Keep My Baby Safe

by Bella Grant

  They remained attached for a moment, panting and letting their orgasms subside before he stepped back. She shuddered and turned, wrapping her arms around his neck.

  “I was supposed to be getting cleaned up so we could get some breakfast,” Diana chided him, smiling.

  With his hands on her waist, he whispered, “Shower sex doesn’t get you dirty.”

  Diana threw her head back and laughed, releasing him so she could actually bathe. Travis chuckled and washed as well, and they chatted about where they wanted to go for breakfast as they cleansed themselves and each other.

  They decided on brunch at a restaurant a couple blocks south, which Diana assured him was safe despite the slightly rough neighborhood. Travis frowned as they walked, wondering if she walked this way by herself.

  “This neighborhood isn’t slightly rough,” Travis noted as they passed what Travis was sure was the same homeless man he’d seen the night before with a companion drinking from a paper sack.

  Diana glanced in the man’s direction and lifted her hand in greeting. “Hi, Mr. Bob. How are you this morning?”

  “A little hungover, but I’ll survive. Who’s this?” Mr. Bob asked, a smile brightening his dirty face. His teeth were shockingly white.

  “This is Travis, my boyfriend,” Diana introduced, squeezing Travis’ arm so he didn’t reach out to shake hands.

  “She’s a good girl. Reminds me of my daughter,” he said sadly, though he rallied into his happiness again quickly. “You treat her how she deserves,” Mr. Bob ordered, grinning at Diana.

  “Have you eaten today?”

  Mr. Bob looked at her as if she’d asked a silly question. “I haven’t had the time with my busy schedule.”

  “Hmmm,” Diana answered, narrowing her eyes at his thin frame. What he meant was he had no food and would eat when he could. “We’re going to breakfast. Can I bring you something?”

  “Well, honey, don’t go out of your way,” Mr. Bob said, dismissing her concern like a grown man would his wife’s.

  “I’ll tell you what. I’m dying for some pancakes, but I can’t ever finish them. I’ll bring you what I have left over?” Diana asked, trying to make sure the man’s pride remained intact.

  “Well, I wouldn’t mind some pancakes,” Mr. Bob replied, smiling again. He turned his eye to Travis. “You see? A good girl.”

  “She is, sir,” Travis answered.

  “We’ll be back this way in an hour or so. You’ll be around?” Diana asked him, although her question sounded suspiciously like she was telling him to be around.

  Mr. Bob chuckled and shooed them away. “I’ll be here or there, sweetie. I’ll keep an eye out for you.”

  “I’ll look for you,” Diana told him. Her instinct was to pat him on the shoulder, but she knew he didn’t like to be touched. She pulled on Travis’ hand and led him away after saying goodbye to her friend.

  “What’s Mr. Bob’s story?”

  “He hasn’t told me his whole story,” Diana explained as they walked hand in hand down the sidewalk. “I just know that I was walking home from the store one afternoon in broad daylight. I thought I’d be safe. Some man followed me, and Mr. Bob noticed and intervened. He walked me the rest of the way home and keeps an eye out, not just for me, but for the other women in the neighborhood. He’s a good man.”

  Travis glanced over his shoulder. “Wow. Why is he homeless?”

  “I think he chooses to be,” Diana answered with a shrug. “But we take care of him, you know. I bring him food, gave him a coat once when it started getting cold. I saw another woman give him gloves, and if it’s freezing, I look for him. Took him to a shelter once.”

  “Why couldn’t I shake his hand?”

  “He doesn’t like to be touched. I’m very careful when I hand him things,” Diana told him, smiling. “He’s our guardian angel, so to speak, so we watch over him.”

  “I thought you didn’t know your neighbors?” Travis asked.

  “I don’t, not really. Enough to recognize and say hello,” Diana commented as they turned into the restaurant. “But we all take care of Mr. Bob. One of the families in my building, two parents and a little girl, invite him to picnics in the park. He saw a stranger watching the little girl one afternoon while she was playing, told the mom, and may have prevented a tragedy.”

  “Wow,” Travis repeated. “I was going to suggest maybe you shouldn’t stay here, but this is a great little environment.”

  “The neighborhood really has been improving. When I first moved in, it wasn’t safe at all, but I could afford it,” Diana admitted after they’d been led to a table. “Now I stay because I like it so much.”

  “So you could move if you chose?”

  “Yeah,” she said, pursing her lips as she opened the menu. She looked up at him with a twinkle in her eye. “I don’t want to, though.”

  Travis smiled at her and changed the subject. “You look beautiful this morning.”

  Diana reddened, crinkling her nose at him. “I didn’t put on a speck of makeup and halfway dried my hair.”

  “And you’re still stunning,” Travis told her. “I could look at you all day.”

  “Stop it,” Diana laughed, reddening further as she waved a hand at him. “You’re embarrassing me.”

  Travis chuckled as the waiter appeared to take their order. After they had both recited what they wanted, Travis added, “And when we’re finished, we’ll need a to go order of pancakes and sausage please.”

  “I can do that, no problem,” the teenager answered. “After I’ve brought you your food, I’ll put that in so it comes out fresh.”

  “Great, thanks.”

  Diana smiled at him. “You’re the sweetest. I usually take him what I don’t eat. I order him a full meal when I can, but it gets expensive.”

  “Well, if he’s protecting you, he deserves a whole meal on me,” Travis announced.

  “Thank you, Travis.” She sat up and kissed him, and he clasped her hand.

  “So, I have a surprise for you,” he teased, raising his eyebrows and opening his mouth wide, mocking surprise.

  “A surprise? I love surprises,” Diana answered gleefully, squirming in her chair.

  “The weekend you and I went on our second first date, I went to a charity event with my parents,” Travis explained. “Save the Tatas.”

  Diana laughed, nodding her head. “I went to that with your mom the year before we broke up. I assume she’s still in remission?”

  “Oh yes, healthy as a horse, and twice as pushy,” Travis told her, laughing. “She pushed me to bid on a couple of the silent auction items as well as a few of the larger items on the auction list. I won two things. The first were Saints tickets.”

  Diana tried to hide her complete lack of interest, but it must have flashed across her face before she could school her features into a smile because Travis laughed loudly, shaking his head.

  “I’m certainly not asking you to go to a football game.”

  “Oh, thank God!” Diana exclaimed, putting her hand on her chest as if she thought he was asking her to go to hell with him. “I would have gone and pretended to have a blast.”

  “I know, but I’m not a stupid man,” Travis told her, accustomed to her flair of drama.

  “So what else did you win?”

  “I don’t know if I won them, since I paid a pretty penny for them in the auction,” Travis smirked, “but I have two tickets to see Ed Sheeran next Friday.”

  Diana’s heart jumped in her chest, and she clapped her hands together and put them under her chin, her shoulders up around her ears. “Oh, my God! For real?”

  Travis smiled, tilting his head. “Yes, for real. And the seats are dead center, third row.”

  “Holy shit!” she exclaimed loudly, drawing attention. She glanced around and said, “Sorry, sorry. He just told me we’re going to see Ed Sheeran in the third row!”

  A couple close to them laughed, and the woman said, “I would have yelled too, girl!
Y’all have fun!”

  “I have never been so excited!” Diana shrieked, standing up and throwing herself in Travis’ arms. She plopped down in his lap and kissed him all over his face.

  Diana heard the man at the next table say, “He’s getting lucky tonight,” and his girlfriend or wife giggled happily, shushing him. Diana smiled brightly down at Travis.

  “You probably will get lucky every night for the rest of your life.”

  “Or until I piss you off,” Travis joked, squeezing her.

  “Shut up.” She laughed as she returned to her chair. “Oh, God, what will I wear?”

  “Why would you be worried about your outfit? It’s a concert,” Travis asked, sipping his orange juice which had been discretely set in front of him by the waiter without interrupting their conversation.

  “Ed Sheeran might see me!” Diana crowed, batting her eyelashes and wearing a sloppy, lovesick grin.

  “I assume you’d leave me if he crooked his finger?” Travis asked, pretending to be heartbroken. “Or belted out a tune in your honor.”

  “In a heartbeat!” Diana giggled. “Have you heard that man’s voice?”

  “I can sing!” Travis defended, breaking out in his cracking, off-pitch voice a love song he knew Ed Sheeran sang.

  “Oh, Lord, stop!” Diana cackled, looking around them as people turned their heads again. The couple was cracking up, and a few others around them were laughing as well. “People are staring.”

  Travis rose and took a bow. “Thank you, kind audience, for letting my dying cat voice entertain you until my girlfriend told me to shut up.”

  Applause rang out from the table close to them, everyone laughing at the antics of a silly couple so obviously in love.

  “We have a whole new set of problems,” Michael announced on Monday when Travis walked in.

  Surprised he was there, Travis jerked and nearly dropped his coffee. “Jesus Christ, you almost gave me a heart attack!”

  Michael smirked briefly. “No coffee for me?”

  “You’re never here this early. It would just get cold,” Travis reminded him as he sauntered past him to his office. He unlocked it, walked in, and set his coffee down. He looked at his friend, who had followed him holding a file folder. “I don’t like problems at eight in the morning.”

  “Better than eight at night,” Michael observed as he sat down in the chair across from Travis’ desk. “After you told me about the paperwork that hadn’t been filed, I immediately started looking for my mistake. And when I found it, I drove over and handed the papers, signed and dated when they were supposed to be, to city hall and the powers that be.”

  Travis smiled at him. “Sorry I was an asshole.”

  “You shouldn’t be. I fucked up and had to fix it,” Michael dismissed, sitting up as he was getting to the important part of the story.

  “Okay, so that was Friday. Today is Monday. How could we possibly already have a problem?”

  “Before I tell you this, I’m starting with a warning. Part of my story is going to irritate you,” Michael told him. “The other part is going to piss you off.”

  “I’m glad I had coffee before I left as well as this cup.” Travis sighed, sitting back in his chair so he’d be comfortable when he got the bad news.

  “I was hanging around that city hall so much, one of the secretaries and I got to chatting. Then, of course, we got to fucking,” Michael said sheepishly, though he was grinning from ear to ear.

  “Of course you did,” Travis grumbled with a raised eyebrow. “Is this the part that’s irritating?”

  Michael laughed. “Yes. But don’t get your panties in too much of a wad. The girl in the background the other day when you called? Same chick.”

  “You’re actually dating her?” Travis asked, shocked. The man rarely saw a woman more than a handful of times, and usually just once or twice.

  “Yeah,” he replied, grinning as he ran his hand over his head. “We went out for drinks, and she invited me back to her apartment. And I asked for her number before I left so I could ask her out on a real date.”

  “That’s great, man. Happy for you,” Travis answered, genuinely happy for his friend.

  “Yeah, thanks, but we still have a problem,” Michael continued. “Sarah filed the papers herself the day I drove them down there. But, when I checked with the doctors the next day, they said the papers were gone.”

  “Gone?” Travis sat up, concerned. “Are you sure your Sarah handled it?”

  “Asked her myself, and she assured me they were in the proper file when she left the office on Friday. She carried the file to the city manager’s office, who took it, flipped through them, and said everything was in order.”

  “What the hell?” Travis murmured.

  Michael shrugged. “The doctors have a theory, which is rather unpleasant, but it makes me look good.”

  Travis raised an eyebrow. “What’s that?”

  “The papers were in order the first time, and someone removed them. When I handed them over a second time, they disappeared again,” Michael recapped. “The doctors think the city manager is trying to stop the renovations.”

  “What the hell for?”

  “That was my question, and the answer is no one knows.”

  “So what do we do?”

  “We’re going to have to go down there and handle this, I guess,” Michael said.

  Travis sighed loudly without responding. He sat back in his chair and thought about Diana. Although they had confessed their love for each other, their relationship was still on rocky ground. They trusted each other, but they still had to prove to each other they had both changed. If he had to spend an entire week dealing with this and couldn’t see her, she would think he hadn’t changed a bit. He’d just have to make sure he saw her at least once before he left town.

  “All right, let’s leave this afternoon,” Travis finally answered.

  “Why not this morning?”

  “Because I am taking Diana to lunch before I leave town,” Travis told him, his voice clearly saying there would be no argument.

  Michael sat back and crossed his arms over his chest. “I guess the two of you are serious now?”

  “Absolutely.” Travis reached for his phone and sent Diana a text asking about lunch. “We see each other regularly, I stay at her place, she stays at mine. Definitely moving forward, which means this little business trip is going to be a bit of a problem.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Former workaholic,” Travis reminded him, pointing at himself. “I don’t want Diana thinking I’m slipping back into that life.”

  “One trip shouldn’t freak her out,” Michael announced, “and if it does…well, maybe some thinking needs to happen.”

  “No,” Travis said roughly. “She’s the one. Always has been. She’ll understand this is one time out of the last six I’ve had to be out of town for several days.”

  “I’m sure she will.” Michael rose to leave. “I have to run home and pack after I gather what we’ll need here. Pick you up at two?”

  “Two is good. I asked if she could meet at 11:30, so that should give us plenty of time.”

  Michael waved as he walked out of the office, and Travis’ phone dinged with a response to his text. She told him she could, and he offered to pick her up at the office, to which she said yes. He turned to his computer and began researching the city manager as well as his assistant and anyone who had contact with him on a daily basis.

  Chapter 15

  Diana was unhappy about the business trip because she wouldn’t get to see Travis until Friday before the concert. On Wednesday, she was so horny she could barely concentrate at work. That afternoon, she sent Travis a text message and asked if they could make a Skype date for eight o’clock that evening. His affirmative excited her, and she stopped by the same sex store she’d visited with Alyssa and bought a new vibrator. She had a plan for Travis’ Skype call, a plan that would knock his socks off.

  At
the apartment, she ran around like a madwoman, making her bed and cleaning her bedroom. She’d decided to put on a ton of makeup and do her hair, watching a YouTube video with a stripper explaining how she did her makeup for the stage. When she looked at the finished product, she nearly died laughing and immediately washed her face. She wanted to impress him, not terrify him and become a part of his nightmares.

  After taking off everything but a matching bra and panty set, she donned a robe and walked to the kitchen for a glass of wine. She’d need a little courage and less nerves if she was going to pull this off. She hoped he was as into this as he had been the bondage, which they had planned to try this weekend on her. He’d come so hard he had been incoherent, and she wanted that pleasure. He brought her close often, but she was positive that when he tied her up and she was completely under his control, mind-numbing would be the only description for what she’d feel.

  Chuckling to herself, she gulped her wine and grabbed the leftover baked chicken she’d made the night before, enough for at least three or four meals throughout the week, lunch or dinner, depending on her schedule. Because it was only six, she had two hours to eat and get a little tipsy before the new adventure of Sex Skyping began.

  A knock sounded on her door just as she put her chicken and a salad on her plate. Frowning, she glanced at her phone though she knew she had received no text from anyone announcing their arrival. She peered through the door and sighed. She opened the door and her mother breezed in as if she came over every day, not waiting for an invitation.

  “It’s awfully early to be in your robe, Diana,” Ellen said, her voice gravelly from years of smoke inhalation. She had one in her hand, lit and leaking the essence of cancer in Diana’s apartment. She wore a short skirt that was meant more for someone in their twenties, not fifties, and the top was tight and revealing. Her hair, the same shade of brown as Diana’s, was pulled back and shot through with gray, and the smoking had taken its toll on her mother’s face. She had a brand-new crop of wrinkles around her eyes.