THEFT - (A Chris Brown Fan Fiction Love Story)

Chapter 12

"Is it him?" Chris says from the bathroom. "James?"

"Stay here while I check. Don't move," I instruct.

"How are you doing?" James slurs at me as I walk through to the entrance hall. "I missed you, baby."

My jaw drops; he looks a complete mess and he's absolutely wasted. "What the fuck are you doing?!"

"I'm fine, baby. So are we."

He never called me 'baby' before. And I can't believe he's just turned up here.

"No, James. There's no us anymore," my voice trails off into a mumble.

I have never seen James so vulnerable before. Infact, I never thought I would put 'James' and 'vulnerable' in the same fucking sentence.

"Stop playing around, Faye. Faye, baby. I need you."

Footsteps come down the stairs.

"What are you doing here?" Chris asks James apprehensively as he rushes to me.

James snorts. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE?! WHO THE FUCK LET YOU IN?!"

"I let him in, James."

"Yeah, that's the thing. Faye doesn't love you," Chris says.

James grits his teeth and then almost goes for Chris until I stop him.

Chris grins in James' face; their noses are almost touching. "You're embarrassing yourself. Faye doesn't love you, OK? When are you going to get it through that thick skull of yours?"

"You don't even know Faye," James murmurs, his already red face turning to purple. He is getting really pissed off.

"Oh, but I do."

James fiercely spits in Chris' face. "SHE'LL BE MINE FOREVER AND NOBODY, ESPECIALLY NOT YOU, IS GOING TO TAKE HER AWAY FROM ME! WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU IN MY CLOTHES?! WHAT THE FUCKING HELL'S GOING ON HERE?!"

"James, this isn't solving anything," I say.

"I'll go when he goes," James calms down a little, "and until that happens, I'm staying right here."

"This is my property. I can call the police and have you done for trespassing if that's what you really want."

He growls. "I'm your fucking husband, Faye! This is where I belong! This is my home!"

"I've paid for everything! Our marriage has always been a one way thing, James; I was the one fucking paying for this and paying for that. In the beginning, I was the one trying to be romantic with you but you continuously gave me the cold shoulder so I gave up on that. I was the one inviting your parents and sisters round! I was the only one out of us who fucking cared! And now you come in my home and have the fucking nerve to try and make this work?! James, your attempt is just too fucking late! I know you love me but a marriage needs more than that for it to work. I'm... I'm in love with Chris and Chris makes me happy," I tell him.

I am breathing heavily from the rant but it sure felt good as fuck to get that shit off my chest.

"Don't."

I look down at the floor, unable to even glance at James' pain filled eyes. "Now just go."

He walks out and slams the front door. Neither Chris or I move or say anything until we hear his car start and speed away.

Chris embraces me tightly and props his chin up on my head. His words come out slowly with long pauses. "It's OK, Faye. You've got me. I'm in love with you. You'll never be alone ever again."

*****

"Nice to see you again, Mr. Lowe," I shake his hand.

"You too, Mrs. Spencer. And thank you for agreeing to do this."

It feels strange not having Chris next to Arthur; instead, there's just an empty seat.

Arthur produces a paper booklet from his briefcase. "Now, here's the business plan. We're planning on calling the line 'Pink And Red Flowers' -"

"Pink And Red Flowers?" I laugh. "Who came up with that? You, Mr. Lowe?"

"No, not me. One of the girls did and the others agreed that it was suitable. It's their line so I just went along with it."

"But you're the businessman. You know which names work and which names don't. Pink And Red Flowers seems so... childish. I can't imagine anyone over twelve being intrigued by a makeup line called that. Um, anyway, carry on."

He looks at me strangely and then continues. "They said that they wanted to start by just bringing out lip glosses and blush. Then they said that they would branch out afterwards to hair products etc."

"You're joking, right?"

Arthur shakes his head. "No, Mrs. Spencer. Why?"

"Because this sucks. Everything you've told me so far seems to have been organised by five girls who are in complete lunacy and who have no idea what they are talking about. You've literally left all this up to them, haven't you?"

"They were adamant that I had no say; their management seemed to agree with them too. My hands were tied and I... it was the worse business meeting I have ever been to. Seriously, Mrs. Spencer, you need to talk with them and that will confirm it."

"I'll ring management now. Do you have their number?"

Arthur passes me their contact details and I ring the number on my phone, putting it on loud speaker. The woman on the other end is polite but seems inexperienced in the particular field I am inquiring about, something which helps tremendously (*sarcasm*). She transfers me to someone else, a man, but he doesn't know much English and I end up explaining what I am trying to say to him for half an hour. Arthur gets as frustrated as me and at one point he is laughing beyond his control at the man's tone of voice.

I eventually hang up with one new piece of knowledge embellished into my brain - this deal is going to fail if Arthur and I don't take matters into our own hands. Arthur has another meeting to attend in ten minutes so we arrange to meet at his house after work to begin to unravel the disaster that has been dumped onto us. I don't mind, actually, because it will keep me out of my empty house.

"I'm really sorry about all of this, Mrs. Spencer."

"It's fine. At least we'll be sorting it out," I smile.

We shake hands and part ways, with me going back to my desk.

I do my usual tradition of pretending to read emails and think about yesterday; what Chris and I did together. The day was full of complete extremes - pure passion with Chris and whatever you can call it with James - in a matter of seconds. It was one of those bizarre days that I will most probably remember forever because it was simply too aberrant to even begin to comprehend. I've definitely began to fall for Chris... hard... and it actually pains me to say that James can't do anything about that; I feel bad that I've dragged him along for three years just to massacre his heart. People can brand me a slut, whore, bimbo - whatever. But I love Chris and I can't help it. I can't make myself love James because love doesn't work like that and I have realised that now.

After work, I drive to Arthur's house.

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I'm really sorry about the five day wait; it was totally out of my hands but I still feel bad. It's not going to happen again. :)

Love you all and thanks SO MUCH for the support. ♥