Authors: Nicole Hildreth
“What do you want?” I asked, trying to keep calm.
“I just want what’s mine,” he slurred, coming closer.
I backed up,
closing in on the door. “I’m not yours,” I whispered. “You know that.”
“Oh,
see,” he responded, “That’s where you’re wrong. You left before I was done with you.” He cupped my breast and squeezed hard.
I could feel tears stinging my eyes. “Just go… please.” I backed up against the door, slowly trying to turn the knob with one hand behind my back.
“Ah ah ah. I told you not to get any ideas, Elsa,” he said, grabbing me by the waist. He guided me over to the couch and sat me there, smiling while he unbuttoned his pants.
My hands shook. I desperately looked around for some kind of homemade weapon. I only had a popcorn bowl, but I sure as
hell planned on using it if he got any closer. I edged to the side, slowly reaching for it when the doorbell rang. I immediately sprang to my feet.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” Dave barked at me.
“Whoever is there knows that I’m home,” I lied. “Jack’s coming back tonight.”
“It’s not
Jack
, whore. He has a key.”
He was obviously plastered.
Could I push my way past him?
I literally screamed as loud as I could. He
threw a hard fist, connecting with my mouth. “Shut the fuck up,” he whispered.
Buster growled loudly and
nipped at his leg (not nearly hard enough) causing Dave to pull away sharply.
A key jiggled in the door. Dave took off through the kitchen and went out the back
exit, not saying another word. He didn’t even look at me. I knew he’d be back. He’d wait for Jack to be gone and then what? Finish the job?
I went to the
front door and threw it open, tears streaming down my face. It was Anthony.
He didn’t ask me anything. He just pulled me into his chest and
held me while I finished my crying jag. “Where is Jeremy, honey?”
“I don’t know,” I sobbed. “I haven’t seen him.”
“Elsa. I know he was just here. I heard you scream.”
“No,” I said, sniffling, “that was my ex-boyfriend.”
Anthony hurried through the house. “Where did he go?”
“Back door. Through the kitchen.”
He came back a few minutes later. “He’s gone. We call the police now, okay? You have your phone?”
“
He took it,” I whispered.
I didn’t want to call them. I knew it was only just going to cause me and Jack more problems, but I also knew that Anthony wasn’t going to let this go.
If I filed a restraining order, Dave would violate it. I knew he would.
“
Okay, you pack a bag and stay with us tonight.”
Once again, I caved. I knew he wouldn’t take no for an answer. Anthony dug through his pocket for his cell and dialed 911. While he talked to the operator, he
sorted through my freezer, pulling out a bag of peas.
I had peas?
He handed them to me and gestured to my cut lip.
When he got off of the phone, he sat me down at the kitchen table. “Someone will be here soon, okay?”
I nodded, sniffling. “How do you have a key?”
“Jack
ie was worried about you by yourself. He dropped an extra off before he left. Then he called me tonight and asked me to check up on you. He told me about Jeremy and the situation down there.”
“Yeah,” I whispered, flinching at the ice cold plastic.
“Who was this man tonight, Elsa?” Anthony asked.
“Just a guy I thought I knew
.” I let out a short sob.
He slid closer to me and rubbed up my back. “You
need to call Jackie? You can use my phone, honey.”
“
I’ll tell him tomorrow. I don’t want him to worry about me.” My eyes pleaded with him.
“Anything you want. It’s your story to tell, not mine.”
I loved Anthony in that minute. I didn’t want Jack to come home yet. He didn’t see Vince every day. I didn’t want to be the reason for him to cut his trip short. There wasn’t anything he could do for me here anyway.
“Thanks.”
The buzzer rang for the third time that night. This time, it was the Chicago Police. After filling out an incident report, I was given paperwork about filing a restraining order. How could one Saturday night be so fucked up?
It was official. Jack could never leave the state again.
I woke early on Sunday morning, coming out of the guest room to find Belle cooking.
“Sit, my love. Your face looks better today, I think, yeah?”
I touched my fingers to my lip, wincing a bit. “Yeah, it feels okay.”
“This man who touched you… he is a coward.”
I looked down at the table as Belle slid a cup of coffee in front of me. “No, thank you, Belle. I don’t really like coffee.”
“You serious?” she asked, studying me with a laugh on her lips.
“I know, I know. I’m the only person alive that doesn’t.” I rubbed my hands together. “I think I’m going to go soon. Do you have a bus schedule?”
“You can’t ride a bus with that dog. Anthony will drive you.”
“No, Belle, I…”
“Anthony will drive you. Okay, so that’s that.”
I stood. “I don’t know how to repay you.”
“You don’t.” She walked over to me. “Listen, we don’t make our own children repay us for things that we do. You are with our Jackie… so you don’t have to pay either, okay?”
I leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. “Thank
you again.”
*
****
Anthony dropped me off at the apartment around 10, following me inside to make sure that I was safe. When all was clear, he stood in the doorway, giving me a long hug. “Tell him everything, honey. Don’t leave anything out.”
“Okay,” I whispered, “I will.”
I had about ten minutes to myself before Jack came home.
“Baby,” he yelled, dropping his bag by the door.
Buster
lifted his head, but quickly retreated back to his nap.
I came out of the bedroom, a smile plastered on my face. “Hi.”
He walked to me, immediately touching my lip. “What the fuck happened, Elsa? Did Jeremy do this?” he screamed.
“No… Dave came by last night. He was drunk and mad…”
Jack paced in front of me, collecting his thoughts. “Okay… all of it. Start at the beginning.”
“Well, I came back here after we left Edgewater. I guess I was here about an hour. The doorbell rang and I looked through the peephole because I thought it
might be Jeremy. I saw Dave,” I replied, wincing at the memory.
“I just opened the door because he’s never hurt me before. I don’t know… anyway, he pushed the door open and came in. He was drunk and yelling that he wasn’t done with me.”
My eyes started to fill with tears. “I was scared, but he took my phone… he sat me on the couch. He started to unbutton his pants and… I thought he was going to hurt me, so I was trying to figure out how to defend myself. The bell rang and it was your dad… basically, I tried to scream… he hit me and told me to be quiet, but your dad had a key. He started to come in and Dave ran out the back door.”
I was embarrassed. I wasn’t sure why.
He ran his hands up my arms. “That why you didn’t answer your phone last night? I was worried sick about you.”
“Yeah, it’s probably in some fucking dumpster right now… and I paid good money for that thing.”
“I’ll get you a new one. A better one.” He paused, studying me. “Are you really okay?”
“Yeah.” I put my arms around his waist.
“Good. Now, I’ve got someone to visit,” he replied, heading towards the bedroom. “What’s Dave’s last name?”
“No, no, no, Jack. We’re done with that. I’m not having you get arrested over his ass.”
“What’s his last name, Elsa? I’m not going to kill him. I just need to have a conversation with him about boundaries. You’re well taken care of now and I don’t need for him to bother you anymore. That’s all.” He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Name.”
“Viera. He works downtown. Fisher & Viera, Attorneys.”
“He’s a fucking lawyer?”
I nodded. “See, Jack? You don’t want to get involved with this.”
“If he didn’t put his hands on you, I wouldn’t be involved.”
“I’m coming with you,” I said.
“Absolutely not. He doesn’t get the pleasure of seeing you ever again.”
“I’m not letting you go alone. Period. So, there’s that.”
“Well, it’s Sunday anyway. He won’t be there. Does he live around here?”
“He always works on Sunday mornings.”
Oh, God, why did I tell him that?
“Get your shoes
then.”
*
****
Thirty minutes later, we were at the front door of Dave’s
office building. I was a mess, visibly shaking as I buzzed the speaker.
Dave’s voice came over the intercom. “Yeah?”
“Dave?” I announced. “It’s me. Elsa.” I looked at Jack; he nodded at me. “Can we talk for a second?”
The door buzzed and we both entered the lobby. He held my hand as I guided him back to
the corner office. Dave’s face was studying a pile of papers on his desk. He didn’t look up at me. He just smiled. “You miss me?”
I wanted to throw up. Just fucking chuck my guts out on his shiny hardwood floors.
Jack let my hand go and slid into a chair in front of Dave’s desk. “Hi, Dave.”
He looked up, obviously not prepared for Jack. He stood and reached for
his phone. Jack put his hand over it. “Oh, let’s play nice, Dave. You took Elsa’s phone from her last night, so I think it’s only fair that I get to talk without you having access to
yours
, right?”
Dave sat back in his chair slowly. “Okay… what do you want?”
Jack leaned forward, placing both hands on the edge of the desk. “Oh, Dave, what do I want? What do I want?”
Oh, boy.
“Here’s what I want for starters. See this girl here?” He looked over at me and brushed his thumb across the gash on my lip. “Well, she is very important to me. I don’t need anything happening to her or that beautiful face. She tells me that you did this to her.”
“
She’s a fucking liar…” he interrupted.
“Mmm, I think
that
you
are the liar here, Dave. I’m going to take her word over yours. See, I don’t know you, but I do know that you’ve shown up at her apartment at least three fucking times in the past month. You text her incessantly. She never writes you back. I’d say that’s harassment, Dave. So, I’m going to give you a chance to make it right.” His voice was calm and steady.
Jack stood, leaning into the desk. “I need you to apologize…”
“I’m sorry, man… I didn’t know…”
“No, no… don’t apologize to me. Apologize to her
.
”
Dave
sat frozen, his arms locked in front of his chest. He wasn’t about to cave. “I didn’t do anything to her,” he clipped.
“Okay,” Jack whispered. “I said that I would give you one chance. That was it. You chose not to take advantage of it. So, I’m afraid our time together is not done. Today, after we leave here, we’ll go home and relax. I need to tend to my girl’s swollen face. Tomorrow, I’ll come back again. And the next day… and the next. I’ll be here when the office opens and I’ll be here to walk you home in the evenings. It’s not a threat. I’m just
a guy who happens to have the same schedule that you do.”
He laced his fingers in mine. “See you tomorrow, Dave.”
“I’m sorry, Elsa,” Dave choked out.
Jack smiled. “See? Now was that so hard?” He bent in again. “If I ever see you again, I’ll knock your
goddamned teeth down your throat, you fucking rapist. That
was a threat. If you contact Elsa again, I’ll end you. We good, Dave?”
“I’ll press charges,” he threatened.
“You’re lucky
we
are not pressing charges. Breaking and entering. Assault and battery. Attempted rape. So, no, you won’t,” Jack countered. “Or you’ll see me tomorrow.”
“I didn’t fucking
rape
her!” he screamed.
Jack pointed a finger into Dave’s chest. “You’re lucky you never got the chance or we’d be having a whole different conversation right now.” He
took my hand and casually walked out of the office. I was just full-on sweating now. Holy shit... my man was like some kind of fucking ninja.
When we got outside, I stood on my tiptoes and p
ressed a kiss to his soft lips. My lip still stung a bit, but it was totally worth it.
His hands were shaking. “If you ever see him again, Elsa, please don’t hesitate. Just call the police, okay?”
“Okay, promise.”
He wrapped his arms around me. “Let’s go home, baby.”
*****
Jack did tend to me when we got home. He took care of me, getting me drinks, rubbing my feet, kissing me nonstop
. I was spoiled that afternoon.
“Hey,” he said, looking serious, “you know the other day when you said that you wanted to open your own shop… that something you really want to do?”
Oh, God. I knew he would bring this up.
“Well, I’ve thought about it a lot but, honestly, I don’t really know that it’s feasible. I don’t have that kind of capital and probably never will. I love Gem, but she doesn’t pay me that much.”
I flipped the channels, hoping the conversation would end naturally.
“I have money, El.”
“Yeah,” I countered, “for a down payment on a house.”
“Well, if you’re serious about it, we could keep the Edgewater house… just hear me out… and open
up a store there. That way, we wouldn’t have to go through selling the house and we could take all of the money I have and drop it into a storefront. There’s a small place for lease just up the block from my store that would be perfect. And no competitors in the area.”
“I can’t take your money, Jack. Plus, Edgewater is pretty far.”
“Not if we lived there. You could walk to work like you do now,” he argued.
“I don’t know.”
“I know. It’s a lot to think about and you don’t have to make any decisions tonight. It’s just an idea.”
“
It’s a good one, honey. I just can’t. I can’t owe you.”
“El
, we’re in this together, right? I’m not leaving you. I hope
you’re not leaving me. So, you wouldn’t owe me anything.”
I kneaded my hands together. “I know we haven’t really talked about this, but I feel like we have to. We can’t make any big decisions until Lana has the baby.”
Jack looked defeated. “Of course, you’re right. I’ve tried to block that out of my mind. I’m scared to death. It’s all wrong. I’m not supposed to be tied to her anymore. We’re supposed to make a family… me and
you
.”
“Jack…”
“I know it in my gut. Don’t you want that?”
“Yeah,” I whispered, “but I don’t know…”
“You don’t know what? That we’ll be together for the rest of our lives? I do.”
Man, he was serious.
“You can’t predict that, Jack.”
“I can, because I know how I feel about you. And I know you feel the same way. You’re just fucking scared because you’ve never had someone love you like I do.”
He leaned in and pulled me into a soft kiss.
“I
need you so much, Jack.”
He kissed me harder. “I didn’t want to push you… after yesterday…”
I ran my tongue down his neck. “Bedroom, please.”
“Race you,” he teased,
bounding from the couch and pulling his shirt off in one movement.
I shimmied out of my tank and thong, skipping after him.
He bounced on the bed and laid his head on the pillow. “God, it’s good to be home.”
I laughed. “You were
only gone for two days.”
“Two days without you. Pure t
orture.” He sat up on the bed and took off his glasses, placing them on the nightstand. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here. I’m sorry that I put you in the position that I did. You shouldn’t have been alone.”
“Hey,” I breathed, “that’s all done now. He won’t bother me again.”
I hoped
.
He pressed me down on the mattress
and held my face, staring at me. I was flushed, embarrassed.
“I love you so much. There is literally nowhere in the world I would rather be
right now than on this bed with you.”
I felt my face turn hot. I knew in that moment. If I didn’t know before, I knew it now. This was love. Like
fucking kick-you-in-the-teeth love.
I pulled him closer, aligning our bodies perfectly, my arms wrapped tightly around his waist. “I love you, too,” I breathed. “So much.”
I was lucky. I didn’t care that it took me so long to find him… so many fucked up relationships. He was worth the crawl through the quicksand.