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Three weeks later
I FINISH MY ONLINE quiz and stretch, looking across the room at my girlfriend as she studies from a textbook the size of a breadbox. She’s ignoring me, as usual when she’s studying, so I can look at her as much as I want to. Her glasses are sliding down her nose, but she’s ignoring them too. She’s wearing my flannel shirt and panties, a very sexy look even if she’s also wearing a pair of my wool socks too. It’s been a chilly month. Cold and damp.
Normally, I’d be tired of winter already, but I am in no hurry for the time to pass any faster. Our one-month anniversary is creeping up on us, and she still thinks we are going to break up.
Not happening.
We have an interesting truce. She accepts that I “think” I love her right now, and is confident that as time passes, my feelings will go away like she’s seen happen to her mom and all the stepdads. I tell her the only thing I need to prove myself is time. She allows me to tell her I love her occasionally but insists it’s temporary.
Since words don’t work, I just show her. Every day. Sooner or later, she’ll have to accept it. She’s a smart girl. And she’s braver than she lets on.
“I can feel you staring at me,” she says, not looking up from her book.
“I was thinking about inviting B.O.B. to hang out with us again tonight.”
She blushes and gets this cute little smile. “I have to read one hundred pages.”
“By Friday. You have the rest of the week to read. You have time for a three-way tonight.”
She sets her book down and looks at me. “I’m beginning to think you are just using me to spend time with my dildo.”
I join her on the couch, taking her book out of her hands. “He’s still in your end-table drawer at your apartment anyway. I’d rather just work with what we have here tonight.”
“I suppose...”
“You suppose.” My hands are in her panties when her phone signals a call from Tanaya.
“Ignore it,” I say.
“Can’t. Girl code.”
I reach for the phone and hand it to her with an exaggerated sigh. She looks at the text, and I can see all the color drain from her face. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s an SOS.”
She’s dialing her phone while I’m getting my shoes. Tanaya closed the bar an hour ago. “Is she at home?”
Annabelle shakes her head. “I don’t know. She’s not picking up.”
“Is SOS a call the police message or a get me out of this date message?” I ask. Either way, I’m going.
“Usually it’s a get me out of this situation kind of message, but last I talked to her, she was going home after work. I don’t think she had a date.”
“Keep trying her. I’ll go check out your apartment.”
She gets up and runs into the bedroom. “I’m coming with you. Let me get dressed.”
“I’d feel better if you stayed here where I know you’re safe.”
She comes out, pulling up a pair of leggings and stepping into boots. “I feel pretty safe when I’m with my Viking fake boyfriend. Besides, if this is an SOS for rocky road and wine, I’ll need to come anyway.”
I have an uneasy feeling, but we walk the few blocks to their apartment. The roads are icy as fuck and it’s faster to walk than deal with the road conditions. When we get to the apartment, I go in first, surprising Tanaya’s ex-boyfriend Denton standing in the middle of the room. He turns to us and I put my arm out to keep Annabelle behind me.
“Hey,” he says, looking over his shoulder at Tanaya who is sitting on the couch. Her face is pinched and she’s holding her body stiffly. “Now isn’t a great time. Tanaya said Annabelle wouldn’t be here tonight. You caught us at a bad time. We’re getting back together.”
The fuck they are. Tanaya looks miserable. Annabelle rushes past us and joins her on the couch.
“How you doing, Tanaya?” I ask.
She’s still stiff, shaking her head in tiny little tics. Annabelle’s eyes get big, and I realize she’s looking at the hand behind Denton’s back.
Adrenaline is pumping through my veins. Something bad is about to go down. “What’s really going on, man?” I ask him, keeping my voice calm.
“Nothing. You should go. We’ve got business that doesn’t concern you. Right, Tanaya?”
I start moving slow, trying to get between him and the girls. “Annabelle needed a book. We’ll be out of your hair soon. You doing good, bro? Haven’t seen you at the Crescent in a couple months.” He’s holding Tanaya’s pink phone, which would explain why she wasn’t answering Annabelle. She must have been able to get the text off before he got her phone away from her.
Denton is getting agitated, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “What are you doing?” he asks me. “You need to leave.”
Annabelle yells, “He has a knife!” Denton lunges at me, but I get a hold of his arm. That’s when the girls jump up and start beating the shit out of him while I’m holding his arm until he drops the knife. The three of us take him to the floor, and I roll over him. I’m a heavy dude and have him pinned down. Tanaya gets up and kicks the knife away while Annabelle pulls out her phone to dial 911.
“It was you, wasn’t it? You broke in here a month ago.”
“My relationship with Tanaya is none of your business, Anker.”
“Relationship?” Tanaya stomps on his hand. “We broke up, asshole. You broke into my apartment? You threaten me with a knife? Did you think that would make me want to get back with you?”
The cops get here while she’s telling him off. She doesn’t stop while he’s getting cuffed or getting his rights read to him. She does stop when she’s giving her statement to the cop, who seems a little in awe of her. Enough that I’m pretty sure he just asked if she’d like to tell him the story again tomorrow over coffee.
When Annabelle and I are both done giving our statements, I notice she looks a little shaky.
“Babe?”
Her big blue eyes fill with tears, and she rushes into my arms.
“I got you, gorgeous. It’s okay now.” I hold her. Grateful that I can. Glad that asshole didn’t threaten her, or he’d be dead right now, and I might be the one in a police car on my way to jail.
“Did you see how hopped up he was? He used to take stuff to stay awake to study. But he must have gotten into the heavier stuff since they broke up. God, Anker. People who are drugged out are dangerous. He could have killed you. Or Tanaya. God, what if we didn’t come when she messaged me?”
“It’s okay, sweetheart. Everyone is okay,” I tell her, trying to soothe her. Inside, I’m starting to feel a rush of my own emotional shit coming at me. “We handled it, didn’t we? You and Tanaya are badass.”
“I think I’m going to hyperventilate.” She leans into me more and I squeeze her. Probably too tightly. “I was sitting there and when I realized he had a knife, all I could think of was losing you.”
“You’re not going to lose me, babe. I’m right here.”
“I’ve been wasting so much time. I kept thinking if I could just not fall in love with you until you broke up with me, I’d be okay. But that’s not how it works. I’m already in love with you.” She sobs a little. “I love you,” she says.
I pull back and look down at her. I want to believe she’s ready to say it. I want to just accept it, but this could be the adrenaline talking.
“I was sitting there running through all the things that might happen with that knife, all the horrible possibilities, and the thing that stuck out the most was that I’ve been so dumb. Holding back.”
“You’re upset right now,” I warn.
“Yes, of course I am. But that doesn’t change how I feel. I’m sorry it took being faced with losing you to get brave enough to tell you. Do you forgive me?”
“Forgive you?” I fold myself around her, inhaling the scent of her. “I would have waited forever if I had to. I’m just glad you figured it out now.” I think I’m holding her too tightly, but when I try to loosen my grip, she grabs on to me harder. “I love you, Annabelle.”
“I love you back.”
“When we get married—”
She pinches me. “Too soon.”
I smile into her hair. We’ll see.