by Amber Burns
She had avoided going out in public after her face aired on multiple news outlets for days. Hoping the rest of the world would forget, she was disappointed to find that the clerk behind the counter did recognize her. Bottle of water in hand she stepped up to the counter. An audible inhale from the clerk was the first sign that she was about to be put under the spotlight again.
“You are that girl. The girl from the crazy kidnapping a few weeks back, oh my goodness.” Her elderly face was scrunched up in concern and pity.
Cindy just nodded and started to pull out her card when the woman touched her hand.
“Sweetie, this is on me today.”
“Thank you.”
Surprised that the woman didn’t berate her with questions and thankful for her kindness she gave her a genuine smile. She realized it was the first time she had smiled since she had last seen Cade. Her heart beat a little faster at the thought of him and she almost pulled out her phone to text him. Collecting her water bottle and her wits, she left the convenient store and finished her walk to the little gym.
If the instructor recognized her from the news, she didn’t act like it. While Maggie was small in stature, her warm voice carried across the room and her demeanor screamed “I am in charge”. After they grappled and Maggie showed Cindy a few easy beginners’ moves, Cindy knew she was going to sign up for the monthly package. Maggie was also a personal fitness trainer, and Cindy was quickly added to her list of clients. Leaving the gym, muscle aching and a small sweat circling down her back, Cindy felt great for the first time in weeks.
Cindy walked back home and showered. A familiar rumble from the street drew her to the window. Hair dripping and towel wrapped around her midriff, she peered down at Cade’s motorcycle and felt her heart jump at the sight of him. She nervously ran her fingers through her hair and ran to her bedroom for something to wear. An old college hoodie and shorts were crumpled up in the corner of her closet that was in complete disarray. She sighed and slipped into the clothes, hoping they were clean. Her doorbell chimed and she made her way down the stairs slowly to her front door.
Blinking at the clean-shaven face and deep green eyes that peered at her, she sucked in a breath at the sight of him. He was handsome with the beard, but without, he was incredible. His hair was brushed back and trimmed in the back with a slight fade at the bottom. Fighting the urge to reach up and run her fingers through his shaggy, clean mane, she folded her hands into fist. They stood in her doorway for what felt like eternity before she collapsed against his chest, breathing him in. His cologne was warm and refreshing.
***
When Cade stepped up to the large navy door, he hesitated only briefly. His nerves making him feel sick, and he took a deep breath as he pushed the little white button that sounded her doorbell. A moment later, Cindy stood before him in a faded hoodie and shorts, her hair still dripping from a recent shower. He was afraid she wouldn’t be accepting of his visit. When she collapsed into his chest, he was surprised but happy to have her close again. He kissed her forehead and just held her until she pulled back and they moved into her condo. They moved up the stairs and took a seat around her kitchen table.
“Would you like anything to drink?” She asked him awkwardly and before allowing him to answer, she clanked around in the cabinets and came back a moment later with a glass of wine for each of them.
He sniffed the dark, almost purple, liquid and took a small sip. It was a dry wine that left a film on his tongue. It wasn’t his favorite wine he had tasted, but it was also not the worst. Setting his glass back on the table, he looked at Cindy as she took a large sip from her own glass.
“How are you?” He felt silly for asking, but that was the first thing that came out of his mouth.
“I am ok. You?”
“Ok. I have missed you.” He looked into those beautiful blue eyes, seeing something behind them he hadn’t before.
“I just finished my first self-defense course. It was pretty exciting.” She smiled and his heart warmed to see it.
“Good. That is awesome. Where at?”
“A gym just down the street. Maggie Lee runs it. She is a tiny little beast!”
He listened as she told him about her first session. He knew Maggie. She was well known in the community for being a hard-ass, but also a very reputable fitness trainer. He was happy that she was obviously excited about her knew discovery. If it empowered her and filled her with joy, he could easily support it.
“What happened to your beard?” She asked while reaching out and touching his cheek. Her soft hands gently caressed him. He wanted her to keep touching him forever.
“I needed a change,” he shrugged.
“I… I like it.”
“Hah… well, it has been a long time since my chin was exposed.”
“Cade?”
“Yes?”
“I have wanted to ask you something for a long time.” She had stopped caressing his cheek and let her hands rest in her lap. Her blue eyes now looking at her hands as she twisted them nervously.
“Ask me anything Cindy.”
He took one of her hands in his and rubbed the back of it, trying to sooth her obvious nerves, and calm himself too.
“What happened to your parents?”
Her eyes were back on his. He wondered why of all the questions this was what she wanted to know now. He didn’t care though, because he would tell her anything. Time away from her had made him realize just how much he loved her. He loved her. He could honestly say that he was in love with the beautiful woman sitting in front of him, and he couldn’t imagine spending his life without her.
“Well, let’s see how to begin this. I can still remember the small run-down apartment that we lived in. I believe it was an apartment anyway. Up on the east end, the poor side of the city. I am not even sure how I survived past infancy. My parents sold and used drugs. Anyways, when I was four, I went to the kitchen to make myself a sandwich. I have a picture of when I was that age, I was a scrawny little thing. I probably only ate junk, or whatever I could find in the kitchen. But, I came back from the kitchen with my sandwich and found my mom and dad sitting on that old broken down couch in the middle of the room. Springs poked out and stuffing had given way to a sagging heap of fabric.”
He paused and checked to see if she was still following. Her eyes were filled with sadness, not pity, but sadness for what was to come.
“They sat there, motionless. I am not sure how long they had been that way, I had been playing with some toy or another and had just decided to get a sandwich. They were usually quiet, and they always told me to stay quiet too, so it wasn’t anything new. This wasn’t the first time I had found them passed out, but I knew this time was different. Their eyes were open and blank. I put my sandwich down and walked over to them, and just stared. Neither one was breathing. How could I have known at four, I don’t know, but I did.”
Cindy was covering her mouth now and one single tear rolled down her cheek.
“They were known to overdose, so I was aware of how to call 911. Within minutes, the ambulance had pulled in and everything happened quickly. They laid my parents flat and tried to bring them back, but they were both gone. I watched as the EMT’s pulled the needles and tourniquets from their arms and zipped them in the black bags. The next day I was taken into custody, but they found out that my aunt was my closest kin and they placed me in her care… to her disappointment.”
Cindy reached out and placed her hand on his arm. He felt her squeeze as he looked at a blank space on the wall. Years of suppressed memories flooding out of him, as if a dam had been broken within.
“My aunt had a job that required a lot of travel. When she saw how self-sufficient I was, she left me at home alone. When I was old enough to go to school, I walked to and from the bus stop and took care of myself. It took them, the state, three years to find out that I was taking care of myself. I had a fever at school and when they couldn’t reach my aunt, I told them that she was in some
other state on business. Once again, I was hustled into custody by the state and before I knew it I was in and out of foster homes. My last foster home seemed promising in the beginning. I was thirteen and had been acting out recently. My foster mom was sweet, but she was very quiet when her husband came home. It didn’t take long until I figured out the source of her quietness and the rage behind that sat behind a constant empty bottle. By seventeen I was tired of the abuse. I left and took to the streets where I met Tommy.”
He stopped. He had not shared this much about himself with anyone before. It felt good to get it all off his chest, but he was afraid of how she would respond or react to his admission. Cade looked at those blue eyes as they pierced through him. Something other than sadness was there, anger.
“I was never abused or witnessed the death of a family member,” Cindy explained. “But I felt trapped by my family’s name and ambitions. I still do.”
He loved that she wanted to relate to him somehow. He couldn’t imagine growing up in that miniature castle. Her parents did seem verbally and emotionally abusive in a way, and he had always thought that was worse than a punch to the gut. If his foster father had tried to break him, he did a poor job with his fists. If he had tried using his words to break him, he might have been more successful.
“They are a bit high-strung. I am sure they mean well,” Cade tried to reason. He wasn’t sure if he believed that, but he thought it was appropriate to say.
“Thank you, but they are overbearing and controlling. I am so sorry for how our dinner went. They should not have treated you that way. They don’t know you.”
“I love you.” Before he could stop himself, the words just spilled out.
“Huh?” Her eyebrows shot up and he suddenly felt that same sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.
“I love you Cindy Watkins.”
He wanted to say more, but he felt stupid. His brain and mouth couldn’t work and he wanted to hold her close.
“I…I. I love you too.”
Her face was twisted with confusion, but she had said the same three words and his heart skipped a beat.
The pair sat quietly for a moment, sharing the moment when it was shattered by Cindy’s doorbell ringing. They both jumped at the sound. She walked over to her balcony window and looked down below. Whoever it was, she sighed and walked down the stairs. A moment later, he heard another male voice. It was pompous and arrogant. His skin crawled at the absurdity of it and he walked to the stairs and peered down. That same smug doctor from her hospital, stood in her doorway with a large bouquet of roses. A teddy bear poked out from under his arm and Cade thought he would vomit.
“Hello Todd,” Cindy sneered.
“Hey beautiful.”
That made Cade clinch his hand. That guy deserves a fist to his narcissistic face.
“I can’t really talk right now Todd,” Cindy tried to evade.
Her face looked almost as disgusted as Cade’s as she looked at the teddy bear in the crook of Todd’s arm.
“I just wanted to bring these by and check on you. I have missed you at work.”
“What, nobody to change the bedpans?”
Cade remembered her mumbling that at the dinner table and wondered about the story behind it. Either way, he decided to join her and was glad he had, because the look on Todd’s face when he noticed him walking down the steps was priceless.
“You. You cleaned that fuzz dog off your face I see,” Todd tried to insult.
Cade narrowed his eyes and smirked.
“I had a dog on my face? Surprised I missed that. Sounds terribly uncomfortable.”
He heard Cindy suck in air as she tried not to laugh beside him.
“Well, I brought you these flowers and this teddy bear. You still have my number. Your parents told me to come get you this Saturday at seven-o-clock for a family dinner on their estate.”
“Those dinners are pretty eventful,” Cade chimed in. “Are you sure you can handle that in your busy doctor schedule?”
“At least I can pay my rent. What do you even do, covered in all of that filth and allowing your beard to grow to Neanderthal standard?”
“Oh, you know, mooch off beautiful and wealthy young ladies.”
He placed his hand on the small of Cindy’s back and felt her body tremble, suppressing the laughter that threatened to bubble out. Todd stood with his mouth gaping at Cade’s words. He wasn’t sure if Todd was that dense to believe him or if he sensed the sarcasm. Todd huffed, placed the flowers and teddy bear in Cindy’s arms, and turned to leave. As soon as he had stomped away down the steps to his car, Cindy and Cade fell into a fit of laughter.
“I really wish he had brought you chocolate. At least I could have had something sweet out of it.” Looking at each other, they fell into another bout of laughter.
“Dinner with him and my parents? I feel like its the medieval era and they are trying to force me into a loveless marriage.”
She wiped the laughter tears out of her eyes and looked at Cade. Marriage. He hadn’t even thought about that yet, but he could see her ten, twenty, even thirty years down the road by his side. His serious face must have worried her, because she furrowed her brow in concern.
“Cade?” She prodded.
“Sorry, I was just thinking about his face when I tag along to this dinner.”
“I think you should sit this one out. I am going to find a way to dissuade them from their fantasy that Todd is the perfect match for me and bring them on board with the idea of us being an us.”
She squeezed his arm and moved in to rest her head on his chest and wrap her arms around him. Every time they touched it felt right, like she was his puzzle piece that he had been missing his whole life.
“You, had better leave,” she whispered and tilted up to look at him.
Cade bent down to kiss her softly; their first kiss since the incident. He felt her melt in his arms and while he was turned on by their proximity, he wasn’t going to press for anything more tonight. She was clearly not ready for them to make love yet. He was just happy to even hold her. Kissing was just a bonus. They broke from their kiss, but not their embrace.
“Have you already returned to work?” He held her another minute longer. She shook her head in response to his question.
“No, they have let me take extra leave. I think I am ready to get back to the mayhem though. I miss the chaos and routine.”
He frowned when she said chaos, but he didn’t say anything. If that was her comfort zone, who was he to say otherwise. His own situation at the shop was stressing him enough as it is. Which reminded him, he had interviews to prepare for.
“Ok, I will go for tonight. I have to interview some potentially new artists at the shop this week. You should stop by and see where I work sometime.”
He finally let go of her and stepped towards her front door.
“I would like that.”
She smiled and he had to force himself not to go over and kiss those perfect pink lips one more time. Cade walked through the door and down to his bike. He straddled her and started the engine. His helmet back on his head, he looked up at the balcony and saw Cindy staring down at him. Her smile was warm and she blew him a kiss. Normally that would have seemed absurd to him, but he found her blowing him a kiss to be somehow sultry and seductive.
When he made it back into his apartment, he placed his coat and keys in the usual spot and looked around his apartment. Days spent moping around had left his place a total wreck. Feeling good after sharing his story with the love of his life and having her accept him motivated him to clean the place. When he had finished throwing out the last bag of trash, he looked up at the full moon shining down on him. Stars twinkled against the dark night sky, and he saw a shooting star race across the vastness.
Maybe his luck would improve now. He wasn’t much for superstition, but he was hopeful.
11
At the shop the next day, his first interviewee was running late. Not the best firs
t impression, but as an artist, he understood the problems with procrastination. His phone buzzed and he opened an attachment from Cindy. If she was trying to drive him mad, she was doing a fantastic job of it. In the picture, she stood in front of a dressing room mirror wearing a simple floral dress that fell below her knees. The next one, she wore an orange loose fitted dress that looked like an oversize shirt that buttoned up all the way and a brown leather belt rested on her waist. A text message then accompanied the pictures.
Hey. Which one do you like better?
The floral one. He responded.
Awesome.
A moment later, his phone buzzed again and he opened the image only to fumble and drop the phone in his lap. Looking around to make sure nobody else had seen, he scrolled back to the image. She stood in front of that same mirror, one arm hooked under her breasts in a sexy pose as the other took the picture. His eyes traveled down the length of her naked body, resting on her wide hips that curved in the perfect hour glass figure. Black boy shorts rested below her hips, just outlining that sweet spot he wanted to bury himself in again. Feeling himself grow hard, he texted her back.
