WYLDER

by Kristina Weaver

  “No, but something has to be better than this. Are all the windows open?”

  “No, because I don’t have a hankering for someone to crawl in here and murder me in my sleep,” I mutter, shifting uncomfortably because he’s just standing there, looking at me.

  Oh the sweetness of heaven, the man has nice eyes, I think, watching him look around my house. I swell with pride when he does because I know the main rooms of the house are great.

  I got some white fabric on sale a few months back, and my friends Miriam and her boyfriend Tag helped me redo the couch. The coffee table has been sanded, and I stained it with some old whitewash Gran had in the garage.

  The rug is a profusion of blues and greys, a thrifty little piece I found at a garage sale that just needed a good beating and a hose-down in the backyard.

  And last but not least is the wall. Miriam’s boyfriend is a bouncer by trade, but he dabbles in murals, and I got him to paint the focal wall in the living room a soft blue that resembles a sky with wispy clouds.

  Yeah, I am proud of what I’ve done so far, and I smile when he looks at me in awe.

  “It’s beautiful in here, Teeny.”

  “Thank you. It’s taken longer than I thought it would, but I like it too. Would you like some tea?”

  He shuffles at the offer to stay longer, and I see him struggle with the thought of remaining in my sweat lodge longer than necessary before he sighs and shoves his hands to his hips.

  “Sure. Thank you.”

  I wave him to the living room and walk back to the kitchen to pour some tea, the second to last beverage I have besides milk, and almost drop the pitcher when I turn and he’s standing right behind me, gaping at the walls.

  “Damn, woman, this is the ugliest kitchen I have ever seen.”

  I take offense on the premise that my gran chose this monstrosity but start laughing when he spots the intricate tile work that must have been cast in hell because it’s lasting. Longer than I want it to.

  “I know, but my gran was a million years old, and she liked the sixties a whole lot! I’m doing the kitchen next and then the bathrooms and then the three bedrooms after that,” I assure him, taking in the colors and the scarred orange Formica counter tops with a wistful smile and memories of baking here with Mom and Gran.

  “What are you looking to do in here?” he asks when I push a glass at him and open the back door to go onto the porch.

  “Everything! The cupboards are brown, for God’s sake, and those counters are so bright still they give me nose bleeds when I look at them. I don’t like kitchen tile unless it’s a backsplash, so that’s coming out too. And believe it or not, I think there’s wood under the faded flooring, so I’ll tear that up first to see what’s under it.”

  He takes the seat kitty-corner to the swing, where I am sitting, and sips at his tea while I try to pretend I’m not nervous as hell. I can’t exactly help it though since the man has changed from trunks into a pair of dark blue shorts and a shirt that shows off his arms.

  “I won’t hurt you,” he says again, softly and with so much regret that I force myself to relax and lean back.

  “Okay. Sorry, I just…I’m not used to having men in my house, and you have to admit you’re huge.”

  He inclines his head and stares out at the dark ribbon where I can see the river meandering in the distance.

  “My whole family is big except Ma, and…yeah, sorry, we’re all this huge. You should see my brother Wolf. He’s a mountain compared to the rest of us.”

  “You have a big family?”

  “Four brothers,” he says with a grin though I note his eyes go stark for a second. “I’m one of triplets.”

  “Holy hell, your poor mother,” I laugh, enjoying the deep sound of his own laughter when he looks at me and smirks.

  “Yeah, we were all a bit of a handful growing up, and my brother Wolf is only two years older, while Bear is exactly ten months our senior. We all arrived in a handful of years, so she was busy. How about you? Family?”

  “One sister and a niece.”

  “I have a nephew on the way in about two months, and my other sister-in-law, Lori, is also pregnant.”

  I smile because that is so great! There’s nothing like babies to round off a family. And if I were in a place to have choices other than what I should do to eat another day, I’d probably be more into the whole baby thing myself.

  I’m just a girl after all, and I love babies. I’d really like to one day have a child of my own to love, a little person who I can raise with the same love and care that I didn’t get from my own parents, just Gran.

  “Nice. I have a niece named Tammy, and she’s a peach. I spend as much time with her as I can when I’m not working or doing stuff with the house.”

  A little lie that has him turning his head to me in question.

  “You’re lying somewhere in there, but I can’t tell which part.”

  My cheeks go hot, but I don’t shrink away when our eyes meet, because I hate that he’s caught me out and I swear to myself I will learn to lie better.

  “I see Tam…sometimes. When it’s convenient for my sister, Ally,” I admit softly, drinking because I need something to do with my hands. “She’s…difficult sometimes.”

  “Ah, sibling quarrels,” he muses.

  “Something like that. Anyway, these brothers of yours. Four?” I ask, changing the subject because I really do not want to talk to about Ally.

  “Four, and my two womb mates, Lyon and Hawk,” he says, smiling.

  “Identical?”

  “Almost. Hawk’s bigger than me and Lyon but only because he’s got more muscle. Asshole can bench press a truck. And then Lyon, he’s second of us three. He’s a wily bastard that one. He just survived a bullet to the back and is engaged to his sweetheart, Leila.”

  I gasp, and he laughs at my horror, shaking his head when I go to ask.

  “Nuh, it’s all good. My four brothers run an agency that specializes in protection and recovery of people and sometimes…other things. It’s all in the job description.”

  “And you?”

  “I was with them for a bit, a few months at least, and while I don’t hate it, I’ve just always wanted to be in construction. Fighting can be lucrative, but I wanted to be home and have roots. Family business.”

  Aaah, the lone wolf as it were, I think, watching him look out at the night and listen to the crickets sing their songs.

  “You own your own company. Nat says you built it just recently, no pun intended, and that you’re doing some restoration of the old quarters that still have Katrina-damaged houses?”

  I respect that because, unbelievable as it may be so many years after the great storm, there are a lot of neighborhoods still standing unoccupied because the homes are condemned.

  People come down here every so often still and shoot some show showing how they’re reviving the place and helping people, but I don’t think many understand that scale of destruction that happened here.

  It wasn’t a few hundred homes that were lost, more like thousands of homes, thousands of families displaced by the ravages of nature. And many who lived here had no recourse but to leave their homes standing abandoned because the cost of rebuilding or just getting homes livable wasn’t possible.

  Ally and I were out of the state at the time with Gran, who took us to see a friend of hers, and if not for Gran’s savings, the house would have been lost just like so many were.

  It’s just laughable that the freaking kitchen wasn’t touched at all, but the main rooms down here saw their fair share of water. It took a while, but they made the house livable, and that’s all Gran wanted.

  Now, here I am, fixing it all up in my own pathetic attempt to create something new from the ashes of a life I thought would never be better than what I had.

  I thank Gran every single day for leaving me this place, because I can tell you if Ally had even a crumb of this place, it would have been sold in a snap.

  “I
like that. Not many people still care about the displacement of whole families down here. My friend Miriam used the savings she made from dancing to help a family on her street rebuild.”

  Lynx smiles at the reference and goes on to tell me that his sister-in-law Lori used to dance down in Texas because she left home at seventeen and needed a job.

  I laugh when he tells me his brother Wolf tried to secretly install a pole in the house he bought next door to his parents’ place and laugh even harder when he tells me that she’s giving Danny and Leila lessons just to pass the time.

  “I hear it’s a good workout. I’d love to try it, but the studio close to my job is pretty pricey.”

  “You should call Lori. That woman would give you free lessons just to show Wolf she can make a business of teaching the trade.”

  I laugh again because any woman that sassy is definitely someone I’d get along with.

  “So, uh, thanks for coming over and all—”

  “You kicking me out, Teeny girl?” he asks, cutting me off with a knowing smile.

  I want to smile back, but right now, looking at him, I can’t guarantee something terrible wouldn’t happen. Like me throwing myself at the man and licking his mouth just to see if it tastes as good as it looks.

  “No, just…I have to go in to work early tomorrow to talk to my boss, and I need to look…presentable,” I mutter, shuddering at the thought of making myself more attractive to Franklin.

  I’d rather walk across hot coals than have that man looking at me, never mind making myself pretty to go ask him for money. Because I am going to, no matter what I said to Ally, and we both know it.

  I can never just abandon my sister this way, and the truth is she’s counting on that.

  “And you don’t look presentable usually?” he teases.

  “Yeah,” I laugh back. “Not much call for makeup and the lot when I’m filing in the back room.”

  “Then what…?”

  “I’m gonna ask him for a favor, and uh, I just want to look my best.”

  “Sleeping in the hotbox?”

  I grin back at him and finish off the tea, enjoying the cooler air out here.

  “Goodnight, Lynx Wylder. I promise not to swim in your pool without permission.”

  He chuckles and stands to leap from the porch into the backyard.

  “Night, Teeny, and swim whenever you want. Just wear the bikini or less!”

  Chapter Five

  Teeny

  I’m sweating like mad even in the air-conditioned air of Franklin Air. I like working here in the summer months, even with the toad skulking around sexually harassing me, because it’s like stepping into a freezer once I pass the front doors.

  The offices are small, with only five women working the phones and odd jobs while the men contract out all day installing systems in the houses, but I just putter in the background, filing and making coffee.

  Right now, I am sweating though because, as cool as it is in here, I’m about to expire from nerves. Savannah looks up from her monitor where she’s no doubt playing solitaire again and gives me a look.

  “What you doing here today, girl? Ain’t it your day off?”

  “Yeah, but I, uh, need to talk to him,” I say, hustling past before she can stop me to ask why.

  I don’t need anyone knowing I’m here with my hand out, especially not with the way things have been going lately. They’d all assume I was sleeping with him for favors, and I don’t need office gossip clinging to me.

  Taking a deep breath, because I’m so nervous I’m breathing in short gasps, I knock at his door and pray I don’t go in there to see him with another of his office chippies.

  Franklin likes to hire receptionists regularly, girls he uses and then onto the next best thing. Which was not me, thankfully.

  “Yeah!”

  Taking another breath, I open the door and slip in, stopping with my hand on the doorknob just in case I need to open it fast and get out.

  “Teeny? What are you doing here today? I thought it was your day off?” he asks, though I can hear the anticipation when he stands and starts coming towards me.

  Oh gosh, I really wish he didn’t make my skin shrink with revulsion because that’s exactly what happens when he stops in front of me and reaches out a hand to touch me.

  I flinch away before his hand can make contact and try to suppress the shudder, but he sees it and gets that angry look I am now so familiar with.

  “One day you’re gonna look at me without all that disgust, and it’ll be too late, Albertina.”

  Spitting out that will only happen when pigs fly isn’t going to help me, not now, so instead, I slip past him and take a seat in front of his mess of a desk, clenching my hands against the need to tidy it because I need something to do.

  “I need an advance.”

  There, I’ve said it, and I can only wait for his answer.

  Franklin huffs because I don’t make small talk the way he expects, and goes around to sit, hitching a hip up to the corner of the desk. I hate it when he does this because it’s his way of lording it over me, intimidating me with his size and superiority, and it always works.

  I’m so freaking on edge sitting is hard, but I manage to look up at him and meet his eyes, praying that today is a better day and that just once he’ll be a decent human being.

  “What for?”

  Asshole.

  “Franklin, please, just tell me yes or no—”

  “Tell me what you want money for over a week before payday and I might just do it, Teeny. If not, you can turn around and go home.”

  I know Franklin, know that he’s just waiting for a chance to bad-mouth Ally to me. He’s never liked her, not since he made a pass at her and she told him off.

  For some reason, the pig only chases after women who tell him off, but with Ally, he took it personally.

  “I need to buy food and pay—”

  “Your sister’s rent,” he snarls, flicking me a sneer. “I don’t give a shit what happens to that bitch, and I am not giving you an advance just so that you can run after her paying off her debts. You may not believe this, Teeny, but I care about you, and I won’t let you use money you don’t have to give to that…”

  I know that answer already, but I’m not ready to give up, more fool me.

  “Please. I’ve been a good worker, Franklin. I come in even when it’s my day off, if we’re short-staffed or one of the girls is sick. I never shirk the hard work, and I’m easy to get along with. Please,” I beg, hating that I have to do this, knowing even now that it’s not happening.

  “No, Teeny. If you need food, if you need to pay for something, then I’ll take you and pay.”

  “But—”

  “And I’d expect you to repay me,” he replies so honestly I almost believe he’s being honorable. “With something I want.”

  The meaning there is clear, so clear that I flinch and open my mouth, rearing back when he shifts over the desk and leans into me, his hands on the chair arms caging me in.

  “I’ve been watching you for two years now, Teeny. You don’t date. You don’t go out with anyone but that stripper you hang out with. All you do is fix that rundown house of yours and run after Ally. Don’t you ever want more? A man who will give you an easy life, sex, pleasure, security?”

  Of course I want all those things! I once dreamed of meeting someone who would love me and take care of me, cherish me, love me, pleasure me.

  I wanted that once, but once bitten is a lesson I learned a long time ago, and now all I want is peace. A nice home that I made for myself, because I am the only person I can depend on. Food. A warm bed. Good friends.

  That’s all I have wanted for three years, and I will have it. If only I could get Ally to be more responsible.

  “Please, Franklin. I need…just enough to see me through the next week and a half, and then you can take it off my pay.”

  “Teeny—”

  “I am not sleeping with you! I won’t do it
, especially for favors, Franklin. I have my pride and—”

  “And you’re gonna starve with that pride, Teeny. Clear out your desk. You can come get your money next week when payroll is done.”

  “What? Oh God, no, please don’t fire me. I won’t…you don’t have to give me the advance, and I won’t ask again,” I stammer, afraid now because this job is a good one.

  It doesn’t pay as well as some others, and I work five days a week, six if you count all the Saturdays Franklin makes me come in for no pay. But it’s what I have right now, and I need it!

  “Go. I’m tired of paying you to do a job Angel or the others could do, just to keep you around. If you’re not going to wake up and see what’s right in front of you, I don’t need to keep you here.”

  “Because I won’t sleep with you!” I rage, jumping to my feet with tears coursing down my cheeks.

  Franklin shrugs, his big shoulders rolling beneath his thin T-shirt.

  “Because you’re a waste of time if all I get from you is some paperwork and your skittish scuttling around the office. Go home. Go suffer under that sister of yours. I offer you more than just sex. When you’re ready to accept, you know where to find me.”

  I’d argue but I know him, and I know I’m done, sunk. I can have my security here, with him, if I give up my body to him, or I leave and go away empty-handed.

  For a split second, I stand exactly where I am and consider it, my fear of starvation and living on the streets almost sinking me further.

  “I won’t be coming back, and you can bet I’m calling someone about this. You just fired me for not sleeping with you.”

  “No, Teeny, you’re a temp, and we simply don’t need you anymore.”

  Don’t cry. I say it over and over again even as the tears fall when I make my walk through the office and finally get onto the street.

  Oh shit.

  ********************************************************************

  Three days have passed, and I am in real, real trouble here. I have no food, nothing, not even the vegetables I usually grow, because something got into the garden last night and ripped up what little I had.