by Rinyu, Beth
“But it’s only six o’clock. You said you wanted to redo the proposal.”
“Yeah, well. I don’t think you and I are going to come to a mutual understanding tonight, so maybe after you get a good night’s sleep, you’ll see things my way.”
She let out a loud huff and shook her head. “I’m sure I won’t, but if it means an early night…I’m willing to pretend that it’s a possibility.” She stood up and closed her laptop before I could change my mind.
I stepped out of the office building, unsure of what to do with my free time. It had been a few days since I was walking out of there during daylight. Grab something to eat, head back to my hotel, then work on the proposal? That’s what I should’ve done, but when I hopped in the cab, I found myself giving the driver Emmeline’s address. My desire to see her was greater than my resolve to stay away and avoid any distractions. The cab pulled up, and I paid the driver before getting out. Feeling like I was coming off as a little desperate, I shook it off, swallowed my pride, and walked inside. I surveyed the area with one quick sweep of my eyes. Luckily it was pretty dead, making it an easy task. Two older men, nursing their beer while they bickered amongst each other. A guy and girl who looked to be around my age, appearing to be on their first date, making idle chitchat and nervously laughing on cue.
“What can I get you?” the older haggard-looking woman behind the bar asked in a gruff tone. If I had to bet, I’d say she smoked two packs a day.
“I was looking for Emmeline.”
“Emme isn’t here tonight.”
“Oh, she told me she was working.”
“Sorry, but she’s not.” She held up her hands and shrugged. Her thoughts were transparent through her rueful gaze: Poor sucker was blown off for a date by a lie, and now he just made a bigger fool of himself by showing up here. I wanted so badly to tell her she was dead wrong, but instead I’d let her relish in her theory.
“Okay then,” I replied, resolute to go back to my original plan: dinner and back to work at my hotel room.
“Lukas?” A familiar Irish brogue stopped me at the door. I turned around and lifted my chin, acknowledging Emmeline’s father, standing a few feet away, struggling with an oversized box in his hands. I rushed to him and gathered the box in my arms.
“Ah, thank you,” he said through his labored breaths. “If you don’t mind, can you take that behind the bar for me?”
I nodded and followed his lead, placing the box on the area of the floor he pointed to.
“I’m glad to see we made such a good impression that you decided to come back,” he remarked as he reached for a napkin and dabbed the sweat off his forehead.
“Actually, I was just heading out.”
“You had a drink that quickly?”
“Umm…no. I was hoping to catch up with Emmeline.”
He stared into space before locking eyes with me. “My Emmeline?”
“Yes.”
A broad grin stretched across his face. “You fancy my daughter, do ya?”
I tried my hardest to bite back a smile but couldn’t resist. “She’s a very nice girl.”
“That she is. Then again, I may be a little biased. But don’t be fooled, she can be a real ball buster when she wants to be.”
I was very well acquainted with that side of her, and I found it quite endearing. “I was messaging with her earlier in the day and she told me she was working. I thought maybe I’d be able to catch her before she was done.”
“She is working.” I shook my head in confusion, and he clarified, “At the boutique. She works there on the days she’s not here.”
“Oh.” I felt kind of stupid for not knowing that after getting to know a lot about her the last time we were together, but she failed to mention that bit of information to me.
“She gets done at eight. I hate the idea of her closing up shop there by herself. A few months ago, there were some rapes right in that same area.” He bent down and began taking the bottles from the box that I had helped him carry to the work area. “No matter how old they get, they’ll always be your babies.” He continued with his incessant chitchat, but my mind stopped focusing on what he was saying at that moment. Instead, it was stuck on the words that had just spewed from his mouth just a few seconds ago. “Would you mind putting an old fella’s mind at ease and walk his daughter home safely?” he asked as if he was reading my thoughts.
“Yes, no problem,” I replied without hesitation.
“But first...” He held up a bottle of Jameson then filled two shot glasses with the light-gold-colored liquid. He held up his glass to mine, and it didn’t take long before the familiar burn coated my throat. I shook my head when he went to give me a refill. “We’ve got to toughen you up,” he teased, pouring himself another and throwing it back. “When you bring my daughter home safely, maybe you’ll be up for another.”
“Maybe.” I laughed it off. He rattled off the address of the boutique and gave me directions to get there. It seemed pretty straightforward, a five-minute walk at most. Still, with not being very familiar with the city, I punched the address into the GPS on my phone just in case. The woman’s voice of my GPS played through the speaker of my phone, and I paused for a moment. It was eerily familiar. Not because she was speaking the language I’d been most accustomed to my entire life. One that I hadn’t spoken since I had come to the States, other than my playful text with Emmeline earlier. It was because she sounded just like one of the two people in my life I wanted to forget. One who I despised with every fiber of my being for not only betraying me, but for breaking a bond I thought to be indestructible.
My face became heated just thinking about it, but at the same time, I couldn’t deny the dull ache in my heart at the thought of her…the thought of the whole fucked-up situation. Unable to listen to it anymore, I reached into my pocket and turned down the volume on my phone. The directions Emmeline’s father gave would have to do. When I turned the corner and saw the purple awning Emmeline’s father had included in his directions, I knew I had found it. Stopping a few feet from the entrance, I pondered in my head what to say to her. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you? I’ve been on a wild goose chase trying to track you down for the past hour? I felt this undeniable need to see you? Unless I wanted to sound like a total stalker, I knew those weren’t the right things to say. What was it about her that made me question myself? I was never nervous when it came to women. In fact, it was always the opposite, but she was so different, in ways I couldn’t even explain to myself.
I stood in the doorway, and a smile instantly formed on my face as I looked at her through the glass. Just one small glimpse, and I had already forgotten about that dreadful voice from the GPS and the woman it reminded me of so much. Her back was to me as she meticulously wrapped and unwrapped a silk scarf around a mannequin-type display. She stood back and tilted her head to the side, seemingly not satisfied with the look she created, and took the scarf off once again. I used the opportunity of her being so deep in thought to check her out from head to toe. As she flung her long, loose waves to one side, exposing the skin on her left shoulder, I felt a twinge of excitement course through my body. The long floral sundress she was wearing hugged her body and the higher-than-normal heel on her sandals gave her short stature a little more height than usual. After standing there for a few moments getting caught up in her, I pulled the door handle and walked inside.
“I liked it better with the scarf.”
She startled, turning my way with the most beautiful smile. “Lukas, what are you…how did you know I was here?”
I placed my hands in my pants pockets and inched closer to her. “Your father.”
“My father?”
“You said you were working, so I just assumed—”
“Oh, you assumed…I thought I was the only one who did that?” Her eyes twinkled with amusement.
“Well…my assumptions are a little different than yours.”
“Really? That’s the best you ca
n come up with?”
She was such a smart-ass, but that was one of the things I found so appealing about her. That and quite a few other things. “So, who decapitated your display and removed its limbs?” I pointed to the headless, legless, and armless mannequin she’d been doting on.
“Oh, this!” She grinned. “She’s just a bust display. Used more for accessories. You know, scarfs, necklaces, and stuff like that. That’s the kind of thing I used to do in my former life. Accessorize.”
I looked around the store at the other displays. Each one unique, with its own effortless style like something you’d see on the front page of a fashion magazine. “Did you put all of these together?”
She nodded and let out a regretful sigh. “I did.”
“I don’t understand. Why was it a former life? You’re obviously really good at what you do.”
Her eyes widened over my compliment. “Thanks. But, it’s…it’s…” She shook her head and brushed it off. “So let me guess, my father fed you the rape story to come and get me.” She changed the subject completely. Obviously, it was a subject that made her uncomfortable. Little did she know, I loved getting people out of their comfort zone. Judging by her work, filling that store that was no bigger than my bedroom back at home, she was wasting her talent.
I nodded.
“Well, I fell for it too, when he wanted me to refuse to close up here by myself. Contrary to what he may have told you, to the best of my knowledge there hasn’t been anyone raped in this area in the past year or ever for that matter.”
“But there’s always a first time…no?”
She crinkled her nose and shrugged her shoulders.
“He’s right. You shouldn’t be leaving this place by yourself.”
She pointed to the window. “Hello…in case you haven’t noticed. It’s still daylight outside. That’s what happens in the spring and summer here. It stays light until well after I close up shop here.” She smirked.
“And in the winter? Or do you not work then?”
“Well—”
“And you’re ignorant in assuming those things only happen in the dark.”
“Wow!” She shook her head. “So, every woman should walk around in fear if she doesn’t have a man by her side because there may be some psychopath rapist hiding around every corner? And, I suppose some might say the same about leaving a bar with a stranger and going back to his hotel room?” She inched closer, adjusted my tie, then stood on her tippy-toes, skimming my cheek with her lips. “As you can see, since I’m standing here alive and well, talking to that once stranger, I refuse to live my life that way,” she whispered in my ear then backed away, awakening something inside of me, that same something that always came alive whenever she was near. She crossed to the other side of the store, and I stood in place, never taking my eyes from her. “So, if you came just to visit then great.” Raising an eyebrow, she paused for a beat. I watched as she took the money from the cash register and placed it in a plastic banking bag. “If you came to rescue a damsel in distress”—sealing up the bag and moving from behind the counter, she stopped when she was almost toe to toe with me—“you got the wrong girl.” Her eyes danced with emotion as she stared up at me awaiting my reply, and suddenly I was back in that lavender field once again.
Chapter 13
Emme
LUKAS AND I had been seeing each other almost every night in the week and a half that passed. The nights that we didn’t, I’d know why after being given a play-by-play from my sister. She still wasn’t warming up to him, and the few times he’d speak about work and mention the woman…a.k.a. Bridgette, I gathered his feelings to be mutual. I hated knowing he was talking about my sister, and I had to remain mute. I hated more that some of the stuff he said about her made sense, and I actually found myself siding with him.
There was no doubt we were getting closer, allowing each other into another layer of our lives, something I promised wasn’t going to happen. The sex was good. That was a lie. It was better than good…it was great. But beyond the physical attraction I had for him, something else was happening, that same something I promised to myself and Bridgette wouldn’t happen. I found myself enjoying his company, longing to hear his voice, and even finding his sarcasm endearing. I especially loved the soft spot he had for my father, and judging by my father’s interactions with him, I surmised he was feeling the same way. This wasn’t part of the plan. Not at all. But everything about it all seemed so effortless and natural. Maybe things would be moving too fast under normal circumstances, but it wasn’t like I had much time with him anyway. Once he made his decision he would be history, and we would be over. It was a thought that saddened me more and more each time I was with him.
I found myself finally crawling out of the hibernation I had been in for the past year. I was enjoying myself once again, going places I hadn’t been in a while. Places I had sworn off after frequenting them with my ex because I was afraid they’d bring back too many memories. Turns out all those places I’d been avoiding didn’t bring back memories at all, making me wonder how I could’ve been so foolish for dodging them for so long. I had spent the last eleven months eating subpar Chinese food because I was afraid to go to my favorite Chinese restaurant that I would frequent all the time for fear of running into my two exes—boyfriend and best friend. When I finally said, “screw it” and Lukas and I went there for dinner, I became well aware of my own stupidity for staying away so long after that first delicious spoonful of hot and sour soup slid down my throat.
After my breakup I had told myself I hated baseball. Why? Because David, my ex, loved it. When the truth was, I loved it too, long before David had come into my life. The only difference was when I was with him, I had to watch the Mets play because they were his favorite team. He would never bend and go to a Yankees game with me, and the minute he’d see a Yankees game on television he’d immediately change the channel, not caring that I wanted to watch. So, when I was able to score two tickets right behind home plate to a Yankees game from one of the customers at the bar at a fairly reasonable price, I grabbed them. Truth was, I didn’t care how much they’d cost. I wanted to do something special for Lukas by acquainting him with baseball while I rekindled my love for it. Lukas was helping me let go of memories I wanted to forget by creating new ones with him, and I wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing.
I was beyond excited when he invited me to dinner with him while he met up with a client. It had been way too long since I had gotten dressed up and felt good about myself, and tonight I was feeling extra special. My best friend, Alison, who was a stylist at one of the top salons in the city, did my hair, and I had done a surprisingly good job on my makeup. I was pleasantly surprised when I looked in the mirror after stepping into the periwinkle blue romper I’d been dying to have an excuse to wear the moment Myra had FaceTimed me with it from Italy. Taking a deep breath, I could feel my nerves getting the best of me when I reached the bottom of the steps and stood in the hallway before entering the bar area. My palms were sweating and my self-doubt was creeping in big-time. What if he didn’t like the way I looked? He never really saw me with a full face of makeup. What if it was too much? Maybe I shouldn’t have wasted two hours at Alison’s salon and just did my hair on my own. Maybe this was all too much. Did it look like I was trying too hard? Stop it, Emme! My inner voice spoke, leading me forward where Lukas was waiting for me, laughing over something my father had just said.
“Well, well, look at this beauty queen!” Jacklyn announced once I found the courage to take a few steps forward. She turned her head in Lukas’ direction to gauge his reaction, and I did the same. His eyes lit up even from across the room, and it was in that moment that I knew our relationship had evolved to the next level. The way he looked at me said it all. I’d never felt that sense of contentment from any other man, not even the one I thought I’d spend forever with. I moved closer and welcomed his sweeping glance over my body.
“Is this okay?” I asked.
He nodded. “Better than okay,” he whispered. “You look beautiful.”
The tips of my lashes moistened, not over the meaning of his words, but the sincerity of them. It was as if he was lost in his own little world, one in which I only existed, one I wanted to escape to with only him.
“Aren’t your legs going to be a little cold in that?” Leave it to my dad to break up the moment with his passive-aggressive way of letting me know he thought my outfit was too short for his liking.
“Nope, my legs will be just fine.” I leaned over the bar and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Don’t forget to take your medicine. It’s in the pillbox on the kitchen counter.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah…” He waved his hand in a dismissing manner. “Now, you two get out of here and have a grand time.” Lukas stood up, took my hand in his, and we headed toward the door. “Emmeline!” my father called. I turned around to the brightest smile plastered across his face. One I hadn’t seen since before my mother had passed. “You look gorgeous, honey.”
Thank you. I mouthed the words to him and blew him a kiss.
We stepped outside and Lukas pulled me into him. Pressing his lips into mine and ignoring the passersby, I eagerly kissed him back.
“Thank you for agreeing to come with me tonight.” His tone was low and hoarse.
“Thank you for inviting me.” I stood on my tippy-toes and planted a kiss on his cheek as the little voice deep inside me told me this was going to be one of the best nights ever.
________________
That little voice deep inside me was a big fat liar. When did I come to that realization? When I saw my sister getting out of the taxi just as we were about to enter the restaurant. Our eyes locked, and I was certain she was battling with the same bout of nausea I was at that moment. She pushed her husband back into the cab, more than likely giving him a two-second lowdown of our ridiculous plan. I paced my breaths, wondering if I could go through with this farce.