Emily's Affair (13 page)

His mother extended her hand to Emily. "Ignore him, Emily. And call me Lily."

Emily smiled easily and shook his mother's hand. "Thank you, Lily."

"This is my father. You can call him Colonel Jed. He might not respond to it, but—"

Emily discreetly dug her elbow into Jake's gut and his mother beamed with delight when he grunted. "How do you do, Jed," she asked.

His father looked hard pressed not to laugh as he shook her hand. "Very well, Emily. You'll keep the boy in line for us, won't you?"

"One can only try and pray for miracles, sir."

"Okay, enough of that. You getting chummy with Colonel Jed is not allowed." Jake turned her towards his sister. "And here we have the hellion of the family and bane of my wearied soul. Katie."

Katie shook Emily's hand and pulled her closer to whisper in her ear. Emily chuckled and Jake immediately frowned. Emily pulled back, glanced at Jake, then proceeded to whisper into Katie's ear. Katie nodded and smirked.

Jake braced his hands on his hips. "Break it up you two. No whispering is allowed."

Emily and Katie linked arms like new best friends and Emily said, "We'll be right back."

His father frowned. "Where are you going?"

"Yeah," Jake chimed. "Where are you going?"

"The powder room." Emily paused in front of him. "We'll be right back."

Jake cupped her chin and stroked her cheek with his thumb. "Be careful."

"I will."

He nodded, then gave her a quick, hard kiss. "I'll be right here."

Emily smiled and dragged his sister with her towards the ladies' room. He watched as Emily easily maneuvered them through the patrons and ended up behind the thieving red head. He kept his eyes trained on the pair until they disappeared into the bathroom.

Lily cleared her throat. "Jacob."

"Yes, Mom?"

Saint Lily poked his chest and he looked down at her. Her arms were folded across her chest and one foot tapped a steady rhythm on the floor. "Be careful?"

Colonel Jed snickered.

Jake ran a hand through his hair. "It's a long story, Mom. When Emily and Katie come out, I'll fill you in on all the details."

"How long have you been dating Emily?"

Jake kept his attention divided between his mother and the hallway. "Not long enough."

The foot stopped tapping.

His father groaned. "Here we go."

"Where did you meet her?"

"She lives in my complex."

"She looks very young. How old is she?"

"Twenty eight," he guessed.

"I see. How long have you two been seeing each other?"

"You already asked that and the answer was not long enough."

The foot resumed its tapping. "What kind of work does she do?"

"Lily," his father warned. "Leave the boy alone. He's old enough to take care of himself." Colonel Jed winked at Jake.

The foot slowed its tapping, stopped, then resumed. "Jedidiah, I am not worried about Jacob. He can take care of himself. I'm concerned about Emily."

"Emily can take care of herself, Mom."

"Then why did you tell her to be careful when she's only going to powder her nose?"

Jake started to answer, but stopped as Emily and the red head emerged from the bathroom. Emily had the girl by the arm and was leading her towards the storage room at the end of the hall. Katie followed, but kept her distance. He rushed past his sister and caught up with Emily inside the storage room. He closed the door behind him and watched.

Emily spun the girl around and, pinning the girl's arm behind her back, shoved her face first toward the wall. "Let's try this again."

"Get off me!"

Emily reached into the girl's purse. "Not until I get… this." She pulled out a wallet, tossed it to Jake. "Turn around."

"Hey, that's mine!" The red head's voice quivered with fear. Her eyes darted nervously to Jake.

"So it is." Emily released her hold and stepped back. Her shoulders were stiff and Jake could sense the anger quaking beneath the surface. "How long have you been doing this?"

The red head glared at Emily and rubbed the arm that had been pinned behind her back.

Emily glared back at the girl and asked, "When was the last time you had a decent meal?"

"What's it to you?"

"Answer the lady," Jake growled.

The girl started and shrank back from Jake. Then, as if she realized she was cowering, she straightened and jutted her chin out. "No."

"Answer her," Jake repeated in a soft, cold tone.

"Why should I? You're just gonna call the cops and—"

"Enough," Emily said. She took a menacing step forward toward the girl. "I'm going to wager that you haven't had a decent meal in… a month. You're thin and pale. Not only have you stolen two wallets, but you are putting both your ass and this bar in jeopardy with your fake ID. I'll also bet that you're jonesin' for a hit of something and you've resorted to sex for drugs. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong."

Emily pulled a drivers' license out of her pocket and handed it to Jake, then looked the girl up and down. "Now what I'd like to know—besides the answers to the questions I've already posed—is… what you're going to do now? You've just been busted. You've got no money. I'll even bet that you're boyfriend ditched you when—"

"Shut up! Stop it! I don't want to hear anymore." The girl crumbled to the floor and threw her purse at Emily. "Take it. Just leave me alone. Go away. Call the cops. I don't care. Just go away."

Emily's shoulders visibly relaxed and she picked up the purse. She handed it to Jake and said, "My cell phone is behind the bar. Can you get it and bring it to me? Please."

"I'm not leaving you alone."

"Don't worry. The young lady and I aren't going to fight. We're going to have a little talk which will be easier if we're alone." Her eyes implored him not to ask any more questions, but to trust her. "I need to call Marilyn. Please, Jake. Please."

"All right, dammit. But when I get back with the phone, I stay." Jake pointed at the girl on the floor. "You had better be on your best behavior. Harm my woman in any way, shape, or form and I'll have the cops on you so fast it'll make your pretty little head spin."

Emily pushed the door closed and slowly pivoted to gaze at the woman-child huddling on the floor. Her throat constricted with the sadness and desperation which radiated off the girls' body. No matter what Emily did for charities and how much money she donated to half way houses, it wasn't enough. For every one she helped, ten more would show up to take her place. It was sickening. Depressing. Disheartening.

She shoved all depressing thoughts out of her head. "He'll only give us a minute, maybe two."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because I know where you're headed. I've seen enough of the streets to know that it can get much worse than this." She took a deep breath. "What's your name?"

The girl glared at Emily, then wiped the tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand. "Tabitha. What's yours?"

"Emily. How old are you?"

"Eighteen."

"Did you run away from home?"

A deep bitterness twisted Tabitha's face. "No, my mother kicked me out because her boyfriend hit on me."

"That sucks. What's the world coming to when a mother puts her boyfriend over the needs of her daughter?" Emily shook her head and carefully concealed the pity in her heart from reaching her expression. "How long ago did she do it?"

"My birthday." Tabitha crossed her legs and picked at the fabric of her dress. "The day after Christmas she said, 'Keith thinks you've got big tits. He wants to screw you.' She looked at me with… damn her. I didn't want her sleazy boyfriend. I didn't want any part of his greasy redneck self. All I wanted to do was finish school and be able to move out and get my own place. But did she understand?
Noo
. She said I was hot for her man and couldn't wait to spread my legs for his nappy self. Oh, I stuck around long enough to see her make a fool of herself and let him move in with her. She didn't even let me have the money I'd saved from my part time job. She said she was tired of having me sponge off her. Stupid, ignorant, horrible…," she trailed off in a watery sob. Tabitha buried her face in her hands and gave in to a hard, body wracking cry.

Emily sat down beside her and tentatively put an arm around her shoulder. "It's all right, Tabitha. Just let it all out. You and I are going to make everything all right." She smoothed a hand over Tabitha's hair. "I'm sorry for pulling your hair. I think I left you with a couple of strands. When Jake gets back with the phone, I'm going to call a friend of mine. Her name is Marilyn. She's got a place you can crash at tonight and—"

"Why are you doing this? You don't even know me."

"Oh, baby doll, I'm doing this because someone did this for me." Emily gently rocked Tabitha the same way Marilyn had done to her ten years ago. "If it hadn't been for Marilyn, I probably would have ended up in the morgue. She took me in and gave me food and clothes and helped me find a job."

"How old were you when she found you?"

"Eighteen."

Tabitha looked at her with bright green eyes and Emily instantly imagined the best way to enhance the shape and color of Tabitha's eyes. "You don't look like someone who ever had to scrape by."

Emily chuckled and squeezed Tabitha's shoulders in what she hoped was a non-threatening manner. "I will take that as a compliment. You said you had a part time job while you were in school. What kind of job?"

Tabitha named a department store. "I worked in the Misses and Junior department. That's where I got most of my clothes. They fired me when I got kicked out and they tried to call me in because someone didn't show up. The manager was a real jerk. I went to him and told him what the deal was, but he didn't care. He was only interested in the bottom line."

Emily nodded. "He was an idiot. Did you ever do any fashion shows for the store?"

Tabitha laughed. "No. I'm not tall enough to model and my hair is too red."

"No, I don't think so. With the right color you could look like a million bucks."

Tabitha pushed at Emily. "Yeah right.."

Emily smiled. "Uh-huh. Just wait until Marilyn gets here. She'll tell you the same thing. Although I bet the first thing she says is… darlin', the baby doll's got killer eyes. Then she'll laugh and ask me why I made you cry. Then she'll tell you all the miracle puffy eye cures and demand that Nick bring her two slices of cucumbers. Marilyn will smack those cucumbers up to your eyes and hold them there. Your eye balls will freeze and she babble you to death about nothing and everything. Oh and whatever you do… don't let her talk you into dying your hair. Lord have mercy, the woman tries to dye everyone's hair."

"She sounds pretty cool."