by BJ Hyman
He grunted as he picked up a rag to wipe his face. “Perish the thought. I’ll hit the lights while you go change.”
She surveyed her work and was satisfied that she had gotten enough coverage. She picked up the brushes and began cleaning up her work station.
Twenty minutes later, she walked out of the back washroom looking much more like a woman going on a date. With upswept hair and expertly applied makeup, she wore a pretty blouse and skirt with heels. The main lights were out in the shop and Craig was busy finishing up the Internet prep for the day. Looking up, he gave a low whistle. “You clean up real nice, lady.”
Charlie smiled pleasantly as movement near the door drew her attention. “And just in time too.” As if on cue, Eli walked through the front door with a ping.
“You have time for a late customer?” Eli smiled as Charlie crossed to him and kissed his cheek.
“Always time for you.” She looked over her shoulder at Craig in the dim light of the laptop. “Do you mind locking up? I’ll leave my car out back for now.”
“I’m almost done here, and I’ll get it all locked down tight.”
“Thanks. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“See you. Have fun tonight, kids.”
Eli put a hand to her lower back and escorted her from the store. They walked down the street in the evening dusk to his car waiting nearby. Opening the door for her, he kissed her cheek again as she climbed into the car. “You really do look beautiful.”
With a small smile up at him, she blushed. “Thank you.”
He took her to a favorite Italian restaurant of hers, DePalma’s. They chatted comfortably as they shared the delectable but simple food of an antipasti appetizer platter filled with cheeses, cured meats, olives, and grilled vegetables. While reaching for more of the prosciutto, Charlie’s sleeve slipped back, and Eli caught sight of the bruising that had developed even further on her arm. He lifted her hand to get a better look. “What is this?”
Charlie looked at it dismissively. “I’m sure I just hit it at the store. I’m always getting random bruises. It comes with the territory.”
Eli took her wrist and turned it in the light, examining it closer. “That’s not just some random bruise. It goes all the way around your wrist. It has finger-like projections on this side. Look.”
He adjusted her wrist, so she could see the odd markings. She frowned at it before taking her hand gently back to tip her glass to her lips. “I’ll look for people pulling on my wrist. Maybe I just need to have some more iron.” She smiled. “I’ll order a steak, if that makes you feel better.”
Eli’s lips tightened into a disapproving line, but he let the moment pass. The waiter showed up just in time with their Caesar salads to change the conversation. But not necessarily to a more welcome one. “So, Dean…” Eli cleared his throat meaningfully.
She bowed her head as if to give her salad a better look so that he couldn’t see the frustration in her eyes. “Yes?”
“When were you going to tell me about him? It was obviously a significant relationship.”
She put her fork down and folded her hands in her lap before looking into his eyes. “Have you told me about all of your past significant relationships?”
“No, but I have a feeling that there are some things I need to know about this one.”
“You’re making assumptions.”
“Am I?”
With a sigh, she acquiesced to give a bit. “Dean was very important to me. My first real adult love. He had a loss and couldn’t overcome it. It was threatening to destroy us both, so I chose to end the relationship before it did. If the loss had not happened, we would have probably been married by now. But it did, and we aren’t. I’m here with you.”
“What loss?”
She picked up her fork and began stabbing at the romaine. “It’s his personal loss and not mine to discuss openly.” She filled her mouth with salad and began to chew.
Eli knew he would get no more about it for now. But he determined in his heart that it wasn’t the last of this. It was an obvious sore spot and he knew it had to be resolved before he had any chance of winning her completely. If she was keeping secrets for Dean, she was still connected to him. Eli was falling in love with her and refused to share her with someone who lost her.
Being a wise contender, he changed the subject to one he knew would make her happy and engaged. Her favorite designing show was coming to town to shoot an episode and she was hoping they would come to her shop to buy items for the finished room. He assured her that she was the most likely store of any in town to deserve a visit and even proceeded to tell her which items he felt were the most probable for the show.
And with that, he won the night’s battle without any bloodshed.
◆◆◆
Eli kissed her at her car with knee-buckling precision. Even as she was losing herself in the moment, she realized the skill he had at making her brainless with passion. She wondered if it was just ability or her own feelings toward him moving in the direction everyone around her wanted them to go. Can’t you just enjoy this without the examination? She opened herself more fully to the sensation.
When he began to break the kiss, she followed his mouth as far as she could until her height became an issue. He looked down into her flushed face. “You want me to follow you home?”
Her answer came out more breath, less voice. “Yes.”
He smiled at her and turned her toward her car. With a pat on her butt, he directed her to go. Her knees were still watery, and she stumbled a bit before righting herself. His hands came around her in a warm, protective cage. His voice rumbled against her back. “You okay enough to drive?” He chuckled as his lips brushed her neck.
“I will be, if you could stop kissing and touching me in all the right places.” She shrugged out of his embrace. “Hands off, mister. At least until we can get in the door to my apartment. Then all bets are off.” She gave him a lopsided smile before turning back to walk the short distance to her car.
He put his palms up to her in a hands-off gesture and backed away to his own vehicle.
She searched her purse until she could find her keys. Why are they always so hard to find just when you want them? Her fingers closed around the jagged edges and she pulled them out with a flourish. After unlocking her door, she slid in behind the wheel. It was like sitting down in a hollowed-out log. Her legs were splayed out so far in front of her there was no way she could reach the pedals. Craig! He never moved her seat back up when he used her car to go somewhere.
When she started the car, the music was turned up to ear-shattering levels. She quickly turned it down, cursing under her breath. It’s one thing to not move the seat, but nearly taking out her hearing was too much. She made a mental note to talk to him in the morning. And also about his choice of music. The death metal garbage that was quietly screaming in her car was not music for happy people. She changed to a station more to her liking before putting the car in reverse. Just then, she noticed that she would need to get gas in the morning. She had just filled up! One more thing to talk to him about…
While she turned around in the tight space, she could see Eli waiting for her up ahead. With his break lights lit at the end of the alley, she gave a lecherous smile before pulling in behind him and starting the drive to her apartment.
◆◆◆
The intruder came into Charlie’s bedroom and didn’t even try to be quiet. The interloper had used the same methods during the previous night’s visit. Now, the shadowed figure stood at the foot of the bed and examined her sleeping form. After making love to Eli, she had chosen to remain naked after he left. The sheets only partially covered her body. The intruder put a hand around her ankle and squeezed tightly. Her foot turned an ugly color of white before changing to an angry purple with restricted blood flow. Still, she was undisturbed. Letting go of her ankle, the intruder slid a hand slowly up her leg from the foot to the knee, up the thigh, but stopped just short of going further.
Her nakedness inspired what would become the night’s mischief. The intruder placed a kiss on her ribcage, just under her breasts before beginning the evening’s work.
◆◆◆
The loud alarm system finally did the job it was intended to do when Charlie stretched out of her deep sleep the next morning. Lazily, she reached out and hit the off button. The air was cool on her naked body and she was surprised to look down and see that her covers had come off during the night. As a deep sleeper, she rarely turned over enough for her sheets to have moved much. Her skin was cold from sleeping in the nude and not having any blankets to keep her from the evening air.
She sat up and reached for her robe that was usually hanging from a chair near the bed only to see that it wasn’t there. How odd it is that nudity in the night can feel so normal but, in the light of day, can feel shameful? She covered herself a bit with her hands as she came around the bed to search for her wayward robe. What she found on the floor at the foot of her bed made her jump and gasp in surprise.
Huge piles of clothes were heaped onto the floor. Looking at her dresser, every drawer had been emptied. She snatched a long t-shirt from the floor and pulled it over her head before continuing her search. Her closet door peeked open and she grabbed a nearby umbrella to use as a weapon. Tiptoeing as if someone would not have heard the whole commotion of her alarms, she approached the closet and flung it open. Unused clothes hangers dangled in the otherwise empty closet.
She turned to look at the mess. It was as if her dressers and closet had thrown up in the night like some sick child. The fear finally struck, and her knees grew so weak that she collapsed in a heap on the edge of the bed.
CHAPTER FIVE
The Past Intrudes
At Vintage Rebel Designs, Charlie sat in a chair that she had refinished that past spring. The vibrant scarlet color of the velvet she chose as the upholstery contrasted starkly to the paleness of her skin. Craig sat on the footstool with a cup of tea for her. The worry etched on his face was hard to miss. He pushed the teacup back into her hands. “Have a little more. It will calm your nerves. It’s chamomile. Plus, I crushed up a couple of Xanax in it.” He shrugs. “I’ve called Kellie and she’s on her way. I wish there was something I could do.”
She took the cup with shaky hands that could barely hold it without sloshing the tea all over. With a tentative sip, she made a face. “This is terrible. Why would anyone want to drink it?” She tipped the cup and downed it as quickly as possible. Craig’s eyebrows shot upward. With a bit of a laugh, she said, “We don’t want to waste good Xanax, right?”
They both jumped like a bomb went off when the door pinged, and Kellie came bursting in. She marched straight to where they were sitting. “So, have you called Dean yet?”
“I don’t know that it’s Dean. You don’t know that it’s Dean. We can’t go around blaming people when we have no proof.”
Craig stood and took her cup. “Did you call the police?”
“And say what exactly? That someone came into my house just to give me flowers one night and pull all my clothes out of my storage the next? No. They’d think it was a prank.”
Kellie took a good look at her sister. “What are you wearing? Are those your slippers?”
Charlie had on a Rush concert t-shirt from the R30 tour, a pair of linen cropped pants, and animal print fuzzy slippers. She had been so desperate to get out of the apartment that she had grabbed what was on top of the pile. She stuck out a leg to get a better look at her clothes. Her naked ankle showed purple in the Edison bulb lighting of the display she was currently sitting in.
Kellie instantly sat on the footstool to pull her sisters leg into her lap. “Did you sprain your ankle? It’s bruised.”
“That looks like your wrist!” Craig roughly pulled her arm out to show Kellie the other bruise on her opposite wrist.
“Ow! That IS still attached to me, you know.” She looked at the matching bruises. Her brows creased as she realized how similar they were. “They do look alike, don’t they?” She pulled her arm back to rub on the wrist. “I feel so…violated. I was naked, and they were in my apartment. I was touched. I don’t even know if they did anything else.” She looked down at her body. “They might have taken pictures of me. They took my covers off.” She shivered slightly and pulled her leg back from Kellie. “Can someone get me a blanket? I don’t feel well.”
Craig grabbed a gray knit blanket from a colorful display of them and wrapped her carefully up in it. She touched the fabric and turned to him. “We can’t sell it if it’s used. It’s on consignment.”
“It’s not like you’re dragging it through the streets. I’ll refold it and no one will be the wiser.” He rubbed her shoulder.
She looked up at him with large damp vulnerable eyes. “Who would do this to me?”
Kellie crossed her arms angrily over her chest. “It’s Dean. How many times do I have to say it? You think he doesn’t hold a grudge against you for how it all ended? It’s Dean.”
Charlie shook her head. “Dean wouldn’t hurt me. Whoever is doing this is bruising me. They are hurting me. Dean would not hurt me. Ever.”
She saw the look Craig shared with Kellie. “What?”
He cleared his throat before looking her in the eye. “I’m starting to agree with Kellie. You yourself came in yesterday saying you thought Dean broke into your apartment. I’m not trying to use your own words against you, but what could it hurt to try to find out where he’s been? Do you know? Have you had any contact with him?”
Rubbing her face in her hands, she sighed. “No. I stopped taking his calls as soon as I ended it and he stopped trying, finally, a couple of months ago.”
Kellie got up and grabbed Charlie’s phone off the counter. She searched and found his contact info. She frowned at the picture that came up for his contact. The photo was still one of him that he took and saved in Charlie’s phone. He was smiling handsomely with a look that was clearly only for her. She shoved the phone at her sister. “Call him. Go for a coffee. I’ll follow you from afar so that you aren’t alone. But do it.” She put the phone in her hand. “Call him.”
Charlie looked down at the handsome face on the screen with a tightness in her chest and a rock in her stomach. He still had such power to make her react physically. She knew Kellie wouldn’t let this go. Resigned to her fate, she pressed the call button.
It only rang twice before his voice knocked the wind out of her. “Hello? Charlie? Is that really you?”
“Yes, Dean.” Her voice barely pushed past her lips as her arms felt heavy enough to drop into her lap. She gave her head a half shake to pull it together. “I wanted to know if you’d like to have coffee with me. You know…to catch up a bit. Are you available today?”
“Of course. I’m always…” His voice drifted, and he hesitated. Charlie began to think that the line had dropped, but then she heard him take a breath. “Is something wrong? You don’t sound yourself.” He knew her too well.
“N..n..no. I’m fine. What do you say to about a half hour from now? Strange Brew?” Kellie frantically tells her to make it an hour with hand gestures. “Actually, how about an hour? I’ve got something I forgot that I need to take care of.”
“I’ll meet you in an hour at Strange Brew. It’s a date.”
Charlie hangs up but her hands are shaking so badly that she drops the phone into her lap as if it’s a snake. She buries her face into her hands. “What have I done?” She looks up at Kellie and Craig. “If it’s not him, I’ve just opened a huge can of worms that will hurt both of us. And Eli too maybe.”
Craig looked at Kellie. “Why the delay?”
She sweeps a hand at Charlie. “Look at her. Anyone who knows her will be able to see she’s a mess. Hell, someone who doesn’t know her would. I’m taking her to my place to clean her up and dress her up. I’ve texted Sabrina to fix the mess at your apartment so that you don’t have to go back to that. I’ve texted Eli to let him know you’re okay and in good han
ds. And I’ve texted Mitchell to make sure he’s dressed before we get there since he likes to wander around our place naked. So…let’s get going. I’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Craig put a questioning hand up. “Mitchell? Librarian, college professor Mitchell?”
“You forget…he dates me and is neither a librarian nor a college professor. Still waters run deep.” She gave him a saucy wink before grabbing Charlie’s hand to pull her out of the chair.
“Well. Okay. I’ve got it here. I guess. Make sure to tell me everything that happens!” Craig called out to their quickly retreating forms heading to the car.
Kellie dragged Charlie, blanket and all, to the door and was already almost out on the street with her. “We will!”
Craig glanced around the quiet shop with a chuckle. “Hmm. Still waters. Wonder what they think I do when I’m not around them?” With a shrug, he started cleaning up the tea cup and tissues from where Charlie had sat.
