Keeping Her Love

by Tiger Hill

  He threw his lunch pail into the back, got in, and slammed his door. Taking a moment to gather himself and breathe, he turned the ignition and tried to remain as calm as possible as he drove away.

  No need to make situations worse by causing an accident. I have enough on my plate as it is with the move and Tula’s family.

  When Rhett got off work, he checked out the designated apartment that he had chosen on Craigslist. It wasn’t a bad space—a little old and covered with many layers of paint—but with a little flair, he knew that Tula could probably make it feel like a home. A small home, anyway. Who needed extra room when all they wanted was to be as close as they could to one another all the time?

  Rhett got home at around the same time Tula did that day, due to the fact that she had some errands to run after inspecting the two locations they were thinking of moving into. She was pretty ecstatic about one of the apartments, though it was slightly more pricey than the others. Rhett liked it only because it was the location farthest away from Tula’s family. That was reason enough to settle on the location.

  “So do you want to make it final?” He had asked while they sat on Tula’s bed. “I already have some credit and rental history, so it should take no time for us to get out of here. A week, I’d say.”

  Tula rolled her fingers up and down over the comforter in thought. “Well, do you think this is enough time to look? Should we check out some other places?”

  Rhett shook his head. “If you think it’s a good place, that’s good enough for me. It’s a one year lease?”

  “Yeah. It seemed a nice enough place. I did what you told me and checked all the faucets and cabinets for problems. It didn’t seem like anything was out of order.”

  “Then let’s make this official. We’ll call the landlord and tell him that we want to make an offer.”

  She squealed a little, handing him her phone. “Okay! But I want you to do it. I’ve never done this kind of thing at all. I want to see you do it.”

  Three rapid knocks came against the door and Tula’s father opened it forcefully. He had a smile on his face, which set them a bit at ease, though Rhett never really did get accustomed to him barging in.

  “Hey, kids. Can I speak with you both in the kitchen?”

  Tula and Rhett looked to each other in mild concern.

  “Is there something wrong, Daddy?” Tula asked.

  Mr. Florian rolled his eyes up in thought. “No, not really. Your mom and I just want to talk to you guys. Is that okay?”

  “Okay,” Tula responded, shrugging her shoulders.

  Rhett and Tula got up and followed Mr. Florian to the kitchen. Mrs. Florian was already sitting at the round table with a pot of tea and some treats ready to be consumed. Something seemed a little fishy about all this, and Rhett wanted to ask Tula if this was some kind of bad sign, but there was just nothing to be done about it. Rhett, not caring if it was rude, poured himself some black tea and took a small frosted scone from the tray. The undiscerning eye wouldn’t have been able to pick it up, because on any other woman Mrs. Florian’s expression seemed neutral, but she seemed a tick less cheery than she usually was.

  “So what did you guys want to talk to us about?” Asked Rhett before throwing the scone in his mouth.

  “To start,” said Mrs. Florian, pouring a cup of tea for her husband and then herself, “we’re both concerned about certain plans we’ve heard about lately concerning you two.”

  “Plans?” Asked Tula.

  “Yes,” stated Mrs. Florian. “We’ve been informed that you two were thinking of leaving.”

  Rhett and Tula’s eyes widened.

  “Where did you hear that?” Tula asked.

  “It doesn’t matter where we heard it from,” said Mrs. Florian. “The fact of the matter is that we were informed, and we want to know what the story is. It’s not good to hide things from your parents, Tula. I thought that we raised you better than that.”

  Tula slumped back in her chair, pondering in her head on how her parents could have possibly found out about her and Rhett’s plan. “But we were only talking about it last night. We were alone,” she found herself saying aloud.

  “Tula, that’s not what we’re addressing tonight,” said Mr. Florian snippily.

  Rhett found himself glaring at Tula’s father. He had considered himself a grown man since he graduated mechanics’ school and moved out of his mom’s place. The fact that Tula’s parents were speaking to her as if she were a small child instead of a grown woman irked him in a very primal place. It felt like an extension of the way they were treating him. He didn’t want to say anything, though—he reminded himself that it was better to remain neutral than angry when at all possible.

  “I’m sorry, but it’s just so odd,” responded Tula. “How could you both possibly know?”

  “What we want to know is what your plans are,” interjected Mrs. Florian. “Are you planning to move out or not?”

  “Yes, we’re planning to move out,” Tula responded in a stony tone of voice. “We were planning on telling you both about it. We just haven’t had the time.”

  “That’s not what we were told,” said Mrs. Florian. “Lay—I mean, we were told that you were going to keep it from us until you had already left.”

  “Layla told you?!” Tula found herself exclaiming.

  “Tula, don’t speak to your mother that way!” Shouted Mr. Florian.

  Rhett’s teeth ground as he crossed his muscular arms. He was about ready to bolt with Tula in hand if they spoke down to his fiancée another time.

  “Look, Mr. and Mrs. Florian,” started Rhett in as calmly a voice as he could muster, “we didn’t mean to offend anyone, and we certainly didn’t want to start drama over this. If we upset you in any form in the way that we went about this, we’re sorry. The fact of the matter is that Tula and I wanted to stretch our wings together a little early. It’s been a stressful time, and we just need a little space.”

  Mrs. Florian’s eyes spread to the size of saucers and her complexion turned a shade redder. Mr. Florian didn’t look much more amused.

  “This is out of the question!” Mrs. Florian announced. “I cannot have my daughter living in sin with you, however pleasant a man you are. No, this is not the right way to go about it. We’ve been kind enough to let you into our home granted that you remained a gentleman while under our roof. This moving out business… No, I won’t have it.”

  Not knowing quite how to handle the situation, Tula and Rhett kept silent. To openly oppose Mr. and Mrs. Florian seemed like a step too far. Rhett didn’t want to become hated by the entire extended family via the grapevine because he spoke out about wanting to ‘live in sin,’ but he also didn’t want to get steamrolled by a couple of Bible thumpers.

  Are they aware that Tula and I have been banging since about the time we started calling ourselves boyfriend and girlfriend? He thought. Tula must be keeping the wool over their eyes. She’s sweet enough, so it probably wasn’t difficult. God, this whole idea of moving in was such a terrible idea. Nothing but problems since I got here. Tula’s parents are impossible. It’s like being in a gang—once you’re in, you don’t really get out. Should I just move out without Tula? No, that doesn’t seem like a good idea. It doesn’t send a positive message.

  “Can you give us some time to discuss this?” Asked Rhett. “I respect you both as Tula’s parents, but we are adults. I hope that you two can treat us as such.”

  Mrs. Florian was about to open her mouth in the middle of Rhett’s comments, but stopped after the last sentence.

  “There’s nothing you two can say to change our minds,” said Mr. Florian. “We don’t believe in unmarried people cohabiting, however well-meaning their intentions.”

  Rhett nodded politely, pushing away from the table to leave. Tula followed his cue, not saying a word more to her parents. Something felt very cold about the whole exchange, and deep down, Rhett felt that he’d crossed a sacred line with Tula’s parents. Perhaps not some
thing heinous enough to earn their ever-lasting scorn, but they made it painfully clear how seriously the took the prospect of the move out. Getting to Tula’s room, Rhett made the executive decision to close the door behind them. If there were a lock to close, he would have made sure the door was secured.

  They both let out heated sighs, collapsing on the bed.

  “Well, so much for that,” said Tula. “They made sure to stamp out our big plans real quick.”

  “I don’t think it’s right, but I can’t exactly do anything about it,” said Rhett. “Is there nothing we can say to them to change their minds? I know they put up a strong front, but you know them a lot better than I do.”

  She turned to him with a hopeless expression. “Once they make up their minds about something, especially something like this, they often don’t change their minds back. My mom is pretty traditional with some of her beliefs, especially lately. I guess it’s that Baptist church she loves so much.”

  “Do they know we have sex?” He asked in as quiet a volume as he could muster.

  “I don’t know,” she whispered back, her face lingering ever-closer. “But I’d rather they never really found out for sure. Doesn’t that seem like the best plan to you?”

  They flashed little smiles to one another, eventually joining in little kisses.

  “I wish that they hadn’t found out,” said Rhett. “We could have had so much fun just doing whatever we pleased. And they couldn’t have done anything about it if we were already gone. They’d just have to put up with us.”

  “Yeah.” She sighed sadly. “I feel like I have no control over my life, you know? That they can say whatever they want because they’re my parents, and I have to do what they say to keep them happy. Everyone has to do what they say to keep them happy. Sometimes I just want to escape—to fly away.”

  “I’d fly away with you.”

  They shared a heart-warming smile.

  Tula continued: “I wish that they were just bad parents, you know? Then we’d have a good reason to leave. But instead they’re reasonable and otherwise well-meaning enough, so we want to stay in their good graces. If they were yelling and screaming at us at the dinner table, we would just tell them we were leaving. If they made us do crazy chores all the time or were a terror to live with otherwise, we would want to leave no matter what they said. But I love my mom and dad. I want them to approve of me and my choices. Ugh, I wish they could just choose whether to be perfect parents or terrible ones. This ‘in the middle’ stuff just makes my life more… I don’t know. Frustrating, I suppose.”

  “Aren’t a lot of families like that?” Suggested Rhett, turning on his side. “Most parents have their flaws, but they aren’t child abusers. Your family is run-of-the-mill. Hell, they’re probably better parents than the ordinary, in their own way.”

  Flat on her back, she looked up at him with her big blue eyes. “I suppose you’re right. I just wish we could leave. I wish… Oh, this would get everyone terribly mad, but it is on my mind.”

  “You wish what?”

  “I wish that we could just run off and get eloped. My parents would be angry about it, particularly my mother, but we could then live together without worrying about all that sin nonsense. I suppose my parents wouldn’t be too fond of you after a move like that, either.”

  He smirked. “I’d be the man that corrupted their sweet young daughter.”

  She looked away, a thoughtful expression on her face. “I suppose that I’m not as sweet as they think I am. I’m gonna go to bed, Rhett. It’s getting late, and as you know, I need to get up early tomorrow.” Kissing him on the cheek, she sat up and exited her room for the bathroom.

  As he lingered on the bed for a few minutes, he could hear her down the hall brushing her teeth. Forcing himself to get up, wishing he could stay with her in the bedroom, he marched off to his own room down the hall. Only when he walked down the carpeted passageway this time, he felt a heavy dread on his shoulders. Something about his life didn’t feel right then, but he couldn’t tell if it was just the residual feeling Tula’s parents had left him with. As Rhett sat down on his own bed, staring at a blank wall, all he could think about was what had transpired in the last twenty-four hours:

  I told her to go out with me for dinner.

  I wanted to talk about her brother.

  We were happy on deciding that we wanted to move out.

  That very night we found listings.

  Her parents told us they wanted to talk with us the moment we had decided on a place.

  Is this all just a coincidence, or is there something more going on?

  He ran a hand through his hair, contemplating on this. As soon as he realized that there were no more noises coming from the shared bathroom, he decided to head in for a shower. The ambient noise of the water cascading against the solid material seemed to help clear his mind. Shedding his work clothes on the ground, he stepped in and watched as the first layer of grease slid off his firm body. Taking the bar of soap and lathering it against his brawny chest, he let his mind wander back to the issues at hand.

  Since the moment I stepped into this world, I decided that something felt off about Tula’s brother. He’s never taken a liking to me, even after I’ve been more than cordial to him, and I’ve never known why. After seeing him holding Tula in the way that he had, I don’t know what the fuck is going on with that guy’s head. Does he desire Tula in some sick way that she’s trying to brush off?

  He found himself lathering the same spot over and over in a circular motion. Moving on to another spot on his body, he continued to ponder:

  Something in my bones tells me that he’s been behind something. He’s an engineer or something, right? I bet he knows how to bug someone if he really wanted to. I’ve seen some crazy stuff on YouTube that engineers have cooked up. If he’s in some kind of masters program, he’s more than capable of coming up with a way of spying on us. This whole time… has he been spying on us? He’s like some little rat that works in the shadows. He wasn’t exactly smart enough to keep his dislike of me to himself. If I’m right, that is. I still don’t know for sure if he’s the one behind all of this.

  Which brings in his other odd behavior—Layla. Why would he have gone out with her unless it was an alternate way to keep an eye on Tula while also meddling with her affairs? That little cunt has made Layla’s life miserable since she came to live with us. I wonder if Max was the one who encouraged Layla to come here during the renovations at her house. I wouldn’t put it past the guy.

  Moving on to washing his hair, he came up with his course of action.

  I know what I want to do. Tomorrow I’m going to call in sick, but no one is going to know that. I’m going to play at that guy’s game and spy on him. I’ll watch him leave the house, then go into his room and start poking around. If he’s as careless with his emotions towards me as he is with Tula, he’ll have left some kind of evidence lying around for me to find. If that’s the case, I’ll have my ammunition to throw at him when I find out he’s really the one who’s been meddling with us.

  Satisfied with his thought process and course of action, Rhett rinsed the shampoo out of his hair, climbed out of the shower, and then dried himself off. As he walked down the hall back to his room, he couldn’t help but stop at Tula’s door. It was open to only just a crack, so he took the opportunity to take a look inside. Tula still preferred to keep a night light in the corner of her room, which cast an auburn glow on everything it touched. She was sleeping on her side, looking as heavenly as Snow White might have when her prince took his first glance of her. He remained there for a few minutes, just looking.

  Maybe we should elope, he thought. Who cares what your family thinks. I don’t like them. I want us to start our own life. Taking a deep breath, he walked off towards his room. No, she wouldn’t want that. Tula still wants her family in her life. I can’t turn her into the pariah. That’s exactly the opposite of what she would be hoping for. Just another year of this… Anot
her year and I’ll see her all in white walking down the aisle towards me. That’s worth waiting for.

  Chapter 6

  And so Rhett followed through with his plan just as he’d conceived of it. Covering the mouth of his cell phone, he mustered up enough of his acting skills to sound pathetically debilitated from some kind of cold. His boss actually sounded kind of cheery about the news, telling Rhett to stay home and eat some chicken noodle soup. Rhett reflected on the fact that he’d only called in sick once in his five-year career at the garage. He’d been sick a few times in the past few years, but always pushed himself to come in. Now that he thought about it, when he did that, half of the mechanics who worked with him always seemed to come down with something pretty quickly afterwards.

  I guess that explains why the boss sounded so happy about my absence. Unless there’s something I don’t know about, hah.

  Rhett didn’t play the part of a sick man, however. He didn’t want to raise anyone’s suspicions, so he went about his daily routine as usual. He knew what Max typically did in an average day: he would usually get up at nine o’clock, shower, and leave for the university. Max was usually gone for the entire day, only coming back at around dusk.

  At least I have a lot of time to poke around today, thought Rhett. I just need to make myself scarce for around an hour before he leaves to start his day. Maybe I could drop in for a little bit and see Tula. I’d just have to be careful that no one at the garage sees me. Maybe I could try and look a little under the weather while I’m hanging around at Karma’s.

  Skipping his usual protein bar and coffee, Rhett got in his car and headed for the other side of town. As he was pulling into Karma’s parking lot, he couldn’t help but hear something a little bit odd about his car. The untrained ear wouldn’t have been able to pick up on it, but Rhett could make out the smallest of signs of another layer of noise coming from under the hood.