April 30, 2001 – DEI

“Did you see Junior come in third?” Nikki walked into Noelle’s office and saw that Noelle was on the phone. “Oops.” Noelle held up a finger to tell her to wait a second.

“Yes Teresa. I know.” Noelle sighed. “I can’t do anything. He’s not answering my phone calls.” She listened for a minute. “No! I’m not going back until he talks to me and apologizes!” Noelle threw her hands up in the air and groaned. “This has nothing to do with the baby. Well it does, but it doesn’t. This has everything to do with Junior being a dick! I’m not going anywhere until he gets his head out of his ass.” Noelle slammed the phone down on Teresa and pushed away from her desk. “Damn, people! Quit fucking asking me about Junior!”

“I take that as a no.” Nikki stepped away from Noelle, afraid that she was going to go off. Noelle glared at her. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing.” Noelle stood up and rubbed her stomach. “Nothing at all.” She went to the window and looked out over the employee parking lot. Junior’s truck was parked about four spaces away from hers. At least he had made it into work. From what Hollie had told her this morning, Junior seemed to be rather drunk the entire weekend. “But I’m sure you already heard the rumor, Junior and I split up. He told my sister that I need to get my shit out of his house.”

“What?” Nikki’s mouth dropped open. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Noelle shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest. “Have you talked to him?” Noelle shook her head again. “You really should.”

“Why? What’s the point? He’s made up his mind already. Hell, he made up his mind before I could even have a say in anything.”

“I have no clue why you two split, but I’m just saying that you should talk it out before you do anything drastic.”

“Like file for divorce?” Junior’s voice asked from the doorway. Noelle turned around and looked at her husband. “Nikki, could you leave us alone please?” Nikki moved from the desk where she had been sitting.

“No. Nikki, you can stay.” Noelle said. Nikki looked from Junior to Noelle, not knowing whether to stay or go. “If he has anything to say, he can say it in front of you. God knows the media loves the fact that I wasn’t at the race this weekend. And the fact that Junior beat the shit out of Harvick for a stupid ass reason. One that he knows isn’t true.”

“If it isn’t fucking true, then why’d you leave?” Junior countered. “You proved to me that it was true when you weren’t home when I got there.”

“Me? What the fuck Junior!” Noelle yelled. “You didn’t come home for two days!” Junior laughed and leaned against the wall. “Yeah, laugh you asshole.” Nikki sat as still as could be. “You actually think I’d sleep with Kevin Harvick? You’re out of your fucking mind. But you said what you wanted to say and if you want me out, I’ll leave.”

“I want a test done.”

“If you loved me, you wouldn’t even question it.” Noelle spat at him. “We’ve had this talk before, remember? Jealousy is an ugly fucker and you’re looking pretty green at the moment, Junior.” Junior glared at her and Noelle glared right back.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” He stepped closer to Noelle and Noelle backed up. She could smell the alcohol on his breath. “You have no idea what the fuck you’re doing to me.”

“Obviously driving you to drink. Then again, you’ve been doing that for awhile now, haven’t you?” Noelle backed into the wall and muttered a shit under a breath. Junior stopped a few inches in front of her. “Lay one hand on me and I’ll fucking nail you where it counts.” Junior stepped away from her, the hurt evident in his eyes.
 

“You actually think I’d hit you?” he asked. Noelle shrugged. He turned and walked out of the room, not saying a word. Noelle bit her lip and closed her eyes.

“Noelle?” Nikki asked. “You ok?”

“Yeah.” She said quietly. “I’m sorry you had to see that.”

“I’m sorry you had to go through it.” Nikki walked over and hugged her. “I gotta get back to my desk. If you need to talk, give me a call or stop by.” Noelle nodded and thanked her.

After Nikki left, Noelle shut her office door and put her head down on her desk and cried. She didn’t want her marriage to end. She wanted to go find Junior and talk things out. But she didn’t know how. He didn’t believe her and he wasn’t going to believe her.

She picked up the phone and dialed a number.

“Kevin Harvick, please.” She said attempting to sound like she wasn’t crying. “Thank you.” She waited a moment and Kevin answered the phone.

“This is Kevin.”

“It’s Noelle. We need to talk.”

“Finally coming to your senses?”

“Meet me at Track Side in a half hour.” Noelle put the phone down and wiped her eyes. She was going to settle this once and for all.

***

Noelle sat at Trackside in a booth and sipped a glass of ice water. Her hands were shaking as she watched people walk in and out. She knew that it was going to get around town quick that she was seen with Kevin Harvick. Right now, she didn’t care. She just hoped that what she was about to do would fix things.

“Hi.” Kevin sat down in the booth and smiled at her. Noelle didn’t smile back, she just looked at him and fought the urge to reach across the table and slap the smile off his face.  “What made you finally want to talk to me?”

“The fact that you’ve ruined my marriage and any trust my husband ever had for me.” Noelle leaned back in the booth and rested her hand on her bulging stomach. “The fact that you have the nerve to tell him that this baby is yours when I never slept with you.” Kevin looked away from her. “Yeah, Kevin. I heard it all. I heard every fucking thing that was said to Junior.”

“Listen, Noelle…”

“No, you listen you mother fucker. You’re going to go over to Junior’s and tell him it’s all one big fucking lie. You’re going to fix what you fucked up.”

“You can do it yourself. I know the truth. I’m not going to talk to Junior.” Kevin shook his head.

Anger was boiling inside Noelle. She bunched her fists into balls and slammed her fist into the table. “Get out of your fucking fantasy land!”

“You want me and you know it.” Noelle slid out from the booth and grabbed her purse. “Leaving already? I thought we’d have dinner.” Noelle turned and looked at Kevin. “Talk about things, ya know…work them out.” Noelle glared at him and punched him in the face. “Damn it!” Kevin grabbed a napkin and held it to his nose to try and stop the blood from pouring out. “Fuck! First Junior and now you!” Noelle turned on her heel and walked out of the restaurant.

*****

“Dude, she laid him out!” David laughed as he opened at beer at Junior’s house. “I never saw anything as funny in my life.” Junior glared at him. “What?”

“She was having dinner with Harvick?”

“Did you not hear me? I just said she laid him out.”

“But she was having dinner with him?” Junior asked. “I fucking knew it!” David looked at Junior and shook his head. Junior looked like hell and looked like he hadn’t slept in days. “I’m done. That’s it. She’s going in public with him now. Fuck this shit.” He picked up the phone and punched in a number. “Tomorrow…I want it started tomorrow.” He hung up the phone and walked out of the room.

Chapters: 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12/13/14/15/16/17/18/19/20/21/22/23/24/25/26/27/28/29/30