in safely in awkward silence. She put the keycard in and turned the handle. Having done his civic duty, he immediately turned to leave and she caught his arm.

"Please don't leave me. I don't want to be alone." She begged, green eyes wide.

He didn't want her to even look at him. It made his heart sink in his chest. He looked down at the floor to avoid her eye contact.

"I have to go, Robyn."

Chris leaned up against the wall, resting his head on the doorframe. The migraine he was developing from the situation felt like a constant tapping on the most sensitive nerves inside his brain. He closed his eyes.

"You were always so good to me, my Christopher. I'm so sorry Chris. I'm sorry I treated you so shitty. I guess this is my karma for fucking you up," She caressed his cheek, tears in his eyes.

He resisted the temptation to lean into her touch. Sighing, he looked up but still not directly at her.

"Don't say that. You don't deserve this. No one deserves this, Robyn," he checked the wristwatch he had on, sighing again. They were going to kill him for how long he had kept them waiting. "Look, I have somewhere to be but... you can call the gallery if you need anything else. The message will get to me."

Chris backed away from Robyn and left her standing there in the doorway as he thought about how in the hell he was going to explain his hour and a half long tardiness to the two leading ladies of his life.