Madness and Glee

Chapter 22

Trent swung his swivel chair around and nearly threw himself off as vertigo crashed into him with the subtlety of a car wreck. What was he doing in a swivel chair? He looked around, and replaced his first question with: Why was he confused at sitting in his office?

On the other side of the desk, Garner cut his speech off when Trent slapped his hands down on the arms of his chair with an ear-splitting smack. Garner huffed at having been interrupted for the sixth or seventh time, but he often had to deal with such things when around Trent. He had been Trent's agent from the instant he read Trent's work, so he was fairly used to it.

He had brilliant red hair and shining green eyes hidden behind perfectly round spectacles. His face was a mass of freckles, and he held himself to an exacting standard of grooming. His speech was beyond proper, and he was always a little embarrassed around Trent and Amber because of their relaxed attitudes toward life.

Trent genuinely liked his agent. If not for him, Trent would have never gotten his deal with Red Herring. But he still laughed aloud at his agent's stuffy attitude. Everything that flooded his mind at the sight of Garner threw him for a loop, and he couldn't have said why, but a part of him swore he had never met the man.

“Are you all right, Trenton?” Garner's clipped voice broke the silence.

Trent looked around, studying the ebony wood furnishings, then focused again on his agent.

“Yeah...Yeah, I'm good. What were you sayin'?”

Garner straightened his spectacles. His hands found their way to his eyes whenever he was perturbed. Trent hid a smile behind the glass of vodka on his desk.

“I was saying--,” he was interrupted once more, this time by the sounds of the impromptu gathering Trent and Amber had thrown at a moment's notice. Garner grimaced again, if he had his way, people would make appointments a week ahead of time for the toilet. The author could afford to live as he wished, though. He had earned it with his first best-seller, and had only compounded the issue with the third.

“I want you on the road, Trent. Red Herring could do with you being more public. For all your genius on the internet and all that social networking stuff,” Garner rolled his eyes to show what he thought of internet media, “Nothing gets people interested in writers more than meeting them in person. You know how much the guys at Red Herring love an author that does his own marketing.” Garner wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Trent leaned forward and folded his arms on the desk, “Look, Garn.” Garner's smile disappeared at the use of the nickname, and Trent's lips twitched to life. “Why would I want to leave all this? I absolutely love being around Amber and the kids all the time. I don't think there's much in this world that could drag me away from this, much less get me to leave of my own volition.”

Garner settled back in the large armchair and opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted. Again. His face flushed pink, and he went so far as to pull his glasses off and wipe the impeccably clean lenses.

Amber came sweeping into the den, a ray of sunshine in the dark room wearing a pearl-white sundress. She had a wide smile on her face, and the long dark curls she took so much pride in floated around her. Trent swallowed at the sight of her. He woke up next to her every morning, but he felt as if it had been years.

This was his wife. This was the woman he had loved for as long as he could remember, and felt he had loved her even before. And whether he saw her everyday, or lost her for a decade, his mind would come back to thoughts of her with every minute until the instant he died.

Her laughter bubbled through the room, “I should've known you two would be locked in here talking business while everyone else is having a good time.” She strode around Garner and the desk and sat down in the only other chair on Trent's side of the desk. It was a heavy, gray recliner, and was reserved for her. Its placement left no question in anyone's mind about whose side Amber was on. Her face went quickly between the two men, one red and nervous, the other tanned and smiling.

Amber looked to her husband, “Honey, what's he trying to talk you in to?”

Garner looked down at his lap, knowing full well that he would have had a hard time convincing Trent by himself. With Amber present he didn't stand a chance. Trent smiled at his agent's impossible task.

“Well, darlin', Mr. Rennison is tryin' to talk me into going on a book tour. Wants me to go all over the country. Six months away from home. Whatcha think of that?”

Amber shot a disapproving look at Garner. “Garner, are you trying to take my husband away from me? I thought you and I had a talk about that.”

Garner shrugged uncomfortably, attempting to ignore the innuendo that his sexuality was in question. “It's part of the job, Amber. I'm the guy that has to tell him about it.” He looked as if he had done something wrong in not talking to her first. She could do that to most anyone, but it still made Trent laugh when he witnessed it. He hadn't seen her do it in a long time. He shook his head in confusion, wondering where that thought had come from. She got the kids with it all the time, and he had been on the other end of it in just the past week.

Amber finally dropped her mental attack on Trent's agent, and Garner weakly heaved a sigh of relief. Amber smiled a little wider, knowing full well what she had done.

“How about this Garner. A compromise. He's nearly done with his next book, as I'm sure you're aware,” Garner nodded, “So, why don't we wait until he finishes it? That way you can coincide your tour with the release.”

Garner pretended to think about it for a good minute, even though he would have taken a horse on a book tour if Amber told him to. Amber looked to her husband and smiled, already knowing Garner would agree.

Finally the agent looked at Trent, “I think it's a great idea, but I'll have to get the okay from the publishers.” Trent shook his head in disgust. Red Herring would agree to whatever Garner told them Trent wanted to do.

Another bout of laughter erupted from outside, and Garner looked toward the patio, “I think I'm going to check on what's happening. I seem to be missing a nice little shindig.” With that Garner stood and exited the room after nodding to Amber and shaking his head at Trent in shared humor. Neither of them could do anything to stop her when she made a decision.

Once Garner left, Amber stood and stepped to her husband's chair. He leaned back and stared at her as she leaned forward on the arms of his chair.

“Sound like a good plan to you, honey?” She asked with a grin that said she knew he wouldn't have a problem with it.

“Now you ask me?!” Trent threw up his arms in mock anger, Amber leaned down and kissed him. She knew everything was perfect between them. “I'm great with it.” Trent mumbled when she kissed him again. He closed his eyes as she climbed into the chair with him without ever breaking the kiss.

Her lips were as soft as he knew they would be, and for a moment he luxuriated in how they felt. Then the taste of cigarettes hit him, and he forgot all about how they felt. Amber didn't smoke, so he was right to wonder why the only thing he could taste was an ashtray. Trent relished the kiss for as long as he could, but finally opened his eyes and cut the kiss short.

His heart gave a jolt, and he gasped in surprise. The sharp contrast between the wavy blond hair that dominated his vision and the midnight black curls he expected ripped reality apart. Trent struggled to tell himself that it was just a hallucination, nothing more. But he couldn't have said which was the hallucination. Reality tilted further, and he took a deep breath to bring it back into focus. He had known exactly who Garner was. He still knew who he was. And his life with Amber had been laid out before him in all its splendor. But, he also knew exactly why Sandy was in his bed.

Something was very wrong with the drugs he was taking. This vision had been just as vivid as the first ones.

He saw Amber in them, and hallucinations or not, he would take the opportunity. He seriously considered talking to Crazy Pete about getting more acid, since it was the most likely cause.

His little window was dim with the tired light of sunrise, or sunset, depending on how long he had slept. Trent didn't particularly care which.

Sandy leaned back in and began kissing him again when Trent heard his phone ring. Across the room from the bed. He didn't think the kiss would end anytime soon, or that it would end so simply. But he was suddenly interested in finding out who was calling him.

Trent didn't admit to himself that he was uncomfortable kissing Sandy after dreaming of Amber. In spite of how long his mind told him it had been since he last tasted Amber's lips, he couldn't sully her memory by doing as Sandy wanted. Not minutes after thinking so passionately of the woman he thought he was destined to be with.

Trent leaped out of the bed and rushed around in an attempt to isolate the muffled sound of his phone. Just as he reached the pair of ringing pants, the ringing stopped. Sandy made a sound in her throat that was more a growl than anything else, but Trent thought it wiser not to acknowledge it. When he flipped the phone open, Penny's name flashed on the screen, and he groaned aloud. Trent had no desire to talk to her.

But he called her immediately, and turned away from the beautiful woman on the bed as it rang. He couldn't make up his mind on whether he really wanted Penny to pick up. He made the mistake of turning to look at Sandy stretched out on the bed, and began to seriously regret his decision. His dream of Amber was fading, and he wondered at his sanity.

“You piece of S**T!” Trent jerked the phone away from his ear the instant Penny's voice crackled from his phone. “I just heard a little story about how you're sellin' drugs now?! You're a drug dealer!”

Trent had chosen wrong. “I--,” he didn't get to finish.

“No, you shut the hell up! I always thought you were a piece of s**t, but now you prove it. First you sleep with some W***E!” Trent didn't think that particular statement was fair. “And now you decide you're happy rolling around in your own slime! D'you think for one second that Erin'd come back to you?! I'll keep that girl away from you if I gotta tie her up! She's good, and you're nothin' but scum, ya know that?!” Penny stopped to catch her breath, and Trent didn't feel the usual sensation of being cowed by the fat girl's anger. If anything, his own anger was rising with every word. It grew to be a rage he felt no desire to control or check. He could feel the blood surging through his veins, and his jaw clenched so hard his teeth hurt. “I never liked you. I told Erin you weren't worth the air you breathe. You're a--,” it was Trent's turn.

“Shut the hell UP! D****t, but you're an annoying b***h!” Trent couldn't help but smile at the cruelty in his voice. “You didn't like me?” He laughed contemptuously, “Hell, I despise you. I only let your stinkin' a*s in my house because Erin wanted you here, and that was pushin' what that b***h could get away with. So here's what's gonna happen now. You ain't gonna call me, and ya ain't gonna set foot in my house again. I don't wanna see a single ounce of the blubber on your a*s. Got me?” Trent's voice died down toward the end, and he could hear Penny breathing over the line.

“Oh yeah, what're ya gonna do? If I wasn't at work I'd come over there and kick your a*s right now.” It was Penny's turn to speak with every drop of contempt she could lay into her words.

He couldn't have said where his anger came from. Penny's words weren't anything out of the ordinary, but Trent's reaction was.

“I swear on everything holy that if you set foot in this apartment, I will kill you. You seem to not understand just who I am, or what I'm capable of. I will snap your neck with less hesitation than that of swatting a fly. I will destroy every bit of evidence that you ever existed, and smile at the thought that you no longer inhabit this earth. I will end you, and the world will f*****g rejoice that you're gone. Now. Do. You. Under. Stand. Me.” Sandy flinched in horror at the look of madness that flashed across his face. A moment later it was gone, and she struggled to tell herself she imagined it. “In fact. Come on over here, Penny, because I think the world would be a much better place without you.”

Trent waited and stared at nothing. His eyes saw nothing but the scene he imagined if Penny walked through his door. Sandy was terrified at the glee painted on his face. Everything anyone had ever seen of him was a happy-go-lucky guy with a canyon where his ambition was supposed to be. Sure, everyone had seem him act broody, but nothing like the menacing violence he was discussing. This was a new side of him, and Sandy didn't like it.

The phone clicked in Trent's ear without another word from Penny. He smiled at her capitulation and put his phone back in the discarded pants. His glance fell on Sandy clutching the blanket to her nude body, and he frowned.

“What's wrong?” He was genuinely confused by the fear on her face.

Sandy just stared at him. His face wasn't horrible, or anything like what it had been. She told herself she had simply mistaken what she had seen. He had been in the grips of a rather brutal argument from the sound of it, she had even heard the person on the other end screaming. Anyone could say vicious things when they were angry. She patted the bed next to her and pouted.

“I'm waiting for some company.”

The dream had faded completely from Trent's mind.