The Debt 3 (5 page)

Did he even notice the news story about
him?
 
Had he just learned to tune it
all out?

A few minutes later, the waitress brought
out a plate of nachos with cheese and diced chicken over the top.
 
It looked delicious, and as Raven dug in
and started to eat, she was almost able to feel like this was going to be okay.

Maybe everything really would blow over
after a few days, like Jake said it might if they ripped the Band-Aid off.

And then someone came into the
restaurant.
 
Raven noticed the man
walking inside and looking around as if for a friend.
 
But when the man’s eyes spotted them, he
turned in their direction.

“Uh oh,” Raven said, grabbing Jake’s
forearm.

Jake saw the guy coming.
 
“Just relax,” he said to her
softly.
 
“I’ll handle him.”

The man was lumbering, not particularly
fast, but he was determined to reach Jake, that was clear.
 
He was wearing work boots, jeans, a
windbreaker, and a cap.
 
He looked
like maybe he worked construction or something.
 
He had a graying beard and long hair,
and his face was lined and worn down.

Jake turned toward the man but stayed
seated.
 
“Can I help you?” Jake
asked, as the guy approached the table.

Raven got a nervous sensation, like the
man might pull a gun or something.
 
What if he tried to kill Jake with a gun?
 
What would she do?

“Yeah, you can help me,” the man said,
his lips pulling back with disgust.
 
“You can tell me what gives you the right.”

“The right to do what?” Jake asked,
sounding casual, interested.

The man’s eyes were watery
,
his jaw trembled
.
 
His hands clenched into fists.
 
“I’d like to show you what a real man
does when someone trashes his family.”

“Sir, I don’t even know you,” Jake
said.
 
“I don’t think I ever trashed
your family.”

“Oh, but you did, you son of a
bitch.
 
You did trash my
family.”
 
He stepped closer.

The waitress and staff gathered closer
nearby, obviously concerned about what was developing.

“I didn’t mean to insult your family,”
Jake said.
 
He was still completely
calm.

But Raven was scared.
 
This man was so enraged, his face was
practically purple, and even though he was older, he still looked strong, like
he could hurt someone if he wanted to.

“What the fuck gives you the right?” the
man shouted.
 
“My son should be
alive right now, not you.
 
Not you.”

“Sir, you’re going to have to leave,” the
waitress said, as a couple of male staff closed in from behind the man.

“No, wait,”
Jake
said, standing up.
 
“Leave him be.”

The man was watching Jake as he
approached.
 
The man’s jaw trembled
more furiously now.
 
“You should
fucking die, you son of a bitch.”

“You lost your son,” Jake said
softly.
 
“Is that right?”

“Don’t talk about my son, you
bastard.
 
He was ten times the man
you are.
 
Ten times.”

“I believe you,” Jake replied.
 

The man’s fists were shaking now, and
Raven could see he was so close to attacking Jake, mere seconds away.
 

“Every day I miss him,” the man
sputtered, “and he was no coward.
 
He was no loser.
 
You’re
the loser.”

“I was wrong to say that,” Jake said,
looking right at the man.
 
“I regret
saying it, and I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Bullshit.”

“How did he pass?” Jake asked.

“He came home from defending this
country,” the older man said.
 
“He
was a decorated veteran.
 
He
actually had battle scars, unlike you,” the man continued.
 
“You didn’t lose anything.
 
My son gave up his legs for his country,
and then he was depressed because he came back to nothing.
 
He said nobody cared about him.
 
People like you told him that his
depression was weakness and he believed it.”

Jake put his hands on the man’s
shoulders, and although the man flinched, he didn’t try and stop Jake.
 

Jake looked into his eyes.
 
“Don’t carry his death on your
shoulders,” he said.

“Who are you to tell me about my son?”

“I’m a veteran too,” Jake said.
 
 

The man’s face looked like crumpled
paper, his features straining.
 
“You’re nothing compared to him,” he choked.
 
“Nothing.”

Jake smiled.
 
“I would never want to hear you say
anything else, sir.
 
He’s your boy
and nobody can take that away from you.
 
And I’m glad you came in here and told me this.”

The man was shaking still.
 
“I should fucking punch your lights
out.”

But Jake held the man’s shoulders, and it
was as if the anger couldn’t stand up to Jake actually being there and being
willing to listen to the man spill his guts.

And then the angry father was somehow
crying, sobbing, his shoulders shaking, and Jake was soothing him.
 
“It’s going to be okay,” Jake told
him.
 
“I promise you.”

Finally, the man stopped crying.
 
“I’m just so angry.”
 

 
“This isn’t for television,” Jake told a
woman at the bar who was trying to surreptitiously record the whole incident on
her cell phone.

That woman put her phone away, and Raven
couldn’t believe it.
 
Jake must have
known that if video of this had gotten out, it would have made him look a
million times better.
 
He’d shown compassion
to that hurting father.
 
That was
the compassion nobody saw in the video from when Jake was younger.

“I’m sorry I disturbed your lunch,” the
older man said, taking a napkin Jake handed him.
 
He blew his nose loudly.

“No need to apologize.
 
I don’t accept,” Jake laughed.
 
“You stood up for your son today, and I
believe he was lucky to have a proud father like you in his corner.”

The old man gratefully stared at Jake for
a long moment.
 
“You mean that?”

“I do,” he said.
 
“I really do.”

And then the most amazing thing happened.
The formerly enraged man held out his hand for Jake to shake.
 
“I think I misjudged you,” he said, his
eyes still leaking.

“Maybe, maybe not.
 
You just take care of yourself and
remember that your son is a hero, and nobody—not me, not anyone—can
take that away from him or you.”
 

 
“Jake, you should have let that woman at
the bar film you,” Raven said softly, after the older man left and Jake sat
back down at the table.
 
 

“No,” Jake told her.
 
“Not this time.
 
He deserves better than to be a
publicity stunt.”

She saw once again that when it came to
veterans, Jake had a totally different demeanor than he did with anything else.
 
He’d cared about the man’s son and he’d shown
it.

The waitress brought over their burgers
shortly after that.

“This is totally bizarre,” Raven told him,
as she picked up her burger.
 
“What
are we doing here?”

Jake licked his fingertips.
 
“We’re eating a delicious burger in
Times Square.”

“Yeah, but this is just nuts.
 
You don’t really think this is going to
work, do you?”

“It is going to work,” Jake said,
slinging his arm over her shoulders.
 
“And I thought you believed it too.
 
You seemed pretty sure of yourself when you pitched the idea to me.”

She shivered a little bit at his
touch.
 
His body was pressed close
to hers now, and she could smell his cologne.
 
Beneath that was the smell of his body,
the scent of his skin that she remembered from the night before.

“I’m afraid,” she admitted.

“What are you so afraid of?”

Raven knew it wasn’t time to tell him the
truth about Kurt.
 
“I’m afraid of
everything.
 
I’m nervous about
Skylar, and I’m nervous about what the media’s going to say when the pictures
of us come out everywhere.
 
I’m
worried about you cancelling your Boston shows.”

Jake frowned.
 
“I never told you about cancelling
Boston,” he said.
 
He looked closely
at her.
 
“How’d you know about
that?”

“I read about it,” she said hastily,
hoping he wouldn’t doubt her cover story.

“Wow, news does travel fast,”
Jake
replied.
 
“I
didn’t know that Kurt had made it public yet.”

“The point is,” Raven said, trying to get
off of the subject, “I’m scared about what’s going to happen.
 
I’m worried that I won’t be able to
handle it.”

“You’ll be able to,” Jake said.
 
His hand gently slid to her shoulder,
down to her bicep and up again.

“Don’t do that,” Raven whispered.

“Don’t do what?”

“The way you’re touching me.”

“We’re out in public, that’s part of the
deal.”

“Nobody’s even watching us right now,”
she said, gesturing to the nearly empty restaurant.

“We’re in public,” he said, “so
technically we’re on a date.”

She nodded, accepting that he was right.
 
But it was hard to sit there and allow
him to touch her shoulder, to caress her so softly, when she knew it was all a
lie.
 
Raven hadn’t quite anticipated
how it would feel in reality.

Raven took a bite of her burger and
chewed, and Jake sat with his arm over her, eating with his free hand.
 

The same woman at the bar who Jake had
told not to shoot video took her camera out again and began filming.
 
This time, Jake didn’t tell her to stop.

Instead, he snuggled closer to Raven,
nuzzling his head against hers.
 
“That chick is filming us,” he whispered.
 
“So make it look good.”

Raven was angry with him suddenly.
 
Why was all of this so easy for
him?
 
How could he do these sorts of
things with her and never develop any feelings, never want a real relationship?

“I can make it look better than good,”
she said, turning her face into his so that their lips were practically
touching.

“You talk a big game,” Jake said, licking
his lips.
 
“I want to see it.”

“Maybe you’re the one who can’t handle
it,” Raven whispered, smiling.
 
Their lips moved closer and closer.

“Raven,” he said.
 
One hand touched her cheek as he pulled
her body even closer in the booth.

She looked at him.
 
She could feel his skin against hers,
could feel his beard stubble on her cheek.
 
Their faces were touching, everything was right for a real kiss, but
somehow neither of them went for it.

And then he broke away, smiling
sheepishly.
 
“We should get back to
the hotel,” he said, checking his phone.
 
“Business awaits.”

“What kind of business?” Raven asked,
trying to smooth her hair.
 
She felt
completely undone by his nearness, by how close they’d come to kissing.

“The kind that’s none of yours,” Jake
said.

“Great,” she said, feeling angry
again.
 
Somehow everything Jake did
made her crazy.
 
She couldn’t keep
him straight at all.

They headed back outside into the madness
of Times Square, and instantly were enveloped by the crowd again.
 
People were surging towards them,
yelling things,
swearing
, begging Jake for autographs.

It was getting scary.