by Gail Dayton
They were riding down in the arthritic elevator on their way out. Eli tied Marilyn's scarf snugly around her neck, then used the ends to bring her in for a kiss. She allowed it, though it made her incredibly uncomfortable, kissing him almost in public this way.
He was so much younger. People would stare. She didn't like being the center of attention at the best of times, but with Eli, it was inevitable. Then again, she thought, as he nuzzled her neck, sending those goosebumps running all over the place, how much did she care?
"We should go to dinner," he said, straightening the lapels of her coat after he'd disarranged them kissing her. "Let me take you to dinner.
"You don't have to do that, Eli." Maybe she did care. Or maybe this thing between them was so new she didn't want to share.
"I want to." His expression went solemn, serious. "I want to date you, Marilyn, not just fuck you."
She slapped her hand over his mouth. "I don't want to hear that word out of you again, not when you're talking about you and me. We made love, Eli. I won't settle for anything else."
With a guttural sound, Eli dragged her hand away and bent her back over his cast in a kiss full of power and passion. Marilyn lost herself in it, barely aware of the elevator's rattles as it wheezed its way past each floor, rebounded on the first and groaned the doors open.
Marilyn considered mentioning that they'd reached the lobby, but Eli apparently wasn't through kissing her yet. She wasn't about to give up a single second of any of his kisses, so she let the elevator doors sigh shut again.
He was still kissing her some moments later, his good hand planted squarely on her bottom and her hands inside his open jacket, when the elevator doors rumbled open once more. The noise registered even less on Marilyn's brain this time than last. Whoever it was would have to ignore them if they wanted to ride the elevator.
"Marilyn Frances Franks!"
Thirteen
***
Her mother's shocked shriek startled Marilyn into jerking around so quickly she knocked Eli off balance. She managed to catch him before he fell. The elevator doors closed again while she was picking up the crutch from where it had fallen against the wall and stabilizing him again.
"Marilyn, you come back here this instant!" Mom was still banging the button with her palm when the doors hiccupped and opened back up. This time, Marilyn and Eli got off.
"What do you think you're doing?" Mom demanded. "Have you completely lost your mind?"
Marilyn handed Eli the keys to her car. The doctor had said he could drive short distances this week. "Why don't you go on and run that errand? This could take a while."
Eyebrows lifted, Eli glanced from the keys in his hand to her mom and tucked them away in the pocket of his leather jacket. "I'll wait. We're going to dinner, remember?"
"Marilyn," Mom broke in. "Marilyn! I'm talking to you."
"And I'm talking to Eli." God, she did not want to do this now. Or ever, truth be told. She certainly didn't want Eli as a witness. Who knew what awful things her mother would say about him? She bit her lip, looking at him. He looked so young, so fierce. "You can come back and get me, after."
"I'll wait," he said, his expression like stone. Like he obviously wasn't going to leave her alone with her mother. He slouched against the wall by the elevators.
Mom grabbed Marilyn by the coat sleeve and dragged her across the lobby. Not far enough to be out of hearing range, loud as she would be talking. "Please tell me you weren't doing what I think you were doing," she began. "Tell me you weren't kissing that awful boy."
"Eli's a man, Mom, and yes, I was kis--"
"Do you know where he's been? Do you know how many diseases you could catch just by kissing? God forbid you ever have sex with--" Mom broke off, shuddering, the idea apparently too awful to contemplate.
"How did you get here, Mom?" Marilyn asked. "Did Joey bring you? Or Kate or Sue?"
"Not that it matters how I got here, but I took the bus. Marilyn have you been sleeping with that--that--"
"Man, Mom. Eli's a man. And you know there's only one bed in my apartment."
"Watch your smart mouth. Have you had sex with him? That's what I want to know."
"None of your business."
"You have, haven't you? I saw the way he was kissing you with his hand on your butt and his tongue down your throat. This is the absolute last straw, Marilyn. I have tried to be understanding. I know how hard it is rattling around in an empty house when your last chick moves away. Did I say anything when you quit your job?"
"As a matter of fact--" Marilyn may as well have not even tried to speak.
"Did I say anything when you moved out of your perfectly nice house and into this horrible apartment?"
"Yes, Mother, you did." She was going to say it, whether Mom listened or not.
"But I can't stand by any longer and watch you throw your life away. He's trash, Marilyn. Garbage."
At those words, the anger simmering along just under her skin flared into fury, gasoline touched by flame. "You stop right there, Mother. I won't let you talk about Eli like that. He's a good man. Just because he doesn't wear a three-piece suit and go sit behind a desk all day doesn't make him garbage."
"I said garbage and I mean garbage." Mom shook her finger in Marilyn's face. "He's scum and I want him out. You get him out of your apartment and out of your life right now. Or else. I mean it, Marilyn. I am dead serious about this."
"Or else what, Mom? I've been too big for you to spank for a long time."
"Are you going to do it?"
Marilyn looked across the room at Eli, leaning casually against the wall, his expression impassive, as if utterly bored with waiting. How much of that was an act? He saw her looking and lifted his chin, his gaze locked on hers. After a long moment, he nodded once, a tiny, infinitesimal nod, as if telling her he'd go along with whatever she decided, stay or go. It was her choice to make.
It was her choice to make. And really, there was only one possibility. She wasn't about to let her mother blackmail her into giving up the best thing that had happened to her in years. Yes, this--this thing with Eli wouldn't last, couldn't possibly. But damned if she would give up any of it before she had to.
"And if I say no?" Marilyn dragged her gaze from Eli to her mother, who was swelled up like a cartoon bomb ready to explode.
"If you don't get rid of that--that bum right this instant, you're no daughter of mine."
"You're kicking me out of the family? Over Eli?" The idea was borderline ridiculous. "I don't think you can do that. I'm thirty-nine. You can't un-birth me."
"Maybe not. But I can stop treating you like my daughter."
"You mean no more phone calls at all hours? No more tirades about how I've lost my mind? No more nagging to do what you want me to do? And you think this is going to break my heart?"
"You've broken mine, Marilyn." Mom beat on her chest with her fist, demonstrating just how broken she was. "To think that a child of mine would go so far as to forget all the things we taught you and do something like this."
"Oh please." Marilyn rolled her eyes. "If Eli were fifteen years older, without the nipple ring, you'd be falling all over yourself trying to convince him to marry me."
"I would not. His age has nothing to do with it. It's who he is, Marilyn, and who you are. Who I thought you were."
That hit home, struck her to the bone. "You don't know anything about Eli or the kind of person he is. You never made any effort to find out. It's obvious you don't know anything about the person I am either. And that makes me sad, Mom.
"I can't be who you want me to be. I have to be who I am. And if you can't handle that...well, I'm sorry."
"Are you--Are--" Mom sputtered a minute. "Are you telling me you're choosing that--that body-pierced boy over your own family?"
"You're the one who made the ultimatum, Mom. Not me. I won't go in that box you want to lock me in. Eli makes me happy. And as long as he wants to stay, he's staying." She gave her mother a fain
t smile. "Be grateful he's as young as he is. He'll get tired of me before long and move on, and things will be back to normal."
"If you do this, Marilyn, things won't ever be normal again."
"Then I guess I'll just have to get used to it." She turned and held her hand out to Eli. "Ready? I'm starving."
His smile barely curved his lips as he limped across the lobby to offer his arm--the broken one, since the other had the crutch to deal with.
"Marilyn--" Mom's voice held a threat.
"I have to go, Mom." Marilyn looped her hand into Eli's sling. "I have a date."
"Don't you do this," Mom warned. "Don't you walk out that door with that--"
The lobby door shut on Mom's last words.
"Are you sure?" Eli said quietly, a few feet down the sidewalk toward the tight parking lot. "I don't like coming between you and your family."
"How much don't you like it? Just a feeble itch that goes away when you don't think about it, or a great big bothersome pain that you can't stop thinking about?"
He grinned. "More of a feeble itch, I guess."
She grinned back at him. "And how much do you want to stay and be my boyfriend?"
"Boyfriend?" He laughed out loud. "Is that what I am?"
His laughter made her blush.
"I've never been anybody's boyfriend before," he mused, mood changing instantly.
"So, how much?" she insisted. She wanted to know. "Just a sort of okay--"
Eli stopped and turned so suddenly his crutch slipped. He let it fall. He cupped her face in his good hand, thumb stroking her cheek. "I want to stay. Don't ask me how much, because I can't tell you."
Nor did she want to know. Not anymore. He would stay as long as he stayed, for whatever reason he had, and that would be enough. It had to be.
He leaned down and kissed her, a brief honeysuckle-sweet taste of a kiss. "So, where do you want to eat?"
"I don't know, what are you in the mood for?" Marilyn blocked her mother out of her mind, determined to enjoy this evening out with Eli before the next phase of her assault commenced.
The phone wasn't ringing when they walked back in the door later that evening, but Marilyn didn't hold out much hope that it would remain silent. She wanted to take it off the hook, but was afraid of what steps her mother might take if she couldn't get through. When it finally rang, it came as something of a relief.
She was sitting next to Eli on the bed they'd never managed to fold away, propped up against the sofa back with the television providing background noise for Eli's seduction as the ringing started. Eli reached across her to pick it up, and held it out of her reach without answering for another couple of rings.
"Want me to answer it?" he asked. "Run interference for you?"
Marilyn sighed. "Better not. It wouldn't help." She held her hand out for the phone. "Hello?"
"What in hell did you do to make Mom so crazy?" Joey said. "I was afraid she was going to have a heart attack, the way she was yelling."
"She caught me kissing Eli in the elevator and came unglued."
"That would do it."
"Why? What did she tell you?"
"Honestly, I couldn't make much sense out of it. A lot of stuff about you betraying her and turning your back on the family and not being any daughter of hers." Joey paused. "It got pretty bad, Mare, some of the stuff she said."
Marilyn combed her fingers through Eli's short, thick ruff of hair, lifting her chin to give him better access to her neck as he kissed his way down it. "It got pretty bad here too, before I walked out on her. I could understand her disapproving of Eli, but it's more than that. She downright hates him. Hate, Joey. I don't understand that."
"I don't know." Silence buzzed for a long moment. "Are you sure you want to do this, Marilyn? For a-- a--"
"If you say one nasty word about Eli, I'm hanging up."
"I don't have anything against Eli, Marilyn. He accessorizes a little strange, but he seems all right. But what you're doing--you're screwing up your relationship with Mom over a--a--God, I can't even say it--a fling. A little temporary hot sex. Shit. You're my sister. I feel like I need to be punching him in the nose or something."
Her laugh sounded odd even to herself. "I don't need you to defend my honor, Joey. We had this discussion before, remember? If you don't want me punching your girlfriends in the nose, keep your distance."
"Is it worth it?" Joey said. "That's all I want to know. Mom's going to be your mom the rest of your life. You and I both know this thing with Eli won't last. Are you sure this is what you want to do? You tell me you're sure and I'll shut up. I'll even tell Mom to shut up about it. Not that it'll do any good."
Marilyn put her hand over Eli's mouth to stop his roving kisses. They made it too hard to think straight. He kissed the fingers against his mouth, but that was less distracting. "If it wasn't this, it would be something else. Mom won't be happy unless things go the way she wants and if I give in to her on this, she'll expect me to give in on the next thing, and I can't, Joey. I won't."
"Even though this is a short-term, temporary thing."
"Even though."
"You know she probably won't change her mind when it ends."
"I know."
"And you're still sure."
Her temper flared at Joey's persistence. "Yes, I am sure, damn it! I am so sick and tired of being patronized and pushed around--Eli is the only one who says 'whatever you decide, I'm there.' And you wonder why I won't give him up?"
Eli had stopped trying to kiss her. He lay with his head on her shoulder, holding her. She didn't know what he made of her half of the conversation and at this moment she didn't much care. She was just glad he was there.
"If that's how it is," Joey said slowly, "then, no, I don't wonder. I'll call Mom, try to talk some sense into her."
"Tell her I'm unplugging the phone. We were up all night last ni--"
"Don't tell me, for God's sake. I don't want to hear it. You're my sister."
Marilyn laughed. A real one this time. "We weren't doing that last night. We were out looking for a friend of Eli's."
"Did you find him?"
Just as quickly, tears rose up to choke her. She was an emotional wreck. "The police found her body this morning."
"God, Marilyn, what--?" Joey sputtered in her ear.
Eli groaned and shook his head. "Oh, your family's really going to love me now."
"I--Eli didn't have anything to do with it. It was somebody he used to know, that's all." Marilyn held him tight.
"Shit." Joey fell silent another long moment. "And you're really, really sure this is what you want?"
"Yes."
"Okay. It's your life. Just...be careful, okay?"
"Always. Don't forget to tell Mom about the phone."
"I won't forget."
As soon as he hung up, Marilyn went into the kitchen and unplugged the line. She didn't want to have any more conversations. Not on the phone. She wasn't sure she wanted any more conversation at all. And from the way Eli pulled her into his arms and kissed her when she got back in bed, she figured he felt pretty much the same.
Eli woke up before Marilyn the next morning and got himself in and out of the shower in record time. He was getting pretty good at the "plastic trash bags over the cast" bit. She hadn't stirred by the time he emerged and he got back in bed to watch her sleep.
Had it only been yesterday morning that she made love to him for the first time? He smiled, remembering her fierce concentration as she drove him insane. Then his smile faded. Only twenty-four hours and he had already made trouble for her.
Her mother hated him so much she would kick Marilyn out of the family just for hanging around with him. Her brother wanted to punch him in the nose. He was no good for her. And yet...
He couldn't leave. Besides the fact that he didn't want to go, he'd promised. And she wanted him to stay.
That absolutely blew him away.
Eli wasn't used to people wanting him to stick arou
nd. Not for positive reasons. But that still didn't mean he was good for Marilyn. He wished he could do something to help, to protect her from the fallout. But since the only thing he could think of that would help was to leave, and he couldn't do that, he was stuck. Which he didn't mind a bit.
He was thinking in circles. Times like this, it was best not to think. Eli slid down into the bed to kiss her awake.
"Again?" Marilyn mumbled.
He might have thought she was complaining except for her hands roving down his chest and stomach.
"You are insatiable." She pulled him over on top of her, meeting every kiss with one of her own.
"Eli's short for insatiable," he said, keeping it light. She wouldn't want to know that he'd never been this eager for anyone before.
He was cooking breakfast, clumsily one-and-a-half-handed, while Marilyn was in the shower, when the dangling phone cord brushed his bare toes. Thinking about bacon rather than phones, he picked it up and plugged it in. Almost immediately, it rang.
Eli hesitated. He always left the phone for Marilyn to answer. He didn't actually live here. But she was in the shower. Probably couldn't hear it ringing. And if it was her mom again--maybe it was better if she yelled at him rather than Marilyn.
By the third ring, he'd made up his mind. "Yeah?" he said into the cordless set.
"I--um--excuse me," a woman's voice stammered over the line. Not Marilyn's mom. "I was trying to--I must have the wrong--I'm calling for Marilyn Ballard. Is this her number?"
"Who wants to know?" He'd learned better phone manners back when he was a kid, but didn't feel like trotting them out now.
"This is Kate. Uh--Sullivan. Her sister?" A pause. "Is this Eli?"
"Yeah. How you doin', Kate? Marilyn can't talk right now."
"She...can't?" Kate's voice squeaked. Like she thought he'd maybe done something to Marilyn and was waiting to dispose of the body.
For a minute, Eli was tempted to play along, let her believe what she wanted. But Marilyn wouldn't appreciate it. "She's in the shower." He switched the phone to his other ear, holding it in place with cast and fingertips so he could turn the rest of the bacon before it burned.
