The Fix-It Man

by Donald Wells

  “Do you love me Felicia? You never say it.”

  “My father said that word to my mother every time he beat her. I told myself a long time ago that I would show love, not say it.” She took hold of me and kissed me. “Take me back to your motel room. I want to be alone with you. I want to be alone with you and forget that we’ll soon be apart.”

  I had ridden the Harley this time, and as we prepared to ride away, David stepped in front of the bike, standing beside him was a guy with curly red hair worn like an afro; he stood only about five-four and was flabby, with a pasty, freckled face. Like Thorne, I took an instant dislike to him. There was an aura of disdain to his demeanor.

  “Where are you two going?” David asked.

  I revved the engine on the bike. “None of your damn business,”

  The other guy spoke up. “Is this the white trash boyfriend David?”

  Thorne smirked. “For now Jerry, just for now, Felicia, you know Sophie doesn’t like it when you take off and don’t tell her where you’re going.”

  “Johnny and I are just going for a ride.”

  Thorne smiled at her tenderly. “All right, I’ll see you later.”

  Thorne’s friend, Jerry, reached over and grabbed the handlebars of my bike.

  “Tell me something, Johnny is it? How much do you make?”

  “More than I spend,”

  “It’s just that I’ve got a bet going with David here, that I piss away more on tips in a month, than you make in a year.”

  “Generous are we?”

  “No, just filthy rich, I bet I also get more pussy than you. Women love money. Isn’t that right, Felicia?”

  I turned off the bike, jammed down the kickstand and stood before Jerry. His eyes grew wide as he tilted his head back to take me in.

  “I smell the liquor on you, so I’ll just warn you first. Go play your games somewhere else. I am not in the mood.”

  Thorne pushed Jerry toward a customized black van that had chrome spinner hubcaps. “Go on and wait for me in your van Jerry.” Thorne said, and then he smiled at me. “I apologize for Jerry; sometimes he’s a little crude.”

  Felicia took my hand. “Let’s go Johnny.”

  Before I got back on the bike, David gestured me aside to talk.

  “Did Felicia tell you about our California trip?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s going to be so much fun. I can’t wait to show her the beaches, but it’ll be just the two of us then, Sophie hates the sand. I suppose I’ll keep Felicia amused somehow. But, I don’t want to keep you, go off and have fun with her, enjoy it while it last.”

  “It’ll last for the rest of our lives.”

  He gave me a condescending grin. “Of course it will,”

  I fought the urge to punch him in his supercilious face, and then I got back on the bike and took Felicia away from there.

  * * *

  Three months later, as I was closing up the garage, I had a visitor, David Thorne.

  He walked in just as I was cleaning my hands and looked around in distaste.

  “I don’t know how you can work in this grease pit all day.”

  “Tell me something Thorne, what exactly is it you do all day? That is, when you’re not trying to seduce my girlfriend.”

  “I manage my family’s wealth. My great-grandfather grew wealthy in the demolition business. I still own an interest in the company, but my father shifted most of our assets into real estate before I was born. I’m worth over eighty million dollars.”

  “And managing money, that takes all day?”

  “Hardly, I also dabble in the theater, financially speaking, I’ve backed a number of off Broadway shows. Artistic types are so much more interesting than you blue collars.”

  “Why the hell are you here?”

  “We need to talk.” He said.

  “There’s a bar down the street, we can walk there.”

  We walked the short trek in silence. When we entered the bar, nearly everyone greeted me and we settled in a back booth.

  “You seem very popular.” Thorne said.

  “Felicia’s father was sort of the town bully, when I beat him; I became kind of a local hero.”

  “Small fish, small pond,” He said.

  “Did you come here to insult me?”

  “No, in fact I have an offer for you.”

  Our drinks came, a coke for me and a club soda for Thorne, we grew silent until the waitress left.

  “What’s this about an offer?”

  “One hundred thousand dollars, one hundred thousand and all you have to do is break up with Felicia.”

  “I’d sooner hack off my feet with a rusty saw.”

  “I want her Faron. Take a good look at me. I’m every woman’s wet dream. I’m rich, young and handsome, how much longer do you think she’ll be able to resist me? Take the money, you’ll only be profiting from the inevitable. You two will break up and I’ll have Felicia.”

  I took a long, deep breath and slowly released it, keeping my anger in check.

  “If you’re every woman’s dream, then why do you want Felicia? If you can have any woman, then, why this one?”

  “Haven’t you noticed?”

  “What?”

  “Her submissiveness, her pliability, she comes from a home where her father was such a dominant figure, that she learned to keep a low profile and go along to get along as they say. Sophie tells her to do something and she does it, it will be the same way in her marriage. I want a wife like that. I need a wife like that.”

  As David spoke, I felt my skin crawl. Despite his shiny exterior there were some dark and creepy things flowing beneath the surface.

  I leaned closer. “I have an offer for you.”

  He laughed. “What could you possibly have to offer me? I’m worth a thousand of you.”

  I said, “Your life.” as I felt a coldness seep to the surface, that I didn’t know I possessed.

  “My life? Let me guess, if I ever hurt Felicia you’ll kill me, blah blah, etc, etc.”

  “Yes, I will kill you.” I said. And I meant every syllable of it.

  He smiled at me as a conspiratorial demeanor came over him, he then leaned closer and his voice dropped to a whisper.

  “Have you ever really killed anyone?”

  “You would be my first.”

  Thorne straightened in his seat again.

  “I’m not going to hurt Felicia. I’m not some brute like her father. I just value submissiveness in a woman; it’s such a rare trait these days.”

  “Stay away from her!”

  “A quarter of a million dollars, Faron, let her go and I’ll give you a quarter of a million dollars.”

  “Thorne, there’s not enough money on God’s green earth to make me—”

  “One million then, a million fucking dollars, all yours,”

  I stared across the booth at him and realized he was serious. He was willing to give me a million dollars to break up with Felicia. I fell back in my seat, stunned.

  “Oh my God, you really do love her.”

  Thorne looked distressed by the very idea.

  “I don’t love her. However, I do want her, and I want all of her. That won’t happen as long as you’re in the picture.”

  “Thorne, David, Felicia and I are in love. If you really care about her, you’ll back off and leave her be.”

  “A million dollars Faron, take it or leave it.”

  “Go fuck yourself Thorne.”

  He grinned, while looking at me as if I were something he once flushed.

  “I’m not going to fuck myself; I’m going to fuck Felicia. Count on it. Sooner or later I’m going to fuck her senseless and make her forget all about you, you pathetic, grease-coated, loser.”

  I lost it then. I plucked him from his seat like so much garbage and dragged him outside to the curb, where I began hitting him. I wanted to fight him. Not with psychological games about Felicia’s wounded psych or in the arena of wealth, where I wa
s sorely lacking; but to defeat him on a level I could understand and on which I had rarely been bested. But the son of a bitch wouldn’t fight back, would not even raise his hands to defend himself. I struck him twice and then screamed at him, as he lay on the ground.

  “Get up! Get up and fight.”

  He smiled at me through a bloody lip. He then turned his head and spoke to his friend Jerry, who was standing under a streetlight, a camera phone in his hand.

  “Did you get it?”

  “Hell yeah,” Jerry said. “I caught the entire assault on video, right from the moment he yanked you out of the booth. I guess he didn’t want the hundred thou, huh?”

  I stood there with my mouth agape. The bastard had set me up. And now, not just the other bar patrons, but the entire street was watching us.

  “Hey Faron,” Thorne called to me. “What are the odds that Sophie will let you see Felicia after this?”

  Bill soon appeared with two other cops and asked me what happened.

  “He baited me over Felicia and I fell for it, that’s what happened.”

  “Did he strike you John?”

  “No, it was all me, he provoked me, but it was all me.”

  Bill looked at me, a sick expression on his face. “John…”

  “I know, I’m under arrest,”

  18

  I was booked on an assault charge and bailed out by my grandfather. The charge was serious, and with filmed evidence, irrefutable.

  I never saw the inside of a jail cell, but instead, spent my time in custody in Bill’s office talking to Felicia on the phone, trying to explain.

  Thorne had called Sophie first, telling her his version of the story. As we talked, I could tell that Felicia was crying, although she tried to hide it.

  “Aunt Sophie wants me to never see you again; she says that you’re too much like my father.”

  “But you know better than that, don’t you?”

  “Of course, and don’t worry, I’m trying to calm her down, just let me work on her.”

  “I’m so sorry. Thorne baited me and I went for it. He wants you Felicia; he wants you and he’s not going to stop pursuing you.”

  “I can’t believe he drove all the way there to see you.”

  “He offered me money to break up with you.”

  “Really?”

  “You sound flattered.”

  “I’m not, it’s just that girls practically faint when they see him and he’s so interested in me, it’s… I don’t know…”

  “It’s sick is what it is. He says he wants you because he thinks you’ll be a submissive wife.”

  “He said that? What does that mean?”

  “That you’ll do what he wants, whenever he wants it.”

  “That sounds like my mother, but Johnny you’re wrong, he must mean something else. David would never hit me. He wouldn’t even defend himself against you.”

  “Baby, I’m not wrong, please, there’s something off about him, stay away from him.”

  “That’s a little hard to do; we live in the same house.”

  * * *

  Three days later, I received my second unexpected visitor of the week, Tori Jameson.

  She walked into the fix-it shop and gazed around.

  “This place is absolutely awful, wall to wall crap.”

  She was wearing a gray business suit that somehow accentuated her curves instead of concealing them, her perfume smelled luxurious and she looked even better than I remembered.

  “What brings you here?” I asked.

  “You do. You need legal help. I’m volunteering.”

  “Why?”

  She walked over and inspected me.

  “This is the first time I’ve seen you without bruises. Nice, but then, I liked what I saw last time too.”

  “What are you doing here Tori, really?”

  “A peace offering, I think we got off to a bad start.”

  I grinned at her. “Am I really the first man to say no?”

  “What do you think?”

  “I think I’ll decline this offer too. I think it comes with a catch.”

  “Let me help you. I saw that video on the Internet and you really do need legal help. You’re facing possible jail time.”

  “I have a lawyer.”

  “Who, some local yokel? Thorne’s lawyer will eat him up. This is Pennsylvania; my family has practiced law in this state for six generations. With my help, you’ll never see a day in jail.”

  I thought it over and she was right. “Thank you, I accept.”

  “By the way, your girlfriend never called me again, what’s the status with her sister’s case?”

  “Mona just disappeared; no one has seen her in nearly a year.”

  Tori moved closer. “You should know, I don’t work cheap,”

  “So, what’s this going to set me back?”

  “Dinner, no wait, ten dinners, payable when I say so,”

  I squinted suspiciously at her. “They sound like dates.”

  “Take it or leave it, big boy.”

  * * *

  I took it. And in fact, I paid off dinner number one that night.

  We ate at a local Italian restaurant. After discussing the case, we talked about ourselves.

  Victoria “Tori” Jameson was the youngest child in a brood of seven from her father’s third wife. When she was conceived, her father just happened to be married to his fifth wife, currently he was on number eight. She had twenty-one siblings and half siblings ranging in age from forty-one to sixteen months, she didn’t even know all of their names.

  To make matters even more confusing, all of her uncles and aunts had also been married several times each, and two of her uncles were now married to women that her father had previously married. Her aunts and uncles had combined to produce an additional sixty-eight children.

  “Where do you hold Thanksgiving, in Madison Square Garden?”

  She smiled. “We’re rich John; we have homes bigger than the Garden. But what about you, any brothers or sisters?”

  “I’m an only child of parents who had no siblings. Other than my grandfather, I’m the last of my line.”

  Her eyes flowed over me.

  “You look like a model that should stay in production, are you and The Child planning on having children?”

  “The Child?”

  “Patricia, Melissa, Morticia, whatever her name is.”

  “Her name is Felicia.”

  She sipped her drink. “If you say so,”

  “Hey Tori,”

  “Yes?”

  “Bitchy doesn’t become you, you know?”

  She grew quiet and took another sip of her drink. A moment later, she spoke.

  “How is Ms. Delgado these days, well I hope.”

  “She’s incredible as usual, but there’s a creep after her.”

  “What do you mean?”

  I told her more about my conversation with David Thorne.

  “He really said that, that he wants her because she’s submissive?”

  I nodded. “There’s something bad about him, something rotten. Like there’s a violence lurking under the surface.”

  “But, he didn’t even fight you back.”

  “That’s what scares the hell out of me.”

  “In what way?”

  “Maybe his violence is only directed at women.”

  19

  When all the dust settled from my run-in with David, Felicia had managed to get Sophie to agree to once a month, one day visits, that would take place on the Thorne Estate.

  There would be no concerts or movies, no rides on my motorcycle, no trips to my motel room and, consequently, no sex.

  My first post-fight visit took place on Christmas Day and I endured Sophie’s caustic remarks about my character with silence. Although we were seldom left alone for more than a few minutes, I was still spending the day with the woman I loved and life didn’t get any better.

  A massive snowfall occurred on my next sc
heduled visit in January and shut down the highways. Sophie balked at rescheduling it, and so my next opportunity to spend time with Felicia wasn’t due until tomorrow, on Valentine’s Day.

  Although I talked to her nearly every day by phone, Felicia and I were slowly drifting apart, the conversations were growing shorter and we were finding less to say to each other.

  She rejected my assessment of Thorne being dangerous, saying that I was just jealous of him, but that I had no reason to be, that David was just a friend. I reminded her that the two of us had started as friends.

  On the legal front, Tori had called an uncle who was a friend and former classmate of the judge handling my case, and as a result, I had been given a year’s probation and no jail time.

  She had already used up nine of her ten dinners and number ten was about to take place to celebrate the end of my case.

  It was Friday night and I was seated at the bar in a Cuban restaurant on Walnut Street in Philly, waiting for Tori to arrive.

  I was dressed in my best suit, which is to say, it was the better of the two I owned. Tori had made the reservations and warned me that it would be a little pricey. Pricey was fine, she had kept me out of jail for hitting David, while my first lawyer had predicted that I would be lucky to do only six months.

  Tori appeared wearing a red dress that made me want to found a religion in her name. It was slinky, it was short and it was crafted to reveal. I immediately became aroused, which I assumed had been her intention.

  She knew of my chaperoned visits with Felicia, and had undoubtedly deduced that sex was not a part of them. In fact, Felicia and I had not made love since her seventeenth birthday in September, and after five months with no sex, Tori could have shown up wearing a suit of armor and I would have been stimulated.

  Tori wanted me, yet, whether it was from a genuine interest or because I had once turned her down and was viewed as a challenge, I couldn’t say. This was to be our tenth and final dinner and it appeared that she was going to try for an eleventh.

  I had already decided there would be no more dinners.

  Although I liked Tori a great deal, it was hard to think of her as a friend only. She was just too beautiful a woman not to want to bed, and although I loved Felicia with all my heart, I also knew better than to tempt fate. After all, I was only human.