by Mia Archer
He turned and looked at me, obviously still enraged, but there was something else to his face. He wasn't just purple because of rage. No, there was one hell of a shiner developing around his left eye. I stared in fascination. How did that get there?
Then that pain connecting to my brain in a sort of disembodied way roared to life in one hell of a major way. It was as though my knuckles were on fire. I cried out as I looked down and shook my hand.
Holy hell. Did I just punch out pastor Dan? Well, if I did he deserved it. And it felt damn good. I didn’t even feel guilty for thinking that. There was something that felt righteous and right about punching him when he was trying to hit me. I wondered if this was the sort of high he got when he was casting judgment on people.
"Are you okay?" Kirsten asked.
I wiggled my fingers. I knew it was pretty easy to break things when you punched people. I'd seen it when I was working towards my degree. I didn’t have much experience punching people out personally, after all. But there didn't seem to be anything seriously out of order. I'd grown up on a farm, after all. I could be tough when I needed it.
And apparently I thought I needed to be tough now. Sure he’d raised his hand against me, but damn. I'd punched him out!
"You hit me! You assaulted me!" he screamed.
It was odd. Almost amusing. Pastor Dan didn't sound nearly as threatening now. No, he was still bellowing and upset, but it sounded more tame and pathetic now. He sounded more pained than scary. I looked down at him and wondered how I could've ever been terrified by this man.
Of course I was still a little terrified about what he could potentially do when he got home. He could cause a hell of a lot of trouble for us. That worried part of my mind was roaring to the forefront now that the rage was starting to push back and pain and confusion were taking over. But at the same time there was still just enough rage doing the thinking that I didn't care all that much.
He could do his worst. He didn’t scare me anymore. I wouldn’t let him scare me anymore, damn it.
Pastor Dan turned on me with his hand balled into a fist and I wondered if he would really try to hit me again. Especially considering how poorly it ended for him the last time he tried me.
He held his fist in the air for a moment, but then his eyes went a little wider. He looked beyond me. I wondered if Kirsten was doing her best threatening routine behind me. I turned and gasped.
A massive crowd had gathered behind us, and none of them looked very happy. Everyone had been happy to let him go ahead and spew his hate as long as it was just empty words, but that seemed to come to an end as soon as he actually tried to lay hands on one of us.
I turned around. Smiled at him. "You're losing."
Those two simple words could encompass a whole hell of a lot, but in the moment I was referring to his attempt to hit me. Those two words were enough to distract him long enough for the cops to finally show up. They put a hand on his wrist and pulled him back before he could think about trying to land a punch. The other cop actually got out his cuffs and started putting them around pastor Dan's wrists.
He looked up at them in surprise. Some of that purple anger came back to his face, though it didn’t match the purple bruise welling up around his eye.
"What are you doing? She was the one who assaulted me!"
"Looked to me like you tried to hit this girl and she defended herself before you could land your punch," one of the cops said.
He looked up to me and winked, and I felt warmth running through me. This could've gone very badly for me, but it looked like it miraculously wasn't.
"Are you kidding me? All my friends saw her assault me!"
The cops both looked to the crowd gathered behind us. "And I'm willing to bet those nice people back there all saw you raise your hand at the girl and then she defended herself. Not to mention we caught the whole thing on our body cams."
Pastor Dan turned back and looked at us. There was pure hatred in his eyes, but there was something else there. Defeat. He was the one who tried to hit me first. It’s not like it was my fault I reacted like any good farm girl would when someone started trouble. What was I supposed to do? Let him hit me so I’d have a better self-defense case?
Not a chance in hell that was happening, thank you very much.
"Come on buddy," the first cop said. "I think it's time for you to come with us and cool down for the evening. Whaddya say?"
Meanwhile the other cop turned to the rest of the protesters from pastor Dan’s group. He surveyed them with a carefully neutral expression that made me think he didn’t particularly care for them even if he was good enough at his job to know he couldn’t do anything about them.
"You're welcome to stay here, but we're going to be leaving to take your buddy back to the station. You do what you want."
He looked over his shoulder to the angry crowd milling behind us. An angry crowd stirred up by one of their own bringing violence along with their words. I had to suppress a smile. Apparently the cop was good enough to know he couldn’t do anything about them, but he was also good enough to know what the implied threat of them not being around to do anything about that crowd meant.
A switch flipped. The protesters started very quickly packing their things up. It looked like the hate was done for this evening at least, though I had no doubt they’d be back on another night when tensions weren’t quite as high. It was obvious they were confident enough when they had the police right there to back them up, but apparently none of them wanted to risk the crowd gathering behind us without that protection.
The cop that had cuffed pastor Dan started pulling him along, but I reached out and grabbed his shoulder. He turned and looked at me. Raised an eyebrow.
"Hold on," I said.
I turned and looked at Kirsten. She smiled and nodded.
"Can I help you ma'am?" he asked. "We really did see him try to attack you. It's pretty open and shut. Even have it on the body cameras."
"Do you really have to take him in? Like what if I don't want to press charges or something?"
The entire time pastor Dan stared daggers at me. As though this was all somehow my fault. He was still pissed off at me even though I was trying to turn the other cheek. What did I do to this man to earn this irrational hatred?
The second cop leaned in close. Close enough that pastor Dan wouldn't be able to hear him.
"Don't worry," he said. "We're just going to give him some time to cool down and then let him go. Not like we can do much if you don’t want to make a big stink out of it anyways."
I giggled and shook my head. "Fine, if you promise."
"I promise," the cop said. "Though why you'd want to let him go without pressing charges…"
"What can I say?" I asked, loud enough that pastor Dan could hear me this time. "I guess I just know the value of mercy and grace a little better than some people."
Oh yeah. He didn't like that at all. I felt a soft hand on my shoulder. I turned to see Kirsten smiling.
"My hero," she whispered.
I wrapped her in a hug. It felt good standing up to him like that. Kirsten had been absolutely correct. I should’ve done this a long time ago, though admittedly punching him was probably not the best way to stand up to him. Even if he had deserved it.
I pulled away and her grin got even wider.
"I seem to recall you wanted to go back to a hotel room?" she said, biting her lip in an oh-so-sexy attempt to look sweet and innocent when I knew in the very core of my being that she was anything but.
I grinned and glanced over to pastor Dan. He was still staring daggers at me even as the cops hauled him away. His friends had completely disappeared in the meantime. Damn. That was fast work getting all that equipment down and out.
"Yeah," I said. "How about we head back to the hotel and do the sort of things that would make that asshole cry?"
"Now you're talking!" Kirsten said.
She grabbed me by the hand and dragged me along the street, and
I allowed myself to forget about my troubles and be swept away in the moment. Getting to punch out my childhood nemesis and see him hauled away in cuffs was only the start of tonight’s fun.
17: Cats, Bags, Etc.
I figured when we got back to the hotel we’d be up for a little bit of fun. I figured maybe Savannah would finally deliver on the promises made by that outfit that had been distracting me for so long. Only instead we fell into bed together and rather than getting hot and heavy we just kind of stared at each other in disbelief.
That went on for a little while before I finally broke the silence.
“So that whole thing was pretty interesting,” I said.
Savannah shook her head and giggled. “You were absolutely right. I should have done that a hell of a long time ago!”
I leaned in and gave her a kiss. Though surprisingly I didn’t feel the urge to climb on top of her. At least not too much. This seemed like a time of for talking and processing all the craziness that had just happened. Not a time for getting hot and heavy with each other.
“You know he’s going to make trouble for us when we get home,” I said.
Savannah sighed. This time there wasn’t any hand of a giggle. There was a something else there. Resignation? It was hard to tell.
I tried to imagine how she might feel. I could get an inkling. After all, I was the one trying to keep things a secret because of my job, but at the same time I really was telling the truth when I said she had a hell of a better reason for wanting to keep her own secrets.
“Yeah, what I did tonight was kind of stupid. It’s going to force our hand,” she said. She looked at me and there were tears welling up in her eyes. “I’m so sorry Kirsten.”
I leaned in and wiped some of those tears away. I hated seeing her like that. Still, it was better seeing her like this than seeing her afraid. Crying was something I could deal with. Something I could help with. Her retreating in on herself every time she saw pastor Dan was a harder nut to crack, though. That fear was her own demon. One that she’d exorcised good and proper tonight with one hell of a right hook.
“You have absolutely nothing to apologize for Savannah,” I said. “I was the one who told you that you needed to stand up to that asshat. Granted I didn’t think we’d run into him tonight. Or that you’d stand up to him in quite such a spectacular fashion… But still.”
“I know,” Savannah said. “But we’d just put together this whole plan. We were both in a good place. At least I thought we were. And now I’ve taken that good safe plan and thrown it out the window.”
I shrugged. “We figured out a way to make things work earlier. We’ll figure out a way to make things work now. What else can we do?”
“We could just run away together? Go to a part of the country where nobody knows us!”
I stared at Savannah. A long, flat stare. Finally after a moment she blushed, that cute blush that I was so intimately familiar with, and turned away from me.
“Okay, so maybe that’s a stupid idea.”
“Very stupid. We can’t just run away from our problems like that. Especially since that sort of problem is going to follow us everywhere short of moving to San Francisco or New York or Seattle, and neither one of us can afford that.”
Savannah laughed. “Yeah, I suppose you have a point.”
“Besides, who would take care of your mom, for starters?”
“I already admitted you’re right,” she said, just a hint of testiness coming to her voice. “So what do we do about this?”
“Invent a time machine and go back and maybe not have you punch out the pastor who’s going to go and blab to everybody now?” I paused for a moment. “Actually, maybe we shouldn’t do that. Even if time travel was possible, I still feel like that guy deserved everything he got tonight. Besides, we’d be better off saving JFK or giving our past selves a book of sports results so we can get rich or something.”
“There’s nothing for it,” Savannah said, sounding resigned. Though there was also something else there. A hint of anticipation. Very interesting.
“What are you thinking?” I asked.
“We’re going to have to come out. Again.”
I blinked in surprise. Stared at Savannah. Looked into her eyes.
“Are you serious?”
“Well you’re the one who said you didn’t care about your job, right?”
I paused. I needed to pick my words carefully. After all, that wasn’t exactly what I’d said. I just said that she stood to lose a lot more than I did. That wasn’t necessarily to say that I thought I didn’t have anything to lose. Just that I didn’t have quite as much to lose. Maybe the inconvenience of a job search. That didn’t mean I necessarily wanted to go to the trouble of looking for another job if I didn’t have to.
I didn’t say any of that though. Now was a time to be supportive. Besides, this felt like one of those moments that needed to be seized. Even if things were moving way faster than I’d anticipated even a few hours ago.
“Well, I suppose you’re right,” I said.
“What if we started with baby steps?” she asked.
“What do you have in mind when you stay baby steps?”
“Maybe you tell Ethel? See how she reacts? If she reacts well then maybe that means the people on the library board won’t blow up or something,” she said. “Ethel’s about as old and set in her ways as you can get in that town even if she is a sweetheart about it.”
“Right,” I said. “And after I tell Ethel you can go and tell your mom. Those are some really tiny baby steps.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I probably should just go ahead and tell my mom, and damn the consequences.”
I blinked in surprise again. Okay then. I figured the sarcasm dripping from my voice would be pretty damn obvious. I wondered if she was being sarcastic right back at me. Was this some game she was playing? Only she looked absolutely serious. I figured the idea of telling her mom would terrify her as much as the idea of telling Ethel worried me. But she looked so earnest.
“You’re serious,” I said.
“Well I said I wanted to be with you,” she said. “I suppose that means I should start telling people that we’re more than just friends. And I suppose that’s going to have to start with my mom.”
“What about all that stuff about worrying about how she might react?”
Savannah paused for a moment. It was obvious she was thinking things over. Not that I could blame her. There was a hell of a lot to think over. She looked away, and I gave her time to think and work through things. Finally she looked back and smiled.
“I have a feeling that based on a few things she said to me recently she might be more okay with it than I thought. Hell, I get the distinct feeling she might know more than I think she does, for that matter.”
I shrugged. “I suppose it’s your relationship with your mom. I’m just surprised that you would change your mind on this so quickly.
Savannah shrugged right back at me. “What can I say? This evening has changed my perspective on a few things. If you’re willing to stay in town just to be with me, why shouldn’t I be willing to tell people about how important you are to me?”
I couldn’t help myself. I leaned in and kissed her. The emotion of the moment was just too damn overwhelming. To hear her say that, to know that there was someone who thought that highly of me, that she was willing to risk the other important relationships in her life for a chance at our relationship, was almost too much for me.
When I finally pulled away and came up for air Savannah looked at me with obvious shock. Her chest heaved under me.
“Damn Kirsten! Where did that come from?”
“Let’s just say I was inspired,” I said.
“You still have to tell Ethel,” Savannah said.
I sighed. “I was hoping you might forget about that.”
“You’re a good kisser,” Savannah said. “But not that good.”
“I figured I could hope.”
“Well keep right on hoping.”
“So who are we going to tell first?” Savannah asked.
I leaned back. Laced my fingers together behind my head and stared up at the ceiling. Lights reflected off of the ceiling from the city outside. And I realized that I was so far removed from the worries of what might happen when we finally dropped the bomb in a couple of days that I didn’t care. No, all I cared about was that we were on a vacation together. We were enjoying each other.
And to be perfectly honest, I also felt a sense of relief knowing the truth was going to come out. Hiding and sneaking around after being out for so long when I was in college was exhausting. It reminded me of just how miserable life in the closet could be, even if it was only partially in the closet. I could understand completely that people had their own reasons for living that sort of life, but it wasn’t for me.
“How about we don’t worry about any of that right now? Sound like a deal?”
“That’s fine with me if it’s okay with you,” Savannah said. “I’ve been running away from this problem for so long that what’s another day or so?”
I grinned. “Now that’s the right idea!”
I felt like I could joke about this now that we’d made the decision to actually be truthful. Now that the decision had been made for us. Or, rather, now that the decision had been made by the aforementioned right hook that Savannah brought out of nowhere.
Savannah smiled. A wicked smile. The sort of smile that promised all sorts of forbidden delights.
“So if we’re not going to worry about the future, what are we going to do instead?”
I traced a finger down the length of her arm. I looked her up and down in that outfit that was oh so enticing and intoxicating. And some of the desire that had left me while we were busy having serious discussions about our future came roaring back.
“Oh I don’t know,” I said. “I’m sure there are a couple of things we could think of to pass the time. I haven’t gotten to see exactly what’s going on under this to top, for example,” I said.
Savannah bit her lip. God that was so sexy. She also blushed. A blush that ran down her face to her chest. A blush that was painfully obvious in that barely-there top.