by Hadley Quinn
He smiled at her message, happy to hear her voice.
The next voicemail was from Paul, and Van wasn’t very happy about it.
“I think that Brian guy was here earlier, looking for Dani,” Paul’s message said.
Van listened to the rest of the message that described Marnie’s interaction with the guy. Dani had gone downstairs, excited to finally see her friend Casey, but the lobby was empty. After talking to Marnie, Dani decided that it had to have been Brian, especially since Casey’s hair was jet black, and he was barely six-foot. That was definitely not the guy that Marnie spoke to, and he smiled way too much.
Van hardly slept that night while he waited for a better time to call Dani. He told himself to wait until seven, but he couldn’t hold off by the time it was six-fifty. He was sure she’d be up soon enough for work if she wasn’t already.
“Why did he have to call you?” Dani grumbled, very annoyed that Paul had gone ahead and done it when she told him not to.
“Because I asked him to. I told him to let me know if anything weird comes up when I’m not around. This is getting a little out of hand. I think something needs to be done.”
She agreed, but didn’t know what to say.
“Dani, I’ll talk to management to make sure Brian doesn’t set foot in there again, okay? And besides in the apartment, I don’t want you being anywhere else alone, just in case. I’m gonna make sure he stops calling you and that he stops with the stalking.”
“How are you going to do that?” she asked, feeling really worried. The last thing she wanted was to pull Van into this deeper than he already was.
“For now I have someone that can have a little chat with him legally, just to make sure he stays away from you.”
“And what if it doesn’t work?”
Van sighed to himself. His answer was that he’d take care of it himself, but he knew Dani didn’t want to hear that. “Then you would need to file a restraining order against him.”
“That would piss him off even more, Van. I don’t know… Maybe we should just leave it alone. He’s not going to do this for long, and as soon as he decides on his own that it’s over between us, then he’ll move on. The more that’s done to provoke him, even if I have every right, the madder he’s going to get. I know him, Van. I think we should just give it some time.”
He agreed with her about Brian’s personality. He was the type to do things out of spite. But Van wasn’t so sure about letting the last incident slide. He didn’t want Brian to be around Dani at all, and lurking around the apartment building—and lying to Van’s neighbors about who he was—was already crossing the line.
But he went along with Dani and decided not to do anything just yet. She basically pleaded with him, claiming that it would only cause a bigger problem. But he wasn’t going to let down his guard—not even a little—and he made Dani agree to a couple of things first. He only wanted her to be safe, and he didn’t want Brian to have any opportunities to be alone with her.
Van couldn’t remember a shift feeling so long, and by the time he left the firehouse the next evening, he was relieved to be heading home. He knew that Dani was still at work since it was barely five, but he looked forward to finally seeing her when she was done.
When he entered his apartment, he was surprised. It was really clean. He could tell Dani had vacuumed, mopped the kitchen floor, and cleaned the bathroom. Van wasn’t a slob, but he had never seen his apartment look so good. She had even cleaned the windows and dusted. There was a vase of fresh flowers on the coffee table, and even though he wasn’t one to add pretty touches to anything, he thought it looked really nice.
The other surprise he found was on the kitchen counter. She’d made stew in a slow cooker and it was simmering on low. He lifted the lid to get a whiff and it smelled amazing. His stomach growled and his mouth watered, and he had to grab a bowl right away. As he carried his dinner to sit down, he noticed the chocolate chip cookies that filled an unfamiliar cookie jar on the counter.
The lengths she had gone to for him… He was grateful. And as he sat at the table enjoying the dinner she’d made for him, he was also feeling pretty damn happy. But even though there was a part of his life that was finally being filled, he still felt anxious.
“I guarantee I’m gonna fuck this up somehow,” he muttered to himself.
A knock sounded at the door. With the bowl in his hands, he got up to answer it. “Hey, Scotty. Just in time for food.”
“Food? Since when do you make things that are edible?”
Van grinned and motioned his neighbor in. “Since I found myself the best girl in the world. Grab a bowl.”
“I can’t stay. Gotta take a quick shower and jet. I just brought these by. Mickey wanted me to give ‘em to you.”
Van took the discs out of his hand and smirked, assuming it was fight footage of some sort. “Sure. Thanks. Hey, grab a bowl to go.”
He dished Scotty some stew, and when he left, Van looked forward to Dani’s arrival for two hours. By the time it was seven o’clock, he was really worried about her. He didn’t want to seem needy or overly dependent, but he really wanted to see her.
Dani answered his call on the last ring, just as she was getting out of her car. “Hey, sexy. You home yet?”
“Yeah,” he replied. “I’ve been home for a couple of hours. I thought I told you I get off at four-thirty?”
“Oh. Well, yeah, you did…”
Van wasn’t sure what the pause meant. “Well, what are you up to? It’s after seven; I thought you’d be back here by now.”
“Back at your place? Oh, you mean…?”
He paused again, feeling a little perplexed. “Where are you?”
“I’m at Jaime’s.”
“Uh, not for the night, right? You’re coming here, aren’t you?”
“Um, well, did you want me to come over?”
Again he was confused, not really understanding where the miscommunication was. “Dani, you’re welcome to still stay here. You don’t have to leave just because I’m home. I didn’t offer my place to you just while I was gone. I want you to stay.”
Dani considered that for a few seconds. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do with her living situation. She chose not to assume that Van wanted her to stay—she was waiting for him to offer—but now that he had, she still wasn’t so sure. Her mistakes with Brian still haunted her.
“Well, I’m dropping off some groceries for my sister right now. I’ll be a few minutes and then I’ll head over and we can talk about it.”
“Okay,” Van agreed, not sure what there was to talk about. But maybe she’d found another apartment or something.
“I’ll see you in about twenty minutes,” she said. “Do you need anything while I’m out and about?”
He smiled at her thoughtfulness. “No thanks, but you can get your beautiful ass over here so I can thank you properly for my dinner and clean apartment.”
She lightly laughed. “Whatever. That’s only a small payment to you for letting me have a place to stay.”
“Dani, you don’t owe me any— Never mind, just get over here, okay? I miss you.”
She chuckled again. “Okay, see you in a bit.”
***
Dani was really excited to see Van. She’d talked to him on the phone a couple of times, and he’d even told her she could stop by the firehouse to see him. But she just felt uncomfortable about being too much too soon. And she was afraid of seeming too compliant. She wasn’t interested in playing hard to get, but she was worried that her previous relationship with Brian had made her too accommodating. She didn’t feel like Van would take advantage of her like that, but she was automatically in cautious mode. Dani really had wanted to visit him at work. After she hadn’t seen him for an entire twenty-four hours, she felt way too eager to see him. She didn’t know what it was about Van, but he was like a magnet that drew her in. She had to be careful with that.
But it didn’t help when she got to his apartm
ent and he gave her the sweetest, most lovable kiss imaginable. She was weak in the knees, and she was glad when he led her to the couch to sit down.
“So? How was your day?” he asked her.
She had to take a few seconds to compose herself after such an engaging kiss. “Um, it was fine. A little slow, but now I’m way ahead of schedule. How was your last twenty-four hours?”
He shrugged. “Pretty uneventful. One small kitchen fire that was already taken care of, and one false alarm. Nothing too exciting.”
“And what do you consider to be ‘exciting’?” she asked with a smile.
He chuckled. “Uh, well, something a little more than just going for a drive in the truck.”
“So actually fighting a fire, huh?”
“Well, that is in the job description,” he teased her.
“I know, but…”
“Don’t tell me you’re actually worried about me.”
She smiled at the tease in his voice again. “Of course I get worried. I don’t want anything to happen to you. It’s a dangerous job.”
He quietly considered that for a moment, pleased that she cared about him. “Well I worry about you, too,” he told her.
“My job isn’t dangerous,” she laughed.
“Well, no, but I’m talking about other stuff…”
She looked at him for a few seconds and gradually nodded her head. “Oh.”
Van took a moment before he asked, “Nothing else has come up, right? He hasn’t called you or anything?”
“No, changing my number did the trick.”
“For now.”
Dani studied Van for a bit, realizing that he wanted to talk about it some more. She decided to give him something, just to be fair since he tried so hard to look out for her.
“I talked to Eddie yesterday,” she said. “I know you talked to him too, but I figured I’d go talk to him in person—introduce myself again. He was pretty adamant that Brian wouldn’t be coming into the building without him knowing about it. He kind of felt bad that he did see him talking to Marnie that day but didn’t do anything about it.”
“He thought he was a friend of Marnie’s or something. It wasn’t his fault.”
“I know, and I told him that too.” She thought for a few seconds and then added, “I like Eddie. He’s kind of a funny guy.”
Van chuckled. “Yeah, he is.”
“Why does he keep referring to this building as ‘the block’?”
Van smiled. “Well, he’s actually referring to my floor. The entire fourth floor has been referred to as ‘The Fighter’s Block’ because of me. I was the first fighter to move here, and people just started referring to it that way. When I used to fight down at the Divehouse, Mickey managed this building as well. When I turned eighteen and was on my own, he set me up in this place. After that he started to house other fighters here and…it’s just stayed that way ever since. Now the whole floor consists of former or current fighters. But this is still considered my block,” he winked with a smile.
Dani returned the smile and slowly nodded. “Ah, I see. The original fighter to reside here, and still the block leader,” she teased. “So Paul and Cody are MMA fighters?”
“Yep.”
“And Quincy?” she asked with a surprised smile.
Van laughed. “Yeah, Quincy used to fight but he’s taken too many hits to the head—too many concussions over the years. Now he mainly sticks to, uh, supervising.”
“Supervising?”
“Yeah, he’s more of the guy in the corner for moral support. He loves the sport and has a hard time staying away. I don’t blame him. But yeah, he sticks to coaching and stuff.”
“Ah, gotcha,” she nodded.
***
Brian was pissed that Dani had changed her phone number. If she thought she could shake him that easily, she was sadly mistaken. For now he’d let her have a little freedom, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t going to keep tabs on her. Sooner or later she’d realize that she’d made a mistake, and he could pretend to be patient and understanding until she came crawling back for a place to stay. She was still helping to pay for her brother’s medical expenses, so there was no way she’d have the money for her own place. And she didn’t like staying at Jaime and Steve’s because all they did was bitch at each other, so Brian was sure his chances were good. For now he’d just play it cool until Dani created another mess for him to bail her out of.
Friday he drove down Willet Street, his current route from work to home. It was almost seven o’clock, so he knew Dani was done with work. He saw her car parked on the street and he parked his own another block down. He didn’t know what he expected to get out of this routine, but he just liked knowing where she was. He sat there for an hour, expecting that she might be going out sometime soon. But her car remained, and there was no sign of her. He thought about going into the building, getting on the elevator, and just picking a floor to meander. But after his last visit, he was sure that Dani figured out it was him. After all, she did change her phone number the next day.
He called up Andy and told him he had a job for him. He wanted him to get Dani’s new phone number.
“Come on, man,” Andy replied. “Just leave it alone. If you want her back, harassing her isn’t gonna do it.”
“Just get the fucking number, Andy. Do you want your shit this month or not?”
Andy sighed but finally agreed.
“And if you happen to find me an apartment number to the place she’s staying at, I’ll double your pay,” Brian added before hanging up with his brother.
He looked ahead to the apartment complex. There wasn’t a chance he’d be able to enter the lobby again without someone getting suspicious. He was lucky the first two times, but he wasn’t going to push it for a third. But that didn’t mean someone else couldn’t get some information for him… He thought about that for a minute, but he decided he first needed more to go on, and he left for home around eight-thirty.
Five minutes later Van and Dani returned from going out to dinner. Van turned into the alley and parked his truck in his designated space, and then went around to the passenger’s side to open Dani’s door. She always thought that was pretty sweet of him, and he’d been doing it since the very first night she met him. But these days Van would usually kiss her as he shut the door, and then take her hand to walk. She was becoming used to the routine, and she liked it.
“Nighty night,” Eddie said to them on their way past the office from the back entry.
“Goodnight, Eddie,” Dani smiled, but she set a small container on the desk in front of him.
“What’s this?” he asked with surprise.
“Just a piece of pie.”
Van smiled because of how thoughtful his girlfriend was. He opened the door to the stairs just as they both heard Eddie exclaim, “Blackberry!”
“I think he’s happy,” Dani said as she climbed the steps.
“I think you’ve made his entire week.”
“With a piece of pie?”
“Yes Dani, with a piece of pie,” he smiled.
Dani knew what he meant and felt a little humbled, which is why she’d decided on getting him the pie in the first place. Eddie hardly had anything good in his life these days. His wife died the year before after battling cancer for six years, and his three grown kids gave him nothing but trouble.
Dani and Van entered the hall on the fourth floor and Van said, “Oh, I was supposed to pass along a message to you from Marnie.”
“Oh, yeah? How long ago was the message supposed to be passed along?”
He chuckled and unlocked the door to 4C. “Just from yesterday. She’s having a few friends over tomorrow and she wanted us to come. I’ll be at work, but I think you should still go.”
Dani considered it for a moment. She wasn’t really that social around people she didn’t know very well, but she did like Marnie. However, she knew she’d feel more comfortable being there if Van were there too.
“I
’ll think about it. My sister and I were thinking about visiting Simon.”
“Is your brother doing better than last week?”
Dani smiled and nodded her head. “Yes, he is.”
Van nodded, happy to hear it. “You know, I was thinking,” he said as they sat on the couch. “Your brother’s name is Simon? And your sister is Jaime… Your other sister is Fontaine… You’re Danielle… Do your parents have some sort of fascination with the French?”
Dani replied, “Oh, yeah. Totally. They’re obsessed.”
Van studied her carefully, not sure of the little smile she was toying with. “You want to expound on that? Obviously I’m missing something.”
She shrugged. “Je suis désolé, mes parents sont Français.”
Van looked at her with confusion. “Excuse me? Okay, so you speak French too?”
“Oui, c’est ma première langue. Yes,” she smiled. “I am French.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”
“French-American. My parents are both French—Dominic and Simone—and they moved here just before I was born.”
“Really,” he stated. “I had no idea. Your last name is Martin…”
“Martin,” she said, letting it roll off her tongue. “It’s a very common surname in France. Probably the most common, like Thomas.”
“Hmm, I see,” he nodded. “And what’s your middle name?”
Dani smiled at his interest, and after a few seconds replied, “Chalice.”
Van raised an eyebrow again. “Spell it.”
“C-h-a-l-i-c-e.”
He thought about it for a second. “Danielle Chalice Martin. Well, that’s the Americanized pronunciation of it. Say it French-style.”
She chuckled but said, “Danielle Chalice Martin. But I prefer Jersey-style,” she added with a wink.
He nodded his head and said, “Good, because that’s about all I can do. And I’m a little used to just calling you Dani.”