Chapter Her Special PayBack: #3
I pulled the sheet up to her shoulders and quietly closed the door, cleaned up the kitchen, had two healthy drinks and went to bed. I thought, "Tomorrow should be interesting."
I'm an early morning person no matter when I go to bed, so I woke at sunrise, unsuccessfully tried to go back to sleep, and finally got up. My master bedroom has its own bath so I did my morning things, put on a clean shirt and shorts and went to the kitchen.
The office door was still closed so I stalled for about an hour sipping black coffee, reading the morning paper and then started organizing breakfast. I went to the office door and knocked. Nothing.
"Holly, wake up."
I knocked again hard and opened the door. She was on her side facing me with the sheet up to her neck. Her eyes were full of sleep, but open and watching me.
I said, "In twenty minutes breakfast will be ready so you better get your butt out of bed, clean up and meet me in the kitchen."
"Are you always this bossy?"
I pretended to look stern and answered, "Twenty minutes."
I walked away leaving the door open. Minutes later I heard the door to the bathroom close, and then the toilet flushed. Almost twenty minutes later she walked into the kitchen wearing the same T-shirt and shorts. I noticed this time she was wearing a bra.
She sat down without talking. A large glass of milk and another of orange juice was in front of her. I put down a plate with three pieces of toast each topped with two poached eggs accompanied by about eight slices of bacon. I put a couple of bagels on a side plate with cream cheese next to her.
She said, "This is way too much food for me."
Fifteen minutes later the food was gone.
She looked embarrassed. "I ate like a pig again."
"You ate like someone who hasn't eaten right for a while."
She blushed again.
"Phil, I want to thank you..."
I interrupted, "There's a great park four blocks from here. I'll clean up the kitchen and let's walk to the park and then have our talk. It's cool right now but later it's going to be really hot, so let's enjoy the morning."
We walked to the park in comfortable silence. I'd point out something interesting every now and then, but I could tell she was getting nervous. We circled the park once along the bike path and then sat down at a picnic table in front of a large pond; ducks were swimming in the water.
It was obvious she didn't know what to say.
I asked, "What's your most serious problem?"
"I'm broke with no job."
I continued, "What's your second most serious problem?"
"I have no place to live in a strange town and have no friends."
"Do you have cancer or a serious illness?"
"No."
"Are you wanted by the police?"
"No."
"Well then," I concluded, "You have a serious short term problem, but will be fine in the long term, and you don't consider me a friend yet."
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She grabbed my hand and blurted, "Shit, that was stupid of me. You saved my life yesterday; I was desperate and you took me in. I won't ever forget your kindness."
I covered her hand with mine and quietly asked, "If it will make you feel better, why don't you tell me how you ended up at my doorstep."
She talked for an hour. The first few minutes were stumbling and then everything poured out. She had grown up in a suburb of Chicago. Her father bailed out even before she was born, so she was raised by her mother. They were very poor, but her mom got her through high school and started her into junior college. During her second year of junior college, her mom had a heart attack and died.
Her emphasis in junior college was business and she quickly got a job working for a small business in Chicago. Two years and two promotions later she was starting to make it in the real business world when she met Jim. After three months Jim moved into her apartment. The plan was that they would get married as soon as they had enough money to feel comfortable.
Three months after Jim moved in he lost his job; he had been an alcoholic and had fallen off the wagon. He didn't look very hard for a new job and the small savings they had built up started to disappear. His drinking got worse; he abused her when drunk and their sex life became more like multiple rapes.
Jim came to her office drunk a week ago and demanded money in front of her coworkers and boss. They made him leave, but he yelled he would come back and kill everybody. He had so frightened her company that they told her she was fired. She received a week's severance. When she got home that afternoon she found the apartment had been torn apart in one of Jim's rages. The furniture was destroyed, all her clothes had been ripped apart, and there was an eviction notice on the door. Jim had taken the checks for rent, but never mailed them in for the last two months.
When she went to her bank to get the past due rent money, she found out that Jim had cleaned out their account. The only favor the bank did was to cash her severance check.
She had met Carol at a charity party about the same time she met Jim and had kept lightly in touch with her even after Carol had moved to Atlanta. She called Carol to see if she could stay with her a few days and start a new life. When she arrived in Atlanta, Carol wasn't there; I was.
Holly sat across from me at the park sobbing as she finished her story. The look of desperation had come back as she realized again the mess she was in.
Other then touching her hand, I had done nothing during her story. I wasn't sure what to do. I felt if I hugged her she would completely fall apart and be even more of an emotional cripple, but I had to give her some hope; and I was not unaware that even at this moment, I was attracted to her.
I said, "Holly, you have a big short term problem, but that's all it is. Here's what we're going to do.
"For the first week you have to get back on your feet, and in the second week we start working on finding you a job. Let's go back to the apartment and I want you to write a list of the clothes you need to buy along with other stuff that will get you through one week.
"Do you cook?"
She nodded yes.
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"Fair cook or pretty good?"
"I'm pretty good," she admitted
"That makes it easy," I said. You'll stay with me for the first week. You're the official apartment cleaner and cook, except that Wednesday and Saturday we go out to eat. I'll loan you the money for what you need to buy, and you can pay me back once you start making some money."
"Why are you being so nice to me?" she asked.
"You're my lucky charm so far on my selling, and I think behind those tears I see a good person who got unlucky," I answered.
We walked back to the apartment and she started writing her list of clothes and things. When she was done I checked the list. "I don't see a dress for the restaurant tonight," I teased.
"Restaurant?"
"It's Saturday. We go out to eat on Wednesday and Saturday. Don't you remember?"
She added a dress to her list.
I continued, "Put down a swimming suit."
"I really don't need a swimming suit," she said.
"Well when we go down to the pool this weekend you are either going to be skinny dipping or wearing a suit... it's up to you." She added a swimming suit to her list.
"Now make up a list of the meals you are going to cook during the week," I suggested.