Take Care

by Ash Johnson

  “I’m an E.R. nurse at Desert Regional Hospital,” I say, smiling and nodding.

  “Wow, a nurse? I’m guessing you’ve seen some not so wonderful things in those pretty eyes of yours,” Dave says, staring at my eyes. It should make me nervous or uncomfortable, but Dave has a kindness to him that calms me immediately. Plus, everyone does it so I’m used to blocking out the awkwardness.

  “Yeah, I have seen some awful things, but I’m there to try to help people with those awful things. Some things are too bad to fix, but for the most part it’s a very fulfilling job and I love it,” I answer.

  “Well dear, I’m sorry you have to see the bad in the world every day, but I’m very glad that my boy found you. I must say that I’m surprised though, Jay. I haven’t seen you bring a girl to meet your old dad since you were in high school and mom made you bring your prom date around so she could take pictures of you before the dance,” Dave says, raising an eyebrow and smirking at Jay.

  A corner of Jay’s mouth rises into a smile and his arm swings to the back of my chair while he rubs his fingers along my exposed shoulder before he answers his dad.

  “Well dad, when you know, you just know, right?” Jay looks at me and then back to his dad who winks at him with a large smile, sharing in some silent conversation. After we order our food and our drinks arrive, Dave decides to ask more questions.

  “So Ada, are you from Phoenix?”

  “No, I was actually born in Sacramento, California and then we moved to Nebraska when I was really young. My mom and I didn’t move to Arizona until I was thirteen.”

  “Oh, so you’re an only child like my son, huh?” Dave smiles.

  “Dad-“ Jay says, slowly shaking his head and trying to stop the conversation.

  “It’s okay Jay,” I say, rubbing my hand on his thigh. I look back at Dave and prepare to tell him about my sister.

  “No sir, I had an older sister, but she passed away when I was twelve.”

  “I’m very sorry to hear that Ada, that must have been very hard for your family.”

  “Yes, it was. My mother has never really recovered from it,” I say, and then look to my lap, hoping he doesn’t ask about my shitty mother.

  “Well, let’s talk about something else then. How about football? Do you watch Ada?” Dave smiles and Jay shakes his head, probably thinking I’m going to say no. I think they’re both surprised when I tell him that I am actually a diehard fan who is gearing up for the season to start, because the look Dave gives me is nothing short of shock.

  Out of the corner of my eye I notice a woman sitting at a table a few down from us. I turn my head and wonder why she looks familiar to me. I unknowingly stare at this tanned brunette beauty for what feels like minutes trying to figure out exactly how I know her, but it doesn’t click until I see my ex-husband take a seat across from her that it’s Millie.

  Rob links their fingers together above the table and keeps leaning in to give Millie small kisses during their conversation. Rob looks happier than I’ve seen him in months and, even though she’s smiling back, there is a look on Millie’s face that I’d witnessed on my own at one point during my relationship with Rob; compliance. They never look away from each other and probably don’t even know that I’m here, so I decide to let them go back to their lunch and focus on my own.

  Two hours pass and the three of us have had lunch and pleasant conversation about many different things. After Dave pays the bill, he stands and tells us that he has to get back to the office.

  “I’m so glad that my son has finally met a wonderful woman. His mother, Jane, would have just loved you. I hope you keep Jay around for a long time,” Dave says, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and pulling me into a tight hug. My head doesn’t even hit his shoulders.

  “Thank you so much, Dave. I really like your son and I plan on keeping him around. It was so great to finally meet you. Let’s get together again sometime soon,” I answer and step back so that Jay and Dave can give each other a man hug.

  Millie and Rob are still sitting at the same table, talking over a bottle of wine when Jay and I also decide to leave. I let out a small huff of air when we make it out of the building without having to speak to them. After we get into my car, Jay smiles and lets out a light sigh.

  “Are you okay, Jay?” I’m holding my breath, hoping that Jay didn’t know that Rob was sitting just a few feet from us throughout lunch. Then I realize that Jay hasn’t even seen a picture of Rob, so there’s no way he would have known that we were all at the same restaurant. That thought calms me a little, but not all the way.

  “I’m more than okay. I’m so glad that lunch went well,” he says, smiling. I give him a shaky smile back.

  “How did you think it was going to go?”

  “Well, I can tell you that if you weren’t there with me it would have been at least an hour long conversation about how what I do for a living is a waste of time and that I should quit and join the family business building houses. I can’t take many more conversations like that; he’s making me crazy,” Jay answers, shaking his head and looking at me.

  “You need to look at things from his perspective, Jay. He’s been in the construction business his whole life. It’s all he knows and he wants to see his son follow in his footsteps. Now, I’m not defending what he wants from you in any way because as much as I hate the fact that you fight for a living, it makes you happy and you should do what makes you happy. He just wants to pass his company to his only son and see it flourish as much as it did when he owned it,” I say, shrugging.

  “You don’t like that I fight for a living?” Jay asks, completely ignoring everything else I said.

  “No, but I’m not going to tell you to do something else because you love it,” I answer honestly.

  “Why don’t you like it?” he asks, clearly not understanding. Instead of diving deep into my past and telling him the truth, I give him a girly bullshit answer.

  “Why would I like watching my boyfriend beat someone up and also get hit in the process? That doesn’t sound fun at all.”

  “First of all, thank you for calling me your boyfriend. That’s the best thing I’ve heard all day, and second, that’s not really what it’s about. It’s about strategy and technique. I’ve been trained in striking for the past four years and it’s really cool to see how it’s put to use in the cage. You should come and watch me fight sometime,” he says with a hopeful tone.

  All I can do is shake my head. I’ve seen enough fighting in my lifetime, I don’t want to pay to watch someone do something in a ring that I’ve seen time and again.

  “Come on, bunches. It would be fun to have you there, like my own personal trophy waiting for me when I win the fight,” he smiles. Instead of just fessing up about my past, I deflect.

  “Maybe I’ll come sometime, we’ll see.” That must appease him because he lunges for me and kisses me hard. After a few moments he pulls back and starts the car, and then we head toward Elle’s house to relax for the day.

  This is the theme for the next three weeks.

  Jay stays at Elle’s house with me when I’m there. If I have to work, he sleeps at his house and hangs out with Blake during the day until I’m awake, then he makes me something to eat and either drives me to work himself or talks to me on the phone while I’m on my way to work. I think he’s secretly been going to the gym after he drops me off at work so he can train, but doesn’t mention it me. I’m okay with him having something to do other than focus on me being threatened.

  It’s sweet that he wants to keep me safe, but at the same time I feel a bit smothered by the whole thing. Rob never cared what I did or where I went as long as I didn’t do something to embarrass him, so Jay hovering over me sometimes gets on my nerves even though I know he’s doing it to protect me.

  But as much as it drives me crazy that Jay is constantly looking over my shoulder for me, I can’t deny that I have a strong feeling that someone is watching me most of the time.

 
; My suspicions that Jay was working out when he should have been recovering were confirmed when he told me that coach scheduled a fight for him in two weeks. His match is against someone he beat easily the first time so his coach thinks he can do it again, and Jay was more than happy to go back to training.

  He’s been trying to talk me into coming to watch him in the gym for the past week, but I’ve been avoiding it or changing the subject when he tries to talk about it. I’m just not ready to tell him the real reason I don’t want to watch him fight.

  ***

  The texts have still come almost daily and they are still threatening, but they aren’t as frequent with Jay around. I mostly get them while I’m at work and I silently cry for about ten minutes in a bathroom stall on one of my breaks.

  Greg has still been actively hitting on me during shift changes, even though I thought I had made it very clear that I wasn’t interested, and Cassie still harasses me every once in a while as well. Since she’s also on a different shift than I am, I normally get a note on my windshield calling me a suggestive name or hoping that something happens to me so that Jay will be single again.

  I just roll my eyes and throw them away.

  I’ve tried my hardest to keep the texts to myself because I don’t want Jay to freak out more than he has and lock me in the house forever, but the one I received this dreary Friday morning before I got off scared me enough to tell Jay as soon as I got home.

  Unknown- You should be watching your back more carefully. I’m coming for you soon

  Chapter 22

  Jay

  When Ada shows me the text she got at work this morning, I’m speechless. I thought that the threatening texts had stopped and now she’s telling me that they haven’t but she’s been hiding them from me.

  I’m beyond pissed and a bit scared at the same time.

  We’ve grown so close in the past few weeks and it makes me mad that she would hide this from me, but even more than that I’m scared that someone could want to hurt the woman I’m steadily falling in love with and I won’t be there to protect her.

  After I look at the text, it takes me a few minutes to calm myself before I can look back to Ada. When I do, I see that she’s scared, whether it’s from the look on my face or the texts I’m not sure. I don’t want to be the reason that she’s afraid so I take a deep breath before speaking.

  “Why the hell didn’t you tell me that you were still getting texts like this, Ada?” I try to keep my voice from sounding angry, but I think I failed. Ada has a few tears slide down her cheek and takes in a shaky breath before she answers me.

  “I didn’t tell you about them because I didn’t want you to worry about me more than you have. I feel bad enough that you think you have to stay at my place every night because you think someone is going to get me, I don’t want to take away from your training so that you can be my personal bodyguard for the rest of my life.”

  I physically flinch. What she says hurt a bit. I never once thought that I was staying at her house to just protect her.

  “Is that why you think I’ve been staying with you all this time?” I ask, my brows pulling together as I bend to look into her eyes. She sniffles and nods then turns her attention away from me. I put my finger under her chin and bring her gaze back to mine before I say anything.

  “Ada, I don’t stay at your place so that I can be your bodyguard. I have never stayed with you out of obligation and it hurts a bit to know that’s why you thought I was there. I stay because I want to be with you. I love you and I want to be with you all the time.”

  The words come out easier than I thought they would. My mom is the only woman I’ve ever said those three words to and meant it, but I realize that I really am in love with Ada and I want to tell her every chance that I get. A tear rolls down Ada’s face and I slowly lift my thumb to wipe it away.

  “I’m sorry Jay; I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. I know these texts have scared you just as badly as they have me, but I don’t know what else to do about it. I keep reporting them to Ronan but he says the phone company hasn’t gotten back to him about his request for information on the phone number. Until they get that, there isn’t much that can be done.

  “I guess I figured that if I didn’t tell you about them, I wouldn’t be so freaked out. I kept thinking that they were just idle threats and that nothing was actually going to happen to me, but this text is too much.”

  I pull her close and only after my arms are wrapped around her I notice that she’s shaking. I place a small kiss on her head and she breaks down and begins to cry. I’m just now realizing how scared she really is about this person texting her.

  I hold her in my arms, slowly swaying back and forth while she weeps. When she starts to calm down and her crying has stopped, I decide that her falling asleep is probably the best way to keep her mind off things right now.

  “Come on baby, let’s get you in bed. I’ll lie down with you till you fall asleep and then I have to get to the gym,” I say while leading her down the hall to her bedroom. Ada just nods and weakly follows me, wrapping her arms around my waist as if she needs me to keep her standing.

  When we make it to her room, I quickly help Ada strip out of her black scrubs and black Nike’s and then put on a ragged t-shirt and some yoga pants for her to sleep in. We climb into her bed and lie down facing each other and I take the time to stare into her remarkable eyes; one bright blue and one a sharp green, both surrounded by red and puffy skin.

  Ada gives me a weak smile and closes her eyes. I reach over and gently stroke her hair, hoping that will help her to sleep. I can’t stop myself from kissing her head every few minutes, telling myself that I won’t let anything happen to the woman I love.

  After a few minutes, Ada’s breathing starts to even out, so I decide to get up and hit the gym so that I can finish before she wakes up. Just before I reach the door, I hear Ada’s voice. It’s just above a whisper, but what she says is crystal clear.

  “I love you, too.”

  I turn to look back at her and smile, but her eyes are still closed so I figure that I’ll just let her sleep for now and show her how much she means to me after she wakes up.

  Before I leave the house, I make sure all of the doors and windows are locked and I set the alarm. I watch for anything suspicious around the neighborhood before I leave Ada’s driveway, but see nothing that strikes me as odd, so I go to the gym for my five hour training session.

  After two hours of running on the treadmill and lifting weights, it’s time to step in the ring and spar. I’m still pissed off that Ada didn’t tell me that she was still getting those text messages, but I’m even more pissed off that someone would even want to hurt her. She is the most loving, compassionate woman that I’ve ever met. Unfortunately for Blake, he was chosen to be my sparring partner today and has to feel the extent of my anger. I’ve been trained mostly with the boxing and kickboxing backgrounds, but unluckily for Blake, I’ve been training in ju-jitsu lately and he gets to feel it all.

  For over twenty minutes, Blake’s trying his best to dodge my strikes. I lay blow after blow to him, hooks to the face, kicks to the ribs, jabs to the kidneys, and even though he’s my best friend, I have to get this anger out somehow. When coach tells us to take a break to refuel, Blake corners me.

  “Dude, what the fuck was that all about? I know you have a fight coming up, but you do know you aren’t supposed to kick the shit out of your sparring partner, don’t you?”

  “I’m sorry man, I’ve just got a lot on my mind,” I tell him, unable to look at him with the dried up blood still sitting in the corner of his nostril.

  “What’s going on Jay? Are you and Ada okay?” Blake asks with genuine concern in his voice. I sigh before having to talk about this with him. I don’t really want to bring it up, but maybe talking about it with someone will release some of my anger.

  “Yeah we’re good, but do you remember when we first started dating and she was getting those threatening t
exts?”

  “Yeah, they stopped after you guys started getting serious though, right?” he raises an eyebrow.

  “I thought they did, but Ada has just been hiding them from me. She thought that I was getting sick of playing bodyguard for her and didn’t want me to have to be with her out of obligation,” I bunch my hands into fists and shake my head, starting to get pissed all over again.

  “What? Does she know you at all?” Blake chuckles, but then is brows come together and he leans his head toward me.

  “So she’s still getting the text messages then? Has she found out who they’re from?”

  “No, her friend who works for the Phoenix P.D. is still waiting on the phone company to send over the information on the number. He’s already questioned Ada’s ex husband, but he said that Rob’s been throwing himself into his work since the divorce and that he hasn’t had any contact with Ada since the divorce was finalized,” I shrug, not really buying that story. I know for a fact you can’t just stay away from a girl like Ada.

  “Who’s Rob? Is that Ada’s ex?” Blake asks. I give him a slight nod.

  “Yeah, the idiot who let an awesome chick like Ada slip through his fingers because he’s stupid. If I ever meet him, first I’ll thank him for letting her go and then I’ll kick him in the side of the head for hurting her in the first place,” I barely smile when Blake starts to laugh at my comment.

  “Well it shouldn’t be a big deal, right? The texts weren’t that bad were they?”

  “I’m not sure about the ones from the time I started staying at her house till now because I only saw a few of them. Ada says they weren’t bad, that they just called her names, but the one she got at work this morning really has us freaked the fuck out. It said she needed to watch her back more closely and that they were coming to get her soon,” I say in a gravelly voice and look up to see Blake. His eyes are squinted but otherwise there is a blank expression on his face.

  “Holy shit,” Blake mumbles under his breath and looks away from me for a few seconds. I nod and crack my knuckles.