Antecedent

by Susan Stumpf

I laid there in Bo's bed, tossing and turning on his black satin sheets. The bed was comfortable enough, but I just couldn't sleep. I laid there thinking about the last time I was here.

  "Bo," I called out the open bedroom door.

  "Yeah?" He was sitting on the couch watching a movie.

  "Why a hooker?" I asked.

  When he spoke again it was from the doorway.

  "I told you, I wasn't just hungry."

  "Yeah, yeah, I know, but if you were going to kill them afterward anyway, why not anybody? Why did you still choose a hooker?"

  "Well, rape really isn't my cup of tea, Em."

  He sounded offended, but I knew it took a lot more than that to offend him.

  "But murder is? So you will murder them but not rape them."

  "Sex is a lot more fun when it's consensual, don't you agree?"

  "I wouldn't know. I've never forced anyone into it," I said mockingly. "So why don't you find someone like me, that knows about you, that you can have sex with all the time without having to kill them?"

  He moved with his vampire quickness and sat on the bed next to me. He picked up my hand like he was about to kiss it.

  "Someone like you huh? Are you volunteering?" he asked facetiously.

  I freed my hand to palm his face and pushed him away.

  "You know what I mean, find somebody like how you found me. Why don't you do that?"

  "Honestly," he said. "It's because women make sex complicated. Women can't have sex without forming a bond and then things get complicated. I just don't want to deal with that hassle."

  Well, that was a very pig-headed thing to say.

  "I don't think that's true," I protested on behalf of women everywhere.

  "Three-hundred-years experience over here?yeah you do." He laughed. "Women over think things, they twist and even completely fabricate things in their minds. A woman can take a gesture and roll it over and over in her mind until that gesture means something completely different altogether. They search for meaning in every action and if there is no meaning they will create one. It's just how you mortal women are."

  "Well, why don't you find a vampire girlfriend then? Their emotions are diluted, aren't they?"

  "Yes but vampire women don't make ideal sex partners."

  "Well ok, Mr. Picky Pants, what's wrong with them?"

  He thought for a moment before he spoke.

  "They are?umm?" He was struggling to find the right words. "?an unfavorable temperature."

  I rolled my eyes at him and got out of bed. I didn't like where this conversation was going, and I didn't think I was going to sleep at all tonight.

  I went into the living room and flopped down on the couch.

  "You're not sleeping?" Bo asked.

  "I just don't think I can."

  I was wrong. Bo sat down to finish his movie, it was one of those old black and white films from the 1950's, and it put me right to sleep. I didn't stay asleep long, though. The couch was comfortable for sitting but not for sleeping. I tossed and turned for about twenty minutes. I checked my watch, it was 5:45. Bo had gone to bed and there was fifteen minutes before the alarm on Bo's door would activate. I entered the code, and went to sleep in his bed with him, hoping I wouldn't have another nightmare like I did last time.

  I woke up on my back, and Bo was lying on his stomach with his arm across my chest. I didn't know how anyone could sleep that way. How can you breathe with your face in the mattress like that? It was pitch black in the room so I touched the lamp to look at my watch. Holy cow, it was two in the afternoon! I'd slept like a rock! I squirmed out from under Bo's arm and got up. I opened the door to his bedroom knowing I would kick the silent alarm, but I didn't want to hang around in his bedroom for the next four hours. I had no idea where Bo put my jeans last night. Right on cue Wu opened the door at the top of the steps and looked in, not nearly as alarmed as he was the last time. I think he expected to see me this time.

  "Just me," I said up to him.

  "Oh, Em, are you ok?" he asked, concerned.

  "Yeah, why?"

  "This will probably be the only time I ever say this to you, but your face looks terrible!"

  "Umm, thanks," I said.

  "Let me go see if Umpa has something he can recommend for your bruises."

  I hadn't looked in a mirror this morning so it was hard to tell what I looked like. I couldn't find my jeans anywhere so I borrowed a pair of Bo's black slacks. I grabbed my sweater off the banister and called for Bacon. He'd slept on the couch, Thor and Loki didn't care to have him for company and he'd spent the whole time pouting. I walked all three dogs before I went to see Wu about what vehicle I should drive home, I'd left my car at my house and rode with Bo last night.

  Li gave me an herbal concoction. He told me to add it to steaming water and put a cloth soaked in it on my face and leave it there for awhile. Wu drove me and Bacon home. On the way, I turned my cell phone on. I turned it off last night when the battery got low because I didn't have my charger. I had eight text messages and two voicemails, all from Brian. They all basically said the same thing: Where are you? Are you ok? Call me! By the time I read all the messages and listened to the last voicemail we were pulling up to the house. Brian was sitting on my steps.

  "Emina Marigold Polanski, where have you been?"

  "Whoa, hey, why you full naming me, dude?" I asked.

  "I texted you like fitty times yo! Gern said the cops were out here late last night."

  I'd forgotten that his grandmother lived on the corner down the street.

  "So I text and call, no answer, I come out to check on you and your car is here but you're not home. Your window is busted in and I find this."

  He held up the bottom half of my baseball bat the broken tip covered in blood. I hurried to his side and lowered his arm looking around to see if anyone was outside.

  "And now you roll up with Jet Li here and your face is all bruised up. I wanna know what the hell is going on!"

  Brian was the most laid back person I'd ever met, so I knew he had to have been seriously worried to be this wound up. I can't say I could blame him from what all he just said.

  "Come on," I said. "Let's go inside."

  "I have to get back," Wu said. "There will be guys coming to fix your window before sunset." Then he winked at me like he always did.

  "Thanks, Wu." I gave him a hug, and when I pulled away he looked at me and said, "Emina Marigold??"

  "Oh you're one to talk, Wu Tang." I laughed. "Come on, Bacon."

  Once inside, Brian took me by surprise when he grabbed me and hugged me hard and wouldn't let go.

  "Umm, ok, you can let go now, Bri?umm, let go."

  "I thought you were dead yo!"

  "I'm sorry," I said.

  "So is Jet Li your new boyfriend?" he asked, finally letting me go. "Did he do that to your face? Cause I'll jack him up."

  "No," I laughed. "I work with him. And yes, the cops were here last night. Some guy broke into my house, but I scared him away. Nothing was taken, nobody got hurt, everything is fine. I was just a little shaken up and didn't want to stay here last night. My cell phone was dead which is why I didn't answer your calls or texts."

  "So what happened to your face?"

  I wish he hadn't asked that. I felt bad lying to Brian, but I couldn't tell him the truth for his own protection.

  "I fell down the stairs," I tried to chuckle like I was embarrassed.

  "?and this?" He held up the bloody bat he still had in his hand.

  "Ummm," I had no way to explain that.

  Brian stood there looking at me shaking his head.

  "You're full of crap Em. You can't lie to me. I know you too well. You didn't fall down the stairs. Somebody was hurting you and you stopped them." He held up the bat again. "So what I want to know is why you didn't call me to help you get rid of the body?"

  I laughed. Before I met Bo and Wu, Brian would indeed be the first person I would call to help me get rid of a body, an
d he was the kind of friend that would do it. I'd entered into a different world now. A world I wasn't allowed to share with him, and even though I trusted him completely, Bo didn't. So I had to keep it all secret.

  "You're right, Bri. I'm not being completely honest, but I need you to trust that I can't be right now. I need you not to ask too many questions, ok?"

  He gave me a challenging look. "Dammit Em, what have you gotten yourself into? It's this new job isn't it?"

  "That's not, not asking questions Brian."

  "Yeah, ok. You know I wouldn't care if you killed somebody right? ?especially if they were hurting you."

  Oh great, my friend thinks I'm a murderer now.

  "I know, but I didn't."

  "Alright," he said. "I'm just glad you're ok."

  I went upstairs to change and finally saw what everybody was talking about. I knew my lip was busted and a little swollen because I could feel it. There was also a gash above my left eyebrow and bruising all around it. The bruising extended down my temple, and underneath my eye was also a little dark. I covered most of it up with concealer. It's hard to tell how much worse it would've been if Bo hadn't licked it last night. I wondered if my eye would have been swollen shut.

  Back downstairs I made some omelets, it was one of the few things I knew how to cook. Brian and I talked while I waited for the window guys to show up. By the time the installers were done Brian had to go to work and the power tools had made my already bad headache even worse. I boiled some water for the herbs Li had given me. I laid down on the couch with the soaked washcloth hoping it would ease my headache. I wasn't laying there maybe ten minutes when there was a knock at the door. I thought about ignoring it but decided I better not. I opened the door to see one of the cops that was here last night.