Baby, I’d Fall For You…

Leaving Tom on the table, Cassidy crossed the apartment to the door, pulling it open to receive Janine, and finding both Lindholm girls awaiting in the hall.

Cassidy smiled. It wasn’t just her. Looking at the lovely Jessica, who would turn heads all on her own, but looked almost plain standing in proximity to the younger girl who had obviously put some effort into making herself look good, she was devastatingly gorgeous and easily outshone her sister.

“Come in,” she invited, stepping to the side.

“Me too?” queried Jessica.

Cassidy nodded, “Yes, Tom said he would meet with you,” she replied dispassionately.

Jessica smiled widely, blue eyes dancing with excitement at receiving the news she would get a chance to actually meet the tiny youth.

Leading the sisters to the kitchen where Tom was standing on the table with arms crossed over his chest, Cassidy extended a hand for the two blonde girls to sit.

Jessica’s mouth hung open as she slid into the chair, eyes locked on the wee form of the boy atop the table almost in front of her. “Oh my effing god,” she gasped, bright blue eyes wide as she gently shook her head from side to side.

Tom remained still, regarding the girl. Like Janine, Jessica was very pretty, similar features, though the elder sisters seemed to lack the je ne sais quoi her younger sister naturally exuded. “Not god, just Tom,” he said cheekily, flashing her his smile and wrinkling his nose. “You must certainly be Jessica?” he inquired.

Jessica laughed, still shaking her head in astonishment, “I just can’t believe it,” she commented, looking at her sister then back at the tiny youth on the table.

Tom turned his head, inclining it slightly as he looked up at radiant beautiful younger sister, “Hi Janine,” he said. She was looking absolutely incredible. A part of him yearned to crawl into her hand, to feel her flesh against his.

She half smiled and returned the gesture by bobbing her own head, cyan eyes sparkling, “Tom. You’re looking well,” she commented. She felt a stir from within.

 “Is it okay if I touch you?” Jessica asked, interjecting and moving her right hand across the smooth table closer to him before extending her index finger.

What he wanted to say was, ‘depends what you want to touch’, but there was something about the elder Lindholm girl that made him feel uneasy. Was it because Janine had warned him or planted the seeds of doubt, or was it his own internal warning system? He wasn’t sure. Cassidy and Janine were both there.

“Tom?” Cassidy asked, bringing him out of his head.

Looking first at the nurse then to Jessica, he nodded, “Okay, but go slow, I’m fragile,” he said.

Emitting a high pitched squeal between her lips, Jessica touched his shoulder with the pad of her finger, giggling and pulling it away quickly. “He feels very warm to the touch,” she commented, looking at Janine then Cassidy.

“I think it’s because of his size and the fact he probably has an accelerated metabolism generating more body heat than a full sized person,” she speculated, taking up residence in the chair directly beside Jessica, just in case the girl got the notion of trying to abduct Tom.

“Where were you yesterday?” Janine inquired, arching a shaped eyebrow.

“Focusing my energies on making sure I don’t fall too far behind at school,” he answered, their eyes locking a moment.

“This is so freaking incredible,” Jessica blurted, bending forward and leaning her head in very near him, close enough he could detect the strawberry scented lip gloss she wore.

Tom took a couple steps back.

Leaning back, “He is so cute,” she beamed to her sister.

Janine nodded her head, brow raised as if amused by her sister’s exuberant sense of wonder.

“I mean I tried to imagine what it would be like to see it, but it is so much more than I thought,” she carried on.

“By it, I presume you mean me,” Tom said.

She shook her head, Sorry, yes you, I mean, seeing you here like this is utterly fantastic,” she gushed.

Janine chuckled, “Take a couple of deep breaths, relax,” she encouraged, teasing her sister.

Jessica rolled her eyes before looking back at Tom, “You must think I’m a regular chatterbox,” she chuckled.

He grinned, “I get it, you’re excited,” he said putting his hands out, palms in her direction in a calming gesture.

Sliding her hand back in, she touched the side of his face, his chest. “I just want to scoop him up,” she said, expression changing. The fact that Janine had had untrammeled access to him chafed at her. It was unfair. She should get an opportunity. Her mother had been right. The sense of power was something else. She was a goddess.

“Jess,” Janine said sternly, “Mother offered her personal assurances we will behave,” she reminded, her expression serious as she placed a delicate hand on her sister’s forearm.

The creases in the older girl’s brow deepened as she nodded, “It’s not that I’m going to, only that I want to, there’s a difference,” she said, retracting her hand away from him. It would be so easy to just take him.

He reached out, touching the sides of her finger and looking at the chipped sliver colored polish on her nail.

Seeing where he was looking and the expression on his face, she pulled her hand back, “I need to get them done again, I mean with what happened to Dad and Janine and everything I just never got the opportunity,” she hastily explained.

Janine smiled subtly. Her nails were perfect, each nail a ruby red, the color of blood.

The almost imperceptible change in expression was not lost on Cassidy. Judging by demeanor and body language, she could tell the rivalry between them was certainly heated.

Tom shook his head, “No, sorry, I wasn’t trying to find flaws,” he replied, trying to assuage Jessica’s flash of embarrassment.

Jessica smiled. She wanted him, to have him, not sexually, well, maybe a little, but just to take possession of him.

Extending her hand again, she brought it low beside him, almost inviting him into her palm.

Cassidy leaned forward, body getting tense.

Patting the side of her hand reassuringly, Tom nodded at the elder Lindholm daughter.

Jessica moved faster than Cassidy, curling her fingers around Tom and lurching backward, tiny captive trapped in her fist.

The sudden movement startled Janine while Cassidy moved forward.

“No!” Jessica barked, standing up and taking a few steps back from the table, pointing at the nurse with her free hand.

Getting up, Janine calmly smoothed the front of her clothes and fixed her sister with a cold blue stare, “This is not what mother assured Cassidy,” she stated.

“It doesn’t matter,” Jessica replied, voice pitched high.

“It is for Tom to decide, that was what she said. You can’t just grab him like this,” Janine reminded.

“Why not?” she challenged. “You had him! Mom had him!” she asserted.

“Jessica!” Janine snapped.

Jessica turned her head to Cassidy, “What about you? I bet you’ve had him too? Right?”

Cassidy frowned. She knew there was no way to rush the girl without risk of hurting Tom.

Looking at Jessica, Janine suddenly had an epiphany, a realization that the behavior her sister was exhibiting was very reminiscent of her own obsessive behavior. And it wasn’t very pretty at all.

The force all around him was immense, Tom’s face turning scarlet under the pressure. He couldn’t breathe. Opening and closing his mouth, he just couldn’t draw air into his lungs. His vision started to swim and he had blacked out enough in recent days to know consciousness was leaving him. In a last ditch desperate effort, he leaned forward and bit down on Jessica’s hand, finding meat at the side of her index finger.

The stab of pain caught Jessica by surprise and her reaction was to open her hand and snap it back.

Tom was breath, the world around him spinning, almost as if in slow motion. Jessica shaking her hand, Cassidy’s eyes impossibly round, mouth a perfect circle, and the floor below. It was too high and he knew he could not survive the fall.

The Call

Raphaella Wentworth was a meticulous packer, one of those people who made lists and spent two days packing prior to leaving. That’s what she was doing when the call came.

Picking up her cell phone, she received the call and put the phone to her ear.

“Hello?” she said.

“Hello Elle, my name is Lina Lindholm, I got your number from your sister,” said the voice on the phone.

“Yes, hello, Donatella texted me to say she had given you my number,” she replied. “She said she was able to assist your daughter with modeling a few years back.”

“Your sister was of tremendous assistance to my daughter, both professionally and personally. I am so very grateful for her generosity,” Lina stated.

“How may I assist you today Lina?” she asked.

“Well, as you know, our children attend the same school. Your Tom and Tess and my Janine are all together in the same grade,” she opened.

“Yes?”

“I am not quite sure how to broach this subject delicately but there has been a situation involving your son and my daughter,” she stated.

Raphaella frowned. Tom had always been a headstrong child, almost willful, and now that he was getting to that age and this woman’s daughter being unbelievably gorgeous, she just hoped he had not crossed a line that could not be uncrossed. “What has my son done?” she inquired, keeping her voice calm.

“It’s not just your son, my daughter is equally involved in this affair. They are both young impetuous people, full of life and caught in the throes of something beyond themselves, drawn together by natural forces that override common sense and logic,” she shared.

There was a pause. “Are you saying this is an affaire de couer between our children? Something that is perhaps interfering with their schooling?” Tom’s mother asked. The first time she had him in her arms and seen that devilish smile on his little baby face, she had known he was going to be a handful as far as women were concerned.

“Yes, that’s a very apropos description of what is happening,” Lina replied.

The Lindholms came from big money. Old big money and Raphaella was getting the sense the nature of this call was a subtle request for her apply some parental pressure and encourage Thomas to desist in his interest of the Lindholm girl. A wry smile crossed her face. “Let me guess, you are calling because you feel my son is not quite right for your precious daughter?” she asked, cadence of her speech quickening.

Lina chuckled, “On the contrary, I think Tom is positively adorable and would be an exceptional match for Janine. No this call is not for that reason. It’s more like they’ve run off together,” Lina said, laying down the framework for her deception.

“Che cosa?” she asked heatedly, momentarily reverting to Italian. “They’ve eloped?”

“I don’t necessarily think it’s that serious, but I have made some professional arrangements to try and track them down. It only just happened which is what brought your daughter Tess and I together. She suggested I make this call, particularly in light of the fact of your intent to come here the day after tomorrow. I thought it only appropriate to bring you up to speed on what’s been transpiring here before you made perhaps what might amount to be an unnecessary trip,” she stated.

Raphaella shook her head, as she began pacing back and forth in her room, muttering under her breath in Italian, “Sciocco ragazzo,” as she ran fingers through her long dark hair.

“I think once the passionate blood has had a chance to cool down, they will return,” Lina offered.

“I am sorry for Thomas,” Elle offered.

Chuckling again, “No need, like I said Janine is equally involved, Tess just wanted to make sure you were aware before traveling all this way only to find Tom not here,” she advised.

“That explains the odd text message I received from him the other day,” Raphaella mused. “No matter, I will be there Friday,” she declared.

“You’ve decided to come anyway?” Lina inquired, frowning.

“Yes.”

Shaking her head again, Lina scowled, this was not going the way she had planned. The whole purpose of the call was to delay her. If she was able to corner Tess, the whole truth would invariably come to light. “Why don’t you leave this to me for the time being and I can keep you updated?” she offered.

“No, I am coming there,” replied the other woman.

Lina got the sense Tom’s mother was not going to be swayed in her decision. If she couldn’t be stopped, then she needed to be contained. “It would be my privilege to invite you then to stay in my home here while we try to make some sense of this affair,” she offered.

“Thank you, yes, I will accept your benevolent offer,” Raphaella replied.

“I will have a car waiting for you when you arrive. I shall see you Friday,” Lina said.

Sharing flight information and exchanging pleasantries, the two women ended the call.

Raphaella sat down on the edge of her bed, phone still in her hand. Her first inclination was to call Tess to try and get more answers but knew the girl would still be in class. Opening her message box, she texted, ‘I just got off the phone with Lina Lindholm and she explained the whole situation to me. I will be still there Friday. Love mom.’

A moment later came the reply, ‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but I am so glad you finally know because I wasn’t sure how much longer I could manage Tom being so small on my own.’

Small? What did that mean? Raphaella frowned, looking down at the screen. ‘Cosa intendi?’ she typed. There was no response. Shaking her head, she was going to get to the bottom of this.