by Autumn Avery
“Got any rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide or something?” he asks me.
“Cabinet by your knee,” I say quickly, sitting down on the edge of the tub beside him. He leans down and grabs a brown bottle and pops the cap. Without hesitation, he douses his wound with it. I expect a reaction. That must sting like crazy. But he doesn’t let out a noise or show any signs of pain.
Who the hell is this guy?
“Any color preference?” I say, trying to joke and add some levity to this situation. My mind is racing. I have no idea what the hell is going on right now. Every emotion that a person could possibly have is flowing right through me. I’m turned on. I’m horny as hell. I’m confused as to what he’s doing here and where he got these cuts. I’m furious that he just showed up like this, but excited at the same time. I’m pissed, but also happy to see him, and I’m scared that one of my kids is going to walk in and see him here.
Also, what is with Bruno and Chester? They’re sitting happily at the door, eyes on Ty like this is completely normal.
“As long as it’s not pink,” he says with a smile.
“What a man,” I say sarcastically, doing my best to thread a roll of light grey thread through the eye of a needle. I finally get it and lean forward towards him. “Okay, I haven’t done this ever, and I haven’t sewed since I was about thirteen.”
“Yeah, well I’m bleeding so as long as you can stop that I think we’re fine.”
He leans in and pulls his hand away. The cut is pretty bad. It looks less like a cut and more like he got hit by something and the skin just split open. I feel my stomach twist as more blood seeps out. He dabs it quickly with the paper towel.
“Let’s go,” he says, obviously in more pain than he’s letting on.
“Okay!” I snap, trying not to shout. I take a deep breath, and push the needle through his skin. Again I expect a reaction but get none. Not a flinch, not a gasp, not a wince. Nothing. I push the needle through the other side of the wound and pull. It starts to close pretty well. I loop the thread back and push through again, repeating this several times.
“How did this happen?” I manage to say after I get four loops closed.
“Would you believe me if I told you I bumped my head on a door?”
I look down at his face for just a minute, seeing that same cocky smile I saw at the club. My heart flutters in my chest, and I have to go back to my stitch.
Those eyes, I think. It’s like he sees right through me.
Two more stitches and the wound is closed. I pull the last one through and tie it off.
“There,” I say proudly. “Give me that.”
He hands me the wad of paper towels. I dab the wound, getting rid of the excess blood, then dump more peroxide over it.
My phone vibrates. I check it. A text from Alicia:
On my way!
Shit, this isn’t good, I think.
“Be right back. Stay here,” I say, rushing from the room. I instantly dial Alicia. She answers after the first ring.
“Hey, have you left yet?” I ask her.
“No, not yet, why?”
I sigh heavily, “I’m not gonna need you tonight. I’m so sorry, I hope you didn’t cancel any plans.”
“No, that’s okay. My friends are going to Johnson’s, I’ll just meet up with them. You’re not going in?”
“Yeah, I’m just not feeling well. I’ll make it up later in the week.”
“Oh, okay. Well I hope you feel better!” She is always so cheery.
“Thanks, Alicia. Have a nice night out!”
“Okay, bye!”
I hang up and let out a deep breath. This is the last thing I need. Not only do I have a strange man in my house, a place I swore I’d never bring a man, but he’s forcing me to miss a night of work when I really need the money. I can’t go in, not with him here. There’s no way I’m letting Alicia see him, or my children, and there’s no way I trust a man I barely know well enough to be here without me.
I turn back into the bathroom and my heart almost stops.
Standing in the doorway, wearing nothing but a t-shirt and underwear, is Ella. And she’s staring right at Ty.
“Oh my God,” I can’t stop myself from saying.
“Uh, mom?” Ella says, turning back to me. She’s not even red. Why isn’t she red? Isn’t she embarrassed? She’s fifteen years old and standing half naked in front of a grown man she’s never met before. Why isn’t she freaking out?
“Ella!” I stammer. “This—this is Ty.”
“Hey,” Ty says, waving casually, one hand still holding a gauze over his stitches.
“He’s a … friend. He, uhm … he needed a little help.…”
“Yeah,” Ty says, interrupting me. “Was out for a walk and hit my head. Your mom’s being nice enough to help me out.”
Ella doesn’t look convinced.
“Right. Your friend.”
Jesus. Now I’m embarrassed.
“Ella, why don’t you go put some clothes on. What are you doing?”
“Well, I had to pee and I thought I was here alone like I normally am.”
“Okay, well we have a guest. So please go put some pants on or something!?”
Ella gives me an annoyed look, blows out a deep breath, but turns and walks back to her room. I take the opportunity to race over to Ty. I grab him by the hand and pull him into the living room.
“Okay, you have to go!” I say, pounding my fist against his hard chest.
“No can do,” he says, checking the gauze for blood.
“What!? Why!?” I snap. I’m on the verge of freaking out, but I don’t need Josh coming in here. One kid seeing him is bad enough.
“It’s complicated,” he replies. “Trust me. You don’t want to know. It’s probably better that you don’t.”
Ella comes back out of her room wearing a pair of pink sweatpants that I’m not sure I approved her buying, and shuffles into the bathroom, closing the door, but not before giving me the eyeball. Suddenly, I feel like the child in this situation and I’m being scolded by my mother.
When I turn back, I see Ty making himself at home on the couch.
“What are you doing?” I ask him, my hands on my hips like some indignant little girl.
“Look, I’ll crash here tonight, and I’ll be out of your hair tomorrow. Just relax, okay?”
He’s settling right in, pulling the blue afghan my mother knitted over him and closing his eyes. I’m so stunned by all this that I’m not even angry. I don’t even know what I’m feeling. It’s a mixture of everything, just swirling around inside me like a stew, threatening to boil over.
I hear the water run in the bathroom and the door opens. I spin around to see Ella giving me another strange look.
“Oh, go to bed!” I say, waving my hands at her. She scowls at me and sticks her tongue out, but heads back to her room.
“Listen,” I say, getting down so I’m right in Ty’s face. “This is one night only! Understand?”
Ty doesn’t react. He just lies there with his eyes closed.
“Hey!” I say in a loud whisper. “Are you listening to me?”
And then Ty does something I can’t even believe, something that just puts a cherry on top of this insane sundae of a night.
He snores.
Is he already fucking sleeping?
I wave my hands in front of his eyes and snap my fingers.
Yes. Yes, he is.
“Unbelievable,” I say to myself, standing up and running my hands through my hair. I’m breathing heavily. I look down at Ty, already asleep on my couch, and don’t know what to think. There’s so much wrong with this right now that I can’t even process it.
But …
Ty is here, handsome as all hell, in my apartment, and he still doesn’t have his shirt on. I close my eyes and force myself to calm down, to try and turn my brain off. When I open my eyes again, and I look down at his hard body, barely covered by the thin afghan, another part of my body
kicks in.
Shit, I think. This is bad.
12
Ty
I open my eyes to a young boy staring down at me.
What the fuck? Is all I can think. Where the hell am I?
My eyes dart around the strange room. It takes me a minute to process. It’s morning. I can see the morning sun coming through the windows. It’s definitely a girl’s apartment. I can tell from the color scheme, and a painting of a bunch of horses in a flowery meadow hanging on the wall. No self respecting man would have paid money for that.
I look around and see a small kitchen, a hallway and a bathroom door. And then it clicks.
Jenny’s. I’m at Jenny’s.
“Who are you?” The little boy asks me innocently. He has a very plain look on his face and doesn’t seem at all afraid. This must be her son.
“I’m Ty,” I reply. “Who are you?”
“I’m Josh.”
“Jenny’s son?” I ask. He nods twice in reply.
“Nice to meet you, pal,” I say, raising a hand to my forehead, which is throbbing like a bitch. I feel the stitches, and the details of last night come flooding back to me.
I didn’t throw the fight.
Nicky wanted to kill me, and probably would have if I hadn’t gotten out of there quick enough.
The crowd reacted like I thought they would. They loved the fight, and they’d been expecting me to win. It took the boy a while to get up off the mat. Broken jaw for sure. He’ll be out of the scene for more than a little while, if he comes back at all. A thing like that can knock the ego out of someone and ruin their aspirations. We’ll see what he’s made of and whether he returns or not.
Vinnie and Don tried to corner me on my way out.
“You forget who the fuck you’re working for?” Vinnie had said.
“I don’t work for anyone but me, pal,” I had replied as I shoved my way past him. It was then that Don hit me with the pipe.
I guess he figured he’d knock me out, but he underestimated me. The blow glanced off my forehead, just above my eyebrow, but it didn’t knock me out. Hell, it didn’t even slow me down. I spun around with my fist out, and saw the look in his eyes when he realized how badly he’d just fucked up. My knuckles hit him right below the eye and dropped him good. When Vinnie saw what had happened he backed off and motioned to Nicky.
More goons were coming, and Nicky would want “a word” with me. But I wasn’t sticking around. I got out of there as fast as I could. I knew going home wasn’t an option. They’d have guys waiting there or on their way, and Nicky knew about my old house too, not that I could have brought myself to go there anyway. So this was my only option.
“Where’s your mom?” I ask Josh, who’s still standing calmly beside the couch looking down at me.
“She’s in the bathroom. She’s showering,” he informs me.
“Got ya,” I say, instantly imagining what Jenny’s naked body looks like under the water. Nothing’s sexier than a girl’s body all shining, covered in water and glistening. I’m half asleep, have a raging headache, and all I can think about is what that stripper chick looks like without her clothes on. I should already fucking know, shouldn’t I? What an ass backwards scenario this is. Seeing her naked, or close to it, should have been the way we met. And now look what’s going on.
With a groan, I manage to get myself into a seated position. A blow to the head can land you with something that feels like the world’s worst hangover, and that’s what I’ve got going on right now. I’m also starving and have no idea where my shirt is. I hear the clunk of the pipes and realize it’s the shower turning off. A few seconds later, Jenny, her hair wrapped in a towel like some kind of desert nomad, comes out of the bathroom.
“Josh!” she almost shouts, obviously surprised by him being out here. “What are you doing?”
“Talking to Ty,” he says simply. Jenny rushes over to him, obviously protective of her son.
“Are you okay? I thought you weren’t going to be up for another ten minutes!”
“He’s fine,” I say, trying to prevent a motherly meltdown. “We were just chatting about who we thought would win this year’s Super Bowl.”
My joke doesn’t land, but I understand. Jenny’s protective of her son, and she doesn’t want him upset. I remember something about her telling me he was autistic. He seems like a good dude to me.
“Honey, why don’t you go take a seat at the table and I’ll be in to get you your breakfast,” she says. I feel something wet and slimy against the back of my hand, and look down to see Jenny’s two dogs, tails wagging, tongues out, licking me.
“Oh. Hey, fellas,” I say, giving them both a playful pat on the head.
“Okay, mom,” Josh says. I look up to see him half skip off into the kitchen.
“Christ, I didn’t want that to happen,” Jenny says, putting a hand on her head.
“What? You didn’t want your son to see me?”
“No!” she almost shouts. “I don’t like him meeting men I am not seeing.”
I nod slowly. “Makes sense. But that’s cool. Just let him know I’m the new boyfriend.”
I chuckle and stand up, relishing the indignant face Jenny gives me. But she’s blushing. She looks so cute with her two towels. What’s really funny is that she’s wearing more now than she was when I met her—by a long shot.
She’s shorter than I remember. Probably because she’s not wearing heels. It’s taking everything I have in me not to grab the top of her towel, right where she’s tucked it in by her tits, and yank it open and get a look at that body of hers.
Jesus Christ, I think.
I haven’t felt such a primal urge for anyone since the first time I met my wife. As the saying goes, Christine was a lady in the streets and a freak in the sheets, and that’s the kind of girl I love. I know a lot of people who have boring, bland marriages that never spice things up and just do boring missionary sex for five minutes and then pass out. I never want to be that kind of couple, and I never will be.
Any girl that ends up with me better know how to keep up, because that’s what I am used to and that’s what I want. I have a feeling Jenny is that kind of girl. I don’t know why I am getting that feeling—but I am.
“So you’re leaving today, right?” she asks me.
“Yeah, about that …” I start to say.
“No, no, no, no,” she interrupts. “You said last night that you’d be here for one night and one night only. Don’t even start with me.”
“Yeah, we’ll see,” I say, standing up. “There’s some things I have to sort out.”
“This isn’t a hotel, Ty.”
“Well that’s good, cause I’m not paying.”
I can practically hear the steam coming off her head as I slide into my shirt. She looks so cute when she’s mad, and my urge to snatch that towel off her starts to overpower me. I’ve got to get out of here quick. I have somewhere to be anyway.
Just turn around and walk out the door.
“I’ll catch you later, Jenny,” I say as I turn to the door.
“No you won’t!” she shouts after me. I grin as I step outside.
* * *
St. Mary’s Hospital is on the other end of town, but I can take the back roads to get there. I turn down the all familiar road that leads down to the main building. I was born here, and now it’s where my mother may die. But not if I manage to pull this off.
I manage to find a parking spot in the lot closest to the entrance, and walk across the cold white concrete to the sliding double doors. The sterile smell of hospital wafts over me as I step into the perfectly maintained sixty-eight-degree air. My feet move across the odd geometric patterned carpeting as I make my way to the elevators. There’s a couple getting off, and I manage to slip in as they pass. I thumb the button for floor three and wait for the elevator doors to close.
This has been a rough couple of days, and I can feel the fatigue behind my eyes. Last night’s sleep didn’t even put
a dent in it. It’s mental stress. There’s just too many things on my mind, and this situation with Jenny isn’t helping things. It’s been a long time since a girl has had me so twisted up inside, and as much as I am trying to fight it, I know I’m in over my head with her.
What’s going to happen over the course of the next few days? It’s going to be torture sleeping in the same apartment as her. I haven’t been that close to a woman in years, and that’s when I was sleeping in the same bed as my wife.
The elevator doors ding and I realize I’m at my mother’s floor. The air up here is thicker as I step out into the hallway. I nod to the nurses who all know me by now.
“Jane,” I say.
“Hey, Ty,” she says. She looks a little on edge today, like she wants to say something. But she doesn’t, and I’m too tired to ask her what’s up. I’m here to see my mother.
It’s a short walk to her room, but as I step through the door, I realize what Jane was so upset about.
Vinnie, Don and Nicky are sitting in my mother’s room.
“Ay there, Slugger,” Nicky says, smiling and showing his cracked yellow teeth.
“Hey there, boyo,” Vinnie chimes in.
“Fuck,” I mutter under my breath. I look over at my mother, but thankfully she’s asleep. She doesn’t have a clue about me and the fights, and I want to keep it that way. She worries too much about me, and I want her to focus on getting better.
“You assholes,” I say, clenching my fists but keeping my voice down.
“Oh, we’re the assholes?” Nicky says as he gets to his feet. “Is that right, punchy? We’re the assholes? See that’s funny, because I always thought the asshole was the guy who said he was gonna do something and then didn’t do it, not the guy who got fucked over by the other guy. You see what I’m saying?”
He takes a step towards my mother’s bed. I feel a bead of sweat break out on my forehead. Nothing gets me going more than people fucking with my family. I can handle myself. I’ve been through a lot. But anybody touches my family, and they’re going to regret it.