Lilah
I sat up and watched Cole as he drew something on a sheet of paper in his notepad. His pencil moved quickly, drawing bold lines and adding in the shading. It was definitely small. I watched as the lines formed a lotus flower, and then what looked like flames came out of it. Out of the flames, he drew a rising phoenix.
He was good. There was no doubt about it. The amount of detail was unexpected. I always thought of tattoos as being pretty simple, and a lot of the ones I had seen at the shop had been simple. Bold lines and colors, mostly, with some detail, but they had been nothing like what he’d drawn for me. The dimensions were clear. The shading was appropriate and different for each part. He had even sketched the shadows from where the flames in the middle were casting off shadows from the flower.
“What do you think?” he asked, holding it out for me to see.
“It’s beautiful, and I imagine it would look even better as a tattoo,” I said, admiring it even more. I reached up and took the notepad from him to look at it closer.
“But,” he said in anticipation of my objection.
“But I don’t think it’s right for me. I don’t feel like I want something that detailed.” I tried to be careful so that I didn’t upset him or offend him while I was letting him down, but I felt like he wasn’t too thrilled to be told no.
“That’s fine.” He flipped the page over in his notepad. “I can Saw you something a little less detailed if that’s what you’d like.” He started working on something else.
I didn’t get a chance to see what it was because my phone went off while he was getting started. I pulled out my phone, thinking it was probably nothing – probably somebody at the library or my ex calling to harass me. It was the school. Something was wrong.
“Hang on,” I told Cole. “I need to take this.”
I got up from the tablecloth and answered as I walked away across the patch of grass.
“Hello?”
“Miss Romero?” the voice said on the other end of the line. I hated how people from the school always sounded so serious. It made me feel like I was in trouble every time I answered the phone.
“Yes, this is she.” I stopped and stood still, waiting for her to tell me who she was and what was going on.
“This is Abilene Turner, the school nurse. Micah is in my office, complaining that he doesn’t feel well. He seems fine, but he’s complaining about a stomach ache and really wants to go home. I’ve already cleared it with the administration if you could come pick him up,” she said, her voice softening as she talked.
“It’ll be a few minutes. I’m all the way across town right now, but I’ll be on my way in just a few,” I told her.
“No problem. I’ve got him up at the office with me. He’ll be fine until you get here,” she assured me.
“Thank you so much,” I told her and hung up the phone.
I slid it into my pocket and hurried back over to where Cole was working on the new drawing for me. I hated to have to cut our date short. I was enjoying his company. It was nice to have someone who actually enjoyed being around me.
“Who was that?” Cole asked as I walked back up. His tone told me he was asking out of genuine concern. He could probably tell by my face or how I was walking that something wasn’t right after the call.
“That was the school. I need to go pick up my son. He’s sick. I’m really sorry.”
“No need to apologize,” he said as he flipped his notepad closed and put it away. He got up and started cleaning up our picnic.
I helped as much as I could. While he grabbed the plates, napkins, and other trash, I picked up the tablecloth and shook it out. While he put everything else away, I folded the cloth so that it would be small enough to fit in one of the saddlebags on his motorcycle.
“Thanks. You didn’t have to do anything,” he said as I handed it over to him.
“It’s the least I can do right now. You’ve been so good to me, and I have to cut our date short. I hate that.” I stood back and watched as he put everything up.
“You’re fine. I get it. You need to get your boy from school,” he said. There was no trace of anger or agitation in his voice. It was like he hadn’t even skipped a beat when I told him that I needed to leave.
“So, it doesn’t bother you that I have a kid?” I asked. Being a newly single parent, I’d heard horror stories about how people acted when they found out their love interest had a kid. I didn’t want to run him off with my son, even though I wasn’t ready for him to meet Micah yet.
“No, why should it?” he replied nonchalantly, like it really wasn’t a big deal to him. “Kids are great. But I will say this.” He stopped for emphasis.
“What’s that?” I asked eagerly.
“We’ll need to continue this picnic some other time,” he finished with a wink.
“Of course we will. That’s a given.”
He handed me my helmet, and I slid it down over my head. It fit nice and snug. I wasn’t as nervous to get back on his motorcycle as I had been to get on it the first time. He climbed on, and I straddled it behind him, wrapping my arms tightly around his waist.
The machine came to life between my legs, the power of the beast surging through my body. I might have been afraid of it at first, but it thrilled me the second time. He revved the engine, sending vibrations up through my body. I pressed myself against him, letting the pleasure ripple through my body.
We sped off. He was driving faster this time, not taking it as easy on me because it wasn’t my first time anymore. I knew a little something about riding, and I wasn’t as scared. We flew down the street to my house, just a few miles up the road.
We pulled into the driveway, and he pulled off into my yard. I could see right away that something wasn’t right with the house. The front door stood ajar. I had locked it when I came outside to meet Cole, and I had my keys in my pocket. As he stopped the bike, I tapped his shoulder and pointed at the house.
He killed the engine and got off the bike. He pulled his helmet off and turned back to me.
“Stay behind me. We need to take a look inside.”
I got off and set my helmet on the back of the motorcycle, hurrying to follow him inside. He slowly pushed my front door open and stepped into the living room from the entryway. I came in right behind him, and I saw it before he said anything.
The house was trashed. Someone had come in and ransacked the entire thing. It looked like they were looking for something. I didn’t know what there was to look for in my house.
“Call the police. I’m going to check the rest of the house, make sure it’s clear,” Cole said in a low tone.
As he walked deeper into the house, I grabbed my phone and headed back outside. Except I didn’t call the police. I called my ex.
“Hello?” he groaned out.
“Are you just waking up?” I asked him.
“Yeah, I took a nap. What do you want, Lilah?” He had no problem making it clear he didn’t like hearing from me.
The feeling was mutual.
“Listen, Troy, Micah is sick. He’s at the nurse’s office up at the school,” I started.
“Okay, why don’t you get him?” he snapped.
“Because someone broke into my house, Troy.” I looked closely at the broken doorframe and the large dent in the front door. “They kicked in my front door and ransacked the house.”
“Shit,” he said under his breath.
“Yes, Troy, ‘shit’ is right,” I snapped, growing more impatient with him by the moment.
“Look, I’m sorry about that.”
“You’re sorry about that? What do you know about it?” I put my hand on my hip like he was right there with me.
“It was someone I owe money to. He said he was going to do it, but I thought he was full of shit. Make sure everything is still there,” he said.
“Yeah, I’ve got someone checking the house right now,” I told him, knowing full well that it was going to make him jealous. Even though we were divorced, he couldn’t stand the idea of someone else talking to me, male or female.
“Good,” he said, surprisingly enough. “You don’t need to be fooling around in there by yourself.”
“Thanks for the advice. Are you going to go get Micah or not?”
“Yeah, I’m getting in the car now. Hey, don’t call the cops or anything, okay? I’m going to handle this on my own. I’m heading out of town after I pick Micah up. I’ve got to get away for a little while – until everything calms down.” He said it like it was a fact I had to accept.
“You’re bringing Micah to me first though, right?”
“No, I’m taking him with me.”
“You can’t do that, Troy. You know you can’t do that,” I warned.
“He’ll be safe. We’ll both be safe. You need to get away from that house as well – keep yourself safe. I’ve got to go. I’ll be at the school in just a minute.”
The line went dead just as Cole was walking back outside. I gripped my phone in my shaking hand and tried to blink back the tears. It wasn’t working. I was starting to cry.
“The house is clear,” he said, walking up to me. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?” He put his hands on my upper arms – a gentle, soothing touch – and he bent down, so our eyes were level with each other.
“He’s taking my son. He’s going to the school to get him, and he’s taking him away.”
“Who’s taking him?” Cole asked.
“Troy, my ex,” I said through chest-racking sobs.
“Where is he taking him?”
“I-I-I don’t know,” I stammered. “I have no clue.” I looked at him and shook my head in disbelief that any of this was even happening.
What the hell? What’s going on?
“Hey, it’s okay,” he said, pulling me close to him and wrapping me in an embrace. “We’ll figure it out, and we’ll get your son back.”
I wanted to believe him.