Star Bright

by Christina OW

  “And...” he answered quietly in the receiver. He pushed her jet black hair back and over her other shoulder exposing more of her neck. It looked so tempting to him, but that little desire was cut short when he saw other scars on her hair line and behind her ear. There was one that was partialy exposed by the gap her flannel, button down, white shirt made at the back. It was further down her shoulder and it had a crescent shape to it.

  He felt his rage build inside him, he was sure she had more scars and wondered how long she had tactfully hidden them. He now understood why she dressed in what can be considered conservative for her generation and why she had her hair styled in certain ways, she was hiding the scars.

  Maria noticed how quiet and stiff Dave had gotten. She looked up at him and met his sad blue eyes. She wondered what ludicrous demands Amy was making, all she hoped for was that it didn’t involve Izzy. She put a hand around his waist and ran her thumb along his chin worried that it was about Izzy.

  Dave saw that as an open invitation to get a little cuddly, he was going to get very little opportunities to be loving with her and he was going to make the most of each time. He held her closer to him, then leaned down and kissed her forehead, then turned his attention back to the phone, “That’s never going to happen, she doesn’t even know the meaning of the word mother. Which law school did you go to that taught you divorces can be appealed and renegotiated?”

  Maria laughed, remembering the argument she had with Amy. Proud of how long she had calmly been in his embrace, she pulled away and went to the table to lay out their lunch. She placed the two kids at the table and waited for Dave to get off the phone.

  “You are wasting both our time. Tell her to take the car to the usual garage.” He hung up and dialed again, “Carol, get Amy’s car fixed and the Prado, then call the dealer and ask him to bring the car today.” He hung up and walked to the table with a wide grin, “Sorry about that.” He apologized, taking the seat opposite Maria.

  Playing with her food, “I think I should be the one apologizing, you had to take care of my mess.”

  “She just wanted to annoy me. So are you going to tell me about it?” Taking a bite of his food.

  “She parked right behind me and I almost ran her over. When I got out to see what she wanted, she called me your new toy.”

  “What?” Dave said laughing.

  “She said you gave me your old toy to play with so I must have been your new toy.”

  “Is that why you wanted to run her over?”

  “No. She wanted Izzy and I wouldn’t let her go near her, then she moved her car to completely block me in.”

  “That’s when mama hit her car.” Michael added with his mouth full, “It was awesome!”

  “I bet it was.” Dave said with a chuckle, “Don’t worry about it, the car will be fixed by the end of the day. So what do you think of her?”

  “You were on the mark with her. She managed to annoy me, and tried to put me down a couple of times.” she giggled, “It was nice standing up to someone for once.”

  Dave looked at her, imagining how much she must have cowered away with Ricky, “You should always do that, no matter what. It draws a line that people will think twice about crossing.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” She knew no one dared to cross his line, all she could hope for is that she could be as strong as he was, “So you are getting a new car?” She thought he was joking when he was on the phone with Amy’s lawyer, but he had just asked Carol to call the dealer.

  “Yes.” he said eating some more, “I don’t want to keep taking a cab and under no circumstances do I want Todd to know where we live and when Miguel starts school you’ll need it more.”

  “I’ll pay for the damages on your old toy.”

  “No you won’t, there is a reason I have insurance.”

  “But...”

  “We’ll take Miguel to school tomorrow morning together.” he said cutting her off. He didn’t want to have another fight over money, he knew why she did that, she wanted to make sure she didn’t owe him just in case she had to run again or he wants to collect. Dave was doing this for her because he wanted to and now, he felt selfish enough to tie her to him as much as he could. He wanted her to stop running, to live her life fear free with him.

  “Yes!” Michael shouted.

  “Why? Don’t you have work?” Maria asked, annoyed at how he had cut her off and changed the subject.

  He looked at Michael glad to see his wide saucy smile, “I do, but I want to speak to the principal and make sure he settles in alright.”

  “Talk to him about what?” Maria asked worriedly. She still didn’t know how Dave had enrolled Michael without her identification papers, he must have used his own.

  “Don’t worry, I just want to make sure they’ll take proper care of him.” Dave looked up to meet her worried face, “You need to quit worrying so much, let me do that.”

  “You can’t keep taking care of us, we aren’t you’re family.” Maria said with a hushed voice.

  “Yes you are. Families live together, and they do stuff together like we do.” Michael said authoritatively. The grin was gone and his face creased sternly, “Mama, we finally have a family, the only ones missing is our grandmas and grandpas.”

  Maria looked at him, the guilt riding her hard. She realized one other thing she had denied him for years, now he had a taste of it and it would be hard for him to let go when the time came.

  “Your mama knows that, she’s just making sure of it.” Dave reassured Michael. He looked at Maria and saw the tears in her eyes as she stared at her son. He turned back to Michael, “Someone’s turning five soon, how about a party?”

  “What?” Maria asked stunned, blinking away the tears.

  “Yes! I can invite the new friends I make at school.” Michael cheered, bouncing in his chair.

  “And your grandparents.” he kept his focus on Michael, ignoring the lethal eyes he was sure Maria was giving him. It was time for them to stop hiding and this was the first step, “And we’ll have a double birthday party because Izzy is turning two the same month.”

  “Yeah!” Michael yelled excitedly, giving Dave a high five, “I’ll go call grandma now!” He jumped off the chair and ran for Dave’s desk.

  “Dave...” Maria hissed out, standing up. She might have been a sitting duck in jail, but a birthday party was like a huge arrow pointing to where they were. What made her mad was how he had taken control of her and Michael’s life.

  Dave stood up, he looked at her amused, it was the second time he was seeing her angry and she looked beautiful, “Buddy, why don’t you make that call at Carol’s desk, take Izzy with you and call her grandparents too.”

  “Okay.” Michael ran back to the table and helped Izzy down, then he took her hand and led her out the office. The second the door closed Maria blew up.

  “What the hell do you think you are doing?” Dave crossed his arms over his chest and gave her an amused stare, “Would you stop looking at me like that and answer me?” She moved and stood in front of him.

  Dave moved to his desk and sat on it, “He’s turning five, it’s a big number for a kid.”

  “He isn’t a kid and I don’t want it!”

  “I noticed that, it’s the reason he’s having a party. And you do want it, you’re just scared.” He said seriously.

  Maria ignored his last comment. Statements like those made her think he knew more about her than she thought, “Why do you do that? Cut me off when we argue and make decisions for my child!”

  “Because we argue about money and you make decisions for my kid, why shouldn’t I get a turn?”

  “Get a turn? He isn’t a toy we each get a turn to play with.”

  “Really? It feels like we’re playing ping pong, but I always win.” He spoke coolly, his lips curved up.

  “I’m done with people telling me what to do, I’m not going back to that Dave. It’s my kid, my life, my decision!” Maria yelled, she could feel
her body shake with emotion. She’d never yelled like that at anyone, especially for something as small as this, it had been years since she’d even raised her voice and it felt relieving to her.

  Dave watched her without saying a word, he didn’t want to step on her toes or make her feel forced to be submissive, she’d spent years doing that and he didn’t want that for her anymore, “Okay, what do you want to do?”

  Maria gave him a slit look, “Don’t patronize me.”

  “I’m not. What do you want?”

  She looked at him and tried to come up with something, but it was useless. She didn’t have anything to complain about, she just felt good being the one yelling and not being yelled at for a change. She moved and sat next to him on the desk, “When’s Izzy’s birthday?”

  Dave chuckled, “The twenty-first of October.”

  “We can have it on the nineteenth, it’s in the middle of the two.”

  “Anything you say.” Dave said biting his lips together to keep from laughing.

  Maria looked at him and couldn’t help but smile. She punched him lightly on his shoulder and looped her arm with his, “Who knew fighting could be so much fun.”

  “Actually, you did the yelling and I just watched your green eyes spark and your face light up, but I’m glad you had fun.”

  “It’s different from what I’m used to...so...” Maria spoke, trying to find the right words that were the complete opposite of scary, painful, sadistic and antagonistic.

  “Relieving.” He didn’t want to think of how her fights with Ricky ended. He pulled her closer and kissed her forehead, “Miguel will be glad you have approved our little family unit.”

  “Michael.” she whispered, her voice shaky. It was time he knew the truth, well some of it, “His middle name is Miguel, but his first name is Michael.” she swallowed the lump in her throat then lifted her head to meet Dave’s gaze, “His name is Michael Miguel Martinez.” She was glad when her hair fell over her face covering it, partially hiding her, but what she really wanted was to hide in his closet.

  Dave looked at her, he saw how difficult it was for her to tell him that, but it meant she trusted him. He kept quiet, trying not to give the indication that he already knew the truth, her whole background right up to her grandparents.

  Maria waited for him to say something, to rebuke her or accuse her, but he just looked at her with his smiley warm face that made her feel so secure and safe when she knew she wasn’t. She could feel hot tears run down her cheeks. He reached up and wiped them away with his finger then pushed her hair back behind her ear, “My mother named him Miguel, which I didn’t want at first, but I let her. I named him Michael because I loved the name.”

  “It’s a very cool name.” Dave added.

  “My high school crush was named Michael.” she laughed nervously, “but that was before I met Ricky.” She felt her throat dry out when she said his name. The fear of him coming after her was still there, haunting her every second of the day.

  Dave pulled her off the desk and led her to the couch. He didn’t want to talk about Ricky, that part of her life was dead and gone, what he wanted, was to talk about the part of her life that didn’t scare her. “Who’s Miguel?”

  “My absentee father. I’ve never met him, but my mother loves him still to this date. Michael idolizes him, just like I did when I was young.” She sneered and Dave didn’t miss that.

  “What line of work was he in?” Dave already knew the answer to that question, but he wanted to know if she knew.

  “Mama spoke about him like some Robin Hood hero, but he is really a criminal. I should have you hunt him down as revenge.” Maria always felt if her father was around then she would have had someone to defend her, as much as her problems were her fault, she blamed Miguel for not being there to solve them, like a father should.

  Dave stroked her hair back and moved closer to her, “I will if it would make you really happy, but I highly doubt that. It’s just not you.”

  “How do you know that? I’ve been lying to you for months now?”

  “Your identity yes, but not who you really are. You are caring, very nurturing and a woman any man would be lucky to have. Whoever doesn’t see that, it’s their loss and my gain.”

  Maria looked at him, there was something about his cool and collected manner she didn’t like. She laughed out of annoyance more than amusement, how she could be so slow. She knew him pretty well too.

  “Share the joke.”

  “I bet you already knew all this. You are the most paranoid parent I know, you have the resources and the ability to dig up information on anyone. I bet you do that with everyone before you let them a hundred feet near Izzy, am I right?”

  Dave looked at her, his expression unchanged, “Yes and no. I know what’s in public record... Maria.”

  She stood up and paced the room, “How long have you known?”

  “Just an hour.” he answered coolly, his eyes fixed on her.

  “What else do you know?” She stood still and looked at him, she felt the shame creep up on her. She wouldn’t be able to look him in the eyes again if he knew about Ricky.

  “Your mother’s name and where you went to High School.” He kept the rest to himself. He didn’t want her to know how much of her life he had intruded on.

  Just then the door flew open and Amy rushed in, her face red with anger. Michael and Carol came up behind her. Dave looked at the three of them, but Michael’s scared face pulled at him more. He stood up and pulled Maria behind him, Michael’s face relaxed a bit. Maria wasn’t afraid of Amy and she didn’t need Dave to protect her, but when she saw the familiar look on Michael’s face she understood it. It was more for Michael’s benefit than her own.

  Maria moved to stand next to Dave, asserting herself, “Carol take the kids out for ice cream, one scoop each.” She said with a smile.

  “Don’t take my daughter anywhere!” Amy barked, startling Michael.

  “Carol, do as Maria says.” Dave said in a low stern voice. Carol nodded and pulled the reluctant boy out of the office before she closed the door, “What are you doing here? I thought I finished up with your lawyer?”

  “I’m not some dog you can dismiss. That witch almost killed the mother of your child and you are here cozy with her!” She yelled, moving closer to Maria.

  “Is she always this hysterical?” Maria asked Dave, stepping closer to Amy.

  “No cat fight ladies.” Dave said, stepping in between them, “Amy, what I do with her is none of your business, now leave my office.”

  “No! We’ve been divorced barely a month and you’ve already replaced me in yours and Elizabeth’s life?”

  “It’s more like an upgrade than a replacement.” Dave said candidly, “And it’s been over three months.” Maria smiled when Amy’s face reddened in fury, she felt disappointed that her head wouldn’t blow up like in the cartoons.

  “So you plan on marrying this maid, and adopting her little bastard!”

  “Hey!” Maria yelled, going for her. Dave pulled her back and locked her at his side, her small frame fitting perfectly in the curve his arm made around her.

  “Most probably yes, but that doesn’t concern you the least bit. We got a divorce and there were strict terms to it, you stay out of mine and Elizabeth’s life and I stay out of yours.”

  “I don’t want that anymore.” she pleaded, her voice low and gentle. Maria gave her an incredulous look, amazed at how she changed colors so fast, “I want you back Dave.” She stroked his chest tenderly with the tips of her fingers.

  “You do see me standing here?” Maria asked. She had never laid claim to Dave, but Amy’s attempt of seduction was making her jealous and it annoyed the hell out of her.

  “And so?” Amy gave her a cold gaze before she turned to Dave with a gentler look, “What do you say darling?”

  Dave was still mesmerized by Maria’s implied claim on him. He liked this possessive, aggressive side of her. It had been making its way out s
lowly, it was new to her and he was glad he was there to see her come out of her shell, “Amy, you do remember your way out?” he said with a chuckle.

  “If you want me to leave you are going to have to give me more money.” Amy sat on the seat close to his desk.

  Dave smiled. The reason for Amy crawling out of her hole after so long, revealed, “You’ve blown all that money already?”

  “Yes, what else am I supposed to do with my time?”

  “Get a job, find a sensible hobby that doesn’t involve high school boys, and make some meaning out of your useless life.” Maria answered her.

  “How much do you want?” Dave asked Amy before she retaliated against Maria.

  “You can’t be serious? She’s going to be a constant pain if you start that now.” Maria spoke up to Dave. She wasn’t trying to tell him how to run his life, but she knew exactly what type of leech Amy was.

  “No one asked for your opinion!” Amy shouted, shooting up from the seat.

  “Make her sign a contract before you give her anything. Make sure this is the last time we set eyes on her.” Maria added with a smile. She cared too much about Dave to let Amy be a constant annoyance in his life.

  Dave looked at Maria, amazed at how she handled the situation. She was no longer the girl who curled up on the floor when she thought her son had disappeared, she wasn’t retracting into her shell just because a voice was raised, and she was fighting back. “Tell your lawyer to call me.”

  “What?” Amy asked shocked.

  “Please leave, Maria and I are going out. You’ll have your car by the end of the day.” He walked to Amy and escorted her out of his office, and then he went back to Maria and took her hand in his.

  “Where are we going?” She asked following him out.

  “For a long overdue third date.” He closed the door behind him keeping Maria’s hand in his.