LUCY

by Danielle James

  “Wake up,” I shook her again. She opened those pretty eyes and looked at me in a drunken haze.

  “Shit. Did you make it?” She asked, sitting up.

  “I made it. I can sneak out later and take you home.”

  “You live with your PO?” She asked, rubbing her eyes.

  “Nah but he works close enough to see if my truck is still here. Plus I have a tracker on my phone. After he leaves, I leave the phone and do what I want.”

  “No, Hush. I’ll stay the night with you and we can leave in the morning. I don’t want you risking anything on my behalf.” Staying the night with Lucy Waters?

  “I think I’ll risk it to take you home,” I laughed.

  “Don’t. Please. I’ll sleep on your couch. I’ve slept on enough of them.” She let out a burp and looked surprised at herself. “That was a big one. Shit.”

  “Is that normally what you say after a burp?”

  “Oh, excuse me. Sometimes I forget how to act like a lady and all that other shit.” She hopped out of my truck and stretched, her crop top inching up toward her bra. I tore my eyes away and motioned for her to get back inside.

  “Let’s go.” Against my better judgment, I took Lucy home with me. My apartment wasn’t much but I did have two bedrooms. Lucy tossed her bag down and walked around like she was touring the White House or something.

  “This is nice, Hush. It’s a lot cleaner than I would have expected.”

  “Everyone can’t have an entire collection of Fruit Rollups on the floor like you do with your car,” I joked.

  “Fuck you. I love Fruit Rollups and I never know when I’m going to want one. Besides, they go on sale a lot.”

  “Probably because you buy them all the time. You’re moving units for those stores.”

  “Whatever,” she laughed. “My stomach hurts. I may have overdone it on the liquor.” She flopped on the couch and I sat beside her.

  “You want some water? I can make you a piece of toast.”

  “Can you rub my stomach?” I looked down at her tiny waist and flat stomach and nerves got the best of me. She was so petite. My hand was bigger than her torso.

  “I have a heating pad in the linen closet.”

  “Oh my God, just rub my fucking stomach, Hush.” Hesitantly, I reached out and placed my palm on her. She was so compact that my fingers hung over the side of her waist. “Your hand is so warm,” she sighed. It almost sounded like a moan. I didn’t want to hear Lucy moan. It would make my brain foggy and I was busy committing her to memory as a good friend.

  I put the TV on and rubbed her stomach while she sighed happily. I could do that. It was okay after a few minutes. We were friends and she was an alcoholic that needed a stomach rub.

  “Do you have a girlfriend?” She asked me out of the blue.

  “No.” My brows furled together.

  “Why not? You’re so sweet. I mean…there’s the whole punching people thing but other than that, you’re sweet.”

  “I don’t do girlfriends. I’m not romantic. I don’t talk a lot and I’m private so I don’t do social media posts and all that other bullshit. These women out here wouldn’t want me.”

  “That’s not true. I’m going to find you a girlfriend.”

  “Please don’t, Lucy.”

  “Why not?”

  “I just told you.”

  “You’re being difficult. You don’t want a girlfriend.” Lucy sat up and shut her eyes immediately.

  “Room spinning?” I laughed, pushing her back down.

  “Tremendously,” she groaned.

  “See? That’s why you need to lay your crazy ass down.”

  “Will you make me toast and keep rubbing my stomach?” She pouted.

  “Yes, Lucy.”

  “Thank you, Chase.”

  “I like when you call me Chase. Only when we’re alone though. Can you do that more?” It felt like a stupid request but everyone called me Hush when they saw me. Nobody called me Chase. It sounded nice rolling off her tongue.

  Lucy’s cheeks glowed crimson and she nodded, biting her lip. That lip biting shit was going to get her in trouble. I was her friend but I was also a man. A man that had been in jail for a year without touching a woman and who’d been out for a year without touching a woman.

  I hadn’t touched a woman for two years and Lucy was sitting there biting her goddamn lip. I gladly went into the kitchen and made her toast so I could shake the fog from my brain. I turned when I heard feet padding toward the kitchen. Lucy came out of her denim shorts and crop top and donned one of my shirts.

  She looked like a kid.

  Well…no kid would ever look like that but she was so tiny. My shirt hung off her shoulder, exposing her collarbones and the tops of her perky breasts. I looked at the toaster and pressed the lever down. Anything to stop staring at her.

  “Who the hell said you could go in my room, rummage through my shit and wear my clothes?”

  “I didn’t have anything to sleep in. Is this shirt okay?”

  “No,” I grunted. “I’m wearing it to work tomorrow. Find something in the top drawer.”

  “Okay,” she grinned and pulled on my fingers until I leaned down to her level then she kissed my cheek. “You’re such a gentleman, Chase. Thank you.” She disappeared and I rubbed my face with my hands.

  My apartment hadn’t seen a guest since I moved in and now I had this tiny tornado taking up my space and ordering me around. It was strange but not unwelcome. I knew once the noise and mess that was Lucy left, I’d go back to being quiet. The thought was once comforting but now it was boring.

  I was going to miss her.

  I didn’t know when she’d come back so I decided to keep her up all night.

  “Can I use your shower, Chase?” The words made my ears prick.

  “Yeah, sure.” I took her toast out, set it on a napkin and went to the closet to get her a towel and washcloth.

  “Thank you,” she smiled and clutched them to her chest then closed the bathroom door. This was going to be a long night.

  **

  “I’m not giving you any liquor, Lucy. I don’t even have any in here.” She’d been asking for an hour straight and every time, I refused her.

  “Chase, please,” she whined, clinging to my shoulders.

  “No. Let your body detox for a while. Can you do that?”

  “No. What the fuck is detox? It sounds painful. It sounds so painful I may have extracted that word from my vocabulary altogether.”

  “You’re fucking nuts, Lucy. Your liver is going to walk out of your body soon.”

  “Don’t say that.” She hit me and I hit her back but I forgot how strong I was and she went sailing onto the floor.

  “Oh shit, I’m sorry, sweetheart.” I held my hand out and she grabbed on. In one yank, I pulled her on top of me, once again not realizing my own strength.

  “You need to learn how not to be so strong. Weirdo.”

  “Crazy.” I poked her side and she giggled. “What do you want to watch next?” It was four in the morning but neither one of us seemed to care.

  “Something scary,” she pulled her knees under my shirt and snuggled so close to me that I couldn’t escape her sweet scent if I wanted to.

  “I’ll put on whatever you want if you make me a promise, Crazy.”

  “What?” She looked up at me and I got lost in her eyes for a second.

  “You’ll detox for a week. No liquor.” The silence seemed to stretch on forever.

  “If I do that, you have to make me a promise,” she challenged.

  “What?” I was curious.

  “You have to let me hang out with you after work for a week.” Wasn’t like she had to twist my arm. I liked being around her.

  “Deal.” We shook on it and she settled beside me.

  We watched movies all night until the sun peeked over the earth and until neither of us could keep our eyes open.

  I woke up to her little body wrapped around me. Her legs a
round my legs and her arms around my middle. I pried her off because friends didn’t sleep like that. Then I went to the bathroom.

  I spent the entire night with Lucy and I was cool with it. She didn’t get on my nerves. Quite the opposite. She made me love being around her. I wondered if she loved being around me too.

  I washed my hands, turned around, and she stared at me from the hall. “You moved,” she yawned. So she liked being around me too.

  “Yeah, I had to piss. Is that cool, boss?”

  “Ask next time. You’re like a muscular body pillow. I like laying on you.” I chuckled at her and tousled her hair.

  “I’m not a kid, Chase.”

  “Didn’t say you were. Maybe I like touching your hair.” It was like silk. I tossed an arm around her shoulders and she smiled adorably. “You wanna pick up breakfast?” I asked her.

  “Yes, I’m starving.” She rubbed her stomach under my shirt and gave me a glimpse of her tight, toned thighs. “Hey, do you have a dress shirt?” She asked me, hooking a left into my bedroom.

  “Why?”

  “I want to wear it. I don’t have any clean clothes.”

  “You’ll swim in it.” I frowned at her and tossed a pinstripe shirt at her face.

  “Give me a tie,” she ordered. I tossed her one and in a few minutes, Lucy turned my oversized dress shirt into a dress. She ran her fingers through her long hair and I stared at her while she commanded my mirror like she lived there.

  I noticed every space Lucy occupied seemed like it belonged to her. That included my apartment. It smelled like her, it looked like a damn tornado blew through, and now she was stealing my clothes.

  We ended up at IHOP, eating pancakes and laughing over the corny scary movie we watched last night. Her phone rang and she cursed when her sister’s name popped up.

  “Hey Nora,” she answered. “Yeah, I’m sorry. I meant to text you last night. I know, I know. I’m safe.” She pulled the phone away from her ear and I heard a voice identical to hers, shouting. She called Lucy a bitch several times. “I’m sorry. I’ll explain it to you when I get home. I love you too, Nora. Tell Abel I’m okay.” She laughed and hung up then shook her head.

  “My sister was looking for me,” she said, digging through her bag.

  “Don’t put any liquor in that iced tea,” I warned her.

  “Okay, okay.”

  “Actually, hand over all the liquor in your bag.”

  “How do you know I have liquor in my bag?” She lifted an eyebrow at me but I wouldn’t budge. I held my hand out and she placed several mini bottles of different kinds of whiskey in my palm, then she pulled out a fifth of Jack Daniels that was nearly gone and swirled it around with a sigh.

  “Now, Lucy.”

  “Okay, okay. I was saying goodbye. It’s only for a week, right?”

  “Only a week, drunky.” She handed over the big bottle then took a long sip of her tea.

  “It’s not the same without liquor. This tea tastes like depression.”

  “Stop being a whiny little baby.”

  “I’m not, I’m just saying if I die from withdrawals I hope you know it’s on your head.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Shut up and eat.”

  Without liquor taking up ninety percent of her stomach contents, Lucy put away her entire plate of food.

  My stomach sank when we pulled up at work. I knew I’d see her later on but it wouldn’t be Chase and Lucy. Not Weirdo and Crazy. It would just be Lucy and Hush working. It would be me grunting out one-word answers and her moving around me like I wasn’t there.

  “Bye, Chase.” She said standing beside her dirty, yellow bug.

  “Bye, Lucy.” She hugged me and I held her tight. We stood like that for a while until I broke the embrace. I didn’t want to but if I didn’t, we’d stay there forever like that.

  “Wait, I don’t have your number,” she squeaked. It was an excuse to stand there longer. We exchanged numbers and Lucy stared at me afterward.

  “Bye crazy,” I laughed.

  “Weirdo.” She shoved me and got in her car. I didn’t realize I was starving for friendship until Lucy blew into my life.

  **

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  I’d been working late to close a deal so when I got off I was extremely happy and more than ready to crack into a beer. I never expected to see Lauren standing beside my car. I slowed in my stride and looked around for the hidden cameras. I hadn’t bothered to contact her since she told me we were over.

  I didn’t like the way she looked at Lucy.

  Even though I wasn’t fucking her anymore, she was still my little sister.

  “What are you doing here?” I unlocked the door and tossed my briefcase in.

  “Can we talk, Abel? Please?” Her brown eyes already looked ripe with tears.

  “About what? You hate my sister. You think I want to fuck her.” I did but I was moving away from that. “You said we were through. Does that about sum it up, Lauren?”

  “Yes, but…”

  “But what?”

  “But I’m sorry. I was hasty. Help me understand you and Lucy. I want to understand. I don’t want to lose you.” The tears were rolling and they were fat and fast.

  “Lauren, I’ve been in that fucking office for eleven hours working on a media package complete with video. I don’t feel like dealing with bullshit.”

  “It’s not bullshit. Can we go to dinner? My treat?” She sniffled and smiled through the tears. I looked down at my watch to see Lucy calling me and I tapped decline. I had to.

  “I’m tired,” I said.

  “I know. It won’t take long.” I nodded, reluctantly and told her I’d follow her in my car. I didn’t want to be held captive by her crying. We drove a short distance to a quiet restaurant that didn’t have many people inside but they did have an imported beer menu.

  “Abel, I want to give us a shot. A real one,” I looked at Lauren and clasped my hands together.

  “Okay, then how are we going to rectify this Lucy situation? She’s not going anywhere and I’m not going to stop being around her. She’s a part of my life.” I lowered my brows on my forehead and waited for her answer.

  “I can steer clear of her. It seems like that’s the only solution.”

  “Can you try to be nice to her? She feels like you judge her around every corner and I’d have to agree.”

  “I can’t be nice to someone who doesn’t like me. How does that work? She’s physically assaulted me twice, Abel. You act like that means nothing. She hit me in the face with a glass, she hit me in the face repeatedly, and she dragged me across the room by my hair! I had two clumps of hair come out after that,” she hissed.

  Damn. Luce fucked her up.

  “Then maybe that’s a sign that we shouldn’t be together, Lauren. I don’t know what else to do. I’m not going to cut my sister off.”

  “All I hear you saying is that you won’t protect me. You won’t do anything to stop Lucy because you’re blind when it comes to her.”

  “Maybe I am a little blind when it comes to her but I can’t control her. She’s a grown woman. So are you. I’m not going to police two grown women. If you two can’t get along then…”

  “Then you’ll just throw your hands up and say fuck it, huh?” There were the tears again. I was tired of hearing and seeing them, honestly.

  “You did that for me, Lauren. You said we were through so I’m agreeing. The only way through this is for you and Luce to magically be okay with each other. Besides that, it’s too sticky of a situation for me to lend my energy to at this point. Maybe I’ll find someone who gets along with Lucy.” I took a drink of beer and set the glass on the table with a thud.

  “Do you hear yourself, Abel? You’re structuring your entire life around your sister. You don’t see how unhealthy that is?”

  “Yes. I do. I’m trying to step away from it,” I gritted out.

  “Well, start by giving our relationship a chance. If you’re making your own decisi
ons then what Lucy thinks shouldn’t matter. All I want to know is…do you love me, Abel?” I had to think long and hard about her question. It wasn’t light. Finally, I looked at her and nodded.

  “I love you, Lauren.” It wasn’t passionate but it was love. It wasn’t Lucy but it was love.

  “Then we can make it work. See how simple things are when you take Lucy out of the equation? We’re two people that love each other. The end. We should be able to be together without a bunch of drama in the middle.” She was right but something about her words felt wrong. Lucy never acted viciously without reason but she also didn’t think straight when it came to me.

  The more beer I drank, the more visions of her tight little body pumped through my mind. I had to stop. I looked at Lauren, desperate for a way to get Lucy off my mind and nodded. “Let’s give it another shot. The last shot though, Lauren. If things don’t work out this time then we’re done.”

  “Okay. I can work with that. I’ll try to work with Lucy whenever she’s around but I’m going to keep my distance from her.”

  “That’s probably a good idea.” I glanced at my wrist and saw Lucy’s face pop up. She was calling again. “Thank you for the dinner, Lauren. I’m gonna go home and go to sleep. Tomorrow…you wanna stay the night at my place?”

  “Absolutely,” she grinned. She stood when I did and I gave her a kiss before slipping a hundred dollar bill in her palm to pay for dinner. “Abel, I would have covered it.”

  “You know I’d never let you.” I winked and walked out. By the time I got to my car, Nora was calling. I finally answered the phone.

  “Luce is wondering where you are. She’s being crazy,” Nora sighed. “She thinks you’re ignoring her for Lauren.” How the fuck did she do that? I had to look over my shoulder to make sure Lucy wasn’t stalking me.

  “I’m gonna call her when I get in the house.”

  “Abel, you weren’t with Lauren, were you?” Nora’s breath hitched in her throat as she waited for my answer.

  “Yeah, I was.” I pulled off and headed home.

  “Jesus. You know Lucy has a sixth sense about shit like that. Why were you with her? I thought she said you two were done.”