[M]Surprise Ending (Shades of Grey and CuteLilRedhead)

Ausha opened her eyes on bright and sunny morning and grumbled.... "I don't wanna go to work!!" She groaned into her pillow then closed her eyes again. Her cat, Winifred, jumped onto the bed and began to claw the blankets, meowing for food and attention. "Winny, dear, mommy is having a moment." Ausha said opening one eye to look at her orange kitty.

Winifred's tilted to the side and she gave another meow. Ausha rolled her eyes and stroked the cat's head as she got up. Her long brunette hair fell to the small of her back. It was curly but not poodle curly. A nice, natural wave, if you will. She rubbed her eyes and looked at the time. With another groan she went into the kitchen and poured some food into Winney's bowl. "Come on, Ms. Demanding." Ausha shouted for the cat. She walked back into the bedroom to see Winney on her bed.

"You little..." She growled and shooed the cat away. She walked into the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. Her green eyes had dark circles under them due to the week of no sleep she had been having. She worked for a law firm as an assistant, but she had projects to do as well as all the lawyers, which explained her lack of sleep. With a sigh, she turned on the shower and undressed, hoping the warm water would wake her up.

Stepping into the shower she was defiantly woken up by a surprisingly cold shock. She screeched and jumped out of the shower. She played with the hot and cold knobs but the water still stayed freezing. "Really? REALLY?" Ausha pulled a towel around her body and grabbed the phone to call her landlord. "Hey, Terry, it's Ausha... again. Um, the hot water doesn't seem to be working, and I know I sent the money in for this month. If you could stop by and take a look, that would be great. Thanks so much." She hung up. " Good for nothing... He probably didn't pay his half of the bill."

Skipping the shower Ausha went into the bedroom and got dressed in her usual business casual attire. She grabbed her purse and keys and headed out the door after kissing Winney's head goodbye.

"Ferdi!"
Max stared down at the puddle on his carpet. "I just cleaned this dammit!" He shook his head and began his hunt for his dog. When he found the Rottweiler huddled in a corner of the living room, Max grabbed the dog's collar and brought him over to the puddle.
"What is this?" he hollered.
The dog tried to back away but Max had a strong grip.
"You don't do that in my bedroom. You do that outside. How am I supposed to clean that before Jennette comes over?"
The dog barked and got loose. He scurried away leaving Max to fix his mess.

Max was lying on his couch, waiting. Jen was supposed to come over an hour ago. His house had lost the lemon scent he had sprayed to cover Ferdinand's urine. Max was getting worried; his girlfriend was always on time.
He picked up his phone and called her once again but there was no answer. When Ferdi started barking at the door Max ran to answer it. When he opened the door a frown crossed his face.
"Jesus loves you no matter what. He can forgive you; you just have to let Him."
Max slammed the door shut. He was so sick and tired of these religious freaks that kept bothering him. When did word get out that he didn't believe in God?
Retreating, Max walked to his room and lay down on his bed. He stared at the glowing letters on his clock until his eyes closed and he drifted into sleep.

Max woke from a terrible nightmare to a disgusting smell coming from outside his room. He lifted himself up and walked out of his room. On the floor was a pile of a Rottweiler's waste. "What the hell did I spend all that money for if you weren't even trained?" Max said, agravated.
He walked to his bathroom and stared at the mirror. His eyes were a dark blue colour. His hair, a black mess, lay atop his head in curls. His skin was way too wan.
Max saw a clock in the mirror. He turned around and read the time.
It was three in the afternoon.
Jennette was supposed to be here seven hours ago.

Walking through the doors of the firm, Ausha looked less than pleased to be there.

"Morning, Ausha." The office perv smirked looking her up and down. She knew he was picturing her naked.

"Hey Phil, how's the wife and triplets?" She threw back at him, loving the fact that his smirk quickly fell to a scowl.

She went to the coffee room and fixed four coffees. One was a French Vanilla, another was black, the third was a regular with two creams and three sugars, and lastly, a coffee name that was so long, it hurt Ausha's brain to try and say it. She looked over and saw doughnut. She smiled but frowned immediately after she remembered her diet. SHe picked up the coffee's and set her French Vanilla on her desk and bringing the other three into the meeting room where three of her bosses sat.

"Good morning, Mr. Wright, Mrs. Stevenson, and Mr. Davids." She smiled placeing all of their coffee's in front of them. The three of them just ignored her and continued talking about a rapist who wanted them to be his lawyer.

"Absolutely not! I don't care what people say about us, we do have morals." Mr.Wright boomed.

Ausha rolled her eyes and went back to her desk taking a deep breath. As she was about to take a drink of coffee her phone started to ring on four different lines... Oh this was going to be one fantastic day.

Max stepped out of his car and ran up to his girlfriend's house. He knocked on the door with more force than he intended. "Jenny?" he called. "It's Max."
There was no answer, just the whistle of the wind as it swept the branches of Jennette's tree. Max got onto his knees and started to look for the spare key he knew Jen kept. His fingers felt around the welcome mat and in the plant but he couldn't find the key.
Max walked around back. He peered in a window but he couldn't see anything except Jen's aquarium filled with neon tetras of all colours. Max got worried; Jen never left the fish tank's light on.
He lifted the door to Jen's mailbox and that's when he finally found the key. Max let himself inside. "Jenny?" he called again, this time his voice echoing off her walls. "Where are you?"

Max grabbed a cereal bar from Jen's kitchen and tore it open. He started munching on it and turned into Jen's bathroom. She wasn't anywhere.
As a last resort, Max opened the door to Jen's bedroom. He always felt a little weird, walking into a girl's bedroom without permission. He had learned the hard way that you didn't barge into a girl's room when he walked in on his sister without a bra.
Max grimaced as he remembered the image. As the door opened Max stared down and his cereal bar dropped out of his hand.

As the day passed and as Ausha got more irritated she was all but jumping out of her chair to go home. She ran outside into the pouring rain and hailed a taxi. Her white skin got goosebumps as the cool rain dropped on her. Within seconds she was drenched.

The cab pulled up and she got inside and told him to take her to the hot spot bar that was right up the street. She never liked telling cab drivers where she lived so she always had them drop her off at the bar which was only two blocks from her house.

The street lights were buzzing as she walked. She had pepper spray in her purse in case anyone tried anything but she wasn't paying any attention tonight.

Max's phone dropped out of his hand; it was shaking that badly. He picked up the landline but it had been cut. Max's blue eyes got a clear coat of tears as he ran out of the room. He had seen his girlfriend naked before, sure.
He had just never seen that much blood.

Max ran out of the house and into the pouring rain. He looked up and down the street countless times before running to a girl. She looked formal; maybe she could help him out. Her brown hair was long and if Max wasn't so upset his eyes would have had a field day with this girl.
"Ma'am," he said, nearly falling to the ground. His legs were jelly, his voice came out muffled. "You've gotta help me. Call the police. My girlfriend.. She was... She is..." Max was trying hard to keep his tears to himself. His fingers dug into his pocket and pulled out the small blue box. He opened the box, staring down at the gold band that would have been placed around Jennette's finger had she shown up at his house.
Had she been alive.

Max stared back at the girl. His hands were shaky as he shoved the box back into his pocket. "My girlfriend is dead," Max let out. "Please call the police."

As Ausha walked down the street a man approached her. Fumbling over his own feet and tongue. At first she wasn't sure what he was saying. He took out a beautiful proposal ring in a gorgeous blue box.

"My girlfriend is dead"

Ausha pulled out her phone and called 911 without it even registering what this man had said.

"Operator... What's the emergency?" A girl with a New Jersey accent asked.

"There has been a murder. It's right off of Colfax and Hollywood." She sounded calm but the moment she hung up she looked at the man and all she could do was hug him. "It's going to be okay." She walked him to the steps in front of the house. "I'm Ausha, by the way." She said in a calm voice. Two panicked people couldn't be good for the situation. On the outside Ausha was being calm but on the inside, she felt like she was going to have a heart attack with as much anxiety she was having.

Ausha motioned him to sit on the steps and she sat beside him. What do you say to a man who has seen his girlfriend's corpse? She took a deep breath and took the guy's hand, hoping it would comfort him. Words wouldn't help, in fact they could make things worse. So she rubbed his hand with her's and waited for the ambulance and police to come.

Max was shaking far too hard when the girl called the police and told them about Jennette's murder. He exhaled slowly and the girl took him to the stairs. "Max," he said with a shaky breath. "Maximillion Baker. Soon-to-be fiance of Jennette Lowski. But Jenny is dead."
Max turned away from Ausha and started panting. "She was raped," Max informed. "How am I supposed to go in there and see her dead body, her naked dead body, in a giant pool of her own blood?" He was talking to himself, not paying attention to the girl beside him. "Jennette Lowski, I've watched you with a smile on my face every single day of my life since that glorious day. It was September 3rd, your first day of a new high school. You were gorgeous with your natural wave to your hair and your beautiful blue eyes. You were wearing a blue polo shirt tucked neatly in a black skirt and your hair, a bronze colour, was tucked neatly behind your ear. That was the first day I saw you. That was the day I knew I'd never be the same man again."
Max choked on a sob, finally letting his tears fall. "It's been years since we were juniors in high school, disobeying the rules and plainly being teenagers. It's been years, but it feels like forever. Jennette, I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to have you forever, even though we both know forever will never be long enough."
Max fell off the steps, landing onto his knees. "Jennette Lowski, will you please marry me?"
Max hid his face from Ausha. "Do you know how long it took me to come up with that? And for what? To find her dead? To find her...raped?"
He burst into tears, not caring that Ausha was watching him. The last time he had ever cried was when he was six and now he was twenty-two. Every last tear he had been keeping inside him for sixteen years rolled out of him.

Ausha rubbed his back. She was silent. What could she say? This man had lost the love of his life to a rapist. Tear began to weld up in her eyes at the tragic scene. He was sobbing after his beautiful speech to Jennette. She left a tear fall but she was interrupted by the police sirens. She stood up and wiped the tears. Today was a hell of a day...

The police car stopped in front of them and the sheriff got out with a not pad. "I'm Office O'Brain and this is my deputy Officer McKinley." He introduced. "Now lets skip straight to business. Who found her?" He asked abruptly. He looked at Max. "I'm guessing you did." He said before anyone could answer.

Max stood before the officer. He dried his tears and nodded. "Yes sir, she was supposed to meet at my house today at eight. I was gonna propose to her. And Jenny isn't one to be late so I got worried. I came here and let myself in with the spare key. And then...then..."
Max turned away so he could stifle a sob. He cleared his throat. "Jennette is in her bedroom. She has a shirt on buy nothing past her waist. And she has..."
Max stared right at Ausha. "Go look at her," he said, his voice shaking.
His head dropped, showing only his jet black hair. "Thank you, Ausha."

Images of Jennette kept coming back to Max's mind. He had left his family to live in the same city as Jenny. Now that she was dead what was he to do?
He needed a better job; a cashier wasn't going to cut it. He didn't want a new job.
Max wanted Jennette.