by Peyton Banks
They spurred into action, and I watched them grab Oscar. The paramedic treating me jumped out to help. He and Oscar knew each other.
When they wheeled him inside, David ran alongside his gurney, spouting out medical jargon like they did on television. A woman hopped into the ambulance a few seconds later. She must have been the one driving.
“Shani.” She squeezed my arm. “My name’s Harper. Are you in any pain?”
I blinked and focused on her. She had beautiful hazel eyes and a skin tone close to mine. Her hair pulled back in a ponytail.
“Is Oscar going to be okay?”
She checked my vitals and waved as more doctors came to the door of the ambulance and pulled me out.
Harper spoke the same gibberish to the doctors.
“Put her in trauma 2.” A man in green scrubs and a white jacket touched the bandage on my hand. I pulled away from him.
“Where’s O?” I asked Harper. “I want to see him.”
“The doctors are working on him.” She walked with me as the doctors wheeled me into trauma 2. “Let’s get you checked out, and then I’ll go see how O is doing.”
“No.” I pushed the doctor’s hands off of me. “Go check now. O.”
“Shani.” I sat back as the other paramedic came into my view. “My name’s David.”
“How is O?” I asked.
He eased me to my back.
“The doctors are working on him.” He looked down.
“He was fine.” I gripped David’s arm. “He rescued me. He got me out safe.”
“Oscar is a friend. We all love him. We have the best doctors working on him.” They worked on me around David. “I’ll stay with you until we hear something.”
“He rescued me,” I whispered.
“Yeah, it’s kind of what he does.”
“But don’t call him a hero.” I blinked away tears as a smile formed on my lips.
“Yeah,” David squeezed my arm. “He hates that.”
After demanding to see Oscar for the tenth time, the nurse slipped something into my IV and I slept through the night. It kept the nightmares away.
I woke up and everything hurt. The burn on my right hurt the most. The doctor checked me out one more time and wanted to keep me for one more day but agreed to let me see Oscar. They wouldn’t tell me anything about his injuries.
The nurse helped me shower and then wheeled me into his room. The bed barely contained him. His eyes were closed. A bandage wrapped around his head and more around his torso. Cuts and bruises peppered his arms.
The nurse wheeled me close to the bed.
“I’ll give you a few minutes with him.”
“Is he going to be okay?” I touched his arm—it was warm.
“He’ll be fine.” She patted my shoulder and left the room. I leaned over and kissed his hand. His fingers twitched. I looked up.
“Hey, beautiful.” His tone was low but firm.
“Hey.” I took his hand. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” He lifted his head and groaned.
“Don’t sit up.” I lifted the head of the bed with the remote. “Okay?”
“Yeah.” He nodded. He blinked, and his eyes cleared. “Are you okay?”
“Just some burns and bruises.” I held up my hands.
He dropped my hand and ran his thumb across the bandage over my eye.
“He do that to you?” Oscar asked.
I took his hand and looked away. I was used to his fist—slamming me into a door was new. When we were together, I got good at taking a punch. I was out of practice, and my forehead hurt like a son of a bitch.
“Shani, look at me.” He said my name with so much tenderness; it made my heart ache for what I put him through. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It’s difficult for me to talk about.” I wiped the tears off my cheeks. “I wanted to. I did.” I dropped my gaze. It was hard to look at him.
“But.” He lifted my chin.
“But, I didn’t want you to think I was weak or stupid.”
“I could never——
“I put up with his abuse for nine years.” I sat back. “I wasn’t one of those women who thought she deserved it or thought I could stop him. I knew I would get out. It took me nine years to figure out how.”
“Your family?”
“My parents are older, and they live so far away, they never came to visit us.” I shrugged. “They never knew.”
He looked away and blinked. The shame enveloped me.
“I want to understand.”
“I want you to understand.” I stood. “I don’t want you to think less of me for staying. It wasn’t always bad, we would go six to eight months without an incident and then something would set him off and it would be on.”
“You thought he had changed, during those times?”
“No. I always knew it was a matter of time.” I bit my lip. “Sometimes you get stuck and your mind rationalizes it for you. Next time I'll get help or leave him. Or next time, I'll call the police and have him arrested.” I shrugged. The endless excuses played on a loop in my head.
“How did you finally decide to leave?” Oscar cringed. He was in pain.
“We can talk about this later.” I touched his arm.
“No,” he whispered and squeezed his eyes shut. “I want to know.” He opened his eyes.
“A few things lined up.” I blinked and touched my hair. “My grandfather died and left me some money. I had saved up more over the years, putting a dollar here, five dollars there in a water jug. Jacob and I fought the night before he left on a business trip. That's when he cut my hair.” I bit my lip.
“Why did he cut your hair?” Oscar rubbed his thumb over my hand.
“Because it clogged up the bathtub.” I swallowed and blinked. I willed myself to continue. “His trip took him overseas for two weeks. The day he left, I counted the money. For years, I had in my head the number I needed to leave. With the money in the jug and my grandpa money, it was the exact amount I needed. I took it as a sign. I walked into town the same day and bought a car with cash. I drove it to New York and disappeared.”
“What about your name?”
“Shani is my first name. Despite my Captain America obsession, Rogers is my mother’s maiden name.” I smirked.
Oscar nodded.
“Thank you for rescuing me.” I cradled my hand in my arm. It throbbed, but not as bad as my heart. “I know it’s not your job anymore, but I appreciate it. And, I’m sorry for not telling you I was married. I just wasn’t ready for you to look at me different.” I turned towards the door.
“Shani.” He whispered my name. I barely heard it. Not much conviction in his voice. I had no right to be disappointed.
“Don’t worry about it. I get it.” I shook my head and headed towards the door.
Oscar cleared his throat.
“Shani.” His tone more firm. “Get your cute ass back over here.”
I shuddered and turned towards him. I held my ground. Although the cute ass remark kind of got to me.
“When Jacob came to see me, he told me you were a lot to deal with.” Oscar touched the bandage on his head. “You had confidence issues. He said you were weak and selfish. He said you don’t deal with issues, you react and then run away.”
I bit my lip.
“I realized.” He rubbed his face. “Well, not quick enough, but I realized the person he described was not the woman I fell for.”
I clutched my chest. My heart punched me in the palm it beat so fast. I opened my mouth but closed it when Oscar continued.
“You are sweet and confident, and now I know what you’ve been through, how you rescued yourself and built a new life for yourself. You’re a badass, Shani.”
I walked back to Oscar and took his hand.
“You must be on some really good drugs.” I sat on the edge of the bed.
“Maybe, but I mean every word. I’ll say it again tomorrow and the next day and the next day until you b
elieve me.”
I leaned in and kissed him.
“I’m looking forward to it.” He kissed me back.
Epilogue
Oscar
One month later
I grabbed an empty booth inside near the window.
Not the same coffee shop—we found one on our block. The brownstone depressed Shani. She held on to so much guilt for having to displace everyone while it was under construction. Thank God the owners had good insurance.
Shani and I shared our coffee at my place most mornings.
They released her from the hospital the next day. They released me a day later. She moved into my place to help me out. Nurse me back to health.
Jacob died before the firefighters could get to him.
The explosion sliced him in half. The couch on his chest slowed down his death. It was how he could talk and call for help. His death would have been painful. The asshole deserved it.
The fire investigator determined the fire should have killed us all. It was a miracle Shani, and I survived.
I’d take it.
I spotted her halfway down the block. It was the sway of her hips when she walked. She had her earbuds in, listening to the Hamilton soundtrack, if I had to guess. Her current obsession. I took her into Manhattan to see it two weeks ago. It was our official first date.
This morning, she had taken the train into the city to meet a potential client as part of a school project and to look at a couple of apartments. I didn’t want her to leave, but after having a taste of being on her own, she wasn’t done. I understood.
We carried on like a couple but didn’t talk about our relationship. We shared a bed. Shani had a sex drive unlike any woman I had known. I liked to take all the credit, but I imagined it had something to do with her former relationship. He didn’t allow her to feel safe and explore herself sexually.
She approached sex like an experiment. What does this do? What happens if we do this?
I’d take that, too.
Her smiled reached from ear to ear when she saw me. She looked away and bit her lip. I hid my grin behind my cup of coffee.
She walked past and swung those hips for my benefit before taking a sharp left turn into the coffeehouse.
She waved and slid in the booth next to me.
I grabbed her face and kissed her like I hadn’t seen her in years. It had been hours. I knew without a doubt… we were crazy about each other.
“Hi,” I whispered against her lips.
She ran her finger down the bridge of my nose.
“Hi.” She snaked her tongue out and licked my bottom lip and cringed.
“Coconut milk, still.” She sat back in the booth and grabbed her own waiting cup.
“It’s good for you.” I kissed the side of her hair. She wore it short and curly. The curls tickled my lips. I loved it.
“You’re in perfect shape, Oscar Hunt.” She patted my thigh.
It flexed under her hand.
“I have to be to keep up with you.”
She dipped her head and laid it on my chest for a second.
I loved teasing her about sex and watching her squirm, but we needed to talk.
We’d been floundering in limbo for long enough. We needed to talk about us and our future.
“So, did you find a new place?” I covered her hand.
She looked up at me.
“How did you know?”
“You left the listing open on my computer.”
“I need to buy myself a new computer.” She sighed. “You know mine got blown up.”
Her favorite little excuse/joke for everything.
“Yes, I was there,” was how I answered her. I understood what happened, happened to her, but it happened to me too. Not in the same way, but I wouldn’t allow her to internalize it and blame herself. I wasted two years being miserable living in the same head space.
I didn’t cause Lizzy to drown any more than she caused Jacob to blow us all to pieces. She was quick to remind me what happened to Lizzy was an accident, but what Jacob did was deliberate.
And then it hit her—it was deliberate, but it had nothing to do with her actions. Jacob deliberately tried to kill us. She had no control over it, either.
“I saw three places.” She pulled papers out of her bag.
“That’s great.” I didn’t feel it, but I said it anyway. “If that’s what you want, but you know there’s no rush.”
“I know, but I like having my own space.” She stared up at me again. “That’s okay, right?”
“Yeah, of course.” I took her hand and brought it to my lips.
“So, the one I really like is not far from here. You want to go see it?”
“Yeah.” I wanted to give Shani what she needed, but I didn’t want to lose her. If she needed her space, I had to give it to her. “Let’s go.”
We stepped out on the streets. Our fingers intertwined and swung between us as we strolled through the park like an old married couple. We sipped our coffee and walked in silence.
Cool crisp air blew across our path. We walked across Prospect Park, a few blocks from my place. At the next block, we turned onto a tree-lined street full of brownstones in varying shades of red and brown brick. It was a quiet street. A gated park sat in the middle of the block. It would be a great street to raise a family.
“I like the area.” I tried to stay positive.
“I love the trees and the park.” She pointed. “It belongs to the block. Most of the homes are single families.”
“Nice.”
We continued walking to the other end of the block to the second brownstone from the end. Four wide steps led up to a black iron ornate door. In the little patch of grass next to the door, a for sale sign read Neetseekers Real Estate.
“It’s for sale.” I touched the sign.
“Uhm, yeah.” Shani punched a code in lock box and retrieved the key. She unlocked the door and pushed it open. I cringed as it squeaked on its hinges.
On the left and right of the entry way sat two rooms. The entryway led to a short hallway. The hallway led through the kitchen into a large living room. The second and third floor was accessed by a winding stair case on the left. Each floor had the same iron banisters looking out into the living area below.
“Wow, the ceiling in here is ridiculous.” I walked in looked up. “It’s big. You want to be in this place all alone?”
I walked the perimeter of the room.
“Well, I was hoping you would move in here with me.”
I stopped dead in my tracks and turned to Shani.
She smiled and averted her eyes. She wandered up the stairs. “Come on, let me show you the rest.”
She’d disappeared onto the second floor.
She wanted me to move in here.
“This is the master suite.” Shani spun around in the middle of the room. It was as big as her studio apartment and had great light from the front of the building. “The bathroom is through there.”
She took my hand. The rest of the second floor consisted of a study, another bedroom and an open area. We continued to the third floor with two more bedrooms and a game room. The place was incredible.
We came back downstairs.
I continued pacing the living room.
Shani lifted herself up onto the kitchen counter and watched me.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
I walked towards her.
“Is it too frou-frou for you?” She wiggled her eyebrows.
I stood between her thighs, my hands sat on top of her ass. I pulled her to me. She wrapped her arms around my neck.
“How can you afford this?” I asked.
“Well, the person who we don’t mention...” she shrugged, “he was wealthy, and since we never actually got a divorce, I get it all. Is that weird?”
“I think you earned it.” I nodded. “Consider it hazard pay.”
“Restitution.” She nodded her head once.
“I thought you wanted a
place of your own.” My forehead scrunched, and my nose pinched. She ran her index finger down the bridge and rubbed away the tension. I continued to worry, see danger at every turn, but the weight on my chest had lifted.
“I do, but I want you in it too.” She laid her head on my chest.
“What’s wrong with my place?”
“It’s too small” Shani leaned back. “Besides, if I get sick of you, I can sequester you to the third floor.”
I rubbed my nose against hers.
“I’m not at your place because I have nowhere else to go.” She leaned back. “Well, I don’t have anywhere else to go, but I want to be with you. I love you, Oscar Hunt.”
I leaned in to kiss her.
She leaned back. “And, not just because you rescued me.”
“You rescued me,” I whispered against her lips.
She licked her lips and grinned.
“I love you too.”
About the Author
Sydney Aaliyah Michelle is a Contemporary Romance writer, a voracious reader, tattoo lover, and movie fanatic who hails from Texas.
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After surviving 5 1/2 years living in China, she had the courage pursue her passion and become a writer.
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She identifies the sci-fi action flick "The Matrix" as the best representation of her life in the past. She is now blessed to be awake and doing what she loves.
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She can recite the entire script from the 80's teen comedy/drama "The Breakfast Club" and loves any and everything associated with the Avengers Movie, especially Tony Stark.
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When it come to books, Sydney reads different genres, but some of her favorite writers are Stephen King, Xyla Turner, J.A. Huss, Kaia Bennett, & Emily Bronte. Under the Dome, The Great Gatsby & Wuthering Heights are her favorite books.
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Find Sydney online:
Author Website
www.sydneyaaliyahmichelle.com