Arrow of Time (14 page)

It was Dawg. I hadn't seen him since they got back from the toy run a few days earlier. I'd been there to welcome them back and he'd commented about me owing him a cheer in a cheerleader outfit and with pompoms.

“
Morning, Nibbles. Got you breakfast.”

“
Nice. I’m not alone though.”

He looked down at me with raised eyebrows and I quickly shook my head.

“No. It’s Eliza.”

Just then she came walking. “Hi, Dawg. Why are you here?”

“I got Edie some breakfast.”

“
Breakfast is her favorite meal of the day. And mine.”

“
Is that so?” He said with a big smile and looked at me.

“
I need to go to the bathroom,” I said since it had dawned on me that I was wearing nothing but panties and a camisole.

I saw Dawg walk inside and put the bags on my small kitchen table. Or more like the side table that I used as a kitchen table. It just barely held two chairs. So when I came back, the table was set and he was on a chair with Eliza in his lap. I sat down and to my horror I realized that Eliza was filling him in on the Disney character discussion we'd had the night before.

“So mom is Ariel cuz she’s like crazy in love with dad. And dad is like the sea king cuz he’d do anything for his girls, Edie and I are like Belle cuz we’re
adventurous
...”

I could see where this was going. We’d compared the different characters with people in her life, and I wanted to stop her before she got to...

“Am I in there somewhere?” Dawg asked. That’s what I wanted to avoid.

“
Yeah, you’re Gaston.”

“
Gaston?” He asked and looked at me as I sat down.

“
Yeah, from Beauty and the Beast.”

“
Haven’t seen it,” he said and gave me a bagel. He’d given half of his to Eliza.

“
I don’t need a whole. You can have this if you want, and I'll take the half.”

“
Nah, I’m good,” he said and then looked down at Eliza. “So why am I like Gaston?”

“
He’s got all these girls following him around and all girls but Belle want him and he thinks he’s all
that
,” Eliza said and happily shoved a piece of the bagel in her mouth before looking up at Dawg. “Do you wanna see it?”

“
I
definitely
want to see it,” he said with his wolf grin while looking at me. “Does he get the girl?”

“
No. The beast kills him.”

“
Bummer,” Dawg said and drank some coffee. “What else did you do?”

“
We ate pink cupcakes and painted our toenails. I got pink, but Edie wanted blue.” Eliza held up a foot to show him hers. “I need to pee.”

She jumped down and ran off.

“So who was the Beast?” He asked me.

“
Vasco. He looks all dangerous, but he’s really cuddly.”

“
I need to see this movie,” he decided.

“
They sing in it.” That should make him not want to see. Not that many guys liked musicals.

“
Don’t care. Need to see the guy you think is me.”

“
Actually, Eliza...”

He interrupted me. “Blaming the little kid, that’s low,” he laughed. “Still gonna wanna see it.”

Thirty minutes later, we were on the couch, Eliza cuddled up in Dawg’s lap with her big eyes on the TV. When Gaston was flexing his biceps, Eliza looked at Dawg's arm and squeezed a bit and he looked at me.

“
You think that’s me?”

“
Not far off. Although that’s
three
girls, not two,” I said.

“
You have two girls?” Eliza asked Dawg.

“
Sure. You and Edie.”

“
Ohh, that’s right.”

He gave me the finger behind Eliza’s back, but he did it with a smile. He looked good with Eliza in his lap, and he really loved that girl, and she loved him. She talked about him often, that he was her favorite uncle. She kept babbling throughout the movie, and he didn’t once looked bored or snap at her. He asked her questions, teased her and tickled her, sometimes agreed that something was particularly funny.

When he was about to leave, Eliza gave him a long hug and he promised to always bring breakfast when she was sleeping at my place and maybe even watch the movie with us during the evening next time.

Lanie came and picked up Eliza not long after that, and when she heard about Dawg coming with breakfast she looked at me.

“Something he does often?”

“
No. First time actually.”

“
Okay.” She gave me a long hug. “Take care.”

“
I will.”

Later that night I got a text from Dawg
“I’ve got biceps to spare”
. It was from the Gaston song, and I laughed out loud.

-o0o-

Sunday, August 5
th

DAWG'D HAD A TEXT
from Edie saying that even if she hadn’t woken up on the Japanese flag, she was on the rag so if he felt like watching a chick flick and eating chocolate with a grumpy woman, now was his chance. He picked up chocolate, one chick flick and an action movie that he hoped she’d prefer and went to her place. She looked a bit surprised.

“
Jeez, are you just starving for company? Didn’t think you’d actually show up after that text.”

“
I did pick an action movie as well. Kinda hoping you watch that one with me and save the chick flick until later. And...” He picked up two joints. “Worst case scenario I’ll smoke these to make it more fun.”

“
Both of them?”

“
If you watch the action movie instead you can have one of them.”

“
One? You got both if I watched a chick flick.”

“
Yeah, but I just bought chocolate, rented movies and am planning to hang out with a grumpy woman. I deserve one of them. Besides, I know you have a stash here, this was just a gentlemanly gesture from my side.”

“
Hmm, okay, since you brought me chocolate.” She took one of the joints and the bag with chocolate. “Action movie, 'cause I need more blood in my life.”

He laughed and took the movie she was handing him and popped it into the DVD. He sat down on the couch and was a bit surprised when she handed him a beer and opened a bottle of water for herself.

“Beer?”

“
Even if I don’t drink there’s no reason to keep my guests from doing it.” She shrugged. “What movie is this?”

“
The Rock. One of the best action movies ever.”

She kept quiet until the scene where the ex convict rolled through a burning furnace in an awesome way and then opened the door to the other guys. She started laughing.

“What? Like you could do that.”

“
No, but if he's going the opposite way compared to when he broke out of the prison, and now rolled through a furnace and then opened the door to let them in, why didn't he just open the door the last time?”

“
Whatta you mean?”

“
Well, like I said, he's breaking
into
the prison, not
out
of it, and now he just opened the door and let them in. So he should've been able to do that the last time. When he was breaking
out of
the prison.”

Fuck, she was right. It didn't make sense at all. He took a few deep breaths. “You just ruined the movie.”

“Sorry. I'll shut up next time.”

“
Yes, please, and please shut up through the remaining parts of this movie as well.”

“
Okay.” She took another chocolate bar and opened it. “Like his accent though.”

“
Edie. Shut up.”

She did. Kind of. At least she didn't comment on the movie anymore. And he was already planning on what movie he'd bring next time. He decided that he'd find an action movie that she actually liked.

CHAPTER SEVEN:

Folded, Not Fondled!

-o0o-

Thursday, August 9
th

THIS WAS THAT DAY
of the year. All I wanted to do was pull the cover over my head, turn around, close my eyes and go back to sleep. Or at least try to go back to sleep. Empty my head, find my Zen, like the Tibetan monk had once tried to teach me, and fall back asleep, keep doing it over and over again and that way just skip this day entirely. I had cleared with Mack that I wasn't going to work today. I hadn't given him any further explanation, and he'd gone along with it. I guessed that since this was the first time I asked for a specific day off he didn't mind.

The plan to completely skip the day was initially working out. I managed to fall back asleep, more than once, but then my doorbell rang. By the second ring I was wide awake. I still wasn't on my way out of my bed, though. I was planning to ignore it. I checked the time, 5.30 PM, and got annoyed. I'd been doing so well, and now someone was ruining it for me. There was no way in hell I'd leave the bed.

That's when the doorbell started to frantically ring, accompanied by banging, and the last noise added to the cacophony was Vasco's voice.

“
Edie! I know you're in there hiding under the cover. Come and open this fucking door.”

I knew that I was screwed because I knew him; he wasn't gonna let me get away with this, so I crawled out of bed. I found my yoga pants, and then I tried to find a semi-clean t-shirt.

“Edie. I'm not fucking around, I'll give you to the count of ten and then I'm kicking down this door. One!”

“
Hang on! I'm on my way!”

Unfortunately, years on a very loud Harley had ruined Vasco's hearing, so he just kept counting.

“Two!”

“
Fuck!” The t-shirt I had in my hands had a big stain on it, since I'd spilled last night's boiling hot tea all over it. I ran into the bathroom to find another one among the dirty laundry. I already knew there weren't any clean ones.

“
Three!”

I emptied the hamper and found one that only smelled a little bad. Not sure what it smelled of, but I didn't have time to be picky, because Vasco was still counting.

“Four!”

“
I'm on my way!”

I ran towards the door and in full force,  rammed my foot into the doorframe between the bedroom area and the living room area. And just like always when that happened, my vision blackened and I was about to throw up. Un-fucking-believable that such a small piece of the body could hurt so bad. I was convinced it was broken and folded over to not throw up or pass out.

“Five!”

I started to half limp, half crawl, without being able to see, and I was trying to tell Vasco that I was on my way, but the only sound that came out of my mouth was a pathetic whimper.

“Six! Edie, I am
not
fucking around!”

In extreme agony, I reached the door, unlocked and then sat down, holding my foot.

“Shit,” Vasco said with a laugh as he crouched down in front me. “What did you do?”

“
I hit the doorframe when I tried to run and open the door for you, since you threatened to knock it down.”

I was whispering, with my eyes still closed. When I finally looked up at him he laughed again.

“Wiggle your toes.” When I did he nodded. “Don’t think they're broken. You smell, though.”

“
It's my t-shirt. I couldn't find a clean one. I was gonna do my laundry tomorrow before work and I was gonna stay in bed today, so it didn't matter.”

I looked up from my foot to Vasco who was holding it, and he was still smiling. Wide.

“You're not gonna stay in bed today. You're gonna come with me and do your laundry, and then you're gonna celebrate your fucking birthday with me. I hadn't planned on the laundry thing, but I'm not gonna drag you around while you stink of weed and,” he took a sniff, “is that stale beer?”

“
Vasco...” I was about to cry. Over the toe, the day, and that I knew I wasn’t gonna get away with pretending it wasn’t my birthday. “I can't. I don't celebrate my birthday, you know that. You even know why.”

“
I know why,” he nodded. Then he stood up and pulled me up from the floor. “But I don't give a shit. It's your day, the day you were born, and since I think you're a pretty fucking awesome person, I'm gonna celebrate that with you.”

I sighed. “Just you and me, no surprise parties or anything like that.”

“Just you and me.”

“
Not even Lanie.”

I couldn’t deal with her today. I loved her and I knew she loved me and that all those things she did were to protect me, but she'd be unbearable today. I was capable of dealing with her overprotectiveness most days, but not this day.

“No. I told her this was just you and me.”

I looked at him and nodded. “Okay, if it's really just you and me, no birthday cakes and no singing, then I'm on.”

“I don't sing, wouldn't torture you like that and I'll settle for a birthday steak,
maybe
a piece of pie if you're okay with it.”

Twenty minutes later, we were at a laundromat and I was sitting next to him, leaning my head on his shoulder while we were looking at the clothes in the washing machine. He wasn't talking; just like always, he knew when I needed him to be quiet and not talk. Once the laundry was done he helped me to fold it.

“I'm gonna have to tell Dawg about this,” he chuckled.

“
About what, doing the laundry with me?”

“
Nah, that I've touched all your panties.”

I laughed. “As long as you don't tell him what kind I have, I'm fine.”

“You kidding?” Vasco laughed. “If you don't want him to know you have to stop open the front door wearing nothing but your panties and a t-shirt. Oh, yes, like you did this morning.”

“
Touché!”

I hoped we were going to leave Dawg behind, and I was in luck. He actually dropped it. When we were done we walked out together, and once by the car I looked at him.

“Vasco.”

“
Yes, love?”

“
If there's a bunch of people in my flat waiting with a birthday cake and singing, I'll kill you.”

He took shook his head. “Kiddo, I would never do that to you.”

-o0o-

Vasco had taken Edie to a café and they had coffee and lemon meringue pie. Mel had told him that it was Edie's birthday and that she didn't celebrate it, that she hated it and didn't want anyone to even mention it. He wasn't all that surprised about it, but even if he could see why, there was no fucking way he'd agree to that shit. The girl had to claim her birthday back, but they’d do it the slow way, just the two of them. The only goal today was that she wouldn't feel like shit about it tomorrow.

So after the laundry they'd gone out for a proper steak dinner, and now they were having dessert. She looked okay, better than okay. She was smiling and laughing, and he felt pretty fucking pleased with that.

Once those things were over, he helped her inside the truck, but instead of closing the door he pushed her over and got into the driver’s seat himself.

“Hey! What are you doing?”

“
Time for your surprise. And no worries, it’s still just you and me.”

“
I thought you having a loud countdown outside my door was the surprise.”

“
No. That was the wake-up call. Got the best weed you've ever had in my inside pocket. Water, first class chocolate and blankets are in the back of the truck, so I'm gonna take you to my favorite place.”

“
If there's naked women there, I'm
really
not interested.”

“
No naked women, honey. You'll like it.”

He knew what his girl liked. She liked open spaces and she liked nature. On occasion she also liked pot.

“So tell me.” She wasn’t normally so impatient, but she was probably still worried, so he came clean.

“
We're going out in the desert.”

“
Nice.” She was smiling. He really knew his girl. “Too bad that we've already missed the sunset.”

“
We're going so we can see the sunrise.” The even bigger smile on her face made him laugh. “Girl, expensive stuff really isn't your style, is it?”

Forty minutes later they were on the back of the truck on the sleeping bags and blankets, smoking the top class weed he'd brought with him. He looked at his watch.

“So, your birthday is officially over. How was it?”

“
It was okay, which is a lot better than normal.”

“
Tired?”

“
No. I slept until you knocked on my door.”

He laughed and put his arm around her. “Then it’s time to talk, kid.”

“I might be able to sleep,” she mumbled.

“
Too late. I know this is a shit day for you, but at the same time you know that what you did wasn't uncalled for, and you know I don't judge you for it. No one would.”

“
I killed my dad on my birthday. That's fucked up and... I can't fucking celebrate on the day I did that.”

He sighed and hugged her closer. “Hun', really, we all get one day when we get to celebrate the fact that we're on this planet. No matter what other fucked up or bad things that happened on that day, it's still our day. This is
your
day and even though I get why you don't want to celebrate it, you're not just keeping yourself from celebrating it. It's all those other people too. Like me. I love you, and celebrating your birthday with you is a chance to show you how much.”

“
So what? You're telling me I'm selfish because I don't want to let people celebrate my birthday?”

“
Well, like I said this morning, you're an awesome girl, I wanna celebrate the fact that you were born.”

She sat quiet next to him for a while. “That’s bull, Vasco. It's my choice if I want to do it or not. And I can't even
think
about this day without thinking about what I did, so celebrating it is a bit too fucking macabre for me. Doing it to let others celebrate when I'm feeling like shit is not something I'm up for.”

“
You're doing it now.”

“
No. I'm getting high and I'm about to watch the sunrise with a person I like hanging out with. You choose to see that as celebrating my birthday, I don't. That’s how I get through it.”

“
Okay. Can I buy you a birthday present next year?”

“
If it’s this awesome pot, then yes, you can.”

He loved her, a lot, but she was a stubborn woman. And especially stubborn when it came to punishing herself. In the five months they'd done this, talking, she'd told him most of it. At least it felt like most of it because the last month there hadn't been much new stuff.

The rest of the night it was light talking. She told him about places she’d been, other sunrises and sunsets. He told her about the early days of the club, people he’d met. The official versions, that was—she still hadn’t asked him about what the club business was, and he hadn’t told her. He wouldn’t. It wasn’t any of her business, and he suspected that she knew that much. Hence her not even asking.

Somewhere in the middle of the night, he followed her when she needed to pee as a lookout. He had no fucking idea what she wanted him to look out for, but he was standing there, waving the flashlight around. It was probably one of those female things, and she did mumble about not wanting to have things crawling up her pussy. Once they were on their back on the truck again they went back to talking.

“Tell me about your daughter, Vasco.”

He didn’t want to do that. She’d never asked him about Susanna. He'd told her he had a daughter that was around her age and that they didn't have much contact. He thought about it for a little while and then took a deep breath.

“She’s smart, really smart, like you. Pretty. Studying to become a veterinarian up in Michigan the last time I heard from her.”

Then he got quiet. He didn’t know what else to say.

“I’m sorry,” Edie whispered. “I shouldn’t have asked.”

“
It’s okay.” He didn't want her to feel bad about it. “It’s complicated. Her mom and I... It wasn’t a nice breakup and she hated me, hated the club, all of it. Susanna was caught in the middle of it, and then I took off, came here, and it was easier for her to just believe in all that shit her mom said about me.”

“
Do you ever see her?”