Previously on On Concrete Shelves...
+ Natalie found Ian and Marina together.
+ David and Helen argued over Gail; Helen temporarily moved out.
+ Kirsten tried to find a way to create peace between the Suttons and Thurlows.
+ Helen asked Mac to find out everything about Gail and Adrian...
+ Helen asked Mac to find out everything about Gail and Adrian...
[.....]
Scene One: 980 Cutler St., Stone Creek. Faustino Cottages # 10
Slipping into her shirt, Natalie Marlowe pressed the play button on her iPod player and immediately danced along to a pop song while searching for her pants. Most days consisted of this routine and sometimes she wished she could be better organized.
But on days like today, the distraction wasn’t helping.
For the last couple of hours she tried to figure out if she should tell Ryan Bauer that she saw his girlfriend, Marina Thurlow, getting cozy with Ian Kiefer.
Of course she knew this could jeopardize the couple’s infamous status. This was something Natalie had been waiting for since she first laid eyes on Ryan. That was almost two years ago when he picked Marina over her.
Natalie chalked that up to just being a bad year, that was the year her family permanently moved to Stone Creek because her father, Jared Marlowe, had been elected as the town’s mayor.
Spotting her pants, she vigorously pulled them up. The only thing causing Natalie to have doubts of telling Ryan was because one person: Ian. Natalie had hoped she didn’t see Ian and Marina together, but she did.
Now she knew exactly who had broken his heart. Natalie didn’t want to throw Ian into the heat of fire when she exposed the truth to Ryan. She knew Ian didn’t deserve any of the heat.
This is where she had to make a decision, looking at herself in the mirror. This was the moment when she had to figure it all out: was she willing to hurt Ian to get what she wanted?
Scene Two: Sage Garden’s: Outside of HEAT Headquarters
Helen Schmidt yelped as a hand pulled her towards it. Turning on her heel she pulled away. “Excuse me?” To her surprise the hand belonged to her husband, Dr. David Schmidt.
“We need to talk.” He spoke, she felt like everyone had been telling her that these days. Although Helen wasn’t one to shy away from everyones attention--good or bad--today she didn’t want to face her husband after the last time.
Helen shook her head. “No David, not right now.”
But he was insistent today. “Where have you been staying? Have you been staying in your office again? That couch isn’t comfortable.”
“David.” Helen pushed. “Not right now.”
To tell the truth, Helen did want to talk to her husband. But right now wasn’t the time she could have a rational conversation with him. There was way too much on her mind and most--if not all--of it had to do with Gail.
“Listen, Helen I really need to talk to you. I have to get to the hospital in an hour-”
“Well than you better make it over there!” She spoke, she hadn’t meant to cut him off, but there wasn’t enough time to stick around and talk with her husband about there fight. “I’m sorry David, I didn’t mean to sound so ruin. I just have some things to do.”
“Fine.” He spoke. “I’ll have the movers move your stuff to your office then.”
“What?”
David straightened up. “Helen, we had a nasty fight and we need to figure out what is going on. If you can’t take a could minutes out of your day then that just shows what you think about the last eleven years of our lives has been a joke.”
“You know that isn’t true.” Helen spat.
David folded his arms. “We are fighting right now Helen. We are wasting time fighting about time, do you understand how insane that is. If you can’t take time out of your busy schedule to work things out--well then, I guess I’ll have your stuff moved out.”
The words took Helen by surprise, but she recoiled as fast as she could and challenged her husband. “You wouldn’t kick me out David.”
“Why wouldn’t I? I said I would!”
Helen approached him, “Because you know as well as I do that we can survive anything. That fight, it was nothing! It was stupid and something not worth talking about! But this right here, you accusing me of not loving you? Now that is something I want to talk about!”
“Helen.”
“Don’t you Helen me!” She snarked, “I have done so much for our family and I will not let you say that I don’t love you!”
“Helen!” David shouted.
“What?”
“Everybody is staring at us.” He responded.
She took a deep breath and looked around, David was indeed correct about their new found audience. Helen knew she had a way with people, never somebody to shy away from attention she straightened out her outfit. “We will discuss this later. At our house.”
David nodded. Awkwardly the two went their separate ways, Helen cutting through the crowd.
Scene Three: Sutton Enterprises. Patrick's Office
She knew it wasn’t a good idea. But talking to Caitlyn Thurlow about her family caused Kirsten Sutton to make an appointment with her father-in-law. She could tell that Patrick wasn’t too eager to set up the appointment either.
“Mrs. Sutton.” The secretary spoke, leading her forward towards Patrick’s office. “Mr. Sutton is ready to see you.”
Kirsten wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans and took a moment to collect her nerves. One thing that Kirsten knew was she needed Patrick to see her point of view--just this once.
“When you said you wanted to talk to me, I was conflicted.” Patrick spoke. His words dominating the room, Kirsten walked forward. “Does Charlie know you are here?”
She shook her head no.
Patrick laughed. “Do you really think he’d approve of you fighting his battles for him?”
“I’m not fighting anybody’s battles here Patrick.” Fighting back the fear of standing in front of the only man who made her shiver. “I am here to ask you to keep your family from falling apart.”
Kirsten knew she was irritating Patrick Sutton as she could see it on his face. “Listen here sweetheart, I mean no disrespect to you, but your family has done nothing but cause my family’s destruction so don’t you dare blame it on me!”
“Will you give it a rest already?” Kirsten spoke, she knew she was about to hear the same egotistical righteousness she has heard from her father for years. “They are gone and nothing you do is going to ease that pain. But if you don’t stop with this horrible feud you will lose the rest of your family and my father will lose his too.”
“Nobody is going anywhere.” Patrick huffed.
There was a tension in the room unlike any other. Kirsten tried her best to stand her ground, but in heels like the one she had on, it was proving to be a challenge. “Do you remember what she told you when you were a child? Do you remember what she told the town before she died?”
Patrick slammed his fists onto the desk, nearly breaking the wood in half. “I would never dishonor her!”
The outburst rocked Kirsten to the core, but she stood so calm in front of Patrick. She knew she had him where she needed him so that she could deliver the next words. “Take a look at your family Patrick, I think you already have.”
The exchange was more than Kirsten could deal with in one day. It caused her to become sickened by the feud that took up so much of the Sutton and Thurlow’s lives. She had no will to finish her conversation with Patrick. Nor did she feel like fighting for Charlie or Megan anymore.
Instead she stared Patrick straight in the eyes and watched as he questioned his own actions. The moment she felt her eyes began to water she turned away and wandered out of the room.
Leaving the tension and silence behind.
Scene Four: 2300 Cranberry St., Stone Creek. Stone Creek Apartments #18
Greta watched as her brother poured the last of the cereal into his bowl and made a checklist mentally of another item she would need to buy. She then watched as he trotted through the kitchen and into the hall, exchanging his ‘hello’s’ with a mouthful and slamming his bedroom door behind himself.
Normally Greta didn’t mind his childish characteristics since she was used to his behaviors growing up, it didn’t surprise her. But when he did it in nothing but his boxers and her boyfriend, Miles Fowler, bearing witness to the event it caused an awkward friction in the room.
She sighed and turned to Miles. “You were saying?”
He chuckled, he knew why Greta was stressing. Quite frankly Miles felt that he could read her like a book. “Don’t worry about your brother. I know Bentley is a little on the messy side.”
“Just a little?” She asked.
Miles chuckled again. “Okay, Bentley is extremely messy.”
“I’m sorry.” Greta apologized.
But the apology was ignored, instead Miles kissed Greta as a sign of gratitude. “Besides I’m not dating Bentley, I’m dating Greta Penelope Wilkinson. I am happy about it too. Because I think she’s amazing.”
This time, Greta chuckled. “Well I think Miles Fowler is amazing.”
“Whose that?” Miles asked.
Greta playfully shoved Miles. “He’s the greatest thing that has happened to me in a very long time.”
“The greatest thing?” Miles asked. “That is such a bold statement, are you sure about that? I seem to recall a certain someone calling the massage on our vacation the greatest thing to happen to her in a very long time. Does Miles really compare to a massage?”
The woman nodded. “He’s more than that.”
Miles liked his lips as he looked at Greta. He himself wasn’t questioning if Greta was the greatest thing to happen to him in a long time. There had been so much going on in his life before he met her. “Move in with me.”
The question caught Greta by surprise. “What?”
“Move in with me.” Miles replied. He focused on Greta’s hands as he made circles on her palms. Then he looked back at her. “I’ve been asking myself for weeks if I could live with someone else and for the most part I didn’t think I could. I’m not one of those needy people nor do I try to shy away from being stubborn or independent. But I couldn’t figure out why the only reason I feel alive was with you. When I’m alone, I don’t feel complete.”
Greta tensed up when she realized where Miles was headed. She knew he was about to say the three words she had been wrestling with for weeks. But she wasn’t able to get conformation when a bang at the door stole their attention.
“I’m sorry. I should get that.” Greta spoke, jumping to her feet and making her way to the apartment door. By this time Bentley had come out of his room and she was thankful for more presences in the room.
But when she opened the door, it all faded away. “Natalie, what are you doing here?”
Natalie pushed past Greta who lingered around the door. “Where is Ryan?”
“He isn’t here Nat.” Bentley spoke.
“Well then where is he?” Natalie asked, she silently hoped Bentley wouldn’t give her any problems today. She turned to Greta in hopes that the eldest Wilkinson would give less trouble. “Where did he go?”
Greta shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t keep tabs on him.”
“Well when he comes back, can you tell him I was looking for him?” Natalie asked, not wanting to give away too much information to the siblings. She knew they were only being civil around Miles but didn’t know how much she could push them in front of him. “Really Greta, it’s very important that I talk to him.”
“Marina what is going on?” Miles asked form the background.
Although she didn’t know him very well, she felt the urge to respond. “I saw Marina making out with Ian Kiefer the other day. I think he needs to know about this.”
“Who is Ian Kiefer?” Greta asked.
“You are delusional!” Bentley spoke up, filling the gap between Natalie and Greta.
This caused Natalie to rethink her accusations. “Just tell him to call me, okay?”
“When I see him, I will.” She spoke. “But just a word of advice, next time wait until you are invited in before you stomp around looking for Ryan, okay?”
Admitting her defeat, Natalie exited the apartment. But she wouldn’t give up just yet, the next stop was to confront Ian about it. She knew it should have been her first stop to begin with.
Scene Five: 2300 Cranberry St., Stone Creek. Stone Creek Apartments #23
Helen slipped into Mac’s apartment, for a man in his twenties the place was substantial. Everything was perfect and tidy. Unknown to everyone else, Helen had been staying here for the last couple weeks.
She couldn’t bare to stay in her home after the fight with David about his daughter Gail. But she couldn’t do much to explain that debacle right now, she placed her things in a closet and looked around for her assistant.
She found him shirtless in the kitchen making what he liked to call slop. Helen sighed “Don’t you ever get tired of eating that unhealthy pile of crap?” She spoke, her voice strained.
Mac turned around with a shrug. “It’s easy to make.”
“You’re such a contradiction you know?”
There was a night a couple days ago when she pointed out the same flaw to him, but he did what he always did, shrugged it off. Her life had become such a mess in these few weeks. Here she was living with this gorgeous younger man and yet all she could think about was David.
“We need to shift directions.” Helen spoke.
“Are we talking about dinner or are we talking about Gail?” Mac questioned, he turned the stove off and looked at Helen. “Or are we talking about us?” He joked with a raise of an eyebrow.
“Give it a rest.” Helen snorted. “I’ve been trying to find a way to get Gail Schmidt out of Stone Creek for weeks. But I haven’t put any thought in bringing Adrian Stone here. Why haven’t we talked to Adrian yet?”
“You do know that will only cause more friction.” Mac replied in the way he did when Helen didn’t think her plans all the way through.
This time it was Helen’s turn to shrug. “Well, maybe a little friction is needed in Stone Creek.” Although she didn’t want David to be mad at her, it seemed that he already was. She recalled their fight earlier.
Had he been serious about kicking her out?
Helen looked up at Mac. “We need to bring Adrian Stone here. There is something that Gail is hiding from us and the only other person who could help us is Adrian. As much as I hate this plan it’s the only thing that makes sense.”
Mac pondered for a second before giving in. “So to Arizona we go?”
Helen nodded. “Arizona.”
Scene Six: Stone Creek Gym
“Ian, Ian hold up!” Natalie Marlowe shouted as she tried to catch up with him. She knew going over to Ryan’s apartment was the worst idea, she just hoped that she would have come to Ian first.
Her brother turned around just as he was getting into his car. Her jog turned into a slow walk as she suddenly realized she had been running in sandals. “Ian, we need to talk!”
“Can’t right now Nat,” Ian spoke. “I’ve got class. Remember, work all day school all night. No life in between.”
Natalie chuckled. “How can I forget, my brother the veterinarian. Look I don’t want to interrupt your schedule or anything but there are a few things we need to get straightened out.”
“Like what?”
Suddenly the breeze caused chills along Natalie’s skin. “Can we do this somewhere else? I’d rather not talk about this in a parking lot.”
There was something in her words that she knew Ian latched on to. He was thinking about the option of talking in private. “I can’t, I’m running late for class. Can we talk about this later?”
“I know you kissed Marina!”
Scene Seven: 341 Wallow St., Stone Creek. “Schmidt Home”
There were times when Dr. David Schmidt couldn’t figure out Helen Schmidt. There were days when he could write a tell-all book about her, but today wasn’t any of those days. He knew she was hurt, David could tell by the way she was reacting.
Helen only attacked David when she was hurt. She only attacked anyone when she felt hurt. But he didn’t know why. There was something in her eyes today when they argued that spooked him. He knew she was up to something.
So when the front door opened and closed behind his wife he was surprised that she kept her end of the bargain. “I didn’t think you’d come back home today.”
Helen sighed, a smug look she tried to cover-up. “I told you I would come home tonight so that we could talk.”
“I know.” David replied. “But from previous experience when Helen Schmidt is embarrassed--as she was today--she usually goes into hiding. After our fight I didn’t think you would hide out here.”
“David, you make me out to be some kind of monster.” Helen wandered around the brandy, carefully calculating her next move. “I was embarrassed early, I’ll give you that. I haven’t been that embarrassed since the fiasco of my ex. husband’s second marriage.”
“Why do we always go back to James?” David asked, honestly not looking for a fight.
Helen turned towards David. “I’m sorry.”
“Why are we fighting?”
Helen shrugged. “I don’t honestly know anymore. Ever since Gail came back to town we have been this walking time bomb and I don’t know what to do.” She watched as David took in her words. “Can we patch things up?”
She watched as David walked closer to her. “There is just so much going on right now Helen. I don’t even know where to begin with us.”
“How about we just begin?” Helen spoke, her words choked in her throat and she kindly sipped her drink. “I’ve been thinking about everything and something you told me the other day wouldn’t leave me alone.”
“What’s that?” David asked, hands in his pocket.
“When you talked about Gail being the only family you have left.” Helen waited for the man to respond, to show a sign that he was taking in their conversation. He loosened up and she knew she had him. “I understand that you are mad at me for causing Gail to leave.”
“You didn’t-”
“But I did.” Helen interrupted her husband. “I don’t want to fight anymore because I don’t want to hurt you David. You are the only family I have left in Stone Creek. My children hate me and I spent years making your daughter hate me as well.”
Helen could feel David put a hand on her arm and she tried her best to keep her composure. “I am going to end it now. Right now, no more fighting with Gail. No more arguments about her abandoning you. She deserves a second chance in this family because I know that you need her more than you need me.”
David brushed his hand against Helen’s cheek. “Thats not entirely true Helen. I need you just as much as I need Gail.” He spoke, his words bringing a smile on her face. “You both mean so much to me that it breaks my heart to see you two fighting all the time.”
“Well from here on out there will be no more animosity from my side.” She announced.
“I’m glad to hear that.” David replied.
“I love you David.” Helen spoke, closing her eyes she let him kiss her forehead. It sent chills down her spine, chills that Helen hadn’t felt in year.s
“I love you too Helen.”
Scene Eight: 980 Cutler St., Stone Creek. Faustino Cottages #7
“You talked to my father?” Charlie Sutton asked as he stormed into the house.
Kirsten rushed to the hallway to clam him down, she had just put Megan down for her bed and she didn’t want her to wake up. Pulling Charlie into the nearest room she closed the door.
“Why didn’t you tell me that you went to go see him Kirsten?” Charlie asked, he knew Kirsten was impulsive but he clearly warned her against talking to Patrick Sutton.
Kirsten turned towards Charlie. “I thought it would help.”
“Did it?” Charlie asked, amused and angry at the same time. “Did it help Kirsten? Or did it make things worse? I got an ear full from him earlier while I was at the Hotel. how could you use her against him? You know how much that causes him pain!”
“Good!” Kirsten shouted. She had enough of everyone tip-toeing around the subject of Alice and the Sutton family. there had been so many times where she wanted to talk about it but everyone around her would silence her. “I’m glad that he was hurting.”
Charlie shook his head, he didn’t know the woman in front of him. Kirsten Sutton was impulsive, yes, but she wouldn’t bully somebody just to get what she wanted. “This could ruin all the progress that we were making!”
“What progress Charlie? You said it yourself Patrick Sutton didn’t want anything to do with this family.” Kirsten bit back, getting all her anger out felt so good that she didn’t want to stop. “Charlene was going with everything that your father wanted. Do you want Megan to grow up without them?”
“No!”
“Then do something about it!”
“Kirsten.” Charlie spoke, there had been so much words thrown between each other that they didn’t see the little girl as she wandered into the room looking for her parents. But Charlie noticed her in the doorway.
When Kirsten turned to see Megan against the wall with her stuffed teddy bear she froze. She had been so worried about keeping Megan out of the fighting and away from the hostility.
The little girl started crying and immediately Kirsten bent down to pick her up. Charlie joined them in a hug. “We need to do something about this Charlie.”
“I know.” He whispered, soothing the two women. “I just wish I knew how.”
Scene Nine: 2300 Cranberry St., Stone Creek. Stone Creek Apartments #18
Bentley Wilkinson joined his sister at the kitchen counter, she was so enthralled in her cup of hot cocoa that she was startled when she saw him next to her. “What are you doing up?”
“I could ask you the same thing, sis.” Bentley spoke.
So much was going through Greta Wilkinson’s mind that all she could do was pass the drink over to her brother. “I couldn’t sleep.”
After a gulp of the warm cocoa Bentley responded. “Are you thinking about the whole Ryan and Marina mess?”
Greta turned to Bentley. She had tried to focus on the Ryan and Marina secret but it wasn’t even enough to keep her mind from wandering to the question that Miles Fowler had asked her earlier. “Miles asked me to move in.”
“And?”
Greta shrugged. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”
Bentley chuckled. “You always make everything so complicated you know that?” With a quick shove, Greta rolled her eyes. “Listen sister, Miles is a really great guy and you’ve been dating for a long time. I like him.”
“Then maybe you should move in with him.” Greta joked.
This time it was Bentley’s turn to roll his eyes. “What I mean is, stop playing cat and mouse with him. If you really like Miles than why do you even have to consider moving in with him?”
Greta took a deep sigh before taking back the cup of cocoa and refreshing her taste buds of the warm feeling. She knew Bentley was right even if she didn’t want to admit it out loud.
“Besides, once you move out than Ryan and I could have the ultimate bachelor’s pad. I can walk around in my underwear, I don’t have to wash dishes. I could even bring girls around.”
“Bentley you already do all that stuff.” Greta accused.
“Oh, right.” Bentley chuckled. “Well at least you wont have to deal with any of that stuff anymore.”
Greta nodded at the idea of a brand new start. She looked at her brother and realized why she loved him so much. Leaning her head on his shoulder she spoke. “What are we going to do about the Ryan fiasco?”
“That is something I don’t even have the answer to.”
Scene Ten:
980 Cutler St., Stone Creek. Faustino Cottages # 10
Natalie Marlowe slipped into the tub. Her day had not gone the way she had planned it to. It humored her that she had planned to tell Ryan the truth about Ian and Marina but ended up telling Ian that she knew.
The water wasn’t warm enough to keep the chills away from her confrontation with Ian. They spent hours talking about his encounter with Marina. For awhile Ian denied having anything to do with Marina, which Natalie figured was to protect her more than anything.
But then he came around, Ian always did.
“So I kissed her Nat, I kissed her and then she turned me down.” He couldn’t believe he was actually telling somebody this, something that he kept hidden inside for weeks. “Listen, I don’t need to tell you to keep this to yourself, do I?”
Natalie shook her head. “I wont say anything.”
Natalie knew it was a lie. She had told a room full of people about Marina’s deceit with her brother Ian. This was something she had wished she didn’t do. But she was angry with Marina and how she treated Ryan.
How Marina treated her brother Ian.
Ian looked up at Natalie like a child being caught with a cookie in his hand. “The day when I called in sick. I called in because of Marina. I don’t know why she got to me like this. We met in the park a couple weeks ago and we just started talking.”
Natalie rubbed her brother’s arm. “Look Ian, don’t apologize for having feelings you couldn’t control. It happens to everybody. We can’t help who we love.”
“But she told me that she was in love with Ryan, so I kissed her.” Ian spoke, flashing back to the day he went over to her apartment. “I kissed her and I hoped that she would at least feel something between the two of us. But she didn’t and I did.”
Natalie dunked her head into the tub of water. She needed to help her brother get over Marina. Although it crossed her mind that she could enlist Ian in getting Marina out of Ryan’s life, she knew she couldn’t put him through any more pain.
Finally getting out of the tub, she wrapped a towel around her body and turned off the pop song playing on her radio. Natalie needed a new plan.
[.....]
Next Time on On Concrete Shelves...
+ Lucy intrigues Iris about a proposal from Emmet.
+ Helen sets up her next move.
+ Caitlyn has flashbacks and is forced to tell James the truth.
