by Rebecca Rose
“ ’Cause you’d be my first call.” Kathy slammed the glass down and motioned for another. When Jake hesitated she gave him a look that would frighten the devil himself.
“She’s so damn difficult. Never understood that family should share everything.” Telia directed this toward her daughter.
“Not everything, Mom.”
Dave cleared his throat again. “How long do you plan on staying?”
Evaan looked at his wife and then down at their joined hands. “Not sure. The vehicle needs repairs and its getting crowded with the three of us.
Kathy choked on her drink, literally. And as Dave ran around the bar to help, Renee stood up and started slapping her on the back. “You’re okay, honey. I’m not gonna let anything happen to you.”
“Thank you,” Dave said to his mother. He then turned his attention to the woman he loved. From the look on Kathy’s face he had a pretty good idea who was with her parents—Todd. But he still hoped he was wrong.
“Our friend isn’t well,” Telia told them. “He’s been traveling with us but really needs a bed to sleep in.”
“There are some cheap hotels in the area,” George suggested.
“We’re more than a little strapped for cash right now.” Telia looked at her daughter with mournful eyes.
“You both are so transparent it’s sickening,” Kathy told them with a little slur in her voice.
“Todd’s sick, Karma. He needs a bed and—”
“He has your bed. You’re not staying at my place. Forget it.”
Evaan had the nerve to look shocked. “I can’t believe you’d turn your own parents away.”
Kathy gave a rueful laugh. “I’m a heartless bitch. Isn’t that what you called me when I refused to pay for your cell phones the last time you made an appearance?”
Dave’s heart went out to her. No child deserved to be treated this way by their parents.
“I was angry and with Todd being close to death we thought you’d be understanding. Obviously we were wrong,” Evaan insisted.
“He’s not knocking on death’s door. I saw him a few weeks ago,” Kathy said while waving her glass in the air.
“Yes, he is!” Telia rose from her seat and stood toe to toe with Kathy. “You loved him once and he still loves you. How can you do this? Your father and I—”
“Okay, everyone, out back.” Jake motioned with his hands. “Now. I’m not in a business to have family squabbles in my restaurant.”
“Oh,” Stuart said, obviously disappointed. “It was just getting good.”
“Sorry, old boy.” Jake rocked back on his heels. “But if you want to follow them out back, I won’t stop you.”
Renee picked up her third drink, ready and willing. Dave considered telling her this was an argument between Kathy and her parents but knew it wouldn’t do any good. When Evaan stood to head back, Jake cleared his throat.
“Ten-fifty. I’d rather you pay your tab before heading out.”
Evaan looked at his wife, then Kathy, then Dave, and back to Jake. “But he said they were on the house.”
“No. Dave gave one round to everyone. You had drinks before that.”
Evaan puffed his chest out. “Are you charging them?” He thumbed toward George and Renee.
“My parents raised us and took care of us. We don’t charge them, we charge customers.”
“Oh my.” Telia eyes began to water. “Are we going to have enough for everything we need?”
“Not our problem.” Dave stepped forward. “You can’t go into a restaurant, order whatever you want, and expect to get it for free. We’d be long out of business if that’s how it worked.”
Evaan threw down ten dollars. “She’s poisoned all of you against us. We’re not bad people.”
“That’s debatable.” George took a long sip of his beer while keeping his eyes on Evaan and Telia.
“Ten-fifty,” Jake repeated, while motioning to the lonely bill.
“Telia, honey, let’s get out of here. It’s obvious these people aren’t going to help us.” He dug in his pocket and threw down all the change he had but still held short on his tab.
“Shame on you!” Telia seethed. “Not helping others who have less than you. Total snobs.”
“We help those who help themselves,” Dave told them. “And by the sound of it, you prey on the kind-hearted. Good thing we’re not. Right, Dad?”
“You bet.”
“Karma, we’ll speak about this later at home.” Telia raised her chin and spun toward the door.
“No, we won’t. I don’t want you in my apartment, I want you to leave.”
Evaan and Telia walked out of the Lion impervious to what their daughter said.
“Damn it. This was just getting good.” Everyone turned and looked at Stuart who shrugged his bony shoulders. “You get to be my age and this is where you go for action.”
“Another shot, Jake,” Kathy announced by slamming her glass down onto the counter.
Every muscle in Dave’s body tensed and his jaw ached from grinding his teeth. Lowlifes repeated continuously through his mind. Swallowing hard, he moved to Kathy’s side. If this was how he felt, he couldn’t imagine how she did.
Kathy downed her drink just as her cell rang. Flipping it open, with more force than necessary, she told the caller, “Not now.” And hung up.
“Who was that?” he asked.
“Nobody.”
But it had been somebody and Dave really wanted to know who. He followed her back into the office where they had made love only a half hour earlier.
“Who was that?”
Kathy swept her arm across her desk and sent papers, pens, pencils, and whatever else was on it flying. “Nobody.”
But his distrusting mind couldn’t let it go. She didn’t treat people like this and he didn’t like how she was reacting. “I want to know who it was. I can make it right.”
“Excuse me?” She turned on him as tears streamed down her face. “What does it matter? You can’t fix everything, Dave.”
“You won’t know that unless you give me a chance. Who was it, Kathy?” He didn’t mean to growl out her name, it just happened. And with that bite of anger in his voice, Dave realized he better get himself under control before he pushed her away.
“Go bully someone else. I’m sick of being the scapegoat and punching bag. I deserve better than that. And you know what? I’m gonna have it.”
“I’m not bullying you. I just want to know so I can help.”
“Too bad!”
Disbelief over her lack of trust forced Dave’s voice to rise. “I deserve to know, Kathy!”
“Why? Because we slept together?”
“Yeah. No. You’re my woman and—”
“Go to hell. I’m my own woman.”
“Was it your ex-husband?” When she ignored him, his heart crumbled. “I’ve tried to earn your trust. I have done everything I know how to and yet you still won’t let me in.”
“And this is why,” Kathy’s meek voice pointed out as she backed away from him.
“Don’t do that. Don’t back away from me because we can make this right—together.”
“No, we can’t because this is how it’s always been and how it’ll always be,” she said while crossing her arms.
“It doesn’t have to be, Kathy.” With his patience evaporating quickly, Dave tried one more time to reason with her. “You can start changing this whole mess right now by telling me who that was on the phone.”
“No.”
“This is bullshit, Kathy.” Dave slapped a hand down on her desk and leaned toward her. “You want love, trust, and respect? Well what about me? Don’t I deserve it, too? What are you hiding?”
“I’m not hiding anything,” she told him.
“Then why can’t you even look me in the eye?”
“I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” When she attempted to walk past him, Dave moved in her way.
“You know, Kathy, you don’t wa
nt to be like your parents and yet in some ways you really are. Look at your place. Empty. As if you’re afraid to put down roots. Here I am trying to be there for you, and you’re pushing me away.”
Wide-eyed and shaken Dave braced for the slap that never came when she stood before him but said nothing. “Well?” he asked.
Kathy merely moved around him and out the office door.
“Really?” he called after her. “You’re going to run like they do too? Not think twice about who you’re leaving behind?”
“What’s going on?” George asked.
“Nothing.”
“Something,” Renee insisted.
A black cloud of sadness shrouded him. “She walked out on me without a word.”
Renee took her son’s face in her hands. “She needs time.”
“I’ve given her time, patience, and love.” He looked around his empty office. “She’s not coming back.”
“You don’t know that,” George tried to convince his son.
“Doesn’t matter. It was only a matter of time anyway.”
Renee placed her hands on her ample hips. “Now that’s just stupid talk.”
“Maybe but it’s true. You guys were right; I shouldn’t have said anything about my past.”
“First of all,” George began, “we never said you shouldn’t tell her and—”
“Nope, you didn’t come out and say it but I should have known better. Hell,” Dave laughed at the reality that was just starting to sink in, “she was probably looking for a way out and this was the perfect opportunity.”
“What’s going on?” Jake asked.
Dave turned to Jake. “I fucked this up, big time, and Kathy left. I doubt she’ll be back.”
“What! We need her, you jerk.” Jake patted his brother on the back, none too lightly. “It’ll be okay. She’s a chick, bro, they’re all emotional.”
“Maybe.” He sat with his head in his hands. The beginning of a bad headache was knocking on his temples. “I feel like I’m going to be sick.”
“Yeah, well… you can’t. We have a business to run and there’s three more hours of your shift left.”
“You’re going to make me work it?”
“What the hell gives you the right to be surprised? Kathy just walked out and we’re already two short tonight and starting to get busy. Dad said he’ll help behind the bar and Mom will take orders. Your pussy ass is going out there, Kathy or no Kathy. You started something and by God you’re going to finish it.”
“Geez, Jake. You don’t have to be that way about it.” Dave stood with the weight of three tons on his shoulders. “I wasn’t gonna give you a hard time.”
“Good.”
Chapter Sixteen
The tears didn’t stop coming for days. Kathy tried to reassure herself with ice cream and chocolate but it didn’t help. Then she tried meditating and fasting for hours on end, which only succeeded in giving her slim frame a more waif-like appearance. Sophie attempted to talk her into calling Dave or at least going to work; however Kathy just didn’t have it in her. She wanted to crawl into a hole and die. The betrayal she felt over Dave’s words hadn’t so much as shaken her as it disappointed her. He obviously didn’t know her.
Looking around her vacant apartment, Kathy sighed heavily. When she had gotten home that day her parents and Todd were waiting for her. They started by apologizing for making a scene at her job. Then they assured her that they weren’t mad at Dave or his family for the way they had treated them. The moment her father spread his arms wide to welcome his only daughter into them, Kathy lost all control. She slapped her father across the face, looked at Todd with such venom that he backed away from her, and then announced to her mother that she was the worst parent to have ever been given the gift of children.
This time there would be no mistaking her words or actions. She wanted them out of her life forever. When their vehicle was still parked in front of her building the next day, she called maintenance to have it removed. The whole situation felt surreal.
When her parents pleaded with her to let them stay, she informed them, “I have already helped you enough. If you don’t want me to call the police and have you removed along with your van, I suggest you find a new place to squat.”
Todd had the audacity to look shocked. “I’m dying,” he pleaded with her.
“Go to a hospital. You’ve caused me pain for the last time.”
With the memory still reeling in her mind Kathy ran to the bathroom sick to her stomach. The pain of letting Dave go paled the problems with her folks. He had called her every morning. Showed up and waited hours outside her door. Sent countless flowers and even apology cards for what he said, written and signed with love. Yet her mind wouldn’t forgive him. How could she? He was wrong, she was nothing like them.
With an aching heart she relived that day up to the moment when her parents came walking in. The dream had been there and real. Every couple gets into fights, she told herself. Then they make up and move on with their lives together. What’s stopping me?
Her cell chimed with Sophie’s ring.
“Hi.”
“Hey, Kathy. How ya doing?”
Another person who called every day to check on her. “I only threw up once today. So I guess that’s an improvement.”
“Yeah, it is.”
The silence seemed to last a lifetime. In the decades they’d known each other, never had they not found something to talk about. However Sophie’s boyfriend was Dave’s brother and that one fact seemed to constantly come into play.
“Dave’s miserable too.”
“I know, Sophie.”
“Kathy, I think you two should talk. Neither of you are going to move forward if you don’t.”
“I know.” The misery in her voice left an acidic taste in her mouth.
“It’s been two weeks. I can’t keep filling in for you at work. I’m starting to feel taken advantage of.”
“I know, Sophie.” Wow, was she pathetic or what?
Sophie huffed into the phone. “You know what? I’ve been nice long enough. You want to throw away the best thing to ever happen to you? Fine. I’m not going to watch you destroy yourself over a little argument. Thank God the two of you didn’t get any more serious because turning and running at your first argument is pretty darn pathetic. And I told Dave the same thing! Obviously you’re not ready for a relationship with a decent man. No. You want to spend your time depressed over your past mistakes and not doing anything to correct them for the future. You suck, Kathy!”
“I know, Sophie. You’re right. I’ll call him today. I’m looking for another job.”
“What? You have to be kidding me!”
The disbelief in Sophie’s voice made Kathy smile. “No, I’m not.”
“I am right, though.”
“Yes, you are, Sophie. I need to get myself together. But everyone needs to be patient. Heck, I lost my boyfriend and my parents in one day. I have a right to mourn.”
Her friend stayed quiet for a moment. “I wish it all hadn’t happened that way.”
“It’s for the best. I can’t carry them any longer.” Her scoff into the phone seemed callous but well deserved. “I just can’t figure out why they would come here. Maybe their drug use has gotten worse.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry, Kathy. You shouldn’t have had to go through all that.”
“No reason to be sorry. It seems the only person that hasn’t hurt me lately is you.”
“Remember what happened with Jake and his flashback? When I went to his home and he didn’t know I was there?”
“Yeah.”
“Remember how he never wanted me to see him again and how he couldn’t understand how I could forgive him for hurting me?”
“This is different, Soph.”
“Not really. At the time you were upset that I stayed with him.”
“He could have really hurt you.”
“But he didn’t. I knew right then that I was willing to
go through all the bullshit to have him. Jake is the one for me.”
“What are you saying? I should be able to put up with Dave’s crap?”
“No. I’m saying he’s willing to put up with yours.”
Kathy’s disapproval of Dave’s words stopped at the tip of her tongue. “Excuse me?”
“I told you, I’m not going to sugarcoat this anymore. I’d hoped you’d come to your senses by now but obviously I was wrong. You’re no prize, Kathy Mae Smith. You have trust and abandonment issues, conflict issues, and are in need of a man who worships the ground you walk on. Dave is that man. I saw it the first time you two met. You can’t deny it, you love him.”
“You think I’m messed up? What kind of friend tells you that? Who the hell do you think you are? I’m not the one who’s screwed up here. He is.”
“He’s not the one running and refusing to let you in. He’s the one who’s been trying to make it up to you because he loves you. He’s the one who’s still going in to work every day despite all this. Do you know your parents came in to see him after you made them leave?”
“What? The gall of them trying one last-ditch effort to get money.”
“Yeah. And he threw them out when your mother said she was there to get your paycheck for you. He told them they should be ashamed of their actions and that it’s too bad they’ll never know what a beautiful woman their daughter is, inside and out. That man loves you unconditionally. I’m not saying what he said was right but damn, Kathy, give him another chance.”
Kathy sat on her bed shocked at the revelation. “I’m the messed up one, aren’t I?”
“I wouldn’t love you if you weren’t.”
“I guess I just figured it was Dave.” It all came together in one nice little package. In Sophie’s relationship it was Jake who needed the extra care. In her relationship with Dave she was the one who needed the extra push. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“I thought you knew.” A small chuckle escaped Sophie. “Do you know the difference between psychotic and neurotic?”
“No. But I have a feeling you’re going to tell me and I’m going to feel better about all this.”
