The Loverboy
Page 13
They sat outside for a little over an hour until they were
both too cold to stand it anymore. They went inside and Kim
watched some TV but was too impatient to hear from Jake to
really get into anything. A little later the excitement started
to shift to worry. It had been five hours since he had left.
Another hour later and she was crawling out of her skin. Finally
she heard a car door slam and she looked out the window. He was
home. She opened the door before he could and looked at him with
great anticipation. He got the job he announced. It wouldn"t
start for two months though. The company was starting a new
warehouse close to where they looked at the house and it would
open in two months. She threw her arms around his neck and they
almost lost their balance.
“There is more” he said. She looked at him in anticipation.
“Sit down” he said.
She sat down and he sat next to her.
“They gave me a confirmation of employment” he said, “I
took it to the banks and they agreed to a loan.”
Kim looked puzzled.
“A loan for what?” she asked.
“I made an offer on the house and it was accepted. We can
move the weekend before I start the new job.”
Kim let out another squeal. It really was all coming
together and she couldn"t believe it.
“With the loan we have enough to last until my job starts
and to furnish the house” he continued.
“There is even enough for a vacation and I booked us a two
week all expense trip to Mexico” he said.
She looked at him in amazement.
“When we get back we can move into the new house and I
start my new job. Then finally we have enough to start planning
a party when we get back.” “A party? What kind of party?” she asked.
He dropped to his knee and pulled out a ring.
”Will you marry me?” he asked.
She shivered in surprise.
“Yes” she heard come out of her mouth before she had given
her brain permission to say it.
They kissed and she couldn"t believe it. This had been the
best birthday ever. The nightmare was finally over.
“I don"t have a passport” she said.
“We need your birth certificate and then we can get a
passport. If we expedite it we should have it in time” he said.
“My mom has that” she said softly.
She couldn"t just ask for it. She wasn"t ready to face her
mom. It had been almost two years and she did not want to have
to explain the last two years; after she got all settled in
maybe. Then she would get back in touch with her mom. They would
work things out and she would try to explain things.
“Do you still have the key to your old place?” he asked.
She nodded. “We"ll go over tomorrow when your mom is at work and your
sister is at school” he said.
“I know where she keeps her paperwork” Kim said.
The next morning they got up early and headed for
Milwaukee. They got to the apartment around ten. They stopped in
the same spot Jake had always stopped when he dropped her off
when they met. He moved to get out of the car but she stopped
him.
“I need to do this alone” she said.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
She nodded and got out of the car. She walked to the
apartment and opened the door and carefully looked inside. The
hallway was clear. She walked in and went to the door of her old
apartment. Her heart was pounding. What if they don"t live here
anymore? What if her mom or Ally would be home? She hesitated
for a moment then inserted the key in the lock and opened the
door. To her relief the apartment was empty and it looked
exactly the same. A wave of homesickness washed over her and she
hadn"t realized how much she had missed this place, how much she
had missed them. Then she snapped out of it and went into her
mom"s room and opened the bottom drawer of her mom"s dresser and
found the folder that her mom had kept all important papers in. In it she found her birth certificate and took it. Then she
put everything back. She was about to leave when she felt the
urge to check out her old bedroom. She opened the door and to
her shock it was almost identical to when she had left it. Her
side was at least. Ally"s side had changed a little. Different
posters and things like that. Stuff you expect to change with a
teenager. It was almost eerie how her side was just the same.
Almost like it was ready for her to come back at any moment.
Ally"s stuff seemed to respect the split in the room and nothing
that belonged to Ally crossed over on to her side. She looked
around Ally"s room and saw a picture dated three months ago. It
was Ally and her mom.
She felt tears run down her cheeks as she saw it. Then she
grabbed in and stuck it in her pocket. She left the bedroom and
grabbed a piece of paper and started to write a note.
“Hi mom and Ally,
I had to stop by and get something. Sorry I have put you through
all this but a lot has happened and I am finally getting back on
my feet. I will contact you soon when I get settled. Don’t worry
about me, I am doing well. Remember I love you very much and I
miss you both. You will hear from me soon. Lots of love, Kim”
A tear fell on the paper as she finished writing the note.
She tried to wipe it off but it just left a smudge. She left the
note on the kitchen table and left the apartment, quickly left
the building and got back into the car. They sped off for the post office to request the passport.
Chapter 16:
The next three weeks were great and she was getting excited
for her trip. Jake was still gone a lot. Tying things up and
whatever he usually did, so he was only home two days a week.
She had often wondered what he was up to all day but he always
avoided talking about it and switched the subject. Before he had
claimed to be looking for work but she had her doubts about
that. No matter she thought. Soon he"s in a steady job and that
will all end.
She was no longer working and more and more started feeling
alien about her former work. However had she managed to do it?
She knew but with time away from it repulsion toward it was
growing. But she was done. No more strange perverts would be
touching her anymore. They had all been perverts. Sure some had
looked the part, those had been particularly disgusting but as
time had passed she had found out that the better dressed the
Johns had been and the more expensive their car had been the
more perverted they were, and worse they had always made the creepiest demand and were the most likely to get agitated if
they didn"t get their way.
But that was all in the past now. She was home all day
again and where before it had driven her nuts, now it was heaven
or at least it seemed to be compared to the alternative. She
kept busy with getting ready for the trip and chatting with
Anisha who was still counting down and doing well. She was
starti
ng to save up quite a bit of money after she too had given
up drugs. Ok, once a week on Saturdays Kim and Anisha would
smoke a little bit of pot together. Barely enough for a buzz but
it made them feel good.
One Saturday Anisha had been sick and they hadn"t smoked
any. It had become a social thing between the both of them and
both felt it was part of their profession and the area they
lived in. At least that had been the excuse they had used but
really it put them in a silly mood and in their line of work you
needed to be in a silly mood at least once a week. Now that she
was done she didn"t want to take that away from Anisha Kim had
convinced herself. Things were going well now and the future
looked bright with a vacation coming up, a new house in a sweet
little village when they came back and Jake returning to his old
self. There were only two things to stress about right now. First
was how to fix things with her mom and Ally. She didn"t want to
do that until she was all setup. Getting things rolling before
that would kill her mom she thought. She would be horrified and
afraid that it won"t all turn out ok. Once she got all setup her
mom would see that she turned out ok and she could just leave
out some of the parts of the past year. No need to upset her mom
with that, it wasn"t anything to write home about anyway.
The second thing to stress about was a lot more on the
lighter side but also much more imminent, her passport. They
would be leaving in five days and the passport hadn"t gotten
there yet. When they had applied for the passport the clerk at
the post office had told them it would take three to four weeks
and it should be there in plenty of time but he had added as
with any self respecting bureaucratic process that they would
give no guarantees; even on the expedited process. She had
checked the mail with passion every day but nothing. With only
five more days to go she was getting very anxious.
She met the mailman outside and again nothing. Then she sat
down and waited for Anisha as usual. Anisha came out not much
later and sat with her. They talked about everything and
anything. Now that Kim wasn"t working anymore they talked about
all the stuff they used to talk about except for the job. Kim had been fascinated and horrified when she had met Anisha before
she had started working herself. Then after she had started
working they had talked about it like two colleagues at a
factory or an office would talk about work outside of it, it had
seemed that the more casual it was treated the more bearable it
had been. Now that she was done she just wanted to forget about
it. She knew she never could but would settle for thinking about
it a little as possible. She couldn"t talk about it anymore in
the casual way they had before. It would go back to being
horrifying but not like in the beginning. It the beginning it
had just been shock, like watching a bad crash, horrible but it
doesn"t affect your life and there had been a weird interest.
Interest in how someone could do it. Now she knew and that
interest was not there anymore. Just the horror was left and it
had been a horror that had affected her. It was no longer the
horror of thinking “How can someone do that?” but more the
horror of “How could I have done that?” She felt bad about it
because Anisha was still working and she might need to talk
about it, to make it seem normal but Anisha hadn"t brought it up
as she probably sensed Kim wanted to forget.
Kim had told Anisha about the trip many times and almost
daily they looked over the folders Jake had brought with him.
The resort was the Las Gaviotas Resort in La Pazon on the peninsula on the ocean and it looked beautiful. The trip was all
expenses paid. They would just fly in and take a shuttle to the
resort. Then everything at the resort had been included in the
trip, drinks, meals and even the spa. The only thing they needed
money for would be tips and if they bought anything in town.
Anisha was jealous but happy for her. If anything Kim had shown
her the way to her own future, she would get out too and they
would stay in touch.
Two days before the trip Kim got two pleasant surprises the
first was the passport finally arriving, one less thing to
stress about. The second thing was Jake showing up unannounced
and telling her he was there to stay now. Everything had been
taken care of and he had officially closed the door on his old
life. No more hustling. He was there and there to stay. He would
stay until they left for their trip and when they got back they
would move into the new house and he would start his new job two
blocks down the road. They would finally start their new life
together.
This sounded great to Kim and she could not remember ever
having been happier….except for a year ago, when she had lived
with Ally and her mom. She remembered how awful she had thought
her life had been. Now she knew it had perfect. Sure she hadn"t
been rich or popular but she had had people around her that loved her and that had stuck out their necks for her or would
have done anything for her. She had blamed her mom for a lot of
her misery but now she knew why her mom had worked so much. It
had been to keep her and Ally safe. She shook her head hard to
get the thoughts out of her head. That time was past just like
her life on the streets and she would see Ally and her mom soon
but first some well deserved R & R and then some hard work on
the new place. First everything had to be perfect before she
could face them. At least than she could show them what it all
had been for.
Kim and Jake spend the next two days getting ready for the
trip. It was cold out so when they weren"t packing they were in
bed. He was with her again. This was the guy she had wanted to
be with. Not the Jake that always had something better to do,
another hustle or deal. The Jake that had been totally into her
and her needs like he had been in the beginning. On the morning
of the trip they loaded up the car. Anisha had gotten up early
to say goodbye. They left and traffic was heavy. It took them
about an hour to get to the airport and they parked in the long
term economy parking.
It was Friday and the airport was littered with people
ready to escape the cold weather. She had felt silly driving
through Chicago wearing clothes that she would normally only wear in the summer. She couldn"t wait to be there and thus she
had embraced the idea and put on a spaghetti strap top, shorts
and sandals. Jake had laughed at her for it but she was not
going to be deterred. Leaving the car and the shuttle ride from
the parking to the terminal had been really cold but after they
got to the terminal she was happy to see she hadn"t been the
only idiot out there. The lines at ticketing and security
weren"t very long. It was too early for the business crowd. They
usually flooded the airport on Fridays after three pm. They sat
at the gate and had a snack waiting to be allowed on the plane.
The boarding had started and she thought about how in the
past she would have been annoyed at the people in first class
who got to board first. Now she didn"t care. She had learned not
to look at what someone else has but how to appreciate what you
have yourself. If only she would have learned that a year
earlier. The announcement came that they were ready to board the
economy class passengers and she snapped out of her thoughts and
got up. They boarded and he offered her the window seat. She had
never been on a plane and was a little nervous. She took the
magazines and flight safety information chart out of the seat
pocket and studied them intently almost as if she expected to
get a pop quiz and if you failed you had to leave the plane.
Jake snickered at her for it and annoyed she shot him a look. Then she looked around and noticed that everybody was just
sitting reading books or magazines. Nobody looked at the flight
safety information. She looked back at Jake and snickered to.
Then she shrugged and continued to study it. She noticed she
really didn"t care that she was the only one studying it.
When the plane finally took off she sat straight in her
seat gripping both armrests tightly while looking out the
window. The plane accelerated and she got more nervous. There
was a lot of vibration and she was wondering if that was normal.
Then she felt a lifting feeling and the plane stopped vibrating
and they were in the air. She looked at the landscape where the
clouds allowed and marveled at the semi trucks looking like ants
on the surface below. Jake just sat reading a book but wasn"t
getting anywhere as Kim kept interrupting him to point something
out below on the surface.
The plane landed in Mexico City and after a layover of a
little more than two hours they boarded the plane to La Paz.
This one was much smaller and she felt as if in an old school
bus that someone has slapped some wings on. It wasn"t very
comfortable either as the small plane vibrated a lot more than
the previous one. After take-off it was a little better but
still worse than the first flight. Two and a half hours later
they landed in La Paz. It had been about nine hours since the first plane had taken-off from Chicago O"Hare. La Paz airport