Date Shark

by DelSheree Gladden

  “I’m sorry.”

  Eli dismissed her worry. “It’s nothing, but I do have an appointment in half an hour. You were about to tell me something before I was pulled away.”

  “Oh, yeah. We have to push dinner back to eight. Luke’s flight got delayed leaving DIA, big surprise. Is that okay?”

  “That should be fine.”

  Leila frowned. “Is it okay with your date?”

  His date, whom had remained nameless over the past few weeks. It annoyed her very much that Eli had not told her who he was bringing. The idea of him going out with someone who wasn’t a client was difficult enough. She tried not to be jealous, but it was difficult.

  “Oh, I’m sure it will be fine,” Eli said casually. The soft crinkle of paper rolling out of a fax machine caught Eli’s attention and yanked him from the kitchen.

  Curious, Leila followed him after a moment. By the time she walked up behind him he was scribbling his name across whatever had just come through the fax machine. Once he was finished, he gathered everything up and sealed it in a manila envelope. When he turned around he was again startled to find her there.

  “Leila, my dear, I’m sorry to rush out, but I have to deliver these before my appointment and I’m going to be cutting it very close as it is,” he said. “You’re welcome to stay, of course.”

  “Why can’t you just fax them back?” she asked.

  Eli shook his head. “They can’t accept a duplicate in this case.”

  “I can drop it off for you. Where does it need to go?”

  The hint of panic in Eli’s expression hurt her feelings. Didn’t he trust her enough to deliver the envelope? His head started to shake, declining her offer, but when Leila glanced at the wall clock his eyes followed. “Uh,” he hedged, “are you sure?”

  “Eli, it’s Saturday. I have nowhere to be, but you obviously do. Let me help you out. You can trust me to deliver your documents. I do it all the time at work, remember?” she said.

  Finally, Eli smiled again. “It’s not about trust,” he said. “I trust you completely, you know that.”

  “Then what is it about?”

  Eli looked at the clock again. He seemed pained when he turned back. “Nothing. Of course you can drop them off. Thank you, Leila. They need to go to Mount Rose Hospital. Just drop them off at the front desk and tell them they’re from me, okay?”

  “Sure. No problem.”

  With no warning, Eli’s arm shot around her. His parting kiss was abrupt and fleeting. Then he was out the door, as if he wanted to get out before changing his mind. When the door fell shut behind him, Leila stood staring at it. Eventually, her eyes dropped down to the envelope in her hands. Not opening the flap and sliding the papers out was torture.

  She believed Eli when he said he trusted her completely. She trusted him the same. But there was something in the packet he really did not want her to see. That bothered her. A lot.

  Leila carried the envelope clutched in both hands the whole way to her car. She didn’t want to touch it, but she also couldn’t let it out of her sight. The way she felt about the envelope was as big of a mystery to her as Eli was. He trusted her enough to give her the envelope and know she wouldn’t open it, but he clearly wasn’t going to explain the pacing on the balcony or his strange behavior. She set the packet down on the passenger’s seat when she got into her car, but fear that it might be lost or spontaneously open gripped her a second later. She pressed her palm onto the envelope and kept it there until she reached the hospital.

  Walking up the steps, Leila was made even more nervous by the signs on the front doors stating that the building housed mentally disturbed individuals and the visitors should stay in the designated areas at all times. She admired Eli for his desire to help people, but she could admit, to herself at least, that walking into a psychiatric hospital kind of scared her.

  She practically tiptoed up to the front desk. When she spoke, she wasn’t sure why her voice came out as almost a whisper. It just seemed like the sort of place you would really want to use your indoor voice.

  “I needed to drop off some paperwork,” she said quietly.

  “What kind of paperwork?” the receptionist asked at a perfectly normal volume.

  Leila was stumped for an answer. “Um, I don’t know. Eli just told me to drop it off at the front desk.”

  “Eli who?” she asked.

  Of course they didn’t know him as just plain Eli. “Sorry, Dr. Eli Walsh. He was faxed these documents earlier and I guess they needed the originals back with his signature.”

  “Let me call up and check,” she said. “Someone may need to sign for those.”

  She turned her attention to the phone then and explained the situation. A minute later she hung up and turned back to Leila. “Dr. Evans will be down in a moment.”

  “Thank you.”

  Leila spotted a few chairs to the side of the reception desk and headed over to them. The wait wasn’t long. A smiling, white haired man who looked to be in his early sixties walked up to her. She stood and shook his hand when it was offered. “Dr. Evans?”

  “Yes. And you are?”

  “Leila Sparro. I’m a friend of Eli’s—I mean Dr. Walsh. He had another appointment to get to so he asked me to drop this paperwork off with you. I hope that’s okay,” she said.

  Dr. Evans smiled warmly. “Of course. That’s fine. I had hoped Eli would come down himself, but a friend is nice, too. Do you know her?”

  “Know who?” she asked, confused.

  “Mrs. Walsh. Eli is so protective of her, I doubted he would let just anyone come here, so I figured you must have known her before,” Dr. Evans explained.

  Mrs. Walsh? Leila’s brain started running overtime. Unless Eli was married and had failed to mention that small detail to her, Dr. Evans must have been referring to Eli’s mother. The owner of the pearls. The source of so much obvious pain and contention. Normally, Leila tried to be honest with everyone, but the lie slipped out before she could stop herself.

  “Yes, I did know her. Before.”

  Dr. Evans’ whole body brightened. “Would you like to see her? She is always asking for Eli, but I’m sure she’d be glad to see any familiar faces. She never receives visitors.”

  Saddened and disturbed by that, Leila asked. “Could I? That’s okay?”

  “Of course it’s okay. I have been telling Eli for years that I thought his mother would benefit from seeing him.”

  “Well, that’s obviously a tall order,” she defended. The night Eli lent her the pearls and she tried to ask about his mother was the only time Leila could remember Eli being upset enough to snap at her like he did. Eli was one of the kindest and most forgiving people she knew. If he refused to see his mother, there must have been a good reason. She hoped there was a good reason.

  Dr. Evans gestured for Leila to walk with him. “Yes, I know seeing her is difficult for Eli, but letting a friend visit her is a good step.”

  One he didn’t know he was taking, Leila thought guiltily. But it wasn’t enough to make her turn back. They stepped into an elevator and rode it up to the second floor. She was led halfway down the hallway before Dr. Evans knocked on room 231. The answer was a bit garbled through the thick steel door, but he must have understood it. Leila winced when he had to unlock the door before opening it, and again doubted the wisdom of the idea. Dr. Evans ushered her in before she could backtrack.

  “Elizabeth, you have a visitor,” Dr. Evans said.

  The frail looking woman sat up in her bed at once. Her eyes scoured the room as she asked, “Eli? Eli, where are you?”

  The pleading in her voice made Leila’s breath catch. When Elizabeth realized her son had not come once again, tears formed in her eyes. It nearly broke Leila’s heart. She was thankful Dr. Evans spoke again, because there was no way she could utter a word at that moment.

  “No,” Dr. Evans said, “but Leila is here to see you. Do you remember Leila?�
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  A look of confusion spread across Mrs. Walsh’s face. Leila began to panic. What had she been thinking, lying about knowing Eli’s mother? An apology was on the tip of her tongue, as well as the desire to bail on the whole experience, but Dr. Evans’ hand landing on her shoulder prevented both.

  “Don’t worry,” he said quietly, “she’s forgotten most of her old friends and acquaintances. Eli is the only one she has really held onto.”

  Dr. Evans left Leila’s side and walked over to Mrs. Walsh. He patted her arm gently. “Elizabeth, Leila Sparro is here to see you. Would you like to talk with her?”

  “Who is she?” Mrs. Walsh whispered to him.

  “Leila is Eli’s girlfriend.”

  It felt as if an electric shock ran through her body when Leila heard Dr. Evans mistake her relationship with Eli. Her mouth popped open to object, but he was already speaking again. She knew she should correct him, certainly not let a fragile old woman who obviously had mental problems believe a lie like that. Finding out Leila was only a friend might harm Mrs. Walsh in some way, and Leila would never want that.

  She was about to break in and clear everything up when something odd happened. Leila started smiling. She wasn’t even sure why, at first. Part of her still thought she should fix the misunderstanding, but the rest of her was basking in the fact that the mistake had been made in the first place. Dr. Evans, for whatever reason, had made the assumption that she and Eli were romantically involved. It hadn’t seemed odd or unbelievable to him. He didn’t even ask her before voicing his thoughts. To him, it appeared there was nothing unusual about Leila being with Eli.

  It was hard to explain exactly how happy that made her.

  “Leila?” Dr. Evans said as he stepped back over to her. “Mrs. Walsh would like to speak with you. I’ll be in the room the whole time, and I can only allow you half an hour, but I think this will be a good thing for her. Are you still willing to stay?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  Dr. Evans smiled. “Wonderful. Go ahead and take the seat next to her bed. I’ll sit back here.”

  Her first step was cautious. She watched Mrs. Walsh for any sign of anxiety or fear. Leila really had no idea what was wrong with her, and she didn’t want to do anything to upset her. So she moved slowly with no sudden movements, and when she spoke it was in a soft voice.

  “Good afternoon, Mrs. Walsh. How are you doing today?”

  Eli mother eyed her warily. “Where is my Eli?”

  “He had a patient this afternoon and couldn’t come,” Leila answered.

  Mrs. Walsh’s whole body drooped. “He never comes. My little boy never comes.”

  “I’m sure he’ll come soon,” Leila said. She squeezed the woman’s hand lightly, and was surprised when Mrs. Walsh grabbed her. Leila’s eyes darted to Dr. Evans, but he wordlessly reassured her.

  “My Eli was such a good little boy,” Mrs. Walsh said. Her eyes were far away and glistening. “He’s always helped me. He was such a good boy. He held the clothespins for me when I hung the laundry. He took care of Polly, too.”

  “Polly?” Leila asked. Where there more secrets Eli had kept from her? Siblings?

  Ms. Walsh smiled, a quiet laugh shaking her thin body. “Little Polly, Eli adored that puppy. And Polly adored him. Followed him everywhere, she did.” Suddenly Mrs. Walsh’s expression darkened. “Until Polly got sick. Poor little Polly. Eli was so devastated when she died. Cried for two days straight, he did.”

  Responding to that was difficult. Leila could imagine Eli crying over a sick puppy. He was a very compassionate person. She knew he cared about people, so animals were a natural extension. That was the man she knew. Connecting that with a son who had abandoned his mentally ill mother was impossible. Was it pride? She couldn’t imagine him doing something like that.

  “I didn’t want to get Eli another pet after that,” Mrs. Walsh said, “he had been so upset, but Arnold didn’t listen to me.”

  “Eli’s father?” Leila asked. Eli never spoke about his mother, and he was not much better about talking about his dad, but he had mentioned his name several times. He had always seemed happy when speaking about his dad.

  “Yes, everyone insisted I get Eli a new pet after Polly died. I said it wasn’t good for him. They didn’t listen to me, kept pestering me until I gave in.” Mrs. Walsh glanced away from Leila and stared at something unseen. “I got my Eli a parrot. Eli thought he could teach it to talk. He spent hours sitting by that bird’s cage trying to get it to say something.”

  “Did it ever speak for him?” Leila asked.

  Mrs. Walsh shook her head sadly. “Birds are frail creatures. The parrot got a parasite or something like that and died after a few months. It never spoke.”

  Grief for Eli’s losses, even if they were only childhood pets, welled in her heart. “Did you get any other pets after that?”

  “No, everyone listened to me after that. No more pets.” She sighed. “But then my Eli got older and made friends.”

  That should have been a good thing, but the way Mrs. Walsh said it didn’t sound very happy. Leila was curious about what kind of friends Eli had as a child that would make his mother so sad. “Were Eli’s friends good kids, too?”

  The skin of her forehead creased as she considered. “Some, maybe. They kept him away from home.”

  “Why didn’t Eli invite his friends to his house?”

  “They didn’t want to,” she snapped, “they said so.”

  Leila was too curious not to ask. “Why didn’t they like going to your house?”

  “They wanted to be outside running and playing, the boys did.” The disgust in her voice sounded strange to Leila. It only got worse. Her whole face wrinkled with it as she continued. “The girls were worse, always filling his head with silly notions.”

  “You didn’t approve of Eli’s girlfriends?” Leila asked, very curious to hear the answer. Did she remember that Dr. Evans had called her Eli’s girlfriend?

  Mrs. Walsh shook her head. “Needy, whiney bunch. Always trying to pull him away from me. Thoughtless girls. They were no good for him.”

  “Ah,” Leila said slowly. It was hard to call her a liar—she really didn’t know enough about Eli’s past to contradict her—but Leila had a hard time imagining Eli bringing home girls like that. Trying to fix them, definitely, but having a relationship with one of them? That seemed unlikely.

  Leila was not as bad as what Mrs. Walsh had described, but she had been very dependent on Eli at first. He claimed she wasn’t a project to him, but why else would he have stuck around? He wanted to get her all fixed up and on her way. The fact that they had become friends seemed to her like more of an accident. If Eli wanted the kind of girl his mother described, the misunderstanding about her relationship with Eli may have actually been true.

  “Did you steal Eli?” Mrs. Walsh blurted out suddenly.

  The angry expression and harsh voice startled Leila. “Steal Eli from who?”

  “From me,” she snapped.

  “No. Why would I?”

  “People are always trying to take him away from me,” she said darkly. “The girls are the worst.”

  Unsure of how to respond to that statement, Leila was quiet for a few moments. She didn’t understand enough about Eli’s mother to know what she was talking about. Eli had never meant for her to meet this woman, but Leila was beginning to think the secrecy surrounding his mother needed to change. Not just for Leila’s benefit, but for Eli’s as well.

  “My little Eli,” Mrs. Walsh said dreamily. Her mind had obviously switched gears. “He was such a good little boy. Always taking care of me, always keeping me safe, he was. When I was sick, he made me soup all by himself and brought it all the way upstairs so I didn’t have to get out of bed. Even when he was grown and at college, he always called and checked on me. He was such a good boy.”

  She continued on, reliving dozens of instances when Eli had shown his love for
her. Leila listened, but instead of smiling adoringly as Mrs. Walsh did, she grew angrier with every story. Why had he changed? In her heart she saw Eli as a compassionate and kind man. He wanted to help people. That was what had brought them together. Why then, was his mother sitting in a locked room alone every day? Why did he never visit? Had he tired of her? Would he tire of Leila?

  None of her questions could be answered by Mrs. Walsh, who seemed to be unaware of anything other than Eli not being there for her. She barely even noticed when Dr. Evans told Leila it was time for her to leave. The goodbye she offered Mrs. Walsh went unanswered. Every step she took away from the sad, lonely woman infuriated her even more. By the time she reached her car, she was positively livid.

  Eli’s mother obviously loved him very much, yet she was alone and forgotten by him. There was no question now that she was going to confront him about his mother. Maybe it wasn’t her place to interfere, but she didn’t care. Leila pulled out of the parking lot with the intention of driving straight over to Eli’s. She was halfway there before she got a text from Luke saying he would be landing in an hour. Leila had promised to pick him up from the airport. She growled at nothing particular as she turned in the other direction and fought against the traffic to reach O’Hare in time. Somewhere along the way, she remembered that even after picking Luke up she wouldn’t be free to get answers. No, first she had to suffer through dinner with Eli and his mysterious date. She had already feared the night was going to be a disaster; now she knew it would be for sure.

  Chapter 22

  Discovered

  Eli pulled up to Dolcini, glad Leila had chosen somewhere familiar. He hoped the restaurant would help calm the anxiety he was sure she would be feeling. It did irk him just a little that he had to share his favorite restaurant with Luke, but it was worth it if it made the night more pleasant for Leila. Parked in his customary spot, Eli didn’t get out of the car.

  “Are we going in?” Sabine asked, her words accented with long vowels and a rolling cadence.