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Charlie
“You can’t keep me locked up her like a prisoner, Dante. I won’t stand for it,” I said before he could even close the door.
“Good evening to you too, Ms. Hartford,” I said, swallowing my laughter. God it was good to see her!
“Did she give you any trouble, Bull?” Dante said to the gentle giant, sitting calming on a bar stool in the kitchen reading the finance section of the newspaper.
Throughout the day, I could see how many would take Bull’s simple nature to mean that he was dumb. He leaned toward simple; that was true. But he wasn’t dumb; not by a long shot. I’d learned that while trying to figure out how I was going to outsmart him and get away from him. It wasn’t going to be as easy as I’d originally thought.
“No. Charlie is a nice lady,” he said, smiling in my direction.
“So I trust that you all got on well together?” Dante asked, his question directed to me.
“Who wouldn’t get on with Bull? He’s nothing but a big ole teddy bear – unless you try to do something you told him was against the rules. Like leave. Like I tried to do,” I huffed.
“It’s necessary for your safety, Charlie.”
“So Bull said,” I said, shooting an accusatory glance at the giant man, It was all for naught. He was lost in the finance pages.
“I’m truly sorry Charlie. That’s the way it’s going to have to be for now.”
“How long is ‘for now?’” I whined, knowing I sounded like a recalcitrant teenager who had just been grounded.
“A few weeks; maybe a little longer.”
“No way are you keeping me locked for that long. I’d rather be dead!” I exploded.
“Don’t be so melodramatic, especially as that’s exactly what I’m trying to avoid,” I said, my patience endless with her, to my surprise.
She was right. It wasn’t fair to keep her cooped up. Her life had been turned upside down, and all she’d been trying to do was make ends meet, get ahead. I’d feel the same way, which made me feel like more of a heel. It was like crushing a blooming flower for no good reason.
“Let me make it up to you,” Dante proposed.
“What’s the price of freedom?” I asked sarcastically.
“Charlie,” he said, the tone of his voice touching something in me. He looked uncertain, almost regretful – even though I knew he didn’t deal in regret.
“What did you have in mind?” I asked more receptively.
“A nice meal. And anything you want to watch on Netflix.”
“Deal, with one condition,” I said.
“What?” he asked, loosening his tie. My eyes were glued tot the bronzed column of next he exposed.
My mouth suddenly dry, I swallowed. “No cooking. I want takeout.”
“You wound me,” Dante said, his hand crossing his heart.
Bull even looked up at that.
“That’s the idea,” I said flippantly, a hand coming to my mouth to hide the laughter bubbling up inside me at the look on his face.
The truth was, I wanted to get to the movie-watching part of the evening. In my head, I could pretend it was a date. It was one of my favorite things to do in a relationship – sit on a couch, get in a nook in my man’s arms, eat popcorn and feel his heart beat as we watched whatever. I wouldn’t be able to curl up in a nook in Dante’s arms to feel his heartbeat, but popcorn and a warm body beside me would have to do. This simple pleasure would take my mind off of everything else going on in my life at the moment.
“You’re a cruel, heartless woman, Charlie.”
“Take it or leave it,” I said.
“You’re the boss,” he said. “Since you’re apparently in control of this evening, why don’t you order while I shower and change.”
I did a small fist pump.
Dante took a credit card from his wallet and put it on the kitchen counter. “And let Bull open the door when the food is delivered,” he instructed as he headed for the stairs.
“You’re the boss,” I said, mocking his words to me seconds earlier.
***
“WHAT ABOUT BULL?” I whispered to him some twenty minutes later as Bull answered the door for the takeout. “Should we invite him to watch the movie with us?”
“Don’t worry about Bull. He knows the drill.”
“What drill?” I asked.
“Bull will be in his room. He likes his solitude, especially after being on duty all day.”
“Where is his room? I only saw two bedrooms. I thought one was mine; for the time being that is.”
“There’s another behind the staircase.”
“Where?” I asked. His penthouse was big, but it wasn’t ‘Buckingham palace, lose a bedroom’ big.
He took my hand and walked me under the staircase. He put my hand on a spot on the wall and told me to press. When I did, the wall swiveled.
“OMG, this is some James Bond-like shit!” I said, jumping back as if something or someone was going to come out and attack me. “It’s like a panic room.”
“I guess you could say that,” he chuckled. “And why oh why must your language always run to the colorful?”
“But why?” I asked, ignoring his comment about my language. Yeah I had a potty mouth. That wasn’t likely to ever change. “Never mind. Don’t answer that,” I said, holding my hand up to his mouth. I didn’t want to be reminded of why I was here, or the fact that there were hidden rooms, and guns and god knows what else that I didn’t know about. Sometimes ignorance is bliss, and I was only too happy to settle into a bit of bliss right about now.